Space 1977: AAR thread for beginning campaign

[makofan]

I just introduced my young (early 20's) face-to-face group to Classic Traveller, and they spent the evening rolling up characters. After discussion about goals, play-style, etc, they decided to try our group-created subsector. They want to be equal-opportunity mercenary/pirates, and one of them mustered out with a Scout ship.

They decided that they come from Penzance (0104) and will start in Muskatoon (0101) spaceport in a Mos-Eisley style cantina. Their goal is to gather information on single merchant ships and see if they can ambush one. We are going to start with a bar fight to get to grips with the combat rules. I'll keep you posted if anything comes of this. We plan to play twice per month.

[makofan]

The characters outfitted themselves and headed to a seedy pleasure dome. The guy with Streetwise had a contact there. Our main purpose was to have a brawl and test hand-to-hand combat rules. The streetwise guy was given the rumor about Patron 1

The group is contacted by Ishmael Jones, a purchaser for the pirates on world 0104. Authorities are starting to suspect that the ships he purchases are making their way into the wrong hands. He wishes the group to be a front for the purchase of a new 400-ton Corsair-class ship, and then to deliver it to 0104. The group will be paid Cr 10000 up front and CR 90000 upon delivery.

In this case, they were told to seek out Ishmael Jones at the Blue Parrot. Meanwhile, the gambler was winning at cards and was accused of cheating by another player. In three rounds, the players had killed the sore loser, knocked out one of his bodyguards, and the other two ran away. They handsomely tipped the bouncer and skedaddled themselves. (One of the characters is Social Status C and thus has a bit of pull in these situations).

Next time we play we will try ranged combat rules as the local mob guy they killed will try to revenge themselves. I hadn't run Traveller combat in about 20 years, was pleased how smooth it ran. My house rules are: first injury goes to Endurance, one characteristic at 0 = stunned one round, two at 0 means unconscious, which is more generous than the RAW.

So far the players liked it

[Admin Pete]

Seems like this would be a great game for multiple referees and groups so we could have another group that is out to hunt down pirates and bring them to justice.

[bestialwarlust]

Or play the characters of a ship that was attacked trying to get their ship back from the other group.

[Mighty Darci]

I hope you post more about this, I am not familiar with this and I would like to see more.

[makofan]

Next game is scheduled 3 weeks from now

[Vile Traveller]

Sounds great! I am daily wracked with guilt at not grabbing more worlds here, but there is just too much on my plate at this moment. I have a long memory, though, so I'm not going away!

[makofan]

The players met Ishmael Jones, and after some role-playing, took the mission of delivering the corsair ship to Captain Croker of Plymouth, Penzance. Unfortunately, Baron Strucker (one of the player characters) is from the ruling family of South, Penzance, and they have a feud/small war going on. It doesn't matter as they plan on stealing the ship anyway Meanwhile Ishmael Jones is actually trying to hide this purchase from his enemies, but will be unsuccessful and the ship will be ambushed once it gets to Penzance

The characters hopped on the grav beltway to get to Docking Bay 262A where the ship is, and were confronted by 6 thugs with auto-pistols from the mob boss they killed. Atrocious rolling from the thugs, and liberal use of an illegal Uzi by the characters ended up with a slaughter, as only one PC was sent unconscious, and all 6 thugs were killed. They successfully avoided the authorities (law level roll), then ended up with some awkwardness with the paperwork. The Jack-of-all-Trades PC made a successful Admin roll and navigated through the fine print and they stepped aboard their ship.

Next game, they are going to design their ship