Freelance Traveller #88 is out!

Jeff Zeitlin's Freelance Traveller e-zine has a new issue out!

Highlights include the Horosha-class Scout/Courier (Type S) for Classic Traveller, by Matt Frisbee

The Spacer's Hymn by Timothy Collinson, complete with sheet music, and a link to an audio file

A short fiction piece of mine, set in my own Daktari Nebula subsector: Predator!

Issue 88 is available from the Freelance Traveller site. Here's the link.

Check it out! And Thank You Jeff for publishing my story.

Early model ATV

While I remain a CT guy, my son is delving into Mongoose Traveller (2nd ed). The Vehicle Handbook is his favorite supplement. We're collaborating to present a variety of vehicles that can be used in a Traveller game, whichever rules set you're using. Our hope is to make this a one-a-month post series. All designs using the Vehicle Handbook are available to use without attribution.*

Let's start off with a simple design, for a simple vehicle. If you want to go explore a new planet or, say, a moon, you need reliable transport.

Watch me pop a wheelie in this thing! Oh wait, forgot about low gravity . . .

CT description

The Paragon Personal Motors Type III Self-powered transport (TL 6) is a simple, rugged four-wheeled design that can be easily collapsed for stowage aboard ship. It is open-topped and unpressurized. The Type III is intended for off-road use. It has a range of 300 km, with an off-road max speed of 38 kph, and a max road speed of 50 kph. It is equipped with a Medium range communicator. The Type III carries two persons (one driver) and 10kg of cargo. It is powered by batteries which can be charged from a ship's power plant. Cr 10,950

MgT Description

Chassis: Light Ground Vehicle

Spaces: 3 (0.75dtns)

Crew/Passengers: 1/1 (2 spaces)

Speed: Slow (Very Slow)/50kph (30kph)

Range: 200km (300km)

Agility: +1

Hull: 6

Armor: 0/0/0

Traits: Open Vehicle, ATV (DM+2 when driving on rough terrain)

Armament: None

Equipment: Basic Controls, Basic Communication System (Rng-50km), Basic Sensors (Rng-1km, DM+0 to Electronics rolls)

Cost: 10,950Cr

Not that you would want to get into a fight in this open-topped vehicle, but if such a situation arises, then check out Omer Joel's Quick and Dirty CT Vehicle Combat rules. 

*I do not believe that the vehicles designed by this system can be independently copyrighted.

Signal 99

Signal GK

Mayday

Signal 99

However it is expressed, this is the interstellar Call for Help. And Stellagama Publishing's newest adventure is all about answering that call! 

Available at DriveThruRPG

I've got mine! Review coming in a few days. 

Autonomous Vehicles and Traveller

We postulate in this game a future in which we have all manner of fantastic technology, including robotics. When it comes to vehicles, we can have humaniform robots sitting in the operator's seat taking our place while driving us to work. Even better, the robot can become part of the vehicle - the self driving vehicle.

A civilian closed-top air/raft at TL8. Note the robotic controls.

A rare TL4 example of the Autonomous Vehicle. Note the robotic controls.

But we rarely see this in Traveller. Why? Is it that we want to be in the 'drivers' seat? That's the most likely explanation. We play these games to have adventures, to test our skills (in-game) and our playing skill (meta-game) against all the oddities and dangers the universe can throw at us. Why play it safe?

Session Report May 2018

In this session, we finally wrapped up the airship race. See this post for how the fight got started.

Blasterson chased one assailant out onto the catwalk and through a porthole. The assailant hit him with a Tranq gas grenade, but Joe shook it off. He dove through the window and chased him into the hallway when . . .
 
McGee remembered that he had an infrared scope on his laser rifle. He started shooting the invaders through the walls (I added a -DM for aiming at a heat signature instead of a visible target). It is hard to survive a laser rifle shot in CT. He got Joe's quarry in the hallway.

Reaper slashed and parried with the assailant who had stabbed Ca'al, until McGee shot him. Reaper was not pleased that the shot had come so close to his own head, and said so in a colorful tirade. Ca'al grasped feebly at the attacker's legs, and believed (until later) that he had brought his man down. 

Up in the rigging, Jay, fearful of hitting Longfinger with a shotgun blast, used it as a cudgel, but the assailant's body armor stopped it. So Longfinger dug his claws into him and vaulted backwards over the railing, pulling the assailant down with him.

Upon announcement of this move, the entire table stopped dead quiet.

More Traveller Literary History - Toyman

I have now read the first three books in E.C Tubb's series "Dumarest of Terra". This week I finished Toyman, (#3).  But this is not a book review.

Marc Miller himself named the Dumarest saga as a major influence on Traveller. So how does Traveller reflect Tubb's universe? There are several things. First there's the word Traveler, which the protagonist uses to describe himself.

Although Toyman all takes place on one world, there is discussion of High, Middle and Low passages. Since I've now had a PC die in Low berth, I appreciate more the gritty feel of the desperate who travel Low.

Earl Dumarest wears Mesh armor, and carries a big knife (a Blade). Some NPCs use lasers, alongside clubs and whips. Thus the uneven distribution of technology across space, and the inclusion of primitive weapons in the game.

The planet Toy (not really a joke) is an example of Government Type 1: Company/Corporation. Stockholders run Toy, and whoever has the most shares has the most influence. The guy with the biggest share  is (again, not a joke) the Toymaster.