Savage Sword: Fantastic Pulp-Fantasy Adventures

Live game session today takes place in James Raggi's Don't Fuck the Priest, a dungeon of corpses!

Expanded Map of Xoth

My current campaigns in the world of Xoth have involved the far northern reaches and now the eastern edges of the official map of Xoth. Therefore I have combined the Endless White Land and World of Xoth maps with my own rendition of the far eastern nations of Laksha, Azjan, and Ghoma.

This is, as far as I know, the most "complete" map of the mythical world of Xoth you will find! The current active adventure, Acolyte of Death, is taking place north east of the city-state of Khadar. Plunging into the Ash Steppe the PCs have encountered corrupt warlords, violent battle-apes, and a dungeon of corpses!

Acolyte of Death... a session report

 is the name of my current Deluxe USR Sword & Sorcery adventure. One of the players has been so kind to write up a session report of the action so far. Here it is as I like having as many records of a session as I possibly can get.

Acolyte of Death

Hardon Kumar, unlike his father, is unlucky in games of chance. Sure, he wins a bit from time to time but nowhere near enough to cover his losses. And his recent losses have been substantial enough that those he owes have decided to get their money another way and arranged to sell his niece into slavery. This obviously didn't go down too well with his long-suffering Uncle. His Uncle in no uncertain terms told Hardon to return to him his daughter or to expect to find a price on his head. So, Hardon ropes his old friend Frisco Shan's, the fabled hunter into his half-baked rescue plan, and together they set out to rescue his put upon niece.

They trace the kidnappers back to a half-ruined town in the ash wastes. Twenty or so crumbling buildings, half buried, only half seemed to be currently occupied. An inn, a ruined temple and what looks like an old fort seem to be the only substantial buildings remaining. The town's name is Fanwier or something similar and after getting a hostile reception from the few townsfolk encountered outside they made their way to the dismal looking Inn known according to its swinging sign as the Twilight Inn. The inn is well named as it's ill-lit, full of smoke and unpleasant odors. Behind the rough looking barman are shelving which holds filthy glass jars in which human heads float. A few drinks were had and a couple of questions were asked. It seems the man we were looking for is indeed Varaak Ironthorn the local taxman who seems to moonlight as a bandit. The dynamic duo are interrupted by a low born Susrahian mercenary who tries to start trouble but luckily is soon dealt with. Unfortunately, he seems to have been working for Ironthorn so hearing angry voices approaching it was time to flee with what little information they had gathered.

They flee and barely manage to avoid the pursuing mercenaries, and they head towards the ruins of the Tower of Eternity, the possible location of Hardons kidnapped niece. It seems that she was sold onto this unpleasant sounding man by the name of Aulric. Hardon was sure that if he could just talk to this fellow, it could all be sorted out, Frisco wasn't too sure about that, but you never know. After hours of travelling across the barren ash filled landscape they make it to a vale with the black stone ruins of a tower, surely this is the place described to them.

Frisco was able to confirm that this was indeed their target as she noticed the tacks of a cart pulled by oxen heading towards a small outbuilding to the side of the ruined tower. Stealthily approaching the buildings, they were surprised to hear nothing apart from the groans and snorts of the oxen in the small building next to the tower. There didn't seem to be a way into the main body of the tower but they did discover a crude tunnel that led underneath its ruined bulk. The tunnel was dark and noisome and there was a strong smell of animals underlined with the smell of their dung. They explored the nearby chambers, not finding much apart from a pile of human offal and in a side chamber a box containing several glass vials. A mix of red and green liquids, what they did is currently a mystery. They then encountered a lot of armed, armored apes who were oddly annoyed. Much bloodshed and heroic combat happened but at last they managed to fight their way back out but at a terrible cost, Handsome Hardon was nearly beaten to death and was currently unconscious, the sound of his ribs grinding against each other as he was dragged back into the moonlight and away from that grim tower.

Even though it may look like I have mangled the spelling of some of the names I am in fact using the way they would be spelt in beautiful Laksha. All praise Simatala God of the bloody white jade altar.

Lying abandoned on the ash plains Hardon experienced a fever dream. He was so close to entering his god's blood-flecked maw but instead of falling into that black abyss he saw a humanoid figure seemingly made of stone walk towards him holding a large copper bowl in his hands. This bowl smoked and produced a hellish smell as amongst its hot coals Hardon could make out burning entrails. He began begging for mercy, saying he was too young to die and that he had things to do. And this is where the new hero enters...Genn a mysterious stranger consumed with thoughts of bloody revenge onto Ironthorn and his men. They had cast envious eyes onto Genn’s farm and in one bloody night had claimed it in fire and blood. Leaving Genn half mad and alone in the wastes seeking his vengeance. It seems that Frisco had disappeared into the surrounding darkness but not before leaving Hardon by a weak fire and it was the light from this as well as the painful murmurs from Hardon that drew him to the pitiful camp. After quickly scanning the area to make sure that it wasn't some elaborate trap, he being a man of honor in these dishonest times he attempted to bring Hardon to consciousness, if only to find out why he was alone out here in the middle of nowhere. He managed to wake Hardon and after several attempts he got the gist of what the hell was going on. He had seen the stone figure briefly as well before it had disappeared somehow but decided to keep that to himself for now. Any further questions had to wait as they were interrupted by the sounds of hooves and the angry shouting of men. It seemed like Ironthorn and his men hadn't given up on their search and had now arrived at the tower demanding answers and Aulric. They were not met with offers of refreshments or hospitality and after sending two men into the tunnels three apes yelled out their challenges.

Hardon and Genn lay hidden nearby in a small fold in the ground and watched in fascinated horror as these two groups began to rip into each other. The battle was hard fought with heads and organs crushed and blood flying out everywhere, turning the dark ash beneath the bellowing combatants into a thick sickly soup. The men managed to down one of the apes but at the cost of most of their lives. Finally, only a few men remained. One looked at the odds and wisely fled, whipping his horse madly in his desperation to get away. Ironthorn though bravely stood his ground, his horse no longer an option after it had been raked by an ape’s vicious claws. It now lay thrashing madly on the ground and no good to Ironthorn. So, he yelled out to his gods and with his sword in hand charged into the two remaining apes. They welcomed his cries with bellows of their own and with a crash the last battle was joined. Genn was tempted to send a stone into Ironthorn via his sling but decided that that wasn't necessary and may reveal their position to the apes and that looked like a bad idea as with horrendous cries they ripped Ironthorn apart. The wastes returned to silence after the shocking noise of battle. The apes began to rip the bodies apart occasionally biting chunks out of choice parts as they went. They then picked up anything that looked valuable including Ironthorns sword. The weak light causing the large ruby on its hilt to gleam red. Clean-up finished they dragged their dead companion back down into the noisome tunnels with only the occasional huff and snort to mark their passing until they were consumed by the shadows. Genn and Hardon looked at each other, shrugged and began to slowly make their way down to what was left of the ten men hoping to find something of value if only that was Ironthorn's skull.

 

 

Example of Flexible Use with USR Specilisms

Specialisms in USR are essentially custom mechanics for the game completely player generated. This differs from a traditional skill system common in most tabletop roleplaying games (ttrpgs). Where a skill list is restrictive a specialism is permissive. A player creating their first (U)nbelievably (S)imple (R)oleplaying PC would be served well deciding how their character would most likely break the game rules to achieve results as any other factor in initial character concept. But this is easier said than done. 

What follows is an example of lifting game mechanics from other game systems and turning them into useful, thematic specialisms for your PC (Player Character). Zenobia is a sword and sorcery ttrpg from Zozer Games. It mimics Deluxe USR Sword & Sorcery's combat procedure closely with its use of simultaneous action resolution and the difference in attack totals derives the damage done by a successful attack. This means any of the games combat mechanics, buffs, feats, tactics, etc. should easily translate into USR terms. For example:

"Saving Combat Results As a tactical option the winner of a combat round can opt to save some or even all his combat result to increase the level of any injuries inflicted in a subsequent round. This simulates the maneuver called a feint where the advantage is gained but not exploited immediately. Feinting requires the attacker to have uninjured legs since quite a bit of rapid maneuvering is assumed. These saved result points are instantly forfeited when the character loses a round of combat. This makes the tactic a risky one; you dare not save them too long - keep your feint stringing along. Note that combat result points saved in this way only add to the injury type available and are never added to the Combat Attack roll. Non-Adventurers (most lowly NPCs and extras, in other words) are not able to carry over their combat results in this way."

This is straight out of the Zenobia rulebook. As a USR Sword & Sorcery Specialism it might look like this:

Feint +A.  Save some or all combat result to increase the level of injurie in a subsequent round.

Notice there is no positive Die Roll Modifier (DRM) listed in the Specialisms' description, just the Attribute it is tied to. In this case, the character's Action Attribute. This indicates this Specialism modifies the basic rules in some way instead of the normal +2 to the Attribute roll itself. In the normal case of most Specialisms the application of a DRM to increase a degree of success makes most sense. The PC has Melee +2 Action then any melee attack will be 2 points of success greater than would normally be expected. But in the above case, the rules from Zenobia are allowing the player to change failure into success in future, later rounds. A sharp departure from how most players would approach Specialism design.

This does require more rules for governance of effects as unintended consequences manifest from these adjustments. But this labor is mostly solved by the games mechanical descriptions already provided. As always, the Crypt Keeper, the game's referee, has final say on the design of any Specialism. I think the effort is necessary to take advantage of all the freedom a rules-lite game system provides players. 

For example, 

Feint +A.  Save some or all combat result to increase the level of injurie in a subsequent round. Feinting requires the attacker to have uninjured legs. Saved result points are instantly lost when the character loses a round of combat. 

It is this free roaming poaching Trollish Delver's USR game was designed for. Cobble useful mechanics and skills from other existing roleplaying books (which you no doubt have many) and adding them into the USR tool kit. This is the brilliance of USR, as a base for the rules of your game. It allows you to build new concepts out of your existing game library.

Quick NPC Stats for USR

 Book Three Worlds of Adventure includes a bestiary for Deluxe USR Sword & Sorcery. Fully-stat'ed animals and monsters the Crypt Keeper can use to quickly populate their Sword & Sorcery world.

Even though Unbelievably Simple Roleplaying is a simple roleplaying game, crafting and creating NPCs does require much supposition and guesswork on the part of the Crypt Keeper. Rules-lite roleplaying systems, if they have one thing in common, is the expectation the game master will do much of the world building and additional rules creation as fits the genre. This makes relevant supplements written for the obscure, niche games are doubly valuable. 

But if you are not sitting down to write a book for other referees to use you can save yourself time with useful shorthand for the statistics and mechanics of the game. Here is the shorthand I devised for Deluxe USR Sword & Sorcery;

• One Attribute die instead three. Instead of listing all three attributes of Action, Wits, and Ego just assign one die type to cover the spread. For example, listing d8 instead of Action d8, Wits d6, Ego d10 as would normally be written.
• Pick Hits, don't roll for them. Whatever you think the NPC should have is what they should have. 
• List attack and defense as briefly as possible. For example, +2 A means any roll against the Action Attribute receives a +2. Or +2 short sword. This means the wielder applies this bonus only when using this specific weapon. 

Therefore, a mad Battle-Ape could look like this: 

Gorilla Guard d8/7, +2 A when Berserk, +2 DR. 

What is left out is the headings for three attributes and Hits. We use a d8 for everything, and the creature has 7 hits. Any "physical" actions it takes receives a +2 if the beast is in an enraged state and the triggering events would be known by you, the Crypt Keeper. And the +2 damage resistance from both hide and armor is not detailed in full. What is here is enough to run an encounter with these creatures whenever they come up. 

The Alchemist's Folly

Kael pressed his back against the cold stone wall, listening to the guttural hooting echoing through the alchemist's tower. Beside him, Mira checked her throwing knives for the third time, her dark eyes reflecting the sickly green luminescence seeping from under the laboratory door.

"I don't like this," she whispered. "Torven was supposed to meet us an hour ago."

"Torven's probably dead," Kael replied, adjusting the leather bracer that concealed his lockpicks. "Along with everyone else foolish enough to collect Magister Vohn's bounty."

The bounty had seemed straightforward enough: enter the alchemist's abandoned tower, retrieve his research journals, collect five hundred gold crowns. But abandoned was not the word Kael would use now. The tower was very much occupied.

A crash from below made them both freeze. Heavy footfalls on stone, then silence.

"They're hunting," Mira breathed.

Kael had seen one of the creatures from the courtyard before they'd climbed in through the third-floor window. It had been massive, easily eight feet tall, with shoulders like a bull and arms thick as tree trunks. But it was the intelligence in its eyes that had chilled him. This was no mindless beast.

"Vohn was experimenting with transformation elixirs," Kael said, piecing it together. "The city guard said he'd been buying apes from the exotic traders. He must have been trying to create soldiers."

"Well, he succeeded." Mira peered around the corner toward the laboratory door, which hung askew on broken hinges. "Question is, can we get past them?"

Through the doorway, Kael could see overturned tables, shattered glass, and the scattered pages of ruined books. Claw marks gouged the wooden benches. Whatever had happened here, Vohn had lost control of his creations.

A shape moved in the shadows of the laboratory. Massive, deliberate. Then another behind it.

"Two inside," Mira reported. "Both between us and wherever Vohn kept his journals."

Kael studied the room's layout. A balcony overlooked it from the floor above, and a heavy chandelier hung from iron chains over the center. Alchemical apparatus lined the walls, including several large glass vessels still bubbling with colored liquids.

"I have an idea," he said. "But you're not going to like it."

"I already don't like it."

"We need a distraction. Something to get them out of that room."

Mira's hand went to the small pouch at her belt. "I have two smoke bombs left."

"Perfect. Throw one down the main stairwell. When they go to investigate, we slip into the laboratory, grab what we can, and get out through the balcony window."

"And if they don't take the bait?"

"Then we improvise."

Mira gave him a flat look but moved silently toward the stairwell. Kael watched the laboratory entrance, counting heartbeats. One of the apes moved past the doorway, knuckles scraping the floor, its enhanced musculature rippling under patchy fur. It wore the remnants of a leather harness, probably from Vohn's attempts to control it.

The smoke bomb clattered down the stone steps with a pop and a hiss. Thick gray smoke billowed upward.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then came a deafening roar that shook dust from the ceiling. Heavy footsteps thundered toward the stairs—not two sets, but three. A third ape emerged from the laboratory, this one bearing a wicked scar across its face and wielding a broken table leg like a club.

"Go!" Mira hissed.

They sprinted for the laboratory as the apes descended the stairs in pursuit of the phantom intruder. Kael leaped over an overturned chair and began searching the debris. Papers everywhere, most torn or stained with chemicals. Mira rifled through a chest in the corner while keeping watch on the door.

"Here!" Kael found a leather journal wedged under a collapsed bookshelf. The symbol on its cover matched Magister Vohn's seal. He stuffed it into his pack and grabbed two more nearby that looked intact.

A roar, much closer now. The apes had discovered the ruse.

"Time to go!" Mira was already at the balcony door, forcing it open with her dagger. She swore. "It's locked from the outside!"

Footsteps pounded up the stairs. Kael looked around desperately. The chandelier. The alchemical vessels. The balcony above.

"Up there!" He pointed to the interior balcony. A rope used for hoisting equipment still hung from its railing. "We climb!"

The first ape appeared in the doorway, scarred face twisted in rage. It spotted them immediately and charged, table leg raised high. Kael grabbed a glass beaker of violet liquid from the nearest table and hurled it. The vessel shattered against the creature's chest, and the liquid began to smoke and hiss. The ape howled, clawing at its burning flesh.

Mira was already climbing, her lithe form scaling a bookshelf to reach the rope. Kael followed, hauling himself up as the second ape entered the room. This one was smarter. It grabbed the bookshelf and shook it violently.

Kael jumped, caught the rope, and scrambled upward as the bookshelf crashed down. The ape leaped after him with terrifying agility, its massive hand closing around his ankle.

Mira's knife flashed. The blade sank into the creature's wrist and it released Kael with a shriek. He pulled himself onto the balcony as Mira helped drag him over the railing.

The third ape appeared below, pointing up at them. All three began climbing—using the furniture, the walls, the very architecture of the tower itself. They moved with horrifying coordination, their enhanced bodies making them far more capable than natural apes.

"The window!" Mira ran for the balcony's exterior window. This one opened easily. Cold night air rushed in.

But escape meant a three-story drop to the courtyard below. Kael looked around frantically. The rope they'd climbed. The chandelier chains. An idea formed.

"Cut the chandelier!" he shouted, drawing his sword and hacking at the thick rope secured to the balcony railing. "When it falls, it'll hit those chemical vessels!"

Mira understood instantly. She sheathed her knife, drew a small hand axe, and began chopping at the chandelier's chain where it anchored to the balcony wall. The metal links parted slowly.

The apes reached the balcony level, pulling themselves up from below. The scarred one, still smoking from the chemical burn, was in the lead.

The last chain link separated. The chandelier plummeted, its iron frame crashing directly into the cluster of bubbling alchemical vessels below. Glass exploded. Liquids mixed. For a heartbeat, nothing happened.

Then the laboratory erupted in flame.

The explosion sent all of them sprawling. Kael felt the heat wash over him as he grabbed Mira and pulled her toward the window. Below, the apes' roars turned to screams as fire engulfed the chamber.

"The roof!" Mira pointed upward. A wooden beam extended from the window to the tower's peaked roof. It was narrow, precarious, but it led to the exterior.

They climbed out onto the beam as smoke poured from the window behind them. The night wind whipped at their clothes. Behind them, the entire tower was now burning, flames licking from windows on every floor.

The beam led to the roof's edge, where a decorative spire stood. And beyond that, the stone wall of the adjacent building, perhaps ten feet away.

"Please tell me you're thinking what I'm thinking," Mira said.

"Jump or burn. Easy choice."

They ran along the beam, footsteps sure despite the smoke and heat. At the edge, they leaped together into the darkness, arms windmilling for balance. Kael hit the adjacent roof hard, rolling to absorb the impact. Mira landed beside him with cat-like grace.

They lay there for a moment, breathing hard, watching Vohn's tower burn against the night sky. From within came one final, agonized roar before the roof collapsed inward.

"The journals?" Mira asked.

Kael patted his pack. "Three of them. Singed but readable."

"Five hundred crowns?"

"Split two ways." Kael grinned despite the pain. "Not bad for a night's work."

"Not bad?" Mira laughed, the sound slightly manic. "We were nearly killed by enhanced apes in a burning tower!"

"That's what makes it worth five hundred crowns." Kael pulled himself to his feet, offering her a hand. "Come on. Let's collect from Magister Vohn before he hears about this and decides to renegotiate."

They disappeared into the shadows of the city rooftops, leaving the blazing tower behind them as the watch bells began to ring across the midnight streets.

In his pack, Vohn's journals remained safe. And in their margins, scrawled in the alchemist's desperate hand, were the words that would have warned them all: The formula works too well. They're learning. They're organizing. Gods help us, they're planning.

But that discovery would have to wait for another night.

 

Optional Ideas for Deluxe USR Sword & Sorcery

Starting to want to write again. This has got me looking at my USR products, especially Deluxe USR Sword & Sorcery. I am about to start another campaign in the world of Xoth, and improving the total three-book gaming kit is starting to fester.

Deluxe USR Sword & Sorcery is a fantastic, lightweight engine, but its "Unbelievably Simple" nature can sometimes feel a bit too abstract for a gritty pulp fantasy campaign.

To improve the game while keeping its minimalist spirit, I’ve brainstormed the following ideas: Streamlining the Janky Bits, Deepening the Pulp Flavor, and The "Blood & Grime" Combat Patch.

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1. Streamlining the "Janky" Mechanics

The Deluxe edition adds layers (like hit locations) that some believe clash with the core system's elegance.

• Ditch Hit Locations for "Wound Descriptions": Instead of rolling a d20 for a hit location (which slows down the flow), use a Damage Delta (the difference between rolls) to describe the wound.
• 1–2 Damage: A shallow cut or bruise.
• 5+ Damage: A "maiming" hit—the Crypt Keeper (CK) applies a temporary penalty to a relevant attribute based on the narrative.
• The "Undefended" Rule Fix: The RAW (Rules as Written) says once you use your actions, you are "undefended" and hit on a 4+. This can lead to "gang-piling" where a hero dies instantly.
• Improvement: Allow a "Desperate Defense." If attacked while undefended, the hero can still roll their Action die, but it is halved (rounded down). This keeps the tension without making death a mathematical certainty.

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2. Deepening the Pulp Flavor

Sword & Sorcery is about high stakes and temporary riches. These rules reinforce that "Conan-esque" cycle.

• "Loot for Life" (Carousing Improvement): In S&S, heroes are often broke by the next adventure.
• Rule: To level up or increase Hits, players must spend their gold on carousing. 100 Silver spent = 1 XP. If they don't spend it, they don't grow. This solves the "hoarding" problem and keeps them hungry for the next quest.
• Corruption & Dark Sorcery: Magic should feel dangerous.
• Rule: Every time a Sorcery test is failed, the caster gains 1 Corruption Point. At 5 points, they gain a physical or mental deformity (milky eye, withered hand, paranoia). This makes magic a "nuclear option" rather than a reliable tool.

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3. The "Blood & Grime" Combat Patch

If you want combat to feel more tactical without adding a 300-page manual:

Fighting Styles (Bonus Specialisms)

Instead of generic specialisms, allow players to pick a Stance that modifies their dice:

| Stance | Benefit | Drawback |

| :--- | :--- | :--- |

| Berserk | +2 to Damage Delta on a win. | -2 to your roll if you lose (take more damage). |

| Defensive | Win ties automatically. | You cannot deal damage this round. |

| Precise | Crit on a "Max Die Roll" even if the enemy doesn't roll a 1. | -1 to total roll result. |

The "Shields Shall Be Splintered" Rule

• Rule: If a player takes a hit that would kill them or knock them unconscious, they can choose to have their shield shatter. The damage is reduced to 0, but the shield is gone forever. This adds a dramatic "last stand" moment.

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4. Summary Table of Action Difficulties

If you find yourself stalling to think of Target Numbers (TN), use this "Pulp Standard" scale:

Difficulty	TN	Example
Pulp Heroic	4+	Climbing a rough wall, intimidating a guard.
Legendary	7+	Deciphering a cursed scroll, jumping a 15ft gap.
God-Slaying	10+	Resisting a Sorcerer Supreme’s mind control.

 

Converting DCC/OSR stats to Mongoose Traveller (part 2)

 Time to finish up my Dungeon Crawl Classics conversion to Mongoose Traveller Stats. We are in the process of converting a Trillomite Guardian into the Traveller 2D6 system. 

The beast has the following DCC stat block: Init +2; Atk tarsal claw +2 melee (1d4) or barbed chains +2 (1d8) or special; AC 14; HD 2d8; hp 14 each; Move 40' or special; Act 1d20; SP cannot be surprised by normal means, wall-crawling, pheromone blast 20' radius once per turn - all living creatures in range must succeed on a DC 18 Will save or become confused and attack a random target in the area; SV Fort +5, Ref +2, Will +4.

All we have left is the "special" abilities the creature has as well as how to use the Saving Throws as Die Roll Modifiers (DRMs) on the 8+ target number scale. Like many special abilities there is an important narrative element involved in the action as well as rolling dice to adjudicate a result.  Here we have a creature which can never be surprised except by advanced forms of cloaking, can climb inverted as well as climb vertical surfaces, and has a pheromone blast in a 20' radius. These are details which need no dice roll to rule on. In fact, they inform the Game Master on possible behaviors and "best practices" these guardians may utilize prior to any encounter. 

So how does one handle the pheromone blast? The power lists a Difficulty Class (DC) of 18. That is a steep number to achieve on 2D6, no doubt. Here I need to scale the numbers down a bit. Keeping it simple, I just divide the DC in half. 18 becomes a 9. PC needs a 9+ roll to resist the confusion gas. I personally use the Endurance (END) stat on the Traveller character sheet as the roll-against ability. If the PC has a high enough END score to grant a DRM you add it. 

The DCC Saves (SV) are self-explanatory, these alien fucks have a +2 Dodge. If they take some kind of concussive system shock the Fortitude +5 DRM gives you the factors you need, and Will +4 is the alien creature's resistance to psionics, mind control, truth serums, etc.

The trick with making conversions at the table fast is to pull out the basic numbers any NPC in any game is likely to have and find the corollary with the game system you are actually using. There are not many scales of values you are really comparing and contrasting. 3D6, D20, D100, 2D6, 2D10, Success #s, Dice Pools. This is all simple math in the hands of an experienced Game Master, or should be.

Converting DCC/OSR stats to Mongoose Traveller

This simple hack allows me to use Dungeon Crawl Classics modules, Lamentations of the Flame Princess modules, and any D20 system really, at the table in my classic game of science fiction adventure using Mongoose Traveller. The reason I do this is because to a certain degree fantasy and science fiction are two sides of the same coin. There is even a genre convention for when the line between fantasy visual medium and science fiction visual medium, Science Fantasy!

I find site location adventures the most straightforward example of this use. Where a "Tomb of the Ancients" would not be out of place in either adventure setting. So I am going to take some monsters out of DCC #84A Lost Tomb of the Ancients to demonstrate this hack.

A Trillomite Guardian has the following DCC stat block: Init +2; Atk tarsal claw +2 melee (1d4) or barbed chains +2 (1d8) or special; AC 14; HD 2d8; hp 14 each; Move 40' or special; Act 1d20; SP cannot be surprised by normal means, wall-crawling, pheromone blast 20' radius once per turn - all living creatures in range must succeed on a DC 18 Will save or become confused and attack a random target in the area; SV Fort +5, Ref +2, Will +4.

Kind of a bloated stat block for an OSR creature, but this is DCC and they go over the top with some fairly cool features built into monsters and PCs. But this DCC stat block does provide some very useful numbers to use in game for combat resolution or any other action a character in Traveller would attempt to do. 

First one is Initiative (Init). Just use this straight, no modification. For our Trillomite Guardian this is +2. Therefore the referee would add 2 to the creatures 2D6 initiative die roll. Same with Attacks (Atk). Just use as listed. A Trillomite's tarsal claw provides +2 melee and does 1d4 points of damage. 1d4 may not sound like a lot of damage, but don't forget the add-on benefits of "effect". The higher a die roll achieves the greater the damage of a successful attack. In Mongoose Traveller 2e. So a decent roll of 9 or 10 gets boosted two plus the d4 die roll giving you 4-8 pts of damage on an attack. If the opponent is not armored this can become a serious wound really quick.

Yes, just use the damage dice as listed. Traveller is a 2D6 game system. But I am not going to go through the brain damage of converting 1d8 into 2d6 terms. Just have the dice on hand and roll a d8. These DCC monsters are being converted into "alien humanoids" so any difference in mechanics can be hand-waved away. The aliens are well and different then humans so there.

Ascending Armor Class I use the value for the creatures innate armor, or at least reflects how hard it is to actually damage the creature. In Traveller armor absorbs damage, not make one harder to hit. Is this balanced? Does it make sense? My gut says "close enough to not give a shit".

Whether actual armored plates or reflecting special abilities, the armor factor does not have to mean physical protection. I can use this value for a game mechanic to adjudicate damage effects not covered in the basic Traveller rule set. Just like in superhero game systems where you have base, generically described powers, and it is up to the PC to color in the "effects" of the power. Describe the very nature of the generic 5d6 energy blast, is it frost, flame, etc. This type of in-game decision making is a hallmark of old school games and their OSR derivatives. 

Hit Dice for Hit Points, feel free to roll them. I just take the listed HP right out of the book. So these Trillomite bastards have an armor value of 14 and 14 HP. It will take at least 15 points of damage inflicted on a Trillomite to start hurting it physically. This makes autofire and lots of ammo the PCs' best friend, and that is just the way I like it!

I have to jet to work, so I will finish up the conversion in the next blog post.

Mongoose Traveller Session The Alien Anomaly

 Another game session tonight. Let me see if I can get caught up a bit on the “story so far” before game time. Get my head just right…

Under the cover of continuous acid rain-soaked skies and Imperial authority the PCs pilot the 50 ton modular cutter towards their destination, a singular disturbance in the “G” band long-range communication frequency emanating from a fixed location on the skillet-hard pock marked surface of Excalibur. The 60 km journey is only delayed for an hour during extremely intense rains. Not an uncommon occurrence when traveling along the surface of the planet. They could have easily avoided the weather in between them and their destination with a sub-orbital lift and set down.

Problem is, this makes them an easy spot, if someone is looking. With the fallout from the failed economic summit at Red Cliff, everyone is looking. Sword World Confed, Imperial authorities, the Darrians, Omni Corp, the Border Worlds. Everyone with the ability to influence interstellar politics is not only watching, but most likely acting. Whether galactic players choose covert or overt methods remains to be seen. If the PCs are going to explore the alien anomaly unmolested, they will need to make a stealthy approach.

The source of the interference is coming from the top of a tall massif cut away from the nearby ravines by gaping canyons of deep, acid-etched substrate. The summit is too narrow and broken to land the cutter, so the group pilots the craft down to a wide, gentle shoulder of the mountain 800-900 meters further below the top. From there they unload the VTOL and sail up to the top. This is the same vehicle which made its debut in my second Traveller campaign. This is when I was using the 1981 Starter Set rules. A cost-saving nightmare of jet propulsion and retro-fitted grav engine put together to make a cheap all terrain vehicle for the demanding conditions of Excalibur's surface.

The piloting roll fails by one in the extreme weather always present. I declare they make the landing, but the vehicle now has 8-12 hours of repairs to be able to lift off again. Damage to one of the grav engines on landing is the cause. The PCs decide to deal with repairs later and start looking for the source of the interference. 

This leads them to some type of hatch in the ground. It is damaged. The hatch does not sit right, a circular lid recessed into a circular frame which has experienced some type of violent shock, or sheer. Possibly from a seismic event. This gives the PCs purchase for tools; crowbars, winches, hydraulic jaws, anything they came up with which was reasonable to have gotten in Central Lake when outfitting their expidition. Most gear available on Excalibur would be stuff like this. Penetrating the crust of Excalibur's tough surface and digging out what is underneath is the entire purpose of people's existence on Excalibur. They have scanners out, checking radiation and interior atmospheric signatures. They are suited up in their vac suits designed for extremely hostile environments. Basically being a most excellent and organized dungeon-delving party standing at the threshold of their next dungeon crawl. Western, Fantasy, Sci-Fi; they all can carry a fast and exciting pulp story. 

So I have a very careful party. The character Sun Tzu has an alien tech enhanced arm and Commander Frank has psionic ability. Both of these features were rolled up by their players during group character creation. These aspects need to have some bearing on the nature of our shared game world. As an adventure progresses you need to move from speculation to "fact". Science fiction adventures do demand this. The technology, cosmic phenomena, and aliens can be as weird as one wants but there has to be a "why" of things. Because players want to find out the why of things. Why are things the way they are when you can possibly have anything occur or experience in any given science fiction adventure? In lieu of gold-for-experience mechanic in Traveller to incentivize exploration of face-eating danger, the science fiction genre offers answers to the unanswerable questions of life. More precise, the illusion of a fictional answer which can be deduced by exploring the environment and having encounters with it. I mean, it is one of many possible uses of the genre for entertaining roleplay. This is what the players and myself landed on during our session zero when we discussed everyone's expectations.

There were two expectations, three if you count the general conceit of week-long jump times and an overall Imperial authority backstopping galactic trade as would be found in the Sword Worlds. The first was to explore secrets of the ancients which came before man and the other was to get into ground combat with mechs. And the Traveller game does these two things really well. If you have a referee willing to put in the time and make a puzzle which has a connected structure which can be traced by players. I like to make a lot of shit up, so this style of old-school play is what I like. And it is what I know. 

This has gotten well away from a recap at this point, and I want to spend some time in daydreamy prep with coffee, cat, and couch so I need to call it quits on this entry for now...

Continued Traveller Campaign Post

(Campaign's first post) 

The PCs plotted and planned how to infiltrate the underground fight scene and locate the girl, along with her captor, the gang leader Carlo Rossi. But all their strategizing was for shit when they reached fighting ring and rowdy gambling crowd. Victor’s mate Vince was in the middle of fighting for his Vargr life against a cyber-enhanced miner jack-hammering the alien’s face. Once Victor saw this, he went into full Vargr freak-out and jumped into the ring to aid his friend. This started the predictable uproar and mayhem as debts were voided and angry patrons started to fight among themselves.

Pushing through the crowd, Commander Frank was getting a psychic signature nearby which could only be from the little girl they sought. It was hard sorting out the gambling patrons from Rossi’s hired guns so a pop-up firefight sprung up suddenly during the mayhem. With cloth body armor on against unarmored assailants the PCs are lethal. As it should be in Traveller. The PCs are veterans of a hundred dangerous situations before they are played in the game, and their skill levels make for devastating hits. The reason the damage is amped up in Mongoose Traveller (we are playing with the 2e rules) is because of “effect”. The degree of success on a to-hit roll counts as additional damage. So, if a character rolls particularly well, say a 10 modified to a 13, they are doing an additional 5 points of damage. Throw in autofire and a gun can dish out an additional 6-10 points of damage a combat round. Against unarmored street thugs it is no contest. Their assailants were down before they could get off a shot.

The PCs find their way into Rossi’s backroom office and pose as members of Rossi’s gang with bad news from up top. Of the attack on their headquarters at the mechanic shop here in Central Lake. Rossi doesn’t know who these PCs are, doesn’t recognize them of course. The gangster is behind is desk, gun sitting on top. The little girl is sitting in a chair in the corner of the room. Four or five armed henchmen are sitting or standing as well in the room. Everyone eyeballing the PCs. Watching Rossi. Rossi tells his guys to throw the PCs out.

“If they give you any trouble just dump ‘em down a mine shaft.” He says with the sardonic grin of a consummate reprobate. And so the knives and guns come out once again. Great initiative rolls favor the PCs once again, and their accuracy and acumen start dropping opponents. Some of the gangsters get lucky and get hits. But once again, cloth armor keeps the PCs on their feet while unarmored foes go down in a pool of blood. Rossi does wound Commander Frank and this sets the little psychic girl off. She is incensed Frank is hurt and vents her anger at Rossi which has the result of swelling his head till it explodes in a welter of brains, bone, and gore. The little psychic girl can explode heads! The remaining henchmen are like WTF and scramble for the exits. Then their heads explode.

The PCs all freeze in the face of this violent psychic display and hold up their hands as to signal they mean no harm. Funny thing though, the girl seems really happy to see them. To see Commander Frank. The voices in her head had insisted the two of them meet. That she wishes to come with them to the ancient alien site. I am surprised the PCs tell the girl no problem, more than happy to take the orphan along with them into unknown danger. Through further interrogation she discloses it was her who tipped off the Central Lake criminal underworld of her psychic abilities. To instigate a kidnapping which would bring her face to face with the PCs. The voices in her head gave her plans and instructions on how to do this. The PCs are aghast at her callous indifference to her parents’ death but do face the fact she is not a helpless girl dying of an inoperable brain tumor, but a powerful psychic compelled to find them. To find Commander Frank.

The rest of the session is roleplaying the fallout from the shootings at the mines in Purple Sector and the vehicle garage in town. This means contacting the Scouts in Kazawan City. The local contract police cannot be trusted. They are most likely involved in the human trafficking business being conducted in Central Lake. The Scouts can claim jurisdiction over the case on behalf of the Imperium due to its interstellar implications. This means waiting for them to show up. It is good many hours before the crime scenes are taped off and processed, statements taken, and current victims are cared for. This brings the group and the authorities in contact with Dr. Quar. Dr. Quar was expecting the girl’s arrival as he is the talented physician going to operate on the girl’s brain tumor. He is horrified of the past days events and dismayed the PCs intend to keep the girl with them. He argues with the Scout officials that this is ridiculous. The girl is in dire medical condition and needs to be treated. Is expected to get treated.

This is all above the officer’s pay grade and gets in touch with Scout Commander Casarria in Kazawan City. Casarria is an Imperial contact and has been briefed on the PCs mission here on the surface of Excalibur. She instructs her guy that the PCs are on a priority mission and if they say the girl is coming with them then the girl goes. This takes much explaining, as I demanded they make a decent argument for this reckless endangerment of a child with Casarria. The roleplay is a combination of in character dialogue and me saying “Yeah, but you are trying to go off with a child after all this murder. Convince me!”

But Sun Tzu makes his persuade/negotiate roll. The Orion Directive credentials seem to give the PCs some much needed clout out here on the rain-washed ravines of Excalibur. The doctor is kept in the dark on Casarria’s orders and the PCs load up the cutter that night and in the morning head out into the storm-wracked skies to cover the 60 km to the alien site.

 

Our Traveller Universe (OTU)

 A continued description of this sci-fi campaign.

Mongoose’s interpretation of the rules for today’s audience is very old school. When you are playing Mongoose 2e you are playing a classic game of Traveller. Combat is where Marc Miller’s Traveller gives way to Mongoose’s version. Initiative rolls instead of simultaneous combat. Cepheus Engine has better rules for auto fire. I need to see if the PCs will want to use it. I’m thinking of adding some rules for “called shots” too. Make that head shot more dramatic and bloodier. Add a negative DRM for the difficulty factor and in exchange the weapon damage bypasses armor. Splat.

Against Thron’s better judgement, the PCs have taken it upon themselves to track down a kidnapped girl in the mining town of Central Lake. Their snooping around has led them to a warehouse a block off the main thoroughfare. I anticipate the PCs busting into the place, hoping to find the girl. But if they go somewhere else, I will need to think quickly on my feet. I hope they go for the obvious and infiltrate the warehouse. Inside are the usual criminal losers who can point a gun in the right direction and the first indication of the human-trafficking operation being run out of Central Lake. If they leave anyone alive, they will get information on where Carlo Rossi and the girl are located. Purple Sector.

The Purple sector of the mine is not running at capacity. It is slated to be decommissioned due to its age and where Carlo Rossi runs fights for the miner’s amusement, receive human-trafficking victims, drugs, and other smuggled goods.

The PCs do have a successful shoot out with Rossi’s men and get the information on where they can find the Central Lake gangster. They also find victims of the galactic slave trade as well as a roughed-up and restrained Vargr. The kidnapped people all seem to be from the inner systems of the Imperium. The Vargr says he and his companion were kidnapped while visiting Red Cliff Raceway. They believed the very public and intergalactic nature of the complex would minimize the racial prejudice they routinely endure when interacting with Humaniti. It was not to be. Someone at the glittering casino complex must have known Rossi pays for “Exotics” to fill his fighting pits. All it took was a spiked drink and Victor and Vince Vargr woke up in wonderful Central Lake. 

This was an opportunity to roleplay our world building. To flesh out the nooks and crannies of this Traveller universe. This version of the Third Imperium. One is the genetically fucked up nature of the Vargr. It is obvious, even after thousands of years as a star-faring culture, they were originally made. An unknown race millennia ago completed an amazing feat of genetic engineering and fashioned a completely new species. But what flaws existed in the originals have been passed down, hardwired to their succeeding generations. The first being their head sits off kilter with a slightly curved neck. Their hips are weirdly high up on a compact torso, so when they sit their head is much lower than a humans when using furnishings of Humaniti. Evolutionary it doesn’t make any sense but it is a features which is stamped into every newborn Vargr. A less sinister feature is Vargr naming conventions. The Vargr have their own language and their own true names they use with each other. But, when interacting with Humaniti they all go by a name which begins with a “V”. And these names are also an indication of rank. For example, the PCs are talking with Victor Vargr. This means he (or she) is the leader of their pack. Could be “Victor” is a starship captain, or leads a Vargr mercenary force, or maybe the head of some Vargr shipping guild. He had a friend with him. “Vince”. Vince is used for the second in command, or a deputy secretary. Whatever role it performs, the Vince always has their Victor’s back. I will keep coming up with names which begin with V as the need arises.

So, we have established a few things with this interaction. The level of prejudice Vargr endure in Imperium space can rise to violence against them, that their physiology is unsettling to the average person, and they have a secondary language they speak among themselves. Not surprisingly, Vince is currently in Purple Sector for the local’s amusement. This means Victor comes with the PCs whether they like it or not.

The PCs muse over what security obstacles they will need to circumnavigate at Purple Sector, but they find none. Only a Sternmetal Safety Inspector waiting for the facilities main lift to arrive and take him down into the mine. This is how the PCs find out what the situation is in Purple Sector, with the underground (literally) fights, complete with drugs and companionship. The inspector assures the PCs the mine being decommissioned will not end Central Lake’s popular past-times.  

The lift arrives and the motley crew heads down to face Carlo Rossi and find the kidnapped girl.

Lightly sketched Backstories Are Best

Lightly sketched backstories are best. My current Classic Traveller campaign in MTU (my traveller universe) has PCs involved in counter-espionage, alien investigation, doppelgangers, and a Sword World Confederation invasion. There have been many instances where the PCs need to (or asked to by me) explain a connection or event which happened in the past. With lightly-sketched backstory in hand, the PC has a springboard to assist creativity an invention on the spot. 

 And putting a character “on the spot” is one of the main responsibilities of the Game Master. And yes, when these character blank spots in their past require explanation I put this on the player. I want the players to be invested in the game, and being able to create portions of the game helps achieve this important relationship, which fosters immersive role-playing. It also helps the world-building, of course. Being quick to note these facts down, the player’s creations, is a fundamental step towards creating a living world. Player’s crave impacting the campaign world in meaningful ways, and this is only going to manifest through the reaction of NPCs to the PCs plots and schemes. Linking plausible reactions of adversaries in response to actions the players made is all everyone is looking for. Having a loose skin of a backstory facilitates this goal better then a straight jacket of preconceived notions on what the PC is all about. 

And this is what the Traveller game does so well with their character creation system. It provides a lightly sketched backstory through character creation. Sure, it is very generic: Army, Navy, Merchant, Other…, but this is by design. Most early game companies assumed players would make up their own campaign worlds and universes, so the Traveller game accommodated this take with generic science fiction descriptions which, when combined in different ways, provided the tools for a Game Master to craft their campaign vision. It works; it really does. I am on my fourth Traveller player group and all have found cohesion and direction identifying their lightly sketched backstory and letting the fast-moving and exciting session events prompt them to answer questions just as quickly. 

Just like the GM, the Player does not know what their character is until they get them into play. The lightly sketched character backstory (works for NPCs too!) has proved to be of superior utility time and time again! All hail Satan.

AMC Hut BFRPG Package #3

Here is a recording of the actual exchange as it happened at the AMC Hut at Lonesome Lake today. It is a project of my own devising and I will link to the earlier posts about this project later, but right now on the road I wanted to get the audio of the event up in some fashion.

AMC LONESOME LAKE HUT AUDIO

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.