First Session - September 7th

[erichris]

The first session may be more chargen than anything else, since I doubt anyone has the book but me. If you DO want to get a book, they are $26.62 on Amazon (normally $39.99, which is what I paid at Gen Con *grumble):

http://www.amazon.com/Traveller-Core-Ru ... 90610333X/

It'd be helpful to have at least one more book at the table to pass around, but we'll make do if not.

If someone has a way to round up a PDF version of the book, please let me know.

I do hope to get chargen taken care of as quickly as possible and dive into the scenario. So, one thing you can do ahead of time is come up with a character concept and I'll think about how to fit it into the character generation scheme. I might be willing to roll up some characters ahead of time, given a concept.

I'll post some options here later if anyone wants to go that route.

[Karl]

I Googled hard to find an, um, preview of the rules, but no such luck. I'll need an idea of the beginning setting and my available options before I can really come up with a character concept.

[erichris]

Well, I did want to cover most of that in chargen anyway. But here's the campaign-starting "why are you in jail?" question....

You all start on a mid-sized passenger starship, outbound from Peregrine system, with the first stop being Jinx. See the wiki for more info on the background if you want to think about it ahead of time.

"Why are you on that starship, leaving Peregrine?" Are you on the run from the local law? Are you on a mission at the behest of an employer/patron? Are you a drifter who was just passing through?

Of course, something important is gonna happen on that trip... your character just doesn't know it yet.

As for available options, it can be any science fiction character within limits... No Jedi or Shapeshifters for example, but you can be an kind of military, colonist, asteroid miner, hitchhiker, star princess, scoundrel or scurvy space pirate... I don't want to type out all of the book's options right now, but we can try to fit most any science fiction concept into the past career archetypes they lay out:

Agent: (Law, Intelligence, Corporate)
Army (Support, Infantry, Cavalry)
Citizen (Corporate, Worker, Colonist)
Drifter (Barbarian, Wanderer, Scavenger)
Entertainer (Artist, Journalist, Performer)
Marines (Support, Star Marine, Ground Assault)
Merchants (Merchant Marine, Free Trader, Broker)
Navy (Line/Crew, Engineering/Gunnery, Flight)
Nobility (Administrator, Diplomat, Dilettante)
Rogue (Thief, Enforcer, Pirate)
Scholar (Field Researcher, Scientist, Physician)
Scout (Courier, Survey, Exploration)

Traveller is a game where you generate your character's stats and then background, which gives you stat bonuses, related skills and skill bonuses, and starting money/ equipment.

Worlds range in tech level, from stone age to high tech... but just because a world is stone age in its ability to produce/work technology, doesn't mean that the ruling class can't have imported laser rifles for the dictator's death squad. As long as the world is on a trade route, some measure of higher technology can be available. You just might not be able to pick up Plutonium-238 at the corner drugstore or get repairs made to your ship's Jump-2 drive locally.

I hope this helps some.

Chris

[Karl]

Is there anything in the rules that would support a character concept of a wealthy traveler from the Imperium? Nobility, I guess? He had his own private yacht and wanted to see the wild, untamed worlds on the Edge.

I am thinking of background for him being on Peregrine would be his yacht being attacked by pirates, and only him and his faithful servant-robot (?) escaping in an escape pod.

[Karl]

Is the poulation of Jinx really supposed to be 10's of people, btw? less than 100?

[erichris]

Yeah there's the dilettante path, though the Yacht might be "in the past" unless it comes up in the chargen random rolls. The robot butler can be a DM-rolled thing unless you have the starting credits to purchase one outright (and with nobles, that is possible).

Yeah, Jinx is low population, most likely just an outpost or a company base or some such.

Chris

[SkywardShadow]

I ummm, found it for us, to hopefully speed along character creation.

After glancing through the book, I'm pretty excited to make a character actually.

[erichris]

That's great news, Charles!

Does anyone have a battlemat they could bring? There might be a lot of drawing areas that I don't want to have to keep redrawing. If not, I'll work with what I've got. Thanks!

Chris

[SkywardShadow]

I just bought one at GenCon; we can break it's cherry.

[erichris]

Well, although 4 of 5 hours of our session was chargen, I think that's some of the most fun I've ever had in chargen... you folks really got in the spirit of the 'connections' and 'events' to create colorful characters that already have interesting histories and much potential for interaction.

But now... The ship is without power and a computer after being attacked but not destroyed... adrift... and the Dyson awaits, rending and tearing crew and passengers on Deck One so far...

One word of advice/warning. Don't approach this head on like a big combat in D&D. It's going to take brains, trickery and creativity to survive. Don't think of brave knights and sorcerers taking on a Dragon... think of Doctor Who bringing down some terrible monster, armed only with his wits and a sonic screwdriver. Well, okay, some of you at least are armed, and there are crew on board with weapons as well...

I'm looking forward to the next session!

Chris

[SkywardShadow]

I had a blast too; I'm very happy with both campaigns that we've started.

Looking forward to the next session! This makes me wish we played every Sunday.