Traveller Vrijdag 25 februari

Nu de astroidbelt met ijzererts een flink stuk verder is gedreven is het drukker op Takeda Station. Alleen voor de allergrootste schepen die onder de Miner Federation varen is het nog rendabel om door te blijven minen. Alle kleine en alle onafhankelijke miners zitten in Murphy's hun zuur verdiende centen om te zetten in bier en pretzels. De crew van de beetlejuice hangt wat rond op zoek naar informatie, deals, en opdrachten.

Galactic Dragon
Tijdens een vluchtje de vorige week had de computer problemen met de autopilot. Een snelle analyse van het systeem wees uit dat het tijd was dat er updates gedraaid moesten worden, en de memorytapes gedefragmenteerd werden. De routine checks leverde 1 vreemd bestand op. Dit bestand viel op omdat het niet was te verplaatsen. Nadere inspectie wees uit dat het geëncodeerd was (zie hier voor het ontcijferen van het bericht). Uiteindelijk hebben we het bericht ontcijferd en konden we het volgende lezen:

Hello world. Whomever finds this ship will probably discover this eventually. And beware, new owner, because this vessel is cursed. Ever since I found it and got it working, I've had continuous bad luck. And now I'm sure I'm being followed. Lurkers in the Shadows at Takeda. All because of this ship. I'm going to hide it, I hope it will get them of my trail. If you found it, I'll probably be gone. So good luck with it, and good luck finding spare parts. Most of them won't fit. Ironic, because it's very likely there's a large amount of parts and upgrades right here in this system. But I would never go back where I found this ship. Far to dangerous. So don't look in this here computer. You won't find the coordinates of the Galactic Dragon's location. I only cary them in my personal log. Ahriy!

Aan ons dus de uitdaging om de locatie van de Galactic Dragon te vinden. Op die plek vinden we meer spare parts voor ons schip, en wie weet kunnen we er wel een jumpdrive vinden. In eerste instantie zijn we op zoek geweest binnen Takeda station. Natuurlijk was nze eerte aanleiding de konining van administratie op Takeda Station: Sandra. Alhoewel Sandra moeite had met de gegevens boven tafel te krijgen lukte het toch met enige assistentie van Charles (toch?). In haar systemen vond zij een oude service opdracht voor de Galactic Drag, een koffiehoek in het servicegedeelte van Takeda Station.



Wij dus op zoek naar een koffiehoek. Helaas wilde Joe ons niet helpen. Toen is, op aanwijzing van Murphy een deel van ons naar beneden gegaan op dezelfde manier als toen de ratten moesten worden verdelgd. Na wat zoeken, en geholpen door de aanwijzigen van Sandra, werd de Galactic Drag al snel gevonden. Het bleek om een gewone nis in het station te gaan waar de arbeiders van hun surrogaatkoffie konden genieten. Na wat rondzoeken viel het ineens op dat er met koeienletters Galactic Drag op de muur geschreven stond. Het lettertype dat hiervoor gebruikt werd leek verdacht veel op het lettertype dat gebruikt wordt om scheepsnamen op rompen te schilderen. Toen de muren van de koffiehoek wat nauwkeuriger bestudeerd werden bleek al snel dat het daadwerkelijk om hullmateriaal ging. Een stuk van de Galactic Dragon was hier dus feitelijk onderdeel van het station.



Toen we met deze informatie navraag gingen doen bij de oudgedienden op het station bleek dat grote delen van het station van gejut materiaal zijn gemaakt. Blijkbaar is daar ook een stuk van de Galactic Dragon bijgekomen. Kortom, voor de speurtocht naar de Galactic Dragon waren we weer terug bij af.

Navraag naar de vorige eigenaar van de Beetlejuice leverde meer op. Aanvankelijk probeerden we Habibi te paaien. Maar, zoals gebruikelijk kregen we daar nul op het request. Het uitvragen van Murphy en een aantal oude miners, waaronder Steve, leverde meer op. Via Sandra wisten we al dat het schip een jaar of 10 geleden een periode af en aan kwam vliegen. Murphy wist bij de naam Kazaya te vertellen dat dat een alien was die 10 jaar geleden op Takeda station kwam. Het was een Aslan die hier voor (kleine) zaken kwam. Aanvankelijk was het een toffe peer, maar na verloop van tijd werd hij steeds meer paranoide. Uiteindelijk is hij op Takeda Station gevonden met schot en snijwonden. Helaas is de achtergrond van zijn moord nooit opgehelderd. Wat we wel nog te weten zijn gekomen is dat Kazaya een scharreltje had op Takeda Station. Pam, zoals ze heette, is naar boven verhuisd om in de lounge van Takeda zelf te werken. Een mooi punt voor verder onderzoek.



Baccus als smokkelaar
Parallel aan onze zoektocht naar de Galactic Dragon zij we bezig met een klus in opdracht van . Baccus wordt door de geheime dienst van Inchin verdacht van het handelen in wapens. Hij zou wapens leveren aan een Inchinese rebellengroepering. Het initiele plan van Jack om hem er in te luizen door zijn vrachtbrieven te vervalsen werd vrij snel afgekeurd. Als alternatief hield Jolnar Baccus en de crew bezig met gokken terwijl Ed, Charles en Jack inbraken op het schip van Baccus.

De poging om in te breken liep vrij snel spaak. We hadden niet de juiste toegangscodes. Gelukkig kon Ed wat aanpappen met een werker in de dokken. Hierdoor mocht hij mee in het kleine scheepje waarmee containers geladen worden. Hierdoor weet Ed de code van de grote sluis te ontfutselen: 5382. Uitgaande van de luiheid der mensen hebben we 5382 ook maar geprobeert op de sluis voor de bemanning, en dat werkte. Het eerste ruim leverde niets op. We hebben hier wat kratten opengetrokken, en wat electronica die er in zat buitgemaakt, maar verder niets verdachts gevonden. In het tweede ruim stond tot ieders verbazing een klein spaceship. Niemand had dit schip eerder gezien, en het was dan ook hoofdverdachte voor smokkelruns naar de planeet. Charles had samen met Max een zender gemaakt die ons in staat stelde om met een range van ongeveer 1000 kilometer een ship te kunnen tracken.



Toen we nietsvermoedend de bay in liepen op de zender te plaatsen hoorde we het bekende geluid van gunturrets die geactiveerd werden. Hierop zijn we even teruggedeinst. De strategie die we vervolgens bewandeld hebben is dat Ed een sprintje trok om onder het schip terecht te komen, terwijl Jack probeerde om de aandacht van de turrets te trekken. Nou dat lukte. Jack is daarbij vol geraakt door een van de turrets, hetgeen een behoorlijk bloederige bende opleverde. Gelukkig werd hij niet dodelijk getroffen, maar de bende moest toch opgeruimd worden.



Uiteindelijk heeft Jolnar nog een hoeveelheid van zijn verloren credits terug weten te winnen, wat voor hem zijn dag ook weer helemaal goed maakte.

The best of week 8 - February 21 to Februari 27

Last week has been a quiet week on the blogs. Nevertheless, here are three posts I particularly liked. Have fun!

Music
There is a lot of attention on music at the gaming table the last weeks. In this blog we had Murphy's jukebox. Several other bloggers shared their favorite music. Look at this post at Gnomestew for a large post on their favorites:
Link



API
Obsidian Portal built up anticipation in the last weeks. On several locations they shared they had big news, but wouldn't say what it was. This week they announced that they have been working on an API. For those who are not familiar with APIs, an API functions like a reception desk servicing requests for information and funtionality that is offered on the Obsidian Portal site. This means that third party developers can start to develop mobile apps, webapplications and such based on the information in Obsidian Portal. I look forward to see whether there are some smart and creative developers out there to put this to maximum use.
Link



Free game
Stargazers world has a weekly feature which links to free games. This time Stars Without Number, Science Fiction Role playing game that can be downloaded from DriveThruRPG. Take a look:
Link

The best of week 7: February 14 – February 20

These are my favorite blogsposts of the last week. Check them out, and follow these superb writers!

Ye olde dungeons
Always amazing to see drawings from the old box. Makes me want to get out my old aD&D notes to see what treasures I have lurking in the box. Maybe stuff for some later blogposts.
Link



Which RPG suits me
Strategy games has a nice decision tree to choose the RPG that will best suit you. I had a fun time playing around with the different answers, finding some RPGs I have never heard of before.
Link

A rant on skills:
Robert J. Swalb discusses some caveats you should consider when using skills. Skills can misguide discussion and hamper the playing experience if you're doing it wrong. I generally agree with the backdraws that he is describing. His solution: Do away with skills. My solution: Don't do it wrong.
Link

Terrain, baby:
If you are playing with miniatures, and you want the best looking terrain you have ever seen, look at the following links. Simply amazing.
Link 1
Link 2



Music:
These last few weeks, several bloggers and forums have addressed the question of ideal campaign music. Of course, we have our Traveller D66 list from Murphy's Bar & Grill on our local space station.
Link

Free Oldscool RPG
I love oldscool RPGs and retroclones. Stargazers World links to Oldschool hack, a free oldschool RPG that has a splendid presentation. Looks really neat. I'm looking forward to reading it.
Link

Traveller: Cryptogaphy

After a glitch in the autopilot targeting system on our spaceship, we ran a full diagnostic on all systems and all files. During these scans we found single file that we are unable to move and that our ship's OS is having difficulty with to understand. So we are left with a fine cryptographic puzzle to learn the meaning of the file's content.

The referee was kind enough to provide us with a clue that would make the puzzle "easy": The code lies in the first 7 positions. Oh, and to make it really easy, looking at the first 15 will practically give it away.

The file
The contents of the file that we have found is:

SGVsbG8gd29ybGQuIFdob21ldmVyIGZpbmRzIHRoaXMgc2hpcCB3aW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GhlbSB3b24ndCBmaXQuIElyb25pYywgYmVjYXVzZSBpdCdzIHZlcnkgbGlrZWx
5IHRoZXJlJ3MgYSBsYXJnZSBhbW91bnQgb2YgcGFydHMgYW5kIHVwZ3JhZGVzI
HJpZ2h0IGhlcmUgaW4gdGhpcyBzeXN0ZW0uIEJ1dCBJIHdvdWxkIG5ldmVyIGdvI
GJhY2sgd2hlcmUgSSBmb3VuZCB0aGlzIHNoaXAuIEZhciB0byBkYW5nZXJvdXMuIF
NvIGRvbid0IGxvb2sgaW4gdGhpcyBoZXJlIGNvbXB1dGVyLiBZb3Ugd29uJ3QgZml
uZCB0aGUgY29vcmRpbmF0ZXMgb2YgdGhlIEdhbGFjdGljIERyYWdvbidzIGxvY2F
0aW9uLiBJIG9ubHkgY2FyeSB0aGVtIGluIG15IHBlcnNvbmFsIGxvZy4gQWhyaXkh


Our approach
So far we have tried a number of things:

• Search for letterfrequencies, including bi- and trigrams
  
• Transpose the text a number of positions
  
• Try to interpret it as several filetypes
  
• Try to interpret it as meaningful content
  

The analyses were run with the tools available on this site.

I cast Alan Turing
So far we don't have a clue. We could really use this guy:

Update
As always, once you have the code, stuff is simple. I didn;t think of running it against more bases than binary, and hexadecimal, which obviously weren't the ones I was looking for. I completely forgot base 64. Running the text through a 64->ASCII converter we got the following message:

Hello world. Whomever finds this ship will probably discover this eventually. And beware, new owner, because this vessel is cursed. Ever since I found it and got it working, I've had continuous bad luck. And now I'm sure I'm being followed. Lurkers in the Shadows at Takeda. All because of this ship. I'm going to hide it, I hope it will get them of my trail. If you found it, I'll probably be gone. So good luck with it, and good luck finding spare parts. Most of them won't fit. Ironic, because it's very likely there's a large amount of parts and upgrades right here in this system. But I would never go back where I found this ship. Far to dangerous. So don't look in this here computer. You won't find the coordinates of the Galactic Dragon's location. I only cary them in my personal log. Ahriy!

Cool stuff :)

Review: Soldiers of Fortune by Matt James

Soldiers of Fortune* is a new book by Matt James, written for the Midgard campaign setting, for Dungeons and Dragons, 4th edition. The book is published by Open Design LLC, also known as the publisher of Kobold Quarterly. The topic of the book is warfare, a topic the author, a decorated Army veteran, is intricately familiar with. The book provides you with anything you need to play military characters or to run military games.



Campaign setting
The book provides a wealth of background information on warfare in the Midgard setting. The book explores the 7 stratagems of war. These stratagems, are the cental lore on warfare in Midgard. These maxims present timeless truisms about war and how war is to be fought. Naturally, these cannot be described without a reference to Sun Tzu's Art of War. On a smaller scale, it presents legendary generals, magic items, templates and even siege engines.

The book takes an interesting stance on mercenaries. Mercenaries are not considered as morally challenged, as they are in a lot of other settings. Instead, a mercenary is seen as neutral with respect to the conflict he is fighting for. There are mercenaries who fight for a good cause, and honor is an important aspect of the profession, but in the end a neutral alignment, rather than a good or evil alignment is what marks the true mercenary. The book also describes the mercenary culture of a number of Midgard cultures. This ranges from the efficient, and utterly ruthless mercenaries of the Grand Dutchy of Dornig, to the mercenaries of the city of Remulus (the remains of the once great remulan empire).

Military characters and campaigns
The book has plenty of rules materials for playing military characters or running military campaigns. This ranges from new feats, e.g., siege engine operation or layman's speech (the ability to be able to talk to the common foot soldiers in a manner they can understand) to paragon paths (e.g., soldier of fortune, veteran of war) and a new theme (not surprisingly: mercenary). The book also describes magic items, such as the legendary army banners of Midgard and their effect on the troops around them. The final chapter presents a collection of monsters, minions and templates. Again, this chapter has a strong connection of crunch with the overall setting. The templates in the chapter include that of Bold Commander, Devoted Body Guard, and Necrolord. The book finishes with a collection of siege engines, the ballista, cannon and trebuchet, complete with stats and requirements to use them.

Skill challenges
A particularly nice aspect is that of skill challenges as an abstract mechanism for actions on a multi-day timescale. The general mechanism of a skill challenge is to get a number of subsequent successes in skill rolls before the party fails at a number of challenges. I like that a party can succeed on a skill challange in different ways. For instance, in making a deal with a general of a competing army, the party must make a diplomacy check. If this diplomacy check would fail, however, the party can fight it's way to success on the session. Take for instance the skill challenge Command the Legion. In this challange you start out in an army and work your way up through a series of tasks and challenges to join the commanding ranks of that army. This skill challange takes the middle road between a potentially long and political campaign to play out the process of a career in the army, and simply stating the fact that the party has joined commanding ranks. Although the former would make an interesting adventure in it's own right, it gets in the way if you want your campaign to focuss on the military operation. The skill challenges that are described in the book can be as large as defending the kingdom against invading forces, by breaking the entire challenge into a series of phases. I especially like the phasing that the author makes, as it gives the feel of a large scale operation.

Integration of world building and game mechanics
The author describes that he is no fan of munchkinism. This is clearly visible in the book. The majority of game mechanics are accompanied by background and world knowledge, for instance as information that can be learned by a streetwise roll. Also, knowledge of history, and more important heraldry is used to get the upper hand in a battle. On a battle field, a skilled commander can read the enemy and adjust his tactics based on his knowledge of heraldry alone. An nice twist to this is the suggestion that an enemy can make smart use of the knowledge of heraldry if they can make their troops wear different colors. The integration of game mechanics with setting content really makes the mechanics come alive.

Adventure
In Chapter 6 the mechanics of the preceding chapters are taken for a ride in an adventure. The author gives the necessary ingredients for a campaign that can be run in a limited amount of time, or can be fleshed out to a long and intricate campaign. Depending on time pressure and tactics, players can choose to fight their way through cetrain passages or sneak their way around them, although choices are not without consquence. In the adventure takes a group of adventurers through all aspects of an unavoidable war, beginning at the initial events and preparations for war to the conclusion events following the grand finale. I really liked the endless minions challenge. In this challenge, minions remain to be added to the field until certain goals are met.

Conclusion
The book is a well-balanced book, offering crunch and fluff on several levels of abstraction. In addition, I like the integration of chrunch and fluff. Most technical parts have suggestions and knowledge associated with them to integrate them in the setting. The book is written originally to fit in in the Midgard setting, using 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons. However, a large part of the book is usable for other systems, sometimes immediately, sometimes after a little tweaking. The overall looks of the book are good. I read the PDF on my iPad. I never had any issues with the typography, the artwork, or the stylish embelishment on the pages.

Long story short, I had a good time reading the book and look forward to using some apects of in for my own campaigns. I can reccomend it, regardless of the setting or system you are playing, if you are looking for a way to include warfare into your campaign.

Shop till you drop
The book can be bought at the following links:
Print
PDF
And will also be made available on DriveThruRPG, Paizo, and e23.

*) A review copy has kindly been provided by the author

The best of week 6: February 7 - February 13

Pulp adventures:

Campaign mastery has an excellent post on the pulp genre. The post elaborates on three aspects of pulp adventures: The world the adventure is taking place in, the particular story conventions of a pulp story, and character cliche's. I like the paragraph on optimism as an important stance in pulp games. Instead of a cynical or dark setting, pulp settings are best played with a hands-on we-can-make-this-work attitudes, no matter how doomed the world is.

Link.

Languages:

An often overlooked aspect of role playing games is the role language plays in the game. Although there are relatively a lot of rules in the different rulebooks, a lot of DMs, and players alike, struggle with making the concept work.

Link

Dice mechanics:

Statistics, the favorite subject of any gamer! Ever since the distribution of dice results was omitted from the DMG, DMs and players have been searching for more information of the distribution of dicerolls. The following article deals with statistics of dice mechanics and the effect of checks under different gaming systems on successrate. Pretty well worked out.

Link.

Conan:

The following post collects an excellent collection of Conan materials, including a link to a free audio production of Red Nails by Robert E. Howard. Good stuff!

Link.

Map of the local armory

In the First Sauerburgh session, the adventurers sneaked into the armory to steal 3 helmets of the city guard. During that trip, Boriz managed to see part of the armory from the inside. Clever as he is, he quickly drew a map for future reference.