One Damn Thing After Another (Play Reports)

[AlHazred]

Doing 1 jump-1 at a time, the PCs went to Bowman. They are buying refined fuel at all starports to avoid taxing the jump drive even further. Asking for work to pay for the fuel, they flew three scientists to the Darrian Dig Site on Bowman Epsilon, the highly-eccentric moon. I'm saving the rest of "Archaeology" for a later session, but they were intrigued by the thought of pre-Maghiz Darrian artifacts. They ended up doing a deep scan of Epsilon with their new Scout ship's Survey Drones and sold the results to the head of the Dig.

Next stop was 567-908, where they visited a corporate research site. The corpos weren't interested in giving non-employees a tour, but one of them was interested in having them transport a 1-ton cargo module to a buyer on Asteltine. The crew talked him into letting them tank up from the fuel supply for the research facility's power plant over a few days.

In transit, one of the scientists in the crew became overly curious and used the drones to do a scan of the crate. I described how the image gradually formed of some sort of "weird robot arm, maybe?" with writing on it in no language they could recognize. It's, of course, part of a Shrieker rig, but, again, I'm saving "Safari Ship" for later. This was a teaser.

 

[AlHazred]

I think, for the game tomorrow, since they've just met a shady collector-type figure, I might run the scenario "Filch" by Michael Brown from Freelance Traveller #20 and have the target be Mr. Gelin Hrey, the receiver of the illicit cargo.

 

[AlHazred]

So, they didn't bite. They actually, wisely, considered that I had Gelin Hrey as a Sword Worlder, and didn't want to possibly impact their future endeavors in the region. Smart actually.

In any case, I was able to extemporaneously plant the hook for the scenario "Heiress" by Ewan Quibell, from Freelance Traveller #23. Since they were going to Flammarion next, it worked very well for that. By the time the rest of "Heiress" hits, they should be done with "Search & Rescue".

Speaking of which, when they emerged from jump space, they heard a BANG and started losing atmosphere through the faucet in the galley. I had rolled an event, and thought this would be cool. They did a space walk and patched the exterior hole, but the object had entered the landing gear bay. When they retrieved it they discovered it was a jump torpedo. I'm using the Avenger Enterprises/Comstar Games idea, where j-torps (being sub-100-dtons) are extremely unreliable, and that the company that made them faked the performance tests to get sales. MCr 15+ for something that misjumps more than half the time is a losing proposition. I had it be an encrypted message from a Leviathan-class Merchant Cruiser, destined for McClellan Factors.

And there I did a misstep. I had it be from the Amuar, because I thought I remembered that cruiser being lost in 1100 in the Outrim Void. But it didn't -- it was taken by pirates in 1102.

So, now I have to consider how to handle it when it eventually comes up (I mentioned a reward for return to McClellan Factors, and they're really poor, so they'll remember). I see an interesting possibility. The Historical Documents (i.e., the LBBs) mention it being lost in 1102, but that could have been the final move by the pirates. It's probable that was the last step in a complex heist; this is an 1800-ton vessel with a crew of almost 60, so an Ocean's Eleven-style heist could easily have taken place. In which case, the j-torp might have been reporting whatever the preliminary step was. Maybe the captain used this method to securely send HQ a proposal by a group of Outrim pirates to cooperate for profit at the expense of the Barracai Technum? He wouldn't want to send such an incriminating message through ordinary channels.

Anyway, after docking at the Way Station, they got down to brass tacks. I had Anders offer them two options: they could polish off the work in a few weeks with the parts available, which would "reset" the Highndry back to "factory defaults". Or, they could keep the higher-TL parts, and he would have to source them and have them shipped, which would probably take upwards of 16 weeks. They opted for the latter. Then, Anders offered them temporary employment enforcing the interdiction of 875-496; I've decided the Scouts interdicted the world to protect the natives from Imperial contamination. They accepted, so next week we'll start "Search & Rescue". I'll try to set a cliffhanger with the crash of the liner. We'll see how far they get. I expect them to be wowed with the SAR toys!

 

[kilemall]

So, they didn't bite. They actually, wisely, considered that I had Gelin Hrey as a Sword Worlder, and didn't want to possibly impact their future endeavors in the region. Smart actually.

In any case, I was able to extemporaneously plant the hook for the scenario "Heiress" by Ewan Quibell, from Freelance Traveller #23. Since they were going to Flammarion next, it worked very well for that. By the time the rest of "Heiress" hits, they should be done with "Search & Rescue".

Speaking of which, when they emerged from jump space, they heard a BANG and started losing atmosphere through the faucet in the galley. I had rolled an event, and thought this would be cool. They did a space walk and patched the exterior hole, but the object had entered the landing gear bay. When they retrieved it they discovered it was a jump torpedo. I'm using the Avenger Enterprises/Comstar Games idea, where j-torps (being sub-100-dtons) are extremely unreliable, and that the company that made them faked the performance tests to get sales. MCr 15+ for something that misjumps more than half the time is a losing proposition. I had it be an encrypted message from a Leviathan-class Merchant Cruiser, destined for McClellan Factors.

And there I did a misstep. I had it be from the Amuar, because I thought I remembered that cruiser being lost in 1100 in the Outrim Void. But it didn't -- it was taken by pirates in 1102.

So, now I have to consider how to handle it when it eventually comes up (I mentioned a reward for return to McClellan Factors, and they're really poor, so they'll remember). I see an interesting possibility. The Historical Documents (i.e., the LBBs) mention it being lost in 1102, but that could have been the final move by the pirates. It's probable that was the last step in a complex heist; this is an 1800-ton vessel with a crew of almost 60, so an Ocean's Eleven-style heist could easily have taken place. In which case, the j-torp might have been reporting whatever the preliminary step was. Maybe the captain used this method to securely send HQ a proposal by a group of Outrim pirates to cooperate for profit at the expense of the Barracai Technum? He wouldn't want to send such an incriminating message through ordinary channels.

Anyway, after docking at the Way Station, they got down to brass tacks. I had Anders offer them two options: they could polish off the work in a few weeks with the parts available, which would "reset" the Highndry back to "factory defaults". Or, they could keep the higher-TL parts, and he would have to source them and have them shipped, which would probably take upwards of 16 weeks. They opted for the latter. Then, Anders offered them temporary employment enforcing the interdiction of 875-496; I've decided the Scouts interdicted the world to protect the natives from Imperial contamination. They accepted, so next week we'll start "Search & Rescue". I'll try to set a cliffhanger with the crash of the liner. We'll see how far they get. I expect them to be wowed with the SAR toys!

Does Anders know he works for The Big Boss?

 

[coliver988]

and also I think misjumps can be time skewed. If not canon it can still happen since jump torpedoes are no longer canon either so maybe the misjump took it back 2 years or whatever. Causality be darned!

 

[AlHazred]

and also I think misjumps can be time skewed. If not canon it can still happen since jump torpedoes are no longer canon either so maybe the misjump took it back 2 years or whatever. Causality be darned!

Yeah, I thought of that, but I don't think backwards time travel will be necessary to fix my goof. This time, at least.

Does Anders know he works for The Big Boss?

I don't understand the reference.

 

[kilemall]

Yeah, I thought of that, but I don't think backwards time travel will be necessary to fix my goof. This time, at least.

I don't understand the reference.

You had Anders offer options, which can be construed as directing him to act as though you are his boss. And since you’re the ref, I was wondering if he was aware he’s an NPC and you are the godlike Ref.

All jokes are dead if you have to explain them. This one might be deader then usual.

 

[AlHazred]

You had Anders offer options, which can be construed as directing him to act as though you are his boss. And since you’re the ref, I was wondering if he was aware he’s an NPC and you are the godlike Ref.

All jokes are dead if you have to explain them. This one might be deader then usual.

I thought it might have been a reference I missed! I loved CT, stopped picking up the stuff early in the MT era (wasn't fond of the way it was going), and resumed with Traveller Hero, so I miss a lot of references! I've really only got the core books for the other editions, and they don't put as much setting material in them anymore; that was an artifact of CT book design.

 

[AlHazred]

You had Anders offer options, which can be construed as directing him to act as though you are his boss. And since you’re the ref, I was wondering if he was aware he’s an NPC and you are the godlike Ref.

All jokes are dead if you have to explain them. This one might be deader then usual.

Oh, also, Anders is just really interested in making sure his "bait" is functional; he doesn't really care if the PCs want it one or the other, so I had him offer them options. They are fully aware they're going to be "bait," but Anders also pointed out he needs them to survive to get back to him with the information he wants! He is 100% certain the Sword Worlds Confederation has a plot in the works that could cause the Imperium massive troubles.

 

[AlHazred]

The players jumped at the salaries offered as they are still desperately poor. Once they got to the 875-496 station, they were pleased with their new toys. Sar Aylen gave them a tour and went over her expectations as XO. They got to meet the Station Commander, Chrix Derison, who told them the station crew is "like a family" which immediately set off red flags with the players. All good stuff.

We roleplayed a total of five weeks so far of relatively boring Search and Rescue patrol duty. I made sure to give them a taste of the Navy's Dindy codes, where Naval vessels can enter the interdicted system surreptitiously, being automatically edited out of any of the system's sensors, even live feeds; the PCs will almost certainly try to figure out a way to bypass the Dindy coding in the systems, but they're not willing to mess too much with equipment that isn't theirs, because they know if they brick it they'll have to pay for it.

They are already thinking of ways to have some of the cool SAR gear be "misplaced" so they can retrieve it later. Which is fine, they're not Battle Dress they're just really, really good Vacc Suits. But to this point in the campaign, they've been making do with the disposable Pressure Sleeves and Rebreathers (they're that poor). It's been a while since I ran a game where the PCs started out this far down to the bottom of the barrel.

I ended with a teaser of a random encounter on the Station when they came in after their patrol. A bunch of religious types were going through and decided to do a ceremony and preach to the godless masses of the Station. As the PCs came in, spoiled vegetables started to be thrown and the mood turned ugly. I will use this as a teaser for a Patron encounter I found online; they aren't really in a position to move on from the system, but if they help any of the pilgrims they'll be remembered for a future service.

 

[AlHazred]

I had a few weeks' hiatus but the players completed the several months of rescue work with the rescue of the Amishi. They realized they might have trouble distinguishing hostages from hijackers, so the team medic used sedatives to sedate everybody as they were recovered; they were then brought to one of the brigs. The upshot was, only two hijackers were killed in the process -- one I added, and Marin the Mastermind. The hidden hijacker was unable to do anything really sneaky, and I decided there'd been enough of a lull, that I let her slide and decided she'd try to escape from the Station. They did steal all of the prepared High Passenger food trays and beverages in the lounge as they did their sweeps of the ship. They rescued the noble before he died and used restraints because they were afraid he'd commit suicide. Altogether, the XO had no cause for complaint with them. She was feeling generous with her promotion -- she's Acting Commander now, but fully expects it to be made official in a while. As a result, she went easy on them when five Naval Rescue Suits and maneuver packs mysteriously were "lost in action" during the various rescues before they left.

They made it back to Flammarion and, after doing their checks, accepted the refitted Highndry. They are keeping the smuggling compartments, but the Scouts have done what they could to make them safer and more useful, with subtle tie-downs and better sealing gaskets. They stocked their stolen High Passage meals in the galley, along with the Amishi's high-end booze. They're keeping the vacc suits in the Highndry (the Scouts restocked it to spec) but using their Rescue Suits -- I suspect the vacc suits may end up being sold at some point if they need cash.

They decided to go to Caladbolg by way of Enos, to enter the Sword Worlds proper along a route with better ports for trade.

 

[AlHazred]

So, I had decided off-the-cuff that there was exactly 1 ton of freight headed to Enos. I did that, not remembering anything about Enos from the Mongoose Sword Worlds book.

Reading the book, even 1 ton of freight is a lot! It's a low-pop E-class world with a Sword Worlder culture and some hinky Confederation Navy shenanigans apparently going on. So, last night while I was getting my daughter to sleep, I was laying there thinking about how to introduce Sword Worlder culture to the PCs and a few ideas gelled.

I thought it was time to introduce an interesting NPC. I like Cugel the Clever (from the Jack Vance books Eyes of the Overworld and Cugel's Saga) so I invented Reynard Fuchs (pronounce FEWks). In my head, I pictured his background: great-great-great-grandparents "emigrated" from the Sword Worlds to the 3I -- in the SWC, Holmgang Duels are illegal and supposed to be nonlethal, but people do get killed, and the survivor's family can leave the SWC to avoid retribution and legal consequences. Then, Reynard's parent emigrated back. So he's a sort-of-Imperial sort-of-Sword Worlder. Just to give him a lot of baggage, because baggage can be interesting, I decided he's also of Lapp extraction, and the Suomi (Lapps) were historically viewed by the Vikings as tricksters and sorcerers. So, he's basically a second-class citizen everywhere in the SWC.

I picture the likely series of events: the players land at the "starport" which is just a flat stone area surrounded by concrete baffles and lightning rods next to the airfields. There's no office. Travellers will be told to go to the Utlendingsbar if they all about the recipient of their cargo, "Clan Hevnarstead." The bartender pretends not to speak Anglic. If they mention Hevnarsteaf, a short guy at the bar takes an interest. It's Reynard, and he offers to be their guide for a small fee. Through him i can start to introduce Sword Worlds culture.

 

[AlHazred]

My idea is that Reynard swore to follow Captain Slangr Hevnar as steward and pilot for, let's say four years. Slangr, however, eventually headed back to Enos to take over the clan holdings after someone passed away. Reynard is stuck in his contract (in the Sword Worlds, word is bond -- if he leaves he's broken the contract, and Slangr doesn't care about Reynard at all as he's not kin). But he has no work. He won't starve, he basically has a status of a bondr of clan Hevnar, so he gets subsistence food and drink on Enos, but he has no prospects. He's a bit of a scoundrel, though, and has a plan to liven things up. He signs on as "skald," and asks the PCs for a Cr100 advance, cash.

He can tell players the basic info about Enos from the Sword Worlds book: there's one main settlement at the South Pole (not given a name in the book, but I'm calling it Óskópnir, which is the spot where Ragnarok will be fought in one account). Clans have mostly-independent holds elsewhere on the planet, where they do some mining and petrochemical refinement, but it's not a Rich world by any standard. The outsystem is a bunch of smaller rocky bodies. The mainworld was destined to be a super-sized planet when an ancient impact caused it to shed much of its mass in blobs that became the outsystem while the dense, metallic core remained as Enos. It's non-Agricultural and Poor, but Sword Worlds traders frequently come here and sell their goods to the local clan leaders at ridiculously low prices. No Imperial ship has docked here in years.

He directs their air/raft to Hevnarstead. "The Hevnar clan is well-known for their generosity." (A patent lie.) When they get out, he falls and gets a black eye, but shrugs it off. When they enter the compound, the guards take control of the 1 dton shipment crate as Slangr comes over with his guards. My players will be curious, so I'll let them make Perception rolls to see if they see anything. I've no immediate ideas, so the old standby of "advanced weapons parts" may end up being what I go with; the local TL is 4 (CT)/7 (GT), but the implication in the MGT2 Sword Worlds book is that the system is being set up as an advance base for eventual SWC aggression towards District 268/Five Sisters/etc. So, having a cache of higher TL weapons in-system would be beneficial logistics for the Confederate Navy.

Reynard has been chatting with a guard, and now approaches Slangr and does the business stuff per Sword Worlds cultural norms: he gets the PCs' paperwork signed, and asks if he can get work with Slangr. "These offworlders, they are cruel masters! They beat me! Look at my black eye!" He throws himself at Slangr's feet, but Slangr recoils and then bursts out laughing. "I stay on-planet for now, worm! You should have been more circumspect with your bonds! Blame your own tongue!" "At least let me serve as carl to work through my remaining time! I could work at your farm!" (Enos requires dedicated hydroponic farms to allow for crop-growing. It's not going to be enough to support any population expansion, but I have a hard time seeing Sword Worlders not trying to be self-sufficient.) "Ha! You, a carl! Well... I am feeling generous. Currently, Vígríðr is full. But when we start with Surtshellir in a few years, I will see if you are... still alive! Ha ha ha!" He leaves. Reynard picks himself up, and talks to the same guard from before as they leave.

"We're in luck! He said we can take a full load from his water tanks!" "What?" "Yes, he has full tanks at one of his farms, I will direct you!" They go into the desolation many miles via air/raft and arrive at a monolithic enclosed hydroponic farm, in brutalist architectural style. "There's no one here! I doubt he said we could have water!" "If he didn't, why did he give me the keys?" Reynard jangles some keys on his finger. The place is set up, but nothing is planted yet. Water is stored in vast underground tanks, and transported by plane. I'm picturing the planes being clunky affairs, covered in heat-resistant tiles that constantly have to be replaced. One is in the hangar. Reynard helps them fill up 20 dtons of water tanks and put them in the plane. Of course, as a small craft pilot who has been to many low-tech systems, Reynard can fly the plane. They get back to the airfield, and Reynard helps them fill their starship fuel tanks. "I'll bring this back to our benefactor... Eventually! Perhaps I will test this old plane to make sure it is still airworthy by checking a few sites of interest I have heard of! Look me up if you are ever back on Enos!"

I'm not sure about this whole synopsis. I see many places where it could easily go off the rails. But at least its the bones of an idea... that came to me in the middle of a sleepless night. Hoping typing it all out will reveal the flaws!

Also, I've generated a donjon world map for Enos that I'll use:

 

[AlHazred]

I also had fun when the PCs realized they could easily destroy their own vessel with their main gun.

"Wow! A direct hit from our Beam Laser would shoot through our ship like it was made of tin foil."
"Well, your character is remembering a old saying about the Scout Service. 'The Scouts fly around in itty-bitty little tin cans and get blown into space dust!' These are not military vessels in the strict sense; when impressed into service they're used for reconnaissance and minor transport so they Navy can send its warships to the front."

That was actually an old saying about the Scouts... in my old gaming group in the 80s when new players asked about the differences between the Service Branches.

 

[King Midas]

If you have access (and are interested) GURPS Swordworlds has an interesting write up of Enos. The only notable difference is that the Fire Sea is on the equator in Lorenverse.
1) The plan is to use Megacorp money from harvesting the Fire Sea to develop mines into the lower crust. -->profit.
2) There's a pretty bog standard royal inheritance crisis (of course there is!) that could lead to a civil war if no one is careful.
EDIT: I like the Fire Sea being over the north pole better than on the equator, more room for transport hijinks.

 

[AlHazred]

If you have access (and are interested) GURPS Swordworlds has an interesting write up of Enos. The only notable difference is that the Fire Sea is on the equator in Lorenverse.
1) The plan is to use Megacorp money from harvesting the Fire Sea to develop mines into the lower crust. -->profit.
2) There's a pretty bog standard royal inheritance crisis (of course there is!) that could lead to a civil war if no one is careful.
EDIT: I like the Fire Sea being over the north pole better than on the equator, more room for transport hijinks.

I completely missed that there was a GURPS Sword Worlds book, probably because I don't have a hardcopy; I only have the PDF. Thanks for the head's up!

Based on that (and your suggestion), I have redesigned my world map:

 

[AlHazred]

We had a longer-than-expected pause, since my daughter has decided that nap time is optional (it is not). Enos went off almost exactly as planned, which is very rare when it happens. They made their delivery, got their water, and got out of Dodge.

Next stop is Caladbolg. I'm going to prep Mission to Mithril here. I'd previously tried to run Mission on Mithril for them over a decade ago, but they ended up using their starship to travel directly to the sites and I hadn't come up with a good reason not to -- the plot point of a broken ship didn't end up working, due to other stuff going on in the campaign at the time.

Marches Adventure 2: Mission to Mithil replaces the broken ship part with an EMP bomb that goes off late, when the PCs arrive. EMP bombs show up in at least one other Mongoose adventure which I've already run for them (Great Rift Adventure 3: Flatlined) but I didn't use it there; I saved it for here, because I don't like to reuse gimmicks.

In any case, the group intends to do some shopping, since they've been at a bunch of low-tech planets and will probably go to a bunch more in the near future. Has anyone ever made a shopping trip fun?

EDIT: I say that, and then I remember that, yes, I have made shopping trips fun. But it's a lot of work. I should prep for that.

 

[kilemall]

Shopping trips should involve three elements-

Local shopping area food, of either heavenly or hellish nature primarily memorable

Stores with their desired items but perhaps something unusual- new or odd feature to consider, unusual proprietors, difficulties like intros to even get in, or rarely missions to be undertaken to earn rare/illegal items

Stores that catch their eye with something not on their list but sounds cool or caters to needs- perhaps even setting up for future trips back when it turns out they need that stuff.

The objective should be memorable world building, avoiding planet of the week ruts by associating oh ya that’s the planet with the gun auctioneer with the walrus mustache rather then a video game sales menu.