The Fixers - a highlight reel

[Whipsnade]

Gents,

After a few posts in a recent thread, a couple of people asked me about the various adventures in the campaigns I ran as a GM. It was all a long time ago. I don't remember every detail or every session. What I do remember are certain events in those campaigns, so I can provide a sort of 'highlight reel' of them.

This campaign began as a "Find A Ship" type. The players were an ex-subbie crew who found 'their' ship sold out from under them by the corporation that owned it. My plan was to run a series of adventures that would end with the players earning themselves a ship. That didn't happen. Instead the players drifted into the role of 'fixers'. After a few sessions, their interest in a ship dwindled to nothing. I was able to retcon another goal for the campaign.

Over the course of the campaign I had between 4 and 6 players controlling a 6 to 8 character party. Most of the time there were 4 players running 4 PCs in a 5-6 character party. The additional party members were part of a rotating cast I used to 'insert' whatever special skills a given session or adventure may require. I let the players choose their PCs from a stack of 12 or so I had previously made up on 3x5 cards. (This was because they were part of a pre-existing subbie crew and not an ad hoc grouping.) Over around 40 months of game time there was one PC death, one PC retirement due to injury, and one player dropped their original PC to take up a cast NPC as a new character.

The campaign began on Grote/Glisten with the players suddenly beached after arriving for an annual maintenance period. They immediately began looking for work. The first sessions were 'lite' because I had players new to role-playing and new to Traveller. The players 'worked' a list of prior contacts I'd provided them and were offered a quick job by one of them, the local naval attaché.

The attaché had picked up a piece of commissioning silver, a teaspoon, at a local secondhand shop. The piece turned out to belong to an IN warship that had misjumped at the end of the 3rd Frontier War and had never been seen again. He wanted the players to track down any additional pieces and find out who had originally sold them to the ships where they were found. The attaché could not do this by himself because he feared his involvement would raise too many questions and scare off the original seller. The players tracked down a few more pieces and got a few tidbits of information. There was a lot of legwork, some fisticuffs, a few thugs, and no real answers. (This plot was the one I later retconned into the campaign goal.)

The next job the players were hired for was the one that really hooked them into the role of 'fixers'. Their work for the attaché brought them a job from a local security chief. He had some 'shopping' for them to do too.


Bill

 

[Whipsnade]

Part - 2


A Sacnotian cruiser, damaged in the 5th Frontier War and now part of the Border Worlds Navy, was being overhauled at Grote's yard on the Imperium's 'nickel'. Given Grote's past history with the Sword Worlds in general and Sacnoth in particular, security had been an issue from the start. Things had been tense but under control until credible rumors began circulating about the cruiser's security being breached, in particular the computer systems.

Checks of the systems showed no problems but the chief wanted to be sure. It was rumored a piece of code, allegedly downloaded from the cruiser's systems, was for sale by parties unknown. If that code could be bought and analyzed the extent of the breach could be determined. As with the attaché, known security personnel could not buy the code because no one would deal with them. The players once again worked the street, bought the code, and delivered it to the security chief.

It was at that point that the adventure really began.

There was a dire threat to the Sacnotian cruiser but the computer breach had been a planned red herring by the plotters. They had hired two local hackers; Miss and Moron. The plotters got Miss into the yard where she hacked into part of the cruiser's systems. The plotters then copied some fairly worthless code, had Miss seal things back up, and paid her off. Moron was then hired. He hacked into the operations system belonging to one of Grote's orbiting mass drivers but the plotters told him it was the cruiser. They installed a 'backdoor' in the system for later use, had Moron seal things back up, and gave him the worthless code from the cruiser as part of his payment.

Because the code was of no great use from an intelligence standpoint, the plotters knew that Moron wouldn't be able to sell it as he planned. No one who examined the code would meet Moron's price. To keep security busy, the plotters wanted a rumor out there and not any facts. While security chased the rumor, the plotters would use the mass driver to destroy the cruiser during its post-repair shakedown flight.

When Moron sold the code, the plot went sour. The plotters are afraid their red herring rumor will be revealed. They interrogate Moron to find out what he told people and then kill him. Miss, who the players had approached earlier about the code and who had denied all knowledge of it, now fears for her life. She contacts the players and trades her story bit by bit for protection. The players, keeping their patron in the loop, slowly work out the real plot and the real threat to the cruiser. One key piece of information had to due with the comm lag Moron boasted he was able to work through.

The adventure was a near run thing. I didn't plan on the players automatically succeeding or failing, all they had to do was keep slogging. By the time they'd figured enough things out and suspected that someone had suborned a mass driver's control system, the cruiser was already in flight. Faced with the players' evidence and with little time to act, the Port Warden, an Imperial baron, and the Clan Addakkumak Archon authorized use of the previously secret meson gun battery under the port to destroy the mass driver before it could fire.

The players received some money for their work. More importantly, they also received important contacts with important people who could do important favors. One of those favors would have led to a ship, but that was soon to no longer be the campaign's goal. The player's were also privy to certain secrets that important people wanted kept silent; the plot to destroy the cruiser, how close it came to succeeding, what really happened to that mass driver, the meson gun, etc. Because the players weren't completely interested in a ship just yet, I decided to throw a few more 'fixer' style adventures their way. After all, the usual job for a hard job done well is another hard job. That was the reward my players were choosing, so that's the reward I gave them.

(continued)

 

[Whipsnade]

Part - 3


The players had unwittingly turned the campaign into one in which they worked as 'fixers'. I found the campaign easy to run. The players had the beginnings of a good reputation as troubleshooters among certain movers and shakers. Each new job could enhance their reputation, each new job could add to the number of important people who knew of them, and each new job could lead to other jobs. During the campaign the players didn't succeed all the time, they always did make an effort though. When they did fail it was mostly due to circumstance beyond their control, as a job being much bigger or tougher than the patron originally believed.

With Grote/Glisten acting as a 'center', I ran the campaigns in locations ranging from the Trin, Five Sisters, Lanth, and Egryn subsectors. Transportation was normally provided, usually tickets and more rarely dedicated ships. Special equipment was either provided outright or money was provided for its purchase. Specialists were provided in the form of NPCs if the job required one. One NPC specialist was taken over full time by a player.

The jobs range from the serious to the silly; I was the GM after all. There was not a lot of heavy gunplay either, although one PC died and another was retired due to injuries. I tried to make most of the adventures puzzling in one way or another. Neither planet nor space settings predominated. There were a few straightforward adventures, mostly of the "Deliver This Person/Parcel" type. The campaign's meta-plot resolving the fate of the misjumped IN warship reappeared three or four times as an adventure but also ran continually in the background. Sometimes the players 'worked' the meta-plot for the naval attaché and sometimes they worked it on their own.

Other than the two "Wrecker" adventures I wrote about earlier, the players were involved in the following adventures. I also recycled or 'twisted' several published adventures and Amber Zones. These adventure highlights are in no particular order because I no longer remember the exact order!

(continued

 

[Whipsnade]

Part - 4


- This was nearly a straight rip from Hammett's 'Nightmare Town' set on Koenig's Rock in Bowman/District 268. The players arrived on a wholly innocuous errand but the criminal cartel that ran the Rock refused to believe that. The cartel's various factions immediately freaked out and a power struggle broke out. Originally the cartel had been planning on abandoning the Rock after destroying portions of it to cover their tracks. Lately certain factions had wanted to stay. Factions and individual began acting against each other and the players. The players defended themselves in the chaos, rode out the storm, and prevented wholesale damage to the habitat. They then helped the IISS and LSP make sense of it all and pick up the pieces. Much later they found out their patron for that job had sent them to Koenig's hoping that their presence would cause what actually happened.

- There was an investigation of a series of deaths among researchers on Dawnworld/District 268. People had been dying in accidents but it seemed there were a few too many of them. Also, the latest deaths had been rather odd; a very experienced pair of surveyors who had been on-planet for quite some time and should have know better tried to 'hike out' after their air/raft became disabled and were killed by wildlife. The Grote-based corporation that handled all support staff for the project was worried that the universities and foundations that the research staff worked for would begin asking questions. The players were sent in as part of a new draft of workers to look around.

The players eventually tied some of the deaths to a plot by members of the support staff to keep a pre-Maghiz Darrian archeological site under wraps. The secret was protected by 'layers' of 'truth'. Some members of the plot that gems were involved, others thought it was rare ores, only a few new about the Darrian site. There was a hint of Sword Worlds involvement too, nothing hard the players could prove and no Swordy bodies to produce however. A PC died in this adventure.

(continued)

 

[Whipsnade]

Part - 5


- The players helped extract an idiot heir and his sizeable bankroll from a Ruritanian-style country on Marastan/Glisten. I think I got this plot from another Hammett story. They worked with a retainer of the noble family in question. The adventure was played for laughs at first and slowly got darker. The idiot had been conned into travelling to the country with the idea he could be crowned king. He had been convinced his money would finance a revolution against the current corrupt, incompetent government and replace it with an enlightened constitutional monarchy with him on the throne.

The two men who had lured him to the country; an army officer and an aide to the current, delusional president had begun to fall out with each other as soon as the heir's money arrived. Neither could decide on when to launch the revolution because neither could decide on how they would share power in the post-revolutionary government. Things had been delayed so long that even the idiot heir was beginning to realize that the revolution would never occur and he'd be useful only as long as his money held out.

Meanwhile, the country was slowly devolving into a clutch of squabbling 'baronies' led by large landowners each in his own mountain valley, the economy was at a barter basis, the only hard currency was the heir's CrImps, what could barely be called an army was being paid in foodstuffs, an endemic border war was sputtering with another failed nation in the same mountain chain, a large successful coastal nation on another border was seriously debating whether to occupy the country for humanitarian reasons, and the heir wanted to make sure his local girlfriend, a tap dancing accordion player, could leave with him.

The players, the retainer, the heir, the girlfriend, and about a fifth of his money got out on the last monorail. They did this after dodging a barracks revolt, watching the officer and aide arranging each other's deaths, and dealing with a rather nasty secret police chief arranging a 'take it or die' deal.

(continued)

 

[Whipsnade]

Part - 6

- The players first investigated and later helped thwart outbreaks of government directed unrest towards off-worlders on Forine/District 268. Aside from the usual 'spontaneous' demonstrations by politically reliable types brought in for that express purpose, the Forini authorities had begun 'seeding' the startown with various hard case criminals on generous salaries. As the incidents increased, the Imperium became concerned.

The political situation in District 268 precluded any overt gunboat diplomacy. If the Imperium was seen as 'bullying' Forine a number of negotiations and agreements with other District worlds would be jeopardized. At the same time, the system's astrographic position was important to the trade routes in the region. Forine's port had to be kept open, but the Imperium couldn't send in the Marines.

The players worked in Forine's startown off and on for several months in between other jobs. They did more 'wetwork' in this adventure than in any other, several thugs and their paymasters went 'missing' during the players' time there. The adventure's denouement occurred when another 'spontaneous' outbreak cut off the startown from the port. With access tunnels blocked and utilities cut, the off-world community barricaded itself against the government controlled 'rioters'. The players worked with the startown's leaders throughout the siege, assisted at the barricades, negotiated with low level Forini flunkies, and lead raids for supplies. The arrival of an IN task force, summoned by the Imperial consulate before the siege began for a 'friendly' visit, ended the siege.

- The players did a few tours as 'soft' security aboard Al Morai liners. Soft security consists of non-uniformed security types posing as passengers. These tours allowed me to run 'one session' adventures dealing with 'simple' mysteries like theft, assault, cheats, small package smuggling, drunk 'wrangling', and the like. I reworked CT's "Murder on Arcturus Station" for one of the few "Murder In Jumpspace" adventures I ever ran.

In another wonderfully silly adventure aboard an Al Morai liner the players got stuck minding an absolute 'party animal' for a three jump trip. "Slappy" never slept, gambled on everything, and had an enormous appetite for food, booze, drugs, and women. Imagine Rodney Dangerfield in "Caddyshack" crossed with Keith Richards. "Slappy" caused all sorts of problems with other passengers, even the crew lost patience with him. He wore the PCs completely OUT and the players laughed themselves sick throughout the entire session. Much later I let them nearly bump into "Slappy" on a starport concourse. They hid in a fresher until "Slappy" moved on!

(continued)

 

[Whipsnade]

Part - 7

- I ran a very disappointing scientific "mcguffin" adventure. The players were brought in to baby-sit a group of bickering researchers sequestered in the clichéd remote facility. The project was supposedly near completion but progress had stalled for unknown reasons. I hadn't settled on whether there was an actual villain involved or whether it was just bickering among the staff. I wanted to run such an adventure because I was itching to use MT's nifty research rules.

The whole adventure never really took off. The twitchy personalities I'd written for the various researchers never jelled for one thing, there were too many 'speaking' NPCs for another. I kept trying to use those research rules too, kept trying to force them into the mix. After dragging on for a few sessions, I finally rushed the adventure to a close. The project had something to do with sensor equipment IIRC.

- Another of my failed adventures in the campaign involved two feuding crime families in a startown. The players got brought in after a starport employee was killed across the extrality line. The local cops, who were crooked naturally, simply went through the motions. The local SPA couldn't investigate the murder themselves because of political concerns so the players were brought in.

The SPA employee had been killed by mistake, his name was similar to the actual target and the mooks involved got mixed up. The two families were the clichéd quasi-legal, quasi-criminal types with various bits of business on both sides of the extrality line. They'd recently got into a snit with each other and a low level gang war was in progress. When the players began nosing around, mooks from both sides took a run at them thinking the players were working for the other side. I think that is what changed to adventure from what I had planned.

I'd expected the players to investigate the situation and then play each family against the other, just as Clint Eastwood does in one of those spaghetti westerns. I figured the players would trick each family into killing the other off. Instead, they began compiling a dossier on the activities of the two families. They researched titles, interviewed people, took statements, and did all sorts of other paperwork instead of wading in and stirring things up. I think it was the way I set things up, it may have looked too tough to the players or the families may have seemed too cohesive. Whatever the reason, the group played it out very differently from what I had planned.

In the end, the SPA admin chief accepted the dossier they compiled with a bemused look. I let the players hear a few times later that a police crackdown at the Imperium's insistence had begun to clean things up.

(continued)

 

[Whipsnade]

Part - 8

- In an adventure on Grote/Glisten, I had the players look into the murder of a very mysterious man. I deliberately avoided providing any final answers; things are sometimes too pat in role-playing adventures. I wanted things to remain unsettled, to keep gnawing at the players. Anyway, the players were given the job by a well-connected broker/trader.

The victim had been found knifed to death in a small room he rented. The body had been searched before the players arrived. There were no witnesses or strong leads. Searching the room, the players found a 'spooker'. That's a kit agents keep hidden but close to hand which contains a getaway kit: valuables that can be bartered, a chunk of money, several IDS, and a weapon.

The connection between the victim and the broker was odd. The victim had appeared on Grote, lived quietly, and fed the broker what appeared to be inside information about future ship cargos arriving at Grote's starport. He began by sending the broker written notes saying "Rose of Immi, Day 135 to 142, 300 dTons of nobble hides" or some such. Sure enough, sometime during the noted week, that ship would arrive with nobble hides. The broker used the information to his advantage naturally. It never added up to millions, but it did make him money. The victim never asked the broker for money or anything else. This all went on for nearly two years before the victim was knifed and involved perhaps 50 cargos in all.

None of the leads the players followed ever amounted to anything. There seemed to be a Trexalon connection, one of the better IDs was from there. The ships he'd tipped the broker about didn't seem to fit any pattern; they were all types and all registries. The cargos fit no pattern either, it could be ores one cargo and wine the next, both straight freight and speculative goods too. One cargo from Tarkine/District 268 seemed odd, its selling price didn't cover the freighting costs, but that lead faded too. The players even dabbled in psionics a bit by bringing in a sensitive to 'read' the room and the victim's few effects in the theory he might have been a precog. Nothing really definitive ever turned up, but it's certain the victim had been up to something.

This drove the players mad, which was what I was going for!

(continued)

 

[Whipsnade]

Part - 9

- A similar adventure had the players acting as bodyguards and legmen for another mystery man. The players were recommended for the job by their friend the naval attaché on Grote.

The job involved a round trip between Glisten/Glisten and Collace/District 268. Instead of travelling aboard jump4 low berth liners between large ports, the usual practice for trips between hi-pop worlds IMTU, the players and their employer took smaller ships on shorter hops between backwater worlds.

At each port, their employer would send them off to work the street picking up whatever information they could find about independent shipping and the cargos they were handling. Occasionally, he'd have them dig up more information about specific ships or cargos. There seemed to be no pattern in his requests; there wasn't because I just made them up, and the players let their imaginations run wild. Their employer never answered any questions and made it clear that too many questions would end their employment. Other than that he was very genial.

Because they were nosing around in loading docks, bars, hiring halls, chandlers' offices, and other places, the players had a few fists thrown at them. Nothing they were doing was illegal but some folks don't like nosy people. Things never got hairier than shouting, shoving, and a few punches however.

Their employer would set himself up in a suite of rooms at a mid-range starport hotel. Some of the players, always in rotation, would stay with him in the suite while the others had rooms nearby. He provided "walking around" money and the occasional bonus. The bonuses never followed any pattern either. Their employer always took a few players with him when he dined out or hit a bar.

The players took their pay, took whatever bonuses came their way, enjoyed the trip, and never learned anything about their employer's business at all. Again, it drove them crazy!

(continued)

 

[Whipsnade]

Part - 10

- The meta-plot about the location of the lost IN warship was resolved in 4 or 5 separate adventures. The players began with the commissioning silver. That gave them the name of a man and the name of a ship. They found the ship first, a seeker that had been through several hands, but that was of no real help. They then stumbled across the man during another adventure but lost track of him before they could question him. Using the little information they'd gathered, the naval attaché kept tabs on the seeker in the hopes that the man would turn up later.

Much later the players found their man in a LSP lockup in the Bowman/District 268 system. Plans were being made to bust him out when they realized they could just pay his fine instead! The man, an elderly ne'er-do-well belter with a bad temper, admitted he'd been aboard the warship and that it was in deep space off the Nirton/District 268 system. The ship was partially buried in a cometary fragment. (This was well before I'd heard of KBOs.) The exact location could be determined from the files in his old seeker's computer. The players planned on simply handing the old bastard over to the naval attaché on Grote/Glisten, the man whose job had started all this. However, before they could leave Bowman/District 268, someone tried to kill the old SOB twice. He finally gave up the rest of his story after the second attempt.

He and a partner had stumbled across the warship while plotting locations and placing fuel/supply caches for smugglers. That's why they'd been in deep space in the first place; they'd been finding ice bodies for certain nasty types to either refuel form or hideout at. The two belters had planned on keeping the discovery quiet and looting it on their own, but one of the smugglers had found some items the belters had taken and the gang quickly beat the information out of them. The two did manage to slip away once, but got tracked down and the old belter's partner was killed. The old SOB had barely stayed ahead of the smugglers, running out of money in the process. He lost his seeker to creditors, sold what silver he had left, and drifted around the District trying to stay low.

The smugglers in the meantime had begun using the accessible parts of the wreck as a base and were very slowly excavating the rest. The excavating went on in fits and starts. The smugglers weren't that interested in the job because a few of them had died attempting it. They also didn't want to 'import' the skills the job required.

(continued)

 

[Whipsnade]

Part - 11

After picking up the old belter, this part of the campaign became the usual "Race Against Time" challenge. The players, with the belter in tow, ran around tracking down the seeker. They found it in the Caliburn/Sword Worlds system and simply paid off the current owners for access to the computer. The players had made all sorts of contingency plans to get at to computer up to hijacking the seeker for a period, but an approach that involved an envelope full of CrImps worked just as well.

They then jumped to Caladbolg/Sword Worlds aboard a far trader. That trip was very tense. The players began acting in an extremely paranoid fashion with absolutely no prompting from me. I mirrored their fears back at them by having the trader's crew act more suspiciously each day. Every time the players twitched, I had the crew twitch in return. The tension only broke after arrival in Caladbolg/Sword Worlds when the trader's crew was able to radio their fears to the port. The players were met by SPA cops when they disembarked. There were a lot of questions to answer. Only an intercession by a former employer got the players released in time to make the bimonthly packet to Grote/Glisten.

Of course, I sprang the next assassination attempt on the packet!

They handled that attempt, arrived at Grote/Glisten, and reported to the naval attaché. He agreed that time was paramount. The smuggler knew that the secret was out so it was certain they would evacuate the wreck as soon as they could get a ship there. After the attaché called in a few favors and two weeks later, he and the players exited jump space near the wreck's position aboard a Clan Addakkumak 600dTon route patroller.

The rest was rather anti-climatic. The route patroller easily pranged both of the smugglers' ships hanging off the wreck and the profor troops aboard the patroller's cutter boarded the wreck almost before the smugglers realized they were under attack. The players were part of the second boarding party. With most of the troopers involved in securing the smugglers' ships, the players were part of the force that swept the wreck itself.

I spent another session after that one wrapping things up. The players, the attaché, and a few prisoners travelled to the IN base at Mertactor/District 268. It was just a clean-up style session with the players being debriefed and other housekeeping chores getting handled. The campaign had been going on for some time by now and, seeing as we'd just wrapped up the meta-plot, we all decided to move on to something new. We did 'park' the campaign and leave the PCs in 'neutral'. That was a trick our group did so we could switch between games and pick up campaigns at a later date. It let us take breaks from wargaming or role-playing and kept things form getting stale. We never did pick up the "Fixers" campaign again though.

(finish)

 

[Supplement Four]

So many people just talk about Traveller. I'd wager that the vast majority of membership of the TML (I know, from a poll that was done there), and the readers of this forum, don't actually play the game--they just follow it.

It's so damn good to see people actually playing and sharing their experiences.

I see, from your first post, that your game was some time ago, but it's a cool read anyway.

-S4

 

[Whipsnade]

Originally posted by Supplement Four:
It's so damn good to see people actually playing and sharing their experiences.

S4,

Thanks. Sadly, I've done more than my share of talking.

Playing is always better than talking, that's why the UGM is as good as it is. It's actually been played and tested through play.


Have fun,
Bill

 

[Whipsnade]

I've been asked for more details about certain adventures. This a was all nearly 20 years ago so my memory of it isn't the best.

Concerning the meta-plot and the attempts to kill the old belter: The smuggling group tried to kill him three times, twice in Bowman and once in jump between Caladbolg and Grote. The first attempt was a beating, then they took a shot at him. In the last attempt the assailant tried to stab him.

No one from the smuggling ring's upper echelons was directing these attempts, that sort of coordination is impossible given Traveller's comm lag. Instead, all of the ring's local 'representatives' had orders to keep an eye out for the old belter and silence him if necessary. The Bowman part of the ring knew he was in the LSP lock-up and felt he was safe enough there. They could wait for him to be released and make a decision about how to handle things then.

When the players bailed the belter out and were seen talking with him, the local group felt they had to act. They first beat him both as a warning to keep his mouth shut and to find out what he had told the players. When the players stopped the beating, the Bowman group fell into a panic. They took their first chance to shoot the belter, which the players foiled again.

The two attempts finally convinced the old belter to throw his lot in with the players. He'd thanked them for paying his fine, refused to answer any but the most basic questions, and then walked off into a beating. That put him back in the players' hands. He answered a few more questions and wanted money for more answers. When he got shot at he broke down and began cooperating fully.

The Bowman group may have missed their chances, but they also passed world to other parts of the smuggling ring that the belter was free and talking to people. There was either no part of the group in Caliburn or the group didn't now about the seeker. It didn't matter anyway. There was a part of the ring in Caladbolg and, when they spotted the players and belter, they knew they had to act.

They put a pro aboard the Caladbolg-Grote packet with a contract to kill the old belter. Packets IMTU are middling size vessels flying very tightly scheduled routes. Aside from critical freight, they carry many more middle and low passengers than high passenger. There were perhaps 100 'warm' passengers aboard the packet including the players, the old belter, and the pro.

You stab people with damn near anything; pens, combs, eating utensils, tools, whatever, so the pro didn't really need to sneak any special weapons aboard. The players tried to keep the old belter under wraps in his cabin, but the crotchety old SOB still had to leave to eat. (They tried to arrange a meal service, even suggested bribes, but failed. Taking food off the mess deck was frowned on by the crew too.) Also, as the flight went on, they relaxed somewhat.

The pro had been spending most his flight in the packet's gym and jogging along passageways. He passed the old belter and the players on several occasions and did nothing. (He even helped one player in the gym by spotting weights for him.)

The pro took his chance when it came. The belter and players were leaving their cabins, the passageway was rather crowded with diners, a steward called to one player with a message, and the pro was jogging by. It was a confusing scene but there had been others during the trip. The pro had a box cutter and planned on stabbing/slitting open the belter's femoral artery with it. He made his move by faking a stagger step to avoid jogging into to someone's back.

I had each player roll against his IQ and slipped a note to each saying something seems wrong. The player beside the belter grabbed him and shoved him up against a bulkhead. The pro missed, cutting the belter's arm instead. The belter didn't feel it at first and the pro jogged off. He dumped the cutter in a trash chute as soon as he could.

Once they realized the belter was cut, the players ran him back to his cabin, and raised hell. They had a medic stitch him up and forced the packet crew to begin an investigation that they naturally assisted in. This was almost 20 years ago and CSI wasn't on TV yet. I had the crew test variosu suspects and their clothes for blood traces. A few were positive, the pro was among them. The packet crew kept those that tested positive in their cabins and turned them over to the authorities on Grote after arrival. The players thought the jogger was their man and they were right. They just couldn't prove it.

You'll also notice I didn't have the packet and all it's spaces 'wired'. No 24/7 sensor surveillence, video recording, or anything like that. It's probably a trivial task to do so now, but I didn't know that back then. The only surveillence onboard was in critical spaces and accesses. The passenger spaces weren't 'bugged' in any manner.


Have fun,
Bill

 

[Greek Letter Moshpit]

Wow, sweet.

Sorry, not much more in the response department as of yet.