Session Report Heirloom Heist!

Holtzmann, week 9 of year SA 929

At this week's session we had three Travellers: Graham Clark, Dietrich Smith and a fellow known only as C-418 or C4.

Clark and C4 are senior staff in the motor pool in the household of Count Murietta, one of the Contenders. They are usually serving the Count's son, Lord Francisco, a Naval officer.

Some while back, Carter and C4 made an impression on Lord Francisco when they were instrumental in recovering a data device which someone had stolen from Murietta's estate.

When Lady Elise Kindrick, a friend of Lord Francisco (not his fiancee) came to him with a problem, he knew just the guys to help resolve it. Lady Elise had accepted a marriage proposal from the son of Marquis Tellez, a prominent nobleman. Her fiancee gave her a piece of heirloom jewelry which she would wear publicly at the party when they announced the engagement. The party was a week away.

I bet you can guess where this is going.

Sure enough, somebody had pinched the heirloom. Lady Elise hadn't told her fiancee, as the news would certainly end the engagement and cause a big scandal. She went to Francisco, instead, who promised to help.

Play Report: The Return of the Star Walker

The Star Walker (see this post) limped out of jump space in an unknown system far to the galactic South of Holtzmann's Corridor. Fortunately for them, the system was inhabited. They found out the locals called their world Saorsumma. In the undefined subsector it is in hex 0303.

On Saorsumma, Mac and Carter, along with the crew & passengers, were taken into captivity by the local government. Saorsumma it seems has starships, but they have lost the knowledge of how to construct or repair them. Jump drives are now to them a Black Box technology. The locals were excited to say the least to get their hands on another functioning J-drive. They wanted to know how to get more. Mac and Carter wanted to get back home.

After a few weeks in (relatively comfortable) captivity, a few of the Walker's passengers made a break for it with some local separatists. They disappeared into the world's back country. Maybe some day we'll play out what became of them.

Mac and Carter came up with a plan. The locals weren't thrilled but it sounded like the best option. They have waited four months for the local shipyard to finish the “refit” of their ship the Star Walker. (and we've waited three months to play out the next part of this adventure) I took what the players wanted and checked in Trillion Credit Squadron. By the book, it would take sixteen weeks to complete.

Farewell, Baron Namsos. Hello . . . ???

 In an earlier post I described the chaotic events on Schamel that led to the death of Baron Namsos of Stavanger, and narrowly avoided the nuclear death of several thousand people at Count Murietta's mining camp. The players have not been able to move this conflict forward for several weeks, owing to real-world commitments. 

The situation remains volatile. Within two weeks of the Affair's conclusion, the following official statement was released by the Baron's Council. It went to Schamel, Holtzmann, and every Embassy and Consulate Stavanger maintains.

The Government of Stavanger has made it known that as of week 22 year 929 SA, a state of Feud has existed between the House of Namsos of Stavanger and the House of Murietta of Holtzmann. Namsos holds Murietta personally responsible for the death of Baron Dominic Namsos of Stavanger. Therefore, all vessels, persons and institutions bearing allegiance to Murietta or operating under his banner or colors are subject to attack, seizure or destruction wherever they may be found.

The Government of Stavanger recognizes the right of House Namsos to take such actions as it deems necessary to exact retribution including the death of Count Murietta. No other Imperial vessels, persons, or institutions are legitimate targets of this Feud. The Feud will be ended when Namsos is satisfied that Murietta has made adequate restitution and compensation for his offenses against the House.

Letters of Marque have been issued, all Stavangerian diplomatic outposts have been notified, and all allied and friendly governments will receive customary notice of the State of Feud.

For the Barons of Stavanger

signed Allan Hokksen, First Baron of Stavanger 

Count Murietta replied:

A Statement Regarding the Declaration of Feud Between House Namsos and House Murietta

Why there are no Aliens in my Traveller Setting

 Simple answer: I don't need them. What purpose do aliens serve? To produce other-worldliness? To remind the players that they aren't in New Jersey? To give PCs cool new powers & abilities? To be a faceless enemy that Travellers can slaughter without qualm?

Rubber Forehead Aliens, now with AI!

I don't need aliens to do those things. Note this is not me saying that aliens are badwrongthink. The Traveller Book does mention aliens in passing, and says that any character can be of any race. Beyond that is up to the Referee and the players.

As a human and a Christian, I believe that God became Man in the person Jesus Christ. By his literal physical death and Resurrection He provided mankind salvation, the way back to Paradise, communion with God. He healed and restored the Image of God in man. That man bears the image and likeness of God is part of the Christian creed. This makes us distinct from animals, plants and rocks.

Does that make mankind unique in the universe? I don't know. The Church does not claim to know whether there are other image-bearers in the cosmos. So here, in my fictional future setting we find no other image-bearing races. I have chosen to leave that question unanswered.

Yes, I have the Ursas and neo-dogs. Both of these arose from Terran animals. We know that they do not bear the Image. The Church views them as living beings worthy of respect, but not as potential members of the Church. Also, the Ursas and Neo's don't see the point; they are materialists.

I have read many sci-fi pulp stories, the kind of literature that inspired Traveller. The ones set in our solar system often have native races from Venus, Mars and Mercury, and sometimes the outer planets too. Every author has a different vision of what a Martian looks like.

What they have in common is this: they are different cultures from the Terrans. Language, dress, and social practice set them apart. For the sake of story-telling they all can communicate with Terrans. There is some form of common language that all the planets have and know. 

The Schamel Affair: A Traveller Braunstein

It all started in week 16 of year 929 of the Space Age when Tyrian von Stolberg arrived on Schamel. He was under orders from Count Murietta to explore for ways to boost the Schamelian economy. this was meant to get into the local's good graces and allow Murietta room to negotiate with them for mutual economic benefit. Two weeks later, von Stolberg's prospecting team hit the jackpot - a lode of gadolinium, possibly as much as a million tons of it. In-game, gadolinium is an important component of jump drives, so it's in demand by the ship-building powers: Lanzhou, Stavanger, Dekalb, and the Empire.

On the Traveller Trade tables, metals/alloys go for 10,000 credits a ton, so this mine was billions of credits waiting to be dug up.

What Happened?

Six Factions showed up on Schamel to negotiate and deal for access to the gadolinium mine.

• Count Murietta
• Baron Namsos of Stavanger
• The Lycosky Trade Protectorate Director of Operations, Corridor Region
• The Dekalbian business director for Thetford Aerospace
• Mr. Tarpov, Assistant Secretary for Trade at the Talaveran Consulate (a Boss for the ICO, the Sakamoto Ring)
• Baron de Quintero, another Contender who has a lot of money in mining already, and might see Murietta as competition.

and the Governor of the Schamel Habitation, Gov. Castberg, played by the Referee. In retrospect, it should have been a player running Castberg. The Referee had too much to keep track of to play him effectively.

The Referee assigned each faction a primary and a secondary objective. this front-loaded some conflict into the game. Each faction would, at the end, be assessed on how well those objectives were accomplished. 

Each turn, the players handed to the Referee a card explaining their plans for the following turn. Then they had 20 minutes to interact with the other players in negotiation, argument or whatever. The time limit kept things from bogging down, but we could have made it 30. We only had the afternoon to play it out, and we wanted to get through as many turns as we could, to get to some kind of resolution. We did. See below.