Experiment 6: SWADE Boarding Actions

"And there ain't no party like a boarding party, 'cause a boarding party don't stop." - Archer 1999

Brass Jester mentioned using modified SWADE Chases for combat in his solo games, and then while I was re-reading 5150 Fringe Space for my retrospective review I remembered the generic spaceship layout it has. What would happen, I wondered, if I put those two ideas together?

Concepts

We can use the SWADE Chase rules on the 5150 Fringe Space spaceship layout as a way to resolve boarding actions. As ships are quite small, these are Foot Chases.

5150 Fringe Space: Spaceship Layout

Replacing the areas in that layout with cards is the first step, but if you replace them with index cards and write the chase cards on them, it gives you more room for figures and means you only need one deck of cards (for initiative) rather than two.

Also, index cards make the layout roughly the right scale size if you retain 1" as 6 feet; my rules of thumb are to give Traveller ships a mass ten times their displacement and look up the Size from that on the Size Table (SWADE p. 179), which is a good fit to published deck plans, or to add 11 to a 5150 ship's Hull and use that as the Size, which feels about right.

• 3" x 5" cards = 120' long, Size 13. Traveller scoutship.
• 4" x 6" cards = 144' long, Size 14. Traveller free trader; 5150 pirate, slaver or trader.
• 5" x 8" cards = 196' long, Size 15. Traveller subsidised merchant or patrol cruiser; 5150 cutter.
• 6" x 9" cards = 216' long, Size 16. Traveller mercenary cruiser; 5150 light freighter.
• A4 or US Letter = 264' long, Size 17. Traveller ship up to 1600 tons; 5150 heavy freighter.

The City Streets customisation is fitting - ships have cramped quarters with a lot of obstacles and cover.

As an added flourish, the chase card can indicate Encounters, with a face or ace card meaning you meet something interesting as you advance; perhaps spades are more enemies, for example, diamonds valuable cargo, and hearts passengers.

The Port Authority prepare to remonstrate with an uncooperative free trader crew. Their backup loiters nearby on a playing card to show the space advantage of index cards. Figures: eM-4.

You could also use map tiles instead of index cards (I'd probably use the ones from Xeno Dead Zone by Runehammer Games) or divide an actual deck plan into suitable zones.

Lessons Learned from Tryouts

I played through a number of boarding actions using this approach in extreme slow motion, checking all the options and modifiers, taking copious notes, to see how well this actually worked; I learned the following:

• Using the Chase rules this way gives you something that feels a lot like Classic Traveller range band combat.
• The reduced options for tactical manoeuvre make it easy to decide what NPCs should do without referring to an AI; I found this the main benefit.
• Neither side can Flee, as they can't gain enough separation. Boarding actions last until one side surrenders or is incapacitated.
• Combatants are usually too close for Range modifiers for firearms to come into play; modifiers from Evade manoeuvres (which replace Cover), Suppressive Fire, Support, and Tests are more important. Most Shooting rolls are made at -4 or more, so most of them miss; I found hits on Innocent Bystanders more common than striking the intended targets.
• Figures are occasionally Bumped off the map and out of the ship; this makes sense if there is an open hatch, say, but not so much if there is a solid bulkhead in the way.

Coda

Overall, I found this method to be no faster than normal combat, although the cognitive load on the GM is lower as it's easier to remember the modifiers involved (there are fewer of them) and easier to decide what NPCs should do (they have fewer options). So I can see myself using this in future, not just for boarding actions but for a broad range of combat situations. Thanks to Brass Jester for the idea!

Aslan Route 30: The Church of the Mycorrhizal Brotherhood

All fungi are edible.
Some fungi are only edible once.
- Terry Pratchett

Umemii, 1107 Week 42

C521877-7 Na Po

Dr Matauranga has been conducting genetic research on the relatively isolated human population of this vargr world, but he has now completed it. He and his samples are welcomed back aboard.

Cordan, 1107 Weeks 44-46

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It’s about time for the ship’s annual overhaul, so the Macavity stops over at Cordan to attend to that, and Mazun checks in with Kenneth Prasad and requests a bodyguard be assigned to him; Prasad says he’ll see what he can do. Vila keeps a keen eye on the ship.

This is the point at which the news that the Fifth Frontier War has broken out reaches them; the usual  Outworld Coalition – Zhodani, Sword Worlds, assorted Vargr states – has invaded the Spinward Marches. It seems like something not very important to them, happening a long way off. Prasad cautions them to expect a reduced Imperial presence in the Reach as assets are relocated to support the war effort, and therefore an increase in piracy; and to stay away from Imperial space for a while in case the Macavity is commandeered as a fleet auxiliary to haul supplies.

Exe, 1107 Week 48

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While refuelling at Exe, the crew are contacted by Laro Smith, who has been directed to them by the highly corrupt station staff who know them – and their interest in wealth – of old. Smith explains that there is a mushroom on Inurin called Sarna, which he believes can be made into a highly profitable recreational pharmaceutical; but his previous attempt at stealing the secret of the fungal caves from the priests resulted in him fleeing the planet, pursued by a torch-wielding mob. The Inurini now consider him to be the Prince of Lies and he cannot return to the planet. He wants Our Heroes to sneak into the fungal caves, learn the origin of Sarna, and if possible bring out some samples. He offers a share in any profits, and naturally wants to come along to protect his interests. He cannot be seen on-world, but can stay in the ship and offer advice by commlink.

Troisei is dubious about this at first, especially the Prince of Lies part, but Mazun talks her round, saying that religions do some weird stuff, and priests are not all there as a rule.

Inurin, 1107 Week 50

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Given the local tech level, and the fact that Smith has been here before, the Macavity has no trouble in penetrating Inurin airspace undetected and landing in the remote hills where the Church of the Mycorrhizal Brotherhood has its group of villages and – Smith believes – perhaps a hundred thousand suspicious adherents. While they are mostly independent, they do find it more efficient to import shotguns and ammunition than make their own, and by trading those for agricultural produce Smith was able to gain access to a village. He knows that the fungi are grown in caves by a priesthood; only the priests are allowed inside, not the general populace. Priests are generally, but not always, accompanied by what he thinks of as bodyguards – muscular fellows who the peasants give a wide berth. On feast days, the peasants consume the mushrooms, and see things and do things they don’t normally see or do; this gave him the idea to sell the fungi as recreational drugs. Alas, he doesn’t know when the feast days are, and he will admit that in hindsight, bopping a priest on the head and stealing his robes was not the best idea he’s ever had.

After discussing a number of possible options, the team use the ship’s sensors to scan the cave system, discovering a rear entrance and the general layout. They manage to sneak up to the entrance undetected, then go spelunking into the caves below. Once safely inside, Mazun hands out filter masks and gives orders to put them on; this precaution will prove to be a literal life-saver later on. Dr Matauranga busies himself taking readings of atmospheric composition and temperature as well as air and soil samples.

At length, they enter a cave where a group of priests in decaying robes are sitting cross-legged in a circle, facing each other. They appear not to have noticed the intruders, and each has a white organic-looking spike protruding from the top of his head. Dr Matauranga approaches cautiously, observing that they appear to be dead, and he thinks the white spikes are fruiting bodies for some kind of fungus.

“Cordyceps,” mutters Mazun, who whatever he tells people was once an Imperial scout.

The good Doctor cuts off the end of one spike and stuffs it into a sample bag which he seals, and prepares to take an arm off the corpse as a further sample. It’s at this point that they hear people approaching cautiously; Vila quickly emplaces a camera and everyone takes cover as half a dozen bodyguards with shotguns enter the cavern, led by a priest.

To Vila’s disappointment, they immediately discover the camera, and as they come closer, it’s obvious they have detected everyone except Mazun; he went south, Vila went north, and Rex and Dr Matauranga went east – the way they came in.

Matters are not helped by Rex leaving his tail sticking out and giving an unconvincing cry of “Oh no, they've seen me.”

The priest calls out in an unknown tongue, moving towards Rex with three of his men while two peel off and move towards Vila. Rex subvocalises on the crew channel “Can I kill ‘em, skipper?” Mazun agrees, going for positive reinforcement – Rex actually asked this time before opening fire, which is an improvement, so he is rewarded.

Rex steps out of cover with a laser SMG in each hand (paw?) and blazes away, wounding the priest, dropping two of the guards, and blowing the top off a fruiting body with a stray shot. The cave begins to fill with spores. Dr Matauranga draws a stunner, but fumbles and shoots Rex in the back by mistake; Rex growls at him. Vila ducks out of sight, intending to lie in wait and shoot the guards as they round the corner in front of him. Mazun, hidden until now, fires a couple of shotgun rounds at the guards he can see, killing one and wounding a second.

Rex's Reward. Fiery Dragon tokens on Loke Battlemat.

Rex shakes off the stunner bolt and opens up into the guards again, starting with the ones going for Vila and working his way south. Another fruiting body explodes as it is pierced by a stray bolt, but Rex kills the priest and all but one of the surviving guards. Dr Matauranga aims his stunner at a third fruiting body, deliberately exploding it, but is shot and grazed by the surviving guard. Mazun blasts him, and with all of the opposition down, the crew have possession of the battlefield.

Vila emerges cautiously as Dr Matauranga directs everyone to grab one of the infected priests’ bodies and run; they can already hear pounding boots getting closer. Escaping back through the caverns is no real problem, although Vila picks up bumps and bruises from trying to run through the tunnels without touching anyone else, especially the dead priest, who is shedding spores everywhere.

Between Mazun (ex-Scout) and Dr Matauranga (mad scientist) they manage to decontaminate themselves, stuff the dead priest into a body bag, decontaminate that, and lift for orbit, pursued by the obligatory torch-wielding mob.

Troisei says she trusts they will explain fully when the opportunity presents itself – she stayed aboard with Smith to ensure he didn’t get the idea of running away with the ship.

Fast Travel, 1107 Week 52 – 1108 Week 14

A busy few weeks follow. Dr Matauranga quickly determines that the fungi contain a suitable hallucinogen, but while he could synthesise the active component, it wouldn’t be cost-effective; growing it in human bodies is. After discussing where they could get a steady supply of dead bodies, or indeed living ones, and the ethics of using them as fungus hosts, they hit on the plan of ordering blank clones in bulk from Tech-World and having them farmed for fungus and processed by the Android Liberation Front on Ergo – they are not at risk of infection, being robots. The finished product will then be shipped to Exe where Smith will pick it up and handle distribution.

This all requires them to visit Ergo (week 52) to negotiate with the ALF, Tech-World (week 02) to pick up clones, Ergo (week 04) to drop them off, and Exe (week 06) to drop off Smith. At some point during this shuffling back and forth they encounter Captain Cash and the Cash Cow, and expand his ALF contract to cover a triangular route; Tech-World to Ergo to Exe and back to Tech-World.

Then, they return to Tyokh via Tech-World, Paal, and Sink, bringing Troisei home in 1108 week 14.

GM Notes

That was another unused adventure seed from The Pirates of Drinax, originally just a paragraph or so which expanded considerably under questioning from the players. I am usually concerned beforehand that the session won't work and I should cancel it, but experience teaches that once we get rolling it will all be OK, so I generally persuade myself to carry on.

Eventually, one of the players will look up what mycorrhizal means, and then they will realise how the priests knew they were in the caves. Some groups dislike metagaming; I consider it part of the fun, and love leaving little Easter eggs like this in the game.

It's quite intriguing how often my player groups wind up as drug runners. I never plan it that way, but it often happens.

Scheduling over Christmas and the New Year is too tricky, so we'll take a couple of weeks off and kick off again on January 10th, with the writeup following on the 13th. My current campaign plan is a few charters from Tyokh, followed by a forced misjump into the Islands Clusters and a mission there for the Imperial Navy, before returning to Tyokh to bid farewell to the Trojan Reach. That will probably take us to April next year, then we can discuss what to do next.

Retrospective Review: Savage Worlds

"Fast! Furious! Fun!" - Savage Worlds

This game was designed for the busy GM juggling family, job, and hobby, and is intended to be fast to prepare and to run across multiple genres. For me, it delivers on those promises, and it has been my go-to RPG since the late 2000s; I've been running it nigh on 17 years, and playing it solo almost as long, although it was only last year I started playing under another GM.

Core Mechanics

Roll a die, apply modifiers, try to meet or beat a target number; that number is usually 4, but is the target's Parry when rolling to hit in melee and its Toughness when rolling for damage. More experienced characters roll a die with more sides, giving them a better chance of success; PCs and other major characters also roll a d6 and can take the score from that instead if they prefer.

Most NPCs can take one solid hit, PCs can take three. PCs and the GM also have a number of Bennies, tokens they can spend to reroll dice or trigger effects.

The Editions

The general trends are for each edition to be larger, with more options, spells, and monsters; but you could say that for any game.

Savage Worlds (2003, 144 pages). I have a copy of this, but purely to complete my collection; it was already obsolete at the time I discovered the game. This edition received the 2003 Origin Gamers' Choice Award for best role-playing game.

Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition (2007, 160 pages). This was the one I started playing, and the main change from the first edition is that melee weapons now roll a die for damage instead of adding a fixed amount to the user's Strength die type. It was relatively basic by the standards of later editions, with only human characters and a single sample adventure.

Savage Worlds Deluxe (2011, 192 pages). This edition added a lot of World War II era weapons, sample scenarios for multiple genres, rules for social conflicts, nonhuman races, and a selection of archetypes, partially pregenerated characters needing only the allocation of some Hindrances and a skill point or two before being ready to play. This edition also had the best quickstart rules; I could, and did, run entire campaigns using only those. I was also very fond of the digest-sized softback rulebook, which was small enough to stuff into my holiday bag and cheap enough that I could buy it for all my players. In many ways, this was the edition I enjoyed playing the most, and sometimes I still wonder if updating to SWADE was really worth the effort.

Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (2018, 208 pages). SWADE made a large number of relatively minor tweaks, which taken together make it quite a different beast. Gone are the pages of WWII gear and the character archetypes; skills are modified, the Charisma stat is gone, there's a new Arcane Background. While SW has always been intended to cover multiple genres, this version of the game is also intended to cover multiple play styles, and largely succeeds; it does this by replacing the earlier tables of die roll modifiers with general guidance for the GM, and by adding a range of new tools like Quick Encounters. However, there are no sample adventures in this edition, and I think the changes to the Powers system have made spellcasters overpowered; they were underpowered earlier, and I think the designers over-corrected.

Pathfinder for Savage Worlds (2024, 384 pages across two books). As it says on the tin, this is a Savage Worlds implementation of Pathfinder, and the publishers are slowly converting Pathfinder adventure paths to this system. It's based on the SWADE rules, but includes some elements from the SWADE Fantasy Companion; the increase in page count is largely driven by a tenfold increase in the size of the bestiary. The most significant changes, not found in other editions, are the Class Edges; each of these is a bundle of features allowing a PC to closely emulate how a Pathfinder class works, although it's entirely possible to ignore them and use more normal character builds. I haven't run this yet, but someday...

Pros and Cons

Minimal prep. More than any other game I own, this is low effort for the GM. I have in the past built an entire campaign in half an hour while the players were generating characters, and I routinely create NPCs, monsters and vehicles on the fly, often not feeling the need to record their stats. I guess this is about the confidence I have in the game system, and in myself when I'm running it.

Fast play. This is the only game I own where I have run battles with fifty or more figures per side in an hour or two using the basic combat rules. The changes in SWADE make play even faster, allowing the GM to run combat at any one of several levels of abstraction, from detailed gritty fights up to a single die roll.

Multiple genres. SW succeeds in being able to cover multiple genres with ease, although once you add automatic weapons and explosives, full fat combat slows down quite a bit. The built-in Setting Rules allow you to tweak the core system to match your setting.

Pulpy. There are some genres it does better than others; I find it perfect for pulp, but the further you stray from Conan, Indiana Jones and Star Wars, the less good the fit. You could do Savage Pride and Prejudice, but it would work better for Savage Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Legalistic. You have to read the rules as if they were a contract; usually, the designers only mention something once, not necessarily where you would expect them to, and it takes some time for the GM to get far enough into their mindset to be able to make spot rulings confidently.

Changes Over the Years

These have been relatively limited, although SWADE is a different beast to earlier editions; I moved from Explorer's Edition to Deluxe seamlessly, but it took me several years before I stopped mistakenly recalling Deluxe rules and using them in SWADE games, and I learned the hard way not to change editions in mid-campaign.

Character options. Each edition has provided additional character options, adding races, Powers and whatnot; as an example, there were 30 Powers in the Explorer's Edition, 50 in Deluxe, and SWADE has 54 (Pathfinder for Savage Worlds has 64). Initially, the designers took the view that there should be no way of reading minds, as it made mystery scenarios too easy to solve; but they relaxed this restraint later.

Gear. This ebbs and flows; Deluxe added a lot, and SWADE took most of it away again. I'm not sure why. However, the longer I play, the less I feel the need to add any gear beyond what's in the core rules.

Chases. These are obviously a difficult area for the publisher, as they change significantly in every edition. They're difficult for me too; I've struggled with them in every edition.

My Future with Savage Worlds

SW is such a good fit for the way I run games that it's difficult for me to imagine finding anything better; and at this stage of my life, there would need to be a massive improvement in gameplay to justify starting over with a new game. For the games I want to play and run, I don't need anything beyond the core rulebook, although that hasn't stopped me buying a ton of supplements and settings.

It's good enough for what I do, and I think it'll see me out.

Aslan Route 29: A Vargr Named Grrrrshagrikrigggggrrsh

But ya ought to thank me, before I die,
For the gravel in yer guts and the spit in yer eye
'Cause I'm the son-of-a-bitch that named you "Sue".
- Johnny Cash, A Boy Named Sue

Cordan, 1107 Week 16

Mazun buys himself a laser rifle and discovers that, for this week only, the suppliers are giving away a free line projector with every laser rifle. Meanwhile, Dr Matauranga is now wearing both the Second and Third Most Valuable Things; in the hope of concealing the earpieces so that the red lenses might be taken for augmented spectacles of some kind, he has taken to wearing a deerstalker hat with the flaps as low down as they will go.

Wildeman, 1107 Week 18

While quaffing Tree Toad beers at the starport bar, the crew is approached by one Klim Gobbo, asteroid miner, who has seen them travel this route several times and has a proposition.

A century ago, this region was terrorised by the notorious pirate Tamby Dour, reputed to have stashed a fortune somewhere. The Imperial Navy eventually caught and vaporised him and his ship, and his treasure was never found. However, Gobbo accidentally found Dour’s hideout while prospecting; it has an obvious treasure vault, with a DNA lock – only Dour or a direct descendant can open it; they must be alive and present in person. He knows where the vault is, but there is no-one in the system descended from Dour, and he only has an in-system mining craft with no jump drive. If the crew can find a descendant, he will take them to the location, and they can share the contents of the vault, 50/50.

Vila is not having this, and a spirited argument over the exact split of the treasure breaks out. At length, the deal struck is 50% to the Macavity’s crew (10% to each of them and Troisei, who will have to fund operating expenses for the search), 15% to the heir, and 35% to Gobbo. Vila puts his head together with the Matauranga Collective (which now numbers six) and makes up a shopping list of things needed for breaking into a vault protected by a DNA lock; these items are not available locally at a price Vila is willing to pay.

Dr Matauranga digs into local records and discovers a number of Dour’s crew were vargr from Umemii, including a first mate whom Dour especially trusted, at which point Rex diffidently reveals that one of his ancestors was a childhood friend of the first mate; Rex knows the first mate’s real name and the area where he lived.

Vila thinks he has found out some useful data on Dour himself, but it turns out he has been researching the life of the actor who played Dour in a second-rate holofilm.

Off to Umemii!

Umemii, 1107 Week 20

The first thing to do on Umemii is visit Rex’s grandmother in Essfaiyr. Rex at first threatens her, then resorts to actually beating the old vargr, and extracts from her a number of useful names and addresses, as well as the fact that shortly after Tamby Dour died, his first mate came home with a young human in his care, and the vargr and human families have been close ever since.

Troisei is disturbed by Rex’s behaviour, but Mazun reassures her this is normal for vargr. Probably.

Rex justifies his approach by explaining that his grandmother sold his mother when he was quite young, raised him herself, and gave him his vargr name, which does not have a complimentary meaning and has caused him a good deal of trouble over the years.

Deciding that “least said, soonest mended”, they unleash Dr Matauranga on the planetary data net, and in a matter of hours he has provided extensive lists of names, addresses, family trees, medical histories, and other data which one would have expected to be private. This reveals the existence of one Glinnet Dour, great-great-granddaughter of Tamby Dour, and her contact details.

Mazun composes a carefully-worded and mostly truthful message, and requests a meeting. Glinnet agrees, suggests an expensive restaurant, and brings with her a vargr called Zalvou Gzargu, who seems to be somewhere between a business manager, a bodyguard, and an affectionate uncle. Negotiations are with Zalvou, as Glinnet is completely clueless and more interested in Troisei, who is the first aslan she has ever seen. However, a trip offworld with the promise of a fortune at the end of it appeals to both Zalvou and Glinnet, so they pack their bags, and the Macavity returns to Wildeman.

Wildeman, 1107 Week 22

Vila and Rex are suspicious when Gobbo suggests following him to the location in his beat-up mining ship, but so far as they can tell he is being truthful, so off they go.

Gobbo leads the Macavity to an asteroid, where there is an obsolescent but well-equipped base with parking, partially pressurised. Gobbo explains that he set up a pressure shelter while the Macavity was away so that the descendant would be able to take off their spacesuit; he didn’t see how they could work the lock while wearing one.

Glinnet operates the lock, but despite this being successful, the vault door fails to open. Vila states that his skills are now needed to get into the vault, and unless his cut of the proceeds is renegotiated, the Macavity will leave. (He mentions on a private channel that the ship can then return later and the crew can cut Gobbo and Dour out of the deal entirely.)

Gobbo counters that he only promised to bring them to the vault, he has done what he agreed and so the shares of the loot should stay as they were. Vila is about to leave anyway when he and Mazun both notice the problem is simple vacuum welding, and should yield to some mechanical engineering and brute force. While outwardly still determined to leave them to it, Vila shares helpful information with Mazun and Dr Matauranga. While they are still discussing how to do this, Rex kicks the vault door in frustration and it swings open.

Entering cautiously, the team see rows of empty shelves… and two empty bottles of cheap gin. Gobbo is swearing profusely and searching for the secret doors he is sure are there, but which in fact are not. Glinnet is sulking because she was promised jewellery and pretty dresses, which are nowhere to be seen. Troisei and Zalvou exchange a look and shrug; some days you get the bear, some days the bear gets you.

Vila and Mazun hack into the hideout’s computer system and discover that every generation or so since Tamby Dour died, someone has been coming here and opening the vault. The last such visit was 44 years ago, then nothing until it was opened today.

The crew hypothesise that Dour’s descendants have been coming here periodically, whenever they needed money, taking some, and leaving the rest safely in the hideout. Having spent a couple of weeks with Glinnet, they understand why she would not have been told any of this.

Whatever’s left of the money is probably still on Umemii somewhere, but Mazun seems to speak for everyone when he says Glinnet’s family has more right to it than the crew does.

Gobbo smashes one of the gin bottles in a fit of pique, but Troisei takes the other, with the team's joint permission. She will display it in her home on Tyokh, and whenever visitors ask about it, she will tell the story of how it is the last remnant of Tamby Dour’s fabled pirate treasure.

Fast Travel, 1107 Weeks 23 to 42

Troisei wants to visit Hradus, where there is a large population of aslan; but Glinnet wants to go home, and Dr Matauranga is uncomfortable in Imperial space – some trifling misunderstanding about ethics violations – so the Macavity first turns to Umemii (week 24) before following the aslan route to Wildeman (week 24) and Fist (week 26). After that, the ship meanders along the xboat routes from Fist to Imisaa (week 28), Hexx (week 30) and finally Hradus (week 32), where Mazun slips away to file a report and ponder the fact that everywhere they go, Vila seems to know someone useful.

Mazun is in a foul mood for the first leg of the journey, as he had hoped to inveigle Dr Matauranga to Batav and turn all his Ancient devices over to the Imperium for study. The good doctor, however, decided that Glinnet’s low intelligence was the result of inbreeding among the human population of Umemii, and stayed there to conduct field research.

By the time the Macavity has ambled back to Umemii to pick him up again, it is 1107 week 42, and news of the outbreak of the Fifth Frontier War is only one jump behind her.

Next stop: Inurin...

GM Notes

This session was built on one of the adventure seeds left over from The Pirates of Drinax, and it did its job, keeping us entertained for a few hours. As usual in Savage Worlds, most of the fun came from the extreme dice rolls, especially Vila's critical failure when researching Tamby Dour and Rex's ridiculously high roll on his Wild Die when trying to open the vault door. (We normally assume that if you succeed thanks to the Wild Die, it was due to some stroke of good luck.)

Riffing off each other, the players concocted a backstory for Rex which included a family more dysfunctional than I'd expected.

Reading, thinking, and discussing things with the players over the last couple of weeks, I’ve reached some decisions:

• I've set up the sequence of adventures until the end of the campaign, probably April 2026, including the secret of Most Valuable Thing. I'm just going to move the PCs from one to the next; in-game, the cargoes and charters they pick up just happen to lead them that way, but at the metagame level the players are aware they're on a railroad of sorts now, and they're happy with that; anyway, I'm the only one who knows where the stops are.
• We discussed changing game system for the next campaign, but there’s no real benefit in that. I’m not going to remember the rules of a different game any better than SWADE, and it’s good enough for what I need.
• The Traveller Wiki is back as a source of information. It has a lot of Traveller5 stuff we won’t use, but if you scroll down far enough, you get to the bits we do use. (When we were working through the Pirates of Drinax, it didn’t have world details for this region of space, but now it does.) Using it saves me a lot of work.
• I did look into replacing Roll20 with Fantasy Grounds, but the benefits from doing that are outweighed by the additional effort of setting it up and using it; FG is cool, and I like it, but it's a solution to problems I don't currently have.

TL:DR – no change except Traveller Wiki is back in play. As you were.

Retrospective Review: All Things Zombie / 5150

"Just play the game." - Ed Teixeira

We'll take these two together, as they are essentially the same game engine - from an earlier game called Chain Reaction - flavoured for different settings. Each spawned a series of related games, setting books, scenario packs, and there are at least two ATZ board games, but here I'm just looking at the core rulebooks. The author, Ed Teixeira, is a prolific writer, and it's entirely possible I missed one or two somewhere along the way; there are also quick-play editions, very short and simple, but for this post I'll stick to the full fat versions.

Although I'd previously dabbled in solo play for decades, it was only when I encountered these two games in 2008 that the light came on and I properly understood how to play solo. There are many other games from the same publisher, using essentially the same game engine for other genres; the games are equally suited to solo, co-op or head to head combat, and can handle one-off skirmishes or campaigns; but where they really shine is in long-running solo campaigns.

Core Mechanic

Roll 2d6 vs a target number; the number of dice which "pass" by rolling that number or less determines your degree of success. Various editions use various other mechanics, but this is common to all of them and is the one most often used.

All Things Zombie Editions

Depending on the edition, All Things Zombie begins either at the start of the zombie apocalypse - my personal preference - two years into it, or much later.

All Things Zombie (2005). This is the first edition, and won the Origins Award for the Best Miniatures Game of the Year 2005. 52 page PDF with fairly basic layout, of which 5 pages are Quick Reference Sheets (QRS) and 4 pages a combat example. This has the widest range of weapons and character attributes, as well as a point count system for balancing head to head combat and relatively complex rules for what loot can be found in which type of building; the start point is two years into the outbreak, and although there is a second phase starting after 10 years and a third after 20, those have only narrative effects. It's a tabletop-only edition focussed on miniatures and terrain. There are three main types of encounters, Raids to recover or destroy something, and Escapes or Pursuits following on from Raids. I played it solo for about a year, and switched over to Better Dead Than Zed when that came out.

All Things Zombie: Better Dead Than Zed (2009). This edition is a 92 page PDF with improved layout; 8 of those pages are QRS, largely because different kinds of people have different reaction tables. The game begins on Day One, with three introductory scenarios to teach the rules, a Day One scenario to kick off your campaign, then three encounter types - Discover (search), Raid (steal/recover), and Take Back (clear out a location). This edition is also focused on using minis on a table. Innovations include the introduction of overfishing (you eventually consume all resources in an area and have to move on), Challenges (a basic task system to handle anything that isn't covered in the rules), random events, and character classes (civilians, gangers, military, survivors). Attribute and weapons lists are simplified. I probably played more of this edition than any other, and it's the only one I played co-op and ran as a moderated game for my kids and their friends; good times.

All Things Zombie: Final Fade Out (2012). 106 page PDF, of which 12 pages are QRS. Game starts on Day One. This one has more complex encounter rules, which is probably why it spawned the Risks & Rewards Deck - I'm still using that. Innovations include adding skills (People and Savvy); pregenerated grunts for citizens, gangers and survivors, which were a huge time-saver; and I think this is also the earliest edition to split encounters into voluntary and involuntary. I played the game itself on and off for a few years, but it didn't enthrall me the way Better Dead Than Zed had.

All Things Zombie: Evolution (2018). 116 page PDF, of which 8 pages are QRS - the reduction is due to everyone using the same reaction tables. Innovations include Increasing/Decreasing Rep points; adding lycaons (werewolves), razors (from 5150), casters and vampires; the choice of battle boards or tabletop play, including a tweaked version for tabletop convention play; a greatly expanded selection of encounter types, which are now much more closely aligned with the ones in 5150 and are essentially about doing jobs for patrons; a town with NPC factions and a 5-encounter campaign; a supplement for vehicles and resources; and in my version, 12 pages of battle boards and one page of counters. This edition starts on Day One and I played it for a year or two.

All Things Zombie: End of Days (2022). 99 page PDF, of which three pages are QRS. By now, we're down to 12 attributes and classes are loners, sheeple, and gangers. This includes a 12-episode campaign with an optional scenario in a gated mansion, and rules for zombie golf. It introduces variant zombie types - smarties and ragers - but drops the lycaons, casters, razors and vampires. This edition starts many years deep into the outbreak, and I have played it relatively little compared to the others.

5150 Editions

5150 (2006): 128 pages spread over three PDFs, of which 21 are QRS. This first edition is unashamedly focused on tabletop skirmish warfare and covers a dozen or so alien races and human factions, each of which has their own reaction tables - that's why the QRS is so large. Book one covers the basic combat rules and military operations, including a wide range of weapons, armour, ground and air vehicles, fire support, and drop troops; it also covers military campaigns, giving the tech level and primary motivation of each race as well as an abstract way of handling the overall war which in turn drives the player's missions. Book two is what would become the core of the 5150 games I play, adding RPG elements to the skirmish game and allowing you to operate a small team of adventurers as they avoid the law (or not) while undertaking quests, raids, and stand-up fights. I think this is also the earliest game to include Challenges for resolving tasks outside the normal scope of the rules. It has more detail on the various alien races, their organisation, and their gear. Book three is the QRS and vehicle design rules. I bought this one but never played it; too complex, too much page flipping. However, it was promising enough that I kept an eye out for subsequent editions.

5150 New Beginnings (2011): 176 page PDF, of which 16 are QRS - again, different "troop types" have their own reaction tables, although these are simplified from the first edition and paired with a random NPC generator on the same page. This restricts the available races to six (basic, grath, hishen, razor, xeog, zhuh-zhuh) which will be stable for the next few editions and significantly reduces the range of armour and weapons available. Innovations include adding skills (Fitness, People, Savvy, Science), professions and classes; buildings and their floor plans; a more detailed description of New Hope, the usual base planet; being arrested, tried and possibly imprisoned; media crews; and cybernetic enhancements. The military adventures were split out into 5150 Star Army and related games; the publisher had understood by now that their customer base was split into those playing skirmish wargames and those who wanted rules-light RPGs (I'm in the second group). I played this edition a fair amount, usually solo, until Urban Renewal came out.

5150 New Beginnings Urban Renewal (2014): 132 page PDF, of which 10 pages are QRS. This is broadly similar in content to New Beginnings, but now New Hope City is split into zones on a transit map, with each zone having different characteristics depending on what the time of day is. Other changes include a faster way to generate NPCs. I played this one a little; I vividly remember meeting the same pickpocket multiple times on the mass transit system. However, it is similar enough to New Beginnings that I find them difficult to separate in my memory.

5150 Fringe Space (2015): 106 page PDF, of which 17 pages are QRS. This one really grabbed my attention, because for the first time it added spaceships, travel between worlds, and associated patron missions. Other additions include betting on the Competitive Violence League (I always envisioned this as Rollerball), counters for people and ships, and quite a lot of setting material; the "tabletop" is by this stage a 12" x 12" area with no actual terrain, although there is a bonus section with more normal tabletop rules. I played this quite a bit until the next edition came out, and thoroughly enjoyed myself with it, although the ship combat system was not to my liking, relying as it did on drawing cards. I was very fond of the settlement and ship maps, and still use them, although I was less enamoured of the interstellar map and system rings.

5150 No Limits Maiden Voyage (2018): 81 page PDF, of which 8 pages are QRS, two are a battle board and counters, and a starter campaign with pre-generated missions and NPCs. This is the fastest, slickest and tightest version of the game, and the one I enjoyed playing the most. It includes a campaign in 16 episodes, and by now we are fully committed to the battle board, as well as having simplified pretty much everything to do with ships.

5150 New Beginnings (2021): 269 page PDF. This one is so big because it includes Alien Fight Night (boxing matches you can fight in or bet on), tabletop combat as well as battle boards, robots, psionics, computers and hacking, mining, more detailed setting information, more aliens than you can shake a stick at, and a campaign with a pre-generated crew, NPCs and missions. There are also two pages of counters and several battle boards. I've played this a little, but it's big enough to put me off, especially the huge number of alien races.

World generation, ship rules, racial features, and the description of the base world (New Hope) vary from edition to edition, so you either need to pick one and stick to it or not worry about these aspects changing under your avatar's feet.

Changes Over the Years

These games have always sat on the border between skirmish wargames and RPGs, with scenario and campaign rules which justify the battles and link them together. Over time, the focus has shifted away from the tabletop combat to a more narrative style where the important thing is the story linking encounters together.

As the author says, gamers have changed over the years, and his games have changed with them each time. Partly as a result of that, and partly through decades of refinements in play, the rules have become gradually more simplified and streamlined. In parallel, the layout of the games has improved, becoming more legible and easier to use.

The combat focus has shifted back and forth between classical skirmish wargaming on a 4' by 4' table, and highly abstract engagements using counters on an 8" by 11" battle board, with some rulebooks favouring one approach, some the other, and some presenting both and letting the player choose (my preference, as I like the option to play games at different levels of abstraction depending on my mood and the available time).

Stars (the players' avatars in the game) always have some advantages over Grunts (NPC extras and mooks), but what those are exactly varies from edition to edition.

The number and type of encounters have also varied from edition to edition, but seem to have stabilised at one involuntary encounter per month (which can't be avoided) and one voluntary one (which can, but usually you don't, because you need the resources or the Rep points).

Pros and Cons

These games have a very different feel from most skirmish wargames...

• The activation system varies from edition to edition, but turns are of variable length, with figures interrupting and reacting to each other in a way more dictated by the rules than the player's orders. This aspect of the game makes it obvious why the original rules were called "Chain Reaction".
• You only have control of a single figure, with the others being influenced by him but reacting as the rules and dice dictate. Sometimes they do what you want, sometimes they panic and open fire when you didn't want them to, sometimes they freeze and zombies eat them alive, quite often they decide things are getting too dangerous and run away.
• The AI controlling enemy figures is brutal, and ruthlessly punishes poor tactics.
• The system of Possible Enemy Forces is an elegant alternative to hidden movement and the fog of war; sometimes a PEF is a pushover, sometimes it's too tough to handle, sometimes there's nothing there at all, you were just imagining things.
• Characters are very simple both to create and play, needing only one or two short lines of text to detail them fully.
• The campaign system excels at creating background material procedurally, with ongoing plots and recurring allies and enemies emerging seamlessly from the dice rolls, and allies drifting away from you if your luck runs out.

On the downside, the rules are so different that it can be difficult to make the necessary mental shift, and it's hard to understand the campaign rules as there is no overview of them - I've tried to create one many times and never succeeded, you just have to dive in and trust the process.

All of that's like Marmite; you'll either love it, or you'll hate it. Personally, I love it.

My Future With ATZ/5150

Over the last few years, the author has been gradually winding down, handing over his stable of games to Rebel Minis and involving others in writing both rules and setting material. We're broadly similar in age, so I get that, I'm refocusing too.

I can see myself returning to either or both of these games in future, as they give me a lot of enjoyment for very little effort; but maybe not the latest editions, maybe something one or two iterations back. For ATZ, I would probably pick Evolutions, and for 5150, probably No Limits Maiden Voyage, although Fringe Space has more setting material and a title I prefer; in each case, this is because everything I do use is in one book, with minimal page count devoted to things I don't use. You might want different things, in which case you might be better served by another edition.

Aslan Route 28: The Second Most Valuable Thing

Previously, on the Aslan Route... The crew of the Macavity are breaking into a centuries-old survival bunker for the ultra-wealthy on Ergo. The defensive robots would rather they didn’t...

Ergo, 1107 Week 10

Before the swarms of metal spiders can reach Our Heroes, Mazun blows one group away with his shotgun and Dr Matauranga deploys his “Wide Area Cauteriser” (i.e. flamethrower) to burn the second group. When the mech attached to the spiders emerges cautiously from a side room, Rex lets rip with his laser SMGs and cuts it down. Vila is still scrambling up the slope through the crevasse and back to the ship, where Troisei is awaiting developments; she has people for this sort of thing, namely the crew.

Moving forward brings them to the central common area, obviously used as a canteen, meeting hall and so on. Three other exits lead to accommodation suites, but they are bent on reaching the central computer and deactivating the robot guards. Matauranga points out the various robots, Mazun comes up with a cunning tactical plan... and then Rex shoots everything that moves.

Slightly off to one side, a lift shaft descends into the gloom. Not trusting the lift, which is probably controlled by the same computer sending robots after them, the crew descends using the handholds set in the side of the shaft, Mazun in the lead. One of the ancient handholds gives way under his weight, and he falls the rest of the way, fortunately suffering no more than bruises. Conscious now of the risk, Dr Matauranga and Rex descend more cautiously, reach the bottom without further incident, and help Mazun dust himself off.

Making their way from the lift shaft deeper into the complex, Dr Matauranga calls to mind his earlier research on the Ergosian nuclear war and the plans of the wealthy to survive it, and advises Mazun on the likely verbal codes to gain access through the blastproof doors. This takes several attempts, as the computer finds it hard to make out what Mazun is saying over the gunfire and snarls behind him as Rex deals with the next wave of robot spiders.

Entering the main control room, they quickly close the door again behind them, and survey the dusty chamber. A mech is wired into the largest console, wearing an odd headpiece.

“Please stop shooting,” it says, “For I am the Second Most Valuable Thing.” It goes on to explain that it spent an indefinite period deactivated and buried, was woken up by bunker construction, went back to sleep until the nuclear exchange cracked open the bunker, and then took over the defence robots, which it has been using to build itself a spaceship to leave the planet in search of its colleagues.

Leaving the Matauranga Collective and the Second and Third Most Valuable Things to catch up on history since the days of the Ancients, Rex and Mazun search the lowest level of the complex and quickly find the treasure vault. This proves to have a two-man access mechanism, operated by turning two widely-separated manual keys simultaneously; one key is in a nearby office, and they realise the other keys must be held by the bunker’s clientele. Said clientele prove to be dead from various causes in the accommodation suites, but none of the team have much in the way of scruples and the remaining keys are quickly recovered from crumbling skeletons and dusty rooms.

Now that the fighting is over, Vila scampers back down to join in looting the place. They recover a wide range of objets d’art, recreational drugs, paintings, a stamp collection, precious metals and so forth and ferry it up to the ship in a number of trips.

Meanwhile, the Matauranga Collective and the Second Most Valuable Thing have reached an agreement; it will join them on their travels, and the robots will help the crew load up the supplies and parts it has been collecting. It hasn’t got very far on building its own ship and is happy to commandeer – errm, sorry, take passage on – the Macavity. It considers its new home very primitive, and discusses potential improvements with the Collective; clearly, a science bay focused on genetic research is the place to start, and it starts work on a swarm of robots to help it convert a couple of staterooms into a laboratory.

Troisei, who is currently chartering the Macavity, asks to be taken to Cordan, which suits the rest of the crew, especially Mazun, who needs to report in to his handler – sorry, local factor – Prasad.

Fast Travel, 1107 Weeks 11-16

The Macavity stops at Sperle long enough to sell off the artworks and specie, then moves on to Exe where it sells the recreational drugs. While in the Exe system, Mazun persuades the Android Liberation Front to get Captain Cash to relocate them to the bunker on Ergo and fix it up – Dr Matauranga has eyes on it for his obligatory secret base.

On Cordan, Mazun introduces Prasad and Troisei to each other, and since each of them, for their own purposes, wants to establish a good trade connection, that goes well. Vila remains on board to avoid unwanted entanglements with the local underworld and supervise the stateroom conversion. Unknown to Dr Matauranga, he installs simple mechanically-triggered bombs on the robot swarm the Second Most Valuable Thing is using for the work, while in parallel Mazun upgrades the anti-intrusion protocols on the ship’s computer, in case the SMVT decides to take control.

Mazun then sidles off to a secret meeting with Prasad, who is in reality his IISS handler. Mazun explains that Dr Matauranga now has in his possession two Ancient devices, and he intends to gradually adjust the Macavity’s course to take them towards his cover ID’s homeworld of Batav, where he will hand over the devices to Imperial researchers as per standing orders. However, this may take some time, as all the members of the Matauranga Collective are smarter than him, and he will have to move carefully. Prasad agrees this is the right move; having spent two years embedding Mazun as an asset in the Hierate, he doesn’t want to risk blowing Mazun’s cover for the sake of two artefacts of unknown purpose and value.

The crew is now on Cordan and considering moving towards Torpol along the Florian Route, since Prasad earlier asked them to ensure that Prince Hteleitoirl’s clan takes over garrison duty there to guard against a resurgence of the Fury; they have persuaded Troisei that unless someone specifically asks about her relationship to Prince Hteleitoirl, who tried to overthrow the government a few years back and later married her sister, there is no need to draw it to anyone’s attention.

None of their current tasks are especially urgent, so the crew are taking a few days on Cordan to relax and shop, while Troisei discusses trading options with Prasad.

GM Notes

I thought that a running battle against robots would become boring quite quickly, so we shifted to a Dramatic Task to get them down into the computer room before the robot swarms overran them. That worked pretty well, although I'm now considering adding a Dangerous Dramatic Task where failures result in Bumps & Bruises or even Wounds, as Mazun falling down a lift shaft (Athletics Critical Failure) should really have injured him.

I suppose I'll have to decide what the Most Valuable Things want soon. I got the idea from a Challenge or Travellers' Digest magazine in the 1980s, or maybe 1990s; I can't remember which one or what it was they did.

I’m running out of adventures along the Aslan Route, so I’ll start expanding the area of operations shortly, to make use of the worthwhile adventures in the Trojan Reach sector which we haven’t played through yet.

Mazun's player pointed out that what lies beyond Torpol could be anything I want, and doesn't necessarily have to have anything to do with Charted Space. I'm considering that.

Retrospective Review: Traveller 2300 / 2300AD

When it's over, when it's done
Let it go
- The Bangles, Let It Go

Third in the sequence, here's a look back at 2300AD, which I ran for some two decades, first in its own universe, and later using other settings, most notably the Official Traveller Universe.

The game picks up the setting of Twilight: 2000 and advances it 300 years, with humanity now recovered from that war and exploring systems within 50 lightyears of Earth, interacting with half a dozen alien species as it does so. As part of game development, GDW staff took part in a strategic wargame, playing through that 300 years as the rulers of countries, and this shows through in the detailed politics and history of the setting.

Core Mechanics

Roll 1d10, apply modifiers, meet or beat a target number to succeed.

Where it went a bit strange was damage, which required you to roll for hit location,  then deduct the toughness of the armour from the penetration value of the weapon, then roll against the remainder to get a type of wound whose severity depended on the hit location, with different wound types inflicting different penalties on future actions. I could see what the designers were trying to do, but it was a lengthy and complex process.

The Editions

Traveller: 2300 (1986). The game appealed to me for several reasons, chiefly that Traveller's technology was - apart from jump drives - rooted in a 1970s worldview, and a decade later SF and actual technology had both moved on; Traveller: 2300 felt like the future in a way that Traveller no longer did, and as extra materials were released that felt more true. Using actual 3D starmaps also helped - I remember during one session taking the players outside and pointing into the sky, saying "You're now moving from that star to that one". However, this edition had two major problems. First, while it used a variant of the DGP task system from MegaTraveller, it neglected to change the target numbers to reflect the use of 1d10 rather than 2d6. Second, there was no method for improving skills or characteristics once a PC mustered out, although it wasn't much work to add one. (The second edition would correct both of those, although the self-improvement mechanism only addressed skills.)

2300AD (1989). This fixed the problems with the first edition, added lots more background information, and changed the title to avoid confusion with mainstream Traveller. The tagline changed from "Mankind discovers the stars" to "Man's battle for the stars", perhaps to reflect that the published adventures largely focused on the war against the Kafers in the French Arm. There was more detail on aliens, which for the most part actually felt like aliens rather than people in animal suits with a zipper up the back.

2320 AD (2007). This version was an alternative setting for Traveller20, which I never saw, bought, or played; it came out around the time I was starting to move on from 2300AD.

2300AD (2012). Another alternative setting, this time for Mongoose Traveller 1st Edition. I know it exists, but that's all I know.

As you can see, the setting hung around for decades after the game engine passed out of general use, and there seems to be a consensus that it should now be treated as the variant Traveller setting it was originally taken for.

Pros and Cons

Credible and internally consistent setting, especially the colony worlds and the technology, with built-in factions, politics, and aliens. The setting had four major areas by the end, each suited to a particular type of campaign; Earth for cyberpunk adventures, the French Arm for military ones, the American Arm for law enforcement and criminal scenarios, and the Chinese Arm for those wanting to pit themselves against a transhumanist terrorist conspiracy.

The star system and world generation systems hold up surprisingly well even today, although recent astronomical observations show that a lot of stars aren't where we used to think they were, and if you use the latest locations the trade routes get seriously mangled.

Good rules for NPCs, with four different levels of combat competence and card draws for personalities. I carried on using those for a long time after I stopped playing the actual game.

Complex and time-consuming character generation. This had good points, such as the basic skill levels every member of a career began with and the option to take a second career before starting play, and bad ones, such as the strange way skill points were spent during character creation, which was not the way skills were improved in play. It was also entirely possible to create PCs who had no languages in common with the rest of the party, which could be entertaining.

No playable alien races. PCs were all humans of different body types which gave modifiers to their physical attributes, although later when I used the game for Traveller proper it was easy to say that aslan were mesomorphs, vargr ectomorphs, and humans normal. This approach simplified character generation, and also allowed each alien race to have a secret to uncover (which alien PCs would have known from the start).

Changes Over the Years

The game as I knew it only lasted through two editions, so these are more about how I used the game than how it changed over time. The second edition was a solid improvement on the first, but the Earth/Cybertech Sourcebook felt like an attempt to cash in on the then-popular cyberpunk game market rather than something that grew naturally from the setting backstory; it didn't really fit in.

I adopted the second edition for all my SF campaigns, and used it for Ringworld and Stargate campaigns as well as several in the Official Traveller Universe.

The main thing I eventually felt it lacked was some sort of point-buy character generation, so I built a system for that. By the time it was ready for use, though, people already had well-established PCs, so though I was happy with it, it was never used in anger.

My Future with 2300AD

2300AD is still the game I have run the most, even more than Traveller, although I expect Savage Worlds will edge past it into first place eventually.

However, I haven't touched it since the early 2000s, and I can't see myself returning to either the game or the setting. For me, it was the best RPG of its day, but that day is now over.

And as The Bangles observed, when it's over, let it go.