I haven't seen a story thread like this in the month that I've been here, or in browsing through old threads. I've enjoyed the various D&D/Pathfinder "war story" threads over at Giant in the Playground, so figured I'd try starting one here. I haven't actually been able to play a whole lot of Traveller over the years (mostly GM), but I'll have a go at starting off.
This is from the only Traveller campaign (so far) in which I have been a player rather than GM. I don't actually remember what career this character was in, but he mustered out w his primary skills being Combat Rifleman-3 and Demolitions-4. Nobody else on our dorm floor even wanted to play, so this was just me and the GM. My character (I think his name was Mitch, short for Michigan Smith; if not, I'll call him that anyway) met up w some NPCs and somehow ended up on a monorail train zipping through the desert from one city to another.
Naturally, the train was hijacked by terrorists, and it was up to Mitch to Do Something About It.
Fortunately, I did have these few NPCs that Mitch had teamed up with, so it wasn't a complete solo run of Mitch vs. terrorists. We fought our way forward to the control section of the train, to discover that the terrorists had welded shut the door into the control cabin. In examining the welded edge of the door, Mitch with his high Demolition skill noticed that the door was also booby-trapped.
Here is where things started to Get Weird.
I stated that Mitch would use his Demolition skill to carefully trace the trigger wires from the booby trap to see what would be the best way to disarm the trap. A few skill rolls later, Mitch traced the wires to a bomb located inside an access panel. I then asked to make a skill roll to disarm the bomb.
The GM refused. He wanted me, as player, to describe what Mitch would do to disarm the bomb. I tried explaining to the GM that neither he nor I were Demolition experts; we were college kids playing a game in which my Character was a Demolition expert, and I should be allowed to figure it out using Mitch's Demolition skill. Nope, he wouldn't go for it. Said I had to figure it out myself.
I knew that if I just had Mitch start snipping wires at random there would be a high chance of BOOM, and the GM had informed me that the explosives were powerful enough to destroy the control car and derail the train, probably killing everyone on board (terrorists must have been either suicidal or terribly incompetent). There were windows in the area that Mitch was in, so I asked if there was enough slack wire that he could throw the bomb out the window away from the train. Nope.
Finally I had Mitch go back and strip wires from the lighting system in the next car back, verify that these wires were the same resistance etc as the wires on the bomb, then make a Demolition roll to successfully splice the extra wire into the trigger wires, giving him enough slack that he could shoot out a window and toss the bomb, to detonate harmlessly on the desert floor below the train (timing it carefully so as not to blow up a support pylon).
So that was how my character with Demolition-4, a true expert in the field of Demolition, "disarmed" a bomb.
Soon afterward, one of Mitch's NPC buddies used a laser rifle to burn a hole in the welded door to the control room, and Mitch moved to toss a grenade through the hole to where the terrorists were. Unfortunately, one of the terrorists chose that moment to fire some high-ROF automatic weapon out of the hole, which automatically hit Mitch due to him being nearby with his grenade (???). The GM told me that the damage was all to Mitch's DX, and described it as essentially having his hands shot off.
Not much else he could do at that point, other than suggest that one of the NPCs fire a burst through the hole, followed by another one stuffing in a grenade, all while Mitch stood and watched (probably bleeding out through his severed wrists, although the GM didn't mention that).
And that was the end of that adventure, and also that campaign.
This is from the only Traveller campaign (so far) in which I have been a player rather than GM. I don't actually remember what career this character was in, but he mustered out w his primary skills being Combat Rifleman-3 and Demolitions-4. Nobody else on our dorm floor even wanted to play, so this was just me and the GM. My character (I think his name was Mitch, short for Michigan Smith; if not, I'll call him that anyway) met up w some NPCs and somehow ended up on a monorail train zipping through the desert from one city to another.
Naturally, the train was hijacked by terrorists, and it was up to Mitch to Do Something About It.
Fortunately, I did have these few NPCs that Mitch had teamed up with, so it wasn't a complete solo run of Mitch vs. terrorists. We fought our way forward to the control section of the train, to discover that the terrorists had welded shut the door into the control cabin. In examining the welded edge of the door, Mitch with his high Demolition skill noticed that the door was also booby-trapped.
Here is where things started to Get Weird.
I stated that Mitch would use his Demolition skill to carefully trace the trigger wires from the booby trap to see what would be the best way to disarm the trap. A few skill rolls later, Mitch traced the wires to a bomb located inside an access panel. I then asked to make a skill roll to disarm the bomb.
The GM refused. He wanted me, as player, to describe what Mitch would do to disarm the bomb. I tried explaining to the GM that neither he nor I were Demolition experts; we were college kids playing a game in which my Character was a Demolition expert, and I should be allowed to figure it out using Mitch's Demolition skill. Nope, he wouldn't go for it. Said I had to figure it out myself.
I knew that if I just had Mitch start snipping wires at random there would be a high chance of BOOM, and the GM had informed me that the explosives were powerful enough to destroy the control car and derail the train, probably killing everyone on board (terrorists must have been either suicidal or terribly incompetent). There were windows in the area that Mitch was in, so I asked if there was enough slack wire that he could throw the bomb out the window away from the train. Nope.
Finally I had Mitch go back and strip wires from the lighting system in the next car back, verify that these wires were the same resistance etc as the wires on the bomb, then make a Demolition roll to successfully splice the extra wire into the trigger wires, giving him enough slack that he could shoot out a window and toss the bomb, to detonate harmlessly on the desert floor below the train (timing it carefully so as not to blow up a support pylon).
So that was how my character with Demolition-4, a true expert in the field of Demolition, "disarmed" a bomb.
Soon afterward, one of Mitch's NPC buddies used a laser rifle to burn a hole in the welded door to the control room, and Mitch moved to toss a grenade through the hole to where the terrorists were. Unfortunately, one of the terrorists chose that moment to fire some high-ROF automatic weapon out of the hole, which automatically hit Mitch due to him being nearby with his grenade (???). The GM told me that the damage was all to Mitch's DX, and described it as essentially having his hands shot off.
Not much else he could do at that point, other than suggest that one of the NPCs fire a burst through the hole, followed by another one stuffing in a grenade, all while Mitch stood and watched (probably bleeding out through his severed wrists, although the GM didn't mention that).
And that was the end of that adventure, and also that campaign.
. I had enough, and walked out. Very unkind, but hey. I had paid money to be there. My friends stayed for another half hour or so, and tried increasingly insane things, only to be told...wait for it..."You can't do that". 
. He gave us some free handouts, which I still have. Bitter lemon...sweet, sweet lemonade.
