Adventures in Resource Discovery

This is an addendum to the previous post on the Class-E starport. I'm looking outside of my usual lane of politics-influenced adventures for more pulp-style endeavors.

Everyone who's played CT knows about Animal Encounters, right? And as a component of this, from TTB, page 96 we find “In addition to animals, the referee may include one or more events in his encounter tables.” And “An event's purpose is to add interest, atmosphere and perhaps a bit of danger to the adventurers' travels.”

The party of adventurers have set up their Class E starport as the base point for a new colony. They venture out to explore the wilderness around the base camp. What do they find? The Referee should prep an animal encounter table. That table should include Event encounters.

What kinds of events should there be? Well, there has to be a reason that the PCs parked their ship where they did. A new planet has plenty of room to select from, so why that particular spot?

Actual Play report - Random Encounter

 Best thing to come out of the game today:

The PCs have a license for salvaging on a restricted planet. The Navy uses the world for exercises, and there’s a lot of military material laying about. Vehicles, munitions and other recoverable goods dot the surface.

During their explorations, I rolled for a Random Encounter, and got a Religious Group. Okay, why not? I never said the PCs were the only ones on the planet.  The group was travelling in ground vehicles, marked with the symbol of their religion.

I asked the player with the highest Education to tell us who this group was.

Everyone else jumped in with their ideas, so in the end what we got was:

 The Adepts of the Machine

This fringe cult group’s beliefs focus on the spiritual dimension of starships. Ships must be built by hand, with proper ceremonies, to avoid offending the space gods. Ships assembled at shipyards by unbelievers do harm to the fabric of space, and the gods punish the spacers by causing misjumps and drive failures.  Also, the Whisperers are the servants of the space gods, haunting the unbelievers.  

The Adepts build spacecraft by hand; they were on the salvage planet looking for materials with which to build, or like the PCs, good they can sell to buy components.

The PCs decided to not interact with the Adepts, and flew on.

This game is so much fun.

Image Credit: Pixabay

A general Encounter Table for Sword of Cepheus

A Discord discussion of Sword of Cepheus that I took part in brought up the question of encounters.  I mentioned that I'd done up a simple table for some random encounters, and people asked about it. So I'm sharing it here.

I present to you an array of characters that adventurers may come upon in Sword of Cepheus. Gamers familiar with Classic Traveller will recognize this table, and many of the encounters listed. 

This encounter did not go well for our hero.

SoC does not give any standard encounter distances. If outdoors & daytime, the two parties might be a few hundred meters apart at first. The Referee might say they look to be "about one bow shot away" (or 2-3). In the city the range might be down to spear-throwing distances. At night, or in an indoor/underground situation they will be much closer.  Indoors an encounter will likely happen at close enough range for the two sides to speak to one another. Combat in SoC is fairly abstracted, so exact measurement is not required. Besides, how many people can accurately gauge distances outdoors by sight?  Can you?  I'm not good at it. 

The Surprise rule (SoC, p. 54) should affect the initial range. It's hard to be surprised by someone you saw coming from half a mile.

Entries which read Monsters are any non-human (or PC race) creatures chosen from the SoC Monster section, guided by the habitat notes in the monster descriptions. Use the Number Appearing listed in the monster description. Wild animals are specifically non-fantastical or magical creatures that may still pose a threat. 

Session Recap - gaming on the fly

 Several of the usual players were unable to make it to the session last evening, so I focused on the two who were there. Graham Clark and his sidekick known as C-418 are working for a Count on Holtzmann. We covered three weeks of in-game time. Most was routine work for the Count (in his vehicle fleet) In their free time they did some shopping and a little Trade & Speculation. They netted a profit, but not much adventure. 

Image unrelated, but still cool. I'm sure that creature exists somewhere in my TU.

As I was anticipating concluding an adventure begun the week before with the full group, I had nothing prepared ahead of time. What to do?  The answer is right there in The Traveller Book. I checked on Legal Encounters, Random Encounters and Rumors. All three of these give the Referee tools to generate adventures.

Encounters in the Corridor

I present here a customized Random Encounters Table for Holtzmann's Corridor, where most of the play in my TU happens. The standard table from TTB works well, but why not have one that more reflects a particular subsector?

Die Roll	Encounter	Number	Notes
11	Peasants	4D	-2
12	Laborers	4D	-1
13	Shantymen	3D	-2
14	Thugs	2D	L
15	Local Authorities	1D	L
16	Churchmen	1D+2	L
21	Rioting Mob	5D
22	Imperial Noble w/retinue	2D	LGAV +2
23	Police Patrol	1D	LAG
24	Pilgrims	4D	-1
25	Company Agents	1D	L
26	Corporate Security	2D	L
31	Beggars	3D	-3
32	Imperial Merchant crew	1D	+1 V
33	Imperial Marines	3D	LGVA +2
34	Tourists	2D	V
35	Local Soldiers	3D	LGA
36	Missionaries	2D	LV
41	Researchers	2D	+1
42	Students	3D
43	Unemployed spacers	1D	+1
44	ICO criminals	2D	LG
45	Rebels	2D	LG
46	Revelers	4D
51	Prospecters	2D	V
52	Fugitives	1D	L
53	Fugitives (Imperial)	2D
54	Imperial Adventurers	1D	LGV +1
55	Local Noble w/retinue	1D	LGV
56	Celebrity	1D	LV +1
61	Free Trader crew	2D
62	Salvagers	3D	LV
63	Press Gang	3D	LGA
64	Petty Thieves	1D
65	LTP Merchant crew	2D	L +1
66	Anti-Imperial Protesters	5D

Explanations:

• Imperials are from the Talaveran Empire, not the 3I
• Shantymen are drifters & tramps who congregate around starports
• Local Authorities are government officials, not law enforcement
• Churchmen are clergy rather than missionaries
• Pilgrims can be of any religion
• Company Agents are businessmen or spies
• ICOs are Interplanetary Criminal Organizations
• Revelers are loudly celebrating something (sporting event, holiday, etc.)
• Fugitives are wanted by either a local government, the Empire or an ICO
• A Celebrity will have reporters around them
• LTP Lycosky Trade Protectorate is the Empire’s main rival
• A= some or all are wearing armor
• G= some or all have guns
• L= a leader (with skill) is present
• V= the group has a vehicle, local tech & LL appropriate
• +/- N group is equipped to local tech level adjusted by N

 

The next project is a Starship Encounter table for the Corridor!

 

What kind of Encounters will Travellers have in your game?  Share your ideas in the comments.