Classic Traveller Session Two

Next week I am on the road so we will not have a session, but this gives me the time to figure what should happen next. If anyone has any suggestions I am all ears. Espionage adventures are not the easiest scenario for me to run, and I do believe players benefit from splitting up and taking on different tasks essential to the success of the mission, but what does the opposition do in reaction and making the whole craziness seem correct? These are the questions I need to resolve or I feel the adventure can become pretty unfulfilling if nothing makes sense at the end of the investigation.

The fifth player was added to the group last night, Sun Tzu a retired Marine combat medic with sick hacking skills. Concluding their meeting with their Imperial contact, Agent Virell of the Orion Directive, they head back to the casino Echelon Spire to do a forensic examination of the hack.

While Eluum the casino manager is more than willing to accommodate the prestigious group of dignitaries and war hero, his security chief flags Commander Frank as a “HSP”, a Highly Sensitive Person, and cannot be allowed into the casino. “Sensitivity” to psychic phenomena makes one highly suspicious to security agencies, and the Echelon Spire has some of the most sophisticated algorithmic “emotion” scanners which are fairly accurate in identifying people with psionic “potential”. This was done with the outmost courtesy, and of course the Echelon Spire did not want to create an incident which would subject the delegate to unfair scrutiny.

So, Commander Frank took his leave and busied himself at one of the food stands on the raceway’s popular “strip”. While he was out there, he was approached by a grizzled space-dog in fashionable attire. The fact it was also cloth armor was not lost on Frank. The man’s employer has tasked him with delivering an offer to Commander Frank, 12,000 credits to leave Red Cliff Raceway. If he was not inclined to take the offer the stranger was authorized to keep the money for himself and let him handle the refusal as he sees fit. He was hoping for Frank to turn down the offer. That Frank was a “stubborn guy”. That Commander Frank was not. He accepted the credit cube and assured the hired gun he would not be around the resort for much longer. He then bee-lined it back to his ship and started warming up the defensive protocols onboard.

Meanwhile the rest of the group conducted their electronics investigation on the luxury floater which malfunctioned last they were in it. Sun Tzu was able to determine the hack was done remotely by a device. He was able to reverse-engineer the hack and create a signal which could be traced back to the device, as long as you were withing thirty yards of the device when pinged. Further work, and the group was able to hack into the security/service drones which blanketed the sprawling resort. While this did not provide a ping on the suspected device used in the act of sabotage, it highlighted a large blind spot. The actual conference grounds where the economic summit is being held. With several of the PCs expected to be present at the first official social mixer which had already started, the plan was to scan for the device there.

Looking for Darrian operatives specifically, they review the guest list to see if other Darrians would be present besides the four official delegates. They are also hoping to identify Subject Theta among the four Darrian officials with easy access to conversation being provided by the elite social mixer. The Sacnoth Lounge is a luxurious affair with kinetic statues, bold views of the Excalibur landscape, and plenty of wine and chefs-d’oeuvre’s. The Darrian Celestial Marriage Guild, one of the minor factions attending the conference, catches the groups eye as possible enemy agents working against their extraction mission. Goldweaver, Blackwater, and Quen, the Marriage Guild delegates, hope to establish economic stability between the Sword World and Darrain Confederations through arranged marriages between powerful mercantile families. Vera Blackwater is fending off one of the Border World delegates who wants to start the pilot program with her.

Sun Tzu’s tracking device pings off Vera. She is holding the device that hacked the casino luxury box. The group all clusters around the delegates and engaged in conversation. Paulo Song, the OMNI Corp CEO joins the group and for the love of gamma I cannot remember how I had him engage everyone. They also got one of the four Darrian delegates in conversation. She seemed too young and eager about the work she was doing to fit the profile of a disillusioned power-broker hoping to defect. So they crossed her off the list. Only three more to go!

This is why I like to record sessions. It helps me not make a mess of things in later sessions. Not contradict what we have already established as game fact. For example, I had the PCs as part of the Imperial Delegation and they insisted they told me they were part of the Sword Worlds Confed delegates. I don’t take notes during a session because it just is another instance of me being taken out of the game and flipping through pages of lightly-sketched prep material. Figuring out what are the basic facts I need to remember for each potential encounter is the “work” for me as a GM. I want to always keep the basic facts of the plot straight. Inconsistency just frustrates players.

I guess that is the current GM path I am on. How not to frustrate the players with misinformation. Eliminate mental distractions and I clear another hundred miles of rpg road players can barrel down.

So Sun Tzu straight up picks Vera Blackwater’s pockets and walks away with a small, compact hard drive in his hands. Oh, that is right. After he got a positive ping, the Darrian Blackwater was hastily leaving the lounge. They corralled her with Paulo Song and the handsy Borderworlder in an extended conversation so Tzu could pick her pockets. As soon as she could break off the conversation she left. The PCs were okay to let her walk out because they got some hard evidence now on her clandestine actions. Sun Tzu also excused himself and left the conference with the hard drive in his possession. He intended to go back to his hotel room and examine the device, to hack it further.

Unfortunately, as he made his way out onto the busy strip he was drilled in the chest by a long-range laser rifle shot. Even with his stylish ballistic-cloth armor on he was brought down instantly. If it wasn’t a laser he would have been bleeding all over the place, but the laser instantly cauterizes the wound. Leaving the smell of cooked flesh to permeate the air. While panic sweeps the immediate crowd from the violent attack, Tzu’s cybernetic arm alerts the other PCs of Tzu’s plight. Commander Frank is alerted too so he leaves the ship and goes to catch up with the unfolding action. When the group all arrives on the spot of the attack there is no Sun Tzu. Bystanders say the medics swooped in with a medi-cart and made off with critically injured ex-marine. They commandeer an anti-grav pedestrian taxi and take off in search of this medi-cart. They catch sight of it going through a vehicle overhead service door, which is not in the direction of the emergency hospital at the resort. No, the service door goes to a vehicle ramp to the lower levels of the complex. They drive recklessly fast to beat the descending door and make their drive rolls. Being pursued, the medi-cart opens up and speeds down the ramp in attempt to lose the PCs. Alas, their drive roll is really bad. I roll a 3. So they swerve, hit the wall, fishtail and roll to a spectacular stop, debris scattered everywhere. The vehicle does stay intact. But the driver and passenger are a little roughed up and come out of the vehicle stumbling and dazed. They are OMNI security personnel and they have guns on them. Shots are fired but the group of four of them are able to get lucky. They beat one of the guards down and take his gun while the other officer is grappled. With a pistol now pointed at his head the second security guard surrenders. Examining the guards credentials and taking off their helmets it is quickly apparent they are not the guards on their identification badges. They pull Sun Tzu, unconscious but stable, from the wreck and that is where we ended the session.

The Rationale

Paid Group, First Session, Mongoose Traveller

 

I call it Classic Traveller. Sure the combat system has been changed (for the better), and there are more fiddly character options, but it is the same game and plays like the old game. Entirely appropriate system for the genre and requiring the GM to use their creativity to make their game universe come alive.

The PCs begin the adventure with stout rolls in the Social Standing characteristic. So much for belters scratching a living or being roguish characters in general. I reset the introductory adventure material to reflect this. Introducing the Grand Transverse Spinward Summit, an economic conference of new beginnings and new growth!

In attendance are

Imperium Delegates. Princess Ashan Trel, Gram.

Darrian Delegates. Talas Vireen. Maela Soren. Jarath Enno. Selia Trenn. One of which is their suspected target, Subject Theta!

Mercantile Worlds Delegates; Paulo Song, CEO OMNI Corp. Excalibur. Jax Movan, Regional Manager Huron Industries. Excalibur.

Sword World Confederation Delegates; Lady Sigrid Valsdottir, Joyeuse. Sigrid Valsdottir, Joyeuse, Freya Skoldottir, Joyeuse

Spacing Guild Delegates;

Sir Alric Venn

Countess Mira Solen

Border World Delegates; Jarrla Venik, Toren Halvstrom,

Union Delegates; Bagger Vaas, Vandars Labor Union, Excalibur,

Various smaller entities and interest groups.

Subject Theta is a high-level Darrian official suspected of wanting to defect to the 3^rd Imperium. Subject Theta is believed to be one of the four Darrian delegates attending the conference. The Darrian presence sees a normalization of relations between Sword Worlds which has not been seen since the cold war subsided in 1116 3I (it is currently the year 1160 3I).

So, enough of the PCs have such a high social status, it warrants them to be involved in the summit in some manner. We have nobles, former diplomats, celebrated war heroes, and high-ranking navy commanders in the group. All except one character, he is an outlaw and a rogue. He is already at the summit working for muscle with one of the local drug lords. For the others, they approach Excalibur fresh off FTL jump from Gram in their own 200 ton safari-class jump ship. I forgot what name they gave it.

They have the privilege of delivering the Third Imperium delegates to the conference and attending the conference in an official capacity. On the orbital approach Sira Bren, one of the delegates asks Commander Frank Jr. as a professional courtesy to meet with an Imperial agent when they arrive at Red Cliff Raceway, the location of the economic summit on the planet Excalibur. He is with the Imperial Intelligence Agency: Orion Directive and needs assistance around sensitive diplomatic issues surrounding this important summit. After a few probing questions and hesitant consideration, Commander Frank agrees. V.V., the Excalibur native from a noble family, is excited about the prospect of making good money on a government assignment. Fenrir, the war hero has a part to play as well. His celebrity status makes him a VIP at the conference and give him access to mix with the other high-level delegates.

The streamlined ship glides into Red Cliff Raceway, slipping through the condenser field shielding the resort from the acid rainstorms raging on the surface of the planet, and they all debark to great pomp and circumstance. This is a new group and a new campaign, so the PCs want to explore a bit before they go and meet with the Orion agent. First stop is the largest and most popular casino on the plateau, Echelon Spire, a “floating” casino perched on tremendous anti-grav pylons with crystalline walls and floating luxury lounges with views of the enormous racetrack ascending into the neon-lit sky.

I populated the casino with futuristic gambling games and used the basic game of Craps as the mechanic to resolve racing bets. You either where betting the “Favorite” or “Not-the-Favorite”. With the standard throws and the pass/don’t pass rules of Craps we were able to establish whether the favorite won the race, paying even money, or not, and another entry wins at a 2x-10x payout on the wager. One PC played it safe while two others went for long-shots. The long-shots paid off! They mulled whether to continue betting the rest of the race card because they were low on cash. I informed them if they wanted to bet a bunch more races we would lump it all into a single resolution of the dice game and not do individual race bets. I did not want to eat up our game time with too much aimlessness. The other thing I did is have the floating luxury box they were in inexplicably shoot up towards the casino’s crystalline ceiling. With no indication of the luxury box stopping at their futile attempts to operate the box’s controls, the group sprung into multiple courses of action. Someone got on the comms with customer service, another PC ripped away paneling to get to the electronics, while another tried to hack into the box’s operating system. Customer service was no help, but the technicians were able to make their rolls and stop before impact. Just barely. Marginal success. Came real close to splattering them like bugs.

After the casino manager grovels for forgiveness and comps them luxury boxes for the upcoming celebrity races over the course of the economic summit, the PCs decide to check out the lower levels of this massive complex perched atop a thick stone plateau. The lower levels are like the concessions at professional sports game. Going in a circle, the level looks up at the racetrack above. This level is for normal residents of Vandars Dome and offers affordable seating and lower buy-ins at the casinos on this level. Great place for the rogue PC to join the scene. He is approaching a certain Mon-Fey. The man owes his boss 300 credits and Thron is expected to come back with Mon-Fey’s money “or else!” Thron gets into the man’s grill at a small bar in the concourse, but a security drone comes up and identifies Thron as possessing an outstanding 600 credit parking ticket. He is to remain still until Red Cliff security arrives to receive prompt payment. Mon-Fey gets a kick out of this. Thron grabs the security drone and stuffs it down Mon-Fey’s jacket and takes off. Running smack dab into his old war buddy, the one whose life he saved from an assassination attempt! They duck into a janitorial closet and catch up on old times. All of them. We are looking at four PCs. The PCs decide they are going to use their diplomatic clout and money to bribe the nearest security guard to clear the ticket and the report of Thron present at the conference. His outstanding warrants would surely trigger the heavy security technology surrounding the conference.

The return to the main surface level of the complex and head to Hotel Null to meet with their Imperial contact. Agent Virell is looking at a possible Darrian defector among the four attending Darrian delegates. He needs the groups help to identify this “Subject Theta”, avoid Darrian counter-intelligence agents which are certainly here, and take off with the target to a remote jump location. There the transfer of the asylum seeker will take place and the PCs get paid their 100,000 credits (a piece) for a job well done in service of the Imperium and greater peace throughout the cosmos. The conference is a total of three days, and before it is up, Theta needs to be identified, blind spots in the Raceway’s security system need to be created and enemies avoided. Or neutralized.

This is where we ended the session for the night. This paid group picks up next week and it will be then time to plunge directly into the action. I believe a great way to build tension in an espionage/heist adventure is subvert the PCs expected timeline. To quickly increase the tempo of action in response to the PCs activities. This means turning their two-and-a-half day schedule into a quickly compressing timeline which forces them to act before they are “ready”. What that exactly looks like, I don’t know, yet. But I have a few more days to polish my ideas. Looking forward to the next session for sure.

Classic Traveller Rides Again!

 Okay, I am using Mongoose Traveller 2e, but this does not stop me from running the game old-school. Really, the only changes I can see between the original rules and this latest iteration of this fifty year-old game. 

Like all my games now it is a paid game. This is actually the second group to solicit me to run a game of Traveller for pay. Cannot say anyone has ever hit me up to run a game of Space Opera or Star Frontiers or the new Alien rpg. I guess Traveller is still topical today. I don't think it is the greatest science fiction ttrpg available, but it sure gets the job done. I have even come to peace with the Third Imperium campaign setting most people ascribe as the actual "game" of Traveller. 

Like many other original ttrpgs, there was no setting which came with the game. The game designer assumed you would do what they did and build your own imaginative fictional game world for your players to romp in. And I subscribe to this approach. Can't help myself really. I picked the role of forever GM immediately when I was first exposed to ttrpgs. I wanted to use my own ideas for what a science fiction or fantasy setting looked like. But offering my services as a game referee for pay I have decided what the fuck do I care? If the players want to play in the Third Imperium lets do it! I'm just adding it to my list of challenges I have presented myself with in the last decade to improve my skill as a GM. There is nothing stopping me from carving the Spinward Marches into my version of a sweeping space civilization with its attendant cosmic problems. 

This does not mean I have thrown out all my Outer Frontier and Lower Frontier setting information. I've just repurposed the planets for use in the Sword Worlds subsector and called it good. All my factions, npcs, site locations, planetary descriptions; all my nutso ideas will comfortably fit into the published setting. 

And it isn't like I can run any of the official Traveller adventures without wholesale changes. Let us be clear about one thing here at the Vanishing Tower. I think the original adventures which were published in the 70s and 80s, with a few exceptions, were unmitigated shit. "What's a great Traveller adventure to use for new players?" is a nauseatingly common question on game forums. "The one you come up with in your head!" Seriously, isn't this why you are taking on the role of Star Master? Because you have cool-ass ideas which demand to see the light of day? If not rethink whether or not you should be taking on the role of a science fiction game master. 

Another thing new Traveller does the same as old Traveller is creating the kinds of characters the original game did. No, that is wrong. There are changes, and not all for the good. Mongoose got rid of death on a failed survival roll. Instead it becomes a roll on a mishap table. This means there is nothing outside of boredom from a player maximizing their terms of service to load up on skills. So character creation can take longer. But the changes to the combat system, I think they are an improvement over the original. But back to what I said, even with an expanded character creation system with more detailed character options, you still get the same result. So added chrome for not much return.

I have taken the group through a session zero and it was like 4 hours! To be expected. I wasn't surprised. I think we are going to start at Red Cliff Raceway during a high-level economic summit being held at the popular resort, track, and casino. This is because they ended up with some PCs having a very high Social Standing score. So all the scummy gang members, low-lifes with complicated issues, cheap hustlers and space pirates get tossed aside for the elite and politically connected. Sweet, another change of pace, another challenge.

Oh yeah, another character passed a psionics test. They have potent psionic powers! And three other members of the group have insane gambling skills. Money should not be an object with this crew. So it is all going to be about the intrigue, the espionage running behind the scenes of all the other campaign-changing forces out there pursuing their agendas. I'm seeing this campaign going straight at the big universe-sized threats with the high level connections they have as opposed to small crimes and misdemeanors which lead to bigger conflicts. 

To prep for the session I am coming up with various NPCs and matching them with motives you might find at a subsector-sized economic summit. Gamblers, human-trafficking, deadly spy vs. spy action, pleas for peace and prosperity, marginalized peoples clamoring for attention, sabotage, blackmail, political postering... these are some of the elements I see being front and center at Red Cliff Raceway.