[Silhouette/Traveller] Online Game (Hard Times or 993IY)
HARD TIMES/SILHOUETTE GAME PITCH
1124 IY/0 SD
The Rebellion has been waged throughout the Imperium for eight long years. Large-scale fighting has broken down into knife fights in various systems between all of the factions. Almost the entire Imperium has felt the rage unleashed throughout the past eight years. The Rimward sectors have seen massive losses to the Solomani Confederation, increasing attacks by reavers, and the decay of technological infrastructure. Coreward, in the Lishun and Corridor sectors, the Vargr reaver bands have swept through the crumbling Imperium domains and now hold sway over vast tracts of space either through terror or occupation and, in many cases, a liberal application of both. In Antares, the Archduke Brzk has declared independence for his domain and found common cause with the Julian Protectorates. In the core of the Imperium, Emperor Lucan’s Black Wars and incessant campaigns against the so-called real Strephon and the assassin, Emperor Dulinor, have laid entire sectors to waste and ruin. All of the sectors around Core and Ielish have seen the beast of war and felt its breath on their neck.
The Rebellion has ended. So has the Third Imperium.
The combatants no longer have the means to press their claims and have retreated to their strongholds in fear of the coming darkness. The stars shine brightly but as chaos consumes the Imperium, the lights of Humaniti and the Imperium have begun to dim. These strongholds now burn the brightest for holding back the end of Humaniti… for the Third Imperium is becoming history and the true enemy, chaos, has shown its face. Corsairs, viking reavers, military units gone rogue and far worse roam the starlanes between the worlds. Within the strongholds, one can find the amenities that we have taken for granted for so long: safety, economy and sanity. But out there it is a different story, as one progresses outside the strongholds to the growing Frontier, the Outlands and the Wilds. Out here, it is life by tooth and claw, ship and gun.
But Trailing… little news has come from the trailing sectors of the Gateway Domain. There was talk of a revolution amongst the Luriani, of loyalist Imperials holding the line against the incursion of Antares, of Dulinor’s commerce raiders, Solomani subversives, K’kree aggression and Vargr raiding. But little else is known and Lucan’s Mad War never made it to the Gateway. That’s what they say anyways. But facing the wreckage of a high-technology warfare and attempted genocide, standing amongst the twisted ruins of warzones and faltering worlds, the chance is there. A chance to get away from the war, to start anew and rebuild or return the way it was. For you and your companions, it is a chance worth taking.
Tl;dr Elevator Pitch
Hard Times Traveller campaign using DP9’s Silhouette mechanics except for ship combat. I made a Silhouette hack of MT’s Expanded Character Generation and it seems to work well. Goal is to run from 1124-onward, campaign will be dangerous, would like to try troupe play (multiple characters per player). Main goal of PC’s is to survive, prosper and get the heck out of the warzone. Scenario ideas include starmerc contracts, privateers, anti-piracy and so on. Play on Roll20/Google Hangouts OR PbP(Rpol.net). Details follow…
DING! Third floor, women’s cosmetics and men’s shoes.
MAIN THEMES/CONCEPTS
Hard Times
All of these ideas take place in the Hard Times. The idea being to follow the progression/regression of the disintegrating Imperium. Scenario ideas will involve raiders, starmercs, the Factions, emerging polities, refugee and dangerous situations. While trading is, as always, an option this will be a far more dangerous Known Space. Entering new systems will be touchy operations until present vessels are identified, local governments may be benevolent or malicious, desperate people abound and are willing to risk everything for escape, profit and power.
Ship
All campaigns will have a ship. I have the entire line of 0-hour ship products. They are non-Traveller but beautiful deck plans. The ships will be chosen from this line unless someone is dying to use black and white graphline deckplans. The range of available ships is dependent on the type of campaign but it will be your choice. (I’m not giving you a patrol carrier in a Free Trader game.)
Basic Ship Images here:
http://0-hr.com/Future_Armada/Gallery.htm
http://0-hr.com/Future_Armada/Art/Group_Portrait.jpg
No Ship Mortgage
All but one idea involves the Group having a ship free and clear of debt. Usually this is because it has been stolen/adversely possessed or something else from Lucan’s Faction. This is justified due to his involvement in the Black War so you can still be honorable despite being a ship thief. The Hard Times will put an end to reliable banking and commerce. This will make maintenance and supply hard enough on reduced trading opportunities (and more danger) without having a mortgage payment. Only one particular idea involves a ship mortgage: your classic Free Trader campaign. In that, the Group/GM will have to decide how the mortgage is handled when the theater travels outside the bank’s region… do they abandon the mortgage or try to cut a deal?
Dwindling Resources
The Hard Times make survival and keeping your ship running a much more difficult proposition. With no mortgage, the focus will be on resupply and making sure you have enough food/fuel to make it. This will require some bean-counting but I can handle the majority of it if necessary. In other words, you’re still scrimping and scraping by but it’s not because of the bank.
Escape/Going Home
Many of the ideas involve the Group heading for safety or away from the war. In several situations, they are considered fugitives. But the original goal of the group is to get out of the warzone and to somewhere else such as the Gateway Domain, Deneb Domain or elsewhere. This is due to members of the Group hailing from the region or due to news about it. These regions are spacer stories of peace, profit and stability. To find out the truth, first they must get there.
My original goal was Ley Sector/Gateway Domain since that’s my favorite location and it’s completely open for Rebellion/Hard Times interpretation. A game region encompassing six subsectors in Fornast, six in Ley, two in Empty Quarter and two in Antares is the original stomping ground that I’ve been working on.
Digging more into the material, I’ve discovered a number of other interesting areas. I’m willing to leave it up to the players where their “paradise” is located with a preference for the region above (since I’ve been working on it already). Running through devastated Corridor to get to the Spinward Marches sounds fun too.
Either way, the Group will be far away from “Home”.
Troupe Play
Most of the ideas below can also involve Troupe Play. This is where the players can have more than one Character on the ship. This is because some of the ships are large and manned by big crews, provides more versatility in scenarios, more options for the player to experience the different parts of the game. There will be general rules limiting a player to one character per scene as much as allowed. This will also assist us in covering for less players interested in this kind of game. How this is done is up to the players… a command team character and line team character or combat and non-combat? Your call.
RULES SUMMARY
Silhouette Mechanics
This will use DP9’s Silhouette (Heavy Gear/Jovian Chronicles) for all mechanics except spacecraft warfare. This includes attributes, skills, perks/flaws. Smaller fighter combat may be used in either system. The conversion is fairly obvious as skill levels are similar and the attributes use +/-. It’s a d6 system with a dice pool with attributes providing modifiers. The vehicle/tactical combat system is really good and will make military/combat expeditions more interesting and coherent.
Mongoose Spacecraft/Space Combat
Since this is the easiest and has the most ship templates available, we’ll use Mongoose for ship combat. In addition, all ships will be statted using Mongoose with a little jimmying here and there.
Megatraveller/Silhouette Expanded Character Generation
The expanded generation tables for MT have been hacked to work for this game. I’ve done a number of test chargen and it seems to work fairly well. They’re a little underpowered for Silhouette but the ability to improve skills and pick up new ones should remedy that.
AVAILABLE: Pre-Career, Army, Marines, Navy, Scouts, Merchant Prince, Agent, Bounty Hunter
EXPECTED AVAILABILITY: Noble, Criminal, Privateer/Corsair, Law Enforcer, Scientist (ie. I’m working on ‘em!)
Equipment/Weaponry
I’m merging Silhouette and Traveller equipment. It’ll work… trust me. Basically, if you want something off the Traveller equipment list, I’ll find equivalent stats/benefits in Silhouette or make them up. Ditto in reverse. Battledress is easily built as exo-suits in Silhouette and I’m open to allowing larger models (gears) if people want.
HARD TIMES/SILHOUETTE GAME PITCH
1124 IY/0 SD
The Rebellion has been waged throughout the Imperium for eight long years. Large-scale fighting has broken down into knife fights in various systems between all of the factions. Almost the entire Imperium has felt the rage unleashed throughout the past eight years. The Rimward sectors have seen massive losses to the Solomani Confederation, increasing attacks by reavers, and the decay of technological infrastructure. Coreward, in the Lishun and Corridor sectors, the Vargr reaver bands have swept through the crumbling Imperium domains and now hold sway over vast tracts of space either through terror or occupation and, in many cases, a liberal application of both. In Antares, the Archduke Brzk has declared independence for his domain and found common cause with the Julian Protectorates. In the core of the Imperium, Emperor Lucan’s Black Wars and incessant campaigns against the so-called real Strephon and the assassin, Emperor Dulinor, have laid entire sectors to waste and ruin. All of the sectors around Core and Ielish have seen the beast of war and felt its breath on their neck.
The Rebellion has ended. So has the Third Imperium.
The combatants no longer have the means to press their claims and have retreated to their strongholds in fear of the coming darkness. The stars shine brightly but as chaos consumes the Imperium, the lights of Humaniti and the Imperium have begun to dim. These strongholds now burn the brightest for holding back the end of Humaniti… for the Third Imperium is becoming history and the true enemy, chaos, has shown its face. Corsairs, viking reavers, military units gone rogue and far worse roam the starlanes between the worlds. Within the strongholds, one can find the amenities that we have taken for granted for so long: safety, economy and sanity. But out there it is a different story, as one progresses outside the strongholds to the growing Frontier, the Outlands and the Wilds. Out here, it is life by tooth and claw, ship and gun.
But Trailing… little news has come from the trailing sectors of the Gateway Domain. There was talk of a revolution amongst the Luriani, of loyalist Imperials holding the line against the incursion of Antares, of Dulinor’s commerce raiders, Solomani subversives, K’kree aggression and Vargr raiding. But little else is known and Lucan’s Mad War never made it to the Gateway. That’s what they say anyways. But facing the wreckage of a high-technology warfare and attempted genocide, standing amongst the twisted ruins of warzones and faltering worlds, the chance is there. A chance to get away from the war, to start anew and rebuild or return the way it was. For you and your companions, it is a chance worth taking.
Tl;dr Elevator Pitch
Hard Times Traveller campaign using DP9’s Silhouette mechanics except for ship combat. I made a Silhouette hack of MT’s Expanded Character Generation and it seems to work well. Goal is to run from 1124-onward, campaign will be dangerous, would like to try troupe play (multiple characters per player). Main goal of PC’s is to survive, prosper and get the heck out of the warzone. Scenario ideas include starmerc contracts, privateers, anti-piracy and so on. Play on Roll20/Google Hangouts OR PbP(Rpol.net). Details follow…
DING! Third floor, women’s cosmetics and men’s shoes.
MAIN THEMES/CONCEPTS
Hard Times
All of these ideas take place in the Hard Times. The idea being to follow the progression/regression of the disintegrating Imperium. Scenario ideas will involve raiders, starmercs, the Factions, emerging polities, refugee and dangerous situations. While trading is, as always, an option this will be a far more dangerous Known Space. Entering new systems will be touchy operations until present vessels are identified, local governments may be benevolent or malicious, desperate people abound and are willing to risk everything for escape, profit and power.
Ship
All campaigns will have a ship. I have the entire line of 0-hour ship products. They are non-Traveller but beautiful deck plans. The ships will be chosen from this line unless someone is dying to use black and white graphline deckplans. The range of available ships is dependent on the type of campaign but it will be your choice. (I’m not giving you a patrol carrier in a Free Trader game.)
Basic Ship Images here:
http://0-hr.com/Future_Armada/Gallery.htm
http://0-hr.com/Future_Armada/Art/Group_Portrait.jpg
No Ship Mortgage
All but one idea involves the Group having a ship free and clear of debt. Usually this is because it has been stolen/adversely possessed or something else from Lucan’s Faction. This is justified due to his involvement in the Black War so you can still be honorable despite being a ship thief. The Hard Times will put an end to reliable banking and commerce. This will make maintenance and supply hard enough on reduced trading opportunities (and more danger) without having a mortgage payment. Only one particular idea involves a ship mortgage: your classic Free Trader campaign. In that, the Group/GM will have to decide how the mortgage is handled when the theater travels outside the bank’s region… do they abandon the mortgage or try to cut a deal?
Dwindling Resources
The Hard Times make survival and keeping your ship running a much more difficult proposition. With no mortgage, the focus will be on resupply and making sure you have enough food/fuel to make it. This will require some bean-counting but I can handle the majority of it if necessary. In other words, you’re still scrimping and scraping by but it’s not because of the bank.
Escape/Going Home
Many of the ideas involve the Group heading for safety or away from the war. In several situations, they are considered fugitives. But the original goal of the group is to get out of the warzone and to somewhere else such as the Gateway Domain, Deneb Domain or elsewhere. This is due to members of the Group hailing from the region or due to news about it. These regions are spacer stories of peace, profit and stability. To find out the truth, first they must get there.
My original goal was Ley Sector/Gateway Domain since that’s my favorite location and it’s completely open for Rebellion/Hard Times interpretation. A game region encompassing six subsectors in Fornast, six in Ley, two in Empty Quarter and two in Antares is the original stomping ground that I’ve been working on.
Digging more into the material, I’ve discovered a number of other interesting areas. I’m willing to leave it up to the players where their “paradise” is located with a preference for the region above (since I’ve been working on it already). Running through devastated Corridor to get to the Spinward Marches sounds fun too.
Either way, the Group will be far away from “Home”.
Troupe Play
Most of the ideas below can also involve Troupe Play. This is where the players can have more than one Character on the ship. This is because some of the ships are large and manned by big crews, provides more versatility in scenarios, more options for the player to experience the different parts of the game. There will be general rules limiting a player to one character per scene as much as allowed. This will also assist us in covering for less players interested in this kind of game. How this is done is up to the players… a command team character and line team character or combat and non-combat? Your call.
RULES SUMMARY
Silhouette Mechanics
This will use DP9’s Silhouette (Heavy Gear/Jovian Chronicles) for all mechanics except spacecraft warfare. This includes attributes, skills, perks/flaws. Smaller fighter combat may be used in either system. The conversion is fairly obvious as skill levels are similar and the attributes use +/-. It’s a d6 system with a dice pool with attributes providing modifiers. The vehicle/tactical combat system is really good and will make military/combat expeditions more interesting and coherent.
Mongoose Spacecraft/Space Combat
Since this is the easiest and has the most ship templates available, we’ll use Mongoose for ship combat. In addition, all ships will be statted using Mongoose with a little jimmying here and there.
Megatraveller/Silhouette Expanded Character Generation
The expanded generation tables for MT have been hacked to work for this game. I’ve done a number of test chargen and it seems to work fairly well. They’re a little underpowered for Silhouette but the ability to improve skills and pick up new ones should remedy that.
AVAILABLE: Pre-Career, Army, Marines, Navy, Scouts, Merchant Prince, Agent, Bounty Hunter
EXPECTED AVAILABILITY: Noble, Criminal, Privateer/Corsair, Law Enforcer, Scientist (ie. I’m working on ‘em!)
Equipment/Weaponry
I’m merging Silhouette and Traveller equipment. It’ll work… trust me. Basically, if you want something off the Traveller equipment list, I’ll find equivalent stats/benefits in Silhouette or make them up. Ditto in reverse. Battledress is easily built as exo-suits in Silhouette and I’m open to allowing larger models (gears) if people want.
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