Random Encounters - Two Patrons

Alistair Deacon

Business Mogul, someone who always “knows a guy” who can help the PCs – in exchange for a favor.

A Deal is about to be born. And it will be profitable.

Deacon is not that tall, not that big and not that impressive looking. A good-looking guy, sure, but a city-dweller and ground-pounder.

He tends to be 'flash' – you'll find him at the popular clubs, often tossing credits around. His clothes are always the current fashion, and tailor-made. Any tech he carries with him will be top of the line, the best the local TL can offer.

When he introduces himself, it's always “I'm Alistair Deacon”. The implication being that of course the PCs have heard of him. This may be vanity, but it's also a show of dominance. He will on occasion talk about himself in the 3rd person; such as “Of course it'll be a winner. Financial losses don't happen to Alistair Deacon.”

And in general, he's right. He may not look tough, but he's no fool. His business ventures are always legit, and profitable. He can smell a dodgy deal a klick away.

He's loaded with cash, and connected to scores of people – both legit and criminal. He's not a criminal, but he knows people who are.

He has two associates nearby at all times - “Kong” and “Nails”. Kong is the obvious muscle, even in his nice suit. Nails is less obtrusive, and often fades into the background. Just because you don't see him, that doesn't mean he's not there. Deacon isn't a fighter, so he always has someone around who is.

Alistair Deacon

77799A Age 42 Cr – Millions

Bureaucrat, 6 terms Executive

Liaison-3, Administration-2, Computer-1, Vehicle-1, Carousing-3

Alistair owns several businesses, on more than one planet. As a patron he may want:

Diplomatic Service - a 76 Patrons style adventure

76 Patrons Diplomatic Service

The Zhodani Base is hosting another 76 Patrons Adventure writing contest!  This is an entry I wrote for the 2012 contest.

Patron: Ambassador Eidelson of Kemasiik

Location: Van Goffs World, in Holtzmann's Corridor

Skills required: weapon skills, reconnaissance skill, intrusion skills

The urban environment creates lots of opportunities, and lots of security headaches.

The PC's are hired by Sterling Eidelson, the Ambassador of Kemasiik on Van Goff's World. The political climate is getting hotter, with local opinion of Kemasiik's bid to separate from Van Goff drawing increased public scorn. Ambassador Eidelson is concerned for his staff's safety, and wants the embassy's security measures tested. The PCs are promised Cr4,000 and official thanks for their work.

The Chief of Diplomatic Security, Ajay Mirgain, will supervise the exercise. The PC's are given 72 hours to conduct surveillance, then they must attempt to breach the embassy's security, show the white flag and end the exercise. The CDS supplies them with battery-pack low-power laser weapons to use; a PC with mechanical skill can disguise them. The PCs and all embassy personnel will wear laser sensors at all times, so that the intruding team can simulate a shooting attack and security staff can counter. Whether or not the attack succeeds, the PC's will have accomplished their task by confirming the extant security measures or revealing weaknesses that can be corrected.

Product Review - 21 Plots III

21 Plots III

This also came to me as a prize for participating in the 2015 Amber Zone Adventure writing contest. Thanks, GKG!

What is it?

This is the third installment of 21 Plots, a supplement series by Gypsy Knight Games. It presents the referee with 21 situations or adventure seeds. Some but not all are patron-based. The supplement presents only a framework, the referee gets to develop the adventure and fill in the details.

What format?

It's a PDF.

What can I do with it?

There's plenty of material to keep the PC's busy, if not happy. The supplement is weighted towards PCs that have a ship and routinely engage in trade or chartered freight hauling; many of the 21 plots have interstellar transporting as their basis. A number of them are criminal scenarios, usually smuggling. I've stated before my distaste for out-and-out criminal jobs, so I wouldn't put those in front of my players. Other missions are negotiation, investigation and missing persons.

How easy is it to use?

The plots each follow the CT “76 Patrons” format: a situation is outlined, and the referee is given six options or twists to flesh out and add detail. Plots are often stated to begin on a given world, but any of them could be transplanted to another world if that's where the PCs are. Few of them are dependent upon specific characteristics of the world. That's the strength of this brief format – referees have lots of room to make the situation fit the PC's abilities and the player's plans.

Would I have bought this for myself?

If I played in the Clement Sector setting, I might buy this book. As I prefer to play in my own setting, this is not as useful. Besides, I have a lot of fun writing my own Amber Zones and 76 Patrons situations. Putting that aside, this is a useful tool for a referee to have in his kit. It's worth a look. You can find it at DriveThruRPG. 

The Failed Colony - A 76 Patrons format adventure

The Failed Colony

This is another contest entry I wrote a few years ago; cleaned up and expanded. 
Patron: Businessman/Investor Anton Sharrett

Location: Mavramorn (Holtzmann's Corridor 0605)

Required skills: any, technical skills helpful

Required equipment: none

The situation:

The patron, Anton Sharrett (776999, Age 42) has recently acquired at auction the ownership of a failed colony on an in-system moon, Mavramorn-VII-C. M-VII-C is an airless planetoid, so the colony is a sealed habitat. The PCs are part of a group hired to travel to the habitat and conduct an initial assessment. They will be transported to the location by shuttle or the PC's own craft; their goals are to assess damage, get the life support and other machinery working again, and begin cleanup in advance of a more dedicated construction team.

The habitat was sold at government auction, and is certified to have failed for political/economic reasons rather than disease or disaster. Payment will depend upon the skills a character brings to the expedition, technical skills will be most valued. Sharrett offers Cr 2,000 per person plus salvage.

In addition to the PCs, there are two other members of the team

Jean-Pierre Grantham: A78765, Mechanical-2, Forgery-1, Bribery-1

Mechanics tools, vacc suit Gregarious, friendly but utterly self-centered

Brandy Warwick: 698898 Electronics-2, Computer-1, Handgun-1

Electronics tools, hand computer, Vdist commo, task-oriented, quiet, looking for regular work

Sharrett will not be there in person, but can be contacted by radio from the transport ship. He has agreed to grant salvage rights to the characters for any personal (i.e. non-structural) items left behind. If it isn't bolted down, the PCs can take it.

And the Winner is . . . Me!

 The 76 Patrons Adventure Writing contest for 2014 is over, and the winning entry has been announced. It's my entry The Oncoming Storm! To say the least, I'm thrilled!  It has been great fun writing and reading entries in this contest.

Read BeRKA's announcement here.

Congratulations also go to:
Mark McCabe for The Bank Job (Second Place)
and 
Sifu Blackirish for Game Time (Third Place)

Head over to the Zhodani base and read all the 76 Patrons contest entries. Adventures galore await you!

The Oncoming Storm - a 76 Patrons Adventure

The Oncoming Storm

An adventure for Traveller

 

Location: Highbury (Foreven/Titan 0106) 0926 B566879-9  Ri  (PBG)203

Patron: Colonel Sandovar Fasola, military intelligence officer of Caxburgh, one of the major states of Highbury

Required skills and equipment: none

Players Information:

Highbury's two main land masses are separated by fairly wide oceans, except at one point, known as the Channel. In this narrow passage (32 km at nearest point) is found the chain of islands that make up the country of Glostonburgh, home to 2400 souls. Glostonburgh’s economy is based on fishing, and they export fish and aquaculture goods to nations on both continents. 

Caxburgh (103 million) on one continent and Breedony (86 million) on the other are gearing up towards a war. Glostonburgh is officially neutral but both sides have a reason to desire control the islands; the largest island has an excellent harbor, and the islands can serve as staging grounds for invading the other country. 

Colonel Fasola wants the PCs to investigate the island, looking for military activity by the other side, to use as a pretext and justification for their own occupation. He’s using off-worlders to minimize risk of being recognized as spies. They are given a special military comm channel which can be utilized by their own comms, and two weeks in which to discover any military ships, planes or vehicles, any uniformed soldiers, or other evidence that Breedony has already violated the neutrality. They will have to provide tangible evidence for the Colonel to take to the high command, preferably visual recordings. 

The PCs will be given a cover identity as off-world journalists there to investigate the local aquaculture. They can use this guise or create one of their own. They can use their own contra-grav craft if they have one, or Fasola will arrange for one to be available. At the end of two weeks, the PCs should return, with whatever intelligence they’ve been able to gather. Pay can be negotiated based upon PC’s military background and social skills.

You can read the rest of the adventure, and leave a comment at the Zhodani Base. 

The Thing in the Telescope - a 76 Patrons adventure

The Thing in the Telescope

an adventure for Traveller

and contest entry in the Zhodani Base 76 Patrons adventure writing contest.

Chang-Xi's best resolution image of the Thing.

Patron: Jedric Chang-Xi
Location: Apinanto (Foreven/Fessor 0604)
Required: starship skills, Vacc Suit skill

Player's Information:

Chang-Xi contacts the PC group, offering to hire them as ship crew for an in-system exploration mission. If the PCs have a ship, they can use it, but if not then Chang-Xi has chartered a Slow Pinnace. He is an amateur astonomer, and recently he detected something in the L4 cluster of the second planet in the Apinanto system. The cluster is a mass of small asteroid bodies and ice clouds, which are in motion, making identification of the Thing difficult. Apinanto Prime is the fourth planet, a low population poor world that gets little interstellar traffic. If the object is a ship, Chang-Xi can sell it to the government which would pay handsomely for it. He offers the PCs either one month standard salary by position, or a total of 15% of the salvage price of whatever he finds.
Travel to the L4 cluster will take several hours to around a day, the inner planet orbits the sun much faster than Apinanto.


You can read the rest of the adventure, and leave a comment at the Zhodani Base. 


Image credit: NASA photo archive http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap951010.html
 

Downward - a 76 Patrons Adventure

Downward
An adventure for Traveller.

The Zhodani Base is hosting the 76 Patrons adventure writing contest again. This is one of my entries.
 

Location: Gotylu (Foreven/Urnian 3035) E-688699-2 Ag Ni Ri

Gotylu is a farming world of barely 2 million people. The world is classified as an Amber Zone because of the extremely xenophobic natives. While they are very low-tech, there's a lot of them compared to the small human trade outposts. Because of this fact Gotylu has not been explored very much, with one exception.

Gotylu has one very interesting feature: the Gotylu Chasm, a kilometers-deep naturally occurring hole in the ground. The Chasm is not a canyon; it is a basically vertical shaft of uncertain depth, with nearly a quarter-kilometer diameter on the surface. Its volume and shape are less certain below the surface. Geologists have attempted to study this bizarre phenomenon but often run afoul of the locals and have to make a hasty departure. This has led to the site, while it remains an area of much interest, to be referred to simply as the Hole.

 

One recent geological team which rapidly evacuated informed Dr. Karl Barrow, the department head for Geography and Exo-geography at Ovdyo State University that in the process of their departure, the central data core that was correlating all of their measurements and sensor data fell into the hole. Dr. Barrow is offering, with the University's approval, transport to and from Gotylu and Cr 50,000 finder's fee for the team that can descend into the Chasm and retrieve the data core. As there will not be a geological survey site on the surface, the hope is that the locals will not notice a small team arriving and infiltrating the Chasm. The Geology department will provide the team with a reliable but used air/raft if the team does not have one of their own. The air/raft is to be returned, it is not part of the payment. Dr. Barrow's department provides maps of Gotylu, and aerial imagery of the Chasm site. A junior geologist can accompany the PCs if they want his expertise.

You can read the rest of the adventure, and leave a comment, at The Zhodani Base.