It's Happening.... Finally getting off my butt

[Charles.Darney]

After years of thinking/hoping/dreaming, I've committed myself to running a Traveller game. Right now, I'm in a 3-person "Frontier Space" group, and we'll be wrapping up the adventure at our next session - April 11th.

We're going to follow that up with Traveller chargen, and discussion on what type of game they want to play (typical choices- free trader/firefly~esque, mercenary/military, space truckers who have their routine turn pear-shaped, archaologists/explorers.... whatever). And then, the game will start on April 25th.

Aside from the two others in the current group, we had one drop-in who is interested in Traveller, and a co-worker of mine is interested, so I could have four players to start.

If anyone in Southeastern Wisconsin is interested, we're playing in West Allis at Binary, on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month, from 6pm-9 or 10 pm. I'll be posting on the Milwaukee Traditional Gamer's Meetup, and that will have more details. I'll have some pregens with me.

We'll be playing Mongoose 2nd edition, just because it's new and in print, and I don't find anything I hate about it (except for the weapon & armor illustrations...... but I'm picky about those and they have no bearing on gameplay).

I'm still waffling on when I want to set the game. There's so much out there for the 3I, and it's familiar to me, so that's the obvious choice, but I'm still pondering that.

It's been over 20 years since I've run Traveller. Wish me luck :ssb:

 

[Orr]

I'm jealous!

I'm also sure you all will have great fun. Please post a few sessions reports if you're able.

 

[Adam Dray]

Awesome! Keep us posted!

 

[Charles.Darney]

I'm jealous!

I'm also sure you all will have great fun. Please post a few sessions reports if you're able.

I hope to. One of the group has an account here (Hi Mark), so I won't be posting spoilers, but I should be able to write up recaps.

 

[Blue Ghost]

"Stay frosty!"

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

Westallica you say...

Damn, and you would be running on Wednesdays. Sadly that is the same day my crew gets together and games. Grr.

Still nice to see another fellow Traveller here in these parts.

And yeah, recaps would be cool.

Oh, one more thing. So Binary is still up and running because when I go home from work I see a For Sale sign on the building and by see I mean this last week Sunday?

Anyway, travel safe.

 

[Shadowrunner]

I'm still waffling on when I want to set the game. There's so much out there for the 3I, and it's familiar to me, so that's the obvious choice, but I'm still pondering that.

It's been over 20 years since I've run Traveller. Wish me luck :ssb:

I was truly shocked 20 years later, when I read about the assassination and collapse. I still am,7 years on.
I tend to stay pre-frontier war but pinch all the good bits from later universes. I like the edge of TL16 itself, being the mission...

 

[Charles.Darney]

Oh, one more thing. So Binary is still up and running because when I go home from work I see a For Sale sign on the building and by see I mean this last week Sunday?

I've heard the owner(s) are having health issues and have been looking to sell for a while. But, Binary is open for now.

And sadly, I had to move my first session to the 25th; I've been fighting a nasty cold for weeks, just got my voice back, and am starting to lose it again. Must have failed a few aging rolls; my END sucks.

 

[Charles.Darney]

Recap of First Play Session of My New Game [long]

We played our first session on May 9th.

I decided to start with an alternate take on the Chamax Plague adventure, that actually minimizes the bugs and focuses on the ruins. I posted this recap on our Meetup page, but heck, I'll post it here, too.

Aside from the Chamax Plague, I'm drawing influence from the "story" that ran through the T4 core book, and other sources. It will become more Space Opera than I normally run in Traveller, but it should be fun.

The Team:
Van Stiles - Marine (he was not present, and the player is the only one who had played Traveller before)
Naill Renfro - Scout
Baden Porkins - Scout
Bick - Navy

Both Scouts had Events during character generation (we're using Mongoose v2) that had their ship destroyed, and they both gained enemies. While they were separate incidents, both occurred when they were answering distress calls from a ship registered to the Black Circle Trading Company - a small group of Free Traders established in District 268. In both situations, it was an ambush by pirates.

The group was brought together by Lord Baron Tamor Kularamke of Tenalphi (Lunion subsector). There is an upcoming competition among Nobles in the sector, and he needs a discovery to increase his standing.

The Baron had heard of a Scout’s (Baden Porkins) discovery of strange ruins on an unexplored planet in the Alenzar (Foreven 3229) system that somehow failed to make its way to the Scout HQ or data core, and assembles a group to crew a Far Trader and go and explore the ruins - so any discoveries could be made in his name.

These ruins were strange because sensors picked up electromagnetic signals from underneath that were very similar to the signals given off by a ship’s Jump Drive.

Besides the four PC’s, the Baron sent along two scientists, a “logistics specialist” (who seems to wear red shirts often) and his property master (to keep the ship supplied, and pay the team…. And make sure the team didn’t run off with the ship).

Upon arrival in system, the group discovers that someone else - a ship registered to the Black Circle Trading Company, had arrived there first. The ship was damaged, and no crew was present.

The group landed out of sight, and approached stealthily. The hull of the ship had several ragged, “melty” holes in it; as if it was slagged through by plasma or fusion gun fire.

Outside the ship was a table with a datapad on it, and boxes of artifacts. The datapad contained a map and images of the ruin (taken by a remote drone). Most of the artifacts are of chitin or resin, and in either abstract shapes, or the shapes of sea-life and crustaceans. All were about 400-500 years old. Only one artifact was exceptional - a humanoid shape, with a metal ring (about size 11) around its neck.

The group attempted to enter the ship, but found a large (1 meter) chitinous sphere in the entrance ramp. As they watched, it unfolded into a strange spider-like creature about the size of a great dane…… It was shot at, and popped, splashing acid in the area and dissolving.

That apparently woke up a nest of these acid-spewing bugs, because dozens of these bugs started to swarm out of the ship. Fortunately, one of the scouts had a few grenades which dealt with the immediate threat (I wasn't careful to explain law level and purchasing to the group during character generation). So the group made it back to their air/raft followed by a larger horde of bugs, and lifted off, with the bugs swarming beneath them.

Instead of shooting, they realized the bugs were attracted to the EM signals emitted by the air/raft, so the slowly floated away, luring the bugs about 2km from the site, then sped back, losing them.

They explored the lower deck of the starship, finding more artifacts, and a computer lab that had been running analysis of the data the first crew had gathered. They took the data, and returned to their ship to analyze it.

In their ship, they discovered that the metal ring around the neck of the humanoid artifact was a data recorder containing audio and video signals. The video was too corrupt by time to be usable, but the audio was translated by the ship’s universal translation system, and identified as belonging to a minor humanoid race from the Nergu system in the Vanguard Reaches. The message, as much as they could translate, said “seen opening to void without borders. <unintelligible> chases us for death. No choice but to risk the void. <unintelligible> before the <unintelligible> stars born. More than one birth giver. May fall to death. Found then search but beware.”

The group now sits in their ship, planning their next step.

We play again on the 23rd. I mostly expect them to explore the ruins (they have a map of the majority of the ruins from the Black Circle ship's computers, except for a lower level that the probe apparently did not explore). But, they could just leave and return with their findings to their patron. I have a number of interesting encounters for the return trip that could drive further adventures.

 

[Fovean]

Excellent start! Please keep us updated!

 

[coliver988]

Sounds like it is off to a great start - thanks for sharing!

 

[Charles.Darney]

Session 2 Recap

Session 2: Into the depths

As the team was planning their next steps, the assistant scientist with them, Lotin Delaradi, strongly suggested that they search for the abandoned ship’s Launch – after all, there might be survivors who know how the crew of the abandoned ship knew to come here.

After heading to orbit, and scanning the surface, they found where the launch had landed – in an icy, snow-covered mountainous area. Upon trying to land, they found the surface was not strong enough for their ship, and it tipped into the snow.

Thank goodness for artificial gravity and inertial compensators! It kept the crew safe.

The team took their air/raft to investigate the launch. They saw that it made a controlled crash, and that the engines were damaged by acid…… More bugs? Inside, the crew compartment was empty, but there were signs of injury, and a trail that led to a rock cropping nearby.

At the rock cropping, they found a cave; three people laying within, dead – probably of exposure. Two had been injured in the crash. They took the Imperial ID’s off the corpses, and found a datapad belonging to one of the crew. Activating it, they found that the “lock screen” on the datapad that belonged to one of the corpses had a picture of Lotin Delaradi – apparently, he knew one of the people that beat the team to this ruin.

They confronted Lotin to try to find out more, and after a brief stand-off, he ended up shooting himself in the head – committing suicide rather than tell the team anything.

The team then explored the upper deck of the abandoned ship, finding the Queen bug, and alerting many nearby nests, causing thousands of bugs to converge upon the abandoned ship. They left the abandoned ship, got back into theirs, and repeated their attempt to lure the bugs away.
The team then set the ship on “hover”, and took their air/raft down to explore the ruins themselves.

The first level was easy to move around in – the data they took from the abandoned ship had a full and complete map of the first level. After taking out a wandering bug, they found a passage down – in a room with a dead queen bug and a number of wandering hunters.

After dispatching the bugs, they proceeded down – and started to feel nauseous due to what they identified as the signs of “Jump Sickness” – as if there was a running starship jump/FTL drive under ground.

Down on the lower level, the five-lobed “starfruit”-like fungus that grew on the wall was noticeably bigger – about .5m or so. Not sure which way to go, they were looking around when they heard a scream. Charging forward, they found a chamber that was lit. Inside was a stone arch, with the telltale appearance of jumpspace within the arch. Near the arch was a group of jet-black skinned humanoids – some in armor that was marked with silver markings that resembled a starships jump grid; others, who had those same markings on their skin, were harvesting the starfruit-like fungus and placing it in crates.

One of the harvesters was on the ground, apparently pushed or thrown there by one of the armored humanoids.

The other armored humanoids were standing guard, watching two other openings to the room.

After watching for a while, they noticed the harvester that was on the ground was back up, working, and looking in their direction….. even though they were fairly well concealed. The group was ready to retreat when the armored humanoids started firing, and shouting…… they went on high alert, moving the boxed fungus and most of the harvesters through the portal. As they were going to all leave, one of the armed humanoids shot one of the harvesters in the leg, leaving her behind.

As Van Stiles moved forward to assist the harvester, a elephant-sized black glob of protoplasm crawled into the chamber from one of the passages that was guarded…… The team fled back, taking the harvester with them.
They were barely able to get out of the ruin and to their ship before the black glob caught up with them.

Back in the ship, they used their translator software, which had previously identified the language recorded on the artifact ring they found, and realized they could talk to the harvester.

She was a slave that worked for the Lords, harvesting the Teh-Voy-Ahn – the starfruit-like fungus, for the metal in it that allowed the slaves to make the armor that the lords used to walk through the Void.

The Void was created by the Birth-Givers, which she called their gods. And she, and the other harvesters could walk through the void without the armor the lords wore – that is why they were slaves.

She said they came from “home”, which was a horrible, poisonous place, but that they normally flew through space in ships like the one the team was in.
They also discovered she could sense their presence in the ruin.

After more questioning, much of it frustrating, as she is only a slave, and not one of the educated lords, we wrapped up the session.

 

[khadaji2002]

Interesting campaign and nice recap! Thanks for keeping us posted.

 

[Charles.Darney]

Yes; I decided to make this game a bit.... different

Some influences are Lovecraft (a bit archaic, but good sci-fi - the group immediately knew the black blob was a Shoggoth) and Andre Norton's Forerunner books (thus, the jet-black skinned aliens with metallic markings on some of their skin - although quite redesigned for my game.) Also, the illustrations of the Travellers and their adventures that Elmore drew throughout the T4 main book is where I got the idea for the jump gate in the first place.

My Imperium is also the Imperium of the early published adventures - willing to lock Imperial Senators up in Prison Hulks, and capture sentient beings to experiment on them in their remote Research Stations.

One of my players has posted here in the past, so I can't give out too many spoilers, but with universe-breaking ancient technology buried underground on at least two systems (and the alien woman they rescued did indicate there were many of those gates), this discovery isn't going to fall under anyone's radar.

Why, it could incite a Fifth Frontier War... And if the wrong people find out, it may even trigger a Rebellion! :nonono:

 

[Charles.Darney]

Session 3: “Once more into the breach, dear friends!”

The group decided to risk meeting the black glob again, and ventured back into the ruins to gather more data on the gate, and to harvest some of the fungus - both to return to their patron, and to keep for themselves.
After having their remaining Scientist help set up their scientific equipment, having the slave explain the proper technique for harvesting the fungus, and having Bick craft some shields out of bulkhead patches, the team headed down.

They harvested about 30kg of fungus ANd determined that the jump gate was about 1 billion years old - much older than the reports of the Ancients! Was there a race before the Ancients? Then they heard the black glob coming. They beat a hasty retreat, tossing a stun grenade behind them to hopefully slow the glob down. The escaped back to their ship, and left, plotting their jump.

However, when Bick, the engineer tried to energize the jump grid, the signal, while wobbly on the trip out, was well out of the safety zone, and oscillating wildly. At the same time, their scientist got on the all-ship intercom and said “uh. hello. You should really see this.”. Bick shut down the jump drive and headed to the lab.

The scientist reported that the markings on the slave girl (who still does not have a name) started to glow blue - much like a jump grid - and she appeared to start to become translucent…. and then it all stopped. Coincidentally, the timing coincided with the warming up of the jump drive on the ship.

After much pondering, the scientist suggested that they may be OK if they build a jump-field “faraday cage”. They decided to give the idea a shot, and picked up spare replacement jump grid panels at the starport. They lined the girl’s room with them, and the scientist programmed them to modulate with the hull jump grid.

The ship’s jump drive then proceeded to energize perfectly within spec. Almost too perfectly…..

They made the jump, but arrived about 40 hours away from their intended target (they were jumping to an uninhabited/low traffic system). They picked up a distress call from even further out…. they investigated and found it came from an old Gazelle-class close escort, floating dark, with only the weakest of broadcast.

Inside the ship were the remains of Imperial Marines in combat armor - some wore black combat armor with the ship’s markings on it; some wore the traditional maroon. All were dead, shot with high-energy weapons. No weapons remained on the ship (except for one slightly charred but functional Plasma Gun), and the Gig was gone. One crewmember on the bridge apparently survived long enough to set up some solar panels and a broadcast radio - because the power plant was mostly destroyed by an internal explosion, and the jump and maneuver drives appeared to have been sabotaged.

The ship, while clearly Imperial, was not on any Imperial logs - and, flagged, so any requests would be tracked.

They pulled the ships data logs and disconnected the transmitter (so the ship went completely dark), and left to continue their mission.

Upon returning to the Baron, they reported their findings. The Baron was overwhelmed at the discovery - he was going to be famous, and would gain great esteem. Probably be invited to Capital! He left, and his property master, who had traveled with the group, sat down to dole out the rewards.
Aside from the cash (total of Cr75,000 wth the bonuses), he offered the permanent lease of the Type-A2 Free trader they had travelled in.

Or…. he offered them great assistance to salvage the Close Escort. Including 4 tons of spare parts, a computer to reprogram the transponder, as well as vouchers for skill training classes (using the Mongoose 2nd Ed skill improvement system, with a Quality factor (from T5 QREBS) of +5… almost guaranteeing success. An incredibly generous offer.

When he saw the skepticism in the group’s eyes, he explained. The Baron, you seen, is going to Lunion to present his findings, and as the findings were so fantastic, he is expected to be heading to Capitol to present them. And, as he has no direct relatives, the Property Master was expecting to be granted Knighthood and left to administer the Baron’s holdings until his return.

And, a new Imperial Knight at the border of the Imperium, close to the Sword Worlds could always use a group of “helping hands” with a gunship…..
Now, the group did find out that an enemy of two of the characters (who had destroyed their Scout Ships, causing them to have to leave the service) was feeling the heat from the Imperium and heading to the Sindal subsector…..