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