These tables are system agnostic enough to rip from the rulebook and plug into that dirty shit-hole you call a downport;
Useful tables from cyberpunk 2020 (for your Traveller game);
p.33 lifepaths,
p.30 fast and dirty expendables,
p.43 fumble table,
p.58 occupation table,
p.61 weapons list (damage and ammo stats work easily enough)
p.68-69 gear descriptions/gear list,
p.76 cyberware list,
p.83 chips & prices,
p.142 programs list,
p. 167 programming 101 (more for the setting info then a table),
p. 179 uniform civilian justice code,
p. 220 night city encounters.
I don’t know if Traveller’s
combat system is considered “deadly”, but it has carried an air
of complexity around it by those who have never played. I’ve had
the pleasure of running six-seven sessions of Classic Traveller and I
find the combat system amazingly plain, but with oft overlooked
features which make it really sing!
Look at the combat turn order,
nothing there any regular rpg’er hasn’t seen. The surprise
mechanic is simple, and interesting. To hit is 8 or better on 2D6,
and wounds are applied to your Physical attributes; Strength,
Dexterity and Endurance. Range is simplified and the list of actions
a character can take is boiled down into 4 actual combat
actions. So where does this notion of an opaque, killer combat system
for Traveller come from?
The
reason Traveller combat is considered deadly and/or complex is
because of at least two rules never used by regular players and
referees. Rules so important it changes the whole relationship of the
PCs to the game universe. They are the rule on weapon skills and the
use of endurance attribute in melee.
The
weapons skill rules are the most significant. Ranged combat takes on
a completely different dimension when not used properly. The lack of
this rule makes PCs less
competent and easier to kill. On page 36 of the LBB’s is the entry
Untrained Weapon Usage.
“Any character using a weapon in which he or she has no training is
subject to a penalty of 5 when attacking and +3 when def[i]nding
(defending). While you let that sink in check out the next few
sentences; “All player-characters automatically have an expertise
of zero (0) in all weapons shown in this book.”
Not
only does the average NPC have a 5 to their ranged weapon attack, the
average PC suffers no disadvantage. A minus five swing in Traveller
is a BIG deal. It makes most NPC’s the players interact with are
“mooks”, adversaries which they can brush
aside quickly. Add in proper
use of cover and the surprise mechanics, any experienced combatants
run effectively will roll gangbangers, grumpy
miners, thugish dock workers, enraged bureaucrat; the PCs are
designed to be Bruce Willis in Die Hard.
A cut above the rest of the folks trapped in the tower. This is where
you get to swing from the cable with auto rifles blasting the poorly
paid and trained security guards! In a flat-footed straight out draw
a PC should be Clint Eastwood to every one of those “lucky” punks
out there.
My
test was a poll on the Mewe Classic Traveller group and it looked
like this:
Your
average Traveller player and referee doesn’t play with these rules
at all. This is what I mean about swinging the combat game against
the PCs. They are playing the game with one arm literally tied behind
their back. Unlike weapon speed in AD&D, the -5 for untrained
weapon usage is an essential mechanic for the Traveller game. Remove
it and the way players play Traveller significantly changes. Further,
this small sampling shows most referees and players have never
considered this rule and its effect on combat.
Myself,
I’m stingy with zero level weapon skills for NPCs. The weapon is
deadly enough. Anyone can squeeze a trigger. But who can keep their
heads about them when multiple people are firing guns, at short range
no less?! Pandemonium is what happens. A character trained to be cool
and deliberate during fire brings your game to movie-level action.
Like in Heat, and Den
of Thieves. The tattooed,
ipod-wearing street hood goes down in
a street fight with one spray from the trained PC.
In
conclusion, there are some assumptions placed on Classic Traveller
which change game play away from superior PCs, and therefore the game
is going to be played differently. If you implement RAW I believe you
will find players enjoying the game more.
This
first adventure had the most continuous sessions. Shattered Worlds
Issue #1 engaged a seasoned crew of Traveller Players faced with
a strange anomaly on the surface of the planet Xxcarvis. The LotFP
adventure Monolith from Beyond Time and Space was used for the
Anomaly. They got spooked out and only one of the four-man crew
survived to return to Skalvil. These events unfolding on Xxcarvis are
the meta-event which will blow through the campaign universe. This
was all done through a G+ group which sadly is no more. Another
unknown campaign disappearing into the ether. The one surviving PC
from this adventure most likely will not play again, but their
actions are now canon!
The
next adventure Under
the Dome Issue #1had a police strike against terrorists who
commandeered a corporate research facility. This lasted two sessions
with more questions than answers, but the PCs were free to go in
whatever direction they wished. And it lead to bloodshed and
frame-ups!
Under
the Dome Part Deux has the contract workers splitting up from
the cop PCs after the terrorist job. The hired hands PCs are going to
a Union bar to collect on a payout. The Union offers the party good
money for any heavy firepower they could swing the worker’s confab.
The PCs take a pass. Next Omni Cop HQ sends them to ask the Binary
Dogs a few questions. This is a set up to get the PCs in a deadly
gun-fight with this drug-running gang. The PCs come out on top and
hole up in a nondescript pumped hotel cube. And there this story
thread hangs hoping to be picked up again.
Under
the Dome #3introduced a new
group of PCs, the third now, picking up work “under the dome”.
Pretty straight job. Omni-Sun employee owes gambling money. The
bookie is a “skin job” so it has a hard time getting respect from
its human customers. It wants
to step up pressure and become a bookie to be feared if you welsh.
The PCs chew up the low-life ladder right up to getting arrested. It
was an excellent place for this quirky escapade to come to a stop.
Unfortunately it will be unlikely this group, Player Group C, will
ever assemble again. No
session report or video
Under
the Dome #4 reintroduced a
regular PC with some newbies. Another noir-like,
uncover information, investigation type session as the PCs move
through NPCs and locations. It ends in off-road buggy chases and a
shoot out. Pretty cool.
What
will Under the Dome #5
turn up? Who knows. But with a fleshed out sub-sector and
big and little things happening all around; there is not much
adventure-thirsty PCs can’t get up in to. If
you want to know when these impromptu online sessions, these “Flash
Sessions”, join either the
MeWe or
Discord
(or both) groups.
Hugo
Rossi – Head Mechanic for Collace Down's racing team.
Mr.
Anderson – Local Vandars amateur racer.
Yang
– Just another local Vandars tough who hangs out with Mr. Anderson.
Saar
– Omni Security-Vandars contract worker and computer hack.
Notable
NPC's:
Clug
– a bodyguard who works for Collace Down
Collace
Down: Rich citizen of Kazawan City.
Paulo
Song – Omni Sun CEO
Cisero
– Headman of the Krunner Farm. They manufacture high end finishes
from Hellboria Wood.
Notable
Locations:
Kazawan
City
New
Lanark Apartments, Owens Block, Vandars
Krunner
Farm, colonists who are growers of Hellboria Wood.
Harean
Station, a grotto where colonists harvest Harean slugs. The slugs are
an important source of protein for the planets food supply.
Horsail,
a colonist hydrogen fracking operation.
This
is tricky, running a sci-fi game like a West Marches campaign. But a
very worthy Game Master challenge. My new experience in GM art is
these ad-hoc sessions with different PC's but using the same starting
location. In this case Vandars Colony Dome #1. On the surface of
Skalvil.
Today's
group makes for the fourth different mix of PC's while all the
players have played in this campaign world before, albeit only one
other session. I picked one of the players (fuckin'Hobbs) to be the
keystone for the session. That is he was going to use his original
character from a year ago and the rest of the players would need new
PC's who would have some tangential relationship to (fuckin'Hobbs) so
they would be in the same room. This being his pumped cube at the New Lanark Apartments, Owens Block. He
is called Saar, an Omni Security-Vanders contract worker and computer
hack. After his first session he split from his party members to
spend time cracking the data dump he took from the Omni
Horron Research Facility (Oh-Rif)
and suck on his electrocuted fingers. He was leaking from a few
combat wounds as well. He looked like shit the last time we left him
and now he has hanger-ons in his pumped cube at the New Lanark
Apartments, Owens Block and in no mood for company.
PC
#2 and #3 are Anderson and Yang. Both are Vanders' locals. Mr.
Andeson likes to think of himself as kind of a hot-shot on the
amateur race circuit while Yang usually has nothing to do but hang
out with Anderson. Saar was modifying Anderson's power converters and
he is here to pick them up.
“Wait
out side. I'll get 'em for you.” Saar then plugs in the data chip
and begins cracking. There are 8 files. All of various degrees of
complexity, therefore various degrees of time to crack. Saar goes to
work on the easiest. Time stamped photos of a corporate party in
Kazawan City. The photos seem to focus on one individual in
particular. It will take running a facial recognition app to try and
figure out who he is. Fifteen minutes tops. While the comp runs the
program Saar looks up at the wal-vid broadcasting the latest scream
sheet.
“Gang
violence breaks out at the Synapsis club between off-duty Omni
Security and the Binary Dogs. No information yet on why these
off-duty officers were at the club or why they engaged gang members,
but Omni Security has requested anyone with any information on the
whereabouts of Officer Jones [Picture of Jose looking up from a bowl
of cereal] or Omni Contractor Hernandez [Picture of Paul riding an
electronic bull] please contact Omni Security immediately. They
should be considered armed and dangerous. A series of video camera
footage just outside the entrance of the club in the top floor of a
high-rise is being looped showing Jones and Hernandez entering the
club with two other men. Quick head shots of the deceased Binary Dogs
are displayed, then the usual quick reactionary crowd shots of the
average Vanders citizen at the scene complaining about police
corruption, the drug-trade and the poor colonists stuck in the middle
trying to earn a living.
“What
the frak?!” When Saar left Jones and Hernandez they were heading to
the Below Zero to collect the cash Bargar Vas promised them for
getting the water turned back on out at Oh-Rif. What were they doing
hours later at the Synapsis in a gunfight? And where is Schmidt?
Sergeant Schmidt ran the mission out at Oh-Rif. Last he knew he had
just got done debriefing the chief and collecting credits. Well it
sure as purple-acid-rain did not concern Saar at the time. “My
fraking fingers hurt.” He winced as he stabbed his deck for the
readout.
Paulo
Song, Omni Sun, COO Omni
Horron Research Facility, responsible for the agra-augmentation
program being conducted there.
“Hey
Saar”, this was Mr. Anderson punching his apartments com. “Someone
is here to see you.”
“Tell
him I'm not here.”
“Okay.”
Saar
bends back over his comp and begins and extraction program on the
next most easily hacked piece of data. Six hours. “Run it.”
“He
says he can't really leave until he sees you.” the apartment's com
crackles again. Aw
hell, Saar punches the door access code. Anderson and Yang come back
in with a well dressed man. Obviously Kazawan City, not a colonist.
Anderson
introduces him as his boy Hugo Rossi. Both Rossi and Saar look at
each other trying to figure out why in the hell either one them would
be talking to each other. Rossi trimmed out, good job obviously,
standing in a pumped cube in the dome talking to cut up,
electrocuted, dying computer hack. Saar was concluding once again he
was shit at choosing friends.
“My
employer, Mr. Down, would like to talk to you if you wouldn't mind?”
“Can
he patch me up?”
“I
hope so, or I've taken a two hour tube ride for nothing.”
“Who's
your boss?”
“Collace
Down. His son just returned from Xxcarvis. He is concerned about his
son, the condition of his return, and for some reason now he wants to
talk to you. He also advises that we try and leave the dome as soon
as possible.”
“Down
is big in the professional circuit,” Anderson beams, “his son,
Flare is probably the top celebrity sports star on Skalvil. I've
raced against him before, he's totally cool.”
Saar
accepts he will not be having a quite night at home but says he can't
leave until he makes a few files. He wants forty minutes. Rossi
doesn't see any problem with that and shortly thereafter the group
hits the concourse and grab a tube to Kazawan City. Down lives in a
plush high-rise and they are escorted into what can only be the
suite's lounge. Rossi fixes everyone drinks while a house attendant
treats Saar with stimpacks and NueSkin patches.
Heavy
set with a face sandpaper-washed from time spent outside the
environmental domes of Skalvil. Sharp dressed. Long time local who
made it good some how.
“Thank
you for coming. I
see you have met my mechanic Hugo Rossi. He has a lot to do with
keeping this family in the winner's circle and a truly capable hand.
I myself as you can see am quite capable, but I have some current
issues I am having some trouble wrapping my head around and I believe
you may be helpful. It
is my understanding you were recently out at Oh-Rif. Specifically you
were on the ground dealing with the seizure of the facility by
terrorists. Is that right?”
“Yes.
Sergeant Schmidt, Omni Security. He hired me along with some other of
his contract help to go out and see what the problem was.”
“What
did you find?”
“What
was reported. Some unknown armed group had taken over the facility,
disrupted the water flow. Don't know why. Attracted a whole bunch of
attention. How could it not. Angry colonists were outside ready to
force their way in if the water didn't get turned back on. My group
secured the facility, engaged the terrorists. We killed some. Some
got away. Looks like they killed the whole staff their too. Didn't
make much sense. Still doesn't. But it paid. Once we contacted Omni
with a sit-rep the salaried boys rolled in and told us to go home.”
Down
drains his glass and sits on the couch. Arms spread, his prodigious
stomach sticking out form his jacket. “My son got into trouble on
an expedition on Xxcarvis. Championship grav-skiing on those
tremendous ice peaks. Film crew, the whole works. Going to set a new
frontier record no doubt. Now it is a four week journey one way so I
don't expect up to the minute briefings, but that I was almost able
to keep up daily with the expedition group. They would tight-beam
their daily logs from the range to the Omni-Sun drilling facility.
There they would be loaded onto the next transport out. There is
enough regular commercial traffic out of Xxcarvis that every other
day I had footage. He must of got into some trouble out their because
the daily tight-beam stopped. I paid the Scouts to get out there and
look for them. The Baudy Beth I think it was. 200T free-trader, 2
jump capability. Four
weeks out, four weeks back minimum. A crew of four. They returned two
weeks ahead of schedule with my son, the body of one of the scouts
and the sole survivor of the trek. I still have not got any
information on the whereabouts of the other two crew members.
“The
official report is they came across Flare in life-pod orbiting the
gas giant at 0304. Still 2 parsecs out from Xxcarvis. Word is he was
never on Xxcarvis. No
trace of his ship, his crew. He is not okay. Something happened to
him. The
surviving scout from the mission I have been unable to find out who
or were he is. Probably under lock and key at their base here in the
city. I was able to find out the body of the dead scout had been
transferred to Oh-Rif. So I want to ask you again: What did you
find?”
Saar
let the stimpacks take him far away from his singed skin and
lacerated torso. “They had some EMP device. Detonated in the power
room. Brought the whole facility down. No power, no communication.
They killed all the staff and took a body. They fled on boat out into
the Skalvil Sea. We
found it beached on the north shore. Original crew bound and
executed. Most likely killed before the terrorists used the boat to
enter Oh-Rif. They fled into the wastes on a four-wheeled ATV. The
frequent acid-rain storms had quickly made their trail impossible to
follow. Schmidt returned to the Omni tower to debrief and collect
pay. I came home to find, well all of you.”
Saar
looked at the rest of the PC's. They all seemed happy with their
drinks. “All
I can say it didn't make any sense.”
“I
want to take a look at that body. Do you think you can find it for
me?”
“Sure,
were do you think we should look?”
“There
isn't much north of the Skalvil.” Downs picks up a remote from the
table and turns on the his holo-vid. A three dimensional image of the
rain scarred wastes of Skalvil in brilliant display. The Skalvil Sea
was prominent then the display zoomed into the terrain north. Three
colonies were identified; Krunner
Farm, Harean
Station
and
Horsail.
“Harean
Station is a slug farm, protein bases for you poor colonists food
supplies out there on the plains and you poor dome'ers living on
subsidy. Krunner Farm harvests Hellboria
Wood. Very
hard, very colorful when back lit and very expesive. My bar top here
is a nice specimen. Horsail is a fracking operation. Anyone heading
north via ATV's cannot get very far without living, knowing or being
supplied by one of these colonies. Someone
is going to know who they are and where they are. I suggest you start
out immediately. Omni knows as much as this too. If they are hot to
track down the terrorists they will be heading there soon. But then
again, now the facility is back up maybe not so soon. Hugo
here has tuned up the Trell III, a capable back
country air raft. Enclosed of course. He has agreed to accompany you
all. As a top mechanic you shouldn't have to worry about breakdown.”
Navigating
the Skalvil wastes it was apparent to all but Anderson that he drives
way too fast. He calmly whistled some inane tune as he carved the
grav-powered hover jeep through the tortuous terrain racked by sudden
purple sheets of rain and deep defiles. They were heading to Krunner.
The closest colony to the sea and the hardest to reach. The
PC's expected signal contact soon.
“Uh
oh.” Anderson stopped whistling.
“What?”
asked Yang. He was white-knuckling it shotgun.
“I
think we're going to hit a Wempir swarm.” Everyone starts yelling
for him to turn around it.
“I'm
going too fast. You better break out the guns.” Aggressive little
five
kilogram grey-mottled
blimps, Flying Wempirs
attack anything flying along close to the ground. Their massive
swarms will envelope suspected prey with viscous barbed mouths. For
the Trell III it would be like hitting a brick wall at this speed.
“Start blasting and I'll try and spin us out!” Anderson was
yelling now.
The
crew lowered their wind screens and squirted their rifles and sub
machine guns on full auto. The wind and the rain screamed along with
the furious shriek of the swarm, black against the now obliterated
purple sky. The jeep was buffeted by hundreds of splatting flyers,
made a sickening barrel roll and slid out of the swarm down a slot
canyon.
“Whooee!”
Anderson and Yang were pounding the dashboard delighted to not be
dead. It was hard to tell what the rest of the crew was thinking all
rain and Wempir gore sprayed.
“Bogey
One this Krunner Farm please identify.” crackled the dash-com. (to
be continued)
The last time I got a chance to run a session in my Original(Own) Classic Traveller Universe (OTU) was April 2018. It was the third session of the second group I was able to get together online and ended like any role-playing session with more to do then when we started.
If you are a game referee you know the "space" I'm in. That of more than one play group gaming in the same campaign. Which is fucking cool. You want to game the world more because the actions of the PC's keep on expanding the field of play. And different groups in play generate even more event horizons which make future game prep immensely challenging and rewarding. I want to see what becomes of the beast!
So I've pushed further sessions when I know I can run and nothing really lined up again until today. With another group of new players. No one, if my listening ears were on, had ever played Traveller before. And as a referee I've only run Traveller for seven-twelve? total sessions. If you are a fan of OSR play Classic Traveller will work for you. Actually let me say if you are a PC who loves OSR play and have no problem with using an instant character generator to produce a character a game can get off the ground quicker than D&D!
This came together with such little planning that I caught one of the players saying "Feels strange to be called my real name." We didn't have any avatars, just are naked selves. Which made it more difficult for me to recognize each player as what "type" of character they were, but this is kind of a bonus. Everyone had to roleplay. Like here is what I want to do cause I don't know what my PC is good at so I'm going to do this. Throws you back on what is important during live play; be involved, be interesting. Do stuff! and then let the dice decide.
Here is the stuff the PC's did:
All were ex-army, out of work and looking for a way to pay for water and air under the dome.I threw out relative rumors tangential to previous adventures and hit the crew straight up with a patron; Sader Z. an old, emaciated and bitter loan shark. He hangs out at the Body Double coffee shop taking bets on the underground fight scene. Mon-Fay, an Omni-Sun cop owes 30,000 in gambling debts and Sader Z. can't find him. Bring the dead-beat Mon-Fay to him alive and he'll split the debt with you all. 15 for Sader 15 for the PC's. Sader Z knows Mon-Fay has a pumped cube over in the Starsky block. Unit 420 above the ultra-mart. He has a month on as part of security at the Oh-Rif facility outside the dome and then a month off at home here in the dome. Sader reminds the PC's he wants Mon-Fay brought to him alive. He can't make a corpse pay up.
The PC's case the block and start asking ultra-mart employees if Mon-Fay has been around lately. Their questions spook Scuffy the janitor in charge of the floor-wax robos to run out the back. The PC's try and catch the poor bastard but they lose him in the tight, busy thoroughfare outside. The PC's search the janitor's office and don some maintenance uniforms (Starsky Property Management) and force the door to the upper level apartments all the while taking careful note of the video surveillance in abundance for such a low-rent complex. The auto-lift is out, of course so the stairs it is. On the third floor landing three dudes in overcoats (Gang=Bung Monkeys) ask "what is up?" I guess they were not expecting an unscheduled maintenance call for the fourth floor cause the PC's rolled snake eyes on their reaction roll and the gang members immediately attack. One overcoat took to the stairs going up. Talker pulled a cattle-prod while Back-Up pulled a body pistol. Everyone and I mean everyone rolled for shit in the stairwell. Electricity and firearms were discharged willy-nilly. The PC with the cudgel actually cleared the room. The party was then able to force access into 420, catching the runaway overcoat dude gathering some data chips from Mon-Fay's wall comp. "Mon-Fay hasn't been around. You know he can be on duty for a month or more man. He said if anyone come around while he gone burn his deck. That's what I'm doing man. Here take the chips man just let me go."
The PC's head back to the Body Double and show Sader Z what they got. He gladly takes the data chips from them and lets them know he is pretty displeased they show up with no money and no Mon-Fay. "Find him dam it!" They don't let the loan shark in on the sealed Huron seed package they found hidden in Mon-Fay's apartment. Huron and Omni-Sun run Oh-Rif, the ag research facility where Mon-Fay works. The PC's naturally suspect they are holding the acid-rain resistant seed promised colonists for the last three years. Probably money and the recent terrorist attack on self-same facility wasn't just for fun.
The PC's decide to go check out Mon-Fay's place of work, the Oh-Rif facility on the eastern edge of the Skalvil Sea. They bribe their way on a supply boat from Halo Shipping but once out on the water the skipper says he can't take them all the way in. "Since the terrorist attack a few days ago security is really tight." He can drop the PC's off at Javon Musk's farm. It is just outside the facility and he rents ATV's for hunting parties looking for sport on Skalvil's tainted, acid-rain surface. So that is what they do. Musk is a farmer and animal trainer. He lives comfortably outside the dome cause he is a popular wilderness guide for the wealthy out of Kazawan City. The PC's use the cover of a hunting party to rent ATV's and observe the research facility through scopes. Lot of security. Lot going on. The PC's decide there is no way they are going to get in without getting caught so take their fustration out on nearby Skalvil Rabbits. Lanky, fast vermin the size of large house cats, it doesn't take long for their accurate shooting to bring down dinner as well as a VTOL from Oh-Rif.
The party is informed they are trespassing on restricted property and to wait for ground security forces approaching. They will be then identified and escorted off restricted property. The PC's were like fuck, we should have gone and tried to sell these seeds to the Vanders Labor Union back under the dome....
Yes, I want to signal boost this along with "everyone" else. I have played this original game system and really enjoyed using it to run my first satisfying role playing game of sci-fi.
CT-ST_Starter Traveller is an introductory version of the game. It included a book of core rules, a separate set of charts, and a book of adventures (there are three separate download files). Now all for free in PDF over at Drivethru.
The adventures are forgettable, but you want this for the core system and Marc Miller's recommendations for use. That being; a game system for those who want to run their own vision for an interstellar game universe. Yeah there are the typical conceits which have come to define Traveller; jump ships, death during character creation and massive computer space required during star ship build, but as a flexible referee world-building tool kit with a solid, thoughtfully built personal combat system I don't find much which beat it.
Xoth is here actually. Well, only in my multiverse. The World of Xoth is Morten Braten's creation for his Pathfinder game. I took his setting material and used it for my playtesting of USR Sword & Sorcery. This, an the "Known World" of Mystara from B/X D&D, are my touchstone campaign worlds when I got back into gaming five years ago. With some regular play it didn't take long to start daydreaming about intersecting gaming worlds and gaming groups with each other. The Flailsnail's conventions showed me that I didn't even have to be thaaat concerned about different systems mashing with different system PC's. Running some Classic Traveller and keeping a Clockwork & Cthulhu campaign going the pieces of my multi-verse are mostly full-formed now. Mystara, Xoth, 1646 C&C Earth and the super-future of my Outer Frontier Traveller Universe I'm placing all in the "normal", terrestrial universe, with only Clockwork & Cthulhu and Traveller necessarily being separated in time.
I quickly populating the different campaign worlds with many different "doorways" out of the terrestrial universe and into other "realms", the multiverse of my game world; "Murph's Multiverse"! Mystara PC's ventured into the far future, Mystara's the-end-of-time (my Ro'Myr setting?) as well as crossing over into A Red and Pleasant Land. Xoth, these PC's activated ancient devices which connected to beings in Outer Frontier Traveller Universe, as well as through Lotus poisoning in the far-east they ended up in a strange mushroom-dreamland. The PC's from my current C&C game have entered the realm of The Pale Lady (shares space with A Red and Pleasant Land) and became acquainted with "trans-arcana" penetrations. In the Outer Frontier that PC group investigated and activated more troubling powers started in another time and place on Xoth which brought my multiverse its first glimpse of horror-scarred Carcosa... Which gets me all thinking about a visual map of all this. Where all these great settings get placed and their linkages get tracked.
So now I know where Xoth is, Trappist-1, and Earth. Mystara can be place anywhere in the known universe (or beyond) and right now there really isn't a pressing need at this point to pin it down. The Outer Frontier will eventually get mapped back to "original" Earth. Oh yeah, I even have some modern-day adventures from Anthropomorphic USR and Fear & Loathing USR to bridge all my imaginings to the here and now! The inspiration for my map is coming from that great map of Kamandi's world by Kirby. Now I guess I just got to draw it :)
The Why? of doing this is to hone a functional DM'ing device to tap crossover opportunities by retaining, recognizing and cataloguing mentally them for later use. If I have a multidimensional model of my homebrewed gaming universe I can hang cool ideas like ornaments on a christmas tree. Or stars in the night sky I guess.
The data for this random table generator was wholly taken from Augmented Reality The Holistic City Kit For Cyberpunk. I punched in a bunch of the die roll tables into Last Gasp with some use of Text Mechanic to create a one-click generator.
Specifically designed for cyberpunk the entries are suitably generic enough any science fiction city and/or starport can find a home for these entries. It will at least give you detailed structures on the fly with a minimum of fuss. Just what the busy Traveller referee needs!
These tables are system agnostic enough to rip from the rulebook and plug into that dirty shit-hole you call a downport;
