Accidents in Astrogation – Lymethius Subsector #2

The Fourth Outrim War (1080 – 85) was the last major conflict along the Spinward Frontier of Gamelea Subsector prior to the Kalar-Wi War of 1103 – 1105. Once again, Outrim Alliance fleets penetrated Imperial Space, wrecking havoc in the Jump Zones of lightly held Imperial worlds and, once again, Imperial and Subsector Task Forces stopped Alliance Fleets cold in the approaches to High Population worlds. Once again, Alliance Ground Forces were landed on individual Imperial worlds and, once again, they took Low Population worlds and were defeated on High Population worlds.

Konzevr Zdiea Edlchtel of Appaer/Lymethius, acting in his capacity as President of the Geithurian Republic, forced the war vote through the Republican Council in early 1080. In the months leading up to the war vote, Edlchtel and his advisors had become increasingly alarmed at reports from Republican Intelligence - Iqro' Zhdable. Iqro' Zhdable Section 4 (IZd 4) - Counter Intelligence - had noted the trending upwards of separatist actions and activities on various member worlds of the Republic. Investigations indicated possible Imperial Intelligence involvement as agents provocateurs or in providing material assistance and training. As the separatist movements gathered strength and sought to paralyse the Republic’s military forces, President Edlchtel felt driven to strike back against them and against their Imperial masters.

Assured of the support of the Esoyatreko Tlehiui V of Yuwe/Lymethius and of the Huiha Esoyatre, President Zdiea Edlchtel moved quickly to bring other member states of the Outrim Alliance into the impending war. While Huiha Khysokhou remained neutral in the ensuing conflict, the other members of the Alliance began to mobilise.

The deaths in quick succession of Imperial Sector Duke Kanus II and Duke Pahran of Gamelea in 1080 should have paralysed the Imperial defence as Alliance Fleets crossed the border but, in both cases, Imperial forces were much better prepared than had been predicted. This state of readiness was no accident. Sector Duke Kanus II and his Head of Imperial Intelligence, Siridar-Lord Elmar Hendrian of Pashur/Gazolan, had been actively working to neutralise the Geithurian Republic by encouraging the centrifugal political forces suppressed by President Zdiea Edlchtel to tear the Republic apart. Part of their planning factored in Edlchtel’s possible need for an external war to retain power, and to this end the bulk of the RimWorlds Imperial Naval units were already on-station in the Gamelea Subsector when war was declared.

Kanus’ death in 1080 on the eve of the war threw the Subsector Fleets into turmoil as various political factions began jockeying for influence with his uncle and successor, Edenar of Nolgor. Lord Elmar managed to keep Kanus’ plan on track by pulling squadrons into Gamelea Subsector from Gazul, Gazolan and Thurgandarn Subsectors but Duke Pahran’s death was a complication unplanned for. Fortunately, Lord Elmar’s brother, Duke Akansair of Thiroor/Gazolan, persuaded Duke Pahran’s son, Adryos Urzov, to move faster than required by protocol. Ordering the Gamelea Subsector Navy under his brother, Admiral Lord Talarman Juharl-Zarquestuir, into action, Adryos Urzov went personally to meet Duke Edenar’s Nolgor Subsector Fleet at Canblyne to urge them on towards the crucial first battlegrounds at Julnar.

Sector Duke Edenar was far more cautious and far less imaginative than his nephew, Kanus II, and so the war ground on with Imperial Forces grimly attempting to hold the border while Alliance raiders attempted to cut their supply lines. During this time, Lord Elmar continued his secret war in the Geithurian Republic, while trying to provide the intelligence that Sector Duke Edenar demanded, yet never paid any attention to. Elmar’s greatest coup of the war was the reactivation of the alliance with the Kalar-Wi which had fallen away after the Klorin Asteroid War of 1022.

In 1085, Kalar-Wi Grand Admiral Odg’tal Alveuk lead the Kalar-Wi Planetary Navy to a crushing victory over a predominantly Geithurian Republican fleet at Anthorann/Gamelea. The member governments of the Republic, sick of the war, promptly recalled President Zdiea Edlchtel’s Council and the Republic was effectively out of the war. Sector Duke Edenar’s Fleet Admiral Colleen von Aachol-Kalan-Salvan defeated an Outrim Alliance fleet at Gaidon/Cabria a month later and Admiral Chi’leur Baron Culvenia led the mopping up operation that chased the last of the raiders out of the Border Worlds by 1086.

Sakliavr Edlchtel became Konzevr of Appaer/Lymethius in late 1085 and President of the Geithurian Republic two years later, but his tenure as President was marred by a political malaise that threatened the collapse of the Republic.

Lord Elmar’s secessionists had struck deep roots amongst some of the populations of the Republic, roots that IZd 4 could not pull out. Such were the divisions in the Republican Council that when the Kalar-Wi War broke out in 1103, nearly twenty years later, the Republic took four months to issue a political position on the war, and then couched in such terms as to be mostly irrelevant. With the Geithurian Republic’s attention focussed inward, Huiha Esoyatre has assumed defacto leadership of the Outrim Alliance. Esoyatreko Tlehiui V of Yuwe/Lymethius, 79 in 1109, remains firmly in control of the Huiha but has shown little interest in managing the complex relationships within the larger Alliance.

Website Update #9

Finally updated my modelling log on my website. With that done, I can get back to the article I'm writing on the Lymethius Subsector for this blog.

At present, I'm trying to match figures to the various alien races I have in my Traveller campaign. I'm pretty certain that I'm going to use GZG Alien Mercenaries SG15-X05 and X08 as Kalar-Wi. And now that I have painted up some Kurgan from Rebel Minis, I have a match for the Kiang, a Minor Race that the Kalar-Wi use as cheap ground troops.

More to come.

Visualising Characters

Over the last couple of years, I’ve had the opportunity to play in several PBeM Traveller games and at one stage I was playing in three games at the same time. PBeM games are very heavily dependant upon the enthusiasm and commitment of the Referee and two of the games I was playing in foundered when the Referee become distracted by Real World issues.

The most successful game, and the one that is still going, is the Classic Traveller campaign set in the Reavers’ Deep and is run by a friend of mine, Brett, who is based in Queensland, Australia. With players in New Zealand, the United States, and Europe, we have times when there is a lot of activity, and times when Real Life slows us down. Brett’s enthusiasm for the game keeps things moving and is such that he is even producing a Traveller Fanzine, Into the Deep.

PBeM games are, in reality, exercises in group creative writing. To help me settle into the character I have created, I enjoy creating a picture of that character. As I am not a very proficient artist, I have discovered the fun of compositing a character portrait from various Internet elements in MS Paint and tweaking the picture through PhotoStudio 2000.

The picture at the top of this article is of my character in the Reavers' Deep game, the Aslan pilot Ahkalhyo Ftaohkoi. The picture is constructed from a publicity still of Aslan from the film The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (and my little pun), and the space suit from a Science Fiction film with the female occupant’s face removed – I can’t recall the film that the space suit came from but, again, I found a publicity still online.

Akaiin Esaarti was an Intelligence Agent/Rogue Mongoose Traveller character I generated for a game set in the Spinward Marches. We managed to get a little adventuring done before the Referee disappeared. He did attempt to restart the game some months later but by that time I had other commitments and couldn’t continue. Akaiin’s portrait is built up around a still of Al Pacino from the movie Scarface. The planet in the background is a piece of random Science Fiction art I found on the Internet while the monitor bank is actually from a still of a television control room – the monitor bank is copied and reversed for a longer run, with the join hidden behind the character. The gantries to the left and right are cut from some technical picture and fitted together.

Balziac Gervaisor was a Classic Traveller Book 7 Merchant Engineer created for another PBeM set in the Spinward Marches. We had a lot of fun getting the party aboard a liner and then battling hijackers during Jump, and then the Referee just sorta got bored with the game and dropped out. One of the players sort of took over the game but the reboot didn’t work and that game fizzled out, too. Balziac’s portrait on the Engineering deck is built up around a still of the actor John Goodman. The background is built up from various stills of a ship’s engine room and various other industrial pictures. The text is actually a Vilani font I found on the Internet.

I had so much fun with Balziac that I created another picture of him from a still from the film The Big Lebowski with a background of a starport that I found on the Internet.

Like Scrapbooking and Sampling, compositing character pictures takes existing elements and presents them in a new light. It's lots of fun and adds another layer of enjoyment to a Traveller game.

Shiney New Stuff

I stumbled across a notice about the impending release of this Compendium by Jon Brazer Enterprises a week or so ago. We had a power cut just before I could finish this post and I only rediscovered this draft a couple of days ago.

Going back to check my source material, I could not find the Compendium listed on Jon Brazer Enterprises' website nor on any of my usual gaming haunts. And then a link popped up on Facebook today, indicating that the Compendium was at the printers and almost ready to go.

If you follow this link to Jon Brazer Enterprises' website, you should be able to read a brief review of what's in the Compendium (hint to review writers: "stuff", while succinct, is not terribly helpful - "usefull stuff" is not much better) in the News and Blog section.

Basically, the d66 Compendium brings together in one place a series of d66 tables, such as JBE has been releasing over the last little while - tables for generating Aslan Female Names, Random stuff found in the Ship's Locker, Orbital Facility Names, etc - which give Referees another little tool in their tool box to help keep their games rolling when players suddenly ask, "what bar should we meet at?" or "what ships are in port?"

Website Update #8

Slowly catching up - posted two updates to the Modeling Log of my
website, showing some figures I've finished, including some John Bear Ross HAMR Suites from Rebel Minis.

Also featured are further updates to the Library Data of my Traveller page, mainly resulting from work I've done on this blog.

Allies, Contacts, Enemies and Rivals

Allies, Contacts, Enemies and Rivals:
A sourcebook for Mongoose Traveller
By John Griffiths, Richard Hazlewood and Daniel W. Hammersley

I must say first up, that my wife and I had the privilege of proofing an early version of Allies, Contacts, Enemies and Rivals, and I have just spent the last week or so working on a final proof and edit for this book, the latest offering from Spica Publishing.

The ACER project started somewhere around the beginning to middle of last year and then dropped off the radar for a time. A couple of months back the project fired up again and before I knew what was happening, there was a release date. With the release immanent, John sent me an updated manuscript to proof. The timing was bad for me, but I finally got it done, dusted, and emailed yesterday.

The book as a whole is a very useful Referee’s tool. Alongside a collection of basic stat block characters, in the grand tradition of Classic Traveller’s 1001 Characters, there are 24 characters fully worked up as Allies, Contacts, Enemies and Rivals as per the Mongoose Traveller rules, as well as a free trader and crew; a Detached Scout and crew; a PsiTac Team; six individual NPCs; and the crew of a mercenary cruiser and their mercenary platoon – a total of 62 characters plus a 40 strong combat platoon, as well as a further 48 ‘red shirt’ basic stat block characters.

So, very good value for money, well presented and available either through DrivethruRPG as a pdf, or via Spica’s Lulu store for a print copy – both links are on the Spica Publishing site, linked to above.

Vilani Word Dump

Sometimes, a Vilani word or name dropped into conversation during a game is useful in enhancing the players’ experience of life in the Far Future. Inspired by Jon Brazer Enterprises’ d66 compendia and with access to Space Corsair’s language generator, I present two d66 Vilani word tables – one of two syllable and one of three syllable words. Roll 1 d6 for ‘tens’ and a second for ‘ones’.

Suggested uses include personal names, names of items, and elements of language such as greetings, curses and expressions.

Vilani Word Table – 2 Syllables

11	agu		31	gigash		51	khuas
12	aii		32	gunim		52	kimdii
13	aim		33	idkuu		53	kuurgi
14	air		34	ima		54	lirlish
15	akha		35	irbik		55	mauush
16	ankhish		36	irka		56	nauur
21	bamu		41	iskur		61	nuus
22	daiir		42	kadlan		62	sagli
23	dasnii		43	kagshi		63	shagu
24	ega		44	kalur		64	sheki
25	eka		45	karnug		65	shiimrar
26	gaii		46	kharnaa		66	unshi

Vilani Word Table – 3 Syllables

11	adia		31	iidkilud		51	mashshadkhad
12	agdurgi		32	iishmiimgu		52	meiirgag
13	dakuip		33	indaarku		53	narkiir
14	dargishga		34	kaamgu		54	niishdenu
15	diugas		35	kakai		55	remnigin
16	gaaamkhi		36	kasiki		56	sashkaka
21	geau		41	khuikhum		61	shamiigi
22	geugli		42	khuuamdi		62	shikubi
23	gisharu		43	kuaksham		63	shishkuis
24	gupipdii		44	liirluma		64	umkhagaa
25	iankhim		45	luurauush		65	urkhandig
26	igarshu		46	magiilur		66	zashdikhish