Traveller - the last past months

So, where do we actually stand in the Traveller campaign. Here a writeup from the gamemaster about the major events of the campaign. Pending are the smuggle runs of the last two sessions.

Chapter 1 - Rat Hive Exodus

The Travellers are in the backwater Inchin system, in the Spinward Marches. Inchin is a poor desert planet owned by a guy named Iarl Rowri, an eccentric rich guy who bought his own planet, sure he could make a lot of money there. He has met a lot of setbacks and has not succeeded as of yet. Inchin now has a kind of totalitarian regime. Rowry apparently lives in a palace at the only town on Inchin, called Rowri's Folly by people off-planet.

Takeda Station orbits Inchin, clutered with neon signs. All the Travellers are stranded there one way or another. It used to be a mining/industrial base, but Rowri sold it to the mysterious Takeda because he needed the money. This was 15 years ago. Takeda station has the greatest bar this side of the galaxy, Murphy's Bar and Grill, completely filled with old-earth memorablia and culture. He even has a radio station that broadcasts Solomani songs (especially Creedence and Hank Williams).

Of course there is a rat problem in the cellar. The Travellers find the (radioactively mutated) pests, extend the range of the radio station and discover that Takeda Station contains a lot of scrap metal, including pieces of a huge ship called "The Galactic Dragon".

Chapter 2 - Beetlejuice

Old man Finkle is a drunk and completely broke. He loses his ship, Beetlejuice, to the Travellers in a poker game (but his pilot and stripper slash mechanic daughter keep their share). The Travellers also inherit the mortgage on the ship.

The Beetlejuice is a weird, green, 100 ton experimental ship, without jump capabilities. It is filled with non-standard tech.

In the meanwhile the only Traveller with a set goal is Max. A few years back, he received a mysterious marble of mercury-like substance through his girlfriend (later referred to as “Vril”). He researched this material at his university, far away in another sector. All his research, including the strange material, was stolen however. He traced the crime back to the Inchin system, and wants to retrieve his life's work.

Chapter 3 - Spacetruckers

Together, the Travellers launch the “Lone Star Trading Company”. Their first job entails doing some mining runs for an independent group of miners. These old geezers try to keep independent from the League of Miners and Prospectors, which slowly destroys their business. During the mining runs, the Travellers are bugged by a trader named Bachus, who owns a 500 ton far trader "Predator" and works for the League.

Chapter 4 - The Lion and the Dragon

Security Inspector Reichmann of the Inchin Police asks the Travellers check out Bachus, because he appears to deliver weapons to the Inchin resistance. They break into the Predator to discover a small ships boat inside, which could be used for smuggling runs. The Travellers engineer a makeshift tracking device with short range. They want to try to catch Bachus red-handed.

More importantly, the Travellers discover that their ship, the Beetlejuice, used to belong to an alien (Aslan) named K'syah. He discovered the ship in the system, at a dangerous place he refers to as the "Galactic Dragon". His journal claims that there are many more parts available for the ship at that location. The Travellers conclude that it must be a vessel, because Takeda station contains scrap metal belonging to a ship with the same name.

The Aslan apparently was murdered about 10 years ago, right after he hid the Beetlejuice on a Junkyard moon. It's unclear who murdered him or why, but he was very paranoid just before he was murdered, saying he was being followed because of something that had to do with the ship.

Furthermore, the Travellers discover that K'syah had a girlfriend (Pam) who might still be on the station. She should be employed at the upper section, which is off limits to lower section residents. She is the only lead who might lead the Travellers to the Galactic Dragon, to upgrade the Beetlejuice with parts that might be present there.

Chapter 5 - Deadly Choices

Bachus approaches the players in person, and asks them to make a delivery to Inchin. He has discovered the tracking device the Travellers planted on his ship. He assumes, however, it was put there by the Inchin Police. He intends to kill two birds with one stone by sending the players to make his final delivery.

At the drop-off point, the Travellers hide and wait for the “resistance” (who are plain smugglers and drifters) to pick up their shipment. They follow them into a large canyon. The smugglers inhabit a large technical facility, long since abandoned. The Travellers start their assault on the drifter’s base.

In the meanwhile, Bachus flees the system.

Chapter 6 - Assault

The Travellers continue to gain access to the facility. After defeating the drifters located there, they discover it used to belong to a cooperation named TechNet. They also find out that it's a back up power station to another facility. They follow the power traces to that second facility, deep in Inchin's dessert.

Chapter 7 - Biodome

The Travellers clear out the second abandoned TechNet facility on Inchin, which has been overtaken by insectoid predators. Their hivemother resides in the giant bio dome in the centre of the facility. They kill the aberration by flooding the dome. After that they discover the main function of the site: it's an archeological dig, a huge shaft that descends deep into Inchin. They discover that the site is meant to recover ancient artefacts. More specifically, they dug for the same strange substance that was stolen from Max by Takeda. It is reffered to as "Vril". Furthermore, they mine the computers and find an intact datalink with the Galactic Dragon, enabling them to find its current location.

They return to Takeda station and find that Bachus has fled. Instead, they are approached by a beautiful woman named Pam. She was the Aslan's girlfriend, before he got murdered by Takeda. She tells them Takeda is after them because they have information about Vril in their possession. The Travellers flee the station, accompanied by Pam. They locate the Galactic Dragon in the Inchin system, with the information they obtained in the TechNet facility, and decide to pay it a visit.

Chapter 8 - Enter the Dragon

After Baron Rowry of Inchin discoverd the presence of TechNet sites on his planet, he attacked the sites and destroyed most of them. The TechNet employees sent SOS messages, and the cooperation responded by sending their prime vessel, the Galactic Dragon. But the paranoid Rowry anticipated retaliation, and invested heavily in surface-to-space defence systems. While their mission was diplomatic, Rowry attacked the Dragon the moment it was in range. The vessel was not equipped for warfare on that scale, and was destroyed. The loss of the Dragon was the downfall of the struggling TechNet cooperation. Remaining employees were fired, the main assets were sold, and everything else was abandoned.

When the Travellers visit the Galactic Dragon, they discover it has since then become a town of sorts, home to Spacecowboys, Drifters and Pirates. It's led by a one armed Pirate named Ramsey. They trade with the locals and upgrade the Beetlejuice. Also, they hack the ships database and find out a lot more about their ship. It was an experimental TechNet ship employing the power of Vril as an alternative to normal Jump Technology.

The actual drive that is needed to jump with Vril was present in the Dragon, but it was sold to the three notorious junkers, and brought to their Junkyard moon of Elthan. Coincidentally, this was the same Junkyard where the Aslan hid the Beetlejuice, some 10 years ago. Luckily, one of the brothers visits the city, and takes some of the Travellers and Pamela to the moon to get the so-called "Fridge". With that device, the Travellers will finally be able to jump.

Chapter 9 - Takeda

On the Junkmoon of Elthan, things go horribly wrong. While Jack and Stacey are lifting the Vril drive into the spacetruck, Charles is out riding a space bike with one of the brothers. They discover a small fighter vessel, which attacks them. At the same time, Pam reveals herself to be Takeda. Obsessed by Vril technology, she attacks the Travellers on the junkmoon. Powered by Vril, her cybernetic body is capable of immense feats. Two of the brothers die in the battle, but in the end the fighter crashes into the junkyard, and Takeda is defeated with a huge amount of explosives. The Travellers flee the blazing moon, leaving the charred cybernetic remains of Takeda, but not without retrieving the piece of Vril that powered her. After returning to Dragon City, the Vril Drive is installed on the Beetlejuice, along with a gatling gun. They've defeated their opposition and are free to go where they want.

Session 10 - First Jump

When making the jump, it becomes apparent that jumpspace is fundamentaly different when using the Vril drive. Halfway the jump, the Beetljuice co-exists with another vessel for some 8 hours. The laws of physics are abandooned completely as they are able to pass through walls between the two ships. They explore the other ship, a huge, abandonned generation vessel from centuries ago. The horror ammounts to a climax as the see the shape of a huge, leather clad soldier through one of the doors. They escape the ship, and safely return from Jumpspace in the Tarsus system.

Traveller - Into the great divide

Friday night was Traveller Night. Here a quick write up of the events of the evening: The last episode ended with the group trying to start the loader they found. Unfortunately the loader did not have any fuel cells left. So the search for fuel cells was on.

Destroyed settlement
The arm in which we found the abandoned loader turned to an end after 50 meters. We knew that there were no cells to the left, as that was the canyon leading to the steel door. So we investigated the canyon straight ahead. About half a kilometer, we saw a small settlement of three bio-dome tents. Cautiously we brought the raft nearer to investigate. One of the tents was shredded to pieces. Behind the tent was a large hole in the ground with, which looked like, a generator on the bottom. Jack jumped from the raft and tried to open the door. When the combination lock did not work, he became impatient and put his shotgun against the tent, destroying the tent in the process. Inside we did not find the sought-after cells.

Insectoids
From upon the raft it was clear that the generator still worked. So that became our main interest. Again, the impatient nature of our friend Jack nearly killed him. He descended from a steel staircase that was fixed to the side of the hole. Halfway the stairs, two large, praying mantice-like creatures emerged from pigeonholes in the side of the hole. Startled by this sight, jack descended the stairs as quickly as possible. On the bottom of the hole he took his shotgun and blasted one of the creatures to a gooey paste.



Fortunately for him, Ed was rushing in to do his part in the slaying. This could not prevent the insects from taking a few good bites from Jack. On the brink of death, Jack was, once again, saved by Dr Max Alder.
[caption id="attachment_243" align="aligncenter" width="488" caption="Saviour of the day"][/caption]

Using the Loader
Charles climbed onto the loader and tried to steer the thing towards the metal plate. Fortunately for him, the wind shield on the loader was as good as bullet proof. The gun turrets we encountered earlier fired their ammo full blast on the loader. Suffering from the same impatience bug as Jack, Charles started charging into the wall. This did not have the effect he hoped. Studying the controlpanel he noticed a button protected by a plastic cover. Always good news! He pushed the button and saw a sonic blast building up at the tip of the pinchingarm of the loader. He aimed the blast at the soft rock to the left of the metal plate. This was enough to bring the heavy plate down.

Fighting the guard
Once inside we saw that the canyon led to a large open-roofed cave. The cave was heavily guarded by human guards and gun turrets. Swift action of Ed ensured that the guards could not use the turrets against us. No all to serious injuries were sustained in the battle that followed.

Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society

In the seventies and early eighties, Traveller had it's own, dedicated, magazine. The magazine was called after the society in the original Traveller universe which aided wanderers across the galaxy with low-lost hostels in starports, and by providing a sort of Hitchhikers guide.

24 issues
The magazine was started by GWD. In total 24 issues were made. After the 24th issue, and the demise of GWD, the magazine continued as Challenge. The magazine featured new rules, adventures, fiction, background materials and Traveller news (see the free table of contents for a complete overview).


Online magazine
Currently, Steve Jackson Games publishes a bi-weekly online Traveller magazine, also called the Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society, or JTAS for short.

Reissue as PDF
The complete run of the Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society can be found at RPGnow

Gamma World: Europe in 2162 Part I: Geography

The year is 2162. 150 years ago a scientific experiment conducted in Geneva, Switzerland went terribly wrong. This event would be known as The Big Mistake. Instantly, all possible parallel worlds were condensed into one single reality.

In a series of posts, Behold the Dice will sketch a vision of what is left of Europe in Gamma World

The big changes
The costal regions of north-western Europe have fought a battle against the invading sea for centuries. In the events following the Big Mistake, the sea got the upper hand and claimed vast stretches of land. This has changed the coastal line of western Europe dramatically. In addition, several large cities, in particular the cities of Amsterdam, Hamburg and Berlin are nog submerged some 10 to 30 meters below sea level.



Temperature
Gradually over the past 150 years, temperatures have been rising as a result of the more corrosive atmospheres on some of the merged worlds. Seasons still hold, with hot and damp tropical summers, and bleak and wet winters. Autumn and fall are not well defined. Both are a periods of 1 or 2 months in which the weather slides from chilly to hot and vice versa.

The landscape
With the loss of a substantial part of society, nature has taken back control again in Europe. The costal region consists of mixed forrests and plains. In central Europe, vast pine forrests, ranging from the German western border to well within Russia have become dark and dangerous places.

Islands
The changes in coastal line have produced a series of new islands. Ireland has split into two islands of equal size. In addition, Bretange has become an island, and the south of Sweden has become an island. The most important new island is the city of London that is surrounded by seawater. The suburbs of the city have been taken by the sea, but the majority of the city rises proud above the waves.

Mountain Ranges
On the peaks of Europe not much has changed, apart from the glaciers, which are by now almost extinct. The cooler climate high in the Alps and Pyrenees have drawn several clans.

Traveller inspiration

Space: 1970 is an excellent blog that features artwork, photo's etc. from science fiction shows and films from the 1970's. Take a look at this wonderful picture of a capital ship.



The picture is from the 1979 science fiction film The Black Hole. The film tells the story of the crew of the Palomino that boards the long-lost ship Cygnus. Here they have to stand up to faceless robots that have unhealthy plans for the visitors.

The best links of week 15

It's Link-sunday again here on Behold the Dice. Reading the gaming blogs so you won't have to.

Adventure Design Deskbook
The Underdark gazette takes Mythmere's Adventure Design Deskbook Volume One for a testdrive. They show how an adventure is made using the random tables from the book. I'm really curious about the book!
Link



Thousand Suns
James Maliszewski talks on Grognardia about his Sci Fi RPG Thousand Suns. It's a game with limited background information. He talks about the challenges you have to face as a DM running an open ended sandbox campaign in the SciFi genre, while your characters have their own starship.
Link
Thousand Suns can be bought here from RPGNow and here from Rogue Games themselves.




Languages
Kobold Quarterly has a great post on the working of the Speak Languages skill. The skill doesn't work as a skill, since you either know a language or you don't. In the blog, the skill is modified to work as a skill, with examples of DCs for different tasks etc. I never really thought of this one, bu I like it! This will be employed in our campaigns.
Link

Traveller inspitation
The Zhodani base links to 5 free ebooks from the project Gutenberg to use as inspiration for your Traveller game. It's old stuff, but good stuff.
Link



Some of my own books for Traveller inspiration:




Gamma World adventure
Sly Flourish has an exciting Gamma World adventure on his blog. Go check it out!
Link

The best links of week 13

Pole arms
You think you know your weapons, right? Especially the pole arms hold no surprises for you. You know your halberd, glaive, spear, even the exotic naginata. Well, think again. Do this test at Wizards to see where you stand. My score? An 8 out of 22
Link



Artwork from MERP
Tales from the tower http://iguanaslair.blogspot.com/ regularly publishes artwork and maps from the Middle Earth Role Playing game (MERP). Look at this wonderful collection of drawings:
Link



Space 1889
Frank Chadwick started a blog on Space:1889, and the steampunk genre in general. In the first posts he talks about France in the world of Space:1889, and on the position of steam punk in the pubishing industry.
Link



How to survive a gaming convention
Sly Flourish http://slyflourish.com/ Has a funny and insightful post on how to survise a gming covention.
Link

Traveller: Summary of first five chapters

• You are in the backwater Inchin system, in the Spinward Marches. Inchin is a poor desert planet owned by a guy named Iarl Rowri, an exentric rich guy who bought his own planet, sure he could make a lot of money there. He has met a lot of setbacks and has not succeeded as of yet. Inchin now has a kind of totalitarian regime. Rowry apparently lives in a palace (!) at the only town on Inchin, called Rowri's Folly by people off planet.


• Takeda Station orbits Inchin. It used to be a mining/industrial base, but Rowri sold it to Takeda beacause he needed the money. This was 15 years ago. You have no idea who or what this Takeda guy is.
  


• You've all arrived at Takeda station, killed some rats, bought a weird ship (without a jumpdrive) named Beetlejuice of an old geezer named Finkle.
  


• You don't really have a purpose here, but are bound to the system because you have no transport. The only one with a purpose here is Max. His research was stolen, and after some investigation it appears the assignment came from the Inchin system. He has no other clues.


• You did some mining runs for an independent group of miners, opposing the League of Miners and prospectors and a trader named Bachus, who owns a 500 ton far trader "The Predator".


• Security Inspector Reichmann of the Inchin Police asked you to check out Bachus, because he appears to deliver weapons to the Inchin resistance.
  
  


• It turns out your ship belonged to an alien (Aslan) named K'syah. He found the ship right there in the system, a dangerous place he refers to as the "Galactic Dragon". He doesn't want you to know where it is, because it's a dangerous place. You did discoverer this Galactic Dragon must be a large vessel.


• This K'syah person was murdered about 10 years ago, after he hid the ship. It's unclear who murdered him or why, but he was very paranoid just before he was murdered, saying he was being followed because of something that had to do with the ship.
  


• K'syah had a girlfriend who might still be on the station, but she's employed at the upper section, which is off limits to lower section folk. Maybe she could lead you to the location of the Galactic Dragon.


• You broke into The Predator to discover a small ships boat inside, which could be used for smuggling runs. You planted a tracking device with a range of 1000 miles. Maybe that way you can catch Bachus red-handed.

Sessions so far:
Chapter 1 - Rat Hive Exodus
Chapter 2 - Beetlejuice
Chapter 3 - Spacetruckers (in Dutch)
Chapter 4 - The Lion and the Dragon (Dutch)
Chapter 5 - Deadly Choices

Traveller: Chapter V - Deadly choices

Friday night was our group's monthly Traveller night. We're playing the fifth session.

Baccus' request
There we were, hanging out in Murphy's again. Hank Williams was playing on the jukebox, and we were enjoying our beers. "You boys and girls want a drink", Baccus asked. "Sure, anytime. Sit down", our reply was. It turned out Baccus needed us to make a run. Apparently, he was double booked for this week. Yeah right! As if it had nothing to do with making smuggle runs to the planet. I guess he is feeling Reichman's heat, and doesn't want to burn himself this time. What he doesn't know, or seems to know, is that, for the time being, we are in the same ballpark as Reichman. Anyway, a gig is a gig, and this baby would earn us 10.000 credits in a day, half up front. Perhaps we find some useful information to sell back to Reichman as a nice bonus. If we're real lucky we can even nail that bastard Baccus, we'll see.



Making the run
For 10.000 credits we have to deliver two 250 kg heavy crates to some predefined coordinates on Inchin. With the crates loaded Jack can't hold his curiosity any longer, and has to try the activation code of Baccus' ship, 5382, on the lock on one of the crates. Unfortunately, it doesn't work, and the light display on the crate seems to indicate that attempt one of three has been used.
We decided not to meddle with the crates any longer. The run into Inchin's atmosphere was a smooth ride, thanks to the excellent flying skills of Jol Nar.



At the delivery point, no one was waiting for us. We decided to drop off the crates and to fly the beetle juice to a nearby mesa were we could spy on the spot without a too large change of being spotted in return. After a while we see a raft approaching the crates. A group of X, presumed rebels pick up the crates and leave in the direction they came from. We had our own raft ready, and pursued the rebels to see if we could learn something interesting.

Steel plate
Going 140 km per hour through a narrow canyon required the full attention of Jol Nar. We came across a crossing with a second canyon, but did not give it much thought, and went straight ahead. Just around the corner of a slight curve in the canyon a big steel plate, the size of the canyon, was blocking our way. Jol Nar managed to stop the raft just in time before getting crushed on the surface of the plate. All of a sudden we heard the familliar buss of gun turrets targeting. Jolnar took the raft in full reverse while Ed and Charles were emptying their combat riffles on the turret muzzles.

Contacting Reichman
Back at Takeda station we contacted Reichman. The information we told him was not necessarily new information, but we did manage to get a new assignment. Even if this amounts to nothing, we still have our backs covered as far as the authorities are concerned.




Going back
We took the beetlejuice back to Inchin and got the raft out. following the exact trail as the first time, we arrived at the junction between the two canyons. Instead of going straight to the metal wall again, now we decided to take a turn for the left. Here we found an enormeous loader. Figuring this might come in handy when approaching the steel wall, we tried to start is. Alas, the power cells were drained. Next session we have to look for a way to power the loader. But, with Max and Stacey combined, that shouln't be too much of a challenge.



The sessions we played so far:
Chapter I - Rat Hive Exodus
Chapter II - Beetlejuice
Chapter III - Spacetruckers
Chapter IV - The Lion and the Dragon
Chapter V - Deadly Choices

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Howdy
My name is Jack, and I am at your service

Traveller

A while ago we began a traveller campaign. Fom now on this blog will also feature occasional Traveller posts (in English and in Dutch).

We're playing Mongoose Traveller



Gaming nights are every fourth friday of each month