For that.

What is everyone interested in? Solomani stuff will be out in two weeks for Murder on Arcturus Station. Salvage, some trade and exploration. Maybe some Mercenary is possible, maybe.

I'm up for whatever personally.

I have limited experience with the official modules so it will all be fresh to me!

While I like space opera, I've always found it hard to run.

Trading could be interesting, but I don't think the game makes it as interesting as it could be, like selling iceboxes to Eskimos, or sand to Saudi Arabia.

Exploration is okay.

Mercenary does really interest me, but I could deal with it.


What I'm more interested in is something completely different... but I have no idea what that would be. Dark Matter, corporate espionage, skip tracing, etc.


There's always the old standby--troubleshooting. Maybe we work for some agency, clandestine or not, that sends us on missions. That could be a bit of everything.

In reply to Yuri Argonov (msg # 4):

Nice character Rob!

Trading itself isn't terribly interesting, no. We don't watch Star Wars, Firefly or The Expanse to watch them do their actual boring jobs. But trading as a backdrop or default has a lot of advantages. We can go into those if anyone would like but I assume most people are familiar. The main advantage is that it doesn't require any particular kind of background. Criminals, law-enforcement, soldiers, civilians, even techs can participate in it, even if they don't own their own ship.

I tried the character creator and I got some strange results. It was a scholar, so I wound up rolling "Science" a lot, and the result appeared to list "Science" a bunch of times instead of combining them. I know it's possible to get redundant and useless results, but this didn't seem right. Then again, I also didn't completely finish the character. I'll give it another go.

I'm new to this, but it seems as though the exact makeup of a character isn't that important (unless going for a specific type of game). But are their baseline results I am after that could call for scrapping certain outcomes?

Also, what's the plan for if a character dies during play?

It's a neat creator for certain.

My results could be anomalous, but the character wound up hyper specialized as well.

In reply to Carmichael (msg # 6):

You introduce a new character if you want. If you die.

In reply to Nerull (msg # 8):

Anyone have a druther on where to play? Spinward Marches, Trojan Reaches, Foreven Sector. In a  day or two Solomani Front should come out and a mystery adventure comes out a week or two later.

In reply to Nerull (msg # 9):

I don't know anything about the locations, so one is as good as another to me. Please no mystery adventures though, at least not where the mystery is the main point. I don't mind not knowing everything up front, but I'm not interested in having to discover specific things in order to make progress.

In reply to Nerull (msg # 8):

Just got Solomani Front, it is out now.

I posted a sample character in my description. It came out of the generator. Could someone explain to me how to pare down the skills, and how in future to keep from getting redundant skills.

In reply to Carmichael (msg # 12):

For some things, like Electronics, Engineering and Athletics for example, there are many sub categories to them. You pick one each time to put your skill into, all in one, or spread out over various skills as long as there is an actual skill point involved. When it's skill level 0 you don't have to pick.

Anyone else do a better job of explaining, I can be ineffective at it.

Everyone fill out your description and pick a picture from the site to represent yourself.

Some skills are called Cascade skills because they have several Specializations under them. Like Science. For simplicity, the game only deals with 18 Sciences, such as Biology, Physics, Chemistry, etc. When you first gain the Science skill, you have it at Rank-0; that represents the core training you need to specialize in any of the Sciences. The next time you gain Science, the basic Science skill remains at 0 but you now have to pick one of the Sciences to specialize in. So, say, you choose Physics. You have Science (Physics) at Rank-1. Get Science again, you can boost Physics to Rank-2 or add another Science to your repertoire, such as Chemistry-1.

The 18 Sciences listed are broad enough that they should cover most scientific paths, but they aren't meant to be all inclusive. If you want your character to be a Forensic Pathologist, you can choose that instead.

This applies to all the Cascade skills, though some of the others are broad enough that there aren't really any additional specializations to choose. For example, Gun Combat (slug) pretty much covers any gun that fires a projectile, including Gauss rifles, needlers, BB guns, etc.


Since it didn't happen for my character, I didn't know the Character Generator could kill your character. Silly. "But, GM, I don't want to play a dead character--al he does is lay around and rot!"

Great explanation Yuri.

I'll get that description up.

Also curious to see if anybody else wound up with Ship Shares?

In reply to Yuri Argonov (msg # 15):

Thanks Rob, I was trying to get it out, but failed! ;-)

Hello everyone :)

I'm reprising a character from another game that died. Basically Daphne was a medical student who got roped into installing illegal cyberware for a crime lord. Said kingpin almost died in the operation and blamed her. To escape his vengeance, Daphne enrolled in the Navy. A few years later, she's sent on her first mission to the Trojan Reach, which ended in disaster. On the run again, or after being court-martialled, she becomes...]

...You tell me. A mercenary, using her military experience? A trader, being tired of combat? A spy, since she was never actually court-martialled and it was all a ruse?

Sounds like a fun character!

Probably not a good idea to leave that decision up to us, since we're liable to all have a different take on it.

Choose Mercenary only if you want to be 'hired' for that role.

More like asking for ideas, but yeah, I might just go with mercenary. It makes sense for her to finally go rogue.

Now to get the manual and do the crunchy parts.

In reply to Yuri Argonov (msg # 15):

I'm familiar with cascade skills, but I don't think they explain the result I put in my description. He has Survival and Stealth listed separately several times. That seems like an error?

If the character builder doesn't work, I might need help making mine manually.

In reply to Carmichael (msg # 21):

If you came up with Stealth twice you have Stealth 2, not Stealth 1 and Stealth 1. I don't know why it is doing that, but we can fix the outcome! ;-) Of that I'm certain.

You can manually add them up at the end.

That's what I ended up doing.

In reply to Khor'ruhn (msg # 23):

Go to your description now Carmichael and check it. pick your drive too, wheeled, Track or Grav, or 1 in each.

In reply to Khor'ruhn (msg # 23):

I'm fine with that, I just wasn't sure if that was correct. I mean, certain things in 1st Edition couldn't be improved, though they could be superceded. I don't recall the rule now.

The character builder works fine.

If you got Survival several times, each one means an increase in rank, so if it shows up 3 times, you'd probably have Survival-3.

I was just looking at your Character Description. I saw that you had Gun Combat several times. If it listed it as Gun Combat-0, then that's the base. Every additional time should be considered at +1. It has 5 Specializations:

Archaic Weapons (includes bows, crossbows, blowguns, etc.)
Energy Weapons (lasers, plasma rifles, etc.)
Slug(-throwers) (muskets, shotguns, revolvers, rifles, etc.)
Man Portable (missile launchers, grenade launchers, rocket launchers, etc.)
Vehicle Weapons (anything that has to be mounted on a vehicle to transport, such as self-propelled artillery, tanks, etc.)

If you have Gun Combat a total of 5 times, that would be a +4 total and you have to split that among the 5 specializations as you want, even putting all +4 into one category.


As for what sector, I was thinking Far Frontiers, Vanguard Reaches or Beyond might be interesting. With Daphne having been to the Trojan Reaches, Beyond is right next door.

It's a toss up either way. If you use an undefined sector, then you have to make up all the worlds and such. If you use an existing one, then you have to read it all!

In reply to Yuri Argonov (msg # 26):

Read!!! How dare you!!? ;-) Maybe I can scare something up.

Listen to Yuri guys, he knows the rules inside out.



I have all of that from CT.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:47, Fri 05 Mar 2021.

In reply to Nerull (msg # 24):

Thanks for clearing that up. That was only an test character to make sure I understood how it worked. I'll do my for real one this weekend.

In reply to Carmichael (msg # 28):

He was fine too, high numbers, but do as you like.

We have a free trader now. Regis joined the game with a ship! 25% paid for.

I don't seem to have Far Frontiers, I found The Beyond and Vanguard Reaches though.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:54, Fri 05 Mar 2021.

Doesn't look like there was ever a publication for the Far Frontiers, but there was a lot of data for it, which is all listed in the Traveller Wiki. Sounds like it could be fun.

One of the links in the Traveller Wiki The Beyond also looks like fun.


You should put up a thread like 'Brannigan's Bar' where we can start posting and getting to know each other, reestablish our old Connections, etc.

While it's fine to have Connections linked to an event in your careers, they don't have to be. It could be 'went to Bradford High School together' or 'your brother married my sister' or 'were in a street gang together--the Pink Panthers', etc.

The first 18 years of your character's life are kind of glazed over-- 2 or 3 skills and your Homeworld (which can and probably should change once Nerull establishes which sector we're in).

Good idea.

You're right, I thought there was a publication for Far Frontiers, but can't find one at all.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:54, Fri 05 Mar 2021.

I'm tinkering around with the character generator, but to be honest I have no idea what I'm doing. What's a good score? What sort of characters do we already have?

Yuri is an Agent.

A characteristic score of 8 is considered average. 15 is supposed to be the top, so 12 is really good.

A skill of 2 is significant, 5 is the top and means you're one of the best in the galaxy--every body knows your name!

The Beyond is looking good, maybe The Florian League as a starting place. I'll cement plans over the next few days or a week. Mean while, get to know each other. As I said, Regis rolled a ship so I got to go there too. ;-)

In reply to Nerull (msg # 29):

Good point, I guess I will stick with him. Another character is just as likely to be worse, and it's hard to know what "good enough" is.

Hi everyone!  I think my character is done, also made an agent.  Though I left that career.  Honest I did.  Anzha (her name in Anglic) is primarily a computer specialist.

In reply to Anzha (msg # 37):

Florian League, starting in the spinward Trojan Reaches at Thrush in the Florian League. All races are represented here and the Imperium is a 'short' trip as is Zhodani Consulate. Droyne and Vargr are also present as are Aslan. All races mentioned are welcome, I'm xenophobic against Hivers and K'Kree. Evolved apes are all right too.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:16, Sat 06 Mar 2021.

That is where we are at the start, do I need to change my homeworld?  The one I chose is pretty much at that spot where you land if you make the short trip to the Consulate from Florian.

You're fine, people travel ;-)

Bear with me, team, this is the most painful character creation system I have ever experienced. How severe is to have STR 1? Daphne's Navy career is being cut short at the ripe old age of 22...

A STR of 1 is pretty bad.

Rather than have your Naval Career end so short, you could say that injury held you back, would have resulted in your expulsion, but the Navy still fixed you up. You could also have then submitted to the Draft and got drafted back into the Navy!

It's one of the reasons there's a Referee in the first place... to adjudicate bad dice rolls and situations.

Talk it over with Nerull. He's reasonable.

On the other hand, the App has no flexibility.

If you mean one of those character creators, yeah, I tinkered with it yesterday and ended up frustrated with it, so I bought the manual and I'm doing it, well, manually now. I don't mind if she's physically weak, I saw her more like a sort of commanding officer.

Or I might scrap the whole concept and go for some sort of black ops agent/infiltrator. Or is that redundant for this team? You're playing some sort of spy yourself?

That would make three 'agents', but I don't know if that's redundant or not. I've always tailored adventures to the characters. If half the team are agents, then that gives the Ref a direction.

The character generation App Nerull linked to worked fine for me. Sailed right through it. Came out with a pretty decent character.

It's kind of like the premise of the 7th Sea game. John Wick created it because he didn't want to have to drag his character through 10 levels before he got to play Captain Blood or Robin Hood or Zorro or the Three Musketeers. True, none of these characters started out that way, but not everyone finds it satisfying to work your way up through the ranks.

Traveller falls somewhere in between... you aren't starting out (because you can't do anything at that stage), but you also aren't the galaxy's Greatest Rogue (Scientist, Trader, whatever).

The only good thing about a STR-1 is that it's easier to get it up a few levels. Two weeks in Jump Space could get you to 2, another 3 weeks to 3.

Name of the ship Beto? Or do you want to do a community naming?

How about...

Profit Margin

Good Fortune

Flying Bucket

Star Queen

Serendipity

It exactly happened the same way for me; I had STR 7. enlisted in the Navy, had an accident, STR reduced to 1 at age 22...

However, download https://theoldsystem.com/forDo...20&%20Combat.pdf and go to page 51, first table.
roll 2d6. On 8+, the Navy pays 100% of the medical bills and brings your STR back to what it was! on 4-7, the Navy pays 75% of the medical bill, but stills bring your stat back to before (see the example with Mnor : he lost a limb for 2 STR. To have it regrown (!) it costs Cr 5,000 for each lost point to recover. However, since he's a Barbarian, nobody pays the bill)

I got a 'not found' notice.

I'm getting the same notice, but rolling anyway! Thank you Beto, literally saved my career! :D

OK, keep bearing with me: did that thing, Navy paid for my surgery, and then the next term I was forced out of the Navy (definitely the gods do NOT want Daphne to be a sailor). Mustered out with 2 counts of SOC +2, which puts me at SOC 14.

What do we make of this, I'm a war hero now?

In reply to Lieutenant Daphne Arslan (msg # 50):

Countess!

Hahaha, amazing. I never made it to officer ranks, but I'm an aristo now? :D

I wasn't envisioning that, but fair enough - would a Diplomat Noble fit with the campaign? Or more like a Dilettant just travelling for pleasure because she misses her Navy days?

In reply to Nerull (msg # 51):

Opis Class Type A2Lc Far Trader, 300 tons, 120 tons of cargo room, air raft, Jump 2, 2G is your ship. 94MCr you've paid 25 percent of already. 7,800 Cr/Month Maintenance, 18,800Cr/Month Life support. 3 hard points with a dual turret on two of them, beam laser and a sandcaster. Third HP is empty.

OK, Daphne has done her first tour as Noble Diplomat (guess what, she made yet more enemies).

1. Can I get "Countesss" Daphne Arslan instead of "Lieutenant", then?

2. If I want to keep her a Diplomat, do I roll for Benefits, or is that only when she *leaves* the job?

3. That it? Do I get any equipment or money or anything?

In reply to Lieutenant Daphne Arslan (msg # 54):

When you are done with your careers, you muster out. Up to 3 rolls on the cash table, the rest on the other table, one roll per turn in service, one for each rank achieved.

Try this link to Download the creation rules :
https://theoldsystem.com/downl...dition%2FStarter+Set
then : Book 1
or: //theoldsystem.com/downloads.php -> tabletop -> Traveller...

To Daphne :
1. yes, you aren't a Lieutenant (rank 3) after one term. Believe me. Took me 2 terms to be promoted to Sublieutenant...

2. IMHO a diplomat would surely fit into any campaign, due to her relations and social skills. As is written somewhere : the Noble background should be that he was ousted of his job or something to justify that he's adventuring with proletarians ! ;)
Benefits only at the end of the carreer, but why don't you sign up for another term in the Diplomat career (or another Noble carreer) until you reach age 34, when ageing starts to hit you? :)

3. you buy your equipment with your mustering out benefits...

In reply to Beto Arark (msg # 56):

Thank you all for chipping in and helping with the rules and chargen.

Right, get a load of this:

Did my 3 tours as Diplomat because why not. I was offered a part in a conspiracy TWICE (do I look like a conspirator or something), I got some Admin and Steward skills (no idea), and at muster out I got 10K (pfff), Ship Share, SOC+1 and another Ship share.

So I suppose I sunk most of my earnings into ship ownership (makes sense, she misses traveling) and now I'm a Duchess? OK then.

EDIT: Thank you so much, Beto. I've been feeling so lost in this morass of rules. Well, I was never accepted into the Navy academy to begin with, and didn't manage to get promoted from within ranks, so Lieutenant or any other commissioned rank was always out of the question xD
This message was last edited by the player at 19:40, Sat 06 Mar 2021.

In reply to Countess Daphne Arslan (msg # 58):

I'd stick with Countess and give yourself another ship share, your choice.

Let's go for the ship share, this title thing is getting ridiculous.

If you're a Countess, you can buy a commission if you really want to call yourself a Lieutenant.

An alternate to the Noble rank is to say that you are the equivalent in some other field, like, you know, the Queen of Soul, the King of Rock'n'Roll, Grand Poobah of the Muffalo Lodge, 1st violinist in an orchestra, etc. Just pick some other field and say you're prominent in it.

Or, you could just be famous for being famous!

In reply to Countess Daphne Arslan (msg # 60):

you could also pretend you're a Lieutenant for whatever mental illness you may possess ;)

Good you have a Steward skill, you could fill in a crew position. (I've read games where the doctor doubled as steward, and in another of Nerull's games the steward is a famous actor/Knight (what a comedown!) ;)

With the ship shares, you can improve the Old Lady's Hope equipment and claim a part of its property. As a player however, the ship management/building/finance/minimaxing goes over my head :) so someone else should take care of that :) - I totally understand it is part of Traveller's appeal, though.

Yuri, what you are describing is the pinnacle of the Entertainer career (Artist or Performer Assignment), not Noble. ;) The Countess of Rap music is pestered by her fans. The Countess of [planet] is respected and petty civil servants bow before her! :)

The joke for Daphne is (just updated her bio) her father always wanted her to be an officer, for family prestige. She never made it to the Naval Academy, so boo, then she joined the Navy as an enlisted just out of spite and wanderlust.

And lo and behold, she ends up being made a Countess, WAY above what her father had ever dreamt. So joke's on her for finally fulfilling dad's expectations in the oddest of ways.

So yeeeah, get me that ship and let's get out of here already :D

Everyone is done except Bannacor. He hasn't posted, but was here today.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:05, Sat 06 Mar 2021.

OK, I guess I should get some shopping done, although I dread that book by now.

Someone who knows how that works (Beto?): I have 3 Shares, what can we do with that?

I don't remember what 'shares' represents any more. It's up to Nerull to decide.

An easy way to do equipment is to start out with making a list of what your character might want... little black dress, evening gown, crossbow, rocket launcher, multi-tool, hand scanner, etc.

Nerull can then decide if any of those are out of ball park. You don't really have to crunch numbers unless you're really into that sort of thing. (I am, sometimes.)

Oh, and you'll need a ring for people to kiss!

In reply to Yuri Argonov (msg # 66):

Shares can be put to upgrades or possibly toward payoff of the ship too, making you a part owner.

In reply to Nerull (msg # 67):

Looking at trade and exploration, possibly Secrets of the Ancients.

Ship shares represent contacts, credit rating, savings and favours owed that a Traveller can put towards ownership of a space vessel, worth roughly one million credits. Travellers can pool their ship shares towards the use of a vessel, but cannot trade ship shares for cash.

If they are put towards the purchase of a ship, deduct MCr1 from the purchase cost of the ship for every share, then calculate the mortgage

It is very unlikely that the Travellers will be able to own anything but the smallest starship outright at the start of the game, so most crews end up working to support a mortgage on their spacecraft. The more ship shares that a group of Travellers can put together, the bigger a ship they can afford.

Maybe Nerull could rule that a share represents MCr1 in repair, replacement and improvements?

Beto is willing to open the capital of the ship to investors like you. This could end up with a transfer of ownership, Beto then retiring for good with the money she earned by selling her shares... ;)

In reply to Nerull (msg # 68):

Could you talk a little about what "exploration" looks like. Observation and charting of a system sounds like tasks a robot could handle. Exploring space where there might be hostile craft sounds highly risky. Exploring a planet sounds fun (especially for a sodier with lots of Survival, Stealth and Revon), but not very profitable, except with extreme luck. What am I missing?

The Scouts primarily do the exploration, flying to a system (newly discovered), cataloging the star(s) and the planets, making a note of gas giants, asteroid belts, and the planets in the habitable zone.

They further investigate the potentially habitable worlds, checking for tainted or contaminated air, noting the percentage of liquid (and if it's water), record orbital eccentricity, length of day and year, and then survey for valuable or otherwise usable minerals.

When you see a UWP for a planet, the Scouts did that (except for the population, which comes later).

Another aspect is 'proving' a planet. If a planet is deemed suitable for colonization, a team is sent in to spend anywhere from a week to six months on the planet to prove that it really is able to sustain a colony. Bacteria, viruses, plants and animals can all prove to be dangerous.

Note that they don't always get it right. Just look at Earth's various changes--ice ages, extinction level events such as meteor strikes or super-volcano eruptions, plate tectonic shifting, and even the axial tilt of the planet can change (Polaris wasn't always the Earth's 'north star'). This can cause climate changes and herd migrations--things that could prove dangerous to the colonists.

The best part of exploring is when you find a new species and make first contact or stumble across the ancient ruins of a long-dead race.

It can get tricky for the Referee to keep it from getting repetitious and boring.

Hello all. Looks like everyone has been busy.

Thanks for laying that out, Yuri.


Yes, that's my concern. As with trade, I assume exploration is mainly an excuse to get the characters into interesting situations. I'm guessing that, with a mixed group at least, those mostly involve the characters actually getting down to a planet, or encountering some explorable alien ruins.

Welcome aboard, Grouch! You could have been more subtle by naming your character Moishe Oofnik. He's Israel's version of Oscar... and Oscar's cousin!


Yep. The more varied the characters are, the better the chance of finding new and interesting adventures. Trade one week, rescue a dragon from the Princess the next week, assault a compound in the mountains the next, etc.

It also means players have to hang around long enough for that to happen!

Afternoon, Baris will be your ex-Navy ship handler. Pleased to be aboard

In reply to Baris Dahl (msg # 75):

Pick a portrait Baris and put up a short description of what we see when we see you. Glad you made it!
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:47, Sun 07 Mar 2021.

In reply to Nerull (msg # 76):

The ship is an A2L Far Trader, there is a book from Moon Toad Publishing you can get from Drivethru, if you want it.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/b...ilters=10134_0_0_0_0

Cost $2.08
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:00, Sun 07 Mar 2021.

There is a decent plan of the ship type at

http://juliahwest.com/Travelle...mpress_marava_lg.png

Thanks for the deck plans!

Those will help a lot.

In reply to Anzha (msg # 78):

It's close, but not a Marava, that is an A2, this is an A2L, Jump 3, 3G. Thanks for the pic. I have one deck up in the maps, but the other map is too big. Has to be less than a Meg.

Got something up and partway through CharGen; just off to feed the kids

If your pic is too big, you can scale it down some and save it as a PNG file.

Eh, got me there, Beto. I suppose I need a licence to fly a commercial ship? Last time Daphne piloted something, it was a Navy fighter craft (and she crashed, but you don't need to worry about the last bit :P).

Traveller never really dealt with licenses and permits and such. The general rule of thumb was that if you had the appropriate skill rank, that meant you had the license that went with it.

In reply to Yuri Argonov (msg # 84):

I'd think we'd all have hand computers with authenticated files, or something.

In reply to Yuri Argonov (msg # 84):

I read on Quora the following question :

  "why do recruiters prefer diplomas over experience?"

an answer was :

  "they want people with experiences AND diplomas"

I assume that you may prove your skill level through various ways. Of course, the more technical, the more it's licenses, diplomas and certifications. For other skills, you' show reference letters (Diplomat, Admin), newspaper snippets and a catalogue of your works (Art), successful police records (Investigate), your permit (Drive, Flyer), a Language test proficiency, your latest score at the gym club (Athletics)...

Even for Streetwise you could show your contact list on your phone... ;)
Persuade does not need a certification, you just show it  ;)
Carouse... I'm giving up here ;)

The point of Beto asking to see the certifications is to rank competency and establish who's going to be, for example, 1st Engineer and 2nd Engineer, to optimize the crew's efficiency
This message was last edited by the player at 17:44, Mon 08 Mar 2021.

I don't know how to do that. :-(

In reply to Beto Arark (msg # 86):

So we can't join up unless we have documented proof of our skills and achievements?

In reply to Carmichael (msg # 88):

You have documentation, it's just, . . different.

Are we using the connections rule?  If so, anyone interested in some connections in the past 12 years?  I have in the last 4 years a "completed dangerous mission" event, and a mishap in the previous 4 years that got me sent to re-education.

In reply to Anzha (msg # 90):

Carmichael was sent on a couple of dangerous missions. (And could use a boost to his Engineering skills.)

In reply to Anzha (msg # 90):

Yes, using connection rules!

So if we make a connection do we get a raise to the same skill?  Or do you and I choose different skills to represent our roles in the affair?

If you establish a Connection with another PC, you can choose ANY skill. Neither of you have to have it, you both don't have to choose the same one, it doesn't have to be related to the mission at all (it's a bonus for establishing the Connection), and it's at +1. Thus, if you don't have a skill to begin with, you'd get it at Skill-1. If it's a skill you already have, it's bumped up one rank.

This is actually pretty cool.

Beto, perhaps you were still in the Navy during the offensive in which I got wrecked? It was almost 20 years ago, perhaps you were still active?

Yuri, I have been not involved in 2 noble conspiracies, perhaps you got something to do with them?

Well Oscar's background wasn't anything great. A stint in the marines, Ground Assault which ended in a failed mission. Three in the Army which were pretty bland and then some time drifting. Just in case anyone want to know the grumpy bald dude previously.

Given his high SOC score, I figure some folks would have heard of Baris even outside of having a connection. He's an ex-Naval Captain involved in a couple of notable engagements about twenty years ago ad more recently in the rescue of a ship in distress

Also up for connections, whether they relate to skills or not

I'll take you up on that "Mishap" Anzha.

Any suggestions?

Keep in mind that your Connection doesn't have to be related to any event from your careers. Those are just suggested for ease of reference and creativity.

You could have been involved in a barroom brawl together (even like 2 days ago).

You could have dated the same woman/man at some point or dated the PCs sister/brother/uncle/grandmother.

Khor'ruhn could have arrested you at some point.

You could have been fellow passengers on a ship/shuttle at some point and simply struck up a conversation.

You could have been in AA together.

You could have been in the hospital together, as patients or visitors; or in rehab.

Those are just some of the ideas...

She was sent to re-education for it, meaning that under Zhodani law she committed some sort of crime.  It was listed as "psychological stress" meaning it falls into the category of "incited crime."  That is what others call crimes of passion.  In this case, perhaps Khor'ruhn was the responding/arresting officer; there would be another person involved, an Imperial subject perhaps.

Sounds good.

What do you say that instead of the arresting officer, that Khor'ruhn instead was present on the transport that took her one one of the legs of her journey to the detention facility.

Given the plentiful down time they managed to get into a a philosophical conversation about what had happened, and how the current system works?

In reply to Khor'ruhn (msg # 101):

Starship Skill Package and Trader Skill Package for you guys with connections and such. Reasonable? Give you reason to be on a starship.

Khor'ruhn, that sounds fine.  Though I'll have to figure out why she didn't recognize him up to now.  Must be the re-education, where they telepathically mess with your personality.  I've heard rumors it can mess with your memory as well...

Was thinking of taking Medic or Sensors.  Do I take one for the connection and one for the skill package?

If we’re using Skill Packages, who would you prefer we distribute skills within them?

What about one of those circumstances where they ended up holed up together in the middle of a crazy battle?  Anzha is not a combatant, if she was separated from her unit she would hide until the shooting stopped.

In reply to Nerull (msg # 102):

I'd prefer the trader package, but I'm not sure I know what is being asked here.

In reply to Khor'ruhn (msg # 98):

I thought I was, but I probably wasn't clear enough.

Were you my commanding officer, or the b*stard that kicked me out of the Navy? :D

1) I see people want to invest their ships share in the ship to buy equipment (which is nice). Who wants to coordonate that aspect of the game and produce this kind of spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spread.../edit#gid=1669319027 ? :)
I do not volunteer ;)

2) the trader package would be better since Nerull hinted that the scenario could be trade/exploration

The skills to split between us are : Pilot 1, Electronics 1, Medic 1, Streetwise 1, Broker 1, Advocate 1, Diplomat 1, Astrogation 1

I suggest the PC with the lowest number of terms accomplished be the first to choose  its skill - since it has the less number of skills, and then the next PC with the lowest terms, etc. up to me. Would Nerull be kind enough to establish the picking order ? :)

3) we need a medic on board (Beto would book a visit every day with him), and a good one, +1 or better. So it's either a new player, or an expensive med bay, or your PC if you're not happy with his position on the ship ;)
This message was last edited by the player at 18:45, Mon 08 Mar 2021.

Khor'ruhn has 5 terms total, and would be interested in either Pilot 1 or Medic 1

In reply to Khor'ruhn (msg # 110):

Just found out the old The Beyond, from Paranoia Press is NOT canon for Traveller, I thought it was. :-(

Depends when you were “in”?

In reply to Beto Arark (msg # 109):

Happy with whatever’s left :)

Anzha has three tours.  From the trader package Medic would be my first choice.  From the connection so far established was thinking of getting Sensors or upping a psionic skill.  Will take suggestions. :)

From 24 to 16 years ago, Trojan Reach. After that, I was on diplomatic missions and dodging noble intrigue, I don't know if you had anything to do with politics.

Sounds good to me, Khor'ruhn will take Pilot then if nobody else has fewer terms.

I think it's better to focus on a narrow range of skills. With so many different PCs now, specialization is advised : better have one doctor (medic+3) who succeeds than three nurses +0 failing...

I have six, and I'd like Pilot, but I won't fight you :) I'll take whatever.

I agree, as the Pilot, you should have the best skill we can give you!

Plus is makes sense for your background Daphne.

Khor'ruhn will take Advocate, it's right up his alley anyway.

Very kind, Khor'ruhn, thank you very much :)

Shall I go ahead and write it in my character sheet?

I was shopping around to see what 2m creds would buy.

What is the general opinion on an upgraded air raft?

Could potentially bring in something suitable from his military or LE contacts?

Anzha has three tours.  From the trader package Medic would be my first choice; she doesn't have any of the skills in that package.  From the connection so far established was thinking of upping a psionic skill, I venture she's the only one with those and so will try and increase them with connection bonuses.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 21:12, Mon 08 Mar 2021.

Dammit! I always get stuck playing the Cleric cause no one else wants to! I mean, Medic!

I'll take Medic if we don't have one. Two Connections would raise it to 3.

I'd like to make at least one connection. I have no idea if I "need" any skills or not but it seems like connections aren't made unless someone asks to make them.

In reply to Carmichael (msg # 124):

I see your last duty was "less dangerous and more prestigious". Fancy having escorted some diplomatic missions?

In reply to Carmichael (msg # 124):

Are you interested in something along the lines of my suggestion from message 105?

Yes, that sounds suitable, thanks! It was to a region of a world that was less developed, either due to disaster or war knocking it back, or never having been built up. His survival background helped keep an unpleasant trip from getting vastly more unpleasant.


My apologies, I missed that. Yes, having to watch over some civilians could have contributed to the entrapment. If Anzha was familiar with the area, she could have accompanied Carmichael when he scouted for supplies.

Thank Yuri for it, we got a good deck plan of the Old Ladies Hope now posted in maps.

Greetings. Anyone interested in connections with Dr. Trask. Mostly a Scholar though for some unexplained reason spent a tour in the navy before becoming a normal citizen.

We’ve plenty of folks with terms in the navy, though Baris appears to be a common thread for that presently (and happy enough the make that a thing of it helps draw the crew together)

He was in for six terms, though not the most recent two

In every organization, there's a hierarchy, and in every "department" of our ship there is a person responsible that will be blamed for their, and their subordinates' failures :) and, there's a second person who will take over when the "chief" is unavailable. - yes, I want to establish who's "2nd Steward", "nurse" (2nd in Medic), "sensor assistant"... when we need to reinforce a position. [and when the player drops out...]

Also, when the order comes "everyone to their battle stations!", all of us want to know where we'll be standing :) - the right PC in the right place :D

This is a meritocracy. Beto wants to see your certifications, and if you don't have one, Beto will have you compete on a software simulation. We're not going to roleplay that :)

Hence :
- those with one or several of the following skills :
Broker - yes, I'll create a "business facilitator team"
Astrogation
Electronics (be specific)
Engineer ( "  "  )
Gunner (Turret)
Mechanic
Medic
Pilot (Spacecraft)
Pilot (Small Craft)
Steward
Tactic (Naval)
Vacc Suit

... please send me you score via private message

Thank you :D

"here I copied my Character sheet in this thread/my description, go see it yourself" : thank you, but no thank you :) As a player I like your character to stay mysterious, and discover it bit by bit is more interesting - I'm sure you do share this view. Also, revealing a hidden aspect of your character is a pleasure I want you to enjoy. Daphne is not noble, she just has Deception-4? Anzha speaks fluent Azlani? Khor'ruhn is a compulsive Gambler ? Our doctor's hobby is Explosives since he was drafted in the infantry at age 18? I don't want to discover it while glancing at their character sheet; I want to wonder at your unexpected skill when you save the day with it! :)
This message was last edited by the player at 21:07, Tue 09 Mar 2021.

So Anzha as of now has none of those skills.  I can take something off the Trader skills package.  I said earlier that Medic would be my first choice, with Medic - 1 she could be the nurse/assistant.

Not really, for reasons I'd be happy to discuss.

But I will try to respect the preference not to read information I make available, until someone's lack of that information causes out of game confusion, at which point I'll might ask for some reconsideration.

I'll send the info shortly.

I'll take you up on that Baris. Maybe Nicodemus was the assigned doctor who had to give you your final medical eval before you left the navy.

Skills package repartition

- taken
Pilot 1 - Daphne
Advocate 1 - Khor'ruhn
Medic 1 - Anzha

- available
Electronics 1,
Streetwise 1,
Broker 1,
Diplomat 1
Astrogation 1

Pecking order : Nicodemus, Oscar, Yuri, Carmichael, Bannacor

I suggest - in order to avoid congesting this OOC thread, that the 5 persons mentioned above pass to the private message, Nicodemus informing the other 4 what skills he takes, then Oscar tells the other 3 of his choice, etc. :)

Following is the list of Trader Campaign Skills. Each character is supposed to choose one. Who chooses first was set by Beto... whoever has the lowest # of terms chooses first, but it's negotiable; you can swap with another player. There are now more players than skills, so, normally, we'd start over again. Barring that, Nerull might choose to add two more skills to the list.

I've listed who's picked a skill already and thus which skills remain to be chosen.

[Private to Nerull: I suggest you fill in the # of terms, since the rest of us won't know that, and no one else (except me) can edit this thread.]




Note that some of us will take what's left.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:39, Wed 10 Mar 2021.

And up to Pilot 3! Guys, there's a chance we might NOT crash! :D

In reply to Yuri Argonov (msg # 136):

Hey Oscar no idiot...oh wait, okay.

In reply to Oscar 'Grouch' Henson (msg # 138):

Make all of your posts in Large print if you can, Bannacor has poor eyesight and to accommodate him I said we'd use the large print. It isn't huge, but it is bigger.

Happy to do that, but may I advise that Bannacor just tries pushing Control+?

So they can make the on-screen text as big as they want.

In reply to Countess Daphne Arslan (msg # 140):

Even I didn't know that and I've been using a computer since 1986!

I'm adding a skill due to my connection with the countess.

In reply to Nerull (msg # 141):

Lucky Computer roll ;) Happy to help.

I'll admit to being a bit lost amid all the greetings and connection making. Plus now we have a very full roster.

Might I suggest a jump to the next scene to help get us on track? Maybe a shakedown of the ship? Everyone getting their feet so to speak?

In reply to Khor'ruhn (msg # 144):

Time to look for a cargo and a destination then. Remember you're Jump 3, 3G PP 3.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:51, Thu 11 Mar 2021.

Apologies folks, busy day

In reply to Baris Dahl (msg # 146):

Language groups are updated.

I don't entirely understand the deals Carmichael made. I've asked the referee to explain.

In reply to Carmichael (msg # 148):

You get paid to deliver the rubber, the weed is on spec and credit, they get paid automatically by the bank when the payment clears.

So we don't know how much the speculation gets us and just wing the calculation of profits and expenses and things ? I'm fine with that - it's more appropriate to play by post :)
Let it be known to everybody that this is the way we'll handle the finances !

In reply to Beto Arark (msg # 150):

It is? Why wouldn't we use actual numbers (aside from the fact that they may not have been playtested to produce anything sensical)?

Given the talk on the intercom, Khor'ruhn can "head that way", but as a player I would like to give Oscar a chance to shine a little before he shows up.

What do we roll to search the ship inside and out, O Nerull? :) There's no Search skill... do we even roll?

In reply to Beto Arark (msg # 153):

There's a Broker skill and I didn't even roll for that. I'm just going to state what my character is doing and not roll unless asked.

I suppose the most likely skill to use to search is Investigate, but, being on a ship, you'd think Engineer would be appropriate as well, though they never bothered including Structural as a specialty. You can fix all the systems in a ship, but can't actually repair damaged airlocks or hull breeches.

In this case, I suspect no skill roll will be necessary. If it's a subplot that Nerull has cooked up, then no matter how successful we roll, it's still going to happen. Otherwise, there's no point to a roll. What we find, on the other hand...

Contraband, a secret treasure map, weapons, spy documents, stolen gems, a dead body...

I doubt if buying a chemical sniffer would make a difference. Anything detectable by that would sure to have been masked by the smugglers.

Also, keep in mind, that what may be illegal on this world may be perfectly legitimate on the next.

In reply to Carmichael (msg # 154):

roll

In reply to Nerull (msg # 156):

OK. What am I rolling for?

In reply to Carmichael (msg # 157):

Teasing, you already rolled and got cargo, just have to deliver it now! Who is giving up their room and bed for the mother and child for a week?

Khor'ruhn would be willing to sleep rough, being a family "man" after all.

In reply to Khor'ruhn (msg # 159):

according to Nerull's message #25 in the "E. Trade Goods and Cargo" thread :


I suggested to the captain he gives up this day cabin for the mother and child. Barris' player is a little absent (no reproach!), and the request being reasonable, let's assume he agrees :)

Wohoo, we have money and drugs! I knew this was the fun boat! :D

Should I search my own cabin, or do we assume the searchers had searched the whole ship, Countess' Tea Room included? (Or someone qualified can search it. I don't think Daphne's very good at it)
This message was last edited by the player at 21:42, Sun 21 Mar 2021.

Yuri will give up his cabin (forget who he's bunking with) and move into the Day Cabin. I'd expect mother and child to need better access to a fresher.

In reply to Yuri Argonov (msg # 162):

You room with Bannacor, he'll go sleep somewhere else too for a week, just don't make it a habit.

Apologies, back

Has the ship taken off yet?

In reply to Carmichael (msg # 165):

It's difficult to follow so many plotlines (like in a LARP); :) but Nerull must tell us if Bannacor managed to fill the 2 remaining lowberths.

Also, abou the pills  : Nerull has to feed Nicodemus about the drawbacks and side effects of : Arrestilene: Biodec: Bionine: Regenerex, Rejuvium, Retardisene and provide the Law Level off all the products
(we may decide of what to do with the rest once in j-space)

If I forgot some plot thread, everybody please mention it below. The better we help our GM, the faster and further the game goes.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:39, Wed 24 Mar 2021.

"Retardisene" does not sound like something I'd like to try.

Slightly more seriously, yes, I feel like I'm starting to need some sort of recap. "Previously, on Mongoose..."

In reply to Beto Arark (msg # 166):



Yes, he did.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:47, Wed 24 Mar 2021.

In reply to Nerull (msg # 168):

I'm too busy here! ;-)

Well it means that if there is something wrong with the piloting system, and you needed a 10+ to discover it, Nerull has to tell you

Reversely, if a computer virus needs 10+ to be discovered, and Anzha obtained 9, she feels everything is fine, when it isn't ;)

On a meta-game perspective, I as a player know the sensors are damaged, but I'm waiting for Yuri's roll to "discover" the situation ;)
This message was last edited by the player at 14:03, Thu 25 Mar 2021.

In reply to Beto Arark (msg # 170):

Piloting was fine, it is a wonderful ship!

Put it another way, if there's a problem with the ship that requires 11+ to find and thus I didn't find it... it must be a pretty rare bug, right?

In reply to Countess Daphne Arslan (msg # 172):

Depends on whether or not the character knows the results of the roll. Goodness but I dislike "roll to know stuff" checks. I'd usually rather just not know.

It looks like I might not have selected my connection skill. Seems wrong to add it now. That means Carmichael doesn't have any Engineering and would have to don his vacc suit to not be making an untrained check. Which seems ridiculous.

Assuming I remember everything and didn't miss something...

We all more-or-less met at Brannigan's Bar when Beto was looking for a crew for her ship. There were a lot of desperate PCs just waiting for the opportunity! So, we all signed up.

Carmichael was tasked with finding cargo/freight, which he did, which was Aslan catnip. It was then decided to go to Nora'a to sell it. Carmichael was then tasked with finding passengers that wanted to go there. He found several, include people willing to go Economy (coldsleep).

Beto realized that the ship, which had been previously in the possession of Aslan smugglers, probably had a bunch of smuggler's compartments on it, so most of us went about searching for them. 5 were found, but only one had anything in it, which turned out to be drugs. The drugs were then given to Dr. Trask to analyze, which he has now done.

With all the preliminary stuff done, the ship is now ready to depart. Beto has us going through the standard pre-flight check of all systems. They should all be fine, but it never hurts to be sure.


The drawbacks or side effects of the Biodec and Bionine is probably a reduction in some other attribute, most likely INT, as they are pretty potent drugs!

Retardisene slows aging at the rate of 1 month aging for every year of real time. It's probably good for 1d years.

Arrestilene stops aging. Again, for about 1d years. The most likely side effect is that when it wears off, all those years suddenly catch up to you. Doses probably aren't cumulative.

Rejuvium reverses aging. It's not going to be 100% effective, but it'll remove 2d years from your current age. Doses may be cumulative, but probably not below age 25. It reverse any aging effects to characteristics.

Regenerex can take awhile to regenerate a limb or organ, and may require medical supervision while it's going on. If it's just regenerating damage, you are probably unconscious/incapacitated for 24 hours.

The psionic drugs are only going to be legal in Zhodani space, but a lot of non-Imperial worlds may not have any laws in place that deal with psionic drugs. You first have to accept that psionics are real before you start passing laws against them. Only the Imperium is paranoid enough to skip that rule.

Most combat drugs will be illegal on a military-ruled planet. After all, they only want their guys to be super-tough.

In the case of all the drugs, it depends on whether they were made by a legitimate pharmaceutical company, in which case they should all be government approved. If not, then it would be illegal to administer them to anyone.

In reply to Yuri Argonov (msg # 174):

Thank you for the input! ;-)

And I though I was the one complaining about "I rather not know your character sheet", ;) but it saves time we sorely miss on pbp.
OTOH, you don't know the difficulty, so there's a little "fog of war" remaining :)


Good point, but it's a bit weird from the maker of the Engineering software to link it to the vacc suit - not all repairs require the vacc suit. May be it's detachable? :) Anyway, let's be creative : maybe Carmichael could ask Anzha to copy the software to a handy computer, or a VR helmet?

In reply to Beto Arark (msg # 176):

Bannacor has yet to post, but he is checking in.

Sorry, what do I roll? I think you're calling for Engineering, if I'm not mistaken, but my 2 points in that are in Comms, are we talking about comms here?

Sorry, I'm super tired tonight, apologies if it's a stupid question.

In reply to Countess Daphne Arslan (msg # 178):

Communications is a specialty under Electronics :)

I see this on your character sheet :


...meaning you have 0 in your other specialties of Engineering : M-Drive and Life Support

you have a DM +2 for INT, so you roll 2d6+2 :)

I... don't see that in my sheet? :S

What are these rolls for, by the way? What if they fail? What if the rollers take longer to make sure they can't fail (or at least minimize failure)?

@Daphne : the M-Drive and Life Support specialties of Engineering are not on your sheet (you have 0 in Engineering, hence you have a base of 0 on those 2). You and Nerull may edit your sheet to add them. There are only 4 Engineering specialties : J-Drive, M-Drive, Life Support, Power :)

@Carmichael :
What are these rolls for ? Roleplay-wise, playing the "get to know the ship" scene, while we're still in a starport. :)
Metagaming-wise : involving every character; smoothing things when the space fight starts and every player would know which character does what; avoid the "shakedown scene"

What if they fail? Our characters don't see existing problems, or see problems where there aren't.

What if the rollers take longer to make sure they can't fail (or at least minimize failure)? They have to know they missed something, don't they? Nerull indicated how our characters felt regarding their controls... but it's probably your call as a player : if it's in-character to check things thrice, I suggest we just declare that during the voyage to the 100-Diameters limit our PC is doing extensive tests... and we can reroll. :)
This message was last edited by the player at 20:33, Thu 25 Mar 2021.

In reply to Beto Arark (msg # 182):

Oooh I see. Thanks for the explanation, Beto, and the patience. Sorry, I didn't mean to be difficult or anything, just checking I wasn't illegally rolling skills I didn't have :) Already rolled, apologies for holding up the action.

Daphne, if you don't see it on your character sheet, look on the Crew UPP thread to make sure it jives with  your character sheet.

Electronics is a cascade skill that has several specialties under it. Electronics itself is the basic knowledge for all the specialties. So, Electronics-0 means you have an effective 0 level in all the specialties.


If you want to take your time checking a system out, the GM can grant you a Boon. What that means is that you roll an extra die and then discard the lowest of the three dice.

OK, but nothing explodes or goes out of control. Alright.


I'm not saying anyone should roll again. As I understand it, we can get a bonus for taking longer to perform a skill. Why wouldn't we take as long as necessary to ensure success, given our skills?

@Daphne : you are not bothering anyone, and I'm sure at 10,000% that everybody here wants to help you. I just happen to have too much time on my hand (and my Warhammer game tonight was cancelled) :)

I also have a nasty habit of stepping on people's shoes - particularly on GM's shoes, but Nerull's style is open to contributions :)

@Yuri. Very good point about the boon. I see in MgT2 page 64 that an Engineering (M-Drive) check takes (1D x 10 seconds, INT), so I guess taking 1D minutes warrants a boon? :)

Engineer (j-drive) check takes (1D x 10 minutes, EDU). Good thing Beto did it in advance. :)

If someone else wants to know how long a check takes and doesn't own the book (the pdf is easy to find on pirate sites), you may ask here :)

@Carmichael : you just inherited a second-hand truck.
You're not auditing it at the Technical Control Board, because you have no money and Traveller handwaves it ;)
You do visual, basic controls, before hitting the road, since you're not bringing your truck off-road, neither testing its limit on a speed circuit, nor engaging it to a fight (yet), nor making a major overhaul... there's no reason for it to explode. :)

my turn to ask a question : contrary to most RPGs, it seems there's no "critical failure roll" in Traveller, right? As in "you roll a 2 on the dice, and even if you have the skill/attribute, it's an automatic fail with catastrophic results"?

Is there also no "critical success roll" as in "12 on the dice is an automatic fantastic success"? :)
This message was last edited by the player at 21:55, Thu 25 Mar 2021.

Carmichael quit.

In reply to Nerull (msg # 187):

did he say why? I probably have some responsibility in it :(
My communication skills and my player habits are always open for improvement - provided the discussion or even arguments are held by PMs or rMails...

In reply to Beto Arark (msg # 188):

quote:

I don't think I'm a good fit for this game. Please remove me as a player.

Don't worry about it, you're okay. My fault,

Sad to see them go, and what Beto said, if there's something we said/did or we didn't and should have, just let us know for next time.

In reply to Countess Daphne Arslan (msg # 190):

Don't worry about it, some styles just aren't for some people.

Too bad about Carmichael. He did seem to be floundering a bit. It didn't seem like he was quite comfortable with the rules... really didn't know them.

In reply to Yuri Argonov (msg # 192):

I don't either, but I can fudge it! ;-) Hehehehehehehehheh, I have them all! Finding them is the trouble some times.

I'll NPC him for now unless someone else wants to. We can get a new one later.

Shane about Carmichael; will be posting in a bit

Exactly :)

Immortal feminist icon, excellent choice! Daphne approves :)

Managing the common ship's finance,
trying to produce a profit while following the rules and throwing dice
is a pleasure in itself and it's own game into a game of Traveller.  :)

In Nerull's other game ("Aramis: The Traveller Adventure"), Danila is keeping accounts very seriously, and this adds to everybody's enjoyment because it adds to the verisimilitude and immersion of the players :)

(My point is :) Charmichael's player was keeping the books. We need another volunteer to do the accounting, enjoys doing it and bring more fun to all other players. :)

In reply to Beto Arark (msg # 198):

Why? His number were right.

Still got it covered.

I keep updating the Far Trader thread as I gather more data.

Not sure I consider bookkeeping 'fun', nor how much fun the numbers are for everyone else. Just wait until they have to pay for every bullet they shoot!

During the week in jumpspace, our characters can be improved : see W. ATTRIBUTE AND SKILL ADVANCEMENT (group 0)

Nerull, do you want us to inform you of what skill or attribute we're working on? If yes, do you want us to post it by PM to you, or by an OOC post, or by describing it in a roleplaying style in some thread? :)

In reply to Beto Arark (msg # 201):

Just keep track of it, you can pm it so there is a record.

The best way to keep track of it might be to put it on the Crew UPP thread. So, if you are study/training Astrogation from Rank-1 to Rank-2, you'd list it as Astrogation-1.1 (thus indicating 1 week of training). Another week would make it Astrogation-1.2, and at the end of that week, it become Astrogation-2.

If you also want to throw in the role-playing of the training in a ship's thread, that's up to you.

In reply to Yuri Argonov (msg # 203):

Good point, UPP thread can be used for that.

Y'all want me to get on the radio and impress Nora'a port authorities with my status? ;)

In game, maybe we don't want to attract too much attention ("what's a noblewoman doing in a freighter? Are they on a secret mission?")

out of game, every character should have its 15 minutes of glory, so shine, Daphne, shine under the limelight! :)

Not very secret, if I announce my presence :P

It's just that I hadn't thought about it, and then Yuri and someone else mentioned and I was like, aha.

Keep in mind, Daphne, that in the Traveller Universe, you have a Characteristic called SOCIAL for a reason! The Imperium has a Nobility system, and it's expected that all Nobles will throw their weight around whenever they can.

Although we're not in the Imperium at the moment and therefore it's not as significant, everyone still knows about Nobles and probably has some  dealings, even if second-hand, with the Imperium. So, people will still be impressed with your title.

Aslan probably won't be, unless it's for ransom purposes!

So, feel free to throw your Noble weight around a bit.

As I think I mentioned, unless you were traveling under an alias, then the crew manifest gets transmitted to the planet in the transponder handshake, so it's possible that someone in ATC already knows you are on board. Whether anyone makes a big deal of that remains to be seen.

And, looking at it from the other side of the coin, rather than wonder why she's on a tramp freighter, they are just as apt to wonder what the freighter has that's so... appealing!

Maybe I can leverage my fame to attract noble and wealthier (i.e. better-paying) passengers? Lady Arslan's Flying Salon!

On a different note, I just realized I'm asking legal questions when I'm the one with Advocate 2! Should I roll to make sure I can carry my gun in Nora'a?

Yes, you could make an Advocate roll. It's more about giving speeches and your courtroom appearance than it is about the actual Law, but it does peripherally cover the more common laws. That might be something that was uploaded to the ship in the transponder handshake. It just makes sense for the planet to tell you what they don't want you to do when you are on planet. Common laws and customs would be uploaded, though whether anyone bothers to read them is anybody's guess!

There are 6 cabins + 1 "captain's day office" on the ship
So far, the captain and the countess each occupy one cabin; the 4 other cabins are each occupied by 2 crew members each.

So there are no "better-paying" passengers, because there is no cabin left for them :)
There are 8 lowberths for "frozen" passengers.

We could reorganize the cabin occupation, cram 10 crewmembers in 3 cabins (sitcom alert!) ;) and accommodate 3 middle/high passengers, or up to 12 basic passengers into the other 3 cabins

for 1-parsec trips, 4 basic passengers yield Cr8800, but a single high passenger in one cabin yields Cr8200 (bring a couple?)

Please note the passenger trade yields then 19-26MCr per week/parsec , compared to 92-118MCr per week/parsec with cargo. Truth is, the A3Lc Far Trader is a freight transport ship first...

Who votes for a reorganization and a crew cramming? :)

Daphne could also to leverage her nobility to obtain us that mail delivery contract that we bill 5x more Cr/ton than freight... And once in Aslan space, it's going to be touchier, because Aslan Hierate Postal Service are less likely to entrust an Imperial or Florian noble to transport its mail, without fearing the humans will take a peek at it ;)
This message was last edited by the player at 15:25, Thu 01 Apr 2021.

You'd also have to upgrade the cabins to 'Luxury' to get those people on board, not to mention putting in the 'salon' features that you'd be advertising! Oscar can be the masseur!

As I thought someone said earlier, you could put 4 (possibly more?) stateroom modules in the cargo bay. The question is whether the price per cabin would offset the price of freight that would normally occupy that tonnage.

Or it could be preference as well.

I would think there would be a serious DM for passengers wanting to go to Iryao--an Aslan world IN the Hierate! I suppose there could be ambassadors, consulate staff and speculators going there.

Or idiots like us!
This message was last edited by the player at 15:23, Thu 01 Apr 2021.

Ah, true, passengers are a losing game. Forget it then, but...



Cool, how do I do this? Perhaps we can transport sensitive, top-secret Imperial post/diplomatic valises and there is no way that could backfire while in Aslan space!

Perhaps we could lean on Baris' naval reputation here, too; he has a Social of C as a famed war veteran, etc :)

That would be more the job of a 200-tons Yacht ;)

The yacht is a noble’s plaything, used to entertain friends and undertake political or commercial missions.

However, for a secret mission, an envoy/spy could hide in a freighter like ours - and then not need a luxury room ;)
Or the passenger is a saboteur : Iryao formerly belonged to the Florian League before being recently lost to the Hierate. :)

In reply to Beto Arark (msg # 215):

Or Aslan trying to escape the Florian League.

I'm confused, which thread do I post in for the current IC action?

In reply to Anzha (msg # 217):

since this happens on the ship, I would suggest "A3Lc Far Trader Old Lady's Hope" :)
So all subjects regarding the ship would be in one place

In reply to Beto Arark (msg # 218):

Yup. Sorry for the confusion.

Presently :



After some rearrangement :

Now Beto can ask to see your licenses ;)

https://greatdungeonnorth.blog...-certifications.html

Very interesting; I might need to ask the GM if I can switch out Comms for Sensors so I can be formally qualified as Captain :)

In reply to Baris Dahl (msg # 222):

the requesites for a Navy captain are different... You can switch Comms for Naval tactics! :)

In reply to Baris Dahl (msg # 222):

You are qualified.

In reply to Beto Arark (msg # 223):

Given Tactics, Leadership and Adminn at 2, he should be fine :)

Now this is interesting... are you rolling for other players characters? :)
or do you consider that Carmichael simultaneously goes to the sparport, the brokers and spends time bar-hopping ? - just wondering if that's possible. I know there's nothing in the rule to prevent it, but... if tasks are shared, everybody gets to play :)


As impatient as I am too to move the action forward, IMHO we should wait for Nerull to give us the local DM regarding passengers from the Florian League to the Aslan Hierate. After all, on the former planet Aslans are hunted; on the other it's a dictatorship and one NPC just stated "we are not having diplomatic relations right now. They are still angry that Nora'a used to be theirs and they want it back"

I may also surmise that Nerull has some scenario or at least some hook to an adventure in his sleeve. Maybe we'll be contacted by a patron to do some adventure before leaving Nora'a ? This adventure would last 5 days, but our would-be passengers won't wait so long? May be we will have a special cargo? and so on.

The main question is : are we playing a RPG or a boardgame (a bored-game) ;) , where we just travel from planet to planet and roll dice? >:) Let's ask Nerull...



Please read #29 in the more relevant thread "E. Trade Goods and Cargo (group 0)"
The mail roll has already be done. :)

Also, we have only 4 lowberths to fill, unless we discuss msg #220
"transporting warm passengers" above transporting passengers in cabins. :)
This message was last edited by the player at 17:49, Wed 07 Apr 2021.

In reply to Beto Arark (msg # 226):

There is no space for woke passengers unless we lose cargo. Otherwise, no problem in rolling, just a problem accommodating. There is room for everybody Beto, including Carmichael.

Yes, I sort of rolled for the other characters, as opposed to role-playing for them. It's been a week and nobody rolled or responded to your thread, so rather than start exchanging posts/pms with others to get to this point, I just rolled for them.

And you can see how many dice rolls the rules require. That's not ROLE-playing either.

I may not have used the same numbers, but came up with the same results (more or less) as you did for Mail. Also, if we know where we're going NEXT after Iryao, the mail could always be for that destination, especially if we do jump-3 rather than the mail service sending it via several jump-1s.

I was going with the revised deck plan you posted here in the OOC thread. Since no one said yea or nay about it, I thought that was what was now the situation.

The rolls are only what is available, not what we've accepted.

Based on what Nerull has posted and the NPC has said, I felt that made Iryao an Amber Zone with a -2 DM for passengers and freight.

And you are right, this isn't a board game. But it requires so many rolls it feels like it.

And there are only 4 low berth passengers to fill the 4 empty coldsleep berths we have.

In reply to Carmichael (msg # 228):

;-) Yup, thanks all.

Yes, good point :) Let's inquire...

All right, who agrees for the rearrangement above, in order to make some space for 1 High Passage, 1-2 middle passage, 4 basic passages?

This implies: the captain goes to his "day room" (next to the Bridge, with a little table, a desk and a bed. The 6 other men occupy 2 cabins, 3 women go to one cabin (the Countess is the big looser here). ;)

Rearranging also has a small cost. Let's say we don't do that too often. :) Plus, we'd probably want to stay longer ashore ;)

Day room works for me. Thirty years in the navy its probably more comfortable

The Countess is only inconvenienced IF and when we find a High Passenger.

I'm not thrilled about the layout of the room with two beds side by side--it seems rather awkward to get in and out of those beds, but I haven't come up with a better option yet.

Do you envision a separation between the two beds? :) Nah - lets privilege couples : twice the price, only one cabin ;)

Well, I tinkered with the drawing.

There were a couple of strange points.... like why  is there a separate door to the lift when the main door is right outside the door to the cabin?

For that matter, they shrunk the  lift, so it'll barely hold two people at a time now.

It also didn't really make sense for the main door to the cabin to be right outside the airlock. While you could argue 'convenience' more often than not, the airlock door would prevent anyone from exiting the cabin (except by the lift door).

So, I swapped the fresher to the square where the door was.

Swapped the desk to the opposite corner, and moved the beds to where the desk and fresher were.

Moved the door to the square where the hatch is.

Eliminated what I think was supposed to be a closet. Replaced it an actual closet by dipping into the extra space that the lift wasn't using.

The wall that separated the fresher from the desk when it was on the starboard side I kept as a privacy screen, but figure it could be folded down and the beds could still be pushed together to form a queen-sized bed.

Also, because of the curve of the hull in the forward starboard 'corner', there would be additional storage in the headboard.

Tell you what - the Countess gets veto rights on that High Passenger, and we keep the same arrangements, they can share her bed if they pass her test ;P

Well, so Balducci will owe us if we restablish diplomatic negotiations with the unpleasant guys. I figured a favor from someone in power is more important than a fistful of credits (famous last words, I suppose).

Anyone up for some shopping in Nora'a, or is there something fun to do? Night out in town? Let's get blotto?

In reply to Countess Daphne Arslan (msg # 235):

VD? ;-) Bwahahahaha

Beto has already reserved dinner at the TAS' restaurant :)

An opera sounds interesting.  Anyone up for it?

Oh, opera, yes! Count me in.

Any excuse to wear an outrageous gown and long gloves.

In reply to Countess Daphne Arslan (msg # 240):

An ancient Terran opera, Madame Butterfly!

Anzha has a "fancy" outfit I purchased as part of her starting gear, so she can dress for the occasion as well.

In reply to Anzha (msg # 242):

Bannacor dresses in his best dress uniform to attend

Given the drugs, Baris will skip but crushed to have missed it

In reply to Baris Dahl (msg # 244):

The Opera is a typical opera for the Florian League, Loud with gaudy costumes and such. It seems it was done in a language called Italian!

There is a reception afterwards.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:13, Wed 21 Apr 2021.

In reply to Nerull (msg # 245):

The opera is beautifully done! The opera aficionados are impressed! It is two hours long give or take. It makes you want to learn Italian!
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:15, Wed 21 Apr 2021.

What did happen to the money you guys found in the cache and the money we put in as ship petty money? Did we get anything back? Asking because I suddenly can't remember, and I'm shopping :P

The Cr100,000 found in the cache was put in the ship current funds; part of it was used to reimburse your advances to said fund :)

the first repayment of the loan (MCr5 on week 13) will be called on week 6 : Bannacor, Cpt Dahl, Lady Arslan, Khor'ruhn, Dr Trask - all should have cashed out MCr1 share at this time :)

Aah, that's what I missed! Thanks Beto, remind me how much was the reinbursement, please?

In reply to Countess Daphne Arslan (msg # 249):

you loaned 1000 Cr, you get back 1000 Cr :) - see "Brannigan's Bar" thread, Fri 12 Mar 2021 at 23:43

Thanks, I like some extra pocket money to spend :P

Nerull, would you like us to move on from the opera, or stay there? Before I hold up the whole team with opera shenanigans :)

In reply to Countess Daphne Arslan (msg # 251):

Do what you like, it's your game. You want to keep going or move on?

I'm playing in a Traveller Navy campaign GMed by Syrris. The player of the heavy cruiser's captain has the wisdom of not spoiling the other player's fun by micro-managing :) When there's some important decision to taken, even a quick one, he lets the other player discuss it in the OOC thread, as if we were voices in his head weighing the pros and cons :)

I think as a merchant ship our characters are even less disciplined and the hierarchy is not so much enforced. Metagaming-wise, and I think Baris' player is on the same wavelength, we just rubber-stamp your decisions as if we had decided them or approved it from the start. Beto asking questions is me trying to both RP and having you improve your ideas/input :) I hope it's okay with you - I also feel Nerull's GM style in more a sandbox - we create the plot - than a plot-driven game. ;)

In reply to Beto Arark (msg # 253):

Biggest thing is I don't always know when to move ahead.

Personally I have no idea, because I don't know the setting at all, so I appreciate any kind of direction.

and since we're metagaming, what happens if we cut the adventures on Nora'a into scenes?

Day 1 Nora'a's capital
scene 1 : Daphne meets bureaucrat
scene 2 : Yuri and Khor Ruhn meet woman fixer

Day 2 ship at the starport
rearrangement of the ship
Nerull, do we have to roll something for that?

Anzha is diverted from to secure the ship's controls
everybody can chime in with ideas to avoid an hostile takeover. For example Daphne could lock the controls of the Jump drive, M-Drive and Power, so that if someone doesn't have the codes, they can't move the ship! :)
Let's discuss that in the A3Lc Far Trader Old Lady's Hope thread! :)

Day 3 the estate
Scene 1 : a team does recon
Thread : Nora'a
Casting time! :)
Time to move the projectors to other PCs. Who's on the team? Carmichael has Recon 3; Oscar (are you still playing, man?) Recon 1; Bannacor 1. All those players OK to scout the premises? :) No, let's do it the other round to minimize the posts :) is one of those 3 players not OK to be cast in the scout team?

Scene 2 : a team meets the tight-knight-clan before embarking
Thread : Nora'a
Yuri, Anzha
Who else? Nicodemus could examine the passengers before embarking
More PCs would mean more potential hostages (the insistence of the woman fixer to meet the captain is suspicious)
Nicodemus, are you in? :)

Scene 3 : all is going well and the rest of the crew picks up everybody
Scene 4 : hiding "cargo", and loading cargo and normal passengers. Baris and Daphne meet, greet and scan the other passengers, especially the High Passenger

Carmichael does the accounting, and off we go! :)

Thus, as Andy Warhol would say, everybody will have their 2 posts of fame! :)

Isn't the direction easier to discern if we break our plan into scenes? :)

Bannacor can speak Aslan too so that might help dealing with the 'passengers'

In addition to giving the passengers a cursory examination (which seems like SOP, don't want them bringing anything communicable aboard), Nicodemus would need to refresh his knowledge of Aslan medicine and surreptitiously gather any necessary supplies.

Scenes are fine by me, but that then means we need a Director!

Yeah, we definitely don't want any fleas on board! The kitties have been out in the woods hiding.


The thing to keep in mind, Nerull, is that while 2 or 3 players might be having fun posting at the opera, you need to make sure that all the other players are also having fun, whether that's stalking a wild lasagna, getting drunk that ends in a barroom brawl, or playing checkers with the old men by the trees. SOMETHING! Some players are good at fending for themselves, others aren't. And even that can switch around on any given day or for any given subplot.

Another guideline is if no one posts in the subplot for, say, three days, then it's time to move it on.

Of course, this is all easier said than done...

In reply to Yuri Argonov (msg # 260):

Yes it is!

In reply to Nerull (msg # 261):

Anybody going for wine and lasagna? ;-) Time to change the floor plan and load the cargo and get this ship flying!

Does Anzha's help give a positive DM to the security changes, except computers? If yes, how much is the DM? :)

In reply to Beto Arark (msg # 263):

+4

Now THAT is a line ! LOL ! :D
Congrats, Yuri player!
I don't know much about Aslan culture, but this is FUN, and could only be written by someone who does know the game's background. Thumbs up :)

Everybody please be patient, Lady Arslan's player communicates that he will soon describe his character's shenanigans and drive the ship to the same place as Yuri's gang ! :)

Just can't get reliable taxi service when you need it!

Yes, apologies, gang, it's been a hellish week, so sorry to keep you waiting :(

Assuming we make it to the jump point, what do you need from us GM to take us to the next scene? Do you want some rolls and some downtime, or do you want to skip forward to then?

In reply to Baris Dahl (msg # 269):

Jump roll and a pilot roll would be okay, roleplay. ;-)

I'm unfamiliar with Mongoose nomenclature, so bear with me: what exactly is a 'pre-agricultural' world? A world of hunter-gatherers? Stone Age tech, then?

In reply to Countess Daphne Arslan (msg # 271):

TL is C

In this context, it is "[...] having too great a population to have suitable agricultural resources for export. "

https://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Trade_classification

In reply to Baris Dahl (msg # 273):

Thanks Baris!

That's a... very convoluted way of saying "we don't export food". Without going into why having a population in the hundreds of millions prevents food exports, but whatever. Thanks!

In reply to Countess Daphne Arslan (msg # 275):

They don't grow enough to feed themselves, they import food.

Oh-oh. That means we're all on the menu!

Remind me what did we actually want from the Aslan? lol

You talked with Guiseppe Balducci, the local world-administrator of the Florian League for Nora'a. He told you : "We are not having diplomatic relations (with the Aslan) right now. They are still angry that Nora'a used to be theirs and they want it back."
You suggested someone of high rank within Imperial aristocracy [I think you meant : yourself] helped re-establish unofficial, but effective, backchannels into the Aslan Hierate, preserving galactic peace and smooth trade between empires, yada yada.

All that in exchange for Balducci to remember he owes us a similar favor.

In reply to Beto Arark (msg # 279):

And Iryao used to belong to the league. Exchange citizens perhaps and resume trade.

Well tried, Yuri, to kick the ball forward :) But is the time right to launch ourselves in a big adventure, at the beginning of August? Shouldn't we wait until September?

Doesn't have to be a BIG adventure.

But, why wait until September?

In reply to Yuri Argonov (msg # 282):

Getting ready to try something I guess, Glorious Empire ish? Be patient. I'm slow.

Apologies for the absence, house move is kicking my ass. Expect to be offline for a few days more at least

In reply to Baris Dahl (msg # 284):

I've been slow as well, so no problem. We'll be getting a little more soon I think.

In reply to Nerull (msg # 285):

Who is still here? Not many it looks like.

I'm still here, preparing a post, in fact.

Apologies, but I need to bow out :(

I'm sure the GM/Referee will keep your character around for awhile if things improve for you and you manage to find your way back.

In reply to Yuri Argonov (msg # 289):

Apologies to everyone for my lacking. I'm going to close up and delete in a week. Happy gaming and good luck, sure to see you around.

In reply to Nerull (msg # 290):

Hey, 4 people who connected recently (Carmichael, Nicodemus, Yri & myself), that's not a bad team!
I suggest someone picks up the game and becomes GM, as for the "Naval Adventure 1 : Shakedown Cruise" campaign, and so the game continues :)

It can't be me because :
- English is not my mother language, so there'd be a lot of exchanges along the lines "I don't understand what you mean" ;)
- biggest obstacle, I never mastered Traveller and did only glance at the rulebook. :(

Anyone else?

In reply to Beto Arark (msg # 291):

I would gladly transfer ownership if you can find a new GM. I was just never able to handle this because of my personal laziness. I apologize to all of you.

I am notoriously unfamiliar with the system, and somewhat bogged down by other games, so it would be best if it were someone else.

In reply to Nicodemus Trask (msg # 293):

The game continues. We have a GM
This message was last edited by the player at 13:44, Fri 15 Oct 2021.

And the game goes on!

In reply to Space Control (msg # 295):

Who IS at the meeting?

Yuri, Nicodemus, Khor'ruhn and Beto (via drone) are the 'negotiators' at the meeting.

Bannacor is with the 'liberators' at the ship: Carmichael, Oscar, and Anzha.

Beto is at the ship operating the drone, and Baris and Daphne are also on the ship.

Apologies for the delay. Had an out of town guest for the past week. He was an old gaming buddy that I haven't seen in almost 20 years.

Just had minimal opportunity to post. When we weren't doing ftf gaming, we went out to eat a lot. Stayed up until one of us fell asleep.

In my 20+ years of PbP gaming on various sites, it was generally accepted that posting between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day diminished considerably due to Holidaze, work schedule changes, family, shopping, putting up decorations, etc. For that reason, expectations for timely posts was kind of put on hold.

In my case, this didn't usually apply to me, but this year, I seem to have hit a down cycle. It's probably a combination of age + health + meds + diet + environment + Holidaze. So, just bear with me while I sort it all out and hopefully get back on track in the new year.

In reply to Space Control (msg # 299):

Merry Christmas everyone!

So, end of the year, time to thank our GM and all the players here :) Space Control taking over in the middle of an assault was an excellent news. We overcame some players' departure, but I'm happy to roleplay an old character - something I never did before ! - I'm looking forward to next year's adventure and character développement ! :)

Holidaze over and a New Year, along with a new brain. Oh, wait. No, I didn't get one. I asked Santa for it, but all that was under the tree was a note that said 'Not my department'. So, now I'm looking that damned yellow brick road...

I know what our GM is thinking... ;)
"Beto's message stated the Aslan slavers were running the ship. Carmichael's inspiration made him tell the Aslan slaves to take control of the ship. So when the cops arrive, they'll start shooting... the slaves" (rubs his hands with glee) ;D

Taking into account the players who haven't connected since more than 3 months :'(, I suggest this more or less flexible Chain of command

while travelling in space
(in other situations : the more skilled leads)

sharing the shifts of the watch

Baris Dahl (Captain) (ill)


1. Beto Arark (acting captain)
   
2. Lady Arslan (pilot)
   
3. Bannacor (acting 1st officer / navy equivalent commander)
   
4. Nicodemus Trask (acting 2nd officer / lieutenant)
   
   off the watch
   
   
5. Yuri Argonov (acting 3rd officer / sublieutenant)
   
6. Carmichael
   
7. Anzha
   
8. Oscar and Khor'ruhn

That's as good as anything else I can think of.

In reply to Yuri Argonov (msg # 305):

Now that the Beyond sector is finally out, maybe we can go there! ;-)
This message was last updated by the player at 17:30, Thu 20 Jan 2022.

In reply to Bannacor (msg # 306):

Hey Bannacor; may I suggest you resurrect the game by specifying what you intend to do? :) Because Beto actually laid a choice :
"- will you choose to hang around the ship and see what happens,
or
- rather retreat and make detours to be sure you're not followed?"
or any other action you see fit ! :)

I am sure our GM is waiting for the description of what Bannacor does, to entertain us with descriptions of what happens next ! :)

In reply to Beto Arark (msg # 307):

 rather retreat and make detours to be sure you're not followed?"

Well baring some contrary statement from our Starmaster, we come back to the ship, in which we barricade, ready to sustain a counterattack from the Slavers.

@Carmichael player : Carmichael was the designated broker of the group (with a support from Beto). Do you know the rules about trade and transporting cargo? :)
There was also a link to a program on the Net somewhere, where you could have all that pre-determined, with even a list of passengers with their plots... :)

Yep. Was already working on it but then RL got busy again.

That program sounds interesting. I'll see if I can find it.

Lost track of things. We have as many passengers as we can take. Do we have High Passage capability? I thought we discussed this before and the answer was NO, but I could be wrong.

Also, we're going to Vadada next, right? High tech world. Mostly what they are going to need is raw materials.

Completely empty cargo hold now, right? We sold the Aslan catnip?

We're squeezing ourselves on narrow bunks in shared cabins in order to bring more passengers aboard ; see #92 of thread "A3Lc Far Trader Old Lady's Hope"

(how do we link to messages on RPOL? I saw someone do it)

So, after the redesign, we can transport :

1 high passage
2-3 middle passengers (1-2 on the lower deck, 1 on the upper deck)
4 basic passengers
8 frozen meat


Yes ! and congrats for the azurewebsites.net link, it was the one I was thinking about (and it was in my favorites ;))

If this works, you have to open that message and then copy the URL up on your control bar, then paste it here in the new thread. RPoL automatically turns it into a link.

Link back to this game

Anyway, I just wasn't sure that we had made that 'permanent'.


So, we've got 1 High Passenger signing on, 3 Middle Passengers signing on, 4 Basic Passengers signing on (3 of which are would-be slaves we freed), and 8 Low Passengers signing on (Vadada is much preferred to Iryao).


The freight had all been lined up before we set off to rescue the slaves, so it's sitting outside the cargo just waiting to be loaded into the ship.

Unless someone wants to deal with an on-board adventure while in transit to Vadada, I wasn't going to bother detailing the individual people or deal with which ones we accept (lottery!).

1 High Passage (3 parsecs) 20,000Cr
3 Middle Passage (3 parsecs) 45,000Cr
4 Basic Passage (3 parsecs) 17,600Cr
8 Low Passage (3 parsecs) 17,600Cr

30 tons of freight (3 parsecs) 48,000Cr
30 tons of freight (3 parsecs) 48,000Cr
30 tons of freight (3 parsecs) 48,000Cr
 2 tons of freight (3 parsecs)  3,200Cr

TOTAL: 247,400Cr

I'm not sure about that...  Our goal was to free the slaves, not transport them abroad.
IIRC, what I (intended to) wrote, we had to make sure that if we returned the children to their families, the latter wouldn't immediately sell them again for debts or under pressure or whatever.

So there could be a scene where we quickly investigate, roll a little Streetwise tests, get to know what happened and how, and/or interview the family by videophone (roll Psychology) to know how they'll handle the aftermath.

Also, some legal spot checks should be in order, to estimate if the government will not recapture the escapees and assign them back to the slavers... for some judiciary reason.

At some point, we may have to offer passage, not only to the escapees, but also to their families - we assume they are poor, and we don't have time for them to organize a kitty...

However, my wild guesses must halt there, for we're freewheeling for a month now; our actions have repercussions, NPCs react, push back or support; the setting lives.  It is time for Control to step in (or declare the game over, or in hiatus, or...) :)

The freed would-be slaves that want passage on the ship are paying passengers. It's not like the ship is transporting escaped slaves, whether for free or not. Technically, they weren't slaves yet. If they escaped the ship, they were free people again.


Legally, there is Aslan Law that applies to Aslan and Human Law which applies to Humans. The two don't mix very often. If an Aslan can't hold his property, he doesn't have any legal recourse. He's S.O.L. and ridiculed by those stronger than he is... unless he challenges them and wins. In Aslan culture, a Slaver is no different than a Butcher, a Baker, or a Candlestick Maker. It's a dirty job but someone has to do it.

It gets back to Aslan history. If you raid another clan and kill them all, then who's going to haul all that loot back to your clan? It only took a few such incidents before someone figured out to keep some of the defeated clan as slaves to do all that dirty work.

Depending on how 'annoying' Humans get, they could be classified as vermin or pets or just someone's slaves (depending on who they are working for). This is where the embassies get involved... trying to mitigate these situations and coming up with an equitable resolution for both sides. It doesn't always work, but the alternate is WAR. Great for the Aslan, but Humans like to avoid that. It's bad for business.


Anyway, that's my interpretation of Aslan/Human relations.


The planned jump route for the Old Lady's Hope has been uploaded to Game Map 2.

Excellent!

Am I correct in understanding that our ship has gravity control, that prevents us from feeling twice as heavy? Because with their 2 in STR, Baris and Beto would feel the Gs! ;)
What is the price to pay for this acceleration? Fuel consumption? Do we have this extra?

If there's no disadvantage, why don't all ships in the Traveller universe do it?

All ships build at TL 9 and above have inertial dampers that compensate for the extra g-force from acceleration... up to a point. It's usually one above what the ship is capable of, since maneuvering can momentarily increase that.

Ships also have a gravity-based Maneuver Drive, rather than a rocket fuel base. The ship still has to decelerate at the halfway point. It can probably do more at the expense of g-forces, but those are usually only done by fighters.

While it requires more energy to accelerate faster, you also don't do it for as long a period of time. It's a mild trade-off, since it doesn't quite cut the time in half.

The ship has weeks of operating time on its standard fuel after jump, so that's not a problem.

The two main reasons it doesn't get done as a 'standard' operating procedure is due to in-system traffic and the fact that you have less time to react to any problems. A fast ship is a harder target and generally signifies that you are up to no good (raider, pirate, enemy, etc.). Requesting a faster vector generally alleviates that, particularly if you have some sort of timetable you need to stick to.

If you were heading to an outer planet in a system, you'd definitely want to accelerate as fast as you can so it wouldn't take weeks or months to get there.

Unfortunately it seems our broker, Carmichael, has caught the rpolbordness disease, (as its player did not connect since February...) and is comatose on his bunk.

Beto has Broker-0. Did someone develop a higher skill ?

Does anyone want her/another best to dabble into "speculative trade"? Or shall we just carry freight? In the first case, I suggest to use the "Local Brokers and Guides" rule in MgT2 p.209 :  "A local guide will have a Broker skill equal to 1D-2. [1D-1 if] 5% of the total value of the trade ...is given to the guide", so we have a broker with a 0 to +5 skill.

Finally, does any player with time on their hand want to roll the dice and/or participate, and go through the charts and process :)

Still here. I was just taking a 7-day vacation courtesy of Nirvanitol...

Not really much to post for while we're in J-space. I think the game is supposed to be handwavium in that regards. You leave one planet, *poof*, you're on another planet.

You can only polish the hubcaps so much before they fall off. The adventures aren't ever supposed to be during J-space transit. That would get repetitious and boring real fast.

If anybody has any good ideas about dealing with that, though, I'm game.

That being said, nobody's gotten off the ship yet anyway. Dump our cargo, load on the new stuff, and we're off and running again?

In reply to Carmichael (msg # 320):

Back, I was without computer for the last week.

In reply to Carmichael (msg # 320):

Welcome back, bro{k|th}er ! :) We were - well, I for one - was filling the quiet chat waiting for the GM to tell us when the jump was over ;)

Please do the rolls for the trade!

In this Facebook discussion, https://www.facebook.com/group...nks=5104824872968980 they discuss how they can reduce the time spent in-system to 3 days... :)

I'm not sure I see any reason for such a discussion. It seems simple enough--do what you gotta do and then leave.

In any case, you have to join to see the discussion. Not inclined to do so.

So apparently it was my turn to get Covid, although a weaker strain. Culminated Monday night when I fell getting out of bed because I got dizzy and my legs were so weak they couldn't support me. After friends helped me get into a chair, called an ambulance to take me to the hospital for evaluation and testing. Everything else was clear but the test came back positive for Covid. Put some fluids in me, gave me a few prescriptions for me cough, and sent me home.

According to the doctor, I have had it for a few days, so Monday was the worst of it. Getting better, but I still feel like crap and a bit unsteady on my feet.

At least this explains why I've been feeling so crappy for awhile now.

In reply to Space Control (msg # 325):

Wow, a case of Covid that "cuts your legs"! :(

Probably should apologize for not posting an update here, but brain's been too tired to even think of doing that.

Getting better. Just slow.


Yeah, it was the weak legs that had me concerned. It didn't even occur to me that it might be CoVid. Was more concerned that it was a stroke, but fortunately it wasn't. And it was only that one time so have no idea what was going on. It passed within minutes.