After stating that I wasn't going to do an update, here's an update.
Today saw a lot more combat.
The players, after "securing" the unconscious scientist (shot into unconsciousness last game) to a rolling chair to for easier transport, moved into the smaller lab room.
Inside, they found evidence of an explosion and some structural damage to the ship, but at first, that appeared to be all. As they slowly advanced across the lab, half way there, they began to hear urgent whispers - "quickly! quickly!", then soon afterwards, a huge swarm of rats irrupted from underneath the rubble to attack them. Simultaneously, a crazed scientist appeared from behind some cover at the end of the lab shouting "devour them my children!" and opening fire with a snub pistol.
The party was surrounded - rats along the flank, crazy scientist with a snub pistol at the head of the line, closed unpowered iris valve behind them. [Think Hannibal at Lake Trasimene, if you're a complete dork like me.]
The first turn six rats died from excessive shotgun and SMG exposure, then the rest split up with a half-dozen rats swarming each person in range, climbing onto them and biting them. The crazy scientist engaged two others with his snub pistol. He had taken up position very near to a "tunnel hole", but had some good, hard cover to shoot from behind.
The rat attack portion became a game of attrition - for simplicity's sake, I assumed a rat swarm got one attack per round, and players could melee the rats with either a weapon or their hands if they had no relevant weapon skill. A rat died on a 3+ wound, and extra damage could "spill over" to another rat. The "rat fight" got pretty ugly, almost dropping two players. As written, the rats should probably have stripped all of the players like piranhas, but my rats are not quite as nasty as the official ones, and they have a few other tactical advantages I won't go into here.
The gunfight side was equally nasty - the first round, the players didn't grab as much cover as they should have, but the closest player's cloth armor saved him from the first round from the snub pistol. The scientist's enhanced physique allowed him to survive three solid hits, and after a few rounds of lucky rolling the cloth armored character was suffering greatly. He withdrew from the firefight, leaving the army guy to finish the job. He obliged, plugging away with his rifle from around the corner. By the 4th turn, the scientist was worn down to the point that another solid hit would finish him off. He decided to evade and make a break for the tunnel, but the army guy finished him off with a final rifle round - the players' first human kill of the adventure.
Upon the scientist's death, the rats dispersed, leaving the players to ponder the strange mental reading data one of them had uncovered earlier in the lab computer's data....
And that's where we broke for the session. Two characters on their last breath before going unconscious or worse, another pretty beat up and two in relatively good shape.
I'm using a more forgiving version of healing than true CT - if you don't zero a stat, first aid will completely recover your wounds. In truth, the CT rules are ambiguous about how to handle slightly wounded characters, so I've decided to err on the side of Hollywood - unless you're actually knocked down, some "field medicine" will return you to fighting form.
On the down side, effective first aid takes a Medic-1 and 15 minutes with a medkit, so it would take their medic the better part of an hour to patch everyone up.
They're most likely not going to have that much time. :)
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Not gone, just dead for tax purposes.
Sorry for the paucity of posts lately. Life has been keeping very busy the past two weeks. I'll get back to my regularly scheduled updates next week.
Monday, October 22, 2012
And for contrast...
Highlighting Classic Traveller's more spartan style of character (no connections, very little detail generated by the term system...), here's Sword Worlder street thug made good:
Other/Merchant 3rd Officer Tor Halperin BA5875, Age 34
Skills: Steward-2, Mechanical-1, Electronic-1, Vacc Suit-1, Blade-1, Brawling-1, Streetwise-1
Equipment: Blade(Cutlass), 20,000 Cr
Tor was a big kid from a rough part of town who found himself serving as a "tough" for a local mob leader. His generally negative outlook and an unfortunate case of asthma contribute to his diminished endurance, though he has tried to make up for his shortcomings through rigorous weight lifting and training his naturally high dexterity.
When his gang got busted by the local law enforcement, he signed on as muscle for a tramp freighter in the area. The captain quickly saw that Tor was more than he appeared, and promoted him to be the ship's Steward, a job Tor found he was surprisingly good at. As often happens, Tor cross-trained in zero-G operations as well as general repair skills (mechanical and electrical), which came in handy in maintaining the ship's life support and passenger systems.
Now, Tor is an experienced space hand, and while some may be intimidated by his size and unrefined accent, his quick wits and obvious passion for stewardship soon win them over.
Other/Merchant 3rd Officer Tor Halperin BA5875, Age 34
Skills: Steward-2, Mechanical-1, Electronic-1, Vacc Suit-1, Blade-1, Brawling-1, Streetwise-1
Equipment: Blade(Cutlass), 20,000 Cr
Tor was a big kid from a rough part of town who found himself serving as a "tough" for a local mob leader. His generally negative outlook and an unfortunate case of asthma contribute to his diminished endurance, though he has tried to make up for his shortcomings through rigorous weight lifting and training his naturally high dexterity.
When his gang got busted by the local law enforcement, he signed on as muscle for a tramp freighter in the area. The captain quickly saw that Tor was more than he appeared, and promoted him to be the ship's Steward, a job Tor found he was surprisingly good at. As often happens, Tor cross-trained in zero-G operations as well as general repair skills (mechanical and electrical), which came in handy in maintaining the ship's life support and passenger systems.
Now, Tor is an experienced space hand, and while some may be intimidated by his size and unrefined accent, his quick wits and obvious passion for stewardship soon win them over.
First, a Mongoose Traveller Character
Sometimes I like to play the "Traveller CharGen game". Most of these characters are destined for the dustbin, or maybe use as more well-developed NPCs, and I only keep records of the ones that turn out to be interesting. I take the rolls as they happen when I'm doing this, and then try to weave a plausible story out of the results.
The first character is an Imperial Treasure Hunter, Lady Duanna Engebar, who worked out to be kind of a "b-team" version of Lara Croft or Sydney Fox (if anyone but me remembers "Relic Hunter").
I'm going to drag out a few of these characters to share. Because I'm mostly doing this during the odd lunch break, the writeups follow no uniform format or level of detail, but should have enough notes to be able to play the character in a game. And before anyone complains, yes I know these are kind of stereotyped. I'm a firm believer in using broad strokes when painting RPG characters, because I don't have the luxury of dozens of pages or the nuanced performance of a professional actor to portray them.
Some are "Classic Traveller" characters, and some (like this one) are "Mongoose Traveller" characters. I've used Spica Publishing's "Career Books" in some cases (again, like this one), and a few characters are for Spica's "Outer Veil" setting instead of the standard "3rd Imperium" setting.
Some are "Classic Traveller" characters, and some (like this one) are "Mongoose Traveller" characters. I've used Spica Publishing's "Career Books" in some cases (again, like this one), and a few characters are for Spica's "Outer Veil" setting instead of the standard "3rd Imperium" setting.
The first character is an Imperial Treasure Hunter, Lady Duanna Engebar, who worked out to be kind of a "b-team" version of Lara Croft or Sydney Fox (if anyone but me remembers "Relic Hunter").
Lady Duanna Engebar 6CA55A - 26yo Treasure Hunter (Career Book 1)
Survival-1, Gun Combat(slug pistol)-1, Art(Primitive)-1, Athletics(coordination)-1,
Animals(riding)-0, Stealth-0, Recon-0, Flyer-0, Carousing-0
2 Allies - Garun Revesh, Simi Odakar
1 Enemy - Yanos Shevinssen
0 Cr
A hardy if slightly built girl from an influential family, Lady Duanna never paid much attention in school and isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, though her phenomenal agility and perseverance has served her well. At 18 years old, she longed to escape the confines of High Society. Her father pull some strings to get her assigned to the crew of a high-profile freelance Treasure Hunting outfit. She quickly impressed her crew chief with her bravery (if not her intelligence) and was given more in-field missions, where she learned about survival and Ancient artwork. In her second term, she was betrayed by a former colleague and found herself with an unexpected need to hone her gun combat skills. No longer able to trust her employer, Lady Duanna left the service and set out on her own.
Now a more experienced woman who is more at home in the field than she is in high society, Duanna still maintains very friendly relations with two of her old collegues, though her betrayer continues to be a thorn in her side, as does her currently cashless state.
Allies:
Garun Revesh - a vargr archaeologist, Garun and Duanna have been on many digs together. In essence, he was the brains to Duannas brawn, and together they were able to retrieve a number of high-profile artifacts and knowledge. Garun is quite fond of Duanna, admiring her spirit and determination. He will happily assist her in any way he can, and considers her to be a personal friend as well as a valuable professional contact.
Simi Odakar - an Imperial human, Simi is one of Duanna's "girly friends". During the years they were on the same planet, they enjoyed spending their down time together, and have a genuinely strong friendship. Simi is a Broker by occupation, and she frequently finds deals which she shares with Duanna. Though her busy lifestyle prevents her from travelling herself, she has many contacts throughout the sector and can "pave the way" if she has time to do so. In return, Duanna will pass along any information she finds about business opportunities and will look out for opportunities to send business to her friend.
Enemies:
Yanos Shevinssen - a Sword Worlder by culture, and a rival Adventurer, Yanos betrayed Duanna's trust by stealing an important artifact that she and Garun were working to retreive. Yanos is an unscrupulous man who views non-Sword Worlders with contempt, believing that they are "chumps who deserve what they get". It is speculated that his hatred of Duanna is more personal though. He is a boorish man whose advances Duanna rebuffed.
Str: 6 Int: 5
Dex: 12 Edu: 5
End: 10 Soc: 10
Animals(riding)-0, Stealth-0, Recon-0, Flyer-0, Carousing-0
2 Allies - Garun Revesh, Simi Odakar
1 Enemy - Yanos Shevinssen
0 Cr
A hardy if slightly built girl from an influential family, Lady Duanna never paid much attention in school and isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, though her phenomenal agility and perseverance has served her well. At 18 years old, she longed to escape the confines of High Society. Her father pull some strings to get her assigned to the crew of a high-profile freelance Treasure Hunting outfit. She quickly impressed her crew chief with her bravery (if not her intelligence) and was given more in-field missions, where she learned about survival and Ancient artwork. In her second term, she was betrayed by a former colleague and found herself with an unexpected need to hone her gun combat skills. No longer able to trust her employer, Lady Duanna left the service and set out on her own.
Now a more experienced woman who is more at home in the field than she is in high society, Duanna still maintains very friendly relations with two of her old collegues, though her betrayer continues to be a thorn in her side, as does her currently cashless state.
Allies:
Garun Revesh - a vargr archaeologist, Garun and Duanna have been on many digs together. In essence, he was the brains to Duannas brawn, and together they were able to retrieve a number of high-profile artifacts and knowledge. Garun is quite fond of Duanna, admiring her spirit and determination. He will happily assist her in any way he can, and considers her to be a personal friend as well as a valuable professional contact.
Simi Odakar - an Imperial human, Simi is one of Duanna's "girly friends". During the years they were on the same planet, they enjoyed spending their down time together, and have a genuinely strong friendship. Simi is a Broker by occupation, and she frequently finds deals which she shares with Duanna. Though her busy lifestyle prevents her from travelling herself, she has many contacts throughout the sector and can "pave the way" if she has time to do so. In return, Duanna will pass along any information she finds about business opportunities and will look out for opportunities to send business to her friend.
Enemies:
Yanos Shevinssen - a Sword Worlder by culture, and a rival Adventurer, Yanos betrayed Duanna's trust by stealing an important artifact that she and Garun were working to retreive. Yanos is an unscrupulous man who views non-Sword Worlders with contempt, believing that they are "chumps who deserve what they get". It is speculated that his hatred of Duanna is more personal though. He is a boorish man whose advances Duanna rebuffed.
Friday, October 12, 2012
Traveller Tuesday - working towards the bridge
The Traveller Tuesdays game resumed this week, where our intrepid band of misfits found themselves subduing the mentally unstable ship's engineer.
The engineer's "disease" wore off, and he collapsed into a nearly unconscious state. The players were able to question him briefly, but he was more concerned with denying that he had been eating the dead bodies they found him with than he was in answering any relevant questions about what was going on.
While they were tranquilizing him and tying him up, another swarm of ratoids attacked. The ex-soldier was bitten, but the damage was negligible. (I'm using the rule that unless you zero a stat, first aid restores you completely.)
The players approached the bulkhead's iris valve and opened it. It immediately snapped shut, and a voice over the intercom said, "Ah, I see my little lab rats have learned a new trick...." Though discomfited, the characters bypassed the door control and moved onward towards the bridge. They investigated a few staterooms along the way, but found little of interest until they were within visual range of the bridge. (One stateroom had signs of a struggle and evidence that someone had been murdered, in contrast to the other bodies which appear to have died before being chewed on.)
The lead character saw something scuttle away around the "horizon" of the deck. Flicking on his IR goggles, he detected a single pair of human-sized footprints moving away from the bridge's doorway. Very soon afterwards, the sound of another iris valve door closing was heard down the hall. The players decided to investigate the bridge.
The bridge was largely operational, though a few of the lights were smashed out. One of the powerplant modules reported itself as being off line, most of the ship's fuel tanks are empty, and of course the long range communications gear was not responding. The ex-merchant came up with the bright idea of using the ship's security cameras and systems to the character's advantage. While many of the cameras had been smashed along with the lights, and a few more cameras were looking into dark areas, the players got a few glimpses of the laboratory areas and their disorderly states.
Meanwhile, the ex-navy character was examining the ship's computer's logs, turning up evidence that not only was someone sending reports to an unknown factor back on Earth, but that Solomani mercenary officers had visited the station - a bit suspicious, since Lysani corp has an Imperial charter. She was unable to determine the subject of the research from the coded messages however.
She did, however, discover the ship's anti-piracy software package (standard issue on a covert research laboratory), and the party immediately began to plan how to use this new capability to their advantage. Anti-piracy measures include locking out ship sections, modifying gravity and atmosphere withing bulkhead zones, and releasing sleeping gas as required.
They know that at least one human is out running around, and that he knows "his" ship has been invaded. It's also likely that he knows the capabilities of the ship, and won't hesitate to use those capabilities to his own advantage.
This is where we broke for the week.
The engineer's "disease" wore off, and he collapsed into a nearly unconscious state. The players were able to question him briefly, but he was more concerned with denying that he had been eating the dead bodies they found him with than he was in answering any relevant questions about what was going on.
While they were tranquilizing him and tying him up, another swarm of ratoids attacked. The ex-soldier was bitten, but the damage was negligible. (I'm using the rule that unless you zero a stat, first aid restores you completely.)
The players approached the bulkhead's iris valve and opened it. It immediately snapped shut, and a voice over the intercom said, "Ah, I see my little lab rats have learned a new trick...." Though discomfited, the characters bypassed the door control and moved onward towards the bridge. They investigated a few staterooms along the way, but found little of interest until they were within visual range of the bridge. (One stateroom had signs of a struggle and evidence that someone had been murdered, in contrast to the other bodies which appear to have died before being chewed on.)
The lead character saw something scuttle away around the "horizon" of the deck. Flicking on his IR goggles, he detected a single pair of human-sized footprints moving away from the bridge's doorway. Very soon afterwards, the sound of another iris valve door closing was heard down the hall. The players decided to investigate the bridge.
The bridge was largely operational, though a few of the lights were smashed out. One of the powerplant modules reported itself as being off line, most of the ship's fuel tanks are empty, and of course the long range communications gear was not responding. The ex-merchant came up with the bright idea of using the ship's security cameras and systems to the character's advantage. While many of the cameras had been smashed along with the lights, and a few more cameras were looking into dark areas, the players got a few glimpses of the laboratory areas and their disorderly states.
Meanwhile, the ex-navy character was examining the ship's computer's logs, turning up evidence that not only was someone sending reports to an unknown factor back on Earth, but that Solomani mercenary officers had visited the station - a bit suspicious, since Lysani corp has an Imperial charter. She was unable to determine the subject of the research from the coded messages however.
She did, however, discover the ship's anti-piracy software package (standard issue on a covert research laboratory), and the party immediately began to plan how to use this new capability to their advantage. Anti-piracy measures include locking out ship sections, modifying gravity and atmosphere withing bulkhead zones, and releasing sleeping gas as required.
They know that at least one human is out running around, and that he knows "his" ship has been invaded. It's also likely that he knows the capabilities of the ship, and won't hesitate to use those capabilities to his own advantage.
This is where we broke for the week.
Friday, October 5, 2012
Hopeless Characters?
In my "Death Station" game, I decided to have players pick from the pregenerated character list in the adventure, just to keep things simple. The leftovers were characters that could best be described as "hopeless", or at least obviously disadvantaged compared to the other characters in the list.
In a random character generation system like Traveller's, this is unavoidable. The rules are pretty strict - if you don't like your character, sign it up for a dangerous career and hope it doesn't survive. That's kind of harsh to be sure, but it also leads to characters who suddenly become interesting because of their training, or who you begin to root for anyway during the generation process.
One of the folks considering joining the game wanted to know how to interpret these "hopeless" characters, so I wrote up a potential bio for each of them, to give an idea how seemingly "bad" character stats can lead to fun characters to play.
I doubt these exact characters will be of any interest to anyone, but since I like to read articles like this myself, maybe others will too. If you're not familiar with Traveller, 7 is the average statistic, which range from 2-12. Skill level-1 is competent, level-2 is accomplished, level-3 is expert, etc. "Soc" is not like Charisma, it's your social status. Low Soc doesn't make you bad, but it does mean that society ignores you (at best). Attacks are what "plus" you get to hit with that weapon and how many dice you roll for damage.
In a random character generation system like Traveller's, this is unavoidable. The rules are pretty strict - if you don't like your character, sign it up for a dangerous career and hope it doesn't survive. That's kind of harsh to be sure, but it also leads to characters who suddenly become interesting because of their training, or who you begin to root for anyway during the generation process.
One of the folks considering joining the game wanted to know how to interpret these "hopeless" characters, so I wrote up a potential bio for each of them, to give an idea how seemingly "bad" character stats can lead to fun characters to play.
I doubt these exact characters will be of any interest to anyone, but since I like to read articles like this myself, maybe others will too. If you're not familiar with Traveller, 7 is the average statistic, which range from 2-12. Skill level-1 is competent, level-2 is accomplished, level-3 is expert, etc. "Soc" is not like Charisma, it's your social status. Low Soc doesn't make you bad, but it does mean that society ignores you (at best). Attacks are what "plus" you get to hit with that weapon and how many dice you roll for damage.
4)
Ex-Other 658573
Age 30 3 terms
Str:
6 Dex: 5 End: 8 Int: 5
Edu: 7 Soc: 3
Skills: Brawling-1,
Gambling-1, Streetwise-1, Bribery-1
Attacks: Blade
+0 2D, Fists +1 1D, Carbine +0 3D (Note, low dex makes any other
firearm impractical)
Equipment: Cr2,000
This guy
is probably a petty thug, skilled in pushing people around (bribery,
streetwise), gambling and fist fights. He’s not very strong, but he has a
passable endurance, which would help in in a fight. He’s kinda below average in
most respects, and his Social Standing is so low, he’s either some sort of
illegal alien or other social undesirable. Considering his average level of
education, he’s probably not a barbarian or street urchin, so there’s probably
a story there.
He does,
however, have a fair amount of cash compared to everyone else, probably
resulting from his Gambling skill. I picture this guy as a small-ish but
surprisingly sturdy person who may not be the world’s sharpest intellect, but
has learned how to “work the system”, even though “the system” has very little
use for him. I would guess that he wound up on the mining colony to help pay
off some “bad choices” made on another world, and has steadily been currying
favor and running some petty gambling games to make money on the side.
5)
Ex-Marine Lieutenant 966855 Age 30 3 terms
Str:
9 Dex: 6 End: 6 Int: 8
Edu: 5 Soc: 5
Skills: ATV-1,
Tactics-1, Brawling-1, Cutlass-1, Revolver-1
Attacks: Cutlass
+1 3D, Fists +1 1D, Revolver -1 3D (yes, -1, due to his low
Dex), Dagger +2 2D
Equipment: Cr4,000
This guy is big, strong and smart, though not in the best shape,
and not very well educated. He’s mostly all about the close-in fighting or armor tactics (ATV includes crewing tanks and APCs, and his Tactics skill indicates he was at least the vehicle's commander.)
If it weren’t for his high Intelligence, I’d say he’s your basic
big violent jarhead, though he did made it to Lieutenant, and he’s managed to
save more money than any other character in the list, so how dumb is he? I
imagine he’s at the colony because he found he was at a loss to find gainful
employment when the marines no longer needed him, and maybe didn't know enough
about how the world works to read the fine print on his employment contract.
8)
Ex-Other 586AA4
Age 26 2 terms
Str:
5 Dex: 8 End: 6 Int:
10 Edu: 10 Soc: 4
Skills: Forgery-2,
Dagger-1, Streetwise-1
Attacks: Dagger
+1 2D
Equipment: Cr1,000
And this guy is another street punk, but this time with high
dexterity and VERY high Int and Edu. With Forgery-2, I suspect he’s the archetypal “guy you go to to get whatever you need”, with a specialty in fake
documentation – sketchy and slightly built, but slippery and able to handle himself
in a knife fight. His education may be the result of some sort of scholarship
offered to “socially disadvantaged” students with great potential, or it could
be a personal obsession with learning that has allowed him to gain an
encyclopedic body of knowledge without any actual ability to apply that
knowledge.
He’s possibly on-world “playing dead” to avoid some crime boss
back home. If he could just get passage off world, well, the Imperium is a big
place and he’s good at not being found.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Traveller Musings - Adding Armor to LBB2 Starships
Here's another Traveller house rule I've been thinking about. I originally wrote this down a few months ago, but since I have a blog to share it on now, I'm posting it here.
Some background:
In the Classic Traveller (CT) world, people are aware that there are sort of two different takes on Classic Traveller - the basic system described in the "Little Black Books" 1-3 (known as LBB1-3), and the expanded system that begins with "Book 4: Mercenary". It's a bit like the differences in Basic and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons back in the day, though LBB1-3 Traveller is not "capped" like Basic D&D was.
"Book 2 - Starships" laid out a universe not too different from the Age of Sail, where merchant ships and warships were sometimes interchangeable, no ships were the size of cities, and players in tramp freighters could sometimes hope to shoot their way past patrol craft. "Book 5 - High Guard" effectively ushered in the Age of the Dreadnought, and the Imperial Navy became a mighty fleet of gigantic, nearly indestructible Battlecruisers with spinal-mount meson cannons and bays full of particle accelerator cannons, the smallest of which was larger than any Bk2 ship possible. While very cool, it's not the same universe after Bk5 in my opinion.
To push the analogy to the breaking point, I'd like to be able to keep a "Book 2" universe, add some Ironclads, but not go all the way to Battleships.
I've seen many attempts to retrofit High Guard type armor rules into the Bk2 system, and many of them seem very workable. But none of them fit my personal "feel" criteria. This is my attempt to address that lack.
Some background:
In the Classic Traveller (CT) world, people are aware that there are sort of two different takes on Classic Traveller - the basic system described in the "Little Black Books" 1-3 (known as LBB1-3), and the expanded system that begins with "Book 4: Mercenary". It's a bit like the differences in Basic and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons back in the day, though LBB1-3 Traveller is not "capped" like Basic D&D was.
"Book 2 - Starships" laid out a universe not too different from the Age of Sail, where merchant ships and warships were sometimes interchangeable, no ships were the size of cities, and players in tramp freighters could sometimes hope to shoot their way past patrol craft. "Book 5 - High Guard" effectively ushered in the Age of the Dreadnought, and the Imperial Navy became a mighty fleet of gigantic, nearly indestructible Battlecruisers with spinal-mount meson cannons and bays full of particle accelerator cannons, the smallest of which was larger than any Bk2 ship possible. While very cool, it's not the same universe after Bk5 in my opinion.
To push the analogy to the breaking point, I'd like to be able to keep a "Book 2" universe, add some Ironclads, but not go all the way to Battleships.
I've seen many attempts to retrofit High Guard type armor rules into the Bk2 system, and many of them seem very workable. But none of them fit my personal "feel" criteria. This is my attempt to address that lack.
"Book 2" Starship Armor
Each hull section (main, engineering) may be armored separately. Each section's armor covers a certain range of hit locations (see below for details). If a hit hits an armored section, the armor absorbs the hit, but is then considered destroyed for that location. For example, if a ship with an armored engineering section takes a hit to the power plant, the hit will be discarded, but future hits to the power plant will be suffered as usual, as the armor there has been compromised.
Armor hits are repaired individually at a cost of 1% of the hull's cost per hit, and must be repaired at a C class or better shipyard. Note that it should never cost more than the armor's original cost to make repairs.
You can install armor multiple times, paying the price and displacement. Each new "layer" absorbs another hit.
For sake of exposition, here is the hit location table:
You can install armor multiple times, paying the price and displacement. Each new "layer" absorbs another hit.
For sake of exposition, here is the hit location table:
2 Powerplant
3 Maneuver
4 Jump (or Maneuver for non-starships)
5 Fuel
6 Hull
7 Hull
8 Hold
9 Computer
10 Turret
11 Turret
12 Critical
Main Section:
Armor costs 3% of the hull's normal cost, and the armor itself takes up 5% of the section's volume.
The armor covers locations 6, 7, 8 (Hull and hold - the most statistically likely locations, and the most economically oriented parts of a trading ship. Use the ship's floor plan to decide if the two hull hits should be crew/passenger or some other breakdown).
Engineering Section:
Armor costs 2% of the hull's normal cost, and the armor itself takes up 5% of the section's volume. Note that if the engineering section is larger than the main section, costs will need to be adjusted. Note that the smaller standard hulls generally do not have enough extra tonnage to contain the armor, so to armor the drives of a merchant ship, you would need a custom hull design.
The armor covers locations 2,3,4 (the drives).
Note that to armor the entire ship would cost 5% of the hull's cost, and would take 5% of the total ship's volume, split between the two sections.
[I based the armor costs off of Mongoose Traveller's SRD, so while this armor doesn't function like MgT armor, it costs the same.]
Advanced Ideas
You can buy higher tech armor materials, but you limit yourself to repairs at a starport of the appropriate tech level. Note that all armor takes up the same displacement, but the cost varies considerably. More rigid armors can cover harder-to-cover locations as well as provide better coverage in the normal locations.
Titanium Steel (TL 7+) The basic armor, costs 5% of the hull's cost (3% for main, 2% for engineering)
[I based the armor costs off of Mongoose Traveller's SRD, so while this armor doesn't function like MgT armor, it costs the same.]
Advanced Ideas
You can buy higher tech armor materials, but you limit yourself to repairs at a starport of the appropriate tech level. Note that all armor takes up the same displacement, but the cost varies considerably. More rigid armors can cover harder-to-cover locations as well as provide better coverage in the normal locations.
Titanium Steel (TL 7+) The basic armor, costs 5% of the hull's cost (3% for main, 2% for engineering)
- absorbs first hit to (2,3,4,6,7,8)
- absorbs first two hits to (2,3,4,6,7,8)
- absorbs first hit to (5,9) (fuel, computer)
- absorbs first three hits to (2,3,4,6,7,8)
- absorbs first two hits to (5,9)
- absorbs first hit to (10,11) (turrets)
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Rocketship Polaris, Mongoose Traveller Style
Just for fun, a while ago I put together a Mongoose Traveller version of the classic spaceship "Polaris" from "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet". If you don't know what I'm talking about, get off my lawn! :)
The picture below is originally from the Spaceship Handbook and is included without express permission. I'm not sure where I got this actual image from, though Project Rho has a similar picture and draws some different conclusions about the ship's volume and other attributes.
Polaris: 60m long, fission power plant, reaction drive
Laid out as a cigar shaped "tail sitter" with circular decks and aerodynamic fins.
scale picture: 375px long, 48px wide
Assuming the 60m is the hull and not the fins, then we have a diameter of 7.5 meters
The ship is layed out in cylindrical sections, with the widest part being centered on the power plant/engineering deck
Conveniently, the decks are about standard Traveller deck height.
The widest deck (9) is roughly 9dt
The whole ship comes out to about 100dt
Now on to the stats:
scale picture: 375px long, 48px wide
Assuming the 60m is the hull and not the fins, then we have a diameter of 7.5 meters
The ship is layed out in cylindrical sections, with the widest part being centered on the power plant/engineering deck
Conveniently, the decks are about standard Traveller deck height.
The widest deck (9) is roughly 9dt
The whole ship comes out to about 100dt
Now on to the stats:
Hull: 100t small-craft, streamlined + aerofins(5t)
Decks:
1 - Radar/Avionics (sensors) 1dt
2 - Sensors/Radar Deck (sensors, cockpit) 2dt
3 - Bridge/Command Deck (sensors, cockpit) 3.5dt
6.5 dt total
These three decks make up the control and electronics center
Military Sensors DM+0 (2dt)
Radar Operator Cockpit (1.5dt)
Commander Cabin (3dt)
The engineer's "cockpit" controls are down on the Power deck.
4 - Hydroponics 5dt
common area, "luxuries", galley and food storage, all rolled in to one.
The hydroponics allows lifesupport to keep up to 2 prisoners in the brig
5 - Crew Quarters 6dt
Barracks for 3 - 6t
6 - Arms magazine 8dt (missiles, weapon tonnage)
The actual tonnage for the ship's weaponry is on this deck, as well as storage for missiles and probes. There's not a lot of details available online, so whatever weapons you can squeeze into 8dt should be ok. I imagine this space is somewhat modular, and armament could vary from ship to ship or even mission to mission.
The hull can support up to 5 "ship" weapons and 10 anti-personel weapons The power plant can handle up to 2 energy weapons.
7 - Stores/Storm Cellar 9dt
Ship's locker(1dt)
2dt cargo space, convertable to a brig.
Vault (6dt) +4 Hull, +4 Structure containing barracks
Vault can also be used for general storage
8 - Boat Deck 10dt
A 10dt Hangar, suitable for a G-Carrier or pair of air/rafts
The entire deck can be depressurized to allow space access.
9 - Power Deck 9dt(+1.5) (p-plant 3, sL )
1.5dt for the engineer's control room "cockpit"
Fission plant sL is the largest that will fit, giving a P-3 rating This rating is necessary to power up to 2 beam weapons, but otherwise we could get away with a much smaller power plant.
I'm cheating a little and letting this deck be too "Deep". I feel justified though, because the plans give a thick radiation shield between this deck and the fuel. In Traveller, fission plants are twice the size of a fusion plant, so I've decided to allow an extra 1.5dt "for free" so we can fit a 9dt power plant in here.
10 - Fuel Tankage (about 5 deck's worth) 33 dt
The power plant is a fission plant and doesn't need fuel, but the engines are reaction drives, and these tanks hold enough for 13.2 G-hours, which in normal operations should be enough.
NOTE: this should be more like 40dt by the map, but the aerofins and other options take us over 100dt. It might be worth it to scale back on some stuff, like dropping the hydroponics and reducing the arm magazine deck, but that would definitely change the layout some.
11 - Engine Deck (about 2 deck's worth) 7dt
sX drive M6
The Polaris is a hotshot rocket, so it gets 6G engines.
However, given the TL, they are reaction drives not gravity drives.
(Which is odd, considering that the ship has artificial gravity....)
Decks:
1 - Radar/Avionics (sensors) 1dt
2 - Sensors/Radar Deck (sensors, cockpit) 2dt
3 - Bridge/Command Deck (sensors, cockpit) 3.5dt
6.5 dt total
These three decks make up the control and electronics center
Military Sensors DM+0 (2dt)
Radar Operator Cockpit (1.5dt)
Commander Cabin (3dt)
The engineer's "cockpit" controls are down on the Power deck.
4 - Hydroponics 5dt
common area, "luxuries", galley and food storage, all rolled in to one.
The hydroponics allows lifesupport to keep up to 2 prisoners in the brig
5 - Crew Quarters 6dt
Barracks for 3 - 6t
6 - Arms magazine 8dt (missiles, weapon tonnage)
The actual tonnage for the ship's weaponry is on this deck, as well as storage for missiles and probes. There's not a lot of details available online, so whatever weapons you can squeeze into 8dt should be ok. I imagine this space is somewhat modular, and armament could vary from ship to ship or even mission to mission.
The hull can support up to 5 "ship" weapons and 10 anti-personel weapons The power plant can handle up to 2 energy weapons.
7 - Stores/Storm Cellar 9dt
Ship's locker(1dt)
2dt cargo space, convertable to a brig.
Vault (6dt) +4 Hull, +4 Structure containing barracks
Vault can also be used for general storage
8 - Boat Deck 10dt
A 10dt Hangar, suitable for a G-Carrier or pair of air/rafts
The entire deck can be depressurized to allow space access.
9 - Power Deck 9dt(+1.5) (p-plant 3, sL )
1.5dt for the engineer's control room "cockpit"
Fission plant sL is the largest that will fit, giving a P-3 rating This rating is necessary to power up to 2 beam weapons, but otherwise we could get away with a much smaller power plant.
I'm cheating a little and letting this deck be too "Deep". I feel justified though, because the plans give a thick radiation shield between this deck and the fuel. In Traveller, fission plants are twice the size of a fusion plant, so I've decided to allow an extra 1.5dt "for free" so we can fit a 9dt power plant in here.
10 - Fuel Tankage (about 5 deck's worth) 33 dt
The power plant is a fission plant and doesn't need fuel, but the engines are reaction drives, and these tanks hold enough for 13.2 G-hours, which in normal operations should be enough.
NOTE: this should be more like 40dt by the map, but the aerofins and other options take us over 100dt. It might be worth it to scale back on some stuff, like dropping the hydroponics and reducing the arm magazine deck, but that would definitely change the layout some.
11 - Engine Deck (about 2 deck's worth) 7dt
sX drive M6
The Polaris is a hotshot rocket, so it gets 6G engines.
However, given the TL, they are reaction drives not gravity drives.
(Which is odd, considering that the ship has artificial gravity....)
So there you go. Now you can chase down robot rockets, save asteroid miners and rescue maidens from the dinosaur infested jungles of Venus. Just don't think too hard about why a trio of teenagers would be given command of such a vehicle in the first place.
Chuul out
So I chickened out with the home campaign and ran a simple "monster hunt" scenario over the weekend.
Having just finished dealing with the wicked Dark Oak tribe of lizardfolk, the party were trudging their way back towards Magnimar, when a lizardfolk druid appeared to them, as druids often do. After acknowledging that they had done the lizardfolk community a solid by dealing with that crazy queen Ssjarleth, he goes on this rambling and vaguely menacing parable about trespassers and such, ending with what sounds like a request for help dealing with an interloper from the salt marsh.
It seems a horrid crab-like thing has been eating the people of his tribe, and since the party has demonstrated that it's willing to help lizardfolk, maybe they could look into it?
So a few Survival (what Pathfinder uses for tracking skills) rolls later, the players find themselves on an island in the middle of a marsh being ambushed by a Chuul.
Chuuls are tough - they don't miss very often, and they're strong enough to grab anyone in the party. The Catfolk's "Escape Artist" skill kept her safe from harm (anyone who has ever tried to hold onto a cat that doesn't want to be held knows how that turned out), but the fighter got grappled a number of times, and the Chuul got to attempt a few paralysis attacks on him. Alas for the Chuul, the fighter's Fort save is mighty. (I should really stop trying to bespell the Fighter, it hardly ever works.)
The wizard really got to play in this one. After his acid arrow missed, he summoned a fire elemental to set the Chuul ablaze. The Chuul dispatched the elemental pretty quickly, but caught fire anyway. A lightning bolt skewered it pretty effectively, and with some assistance from the rogue's single successful hit (with sneak attack bonus for flanking, fortunately) and a few rounds of consistent but relatively low damage chopping from the fighter (who was as often as not grabbed), the Chuul finally succumbed to its wounds and fell on top of the cleric. So two rounds of Strength checks later (I decided to require a DC of 20 to lift the creature, but the fighter kept failing his rolls even with the assistance of the others), the encounter was over.
Chuuls apparently like to keep trophes from their prey, and this one had around 500gp equivalent and a potion of Speak with Dead. Not sure when they'll get the chance to use it, but it raises some creepy possibilities. (I'm also not sure you can have a potion like that, but I figure if you can pour it into a dead body, that will revitalize it enough to speak some. Plus that seems creepy, which it should.)
The End
For their further adventures, I've decided against "Entombed with the Pharaohs". Instead, I'm going with "Conquest of the Bloodsworn Vale", which involves securing a passage way from Varisia to Nirmathas.
Having just finished dealing with the wicked Dark Oak tribe of lizardfolk, the party were trudging their way back towards Magnimar, when a lizardfolk druid appeared to them, as druids often do. After acknowledging that they had done the lizardfolk community a solid by dealing with that crazy queen Ssjarleth, he goes on this rambling and vaguely menacing parable about trespassers and such, ending with what sounds like a request for help dealing with an interloper from the salt marsh.
It seems a horrid crab-like thing has been eating the people of his tribe, and since the party has demonstrated that it's willing to help lizardfolk, maybe they could look into it?
So a few Survival (what Pathfinder uses for tracking skills) rolls later, the players find themselves on an island in the middle of a marsh being ambushed by a Chuul.
Chuuls are tough - they don't miss very often, and they're strong enough to grab anyone in the party. The Catfolk's "Escape Artist" skill kept her safe from harm (anyone who has ever tried to hold onto a cat that doesn't want to be held knows how that turned out), but the fighter got grappled a number of times, and the Chuul got to attempt a few paralysis attacks on him. Alas for the Chuul, the fighter's Fort save is mighty. (I should really stop trying to bespell the Fighter, it hardly ever works.)
The wizard really got to play in this one. After his acid arrow missed, he summoned a fire elemental to set the Chuul ablaze. The Chuul dispatched the elemental pretty quickly, but caught fire anyway. A lightning bolt skewered it pretty effectively, and with some assistance from the rogue's single successful hit (with sneak attack bonus for flanking, fortunately) and a few rounds of consistent but relatively low damage chopping from the fighter (who was as often as not grabbed), the Chuul finally succumbed to its wounds and fell on top of the cleric. So two rounds of Strength checks later (I decided to require a DC of 20 to lift the creature, but the fighter kept failing his rolls even with the assistance of the others), the encounter was over.
Chuuls apparently like to keep trophes from their prey, and this one had around 500gp equivalent and a potion of Speak with Dead. Not sure when they'll get the chance to use it, but it raises some creepy possibilities. (I'm also not sure you can have a potion like that, but I figure if you can pour it into a dead body, that will revitalize it enough to speak some. Plus that seems creepy, which it should.)
The End
For their further adventures, I've decided against "Entombed with the Pharaohs". Instead, I'm going with "Conquest of the Bloodsworn Vale", which involves securing a passage way from Varisia to Nirmathas.
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