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.

'I think I did a TARDIS' - a First at the Gaming Table

 Huh?*

This past weekend, we had two firsts at the table while playing Traveller. This despite that I've played this game since about 1982.

First, the simple one. My older son was playing a new character, Dismas, an ex-Flyer. He was on Narok, a non-Imperial world in the Corridor. While there he found himself in the middle of a public protest against the Empire and its various evils. Remember that from the Empire's POV, everyone in the Corridor are barbarians. 

Dismas was minding his own business but stumbled into the midst of the protest anyway. Some protesters noticed him and moved to attack. As is typical at the start of combat, we rolled for Surprise. Neither side gained surprise. I asked if Dismas wanted to fight or escape.

Escape and Avoidance: Encountering parties may attempt to escape from, or avoid contact with, an encounter. A party which has achieved surprise may always avoid an encounter by so stating. Non-player character parties which have surprise and are outnumbered will avoid an encounter on a throw of 7+ (no DMs). If two parties encounter without surprise, either may attempt to escape immediately (before any combat or contact occurs). Roll

9+ to escape (DM allowed based on range: -1 if close or short range, +I if medium range, +2 if long range, +3 if very long range).

The Implications of Jump Drive

 The Jump Drive is the technology in Traveller that allows for FTL travel. We play Traveller, We know this. But have you thought about what that means?

The Jump Drive moves the PCs from hex to hex, yes. But how?  You look at the jump rating, which is a cross-reference of the size of the ship and the letter code, A to Z, of the drive. These give us the ratings from 1 to 6. Still telling you things you already know.

The point is this: a jump drive is not rated by how fast it can go. Any jump “takes about one week” (TTB, p. 49) whether you have a tiny type-A in your Free Trader or a mammoth type-Z in your super-cargo freighter. 

A jump drive rating tells you how far it can go in that one week. A jump-2 drive is not twice as fast  as a jump-1 drive; it has twice the range of the jump-1 drive.

There is no real-world comparison for this distinction. We rate vehicles, from bicycles to Blackbirds in rate of distance per unit of time. Faster vehicles cover the distance in less time. Not so in Traveller. A jump-1 drive takes as long as a jump-6 drive to do a one-hex transit. End of story. 

The difference is of vital importance to Travellers. Why? Because of a hard-wired fact of the Traveller setting, whether the 3^rd Imperium or my own Church and Empire setting. Information, in order to propagate, must be carried. In ships, that all take a week to jump. 

From Supp 8, Library Data: Another central fact of interstellar travel is that no method of information transfer faster than jump drive transmission has been discovered. Ships can carry messages, but radio still lags at mere light speed. Communication is always restricted to the speed of interstellar transportation.

The distances between worlds is a fixed and unchanging quantity. If you want information about a world 6 hexes away, how long will it take for that information to reach you? Answer: either six weeks, or one. If you get your information delivered express, you get to act a month and a half before the other guy does, who’s waiting on a jump-1 courier to bring it.

The same goes when Travellers decide to, well, travel. A ship with Jump-4 can get a Traveller from Holtzmann to Stavanger in one week. A Jump-2 ship will take 3 weeks to make the same trip. Look at the map to figure out why. If your PC and his competition have a goal to reach on Stavanger, what is the essential play?  Securing the ship with long enough legs to get you there in one week.

Add to that this complication. Not all planets have the same access to the information delivery network. TTB page 89 says: 

Within the subsector, local governments will have established communications or trade routes connecting some (but not all) worlds.

AND

Communications routes should be carefully drawn so as to avoid making all parts of the subsector accessible; a subsector should reserve some areas as backwaters for exploration and adventure.

Depending on where you are, it may take even longer for the Big News to reach you.

The Traveller who wants to do big things and make a name for himself needs information, and needs it faster than his competition. Knowledge is Power. The Jump drive is the key to that power. 

Image credit: Pixabay

Naval Base Holtzmann

Recently I was glancing through Supplement 11: Library Data N-Z. I have owned a copy for a long time, but as I don’t play in the Official Traveller Universe, I’ve not paid it any mind. However, after reading the article I’ve reproduced in part here, I realized that I have ignored a potential source of information and adventure.

 

Naval Bases

Naval Base: Port facility for the support, maintenance, repair, and refit of naval vessels. Planetary surface facilities are generally provided for vessels of 1,000 tons or less; orbital facilities handle larger ships. A naval base has several distinct parts to it; each part helps in the accomplishment of the overall mission of the base.

The typical naval base is composed of an orbital berthing area, a surface berthing area, a maintenance section, and an administrative headquarters.

Berthing areas provide locations for ships to lay over, whether for a day or for months. All berthing areas include provisions for refueling from storage tanks or fuel lighters.

More on Skills: Naval Architect

Presenting possibly the least useful skill introduced in the Advanced Character Creation books!

Definition, from Book 6 Scouts

The individual has been trained in the design of starships and small craft. Knowledge of the requirements for accurate, usable ship design plans and of the details of ship design are part of this skill. The character is capable of acting as a naval architect, subject to the level of skill attained.

Naval Architect-1 is sufficient to occasionally design ships, especially for personal or group use, but generally requiring three or four times the time called for by a professional (about 16 weeks). Naval Architect-2 allows design of a ship in 10-12 weeks. Naval Architect-3 indicates a level of skill approaching professional. Naval Architect-4+ allows the individual to function as a professional naval architect.

This skill operates in conjunction with the established starship design and construction rules, and does not allow the invention of new devices or equipment.

First of all, Naval Architect skill (hereafter NA) is found in the Technical School skill table, roll 5. This is the only instance of the skill in the skill tables. So it is rare for a Scout character to get it at all, let alone to have it at skill level above 1.

Once acquired, it does exactly one thing: draw plans for ships. No throws are suggested, the skilled PC has only to take the time and produces the results. There is, as far as I can imagine, exactly one instance where this skill would come into play. That is, a group of PCs want to build their own ship, or pay to have it built. NA skill will save them some money up front, but that’s all.

I would like to learn the rationale for including a skill with this narrow of an application. In contrast, Book 1 skills are widely applicable. Compare NA with Mechanical for an example. With this skill, a PC can attempt to build or repair or destroy any number of manufactured devices. Mechanical works on starship airlocks or factory machinery or ATVs. NA can produce blueprints, a narrow application.

To the end of making NA more useful, let’s see if we can broaden out NA skill.

Just Get us On the Ground - rules for landing your ship

 "Just get us on the ground." - frustrated starship captain

"That part will happen pretty definitely." - his stressed-out pilot

When the PCs arrive in a new system, do they always head for the starport? Why not put down somewhere else instead? There's all kinds of reasons to do this. The barrier between the ship and the land is of course, the atmosphere. 

 

Any time a ship wants to put down on the surface of a planet, the pilot must make the following throw:  

To land a ship: Throw UPP Atmosphere code or better. DM +Pilot Skill, + starport DM, -1 per unrepaired hull hit, +2 if small craft, +1 if the pilot is a Scout, -2 if in combat, -1 for bad weather. 

Starport DM: Class A +6, Class B +4, Class C +2, Class D/E +0, Class X -4 

Landing a ship away from the starport uses the DM for Class X (no port) 

 

Going in reverse, taking off, the planet's gravity is the major barrier.  

 

To take off from a planet surface: Throw the UPP Size code or greater. DM +Pilot skill, +ship's M-drive rating, -1 per unrepaired hull hit.

 

Familiarity: a pilot must land on a planet [5-pilot skill] times to become familiar with that planet's landing profile. After that, the pilot gains an extra +2 DM.

 

Unstreamlined ships always suffer a DM of -4. They're not supposed to be operating in atmosphere to begin with.

 

Failing the throw does not mean the ship automatically crashes. If the throw is not made, then the referee rolls once on the starship or small craft damage table. The referee can allow the pilot's player to 'bump' the roll by the Pilot's skill level. In effect the pilot chooses to spare one component and sacrifice another.

 

The referee can use the CT tables, or the tables presented in the article “New Space Combat System”. It appeared in Space Gamer issue #40 on pages 6-8. 

 

Hull hits, by the rules, result in explosive decompression. This compromises the ship's vacuum integrity. There is less danger while the ship is in atmosphere. Yet, on some worlds, the concern is that an unpleasant atmosphere will get in! Landing on a world with a high Atmosphere codes is risky.

 

Damage repair costs 2Dx10% of the new cost of the component. This leads to adventures as the PCs try to raise the cash to fix the ship.

 

Starship crashes will happen as often as airplane crashes occur on Earth. Planets with tougher landing conditions will have more of them, but no planet will be free of crashes.

Fire for Effect! the Forward Observer Skill

The Forward Observer skill has long puzzled me. When I was a teenager getting into Traveller (in the 1980's) I could not get my head around what the Forward Observer skill was good for. Why did they include it? Now these many years later, I have an answer for that. It turns out that I've missed out on some exciting adventure opportunities!

 

The first reason that FO skill confused me is that to me this skill deals with Big Guns - mortars & howitzers; you know, artillery. Classic Traveller has next-to-nothing to say about Big Guns, at least ground-based ones. The Book 1 Gunnery skill is primarily about starship weapons. The skill text does say that “Gunnery may also be used for similar weapons mounted on ATVs or air/rafts.”

which suggests that these vehicles can have energy or projectile weapons. The Vehicles section mentions AFVs but nothing whatsoever about how to adjudicate fire from Big Guns. Starter Traveller didn't even mention AFVs.

 

A quick digression. Back in the day I did not conceive of the rules as a toolkit for adding my own features into a Traveller setting. I expected the publishers to do it all for me. I have since changed my outlook.

Where was I? Oh yes. Without rules to define and use Big Guns, I had no way to actually use the FO skill except in the most abstract sense. I also lacked the real world information and the sci-fi reading background to make use of the FO skill by whipping up some Big Gun rules.

I think the FO skill did not survive past the Classic edition of Traveller. If later editions still have it, please enlighten me in the comments. If you open up Book 1, it is available on the Service skills table for the Navy, and the Army. If you look in Book 4, Mercenary, FO skill appears on the Artillery and Marine MOS tables, the Staff and Shipboard skill tables. Note in Book 1 this is a skill for Navy and Army types; in Book 4, it becomes a Marine skill as well. It appears in Book 5, High Guard on the Shore Duty and Gunnery MOS tables. Book 4 also introduces the Field Artillery gunnery skill. I'll add a thought on that later.

Junkyards of Ships

Junkyard in Space

I recently read Edmond Hamilton's short story Sargasso of Space (Thrilling Wonder Stories, 1934) which featured a wreck-pile in space. The setup is that there is an area out past Saturn where none of the planets' gravity fields have influence. In this null space, wrecked or abandoned spaceships have collected like a proto-planet. The protagonists of the story make an unplanned stop in the wreck-pile after a shipboard malfunction sets them adrift.

The short story goes in one specific direction with this, and that's fine. It was an enjoyable short story, but literature is not my purpose today. Like a lot of stories from that era, by today's standards it may seem pretty cliche, but it was the potential of the wreck-pile as a location that got me to thinking.

Programmin' Part Two

Last year when I wrote the post Programmin'

a commenter said this:

Hmm, maybe allow players to make programming throws to optimize the existing code and reduce it's size?

Yes, absolutely!

Tell me again how your MacBook can run a starship. Cuz' I'm not buying it.

The run-of-the-mill Type A Free Trader (or any of the CT 'basic' starships, really) has very limited computing power. Computers are classed by Models; each Model has a rating for CPU and Storage capacity, abstracted into Slots. Each program has a Space rating which is the number of Slots it takes up, whether in CPU or Storage.

Crew of the Bonaventure

May is cleanup time here at the AF3 blog. I'm perusing my files for post drafts, finishing them, and putting them up. It's going to be a mixed bag, I suspect. 

To start off, here is the Merchant ship Bonaventure, and its crew. I created these years ago with the idea of using them as the cast of short stories, but the stories never materialized. Maybe they'll show up in my monthly game as NPCs. Maybe they'll show up in your game as NPCs! If they do, please leave me a comment and tell us about it.

"Parking orbit, please Mr. Hammilton." "Aye, Sir."

The US Merchant Marine ship Bonaventure is registered in New Maryland.

Owner/Navigator Jason Hammilton 7A5D98 Age 42 Merchant 3rd Officer

Navigation-4, Leader-2, Vaccsuit-1, Electronics-1, Mechanical-1, Gun Combat-0, Broker-2, Trader-2, Administration-2

Captain Hammilton has dreamed of running his own starship since he was a child. He was level-headed enough to see that more than dreaming was required. He took every opportunity he could to learn about merchant operations and taught himself how to be successful. Once he felt he was ready, he left his job and bought his own ship. He is very aware of the debt burden he’s put himself under but it keeps him focused on succeeding.

Quote: “You have two choices. One, realize that I’m in command here and get in line. Two, get your sorry ass off my ship. You have one minute to decide.”

Pilot Derek T Hammilton 7998A8 Age 38 Navy Commander

Pilot-4, Leader-1, Pistol-2, Computer-2, Ship Tactics-2, Vaccsuit-1

Derek has been piloting since he was 18. He has piloted everything from yard tugs to heavy cruisers. Bonaventure is an easy assignment for him. Mostly he took the job to work with his cousin Jason. He is orderly, efficient and confident. He reads a lot and always is looking for new ship types & classes to add to the catalog he is writing.

Quote: “This crate is easy. You should have seen the panel on this one destroyer I was on. Talk about inefficient.”

The Implications of "Slow" FTL in Traveller

FTL in Traveller takes one week, more or less, whenever you want to go from one star system to another. Whether it's a wimpy Jump-1 or a once in a lifefime Jump-6, the time to get there is still 168 hours +/- a bit. Many of Traveller's literary antecedents (most notably to my mind is H. Beam Piper's Terro-human future history) depicted interstellar travel as taking a long time. For fans of more modern SF media, this can seem odd.

In other SF settings, FTL travel is accomplished instantly. Now, in visual media (Trek/Wars) this is necessary to not drag down the flow of the plot. Rogue One would not have worked if Traveller's jump drive limitations were in effect. The plot required everything to move quickly. That's fine, and it is not for me to say that one method is better/worse than another.

A Youtube character known as the Complex Games Apologist has a number of videos discussing Traveller in different aspects. Here's the CGA explaining the setting implications of the way FTL works in Traveller.

Faster Than Light

The rules of a game build its setting.

Many folks over the decades have noted that "speed of travel is speed of communication" defines the setting of Traveller, whether the OTU or an alternate like my Church & Empire setting. Decentralized governments and local control are the accepted methods when it takes weeks to get reports to and from the borders. It is also this reason that I've focused on the Corridor, a region removed from the Talaveran Empire, but still one where Imperial influence can be felt. PCs have a greater latitude for independent action when the Imperial bureaucracy is too far away to directly monitor everything.

If you want to change the rules of FTL to make it more what you want, that's fine, but remember that you will have to redesign the setting as well, to reflect the internal reality of that setting. 'Fast' FTL will mean more direct control from the home office, as information can be transferred in hours rather than weeks. This in turn means less agency for the players, as their PCs who do sneaky things will be fretting about news of their doings getting back to the Government, which will probably try to stop them. 

Programmin'

Programming in the Far Future

I mentioned in my last post that I spotted a curious thing in the computer software table of the space combat rules. The even more curious thing that I discovered is that there's an aspect of space combat that I've been ignoring for years. Despite the fact that I've played Traveller since 1982, and run this blog since 2014, I still find from time to time little bits of the rules that got lost in the paperwork. Here's one of them.
 
From TTB, page 74:

"Players can and should seek out new and different programs to improve the performance and enlarge the capabilities of their spacecraft."

COOL!

Meet Royal Talaveran Navy Ensign Heidi Klune, Computer skill-4, Liaison-3. Yes, Ensign, I'd be happy to spend two months helping you write that program! Obviously.

TTB gives us rules for how to write your own versions of the existing list, as well as writing new ones. A similar procedure is found in JTAS #1, which is noted as the official rules module for Computer Programming.

Either way you go about it, writing your own copy of programs has four requirements: computer skill, a skill associated with the program, time, and a throw for success.

An example:
TARGET program:  Computer-2, Navigation-2, 10+
The programmer has to have skill-2, the programmer or an assisting character has to have Navigation-2, the programmer has to throw 10+ w/ DM for Computer skill after two months of writing for it to work. Computer skill ABOVE the required level is a +DM for the success throw.

Danger Aboard! Hazards of exploring derelict starships

Starships are a popular 'location' for adventures in Traveller. Probably every player and referee has drawn up at least one set of deck plans for a ship they've designed. Most of GDW's adventures had at least one starship in it, often with deck plans. Starships are an easy way to give the game a sci-fi feel.

Here's a question that the rules don't cover. What happens when a ship loses control?  Or is damaged by pirates/enemy navies? Or collides with an asteroid? Or fails a landing?

Crash!

But the engineer assured me the drives would last another month with an overhaul!

Soon my first written adventure for Traveller (actually Cepheus Light) will be in publication. The adventure centers around a crashed starship, and the PCs are there to recover crash victims and valuable scrap. What kinds of dangers could intrepid explorers face when investigating a crashed starship?  These came to my mind:

• Exposed electrical conduits are a shock & fire hazard.
• Unsound floor plates can lead to falls through the decks.
• Weakened support structures can lead to collapses or falls.

Bring me the Hydrospanner! Using Spare Parts on Starships

Spare Parts!  Traveller has always been light on the crunchy details, and particularly on the technobabble of starship components. Keeping that in mind, here's some simple ways to make repairing a ship a role-playing opportunity, instead of just rolling dice.

Ship operators are wise to lay in a few tons of “spare parts” - pipes, tubes, wires, plates, mechanical assemblies, etc. These do not have to be specified, unless the players or referees want to. These will take up space in the cargo area, but some things could be argued to be held in the ship's locker.

So come on, Mister Chief Engineer, get busy fixing the Jump Drive!

After a ship is damaged in combat or after a breakdown (see the article “Starship Malfunctions” in JTAS #15), repairs will consume the spare parts in one-ton lots. The referee can determine how many lots of parts get used up, depending on the nature and severity of the damage.

Spare parts are usually purchased at a starport, on a world of ship's TL or better. If a ship is going to spend a lot of time in an under-developed region, it should have lots of spare parts aboard.

Standard parts lot: Cr 1000 x (TL-7). e.g. A lot of TL-10 spare parts costs 1000 x (10-7)= Cr 3000.

Spare parts can be scrounged anywhere (see the illustration above), with Streetwise skill providing a bonus to finding them. Scrounged parts can cost far less or far more than standard. PCs should be encouraged to negotiate deals for pricing; NPCs may demand the PCs do a 'job' for the parts. Qui-gonn Jinn could have negotiated with Watto for the hyperdrive and avoided the whole podracing distraction. 

Of course, any time the referee wants to he can decide that a specific bit of technobabble is not available in the spare parts stores. The PCs will then have an adventure to track down the necessary part.

Mercy Ships for the TAS

In my TU, when the TAS comes into possession of a starship, whether purchased or received as a donation, it can be refurbished and converted into a mercy ship. These ships are crewed by TAS employees, and operate on regular in-system and interstellar routes, bringing routine or emergency medical care to any needy party. The ships are funded by the TAS, the Church and private donations. They are mobile field hospitals, and free clinics, so no one is expected to pay them directly.

The TAS hires people to crew the ships, offering anywhere from 1/2 standard wages to normal, with 1,2 or 4 year contracts. Potential employees can check at a TAS office if there are billets that need to be filled, and request an employment interview. The player should present the referee with relevant skills & experience to build a case for +DMs on the Reaction table, with a reaction of 9+ indicating a job offer. Once hired, the PC is obliged to fulfill the contract; the TAS will not overlook their employees skipping out or engaging in criminality.

The mercy ship can be a good campaign framework for a solo PC; a group of PCs might be able to provide most of the ship operator positions, and have an NPC crew providing medical care. In either case, the referee can direct the PCs to just about any system with the TAS as patron. In the course of providing medical aid, all manner of emergencies and side adventures can be introduced.

Mercy ships will be most commonly encountered in systems with lower populations, lower tech levels, and poorer starports (D, E, & X); as these systems will have less access to quality medical care. Any solar system will have its outposts and settlements on moons, planets or planetoids away from the mainworld, where life is rougher, and help may be far away. On the standard CT Starship Encounter Table, the referee can substitute a mercy ship for any listed encounter, or add a W for mercy ship wherever a dash appears on the table. 

From Adventure Class Ships Volume II, there is the Kurgilash-class Medical scout. 

Kurgilash not pictured, cover art is a Type-T Patrol cruiser.

In my TU, there is also the St Lucy class ship, similar in design to the type Y Yacht.

Watch a Super Star Destroyer Get Destroyed

Because my boys love LEGOs and have lots of LEGO Star Wars stuff.

Classic Traveller Ship Builder

Building starships is one of the many fun 'solo' activities in Traveller. The Bk2 system is fast, simple and reasonably flexible, so you can crank out ships in just minutes.  Now you can go even faster with Matt"s CT Ship Designer!

Features include:

• Bk 2 and Bk 5 (High Guard) designs
• standard and custom hull sizes
• Small craft design sequence
• civilian staterooms or troop carrier accomodations
• A 'payload' section with custom interior features like workshops and vehicles
• Error report tells you what you need to fix

Sample Ship: 400 tn TL 12 Liner/Mail Packet

Regina Shuffle
400 ton, TL 12 Civilian Design, 158.79 MCr
10 crew (Command: 1+1, Engineer: 0+1, Gunners: 1+1, Stewards: 1+3, Medic: 0+1)

Agility 0, Emergency Agility 2
___Ton._____MCr.____EP.___
| ___.__ | _20.00 | _.__ | standard hull, streamlined , fuel scoops
| _20.00 | __2.00 | _.__ | bridge
| __3.00 | _18.00 | 1.00 | 1 x computer model 3
| __2.00 | __9.00 | _.__ | 1 x computer back up model 2
| _25.00 | _40.00 | _.__ | drive jump #2
| __7.00 | _16.00 | _.__ | drive maneouver #2
| _13.00 | _32.00 | _.__ | power plant #2
| __5.00 | ___.__ | _.__ | reserved drive space
| _20.00 | ___.__ | _.__ | fuel, PP endurance 4 weeks (8 weeks powered down)
| _80.00 | ___.__ | _.__ | fuel, jump range 2 parsecs
| __1.00 | __0.75 | _.__ | 1 x sand caster turret #4
| __1.00 | __2.00 | 2.00 | 1 x beam laser (mixed turret) turret #2
| 140.00 | _17.50 | _.__ | 35 x staterooms
| _15.00 | __1.50 | _.__ | 30 x low berths
| _43.00 | ___.__ | _.__ | 43 tons cargo capacity
| __5.00 | ___.__ | _.__ | 1 x 5 ton Mail
| _20.00 | __0.04 | _.__ | 1 x 20 ton Launch
‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒
| 400.00 | 158.79 | 3.00 EP used, PP generates 8.0 EPs

160.38 MCr for first ship in class, built in 64 weeks
127.03 MCr when built in volume, built in 52 weeks
CT Ship Designer by Matt. Visit https://tca-2014-12.herokuapp.com