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.