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.”

Great and Holy Pascha 2019

Today the Orthodox Church across the world celebrates Great and Holy Pascha, the Feast of Feasts, the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. To Him be Glory Forever!

Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered; let those who hate him flee from before his face! As smoke vanishes, so let them vanish; as wax melts before the fire,So the sinners will perish before the face of God; but let the righteous be glad.This is the day which the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!
Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death,and on those in the grave bestowing life!

May the Blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be with you always.

For those who will, I share here a link to the famous Paschal Homily of St. John Chrysostom.


And if the Lord tarry until we reach the stars, then we will celebrate Pascha in the Far Future. 

The Portal Gun in Traveller

Not long into my current Traveller campaign, I concluded that there wasn’t enough sci-fi "stuff" in it. It seemed too generic. All the standard technology is very familiar to me. None of it evokes a sense of wonder or the fantastic. I sensed the same from the players.

I try to describe the setting and especially the not-earth-like-at-all planets they visit; to give that sense of being in another place, another time. Mind you, they've not complained; it was me who wanted to give it more, to give them a "Wow!" moment or experience.

One session I explained to the players the concept of Tech Level Change Factor (TLCF) and making gradual improvements to devices. They then had a fun time for most of that session designing and purchasing upgraded weapons on a TL-12 planet. One player now has a very dangerous boarding axe (halberd) which doubles as a cutting torch! I explain some of the TLCF here.

The Tales to Astound blog also talks about the lack of sci-fi in Traveller, as leaving it up to the referee to add in whatever bits of fun tech goodies will make the game more exciting for the players.

I felt the need to remedy this situation. While they were exploring a space station parked way out in the outer reaches of a system, I decided to give them a fun surprise:

A Portal Gun 

Even in the future they appreciate the retro aesthetic

More about High Level Play

I knew that there was more to be said about High Level Play than I said in my first post.

I spent some time reading through the introductory material in The Traveller Book, and I found not an explicit pattern, but many indicators that High Level Play was anticipated, maybe even intended.

The introduction section gives lots of hints, starting with the mention of "star spanning empires, huge star fleets, Larger-Than-Life heroes". (emphasis mine)

And how about this?

“Traveller is open-ended, which means that there are no set conditions for winning. Each player sets his or her own goal, and has a lifetime (in game terms) to achieve it. Traveller can continue for as long as the referee and the players desire. Like the universe, Traveller has no limits.”

“The characters have an opportunity to undertake genuine adventures as they search for their own self appointed goals.”

"The typical methods used in life by 20th century Terrans (thrift, dedication, and hard work) do not work in Traveller; instead, travellers must boldly plan and execute daring schemes for the acquisition of wealth and power."

The expectation, then, is that players will have goals beyond the wishes of their current patron, or the referee.

More on Careers - One Rogue Too Many

I have not played any of the versions of that other RPG from the 1970's, where they re-named the Thief class to the Rogue class. Why, I wonder, did GDW feel it was necessary to use the vague and dissembling nomenclature 'Rogue' when 'Criminal' would have been more accurate? Or would it have been?

Something shady is going on here.

The text description of the Rogues reads as follows: "Criminal elements familiar with the rougher or more illegal methods of accomplishing tasks." I guess it would be more accurate, then. But wait. The word rogue is defined as: 1) a vagrant or tramp, 2: a dishonest or worthless person, a scoundrel. There are a few more connotations, but none are specifically criminal in nature. So, many Traveller PCs could be characterized as Rogues, regardless of what career they went through.

Let us speak truth, a great many Traveller PCs from back in the day were essentially criminals regardless of their chosen background career. They were smugglers, bandits, thieves, hired guns, burglars, and so on. Why the need for a separate career to breed them? Most player, myself included assumed that if you wanted a criminal PC, you went with the Other service. So this ground has been covered already.

Most of the skills the Rogues career offers (discussed later) are not specifically criminal, and with the random skill allocation process, there's no guarantee a PC will come away with a criminal CV. The free Service Skill is Streetwise, not a necessarily criminal skill. This would have been the time to introduce some new skills for the criminal class, but Supp4 does not do this. 

Later editions of Traveller introduced more criminal skills like Intrusion or Lockpicking. I suggested elsewhere that espionage activities (criminals on a payroll) could be handled with Basic skills and attributes. That way any PC could try their hand at clandestine activity

I actually have the chronology backwards. Supplement 4: Citizens of the Imperium, in which the Rogue career made its appearance, was first published in 1979. This is several years before that other game made the change. So why did they go along with GDW?

Let's have a look at the Rogue career, shall we?

More Stellagama Goodness

Now I've got the Trio: Light, Pocket Light and Faster than Light!

Three versions

The good folks at Stellagama Publishing have provided me with physical copies of all three versions of their streamlined Cepheus Engine rules. I gave CL & CL:PE to my boys, and they've begun building their own worlds, characters creatures and adventures. 

You can get yours at DriveThruRPG.

Join the Fun!