Solo Games and Tokens

After a bit of a hiatus, during which I continued to plug away at my 6mm Traveller project (as recorded on my modelling log and here), I got inspired to collect all the write-ups I had done for my solo Traveller game into one place. Aloin's Saga - the Collected Sessions, is now a Library Data page on this blog. Another inspiration is the Alea Iactanda est blog where Alea Iactanda est has been running a solo Traveller game called "Star Trader". Once I started looking around a bit, I found another solo game, Voyages of the Blue Pelican, which appears to be in development, but in an interesting part of space.

Just recently we've started back in with the latest couple of sessions of my Tunnels of Tonivar game, set in the RimWorlds. During the second session a situation arose where it was easier to map out the encounter than try to describe it and keep it all straight in everyone's heads.

As we were playing at Chris' house, he broke out some figures to stand in for the various characters. This all worked well and the encounter was resolved successfully, but I was slightly disappointed that we didn't have some science fiction figures to use. It does cause a little break in the the suspension of disbelief if the Aslan in the party is represented by a Frost Giant.

Traveller Adventurers, ready for anything

While I love my 15mm Science Fiction figures, and have painted a couple of hundred over the last few years, we're all getting a little older and picking out individual characters at standard wargames distance has got that much more difficult. I do happen to have a bunch of 25mm - 28mm scale science fiction figures I had picked up over the years in a box - one of a number of projects started and put aside over the years - so I hunted them out and had a look at them.

In this first batch we see (Left to Right): A Kalar-Wi in Combat Armour (Denizen Miniatures Ventauran); Female Adventurer (Pilot, Agent, Merchant - I don't recall the manufacturer Edit: turns out she's from Denizen Miniatures as well); Female ex-Marine in Combat Armour (don't recall the manufacturer Edit: Spacelords figure, now produced by eM4); Male Adventurer in Combat Armour (possibly Denizen Miniatures Federation Edit: can confirm that this figure is from Denizen's Federation range); Male Adventurer (Pilot, Agent, Merchant, Enforcer - Grenadier Cyberpunk miniature).

There are some very nice figures in that collection - from various companies active in the 1980's and 1990's - and so I pulled out a dozen to paint up, while ordering some extras in from overseas. As I was doing this, the New Zealand economy took a major hit and the dollar dropped in the toilet against such currencies as the US dollar, the UK pound and the Zanzibar shekel - so no more new toys for me for a while.

Marine Expeditionary Units - Design Notes

The 478th Marine Division is the Imperial ground force component assigned to the 301st Fleet, deployed to Miazan Subsector. Four Marine Expeditionary Units (MEU) draw their component elements from the 478th Marine Division and are available for rapid deployment. 29th and 30th MEU are based at Celephais/Miazan, while 31st and 32nd MEU are based at Miazan/Miazan.

29th MEU:
1 battalion from 1203rd Marine Regiment
1 Coy from 556th Marine Tank Battalion
1 Coy from 223rd LAR Battalion
1 Coy from 1/1553rd Marine Engineer Regiment
Battery A 895th Marine Meson Artillery Regiment
1 Coy from 1/10221st Marine Logistics Regiment
9803 Squadron COACC Close Support
9791 Squadron COACC Battalion Landing Craft

30th MEU:
1 battalion from 1205th Marine Regiment
1 Coy from 556th Marine Tank Battalion
1 Coy from 223rd LAR Battalion
1 Coy from 1/1553rd Marine Engineer Regiment
Battery C 895th Marine Meson Artillery Regiment
1 Coy from 1/10221st Marine Logistics Regiment
9805 Squadron COACC Close Support
9793 Squadron COACC Battalion Landing Craft

31st MEU:
1 battalion from 1206th Marine Regiment
1 Coy from 556th Marine Tank Battalion
1 Coy from 295th LAR Battalion
1 Coy from 2/1553rd Marine Engineer Regiment
Battery B 895th Marine Meson Artillery Regiment
1 Coy from 2/10221st Marine Logistics Regiment
9802 Squadron COACC Close Support
9792 Squadron COACC Battalion Landing Craft

32nd MEU:
1 battalion from 1209th Marine Regiment
1 Coy from 556th Marine Tank Battalion
1 Coy from 295th LAR Battalion
1 Coy from 2/1553rd Marine Engineer Regiment
Battery D 895th Marine Meson Artillery Regiment
1 Coy from 2/10221st Marine Logistics Regiment
9806 Squadron COACC Close Support
9794 Squadron COACC Battalion Landing Craft

The ground-side deployment force of a Marine Expeditionary Unit consists of 1333 personnel, 11 Air/rafts, 18 Light Tanks, 18 Heavy Tanks, and 164 APCs. The Expeditionary Unit usually deploys aboard a Da’sanai Class Carrier, with an associated Imperial Navy Task Group of five to seven destoyers.

While the majority of the Expeditionary Unit are billeted aboard the Carrier during deployment, six platoons and their APCs, plus up to 24 tanks, are billeted aboard three dedicated Heavy Landers. These landers, (Jasaugee Class 1500 ton Landers) plus the 16 pinnaces (KA843 and KA844 type 50 ton pinnaces) and the 30 Heavy Fighters (15 Lorjander and 15 Fhrenrhis Class 50 ton Fighters) also deployed aboard the Carrier, are all crewed by Marine Crews and form the COACC squadrons assigned to the MEU. Between the landers and the pinnaces, a MEU can land to surface around two companies of infantry, two tank platoons, two Light Armour Reconnaissance platoons and a Meson battery per wave.

---

Design Note:

I have increased the strength of the attached Marine Tank Battalion to four companies, as this made for an easier division of resources between the four MEUs in Miazan Subsector. The High Guard designs for the Landers, Pinnaces and Fighters have been completed. I am having a small issue with the new version of HGS which has held up completion of the MEU carrier. When computing the space required for the Battalion's vehicles, I discovered that both the APC and Grav tank I am using occupy a similar volume to an air/raft - 4dTons for an APC and 5dTons for a Grav Tank. I have doubled the volumes for all vehicles to provide sufficient space for them to be serviced during shipping, and to allow manoeuvre space for loading and offloading.

Further on Marines

The 478th Imperial Marine Division – Miazan Subsector

The 478th Imperial Marine Division is deployed in Miazan Subsector. The Division’s elements are divided between the two Naval Bases in the Subsector; Miazan/Miazan and Celephais/Miazan.


The 478th Marine Division consists of:

• 1203rd Marine Regiment – 3 battalions, stationed at Miazan/Miazan
• 1205th Marine Regiment – 3 battalions, stationed at Miazan/Miazan
• 1206th Marine Regiment – 3 battalions, stationed at Celephais/Miazan
• 1209th Marine Regiment – 3 battalions, stationed at Celephais/Miazan
• 556th Marine Tank Battalion – 57 Grav tanks, stationed at Celephais/Miazan
• 223rd Light Armour Reconnaissance Battalion - 57 Light Grav tanks, stationed at Miazan/Miazan.
• 293rd Light Armour Reconnaissance Battalion – 57 Light Grav tanks, stationed at Celephais/Miazan
• 9094th Commando Battalion – stationed at Miazan/Miazan
• 1553rd Marine Engineer Regiment – 2 battalions, 1st battalion stationed at Miazan/Miazan, 2nd Battalion stationed at Celephais/Miazan.
• 97985th COACC Wing – 1st Group, battalion landing craft, 9791, 9793 and 9795 Squadrons stationed at Miazan/Miazan; 9792, 9794, and 9796 Squadrons stationed at Celepais/Miazan; 2nd Group, close support craft, 9802, 9806 and 9807 Squadrons stationed at Celephais/Miazan, 9803, 9805, and 9808 Squadrons stationed at Miazan/Miazan; 3rd Group, Lift Units, stationed at Miazan/Miazan.
• 895th Marine Meson Artillery Regiment – 4 batteries of four Meson grav sleds. Battery A and C stationed at Miazan/Miazan, Battery B and D stationed at Celephais/Miazan.
• 10221st Marine Logistics Regiment – 1st Battalion stationed at Miazan/Miazan and 2nd Battalion stationed at Celephais/Miazan.

Marine Expeditionary Units are mixed ground units usually formed around the core of a battalion combat team, and deployed as missions require. Marine Expeditionary Units are normally deployed from Battalion Landing Craft and Lift Units. Marine Expeditionary Units for the 478th Marine Division are as follows:

29th MEU:

• 1 battalion from 1203rd Marine Regiment
• 1 coy from 223rd LAR Battalion
• 1 coy from 1/1553rd Marine Engineer Regiment
• Battery A 895th Marine Meson Artillery Regiment
• 1 coy from 1/10221st Marine Logistics Regiment
• 9803 Squadron COACC Close Support
• 9791 Squadron COACC Battalion Landing Craft

30th MEU:

• 1 battalion from 1205th Marine Regiment
• 1 Coy from 223rd LAR Battalion
• 1 coy from 1/1553rd Marine Engineer Regiment
• Battery C 895th Marine Meson Artillery Regiment
• 1 coy from 1/10221st Marine Logistics Regiment
• 9805 Squadron COACC Close Support
• 9793 Squadron COACC Battalion Landing Craft

31st MEU:

• 1 battalion from 1206th Marine Regiment
• 1 Coy from 556th Marine Tank Battalion
• 1 Coy from 293rd LAR Battalion
• 1 coy from 2/1553rd Marine Engineer Regiment
• Battery B 895th Marine Meson Artillery Regiment
• 1 coy from 2/10221st Marine Logistics Regiment
• 9802 Squadron COACC Close Support
• 9792 Squadron COACC Battalion Landing Craft

32nd MEU:

• 1 battalion from 1209th Marine Regiment
• 1 Coy from 556th Marine Tank Battalion
• 1 Coy from 293rd LAR Battalion
• 1 coy from 2/1553rd Marine Engineer Regiment
• Battery D 895th Marine Meson Artillery Regiment
• 1 coy from 2/10221st Marine Logistics Regiment
• 9806 Squadron COACC Close Support
• 9794 Squadron COACC Battalion Landing Craft

Marine Platoon with Scout Section

Marine Expeditionary Units rotate their ready status between “Standby 1” Condition – all component elements are aboard transport ships and the transports are ready to Jump within the hour – and “Standby 24” Condition – all component elements are on base and can be aboard their transports and ready to Jump within 24 hours. “Standby 12” Condition is often observed during times of heightened political tension. Units currently not assigned to a MEU are usually involved in training, or the Infantry elements are assigned as Ships’ Troops or as security for bases or officials (“dry” targets or “wet” targets in Marine parlance).

For Jump capable transport, Marine Expeditionary Forces rely upon Imperial Navy transports, for moving ground units, and Light Carriers for moving COACC elements. The Marine Expeditionary Force is usually assigned a Sector Navy Task Force as an escort, or will be attached to a Sector Navy Fleet. All COACC vessels are crewed by Marine crews and fall under the command of the Force Commander, Marine Expeditionary Unit. The Lift Units of 3rd Group, 97985th COACC Wing are assigned to MEUs as and when they require heavy lift for armour deployment.

Mercenary and Marines

Rereading the introduction to Book 4: Mercenary for the first time since the early 1980’s was a rather telling experience. Mercenary was the first Traveller rule book to suggest the likely shape of the future 3rd Imperium, and it was quite a different thing to what it later became. In fact, part of the passage is worth quoting as, on rereading it, I begin to remember what formed my ideas on Nobility within the Traveller setting, and where the general political shape of my RimWorlds campaign came from:

“Traveller assumes a remote centralized government (referred to in this volume as the Imperium), possessed of great industrial and technological might, but unable, due to the sheer distances and travel times involved, to exert total control at all levels everywhere within its star-spanning realm. On the frontiers, extensive home rule provisions allow planetary populations to chose their own forms of government, raise and maintain armed forces for local security, pass and enforce laws governing local conduct, and regulate (within limits) commerce. Defence of the frontier is mostly provided by local indigenous forces, stiffened by scattered Imperial Naval bases manned by small but extremely sophisticated forces.”

-Traveller Book 4: Mercenary 1978

I started thinking about the Imperial Marines again after a couple of my players rolled up Marine characters. How are Imperial Marines organised – beyond the company/regiment TO&E that appeared way back when in a (paper) copy of the Journal of the Travellers’ Aid Society? How are they deployed, and what is their mission?

I recall reading somewhere - and I can’t remember where, though I think it was in connection with a discussion about the Fifth Frontier War boardgame on the Citizens of the Imperium discussion boards – an estimate that there is a regiment of Imperial Marines assigned to each Subsector. Looking at my population figures and likely budgets for the Imperial Navy, a regiment of Marines seems far too few to both serve as a ground force spearhead and to provide ships’ troops for the fleet. After doing a little research – reading up on the US Marines (basically a pocket army) and the Royal Marines (basically a short division within the British Armed Forces) - I began come up with ideas about how I wanted Imperial Marines to work in the RimWorlds.

The Imperial Marines are a pocket army. Serving primarily as Light Infantry (deploying on potentially hostile worlds, their support equipment is constrained by what can be landed from orbit in what could possibly be a “hot” landing zone), their primary roles are to spearhead planetary assaults and secure a perimeter for larger ground force commands to deploy; secure and protect Imperial property planetside, or within a system; and to protect Imperial Navy and Subsector Navy installations and starships. The Imperial Marines are a ready-reaction force intended for rapid deployment to stabilise situations of hostility, or to rapidly overwhelm hostile forces.

Marines have two initial career tracks – Marine Infantry and Support. All Marines, regardless of career track, are riflemen first. That is what they are trained as in Basic Training. The annals of Marine History include many famous actions where the cooks, drivers, storemen and datatechs dropped what they were doing, grabbed their FN187 Gauss Rifles, and manned the barricades alongside their more combat oriented brethren. Looking through the potential Skill List for Support track personal, we find the artillerymen and vehicle gunners, the drivers, the mechanics, and the Combat Engineers who support the Marine Infantry during planetside deployments. Marine Infantry are the teeth of the force. Trained to fight in hostile environments, and in space and aboard starships, as well as on conventional battlefields, Marine Infantry are combat specialists. A third career track, that of Marine Commando, is only open to the best of Marine Infantry and Marine Support. Marine Commandos are the eyes and ears of the Marine deployment force, reconnoitring and feeling out the enemy, and often operating deep behind enemy lines.

Fleet Marine Force Command RimWorlds Sector (FMFCRw) is based at Sector Fleet Command Headquarters, currently on Thiroor/Gazolan, and falls under Sector Fleet Command RimWorlds Sector. Fleet Marine Force Command consists of nine Imperial Marine Divisions, deployed in the nine Subsectors of the RimWorlds controlled by the Imperium. The deployments, from Coreward to Rimward, are as follows:

827th Marine Division, Kaorin Subsector
852nd Marine Division, Berimer’s Sceptre Subsector
853rd Marine Division, Daltharmai Subsector
900th Marine Division, Gazolan Subsector
902nd Marine Division, Thurgandarn Subsector
351st Marine Division, Gamelea Subsector
409th Marine Division, Nolgor Subsector
478th Marine Division, Miazan Subsector
496th Marine Division, Gazul Subsector

Each Marine Division consists of four Marine Infantry Regiments, an Armoured Battalion, two Light Armour Reconnaissance Battalions, a Commando Battalion, two Engineering Battalions, a COACC Wing, an Artillery Regiment, and a Logistics Regiment. From this formation are drawn the Ships’ Troops of all Imperial Navy and Subsector Navy ships within that subsector, all Navy Base and Starport Security details within that subsector, the Security details for many high ranking Imperial Officials within that subsector, as well as garrisons for important installations, troops deployed on Police Actions and Counter Insurgency Operations, and the Marine Expeditionary Units - Ready Reaction forces deployed aboard ship for months at a time, awaiting the order to Jump and deploy.

Aloin's Saga - Solo Traveller #11

From space, the little planet looked like a tiny rocky ball, rolling around the rim of Omega Vasalai’s gravity well. Occasional flares from the sullen M2 primary had blasted the planet’s tenuous atmosphere away eons ago. Uninhabitable, and uninhabited until a little over 250 years ago, the ninth planet in the Omega Vasalai system had been unnamed and ignored by Aldeed Golus and the other Imperial Scouts who had mapped and explored the Miazan Subsector in the 7th and 8th Centuries.

While a small colony of Gas Miners clung to a precarious existence around the system’s gas giant, no one had really cared when Derbu Handark Zavtavol had offered to buy Omega Vasalai IX from Sector Duke Admiral Kranan hault-Lerneister. When the deed was done, it was discovered that Derbu was Handark Zavtavol’s title and that it translated as “Shepherd”. Zavtavol’s flock consisted of a couple of hundred members of a religious sect known as the Pilgrims, and this group of Pilgrims had decided that the caves of Omega Vasalai IX would make a good resting spot on their journey to meet their Arisen One.

Within a year of selling “that forsaken rock”, Sector Duke Admiral Kranan hault-Lerneister was dead, abandoned by the fleet that had raised him to the Sector Ducal throne, and the RimWorlds Sector was engulfed in Civil War. When the shooting finally stopped, fifty years later, the Pilgrims were still on “that forsaken rock”, and anyone who might have objected was long dead, or fled.

Discharging the freight from Miazan, Aloin caught glimpses of the huge cavern the Iridium Queen was secured within. High overhead, enormous clamshell pressure doors sealed the cavern from the vacuum of space. The ceiling and walls had been reinforced with steel and ferrocrete through which buttresses of native stone projected. Fuel and service lines snaked across the cavern floor, or swung from gantries like lianas, linking the Iridium Queen to the guts of Omega Vasalai Downport.

After securing the service lines, Aloin and Kiirgun began man-handling the freight containers out onto the hard of the dock using their pallet jacks and the mule. It was only when the last container was clear of the hold that Aloin spotted the three hooded figures approaching the ship through the pools of light cast by the overhead floods. Simultaneously, both Aloin and Kiirgun’s handcomps chimed. “Company,” Miska’s voice whispered through their comm. buds.

“See ‘em,” Kiirgun replied. He glanced at Aloin. “Stay close,” he said, “and stay alert.” Stepping forward to meet the approaching locals, Kiirgun held up his handcomp. “Greeting, gentle sophonts,” he said. “We are the Iridium Queen, out of Miazan, with freight requested for this world.”

The three hooded figures emerged into the pool of light bathing the Iridium Queen. Aloin could see that even though they had low gravity lanky frames, there was still a solid musculature about them that denoted years of physical hard work. Beneath their hoods, all three wore bushy beards, framing broad, unsmiling, faces.

“I am Pershu Salsuda Gavanak,” the middle one of the three said, his accent hard and clipped. “I require all documentation and proofs that this freight has not been tampered with while in your charge.”

As Aloin began to bridle at Gavanak’s tone, Kiirgun said smoothly, “Would you prefer these documents and proofs in electronic or hard copy form, Pershu?” When Gavanak paused, momentary nonplussed, Kiirgun turned to Aloin and said, “Please ask the Captain to print off the documentation that the Pershu requires, and notarise it with the ship’s seal. If she could also lodge a copy on our file with Traffic Control, the Pershu’s peers will be able to reference it at their leisure.” He gestured for Aloin to head back into the ship.

As Aloin walked up the ramp he heard Kiirgun say, “It is strange, Pershu, we were here four hundred and ninety standard days ago, perhaps one year local, and our honesty was not questioned at that time.” Glancing down, Aloin realised that Kiirgun had left his comm. channel open and his conversation was being relayed to the ship, and the crew’s handcomps.

Captain Lukk was waiting for him, just inside the main hatchway into the cargo hold. “What’s going on, ma’am?” Aloin asked.

“Politics,” Lukk muttered. “Starport Authority is obliged to recruit local staff. Locals sometimes want to control access to their world, in spite of the Starport Authority Charter guaranteeing free and unfettered access. Factions within local society want to be the ones with that control. Our uppity Pershu is from a more conservative Pilgrim faction than the one we dealt with last time, but our record is good. He can’t push too hard or the Starport Authority will get rid of him.”

With a clatter of boots on deck plates, Kiirgun trotted up the ramp and into the hold. He grinned at Captain Lukk. “The Pershu has graciously accepted our documentation that we have not wrought our evil foreignness upon the freight destined for this world.”

“The Traffic Control Pershus light a fire under him?” Lukk asked.

“Either that, or a Derbu was beginning to wonder where his freight had got to,” Kiirgun replied. “One of the Pershu’s minions took a call – not on a S.A. handrig, either, I noticed – and suddenly the Pershu was all sweetness and light.” He thought for a moment. “Or about as sweet and light as a block of solid hydrogen ever gets.”

Lukk grunted with annoyance. “Well, hopefully he’s clear of our jump zone,” she said. “Good work on the off-load, you two,” she added, “that was pretty much a record time. Now, get us fuelled and prepped . I want to be clear of this rock within 50 hours. We’ll ride light into Ektra as I really can’t be bothered with internal Pilgrim politics. So, no passengers and no freight. We have the spec cargo from Miazan and I can’t think of anything this lot have to offer beside aggravation and ulcers.”

Aloin's Saga - Solo Traveller #10

“Target returning fire. Lasers and missiles. Three missiles inbound.”

“Launch sand. Run Gunner Interact programme. Engage Target with Turret 1’s beams.”

“Missile 1 destroyed. Missile 3 destroyed. Missile 2 locked on.”

“Launch more sand. Turret 1, point defence against incoming missile.”

“Missile has lock.”

“Run Evade programme. Launch more sand. Turret 1, engage missile.”

“Missile has lock. Impact in ten seconds.”

“Not again! Turret 1 engage! Run Evade!”

“Missile impact. Explosive decompression aft of frame 24 ... .”

“Darn it! Same again! Every time it comes out this way! I’m so bored!” Aloin pushed the game controller away from him. As the tacsym paused, and the commons lights came up, Captain Elera Lukk glanced up from her reader. “We’ve been here two weeks and I haven’t stepped out of the ship,” Aloin complained, stalking over to the chiller and pulling out a fizz drink.

Elera Lukk frowned and turned her reader off. “We’re waiting, Mr Grathikka,” she said. “We are practising the art of patience.” She glanced at the chrono on her wrist. “I am expecting a call within the next 80 minutes which will determine whether we go out light or heavy.” She touched a couple of buttons on her hand comp. “Until then,” she continued, getting to her feet, “might I suggest you re-run your last exercise on the tacsym as I have just altered the parameters.” As the tacsym sprang into life and Aloin made a dive for the controller, Captain Lukk serenely headed for’ard towards her cabin.

“Right! We have a cargo,” Captain Lukk said, bursting into the crew commons. “Nine tons of the finest, laser-etched, Miazan blade ware. Or so that cutpurse, Itato Surviiros, tells me. Which probably means,” she added, “they were stamped in some Vargr-run sweat shop on Tonivar and Surviiros tricked them out of a dim-witted Outrim trader.”

Kiirgun Atmai pulled a face. “Nine tons, Ma’am? We’ll be running practically empty.”

Lukk nodded glumly. “I’m aware of this, Kiir,” she said. “Light up the board. We’ll take freight for Ektra, via Omega Vasali IX.”

“No passengers?”

“No passengers. More trouble than they’re worth.”

Kiir raised an eyebrow. “And we’re ignoring our angry cousins?”

Lukk grinned. “With Miazan Traffic Control climbing all over them for leaving their slot on approach? I suspect they’ll be staying quieter than fauxmice.” She chuckled. “The anonymous complaint probably didn’t help, either.”

“You dropped a blank call to M.T.C.?” Kiirgun asked. He laughed. “I think you’ve just made our angry cousins just that little bit angrier,” he said with a grin.

Twenty-seven hours later, and with 30 tons of freight for Omega Vasali IX aboard, the Iridium Queen departed Miazan High Port, dropping away to nadir into the outbound Jump Zone. One hundred and five planetary diameters out from the blue-gray orb of Miazan, the Iridium Queen’s Jump Drive began to spin up. As the ship’s transponder automatically synced departure time and destination with the Jump Zone Buoy, the Jump Drive wrapped the Iridium Queen in a bubble of energy, ripped a small hole in the fabric of the Universe and hurled the ship through it.

With a flash and a burst of neutrinos, the Iridium Queen vanished.

---

Commentary:

I do feel a bit of a tease after the big build up, but sometimes you roll “no encounter”. And in a Solo game, you then have to come up with a plausible reason as to why the expected confrontation did not occur.

With busy shipping lanes around a major starport, I would expect that Traffic Control would keep a very tight rein over what starships do or not do in the vicinity of the Highport. While space is very big, with traffic converging on a volume only several miles in diameter, the chances that someone not sticking tightly to plot ends up where they shouldn’t be and causes a major accident must be reasonably high (the wrecking of the Rena on the Astrolabe Reef, off the port of Tauranga, is a rather salient reminder of what can happen when a navigator attempts to cut the corner on what should have been a simple approach).

Given the agitation evident amongst the Iridium Queen’s crew over the appearance of the Guard Amethyst, a combination of a Traffic Control investigation (into a retro-written illegal manoeuvre) and a policy of staying pretty much aboard while in dock seems a likely explanation as to why there was no encounter – this time.

Anyway, the Iridium Queen is now bound for a new area of space – Ektra and the Kamperelian Republic – where, surely, adventure and daring do must be done.

Solo Traveller - Aloin's Saga Backgrounder #5

In the last instalment of Aloin’s adventures, the crew of the Iridium Queen encountered another Celephaizon merchant ship as they approached Miazan Highport. From the reaction of Miska Ilurin, the Iridium Queen’s Navigator, Aloin was able to gather that there was little love lost between the Iridium Queen and the incoming ship, the Guard Amethyst, Captain Venhrait.

This was the first time in this game that I had attempted to use both the starship encounter table and the reaction tables from the Classic Traveller rules.

The Starship Encounter table appears on Page 36 of Book 2: Starships and is a simple little 2d6 affair. With a range of results from 8 or less (no encounter) through to 18 (patrol), the 2d6 result is modified by the starport type of the system main world, +6 for an A Class port down to -4 for an X Class port. This means that in a system with an A Class starport, the only time that there won’t be a starship encounter is on a roll of 2 – this, perhaps, indicates the expected traffic volume in such a system. Encounter types are given as three types of free trader, two types of patrol, two types of subsidised merchant, two types of yacht and one pirate. Results of patrol and pirate can generate a Type-S armed scout, a Type-C armed cruiser or a Type-Y armed yacht. The assumptions evident in this encounter table are that starships are usually unarmed and that Traveller takes place in a “small ship” universe. Given that the starship construction rules in Book 2 seemed to max out at around 5000 tons then we’re looking more at Andre Norton’s Solar Queen than David Webber’s Honor Harrington series.

The starship encounter table from the Classic Traveller Starter Edition pdf essentially reprints the encounter table from The Traveller Book. This expands upon the Book 2 encounter table with the result spread now running from 2 – 15, and with each Starport type having its own column and selection of results. The presence of a Naval or Scout base grants positive dice modifiers and the ship encounters can also generate small craft encounters as well. All ship and small craft encounter types are now detailed and include all the standard ship and craft types that appear as “off the peg” designs in the rules. While still a “small ship” universe, this encounter table has both more detail and less freedom for the Games Master in that the ships are defined by class rather than primary function.

Standard 2d6 Bell curve

I had been considering expanding the Book 2 encounter table myself – perhaps by putting in a loading for location within the RimWorlds. With a standard 2d6 encounter table, one gets the standard bell-curve distribution. Dice modifiers simply move the bell curve along the X-axis which allows one to have different results or result ranges while using the same 2D6. On the other hand, an alternative would be to retain the basic encounter table and have a series of sub tables cascading off each result type – these sub tables would then be modified by DMs for location (frontier, Imperial interior, Outrim Space, Rimward Void, etc), starport type, Naval Base, Scout Base, and so on.

+2 modifier on 2d6 Bell curve moves the range to 4 - 14

This sounds like a project for a long, wet, Sunday when there’s nothing on the telly.

And on the third hand, I could just stick with the basic table, assume that any encounter rolled was significant to the characters, and play Interrogation to discover the What and the Why of it. Interrogation is a little thinking-assist brain-storming game I used to play where I would use a series of dice rolls to map out a story idea or plot.

In the situation where the Iridium Queen encounters the Guard Amethyst in the Miazan system, I rolled a Free Trader encounter type on the Book 2 encounter table. On the Reaction Table, I rolled “Hostile. May Attack.” Very interesting – who was this Free Trader and why was it hostile? I then posed a series of Yes/No questions and rolled 2d6 – 7+ for “yes”, 6- for “no”. Were they rivals? Yes. Trade rivals? No. Family rivals? Yes. From the same homeworld? Yes.

These answers told me that the Guard Amethyst was also from Celephais, and that the bad blood between the two ships was more of the nature of a feud between two families. This, in turn, gave me some insights into the nature of Celephaizon society (clannish). And also, by implication, it would appear that Captain Lukk, rather than owning the Iridium Queen herself, may actually be acting as agent for, and on behalf of, her family as Captain. With this revised ownership scheme, I was able to worry less about whether Lukk was meeting the mortgage payments on her ship and more about her meeting her running costs.

The naming of the rival ship, the Guard Amethyst, and her captain, Captain Venhrait, gave me two more plot hooks to begin hanging more story bits on, and an archenemy for the crew of the Iridium Queen to focus upon.

Solo Traveller - Aloin's Saga #9

Aloin doubled-checked his reference points and then the star system master plot. This late into Seconday, the bridge of the Iridium Queen was quiet except for the susurration of life support, the regular pulse of Scan, and an occasional gentle snore from the pilot’s chair. “Uh, Miska,” he said hesitantly, his voice sounding suddenly loud. Miska made a half-snuffle, half-cough sound and then abruptly sat bolt upright in her chair. Reflected in the bridge main screen, Aloin could see her quickly checking her boards.

“I’ve just noticed this,” he said, switching a feed of Scan across to the main board. Miska stared blankly at the system schematic. “We got the master system plot off the Jump Zone buoy about five hours ago,” Aloin said. “Nav Comp runs the plot in real time, based on logged vectors.”

“Know this,” Miska replied, tapping her chest.

“I’ve logged master system updates off the JZ buoys, and Miazan Highport, on the hour for the last four hours.” Aloin brought up the Scan plot. “And here’s our Scan returns,” he continued, “ mapped onto the master plot and with vector probabilities computed.”

Miska stared at the second plot. “That one,” she said suddenly, indicating an icon, “’s out of place.”

Aloin nodded. “Yes,” he said. “It dropped down into Real Space about an hour before us, which is why its position and vector were in the original master system plot we received off the buoy.”

“In-bound on Exxilon track,” Miska said thoughtfully. “Approach vector logged by Miazan T.C.”

“It starts to diverge from track about two hours ago,” Aloin said. “About when their scan would’ve picked us up.”

“Scan return on them?”

Aloin quickly tapped a command into his board. “Data stream coming up now,” he said, switching the new plot to the main screen. He glanced down the scrolling column of numbers on the left of the screen. “She’s a free trader. Harran Class, just like us. Imperial registry. Out of Celephais ...”

“Emission sig,” Miska interrupted. “Clean up ‘mission sig’ture.”

Aloin concentrated on the spectrum display at the bottom of the screen, activating filters to reduce the signal noise on the other ship’s drive emission signature. “I think that’s as good as I can get it,” he said at last.

“Good ‘nough, lad,” Miska said and punched the comm key on the arm of her chair. “Captain to bridge, trouble.”

Aloin stared at her. “Miska? What’s going on? They’re from your homeworld.”

Miska glanced back at him as she brought her board to life. “Thieves and villains and will cut our throats!” she said. She pointed at the scar on her neck. “Didn’t get this shavin’. “ Gesturing at the ship’s icon on the main screen, she said, “That’s the Guard Amethyst. That’s Venhrait and her thugs. That’s trouble, dockside.”

---

Glossary:
Jump Zone – A controlled area of space specifically assigned for starships to transit to and from Jump Space. By convention, in-bound starships transit through the system zenith while out-bound starships transit through the system nadir, thus reducing the possibility of encountering hazards orbiting the parent star along the plane of the ecliptic.

Seconday – Second shift. Work time on starships is usually measured in two shifts; Primeday or main shift; and Seconday or secondary shift. The bulk of a starship’s crew are off duty during Seconday.

T.C. – Traffic Control. Usually refers to the control hub for tracking and routing interplanetary and interstellar traffic through a star system. Ships enter and leave a star system in a Jump Zone – an area of space at least 100 planetary diameters out from the system’s main world. Jump Zones, depending upon the amount of in-bound and out-bound traffic in the system, can be millions of kilometres across.

Solo Traveller - Aloin's Saga #8

Slipping on his new Daiihousi sunglasses, an impulse buy just before the Iridium Queen cleared Miazan Highport, Aloin took a deep breath and ducked through the crew hatch. He looked around, surveying the wide, wind-swept field of Golus Downport. ‘Not many ships in today,’ he thought immediately, and then drew his jacket more tightly about him as he became aware of the bitingly cold northerly wind.

Even though a faint heat haze shimmered over the ferrocrete apron, when he looked north he could see pockets of snow high up on the shoulders of the Jakabsan Range. It was then that it struck him, he had been aboard the Iridium Queen for five months, four of them offworld. During that time, winter had returned to the northern hemisphere of Golus, and the Olkathi younglings he knew from Tartesh were long gone on their annual migration into the deep southern desert.

The rumble of the main cargo hatch opening drew Aloin back to the here and now. Swinging down the access ladder, he ducked under the stubby wings of the Iridium Queen, quickly checking the exterior hull for obvious damage as he had been taught, and noting his observations on his handcomp. Rounding the starboard landing jack, he walked over to where Kiirgun was running out the ramp. “Starboard side clear,” he called out to the cargomaster as Kiirgun began working locking pins and straps free from the nets securing the containers in the hold. “I’ll just check port side – oh, and it looks like Customs is on its way,” he added, spotting movement amongst the vehicles parked near the concourse.

As Aloin finished his checks and flashed his report to Holi Pradeen, the ship’s Engineer, Kiirgun was completing the customs inspection of their cargo. Even as the inspectors trekked down the Iridium Queen’s ramp, the first of two cargo haulers was backing into position, ready for the offload. Sprinting to join Kiirgun, Aloin was soon hard at work, wrestling awkwardly shaped pallet-loads onto the hauler’s flatbed.

“And that’s the last of them,” Kiirgun puffed as he flashed a thumbs-up to the hauler driver. Aloin vaulted off the hauler’s cargo deck just as the large vehicle jerked forward and then accelerated away from the ship. Kiirgun quickly scanned the electronic manifest on his handcomp, signatured it, and forwarded it to Captain Lukk and the shipping agent. “Not bad, lad,” he said as they walked wearily up the cargo ramp and began to strike the crane, “five tons of machine tools offloaded in record time, and a healthy four million credit profit.” Aloin gaped at him.

“Don’t get too excited, lad,” Kiirgun continued, stowing the crane arm. “Once the bills are paid and the backers take their cut, we’ll probably only have enough left for a protosteak dinner.” He grinned. “But it will be a very nice dinner. And maybe next time I see a bottle of ’64 Celephaisian Rum in a concourse gift shop, the Old Lady will let me buy it.”

“Get me a pay day like today and I’ll buy you a vat of it,” Elera Lukk said, stalking into the cargo hold. Kiirgun flushed and then casually wiped his forehead with the back of his sleeve. “On it, Captain,” he said.

Over the next few days, in between driving Captain Lukk to meetings and prowling the concourse with Kiirgun in search of cargos, Aloin managed to phone home. To his disappointment, he discovered that his father was still working north of the Jakabsan Range on the Aldesarn Valley Project canal. The Project company had been busily recruiting as Autumn semester had drawn to a close and a number of Aloin’s school friends were now overseeing heavy machinery or working survey parties in the steppe lands that ran up to the polar ice sheet.

There was no word from Aloin’s mother, Imeneene. As far as he could learn, she was still offworld. Meccan Vesukka, Aloin’s father’s partner, had half-heartedly suggested that they catch up for dinner but, pleading an erratic work schedule and the likelihood of an earlier liftoff from Golus, Aloin had declined. He was grateful that Meccan had secured him a berth aboard the Iridium Queen, but he still felt awkward socialising with her.

As the days slipped passed, Kiirgun began to run short of manuals for Aloin to read through. Even Holi had to admit that all the routine maintenance was up to date, all the deferred maintenance had been completed, and if Aloin had to polish the Jump inducers again, there was a high probability he would wear through the metal sheathing. Even the reclusive Navigator, Miska Ilurrin was showing signs of boredom, playing adventure games on the crew commons wide screen rather than computing Jump solutions for all possible stellar bodies within 36 parsecs of Golus.

Finally, Captain Lukk arrived back aboard one evening, unannounced. Tiredly, she settled into a seat in the commons. Kiirgun brought her a glass of water and then went off to warm up some dinner.

“Well?” Miska asked. “Cargo?”

Lukk sipped her water and then nodded. “Yes,” she said, “we have a cargo.” She held up a hand to forestall comment. “Not the biggest, and not the cleanest, but it will keep us going a little longer.”

“Not the cleanest?” Holi asked. “What? Coal? Sand? Desert-beast doo-doo?”

Lukk shook her head. “Hot rocks,” she replied. “So you better break out the lead foil.” Taking the bowl of chowder from Kiirgun, Lukk stalked off towards her cabin.

“Hot rocks?” Aloin asked.

“Radioactives,” Kiirgun replied. “Hope your people don’t cut corners when it comes to sealing hot rocks in shipping canisters.”

A couple of nights later, a non-descript truck pulled up at the foot of the Iridium Queen’s ramp. Twelve pallets, each with a bright yellow armoured contained lashed to it, were swung off the truck and into the hold. Wearing full overalls and a rebreather unit, Aloin helped Kiirgun secure the pallets for takeoff.

“Double lock ‘em, lad,” Kiirgun said, handing Aloin another locking bar. “Holi says this stuff is pretty inert in this form, but it’s a real curse to mop up if it spills.”

The comm unit sparked into life. “You finished tying down?” Captain Lukk demanded from the bridge. “We’re lifting in ten. I’m closing the main hatch.

“All hands, “she continued, “secure for liftoff and get to your stations. Move it, people, there’s weather coming in from the west. If we stay any longer on this dust ball, we’ll get buried.”

Solo Traveller - Aloin's Saga #7

Captain Lukk spread an old knitted shawl over the small aluminium shipping box and settled herself down, just where a shaft of sunlight spilled through the open main cargo hatch of the Iridium Queen. She drew her jacket more snugly about her. Sertan’s orangey light cast a golden glow across the late afternoon sky, but the K2 star did not throw much heat at this time of year and at this latitude.

Casually checking that the butt of her autopistol was free of the edge of her pocket, Lukk nodded towards the scruffy idler loitering beside the hoist at the foot of the cargo ramp. The idler suddenly found something utterly fascinating in his infotainment sheet and settled down on one of the hoist’s tines, half turning away from the Iridium Queen’s open hatch as he scanned the text boxes. Lukk lit her pipe.

Hearing footsteps on the deck plates, she glanced quickly behind her and then relaxed as Holi Pradeen came into view around the end of some stowed cargo jacks. Wheezing in the thin air, the rotund Celephaizon Engineer plonked himself down beside Lukk on her rug-covered shipping box. “I see our little friend is still out there,” he puffed. “I’d like to know how the Dear Leader gets his watchers on the Starport Authority Payroll.”

Lukk blew a smoke ring. “Quotas,” she said. “The Bromosians are a xenophobic lot. They don’t like offworlders. They’ll trade with us, but they don’t like us.”

Pradeen chuckled. “We’ve been here three and a half weeks, Elera,” he said. “They don’t seem to want to trade with us either.”

Lukk pursed her lips. “That’s why I sent Kiir and the lad over to the terminal,” she replied, “to post our destination on the main board.”

Pradeen raised an eyebrow. “Freight?” he asked. “We’re taking freight? And passengers?”

The Captain glared up at her rotund Engineer. “Yes, we’re taking freight,” she snapped. “And no, we’re not taking passengers. We don’t have a steward, and the Dear Leader probably wouldn’t let any of his Joyful Companions out of their potato fields, anyway.”

“That’s a relief,” Pradeen said. “I like having a stateroom to myself. I would really hate to have to bunk with Kiir.” He cocked his head, listening. “Sounds like the mule, inbound,” he added, hauling himself to his feet. “Hope Kiir and the boy had some luck at the terminal.” He smiled down at Lukk, “And our watcher has vanished, too,” he said quietly over the noise of the approaching quadbike and trailer.

“Well, you’d better go throw some coal in the boiler,” Lukk said, gathering up her shawl and pacing across the deck to the main hatch. “I want to be off this cabbage patch as soon as we’ve got something in the hold. We’re going back to Miazan. At least folks there have got some money.” She quickly stepped aside as Kiirgun gunned the mule up the ramp and through the hatch. Aloin sat perched on a pile of boxes in the trailer, grinning as the trailer bounced over the lip of the hatch behind the quadbike.

“You better have good news for me, Kiir!” Lukk shouted over the noise of the mule.

Kiirgun cut the engine and gestured double-thumbs up. “Captain,“ he said. “We have freight.”

Fifty-six hours later, the Iridium Queen lifted from Bromus Downport, two twenty-ton consignments and a five ton break-bulk load stowed neatly in her hold. Two hundred and fifty-two hours out from Bromus, on 212-1107, she slipped into Miazan Highport Bay 42 Spinward. The docking seals were barely tight when Captain Lukk had Kiirgun and Aloin crack open the main cargo hatch and begin shifting the containers dockside, much to the initial amusement, and then growing irritation, of Miazan Customs and Excise.

---

Commentary

Time to rattle along the last couple of jumps before the use of encounter tables kicks in. It has been a nice, quiet run so far which has enabled us to learn a little about the characters, get a handle on how the ship operates, and do a little bit of trading. Sadly, Captain Lukk has had appalling luck on the Trade Tables. When Aloin begins to think about it, he may begin to wonder how she can afford to sit for weeks on a dock.

I’m very happy with how the background of the subsector has been developing, and the discussions on ships and shipbuilding have helped me focus various thoughts I have had off and on for years. Coincidently, I have recently seen two discussions on Citizens of the Imperium about both constructing shipyards and about what shipyards can construct, which have been both informative and entertaining.

Solo Traveller - Aloin's Saga #5

I am slowly getting over a bad head cold. My misery has been compounded by connectivity shenanigans perpetrated by my second-hand-reconditioned-back-from-the dead computer, and a case of writers’ block.

---

A Brief Recap
Aloin Grathikka was born on the desert world of Golus in the Miazan Subsector. His father, Gealar Grathikka, was a Water Miner while his mother, Imeneene, was the pilot of a free trader and offworld, more often than not, while Aloin was growing up.

By the time he was eighteen, and after his parents had separated, Aloin had little idea about what he wanted to do with his life, except that he wanted to get off Golus and leave the desert dry behind. Meccan Vesukka, Aloin’s step-mother, was able to use her contacts to find a berth for Aloin aboard the free trader Iridium Queen, Captain Elera Lukk, out of Celephais.

After a longer than expected lay-over, the Iridium Queen left Golus, outbound for Miazan, with a cargo of petrochemicals.

---

During the week in Jump Space, Aloin’s training continued. The 50 tons of Petrochemicals Captain Lukk had purchased from Jarzeroon Petrochem on Golus had cost the ship Cr 450,000, or Cr 9,000 per ton. This made Captain Lukk slightly happy as the base price for petrochemicals was usually estimated at Cr 10,000 per ton. “Should have been able to talk him down further,” Lukk mused as they sat around in the crew common area. “We were the only ship in port, but that Jarzeroon guy, he knew we’d been dirtside for four weeks and we needed a cargo.

“Sometimes,” she said, “you reach a point of balance in the deal where everyone is equally unhappy, but you take it anyway, as you don’t have a choice.” She pulled up a series of charts and spreadsheets on the common area screen. “So, we take a not-so-good deal and we look around to see how to make it better.”

Tapping a map of the subsector, Lukk continued, ”We’re hauling petrochemicals, unprocessed raw materials, so Miazan is our obvious destination.” She began counting points off on her fingers, “It’s the Subsector Capital, and an industrial world with a large population; it’s two parsecs from Golus and within our range; and it has an insatiable appetite for raw materials.”

Bringing up another screen, Lukk began to enumerate the trade classifications of main worlds within six parsecs of Golus. Aloin scribbled notes on his handcomp, frantically trying to keep up.

One hundred and sixty four hours out from Golus, the Iridium Queen dropped down into Real Space, and the Miazan System. The Outrange buoys were soon detected, squawking real time navigational data, local system news and, most importantly, a raw data stream from the commodities market. By the time the Iridium Queen slid into Miazan Highport’s Bay 35 Spinward, Captain Lukk had a fairly clear understanding of the current commercial market. Within hours the cargo of Golusi Petrochemicals was sold and hauler units were moving the pallets of barrels dockside.

Tying down the pallet jacks as the last hauler rumbled down the main ramp, Aloin turned to Kiirgun Atmai. “How did we do?” he asked.

Kiirgun checked the last of the way bills against the manifest on his handcomp, hit {send}, and glanced up at his lanky protégé. “Load out times' a bit slow,” he said. “You’ll need to practise some more. On a tight turn around, you can’t mess about getting pallets lined up for the haulers.”

Aloin pulled a face. “No, I meant the cargo,” he said. “Did we get a good price for it?”

Kiirgun walked over to the main ramp and hit the large button on the battered control panel. Compressed air hissing, huge rams began to close the hold doors. “Two things,” he said over the noise of the rumbling bearings. “One; we don’t talk about ship business on an open dock,” he winked at Aloin, “and two; 765 K, while not quite doubling our money, certainly keeps us flying.”

Solo Traveller - Aloin's Saga #4

The Iridium Queen lifts off from Golus

Day 132-1107 dawned clear and cool with a light breeze from the north-west. At 0933 Local Time, as the heat of the day was beginning to build, the Iridium Queen lifted off from Golus Downport. Climbing over the Jakabsan range, the ship went supersonic at an altitude of 15 kilometres.

To Aloin, his rangy frame wedged into the Scan station at the rear of the small bridge, it was the greatest ride of his life. The dun-coloured dune lands and burnt-umber farm plots scattered around Golous Downport fell away beneath them like patches on the fabric of the planet. Through the bridge’s port-side window he could see the little white smudge of Tartesh, his home town, twinkling in the morning light and beyond it the green/yellow of the Aldesarn Valley and the thin black line of the canal marching southward, bringing meltwater down from the pole.

Captain Elera Lukk had the helm, guiding the ship spacewards with almost casual indifference. Navigator Miska Ilurrin was riding co-pilot, running Nav plots for the Jump on her terminal while keeping an eye on Lukk’s control settings. In her forties, the taciturn Navigator was a Celephaizon like her Captain.

As the colour drained from the sky, fading from pale blue to black, and the first stars began to appear, Ilurrin tapped her ear bud. “Thank you, Golus Down,” she said. “See you next time.” She paused. “Affirmative,” she acknowledged. “Clear on heading 271, Azimuth 67. Iridium Queen out.” She tapped her ear bud again and glanced at Captain Lukk. “Hand off from Golus Down,” Ilurrin said. ”We cross their horizon in two minutes. Golus Highport will rise on 180 in seven minutes. We’re to switch to Channel 7 for COAC.”

Captain Lukk grunted and stretched. “As if we’ll need them,” she said, “now we’ve got Aloin on Scan.” She winked at Ilurin. “You awake back there, lad?” she snapped in Aloin’s direction. Aloin started, tearing his eyes away from the whirls and chords and harmonies of stars that filled the windows of the bridge.

“Yes, Captain,” he said.

“Scan clear?” Lukk asked and grinned at Ilurin, her left hand tapping a command on her console.

Aloin’s quickly looked down at the Scan screen in front of him. Golus’ icon filled the bottom third of the display, Golus Downport’s ID and call sign slowly drifting below the horizon. An ID that identified the Highport was slowly crawling up over the arc of the planet. Then, suddenly, the screen began to fritz and static. Frantically altering the signal filters, Aloin tried to compensate for the interference. “Ma’am,” he said, trying to keep the panic out of his voice, “we’re being jammed.”

“Did you see anything? Any ship that might be jamming us?”

“Uh, no ma’am, Downport’s below the horizon and the Highport’s … uh, I think the Highport was above the horizon. I didn’t see anything else, Ma’am.”

“You sure?” Captain Lukk asked. “What about that Suaryan freighter on the in-bound?”

Aloin shook his head. “I’m sorry, Ma’am, I didn’t see it.”

“And that bulk hauler? Did you see the bulk hauler?”

Aloin shook his head again. “No Ma’am. I’m sorry, Ma’am,” he said miserably.

Lukk swivelled her chair around and glared at Aloin. “Do you know what happens to a 100,000 ton bulk hauler when it runs down a 200 ton freighter?” she demanded.

Aloin shook his head and stared at the static on his scan screen.

“Nothing, “ Lukk said. “It might, if it is unlucky, get its paint scratched as the freight blows itself to pieces.”

Pulling her pipe out of her belt pouch, Lukk clamped her teeth on the stem. “Bit tough on the freighter crew, though,” she added. “Especially if they were depending on Scan to keep them safe.” Tapping a button on her consol, she hopped down from her chair. Aloin gasped in astonishment as his scan screen abruptly cleared. He quickly checked the plot and the near-time archive.

Captain Lukk patted his knee as she hobbled towards the bridge hatch. “Don’t worry, lad,” she said. “There’s no Suaryan out there, and there’s no bulk hauler.” She paused and looked up at him. “This time,” she added.  Aloin flushed. “Good work on knowing where the ‘ports were, even if only at a glance,” she continued. “Sometimes you only get a glance at a screen, but you need to recall everything.”

“Take us out, Miska,” Lukk ordered, casting one last glance across the boards. “You have the helm until Jump. And you, lad,” she said to Aloin, “will watch your Scan until Kiir comes up to relieve you. And I will ensure that Kiir goes through Scan with you from screen to nubbin, until you know jamming from faulting and can fix either.”

Nodding to herself, Captain Lukk left the bridge. Two hundred and forty minutes later, and a little over 480,000 kilometres from Golus, the Iridium Queen Jumped Outsystem, bound for Miazan with a cargo of 50 tons of petrochemicals.

---

Commentary:

As I was writing this, I checked the speculative trade table in a pdf copy of Classic Traveller Starter Edition Book 2 Charts I picked up from, I think, DrivethruRPG during a sale. I was astonished to see that Petrochemicals are only available in 1d6 ton loads. So how had Captain Lukk scored 50 tons?

I checked the speculative trade table in my copy of The Traveller Book (1983 edition) and found the same notation – 1D tons of Petrochemicals. Then I pulled out my Little Black Book Traveller Book 2: Starships (1977 edition) and found Petrochemicals 6D * 5 tons. Wow! That’s quite a change, though Mongoose Traveller has Petrochemicals being available in 1D * 10 ton loads, Mega Traveller, as is its want, complicates things further by having three class sizes of cargo, with the cargo size further affected by the population of the originating planet. I like what my LBBs are serving me so they have become my Spec Trading table of choice.

Solo Traveller - Aloin's Saga Backgrounder #2

Having introduced a couple of characters, I needed to finalise their stats so I could keep them consistent.  Captain Elera Lukk was obviously going to be a major recurring character, so I played around with the Traveller Character Generator application I mentioned in my last post until I had a Merchant Captain who mostly fitted my preconceptions of Captain Lukk.

It was only after completing Lukk’s character picture, and writing the ‘meet the captain’ scene with Aloin, that I realised Elera Lukk was a tiny woman. Generating a character whose Strength characteristic was reduced to 1 by failing aging rolls just confirmed the character in my mind’s eye. Lukk is old, tiny and frail, but she’s also very smart (which is why she trusts her off-sider, Kiirgun Atmai, and why Aloin felt she was seeing through him). Indifferently educated, Elera Lukk is of high status (which, strangely enough, was something I had already factored into her character before I rolled any dice), being a member of a Celephaizean House Minor of Baronial rank.

While Lukk’s character was generated to age 54, her character picture looks older so I have decided that she is in fact 60 years old and has been in command of the Iridium Queen for the last six years. As befits a well-travelled Captain of her age and experience, she speaks several languages, including Kassuriik , Aerrghvi – a dialect of Gvegh, Vriok – the main Kalar-Wi language, and Trade Lingo.

A to Z: T is Traveller

What is Traveller? Is Traveller the rules system, or is Traveller the setting? This is a debate that crops up from time to time on various discussion boards.

If Traveller is the rule system, then which rule system is Traveller? Classic Traveller, published in 1977, and still my favourite version; MegaTraveller, published in 1986 and including the Task System developed by Digest Group Publications; Traveller: the New Era, published in 1992; Mark Miller’s Traveller (also known as T4), published in 1996; GURPs Traveller, published in 1998, adapted Traveller to the GURPs 3rd Edition rules; Traveller 20 (or T20), published in 2002, adapted Traveller to the D20 system; GURPs Traveller: Interstellar Wars, published in 2006, adapted Traveller to the GURPs 4th Edition Rules; Traveller Hero, published in 2006, adapted Traveller to the Hero System; Traveller 5 (also known as T5), CD-Rom released in 2008 as a “play test document”, and Marc Miller’s latest working of the rules – still in development; Mongoose Traveller, published in 2008 and the latest version of the rules.

I have managed to pick up most of these rule books over the years. I still enjoy Classic Traveller as it is the system I know the best. I liked GURPs Traveller as a concept, and GT has some of the best support material written for the game, but find aspects of the GURPs system very clunky and annoying. I like Mongoose Traveller a lot, as it marks a return to a lot of the stripped-down simplicity of the Classic Traveller rules. I find Mongoose’s continued production faults increasingly irritating, though – if I’m shelling out $NZ30 - $NZ40 for a rule book or supplement, I expect it to be proof read, and I expect it to be edited by someone with a vague understanding of Traveller and the Traveller setting. Traveller 20 had a very interesting setting, but I really don’t like the D20 system – it’s too much like Dungeon and Dragons for my taste, which doesn’t work, in my opinion, in a Science Fiction game. Of the others, while each seems to have its fans, I have never played them.

At the end of the day, it appears that the best version of the Traveller rules is the one you feel most comfortable with. For me, I want a system where the mechanics are easy to remember, there’s a bit of on-line support with apps for designing ships, characters, star maps and systems, and the mechanics don’t get in the way of the story telling.

If Traveller isn’t the rules, but the setting, then which setting? The original Classic Traveller rules had no setting – you could do anything you liked. Later, what is now called the ‘Golden Age’ of Traveller formed the backdrop – the 3rd Imperium in the year 1105, on the eve of the 5th Frontier War with the Zhodani Consulate. MegaTraveller took the 3rd Imperium and destroyed it, and then nuked the ruins with a sentient computer virus called, (drum roll, please ...) Virus. The blurbs on all the material were so gor-blimey that for years I couldn’t take the MegaTraveller or Traveller: The New Era settings seriously. Some of the material, like “Path of Tears” is well written, evocative, and incredibly depressing, and some of the material, like “Vampire Fleets”, is creepy in a haunted-house/2001: A Space Odyssey sort of way, and immanently stealable for other games but, on the whole, left me with a feeling of “meh”.

The setting for Traveller: The New Era attempted to put the wonder of exploration back into the Traveller Universe, but it is a story of re-contact and rediscovery as the characters shuffle through the ruins of fallen empire. GURPs Traveller sidesteps the entire rebellion storyline and carries on with the same-old, same-old. With T4, Marc Miller was quite clever and decided to go back in time to examine the birth of the 3rd Imperium. This was a gentler way of gaming exploration and first contact than picking through the bone worlds of Traveller: The New Era. Traveller T20 explored the Solomani Rim War period, but set in the Gateway Sector – an Imperial backwater looking out over a turbulent neutral zone towards the alien K’kree. This is a fascinating area of space, and some excellent adventures were set here, often with both T20 and Classic Traveller stats. GURPs Traveller: Interstealler Wars explores humanities’ initial encounters with the Vilani Imperium. Finally, Mongoose Traveller has taken the setting back to 1105 and the “Golden Age” – though to date, Mongoose has concentrated pretty much on rewriting Classic Traveller material rather than contributing new material.

So, if Traveller isn’t about rules or setting, and we have seen that rules and settings can change, then what is it about?

The two consistent things about Traveller are that there is no faster-than-light communication, and that Jumps last approximately one week. The best description of what Traveller is comes from the little black box that the little black books came in, way back in 1977. Traveller is “science fiction adventure in the far future”.

Widening the View

My cunning plans for finishing off a bunch of figures crashed and burned today as I was called upon to be dutiful son-in-law. I did manage to finish off a project I started last night - an updated sector map of the RimWorlds with all statted systems named. I also added Outrim Void Sector, as some systems in the Hunt of Rronurl lie rimward of Cabria Subsector, and some of the spinward trade routes from the rimward end of Gazul Subsector pass to rimward of Miazan Subsector.

With this map in place, I can begin adding some of the trade routes I have been working out, using GURPS: Far Trader.

Once again, I generated the Outrim Void Sector map using Heaven and Earth. I set the initial system distribution to "Rift", which represents a 4% coverage. For the "B" and "C" subsectors, I regenerated these with a "Sparse" system distribution (16% coverage) which allowed me to link from spinward to trailing. I then added the extra systems I needed, rimward of Breknor/Cabria, to complete the Vargr polity of the Hunt of Rronurl, and another one further rimward to allow J-2 access out as far as "J" Subsector, some 30 parsecs rimward of Breknor.

I probably need to add a strip of at least two subsectors to spinward of Entorth Subsector to fully flesh out some of the Outrim polities I have mentioned in my notes, and give them sufficient depth to resist Imperial encroachments, while also allowing some Rift space around the edges.

5150: New Beginnings

5150: New Beginnings is a Science Fiction immersion game from Two Hour Wargames, and the first immersion game that I have bought. While I’m still reading the rules, I like what I see.

I’m not sure if “immersion game” is a tagline that THW has coined for their games, as I have not come across it before but, essentially, it describes a type of game that sits between a tabletop skirmish game and an RPG. By using reaction rolls, the characters in the game are meant to act and react to events as they unfold in a way that is more natural and logical than the traditional “I go, You go” of tabletop wargames.

What I really like is that there is an extensive campaign side to the game, and that the game can be played solo as well.

I first came across the game either on TMP or on one of the many blogs I follow. I joined the Two Hour Games Yahoo Group and read a couple of very entertaining After Action Reports written by guys fumbling their way through character creation and initial encounters. What sold me on the game was that I could easily see myself using my Traveller campaign as a setting, and actually getting to play with some of the figures I have been painting. My initial plan is to set the game in the Border Worlds – along the Lymethius and Gamelea Subsector borders – as this is an area of friction and conflict, which tends to generate good stories.

I elected to get the printed version of the rules from Two Hour Wargames, rather than the pdf, and it came, spiral bound, on a nice weight of paper with a colour card cover. The spiral binding made sense after my initial surprise as the book is going to spend a fair amount of time open when in play. I intend to rebind it, adding clear plastic covers to protect the very nice cover art, as I have access to a spiral binding machine.

I will post some updates on this soon, I think.

Egad! Zhodani!

It's my birthday today, I'm four pages from the end of a massive edit job I've been doing for Spica Publishing, I have the day off and the weather is beautiful, and Tony from
Eureka Miniatures has just emailed me to see if I'm still interested in the 15mm versions of the Ventaurans that have been in the Eureka Miniatures' 300 Club since 2007!

It would appear that there has finally been sufficient interest, and sufficient people, that Eureka is looking at possibly getting Mike Broadbent to sculpt 15mm versions of the Denizen 25mm figures. Fantastic!

From what Tony says in his email, it would appear that the helmeted figures are a definate "go". I, personally, would like the helmetless figure as an officer as well. No word on the droids, so perhaps these are not the droids we are looking for.

If the Ventaurans look like the sort of armoured trooper you've been waiting for, I would suggest getting over to the Eureka site and pre-ordering some to help ensure they get into production.

Aliens Ate My Baby - Part 1: Gamelea Subsector

The Mos Eisley Cantina scene in the movie Star Wars (now called ‘A New Hope’ or some such nonsense) had a profound effect upon me when I first saw it in the mid-late 70s. This was science fiction! This was what a poly-species galaxy should look like. I was always vaguely disappointed by Asimov’s Foundation series for this reason – a humano-centric galaxy seemed to both grant too much importance to humaniti as a species, and to disregard the chance that life might evolve on other planets and in other forms.

I understand that, at some stage, during the evolution of Traveller, a rule of thumb was propagated that there should only be two to three intelligent species per Sector. Well, I must have missed that memo. And I have not really seen any concrete reasoning why this must be so, or why a rule of thumb has now become a Rule. I am quite happy, though, with the differentiation between Major Races (independently develop Jump Drive technology) and Minor Races (have not developed Jump Drive by the time they are contacted by a Major Race) – though the fact three septs of Humaniti (Zhodani, Vilani and Solomani) claim the role of Major Race does seem a little odd.

The RimWorlds, a wisp of stars extending hundreds of light years above the Galactic Plane, was dominated by a hexapedal reptilian species known as the Tsalur. The Thongaloros Empire, as their interstellar polity was known, finally collapsed in 103, nearly 400 years before the first Imperial presence in the RimWorlds. Interestingly, the fall of the Thongaloros Empire is attributed to attacks by ‘Outrim Barbarians’ – these are yet to be defined but it is noted that Aslan colonise Yuwe/Lymethius some 200 years prior to the collapse of the Empire – who obvious possess Jump technology, even if they did not develop it.

The Thongaloros Empire, dominated by the Tsalur, tended to scoop up Minor Race populations and move them wholesale across space to wherever they were required; as workers, slaves, or for other duties. Once established on their new home worlds, the transplanted populations tended to remain, even after the Empire collapsed, as the logistics for moving vast numbers of people over parsecs of space disappeared with the Empire. When the 3rd Imperium began to probe into the RimWorlds in the 490’s, they discovered a mosaic of Pocket Empires, single world polities and systems that had not seen a Jump-capable starship in two to three centuries.

In the Gamelea Subsector, three Minor Races were discovered by the Imperium; the amphibian Julnari of Julnar; the avianoid Rimbaur of Rimbaud II; and the humanoid Kalar-Wi of Kalar-Wi.

Not much is recorded of either the Julnari or the Rimbaur prior to the 11th or 12th Centuries. The Julnari, even with a population of only 900,000 on the water world of Julnar, managed to achieve Tech Level 15 – one of only two systems in the Gamelea Subsector to do so – by the late 1090’s. Homeworld of the computing and robotics megacorporation Julnar Cybernetics, the Julnari enjoy wealth and influence in the subsector far beyond what would be expected of such a small population.

The Rimbaud War of 1042 – 1044 between Kalar-Wi and the Rimbaur nearly resulted in the extermination of the latter Minor Race and extensive damage to the ecology of Rimbaud II. The Rimbaud War only ceased under direct threat of Imperial intervention. Kalar-Wi remained in possession of Rimbaud II for the next 70 years until the defeat of Kalar-Wi in the Kalar-Wi War of 1103 – 1105. The Rimbaur emerged from beneath the domination of Kalar-Wi with a deep-seated racial inferiority complex and an intense distrust of the Imperium.

The Kalar-Wi are a fascinating culture. Intensely militaristic, they blindly follow charismatic leaders. Their head of state has a title that translates as ‘Warlord’. Initial contact with the expanding Imperium was favourable as the Imperium demonstrated superior technology and a cavalier adventurer mentality. The Kalar-Wi were quite prepared to ally with the Imperium and protect the flanks of the nascent Gamelea subsector. Kalar-Wi came to dominate a small, but powerful, interstellar empire during the Outrim Wars of the 10th and 11th Centuries. The Rimbaud War of 1042 – 1044 marked the first time that Kalar-Wi had been checked by Imperial authority – the hopelessly corrupt Subsector Dukes of Gamelea had long since ceded two Imperial worlds to Kalar-Wi control – and this initiated the steadily downward spiral of relationship between the two powers that resulted in the Kalar-Wi War of 1103 – 1105.

As of 1109, the Imperial garrison of Kalar-Wi is in the process of withdrawing and the Kalar-Wi Warlord Vran’kal Youka is set to return from exile in Cabria Subsector.

Accidents in Astrography: Gamelea Subsector #1

The Gamelea Subsector was the first subsector generated for my RimWorlds Traveller Campaign.

In and of itself, the Gamelea Subsector isn’t very unusual, until you start looking at it from an economic and political point of view.

The Gamelea Subsector lies nearly at the Rimward edge of Imperial space within the RimWorlds Sector (Miazan Subsector, off the bottom of the Gamelea Subsector map, marks the Imperial frontier to Rimward). This, in itself, isn’t a problem until you start looking for the obvious links coreward of Gamelea. While the Xboat route links Kalath and the worlds of the Gamelea cluster via Julnar to the core worlds, this is a Jump-4 link. A Jump-3 route is possible from Kalath to Leminkainen but with Leminkainen’s poor D Class Starport, there’s not a lot of support for ships smaller than Long Liners or Megacorp Longhaulers. It would seem that the heart worlds of my Traveller campaign were actually unreachable for standard adventurer type Jump-2 ships.

When I started looking at my Traveller campaign again a couple of years ago, I began to realise that the J-3 Rift running through the subsector was a major impediment. This Rift, incidentally, continues to Trailing, bisecting Nolgor Subsector as well, and continuing over the Sector border. I suppose I could have just thrown a couple of systems into the Rift and then the problem would have gone away, but the mapping of the Lymethius Subsector, to Spinward of Gamelea Subsector, had thrown up a reach just inside that subsector border that looked as if it might provide a solution to my shipping quandary.

When I started working with Dave Redington on The BurrowWolf webcomic, I redrew the Border Worlds area on a J-6 map template I discovered on Berka’s Zhodani Base website. In this format, star patterns that were not readily apparent in the conventional 8x10 subsector map format leapt into view and suddenly provided a reason for the Imperium's dogged defence of these worlds through a series of border wars with the neighbouring stellar polities.

So, the lesson I learnt through this process is that terrain, even in space, is what defines a polity and access ways and borders exist for reasons. In works of fiction, a plausible reason why something exists enhances the story background, and gives possible hooks for future stories.