I agree with Byron ... on to the mission, but we are not going to pass up any fat juicy traders broadcasting "TARGET".
Once we are out of Aslan space, though.
Sounds good. Do we want to give Hteleitoirl a ride?
Let's go a pirating on the way to our next mission.
I own published adventures ready for many of the local star systems. They're relevant to the situation in this part of space (mostly set in Tlaiowaha, Sindal and The Borderlands subsectors, and dozens of generic Traveller adventures I can plug into any situation, so don't fear going off-script. It's fine. Seriously, I have more adventures than we could possibly play in a lifetime.
However, the first adventure that is technically part of the Pirates of Drinax arc begins on the worlds of Torpol and Clarke, just Coreward of Drinax. The entire campaign assumes that you are committing piracy whenever convenient and conducive to King Oleb's plans.
The adventure will find you wherever you go. There are two general ways I can see you proceeding. Proceed up the Borderlands Cluster and jump to the Wildeman Cluster, taking Hteleitoirl to Arunisiir, then jumping to the Torpol Cluster. So probably Tyokh-Paal-TechWorld-Exe-Acrid-Arunisiir-Blue-Clarke (or Torpol). That's seven jumps.
The second would be to take Hteleitoirl to Torpol or Clarke, where he can proceed on his own. Something like Tyokh-Kteiroa-Drinax-Clarke (or Torpol). That's three jumps.
The pirating is probably better on the first route, but the second is much faster.
Has everyone updated their character sheets? I'm going to update mine.
Please pick one of those two routes or tell me the something different you want to do.
Alrighty then!
I’d like to get back to tracking expenses, something we’ve let go by the wayside during “The Borderlands Run”. Nemesis still isn’t fully repaired, but you’ve now got some cash.
If you check out the Nemesis Accounts , you will see that you have Cr839,910. And Steph gets back her Cr90,000 loan.
SHARES
You have a crew and need to share some of the 1MCr you have earned, after expenses (that’s part of the deal).
You never settled the exact spoils system, but each crew member was offered a share of the spoils. Traditionally, the Captain takes five shares, each officer takes two and the crew take one each.
I propose a system whereby the ship’s operating budget gets five shares, each officer gets two and each crew member gets one. This will insure both an operating budget and crew loyalty. Since you have a crew of five and there are five of you, that’s 20 shares. Dividing the 839,910 twenty ways gives each crewman Cr41,995.5. Each officer (you) gets Cr83,991. The ship’s operating budget gets Cr209,977.5. Sound good?
If so, each of you has Cr83,991 they can spend on Tyokh (or Drinax or wherever) on weapons, armor, skill chips, wild benders, whatever. Steph has 173,991 because she's getting back her loan to the ship.
That leaves Cr209,977.5 to operate, repair and upgrade the ship.
REPAIRS
You can see how repairs and upgrades work by looking at the Harrier ebook.
You have previously made some repairs to the ship. You fixed up all the General Systems and the Jump Engines. Problems persist with your Hull, Ventral Hardpoint, Maneuver Drive and General Cosmetics (bridge, crew area, lower deck and outer hull).
You are completely out of ship shares and have 1 Cosmetic Resource Unit left.
Each Structural RU requires MCr0.25 worth of standard starship components or heavy-industry produce. Each Technical RU requires MCr0.75 worth of starship components or light industry produce. A Cosmetic RU costs MCr0.1 for raw materials and must be custom-fitted, etched or otherwise installed ‘just right’ at the rate of one RU per 8-hour shift.
Thus, if you follow my suggested share split above, you have enough credits to purchase 2 cosmetic RU. You can’t afford any Structural or Technical RU.
Projected costs to repair:
Hull - The hull has only 40 of its 88 possible points. Without extensive repairs HMS Nemesis is rather fragile. Each Structural RU assigned to repairing the hull increases Hull value by 2D, to a maximum of 88. The cost could be anywhere from 4-24 RU, meaning MCr3-MCr18.
On average, this will cost MCr5.14 (5,140,000 credits).
Ventral Hardpoint -The entire turret mechanism for the ventral weapon mount was destroyed by a direct hit from a fusion weapon. Repairing the turret to the point where it can fire into the ship’s frontal arc only will require 1 Structural RU and 1 Technical RU. A full repair,
enabling the weapon to fire in any direction will require an additional 1 Structural RU and 2 Technical RU.
So a partial fix will cost MCr1 (1,000,000 credits) and a full fix will cost MCr2.75.
Maneuver Drive - The M-drive has been restored to full function, but is slightly unreliable. Any time a double-1 comes up on a Pilot check, the drive cuts out, and the ship is without maneuver drive for that round. Remedying this problem requires a proper diagnostic of the drive (requiring 3-4 days and partial dismantling of the drive system) which will indicate the level of repair required. Remedying the problem will require D3 Technical RU and a further 3 days of rebuilding the drive.
So this will cost between MCr .75 and MCr 2.25. On average, it will cost MCr1.5.
General Cosmetics (bridge) - requires D3 Technical RU and 12 Cosmetic RU to fully restore its former glory. This will cost between MCr3.75-5.25. On average, it will cost MCr4.5.
General Cosmetics (crew area) - requires 16 Cosmetic RU to fully restore its appearance. This will cost MCr4.
General Cosmetics (lower deck) - requires D3 Technical RU and 12 Cosmetic RU to fully restore it. This will cost between MCr3.75-5.25. On average, it will cost MCr4.5.
General Cosmetics (outer hull) - requires 20 Cosmetic RU for full restoration. This will cost MCr5.
TOTAL COSTS - Fixing up everything will cost between MCr21 and MCr47.5. On average, this should cost MCr27.39, less 0.25 for the 1 cosmetic RU you still have, for GRAND TOTAL of around MCr27.14. You’re going to need to do some serious piracy and odd jobs!
If we wanted to potentially upgrade our weapons, what TL level equipment could we purchase here?
At TL 14, Tyokh has one of highest tech levels in the entire Hierate. However, that represents the state of the best military tech and expensive civilian tech. You can find TL 12 weapons and TL 13 consumer goods available for sale.
Your home base of Drinax is "only" four parsecs away. Nominally a TL 14, world, Drinax has some elements of relic TL 16 technology (such as the Floating Palace itself). And of course, Nemesis herself is a TL 15 ship. The average Tech Level used by Imperial army and navy is 13 and the average used by Hierate is 12.
Now, with time and contacts it might be possible to get your hands on something higher-tech on the black market. But the aslan have some very draconian laws about such things.
We'll still permit you to do some training in the spaces between the stars, but I also want to give you some "directed experience".
JERRY - Take Leadership 1.
As I read it, we can't even afford a Cosmetic RU right now.
So, save the money for the future to assist with ship repairs.
We'll still permit you to do some training in the spaces between the stars, but I also want to give you some "directed experience".
JERRY - Take Leadership 1.
I did edit them. Jerry had no Leadership skill and I felt he should have some.
As I read it, we can't even afford a Cosmetic RU right now.
So, save the money for the future to assist with ship repairs.
Well, that assumes that you agree with my suggested share split. Comment on that, if you would.
Also, comment on the route you intend to take.
Daneel is on board with the proposed split. He agrees with the Captain that the best move is to hold on to the money until we've made enough to effect some significant repairs. Also, assuming we don't want anyone looking under our hood, we should only make repairs at Drinax.
On the topic of making money, he feels the longer route makes more sense.
Jerry also agrees with the split.
Yes, longer route has a couple advantages ... more opportunity and less direct. No path of raiding leading directly to Drinax.
I like the proposed split. It makes sense that we set aside funds for the ship.
Does anyone recall what we were supposed to set aside for the King? I know we owed him some of the spoils.
Let's go a pirating while we take Hteleitoirl to Arunisiir. We need to get the ship updated and ready for some serious fund in the shipping lanes.
I need to take a look at the shopping book to see if I want to purchase anything.
I did update my sheet with my pistol skill.
King Oleb gets 10% off the top of any piracy.
Sorry for my absence. I'll be a few more days.
Anyone with the Link can now see anything Pirates of Drinax to which I've linked.
Hey Ray. Was that your smiling face on the Know Direction Blog today?
That was her!
You can see the rage, right?
Yep. I sure can.
Ray: Congrats on the blog post and all the freelance credits. No wonder you've been to busy to play with us. That's awesome.
Yes, it sure was! And thanks!
I'm just popping in to let everyone know I'm here, but I'll be another day or two before I can post. Don't wait for me. I might buy something after the fact when I have the time to give it the thought it deserves. Ray's on a bender or something.
Back soon!
Jerry expects a good explanation for the new tattoo. Or, at least a translation of what it says.
Sorry folks. I'm having a pretty crazy week. I have a project due Saturday, and until that's done my posting will continue to be sporadic. Bot Daneel as needed.
Jerry expects a good explanation for the new tattoo. Or, at least a translation of what it says.
It's just the Vilani characters for "Laundry."
For personal reasons, Ray is going to be away for at least two more weeks. Please fill in for her best you can.
Let's talk piracy for a moment. In general, piracy is dangerous because sooner or later someone more powerful than you is going to come along and take your stuff, maybe your life. Most pirates either A) die; B) hit and run and move to an entirely new area; or C) go legit and become overlords of some petty planet.
As laid out to you in the beginning, what King Oleb really wants isn't so much the money as the fear. He wants commerce raiding, not piracy per se. His goal is to make operating in the Outrim Void expensive enough for the Imperium and Heirate that they'll acquiesce to a new power rising in the area if it means trade continues unhindered. At the same time, he wants to frighten the minor powers into clamoring for a leader who can put an end to the "piracy". At that point, a resurgent Drinax can step in and restore order.
To do this, you'll eventually need a lot more ships than just Nemesis, which while fast and high-tech is just a small ship after all. It wouldn't last ten seconds in a fight with an Imperial destroyer, much less an Imperial capital ship.
I mention this to point out that stealing small cargoes is hardly worth your while from an economic standpoint. The last cache that was dropped for you wouldn't have paid your bills for the month. You're actually earning a lot more dough by doing the adventures. And that's fine - it's the campaign, after all. But you may eventually want to do some real piracy - stealing ships and their cargo.
I am a little fuzzy on how we would go about pirating a whole ship. In order to board our target, assuming they are resisting, we'd have to take out their M-drives first, right? Then, once we've boarded our prize and taken control we'd need to repair the drive so we could fly her away? Is there a way to board her without taking out her drive?
I don't think that we actually have a hope of doing more than spooking the target into dumping some cargo, scooping it up and immediately heading to a location where we can jump.
We are, however, fulfilling the other part of the mission about increasing tension in the region necessary for regime change.
To be clear, there's no right or wrong way to do this, but there are effective and ineffective ways, and hoping to scoop up a few boxes of the worst cargo a ship carries is going to be particularly ineffective. There are plenty of cool stories we can do if you guys don't want to be pirates.
But, even though fighting giant fire-breathing lizards is unlikely to be healthy in real life, we do it all the time in fantasy. In a similar fashion, we are giving a nod to space opera here when we play through boarding actions that would probably be fatal in real life.
I've included a link to all the boarding action rules above, and here it is again: Piracy in The Pirates of Drinax.
It's my intention to play through a few of these as you go along and then eventually move the actual boarding actions and piracy into a more narrative mode. The campaign envisions acts of piracy combined with ten set adventures (and a huge host of potential side adventures) as you become pirates, then pirate lords, then potentially empire-builders.
I think that we just need to pick the right system to be able to take ships. A high tech trade world that probably has defenses that would get to us first might not be the right place.
We should pick someplace at the edges of the shipping lanes to pirate an entire ship. I like the idea of pirating, and I'm sure Ray would love boarding actions. :)
So what're we doing today?
Here and now:
Keep pressing on the ship, in hopes that they dump some cargo. Scoop it up and vamoose to the jump point.
Or, if they don't say "uncle", break off and do the jump thing.
Future:
We should pick out a poorly patrolled system, pick a good target and try to seize it.
I think we should start shooting at them. People need to take us seriously. If we just do enough damage that its more costly then just giving in it will make life easier in the future and do more to instill fear in the region.
I certainly wasn't suggesting that we try and steal this ship. Its neither the time nor the place for that.
And I agree with Byron - if they don't respond appropriately, we should target their engines and blast them. Try and get some word of mouth advertising that the Lords of Sindal aren't bluffing.
I like Byron's plan. They don't give up the goods. We blast them some, and then take off. We want them to take us seriously and if we damage someone who refuses to cooperate will help with that.
Okay! Let the piracy begin!
Hey everyone. Apologies for my absence, but I assure you I didn't take it lightly. I'm starting to get caught up in my games this week, and hope to be back to regular posting by the start of next week.
Hope all is well with you and yours.
And thanks for your understanding.
Welcome back, Ray!
Welcome back! Stay safe out there in Winnipeg!
Glad to have you back!
Welcome back Ray. Just in time for the fight.
Happy Thanksgiving to all my American players!
Happy Thursday to everyone else!
What does everyone else think?
Sell now, for fraction of value?
Hold, and try to sell ourselves later?
Sell it now. We can take more if we want to. And we have other goals then just finding sellers.
I agree. We should sell what we have whenever we can, so there is room for more plunder.
Sell away.