tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17401876061813917022024-03-05T02:24:52.171-05:00DF WhiterockGURPS / Dungeon Fantasy RPG campaign set in Castle Whiterock megadungeondriptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01800295180326776163noreply@blogger.comBlogger169125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740187606181391702.post-27675380348620249002023-05-05T16:25:00.037-04:002023-05-05T16:33:16.843-04:00GURPS March Harrier GM's Campaign Retrospective<h2 style="text-align: left;">Introduction</h2><p>Now that the GURPS March Harrier campaign is over, here's a quick retrospective of what went right and wrong, and whether I'd like to run another GURPS Traveller campaign.</p><p><br /></p><p>As a high level overview for people who haven't read this whole blog, I ran The Traveller Adventure using GURPS 4th Edition, with a group of players recruited over Discord. We played weekly for 13 out of 14 weeks, using Foundry VTT for dice and maps and Discord for voice and text communications. We had three consistent players for the whole campaign, plus a fourth player who joined a few weeks in and then played consistently. We also had a few other players who dropped out after playing zero to one sessions.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Why GURPS?</h2><p>One question is why I ran a Traveller campaign with GURPS, rather than Classic Traveller or MegaTraveller or Mongoose Traveller or T5. The short version is that I think GURPS has far superior character generation, skill resolution, and personal combat rules to any other Traveller system, with the possible exception of Traveller Hero. And there's a lot more GURPS Traveller stuff than Traveller Hero stuff. But the drawback of using GURPS is that it's a huge system with way too many possibilities, so it's a challenge to constrain what the the players can use to keep the game from getting out of hand and turning into a rules quagmire. Also it's probably harder to find players who like both GURPS and Traveller than players who just want to play Mongoose Traveller 2E. There were a bunch of GURPS Traveller books for 3E, but there's only the one book (Interstellar Wars) for 4E, and that book is aimed at an earlier time period in the Traveller timeline, so adapting it to the year 1105 of the Third Imperium was a bit of work. Anyway, I think the GURPS Traveller career templates from GTIW worked well. One challenge was equipment, as GTIW doesn't have much, and GURPS Ultra-Tech has too much, so the GM needs to filter down to what equipment fits Traveller. Also, GURPS has several possible systems for space combat; I ended up picking the one in GTIW just to try to be consistent and use as much as possible from one book. Similarly, I used the trading rules from GTIW rather than the ones in GURPS Traveller Far Trader.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Why The Traveller Adventure?</h2><p><br /></p><p>First, nostalgia. I bought this adventure in paperback when it was new and I was in middle school, but never got around to running it. It was the first really large campaign in a single book I ever saw, and I always regretted not finding the time to run it when we were kids and had whole summers of free time.</p><p><br /></p><p>Another reason I liked this adventure was I wanted to see if players could work together as a full merchant crew. I basically said that we needed a captain and a first officer, and that we needed a pilot and a navigator and a steward and a medic and an engineer, and let the players run with it. We ended up with a pretty well-rounded initial starship crew, though they were somewhat weak on other useful abilities like combat and thief/spy skills. The other challenge was that a few players made characters but then dropped out, but a starship needs a pilot, so sometimes the GM needs to run some characters as NPCs rather than just removing them.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Adventure Review</h2><p>I'd like to briefly review The Traveller Adventure. It was written by Games Designer Workshop (Chadwick, Harshman, Keith, Miller, and Wiseman) back in 1983. You can get it (along with all the other Classic Traveller books) for $35 from farfuture.net. It was re-released by Mongoose as The Aramis Adventure for Mongoose Traveller 1E, and you can get that version from drivethrurpg. (The Mongoose version is pretty much identical to the original with a new cover. I don't see any reason to prefer one over the other.)</p><p><br /></p><p>If we're grading in a historical context, TTA definitely gets an A. There weren't a lot of adventures this big available in 1983, and it was the first big self-contained campaign released for Traveller. So for a lazy GM who wants a whole campaign in a box, it's a great start. Drawbacks would be that you don't really get a fully ready-to-run campaign. You get stats for the Aramis subsector, descriptions (in varying detail) for its worlds, some maps (but not as many as you want), descriptions (but not stats) for major NPCs, etc. There's still a ton of work for the GM to do. Furthermore, because of the scale of the adventure, it's really not possible to pre-prep everything in advance. For example, you might have maps for one part of the surface of Aramanx, but what if the players steal a car and drive through another country that you didn't map? At some point the players are going to do something the GM didn't expect, and the GM will have to wing things. So you have to think of TTA as a campaign framework that the GM adds to, rather than a paint-by-numbers adventure.</p><p><br /></p><p>One real issue with the adventure was that the whole plot depends on the PCs helping Gvoudzon (who may be a PC or an NPC) on Aramis. If Gvoudzon is a PC then they probably will, because most PC's tend to help PCs because they're PCs. (Also, if it's GURPS, and I say "Sense of Duty (adventuring companions) [-5] doesn't count against the disadvantage limit" then every single PC will usually have it, which is a way to bribe the players into cooperating with each other.) If he's an NPC that they just met, then why are the PCs motivated to help this random Vargr break into a museum to steal back his stolen brooch that he alleges a pawnshop stole from him after he pawned it? I was lucky enough that my players were game, but probably should have engineered some additional motivation, like Gvoudzon being an old friend of one of the PCs. (In my defense, Gvoudzon was supposed to be a PC, but his player didn't show up.)</p><p><br /></p><p>Another issue was that the Anolas' psionic drawbacks can really mess up the PCs (cumulative -1s or -2s to intelligence is no joke) over time, and it's not easy to find the Psionic Institute to fix the problem. I chose to reduce the severity a bit and only have Gvoudzon (an NPC at that point) be severely affected, as he spent the most time with the anolas, so the rest of the crew could successfully operate the ship while looking for help.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Zilan Wine chapter was basically navigating a bureaucracy, which would not be to every group's taste. I was ready to start fast-forwarding through the details if the players seemed to hate it, but my group was up to the challenge and actually roleplayed talking to dozens of bureaucrats. Again the prep challenge here was that the adventure has 47 Zilan bureaucrats, but none of them have names or sexes. Fortunately random name generators exist. Unfortunately most of them don't give you a nice mix of Solomani and Vilani names with the occasional Vargr name thrown in. Also the different government buildings are in different places on Zila, but there's no map of Zila, or of its capital city Crescence. Like I said, the GM has to do a lot of prep.</p><p><br /></p><p>The adventure was fairly light on combat, which is a good thing in a high-tech setting because guns kill PCs. We had a couple of gunfights, the standoff with the kidnappers on Aramanx and the attempted hijacking of the March Harrier on Junidy by Llellewyloly-rights activists. We also had one melee fight, with Gani's morph axe taking down a feline pouncer on Pysadi. The Aramanx fight resulted in a dead Captain Wilder, which was thoroughly deserved because the Captain had been abandoned by two players and I was sick of running him as an NPC. (Some of the the players suspected that I rigged the combat to kill Wilder. In practice, the rigging was limited to Wilder being automatically chosen as the sniper's target. The to-hit roll and damage rolls were legit. Again, guns kill PCs, so if there has to be a gunfight, have some disposable NPCs around.)</p><p><br /></p><p>There was also one session featuring space combat, the space ambush of the March Harrier and a free trader and a patrol cruiser against various Tukera-affiliated freighters and scouts. In theory the March Harrier was mostly a decoy and the patrol cruiser did most of the fighting, so a lot of the combat could be handwaved. In practice I felt like it was necessary to actually run the fights (though the fights started with a morale check so the outgunned freighter captains could surrender), and the March Harrier actually got shot up once, so it was a reasonable mix of danger and quick resolution. We used the space combat system from Interstellar Wars, which seemed to work okay in this limited instance.</p><p><br /></p><p>Finally, the showdown on Jesedipere at the end of the adventure was the March Harrier crew plus a few Vargr refugees against the crew of a Tukera landing station plus two Kforuzeng corsairs, two Kforuzeng freighters, a Tukera patrol cruiser, and lots of Tukera and Kforuzeng bodyguards. I think this was a very difficult fight for the PCs to win, with the only real chance being to turn Tukera and Kforuzeng against each other and mop up the depleted winner. The PCs instead recorded the presence of the stolen Imperial Navy meson guns and then blew up the meson guns (using stolen Tukera Air/Rafts as improvised missiles), which I thought was a pretty good solution to mostly spoiling the bad guys' plans while also not dying. They then told the Navy what had happened, which was a very Good Citizen thing to do, but which cost them a big reward from Oberlindes, who really wanted to keep the secret to blackmail Tukera.</p><p><br /></p><p>With those nitpicks, I think it's an excellent adventure overall, with a nice mix of trade and following a couple of major criminal plots and exploring most of a subsector. You just want to read it several times and then read multiple reviews before running it, so you can flesh out the weak parts.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Recruiting Players on the Internet</h2><p>Finding reliable players is hard. I advertised this game on this blog, on the biggest GURPS Discord, on the biggest Traveller Discord, and on a few smaller IRC and Discord servers where I knew people. That got about a dozen interested players, one of whom I knew and the rest of whom I did not. Making GURPS characters is a lot of work, which some players love and some players do not, so I made a bunch of pre-generated characters in case anyone wanted one. Some players made characters (including one amazingly detailed character) but then didn't play. Some players agreed to use a pre-generated character but didn't play. One player played once but then dropped out. It happens. Free time evaporates and not everyone enjoys every game. My plea to players would be that if you're going to drop out, be a grownup and tell the GM you're dropping out, so the GM can start working on replacing you rather than wondering. Don't just disappear.</p><p><br /></p><p>Anyway, amidst all the chaos, we actually got three starting players who played every week or almost every week, and one more replacement player who played almost every week after he joined. So a pool of about ten players winnowed down to four reliable players. Kind of like a Dungeon Crawl Classics funnel. One suggestion I would have for GMs recruiting random players on the Internet is to use adventures where the early sessions work for a lot of players, later sessions work for fewer players, and it's not a huge deal if some players drop out. Adapt to the reality of the player pool and make it work. This particular adventure was not really that kind of adventure, because the PCs were owner/operators of a merchant ship and some continuity was required, but the crew recruited two new members (one plot-critical NPC and one new PC) and lost two members (one to a bullet head wound and one because he fell in love with the captain of another ship while in prison) and it mostly worked out.</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Things I Did Wrong</h2><p>In the first session, on Aramis, after the PCs tried to meet Roet Bannerji at the Travelers Aid Society, Commander Eneri Giilaan of Imperial Naval Intelligence was supposed to overhear them mentioning Bannerji's name and then later try to meet with them and gather information about Bannerji. I totally forgot to do this encounter. I later moved Giilaan to Aramanx so the PCs could still have a contact with the Navy.</p><p><br /></p><p>I wanted to avoid too much railroading and let the players decide what to do, so I decided that any starting PC with Merchant Rank 1 or higher was a co-owner of the March Harrier and any other starting PC or any PC that joined later was just hired crew. I also said that the captain had to have Merchant Rank 3 and the First Officer had to have Merchant Rank 2. This was probably excessively complex. In practice the crew never voted themselves any dividends from the March Harrier's operational profits, so it would have worked just as well if I made everyone hired crew. I could have also provided an NPC captain to railroad them around the subsector, but I really wanted players to have more agency. Of course the player who was playing the captain dropped out so they ended up with an NPC captain for a while anyway, until he got shot and the players promoted a PC to replacement captain.</p><p><br /></p><p>I spent a bunch of time making a spreadsheet with all the March Harrier's passengers and cargo and fuel expenses and stuff. Ultimately, other than the ship generating enough cash that the PCs got their monthly paychecks, I don't think it mattered. So I probably should have handwaved more there.</p><p><br /></p><p>One of the PCs was looking for a Psionic Institute and actually found the (illegal, undercover) Psionic Institute on Junidy but was so paranoid that he was afraid to talk to them for fear they were going to narc him out to the Imperium. I thought that was kind of funny but probably should have sorted it out better so the player could play with psionics.</p><p><br /></p><p>Two Vargr NPCs, Gvoudzon and Gharukh, had a complicated interpersonal relationship. I don't think the PCs really figured out what was going on, so I probably should have either cut that out or made it simpler.</p><p><br /></p><p>I never managed to get the crew to do the Yebab alien side quest, which I think would have been a lot of fun. They just always seemed to avoid Yebab, until the very end of the campaign, where they were in too much of a hurry to take any charters.</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Things I Think I Did Right</h2><p>I entered all the character templates from GTIW into gcs (gurpscharactersheet.com) so nobody else ever has to do that again.</p><p><br /></p><p>It was a low-combat campaign, with only one melee fight, three gunfights, and one protracted series of 3-on-1 space battles. Combat is very slow to resolve and tends to kill PCs, so I think this was a good choice, and explained why we finished in 13 3-hour sessions.</p><p><br /></p><p>I gave out a reasonable amount of character points (4 per PC per session if they played up for the whole session, less if they arrived late), and a reasonable amount of cash, which seemed to keep the players happy. In a long campaign, giving out too many rewards can eventually lead to a power explosion problem, but in a short campaign it's fine.</p><p><br /></p><p>I tried to say yes to player requests, like figuring a way out mail-order stuff from high-tech Rhylanor, or letting a PC have a secret power, or letting one PC surgically install a hidden compartment in another PC, or letting PCs quickly train each other in various starship skills during jump, or letting a PCs set up a food truck on a remote planet to make some extra cash during a layover, or letting the PCs steal a ground vehicle and avoid a long hike through a combat zone, or letting the PCs turn Air/Rafts full of chemical fuel and fertilizer into missiles.</p><p><br /></p><p>I didn't say yes to extreme player requests though, like stealing Bannerji's Far Trader and having an extra starship to play with. (The adventure specifically warned against that one.)</p><p><br /></p><p>I decided to handwave some rules that didn't look very fun, like the large amounts of maintenance that starships in GTIW need. A jump in GTIW requires four skill rolls, but I decided to only do that a couple of times: the first time they jumped after annual maintenance in case something was broken, and when they jumped in a big hurry to evade pursuit. Otherwise I tried to make routine starship operations routine.</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Will I run GURPS Traveller Again?</h2><p>Maybe. There are two other large Traveller campaigns available, Pirates of Drinax and Deepnight Revelation. Drinax seems to be super-popular (because everyone wants to be a space pirate?) and maybe it would be hard to find players not already familiar with it. Deepnight is more of a long exploration campaign. Both would require a lot of prep, but both are so large you can't thoroughly prep everything.</p><p><br /></p><p>I could also run something smaller, like the crew of an active duty Scout/Courier doing small scale exploration, or a detached duty Scout/Courier and his friends bumming around doing whatever they felt like, or the crew of a noble's yacht doing whatever Sir needs, or The Love Boat In Space aboard a luxury liner. I would probably avoid another trading campaign, just because it's a lot of random cargo and passenger rolls and spreadsheet work to little effect unless the players really love that kind of thing.</p><div><br /></div>driptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01800295180326776163noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740187606181391702.post-72579218137223578382023-05-02T16:25:00.003-04:002023-05-02T16:25:25.436-04:00GURPS March Harrier Session 13: Blowing Up The Meson Guns<h2 style="text-align: left;">Player Characters:</h2><p>Everett de Clisson (Adam), Medic and Engineer</p><p>Ganidiirsi Ashran (Ben), Steward and Cargomaster</p><p>John Matrix (Nick), Broker and Captain</p><p>Sacha Bright (ChaoticNeutral), Pilot and First Officer</p><p><br /></p><h2>PCs Temporarily Run by the GM:</h2><p>Gvoudzon, Vargr Gunner and Pilot</p><p><br /></p><h2>Significant NPCs:</h2><p>Marc hault-Oberlindes, CEO, Oberlindes Lines</p><p>Arrlanroughl, VP, Oberlindes Lines</p><p>Gharukh, Vargr Cryptography Researcher</p><p>Vuzuege, Vargr Refugee Camp Leader</p><p>Sedge, Vargr Corsair Gang Leader</p><p>Aran Ashkashkur, Aramis Subsector Head, Vemene, Tukera Lines</p><p>Roald Bulolo, Director of Operations, Aramis Subsector, Tukera Lines</p><p>Dhurgeng, Vargr Starship Captain, Kforuzeng</p><p>Leonard Bolden-Tukera, Marquis of Aramis</p><p>Jelika Chan, Vemene Agent</p><p>Eneri Giilaan, Commander, Imperial Navy Intelligence</p><p><br /></p><h2>Dates: </h2><p>251-1106 to 86-1106</p><p><br /></p><h2>Worlds:</h2><div>Jesedipere/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3001)</div><div><p>Yebab/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3002)</p><p>Nasemin/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3003)</p></div><p>Aramanx/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3005)</p><p><br /></p><p>On Jesedipere, Gani was spying on the Tukera trading facility, where Aran Ashkashkur and his bodyguards had landed. A few days later, two Kforuzeng corsairs and two Kforuzeng freighters jumped into the system. A modular cutter from one of the Corsairs flew down to the Tukera site and Dhurgeng got out, accompanied by at least eight bodyguards. Gani watched Dhurgeng meet with Ashkashkur. The two then went into the warehouse where the stolen Imperial Navy meson guns were believed to be kept, though there were enough Tukera and Kforuzeng guards around that Gani couldn't see exactly what was happening inside.</p><p>Gani called back to the March Harrier crew to formulate a plan. Initially they considered an attack on the Tukera site, but they were outnumbered in terms of starships five to one, and they guessed that they were outnumbered in terms of ground combatants about forty to twenty. Everett suggested instead blowing up the meson guns or one of the freighters. Gani considered hiding inside one of the crates to get inside a freighter and sabotage or hijack it, but Everett thought this was suicidal. Gani eventually agreed with Everett, and they decided to load up two Air/Rafts with explosives and send one at the warehouse to blow up some meson guns, and the other at a freighter to try to destroy its engines.</p><p>Arrlanroughl and Gvoudzon went back to the Vargr refugees to look for explosives, and managed to buy a few. Meanwhile John and Everett went into Downport and bought some explosives, some fertilizer, and some low-tech chemical fuel. Nobody in the crew was an explosives expert, but their hope was that if they loaded enough high-energy things into an Air/Raft and flew it into something at high velocity, something might go boom. Gharukh started hacking the Air/Raft autopilot to override the safety controls. Meanwhile Gani, in his camouflaged cybersuit, snuck back into the warehouse and sabotaged a few crates of mason gun components, so that if the attack failed, the Kforuzeng might still have problems getting the meson guns to work.</p><p>The crew flew an Air/Raft with Gani's valet bot on board, to serve as telemetry to witness the attack. Gani used his grav belt to fly back to the Air/Raft, and then took the Air/Raft back to the March Harrier. The crew then loaded up both Air/Rafts with the explosives, boarded their ship, flew to the 100-diameter jump point, and hit the go button for Gharukh's hacked autopilot. Both Air/Rafts flew toward the Tukera base, with one targeting the freighter's maneuver drive and the other aiming inside the warehouse. The one aimed at the freigher struck a glancing blow, damaging the drive, destroying some meson gun crates being loaded, and killing some Tukera workers doing the loading. The Air/Raft aimed at the warehouse was more accurate, flying right inside the open cargo doors and slamming into the unloaded crates, causing a large explosion followed by a huge fire. After filming the evidence of their attack, the crew jumped out of the system for Yebab before the Tukera or Kforuzeng ships could give chase.</p><p>After reaching Yebab, the crew, without discussing it with Arrlanroughl, sent xmails with evidence of the stolen meson guns to the Imperial Navy on Junidy and Aramanx. The March Harrier then jumped to Nasemin, where the crew sent more xmails since Nasemin was on an xboat route and fast delivery was more likely. They finally jumped to Aramanx.</p><p>Reaching Aramanx, the crew met with Marc Oberlindes. He announced that he had met with Roald Bulolo and the Marquis of Aramis and made the claim that Aashkashkur had stolen the meson guns and that Tukera needed to end the tradewar. However, he only had circumstantial evidence and really needed proof to force the settlement. He expressed his appreciation for the additional evidence that Gani's recordings in the warehouse provided. During the meeting, Oberlindes got a message in his ear. He left for a minute, then returned and said he had just heard of an Imperial Navy cruiser entering Jesedipere and dropping some Imperial Marines on the Tukera landing site. Apparently someone had tipped off the Navy, which would weaken his ability to blackmail Tukera into ending the tradewar.</p><p>Gani took the blame for telling the Navy. Whether Marc Oberlindes believed it was only him was not clear. Oberlindes paid the crew for the full use of the ship during the mission to Jesedipere, but did not add an extra reward.</p><p>Eneri Giilaan met with the crew the next day. He thanked them for telling the Navy about the stolen meson guns. He told them that each would be eligible for a reward from the Navy, in return for signing a non-disclosure agreement to never talk about the stolen meson guns. He indicated that a Navy-cleared lawyer could be made available to discuss their rights before signing. Gharukh and Everett asked to talk to the lawyer. The lawyer indicated that he didn't know the exact details of what secrets they knew, but that the Navy could compel them not to reveal secrets with or without a reward, so he recommended signing the NDA and taking the reward, rather than not signing the NDA and not getting the reward but being effectively bound by it anyway. Everyone signed, and received KCr 100 each.</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">GM's Notes:</h2><div>Everett was correct that a straight fight against the combined Tukera and Kforuzeng forces would have been a bad idea. Even if the PCs (with help from the Vargr refugees) won the fight on Jesedipere, 2 Corsairs and a Patrol Cruiser in orbit would have definitely blown the March Harrier out of space. The only way to win that would have been to turn Tukera and the Kforuzeng against each other then mop up the winner, and that would not have been easy to pull off.</div><div><br /></div><div>Gani's idea of hiding inside a meson gun crate and sabotaging the freighter from the inside would have quite likely worked, but also probably would have gotten him captured or killed.</div><div><br /></div><div>The plan of just blowing up the meson guns (using stolen Tukera Air/Rafts turned into missiles) was a reasonable approach, as it denied the weapons to the Kforuzeng. It also meant that the Kforuzeng didn't pay for them, and both Dhurgeng and Ashkashkur had time to escape, so it wasn't a total victory.</div><div><br /></div><div>Finally, telling the Navy about the meson guns was the patriotic thing to do, and did garner a reward from the Navy, but it cost the crew a potentially much larger reward from Oberlindes, and reduced the trust that Oberlindes had in them. Tradeoffs.</div><div><br /></div><div>That's the end of the campaign. Thanks to the players. I'll have a followup blog post about GURPS Traveller and this adventure later.</div>driptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01800295180326776163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740187606181391702.post-83373840878765816822023-05-01T17:39:00.003-04:002023-05-01T17:39:39.697-04:00GURPS March Harrier Session 12: Rushing to Jesedipere<h2 style="text-align: left;">Player Characters:</h2><p>Everett de Clisson (Adam), Medic and Engineer</p><p>Ganidiirsi Ashran (Ben), Steward and Cargomaster</p><p>John Matrix (Nick), Broker and Captain</p><p>Sacha Bright (ChaoticNeutral), Pilot and First Officer</p><p><br /></p><h2>PCs Temporarily Run by the GM:</h2><p>Gvoudzon, Vargr Gunner and Pilot</p><p><br /></p><h2>Significant NPCs:</h2><p>Marc hault-Oberlindes, CEO, Oberlindes Lines</p><p>Arrlanroughl, VP, Oberlindes Lines</p><p>Gharukh, Vargr Cryptography Researcher</p><p>Vuzuege, Vargr Refugee Camp Leader</p><p>Sedge, Vargr Corsair Gang Leader</p><p>Aran Askkashkur, Aramis Subsector Head, Vemene, Tukera Lines</p><p>Roald Bulolo, Director of Operations, Aramis Subsector, Tukera Lines</p><p>Dhurgeng, Vargr Starship Captain, Kforuzeng</p><p>Leonard Bolden-Tukera, Marquis of Aramis</p><p>Jelika Chan, Vemene Agent</p><p><br /></p><h2>Dates: </h2><p>215-1106 to 250-1106</p><p><br /></p><h2>Worlds:</h2><p>Aramanx/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3005)</p><p>Nasemin/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3003)</p><p>Yebab/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3002)</p><p>Jesedipere/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3001)</p><p><br /></p><p>At Aramanx Highport, Gharukh went with Gvoudzon to fetch his brooch, then borrowed a computer to exploit a known backdoor in the brooch's security and decode the message inside. The message was from Aran Ashkashkur, head of the Vemene, to someone in the Kforuzeng. It indicated that Ashkashkur had two 1000-dton Type J Ling Standard Products meson guns for sale, which were being shipped to Lablon, where Ashkashkur would meet with Thane Dhurgeng of the Kforuzeng to exchange the meson guns for cash.</p><p>The crew met with Marc Oberlindes and Arrlanroughl, bringing along the contents of the brooch and the Tukera xmail archive that Gani had filched on Lewis. The totality of the information seemed to indicate that Ashkashkur had stolen the meson guns from the Titan on Zila, put a fake cargo on the Mammoth, then had Jelika Chan sabotage the Mammoth and crash it into Aramis. He had then sent the meson guns to either Lablon or Jesedipere. Arrlanroughl argued that the messages indicating Jesedipere were more recent, and thus more likely to be the actual location of the meson guns.</p><p>Marc Oberlindes argued for a two-part strategy. He would go to Lewis, where Roald Bulolo was meeting with the Marquis of Aramis, and reveal that the Ashkashkur had caused the crash of the Mammoth and try to blackmail Bulolo into ending the tradewar. Meanwhile the March Harrier and Arrlanroughl would go to Jesedipere and try to collect evidence of the stolen meson guns, and preferably stop the sale. He agreed to charter the March Harrier's entire cargo and passenger capacity for the mission.</p><p>The March Harrier fueled up and then double-jumped to Nasemin. On Nasemin they quickly refueled from the ocean then jumped to Yebab. They actually picked up a couple of middle passengers on Yebab, then jumped to Jesedipere. On Jesedipere, Arrlanroughl and Sacha met with Vuzuege to try to recruit help from the Vargr refugees. Vuzuege introduced them to Sedge, the leader of a corsair gang, who appeared willing to do whatever Arrlanroughl required in return for cash.</p><p>Meanwhile the rest of the crew talked to contacts at the starport to try to find the Tukera base, then took the launch up to find it from orbit. It was a small site well away from the starport, with a landing pad, a control tower, several warehouses, and a quarters building for the staff. Gani and Everett took an Air/Raft to the general vicinity, then snuck in closer using grav belts and camouflaged cybersuits. They spied on the site for a while to observe movement patterns, then Gani flew up to the roof of a warehouse and then broke in through a service door. There was nobody inside, so he spent some time looking at the various stacks of crates until he found a large lot of crates labeled as electronics equipment, which appeared to be about the right size for the meson guns. He opened a few crates and found various electronics and fiber optic components, then went back out, apparently undiscovered.</p><p>Gani and Everett returned to the starport, when the crew came up with a plan. Gani, supported by Gvoudzon, Sacha, and Gharukh in the two Air/Rafts, would keep an eye on the Tukera site. Meanwhile the rest of the crew would stay at the starport and use their ship's sensors and contacts at the starport to watch for the arrival of Tukera or Kforuzeng ships.</p><p>A 400-dton Tukera Patrol Cruiser, the Black Saber, entered orbit over Jesedipere. It sent a Ship's Boat down to the Tukera landing site. From a distance, Gani observed a man he assumed was Aran Ashkashkur, a woman he thought was Jelika Chan, and six other armed men emerge from the craft. Over the next day, the members of the group visited all of the buildings on the site.</p><p>Two days later, four Kforuzeng ships, two large transports and two corsairs, arrived in orbit over Jesedipere. We stopped at that point.</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">GM's Notes:</h2><div>At this point the players think they've figured out what's going on. The question is whether they can get enough proof to stop the tradewar, and whether they can actually stop the transfer of the meson guns to the Kforuzeng.</div>driptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01800295180326776163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740187606181391702.post-62512998436033014032023-04-16T12:54:00.003-04:002023-04-16T12:54:42.387-04:00GURPS March Harrier Session 11: Undercover on Lewis<h2 style="text-align: left;">Player Characters:</h2><p>Everett de Clisson (Adam), Medic and Engineer</p><p>Ganidiirsi Ashran (Ben), Steward and Cargomaster</p><p>John Matrix (Nick), Broker and Captain</p><p>Sacha Bright (ChaoticNeutral), Pilot and First Officer</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">PCs Temporarily Run by the GM:</h2><p>Gvoudzon, Vargr Gunner and Pilot</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Significant NPCs:</h2><p>Marc hault-Oberlindes, CEO, Oberlindes Lines</p><p>Arrlanroughl, VP, Oberlindes Lines</p><p>Quala Carthen, Oberlindes Broker</p><p>Ranate Zaitsiik, Inselberg New Hire Orientation Leader</p><p>William Irani, Inselberg Head Chauffer</p><p>Quill Steward, Inselberg Chief Mechanic</p><p>Nyx Bentzen, Inselbert Chef</p><p>Sir Orson Tukera, VIP at Inselberg</p><p>Lady Thalia Tukera, VIP at Inselberg</p><p>Gharukh, Vargr Cryptography Researcher</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Dates: </h2><p>164-1106 to 214-1106</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Worlds:</h2><p>Aramanx/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3005)</p><p>Zila/Aramis (Spinward Marches 2908)</p><p>Lewis/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3107)</p><p><br /></p><p>The crew started on Aramanx Highport, where laser damage to the March Harrier was being repaired. Marc Oberlindes had another proposal for them. Data from the captured Tukera courier Nebula had indicated the presence of a secret Tukera research facility on the interdicted world of Lewis. Baron Marc said that they couldn't get away with directly attacking the base like Tukera had to the Oberlindes facility on Nasemin, but it might be possible to infiltrate it to gather information. He said that Tukera hired servants for the Inselberg estates on Lewis using Central Hirings SA on Zila, and that a manager at Central Hirings had been influenced to hire whoever Oberlindes wanted. He also said that payment would be similar to the previous mission: the idle March Harrier would be paid for its full passenger and cargo capacity. The crew agreed to the terms, and set out for Zila aboard the Oberlindes courier Inside Information. On the way, Everett cut a small Flesh Pocket in Gani's leg, which could be used to hide a communicator.</p><p>Arriving at Zila Starport, the crew met their Oberlindes contact Quala, who assigned them Zilan aliases and fake backgrounds and identify cards. Quala told them that an Oberlindes trader with fake papers would be landing at the Tukera lanthanum mines on Lewis in about a month, and would be their ride home. The crew headed over to Central Hirings SA in downtown Crescence, where they were all hired and given tickets to board a Tukera far trader in a few days. They hung around the starport for the interim, since it was the only place on Zila safe from random police harassment. Then they boarded the Far Trader Pegasus, where they were loaded into double-occupancy staterooms, given the starport safety dance, and then introduced to their trainer, "Lady" Ranate Zaitsiik. She instructed them in the use of a tablet computer, then subjected them to aptitude tests. Each crew member was then assigned a week of personal computer-based training for their prospective position. Gvoudzon was slated to be a house servant, Gani a cook, John and Sacha to work as grav vehicle drivers or mechanics, and Everett to be a groundskeeper. Each was also issued a combination filter mask and respirator and warned not to go outside on Lewis without it, as the atmosphere was both very thin and tainted with carcinogens.</p><p>The Pegasus was passed through the Navy interdiction on Lewis thanks to a Tukera family exemption, and then landed at the estate of Inselberg. An enclosed grav vehicle was waiting by the landing pad to carry them to the main estate on top of a plateau. There the crew was split up, with John and Sacha sent to the vehicle garage, Gani to the kitchens, Everett to the dome enclosing the main house, and Gvoudzon to board another air/raft to fly to the outlying Retreat. The group spent the next couple of weeks in training, with John and Sacha learning basic grav vehicle operation and maintenance, Gani working on his large-scale cooking and food delivery skills, Everett learning to care for plants, and Gvoudzon being introduced to Gharukh, the cryptographer he would be serving.</p><p>After the initial training period was over, the crew started getting time off, and were able to arrange occasional meetings. John and Sacha had some access to grav vehicles. Gani had access to the main house to deliver meals. Everett had access to the pressurized dome around the main house, but wasn't supposed to go inside much. Finally Gvouzon was serving at the Retreat, which was set up as a Tukera research facility, though Gharukh was closely guarded there. Each of them attempted to explore a bit and find information, but lacked access to much.</p><p>Gani discovered that another nearby plateau hosted a Tukera corporate site, and found an excuse to deliver food there. The Tukera workers there had company-networked computers, and on his second visit he managed to steal a password and grab and email archive. Sacha found another nearby plateau had a warehouse, and managed to break in and poke around, but didn't find anything interesting. A young VIP, Lady Thalia Tukera, wanted to be driven around by grav vehicle to see various plateaus and also some squatter settlements, which gave John and Sacha a chance to explore the area.</p><p>On one of his trips back to the main estate, Gvoudzon reported that Gharukh was a prisoner and wanted out, and also that she was a genius scientist who probably knew important things, and finally that she had a brooch similar to his. He proposed taking her with them when they made a break for the Oberlindes ship. The crew was on board with the idea. A few days later Gani's hidden communicator received a message from the Oberlindes ship, which had landed at the lanthanum mines. The plan for the escape was pretty simple: John and Sacha would rig the charge gauges on most of the grav vehicles to read full even when empty, then would discharge all but two of them, and take the working ones. Then Sacha would fly around as a decoy to distract the guards, while John flew over to the Retreat to grab Gvoudzon and Gharukh. Finally everyone would meet at the Oberlindes ship.</p><p>The first part of the plan went well, though the Tukera guards already had a few grav vehicles out of the garage. Sacha led some guards toward the squatter settlements. John took another air/raft to the Retreat, where Gvoudzon and Gharukh had snuck out past the guards and hid in a cave on the side of the plateau. They grabbed the Vargr and then flew straight to the mines and into the cargo hold of the Oberlindes ship. Sacha followed up a few minutes later, and the ship took off for the 100-planetary-diameter limit at top speed, with the crew, Gharukh, and two incidentally-stolen air/rafts. They made it there without trouble from Tukera ships or the Navy, and then jumped for Aramanx.</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">GM's Notes:</h2><div>This session was almost all roleplaying, with each PC having to use their alias, fake incompetence at high-tech skills, and spy without getting caught. Their die rolls were solid and they didn't press their luck too often, so they managed to not around suspicion from the Tukera guards until they were ready to escape. They didn't manage to steal much information, other than the one email archive that Gani found, but they did get Gharukh.</div><div><br /></div>driptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01800295180326776163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740187606181391702.post-22386239724479302432023-04-08T14:31:00.001-04:002023-04-08T14:31:11.367-04:00March Harrier Session 10: Deep Space Ambush<h2 style="text-align: left;">Player Characters:</h2><p>Everett de Clisson (Adam), Medic and Engineer</p><p>Ganidiirsi Ashran (Ben), Steward and Cargomaster</p><p>John Matrix (Nick), Broker and Captain</p><p>Sacha Bright (ChaoticNeutral), Pilot and First Officer</p><p><br /></p><h2>PCs Temporarily Run by the GM:</h2><p>Gvoudzon, Vargr Gunner and Pilot</p><p><br /></p><h2>Significant NPCs:</h2><p>Marc hault-Oberlindes, CEO, Oberlindes Lines</p><p>Arrlanroughl, VP, Oberlindes Lines</p><p>Lars Svelberg, Captain, Oberlindes Patrol Cruiser Guardian</p><p>Karla, Diirgiirii, Captain, Oberlindes Free Trader New Horizons</p><p><br /></p><h2>Dates: </h2><p>118-1105 to 163-1106</p><p><br /></p><h2>Worlds:</h2><p>Aramanx/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3005)</p><p>Deep Space between Aramanx and Feneteman (Spinward Marches 3105)</p><p><br /></p><p>The crew was invited to a meeting with Marc hault-Oberlindes at Oberlindes Subsector Headquarters on Aramanx Highport, but when they arrived, they were met by Arrlanroughl instead. Baron Marc was busy leading an investigation into an attack against the Oberlindes freighter Bottom Line. Arrlanroughl reviewed the recent attacks against Oberlindes ships and bases, and concluded that Tukera had started a tradewar to push Oberlindes out of the Aramis subsector. He said they had an idea to get Tukera to back down, and would like to hire the March Harrier to carry out the plan. Arrlanroughl said that the March Harrier would not be carrying passengers or cargo for a few weeks, but Oberlindes would pay them for the equivalent of a full load, plus expenses, plus 10% of any profit from the venture.</p><p>Arrlanroughl turned to Captain John, who spoke with his crew, and when there was no dissent he agreed to the venture. Arrlanroughl then called two Oberlindes captains into the room, and went into detail. Oberlindes had acquired the coordinates of a deep-space breakout point, used by jump-1 Akerut freighters when traveling between Aramanx and Feneteman. They would like to disguise March Harrier as a Tukera or Akerut ship, using an (illegal) reprogramable transponder and a new coat of paint. The March Harrier would find freighters when coming out of jump and vulnerable until they had transferred fuel and plotted course for their next jump, then distract the freighters while a heavily armed Oberlindes Patrol Cruiser would induce them to surrender or, if necessary, attack them. The ships could then be searched for information, their crews captured and interrogated, and prize crews could take any intact ships to a rendezvous point. Arrlanroughl said that a Hercules-class freighter could be briefly crewed by four people, and that the March Harrier, the Patrol Cruiser Guardian, and the Free Trader New Horizons could be packed with a total of 48 extra crew at double occupancy, thus allowing the capture of up to 12 ships. Arrlanroughl said that the operation could continue for up to 3 weeks, since it would take a week to notice the first missing ship, maybe up to a week for Tukera to get suspicious and organize a response, and then a week for the investigators to jump.</p><p>Arrlanroughl asked if the March Harrier needed anything before the mission, and said that Oberlindes would pay half (as half-owner of the ship), with the crew's half coming out of the mission profits. Gvoudzon noted that the ship's two turrets could each use a third beam laser. There was some debate among the crew, with Everett mentioning that missile racks or sandcasters could also be useful, but eventually they agreed with Gvoudzon that triple lasers were the simplest. Arrlanroughl arranged for the extra lasers, the new transponder, and plenty of paint. Meanwhile Gani stocked the ship with enough provisions for an over-sized crew for several weeks, and John asked for ammunition resupply for the crew's personal weapons, just in case.</p><p>The March Harrier took on its extra crew, and then flew past the 100-diameter limit of Aramanx. Before jumping, the crew and some of the Oberlindes extras put on their vacc suits and went outside to do some deep-space repainting. The March Harrier then jumped to the deep space point, where they communicated with the Guardian and New Horizons to set up positions, and then switched their transponder to the Tukera setting. The next day, they picked up their first prey, the Akerut freighter Colossus. March Harrier sucked them in with a fake distress call, then mentioned that the Patrol Cruiser would be launching a volley of missiles. The captain immediately surrendered. The Patrol Cruiser launched its 20-ton Assault Craft full of marines, who boarded the ship and then radioed that the ship was secure. Most of the March Harrier crew then flew over, interrogated the captain, and dug through the computer. When they were satisfied, the Akerut crew were locked in their staterooms and the prize crew brought over to jump the ship to a rendezvous point.</p><p>The ambush worked successfully three more times the first week, with the Titan, Sauropod, and Elephant all captured. The Titan had some interesting data in its logs, about the meson guns that had been transferred to the Mammoth, and Jelika Chan's tour as chief engineer. There was also an xmail from the ship's captain to Vemene subsector head Aran Ashkashkur about the need for Vemene agents to also be competent in their cover duties so that they don't destroy any starships.</p><p>In the second week, the ambush induced four more freighters to surrender: the Megalodon, the Galaxy, the Rhino, and the Mongo. Unfortunately, two captains resisted, which meant the Mondo and the Amazon both perished to volleys of missile file. The Mondo damaged March Harrier with its lasers pretty significantly.</p><p>The captains of the three ships agreed to keep going for a third week, during which they captured a Type S Scout, the Nebula. Logs indicated that the Nebula was a Vemene courier and had been moving records of a scientific base from Pretoria/Pretoria to Lewis/Aramis, an interdicted planet. Apparently Tukera had land on Lewis, and was allowed exceptions to the interdiction. In addition to the computer records, the Nebula had carried one VIP passenger to Lewis, a female Vargr scientist named Gharukh. The Nebula's logs also contained a poorly-encrypted xmail from Sylvie Mobutu to Aran Ashkashkur. The xmail said that the March Harrier had been watched carefully since it was discovered that Gvoudzon and the brooch were on board, and that it was apparently working for Oberlindes. Mobutu suggested that a Vemene ship ambush the March Harrier, under the pretext that it was a routine tradewar ambush.</p><p>After capturing the Nebula and sending it off with a prize crew, the ambush bagged two more freighters. The Albatross resisted and was blown to bits, though its pinnace survived and was captured with two crew aboard. The Whale surrendered. After three weeks, with a total of nine freighters and one scout captured and three freighters destroyed, the captains of the three ambushing ships agreed that it was time to return to Aramanx.</p><p>After reaching the Aramanx system, the March Harrier crew repainted their ship back to its original colors, and then flew to the starport. They they met with Marc Oberlindes. He congratulated them on the successful mission, told them the captured cargo had been appraised and their 10% was being deposited in their account, listened closely to the news about the Titan and Lewis. He then suggested possibly infiltrating Tukera's base on Lewis to learn more. The crew was receptive to the idea, so Oberlindes said he would have his people gather more information, then they could meet again in a few days to make a plan. Oberlindes also agreed to repair the remaining damage to the March Harrier's hull.</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">GM's Notes:</h2><p>This session involved the campaign's first space combat. The Patrol Cruiser Guardian seriously outgunned the Akerut ships, so their captains needed to make morale checks to surrender, but three of them were a bit too brave for their own good and decided to fight. March Harrier sustained significant hull damage once, though, showing that maybe the tactics used weren't the best. Perhaps the more heavily armored Patrol Cruiser should have been the only one within laser range of the freighters.</p><p>Was having ten starships captured and three more destroyed enough for Tukera to call off the tradewar? We'll see next time.</p>driptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01800295180326776163noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740187606181391702.post-10223022938478028752023-04-01T23:45:00.000-04:002023-04-01T23:45:02.217-04:00March Harrier Session 9: Tradewar Brewing<h2 style="text-align: left;">Player Characters:</h2><p>Everett de Clisson (Adam), Medic and Engineer</p><p>Ganidiirsi Ashran (Ben), Steward and Cargomaster</p><p>John Matrix (Nick), Broker and Captain</p><p>Sacha Bright (ChaoticNeutral), Pilot and First Officer</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">PCs Temporarily Run by the GM:</h2><p>Gvoudzon, Vargr Gunner and Pilot</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Significant NPCs:</h2><p>Lisa Fireau, Fireau et Fille Winery Co-Owner</p><p>Gustav Fireau, Fireau et Fille Winery Co-Owner</p><p>Lars Dagiran, Professor of Psychology, University of Junidy</p><p>Marc hault-Oberlindes, CEO, Oberlindes Lines</p><p>Harlan Jann, Professor and pyramid researcher</p><p>Vuzuege, Vargr Refugee Leader</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Dates: </h2><p>341-1105 to 108-1106</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Worlds:</h2><p>Aramanx/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3005)</p><p>Nasemin/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3003)</p><p>Towers/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3103)</p><p>Junidy/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3202)</p><p>Marz/Pretoria (Deneb 0201)</p><p>Rugbird/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3102)</p><div><p>Jesedipere/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3001)</p><div><br /></div></div><div>After rescuing Lisa Fireau from Tukera-sponsored kidnappers, the March Harrier's crew found a parting gift from the Fireaus: 60 bottles of rare Eiswein. Most of the crew kept theirs for trade, but Gvoudzon drank a bottle. The crew decided to head towards Junidy, but first Gani made an xmail-order of some high-tech goods from Rhylanor.</div><div><br /></div><div>They picked up Professor Harlan Jann and some freight for Towers, refueled from the Aramanx ocean, and double jumped for Nasemin. At Nasemin, they picked up more passengers and cargo heading for Towers. They also got an xmail that gave more information about the Oberlindes Cargo Carrier Grand Tour, which had been attacked in the Aramanx system while they were there. The crew had been boarded by pirates impersonating health inspectors, then forced to help the pirates destroy their cargo of bulk plastics. Three crew had resisted and been shot.</div><div><br /></div><div>At Towers, they helped Jann search for pyramids, didn't find any, but found some passengers for Junidy. At Junidy they had their annual maintenance done, which meant the crew had two weeks off. Gani wanted to visit the University of Junidy again, to look into possibly studying there. Gvoudzon and Everett tagged along to visit the anolas. The group managed to get an appointment with Professor Dagiran, who let them see the anolas and also interviewed Gani and Gvoudzon about their experience with the anolas and Gvoudzon's mental issues caused by close proximity to them. (Everett once again was not interested in being interviewed.) Everett ran into a police officer who thought he looked a lot like a suspect and asked him to help out by standing in a police lineup. Everett reluctantly agreed and nothing bad happened as a result. Professor Jann also looked for pyramids on Junidy, but found none. Another disturbing xmail reached the crew on Junidy: the Oberlindes Far Trader Llewellyn had come to the aid of a ship's boat being attacked by a patrol cruiser, at which point both craft had turned their weapons on the Llewellyn. The Llewellyn had defended itself ably, at which point the ship's boat had boarded the cruiser, which jumped outsystem.</div><div><br /></div><div>With maintenance done, the crew decided to leave the Aramis subsector briefly and double-jumped to Marz, carrying several passengers and some cargo. They then returned to Junidy and picked up Professor Jann again, then proceeded to Rugbird then Jesedipere. Two passengers headed to Jesedipere were medics, heading there to help at a refugee camp of Vargr who had fled from Kforuzeng attacks in the Vargr Extents. The situation on Jesedipere was getting bad, with a small group of Imperial Interstellar Scout Service personnel trying to help out. Sacha visited with the Scouts to see if he could help. A Vargr named Vuzuege approached the crew and said she needed a ride to Junidy to try to get more help from the Scout leaders at the Way Station there, but could not afford to pay for passage. The crew decided to take her to Junidy for free. Meanwhile, another disturbing xmail came in: the Oberlindes trade station on Nasemin had burned, with no casualties but over a megacredit in damages.</div><div><br /></div><div>Meanwhile Professor Jann wanted to search thinly-populated Jesedipere for pyramids. He convinced the crew to fly him around the planet in the launch, and they eventually scanned some promising-looking structures and landed for a closer look. Jann excitedly said that they were clearly artificial in origin, and he would be staying on Jesedipere to continue his research. At some point Everett did some research on Jann and found that he was a legitimate Professor Emeritus of Literature (not Archaeology or anything else related to pyramids) at the University of Rhylanor, and that his brother was the Duke of Rhylanor.</div><div><br /></div><div>The March Harrier flew back to Rugbird and then to Junidy. Sacha, as an ex-Scout, agreed to help Vuzuege get a meeting with the Scout leaders. They did not manage to meet with the actual commander of the Way Station, but they met with several fairly senior Scouts, who agreed to send some more aid to the refugees on Jesedipere.</div><div><br /></div><div>Gani found a tour group who wanted to book high passage for themselves and middle passage for their bodyguards to Towers, so they could learn to swordfight. There weren't actually enough staterooms for all of them, so Gani convinced them to have most of the bodyguards fly low passage. On towers, the crew received another disturbing xmail, that the Oberlindes Merchant Wallen Bar was overdue and suspected lost due to hijacking. Another xmail to Captain John indicated that Oberlindes was worried that the large number of recent violent incidents indicated that either Tukera or Akerut had started a tradewar. From Towers, the crew continued to Nasemin, where they got a mail contract for Aramanx. As they reached Aramanx, they got a local xmail from Oberlindes Lines. Marc hault-Oberlindes himself wanted to meet with the crew at Aramanx.</div><div><br /></div><h2 style="text-align: left;">GM's Notes:</h2><div>This was a session of travel and trade, with the March Harrier visiting a lot of worlds and even leaving the sector. The main events were helping Professor Jann search for (and eventually find) pyramids, helping Vuzuege and the Vargr refugees on Jesedipere get some help from the Scouts, and hearing a lot of disturbing news about attacks on Oberlindes Lines ships and facilities.</div>driptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01800295180326776163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740187606181391702.post-12313097044992712922023-03-24T19:19:00.010-04:002023-03-24T19:24:11.746-04:00March Harrier Session 8: Raid on the Villa<h2 style="text-align: left;">Player Characters:</h2><p>Everett de Clisson (Adam), Medic and Engineer</p><p>Ganidiirsi Ashran (Ben), Steward and Cargomaster</p><p>John Matrix (Nick), Broker and Navigator</p><p>Sacha Bright (ChaoticNeutral), Pilot and Temporary First Officer</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">PCs Temporarily Run by the GM:</h2><p>Gvoudzon, Vargr Gunner and Pilot</p><p>Dale Conan Wilder, Captain</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Significant NPCs:</h2><p>Lisa Fireau, Fireau et Fille Winery Co-Owner</p><p>Gustav Fireau, Fireau et Fille Winery Co-Owner</p><p>Boris Dree, Fireau et Fille Employee</p><p>Lorn Denveldt, Tukera Lines Employee</p><p>Jelika Chan / Arion Jamail, disgraced Akerut Engineer / kidnapper</p><p>Marc hault-Oberlindes, CEO, Oberlindes Lines</p><p>Commander Eneri Giilaan, Imperial Naval Intelligence</p><p>Detective Carter Voight, Imperial Starport Authority</p><p>Lord Magistrate Vernor, Klavisur politician</p><p>Harlan Jann, Professor and pyramid researcher</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Dates: </h2><p>325-1105 to 332-1105</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Worlds:</h2><p>Aramanx/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3005)</p><p><br /></p><p>While waiting for Boris Dree to return from Zila, Gani went carousing in Aramanx highport's bars, looking for anything interesting. He met an older man named Professor Harlan Jann who was looking for evidence of pyramids on many worlds throughout the Spinward Marches. He said he had finished surveying the Rhylanor and Regina subsectors and was starting on the Aramis subsector, and was looking for a ship that would let him take long-term middle passage and explore various worlds along the way. Gani got the Professor's contact information and said he'd run the idea by the Captain and get back in touch before they left Aramanx.</p><p>When the Oberlindes Lines fast courier returned from Zila, it had Gustav Fireau, Lisa's father, on board. Gustav had the MCr 20 ransom, secured by a short-term loan against the winery. He insisted that the group pay the ransom and try to recover Lisa, rather than immediately resorting to force and possibly getting his daughter killed.</p><p>The kidnappers contacted the March Harrier again and instructed that Gvoudzon should take the public shuttle, alone, to Ulfrey, the capital of Klavisur, and then await further instructions. Before Gvoudzon left, he gave his brooch to John for safekeeping, and Gani made a copy of the brooch in the March Harrier's workshop. Gvoudzon also swallowed a small tracking device, so that the crew could find him if something went wrong.</p><p>Gvoudzon took the shuttle down to the surface, then waited for a phone call from the kidnappers. Meanwhile, most of the crew piled into the launch and flew above the ocean, outside of Klavisur waters, to attempt to track Gvoudzon, using both sensors and the tracking device. The kidnappers called Gvoudzon and instructed him to go to a certain warehouse just outside the spaceport. Gvoudzon complied, then someone snuck up behind him and hit him over the head.</p><p>When Gvoudzon stopped responding to communications, the crew started tracking him. They saw that his phone was no longer trackable (because the kidnappers had smashed it and left the pieces behind), but his tracking device was headed east at high speed, probably aboard an aircraft. They used their sensors and eventually found the aircraft, which landed at Ulrach on the east coast. Sacha flew the launch up to orbital altitude to avoid infringing on Klavisur airspace, then over to the east coast. At that point Gvoudzon was removed from the airplane and placed on a high-speed boat headed to Zenfalen Island. The crew tracked the boat and got some fuzzy pictures of it docked at a private dock on the northeast corner of the island, near the villa. They then tracked Gvoudzon being taken to the villa, where they already suspected Lisa was held.</p><p>At that point, Gustav Fireau agreed that the kidnappers were unlikely to return Lisa and that a rescue operation to recover Gvoudzon, Lisa, and the ransom was the best option. Everett suggested contacting Detective Voight of the SPA and Commander Giilaan of the Navy, but neither could render any direct assistance. So the plan was to put the crew and all their weapons in the launch, fly down to the villa at night, and rescue both kidnap victims.</p><p>The launch descended slowly in the dark, with all lights out. Sensors showed one guard in the courtyard and a couple outside the villa's wall. Sacha put the launch down in the tree-lined courtyard. Unfortunately, he hit one of the trees. Fortunately, the damage to the launch was fairly minor. The crew all piled out of the launch. The nearby guard got on his radio, yelling for help, as he started shooting at the crew with a machine pistol. He missed, as Gani (wearing a grav belt) flew right up to him. Gani and John closed in on the guard from the east and south and shot him in the leg, crippling it and knocking him down. Sacha went south into a door and found a kitchen. </p><p>Gani checked his scanner and saw that Gvoudzon was to the west. There was a doorway in that direction. John and Gani headed west into the villa, with Captain Wilder right behind them. Then another guard they hadn't seen took careful aim at the Captain and put a bullet in his forehead. Wilder collapsed to the ground immediately. Everett grabbed the Captain and dragged him back into the launch then started first aid.</p><p>Gani flew right at the attacker, firing gyroc rounds. John followed up, firing his shotgun. A gyroc round hit the guard in the arm, destroying it. The guard collapsed in pain. There were two locked doors. John and Gani each took one. The first one had Lisa behind it, so Gani told her to stand back then shot the lock with a gyroc round. Lisa came running out and grabbed the guard's gun. Meanwhile, John got no response behind the other door, so bashed the lock open and found an unconscious and beat up Gvoudzon lying on a bed inside.</p><p>The crew carried Gvoudzon into the launch and herded Lisa inside too. Everett relieved Lisa of the guard's machine pistol, so Lisa grabbed another one from the other disabled guard. Someone interrogated one of the guards as to where the leader was, and he indicated that the woman Arion Jamail was the leader and her quarters were to the north. The crew headed that way quickly, with Sacha breaking into the eastern door while John broke into the southern door. In her bedroom, they found Gvoudzon's bag, which Sacha quickly checked to verify it still contained (at least most of) the ransom money.</p><p>One of the guards' radios was squawking with chatters from other guards, so at that point the crew decided to grab both wounded guards, pile into the launch, and take off before reinforcements arrived. As they prepared to take off, a jet fighter flew over the villa. Everett got on the radio and told the fighter that they were doing a medical evacuation and to stand down, while the fighter pilot told them to land their vehicle and get out. Sacha basically blasted off straight up at maximum speed. 1G isn't much for a starship, but it's much faster than a low-tech fighter plane, and the launch escaped Klavisur airspace before anything faster came after it.</p><p>Approaching orbit, the crew debated going back to the March Harrier with its small med bay, or just taking the Captain straight to the (hopefully better equipped) hospital at the highport. They went to the highport, first making a radio call to announce that they were inbound with three gunshot casualties, one a life-threatening head wound and two with serious limb wounds. They were given clearance to dock near the medical facility, where a team with grav stretchers awaited. Captain Wilder was immediately whisked off to surgery. Unfortunately, he did not survive. Both guards were also treated, and both survived their wounds.</p><p>Lisa told the crew that she had been treated well during her captivity. Gvoudzon, on the other hand, had initially been treated well (other than being knocked unconscious), but after the kidnappers realized the brooch they'd taken was a fake, they had beat him up to try to find where the original brooch was. Arion Jamail (who appeared to be the same person formerly called Jelika Chan) had been the main questioner.</p><p>Detective Voight was alerted to the incoming combat casualties and questioned everyone. The crew told him the truth, that the kidnappers had taken the ransom and kidnapped Gvoudzon, so they had no choice but to launch a rescue mission. One of the kidnappers refused to answer questions, but the other one believed Voight's talk about a murder charge for shooting the Captain, and said that the kidnappers were working for the Vemene, Tukera's covert security service, and that Arion Jamail was in charge.</p><p>After the crew was released, John used an override code to look through the Captain's records and found his will. He had a lawyer named Ezraa Foxwell on Aramis who needed to be contacted. His cash and minor possessions were to be divided equally between his two children, except that Cr 1 was to go to his ex-wife. His share of the March Harrier was to be divided equally among the active crew. This raised John and Everett's ownership to 20% each, with Gani, Gvoudzon, and Sacha each becoming 3.3% owners, and the Duke of Rhylanor's Aramis Trace Commercial Development Trust, LIC owning the other 50%.</p><p>Gustav and Lisa Fireau met with the crew before heading back to Zila. Gustav indicated that in gratitude for rescuing Lisa and recovering the ransom money, he would give the March Harrier an exclusive export contract for five years.</p><p>Marc hault-Oberlindes contacted the crew with a message of condolences on the loss of their captain, and a note that they should contact him about a business matter before leaving Aramanx. When the crew met with Oberlindes, he informed them that he had recently purchased their subsidy contract from the Duke of Rhylanor. He thought the March Harrier was clearly a great venture to have a half interest in, based on their recent run of profitability. He clarified that he couldn't change anything in the subsidy contract without the crew's permission, but that he was willing to expand the subsidy area from the Aramis Trace to the entire Aramis subsector, giving the crew more freedom to wander. Oberlindes also said that Gustav Fireau had told him that he was giving the March Harrier an exclusive license contract, and Oberlindes offered to have Oberlindes Lines handle the Zila wine exports for them, in exchange for a 1% royalty. The crew discussed this and ensured that they got to keep the whole 1%, not give half of it back to Oberlindes as the subsidy holder.</p><p>The last order of business was picking a new captain. The two qualified candidates were John and Sacha. John had more seniority, so it was agreed that John would become Captain and Sacha would be (permanent) First Officer. Gvoudzon asked if as a co-owner he could be promoted to Chief of Security, and the title bump was approved, though this didn't change his actual duties.</p><p>We stopped at that point, with the March Harrier ready to leave Aramanx and in search of passengers, freight, and cargo.</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">GM's Notes:</h2><div>Don't get into a GURPS gunfight without Luck or a very strong helmet. Preferably both. One bullet to the brain can ruin your whole day. RIP Captain Wilder.</div><div><br /></div><div>The March Harrier no longer needs to return to the Aramis Trace in six months. It does need its annual maintenance soon, as it's been almost a year since the start of the campaign.</div>driptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01800295180326776163noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740187606181391702.post-91822396848018855902023-03-20T23:50:00.000-04:002023-03-20T23:50:23.860-04:00Ownership of the March Harrier<p>The subsidy contract complicates things, but to a first approximation, the March Harrier is owned half by the subsidy holder and half by the crew. (Any crew members who bought Merchant Rank 1 or higher at the start of the campaign were part owners. Any crew members without Merchant Rank, and any crew members who joined later, were just employees.)</p><p>At the start of the campaign, the March Harrier's ownership was:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Aramis Trace Commercial Development Trust, LIC (Duke of Rhylanor) 50%</li><li>Captain Dale Conan Wilder: 12.5%</li><li>First Officer Randal Dorsainvil: 12.5%</li><li>Second Officer John Matrix: 12.5%</li><li>Engineer/Medic Everett de Clisson: 12.5%</li></ul><p></p><p>After Randal Dorsainvil left the crew (to get married and join his new wife's crew), the other crew owners split his shares evenly, resulting in revised ownership:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Aramis Trace Commercial Development Trust, LIC (Duke of Rhylanor) 50%</li><li>Captain Dale Conan Wilder: 16.7%</li><li>Second Officer John Matrix: 16.7%</li><li>Engineer/Medic Everett de Clisson: 16.7%</li></ul><p></p><p>After Oberlindes Lines bought the March Harrier's subsidy contract from the Aramis Trace Commercial Development Trust LIC, ownership was updated to:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Oberlindes Lines 50%</li><li>Captain Dale Conan Wilder: 16.7%</li><li>Second Officer John Matrix: 16.7%</li><li>Engineer/Medic Everett de Clisson: 16.7%</li></ul><p></p><p>After Captain Dale Conan Wilder died (of a machine pistol bullet to the forehead while attempting to rescue Lisa Fireau and Gvoudzon from Vemene kidnappers) and his will (pending completion of probate or any other legal challenges) divided his share of the ship evenly among the surviving crew, ownership became:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Oberlindes Lines 50%</li><li>Captain John Matrix: 20%</li><li>Engineer/Medic Everett de Clisson: 20%</li><li>First Officer Sacha Bright: 3.3%</li><li>Steward Ganidiirsi Ashran: 3.3%</li><li>Chief Security Officer Gvoudzon: 3.3%</li></ul><p></p>driptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01800295180326776163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740187606181391702.post-43702830109318593722023-03-17T15:57:00.002-04:002023-03-17T15:57:28.059-04:00March Harrier Session 7: Island Stakeout<h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 22px;">Player Characters:</span></h2><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-3970654585272721363" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 590px;"><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-6401848862502306359" itemprop="description articleBody" style="line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 590px;"><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-9161932311010385570" itemprop="description articleBody" style="font-size: 14.52px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 590px;"><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-3763320730135398013" itemprop="description articleBody" style="line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 590px;"><p><b>Everett de Clisson</b> (Adam), Medic and Engineer</p><p><b>Ganidiirsi Ashran</b> (Ben), Steward and Cargomaster</p><p><b>John Matrix</b> (Nick), Broker and Navigator</p><p><b>Sacha Bright </b>(ChaoticNeutral), Temporary First Officer and Pilot</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="font-size: 22px; margin: 0px; position: relative;">PCs Temporarily Run by the GM:</h2><p><b>Gvoudzon</b>, Vargr Gunner and Pilot</p><p><b>Dale Conan Wilder</b>, Captain</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="font-size: 22px; margin: 0px; position: relative;"><b>Significant NPCs:</b></h2><p>Lisa Fireau, Fireau et Fille Winery Co-Owner</p><p>Boris Dree, Fireau et Fille Employee</p><p>Lorn Denveldt, Tukera Lines Employee</p><p>Jelisa Chan, disgraced Akerut Engineer</p><p>Marc hault-Oberlindes, CEO, Oberlindes Lines</p><p>Commander Eneri Giilaan, Imperial Naval Intelligence</p><p>Detective Carter Voight, Imperial Starport Authority</p><p>Lord Magistrate Vernor, Klavisur politician</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="font-size: 22px; margin: 0px; position: relative;">Dates: </h2><p>325-1105 to 332-1105</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="font-size: 22px; margin: 0px; position: relative;">Worlds:</h2><div><br /></div><div>Aramanx/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3005)</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>After the ransom note arrived, there was no longer any doubt that Lisa Fireau had been kidnapped. Detective Voight was handling the investigation for the starport, but had no jurisdiction planet-side. He indicated that extradition from Klavisur would be difficult, as Klavisur was not a member of the Imperium and women had few rights there. However, he was willing to share some information. He had security footage of Lisa Fireau unsteadily boarding the a shuttle to Ulfrey, Klavisur along with Lorn Denveldt, a woman who Gani was sure was Jelika Chan, and other two large men. He was also willing to let the crew talk to the pilot and steward of the shuttle. The steward remembered that Fireau had appeared wobbly when boarding, and that she hadn't said anything.</div><div><br /></div><div>Boris Dree advocated for getting in touch with Lisa's father Gustav Fireau on Zila, and seeing if he was willing and able to pay the random. Zila was 3 parsecs away, so Boris wanted to find a fast ship to get there and back quickly, before the kidnappers got impatient. Marc Oberlindes contacted the crew, indicating that he had heard of the kidnapping and offering to help. Boris asked if there was any way Oberlindes could get him to Zila quickly, and Oberlindes agreed to make a fast courier available. Boris boarded the courier, and asked the crew not to try anything rash until he got back, unless it appeared to be the only option.</div><div><br /></div><div>Captain Wilder's Navy contact Eneri Giilaan told him that it appeared Lisa might have been taken to Zenfalen Island, a small fishing island off the coast of Klavisur, owned by Lord Magistrate Vernor, a powerful Klavisur politician.</div><div><br /></div><div>The kidnappers contacted the March Harrier again over a video feed, with the only person visible being Lisa Fireau, who was sitting in a sunny formal room, alive and apparently unharmed, holding a copy of that day's Ulfrey's Daily Truth newspaper. (Aramanx was at the tech level where paper periodicals were still popular.) The captain called the crew to the bridge to watch and try to find clues. A disguised female voice indicated that the kidnappers would wait 3 weeks, not a day longer, to hear whether the MCr 20 ransom would be paid. Then the sound muted for a minute. The female voice returned, saying that the Vargr emissary must be the one to deliver the ransom.</div><div><br /></div><div>The crew decided to check out Zenfalen Island and see if they could find Lisa. They left Gvoudzon on the March Harrier, thinking the Vargr might stand out too much on the small fishing island. First they went looking for a grav vehicle, but they only found one Air/Raft listed for sale on planet of Aramanx, for about double the usual price. Deciding not to spend that much, they instead boarded a commercial shuttle to Ulfrey, then took a jet aircraft to Ulrach on the coast. They then nosed around the docks looking for a fishing boat who could take them to Zenfalen. The first captain they found indicated that he would indeed be going that way in a couple of days. The crew offered to pay a lot more to leave immediately, and the captain was motivated to find a couple of crew members and leave within an hour.</div><div><br /></div><div>The ride to Zenfalen on the low-tech fishing boat was mostly uneventful, with the highlight of the voyage being Everett actually catching a fish. The crew disembarked and went looking for a hotel. There were two on the island: the Grand Zenfalen Hotel (expensive) and the Fisherman's Rest (cheap). They chose the cheap option, then visited a general store to buy some local clothing. They walked around the island a bit, seeing the main docks, the town of Falenza, the dormant volcano, the star-shaped Klavisur Army fortress, and a few outlying villas and farm houses. </div><div><br /></div><div>The crew decided to split up and snoop around the island at night. The most interesting thing they found was that a large villa in the northeast of the island had unexpectedly heavy security, with a high wall and a circling guard. Gani scoped out the villa from a distance with his night vision gear, but avoided risking detection. The next day, the crew watched the road to the villa and saw a couple of men with gun bulges under their clothing returning from the villa to the Grand Zenfalen Hotel, and then an older man with a cart bringing supplies to the villa. </div><div><br /></div><div>Further investigation showed that there were four men staying at the hotel and working at the villa in shifts. Searching their hotel rooms found a high-tech tablet (locked) and some clothing. Following the delivery man to a bar and buying him drinks gave some information: the villa belonged to Lord Magistrate Vernor himself, but he was rarely there, as he spent most of his time at the capital. Besides the guards, at least one female guest was staying at the villa, but the delivery man didn't know her name. She did not match Lisa Fireau's description.</div><div><br /></div><div>The crew used their long-range laser communicator to contact the March Harrier in orbit, so that Gvoudzon and Captain Wilder could do some research for them. Gvoudzon found video of Lord Magistrate Vernor giving a speech in the Klavisur Parliament in Ulfrey the day before. The crew waited until night and then Gani used his grav belt to spy on the villa from above. He saw a guard outside the wall, a guard inside the wall, and a guard inside the villa's central courtyard. Most of the windows were closed. He threw some rocks at a shuttered window, and a few minutes later the shutters opened and a man who looked like Lorn Denveldt stuck his head out, as a guard came over to investigate and Gani hid on the roof.</div><div><br /></div><div>The presence of Lorn Denveldt was enough that the crew thought it was likely that Lisa Fireau was held nearby, but they were out of ideas for safe information gathering, so the next day they got back on the fishing board back to the mainland, then took a jet back to Ulfrey and a shuttle back to the highport. They still had about 11 days remaining until Boris Dree's return and the deadline for paying the ransom.</div><div><br /></div><h2 style="text-align: left;">GM's Notes:</h2><div>This session ended up being mostly medium-tech information gathering on a low-tech planet. The crew had night vision capabilities and a grav belt, which were helpful, but they did not manage to find Lisa Fireau. However, they found Lorn Denveldt, one of her kidnappers, which they thought was close enough.</div></div></div></div></div>driptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01800295180326776163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740187606181391702.post-39706545852727213632023-03-10T00:35:00.001-05:002023-03-10T00:35:04.161-05:00March Harrier Session 6: Bureaucratic Infighting<h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 22px;">Player Characters:</span></h2><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-6401848862502306359" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 590px;"><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-9161932311010385570" itemprop="description articleBody" style="line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 590px;"><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-3763320730135398013" itemprop="description articleBody" style="font-size: 14.52px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 590px;"><p><b>Everett de Clisson</b> (Adam), Medic and Engineer</p><p><b>Ganidiirsi Ashran</b> (Ben), Steward and Cargomaster</p><p><b>John Matrix</b> (Nick), Broker and Navigator</p><p><b>Sacha Bright </b>(ChaoticNeutral), Temporary First Officer and Pilot</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="font-size: 22px; margin: 0px; position: relative;">PCs Temporarily Run by the GM:</h2><p><b>Gvoudzon</b>, Vargr Gunner and Pilot</p><p><b>Dale Conan Wilder </b>(Phil), Captain</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="font-size: 22px; margin: 0px; position: relative;"><b>Significant NPCs:</b></h2><p>Lisa Fireau, Fireau et Fille Winery Co-Owner</p><p>Boris Dree, Fireau et Fille Employee</p><p>Chelsea Vilchis, Receptionist at the Department of Commerce</p><p>Lorn Denveldt, Tukera Lines Employee</p><p>Marc hault-Oberlindes, CEO, Oberlindes Lines</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><h2 style="font-size: 22px; margin: 0px; position: relative;">Dates: </h2><p>286-1105 to 325-1105</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="font-size: 22px; margin: 0px; position: relative;">Worlds:</h2><div><br /></div><div>Zila/Aramis (Spinward Marches 2908)</div><p>Aramanx/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3005)</p><p><br /></p><p>The March Harrier landed on Zila. The crew spent a couple of days at the starport, doing their best to keep out of trouble after their arrest last time on Zila. But they did not quickly find any passengers or cargo, and Gvoudzon got bored and went looking for something to do. He found that Fireau et Fille, a renowned winery, had a free wine tasting at a location in the suburbs of Crescence, near the starport. Free wine sounded good to the whole crew, so they renewed their Zila standby legal insurance and then took the train out to the winery.</p><p>The wine was excellent, though the small winery was a bit crowded. A woman eventually approached the crew, saying she's overheard they had a starship, and wondering if they were interested in work. She was Lisa Fireau, the "Fille" in FIreau et Fille, and she said that the winery's exclusive interstellar distribution agreement with Tukera Lines was about to expire, and that Tukera was buying up land on Zila and looked to be making a play to take over the wine market, so she and her father wanted to end the agreement with Tukera and go independent. However, they were worried about Tukera's response, as Tukera had stockpiled a lot of Zilan wine and could possibly flood the market and put Fireau out of business. Fireau had one advantage: a large and fine vintage of eiswein, a very rare wine that should sell for a large profit. Lisa asked the March Harrier to get the eiswein to Aramanx without Tukera finding out, at which point she should be able to auction it for enough money to keep Fireau solvent. She offered 10% of the sale price, and said it was important to leave within two weeks, to get the payment in time to make a tax collection deadline.</p><p>Unfortunately, after having Tukera handle all their exports for decades, nobody at Fireau knew the exact process to legally ship their own wine off-planet. Furthermore, she didn't think it was safe to ship the wine from the main winery 2000 km away to the starport, as she feared Tukera intercepting the shipment. So she was counting on the crew to handle all the legalities to let the March Harrier land at the winery, pick up the wine, and fly it to Aramanx. She helped out by identifying five forms that she thought were required. Form 117: Special Landing Permit, would allow landing the March Harrier to land at the winery. Form 82a, Customs Declaration/Export Authorization, would allow shipping the wine offworld. Form 29, Waiver for Pre-Launch Inspection, would allow taking off again after landing away from the starport. Form 106, Local Landing Permit, was required to allow landing in Polykarp Province, where the winery was located. Finally, form 11/2, Application for Visa, was required to let Lisa Fireau and her employee Boris Dree leave Zila and return.</p><p>Lisa also knew of a few government and non-government organizations that might be able to help. The Zila Trade Authority (ZTA) in Crescence dealt with imports and exports. The Bureau of Offworld Affairs (BOA) in Crescence worked with offworld corporations and individuals. The Department of Commerce (DoC) in Crescence was in charge of all commercial and economic affairs. The Zila Port Authority (ZPA) at the starport was the Imperial Starport Authority (SPA) office on Zila, in charge of the starport. The Polykarp Provincial Government Administrative Offices (PGAO) in Amali was in charge of local affairs in Polykarp. The Imperial Consulate (IC) in North Crescence was the Imperial diplomatic center on Zila. Finally, the Merchants' Guild (MG) at the starport was an association to help offworld merchants.</p><p>Given five forms to procure and a large number of possible offices to visit, the crew split up. The Captain stayed at the starport and prepared the March Harrier for travel. The others alternated between telephone calls and visits to the five offices they thought might handle the appropriate forms. First they called the ZPA, and the receptionist there said their organization handled Form 29. They also tried calling the PGAO, but didn't manage to talk to the clerk who knew about Form 106 before the office closed.</p><p>The next day Gani called the PGAO again, who said they had Form 106, but it required a local visit. Sacha volunteered to take a plane trip to Amali in Polykarp Province to deal with that office. Everett called his lawyer to see if he or any other lawyer at his firm could handle the forms, but they appeared to only do criminal work. The crew visited the DoC in person and Gani met a very cute receptionist named Chelsea, who referred him to several officials who might be able to help, and also agreed to have dinner with him. One clerk named Ditha was no help. However, they also talked to a more helpful clerk named Randy, who extracted a small "cash only expediting fee" and produced a blank Form 17, but said it took 1-6 weeks to get approved through channels. Told the crew needed it faster than that, he referred them to a supervisor named Lee. Gani and Chelsea had dinner at a Vargr restaurant, which was not very authentic.</p><p>On the third day of the job, Gani called the BOA to get information about forms and scheduled an appointment with a supervisor named Joshua. John met with the supervisor Lee at the DoC, who got him a meeting with Eneri, the Assistant to the Administrator, who could sign Form 17. Sacha got on a jet airliner and flew to Amali in Polykarp Province, near the main winery.</p><p>On day four, Gani met with Joshua, who referred him to Zebulon, the Trade Relations Coordinator. Meanwhile, in Polykarp Province, Sacha met with a receptionist named Lo, who got him a copy of Form 106 and a meeting with District Administrator Kynon, who could sign it. That afternoon, Gani and John also managed to get Form 29 signed by Tamsin, a supervisor at the ZPA.</p><p>On the fifth day, the crew met with Zebulon "call me Mr. Askvig", who signed Form 82a, after they visited the receptionist Lizab to get the form. Lisa Fireau called the crew to tell them she had been threatened by an anonymous person. The Captain appointed Gvoudzon to take charge of ship's security in case of sabotage or hijacking attempts.</p><p>On the sixth day, Gani thought he was being followed by a couple of suspicious individuals. He called his lawyer, who directed him to their nearby office. While in the office, he took a photo of one of the followers, then went out the back door into a waiting taxi, which took him back to the starport's XT line. Back on the March Harrier, Gani tried to find out who the tail was using the ship's databases, but didn't get a hit. He and Gvoudzon used the ship's computer to make some wanted posters accusing the man of various crimes, and then printed out a bunch of copies, which they could later dump out the hatch before leaving the planet.</p><p>Sacha's appointment with Kynon happened on the seventh day, at which point he got Form 106 signed. On the eighth day, the crew got another signature from General Supervisor Verrill at the DoC on Form 82a, and at that point they thought they were legal. Lisa was getting nervous and asked to meet the crew in person on the ship. She asked that they fly to the winery, load the cargo, and leave the planet as soon as possible, before the threats of violence escalated further. The Captain agreed to leave the next day, and the crew called Sacha and asked him to meet them at the winery.</p><p>On the ninth day, Sacha took a taxi from his hotel to the winery and started working with the Fireau employees on a cargo loading plan. Meanwhile the Captain got the ship fully fueled and then the March Harrier took off for the winery, taking a rather roundabout route required to avoid all commercial air corridors. After landing, the crew and the Fireau employees loaded 150 dtons of wine onto the ship as quickly as possible. Some police showed up outside the winery just as the loading finished, but Lisa had her local employees deal with them while the ship took off. The March Harrier got off Zila without further problems.</p><p>Getting to Aramanx first required a double-jump to Carsten, which went smoothly. Since they wanted to reach Aramanx quickly, the ship just refueled from the ocean on Carsten (because it was closer than the gas giant) and then took off again and jumped for Aramanx.</p><p>Arriving at Aramanx Highport, the crew found that all the long-term berths were full, so the ship would have to park in orbit near the port and take the launch back and forth to the port, except when actually unloading the cargo. Still worried about security, the Captain asked Gvoudzon to keep an eye open for trouble. Meanwhile, Lisa and Boris, with Sacha helping, started setting up a wine auction. Lisa invited multiple merchants, but not Tukera, to bid at an auction for the wine in three days.</p><p>When the auction started, Lorn Denveldt of Tukera showed up, despite Fireau's attempts to exclude the company. He was representing three merchants who did have invitations, and the auctioneer ruled that he could stay. Bids started at Cr 150 per bottle (KCR 22.5 per dton) and rapidly rose to Cr 225 per bottle. At Cr 250 per bottle, it appeared that Tukera might win, but then a new bidder appeared in the back of the room. It was Marc Oberlindes, and he escalated the bidding all the way to Cr 310 per bottle. At that point Denveldt asked for a hold on the auction while he got authorization to bid higher, but the auctioneer denied the request. The total load went for a bit over MCr 8, leaving the March Harrier's 10% share over KCr 800.</p><p>The crew attempted to use the March Harrier's sensors to see if the Wolblutn could still be seen on the surface of Aramanx, at the mining camp in Renitza. They failed to find it.</p><p>With the initial sale completed and enough money raised to keep the company afloat, Lisa stayed at Aramanx Highport setting up future wine deals. Still concerned about security, she stayed on the March Harrier and took the launch to the starport. However, one evening she failed to appear for the trip back to the ship. Her employee, Boris Dree, indicated that it wasn't like her to not show up or answer calls, and asked the crew to help look for her. Some investigation showed that Lisa had gotten on a shuttle to the nation of Klavisur, along with two men and a woman. A few hours later, a message was sent to the March Harrier, saying "If you wish to see Fireau alive again, arrange payment of Cr 20,000,000. You will be contacted."</p><p>We stopped at that point.</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">GM's Notes:</h2><p>The Zilan bureaucracy paperwork challenge was one of the more annoying quests I've run in any RPG, but the players handled it well, using reaction rolls, Streetwise, bribery, and Sex Appeal. After the profitable charter to Paya followed up by a profitable wine run, the ship is doing very well financially.</p></div></div></div>driptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01800295180326776163noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740187606181391702.post-81315159549565429372023-03-06T18:51:00.000-05:002023-03-06T18:51:06.590-05:00Interstellar Mail Order in Traveller<p>I haven't seen Traveller rules for interstellar mail order. What if you don't have time to visit a high-tech or low-law-level world where the gizmo of your dreams can be found? Can you get a merchant there to ship it to you?</p><p>The trivial case is same-world mail order. On any world high-tech enough to have a datanet (TL8+) or at least a telephone system (TL6+) and with enough population to have a reasonable number of merchants (Population code 4+, or at least 10000 people), there should be mail order businesses, selling any products that are legal on that world. Cost should be roughly the same as that of visiting a store, possibly with some additional shipping costs, especially for larger items.</p><p>But it gets more complicated across interstellar distances. The customer needs a copy of the store's recent catalog. This should be relatively easy to find, at least for larger merchants who broadcast xmail out their catalogs to all nearby systems regularly. The customer then needs to send an xmail to place the order, along with sufficient funds. If the customer's current location and the merchant's world have a bank in common (which should be the case for any high-TL high-population worlds within a subsector or so), then the customer can deposit their Imperial credits at the local bank and send an interstellar money order along with their order, typically for a 1% fee. (If the buyer actually has an account at that bank, they might reduce or even waive the fee.) The xmail costs the typical Cr 10 / parsec, and typically moves at around Jump 2, faster along xboat routes and major trade routes, slower between backwater planets.</p><p>Once the merchant receives the order and the payment, they can ship the goods, assuming they're still available and the price hasn't increased. Shipping for large items runs at the rates given in GURPS Traveller Interstellar Wars: Cr 700 per dton per parsec on minor trade routes or better, or Cr 800 per dton per parsec on branch routes. Shipping for smaller items runs into minimum fees: Cr 100 per parsec. Freight typically moves at about Jump 1, as most cargo ships are Jump 2 but spend about half their time in-system rather than in jump.</p><p>That assumes the recipient will be staying put on a known planet. If they expect their cargo to chase them down, there will be extra time and expense. First, they'll have to send periodic xmails to update their own location, so their goods can be forwarded. Second, they'll have to pay for any extra hops their cargo takes, at the usual price. Third, if they want to be updated on the current location of their items, they need to pay for more xmails, from the item's location to all the worlds they might be. It all adds up, so it's probably simpler to ship to a world the buyer visits regularly, and pay for storing the item there. Storage fees for large items can add up: the standard rate at starports is Cr 2 per dton per day, with a Cr 1 per day minimum for small items.</p>driptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01800295180326776163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740187606181391702.post-64018488625023063592023-03-04T18:24:00.012-05:002023-03-04T18:26:03.545-05:00March Harrier Session 5: War on Aramanx<h2 style="text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 22px;">Player Characters:</span></h2><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-9161932311010385570" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 590px;"><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-3763320730135398013" itemprop="description articleBody" style="font-size: 14.52px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 590px;"><p><b>Everett de Clisson</b> (Adam), Medic and Engineer</p><p><b>Ganidiirsi Ashran</b> (Ben), Steward and Cargomaster</p><p><b>John Matrix</b> (Nick), Broker and Navigator</p><p><b>Sacha Bright </b>(ChaoticNeutral), Temporary First Officer and Pilot</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="font-size: 22px; margin: 0px; position: relative;">PCs Temporarily Run by the GM:</h2><p><b>Gvoudzon</b>, Vargr Gunner and Pilot</p><p><b>Dale Conan Wilder </b>(Phil), Captain</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="font-size: 22px; margin: 0px; position: relative;"><b>Significant NPCs:</b></h2><p>Randall Dorsainvil, First Officer of the March Harrier</p><p>Fenna Song, Captain of the Margin of Profit</p><p><span style="font-size: 14.52px;">Cai Calula, Chosen of Cratersea</span></p><p>Lana Calula, Cai's sister</p><p>Celia Bailee, Lana's surrogate mother</p><p>Thoren Soner, Cai's bodyguard</p><p>Roet Bannerji, Captain of the Wolblutn</p><p>Jeffry Marte, Sternmetal Horizons employee</p><p>Kfouzorr, ex-member of the Kforuzeng</p><p>Eneri Giilaan, Imperial Naval Intelligence officer</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="font-size: 22px; margin: 0px; position: relative;">Dates: </h2><p>192-1105 to 286-1105</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="font-size: 22px; margin: 0px; position: relative;">Worlds:</h2><p>Aramanx/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3005)</p><p>Carsten/Aramis (Spinward Marches 2906)</p><p>Heguz/Aramis (Spinward Marches 2706)</p><p>Violante/Aramis (Spinward Marches 2708)</p><p>Paya/Aramis (Spinward Marches 2509)</p><p style="font-size: 14.52px;">Violante/Aramis (Spinward Marches 2708)</p><div>Zila/Aramis (Spinward Marches 2908)</div><div><br /></div><p>Everett, Gani, John, Sacha, and Gvoudzon started the session in Seniek, the capital of the nation of Senled on the balkanized world of Aramanx. Their goal was to reach the remote border city of Tavanix and find Captain Bannerji. They considered renting a car or taking the train, but it would be a three-day ground trip, so they bought airplane tickets instead. The plane was grounded for several hours due to reports of aerial incursions over the border, but eventually reached their destination. In Tavanix, the crew looked for the Sternmetal Horizons party that Bannerji was with. A solider in a bar told Gani that he'd seen the Sternmetal reps at the Provincial Governor's Mansion, which was the temporary seat of local martial government. Sacha made a phone call and managed to get an appointment at the Mansion to meet with the Sternmetal party. The crew rented a ground vehicle and headed to the Mansion.</p><p>While waiting for their meeting, the crew saw an argument break out. A Vargr was yelling at a Senledi army officer, who was ordering soliders to take the Vargr prisoner. Gvoudzon recognized the Vargr as his friend Kfouzorr, and the crew joined Gvoudzon in trying to get the officer to listen to Kfouzorr's story. Kfouzorr had deserted from the Kforuzeng mercenaries serving the rival nation of Lanax. He said that he had been on the staff of Thane Dhurgeng, a batallion commander, but had decided to leave rather than being subjected to further blows to his charisma. He had come bringing information on the mercenaries' plans, in exchange for asylum and transport. Kfouzorr continued that the mercenaries were about to launch a raid to try to capture the Sternmetal representatives and destroy the local Senledi forces. He thought the Sternmetal group were to be bargaining chips in upcoming negotiations. The officer decided to pass Kfouzorr's story to higher authority, and level to find his commander.</p><p>The crew, with Kfouzorr and some soliders in tow, went for their meeting with Bannerji and the other Sternmetal representative. Bannerji looked surprised to see them, but before discussion started, sounds of machine guns and artillery fire could be heard. The Mansion was under attack! The soldiers hit the deck and the crew hid under the conference table. Bannerji and the other Sternmetal employee were slower to react, and when the ceiling started coming down, both were pinned under rubble. When the explosions stopped, Bannerji was screaming for help. The crew and one of the soldiers worked together to unpin Bannerji, while the other soldiers left the room. Everett began first aid, including splinting a broken leg. The other Sternmetal employee was dead. The crew asked Kfouzorr for more details of the attack, and he said it was a pincher with two armored columns trying to cut Tavanix off from the rest of Senled. The crew decided to rush back to their vehicle and try to get out of the war zone. Bannerji begged them to bring him along, which they were happy to do. Everett inspected the other Sternmetal rep to make sure he was dead, and took his wallet, which contained a Sternmetal business card identifying him as Jeffry Marte.</p><p>Reaching the parking lot, the crew saw that all vehicles that had been there were gone except for two, both of which were badly damaged. Their own rental car was upside down. The crew took a quick look to see if it was repairable, but there was no chance without major parts and a lot of time. They decided to head back to town and look for another vehicle, carrying Bannerji. Kfouzorr asked for a minute to grab something from the Mansion, and came back with a bolt-action rifle and some ration packs.</p><p>After some walking, the group reached Tavinax, and saw a huge traffic jam, with all roads heading north out of town toward the rest of Senled completely backed up. The crew approached a man in an off-road vehicle and said that they needed to take it for military reasons. He didn't seem to believe them, but he was outnumbered and they had guns, so he abandoned his vehicle and ran away. Bannerji said that his ship was hidden in a mining camp across the Renitza border, and if they could get him there, he could get them offworld. The roads toward the border were clear, so the group headed that way, though they stayed off the roads as much as possible. There were some primitive rotary-wing aircraft patrolling the area, but nothing took a shot at their civilian vehicle.</p><p>While heading toward the border, the crew started asking Bannerji questions. He revealed what he'd been doing with Sternmetal: smuggling lanthanum to evade the Navy's price caps on domestic lanthanum. He had been picking up lanthanum in Patinir, then bringing it to Aramanx and hiding, while forging documents to make it look like the Wolblutn had gone to Scangen in the Vargr Extents and bought the lanthanum there. He said the missile attack on the shuttle that found his ship in Patinir Belt had been an accident: he had only meant to fire a warning shot, but had hit the wrong button and accidentally nuked the shuttle.</p><p>The crew reached the Renitza border and found the gates closed and guarded by Renitzan troops. Everett and Banerji produced Sternmetal IDs and said they needed to get back to their ship in Renitza. The story worked and the vehicle was let through. However, once past the border area, Everett said that going to Bannerji's ship was a bad idea, as there might be an ambush waiting for them, and they should instead just head for a spaceport and get a shuttle back to the highport. There was no spaceport in Renitza, but if they drove north far enough, they could then cross back into Senled away from the battle zone, and head for the spaceport in Seniek. They stopped at a fuel station for directions, and the attendant there said that Senledi border guards were notoriously corrupt and demanded bribes of alcohol to cross, and he happened to sell the kind of alcohol they liked. It was cheap, so the crew bought some, and then refused to give any to Bannerji.</p><p>After several hours of driving north, they headed west for Senled. The border was closed except for citizens, but Sacha pulled out his fake Senled citizen ID and told a (mostly true) story about trying to get out of the war zone and back home. The story combined with a bribe of alcohol worked, and they were back in Senled. When they reached the nearest airport, they found it jammed full of people trying to get away from the border. It would have been a long wait for a flight, but there was a long-distance communicator at the airport that could send a message to Captain Wilder at the highport. He responded that he would try to get permission to come get them in the launch, and an hour later the launch arrived. The crew plus Kfouzorr, Bannerji, and two random people who were willing to pay for the two empty seats piled into the launch.</p><p>Reaching the highport, the Captain discharged the two paying passengers and instructed the crew to keep an eye on Bannerji, then left to contact his Navy contact. A bit later, the Navy officer appeared to collect Bannerji. He later returned to question the crew members and Kfouzorr about what Bannerji had confessed. A couple of days later, the Captain called a meeting of the crew and handed out some reward money to everyone involved, plus some cards with Imperial Navy logos identifying the bearers as good citizens.</p><p>A couple days later, the Captain called a meeting of all owners of the March Harrier. The ship's First Officer, Randall Dorsainvil, had xmailed Captain Wilder letting him know that he was engaged to Fenna Song, the Captain of the Margin of Profit, and would like to remain on that ship permanently. The Captain's suggestion was offering Randall KCr 100 for his share of the ship. On the one hand that was a very low offer because the ship was worth a lot more, but on the other hand Randall would be leaving the crew, and his ownership share had been contingent on being a crew member. So the Captain thought that would be a fair offer. The other owners agreed, and the Captain sent off an xmail.</p><p>Cai Calula, the ship's VIP passenger, was ready to resume his trip to Paya. However, Everett thought he saw an angle and wanted to meet with the Navy officer to see if there was any chance of going back to the surface, seizing Bannerji's ship, giving the lanthanum and evidence to the Navy, and keeping the ship as a reward. The officer took the meeting but said that the matter was above his pay grade and it would take a few weeks to get an answer from the brass. After some discussion among the crew, they decided to give up on grabbing the Wolblutn and resume their trip to Paya. Kfouzorr stayed on Aramanx Highport, after telling Gvoudzon that he was going to use his reward money to find passage as far away from the Kforuzeng as possible.</p><p>The trip to Carsten was fairly uneventful. While there, Gani found some ammo for his gyroc weapon. The March Harrier then double-jumped to Heguz, a water world where two different colonies had mysteriously disappeared over the last few centuries. The third group of colonists were inhabiting a space station and trying to investigate the planet from orbit before trying again. With no gas giant in the system and no fuel for sale on the station, the March Harrier risked a trip to the surface to refuel from the ocean, and managed not to be eaten by any sea monsters.</p><p><span style="font-size: 14.52px;">The March Harrier then double-jumped to Violante, an estate world owned by a small number of nobles from Deneb sector. While there, John finally found a decent price for the howood they'd been carrying since Pysadi, and Gani set up the March Harrier's ATV as a food truck and made a bit of money selling food outside the starport.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 14.52px;">The ship then double-jumped for Paya. On the way, Cai Calula announced that he thought the March Harrier was a quaint and fun ship and would be an excellent addition to his collection. He offered MCr 250 for the ship, well above its value. However, the crew did not actually have clear title to the ship, as the subsidy holders were also owners. Also, Calula indicated that the crew would need to stay with the ship and become his employees, and nobody really wanted to work for him. The Captain held a meeting of the owners, who decided not to entertain the offer.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 14.52px;">The March Harrier landed directly at Cai Calula's spaceport at Cratersea, rather than at Paya's main starport. Someone goaded Calula into flying the G-Carrier out of the cargo hold himself; fortunately he managed to do so without breaking anything. The ATVs, ketch, and fighter jet were also offloaded, and the crew was free of their charter. They headed to the orbital highport to look for other passengers and cargo, and did find some mail heading for Violante, but nothing else.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 14.52px;">Jumping back to Violante, the pilot asked John and Sacha whether they should head for Heguz or Zila. Sacha immediately said Heguz because he hated Zila after his bogus arrest, but John said that Zila had better commercial prospects and they just needed to be careful there to avoid getting arrested. Captain Wilder agreed and said maybe it would be safer to just stay inside the XT Zone on Zila. The March Harrier then jumped toward Zila, and the session ended.</span></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 14.52px;">GM's Notes:</span></h2><div><span style="font-size: 14.52px;">The players surprised me by first carjacking a vehicle and then heading for a spaceport instead of for the Wolblutn, but their plans were solid enough, and their rolls good enough, that their plan worked out. Of course later they regretted not taking the Wolblutn, but at least they got out of the war zone and off of Aramanx safely.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14.52px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14.52px;">The charter with Cai Calula was quite profitable, putting enough money in the operating fund to try to buy out Randall and keep the ship going for at least a few more months. It could have been even more profitable if they'd sold the March Harrier to him, but being a spoiled rich boy's personal crew didn't seem like fun to anyone. </span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div></div>driptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01800295180326776163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740187606181391702.post-91619323110103855702023-02-25T11:52:00.006-05:002023-02-25T11:53:25.260-05:00March Harrier Session 4: Anolas, a Charter, and a Bannerji Sighting<h2 style="text-align: left;">Player Characters:</h2><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-3763320730135398013" itemprop="description articleBody"><p><b>Everett de Clisson</b> (Adam), Medic and Engineer</p><p><b>Ganidiirsi Ashran</b> (Ben), Steward and Cargomaster</p><p><b>John Matrix</b> (Nick), Broker and Navigator</p><p><b>Sacha Bright </b>(ChaoticNeutral), Temporary First Officer and Pilot</p><p><br /></p><h2>PCs Temporarily Run by the GM:</h2><p><b>Gvoudzon</b>, Vargr Gunner and Pilot</p><p><b>Dale Conan Wilder </b>(Phil), Captain</p><p><br /></p><h2><b>Significant NPCs:</b></h2><p>Randall Dorsainvil, First Officer of the March Harrier</p><p>Fenna Song, Captain of the Margin of Profit</p><p>Arrlanroughl, VP of Oberlindes Lines</p><div><p>Maddox Kader, lawyer on Zila</p></div><div>5 Anolas</div><p>Professor Lars Dagiran, University of Junidy</p><p>Lizab Diiringer, University of Junidy</p><p>Cai Calula, Chosen of Cratersea</p><p>Lana Calula, Cai's sister</p><p>Celia Bailee, Lana's surrogate mother</p><p>Thoren Soner, Cai's bodyguard</p><p>2 Human Terrorists</p><p>4 Llellewyloly Terrorists</p><p>Roet Bannerji, Captain of the Wolblutn</p><p>Anonymous Naval Intelligence source</p><p><br /></p><h2>Dates: </h2><p>131-1105 to 192-1105</p><p><br /></p><h2>Worlds:</h2><p>Junidy/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3202)</p><p>Towers/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3103)</p><p>Nasemin/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3003)</p><p>Aramanx/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3005)</p><p><br /></p><p>The March Harrier landed on Junidy, the highest-population world in the Aramis subsector. They offloaded a major cargo and a low passenger. There were a couple of xmails for them in the system. One was from Randall to the captain, indicating that he and Captain Song were still imprisoned on Zila (as of the time of sending, several weeks ago) but their lawyer said they would have their trial soon and should be released. The other was from Arrlanroughl to Sacha, indicating that a ship with drive parts had been sent to Zila to repair the Margin of Profit and asking whether he was planning to head back toward Zila to resume his job with Oberlindes Lines. Sacha chose not to answer the xmail yet.</p><p>Gvoudzon still appeared unnaturally obsessed with the anolas, so the crew set about finding a buyer for the anolas to get them off the ship. Posting them on the local electronic merchant boards got a bunch of instant low-bidder offers from bots. Over the next couple of days, some better offers came in, from merchants and an exotic pet dealer and a University professor. The offer from the professor asked to visit the University of Junidy South Continental Campus Psychology Building in person, so most of the crew boarded a crowded high-speed monorail and visited the campus. They left Gvoudzon and the Anolas behind in the care of the captain. When they met Professor Dagiran, he indicated that the psychology department would like to acquire the anolas to conduct non-invasive research, and offered KCr 50. He also asked whether any crew members were exhibiting odd psychological symptoms and offered diagnosis and treatement. The crew mentioned Gvoudzon's symptoms. John was a bit concerned about high medical bills, but the professor assured the group that the cost of any treatment would be included in the purchase price for the anolas. Everyone except Everett agreed to a quick examination, and the professor indicated that those examined only showed mild symptoms from exposure to the anolas. The group came to an agreement, and the professor sent his grad student, Lizab Diiringer, back to the March Harrier with the crew to take a look at Gvoudzon and fetch the anolas.</p><p>John and Gani decided that the professor had taken their offer a bit too quickly, so decided to make up a fake counter offer to try to get more cash. Lizab took a quick look at Gvoudzon and suggested that he go back to the University for treatment, as he was clearly afflicted with something. She called the professor, then indicated that he would like them all to come back to the University so he could take a look at Gvoudzon and the anolas in person. Lizab unfolded a high-tech pet carrier for the anolas, and they took another monorail ride. After some negotiation, the price for the anolas was raised to KCr 80 and it was agreed that Gvoudzon would receive treatment. Everett didn't trust the psychologists and again refused to participate, but the rest of the crew remained with Gvoudzon.</p><p>About week later, the captain called with exciting news: he'd found a very profitable charter, paying double standard rates for four high passengers and a large cargo all the way to Paya. He asked that the crew hurry back to the ship as soon as possible. The crew met with the professor again, who agreed that Gvoudzon could leave, and his recovery should eventually be complete after separation from the anolas, though a few more weeks of treatment would be preferred. They headed back to the ship.</p><p>The custom was Cai Calula, a very rich young man from Paya in the Spinward-Rimward corner of the subsector. The world had been hit by an asteroid a few decades previously, most of the population had died, and most of the survivors had been evacuated. But a small group of eccentrics had remained and gained claim to the whole planet. And the fees to allow recent construction of a Navy base and Oberlindes Lines subsector headquarters had made each of them very rich. Cai was the new ruler of the Cratersea District and had been yachting around the system buying vehicles for his collection when his yacht broke down. Rather than waiting for it to be repaired or taking a luxury liner home, he decided it would be fun to rough it on a Jump-1 freighter back to Paya. His cargo consisted of several vehicles: a G-Carrier, a jet fighter plane, a ketch, and a couple of ATVs. The crew loaded the G-Carrier and ATVs themselves, but needed some help from the starport workers to handle the airplane and boat.</p><p>While waiting clearance for takeoff, the March Harrier received a radio call that their cargo had been selected for customs search. None of them liked the idea, but messing with the Starport Authority sounded like a bad idea, so the captain indicated they should cooperate. Six uniformed starport workers, two Human and four Llellewyloly, came on board and five of them headed for the cargo hold. A bit later, one of them indicated that some unspecified illegal powder had been found on board the G-Carrier and that the ship would not be allowed to leave. The captain protested and asked for details, as one of the other "customs workers" began a radio transmission that the Llellewyloly of Junidy had been oppressed for far too long and were going to blow up this starship in protest. Gani heard the transmission and shot the terrorist with his gyroc pistol, and a fight was on. The fight lasted only a few seconds, with Gani (with gyroc pistol and morph axe), Captain Wilder (unarmed), and Cai's bodyguard Thoren (with some kind of large black pistol) taking down all six terrorists (armed with low-tech handguns and a bomb they didn't have time to set off). John and Sacha reached the cargo hold just as the fight ended, and Gvoudzon never even realized what was happening until it was over. Captain Wilder called Starport Security to report the attack and several Starport Authority police came on board to take the surviving terrorists. They interrogated the crew for a few hours and it was determined that the crew had done nothing wrong and was free to go. Thoren tried to figure out if the terrorists had targeted his employer in particular.</p><p>The March Harrier and their passengers jumped for Towers. They made a quick turnaround to replenish supplies then jumped for Nasemin. After another quick turnaround they made a double-jump through the interdicted Zykoca system for Aramanx. On the way to Aramanx, Celia, Cai's sister's unspecified associate, confided a problem to Gani. Her job was to be Lana's surrogate mother and carry Lana's artificially-implanted embryos to term. However, Cai wouldn't leave her alone, and Cai was rich and powerful and used to getting his way. Lana wanted the crew to find a way to keep Cai away from her on the small ship. Gani talked to Everett, and they suggested putting Celia in a low berth and claiming there had been a medical emergency threatening her health. Everett put her under, then Gani and Everett explained to Cai and Lana that Celia had been suffering from acute gravity sickness and had been transferred to a low berth to preserve her health and that of the baby. Cai and Lana seemed to buy the story.</p><p>After over a month cooped up on the ship, the crew exited into the relatively open spaces of Aramanx Highport and headed for the Worldview bar. While there, John noticed one of the local news videos discussing a protest against offworld interests in the nation of Senled, The protests were apparently triggered by the visit of a group from the megacorporation Sternmetal Horizons LIC. The crew was not particular interested in local politics, but the interesting part of the video was that one member of the Sternmetal group was Captain Bannerji of the Wolblutn. John pointed out the video to his crewmates, who agreed that was definitely Bannerji. The crew mentioned the sighting to the captain, who said he'd discussed Bannerji with a contact in Naval Intelligence, and that it would be great to talk to him and figure out what was going on and if he was indeed linked to the nuclear missile attack in Patinir. The crew asked if the Navy had any resources to help, but the captain said there was no Navy base in the area and his contact was on his own and would appreciate the crew's help.</p><p>Everett, Gani, John, Sacha, and Gvoudzon took a shuttle down to Seniek, the capital of Senled. Weapons were not allowed on the shuttle, so they decided not to risk bringing any, but would look for weapons planetside in case there was trouble. After landing in Seniek, Sacha (the most streetwise of the crew) found a gun store, where it was made clear that (some) guns were legal for citizens but foreigners weren't allowed to possess any weapons. The gun owner also pointed out a place where citizens who had lost their identification documents could get replacements. Sacha headed over to the shady passport photo store and paid a king's ransom in local money (which was not very much in Imperial credits) for a fake ID. Then, armed with the ID, he headed back to the gun store to load up before looking for Bannerji.</p><p>We stopped at that point, with the group considering what kind of low-tech gear they wanted to buy.</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">GM's Notes:</h2><div>The crew were pretty lucky with the anolas. Gvoudzon, as the one spending the most time with them, got penalties to his rolls to resist their mysterious effects, and temporarily lost several points of IQ, reverting to a childlike state. The rest of the crew made their (hidden) rolls and so were able to deal with the situation fairly effectively. Their attempt to raise the purchase price after a deal had already been made was a bit sketchy, but apparently Professor Dagiran wanted the anolas enough to comply.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Llellewyloly-separatist terrorists were not particularly effective, and the crew (plus their passenger's bodyguard) were highly suspicious, so the fight was pretty one-sided.</div><div><br /></div></div>driptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01800295180326776163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740187606181391702.post-37633207301353980132023-02-17T17:53:00.003-05:002023-02-17T17:53:55.012-05:00March Harrier Session 3: Imprisoned on Zila<p> </p><h2>Player Characters:</h2><p><b>Everett de Clisson</b> (Adam), Medic and Engineer</p><p><b>Ganidiirsi Ashran</b> (Ben), Steward and Cargomaster</p><p><b>John Matrix</b> (Nick), Broker and Navigator</p><p><b>Dale Conan Wilder </b>(Phil), Captain</p><p><b>Sacha Bright </b>(ChaoticNeutral), Temporary First Officer and Pilot</p><p><br /></p><h2>PCs Temporarily Run by the GM:</h2><p><b>Gvoudzon</b>, Vargr Gunner and Pilot</p><p><b>Randall Dorsainvil</b>, First Officer and Pilot</p><p><br /></p><h2><b>Significant NPCs:</b></h2><p>5 Anolas</p><p>Monte Sladek, Zila starport worker</p><p>Cola Hillee, Zila starport worker</p><p>Thane Kiana, bartender at the Dead Spacer</p><p>Fenna Song, Captain of the Margin of Profit</p><p>Park Abyssi, Steward of the Margin of Profit</p><p>Marc hault-Oberlindes, CEO of Oberlindes Lines</p><p>Arrlanroughl, VP of Oberlindes Lines</p><p>Maddox Kader, lawyer on Zila</p><p><br /></p><h2>Dates: </h2><p>084-1105 to 131-1105</p><p><br /></p><h2>Worlds:</h2><p>Zila/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3209)</p><p>Aramanx/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3005)</p><p>Nasemin/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3003)</p><p>Towers/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3103)</p><p><br /></p><p>The March Harrier landed on Zila and unloaded passengers and cargo. The starport was very small, and most services required leaving the extrality zone and taking a train to the nearby city of Crescence. At the extrality fence, an Imperial Starport Authority guard required signing a waiver that Zila was an Amber Zone due to its overbearing local law level and that legal representation was recommended. Gani decided to purchase legal insurance for the crew, and the law office clerk issued several collar badges which were claimed to reduce police harassment.</p><p>Looking for rumors of business, the crew proceeded to the Dead Spacer bar, which featured a picture of a vacc-suited spacer with the faceplate shattered. Inside was a table with a couple of starport workers, a table with several blue-suited Akerut Lines crew, and a table with crew from an unrecognized line wearing green jumpsuits. One of the starport workers, named Monte, recognized Gani and offered to buy the crew a round of Zilan wine, which was excellent and cheap. The crew mentioned wanting to buy more, but the bartender indicated that only a very strictly limited amount could be taken off-world for personal use, as Akerut had an export monopoly.</p><p>The other starport worker, Cola, asked if the crew knew anything about the crash of the Mammoth on Aramis. She said that she'd seen a few short news bulletins and heard a bit from the crew of the Wolblutn when they came through, but wanted more details. She indicated that another 5000-ton Akerut freighter, the Titan, had originally had the naval priority cargo from Inthe to Aramis, but Titan's chief engineer had reported serious problems with the jump drives and refused to allow flying until they were repaired. At that point the Titan's cargo was transferred to the Mammoth. She noted that the Mammoth's chief engineer was beat up on Zila, and so the Titan's engineer also transferred to the Mammoth. Finally, she indicated that she worked on the Titan's drives and they were a complete mess, as though the L-hyd valves were left open after a jump. All in all, she thought the Mammoth's original engineer was competent, but the Titan's engineer who got transferred to the Mammoth was a complete idiot and probably caused the crash.</p><p>Overhearing the conversation, a couple of drunk Akerut crewmen wandered over and responded to the insults to their line by saying that the March Harrier was fit only for a garbage run, and that it was a good thing it had arrived as it could drag the Margin of Profit away. This caused one of the green-suited crew from the adjacent table to jump up and get in his face. She was apparently the captain of the Margin of Profit and didn't appreciate the slander against her ship. A fistfight ensued between the captain of the Margin of Profit and the drunken Akerut crewman. The bartender started yelling for everyone to stop and then started blowing a whistle. The March Harrier crew took a step back, not wanting to get involved, but then Randall saw that a second Akerut crewman was about to join in, and restrained him. At that point a couple of Zila police burst in and made everyone, including people who had not been fighting, hit the floor. After a few minutes, they hauled off everyone in the room except the bartender to jail.</p><p>The March Harrier crew asked for their lawyer, and he showed up fairly quickly. After talking to his clients he indicated that if they hadn't been involved in the fight and hadn't resisted they should be discharged routinely.</p><p>Randall recognized Sacha from their shared service in the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service. They updated each other on recent events, with Randall serving as First Officer on the March Harrier, and Sacha serving as First Officer on the Margin of Profit, an Oberlindes Lines freighter. Sacha said they'd been grounded on Zila for five weeks, waiting for parts.</p><p>Everyone spent a night in jail. The next morning, the lawyer Maddox Kader showed up along with an older gentleman who turned out to be Marc hault-Oberlindes, head of Oberlindes Lines. Everyone except Randall was discharged, and Oberlindes had covered their fines. Randall was facing an assault charge for grabbing the Akerut crewman, and his trial was expected to come up in six weeks. In the meantime, Oberlindes had a business proposal for Captain Wilder. He and his right-hand Vargr Arrlanroughl were in the process of moving Oberlindes Lines' subsector headquarters from Paya to Aramanx on the Margin of Profit when it broke down on Zila. He didn't know how long it would take for another ship to bring the needed parts, and he would like to hire the March Harrier to carry them and their cargo to Aramanx at maximum possible speed. Additionally, if Randall was going to be stuck in jail awaiting trial, Oberlindes would bring a substitute pilot, Sacha.</p><p>Captain Wilder tentatively agreed to the deal, though he wanted to spend a few days trying to get Randall out of jail first. Once it became clear that nothing was going to move up the trial date, Captain Wilder agreed that it would be better to spend the time moving a cargo than sitting on Zila. Oberlindes agreed to cover Randall's legal expenses and have his captain, Fenna Song, keep an eye on the lawyers. They then moved Margin of Profit's cargo to the March Harrier, and the Harrier jumped for deep space, then Carsten's gas giant, then immediately to Aramanx's orbital starport.</p><p>Upon reaching Aramanx and discharging their VIP passengers and their cargo, the March Harrier had to decide whether to immediately head back to Zila to try to pick up their first officer, or look for other business. Aramanx was a balkanized world with many independent countries rather than a world government, and there appeared to be war brewing between several of the countries. Sacha took a day shuttle trip down to the one of the more lenient (and currently peaceful) cities to buy some stimulants. Captain Wilder wanted to do more research on the Wolblutn, and the vacation itinerary that the crew had found in its captain's lost wallet had indicated that it was heading for Scangen in the Vargr Extents. Attempts to find the Wolblutn failed, so Captain Wilder decided to look for passengers and cargo headed in the direction of Jesedipere on the border, before heading back to Zila to try to pick up Randall. They found a couple of passengers and a small cargo for the water world Nasemin, along with a low passenger heading to Junidy. </p><p>The March Harrier jumped through the Zykoca system but skipped the interdicted planet, then continued to Nasemin to drop off their passengers and cargo. At Nasemin's orbital port they found a small cargo for Towers and a large cargo for Junidy, so they continued that way.</p><p>Towers was an Amber Zone because of local customs involving dueling, which had seen a few offworlders stabbed by touchy locals. The upside was that it was a great place to learn to fight or buy swords. Sacha decided to buy a sword, and John thought it would be great to spend a week learning judo. Unfortunately, the dojo he chose appeared to be run by someone who's learned judo from holovids and whose other clients were mostly hyperactive children, so he didn't learn anything useful.</p><p>During the extended trip, Gvoudzon's behavior toward the anolas became increasingly curious. At first he seemed to just enjoy feeding them and playing with them, but he gradually started shirking his duties in favor of spending all his time with them. Confronted about this, he responded with babble. Captain Wilder had Everett check Gvoudzon out, and then had the anolas moved to a stateroom and Gvoudzon isolated from them. He said it was because they worried that Gvoudzon might be sick and they wanted to protect the anolas, but it wasn't clear if Gvoudzon actually believed this. The March Harrier then jumped for Junidy, the highest-population world in the subsector, with Wilder looking for a way to get the anolas off his ship.</p>driptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01800295180326776163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740187606181391702.post-72659917551321638132023-02-11T13:24:00.001-05:002023-02-11T13:24:20.509-05:00GURPS Traveller: March Harrier House Rules<p>We're mostly using the rules from GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars for the March Harrier campaign, but some house rules and rulings are inevitable. I'll try to detail them here and update this post as more emerge.</p><p><br /></p><p></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: monospace;"><span style="background-color: white;">Homeworlds:
</span></span></h2><span style="font-family: monospace;">
<br />Each character has a homeworld. This determines citizenship, default Area
<br />Knowledge, and default tech level. If in doubt, pick a high-population
<br />Imperial world within the Spinward Marches sector.
<br />
<br />
<br /></span><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: monospace;">Tech Levels:
</span></h2><span style="font-family: monospace;">
<br />Peak Imperial TL (in GURPS 4E terms) is currently 11, but with some variation in the "safe tech" direction. (Traveller doesn't do a lot of cyber, nano, strong AI, etc.) The March Harrier is a TL 10 ship, and much of the Aramis subsector is also a bit behind the curve. The GM will mostly ignore TL penalties for skills within the "normal Imperial range". Default TL for the campaign is 10, but players can take skills at TL 11 if they're from a high-tech world or previously worked for a high-tech employer like the Imperial Navy.<br />
<br />
<br /></span><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: monospace;">Ship's Locker:
</span></h2><span style="font-family: monospace;">
<br />The March Harrier has a locker full of routine equipment that are needed for merchant starship operations. If you're a crew member with access to the locker, and you need a particular piece of equipment, you can ask the GM if it's there. (If you start looting equipment to sell, then there won't be much there for long.) The GM might just say yes. (Yes, there are emergency vacc suits). The GM might require a Scrounging roll. (There *might* be some shotgun shells around here somewhere.) The GM might just say no. (No, there is no Imperial Marine Battle Dress just sitting around in the ship's locker.)<br />
<br />The intent of this rule is to reduce the amount of micromanagement of PC inventory required. You can still micromanage your special equipment, but you can probably find basic stuff in the locker.
<br />
<br />
<br /></span><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: monospace;">Low Berths:
</span></h2><span style="font-family: monospace;">
<br />Low berth travel being dangerous is an important feature of the Traveller setting, and something GURPS Traveller messed up. (Why would anyone pay way more for uncomfortable middle passage if low passage was completely safe?) A low berth passenger needs to make a HT+6 check when thawed. If they fail, they die. If they barely make it, they may be injured. An attendant with any appropriate medical skill (such as First Aid, Medicine, or Electronics Operation (Medical)) can attempt a skill roll to save the patient or reduce injuries; it's not automatic.
<br />
<br />
<br /></span><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: monospace;">Computers:
</span></h2><span style="font-family: monospace;">
<br />The various rules in GTIW about Imperial computers being single-purpose and non-programmable were only for the First Imperium. Third Imperium computers are fully programmable. Ignore those rules.<br />
<br />
<br /></span><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: monospace;">Jumps:
</span></h2><span style="font-family: monospace;">
<br />The "Deep Space Jumps" rule on GTIW page 171 was for the First Imperium and does not apply. Jumps from empty hexes are fine.
<br />
<br />Jump tapes are not required. They are available, and give a bonus to Navigation (Hyperspace) rolls.<br />
<br />
<br /></span><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: monospace;">Passengers:
</span></h2><span style="font-family: monospace;">
<br />Use the rules from GTIW 179 except
<br />
<br />BTN 6.5 gets 1d-5 passengers per day.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: monospace;">BTN 6 gets 1d-5 passengers per 2 days.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: monospace;">BTN 5.5 or less gets 1d-5 passengers per week.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: monospace;"><br />(Basically, there's a small chance of getting a few passengers even on thinly traveled routes.)<br />
<br /></span></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: monospace;">Mail:
</span></h2><span style="font-family: monospace;">
<br />Carrying Imperial mail requires Imperial registry, 5 tons of secure cargo space, that the ship be armed, and that the crew includes qualified Gunners. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: monospace;">If the ship qualifies, it can see if there is mail available for any </span><span style="font-family: monospace;">world reachable within 16 days (2 fast jumps). Mail is available on 8 or less </span><span style="font-family: monospace;">on 3d6.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: monospace;">Modifiers:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: monospace;">Subsidized merchant on its regular route: +1
<br />Minor trade route: -1
<br />Feeder trade route: -2
<br />Intermediate trade route: -3
<br />Main trade route: -4
<br />Major trade route or Xboat route: -5
<br />
<br />Mail pays a flat KCr 25 for transport to the next destination world (regardless of distance) for up to 5 tons. Mail is due within 16 days. It's allowed to try for multiple worlds, but only up to 2 worlds' mail can actually be taken because of the time limit.
<br />
<br />As with other freight, failure to deliver the mail within 16 days forfeits 10% of the pay per day late.
<br />
<br />
<br /></span></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: monospace;">Provisions:
</span></h2><span style="font-family: monospace;">
<br />GTIW says Cr 6 per person-day. That's correct for middle passengers and crew, but high passengers must be provided high-quality fresh food costing Cr 20 per person-day. Carrying high passengers also requires that at least one crew member have Cooking skill. (Crew may choose to pay the high passenger rate to get better food.)</span><p></p>driptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01800295180326776163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740187606181391702.post-32162303587469596102023-02-11T12:04:00.002-05:002023-02-11T12:04:51.784-05:00March Harrier Operating Expenses<p>Here's is an overview of the expenses of running a 400-displacement-ton Subsidized Merchant starship using the rules in GURPS Traveller Interstellar Wars.</p><p>The single biggest expense is the subsidy payment. In exchange for paying for the starship, the subsidy holder (a trust run by the Duke of Rhylanor) gets 50% of the ship's gross income. Gross income consists of all passenger and freight income before expenses. Note that if the crew decides to speculate on cargo, they have the option of leasing the cargo hold space at standard freight rates (half of which goes to the subsidy holder) and then keeping any profit made. There is however a clause in the subsidy contract that the crew should not monopolize the cargo space for private purposes, so they should only do this with a small amount of the available cargo space, or when there is not other demand. The good thing about the subsidy payment is that since it's a percentage of the gross, it's lower in months where there's not much money coming in.</p><p>The second largest expense is crew salaries. The suggested formula for crew salaries is given on GURPS Traveller Interstellar Wars (GTIW) page 175: Cr 600 + (Cr 900 * Merchant Rank) + (Cr 300 * best job skill), per month. For the March Harrier's current crew of 6, this comes out to Cr 37500 per month, and that could go up if any crew members increase their rank or best job skill. Note that some of the crew are owners of the ship and so might be willing to forego or defer their salaries if the ship operating account is short on funds. Asking non-owners to do the same would be unlikely to go over well.</p><p>A relatively small expense is provisions. Everyone on board the ship needs to eat, with crew meals included as a fringe benefit on top of their salaries, and (middle and high) passenger meals included in the cost of their ticket. (Low passengers are unconscious in their low berths and thus don't need to eat during the trip.) GTIW page 175 says that standard provisions cost Cr 6 per person per day. As a house rule, the cost for high passengers is higher: Cr 20 per person per day, as high passengers demand high-quality fresh food, prepared well. (Gani, the March Harrier's steward, has Cooking skill.) A full ship with 6 crew and 14 middle passengers would cost Cr 120 per day just to feed.</p><p>Fuel is a variable expense. GTIW 175 says that refined fuel costs Cr 350/dton and unrefined fuel costs Cr 80/dton. The March Harrier now has 100 dtons of fuel tanks, so a complete fillup (sufficient for two Jump-1s) would cost KCr 35 refined or KCr 8 unrefined. However, the March Harrier has fuel scoops and a processing plant capable of refining unrefined fuel, so the crew can often avoid paying for fuel, trading time for money. If on a planet with sufficient water and sufficiently permissive local law, they can take water from a lake or ocean. If in a system with a gas giant, they can scoop hydrogen from the gas giant. In both cases, that costs time: from an hour or so to fuel from a nearby water source to days to travel to a gas giant and scoop fuel, plus time to process the fuel. If there's no ocean and no gas giant, then buying fuel is the only option, but buying unrefined and refining it onboard is still a way to save money. The fuel processors table on GTIW page 192 says that a 4-dton TL 10 processor can process 3.2 dtons/hour, so the March Harrier can process a complete load in 32 hours, or enough for a single jump in 16 hours. (It's possible to jump with unrefined fuel, but that leads to increased chances of problems, so is typically only done in emergencies.)</p><p>Using a starport means paying berthing fees and starport administration fees. These are detailed on GTIW page 175. The berthing fee is typically Cr 20/dton (or Cr 8000 for the March Harrier) for the first 6 days then Cr 2/dton (Cr 800 for the March Harrier) per day afterward. The starport administration fee is a flat Cr 500 per landing at all Imperial Starport Authority starports. Both fees are unavoidable, except by landing away from the starport on a lawless planet.</p><p>Carrying freight can involve paying for freight handling. The March Harrier's crew is capable of handling some cargo on their own, but for cargo that requires special equipment or that the crew doesn't have time to deal with, the cost is typically Cr 20 per dton of cargo, with a minimum cost of Cr 500. Some cargo requires special handling, which adds a 50% surcharge.</p><p>The charge for shipping other people's freight is net of taxes, so customs duties on freight don't really affect the crew. However, if the crew ships speculative cargo that they actually own, then they are responsible for any customs duty. Customs duty is variable depending on the world and product, but averages about 4% of declared value. Some crews have been known to smuggle cargo or lie about the value of cargo to avoid such duties, but that's risky.</p><p>The final major cost is the annual starship maintenance overhaul. This only happens once per year rather than every week or month, but smart captains budget for it anyway, as it costs 0.1% of the base price of the ship. For the March Harrier, a MCr 182 ship (as built using the GTIW rules), this is KCr 182. It also means the ship is not making money for two weeks as it undergoes maintenance and the crew takes their vacation.</p>driptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01800295180326776163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740187606181391702.post-48122025418409997082023-02-08T18:22:00.020-05:002023-02-08T18:27:47.258-05:00March Harrier Session 2: Nuclear Missiles and Anolas<h2 style="text-align: left;">Player Characters:</h2><p><b>Everett de Clisson</b> (Adam), Medic and Engineer</p><p><b>Ganidiirsi Ashran</b> (Ben), Steward and Cargomaster</p><p><b>John Matrix</b> (Nick), Broker and Navigator</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">PCs Temporarily Run by the GM:</h2><p><b>Gvoudzon</b>, Vargr Temporary Gunner and Pilot</p><p><b>Dale Conan Wilder</b>, Captain</p><p><b>Randall Dorsainvil</b>, First Officer and Pilot</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><b>Significant NPCs:</b></h2><p>Gyles Honsen, Broker on Natoko</p><p>Ulrich Baseru, Broker on Natoko</p><p>Ghan Siverns, Broker in Patinir</p><p>Gavin Kinnear, Prospector in Patinir</p><p>Homy Righte, Shuttle Pilot in Patinir</p><p>Baraatsa, Farmer and Howood Sculptor on Pysadi</p><p>5 Anolas</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Dates: </h2><p>021-1105 to 075-1105</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Worlds:</h2><p>Natoko/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3209)</p><p>Patinir/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3207)</p><p>Pysadi/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3008)</p><p><br /></p><p>The March Harrier jumped to Natoko with a cargo of machine tools and drive parts for the Tukera starship maintenance facility, but no passengers. They arrived at the port to find a backlog of ships undergoing maintenance having reserved all the outgoing freight and passengers. Their usual broker, Gyles Honsen, told them that it take a month or more to find a significant cargo.</p><p>The next day, another broker, Ulrich Baseru, contacted the crew with a proposal. He needed some supplies carried to Patinir to supply some prospectors. Patinir was a Jump-2 away across deep space and so out of range of the March Harrier's Jump-1 drive, but Baseru said that he had some demountable fuel tanks taking up space in his warehouse, and he would trade them to the March Harrier in exchange for carrying his freight. The crew talked to the captain and did some math and determined that the value of carrying the cargo greatly exceeded the value of the tanks. Baseru eventually agreed to KCr 60 plus the tanks, installed by A Guy He Knew. It took a week to install the tanks, and when Everett and Gani inspected the work they found some of the hoses a bit fragile and liable to be damaged by cargo, so they insisted on having some protection added to make the hoses more robust.</p><p>With the fuel tanks installed and freight loaded, the March Harrier skimmed some fuel from the ocean then jumped for deep space. The captain chose to use a well-known deep space jump point rather than random coordinates, to improve the odds of being found if there was a problem. However, there were no problems, and after spending a few hours pumping fuel from the demountable tanks to the main tanks and calculating another jump course, the March Harrier jumped again to Patinir.</p><p>Patinir Belt featured two main space stations, Achilles and Ajax, at two Trojan points of the large gas giant Helen. Each station had about half a million people, and then there were close to another million people widely dispersed at various small asteroid stations throughout the belt. The March Harrier delivered their cargo to Ghan Siverns at Ajax Station, then started looking for passengers and freight. They hadn't found much when, two days later, Siverns contacted them with a job offer. His supply shuttle carrying cargo to one of the prospectors was late and could not be contacted by radio. He asked the March Harrier to carry a replacement cargo and also look for the missing shuttle. He said the in-system run only paid Cr 1000, but he'd also look for freight and passengers for the March Harrier free of charge.</p><p>On the trip from Ajax to the Belt, the sensor and comms operators found no sign of the missing shuttle. They delivered their cargo to Gavin Kinnear's small prospecting station, and Kinnear indicated that he still hadn't seen or heard from the shuttle. On the way back toward Ajax, the captain detected a faint distress signal. Vectoring toward it, the crew eventually found the shuttle, badly damaged by an apparent missile attack. There were no responses except the automated distress beacon, and a sensor sweep indicated strong radioactivity. The crew decided that the March Harrier should stay at a safe distance and they'd send the launch to the shuttle, with Everett and Gani injecting themselves with anti-radiation drugs before popping in for a quick look. They found one unconscious crewman, Homy Righte. Everett dragged him out while Gani tried to find any evidence in the shuttle's computer of what had happened. He was unable to find anything within a few minutes, and then it was time to get back on the launch and away from the radioactive shuttle.</p><p>As the March Harrier resumed its trip back to Ajax, Everett tried to provide medical care to the unconscious Righte. He awoke briefly and said one word, "Wolblutn," before passing out again. Righte died before the March Harrier reached Ajax, having taken too many rads to survive. The captain radioed the news of the shuttle to both starport control and Siverns. When the March Harrier reached the starport, the Starport Authority Police were there to receive Righte's body and interrogate the crew members. The interrogations went routinely, with it being clear that the March Harrier crews were would-be rescuers not the perpetrators of the nuclear missile attack, and the crew was allowed to go. Siverns had found them a good cargo, 100 tons of raw gemstones for Pysadi. The March Harrier refueled at the nearby gas giant, then made a double jump to Pysadi.</p><p>The captain met with the co-owners of the ship to determine whether to offer Gvoudzon a paid position, now that he'd reached the three-jump limit for working passage. There was some discussion of whether a deep space jump counted and Gvoudzon was already over the limit, but it was moot as they decided to hire him as gunner and co-pilot. Gvoudzon accepted the offer.</p><p>Pysadi was a low-tech world ruled by a local religious dictatorship, the Mother Church. It had a tainted atmosphere requiring a cheap filter mask. Unfiltered, the atmospheric taint resulted in giddiness and loss of coordination and mental control. The crew found some filter masks in the ship's locker and headed out to The Bar, the only bar on the planet, within the Extraterritorial Zone of the starport. There they found crew members of the other three ships currently docked at the small port: a Tukera freighter, the Vargr trader Thuksirra, and the Vargr trader Ghututh-Aeg. The Tukera crew didn't feel like talking. The captain of the Thuksirra told Gvoudzon that he was buying preserved groat meat for shipment back to the Vargr Extents, and gave the crew a lead to a groat farmer, Jakub Bell. The purser of the Ghututh-Aeg said that he was delivering decorative inlays from Violante for a church, but was headed out carrying candied fruits back to the Extents. He also noted that he'd heard that Pysadi's howood was currently popular, but unfortunately the Tukera ship had bought up all available stocks and he could not get any.</p><p>Gani ventured into the city of Sadi, adjacent to the starport, to try to get a permit for his grav belt. The clerk had never heard of grav belts and needed to check with a supervisor. When he came back the next day, he found that grav belts were not permitted. Looking into howood, the crew found that none was available in Sadi, but it might be possible to harvest some near the town of Itzeny, about 1000 kilometers away. They would have to take a train there, as flying the March Harrier or its launch anywhere except the standard approach route to the starport was not allowed. Howood was a very dense tree with its wood almost as hard as metal, so gathering it was usually done using explosives to blow the dense trees to bits, then gathering the bits.</p><p>The junior crew got visas and train tickets and headed for Itzeny, while the captain and first officer stayed behind to look for freight and passengers. At Itzeny, the crew found an elderly woman selling various arts and crafts, including some sculpted from howood. After Gani bought a couple of pieces, she divulged that the howood was carved by her nephew, a farmer named Baraatsa, who lived nearby. She gave them directions to his farm. After spending a night in town and getting permits for explosives and renting an animal-drawn wagon, the crew headed for Baraatsa's farm. The farmer was friendly and gave them directions to a nearby howood grove, asking that they scatter the seed pods and bring him back a few pieces for carving.</p><p>The crew took their wagons toward a hilly, wooded area where howood could be found. Gvoudzon took off his filter mask to briefly sniff for howood, but didn't find any. Gani, however, managed to sniff some howood despite having a less sensitive human nose. The group headed toward the grove, then spent a long time trying to find a path wide enough for the wagon to get near the trees. They then placed some explosives and managed to knock down a tree without killing themselves. Emboldened by success, they then continued breaking cracks in the tree with Gani's (illegal on Pysadi but not detected) morph-axe and inserting explosives in the cracks and breaking up the wood into smaller and smaller chunks.</p><p>While they were harvesting the howood, the crew noticed a small monkey-like creature watching. When there hadn't been an explosion for a while, the monkey approached the begged for food. When this worked, four more monkeys appeared. The display of cute begging was rudely interrupted by a panther-sized carnivore that pounced on Gvoudzon, ripping a large chunk out of his side. Fortunately for Gvoudzon, Gani had his axe handy and whacked the carnivore, badly wounding it. It fled, slowly because of its wounds, but Gani followed up with a second attack and killed it. Everett performed first aid on Gvoudzon, and then the rest of the crew continued loading howood into the wagon. They also took the dead carnivore. Gvoudzon was too injured to work much so he played with the monkeys.</p><p>The group headed back to Baraatsa's farm with the howood, the dead carnivore, and the monkeys. Baraatsa initially greeted them warmly, then his expression changed and he told them to get off his land. The crew assumed that killing the carnivore, even in self-defense, was some kind of offense, and decided to hide the evidence. They left some howood chunks on Baraatsa's porch and headed back to town. On the way, they saw a kid on a fast riding beast giving them a wide berth and reaching town in front of them.</p><p>The crew went back to the local church to get their visa back to the starport. The church official was initially friendly, but once the whole group was inside his office, several more church officials appeared, some brandishing revolvers. They herded the group into a detention cell, mentioning an affront against the Mother Church. Apparently the monkeys were called anolas and they were holy animals and not to be touched except by designated priests. Surprisingly, the anolas were left in the cell with the group. The priest indicated that he would be contacting the local high priest to deal with the problem, and the crew spent a night in the cell. They tried reaching the March Harrier on their communcators, but did not have any radios powerful enough to reach it on a primitive world with no datanet or cell towers to assist.</p><p>The next morning, the high priest appeared and indicated that the local elders had made their decision. Because the group were offworld heathens and had no idea what they were doing and had not actually harmed the anolas, most of them would merely be exiled from Pysadi and not allowed back. Gvoudzon, however, as the one who the anolas seemed to like the most, clearly had been chosen by Mother Pysadi's holy family and would be joining the church to serve as a caretaker priest. Gvoudzon didn't like this idea, but did not appear to have any choice in the matter. Gani slipped Gvoudzon a small homing beacon, hoping this would help the others find him if he was moved. The rest of the crew then boarded the train back to Sadi, which already had their howood on board.</p><p>When they reached the starport, the crew contacted the captain and told him of Gvoudzon's fate. The captain wrestled with the decision between breaking local law and letting one of his crew members be kidnapped, and decided to allow a rescue mission. They would launch the March Harrier into orbit normally, then he would stay on the ship while the rest of the crew took the launch and attempted to find and recover Gvoudzon. First Officer Randall piloted the launch, while the rest of the crew loaded up their (totally illegal on Pysadi) weapons and armor. They swooped down over Itzeny at night. The group attempted to contact Gvoudzon over short-range communicator, and he answered; the church hadn't bothered to confiscate his phone. He said that he was still in the same cell, with the anolas and an primer on the Mother Church. His cell had a window, though it had very thick multi-pane glass to keep out the tainted atmosphere.</p><p>The rescue tactic was straightforward: figure out which window Gvoudzon was behind, land the launch as close as possible, break the window, grab Gvoudzon, and get out. Randal landed the launch quickly and everyone piled out. Gani broke the window cleanly with his morph axe. Gvoudzon dove out, cutting himself on the sharp glass. Someone handed Gvoudzon a filter mask, and everyone ran for the launch. The anolas followed Gvoudzon and were taken along. A salvor appeared, saw the launch, and ran for help, but the launch door was closing before the priests found a gun and got a shot off, and they didn't seem to have anything large enough to affect the launch. Randall flew the launch back to the March Harrier, which jumped out of the system.</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">GM Commentary:</h2><div>This was a whirlwind session, as the group covered three worlds in just over three hours. I didn't really expect to get to Pysadi in this session so didn't have any maps prepared, but winging it seemed to work. There were a few high-danger spots: the carnivore attack against the mostly unarmed crew, using high explosives at default skill levels, and the rescue mission in the launch. The crew rolled well in all three cases and succeeded at their missions. Now they have some demountable fuel tanks and a family of anolas, but they are probably never going to be welcome on Pysadi again.</div>driptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01800295180326776163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740187606181391702.post-91082503246239381872023-02-02T22:36:00.002-05:002023-02-05T20:11:53.171-05:00March Harrier Session 1: Vacation on Aramis Rudely Interrupted<h2 style="text-align: left;">Player Characters:</h2><p><b>Everett de Clisson </b>(Adam), Medic and Engineer</p><p><b>Ganidiirsi Ashran</b> (Ben), Steward and Cargomaster</p><p><b>John Matrix</b> (Nick), Broker and Navigator</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">PCs Temporarily Run by the GM:</h2><p><b>Gvoudzon</b>, Vargr Temporary Shuttle Pilot and former Liaison</p><p><b>Dale Conan Wilder</b>, Captain</p><p><b>Randall Dorsainvil</b>, First Officer and Pilot</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Significant NPCs:</h2><p><b>Leonard Bolden-Tukera</b>, Marquis of Aramis</p><p><b>Roet Bannerji</b>, Captain of the Wolblutn</p><p><b>Jelika Chan</b>, Chief Engineer of the Mammoth</p><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><b>Dates</b>: </h2><div>001-1105 to 014-1105</div><div><br /></div><h2 style="text-align: left;"><b>World</b>:</h2><div>Aramis/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3110)</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>The Subsidized Merchant March Harrier landed on Aramis for its annual maintenance and the crew's two-week vacation. The captain and first officer stayed with the ship to supervise the work, while the rest of the crew went off to spend two weeks exploring and having fun. Or as much fun as they could have on a desert hellworld with a corrosive atmosphere.</div><div><br /></div><div>Aramis only had one real city, Leedor, which had been built in the remains of some played-out mines, as the active mining extended out to the south and east. Leedor had grown to 600000 people, almost the entire population of the planet. Everett, Gani, and John set out to explore Leedor. The paid the air tax for their two-week visit, then took a slidewalk toward the Marquis' Palace to hear his Holiday speech. One the way, they spotted a wallet on the ground. Inside were some credits, a vacation itinerary, and a Traveller's Aid Society card belonging to a Captain Roet Bannerji of the Wolblutn. They decided to head over to the local TAS building to return the wallet. The TAS clerk looked up Captain Bannerji and confirmed that the Wolblutn was at the starport, but the Fourth Officer who answered the call said that the captain was currently unavailable. The crew made an appointment to meet Bannerji later to return the wallet.</div><div><br /></div><div>They then checked into a hotel, and resumed their trip to see the Marquis' speech. Sadly, the speech was boring, with the Marquis just spouting political platitudes. Afterward, they tried visiting Escanil Park, but it was swarmed with families. They moved on to a bar, and tried drinking and interacting with the locals. While Gani was getting shot down by a woman, all the video screens changed from music channels to breaking news. A freighter in orbit around Aramis was out of control and expected to crash into the planet. The news developed: the freighter wasn't going to hit Leedor, the crew had escaped in their pinnace, and there was no way to intercept the ship before it crashed. It later turned out that the freighter was the Mammoth, run by Akerut Lines, and the blame was pinned on its chief engineer, Jelika Chan.</div><div><br /></div><div>After the excitement died down, the crew headed to the Wolblutn to return Captain Bannerji's wallet. He thanked them for returning it, returned the cash as a reward, and invited them to dinner later at the TAS. When they later arrived for dinner, the manager informed them that Captain Bannerji had been called away by an emergency, but that he had paid for their meal. They cheerfully ate and drank on his tab.</div><div><br /></div><div>Their next tourist excursion was a visit to watch large-scale ore mining. Unfortunately the mines available for tours were mostly played out, and the truly active mines were off limits to the public for safety reasons. Another day, the crew visited Cavern Park, the other large park in Leedor. Someone bought a portable disco flasher, designed for viewing the reflections off the minerals in the walls, and a fashionable sequined shirt. They also managed to get into Escanil Park, and saw that it had lots of life not native to Aramis, like grass and trees and animals. It was not entirely certain which animals were real and which were simulated.</div><div><br /></div><div>They tried to visit the Museum of Aramis, but it was completely swarmed by school tour groups, and they weren't able to get a reservation until the day before their scheduled departure. Out of interesting options in the tourist guidebook, they hit upon the idea of touring the Navy or Scout base. The Navy base was a no-go for security, but a call to their ex-Scout First Officer was enough to pull some strings and arrange a tour of the Scout base. This far from the border, it was mostly dedicated to Express Boat mail service rather than exploration. They did get a tour of a well used Scout/Courier and got to experience its rudimentary air circulation systems firsthand. No Xboats were available to tour, since they were not suitable for atmospheric landing, and so were kept in space aboard their tender ships.</div><div><br /></div><div>Two days before their departure, the crew finally got into the Museum of Aramis, which had some excellent exhibits on scientific subjects, paired with some rather crude propaganda on social topics. There was also a 500-year-old Scout ship that had originally surveyed the planet, but they unfortunately weren't allowed inside the historical relic. On their way out, they heard an altercation between a Vargr and the museum's manager. The Vargr claimed that the museum had stolen a brooch that belonged to him, while the manager insisted that it had been procured legally, and had a couple of security guards subdue the Vargr with stun batons and shove him out the door. A tall man who had been hanging out in the gift shop followed the Vargr. Everett decided to follow the Vargr as well, in case he needed first aid. However, the Vargr, recovering from stun, noticed the crowd following him and broke into a sprint, easily outpacing the Humans on his tail.</div><div><br /></div><div>Later that day, while heading back to the hotel, the crew heard the sounds of a fight in an alleyway. They stepped off the slidewalk to investigate and saw the same Vargr, menaced by two knife-wielding thugs. The thugs appeared to not like the odds and fled. The Vargr passed out. Everett provided first aid for a knife wound, and then the group decided to take the Vargr back to their hotel room where Everett had his larger medical bag.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Vargr woke up, thanked the group for their assistance, and introduced himself as Gvoudzon. He said that he had run out of money and pawned his brooch, and had seven days to reclaim it. He got his first paycheck from his job flying a shuttle from the downport to the highport for Naasirka, returned to the pawnshop to reclaim the brooch, and was told it was gone. The pawnbroker claimed that he had held the brooch long enough to sell it, which Gvoudzon disputed. Gvoudzon got the pawnbroker to identify the buyer as the Museum of Aramis, then went to the museum to confront the manager. The thugs had later caught up with Gvoudzon, looking for the brooch, which he did not have. Gvoudzon admitted that he had taken the brooch from the Kforuzeng, a Vargr corsair group for whom he used to work, as an unofficial severance bonus. He knew the brooches were used to carry messages, but had no idea that the Kforuzeng had the ability to follow him a full subsector into Imperial space, or cared enough about the brooch to do so.</div><div><br /></div><div>Gvoudzon asked the crew about their ship and whether their captain was hiring, since he wasn't keen to stay on Aramis if knife-wielding thugs were after him. They forwarded the request to their captain, who said that he'd be willing to hire Gvoudzon provisionally on a working passage.</div><div><br /></div><div>Gvoudzon also mentioned that he still really wanted his brooch back, and asked the group if any of them would be willing to help him get it. His plan was to break into the museum during local "night" (as an underground city, there were no real day or night cycles, but there was a six-hour period each day when most people slept and most businesses were closed), find the brooch, and then leave. Not much of a plan. The crew did some computer research and found a floor plan and some information on exhibit intake, which gave them a few ideas where the brooch might be.</div><div><br /></div><div>The night before their departure, Gvoudzon and the crew went to the museum and found the loading dock. None of them knew much about alarm systems or picking locks, but Everett was mechanically inclined enough to try taking the lock apart, and managed to do so without setting off any obvious alarms. The workshop was right next to the loading dock, and the crew managed to find the brooch before their intrusion was detected. They fled out the door as they heard the night watchman approaching.</div><div><br /></div><div>Gvoudzon mentioned the need to avoid being followed to the ship, and suggested maybe getting a co-worker at Naasirka to leave him in orbit. The crew suggested instead buying a spacer's chest with a false bottom and then smuggling Gvoudzon into the cargo hold. Gvoudzon handed over the credits he had accumulated to buy the brooch back, and the others used them to buy a chest, some hardware to construct the false bottom, and a lot of cheap booze. They dumped out enough of the booze to roughly match Gvoudzon's weight, and then had Gvoudzon's remaining credits ready to bribe any customs officials suspicious about the booze. Fortunately for them, security was lax that day, and they managed to smuggle Gvoudzon in without any bribery. (They didn't bother to tell him that, and split the bribe money evenly.)</div><div><br /></div><div>The Captain had managed to find a 200-displacement-ton cargo of starship parts bound for Natoko, but no passengers. He decided that was good enough, so they jumped for Natoko.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><h2 style="text-align: left;">GM Commentary:</h2><div>The first session was mostly a tourist trip, with only a few moments of excitement: the crash of the Mammoth on the news, Gvoudzon's two altercations, and helping Gvoudzon steal his brooch back from the museum. The crew really didn't have any appropriate criminal skills, but were quite lucky and managed to avoid setting off a burglar alarm. They were also lucky that the brooch was in the workshop rather than the vault.</div>driptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01800295180326776163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740187606181391702.post-42615973387516013832023-01-22T14:45:00.003-05:002023-01-22T14:54:23.706-05:00GURPS Traveller: March Harrier Character Generation<h1 style="text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;">More details on character generation</span></h1><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Starting PCs are based on 150 points, with a -30 point disadvantage limit and a -5 point quirk limit. All negative attributes count against the disad limit. (For example, if you take IQ +2 with Per -2 and Will -2 for a net cost of [20], you've used -20 points of disads buying down Per and Will.)</li><li>Sense of Duty (crewmates) [-5] is optional and doesn't count against the disad limit. (If you take a larger Sense of Duty that includes this one, then -5 points of it don't count against the limit but the rest of the cost does.) Yes, this is a bribe from the GM to encourage team play.</li><li>Partial, subsidized, strings-attached ownership of the March Harrier is a "free" campaign feature; you don't have to pay points for Wealth or Ship Patron or Ship Owner. Each PC can choose whether to be an owner and crew member, a non-owner crew member, or a non-crew member. Owners must have at least Merchant Rank 1, and the Captain and First Officer should be owners.</li><li>The Captain needs to take Merchant Rank 3 [15]. (This gives some free Status.)</li><li>The First Officer needs to take Merchant Rank 2 [10]. (This gives some free Status.)</li><li>Other Officers need to take Merchant Rank 2 [10] (Second Officer), Merchant Rank 1 [5] (for a Third Officer or Fourth Officer who's an owner) or Courtesy Merchant Rank 1 [1] (for a non-owner Fourth Officer).</li><li>The maximum starting attribute is 15.</li><li>The maximum starting skill is 16.</li><li>All PCs should use one of the occupational templates from GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars. (If you don't have the book, they're also in GCS.) Some particularly useful templates are Starship Commander, Starship Bridge Officer, Starship Engineer, Starship Deckhand, Doctor, and Marine. Additional points beyond the template cost can be spent on any attributes from any GURPS Traveller occupational template. Some deviation from the template is fine; ask the GM.</li><li>A March-class subsidized merchant nominally has a crew of five. (Pilot, Navigator, Engineer, Medic, and Steward.) If we have exactly five players and everyone wants a different mandatory role then we have a full crew. If we have fewer players or someone doesn't want to fill one of those roles, then the crew may need to be filled out with NPCs. Note that crew members need to be paid, fed, and supplied with stateroom space and oxygen, so the bigger the crew, the harder it is to make a profit. (PCs, especially owners, may choose to not take their salary if times are tough. NPCs will probably insist on being paid.)</li><li>Imperial regulations require that the March Harrier have a Captain with a Master's License, a First Officer with a Mate's License, a Chief Engineer with a Chief Engineer's License, and a medic who is a Certified Medical Technician. See GCS for these licenses (from GT Far Trader) ported to 4E rules. Steward is the one crew role with no explicit requirements -- it would be nice if the Steward had Savoir-Faire (Servant or Merchant) and Cooking and Spacer and First Aid and a positive reaction modifier, but it's not strictly required that Stewards be good at their job.</li><li>In order to be allowed to carry Imperial Mail, the March Harrier is required to have two members of the crew who are qualified gunners: Gunner (Beam Laser) at 12 or higher.</li><li>Most PCs should be human Imperial citizens. If you really want to play an alien or non-Imperial, talk to the GM. There may be an Unusual Background in some cases.</li><li>If desired, one PC may be a pre-generated plot-hook non-crewmember who will be met during the first game session. This character's backstory and basic capabilities are fixed, but minor tweaks are okay with GM approval.</li><li>There are other pre-generated characters available, if you don't feel like making a PC or don't have time. Talk to the GM about what crew role you want to fill and the GM will give you a rough idea of the pre-generated character that fills that role. If you accept a pre-generated character, you're allowed to tweak it to your liking, subject to the usual rules.</li><li>If you don't want a pregen but you're having problems making a character on your own, ask the GM and other players for help.</li><li>Starting wealth is KCr 50 or $50000. Because PCs are itinerant spacers whose home is their spaceship, all of it may be spent. Owners should consider holding some money in reserve for starship expenses.</li><li>Equipment is limited to what is widely available in the Aramis Trace: GTL 10. The GM has a GCS file containing Traveller-suitable equipment. (Basically the Safe-Tech rules from Ultra-Tech, so out-of-genre stuff like swarmbots and cyberware is not allowed.) The ship's locker will contain some common equipment.</li><li>The game starts on Aramis/Aramis/Spinward Marches on 001-1105. The ship is on Aramis for two weeks to receive its annual maintenance, which has already been paid for. The crew gets two weeks of (mostly) vacation on Aramis. (At least some crew members should probably do some ship's business during that time, like trying to find cargo and passengers for when the ship is ready.)</li><li>You need to submit your GCS character sheet to the GM for approval. It's up to you whether you want to share your character sheet with the other players, or keep it private and just share a summary of what everyone knows about your character with everyone.</li></ul><p></p>driptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01800295180326776163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740187606181391702.post-46839138615829388962023-01-19T14:00:00.001-05:002023-01-19T14:00:21.234-05:00Worlds of the Aramis TraceYour subsidy route is the Aramis Trace, a group of 8 worlds reachable via Jump-1 in the Aramis, Rhylanor, and Sabine subsectors of the Spinward Marches and Deneb sectors. The worlds have mostly good to excellent starports, but small populations.<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3iWh1wajHp8s-G1NpDkiG_0L2wQLTyK4ngNzpeuUv-NH_0RMD-4mCnICUs1FuzcQNt-E11EJdnVvyn2ZYyXfuWrI18LRty8cQAmTS35wd_6OLuHb6f5JoY2_BHvTvvE7S_Ncic6MR6U8Hs6joMcs_ahMNwzQyXSb955zCogZ7-QHvG_wtubIneiOT1Q/s2114/aramis_trace.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2114" data-original-width="1713" height="539" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3iWh1wajHp8s-G1NpDkiG_0L2wQLTyK4ngNzpeuUv-NH_0RMD-4mCnICUs1FuzcQNt-E11EJdnVvyn2ZYyXfuWrI18LRty8cQAmTS35wd_6OLuHb6f5JoY2_BHvTvvE7S_Ncic6MR6U8Hs6joMcs_ahMNwzQyXSb955zCogZ7-QHvG_wtubIneiOT1Q/w464-h539/aramis_trace.png" width="464" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>Here are some brief highlights of each world.</div><div><br /></div><div>Aramis is the capital of the Aramis Subsector. It's located on the Xboat route from Rhylanor to Vland, so while it is not a very populous world, its starport is quite busy. Aramis High is the best port in the subsector. The planet itself is a hellworld, with a corrosive atmosphere that requires special equipment to survive. The vast majority of the planet's population lives in one underground city, Leedor, adjacent to Aramis Downport. Leedor has a population of about 600000 people, and is a fief of the Marquis of Aramis. Leedor was originally a mining settlement, and there are still active mines on the edge of town, while played-out mines are reused for habitation.</div><div><br /></div><div>L'eoul d'Dieu (LDD) is a water world. The planet is effectively owned by the megacorporation Sharurshid, which harvests seafood and other aquatic resources. Sharurshid currently does not allow additional settlement, to protect the marine environment, so the population has been kept to about 500000. The Imperial Navy base is on a nearby moon.</div><div><br /></div><div>Natoko is another corporate world, dominated by Tukera Lines, the largest shipping megacorporation in the Imperium. Tukera uses the world to overhaul its starships, and does not allow non-employees to live there. The population is about 800 Tukera and starport employees plus some personnel at the Imperial Navy base. It's unclear why Tukera has chosen to leave a garden world so empty.</div><div><br /></div><div>Reacher has an exotic atmosphere, and its major industry is extraction of organic resources. In recent years, trade of these resources has declined, and the population of Reacher has blamed offworlders. The Travellers Aid Society has posted Reacher an Amber Zone, as it can be dangerous for offworlders to leave the starport.</div><div><br /></div><div>Vinorian is a mostly-water world with a tainted atmosphere requiring filter masks to survive. It is dominated by Dirkstrom Industries. The population is about 4 million, the highest in the Aramis Trace.</div><div><br /></div><div>Nutema is a hot planet whose atmosphere is tainted by a horrible smell. The planet is home to about 9000 inhabitants spread across the planet in small family groups, who mostly only interact electronically. There is a small Imperial Navy base in orbit.</div><div><br /></div><div>Margesi has an excellent starport, Navy and Scout bases, and a tiny native population of 300. The tainted atmosphere poisons food, making the world unsuitable for agriculture. The main industry is entertaining off-duty Navy, Scout, and Starport personnel at a recreation center just outside the downport.</div><div><br /></div><div>Saarinen is the location of Imperial Research Station Epsilon, centered on underwater planetological studies. In addition to active research, there is a training center for underwater science and exploration. There are no population centers outside the starport and Research Station.</div>driptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01800295180326776163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740187606181391702.post-78098742487759564642023-01-18T12:44:00.000-05:002023-01-18T12:44:28.421-05:00March Harrier Subsidy Contract<p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: monospace;">Starship Ownership and Subsidy Agreement</span></p><span style="font-family: monospace;">between
<br />
<br />Aramis Trace Commercial Development Trust, LIC ("the Trust")
<br />March Harrier Lines, LIC ("MHL")
<br />Individual Principals of March Harrier Lines, LIC
<br />(names TODO)
<br />
<br />295-1099, Rhylanor/Rhylanor</span><div><span style="font-family: monospace;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: monospace;">The Aramis Trace comprises the following worlds:</span><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: monospace;"> Aramis subsector: Aramis, L'eoul d'Dieu, Natoko, and Reacher
</span></li><li><span style="font-family: monospace;"> Rhylanor subsector: Vinorian, Nutema, and Margesi
</span></li><li><span style="font-family: monospace;"> Sabine subsector: Saarinen
</span></li></ul><span style="font-family: monospace;">
<br />The Aramis Trace worlds not currently connected by Imperial Interstellar
<br />Scout Service Express Boat Routes are Reacher, Vinorian, Nutema, Margesi,
<br />and Saarinen.
<br />
<br />It is in the interests of the Worlds of the Aramis Trace, the Subsector of
<br />Rhylanor, the Domain of Deneb, and the Imperium to ensure that all of the worlds of the Aramis Trace are regularly connected by reliable starship service allowing for delivery of freight, passengers, and mail.
<br />
<br />Due to the currently small populations of some worlds of the Aramis Trace, there is currently a scarcity of commercial traffic between some of these worlds at some times. The Trust believes this scarcity is likely to continue.
<br />
<br />MHL is interested in conducting commercial passenger and freight operations in the Aramis Trace and would benefit from doing so without sole responsibility for the cost of a starship.
<br />
<br />The Duke of Rhylanor has authorized the Trust to purchase a 400-displacement-ton Type R Subsidized Merchant starship (Imperial registry A90FD58D578C, referred to as "March Harrier") at a cost of not more than MCr 185) for delivery as soon as possible but no later than 001-1100.
<br />
<br />Ownership of March Harrier shall be shared 50/50 between March Harrier Enterprises and Aramis Trace Development Trust, within the limits of this agreement, for 30 years. After 30 years, March Harrier Enterprises shall assume full ownership of the March Harrier and this subsidy agreement will be voided, unless both parties agree to an extension.
<br />
<br />March Harrier Enterprises shall name the captain and crew of the March Harrier. At least two of the above named principals of March Harrier Enterprises shall remain part of the crew at all times, unless an emergency prevents this or The Trust agrees to a change.
<br />
<br />The March Harrier shall be crewed (at a minimum) by a Captain with a Master's License, a First Officer with a Mate's License, a Chief Engineer with a Chief Engineer's License, and a Certified Medical Technician. All qualifications must remain current and in good standing.
<br />
<br />Because Imperial Mail regulations require that starships carrying mail be armed for self-defense, the Trust will ensure that the March Harrier is armed with at least two turrets, each with at least two operational beam lasers. MHL will ensure that the crew contains at least two persons qualified to operate such armament at any time the March Harrier is carrying mail, and that said armament is properly maintained and
<br />operational.
<br />
<br />Because Imperial Mail regulations require 5 displacement tons of secure cargo space for starships carrying mail, the Trust will equip March Harrier with a certified mail locker, and the crew will be trained in its secure operation and will follow all Imperial Mail regulations to ensure the security of the mail. (In particular, except in emergencies, the mail locker will only be opened when both an officer of the March Harrier and an authorized agent of Imperial Mail are present.)
<br />
<br />MHL agrees to conduct regular commercial freight and passenger service between the worlds of the Aramis Trace at least 70% of the time. The remaining 30% of the time can be spent persuing any legal business anywhere within the Imperium. (The ship shall not leave the Imperium without explicit permission from the Trust.)
<br />
<br />At all times, 50% of the gross revenues generated by the March Harrier will be paid to the Trust. MHL receives the other 50%. MHL is responsible for all expenses. The Trust has banking services at every starport within the Aramis Trace, and on other major worlds throughout the Domain. Payment must be made within one month of the time revenue was received.
<br />
<br />MHL agrees to keep accurate records of all commercial transactions by March Harrier and to submit said records for audit annually, or immediately on demand.
<br />
<br />MHL and the Captain of the March Harrier shall have freedom to decide routes, passengers, and freight, except that any Imperial Mail enroute to the desired destination shall have first call on the ship's freight capacity. Furthermore, during the 70% of the time that it is following the subsidy route, MHL agrees to support a diversity of freight and passenger traffic, rather than allowing the ship's resources to be monopolized by charters, private cargo speculation, or shipping to a
<br />single corporation, to the extent that other passengers and freight are available. (Nothing in this agreement shall prevent the crew of the March Harrier from using any passenger or cargo space for any legal purpose when there is not other demand, as long as the crew pays 50% of the retail cost of the space to the Trust.)
<br />
<br />MHL agrees to visit and attempt to conduct commerce on every world in the Aramis Trace at least once per six months spent following the subsidy route. An exception will be made if a world is Interdicted.
<br />
<br />MHL agrees to maintain the March Harrier in accordance with Imperial best practices for commercial starships, including an annual overhaul. MHL agrees to have major maintenance and repair work done within the Aramis Trace, to the extent practicable, and to forward annual maintenance reports to the Trust.
<br />
<br />In the event that this contract is violated by MHL or any principal of MHL is convicted of an Imperial felony, the Trust reserves the right to end this subsidy contract and assume possession of the March Harrier.
<br />
<br />
<br />Sir Amin Brogers
<br />Director, Aramis Trace Development Trust, LIC
<br />for
<br />Leonard Stephanos Kirgashii, Duke of Rhylanor
<br />
<br />[electronic signatures attached]<br /></span></div>driptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01800295180326776163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740187606181391702.post-69710086702538910382023-01-01T18:01:00.001-05:002023-01-16T22:24:51.068-05:00GURPS Traveller: March Harrier Campaign Intro<h2 style="text-align: left;">High-level description:</h2><p>This is a GURPS 4th Edition campaign, in the Traveller setting, set in the Aramis subsector of the Spinward Marches sector in the year 1105 of the Third Imperium.</p><p>The PCs are the crew of the March Harrier, a 400-ton Subsidized Merchant starship. It theoretically requires a crew of 5, and has 13 staterooms (so 8 left for passengers), 13 low berths, and a 200-displacement-ton cargo hold.</p><p>The background of the campaign is making a living as star merchants: trying to find enough passengers and fixed-rate freight to carry from world to world to make a profit. And possibly also looking for speculative cargo or other money-making opportunities.</p><p>Of course some less routine events might happen, leading to Adventures.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Player-facing information:</h2><p>It's a science fiction game, with starships and laser rifles. The Traveller setting is what GURPS Ultra-Tech calls "safe-tech", which means it feels like 1970s SF, not newer SF. Not a lot of cybernetics or nanobots. Think Firefly.</p><p>An important feature of Traveller is that there is faster-than-light travel, but it takes at least a week to travel to a nearby star, and there is no faster-than-light radio. So news travels relatively slowly and interstellar governments are somewhat limited.</p><p>The PCs are ordinary (though skilled) humans. Starting point values will be fairly low, advancement will be slow, and there will be caps on both attributes and skill levels.</p><p>Because the frame of the campaign is interstellar trading, at least a couple of players should be interested in that. Other players might just want to play starship crew who don't deal much with the business end, and that's fine.</p><p>One major difference between a starship crew and many groups of PCs is that a starship has one or more owners and exactly one captain. So the players need to decide who owns the ship. The default setup will be that 4 starting PCs will each own an equal share of the ship.</p><p>Once ownership of the ship is determined, the owner(s) need to pick a captain and first mate from among qualified members of the crew. Other important roles also need to be filled: pilot, navigator, sensor operator, communications operator, engineers, mechanics, gunners, steward, medic, cargomaster, launch pilot, ATV driver. That is more roles than PCs, so most PCs will have multiple jobs. (And of course there should be backups for every critical role, just in case something bad happens.) If there aren't enough PCs to fully crew the ship, the players can ask the GM to supply NPCs to round out the crew, or they can try to hire NPC crew members in play.</p><p>There will be combat in this game, but probably not every session.</p><p>There will be character advancement in this game, but it will be slow. Your PC will not become dramatically more powerful.</p><p>There is an opportunity for one player to play a pre-generated character with a backstory important to the plot. This character does not start the adventure as a member of the March Harrier's crew, but will meet them during the first game session.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Should I try to play in this game?</h2><p>Do I need to be a GURPS expert to play? No, I want to keep this pretty rules-light, and most of GURPS is "roll under your attribute or skill on 3d6." There will be pre-generated PCs available for those who don't feel like making one, or you can have the GM or another player help you make one.</p><p>Do I need to know Traveller to play? No. I will try to explain enough of the background as we go.</p><p>What if I'm a Traveller veteran. Should I play? I'd prefer not to have players who've already read or played this exact adventure. Other than that, Traveller experience is welcome but not required.</p><p>What rules do I need to own? The free GURPS Lite PDF will get you most of the way there. Almost all the skills will be in the GURPS 4E Basic Set. I will use stuff from GURPS Traveller Interstellar Wars, the 3E GURPS Traveller line (converted to 4E as needed), GURPS Ultra-Tech, GURPS Starships, and random Traveller books, but players don't need to know all that.</p><p>This will be a Rule Zero game. Players need to be willing to abide by GM rulings rather than arguing.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">How about dates and times?</h2><p>I'd like to play once a week, on Monday nights, from 8 p.m. to midnight US Eastern time. My goal is to play every week that a majority of players are available. So if we have 5 players and 1 or 2 can't play that week, we play anyway. I'd like to end each week with the PCs on the ship in a safe location, so that if someone can't make it one week, it's easy to just leave their PC on the ship rather than having to run them as an NPC.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">What about software?</h2><p>I want characters in GCS format; you can find GCS at <a href="https://gurpscharactersheet.com">https://gurpscharactersheet.com</a>. It's free and portable and excellent. You need at least version 5.0. I already added the Traveller templates that we need to the GCS master library.</p><p><a href="https://travellermap.com">https://travellermap.com </a> is a handy map of the Traveller universe. (Search for "Aramis" to see where this campaign starts.)</p><p>The game will be run using FoundryVTT, but it's web-based so players don't need anything beyond a computer and web browser.</p><p>I plan to use Discord to coordinate things between game sessions, and for voice during play.</p><p>There will be Google Sheets for tracking money and points.</p><p>I'll do session recaps to this blog.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Character generation details:</h2><div>(This is just a high-level summary; I will give more details to the players later.)</div><p>Starting PCs will be based on 150 points, with a -30 point disadvantage limit (including negative attribute costs as disads), and -5 points of quirks.</p><p>A -5 point Sense of Duty to crewmates is optional and doesn't count against the disad limit.</p><p>Partial, subsidized, strings-attached ownership of the March Harrier is a "free" campaign feature; you don't have to pay points for Wealth or Ship Patron or Ship Owner.</p><p>The Captain needs to take Merchant Rank 3 [15].</p><p>The First Officer needs to take Merchant Rank 2 [10].</p><p>Other Officers need to take Merchant Rank 2 [10], Merchant Rank 1 [5] or Courtesy Merchant Rank 1 [1].</p><p>The maximum starting attribute is 15.</p><p>The maximum starting skill is 16.</p><p>All PCs should use one of the occupational templates from GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars. (If you don't have the book, they're also in GCS.) Some particularly useful templates are Starship Commander, Starship Bridge Officer, Starship Engineer, Starship Deckhand, Doctor, and Marine.</p><p>A March-class subsidized merchant nominally has a crew of five. (Pilot, Navigator, Engineer, Medic, and Steward.) If we have exactly five players and everyone wants a different mandatory role then we have a full crew. If we have fewer players or someone doesn't want to fill one of those roles, then the crew may be filled out with NPCs. Note that crew members need to be paid, fed, and supplied with stateroom space and oxygen, so the bigger the crew, the harder it is to make a profit.</p><p>Most PCs should be human Imperial citizens. If you really want to play an alien or non-Imperial, talk to the GM.</p><p>If desired, one PC may be a pre-generated non-crewmember who will be met during the first game session.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">How are you picking players?</h2><div>I will start by asking people I've enjoyed playing with in the past if they want to play. Then, if there are slots left, I will advertise them on the Internet. Once we have a full crew I will put anyone else who wants to play on a waiting list, and contact them if someone drops out.</div><div><br /></div><h2 style="text-align: left;">When does this campaign start?</h2><div>Once I manage to find 5 players, I'll try to schedule a Session Zero within a couple of weeks, and then regular weekly sessions after that.</div><div><br /></div><h2 style="text-align: left;">How long will this campaign last?</h2><div><br /></div><div>I really don't know, but my best guess is about a year.</div>driptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01800295180326776163noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740187606181391702.post-60403053864192130042022-02-24T23:09:00.005-05:002022-02-24T23:13:46.346-05:00GURPS Star Trek One-Shot: Who Tracks the Steps of Glory<p>Ran another oneshot from J.C. Connors' excellent <a href="https://1shotadventures.com">1shotadventures.com</a> : the Star Trek adventure Who Tracks the Steps of Glory. If you might want to play that adventure you should probably stop reading after this paragraph to avoid spoilers. The PCs were four senior officers of the crew of the Miranda-class cruiser USS Renown, investigating a space anomoly near the Romulan Neutral Zone. We used GURPS 4E and GURPS Prime Directive for the rules, Foundry with Nose and Nick's Unofficial GURPS System for the virtual tabletop and maps and dice, Jitsi for video and voice, and GCS for character sheets that were imported into Foundry.</p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Player Characters:</b></p><p><b>Captain Andrew Seong</b> (Kalzazz), Captain of the USS Renown</p><p><b>Commander Kirshex</b> (djt), Edosian First Officer and Science Officer</p><p><b>Dr. Michael Westinghouse</b> (Demented Avenger), Chief Medical Officer</p><p><b>Lt. Bexley Gracen</b> (Kocrachon), Acting Chief Engineer</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Significant NPCs:</b></p><p><b>Lt. Ethreti Zhress</b>, Andorian Head of Security</p><p><b>Admiral (Retired) Carl Gonzalez</b>, Passenger</p><p><b>Sub-commander S'anra</b>, Romulan commander of secret base</p><p><b>Centurion Tr'mas</b>, Romulan second in command of secret base</p><p><b>Commander Vharien</b>, Romulan commander of hidden comet fleet</p><p><br /></p><p>The adventure started with Captain Andrew Seong reading a Captain's Log handout that summarized the recent situation, which was a great touch that I highly recommend for any Star Trek RPG. The Renown had discovered a rare boson micro-nebula just on the Federation side of the Neutral Zone, and was going closer to investigate. Safely scanning from outside the nebula revealed a small dormant spaceship inside the nebula, so the crew reconfigured their shields and dared to get closer. The Renown took some damage, but the crew managed to map the nebula and recover a derelict Tholian ship that had been lost in the nebula almost a century before, with its pilot unfortunately dead.</p><p>While investigating the nebula, the Renown received an unencrypted distress signal, indicating that a secret Romulan base inside the Neutral Zone was in distress, with a complete life support failure. After a quick discussion the captain decided to crank the Renown up to Warp 8, risking more damage, to get to the Romulan base and render assistance as quickly as possible.</p><p>As they neared the base, sensors revealed that the Romulan base had a landing pad and a building at ground level and probably more underneath, though they failed to scan well enough to tell. (Electronics Operation (Sensors) was definitely the most used skill in this adventure.) They tried hailing the Romulans, but got no response. So they beamed down most of the senior bridge crew, leaving Kirshex behind to command the ship.</p><p>The building contained a turbolift, and the turbolift contained four hostile Romulans, who opened disruptor fire on the PCs. The captain attempted diplomacy, which failed, and then a phasers vs. disruptors battle ensued, with Doctor Westinghouse taking cover and preparing to help anyone injured. Fortunately for the PCs, they were better at shooting and dodging than the Romulans. Fortunately for the Romulans, the Federation phasers were set to stun. After all four Romulans were stunned they were tied up and then transported to the Renown's brig.</p><p>The PCs entered the turbolift and went down to the lower level, where they saw more Romulans, these ones not hostile. They eventually met the Romulan leader, who said that the base's life support system was destroyed, the environment suits were running out of air, and they could really use rescue. The captain ordered the remaining 30-some Romulans to be beamed up and kept in Transporter Bay 2. The PCs stayed behind to investigate the base for a while, and found radioactive europium isotopes in the life support system and a phased-magnesium actuator trap in one room. Much evidence of sabotage. Eventually they headed back up to the ship.</p><p>And not a moment too soon, as sensors indicated that the base was about to explode. Kirshex ordered shields rear full and to fly away from the base as quickly as possible in the ship's damaged condition. The explosion caused a bit more damage, but nothing fatal.</p><p>At that point, the PCs had about 30 untrusted Romulan guests on board their somewhat damaged starship. They wanted to find a nice neutral world to drop the Romulans on, while getting out of the Neutral Zone as quickly as possible. At that point they detected an encrypted transmission: some Romulan ships were coming to investigate the distress signal.</p><p>S'anra, the Romulan leader, asked to have dinner with the senior officers. While they were trying to figure out each other's motives, the captain got an alert that the second-in-command, Tr'mas, who the captain had agreed to move from the transporter bay to a passenger cabin, had apparently stabbed a Federation security officer and escaped. Dr. Westinghouse ran to sickbay and successfully performed life-saving surgery, while Lt. Zhress led a team of redshirts to find and stun Tr'mas. When he awoke, Tr'mas said that he had been attacked by a rabidly anti-Romulan crewman and had merely defended himself, but nobody believed him. He was thrown into the brig near the other four aggressive Romulans.</p><p>Realizing that their damaged ship probably could not outrun or outfight the approaching Romulans, the PCs decided to parley. They would put S'anra on the communicator to explain that the Renown and rescued the Romulans from their base, and then they would transfer all the Romulans, including the ones in the brig, to the Romulan ships. This offer was good enough for the Romulan Commander Vharien. Dr. Westinghouse knocked out Tr'mas and the other four aggressive Romulan prisoners, and then all the Romulans were put in a shuttlecraft, with one redshirt pilot. The shuttlecraft was let through the Renown's shields before the approaching Romulan Stargliders were in weapon range, and then the Renown put its shields back up. The Romulan leader was true to his word: he beamed all the Romulans off the shuttlecraft, leaving the shuttle and its pilot unharmed, and then the Romulans departed back to their side of the Neutral Zone. The Renown was able to limp home without a final battle.</p><p>Overall, it was a successful mission. The Renown explored the nebula, recovered an old Thorian ship, rescued a few dozen Romulans from whatever happened to their base, and managed to hand them back to their side without a climactic space battle.</p><p><b>What Went Well:</b></p><p>The GM and players had fun. The PCs were interesting. It was a good adventure. Most nerds like Star Trek. Foundry mostly worked. Jitsi mostly worked. We had two GURPS veterans and two GURPS newcomers, but "pick the skill you want to try and click on it in Foundry to roll against it" is pretty easy so we avoided rules problems. Even with a few minutes lost to technical issues, we finished in about three hours, half an hour less than our time limit.</p><p><b>What Didn't Go Well:</b></p><p>We lost a few minutes to audio problems as one player couldn't hear the others in Jitsi. (The fix was to switch browsers to Chrome.) The GM had the idea of having a few standby PCs so that anyone not involved in the current scene could run a redshirt instead, which was a good idea in theory, but in practice swapping tokens around is a bit of a pain, and shared ownership of a token leads to token vision issues and general confusion. I wanted to use this one-shot as a test drive of some high-tech GURPS rules and Foundry before I start a GURPS Traveller campaign, but we ran it very rules-light and the players managed to avoid the final starship battle with diplomacy, so it wasn't much of a test.</p><p><b>What's Next:</b></p><p>I'm going to boldly continue prepping the March Harrier Traveller campaign that I've been thinking about for a year and actually start running it sometime soonish. One-shots are fun, but I think a longer campaign is even better.</p>driptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01800295180326776163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740187606181391702.post-53195764832497601692021-06-18T19:15:00.000-04:002021-06-18T19:15:11.995-04:00Roll20 vs. FoundryVTT for GURPS<p>After using Roll20 for the 2-year DF Whiterock campaign, and using Foundry to run J.C. Connors' Hogwarts oneshot for two groups, I think I've got enough data to decide which to use for my next campaign. To avoid burying the lede, I'll tell you that I prefer Foundry.</p><p>From the player's point of view, both VTTs are web-based, so if you have a computer and a supported web browser, you can play. This is great compared to VTTs that require that every player install client software on their computer, because not all players are computer experts.</p><p>One difference is maturity. Roll20 has been around for several years and is pretty entrenched as a popular VTT. Foundry just hit the one-year anniversary of its release, so it's not brand new anymore, but it's not as mature. In particular, right now we're in the middle of a transition between the 0.7.x and 0.8.x versions of Foundry, where the newer versions have more cool features but not all modules have been ported to the new versions yet. So, basically, if you're already using Roll20 and you're happy with it, switching will cause you work. Both products have marketplaces where you can buy things like tokens, but Roll20's is more mature and has more stuff. Roll20 has a larger community of players who know it.</p><p>Another difference is the cost and payment model. Roll20 is "freemium": it's free for basic use, but you have to pay for some features, like dynamic lighting and API access and more storage space. If you pay, it's a subscription model (about $5/month for "Plus" and $10/month for "Pro", with a 15% discount if you pay for a whole year at once), so you'll have to keep paying periodically if you keep using it. Foundry isn't free at all: you have to pay $50 for a license. But once you have it, it's yours forever and you don't have to keep paying. So which is cheaper is going to depend on what features you need and how long you want to use it. If you're happy with the free version of Roll20, or can't afford a Foundry license, then free is good. On the other hand, if you need any of the features that require paying in Roll20, and use it for more than a few months, Foundry's one-time cost is going to be cheaper than a Roll20 subscription. Note that both VTTs are free for players: if the GM pays the cost, then any players hosted in the GM's games don't have to pay again.</p><p>Roll20 is Software As A Service: your games are hosted on Roll20's servers. This has both advantages (there's less computer stuff for the GM to set up) and disadvantages (if their servers are busy hosting too many other games, your performance will suffer). Foundry, on the other hand, is downloadable. The GM has options: they can run it on their own computer, or they can go rent a server somewhere in the cloud and run it there, or they can use a service called Forge that's specifically aimed at hosting Foundry.</p><p>The ability to run your own server is nice, as you have complete control, but it also means you need to manage some things for yourself, which perhaps requires more computer skills than some GMs have, or takes time that the GM would rather spend elsewhere. I chose to run Foundry on my Linux desktop, behind a home router, for minimal setup. I had to setup port forwarding on my router for my players to be able to connect from outside my network. And then I chose to setup a DNS name so I could tell my players "connect to hostname:port" instead of "connect to IP address:port". I also had to setup accounts and passwords on my Foundry instance for all my players, a minor annoyance. (Warning: Foundry's passwords are currently not stored in a cryptographically secure manner, so you want to be extra careful not to share them with anything else. I recommend that the GM pick long random passwords for every player and put them in a password manager, then the players put their own password in their own password managers.) For me, the big advantage of self-hosting is that, because I already automatically backup my desktop every night, I get nightly backups of my Foundry game. If I mess something up, I can revert to a previous backup. This gives great confidence to try things, knowing that no matter how horribly I mess things up, I can only lose one day's work. So if I ever decide to move my Foundry instance off my desktop to a dedicated server somewhere, I'll make sure to do daily backups of that server too.</p><p>Another difference is the wealth of add-on modules available. (Here, I use "module" to mean "code library" not "RPG adventure".) Roll20 has been around for a long time, so it has developed support for a lot of game systems, but the JavaScript API support (which requires a Pro subscription to use) is somewhat limited. Foundry has, in my opinion, a much better API, so there are already a ton of modules available, some of which do pretty impressive things. General advice is start with the basics and not go crazy installing dozens of modules at first. When I ran DF Whiterock in Roll20, I used one module to improve combat order tracking, and it was great. For the Hogwarts adventure I ran in Foundry, I used a few modules: Dice So Nice for pretty animated dice, Actually Private Rolls so players can't see when the GM makes private rolls (as knowing that they rolled, even if you don't see the result, leaks information), PDFoundry for integrated access to my GURPS PDFs from inside Foundry, with hotlinking from the character sheets to rules references, and Turn Marker to put a marker under the active token in combat. Plus Nose and Nick's unofficial GURPS system, which includes character sheets, importing characters from GCS or GCA, clickable skills and attributes on sheets, and a bunch of other stuff. When I used Roll20, there were several GURPS character sheets available but I didn't feel like any of them were amazing, so we didn't really use them heavily, mostly using paper or PDF character sheets instead. (One player did use a Roll20 sheet.)</p><p>The time setting up the VTT can be dwarfed by the time setting up an adventure, though. It really comes down to how much the GM wants to show on screen. If you want to run a game mostly "theater of the mind" and not use maps or virtual character sheets, then you don't really need a VTT at all: any chat client with a dice rolling plugin will do. If you do want maps, then the amount of prep time required is directly proportional to how many maps you want and how pretty you want to make them. I don't have any artistic ability, so I scrounge the Internet for maps and tokens, using free ones if available, or buying battle maps or token packs I like from artists. If you can't make your own maps and tokens, it ends up being a lot easier to run a fantasy game than other genres, because so many of the maps and tokens out there are aimed at that genre. DF Whiterock was based on the published Castle Whiterock adventure, which came with black and white maps, so I ended up digitally ripping the maps out of the PDF adventure with the pdfimages tool, then using the GIMP image editor to trace the maps to create background images, then pulling the background images into Roll20 to make base maps, then doing my dungeon dressing by finding tokens for furniture, rubble, doors, etc. and placing them on top of the background maps, and then manually adding lines to show where walls blocked line of sight. This was a lot of work.</p><p>Doing maps in Foundry is pretty similar to doing them in Roll20. You create a "scene" which is just like a Roll20 map, then you pick a background image, then you can add "tiles" which are background images that sit on top of the map (like furniture) and "tokens" which represent actors (like PCs, NPCs, or monsters). And then you paint walls for your map to block line of sight, and add light sources. One advantage that Foundry has over Roll20 is that doors are specifically supported. In Roll20 I spent a lot of prep time placing door tokens with line of sight blockers under them, and then a lot of game time manually swinging the door token to the side and removing the line of sight blocker when a player opened the door. In Foundry, when you're placing walls you can designate part of the wall as a door (or a secret door, or a window, or a one-way door) and then players can interact with it: click to open or close. (Unless it's locked, in which case trying to open it makes a noise, and the players know their PCs need to unlock the door in-game, at which point the GM can click it to unlock it, and then the players can interact with it as a normal door.) The killer feature I'd really like is auto-walling, where the computer interprets the art and figures out where to put line-of-sight-blocking walls and doors. I believe that's doable for simple maps and really hard for complex maps. Of course, if you buy your maps from an artist that fully supports your VTT, they can create the walls for you.</p><p>Doing tokens in Foundry is also pretty similar to doing tokens in Roll20. Foundry does a few things better. For one, tokens come with a facing arrow, so if you play a game where facing matters and use tokens whose facing is not obvious, you don't have to manually add facing indicators to your token art. For another, Foundry has the distinction between "prototype tokens" and "tokens". Basically, the prototype token is the mold from which all tokens for a particular actor are forged, while the token is one instance of a token on-screen. For a singleton character like a PC or a named important NPC, this is a distinction without a difference, so you can click a checkbox to say "link actor data" and establish a 1:1 correspondence between the token and the actor, so that for example if you remove some hit points from the token in scene 1, those hit points will still be lost for the token for the same actor in scene 2. But for an actor like "generic spear-orc" where you might have 50 different instances of the token across different maps, you can drag as many of the token as you like onto the screen, and each will have independent stats based on the prototype. Wounding one does not harm the others. In both VTTs, tokens can have vision and lighting.</p><p>"Fog of War" is another feature of most VTTs. The players can only see roughly what their PC should be able to see. Roll20 supports a basic version of Fog of War by default, where the GM manually uncovers parts of the map. Then it supports Dynamic Lighting as a Pro feature, where the GM spends a lot of time adding line of sight blockers, and players can see what their token can see, based on lighting and vision and line of sight. Foundry inverts this: dynamic lighting is the default, but there is a module available that supports manually cleared Fog of War for GMs who prefer that. There are also options for whether previously uncovered parts of the map should remain uncovered simulating the PCs remembering what was there, or should go dark again, forcing the players to remember (or map!)</p><p>One complaint I had about Roll20 is that it wasn't great for large maps: if you made the map too many pixels, you got warning popups about performance, and used up more of your limited storage quota on their server, and your players with slower computers might notice decreased performance. This disappointed me because when I wanted a huge map for the Immense Cavern level, I had to break it up into multiple maps, which was more work for me and less seamless for the players as we needed to do manual map moves whenever their tokens crossed a map boundary. It also meant that long-range battles didn't happen much. Unfortunately, the Hogwarts adventure didn't feature any huge maps (the biggest one I made was about 100 yards by 55 yards and worked great), so I haven't actually stress-tested Foundry there. (I mean to do so at some point in the future; feel free to remind me if I forget.)</p><p>In Summary:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Roll20 is cheaper if you only need the free stuff. Foundry is cheaper if you want advanced stuff.</li><li>Roll20 is more mature. So it has more players, more art packs, more D&D adventures, etc.</li><li>Foundry is more flexible in terms of hosting. Roll20 is simpler because there's only one way.</li><li>Foundry supports doors.</li><li>Foundry has better APIs for add-on modules, and thus more cool and useful modules.</li><li>Foundry has better GURPS character sheets.</li><li>I like Foundry better and plan to keep using it for future games.</li></ul><p></p>driptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01800295180326776163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740187606181391702.post-70924311617520063702021-06-17T01:38:00.000-04:002021-06-17T01:38:48.842-04:00Warlock's Tunnel, FoundryVTT, and GURPS<p>I ran J.C. Connors' Hogwarts adventure <a href="https://1shotadventures.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Warlocks-Tunnel-GURPS.pdf">The Warlock's Tunnel</a> for two different groups recently. Using <a href="https://foundryvtt.com/">Foundry Virtual Tabletop</a>, <a href="http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/">GURPS</a>, and <a href="https://github.com/crnormand/gurps">Nose and Nick's unofficial GURPS module for Foundry</a>. Here's a review of all of the above.</p><p>First, the adventure. Without spoilers, in case you might want to play it. It's set at Hogwarts in 1987, a few years before the first Harry Potter book. A Hufflepuff prefect is missing, and the PCs should want to investigate. (But will they? You never know with players.) The adventure is for 4 150-point second-year student wizards. It comes with 7 pregenerated PCs, so the players can basically pick whichever 4 out of 7 they like, and go. Though it should still play fine, just a bit easier or harder, if you have 5 or 3 players. The pregenerated PCs are interesting, with various personalities, backstories, spells, skills, and Houses. One of them has a pet Niffler. One is an American who's recently moved to the UK and transferred to Hogwarts. One is a prankster. One is way too good a student. Etc. Very fun characters.</p><p>As an introductory GURPS adventure, it only needs the GURPS 4E Basic Set and GURPS Magic. The various GURPS spells used have been given Harry Potter-ish names, and a few new spells are included in the adventure. As an introductory GURPS adventure, it's a pretty good choice, as most people already know the Harry Potter background, so you don't have to explain too much backstory. And you can mostly avoid getting too bogged down in rules, just "roll 3d6 and try to roll under this attribute or skill" can cover most things. GURPS has a reputation for complexity, but the main rule to avoid problems is to not use all of it. Just use what you need. In this case, that's a few basic rules and a few spells. And the characters are already made for you, which is the hardest part. I don't want to go to deep into reviewing the adventure, because I don't want to spoil it, but it's your basic investigation / adventure story. The adventure says you can play it in a couple of hours; both of my groups took about 4 hours, but everything is a bit slower over the Internet. Overall, I think it's a good adventure, but suffers a bit from the "we're stuck so let's ask a professor for help" problem that's endemic to the Harry Potter universe. If the PCs have any sense, once they realize their out of their depth they'll run to Professor McGonagall or Professor Dumbledore for backup. If you're a real-life 12-year-old and you find out that horrible crimes are happening, yes, you should totally get an adult to deal with it. But if you're the hero in a Harry Potter book, letting the adults solve your problems is no fun. So the GM has to come up with reasons for the PCs not to do it that way.</p><p>(As an aside, J.C. Connors has a bunch of other free oneshot adventures available at <a href="https://1shotadventures.com/adventure-index/">1shotadventures.com</a>. They are surprisingly professionally put together for free adventures. Most of them are for GURPS, but some also have versions for other systems like D&D or Call of Cthulhu available. A couple are solo adventures in case you don't have a gaming group handy. Check them out.)</p><p>How does GURPS work for Harry Potter? Pretty well, I think. GURPS has a bunch of magic systems, but the most basic one, used here, is spells-as-skills. Each of the kid wizards has a dozen or so spells, not too overwhelming, and then a dozen or so other skills. If you want to cast a spell, you roll 3d6 and try to roll less than or equal to your spell skill. If you want to use another skill, same thing. If you want to try a skill you don't have on your sheet, you're free to try, but defaults are usually around IQ-5 or DX-5, so your odds of success are not great. Of course the GM can apply modifiers ("You want to try to use your Animal Handling [Nifflers] on an animal that's nothing at all like a Niffler? Fine, roll at -4."), but that's most of it.</p><p>How does FoundryVTT work? Well, there are a bunch of intro videos on YouTube. But basically it's a virtual tabletop, like Roll20 or MapTools or Fantasy Grounds or Owlbear Rodeo or... The good thing is that this adventure comes with tokens for the PCs and some major NPCs, so you don't have to make them. And it also comes with a bunch of picture handouts, which Foundry lets the GM show to the players. The bad thing is that it only comes with one map, so if you want maps, the GM has some work to do. I've run a lot of GURPS in Roll20, and a bit in MapTools, and so far, after only running one adventure in Foundry, I like Foundry better than either. Once you load up Nose and Nick's unofficial GURPS module, you have GURPS character sheets, including import from character generation tools like GCS or GCA. You can click on a skill or attribute on your character sheet to roll against it. Foundry supports maps with hexes, not just squares. It supports token facing, with a built-in facing arrow so you don't have to add one to your tokens. And token vision, lighting, etc. are built-in. As are a bunch of token status modifiers for GURPS, like Stunned, Prone, Nauseated, Shocked, Kneeling, etc.</p><p>The first group I ran the adventure for were experienced RPG players who hadn't tried GURPS before. They all grasped "click on the skill to roll against it" immediately, and that's as much GURPS as they needed to learn. We used Jitsi for voice and video with that group, and it worked great. The second group were mostly GURPS veterans who hadn't tried Foundry before. We used Discord for voice, no video, and it also worked great.</p><p>Minor issues: tokens don't have vision by default. You need to click "token vision" to let them see, which is annoying. I forgot to assign one PC token vision, so that player had problems seeing things until I fixed that. Then I only fixed it on one copy of their token, not on their "prototype token" that would be used forevermore, so the problem came back when the players moved to another map. Eventually I got it fixed right. Also, setting up lighting for each token can be a bit of work, so for the maps that were dark, I just turned on map-wide global illumination once a couple of PCs cast <i>Continual Light</i> spells, to make things simpler. (I would not do that in a more hardcore dungeon crawling game, but this is a light fluffy oneshot about young student wizards, so not annoying the players too much with limited light radius seemed like the right call.)</p><p>As far as Foundry modules go, Nose and Nick's GURPS support for Foundry is under rapid development, but already really solid. It doesn't support quite as much automation as some of the Foundry D&D modules do, because GURPS doesn't have a free System Reference Doc with rules that you are explicitly allowed to use like D&D does, and Nose and Nick want to keep Steve Jackson Games from getting mad at them for automating too much, but it supports the basics like "click on a number on the sheet to roll 3d6 and try to roll under that number" and "click on a weapon's damage to roll that much damage." And that's most of what you need. (If you want to add tables that they have deliberately left out to respect copyrights, like the critical hit table or reaction table, it's not that hard: Foundry makes it easy to add rollable tables.) Other modules we used include PDFoundry (PDF viewer built into Foundry, so you can click on a rules reference on your character sheet and bring up that page of the rules, if you own that rulebook in PDF form), Dice So Nice (animated dice flying all over your screen), and Turn Marker (put an animated marker under the token whose turn it is in combat so the player hopefully notices and goes before you have to remind them).</p><p>Overall, I enjoyed this adventure and will probably run it again in the future. It's a good simple short demonstration of GURPS. I was also pretty happy with my first experience using Foundry to run an RPG. Thanks to the authors of everything we used.</p><p>Next up: I'd like to run another J.C. Connors oneshot, <i>Who Tracks the Steps of Glory</i>, because it's Star Trek and I haven't run a Sci-Fi game in a while, so I need practice with stuff like high-tech ranged combat and starships. After that, I want to run a GURPS Traveller campaign.</p>driptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01800295180326776163noreply@blogger.com0