Tales of the Neophyte Travellers

Brett Favreing It

2010-09-01T15:42:00.000-07:00

I find now that I've unburdened myself of the personal commitment to writing here that I've got all this desire to blog nonetheless. I also find I've written "nonetheless" twice now in twenty minutes and got it wrong both times. A psychologist might have something interesting to say about the former, but he or she would probably want to start with my bed-wetting and beating of the family dog. I kid. About the dog.

In any event, I'd like this here webspace to remain as-is and not re-purpose it for a broader discussion on games or D&D. So, I just started up another one, linkled below. Robert has offered to make me a new banner and I'm taking him up on it. If the rest of you are inclined to follow me over, I promise not to retire again in five or six months.

A Dungeon Master's Tale

Goodbye?

2010-08-31T08:53:00.000-07:00

It should come as no surprise to those few following along still that I'm posting what should be the final blog entry here. My writing has been sporadic and even when I do drop in to post, I muse as much about D&D as I do Traveller. Given that, I figured I should at least try to cap this off somehow as opposed to merely shuffling off quietly into the night.

I set out to blog for two purposes. One, just as a writing assignment to get the juices flowing. As a body of work it may leave something to be desired, but I am writing more now off-line so: mission accomplished. Two, I thought perhaps this blog would hold an interest for others. Being an old hand at RPGing but having never played nor run a Traveller game, I figured I'd have something new or fresh to add to the discussion. I probably failed most here, but I'm not going to fret much over it. I enjoyed writing the blog, however short-lived, and enjoyed shooting the breeze with the handful of regulars that would drop by and discuss things both here and via e-mail. No harm there that I can see.

To be clear, this end isn't solely due to the constraints of limited time. (side note: I'm taking a break from work and blogging from a flight headed to the west coast thanks to in-flight wireless... otherwise, who knows when I would have gotten around to closing up shop here?). Of course I'm busy with work, family and life but I still find the time to game (just ask the Mrs.). That time just isn't being spent on Traveller and consequently this blog, despite an enthusiastic start to things. Things became clear to me recently when I found myself putting the time and energy into converting the current Traveller campaign to a BECMI D&D one. No joking. I had strayed off the original path and on to a new one... and I've decided not to fight it.

So while I'm giving up this blog and possibly blogging all-together, Pilar and Nathan will still be venturing out upon the Longshot seeking thrills and riches... only now they'll be sailing the cerulean seas of Avandar, my D&D world, and not the stars as originally planned. What this side jaunt into Traveller did for me, aside form exposing me to a solid and venerable game, was to shove me out of the rut that kept me from presenting a solo D&D experience that my wife and I could enjoy together. I think I've got that problem licked now, but the proof is still several weeks away. I'm certainly squarely back into a comfort zone as far as the setting and rules go, so I can focus more on the specific in-game stuff that will make for a fun and worthwhile experience for us both. I don't see a lot of dungeon crawling in our future together despite my personal love for that environment. There's plenty of other material to mine and the D&D rules can in fact support it. Now I see that more clearly.

In closing, thanks for a good time, folks. Best of luck to you all and good gaming.

A Neophyte on Neophytes

2010-08-02T14:14:00.000-07:00

My contention is that most current-day RPG rulebooks generally do a poor job of describing how the game is actually played and this poses the most significant barrier to entry for new players. I feel rather confident in the related belief, having observed, read and heard about how a rather wide array of people play RPGs, that we all essentially play them the same way in spite of this. Anybody out there who is purposefully trying to break this somewhat undefined paradigm need not describe how you’re going about things. That you’re trying to break something at all is proof enough for me that it exists. I’m also not really talking about individual systems and their rules considerations, or tone, or milieu, or whatever… I’m saying that when you sit down to play Traveller, or D&D, or Warhammer, or Palladium or whatever… you’re embarking upon what is essentially the same pursuit each time. You learned or developed this having been shown what to do at some point. Reading the books wasn’t a big help… at least not in and of themselves.

Think of two groups of musicians from any time and place. They will play different instruments with varying degrees of skill, utilize different idioms, know different chords or scales and express all sorts of emotions; but speed metal to avante garde noise making to chamber music to kiddie pop, they all sit down to achieve essentially the same thing together, and couldn’t have described what that was prior to having sat down at least once before to do the same. So it goes with RPGs.

Interestingly enough, books on music also do a poor job of describing how to play in my estimation. When learning to play the guitar, for instance, you can read about string bending, hammering on and playing with different sorts of emphasis without really knowing what any of it is until you’ve seen or heard it demonstrated. How do you explain to somebody in words what Frank Zappa did to his guitar?

I’m bringing this all up today because last evening my regular D&D group had the pleasure to share our game with some true, pure-as-the-driven-snow RPG neophytes. They were two bright, young men just beyond their high school years and preparing to embark upon their college ones. That in the first summer of their ostensible manhood they would choose to play D&D on a Sunday night with my crew says something about why they belong amongst us in the first place. But despite their obvious smarts, being steeped in so-called geek culture and their previous exposure to RPGs through computer and online play; they couldn’t make heads or tails out of what we do when they acquired the core rulebooks for D&D and tried reading them through (I’m not entirely sure with which edition between 3, 3.5 and 4 they tried this).

Their questions were both basic and directly relevant to the game. What does the DM really do? How much of the dungeon map is revealed to players? What gets described during the adventure? What’s important to know as a DM? As a player? Do I have to talk as if I’m my character? Can I talk as if I’m my character? These sorts of things end up not being explicitly described in the rulebooks. It’s easy to overlook them because once you’ve played the game and grasped the concept you sort of take it for granted. You must see it to know what it is. Once you’ve seen it, and understand it, you don’t generally do a whole lot of examining or describing it.

That recent editions of D&D and independently published games seem to be attempting to put an emphasis back on instruction is a good thing, I suppose. Maybe with a different edition of rules in their hands these guys wouldn’t have had to come so curious but clueless to our table. Maybe the sort of informal and in-process instruction they received from my group will always be necessary. In any event, it was a blast showing them the ropes and I hope that they got out of it what they were looking for. I also hope that their curiosity becomes a full-fledged interest, whether it is pursued at my table or elsewhere, because they were smart, fun people to play with. This world can always use more of those types. That their curiosity in the game could have diminished without every getting to experience a session is a shame. What to do? Build RPG outreach programs? Probbaly not. I dunno.

Helping them out was me doing my part. It also got me to thinking about my own first experiences with the hobby, reinforcing my belief that most RPG books are crap for describing play. It was a hot summer night on a neighbor’s back porch. His parents were two rooms away watching a Phillies game, oblivious that we were about to embark on a dangerous excursion to ruined Mistamere, the abode of Bargle the Warlock. The DM, a kid two years our senior, was the sort of wonderfully fair prick that makes adventuring tough but worth it. I was a thief. Raven. I drew a picture of a raven on the character sheet in the event an observer didn’t understand what I precisely meant. I was cool like that as a pre-teen.

I had my own D&D red box in less than a week. As I read through it, to better understand the rules behind all of those dice I was rolling, it was with having two full sessions already under my belt. I don’t know how much sense it would have all made lacking that. The red box was, and is, a rather clear and concise introduction to the hobby of role-playing. Just grasping the idea of not necessarily having a playing board might have been a broad leap for me at that time.

Anyway, I'm not really sure what I'm trying to express here other than documenting and sharing a memorable gaming experience that occured last night, leading me into a bout of nostalgia. (Those likewise stirred with mentions of Bargle and Mistamere may find this to be of interest.) I suppose just think a bit on how you got introduced to gaming and whether or not the books were big help aside from being a rules reference. Tell me about it below. Also, if a neophyte or two bothers to ask you about what it is you do... just show them.

Role Playing Games?

2010-07-30T06:56:00.000-07:00

It has been a rather intense week at work. I've just gotten through three days of the good kind of meetings, Tuesday through yesterday. What that means is ten hour work-days locked away in a sterile conference room with a handful of admirably bright people trying to solve problems together. I mean it, it was great. We did reasonably well. If the constraints of working for a large corporation whose leadership lacks balls and vision isn't too much to overcome, we'll actually accomplish something this year. These last three days are what keep me coming back to this job. I got to define, ponder and put forth solutions to problems this week.

I bring this up for two reasons. One, I haven't done a damn thing on the trade system. I went home every night these past three days and spent the waking hours with my family. When the sun went down I sat alone drinking a bottle or two of beer, strummed the guitar and prepared myself mentally for the next day. The other reason this all seems so relevant to me is that Alexis recently posted something over at Tao regarding RPG character cliches. He hit the nail on the head, as is his wont to do.

Accepting that others will get out of this game something entirely different than me perhaps, I know non-the- less what it is REALLY all about. We want to solve problems. We want to be clever and creative and in the end walk away with the prize because we deserve it... we won it. This isn't a kids game. A kids game is the charade I sleep-walk through most days of the work week. The kids game is shambling from meeting to meeting to hear the same stupid shit I heard last week, or to go home and pretend to care while my neighbor drones on about lawn care or his kid's swim meet. This game, whatever specific THIS GAME you're talking about, is about solving problems. At least that's why I keep coming back to it year after year after year and that's why it seems so much more relevant then whatever work-a-day routine I need to fall back into after three days of exhausting bliss.

Post Session Report 3: Back in the Saddle

2010-07-27T06:03:00.000-07:00

After a too-long hiatus from actually playing the game, my wife and I returned to the MTU this past weekend. You can check here and there for the first two sessions, if you like. The condensed version is as follows: Pilar (my wife’s character) and Nathan (her NPC partner) were aboard their modified Type A scout ship, the Longshot, and headed outbound from the Ovuurn System. The pair had just delivered much needed spare parts to the belter’s colony there and was now deciding a course between leaving Ovuurn all-together or returning to an eerily dark and dangerous research station in distress at the outskirts of the system. The lone occupant encountered there during a brief exploration was shot through the chest with a laser blast when he attacked Pilar. Given his bizarre physical and mental state, the assailant (Dr. Fines) was possibly under the influence of some foreign or chemical agent.

Apparently not wishing to risk further harm to themselves or others without reasonable cause (or profit), and suspecting that whatever was happening aboard the station was indeed quite dangerous on many levels, they decided to leave Ovuurn. As an aside, I’m trying to have Nathan Khyber, the NPC, be more than some dice rolls to fly the ship around. To that effect, he was a little more involved in the decision making this session without actually making the decisions on what to do. I’m still concerned about steering the game too much from my side of the screen, but things did go much better and my wife was more engaged in discussing things now that she got more than non-committal shrugs from her partner. Hey, there’s some great relationship advice somewhere in there…

The Llewellyn system, one jump away, was where the crew would receive payment for the Ovuurn job (just enough credits to cover their monthly costs). Returning to Llewellyn and getting paid was accomplished with ease. Finding the next job, however, proved to be difficult. Rather than wait it out, the pair decided that the Longshot should head core-ward a few parsecs to the Loki system, where a previous tip from an old acquaintance indicated that they could earn many times the going freight rate by smuggling contraband onto the rather restrictive world of Agape.

The trip would be three jumps in duration for the Longshot and would cross a sparsely settled and travelled area of the subsector. The first jump was inaccurately made (bit not a misjump), so the crew and ship spent an additional day or so travelling to the system’s gas giant. Here they collected and processed fuel before jumping out, with nary another ship detected the entire time. Upon arriving at the next system, Tyr, the Longshot’s active sensors picked up what appeared to be a tight debris field or a derelict ship (initial sensor check was not conclusive enough to indicate which). Hoping for the opportunity at some salvage and a subsequent improving of their finances, the Longshot approached the object or objects with care.

Upon closer examination, it indeed turned out to be a derelict Type A Free Trader. The ship was not responding to communication attempts and appeared to be powered down. Some scoring and burn marks on the exterior hull indicated that it had likely seen some kind of trouble, but none of it seemed indicative of the kind and amount of damage required to cripple such a craft. The crew decided to attempt a boarding by mating the airlocks, an easy task made difficult since the other ship was drifting. Nathan Khyber believed it within his piloting ability, and (barely) made his roll to safely join.

Both Nathan and Pilar suited up and armed themselves to investigate the drifting ship. Upon gaining the other ship’s airlock they noted that it had already been overridden from the outside and could be opened with ease. They weren’t the first to come this way. The ship beyond was without gravity, but life-support was on-line and operating as indicated by the airlock’s control panel. As the airlock finished cycling, the team entered the derelict amidst pale emergency lighting. These barely but adequately lit the compartments beyond to navigate in the zero-G.

The crew’s common area was empty save for some floating debris such as errant foodstuff, containers and holodiscs. Pilar wanted to check out the cargo hold first so the pair made their way aft rather than investigate the nearby bridge or staterooms. There the duo discovered a compartment packed with unmolested freight containers. A brief survey revealed some to be filled with engine parts for petroleum-based technology and others filled with pre-packaged foodstuff. Forgoing a more thorough search of the remaining containers, the pair moved further aft. They were now in search of the engine room but came instead to a bulkhead at what would otherwise be the midpoint of the cargo hold on this class of ship. A brief search over the stacked and secured freight containers revealed a door on this bulkhead toward the starboard side of the ship.

The compartment beyond the door was approximately the same size and dimensions of the cargo hold, but was filled with rows and rows of cryogenic low-berths. Pilar estimated perhaps 120 in total. A search of the space revealed most of them (over 100) to be empty. The remaining units contained the passengers that apparently did not survive the resuscitation process. One unit was curiously functioning but contained only a set of the plain, grey coveralls that the other low berth passengers wore, arrayed as if one such passenger were still lying within.

The partners decided to try to open the low berth containing the coveralls, and as it began to cycle (a process that I decided would take several minutes) Pilar passed a recon check that I asked for and noticed some movement over her right shoulder, toward the aft end of the compartment. Turning about, she saw nothing more than the rows of low-berth units and the access ladder for the passenger deck above. She informed Nathan of the movement and decided to investigate the access while the berthing unit completed the opening process. Nathan, doing his best to find cover in zero-G, trained his auto pistol toward the hatch while Pilar approached it.

The hatch above was open and the shaft beyond appeared to lead to both the passenger deck and the gun turret above that. By the time Pilar gained the next deck the low berth had completed its cycle. Other then the coveralls, it appeared to be empty to Nathan, who passed this information over the comm. Joining his partner above, the pair then searched the passenger deck.

What they found was rather grisly; mid-berth passengers in staterooms and along the passageway, dead from apparent gunshot wounds and floating in zero-G. The common area had been ransacked for food; several wrappers and empty containers floated all about. The steward’s stateroom appeared to have recently been occupied. The bunk here had been rigged with clothing belts and cargo straps as if to secure one occupying the bed, though the space was empty save the personal effects of its original occupant.

The pair quickly but cautiously made their way to engineering, where the power plant and drives appeared to be down hard. This compartment was occupied by a strangely configured robot of a kind with which neither Nathan nor Pilar were familiar. It was capable of verbal communication and aware enough to provide a status report for the ship. Both the engineering plant and the bridge were down hard, reportedly the result of a tactical electro-magnetic pulse (EMP). Emergency life support and lighting were being powered from a hardened battery back-up system that resisted the EMP but was close to being spent.

An investigation of the bridge confirmed the report. All systems here were also apparently dead. The remains of four crew members were seated about the bridge, also dead but with no obvious cause of such. Nathan surmised they were electrocuted. Lacking the ability to access the ship’s electronic log from here, but hoping that some of that data survived, Pilar sought to retrieve the data storage device from the bridge computer. This was successfully accomplished with a Computers check, but the actual data retrieval, if possible, would have to wait.

At this point the pair decided that given the ship's condition there was nothing more to do other than salvage the more valuable cargo from the ship’s hold and make a getaway. The respective cargo holds of the ships were opened and the more valuable cargo (determined to be 18 tons of personal and commercial computing devices) were passed from the derelict to the Longshot. The latter’s cargo capacity of 18 tons is due to modifications made to the ship. Once the final freight container was shuttled over, Nathan Khyber stayed aboard the Longshot to finish securing the containers and prepare for flight while Pilar returned to the bridge of the derelict to retrieve the data storage device and leave through the airlock.

Before accessing the Type A’s airlock a final time, a voice called out to Pilar, “Take me with you.” Turning about she saw a rather thin human boy, somewhere in his teens and dressed in a loose-fitting vac suit sans gloves and helmet. When she questioned him, he claimed to not be able to speak, only emit the inarticulate grunts of a mute. Upon further reflection, she realized the voice couldn’t have come from the boy… it was not muffled from the vac suit helmet. It was as if the voice sounded right into her ear… over the comm? Into her head? She couldn’t be certain now that she actually heard anything at all. Turning to the strange robot, which had followed her about during the evolution of moving cargo, she asked who the boy was.

“A passenger.”

“From where?”

“Berth 112.”

(Over the comm. Channel) “Nathan… do you remember what berth number we opened?”

“112”

The boy and the robot followed Pilar onto the Longshot.

                                                      ***

Sorry if that was a lot. I’m writing this down as much for my purposes as for any potential reader. You see, none of the above was necessarily part of any kind of preconceived plan on my part. I really did expect my wife to give the research station on Ovuurn another try. I mean, who can resist space zombies, right? Given this belief, and that the station was essentially this… I was prepared. In the event that she decided to skip it, I was also prepared… there would be a possibility that another job cropped up on Llewellyn (I’ve got a random table) or she could follow one of the other leads provided during the first session. Since the smuggling work had always represented an opportunity with great upside, I figured she’d make it that way eventually or I’d come up with some other carrot or stick to make things interesting. I knew enough about what was going on between the Loki and Agape systems to fill up a session if need be.

But before we got there we rolled a random encounter in the Tyr system and came up with a derelict ship with some decent salvage. We paused the session at this point. More accurately, we actually split it into two sessions: Friday and Sunday. Friday ended up being about getting the dice and books out and reminding each other where we left off (the previous post-session reports on this blog were valuable for this) and getting into the swing again. It had been a rather long day for me and by the time we got around to playing I was pretty spent and having trouble focusing. By the time we sat down Sunday, I was recharged and had figured out the parts about the low berths, the full cargo hold, the boy, the robot and the dead passengers and crew.   There's a case for not toughing it out, I suppose... for only playing when you know you can.

I had managed to turn a one line entry on a random table into a mystery, and was actually rather proud of having done so. We've got a ship set adrift, apparently the target of some sophisticated EMP attack.  Its reasonably valuable cargo is intact, it's 100+ low berths are mostly empty, there are several dead passengers and crew; a lone, somewhat strange survivor and a myopic robot of unknown origin. I have done this sort of riffing at times in D&D (with mixed results, admittedly) but this was the first time I had pulled it off in Traveller. Granted, I had an extra day to sort things out and there were a few inconsistencies as things got presented that I mostly talked my way out of, but here we were, playing way off of any kind of scripted event and in some ways making it up as we went... and it's so far potentially the most campaign-altering event to date. There wasn't any gun play and only a few skill rolls made here and there, but we managed to create some tension and even wonder as the ship was explored and details uncovered. There are some immediate things my wife is now considering aside from getting to Loki and finding work. There are events afoot, BIG events, that the crew of the Longshot is now mixed up in... all off the cuff and all originating from a random encounter. I'd say it was a successful return to the game after our hiatus, and we both can't wait to play again to see where it goes.

Update

2010-07-22T09:48:00.000-07:00

I'm still cranking on the trade system. My aim is to present something analogous to Alexis's grain and gold post here that explains how I'm adapting what's there to Traveller. The bulk of the work now is coming up with a comprehensive enough list of raw materials and finished products without developing a completely comprehensive list. Time and again I marvel at the effort, time and attention to detail that must underlie the finished product Alexis has presented. I often find myself backing off on the types of inquiries he's hinted at diving right into. How much and what specific raw materials should be required to manufacture a jump drive? What could I compare it to in present day technology? A nuclear reactor, a massive jet turbine or something else entirely? How much petroleum could an earth-like planet of 3/4ths the size of earth reasonably produce given a native tech level of x but access to tech level y? What is used for in MTU? What's rarer than lanthanum but still a plausible element that could be required for drive-building? Each question begs fifty more. I can see why and how it took him years and access to a university library plus to compile what he has. Don Quixote indeed.

I also received one of the books recommended last week in the mail earlier this week, and am giving it the once-over. I also got completely distracted revising my magic system for D&D for a few days, only to go back to the way I have it. Sometimes I've got the attention span of a 6-month old terrier.

So... the next Tackling the Tao post will probably be posted next week, where I show my subsector map and run through some examples. There should also be a post-session recap and another World Profile up at that time. Which reminds me, I've pretty much exhausted my small supply of already-worked-on-worlds and now need to whittle my notes on the rest down into more concise entries... are the articles actually benefiting anybody out there?

P.S.

I'm also working on something for Zhodani Bases's 76 Patrons Contest. If you're not aware of it, follow the link.

Tackling the Tao Part One: Thoughts on Establishing the Currency Standard for MTU

2010-07-16T10:44:00.000-07:00

That this topic has generated more discussion than all of the others combined is encouraging for me. If I need any further motivation to continue posting about rather than privately developing this with my occasional begging of help from Alexis, there it is. So thanks.

I approached this all with the full intent of posting my first essay on implementation today. I realize now that I'm not quite ready. For one, I need to translate my pen and paper maps digitally for demonstration purposes. For another, I haven’t run through the process quite enough so that I’m comfortable speaking to it. For thirds, I've got a D&D game Sunday to prep for... and maybe a Traveller game tomorrow. That’s not to say, however, that there is nothing worthy of posting or reading about. It’s just that plans rarely survive first contact with the enemy. We adjust. We adapt. We overcome.

And progress has been made.

For starters, I’ve decided that there will be a material standard backing the Imperial credit and it will be some kind of “unobtanium”. I was beginning to lean that way and recently re-reading my initial post about MTU was the final straw. I’ve copied an excerpt below:

“The Imperium. Yes it does exist. On the surface it’s not a whole lot different from what I understand to be the features of the OTU’s 3rd Imperium. Scratch the surface, though, and you see a confederation of human-dominated client worlds affiliated under an Imperial Bureaucracy that is only a few centuries old. This order was founded after a long period of limited inter-stellar communications between the nations of Earth and their affiliated stellar colonies. An economic collapse on Earth brought on by a bloated planetary financial system spurred the colonies, increasingly self-reliant and more desirous of self-rule, to declare independence from their parent nations. Many years later, as Earth had recovered, a successful military coup established that planet’s current central government. A reinvigorated military-industrial complex moved outward to re-conquer the former colonies. These Unification Wars established the Imperium as it is today in the MTU. Its nobility are the descendants of military commanders and senior corporate officials.”

The bloated financial system referred to above could be one beset by the problems of a floating inter-system currency and short-sighted monetary management and policy. When the Earth government re-established itself, it was with it in mind that the currency would be fixed to a material standard. This material, rare in the galaxy, is a required element for the manufacture and operation of jump drives. The fuel is free, yes, but you need “unobtanium” to make it do anything. What that all amounts to in technical terms can be techno-babbled or figured out later. The important part for our economy is that this thing is needed for inter-stellar travel, but the actual consumable fuel remains hydrogen. Therefore, the Power that would presume to govern at an inter-stellar level would need to control the access to and distribution of this material and when determining their hard currency, could logically relate its objective value to a certain amount of this material.

This, of course, isn’t the first time this concept has been embraced in science fiction, possibly most famously in Dune (all due respect to Mr. Cameron and his film that I have yet to see). It’s great from my perspective because it not only adds some depth and verisimilitude to my economic system, it also provides oodles of great hooks, motivations and background details for the game. The party (player) stumbles upon a small cache of unobtanium… two systems are at war over mining rights for a newly found source of unobtanium… pirates have been successfully raiding heavily guarded cargo ships hauling valuable loads of unobtanium… the mining of unobtanium was halted on Shithole IV due to an outbreak of (disease, native unrest, volcanic activity, etc…). Those hooks all existed before, but now they mean something and have far-reaching effects. They become just the sort of status-quo altering events that players worth their salt should be getting involved in somehow, if the campaign is to be a memorable one. Why muck around trying to pay the mortgage hauling spare parts and dilettantes around the sector when one big score of unobtanium will set you up for life? Swing for the fences, people.

I’ll change the name of this unobtanium at some point. I’m not trying to be cute.

But before I do that, a few things need to be determined. How much unobtanium is there… how much unobtanium is one credit worth…how many credits are in circulation? Am I missing anything?

I haven’t yet decided, by the way. I don’t want to do so off-hand or casually. But let’s explore it a bit. A gram of gold appears to be selling lately for $38 USD. I’ve read somewhere that an Imperial credit is about the purchasing power of $5 USD current day. Let’s just go with the latter and bump the former up to an even $40. So gold’s value in Traveller credits would be 8 credits for a gram. How much more relatively valuable should unobtanium be? 10 times? 100 times? 1000 times? Why not a million times? I mean, we’re talking about the ability to bend space here…

My next step in zeroing in on something tangible will be to do some research on how much gold there is (or should be), how much jump drives cost in the Mongoose rulebook, figure out how much unobtanium is required for each kind of drive and then figure out some numbers from there. Comments welcome below.

Tackling the Tao Preview: Having Standards

2010-07-14T14:09:00.000-07:00

In approaching this I’m re-acquainting myself with the trade material over at Tao, consisting of the recent grain & gold article as well as the more voluminous posts beginning circa summer of 2008. I'm also diving deeper into what’s out there already regarding Traveller and trade. The first matter on the docket where the latter has relevance is trying to sort out what the Imperial standard will be. The Traveler Wiki states that “The Imperial credit itself is backed by the Imperial and Subsidiary Fleet, or (to be precise) its transport capacity. One credit is equal to the cost of transporting one metric gram through one jump. This has made the Imperial credit safe from the economic effects of inflation and deflation for over a thousand years.” The emphasis was mine.

Hmm… this makes a certain amount of sense given the context of an Interstellar Imperium and the reasons for its being, and I was struggling to either justify gold or come up with some other element. This also means that in using this standard one (me) would have to determine what the Imperial capacity for interstellar travel is in all of known space. How else to determine what that standard really is? This becomes problematic when you consider that the capacity for that would naturally be in flux. I know, I know... as is the availability of gold, hence instituting a standard... I'm sort of thinking out loud here before I formalize anything. Before I tread the above path, and it will be easier since MTU is much, much smaller than the OTU, I need to let it roll around in my mind a bit. In the meantime, if anybody has any ideas, let it rip in the comments.

World Profile Wednesday: Cali

2010-07-14T07:52:00.000-07:00

Cali (0605): E766594-2 Ag Ga Lt NI

Gas Giant: Yes
Star Port: E
Size: 7
Atmosphere: 6 - Standard (Hot)
Hydrographics: 6 - 62%
Population: 5 - 978.3 thousand
Government: 9 - Impersonal Bureaucracy
Law Level: 4 - Automatic weapons
Tech Level: 2
Naval Base: No
Scout Base: No
Research Base: No
TAS: No
Imperial Consulate: No
Pirate Base: No

Cali is somewhat smaller and hotter than Earth but revolves around an almost identical star. Like earth, it is the third planet from its sun in a system of eight planets that includes 4 gas giants. Most of Cali’s population resides on a topical coastal plain and nearby plateau of its single continent. Here, abundant seasonal rains allow for various sorts of agriculture to take place without the need for extensive modification or terra-forming. Much of the remaining land mass on the planet is isolated somewhat from the oceans, so rather dry and given to temperature extremes as a result.

Cali is a colonial holding of the nearby system of New Hope and governed/ managed by the latter’s Bureau of Colonization and Settlement. The planet had been set aside for planned and gradual expansion to support New Hope as an agricultural colony and was held in reserve for such development until just 50 years ago.
Since that time, the planet’s population has gradually grown to just under a million as ranches and plantations have been settled by colonists from Cali and beyond. Industry is strictly controlled and in most cases forbidden on the planet, most likely to ensure its continued reliance on New Hope for technological and industrial imports in exchange for food exports. Caliport, a small city of approximately 50,000 associated with the planet’s Class E star port, is the only community larger than a few thousand on all of Cali.

Life on Cali is relatively hard for most of its inhabitants. Despite the large population and ostensible management from an organized, resource-rich off-world entity, Cali’s population enjoys few of the benefits of modern technology. While some of the actual farm work is automated with imported technology, Cali’s lack of industry and meager economy means that its people must work hard to scratch out a living here. Rich in land but poor in most else, even Cali’s prosperous ranches and farms would seem little more than isolated backwaters to a more cosmopolitan visitor.

Trade, Tackling the Tao and Tales of the Neophyte Travellers

2010-07-14T07:15:00.001-07:00

Those few reading along have no doubt noticed below that I’ve decided to tackle the issue of an alternate system for trade in Traveller. It’s something I’m excited about doing. It’s also something that will take time and consideration, even if I’m going to leverage heavily (at least) or steal outright (more likely) the work done by Alexis for his D&D trade system. Those already familiar with Alexis’s work or who have followed the link in the post below (you can also get to him from the blog roll) can no doubt see the comprehensive and detailed nature of his work. Search his site with the keyword “trade” and you’ll get thee pages worth of posts whose sum volume and quality of content could be their own blog… or an RPG sourcebook. Now try “Maps”. Now just browse. The man is prolific.

Even where he’s let a matter lie with an estimate, nice round number or just accepted an arrived at constant without further analysis, it’s after a great deal of thought and working at it. That I will be enjoying the benefit of 20-some odd years of his working this out makes me feel only slightly guilty. That I will hopefully enable myself and others an opportunity to take the product of that work and apply it to Traveller assuages that guilt. That I’ll change or modify things based on the needs for this game, my desire for greater simplicity or to match my tastes seems inevitable. I hope, though, that I maintain the spirit of the work and that any changes are seen for what they are: just my way of making it all work for me.

Given the above, and given that my wife and I will picking up with the Traveller campaign while I continue to run a D&D group bi-weekly, I need to arrive at some realistic habitual pace for endeavoring on the trade system and maintaining the blog. To that effect, I’ll re-instate World Profile Wednesday’s starting today, dedicate Fridays to Tackling the Tao and any other posting will be event-driven or inspirational, based on what’s going on in the game or my thoughts on it. Wish me luck.

Summertime, Summertime, Sum-Sum Summertime

2010-07-09T07:51:00.000-07:00

How does one begin a blog post about why there’s no blog posting? Blame it on summer, I suppose. It’s partially true… my attentions do tend to get diverted this time of year. In between just being outside more and for longer into the night, a rekindled obsession with CIV III, winning a Stanley Cup pursuing my other online obsession (Faceoff Hockey Simulation), school ending for the kids and their summer activities starting up we’ve squeezed in some short family excursions and even managed a weekend get-away for ourselves. In true geek fashion my great purchases from the latter, aside from a few excellent meals, some strong drink and a short train ride through part of the beautiful Lehigh Valley, were used books. Even geekier, chief amongst these was an Encyclopedia Britannica World Atlas from 1944. It still had the order form inside to get an addendum/ update for when the borders of countries got redrawn as part of tidying up after WWII. The thing is massive (it’s almost as tall, stood up on end, as my youngest child) and stacked not only with beautiful, beautiful maps but with the sort of trade and GDP data that would probably make my buddy Alexis’s toes curl. You know, my whole RPG obsession might be entirely about maps. I love them. I also bought a ton of trail maps and books with maps of the Lehigh area just to have them, knowing I couldn’t (or at least won’t) hike or see them all.

Speaking of Alexis, I’m considering taking a shot at stealing the essence (if not the mechanics) of the wonderfully insane and comprehensive trade system he developed for D&D and shoving it into Traveller. I haven’t run this by him yet, and would want both his help and blessing, but there it is. We haven’t abandoned the game despite our lack of recent play and posting and I’m getting ready to hunker down and work some on it. The post-play sessions, World Profile Wednesday and some future features will only go but so far in providing useful content for the blog. I strive to be useful. If I could work in some honest-to-gosh game design concerning an alternate trade system… well, that would be something worthwhile, wouldn’t it? Standing on the shoulders of giants to get there means less work for me. So for anybody who has tackled or used an alternate trade system for Traveller, feel free to post below. I’d love to hear about it.

So, I apologize that this post has little relevant gaming content. I just wanted to get back into the habit of checking in and writing and assuring anybody that cares we’re still here, still aiming to game and still enthusiastic about Traveller. Oh, one last thing. For the purposes of full disclosure , the old atlas wasn’t even the geekiest purchase I made. That honor would likely go to three different Bluejackets Manuals. One was the same edition I received in boot camp in 1993. The other two were the 14th editions used in the ‘50’s… one for me and the other meant as a gift for a friend. So now, you know, the next time I need to tie a clove hitch, use signal flags in order to maintain radio silence or clean and disassemble my M1 rifle, I’m all set.

Update

2010-05-28T07:29:00.000-07:00

The members of my long-running D&D group all live within about a 20-30 mile radius of (and have busy lives apart from) one another but manage to meet almost twice monthly to play. My wife and I, two people that live together, seem less capable of doing so. It's been a busy month with real life and the Traveller campaign is sort of on pause. This long pause and eventual collapse is too often the fate of most campaigns, but I'm encouraged rather than discouraged. My wife and I were supposed to take a trip this weekend, a trip we postponed last night when one of the kids got sick (more setbacks)... but that's another story. She previously asked if I'd bring the books so we could play one of the nights we were away. Hooked. Nice.

Anyway, if you're still out there and still following along and still care how this little project is going, I think we'll be fine and back on track soon. In the meantime, below is World Profile Wednesday... on Friday.

World Profile Wednesday: Regis

2010-05-28T07:27:00.000-07:00

Regis (0608): D255635-6 Ag NI
Gas Giant: Yes
Star Port: D (Berthing Cost: Cr. 20)
Size: 2
Atmosphere: 5 - Thin (Temperate)
Hydrographics: 5 - 52%
Population: 6 - 5.7 million
Government: 3 - Self-Perpetuating Oligarchy
Law Level: 5 - Handguns prohibited
Tech Level: 6
Naval Base: No
Scout Base: No
Research Base: No
TAS: No
Imperial Consulate: No
Pirate Base: No

Regis is a small but moderately populated agricultural world revolving around a yellow star similar to Sol. It is the 2nd planet in a system of 5 planets, the 4th & 5th furthest from the star being gas giants. A planetoid belt of iron-rich rocks lies between the 3rd and 4th planets, but this has yet to see any major mining operation. Scientists believe that both the belt and Regis were once moons of the 4th gas giant but were altered by some cataclysmic event. The dense composition of Regis provides a gravity level closer to Mars than Terra’s moon, though it more closely resembles the latter in size. It is a wet world with a thin but breathable atmosphere.

Regis is an independent member-world of the Imperium founded under a century ago as a business venture by a major corporation. The vast majority of Regis’ people are rather poor and generally work to maintain the vast mega-plantations on the planet. The plantation owners, an incredibly rich and powerful minority, are primary shareholders in the agricultural export corporation (Regis Agricorp) that founded the planet and today constitute the ruling class. In one capacity or another, all citizens of Regis serve the corporation.

Law enforcement, which mostly has to do with quelling unrest and ensuring the property rights of the landowners and board members, is conducted by a security force consisting mostly of off-world mercenaries and former law enforcement officials working under contract. The security force, like the planetary government, blurs the lines considerably between a civil and corporate organization.

The starport is modest, as is common for border worlds such as Regis, and is involved mostly with the export of agricultural products and the import of necessary industrial products for the plantations. Additionally there is a small but brisk trade in luxury goods for the landowners and corporate managers. Few travelers come to Regis unless they are somehow involved in the aforementioned trade.

World Profile Wednesday: Ralor

2010-05-19T07:37:00.000-07:00

Ralor (0710): E898245-6 Ga Lo NI

Gas Giant: Yes
Star Port: E
Size: 8
Atmosphere: 9 - Dense, Tainted (Temperate)
Hydrographics: 8 - 79%
Population: 2 - 898
Government: 6 - Colony
Law Level: 3 – Auto Weapons Prohibited
Tech Level: 6
Naval Base: No
Scout Base: No
Research Base: No
TAS: No
Imperial Consulate: No
Pirate Base: No

Ralor is an Earth-sized, wet planet, 3rd from its star in a system of 12 planets that includes 4 gas giants (7th through 10th). In many ways Ralor resembles Cretaceous-era Earth, complete with diverse species of large, vaguely reptilian creatures. A relatively high sulfur content in the air makes the atmosphere non-ideal for human habitation, but the local flora and fauna are well adapted to it.

Ralor is a brand new research colony, just three years old, and is comprised of a central research station of imperial-sanctioned scientists and numerous remote satellite stations. The planet was previously studied and extensively mapped by a research team led by Dr. Eugene Ralor, whom the planet was named for. Dr. Ralor’s team disappeared over 20 years ago on an expedition to a remote part of the world.

Ralor is an important research colony for those studying early-earth eras and planetary evolution. It is under imperial interdiction to protect the planet from corruption and/ or commercial exploitation from without, but poachers, smugglers and other criminals still find a way through from time to time. The Scouting service enforces the interdiction from nearby Llewellyn with occasional assistance from the Navy. Only ships serving the science mission here are provided authorized access and use of the modest star port, situated entirely planet-side as an adjunct facility for the primary research station.

On Dungeons, Outer Space and the Limitless Adventure Possibilities in Traveller

2010-05-13T06:22:00.000-07:00

This started out as a reply to Kobold in the comments below, but quickly grew to blog-post size. I told you I'd go on and on, didn't I?

Kobold said:

"I don't see why a dungeon shouldn't have a place in Science Fiction, or a science fiction RPG...   The dungeon exploration can run the gammit from haunted house to Indianna Jones and the Temple of Doom style game, or both at the same time. One could argue that the old Ahzanti High Lightning Traveller adventure was essentially a dunge plunge in a derelict space ship.

That's one of the things I love about Traveller. I can tell any sort of story I want to (Pulp, Gangster, Military, Exploration, Napoleonic Adventure, Secret Agent) within the framework of a science fiction game.

Now, if you're considering dungeons as part of the players' repressed desire to return to the womb of the (Earth) Mother, then I can't really help you as I play/run RPGs for fun, rather than as exercises in psychoannalysis ;)

I edited his post in the above to highlight what I saw as the main points.  I agree its more of the first version (fun) than the second (subconscious womb-desire) ... though I suspect one could argue (not me) that the second is relevant in all cases whatever the conscious motivations might be.

I'd expand "crashed ship/ subterranean complex", though, to ANY ship provided its creepy and or isolated enough to achieve what the dungeon achieves. That is, it provides a hostile environment as the primary antagonist and an isolated setting whereby resources must be managed appropriately to survive.

The current adventure that I'm running my wife through involves a seemingly abandoned science station that she may or may not return to. It's dark. It's creepy. It's got space zombies (sort of). I could cut the life support systems or the artificial gravity and provide a less accommodating environment. It is, in my view, a dungeon. It's also, by the way, based on 1/2 of the Double-Adventure Argon Gambit/ Death Station.

What prompted all of this initially was some advice I read online when first setting out to run Traveller. The author's contention, and I forget where I read it so apologize in advance, was "no dungeons".

Now, I think I understand the underlying sensibility there, which is "this is not D&D so don't treat it like D&D." But Kobold expressed my belief rather accurately below, in that one of the advantages or features of playing Traveller, I'm finding, is that it can be anything it wants and all at the same time. Over the years science fiction itself (and its various sub-categories) has collectively become more a speculative setting than a strict genre. This is particularly true in the movies where so-called science fiction movies are actually horror (Alien), action (take your pick)... how many pure science fiction films are there? The literature is a different story, I grant my potential critic, but only slightly so nowadays.

The idea here, is nothing should be off-limits to Traveller. One could argue that nothing is really off-limits in any game, but I think Traveller is better suited not just to accommodate any sort of adventure within a single campaign, but to do so while maintaining its overall coherency.   For a fantasy RPG you can go fantastic horror or space & sorcery or straight medieval fantasy but can you do all of it at the same time without getting gonzo?

This adventure its a creepy space station... the next could be Jurassic Park, Pirates of the Caribbean, Ensign Flandry, Tomb of Horrors, Terminator, The Manchurian Candidate, The Birds, Brazil, The Minority Report, Evil Dead, Night of the Living Dead, The Dirty Dozen, The Magnificent Seven or The Bridges of Madison County... all without breaking stride. OK, so that last one might be tougher to approach and a lot less fun, but you get my point.

The possibilities are practically endless. Like space itself.

No Post-Session Report and a Question for My Readers

2010-05-12T10:15:00.000-07:00

There was no post-session report this week due to there being no session. Never fear, though, we hope to play soon and I'll then provide an update. In the meantime I'm kicking around an idea for a post involving the concept of the dungeon in a sci-fi game. Before I go on and on about it (and I still might) I thought maybe I'd put the question to the readership and get a discussion going (don't let me down, folks).

Does the adventuring concept of a dungeon, prominently on display in (take your pick of FRPGs but particualry in D&D) have any place in a sci-fi setting? I'm not talking about a stone tunnel in the ground with trolls and kobolds, here (or am I?). More broadly, does the type of adventure the dungeon represents have a place in Traveller?

It's my contention that plenty of Sci-Fi movies (a few of them amongst the most prominent and influential) essentially present for the viewer the kind of conflict you typiclaly find in a dungeon. That is: Character vs. Nature/ the Supernatural.

What do you think?

Have you ever run what were essentially dungeon crawls in this milleu and if so, how did it turn out?

World Profile Wednesday: N'Gor

2010-05-12T10:03:00.000-07:00

N’Gor (0707): X765314-1 Ga Lo Lt NI

Gas Giant: Yes
Star Port: X
Size: 7
Atmosphere: 6 - Standard (Hot)
Hydrographics: 5 - 53%
Population: 3 - 10.0 thousand plus 200M native sophonts
Government: 1 - Company/Corporation
Law Level: 4 - Auto weapons prohibited
Tech Level: 1
Naval Base: No
Scout Base: No
Research Base: No
TAS: No
Imperial Consulate: No
Pirate Base: No

N’Gor is a planet just under earth-sized but much dryer and hotter. The atmosphere is breathable and the gravity just under that of Earth’s. Other than that the planet resembles to a large extent the savanna's and deserts of Earth, with loosely analogous plant and animal life. There are 4 planets in the system including a single gas giant situated furthest from the star. The N’Gori: a tall, willowy and blue-skinned pacifistic people are the native sophont species on the planet.

There is no active star port here because trade & contact with the outside worlds is limited both by N’Gori and Imperial desire. The ubiquitous asharit plant grows here in abundance. For N’Gori it is a dietary stable. For humans it possesses a powerful natural anti-depressant. The single non-N’Gori settlement here is a colony populated and managed by employees from Andris Pharmaceuticals, who harvest the plant for medicinal purposes. The N'Gori either ignore the presence of the colony or express toward it a sort of nonchalant bemusement.

The N'Gori are interesting in that they possess very limited discernible technology and no apparent government, but enjoy a lasting peace and a sophisticated social structure with highly expressive languages and forms of art. N'Gori are typically perceived as both bright and eloquent by human standards and have a rich and well documented civilization as old as Earth's; but the N'Gori seem to lack the sort of inspirational dissatisfaction that some believe drives human innovation. The N'Gori have an almost eerie sense of equanimity and acceptance of the universe. They are both admirably at peace and infuriatingly inactive.

The N’Gori do not form into nations. Their two primary social units are the family (extended out to many cousins, distant uncles/ aunts etc…) and the kwasm, a uniquely N’Gori construct that loosely translates to a philosophical union or political party in Earth terms, but N’Gori politics resemble human politics in almost no way whatsoever.

In general, the N'Gori have typically accommodated any being who wished to visit and learn of them provided those beings showed a modicum of respect and an earnest interest in the topic. In turn, though, they seem to express no reciprocal desire to learn more of their visitors. The N'Gori either politely tolerate or find mild amusement in their visitors and have no interest whatsoever in the worlds beyond their own.

World Profile Wednesday: Muse

2010-05-05T07:11:00.000-07:00

Muse (0508): D977455-A Ga NI
Gas Giant: No
Star Port: D (Berthing Cost: Cr. 50)
Size: 9
Atmosphere: 7 - Standard, Tainted (Temperate)
Hydrographics: 7 - 69%
Population: 4 - 62.4 thousand
Government: 5 - Feudal Technocracy
Law Level: 5 - Handguns prohibited
Tech Level: A
Naval Base: No
Scout Base: Yes
Research Base: No
TAS: No
Imperial Consulate: No
Pirate Base: No

Muse is a large but largely unpopulated planet at the verge of imperial space. The lone settlement of the planet, also called Muse, is a self-contained community. Muse is one of only two planets revolving around a binary white dwarf system that lacks a gas giant. It is an incredibly old planet whose atmosphere is tainted with silica particles from some disaster long, long ago. Its gravity is comparable to Earth’s.

Muse is a member world of the Imperium affiliated with the planet of New Hope that was founded about 70 years ago as an artist’s and scientist’s colony. It was settled and sponsored by rich expatriates from New Hope who desired more personal freedom than was permitted on their home planet. The community exists today under much the same conditions that it was founded under. That is, a ruling class of the well-educated and rich is essentially free from constraints of law or morality in pursuit of its individual members' goals while being subsidized by investments and businesses running off-world. Meanwhile, the remainder of the population provides the technical and administrative skills that allow the community to function. The codified rule of law that superficially exists on Muse generally applies only to the latter group of those not well-placed enough to circumvent it. The elite rule Muse at their whim and the wise stay out of their way.

Post-Session Report 2: The Space Zombie

2010-05-04T20:27:00.000-07:00

Well, not exactly a space zombie but close enough. I'm getting ahead of myself, though, so let's back it up and recap a bit. At the end of our last session our heroine Pilar decided to delay the cross-system trip to the belter's station at Ovuurn. The course was diverted so that she and her partner Nathan Khyber could check out a distress signal received from an unknown source. The unknown source ended up being a research ship of some kind, and the crew of the Longshot decided to coast in to investigate...

Attempts to raise the research ship on comm channels met with no response, but the distress signal continued to emit as well as the the commercial identification code for the vessel. The latter was run through the computer and revealed the craft to be registered to Lysani Laboratories. Further computer checks revealed that the corporation was primarily a pharmaceutical research firm with various ties to the Imperial government, particularly the military.

Upon approaching, the ship appeared to be operating on limited or emergency power based on the lack of the sort of lights you see in the image above, though the ring was still spinning. A successful recon check revealed several points of entry onto the lab ship; most promising was a maintenance hatch that could be manually accessed on the docking "spoke" pictured above. Pilar suited up for a space walk and literally jumped (successfully) from the Longshot to the Lysani ship. She gained access through the maintenance hatch and found herself in a reception area of some kind. An interior communications unit on the wall was operable, but nobody responded when she used it.

The reception area, the handful staterooms and the mess area Pilar investigated were all eerily empty and dark due to the unusual number of smashed overhead lights. One of the staterooms had appeared to be previously occupied but several centimeters of water on the deck and the missing linens and blankets were perplexing. She maintained frequent radio contact with Nathan Khyber, who piloted the Longshot while she investigated the increasingly bizarre scene. She called out often, "I'm here to help... is there anybody onboard?"

Once she heard a rhythmic, metallic banging back toward an area she had previously passed through, but could find no source for the noise. Returning to the reception area she decided to access the lift to the pinnace (which I called a shuttle all session because it was just easier) and investigated the cargo area (finding some useful spare parts and science equipment) but not the bridge or the engineering section. Returning to the reception area she barely noticed in time the dark, pipe-wielding figure moving out from behind the furniture.

Her assailant was dressed in a tattered lab coat, splattered with blood and grease. He appeared human, but his skin was gray and his eyes two red tangles of bursting veins. We dubbed him the "space zombie". His wild and powerful pipe swings were taking out chunks of the reception area's wooden wall paneling. Pilar tried to reason with the thing, but to no avail. Luck was with her, though, for she was able to deftly sidestep his vicious attacks before dispatching the poor soul with a single laser blast through the chest from her pistol.

She examined the body and noticed an identification badge of some kind. It indicated the wearer as Dr. Douglas Fines, senior research scientist. The logo on the badge was the Lysani Labs logo, to no surprise. Pilar called the name over to Nathan Khyber and had him run it through the computer. It came back with some general professional and personal information. Dr. Fines was dual-specialized as a chemist and psychologist and had been working for Lysani for several years.

Pilar decided that her curiosity was satisfied and she didn't want to expose herself to further risk on the ship without reason. She returned to the Longshot the same way she arrived (barely making her zero G check to leap between ships) and the partners headed for Ovuurn. Khyber called into the belter's station once the ship was closer, informing them of the cargo they carried (three tons of spare parts for the station's downed primary life support system) but neglected to mention their side-trip. When asked how she wanted to handle that detail, Pilar stated that she didn't.

The parts were received by a supervisor in the station operations department, who looked like Giancarlo Esposito's character Gustavo in Breaking Bad (this reminds me, I need to watch last Sunday's episode after this post), only in a space suit.

The supervisor was accompanied by two burly space dock workers that Pilar assumed were hired muscle. When the parts were delivered without problem and a proof of delivery provided so that the duo could get paid back on Llewellyn she was at a loss. Her assumption was that their presence would have been detected on the science station and some authority would be here to apprehend, detain or attack them. Lacking this, she decided to explore the station a bit with Nathan before heading back home.

It turned out to be a run-of-the-mill mining operation. Miners and brokers met and haggled over the loads coming in, small merchant ships and free traders came and went with supplies and minerals respectively. The duo bumped into an old acquaintance of Khyber's, a fellow former Navy pilot named Trent Lowell. Trent and his wife Amanda were belters and had been working out of the station for years now.

The foursome met for brief drinks before the Lowells headed out on their scheduled run. Like Nathan and Pilar, the Lowells seemed to prefer scratching out a living by their wits and wiles out on the fringe to a more comfortable but controlled existence closer to the core.   The men seemed genuinely happy for the chance to reacquaint while the women hit it off nicely. When Nathan neglected to ask about or mention Lysani, the station or what they had found there, Pilar likewise did not pursue things. The short, happy party broke up after a couple of hours spent in the single, small lounge on the station and the crews went their respective ways.

Soon the Longshot was disembarking from Ovuurn and headed out in the direction of the furthest gas giant (and the lab ship) to refuel while Pilar decided upon their next action. When asked about his opinion on whether they should simply return to Llewellyn to collect their money or poke around some more on the lab ship, Nathan just shrugged and provided some non-committal answer. This ended our session for the night.

So what did I think? Well for starters, this session broke some new ground for me personally. We played the entire time in bed. Rolling dice on my side took some getting used to, but it was relaxing and surprisingly manageable.   I don't suspect this is an approach I'll take with my D&D group. The general refereeing also came much easier for me this time.

My wife once again played the game well and approached situations cautiously but with the right amount of calculated risk to generate some tension and danger. On the downside, I think at times she was looking for more input from her partner and NPC Nathan Khyber. I tried really hard not to give any. This is her game to play, after-all, not mine.

The default assumption of almost every RPG is that a party will be adventuring, not a single adventurer. While solo games are obviously possible, they can be tricky... especially for a first-time player with nearly no RPG experience. I think having a consistent NPC presence is a sound approach for this and any solo game. It provides an extra set of hands, abilities and occasional ideas... the trick is finding that sweet-spot between automaton and full-fledged party member. If I've erred in any direction so far, its probably that Nathan Khyber has been sort of useless... of course, my wife also hasn't truly gotten stuck anywhere yet.

Noteworthy, and not necessarily good or bad at this point, when the action moved to Ovuurn I got the sense that my wife was waiting for the "story" to take off somehow. The feds were going to show up... Lysani agents would attack... the space yakuza would ambush them...Ovuurn would be full of space zombies... whatever. I'm striving to make the "story" emerge logically and for it to be driven in large part by the choices my wife makes and not according to some rat maze I've set up with only one way to get to the cheese. I'm not sure that she's embraced that fully yet. I suspect sometimes that she assumes I have this master plan or puzzle set up ahead of time that she needs to discover, step-by-proper-step. In part I do, otherwise I wouldn't be holding up my end of the RPG social contract. But it's not that hard to pull together some set pieces and places, potential conflicts and a handful of patrons in a sub-sector and toss just a few leads out at a time. One must let the player(s) move through the world... the adventure of it will happen alright, and it will seem so much more meaningful and engaging when the players are pursing the goals that they themselves have chosen. Let it unfold naturally and over time. Change it as it goes, this is a shared creation not a TV drama that needs to be tidied up in 60 minutes with time for commercials. I hate mazes. And rats. Love me some cheese, though. Moving on... as far as the "adventure" goes, I'm pretty much ready for just about anything. Pilar could decide to return to the lab ship, head back to Llewellyn or join a circus... I'm good to go.

BUT....

If, hypothetically speaking, there was only one thing that I could attest to absolutely knowing about my wife, its that uncertainty drives her nuts. She either wants to figure everything out or know first hand that it can't be figured out. Since Ovuurn seemed to be what it was on the surface, my wife is channelling her attention back to the space station. It's killing her to not know what the hell THAT was all about. What's giving her pause, I think, is that there's no obvious goal that going back into danger advances. If I were a betting man, though, I'd say... wait. Better not. In case she reads this, you know.

So once again the happy couple was off to bed (or, already in bed, just with less books, dice and clothes)

Me: So... you heading back to Llewellyn, the lab ship or someplace else?

Her: I'm not telling you... I don't have to, do I?

Me: Well, at some point, yes, you've gotta do something otherwise the game gets sort of stuck in neutral.

Her: Ok.... I do know one thing. We need to hire some muscle to kick some butt if Khyber's going to stay on his spaceship like a big baby.

Me: Ummm.... you can do that.

Her:   I can?

Me: Of course. It's your world. I'm just a humble squirrel looking for a nut. Speaking of which...

Her: Eyes roll

World Profile Wednesday: Ovuurn

2010-04-29T06:31:00.000-07:00

I'm a day late this week, but at least I finally decided on just how I'd like to spell Ovuurn.

Ovuurn (0309): X020223-2 De Lo Lt NI Po

Gas Giant: Yes
Star Port: X
Size: 0
Atmosphere: 2 - Very thin, Tainted (Temperate)
Hydrographics: 0 - 0%
Population: 2 - 607
Government: 2 - Participating Democracy
Law Level: 3 - Heavy weapons prohibited
Tech Level: 2
Naval Base: No
Scout Base: No
Research Base: No
TAS: No
Imperial Consulate: No
Pirate Base: No

The world of Ovuurn is in reality a large space station amidst an expansive asteroid belt orbiting a Class G star at the border of Imperial space. The belt bisects the system; two planets are situated to either side of it. Despite its small size, Ovuurn is an independently governed member state of the Imperium led by an executive and board similar in actual function to a small town mayor and council.

Almost everybody in Ovuurn is a belter. That is, they work for or run one of the several small mining operations that pluck valuable minerals from the asteroids in the belt. Being this far out in charted space, the whole operation sees little imperial or corporate interference and that is just how the belters of Ovuurn like it. They are an independent people, wary of outside influence and meddlers.

This sentiment aside, Ovuurn needs funds to operate and the mining simply doesn't raise enough capital. As a result, the executive board of the colony "rents" space further out in the system and away from the belt to outside parties. This mostly amounts to the presence of small research stations operated by groups desiring both isolation and anonymity. The Ovuurn belters ask no questions and the stations, in turn, manage their business quietly and without interfering with the miners.

Post-Session Report 1: The Beginning

2010-04-26T13:14:00.000-07:00

After several weeks spent buying and reading the Mongoose Traveller core rules as well as several Classic Traveller adventures, particularly the double adventures that seem rather readily available on e-bay, the time was fast approaching for the very first session of the game. I have to admit that I was a little more nervous and concerned about getting this game started than is normally my habit. For one thing, I pride myself on being a pretty good referee. There are many skills that make up a good referee in my estimation, but chief amongst them is a mastery or near-mastery of the rules. This means, to me, that one:

a) knows the rules so well that he or she rarely need to refer to the books;

b) knows the books so well and/ or have copied vital tables and information out of them so that referring to them is quick and easy and

c) is so comfortable with the game that when called to do so, he or she can make quick rulings at the table that adhere to the spirit of the game with fairness and acuity.

This doesn’t ensure infallibility, but it means that you know what you’re doing, and all RPG goodness is built from the foundation of rules-competency. I possess none of these three as a Traveller referee, so by my own definition I can’t yet be pretty good. Only through actual play can one accumulate these skills, so while I’m learning the game and getting good I also need to teach the game while providing the favorable conditions for that spark that turns a stack of numbers and a handful of dice into the magic we call role-playing.

Then of course there was putting it all up onto a blog. I wasn’t blogging about something I already knew inside and out and had done a million times. I wasn’t offering the potential reader my well-reasoned and battle-proven philosophy on the game. I wasn’t prepared to defend myself in the comment section with years of experience as the basis for my decisions. I was winging this. All that said, 20+ years of RPGing and a generally reasoned and even-keeled approach to most things does buy me something… and I really wanted this to work out for us. I wanted my wife and I to enjoy this game together. This train wasn’t stopping, so I needed to figure out how to at least keep it on the tracks while I figured out all of the controls. Lacking familiarity with the game as a referee, I needed some familiarity with the setting and the starting point. So…

“You step through a narrow portal between two large windows opaque with grime and residue. The establishment is the “Welsh Rabbit” and it is all that passes for a decent bar on this cold moon on the fringe of known space. The air tastes of re-circulated smoke and stale beer, the sound is the dull roar of two dozen furtive conversations. Your partner, Nathan Khyber, bellows above the noise and stink. Seeming quite drunk and obviously gambling, he’s holding court at a table in a dark corner of the room. He’s been here most nights the past several weeks you’ve been back on Llewellyn, ostensibly looking for job leads. You’ve had no work lately, and need to at least make the payment on the ship and cover living and operating costs, let alone actually getting ahead. He’s currently in the middle of an old navy story you’ve heard a hundred times and the people in his card game have probably now heard at least twice. What do you do?”

Yes, I started with a variation on “you all meet in a bar”. It gets a lot of flak from some quarters, but I’m here to defend it. Yes it’s a comfortable, easy and unimaginative RPG trope… but it also provides no assumption on what the first adventure will have to be and allows the player(s) to take control of their actions in the campaign right away. “Here you are… so what do you do?” it says. In the above example, it is naturally expanded on somewhat since there is already a history between the two primary characters of Pilar (my wife’s PC) and Nathan Khyber (her NPC partner) through character generation. They’ve been through tough times together and recently they’ve been looking for work. My wife is aware of the monthly costs on their modified Type S star ship the Longshot and knows now they need to find some gainful employment to pay them. She comes looking for her partner and finds him carousing and blowing money. What does she do?

I actually had a pretty good idea ahead of time what she would do (hey, ten years of marriage also buys me something) and essentially she did it. She walked over to the table and dumped a beer over poor Nathan’s head. So right away we’ve got some kinetic, player-driven action. This is another part of what makes a good referee, I believe. Build the world and let the players loose in it. This is a small, limited example of that phenomenon, I grant you, but an important starting point for a new player. I gave her a situation she could immediately identify with and she went with her gut in approaching it. There was no single way to solve this, and actually nothing that needed solving at all… she also could have walked away or done any number of arbitrary or responsive things given the starting point that was established. She didn’t worry about what was the "right" way to play or what I expected or whatever. She dumped that beer on his head because the lout was yukking it up with his drinking buddies instead of helping in their search for paying work. We were less than five minutes into actual play and she was already role playing, without apprehension or self-consciousness. It was infectious. We were both immediately into it.

Of course, what she didn’t realize was that Nathan was indeed finding them work. His three poker partners were: Alexei Volkov, merchant captain of the Free Trader Cerulean Seas; Tiger Alice, an Aslan female merc and old friend in the employ of Volkov; and Hun San Yi, the scout base and star port administrator. Nathan had three leads on potential work that he then explained to Pilar, while he dried the beer from his head and shoulders at the nearby bar.

The first lead ended up being the most easily dismissed. Hun had a survey job on a hard-to-get-to planet just over the Imperial border. The pay would cover their monthly expenses with a couple thousand to spare (12,000 credits) but would take six weeks in transit time due to its isolation and their ship’s jump-2 capability plus the time to perform the survey. They could augment this with other work along the way or try some speculative trading at stop-over worlds, but there were no assurances.

The second lead was from Capt. Volkov. He had arrived on Llewellyn that morning with three tons of needed parts for the primary life support system on the nearby world of Ovuurn (belters’ colony - 1 jump away). He was already beyond the extent of his typical route and wanted to head back to the core for more lucrative pursuits, but would pay our travellers 6,000 credits to make the delivery for him (2x the going freight rate). Time is money for Volkov and the 6K was getting off easy for him while providing some easy money for two weeks of simple work for the Longshot.

The final lead was from Tiger Alice. She and Khyber were friends from way back and she had until recently been working on a crew smuggling contraband onto the world of Agape. The cargo is mostly harmless stuff: Old Earth literature, holovids, pornography, prescription pharmaceuticals, alcohol and cigarettes. None of it is generally enough to catch a serious Imperial smuggling charge, but the local authorities are vigilant enough and local law prohibitive enough on Agape to make it a lucrative business. Crews can make 10x and more the going freight rates, so smaller ships can really make a killing while drawing limited attention from authorities. The operation is run by a broker named Black Al out of the nearby world of Loki.

After some brief consideration where I answered a few questions, Pilar decided upon the Ovurrn spare parts run. She reasoned that the smuggling job would be there when they wanted to pursue it but they needed some quick cash just to break even this month. The Ovurrn run would take just over 2 weeks to jump there and back, and if nothing else came up in the meantime, they could make the several-week trek core-ward to Loki to see about some smuggling, paying expenses in the meantime out of their savings or from jobs along the way. I had to admit it was some sound reasoning and I had nothing to do with it. Again, she was embracing the role of the player and not apprehensive or unsure at all.

So the partners agreed to terms with Volkov and picked up the cargo on the following morning. Here Pilar did something I hadn’t expected. She got the cargo manifest and inventoried the items prior to take off. She wondered if her mechanic skill of 1 would be enough to properly identify the equipment as spare parts for a life support system and I granted that it was and the cargo was as Volkov had represented it. It was a very simple but very smart move on her part. Volkov could have just put anything on her ship, she wanted to make sure that he didn’t .

The cargo now on board and pre-flight checks complete, the crew of the Longshot, anxious to be off now that paying work was in hand, lifted off from the docking bay of the star port and leaped into the lunar sky. As the ship made its way beyond Llewellyn and out to the outer reaches of the star system for a safe jump, Pilar successfully worked out the astrogation course, throwing a modified 11 on her check. Nathan was doing his best to recover from a severe hang-over. I rolled for an encounter before leaving system and came up with a free trader on its way in. The crews exchanged official pleasantries over the open comms band but went their separate ways, thousands of kilometers between them. We were off.

Here we talked a bit about faster-than-light- travel and I showed (again) the subsector map. I explained again that it would take about a week to arrive in Ovurrn’s system and she wondered what they’d be doing all that time. Here is where my own background of living onboard ships underway served well in describing a plausible ship-board life. Pilar and Nathan would stand watch on the bridge and/ or in engineering. They would perform routine ship checks and maintenance and since they were in fact isolated from the rest of the universe while in jump space, would otherwise do their best to avoid boredom. I also reminded her that having spent the last couple of years essentially in jump space with Nathan Khyber, making their way back to Llewellyn after their botched scout mission, there was some familiarity and comfort already between them.

One week passes. Nathan Khyber, being the more accomplished pilot, is logically on the bridge as the ship nears the end of jump space. I explain to Pilar that entering and exiting jump space are crucial times during a ship flight, akin to take-off and landing for jet planes. There were spots on the bridge, at the turret and in engineering that she could choose to be during these times as a matter of habit. Being the only mechanic in the crew of two, she chose engineering. (Damn, I love this woman!). The jump back into real space happened without a hitch. Pilar was just finishing up the last few routine checks on the engineering plant and drives when Nathan squawked over the internal comms that they were receiving a distress signal from an automated transponder (I decided last minute to use Signal GK vs. Mayday or S.O.S. despite not actually having Vilanni in MTU) . Due to the weakness of the signal and its relative position to the Ovuurn belter’s colony, it was unlikely that the colony was receiving it as well. After a short deliberation, where Khyber offered no opinion other than the limited likelihood that somebody else would pick up the signal soon, Pilar decided that the Longshot should answer the call. They set a course for the signal source, and after several hours of travel came within range well enough to identify it as a space station. It appeared to be on low or emergency power and comms attempts couldn’t raise anybody onboard. We discussed briefly the handful of ways one would possibly leave their ship and enter another and then adjourned for the night after about two hours total of set-up, discussion on the game and MTU and actual play. It had been a long day for us both already and I knew we’d only get in a little bit of playing before one or both of us were too tired to keep going, but I wanted to kick this thing off.

I count this as a successful session and start to the game and campaign for us. It was short and there was a lot of fumbling about on my part when we actually made die rolls (not very often) that I’ll need to improve upon quickly if I’m not going to drag the game down, but I think a little bit of prep time with an actual session or two under my belt will vastly improve on this. For my wife’s part, no worries at all. She was great and will only get better. She immediately took initiative on everything. She understood right away the importance of money in the game and made making it a real motivator for Pilar. The decision to take the Ovuurn job was well-reasoned on the basis of risk and reward. She didn’t foresee answering a distress call (nobody could), and we still don’t know how that may or may not complicate what’s an otherwise straight-forward job, but now we can jump right into the action when we play next with at least two things already going on and a seed planted for future work.

So we’ve put away the books and dice and I’ve let the dog outback to relieve herself while she’s checked to make sure the kids are sleeping soundly. Just before bedtime…

Her: (jokingly) The nerve of you, blowing all of our money on gambling and drinking

Me: Hey, that was Nathan Khyber’s hard-earned money and it wasn’t me. I’m just the referee.

Her: It’s not you then?

Me: Hell no. He looks like Nathan Fillion.

Her: Oh… you didn’t tell me THAT.

Me: Are you regretting not jumping his bones during the week in jump space?

Her: Nah. That would just complicate things. G’night.

"You're Not Going to Make Me Look Stupid to All of Your Geek Friends, Are You?"

2010-04-22T20:14:00.000-07:00

Those words never passed my wife's lips, but after posting the inaugural entry of this blog there was a palpable, unresolved tension about the house... particularly when I mentioned the upcoming Traveller campaign. You see, in the process of choosing a genre and system and vaguely defining for us a universe within which to place them, checking and conferring with my wife all along, the one thing I actually should have run by her was the part about opening up our experience, however anonymously, to any passerby on the internet. It sort of bothered her.

At first I assumed this was a privacy and technology thing. My wife is something of a Luddite when it comes to all this internet stuff. She surfs and shops and grudgingly participates in e-mail and limited social networking, but I think she'd be just fine if Al Gore had never invented this here inter-webby thing. On one hand I don't blame her. It can be a huge distraction. On the other... well, its just so cool. I mean, come on right? But that wasn't... really... it. Not entirely, anyway.

It has been my previous practice not to talk much about my gaming. You can try to put all kinds of nicer faces on it... call it something it isn't or justify it based on some specious logic, but the truth is I have long found it somewhat embarrassing that I'm so passionate about RPGs. I know, I know... before anybody even starts blasting, it IS stupid to feel that way and SCREW anybody that doesn't get it... but I'm not comfortable being out there. Not entirely. I know I'm not alone, at least not in my little gaming microverse. I can at least do it while other people are watching. Some can't. Some get really pissed off if they have to. You know who you are. But I've been growing. I've been putting myself out there a little bit more every so often. I'm getting better.

Anyway, what I'm trying to get around to saying is my gaming has always been this little secret world that I wasn't always comfortable sharing. I guess my wife figured if she had to wait over 10 years for me to include her in on what I was doing, you anonymous internet people shouldn't get brought right into the fold. I mean, what the hell do I know... maybe she's been secretly dreaming of this for years? OK. Not so much. But still, here was this previously rather private thing I was finally opening up wide for her and now I was opening it up, essentially, to anyone.

Of course, I understood none of this as I felt the tension. I just knew, like anybody who has survived and dare I say thrived in a relationship this long, that I had stepped in it. It took a few cautious but straight-forward conversations, but I think we've come through it. Our game isn't really about this blog, but vice-versa. The blog is an afterthought... a way of taking some good advice I had gotten on how to improve my writing. By writing. The blog is essentially a writing project and yet another way I'm trying to open up in general about gaming. Our Traveller game was the most interesting thing I could think of writing regularly about while I try to get my feet underneath me and shake off the rust. I think she understands. Maybe she'll read this and better understand now that I've had a chance to write it all out in a more coherent fashion. Or maybe this will be my last blog entry. Afterall, I can only go so far in documenting a shared experience by myself. But I'm sure its the former and I hope for us to squeeze in our first session this weekend some time, so the next post should be a game recap. Wish us luck.

New Look and Feel

2010-04-21T18:21:00.000-07:00

The Blog is officially 10 days old, so I figured it was time to customize. The banner is courtesy of R.A. Emmons, a blog reader, long time friend and regular player in my D&D game that graciously offered to help gussy up the place. So if you like it, all credit goes to Dr. Emmons. If you hate it, he offered 4 banners and I did not choose his favorite, so the fault is clearly mine. Thanks. Enjoy.

P.S. - My next blog post will describe how I almost blew the whole thing, and I hope to follow it next week with an actual play report.

World Profile Wednesday: Llewellyn

2010-04-21T11:01:00.000-07:00

Llewellyn (0408): D462467-5 S Lt NI

Gas Giant: Yes
Star Port: D (Berthing Cost: Cr. 40)
Size: 4
Atmosphere: 6 - Standard (Frozen)
Hydrographics: 2 - 23%
Population: 4 - 18.1 thousand
Government: 6 - Captive Government
Law Level: 7 - Shotguns prohibited
Tech Level: 5
Naval Base: No
Scout Base: Yes
Research Base: No
TAS: No
Imperial Consulate: No
Pirate Base: No

Llewellyn is a small, distant planet from its large, class F star. It is the fourth of four solid planets in a system that also contains three gas giants. Its standard atmosphere of hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen is nonetheless cold and most of its water is frozen at the poles of the planet. Massively wide and deep valleys between soaring and spectacular mountains suggest the water was once distributed in seas all across the face of the planet.

Llewellyn is one of the few worlds in the subsector directly controlled by the Imperium as a colonial holding. Vast tracts of the planet are leased to mining corporations and generate a modest income for the subsector and Imperial governments. The planet is mineral rich, but the projected profits for conducting more extensive operations here have not yet gained sufficiently on the cost to justify an expansion. Survey and science teams comb the planet surface and upper crust in search of signs of rarer minerals that would make any future, expanded operations more lucrative.

Llewellyn’s inhabitants are huddled into two small cities close to each of the planet’s poles, Funwry and Calladhan. Most of these folk are miners or support the mining industry in some way. Llewellyn is notable for the large scout base situated in orbit about the planet, with a small class D star port as an annex. Much of the exploration and survey currently being conducted beyond the rim-ward border of the subsector is directed and coordinated out of the Llewellyn Scout Base.

Pilar's Background

2010-04-19T20:17:00.000-07:00

So with the concurrence of my lovely wife I wrote up the following a few days after she made her character Pilar. In my normal game I generally don't go in for this sort of drawn out background writing, especially for a player... but I thought it might help her get into her first character and convey some of the sense of the universe.

Pilar was born to a family of middle-class professionals and raised on Barnard V, a core-sector world mere light-years away from Earth (or Terra). Upon completion of her secondary studies she attempted to enlist in the Naval Intelligence Service, but was denied. Since colonization of new worlds was active on the rim-ward edge of charted space, marines were in great demand by the Imperium at this time. Her draft number came up, and lacking an excuse for a waiver, off she went to serve.

Pilar tested highly for mechanical aptitude and so received specialized training as an equipment mechanic after her basic training. She was then assigned duty to a support unit in the New Hope subsector of the Frontier. On a forward deployment to a newly settled world her unit was overrun by the Zhodani, an aggressive and mysterious alien race resembling large octopi. For months they held her prisoner, conducting invasive mental experiments which left her body and mind drained and damaged. Many of those taken did not survive. She and few others lasted long enough for rescue when the Zhodani base was infiltrated and raided by space marines.

After a brief period of treatment at a military hospital on Hollis - New Hope sub-sector, Pilar was released from service with an honorable discharge. She left Hollis for the world of New Hope with a fellow former marine named Kyle Landry. After searching for legitimate work to no avail they both turned to crime. Their increasingly more sophisticated and successful burglaries eventually landed them into trouble, however. During her last heist, the job was compromised somehow and amidst the ensuing chaos Landry left Pilar behind during his escape. She successfully evaded authorities on her own, but avoided returning to her old haunts or confronting Landry. In fact, she wanted to get off-planet as soon as possible.

This brought her to a local recruitment office of the Interstellar Scouting Service (ISS). After a physical, background check (thankfully passed) and aptitude test she was shipped off to the scout base on nearby Llewellyn for immediate training and service in the Exploration Corps. In short order she became a competent ship operator and excelled in planet-side operations. Her specialty was landing secretly on newly-discovered worlds to gather intelligence on the native species, often alone and in advance of the ISS “First Contact” teams. Here Pilar perfected the arts of stealth and subterfuge she began honing as a thief on New Hope. She advanced quickly through the ranks of the Scouts, and gained a reputation as a cautious and effective forward operative.

During her second term with the ISS, Pilar was hand-picked for a three-person team assembled to conduct a secret mission on a newly discovered world. She joined Nathan Khyber (inside joke), an accomplished ISS pilot, and an intelligence operative known only as “Mother”. What made the mission so sensitive was the presence of both an intelligent alien species and what appeared to be sophisticated ruins surveyed on the planet surface from orbit. The race was previously unknown and the structures were consistent with those of a long extinct race known only as “The Ancients”. The empire of the Ancients stretched across the stars thousands of years before mankind reached them. It was an important strategic find for the Imperium. The mission, however, failed when an undetected planetary defense system disabled the team’s scout ship.

It took hasty field repairs, a mis-jump across known space and almost a year of hitchhiking across the stars to make her way back to the scout base on Llewellyn with Nathan Khyber. There they learned that they were each declared Killed in Action (KIA) by the ISS. The administrative action of reinstatement to service could be conducted, but it would take some considerable time and meanwhile they’d be left to their own devices. They each opted instead to leave the service. Nathan acquired use of a slightly outdated scout/ courier ship and has started a small business as a surveyor and free-trader under the moniker of "Long Shot Astrogation and Survey Ltd." He has asked Pilar to be his partner, with the agreement to split all earnings 50/50 once expenses are paid. She is currently at the scout base/ star port in Llewellyn, deciding on her next move.

Character Generation or... Meet Pilar

2010-04-19T09:30:00.000-07:00

Today I will endeavor to describe our experience with Mongoose Traveller character generation (chargen). Before I do that, though, I just want to make an observation about chargen in general. My contention is that there are essentially two “pure” philosophies regarding it and numerous actual approaches that mix the two. On the one hand there is random generation. This approach tends to be associated with older games and can be summarized as follows: “Roll these dice. That’s your character. No whining.” The second philosophy I believe has evolved over the past three decades plus as a result of meeting player demands within the various games. This is non-random or selective generation and embraces fully notions such as “character concepts” and/ or “character builds” for the player-characters. In the extreme, nothing in selective generation is left to chance. Every aspect of the character is determined by the player either through simple selection or by “purchasing” beneficial aspects from lists with points from point pools. These characters are, as a result, often ideally suited to one or both of how the player chooses to role play and how they choose to optimize their character within the context of the game mechanics. In practice, I think that most games clearly lean one way or the other toward one of the two philosophies, but generally mix in aspects of the other as well. I personally prefer games that lean more heavily toward randomness.

D&D and Traveller are arguably the most popular, venerable and played games for their respective genres of fantasy and science fiction RPGs. They’re about the same age and each, in their original forms, embrace randomness in character generation above selectivity. I’d argue that Traveller even goes further than D&D, requiring players to qualify and survive during their career choices with random rolls vs. minimum set requirements. Despite the similarities, though, the two games make vastly different assumptions when it comes to characters and how they change through play. For D&D (and many, many, many subsequent RPGs and CRPGs), the idea is that your character begins play new to their chosen class, is rather inept and is generally assumed to be young. Through adventuring the character gains in experience (points), and therefore in power, status and wealth. A D&D character, as they reach higher and higher level, will become vastly more powerful than they were at first level.

In Traveller, though, the character is a seasoned professional, most likely at least in their thirties, with a wealth of education and practical experience already behind them. They’re about as good as they’re ever going to be as far as game-mechanics go. The player now needs to embark their character on a series of adventures to acquire the power, status and wealth… or not. Yes, the Traveller rules actually make nothing implicit or explicit regarding what the player goals ought to be. Sure, in Classic Traveller there are classes or careers that assume mercenary or mercantile activities, and descriptions about the kinds of adventures or campaigns you should be running... but the characters are retired from the former activities when they begin play and there's a lot of room for interpretation in the campaign types. Traveller players can and should now go and do anything. The game seems to say, “Here’s the engine for resolving what happens… here are some archetypes from the inspirational fiction… now go make something happen.” I like it and I think it makes a nice fit for a solo campaign featuring a player (my wife) that generally resisted the more commonly accepted goals and aspirations of D&D, my regular gaming interest.

So, enough pontificating. My wife had some preconceived notions of what kind of career and background she wanted for her character, to eventually be named Pilar. This is sometimes a bad idea when it comes to systems relying so heavily on random generation, but I didn’t want to discourage her. She liked the idea of both an agent and a thief as career-types and wanted to pursue at least one, if not both of them. She chose agent first and failed her enlistment roll. She took this in stride until I told her that she also couldn’t choose to be a thief… at least not yet. Her choices were to be a drifter or take a shot at the draft, where she could at least possibly land herself in a law enforcement role (bad cop?). She opted for the latter and rolled marines. Yes… Pilar was going into the Marines. She chose the Support specialty within the career, likely because it seemed the least combat-oriented, and we noted the skills received for basic training. I then decided to allow her to choose her one skill for the term rather than roll for it. She chose mechanic. Pilar was a grease monkey. Pilar also failed her survival roll.

This seems as good a time as any to discuss my feelings on the Mongoose method (i.e. roll a mishap and be ejected from the career) vs. the original Classic method (i.e. you’re dead) of not surviving your roll. I like the former. Taking a wound or having something else bad happen provides a more interesting aspect than simply dying. I recognize that it removes the delicious agony of players having to decide between trying for one more term with the life of their already much-loved character at risk and mustering out early, but there it is. Yes, count me in with the sissies on this.

So Pilar’s failure was that she was taken hostage and mistreated. I thought immediately of my octo-brain Zhodani and made a mental note of that. Pilar took a hit to her physical stats and we moved on. Next up was thief. She thankfully rolled over the throw for admittance and took one of the skills from the thief list as her training. She then boosted stealth and again, failed her survival roll. For the mishap she rolled “betrayed” and picked up an enemy from it. This got my servos humming, but we’d work the details out later.

Two terms and two careers down and so far Pilar had no mustering-out benefits and my wife had only a general sense of failure about her very first Traveller character. I told her not to be discouraged, that it was all part of the game and her character would be just fine. She looked over the list of careers again and asked about the scout. I told her what I knew about it and let on that it provided a nice mix of skills for the solo heroine (OK, so maybe I nudged just a little... but she seemed discouraged and at a loss.) She decided to go for it and chose Exploration as her specialty. She (again) thankfully made the admission roll (despite the negative modifier for two previous careers) but then not only made her survival roll (getting some skills and contacts while observing a new alien race) but got promoted! It seemed that out on the fringes of Imperial space Pilar was finally finding herself. One more term as a scout picked up more skills and another promotion, which allowed her to make up some ground on the mustering out benefits she lost while marching and stealing in her previous occupations.

My wife was overall pleased with the results, and I was positively beaming. Over the course of making her character, a game in and of itself, she had an opportunity to learn some of the basics of the system and the MTU, I picked up some possible hooks or subplots for future games and we both had fun. When she asked when we could then play, I knew things were falling into place nicely. This Traveller thing would do just fine. That is, until I made a mistake that would threaten to derail the entire experience...

World Profile Wednesday: Agape

2010-04-14T06:55:00.000-07:00

I figure at this point it’s time to stop talking about our Traveller game and start showing something from it. As previously discussed, we're using a My Traveller Universe (MTU) of my creation, but not straying too far from the feel of the Official Traveller Universe (OTU).

I like the idea of a regular feature for a blog. It gives some amount of structure and focus to what is often a very informal and conversational medium. For the reader, you now have a certain expectation regarding the content. For the author, I now have at least one topic I know I’ll be covering regularly for the foreseeable future. So without further delay, I give you: World Profile Wednesday.

The idea is that every Wednesday I’ll post the Universal World Profile (UWP) and some notes on a world I’ve generated for the MTU. It doesn’t take long to find an online tool for randomly generating UWPs. I use this one. I set it for "Hard Science" rules and generate a ton of these at a time, copying and pasting into Word each time. (P.S. - as I write this very line Charlie Parker's song Repetition is coincidentally playing over my headphones.) I later go back and pick a few and write up descriptions. The only rule I have is that I change nothing that was randomly generated by the tool. This makes it a sort of game for me. I like games. Have I mentioned that? What's very handy about the method by which worlds are classified in Traveller is that the UWP provides lots of valuable information without necessarily interpreting any of it for you. In this way, two theoretically identical worlds (identical UWPs) can be vastly different in practice.

Our first planet is, well, the first planet listed in my alphabetically arranged Word doc. I'll skip around more in the future. Anybody out there is free to use any of the below without restriction.

Agape (0301): D5449D9-9 S Ga Hi In Lt
Gas Giant: Yes
Star Port: D (Berthing Cost: Cr. 10)
Size: 5
Atmosphere: 4 - Thin, Tainted (Temperate)
Hydrographics: 4 - 44%
Population: 9 - 7.0 billion
Government: D - Religious Dictatorship
Law Level: 9 - All weapons prohibited
Tech Level: 9
Naval Base: No
Scout Base: Yes
Research Base: No
TAS: No
Imperial Consulate: No
Pirate Base: No

Agape is a mid-sized world, in truth a moon, revolving about the massive gas giant Lobros. The system star is both larger and brighter than Earth’s, but Agape is further away from it. Four other planets occupy the system and the gas giant is the fourth of these. Lobros has 13 moons including Agape. These twelve others are named for Christian apostles. Agape’s thin atmosphere is tainted by methane and ammonia from the upper atmosphere of Lobros, and other poisonous gasses from the many volcanoes made active by Lobros’s gravity field. While the amounts are low enough for native plant and animal life to have evolved, the human populace requires filtered air with higher oxygen content.

Agape is ruled by a Fundamentalist Christian Dictatorship. Its current leader, the Benevolent Patriarch Father Jedidiah Holmquist, has been in power for 20 years since the previous Benevolent Patriarch died of natural causes. Holmquist was the named successor. The planet’s 7 billion inhabitants live under an efficiently centralized, socially restrictive and vigilant government. Planetary law isn't necessarily as restrictive as some more draconian worlds, but quirky customs and religious observances make things tricky for outsiders. Visitors are expected to observe these laws just as if they were citizens, with no quarter given. As a result of this practice the people of the planet have very limited interaction with the worlds outside of their own beyond Agape's modest star port. Additionally, its jails are full of off-world transgressors whose inadvertent crimes would hardly garner a raised eyebrow almost anywhere else in known space.

My Traveller Universe (MTU)

2010-04-12T20:43:00.000-07:00

So far I've mentioned my belief that the Third Imperium is encoded into the DNA of the game, but that as it's currently presented it's just too established, big and remote for me to adopt entirely. Additionally, it was an episode of the TV series Firefly that served as the initial inspiration for endeavoring to play the game. There's much more to establish, even if just in my mind, before we can proceed with our game though.

The first actual decision I made regarding the MTU itself was “no cowboys”. After overcoming some initial reluctance when watching Firefly as it first aired, I eventually bought into the whole literal take on space cowboys. For our game, though, I didn't think it was necessary to have saloons, dusters and six guns present to evoke a sense of the frontier. Ok, maybe six guns, but that’s where I would draw the line. That’s not to say there wouldn’t be room in the MTU for a remote agricultural world where raising cattle and drawling one's speech were primary occupations. This sensibility just wouldn’t permeate the setting. No, here I would cleave more closely to the look and feel of the OTU (and the genre fiction that inspired it), even as I moved the furniture around a bit.

The idea that Firefly inspired this whole thing for me probably needs further clarification. Firefly was more accurately the final ingredient that made what was already simmering on low in my mind go front-burner. It was never about the cowboys. It truly starts with the D&D blogosphere; specifically several of those blogs identified with the “Old School Revival” (or is it Renaissance?). Anyway, as I took notice of a number of these interesting blogs discussing so-called Old School D&D play, they were both proliferating and maturing. It was inevitable that their focus would shift from time to time to other games. In this environment Traveller was getting mentioned more and more and with greater and greater fondness. I was soaking it in and comparing it to my own limited experience with the game. Identifying the parallels between a television show describing the fictitious exploits of a rag-tag group of adventurers surviving job-to-job on the edge of known space (i.e. Firefly) and an RPG allowing participants to play and act out the same was easy to do. That I was struggling to find an RPG to share with my wife at the same EXACT time we were experiencing this show together EXACTLY when I was reading these blogs was a stroke of serendipitous lightning. Here, clearly, was the answer.

Back to the cowboys. I just want to also add that the decision to drop them doesn’t drain the MTU of potential quirkiness or flavor. Rather, I think it keeps things looser and more open to future interpretation or ideas while providing a stable base for some shared assumptions between player and referee. Just as I may, at some point, want a “cowboy world”, I may also want, say… a “dinosaur world”… or a "1984 world"… or an "Arrakis". If I’m going to go with “concept worlds” and/ or genre bend this thing, then I think the very core of it needs to remain rather standard sci-fi. Like Kirk and Spock, the player will drop from out of the sky to resolve whatever problem or further their own agenda down on Concept World #6, then return to the implied safety and normalcy of their Enterprise. Of course once this safety and normalcy is established I get to screw with it, but that’s further down the line.

The second big decision I made was that the humans of Earth (and former Earth colonies) would be the only humans in the MTU. This means, therefore, no Vargr, Vilani and Zhodani etc, etc, etc... The Ancients lived, achieved a vastly advanced and now poorly understood technology and died out or disappeared long before humankind reached the stars in the MTU. They did not, though, seed the worlds of those stars with Terran transplants. Or rather, there aren’t so many of them so advanced that an entire interstellar civilization had been in full swing and decline as the humans of Earth were first reaching out beyond the light of Sol. Maybe someday in the MTU some adventurer will encounter a race of humans far removed from those of Earth out there in the stars, but theirs will be an exceptional circumstnace.

The dissemination of humanatii by the Ancients, and the eventual take on the Solomani, was and is an intriguing idea, but I think it’s been thoroughly explored by others and I’m prepared to shift things back toward a nearer-to-earth science fiction theme for my own game. Namely, that Terran humans and their culture are dominant. These dominant (only?) humans are the primary star-faring race in this small, dark corner of the galaxy. Most of the alien races they “discover” will be generally less technologically advanced. The immediate logical result of this is that known space just got a whole lot smaller (and easier to manage from behind the screen). This is no worry to me. I’m not really losing anything that’s necessary. Outside of the boundaries of "the game" I don’t need entire regions of space set aside so other writers and 3rd party developers have a place to locate their material without interfering with mine. At most, we’ll probably get to really adventure in and develop only a handful of subsectors. Everything that gets mentioned beyond that will likely only be for the sake of verisimilitude or to satisfy my world-builder’s need to, um, build worlds.

My third decision was actually a partial reversal of my second. There would be Zhodani afterall. I suppose the idea of a mysterious, menacing and technologically advanced society of beings with mental powers is just too damn attractive to turn away from entirely. But my Zhodani will be 10-foot tall, slave-owning brains. With tentacles. Next.

My next significant decision relates to my second and was one of locality. The MTU would be considerably more local in terms of both time and space. Without nailing down specific amounts of each at this point, I’m adopting the Guide of Several. We’re several hundred years into the future and the charted area of Known Space is measured in several sectors, all situated around the home sector of Sol. Done.

Aslan. I like them. I’m going to keep them. In the MTU they are the first species of sophonts discovered by early star-traveling humans on… Beta Centauri IV, mere light years away from Earth. Since then they’ve grown from a feudal, pre-stellar civilization to an influential client species in the human Imperium. Which reminds me…

The Imperium. Yes it does exist. On the surface it’s not a whole lot different from what I understand to be the features of the OTU’s 3rd Imperium. Scratch the surface, though, and you see a confederation of human-dominated client worlds affiliated under an Imperial Bureaucracy that is only a few centuries old. This order was founded after a long period of limited inter-stellar communications between the nations of Earth and their affiliated stellar colonies. An economic collapse on Earth brought on by a bloated planetary financial system spurred the colonies, increasingly self-reliant and more desirous of self-rule, to declare independence from their parent nations. Many years later, as Earth had recovered, a successful military coup established that planet’s current central government. A reinvigorated military-industrial complex moved outward to re-conquer the former colonies. These Unification Wars established the Imperium as it is today in the MTU. Its nobility are the descendants of military commanders and senior corporate officials. Fin.

I think that’s plenty to get started with. We have an Imperium, much smaller than the OTUs and centered around Earth. We’re several hundreds of years into the future. We have aliens, but they all play second fiddle to mankind. That is, except those octo-brains that keep popping in from the outer black on the frontier to scoop up whole colonies of settlers and disappear, Maker knows to where. Oh, and those millenia-old archeological sites that suggest an inter-stellar civilization prior to our own have some intriguing possibilities...

So... How to Travel? Pt. 2

2010-04-11T14:04:00.000-07:00

So, Mongoose Traveller will be our rules set, and due to some active e-bay shopping I've already got several immaculate and cheaply obtained Classic Traveller adventures waiting in the hopper. One last question needed to be answered prior to making the preparations to play. Do we play in the Official Traveller Universe (OTU) that is so clearly associated with the game, or do I take the somewhat more time consuming but ultimately more satisfying path of creating a home-brewed setting?

My chief issues with the OTU are that its just so big... and so developed... and so far removed into the future. Reading up on it does not fan the flames of wonder and exploration within. I feel, rather, the weight of 35 years and more of many, many people contributing to this colossal whole. The space of the OTU is a massive and crowded place. See? It is crowded with the ideas and work of countless others. I understand why this is, and recognize it as a sign of a healthy, relevant game. But for us I wanted something smaller, more personal and closer to home.

Of course, there are aspects of the OTU I really enjoy. It embraces much of the standard fare from the genre fiction that inspired the game and many of these features become implicit in the rules. The Universal World Profile, as an example, assumes if not the Third Imperium, then something close enough to it that Scout bases and Traveller's Aid Society Hostels have a certain relevance. I know that example is easy enough in itself to change or modify but there are so many more of these that each time you bump into one you need to at least pause and consider the implications of ignoring or altering a certain feature.

I asked my wife what she thought about the whole thing.

a dramatization of actual events

Me: So I'm mulling over what to do with this Traveller game we're going to play. On the one hand, there's this well established setting that's very much associated with the game and experiencing it first hand might be cool... you know, to see what we do with some of the iconic features of the game milieu. It'll also be easier on me as there's loads of stuff out there I can use right out of the box. On the other hand, it might be more interesting and satisfying and less constraining to just create our own 'verse.

Her: You know I'm not really all into this space stuff. You figure it out and tell me what to do. I just need to be able to visualize it, so nothing too weird.

In the end, I decided to cut the baby in two and do what many, many referees before me have most likely done. I'll be creating a My Traveller Universe that embraces some or most of the underlying assumptions of the game while putting my own twist on it. I'll steal ideas, at will, from anywhere including movies, books, and other games as well as both canon and non-canon Traveller sources. We'll build it as we go. Besides, the mini-game of random subsector and world generation just strikes me as way too cool to ignore.

So... How to Travel? Part 1

2010-04-09T18:28:00.000-07:00

Once I decided that I wanted to run a Traveller campaign and my wife seemed at least as curious as she first was about D&D, some basic questions needed to be answered. What version of Traveller would we play? Would we use the OTU? How much of it? How much would I need to prepare in advance? How much preparation specific to the rules would I need? These are all at least variations on the sort of questions I suppose most referees must ask themselves prior to starting up any new game. What made it seem at first unusually overwhelming for me was that I didn't even yet know what an OTU was. It's the "Official Traveller Universe", for those of you in my shoes. See, I'm teaching already.

While the online Traveller community is active, prolific and approachable... the sheer quantity of 35 or so years of multiple games and all of the canon and non-canon material is daunting. What was good? What should be avoided? I started to feel like I was in over my head before I even jumped in. Then I got a grip. This is a game. This is fun.

The first decision I made, once I felt sufficiently informed on the basics, was to avoid both Megatraveller and GURPS. In the case of the latter, I just never really acquired a taste for GURPS. People who love it, and I've found over the years that most either seem to love or hate it, assure me it's the very best RPGing has to offer. Perhaps for them. But point-buy systems tend to leave me wanting more. They tend to make explicit those things which are perfectly fine being implicit, and that way often leads to complexity that bogs down rather than enhances a game. I needed simple. I needed dice. My wife and I were both jumping into this brand-spanking new. As the old-hand at RPGs trying to turn her on to it, I had to quickly get up and over the learning curve and provide the basis, right from the start, for as good or better an experience than our first D&D adventure. At least, that's where I was setting the bar.

Ditto for Megatraveller. That is, I recall it having a lot of complexity that didn't necessarily do much for me. I recall liking the character generation, which I understand to be essentially a carryover from the original game, but not liking the task resolution system, which I understand to be a change to the original game. For those of you out there in the know, feel free to offer corrections in the comments below. Yeah, yeah... I know. Asking blog readers to comment on where and how I've gone astray is like inviting the sun to shine, but Traveller isn't the only thing I'm new at here and I still don't know if I'll actually have any readers. But I digress.

Sparing you my thoughts on all of the versions, some which I only briefly considered, I was by this time circling in on one of Classic Traveller or the Mongoose redux. So I bought both. The former, unfortunately, still hasn't arrived. I'm seeking redress with the vendor. The latter, a used copy I found on e-bay for a song, came days later.

I had my set of rules. Now I just needed to decide how much more to actually create versus copy. Make versus buy.

"Hello. I'm Jim, and I'm an RPG-aholic..."

2010-04-09T09:25:00.000-07:00

It's true. I can't get enough of them. If you're reading this blog, there's a decent chance that you know exactly what I mean. So, while I don't feel the need to go to great lengths to explain myself, establishing some sort of introduction seems in order. I have a job. I have a family. I have friends and other interests. I consume books and watch enough television to be properly American. Occasionally I even exercise and go to social gatherings. During the latter activity it has even been said that I'm engaging and interesting. I tell funny stories and people laugh with a little more than just polite tolerance and later remark to their spouses or friends, "...he's a funny guy... I wonder why we don't see him more..." But I have a secret. I'm an RPG-aholic.

My friends are like me. They love to game. With one or two exceptions we've known each other almost all of our lives. We've been bound together during this time in no small part due to gaming. Sure, we share other interests and enjoy one another's company far beyond what's happening at the table two Sunday nights a month, but gaming has been an extraordinary common denominator amongst us. While most of us came from the same hometown (or near enough not to matter) and had regular contact all throughout school, it would have been easy to ultimately lose touch once we went off to college, jobs or military service. We didn't. At least not for very long at a stretch.

My friends and I are teachers and professors, engineers, managers, mechanics, laser technicians, students and some of us amongst the temporarily unemployed. As a whole we represent a wide array of political views and life experience. Some of us are college graduates, while some of us are not even college educated... at least not enough to count in most places. We have advanced degrees and a few certificates from the School of Hard Knocks. There are those amongst us who have been in combat, created and recorded music, made documentary films, built power stations in Antarctic winters, appreciated fine food and wine, written stories and published academic papers, travelled, had children, lived and loved. We argue whether or not Ayn Rand had a point, but agree at least that she was a lousy writer. We tell dirty jokes. We sometimes drink too much and we often insult one another with the genuine and piercing insight you may only wield against close friends and family without irreversible damage being done. What's kept us together through it all, again, has been to a great extent the hobby of gaming. Why wouldn't I love something that has brought me into meaningful, long term contact with such interesting people?

But this blog won't really be about them, as much as I love them and as much as they'd love reading about themselves. In fact, this blog won't be about gaming in general at all. At least that's not my goal. You see, I've been lurking in the shadows of the RPG blogosphere for about a year or maybe two now. There are a lot of great blogs out there. Some have porn stars, others have brilliant and rather under-appreciated authors. Some have been called maestro DMs; maestro world builders; and maestro adventure authors. Some are even seen as spokespeople for a movement. Most of them are rather focused on my favorite game, whatever edition you prefer, Dungeons and Dragons. Reading their work has been inspiring, and often has led me to reevaluate my own feelings about or methods in playing RPGs. One has even been so kind as to be my dungeon master. In this vast sea of worthwhile content, what could I put forth that would be of comparable value? Before I answer that, let me tell you about my wife.

I love her. Of course, right? But no, I really, really love her. We met over ten years ago and will have been married ten years exactly this spring. Sometimes we drive each other nuts. Now that we have two children, both of whom have inherited their parents' stubbornness, smarts and capacity to frustrate, we probably drive each other even more nuts. My wife wasn't a gamer when we met. While she's shown mild interest in it in the past, it seemed more like the "what is it that my husband is doing two times a month with his friends anyway?" sort of interest rather than a sincere desire to play. While I had often entertained notions of my wife playing, nothing really ever seemed to click.

Besides, if you took nothing away from the description of my relationship to my friends and gaming above, then you may have missed that during the course of 2o years of playing together our experience is now one mostly of inclusiveness. We've developed all sorts of bizarre habits, rituals and traditions that typically don't endear themselves to new-comers. Particularly women. When we play, we tend to not behave much better than we did at 14 years of age. Sure, we're sometimes eating smoked cheeses and drinking expensive beer, but the discourse and interaction is still about as sophisticated as it was in my basement over Jolt soda and various flavors of Doritos. My wife, while she tolerates me, probably wouldn't be interested in detailed analyses as to why the soundtrack to The Watchmen either contributed to or detracted from one's enjoyment of an already somewhat flawed film. Discuss.

So my first attempt to include my wife into my gaming life was inspired by Chgowiz's Old Guy RPG blog postings regarding his own shared game with his wife. Regrettably, Michael's blog no longer exists so I can't link to it. In the course of reading their post-session reports I got inspiration. My wife and I rolled up a character for her one Saturday night when we were home and the kids were abed and I set about coming up with a solo-adventure just for her. She rolled a thief (just like my own very first character!) so I quickly came up with a Lankhmar-esque city and tenuous ties to a secret organization that would provide resources and motivation for this neophyte player. It was a resounding success. We had a blast.

After that night, though, and a few more adventures both with her original character and another I realized something was amiss. You see, during over 20 years of playing D&D in one form or another I had some closely held expectations for the game. The fact that my wife had little interest in fighting, gold or experience points meant that I wasn't really sure how to proceed as a DM. She liked mystery and intrigue, and while I managed some of that early on I had trouble re-creating it often enough in a D&D context to have a successful series of sessions. I drug her into a dungeon crawl or two and I could see her interest waning. The failure, you see, was entirely my own. I couldn't create a new gaming experience with my wife in the context of this game I had been living in for two decades. My tendencies were too strong to go one way, and she was not yet confident enough as a participant to pull me another. Of course, much of this I didn't realize while it was going on, only after the fact with reflection. I just felt that something wasn't quite right.

To remedy this I considered the use of other game systems with which I was familiar either through playing or running. A flood at my parent's house 15 years ago or so destroyed a lot of my RPG materials. Since then I've had to re-purchase old stuff or buy new games. Most of my current gaming material is D&D-related but in the closet and packed away there's also a few White Wolf games , an old copy of Steve Jackson's Cyberpunk, Mechwarrior the RPG, some FASA games and assorted others. But none of it seemed to fit. I considered the problem off and on for several weeks when it finally hit me.

We were watching an episode of the series "Firefly". The Complete Series DVD was a recent Christmas present for me from my wife and I made her promise to sit and watch at least the first episode with me. Thankfully, when putting together the DVD they put the episodes in a more logical order than the mystifyingly stupid order Fox had aired them. I believe she was hooked halfway through episode 1. We watched the whole series together in a matter of days, in the evenings when the kids were in bed. The last time we had gotten so much mutual enjoyment out of a TV show was one of the early seasons of Survivor. Before that, probably re-watching Twin Peaks. Anyway... it was then that I realized. Traveller was the answer.

My experience with Traveller up until this point has been rather limited. Sometime in the late '80's (or maybe very early '90's) I had purchased Megatraveller for my group to play. I read a great deal of the material with the intent of running it. We rolled up characters, but aside from that I don't recall ever actually playing it. Maybe once. It didn't last long, obviously, but I don't recall why. I suppose it was that D&D, being our common denominator was, well, our common denominator. One of the guys I play with from those days still refuses to play any sci-fi game. He's just not interested.

So, here was a game I was interested enough in to buy at one point but never really got to play. It's one I have no real strongly held beliefs or preconceptions about. From what I remembered of it, it seemed that a campaign influenced and inspired by the TV series "Firefly" would be a nice fit (a web search on both topics quickly confirmed this for me). The pieces began falling into place for us. I made vague mention of it all to my wife, to both gauge her interest and explain the flurry of forthcoming E-Bay purchases. I felt like I was really on to something. This was going to be good.

So, we wind down to the end of my inaugural post. Hi. I'm Jim, and I'm an RPG-aholic. This blog will be about a husband and wife discovering a classic RPG together. My goals will be to entertain the potential reader with our exploits as player and referee; to express my ideas on the game as I develop a campaign and adventures for the first time and perhaps to share some material I develop for the use of the reader. I hope you enjoy.