Travellerbus 2: Boldly Going Nowhere

THE MIGHTY GALVATRON · Sat May 09, 2015 7:29 pm

Bottom post of the previous page:

Wyzack wrote:Does out sector have any major threats besides the usual pirate scum? Alien invaders, rebels and the like?

Us, definitely us. I feel it in my bones that we're going to do something that makes everyone hate us.

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Sat May 09, 2015 8:34 pm #86942

I ask because I hoped that my navy days could have been spent fighting something cooler than pirates. Also once everyone has their characters mostly done we need to pick a campaign skill package and divvy it up

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Sat May 09, 2015 8:45 pm #86943

The lower half of the system seems to be pretty goddamn lawless.

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Sat May 09, 2015 9:21 pm #86950

Isnt that also where the seat of imperial power is?

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Sat May 09, 2015 9:38 pm #86955

Yep. The most lawless shithole system is right next door to the Capital.

Maybe that's a clue that this Barony isn't everything it says it is?

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Sat May 09, 2015 10:10 pm #86957

So Azari how it works is that we agree to have met in an event while we were in the navy and then we both get a bonus skill roll on our tables. One of my events in the navy was when i foiled a crime. I have decided that some corrupt officers were making a deal with a pirate organisation called the Void Kings. I was able to expose the whole thing and killed the corrupt crewmen, gaining the crime family as an enemy and getting fast tracked to the officers corps. We have met there, maybe you helped me expose the whole deal. Or if you have a suitable event we could use that too

THE MIGHTY GALVATRON · Sun May 10, 2015 1:16 am

I believe I'm almost done with character creation. I'm stuck on the hardest part, picking a naaaaaammmme! I went and changed my homeworld to innerside, mostly because I want to work(have worked?) in the secret service of THE CYBERPAPACY.

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Sun May 10, 2015 1:33 am #86977

My character officially done, Cyrus King, pilot, navy officer, pirate, badass. I draw up a massive autismal wall of text explaining his life up up until game start because i did not have much better to do today. Warning, wall of text

Spoiler:

Cyrus King was born on Syndale IV, a moon orbiting the primary planet of Syndale II in system 4-1 of our sector. It is a tiny shithole agriculteral planet, and exports much of its production to the primary world. Syndale II is a water world covered in sprawling city-domes. The air is unfit for humans to breathe, and the only thing stopping the oceans from freezing solid in the perpetual icy temperatures is the toxic solutes present in the waters. Thus, aside from fishing some of the massive ocean predators, the planet must import much of its food from surrounding agriculteral moons and planetoids in-system. Cyrus grew up on a small ranch on Syndale IV, and pretty much hated every single thing about farm life. Wanting something more, he saved up what money he could and stowed away in a freighter to Syndale II, where after experiencing city life for a few days he signed up with an Imperial Navy Recruiter.

His quick reflexes and manual dexterity landed him a position in the pilot's academy, and he shipped off to the sector's primary naval base for training. He excelled at the work, and was quickly given patrol duty for anti-piracy patrols run in the area, where he distinguished himself with his piloting skills. Two years in to his first tour of duty his patrol group was deployed against a fleet of vicious pirates known as the Void Kings who had been hitting several merchant and imperial shipping groups in the area. Somehow they were able to outmanouvre and avoid every countermeasure thrown at them, almost as if they knew where the fleets would be. Suspecting an inside man, Cyrus tried a little subterfuge and gathered as much information as he could about his fellow crewmembers and found that a few higher-ups on his vessel had been making suspicious private transmissions. Confronting them about it led to a gunfight, but Cyrus managed to best them. He made a bitter enemy in the void kings but was commended for his affirmative action and was promoted to the officer corps as an Ensign, givena minor leadership role in his battlegroup.
c
Near the end of his second tour of duty his patrol ran afoul of a freebooter ambush. They were heavily outnumbered, and despite Cyrus's best attempt his ship was nearly hulled and got crippled in space. Reinforcements showed up before the pirates could finish off the remaining craft in his group and they managed to pull many survivors out of the wrecks. Cyrus was barely alive when they found him, his left arm had been shorn off below the should by a jagged chunk of girder. He was fixed up with a cybernetic limb on the navy's dime, and received a commendation and an honorable discharge.

Cyrus was sick of the shitty pay and bureaucracy of naval service, but craved the action of piloting in live combat. He had an idea. He had some pretty advanced inside knowledge about the Imperial Navy's anti-piracy operations as well as popular trade routes. He ended up throwing in with a gang of pirates called the Astral Wolves and hitting merchants shipping valuables to fat imperial nobles. Unfortunately, they began to cut in to the business of the Void Kings, who already had it out for Cyrus in the first place. At first they competed for marks, but this quickly escalated into spacefights and ambushes. After a nasty shootout in a seedy bar, they nabbed one of their lower members and squeezed the location of their hideout from him. They raided the small spaceport the Void Kings used as an operating base, crippling many of their ships and seizing a massive haul of valuable cargo. Cyrus, tired of his new life of crime, decided to cash out with his share of the credits and leave the Astral Wolves on amicable terms, off to find some more legal adventures.

R8 my autism. Also how did you guys record all your character stuff? I added text to a PDF i got, it looks a little shitty and the weapon stats do not make much sense, but it works.

THE MIGHTY GALVATRON · Sun May 10, 2015 1:48 am

Wyzack wrote:
R8 my autism. Also how did you guys record all your character stuff? I added text to a PDF i got, it looks a little shitty and the weapon stats do not make much sense, but it works.

Your autism is weak, took me less than 5 minutes to read it! But I liked what I read. Not sure why your higher ups would shoot at you when you confront them like if this was Oblivion, they could of been all like 'nuh uh we didn't do that, you did that and they would believe us over you because we outrank you' or set you up for a 'nasty accident'. But maybe my autism is just shining through now.

Came up with a name now, Ruggero Lestrange or Roger Strange if you want to drop the fancy. I'll probably just start with the fake name of Rudolph Roscoe though.

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Sun May 10, 2015 1:54 am #86981

My idea was that he had acquired some relatively damning proof, and the officer(s) in question figured that if they could kill him before he could spread the word they could turn it around and pin it on him, although i suppose that is a bit of a stretch. I will have to rethink that a little bit. What are your skills looking like? I have 7 at level 1, 2 at level 2 and a few zeros, got slug pistols, shotguns and large blades as my combat skills and i can pilot ships of any size

THE MIGHTY GALVATRON · Sun May 10, 2015 2:05 am

I got a lot of skills at 0, three skills at 1 and one skill at 2. I almost forgot I had 3 contacts and only have one written down as an info broker. Still need two more contacts.

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Sun May 10, 2015 2:09 am #86983

Yeah i have no contacts and one enemy. Anon3 would you be okay with me giving up a skill level or something in exchange for a contact? It makes sense that i would have one in my old pirate buddies

EndgamerAzari · Sun May 10, 2015 2:43 am

Yeah, Wyzack, that works. We'll figure out the details at some point when I have internet access that isn't through a phone.

Maccus · Post by **Maccus** » Sun May 10, 2015 5:58 am #87004

Almost done, already had the guy's backstory and stuff figured out until I noticed his planet's at a tech level of 3.

Does this mean I can't buy anything for self-defense above antiques, or is it assumed I bought them off-world?

Money's not really an issue, my guy's loaded because I either got extremely lucky or did something wrong.

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Sun May 10, 2015 6:07 am #87005

Wyzack wrote:Yeah i have no contacts and one enemy. Anon3 would you be okay with me giving up a skill level or something in exchange for a contact? It makes sense that i would have one in my old pirate buddies

If you recorded your rolls and decisions you made along the way you might have an opportunity to trade some advancement or reward for a contact instead. Based on your background it sounds like you spent some terms in the Navy and some terms as a Rogue?

Regarding questions about purchasing stuff:

If you have any cash left over after character generation you can use 2000 of it to buy whatever you want, it seems. The highest TL in this sector is 15(!) so I'm going to give you guys the benefit of the doubt and say you're able to buy anything up to that TL with that 2000. The rest of your leftover cash is in liquid assets in a financial institution.

Example: You have 80,000 credits (woohoo!) after character gen. You can spend up to 2000 with 78,000 and whatever change is leftover from buying gear sitting in your bank account. Once the game begins you'll be able to spend the rest of it too, but it'll require tracking down someone who has the thing you want to buy and haggling over a price + dealing with whatever customs officers and licensing agents might want to prevent you from walking around with a laser cannon over your shoulder. Do yourself a favor and read up on law codes before committing to anything "offensive". I wont accept "but I didn't know!" when you dock up at a station run by soccer moms and they don't take kindly to you strutting around with anything more deadly than a butter knife.

You should see by now that different systems have VERY different ideas about what you can and can't do, what you can and can't buy or sell, etc. Navigating that mess is 2/3rds of the challenge of being a successful trader. You might think it's a no-brainer to fill your hold with computer parts and set off for PROFIT, but keep in mind the fringe group of crazy cultists that worships technology might not appreciate you guys making off with a cargo hold full of their sacred goodies.

Maccus · Post by **Maccus** » Sun May 10, 2015 6:29 am #87008

In that case, I'm tossing this antique pistol and buying something worth shooting someone with.

Spoiler:

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Sun May 10, 2015 6:36 am #87010

Maccus wrote:In that case, I'm tossing this antique pistol and buying something worth shooting someone with.

Spoiler:
http://pastebin.com/9n23fjYe

>Carouse 4

Welcome aboard Andrew WK.

That Persuade should come in really handy though. Folks might not yet know but you're probably going to be responsible for the majority of PROFIT the crew makes with that ability to negotiate.

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Sun May 10, 2015 8:22 am #87025

Maccus asked if we would see any of the Alien races present in the Traveller universe at all in this game.

To really answer that we need to better establish the location of our generated sector in regards to the Imperium and universe as a whole. The different races border the Imperium in various places, and while solitary members or small communities of each race likely exist in pockets or roam about the Imperium, mostly the alien races have their own space and own governance elsewhere. Traveller is more Star Trek than Star Wars in that regard, if that makes any sense. The Imperium has not conquered all of known space and all these various races been absorbed by it. Like Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians, etc. they've each got their own dominions and borders and for the most part they stick to them.

The Aslan are basically space lions that have their own space but a few of their systems are actually under Imperial rule.
The Vargr are space wolves that have their own space and there's no sharing of systems at all. In fact they're kind of regarded as all-around pirates and marauders due to some wars and the fact that THEY LIKE TO PIRATE AND GO MARUADING.
The Darrians are basically space elves. They have their own space which isn't too far from the Aslan territories but is also independant of the Imperium like the Vargr. They're also not regarded too greatly because of their advanced technology and the fact that they basically hold the Imperium at bay from conquering their shit by merit of a super advanced doomsday weapon only they possess.
Finally the Zhodani are a human offshoot that are basically a race of psionic monks. Their major territorial holdings are off by themselves, but they do have a few systems in bumfuck nowhere that they share with the Vargr...oddly enough.

There are a few more major races that just aren't detailed at all in the current edition (The Droyne, Hivers, and K'Kree) and a multitude of minor races that populate the galaxy.

Th gist of all this is that, while the sector itself is a Human-populated Imperium sector, there's potential for us to be close by some other races and have them pop up more frequently in a limited fashion.

There is another option to scrap our entire sector and move the campaign to the Spinward Marches:
http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Spinward_Marches_Sector

Which is kind of the hot-bed for all that crazy alium goodness and the closest thing to a primary setting Traveller has. Kind of like how Seattle is to Shadowrun, the Spinward Marches is to Traveller.

Maccus · Post by **Maccus** » Sun May 10, 2015 8:55 am #87028

My character works in either, unless we'd have to roll up new characters since there'd be new planets.

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Sun May 10, 2015 1:27 pm #87049

Alright here Cyrus is

http://pastebin.com/0010mb90

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Sun May 10, 2015 1:35 pm #87050

Also holy shit Maccus we come from the same world! I wrote a bunch of fluff about it above, but forgot that it was TL 3. How the fuck would humans at tech level 3 survive on a world with toxic air and no land? It does not seem possible

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Sun May 10, 2015 3:52 pm #87059

So what kind of game is this going to be? Anon3 do you have a direction you want to take it? Is it going to be firefly style where we take whatever jobs we can to keep flying and stay ahead of the taxman? Criminal work, mercenary work, honest trading? I am open for pretty much anything, but it will be a big factor in what skill package we should choose

THE MIGHTY GALVATRON · Sun May 10, 2015 4:13 pm

Behold! The galaxy's most broke spy.

http://pastebin.com/M6UW6z4g

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Sun May 10, 2015 4:44 pm #87067

Maccus wrote:My character works in either, unless we'd have to roll up new characters since there'd be new planets.

Nah. We'd just jump over to their sector/sub-sector maps and pick your starting point from somewhere in there. It would make a lot of things a bit easier for me I think, once I finished reading up on everything.

Wyzack wrote:So what kind of game is this going to be? Anon3 do you have a direction you want to take it? Is it going to be firefly style where we take whatever jobs we can to keep flying and stay ahead of the taxman? Criminal work, mercenary work, honest trading? I am open for pretty much anything, but it will be a big factor in what skill package we should choose

Trading and diplomacy are the most prevalent themes of Traveller. If you guys want to get into criminal pursuits and odd jobs you certainly can, but you're going to need to seek those opportunities out yourselves.
I run Traveller like it's a big free-roam game. There's a gigantic galaxy out there for you to explore, it's not just going to fall right into your lap. If you want adventure you have to seek it out.

If you don't want to go completely broke and starve to death somewhere I highly recommend you guys focus on something stable and accessible: like ferrying goods/passengers/etc. around the universe.

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Sun May 10, 2015 5:33 pm #87074

>40 creds pocket change
>12k debt

Holy shit man, you were not kidding about being broke as shit

THE MIGHTY GALVATRON · Sun May 10, 2015 5:55 pm

Wyzack wrote:>40 creds pocket change
>12k debt

Holy shit man, you were not kidding about being broke as shit

Yep, Agency doesn't seem to want to pay much for medical and I rolled absolute worst possible on the injury table. So I'm pretty much homeless now with a rogue spy after me for ratting them out.

But hey I got some sweet sub dermal armor out of it. Sweet sweet Subby-D.

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Sun May 10, 2015 6:20 pm #87084

You think that's DEBT? Brother you haven't even begun to DEBT.

I would recommend another Far Trader for your ship but it's up to you guys what you want.
Within reason of course. Nobody is going to loan you the billions and billions of credits for some of these things.

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Sun May 10, 2015 7:15 pm #87098

Do we have to take the stock ship or can we customize it a bit? I really enjoy number crunching and ship building, and getting a little extra debt for a few extra bells and whistles might just be worth it, i would really like to design something. The far trader is probably what it will be heavily modeled after though, seems like the best choice

Maccus · Post by **Maccus** » Sun May 10, 2015 9:31 pm #87118

I love how our crew has agents, navy, back-alley doctors...

...And Space Richard Pryor.

EndgamerAzari · Sun May 10, 2015 9:50 pm

>tfw no skills above 1

I feel sorta under-powered.

Though I do have both INT and EDU at 12.

THE MIGHTY GALVATRON · Sun May 10, 2015 10:32 pm

Maccus wrote: ...And Space Richard Pryor.

Oh how did I not see that before. I feel like a big dummy.

EndgamerAzari wrote:>tfw no skills above 1

You have like a bajilion skils though and most at level 1. You're awesome!

Wyzack wrote:Do we have to take the stock ship or can we customize it a bit?

Can we customize it into a hotel/casino? I bet we could make a bunch of creds like that. And failing that maybe we can be like some sort of A-Team, righting wrongs and stopping unions.

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Sun May 10, 2015 10:54 pm #87138

Everyone take a look at the ship gubbins and tell me if anything tickles your fancy, especially in your character's area of expertise

EDIT: For a measly 4 million credits we can upgrade to a manouvre drive B and double our thrust, which will give us an additional point of thrust for movement or dodging lasers. We also have two weapon hardpoints that are empty, and if we take the bigger engine we still have a spare ton of space. Anon3 is there an upper limit on the loan we can get for our ship? The Far Trader is 51 million creds base cost.

DOUBLE EDIT: We can also knock off a few tons of cargo space if we want extra shit, but i some things dont really require space. We have 10 crew rooms, which means the six of us and 4 rich chucklefucks who need a ride. We can also double up in the crew rooms if we really need the extra space.

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Mon May 11, 2015 12:01 am #87158

You can't build a ship from scratch. If you give me a list of changes you would like to have done I can select a few of them at random to apply to a "slightly used" ship you guys can conveniently find for sale and purchase as a group before the game begins. The rest of the modifications you'll have to find someone to perform for you, and they'll likely want some kind of cash up front.

So feel free to pick a hull and modify it into your dream ship. I'll check it over and then make available to you guys a version of it that's not quite complete. You'll have to fill in the rest via cash/favors/etc during play.

Really feeling like we should relocate the whole campaign to the Spinward Marches for convenience sake, yeah.

EndgamerAzari · Mon May 11, 2015 12:14 am

I'm game for relocating to the Marches. Wasn't particularly attached to that sector. Whatever makes it easier on you.

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Mon May 11, 2015 12:26 am #87165

Marches works for me. The basic far trader is pretty great as is, I just figured the bigger M drive would be a good investment since we already have the reactor to power it

EDIT: When do you think we will be able to begin? We almost have all our characters ready now

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Mon May 11, 2015 2:22 am #87189

Doesn't it already come with a class 2 jump drive anyway?

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Mon May 11, 2015 2:24 am #87191

Yeah I wanted a bigger manouver drive, makes us more robust at ship to ship combat

EndgamerAzari · Mon May 11, 2015 2:37 am

I really hope we're not going to get into ship-to-ship combat early on, because weapons and repairs sound expensive. Also death.

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Mon May 11, 2015 2:43 am #87196

Old navy/piracy habits die hard, but I suppose you are right

Maccus · Post by **Maccus** » Mon May 11, 2015 5:46 am #87257

EndgamerAzari wrote:>tfw no skills above 1

I feel sorta under-powered.

Though I do have both INT and EDU at 12.

You're probably better off than me with my 4 in carousing. Keep in mind I got super lucky and didn't even suffer any injuries.

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Mon May 11, 2015 12:46 pm #87329

Are we just waiting on NSOS and Scones to finish their chars?

Scones · Post by **Scones** » Mon May 11, 2015 4:17 pm #87364

My stuff is ready to rock, I'll post it here later on

My character has a really weird and somewhat useless assortment of skills ranging from driving to sailing (It's called something different) to shooting.

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Mon May 11, 2015 4:19 pm #87367

We may end up with no one able to use the comms. This seems equal parts inconvenient and hilarious. Maybe we can buy a computer program for that?

Scones · Post by **Scones** » Mon May 11, 2015 4:20 pm #87369

Wyzack wrote:We may end up with no one able to use the comms. This seems equal parts inconvenient and hilarious. Maybe we can buy a computer program for that?

I gotcha covered. My time in the marines taught me quite a few things.

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Mon May 11, 2015 4:26 pm #87373

Sweet. Post a pastebin so we can creep your skills and eye up the gear and credits you have

EndgamerAzari · Mon May 11, 2015 7:29 pm

Wyzack wrote:I have 7 at level 1, 2 at level 2 and a few zeros

Jesus Christ, I still feel underpowered. I guess maybe my attribute array makes up for it? My lowest ones are 7 and that's Social Standing and Strength. I'm a greasemonkey, I don't need either of those that much. I hope those scores help patch up my lack of depth of skill training.

Wait, I have 13 skills at level 1. Oh.

Huh.

nsos · Post by **nsos** » Mon May 11, 2015 7:56 pm #87400

My character's been finished Imy charsheets is just a total unformatted mess when I get home I'll sort it out

Scones · Post by **Scones** » Mon May 11, 2015 8:16 pm #87407

nsos wrote:My character's been finished Imy charsheets is just a total unformatted mess when I get home I'll sort it out

Same

It's done but it's a giant mess that only I can read

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Mon May 11, 2015 10:35 pm #87449

In most situations the correct response to a combat situation is to run the fuck away.

You might be really good at fighting but odds are someone you care about in your group is not.
And even then, it doesn't matter how good you are at fightin'. Most everyone is just as susceptible to being shot in the face as anyone else.

Putting a turret on the ship to scare off unarmed skiffs trying to board you wouldn't be bad. In a real fight you might manage to hit something with it and do damage even!

...but that wont stop small gangs of pirates from ripping your shit to pieces anyway. It wont stop the local police/militia from turning you into a wreck before you reach safe jump distance. In most situations if you commit to fighting you both will just end up getting shot to shit. Congrats, you blew up your pursuer now savor your victory as you drift into the cold depths of space because some critical system on your ship got fucked and you don't have a spare.

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Mon May 11, 2015 10:45 pm #87458

A good way to organize is to grab a charsheet pdf and use adobe's add text function to fill in your shit

nsos · Post by **nsos** » Mon May 11, 2015 11:01 pm #87465

about to wrap this up.

before i do: anyone need a doctor to replace a spleen or something in their backstory? would be nice to get a connection or two but nbd