We'll need a base world somewhere else before we can do that though. Or at least a definite decision as to where we're going to set one up. (Not that we have the resources for it at the moment anyway...)

  Mongoose just (for the first time ever, AFAIK) released an update to the (2E) core rulebook. You should be able to get the new version and a summary of changes by redownloading from wherever you got it (Mongoose site, DriveThru, etc).

  Most of it won't matter right now, although fixes to a few tables could matter later. The one change that could have affected us right now is that if you use a Vacc Suit and don't have the skill at all, the penalty is an unskilled -3 rather than just -1 per rank difference. We all have it at rank 0 or higher though.

  Possibly slightly relevant due to the ship's weapons and what BB uses is that radiation weapons now explicitly only dose the target with radiation, not everything near the weapon/line of fire/etc.

In reply to Zhouth (msg # 960):


     Aw, what the Hell!  That's half the fun of using a "Terror Weapon"!  Not just the horrific damage to Man and Machine, but also the threat of Long-Term Contamination to everything in the area!

     Sheesh!  Wimps....




DISCLAIMER:
     The previous statement was, quite obviously, made by a person under the effects of heavy medication and undergoing psychiatric treatment at a facility for really, really Naughty People.  It should, in no way, be taken as an endorsement for the use of Radiological Weapons of Mass Destruction.  Which we all know are Bad.  Really, really Bad.  And should never be used.  For any reason.  Ever.

BB is confident she can take on any two or three of these guys assuming they dont have access to heavy weapons. Killing the right two or three should be all that is needed.

I say make the offer and get ourselves some cannon fodder valued crew.

In reply to BB Nova (msg # 962):

     Well, I have thought of a variation on this idea....

     Instead of actively recruiting a "large" force of Stregor to come aboard as a single combat unit, what if, instead, we don't "recruit troopers", but just let it be known among the Stregor that, as we're making our repairs, we will pay anyone willing to help us as "Day Laborers"--y'know, just general help, steppin'n'fetchin, holding things while we weld them, stuff like that.

     We can offer to pay them in, I dunno, 2 gallons of clean water, per person, for a day's work and we'll feed them while they are working...? (we'll have to see what StarMaster counters with--but we can replace water easy enough)

     Then, while we have these (basically) "backwoods" Vespexers hanging around, we talk-up the whole "excitement of space travel" shtick--not anything about "Pi-rattin midst da Stars", or anything about the Pro-Drinax Agenda--we just talk on the excitement of going to New Worlds, seeing New Cultures, meeting New People and robbing them blind, and just how great an adventure it is.  All while assessing their potential value as Crew.

     Thus, we don't actively recruit anyone, we subtly recruit, maybe, a few of them--individuals willing to leave behind the Clan, and strike out on their own.

     Kinda like Rejji.  In fact--and I am, kinda, assuming it will probably be "younger" Stregor who ask to join us (like, maybe, only 1 or 2 Career Terms)--we could even put Rejji in charge of them.  I mean, it's not like I'm expecting a dozen twenty-something Stregor Vespexers to come asking to go with us.  Five, at most, is what I'm thinking/hoping.

  I don't suppose you could up-sell the earlier idea about establishing arrangements between the other two planets (Hilfer and... which one was it?) as a dry run (ha-ha) for a larger Drinax restoration project? The planet, not the Kingdom.

  It may be a bit pie in the sky right now, but if the Kingdom comes back and the palace has actual resources to work with then its TL-15 tech knowledge would surely be enough to start putting the planet back together, and water reclamation would be one of the first steps in doing so.

  The Scholar's Tower presumably doesn't generate the same amount of umbrage as the King does, and given its tech capabilities, it's credible as being either the source of or a partner in something like that. (More so than if we heard from a friend of a friend who knows this spacer who talked to someone on Tech World about...)

In reply to Zhouth (msg # 964):

     Yeah, I think it was Hilfer.  The "official" write up says/implies that the planet "has water" but the dominant environment is "arid desert".  It goes on to say that, when the Kingdom of Drinax ran that world, they built a (implied) Tech/15 water distribution system across the planet. It might have just been distributing melt water from the two, tiny polar ice caps, but I always kinda felt they were implying that the planet's Hydrography was to be found in deep aquafers.

     It's not said that the Aslan ever attacked Hilfer, directly, but following the Devastation of Drinax, the system started breaking down (or had been broken) and has continued to slowly break down ever since.  As I recall, the write-up blames both lack of access to Tech/15 parts, as well as Loss of Knowledge about how to fix he still working systems.

     So, yeah, I had the thought that if we could find the old records of that water system in The Scholar's Tower, get that info to the Technicians on Hilfer, and then, maybe, contract (or start, as Silent Partners) a manufactory on planet Pourne (Industrialized and has a TL of 10) to try and make some Maybe-Not-As-Good-But-Functional parts for the Hilfer water system.

     Why?  Because Hilfer used to be on the Trade Route back to The Imperium.  Ships jumped from Tech World (I think) to Hilfer--until the water started drying up, then the Route altered.  There is a huge, mostly buried under the sand and abandoned, Class A Starport on that world!  If Drinax can get that Port up and running, again, we have access to Tech World and a Shipyard to start building ships, again.

     If Princess Rao can get that "Peace Corps" idea working on Asim (funded by us, of course) then that would be a great way to insinuate Drinaxi influence back to Hilfer--the Drinaxi Peace Corps techs bring & teach the old knowledge to the Hilfer Water Techs.  Meanwhile she quietly "gets Aristos on Drinax" (i.e., us & The King) to invest in getting those parts manufactured somewhere--which brings good feeling towards Drinax to yet another planet.

     Hilfer is just repairing/replacing a damaged global distribution system, though.  The planet of Drinax needs almost the entire Biosphere decontaminated and then regenerated.  I'm not saying the Old Tech isn't capable of it, just that the scale of that project is orders of magnitude larger than what Hilfer needs.

     But that is, ultimately, the desired objective which Varca is secretly working towards ^_^


     But, y'know, now that you bring it up, Hilfer-the-Desert-World would make a great location for a Vespexer Colony, wouldn't it?  No Radiation or Bio-Toxins--just the survival issues related to finding water to worry about!  Sounds like a Vacation!

     Be even easier if they just swoop in and conquer one of the smaller of the City-States.  Then they'd already have access to water....

In reply to Varca Lexand (msg # 965):

Ahhh, StarMaster where hast thou gone?

So Varca, if these guys are all single does that mean I've got the pick of the litter? Can we do a bachelorette vignette where I round robin my way through them with dates into the wasteland and hand out roses until I find the one?

In reply to BB Nova (msg # 967):

ROFLMAO sweet! If I hadn't set my sight on Ingrid already, I'd apply too BB! ;-)

Not everyone can handle a gal who can rip your spine out one handed...

In reply to BB Nova (msg # 969):

Beat me, whip me, make it hurt so good is the saying you're looking for! ;-) Like I said, but if Ingrid turns me down, I may come crawling. Lolololololololololol

Ha! BB isn't anyone's second choice.

In reply to BB Nova (msg # 971):

That's the way to be!!

     With his helmet's faceplate blanked-out, Varca's face can't be seen, but he brings his right fist up to waist-height, then sticks the thumb upwards.

     "Go for it." Varca responds, deadpan, through his suit's external speaker.

  There were what, eighteen of them in total? We can't fit that many on the ship. There's stateroom capacity for six more people, and that doesn't solve any of the other problems related to having them on board.

  Maybe we can arrange something like tours of duty for a couple of them at a time (which also reduces the other issues). Or if we want to be genuinely ruthless about it... well, I have another idea there. But only if you want to be genuinely ruthless about it.

In reply to Zhouth (msg # 974):

Really?  I thought there were only 7?

And turning the old Missile Bay into Barracks is still an option.  There's plenty of bunks we can rip out of the ancient hulks, outside, and install in here....

^_^

  8: Aaron, BB, Ingrid, Rejji, Theodore, Varca, Viridian, Zhouth.  (Rejji is now an NPC but still present. Viridian is still around too, although it looks like the player might not be?)


  We'd need to expand the common areas (even more space), and find things for that many people to do when crammed into a 200-ton sardine tin. (26 people in very crowded conditions is going to cause stress.)

  There's also the matter of paying the bills. 18 marines is an awfully expensive monthly proposition!

In reply to Zhouth (msg # 976):

Dang.  I was wrong.  There aren't 7 of these guys....

There's 6.

If--IF--all of them "join up", that's a grand total of 14 of us aboard.

If we don't turn this Missile Storage Bay into a Barracks, maybe we should consider putting in a Gym, to keep these Jamokes busy, during Jump Time.

And we put it in their contracts that they don't get paid except for when we come back to Drinax....then we do that only Twice a Year.  Anybody dies in the meantime, we send their Back-Pay to their Relatives.  Well...10% of it, anyway...if we can find their Relatives....

^_^

  There's more than six of them. We brought six on board to treat and talk to. There's another dozen outside.

In reply to Zhouth (msg # 978):

Really?

  It was either a dozen more outside or there were a dozen of them in total. Now I need to go back and check since it's been months...

  Okay, there were a dozen in total.

  So only six more outside.

  That's still six more than we have the capacity for.

  And even a dozen extra salary-and-share-grubbing mouths are going to weigh on our relatively limited resources...
This message was last edited by the player at 07:54, Mon 22 June 2020.

In reply to Zhouth (msg # 980):

Six more outside, there were only a dozen.

New plan. Let's make them fight to the death for bunks. Problem solved.