Abstract Combat with Book 4

My older son wanted to try his hand at running a mercenary unit. He's got a six month contract on Faldor, defending a town as unrest and civil war swirls around them. He's got about a platoon worth of troops and light vehicles.

His PC is the owner of the PMC “Wolfpack Security Corp.”, while an NPC is the field commander. His patron is the King of Pampati. A contingent of Pampatian Gath emigrated to Faldor to find work. The King is concerned about anti-Gath prejudice among the competing factions. Gath are genetically modified humans, standing 2.7 to 3.3 meters tall. Sounds like they could take care of themselves, but they moved there to work, not fight. Wrong place at the wrong time, you might say.

I've run most of his time so far as a set of random encounters as detailed in the Encounters chapter of TTB. A mix of hostiles and friendlies, government and rebels. A week or so back, a scout group from another PMC came snooping around their town. They exchanged shots before the scouts broke contact and retreated. They took one prisoner, who identified the group.

The People's Popular Development Front (PPDF) worked for the government, bolstering its forces. Then the PPDF leadership decided to renege on the contract. They saw an opportunity to establish themselves as a local power.

Last night we played out the next encounter with the PPDF. Three squads rolled into town to do “recon-in-force”.

We've been working from a sketch map of the town,

and I drew up a second hex map. The battle map noted important features like the HQ building and town gates. We both laid out counters for our units. My son's PMC is divided into about a dozen teams and squads. We did not worry about scale of the hexes, or length of turns. This is abstract, to resolve the battle quickly but without 'GM fiat'.

I added on a few simple rules to the abstract battle system in Book 4. Each turn both sides roll 1D and add the leader's Tactics skill. This is the number of counters that can move on a given turn. Each unit that moves can go one hex in any direction. This became an important factor for one side, later on. Neither side had Leadership skill on the board, but a Leader can make a throw to move a unit 2 hexes instead of one. (We'll see another time if that rule works well or not)

In the Avalon Hill game Antietam (part of the Blue & Gray series) the Union side can move only 6 of its 40+ counters per turn. This reflects McClellan's dithering during the actual battle. The movement throw added a variable to the game. It reflects the difficulties of command & control over a spread out force.

By the Numbers

Session Report St Patrick's Day 2018

Today the Adequate Seven forged ahead with their 100-hour endurance airship race on Stavanger, while facing many challenges.

Somehow during the break at the Oasis, adversaries smuggled a robot aboard, disguised as a number of fuel canisters. It assembled itself in the engine room and began tearing up the place. Jay, Joe and Landreth managed to destroy it, and Landreth started taking it apart looking for intel on who had put it aboard. They recalled that while at Oasis 'race officials' and porters were going on and off the ship without any close oversight. Won't make that mistake again. 

The robot did not disable the engines, but it did cause damage. Most of the Seven have mechanical and/or engineering skill, so they were able to effect repairs in flight. 

Reaper stayed behind in the Oasis for a while, and managed to acquire some (dubiously legal) cryonic grenades, which came in handy later. He had to <ahem> liberate an air/raft to catch up with the team in flight but was able to rejoin them at a race checkpoint.

Team Trendheim is in the lead, withTeam Namsos and Team Hokksen catching up. Every obstacle that arises seems to chip away at their lead. I'm using the Chase rules from Omer Joel's Quick and Dirty CT Vehicle combat rules to determine place order. McGee's rolling hot so far.

The Seven made it to the next-to-last checkpoint and stopped to refuel, and hand over the robot's remains to the race officials who will start a formal investigation. 

Taking off at sunset for the next to last leg, the crew are all getting tired, but no rest for the weary!  In the depth of the night the airship is attacked by a group of grav-belt wearing assassins!

They're armed with swords and grenades, and attacked the ship from several fronts at once. The Seven are spread out and can't help each other. Jay, Gray (4) raced up the catwalks to the aid of Longfinger, Gray (7) who was on his way down to the gondola when an assassin flew in at him. Sword and claw rang out in the darkness. 

The Adequate Seven are in Grey, attackers in yellow.

Joe (2) and McGee (1) are trapped in the Salon while Reaper fights on the catwalk outside.

In the photo, Landreth is Gray(3). He was guarding the engine room when he heard Tawnee, the patron's mistress screaming. Rushing to the rescue he found one of the attackers in her cabin, and they're at close quarters with sword and pistol. Ca'al is the inverted gray counter outside on the catwalk. He went axe-to-sword with an attacker, but as the attacker was wearing armor and Ca'al wasn't, he's down. Reaper, Gray(6) froze one assassin with a cryonic grenade and now he's fencing cutlass-to-sword with the guy who stabbed Ca'al.

Joe shot down one assassin through a port-hole with his SMG, but the second is keeping under cover and tossing shock grenades through the portholes. Joe managed to return one but it went over the side and discharged below the ship. McGee is defending the bridge and watching Joe's back.

We ended the session in mid-battle. Shots and blows have been exchanged at close range, but everyone's wearing armor so not much damage has been done. Whoever these masked assassins are, it means whoever sent them is serious about taking Team Trendheim out of the race. Can't wait for next month's session!

New Traveller Game Session Report December 2017

After the McGee Tragedy, the gang needed to find work. I used my Random Missions table and came up with "repair vehicle". Hmm. It will have to be a big vehicle to need seven repairmen. So that would be . . . an airship!

"Can we mount guns on this?" - an actual player question.

Location: Stavanger

The patron is Stephanos "Steffi" Trendheim, son of one of the ruling Barons of Stavanger. He's competing in a 100-hour endurance race across the wilderness of Stavanger, to Oasis and back. The race must use only TL-6 equipment, so no contra-gravity or rocket propulsion.

The gang's first task was to assemble the airship, a semi-rigid airframe with Helium envelopes for lift. They set to work with limited time, but got the ship air-worthy, passed the time trials and entered the race. 

During the build phase, everyone received a Rumor on a 3x5 card. Some pointed to possible future endeavors, but may were signs of trouble ahead: bribery offers and a death threat to lose the race; a bribe to take out a competing racer, and even to take out the patron!

In the air, they got off to a good position in the field of eight racers, each representing one of the Baronies: Arendal, Hokksen, Levanger, Namsos, Plancourt, Sandvika, Trendheim, and Ulstenvok.

RIP Commander McGee

Something has occurred in a game that I have never experienced before as a Traveller player. I started playing in 1982 or 83. In all that time, I have never had a player character die. Until now.

At yesterday's session of the once-a-month gaming group that I referee for my boys and their friends, Commander McGee died. The game was set in Holtzmann's Corridor, on the planet Dekalb. The PC group had just finished a job, capturing an escapee from a hospital who had been exposed to some weird things which resulted in him being super-fast and strong. This was in essence the Amber Zone The Werewolf Disease, which I reviewed a few years back. 

After tracking him for two days, they finally were able to confront him, only to find he dodged and dashed away at high speed, frustrating pursuit on foot. The quarry was finally brought to heel by Maj. Reaper hurling his sword him, at Medium range, and hitting the man in the leg. There's a bar story for you.

McGee, we barely knew ye.

Well, they got paid for the job, and decided to go to Stavanger next. I explained the various travel options, and McGee's player decided to travel Low Passage to save cash. The liner had a qualified Doctor (Medical-3) aboard, and he had no -DM for low Endurance. All McGee needed to survive the Low Berth process was to throw a 3 or higher. The target is 5+, with a DM of +2 for medical support.

He thew Snake Eyes.

The Brothers of St. Cuthbert took care of burying McGee, and my son had a few spare character sheets lying around. McGee's player picked one, announced that this was McGee's brother, transferred all his gear and cash to the new character, and we rolled on.

New Traveller game, new Traveller players

I have begun a Traveller campaign (sandbox, so far) with my two boys and their friends. This motley crew of odds & ends:

• Commander McGee – ex Marine
• Lt Landreth – ex Navy
• Ca'al – ex Navy petty officer, carries a halberd!
• Major Reaper – ex Army

  along with

• Joe Blasterson – ex Army
• Jay Maverick – ex Hunter
• Longfinger – a Barbarian from a genetic offshoot of humanity

are off to explore Holtzmann's Corridor. For some of them, I think, their exposure to Science Fiction is limited to the Trek/Wars franchises. All of them, with the exception of my boys, are new to Traveller and some to role-playing as a hobby.

This will be an opportunity to introduce them to some different sci-fi concepts and some older works of fiction. Will they acquire a starship?  Will they be heroes or space bums?  Will they change the world?  We shall see.

Path of the Lioness - Campaign Journal #4

Recently I listened to several episodes of Felbrigg Herriot's excellent CT podcast Behind the Claw, which is awesome and well worth your time. There's a link also in my blogroll. In Episode 5, he highlighted a paragraph from the Traveller Book I had never noticed before. In the section of the Space Combat chapter on Starship Encounters, the rules suggest combining the Starship encounter table (Herriot calls it a 'wandering monster' table) with the Reaction table from the Encounters chapter. You get a sense right away of how the other ship may act towards the PC's ship. This is a great shortcut for the Referee, and one I wish I'd noticed years ago.

For Example:

The FSS Lioness (my boy's ship, a Type L Lab) was leaving Monjeera en route to Glaumvor, so I rolled on the Ship Encounter table. Result: a Type A Free Trader. Reaction roll: 10, Responsive. I decided that the Trader captain had in his cargo hold a load of cooking spice (quick roll on the Trade table) that was the current craze on Glaumvor; but the Trader had a freight contract which was taking them away from Glaumvor. So the captain offered to sell it to the Lioness, to avoid a financial loss. They conducted the trade, with the captain's assurance that it would sell high on Glaumvor. 

Arriving in the Glaumvor system, I rolled again and got a Subsidized Merchant, but the reaction roll was 5, hostile and may attack. The Subbie captain had a big shipment of the cooking spice, and reacted badly when he learned that the Lioness was competition. He raced away for the planet, to beat the Lioness to market. Captain Greene lit up his drives as well, then had an inspiration. He instructed his crew to load the spice aboard the Pinnace, which has better drives than either ship, then to take off for the planet to beat the Subbie to the punch.

Now, the Subbie's reaction roll was 5, hostile & may attack. Will the other captain risk opening fire?  There's a Naval base in Glaumvor, so he might not get away with it. Or maybe he'll plot revenge once they're on the ground. 

And the adventure continues . . .

Path of the Lioness - Campaign journal #2

Captain's Log, Federation Science Vessel Lioness
Captain Josiah Greene reporting

"The march of the Thunderwhumps"

     The Haephestian star-map generator which we found on Zephlenn had pointed us towards the planet Klah. Once we arrived, and were beginning to orbit the planet, lights on the side of the generator began to flash, which we determined was a directional indicator. Diego put us into a parking orbit above the starport, and I, Gen. Mason, Wally, Svetlana and Carter rode down in the pinnace. 

      After landing the pinnace at Klah starport, and delivering the q-ferrets and tree rat to the local zoo officials, we lifted in the direction the generator seemed to be pointing us. A few hundred km northeast of the port, the generator zeroed in on a large ranch-style house. We couldn't see any indication of the presence of the pentagon piece, so we concluded that it must be in the house.

  The house belonged to a Mr. Walpole, who owned most of the land we could see. I introduced our team, and explained in brief what we were looking for. Walpole agreed to let us look around, and to my surprise, the piece was not in the house. The star map device began to flash lights on all sides, and Mason realized it meant that the next piece was buried beneath the house. Walpole denied any knowledge of this. He agreed to let us dig beneath his house for the piece, but asked us to do him a favor first.

Mr. Walpole's problem was with the local wildlife. A herd of large grazers, which he termed "Thunderwhumps" were headed toward his ranch house. They were still 20+ hours away, but these creatures apparently move in straight lines, and don't bother going around obstacles, choosing instead to bash through them. Thunderwhumps can weigh up to 30 tons each, and this herd had half a dozen of them. 

Path of the LIoness - Campaign Journal #3

FSS Lioness

Captain Josiah Greene

Second Pentagon piece uncovered

Second one found, first one kept. Three more to find.

After several days of work we had dug a tunnel under Mr. Walpole's ranch, down to the chamber where our sensors indicated we would find the next piece of this mysterious pentagon. Zeke and I were the first to enter the chamber, and it was as we expected, circular with a round dome ceiling. A map projector sat on a pedestal and the second pentagon piece was on the wall, just like last time. We took images of all the inscriptions and carefully moved the piece up to the surface. We did not have long to celebrate before the trouble we expected started.

A large paramilitary craft on contra-grav swooped in on the ranch within minutes of our bringing the pentagon piece to the surface.

Four men in combat gear piled out of the g-carrier, covered us with auto-rifles and demanded that we hand over the pentagon piece. Zeke suggested that they soak their heads instead. That’s when the shooting started. The attackers took cover behind one of the dirt piles we made.

From this point, I’m relying on Carter’s report, as I got hit early and lost consciousness.

Zeke rushed them, Diego dove into the excavation hole, and Svetlana pulled me behind some cover on the other big mound of dirt. 

Mr. Walpole grabbed his shotgun and took a swipe at the trespassers, and was shot for his trouble. Dr. Marx says he’ll be ok. 

Carter and Wally lifted the pinnace so that Carter could use the ship’s gun. He killed one, and chased the others behind the dirt pile and blew some craters in the yard. After losing the targets, Wally landed again, and he and Carter ran to help Diego and Zeke. 

Zeke got in close and was brawling with two of the guys before he got knocked down. Diego ran to help him, but the attackers shot him too. He’s in bad shape, but Dr. Marx was able to pull him through.

After Zeke took out another attacker, the last remaining one ran back for the carrier and tried to take off. Zeke started a boarding action, and made it half-way into the hatch as the carrier took off. 

At this point Vince, Big Al, Marcus and John arrived. They had piled into the air/raft and made an emergency drop when they saw the attackers arrive.

Vince steered the air/raft above the carrier to prevent it from taking off, and Carter, with a boost from Wally, succeeded in jumping up and getting aboard, hauling Zeke after him. The two of them overpowered the last attacker and brought the carrier down again.

Vince and Dr. Marx rushed Diego and me back to the ship for surgery, leaving Zeke to clean up the scene at the ranch.

We have the second map projector, and the computer is working on matching it to current star charts. We have a piece of the pentagon now, and the map to the next one. I still have no idea what it's all about.  

All we got out of our captive, before the local constabulary took him away was that his group had been hired on Mavellar by an agent working for someone else. They were to report to the agent when they had what we now have, the agent would take the objects back to his employer. I wonder who this employer is. 

Path of the Lioness - Campaign Journal #1

Captain's Log Federation Science Ship Lioness
Captain Josiah Greene reporting

Ferret Hunt

     We left Zephlenn, and returned to Mavellar to complete our contract with the pharmaceutical firm. After delivering the plant samples we were able to turn our attention more fully to figuring out what we had found in the cave on Zephlenn. The triangular metal plate which we had until the mysterious team of soldiers took it from us seems likely to be part of a set, which make up the pentagon design on the wall of the cave. 
The star field projector was easier to understand; but it took our ship's computer nearly the whole jump to correlate the image with a location in space. It looks like our next destination is the planet Klah, two parsecs from Mavellar. 

     Some local scholars were able to give us a lead on the inscriptions on the cave entrance and walls, we now know at least that the writing is Haephestian. Everybody knows of the Haephestians, that they're xenophobic humanoid aliens who possess incredibly advanced technology but don't share any with the Federation. What we don't know is anything certain about them, not even their language. The sages were only able to translate a few words from the inscriptions we showed them:

• Power 
• Space
• Guard
• Great

We have no idea what any of that could mean. The star map points us towards Klah. Once we get there we will try to find out where the star map image was taken. 

For the transit to Klah from Mavellar, we have taken on some routine cargo to offset costs, and one charter job. We are transferring a family of twelve Horton's quasi-ferrets, commonly called Q-ferrets and a White Speckled Tree Rat to the national Zoo on Klah. During the trip, the q-ferrets managed to escape their containment unit, and the entire crew had to get involved in rounding them up. They're cute little creatures, but they move fast and were hard to catch. The tree rat broke out of its cage - no one told us that tree rats like the taste of q-ferret. Fortunately we captured it before it could get its teeth into one. General Mason and I agreed it would be best not to mention to the Zoo that their one exhibit almost ate the other. 
End of entry.

Horten's quasi-ferret
Omnivore Gatherer    6 kg    6/12     Teeth-2D    no armor    A9  F3  S3
Hoten's quasi-ferrets, also 'horties' and q-ferrets, are a playful but undomesticated woodland creature from the planet Zed. Black to gray to off-white in color, six-limbed and very lithe, they get into small spaces easily.

White speckled tree rats
Carnivore chaser    25 kg    15/9    claws & teeth    Jack armor    A if more  F6  S3
Tree rats are short, with sleek silky brown fur speckled with large white spots. The tree rat is a rare prize specimen found only in a few zoos. Their temperment is agressive, territorial; they attack with fury when provoked.