I'm sharing this at timerover51's request on the Jump Drive TL's thread. I've typed up quite a lot as my game has gone on, so I'll just post how I got started for now and post more detail as time goes on.
Firstly, these are the resources I am using:
I'll just say here I highly recommend the Location Crafter as a way of abstracting mapping down to three lists: encounters, places and objects as part of making one's way through a particular location. It's $3 on DriveThruRPG.
Attached is my conversion of the Leviathan to the Cepheus Engine. The various workshops are included at MCr1 per ton indicating fully equipped advanced tools. Also included are the Ship's Boat and Shuttle designs using the Cepheus Engine, an example encounter table using the Location Crafter, and a utility I developed for quickly determining in-system travel times. I have found that in-system travel times are far from trivial; journeying to a gas giant for refuelling can be a matter of 4 or 5 days.
I assumed the adventure started at Berengaria / Spinward Marches and started calculating dates from 001-1107 as indicated in the published adventure. The first step was 'hiring on'.
I went a bit overboard. I looked through the 'minimum skill requirements' for the positions, and then used the character generator in my link to generate a mix of 500 characters with a mix of careers that would bring up the desired skill mix. So I had 'Bureaucrat' as well as the space careers and some military and army types for a mix of Admin, Computer, spaceship relevant, Merchant and combat skills. I then trawled my way through the downloaded text file to select the crew.
I selected six of the senior crew as my PCs for the campaign; the remaining characters have names, a stat line and a career history but I have not developed them. Here are the PCs:
Master - Captain
Captain Kuga Parikh (Female Human) B47AC7 Age 38
Navy(5) Cr20000
Admin-0 Advocate-1 Carousing-0 Comms-2 Engineering-0 Gravitics-1 Jack o' Trades-2 Leadership-2 Life Sciences-0 Natural Weapons-1 Slug Rifle-0 Social Sciences-0 Tactics-1 Turret Weapons-0 Wheeled Vehicle-1 Zero-G-1
High Passage(x4), Annual Pension from the Navy: Cr10000
Executive Officer - 1st Officer
Supervisor Phan-li Moa (Female Human) 4897C7 Age 38
Bureaucrat(5) Cr70000
Admin-2 Bribery-0 Carousing-1 Computer-1 Electronics-0 Engineering-0 Leadership-0 Liaison-1 Medicine-1 Space Sciences-0 Tracked Vehicle-1 Wheeled Vehicle-0
Mid Passage(x2), Annual Pension from the Bureaucracy: Cr10000
Pilot - 1st Officer
Third Officer Sarah Evans (Female Human) 87B482 Age 26
Merchant(2) Cr-4000
Pilot-2 Medicine-2 Steward-1 Navigation-1 Comms-1 Shotgun-0 Streetwise-0 Broker-0 Engineering-0 Slashing Weapons-0 Broker-0 Grav Vehicle-0
Chief Engineer - 1st Officer
Second Officer Rumon Ghoshal (Male Human) 88AA98 Age 34
Merchant(4) Cr70000
Advocate-1 Broker-0 Comms-2 Engineering-2 Linguistics-0 Medicine-1 Natural Weapons-0 Piloting-1 Slug Rifle-0 Space Sciences-1 Steward-2 Veterinary Medicine-0 Wheeled Vehicle-0
High Passage(x2), Ship Shares
Chief Gunner - 1st Officer
Lt Commander Vasudev Zamindar (Male Human) 625C59 Age 36
Merchant(1), Navy(3) Cr0
Broker-0 Comms-0 Computer-0 Engineering-1 Grav Vehicle-1 Leadership-1 Natural Weapons-0 Navigation-2 Slashing Weapons-1 Slug Pistol-0 Social Sciences-0 Steward-1 Tactics-1 Turret Weapons-2 Wheeled Vehicle-0 Zero-G-1
Computer Officer - 2nd Officer
Crewman Dilip Peae (Male Human) 78C989 Age 40
Bureaucrat(2), Drifter(1), Drifter(1), Merchant(0) Cr56000
Admin-2 Bribery-0 Carousing-0 Computer-2 Electronics-1 Engineering-1 Leadership-0 Medicine-1 Riding-0 Space Sciences-0 Steward-1 Streetwise-1 Tracked Vehicle-0 Wheeled Vehicle-1
Shotgun
I then rolled for life events using the SOLO rules; or selected them from the character history (the character generator outputs a full blow-by-blow for each term including survival mishaps, career changes and skills gained each term). More on that in another post. I'll just say here that for 'existing relationships' I rolled randomly between the PCs and discovered that the Exec and Captain are former lovers, and the Chief Engineer and Chief Gunner are current lovers. Interesting. There were some dark secrets added too.
Enough for now, I will post more detail about what I discovered about the rest of the crew and PC relationships. Then the 'crew shakedown' cruise.
Firstly, these are the resources I am using:
- Cepheus Engine SRD (well, duh)
- SOLO campaigns for the Cepheus Engine
- Classic Traveller Adventure 4: Leviathan
- 1,000,001 characters for the Cepheus Engine (link in my signature)
- World Map Generator for T5 (link in my signature)
- Location Crafter (DriveThruRPG Link)
I'll just say here I highly recommend the Location Crafter as a way of abstracting mapping down to three lists: encounters, places and objects as part of making one's way through a particular location. It's $3 on DriveThruRPG.
Attached is my conversion of the Leviathan to the Cepheus Engine. The various workshops are included at MCr1 per ton indicating fully equipped advanced tools. Also included are the Ship's Boat and Shuttle designs using the Cepheus Engine, an example encounter table using the Location Crafter, and a utility I developed for quickly determining in-system travel times. I have found that in-system travel times are far from trivial; journeying to a gas giant for refuelling can be a matter of 4 or 5 days.
I assumed the adventure started at Berengaria / Spinward Marches and started calculating dates from 001-1107 as indicated in the published adventure. The first step was 'hiring on'.
I went a bit overboard. I looked through the 'minimum skill requirements' for the positions, and then used the character generator in my link to generate a mix of 500 characters with a mix of careers that would bring up the desired skill mix. So I had 'Bureaucrat' as well as the space careers and some military and army types for a mix of Admin, Computer, spaceship relevant, Merchant and combat skills. I then trawled my way through the downloaded text file to select the crew.
I selected six of the senior crew as my PCs for the campaign; the remaining characters have names, a stat line and a career history but I have not developed them. Here are the PCs:
Master - Captain
Captain Kuga Parikh (Female Human) B47AC7 Age 38
Navy(5) Cr20000
Admin-0 Advocate-1 Carousing-0 Comms-2 Engineering-0 Gravitics-1 Jack o' Trades-2 Leadership-2 Life Sciences-0 Natural Weapons-1 Slug Rifle-0 Social Sciences-0 Tactics-1 Turret Weapons-0 Wheeled Vehicle-1 Zero-G-1
High Passage(x4), Annual Pension from the Navy: Cr10000
Executive Officer - 1st Officer
Supervisor Phan-li Moa (Female Human) 4897C7 Age 38
Bureaucrat(5) Cr70000
Admin-2 Bribery-0 Carousing-1 Computer-1 Electronics-0 Engineering-0 Leadership-0 Liaison-1 Medicine-1 Space Sciences-0 Tracked Vehicle-1 Wheeled Vehicle-0
Mid Passage(x2), Annual Pension from the Bureaucracy: Cr10000
Pilot - 1st Officer
Third Officer Sarah Evans (Female Human) 87B482 Age 26
Merchant(2) Cr-4000
Pilot-2 Medicine-2 Steward-1 Navigation-1 Comms-1 Shotgun-0 Streetwise-0 Broker-0 Engineering-0 Slashing Weapons-0 Broker-0 Grav Vehicle-0
Chief Engineer - 1st Officer
Second Officer Rumon Ghoshal (Male Human) 88AA98 Age 34
Merchant(4) Cr70000
Advocate-1 Broker-0 Comms-2 Engineering-2 Linguistics-0 Medicine-1 Natural Weapons-0 Piloting-1 Slug Rifle-0 Space Sciences-1 Steward-2 Veterinary Medicine-0 Wheeled Vehicle-0
High Passage(x2), Ship Shares
Chief Gunner - 1st Officer
Lt Commander Vasudev Zamindar (Male Human) 625C59 Age 36
Merchant(1), Navy(3) Cr0
Broker-0 Comms-0 Computer-0 Engineering-1 Grav Vehicle-1 Leadership-1 Natural Weapons-0 Navigation-2 Slashing Weapons-1 Slug Pistol-0 Social Sciences-0 Steward-1 Tactics-1 Turret Weapons-2 Wheeled Vehicle-0 Zero-G-1
Computer Officer - 2nd Officer
Crewman Dilip Peae (Male Human) 78C989 Age 40
Bureaucrat(2), Drifter(1), Drifter(1), Merchant(0) Cr56000
Admin-2 Bribery-0 Carousing-0 Computer-2 Electronics-1 Engineering-1 Leadership-0 Medicine-1 Riding-0 Space Sciences-0 Steward-1 Streetwise-1 Tracked Vehicle-0 Wheeled Vehicle-1
Shotgun
I then rolled for life events using the SOLO rules; or selected them from the character history (the character generator outputs a full blow-by-blow for each term including survival mishaps, career changes and skills gained each term). More on that in another post. I'll just say here that for 'existing relationships' I rolled randomly between the PCs and discovered that the Exec and Captain are former lovers, and the Chief Engineer and Chief Gunner are current lovers. Interesting. There were some dark secrets added too.
Enough for now, I will post more detail about what I discovered about the rest of the crew and PC relationships. Then the 'crew shakedown' cruise.