www.gamingtavern.eu

[Guvnor]

My Mongoose Traveller went like a dream, it was great. I am running a Star Wars Saga adventure converted week by week and largely on the fly, for Empire read Solomani, for Rebel Alliance read 3rd Imperium (yes but the players chose which side they wanted to be and they chose the Imperium). It's set in the Gemini subsector and started in a tethered spacesport above the planet Gwynedd. It's a simple pick up and go mission for the PCs who are all operatives of Imperial Naval Intelligence, which has started to heat up as the SolSec (SS) have started to focus in on their contact and the cargo that the PCs are to collect. After a short bloody firefight (which the PCs survived but which taught them a lot about Trav combat) they have had to abandon plans to go back up the beanstalk to the space station and are now stuck on the surface of Gwynedd, on a mountain full of sheep, rain and locals who not only are strongly Solomani but also Welsh, Methodist and always singing!

I am very keen for advice on how to run Traveller games, a longer set of guns for the players, and the best way to map and record my new planet data.

Now for a movie: http://www.traveller3d.com/traveller-trailer.avi
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neither god nor master

[Guvnor]

All going well.. shenanigans with homeboy Vargr on the Solomani planet (think the Wire but with Vargr..), then an audacious bit of gravcarjacking that ended in a rather odd encounter with a protocol droid, 3 Aslan and ended with a serious firefight with SolSec in a hangar bay.. and a defencebot that almost was the death of the players before they brought in their ship and deployed the sandcaster.. but they escaped with an Imperial agent frozen in a block of carbonite.

Next week.. I think there's gonna be a space battle.

Traveller is great.. might well invest in the LBB High Guard if it's readable and cheap..

Now.. did Dom do Solomani ships for Power Projection?
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neither god nor master

[Sacha]

I really wish I was playing this.

Cheers,

Sacha
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Am I still unconscious?

[Dom]

Tom, no, Solomani ships aren't in PP but it has conversion rules from CT HG, MT and T20. very quick and simple...
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"We live in a nuclear powered universe. We're the oddballs by getting energy from burning carbon."
James Lovelock

[Guvnor]

I shall get my shit together Sunday night and stat up the space battle that we'll see next, although we'll use the standard space combat rules since we're not dealing with the capital ships that PP:Fleet deals with and I ain't got Power Projection Escort.

There will be a capital ship engagement at the end of the story arc tho... !!
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neither god nor master

[Dom]

The PP rules are the same at both levels - Escort just misses campaign, construction, and spinal weapons...

It is, however, a little too vicious for player characters...
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"We live in a nuclear powered universe. We're the oddballs by getting energy from burning carbon."
James Lovelock

[Guvnor]

Didn't you also add some small ship wepons? I thought I read that on the PP webpage. I shall convert some Solomani ships across for it.. and my mate Ian has fired up Studio 3D and is modelling his new (warp drive powered - naughty) space ship in it.

I decided that the warp drive was ok, it gives an advantage in fuel and therefore space so in MTU (my traveller universe) it's very new. I also haven't told him about the as-yet-unknown teething troubles..
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neither god nor master

[Dom]

I may have added fusion and energy weapons into Fleet, but honesty can't remember whether they were in Escort. The conversion was pretty much the same, but they were range limited to short if I remember correctly. I'll give you a definitive answer when I get back to my copy of the rules.

The main issue with Warp Drive for Traveller would be if communication was allowed to vessels in warp or if the ships were significantly faster than 20 ly per week (ie Jump 6). Either of these would start to change the setting radically. Of course, an early prototype with teething issues would be a good excuse...
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"We live in a nuclear powered universe. We're the oddballs by getting energy from burning carbon."
James Lovelock

[Dom]

If you are planning to have the players in the ships you are stating for Power Projection, I recommend that you multiply up the structure boxes (say x5 or x10) per line to increase survivability. The implicit skill level in the game was 2 (the base line for High Guard in CT).

Power Projection was written to allow me to play big Traveller ship engagements out quickly rather than use for an RPG session. It is very brutal. I need to come and run you some games...
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"We live in a nuclear powered universe. We're the oddballs by getting energy from burning carbon."
James Lovelock

[Guvnor]

We'll do our spaceship battle tonight using the Mongoose core book rules. They're slow and laboured but capture the slow deadliness of hard SF space combat well. I must also do some system prep and get the research station element ready.. did I mention that the 'cargo' they have been after turned out to be an agent frozen in carbonite.. my Star Wars roots showing thru! [Hey, it's a very low-berth..]

There will be a huge stand off at the story arc end (look I've had Death Station for years and I want to run it, but when it's over the Solomani, Imperials and maybe even a distant Hiver ship are going to jump into system and all hell will break loose.. I am happy for it to be as deadly as written.. the PCs will almost certainly get into a life pod if their ship goes down..
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neither god nor master

[Guvnor]

So, we played our space combat and the PCs 700t bespoke craft was running from system when 2 Solomani 200t Q-ships popped up, literally, and opened fire.

In a slow relentless exchange of laser fire, missiles and a particle accelorator, the PC ship ripped one Solomani vessel out of the sky and crippled the other one. They offered mercy and the Solomani went silent and watched as the 'Cereberus' warped out of system using one of these new fangled warp drives [I need to write some actual rules for warp drive use for Traveller..].

They made their way to the agreed empty system, and as they decelerated in (or do warp drives just stop?) their sensors picked up a major ship in system: an Azhanti High Lightning..

.. they were amongst friends, so just what would their frozen human cargo prove to know that was so valuable?
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neither god nor master

[Guvnor]

So.. to conclude for now..

The deep frozen agent was.. dead.. oh no.. but with the help of the medics and ICT people they decrypted part of his brain (apparently Imperial secret agents encrypt parts of their brains..) and it was clear that a Solomani Research Station at Carcemish was pursuing a deeply dangerous and also embarassing research programme. The PCs were assigned to investigate on a 'plausible deniability' basis.

There then followed the classic Traveller adventure "Death Station", but with a slight twist. The Solomani, or more accurately a sub set of SolSec, were investigating genetically keyed pathogens and viruses to target Vegans from the Vegan Polity. After some pleasingly scary lurking in corridors, exploring tunnels and generally spooking themselves, the players decided to record everything and blow the station when 2 Solomani cruisers jumped into system... followed by the Azhanti High Lightning, on cue..

One dead cruiser later and the PCs and all the evidence were on their way back to Imperial space.. with a new story that will deeply embarass the Solomani, reinforce Vegan opposition to the Confederation and perhaps coincidentally affect Hiver policy.. since the Hiver policy of maintaining genetic conformity makes the Hivers very susceptible to a genetically keyed attack, unlike the more varied species out there.

Is a Manipulator behind all of this?

The PCs decide to head into Imperial controlled areas of the Solomani Rim since they are now persona non grata in Solomani space, and they have 1-2 new enemies..
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neither god nor master