Merchant Notes

[Blue Ghost]

I don't want to post anymore than I have to, so apologize here in advance as I write this story. I thought I had edited it, but stuff snuck by me, so I'll fix it.

It turns out Olorna is actually in a relatively wealthy region of space, though possibly on the fringe of Solomani-Imperium political strife.

According to Travellermap.com Cold Rock is ruled by charismatic dictator … I saw the Type-E designation ad figured it was another desert or wilderness world, but that's not the case. It's just "out of touch" with the rest of the Imperium, so to speak. At least according to the last survey, but the local knight in the OTU probably runs the place as his personal fief. So, I'm going to take some story liberties with it.

The "needle gun" is actually from Star Smuggler. It's a weapon that shoots Gauss Gun like needles, but my understanding is that they inject chemicals to incapacitate the target as opposed to causing damage and death by way of trauma.

The Bwap accountant … I got his language description wrong. I do seem to recall that in the official write up they talk with a lot of "bop pop" kinds of sounds--maybe something like an African Bushman with clicks in their language. I'm not really sure. Regardless, I think the high pitch tone quality is my writer's faux paus.

The Type R I describe as being "lengthened", which to me means she probably has something like an added five meters of length or something, which could translate as more cargo, fuel and perhaps a couple of more cabins on the top deck.

That's all for now. Sorry for the screwups. I'll try and get to the editing at some point. Thanks for reading.

 

[Blue Ghost]

So, the story didn't turn out quite the way I wanted it to. I didn't introduce Sharon earlier and with more description, which I should have. She's essentially physically fit blond who wears her hair in a pony tail. As you can tell, she's navy, but I should have dropped some hints before.

Hudson's Landing came out about as I liked, but I should have given more description. I can't help but feel that I revisited my old Aston tales when he was in the Extents on special assignment for the scouts. That is to say that I created another open air market lined with starships, which is kind of the place that Aston was in a couple of years ago when I wrote his story, albeit on the other side of the Imperium.

I'm not sure whether I should have introduced the whole crew or not from the first installment, but whatever.

I gave the marines a weapon based upon some of the pictures I recall from either GURPS Traveller or the Rebellion sourcebook. I thought about giving them ACRs and GGs, and as tempted to give them all plasma guns, but I often feel that the laser rifle is overlooked, and that there should be more variance on laser weapons in general. Ergo I gave them a heavy laser man portable weapon.that doesn't have Mongoosified "radiation" splaying neutrinos on nearby friendlies mad: I'm still not happy about that revelation, but whatever).

Initially this was to take place on Cold Rock, but reading the writeup on Travellermap.com it seemed unlikely, so I simply moved it to another world altogether, but in the same system.

Truth be told I was going to write up a massive fire fight, but given all of the extras I threw in there, it didn't seem plausible without writing gobs more of the chaos that ensued. That, and not all criminals are dumb, especially the ones who work for organized crime or intelligence circles.

Anyway, thanks for reading.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Apologies here. The latest chapters didn't turn out like I wanted, and I nearly resolved the story way too soon. Now I'm just drawing it out … padding it, which isn't what I wanted. And even though Dolton is a valid spelling for that last name, I should have spelled it "Daulton". Oh well

Using Travellermap.com is a blessing and curse both. I don't know how official it is, and it gives one great concepts to churn, but at the same time you want to make up your own stuff. That's why I created worlds other than the "primary" colonized world in the systems.

I'm still wondering if I should have put in some orange blobs holding "ray guns" at Hudson's Landing … "Take me to your leader … scum bag" But I begged off, and figured it would make more sense if they just shelled out cash for a professional hit team.

Anyway, I didn't post any new chapters because I got caught up in other stuff. I got to seal up some knooks in the house where creepy crawlies have been getting in, fix or replace my gaming mouse which I just bought last Christmas, and just junk in general.

I keep thinking that I want to write a story with Hivers, but nothing's coming to mind. and that goof I did with the Aslan using polearms was a cross pollination of thoughts between that picture of a K'Kree holding a halberd, and that one Keith sketch of a male Aslan with his hands (paws) on his hips.

I've been thinking about starting a new thread for a Vargr story. A real corsair kind of thing, but have begged off for onw. I'm still gestating the concept

That's all for now. Long live the Imperium! Virus not withstanding :rant:

 

[The Pakkrat]

I for one would love to read a Vargr story. The Vargr Extents and Vargr Enclaves as well as the Imperium Vargr are so vastly varied and rich in story potential in my opinion, that I too have trouble focusing on a specific region or Vargr ethnicity.

TravellerMap is a great resource, but is still in Review and must be taken with a grain of salt and remain a Referee resource. So many disparate authors have contributed to TravellerMap.

 

[Blue Ghost]

We'll see. When I started Merchant Woes I had this concept of just some everyday mundane stuff that your run in the mill freighter captain might encounter. Stuff like … well, the OTU equivalent of whatever today's captains encounter. I heard one captain of a "super tanker" complain that country X overcharged for inspections, and that it was an open secret; i.e. white elephant on the international stage, but not worthy enough of making news. Discovering illegal "aliens" (so to speak), or having psionic rats run amuck on the ship. Stuff that wouldn't cause anyone to whip out the combat tables in a gaming session, but maybe stuff I could work up as interesting for a read, maybe even humorous. We'll see.

As for Vargr … eh, they've been worked up as a pirate like "race", but I can't ever remember any adventures written up about them, just their Alien Supps describing them as "mercurial" and prone to be swayed by the biggest "dawg" with the biggest canines and snarl on the ship. But I can't recall any GDW or DGP adventure being published with them as the stars. Ditto with Hiver, Droyne, Aslan, K'Kree or whoever else )Vegan? Newt? Geonee? One of those crazy out there TNE races?).

I may get inspired tonight … I may not. We'll see. I've been thinking about reaching out to some other companies, maybe publish on Amazon or something, I'm not sure at this point.

Thanks for the thoughts.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Sorry about this. I had planned on wrapping up this story, or at least adding onto it, but got into a binge with Gahv and crew. I'll contemplate this story a bit more. Thanks for your patience.

 

[Blue Ghost]

I had a few more concepts for Merchant Woes … I thought of dovetailing one with one of the other story threads, but am begging off on that. Merchant Woes, in spirit, came out about as much as I liked or hoped, minus more story material. As much as I enjoy writing combat or adventure, mundane everyday stuff can be fun too. We'll see.

Thanks for putting Aston over the top at 13k views, and pushing Stalker's Fang to 1600. Thanks again for at least having a look.