One Damn Thing After Another (Play Reports)

[AlHazred]

Doing 1 jump-1 at a time, the PCs went to Bowman. They are buying refined fuel at all starports to avoid taxing the jump drive even further. Asking for work to pay for the fuel, they flew three scientists to the Darrian Dig Site on Bowman Epsilon, the highly-eccentric moon. I'm saving the rest of "Archaeology" for a later session, but they were intrigued by the thought of pre-Maghiz Darrian artifacts. They ended up doing a deep scan of Epsilon with their new Scout ship's Survey Drones and sold the results to the head of the Dig.

Next stop was 567-908, where they visited a corporate research site. The corpos weren't interested in giving non-employees a tour, but one of them was interested in having them transport a 1-ton cargo module to a buyer on Asteltine. The crew talked him into letting them tank up from the fuel supply for the research facility's power plant over a few days.

In transit, one of the scientists in the crew became overly curious and used the drones to do a scan of the crate. I described how the image gradually formed of some sort of "weird robot arm, maybe?" with writing on it in no language they could recognize. It's, of course, part of a Shrieker rig, but, again, I'm saving "Safari Ship" for later. This was a teaser.

 

[AlHazred]

I think, for the game tomorrow, since they've just met a shady collector-type figure, I might run the scenario "Filch" by Michael Brown from Freelance Traveller #20 and have the target be Mr. Gelin Hrey, the receiver of the illicit cargo.

 

[AlHazred]

So, they didn't bite. They actually, wisely, considered that I had Gelin Hrey as a Sword Worlder, and didn't want to possibly impact their future endeavors in the region. Smart actually.

In any case, I was able to extemporaneously plant the hook for the scenario "Heiress" by Ewan Quibell, from Freelance Traveller #23. Since they were going to Flammarion next, it worked very well for that. By the time the rest of "Heiress" hits, they should be done with "Search & Rescue".

Speaking of which, when they emerged from jump space, they heard a BANG and started losing atmosphere through the faucet in the galley. I had rolled an event, and thought this would be cool. They did a space walk and patched the exterior hole, but the object had entered the landing gear bay. When they retrieved it they discovered it was a jump torpedo. I'm using the Avenger Enterprises/Comstar Games idea, where j-torps (being sub-100-dtons) are extremely unreliable, and that the company that made them faked the performance tests to get sales. MCr 15+ for something that misjumps more than half the time is a losing proposition. I had it be an encrypted message from a Leviathan-class Merchant Cruiser, destined for McClellan Factors.

And there I did a misstep. I had it be from the Amuar, because I thought I remembered that cruiser being lost in 1100 in the Outrim Void. But it didn't -- it was taken by pirates in 1102.

So, now I have to consider how to handle it when it eventually comes up (I mentioned a reward for return to McClellan Factors, and they're really poor, so they'll remember). I see an interesting possibility. The Historical Documents (i.e., the LBBs) mention it being lost in 1102, but that could have been the final move by the pirates. It's probable that was the last step in a complex heist; this is an 1800-ton vessel with a crew of almost 60, so an Ocean's Eleven-style heist could easily have taken place. In which case, the j-torp might have been reporting whatever the preliminary step was. Maybe the captain used this method to securely send HQ a proposal by a group of Outrim pirates to cooperate for profit at the expense of the Barracai Technum? He wouldn't want to send such an incriminating message through ordinary channels.

Anyway, after docking at the Way Station, they got down to brass tacks. I had Anders offer them two options: they could polish off the work in a few weeks with the parts available, which would "reset" the Highndry back to "factory defaults". Or, they could keep the higher-TL parts, and he would have to source them and have them shipped, which would probably take upwards of 16 weeks. They opted for the latter. Then, Anders offered them temporary employment enforcing the interdiction of 875-496; I've decided the Scouts interdicted the world to protect the natives from Imperial contamination. They accepted, so next week we'll start "Search & Rescue". I'll try to set a cliffhanger with the crash of the liner. We'll see how far they get. I expect them to be wowed with the SAR toys!

 

[kilemall]

So, they didn't bite. They actually, wisely, considered that I had Gelin Hrey as a Sword Worlder, and didn't want to possibly impact their future endeavors in the region. Smart actually.

In any case, I was able to extemporaneously plant the hook for the scenario "Heiress" by Ewan Quibell, from Freelance Traveller #23. Since they were going to Flammarion next, it worked very well for that. By the time the rest of "Heiress" hits, they should be done with "Search & Rescue".

Speaking of which, when they emerged from jump space, they heard a BANG and started losing atmosphere through the faucet in the galley. I had rolled an event, and thought this would be cool. They did a space walk and patched the exterior hole, but the object had entered the landing gear bay. When they retrieved it they discovered it was a jump torpedo. I'm using the Avenger Enterprises/Comstar Games idea, where j-torps (being sub-100-dtons) are extremely unreliable, and that the company that made them faked the performance tests to get sales. MCr 15+ for something that misjumps more than half the time is a losing proposition. I had it be an encrypted message from a Leviathan-class Merchant Cruiser, destined for McClellan Factors.

And there I did a misstep. I had it be from the Amuar, because I thought I remembered that cruiser being lost in 1100 in the Outrim Void. But it didn't -- it was taken by pirates in 1102.

So, now I have to consider how to handle it when it eventually comes up (I mentioned a reward for return to McClellan Factors, and they're really poor, so they'll remember). I see an interesting possibility. The Historical Documents (i.e., the LBBs) mention it being lost in 1102, but that could have been the final move by the pirates. It's probable that was the last step in a complex heist; this is an 1800-ton vessel with a crew of almost 60, so an Ocean's Eleven-style heist could easily have taken place. In which case, the j-torp might have been reporting whatever the preliminary step was. Maybe the captain used this method to securely send HQ a proposal by a group of Outrim pirates to cooperate for profit at the expense of the Barracai Technum? He wouldn't want to send such an incriminating message through ordinary channels.

Anyway, after docking at the Way Station, they got down to brass tacks. I had Anders offer them two options: they could polish off the work in a few weeks with the parts available, which would "reset" the Highndry back to "factory defaults". Or, they could keep the higher-TL parts, and he would have to source them and have them shipped, which would probably take upwards of 16 weeks. They opted for the latter. Then, Anders offered them temporary employment enforcing the interdiction of 875-496; I've decided the Scouts interdicted the world to protect the natives from Imperial contamination. They accepted, so next week we'll start "Search & Rescue". I'll try to set a cliffhanger with the crash of the liner. We'll see how far they get. I expect them to be wowed with the SAR toys!

Does Anders know he works for The Big Boss?

 

[coliver988]

and also I think misjumps can be time skewed. If not canon it can still happen since jump torpedoes are no longer canon either so maybe the misjump took it back 2 years or whatever. Causality be darned!

 

[AlHazred]

and also I think misjumps can be time skewed. If not canon it can still happen since jump torpedoes are no longer canon either so maybe the misjump took it back 2 years or whatever. Causality be darned!

Yeah, I thought of that, but I don't think backwards time travel will be necessary to fix my goof. This time, at least.

Does Anders know he works for The Big Boss?

I don't understand the reference.

 

[kilemall]

Yeah, I thought of that, but I don't think backwards time travel will be necessary to fix my goof. This time, at least.

I don't understand the reference.

You had Anders offer options, which can be construed as directing him to act as though you are his boss. And since you’re the ref, I was wondering if he was aware he’s an NPC and you are the godlike Ref.

All jokes are dead if you have to explain them. This one might be deader then usual.

 

[AlHazred]

You had Anders offer options, which can be construed as directing him to act as though you are his boss. And since you’re the ref, I was wondering if he was aware he’s an NPC and you are the godlike Ref.

All jokes are dead if you have to explain them. This one might be deader then usual.

I thought it might have been a reference I missed! I loved CT, stopped picking up the stuff early in the MT era (wasn't fond of the way it was going), and resumed with Traveller Hero, so I miss a lot of references! I've really only got the core books for the other editions, and they don't put as much setting material in them anymore; that was an artifact of CT book design.

 

[AlHazred]

You had Anders offer options, which can be construed as directing him to act as though you are his boss. And since you’re the ref, I was wondering if he was aware he’s an NPC and you are the godlike Ref.

All jokes are dead if you have to explain them. This one might be deader then usual.

Oh, also, Anders is just really interested in making sure his "bait" is functional; he doesn't really care if the PCs want it one or the other, so I had him offer them options. They are fully aware they're going to be "bait," but Anders also pointed out he needs them to survive to get back to him with the information he wants! He is 100% certain the Sword Worlds Confederation has a plot in the works that could cause the Imperium massive troubles.

 

[AlHazred]

The players jumped at the salaries offered as they are still desperately poor. Once they got to the 875-496 station, they were pleased with their new toys. Sar Aylen gave them a tour and went over her expectations as XO. They got to meet the Station Commander, Chrix Derison, who told them the station crew is "like a family" which immediately set off red flags with the players. All good stuff.

We roleplayed a total of five weeks so far of relatively boring Search and Rescue patrol duty. I made sure to give them a taste of the Navy's Dindy codes, where Naval vessels can enter the interdicted system surreptitiously, being automatically edited out of any of the system's sensors, even live feeds; the PCs will almost certainly try to figure out a way to bypass the Dindy coding in the systems, but they're not willing to mess too much with equipment that isn't theirs, because they know if they brick it they'll have to pay for it.

They are already thinking of ways to have some of the cool SAR gear be "misplaced" so they can retrieve it later. Which is fine, they're not Battle Dress they're just really, really good Vacc Suits. But to this point in the campaign, they've been making do with the disposable Pressure Sleeves and Rebreathers (they're that poor). It's been a while since I ran a game where the PCs started out this far down to the bottom of the barrel.

I ended with a teaser of a random encounter on the Station when they came in after their patrol. A bunch of religious types were going through and decided to do a ceremony and preach to the godless masses of the Station. As the PCs came in, spoiled vegetables started to be thrown and the mood turned ugly. I will use this as a teaser for a Patron encounter I found online; they aren't really in a position to move on from the system, but if they help any of the pilgrims they'll be remembered for a future service.