I am also on board with narrowing the scope in order to move the story forward.
So, I'm looking over the character sheet you have for me, and comparing it to my notes and I found two errors.
I have Deception 1. I got it as a service skill in my fifth term, but it's not on my character sheet.
Also, I have Athletics 1. I got it as my first connection skill when I made a connection with Steph. This is also not shown on my character sheet.
Thanks!
Corrected. Glad you double-checked.
So am I! Haha.
Let's discuss expectations.
1) Please read The Guide to Better Play by Post gaming if you haven't already. Master the Push, the hook, the "acknowledge and react".
Really, we have a great group and I don't expect that anyone needs the reminder, but if you haven't read it, you should. Your posts should invite the other players to play with you.
2) If I post something like "So what do you do next?", it's a sign that I think you need to take initiative and get moving.
3) Discussing what you think the group should do next is not the same as telling the GM that you do it.
3) Post every day if you can.
4) If you're going to be away for vacation or whatever, please post about that in the discussion list.
5) I definitely take an interest in things you take an interest in. If I throw out a plot thread and it gets ignored, I'm probably not going to repeat that thread. Doesn't mean it wasn't important. By the same token, if something interests you, follow it up! This game can be about whatever we want it to be.
6) Lots of NPCs will voice strong opinions. Don't confuse them with my opinions. It is entirely your decision where to take the main plot. Are you servants of the crown? Do you share King Oleb's vision? Or do you just want a cool ship and the chance to set up your own pirate kingdom? Whatever you do, do it with gusto and swashbuckling.
7) This is a game. It's here for fun. If you're not having fun and think it can improve, speak up!
8) If you're not having fun and think it won't improve, please feel free to exit, but tell me you're going!
I've been thinking a lot about subsystems. Those are the little games within a game that make things work. For instance, Combat is a subsystem. Starship combat another. Computers still another. The Pirates of Drinax adds subsystems for reputation, alliances, piracy and many others.
None of you are very experienced at these subsystems and some of you have never even seen them. Imagine trying to teach someone the Pathfinder grappling rules before they're familiar with the d20 system! Or the downtime rules or the occult rules or...
So I think the best way is to introduce them as we need them. The first one that I'm thinking about is ship combat because I assume that sooner or later you will attempt some piracy and it will eventually go sideways. I'm thinking that when we first get into a ship-to-ship fight we'll take it slow and just go through the mechanics. Probably after a while we may wind up hand-waving a lot of that and only roleplaying the important stuff. I'm not really sure how much ship-to-ship combats there will be (it depends on you somewhat!), so we'll play it by ear.
When you're introduced to the Drinaxi harrier that will be your ship, I'll post her statistics and we'll talk a bit about what makes her so darned cool and what choices you may have to make during operations. Suffice it say that ship is likely to become a legend.
I think that The Pirates of Drinax is a pretty good mix of different adventure types (with maybe a bias toward heists) and also of space and ground-based interactions, diplomacy, investigation, action and problem-solving.
Corrections for Daneel's character sheet -
-His Endurance should be 7, not 8.
-His UPP is not updated to include changes that occurred during creation (END down to 7, INT up to 10, PSI up to 8)
Corrected.
Gang, please go post in the Gameplay thread if you haven't already!
Steph, Ray and Jerry:
With your permission, we're going to take away the rapier, body pistol and Advanced Combat Rifle received during your Mustering Out and say that they represent artifacts of Drinaxi design found aboard the harrier: A Sindalian Officer's Sword, a Sindalian Officer's Pistol and Sindalian Boarding Gun.
I am fine with that. I wasn't sure how I'd get it into the palace anyway. Kings are generally nervous about weapons near them.
That would be perfect! Jerry would much prefer an Actual Artifact rather than a new-made utilitarian weapon!
Sure, that's fine.
So the stats for those three weapons are now listed on your respective character sheets.
Note to everyone: I'm now only going to be updating THESE CHARACTER SHEETS. The others were for character generation only.
Are those going to stay up for good? Or should I be making my own copy for my profile?
That'll be up for good. I may alter the format, but the sheets will always be there.
Can you post a link to them at the top of the page with the maps?
Not now. That's what I've been saying about how Paizo isn't letting SOME campaigns update right now. They've been promising a fix for a few weeks.
Eventually, but not now.
I will be away from Nov 10-14. I won’t have access to the boards. Please bot me as necessary.
Tarondor One suggestion for links. I have several links in the header of my GM alias to maps and such. It makes finding the maps easier. This might work for the documents you are sharing for this campaign. I don't think you are using that alias for any other games so there wouldn't be confusion.
I am out of town from this morning to late Sunday (November 9-11).
I would use all of Jerry's ship shares for immediate repair of the Harrier, in line with the suggestions - drive systems first since we want to be able to get back home.
Hey guys, I’m going to have a crazy busy weekend. It’s unlikely I’ll be able to post Saturday, and I definitely won’t be able to post Sunday. Sorry if I hold up the game. Feel free to bot me if needed.
Thanks!
Oh! And I agree. You're welcome to use my ship shares to repair whatever everyone else agrees with.
Tarondor One suggestion for links. I have several links in the header of my GM alias to maps and such. It makes finding the maps easier. This might work for the documents you are sharing for this campaign. I don't think you are using that alias for any other games so there wouldn't be confusion.
I do run two Traveller games using this avatar, but 3/4 of the players in that game are also in this one. I'm not a huge fan of putting important information there, preferring the top of the page, but that's an excellent temporary solution. I'll get to it this weekend.
EDIT: Done.
Let's keep this ball rolling. What, exactly, are we fixing now before heading out for the first time?
I heard Jump Drive first, so your choices are a 1-day cursory fix or a D3+D2 days full refit costing D3 Technical RU (and five times that many cosmetic RU).
With no time pressure, I'm going to assume you do the full refit of the Jump engines. This will require days and cost Technical RU and 10 Cosmetic RU. You can spend 2 ship shares to get the 2 Technical RU and spending 1 more ship share gets you Cosmetic RU. Perfect.
So five days later, your Jump Drives are not only fully functional, but the hand-crafted labor of the Royal Shipyard makes them look beautifully original, too. You have 8 Ship Shares still to spend. You still need repairs to General Systems, the Ventral Hardpoint and the Maneuver drives, as well as a host of cosmetic repairs.
OK, I've read through the Harrier ebook (well, I only skimmed the upgrades section, I'll review that more thoroughly when its more relevant). Regarding repairs - we have our ship shares to use now, and the ebook says we may find RU to use for repairs during the course of our adventures, but are we able to purchase repairs/RU with CR?
As for the next repair, I am thinking we should either fix the General Systems completely, or as much of the Hull as we can afford.
Looking at the ships roles from a completely Skills point of view:
Captain - Steph and Byron both have Leadership 1. Steph also has Persuade 1, Deception 1, and the most important of pirating skills, Admin 1.
Pilot - Steph, Byron, and Ray all have Pilot(Spacecraft) 1. I feel this is an excellent area to have plenty of backups
Navigation - Byron has Astrogation 1. Steph has Astrogation 0
Engineering - Daneel has Engineer(J-drive) 1, Engineer(Power) 1, and Mechanic 2. Steph has Engineering(M-drive) 1 and Mechanic 0.
Gunners (2) - Ray is our only trained Gunner with Gunner(turret) 1. Since the ship only has one functioning gun at the moment, that works.
Medic - Byron has Medic 1. Jerry and Steph have Medic 0.
Anyone have any particular roles they wanted to fill (or avoid)? No surprise - Daneel expects to be filling an Engineering role.
OK, I've read through the Harrier ebook (well, I only skimmed the upgrades section, I'll review that more thoroughly when its more relevant). Regarding repairs - we have our ship shares to use now, and the ebook says we may find RU to use for repairs during the course of our adventures, but are we able to purchase repairs/RU with CR?
Yes!
Once play has begun, it is possible that RU of various sorts might be found in supply caches or salvaged from wrecked Drinaxian ships. They can also be obtained by converting standard components gained by purchase, piracy or plundering. 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.
Apropos of Daneel's post about positions, please note that unlike a Pathinfder adventuring group, you are expected to have a crew of NPC's with you.
So 250000 CR for Structural, 750000 CR for Technical, and 100000 CR for Cosmetic? Yikes...better get to work.
(Besides the fact that it’s free!)
The last Drinaxi harrier has much to recommend it and I want to make sure that even those players unfamiliar with naval design or science fiction games get an idea of what makes this such a top notch ship. Take a look at page 8 of the Harrier eBook to learn some of its secrets. A lot of these terms do not appear in the Core Rulebook but come from the High Guard supplement, which you do not need to buy, because I’ll explain them here.
TECH LEVEL
The concept of Tech Level is very important to Traveller. If you're unfamiliar, you can find the scale of technology on page 6 of the Core Rulebook. Basically, TL 1 is the Bronze Age, TL 4 is the late industrial revolution (circa 1900) and TL 8 is Earth in the coming decades. The average TL of the Trojan Reach is TL 9-12. The standard for the Imperial Navy is TL 13.
The harrier is TL 15 technology. Some Imperial tech is TL 15, but most is far below. Your ship is simply flat-out better than almost anything its size.
SIZE
The harrier is a small ship. It is 200 tons. Imperial warships can go up to 200,000 tons. Even 2,000-ton destroyer could absolutely ruin the harrier if the harrier stuck around for a toe-to-toe fight. However, the harrier is small enough to be crewed by a handful of people and powerful enough to threaten anything short of a warship.
HULL
The harrier is streamlined. That means it is capable not only of space-going operations, but also of operating and fighting in a planetary atmosphere. Its reinforced hull means that the shipbuilders spared no expense to give it a stronger hull than normal for its size.
ARMOR
The harrier’s armor is bonded superdense. This hideously expensive TL 14 armor is lighter and harder than almost anything available in the Reach.
MANEUVER DRIVES
The harrier is one of the fastest, most agile ships possible in normal space with a Thrust rating of 6. The harrier can outrun almost any ship. And some of that extra thrust can be put into maneuvers, making it difficult to escape and difficult to hit.
In addition, its M-Drive (Maneuver Drive) is very small and efficient for its power.
JUMP DRIVES
While the harrier’s jump distance is a merely respectable Jump 2, there are several unique and useful aspects to the jump engines. The first is early jump. Most ship can’t safely jump when within 100 diameters of a planet. The harrier can jump when at 90 diameters. This means it can more readily escape pursuers.
Like the M-Drives, the J-Drives are smaller and more efficient than normal.
Finally and most critically is the fact that the J-Drives are stealthy. All J-Drives create a tell-tale electromagnetic signature when they drop out of J-Space and back into normal space that informs every sensor in the system that a ship has just arrived. The harrier’s Stealth Jump systems make this signature much more difficult to notice.
POWER PLANT
The powerplant is, well, powerful. It provides 260 power points. That’s more than enough to run every system on the ship at the same time...except for the holographic hull. When you run the holographic hull you’re going to have some interesting choices to make (probably just not running the M-Drives full throttle).
BRIDGE
This bridge design incorporates advanced interactive holographic displays, and can automatically reconfigure itself to adapt to changing situations. A bridge with holographic controls is always optimised for the task at hand, and grants DM+2 when rolling for initiative.
COMPUTER
Your Computer is also powerful. Rated Computer/20, it can run the largest and most complex programs you’re likely to find. Several of them, at the same time.
SENSORS
The harrier is equipped with Advanced sensors and a military countermeasure suite. The first of these TL 15 sensor suites includes a densitometer, jammers, LIDAR, Radar and a Neural Activity Sensor (nothing below TL 15 has NAS). They also come with a standard +2 Die Modifier because they’re just that good.
The military countermeasures suite is the cutting edge of countermeasure technology in the galaxy, incorporating both powerful transmitters and advanced electronic–warfare programs to shut down enemy communications. The military countermeasures suite grants DM+6 to all attempts at jamming and electronic warfare, regardless of the usual DM the sensor suite it is attached to.
WEAPONS
It’s rare for a ship this small to pack more than lasers or a few missiles. Yet you pack both a particle cannon and a missile rack (albeit a small one). That particle cannon (once you get the barbette up and running) is deadly, with a longer ranger and heavier damage than any laser. The “accurate” modifier means that it gains a DM+1 to all attack rolls. The “high-yield” means that any 1's rolled for damage become 2's. Meanwhile, the the missiles are reasonably powerful long-range fire-and-forget weapons.
SYSTEMS
The “armory” listed in the ship systems is a highly secure weapons locker designed for the ship’s marines. The cargo scoop and fuel processor means that the harrier is capable of refining its own fuel from the atmospheres of gas giants or the waters of oceans (though refined fuel is still better when you can get it).
Finally and most importantly, the holographic hull is an astonishingly expensive luxury that gobbles power. Multiple holographic projectors are embedded within the hull allowing the ship to change hull colors, add graphics and adopt a different appearance (though its shape remains the same). Changing the hull color or adding a stored graphic can be done by anyone with access to the ship’s computer. Creating a complex color scheme from scratch requires the talents of a skilled artist. Some young nobles try to outdo one another by changing the schemes daily or hiring artists to create the most complex scenes imaginable. Some pirates have made use of this system to simulate visual hull damage and lure other ships in with a GK distress call. However, most ship owner’s use it for the purposes of advertising.
BERTHS
You have eight standard berths and eight low berths. A standard berth is usually a double-occupancy stateroom, but officers often rate a single-occupancy room. If each of you had a separate stateroom, you could still have space for six more crew in double occupancy staterooms.
Low berths are mildly dangerous cryogenic chambers used to put their occupants in suspended animation. It’s a decent place to hold prisoners and hostages.
CARGO
You have just over 29 tons of cargo space (cargo is measure in displacement, not actual mass). This is where you store your ill-gotten loot. So don’t attack a ship bearing 2000 tons of industrial parts. You want the gold, not the grain.
I do not see myself as a medic even if I have the best medic skill. That was just for battlefield necessity.
Captain or pilot would be fun. I do have experience assaulting places. :P I can handle the Astrogath as well if others feel better equipped to do the captain and pilot.
Looking at the ships roles from a completely Skills point of view:
Captain - Steph and Byron both have Leadership 1. Steph also has Persuade 1, Deception 1, and the most important of pirating skills, Admin 1.
Pilot - Steph, Byron, and Ray all have Pilot(Spacecraft) 1. I feel this is an excellent area to have plenty of backups
Navigation - Byron has Astrogation 1. Steph has Astrogation 0
Engineering - Daneel has Engineer(J-drive) 1, Engineer(Power) 1, and Mechanic 2. Steph has Engineering(M-drive) 1 and Mechanic 0.
Gunners (2) - Ray is our only trained Gunner with Gunner(turret) 1. Since the ship only has one functioning gun at the moment, that works.
Medic - Byron has Medic 1. Jerry and Steph have Medic 0.
Anyone have any particular roles they wanted to fill (or avoid)? No surprise - Daneel expects to be filling an Engineering role.
Jerry is probably destined to fulfill that absolutely vital shipboard role .... Purser. He has Admin 1, Advocate 0, Deception 2, Diplomat 1, Persuade 0, Recon 1 and Streetwise 0.
Someone has to buy and sell good and supplies for the ship. If pressed, Jerry can deal with the natives once we get out into the wide tracks of space.
Looking at the ships roles from a completely Skills point of view:
Captain - Steph and Byron both have Leadership 1. Steph also has Persuade 1, Deception 1, and the most important of pirating skills, Admin 1.
Pilot - Steph, Byron, and Ray all have Pilot(Spacecraft) 1. I feel this is an excellent area to have plenty of backups
Navigation - Byron has Astrogation 1. Steph has Astrogation 0
Engineering - Daneel has Engineer(J-drive) 1, Engineer(Power) 1, and Mechanic 2. Steph has Engineering(M-drive) 1 and Mechanic 0.
Gunners (2) - Ray is our only trained Gunner with Gunner(turret) 1. Since the ship only has one functioning gun at the moment, that works.
Medic - Byron has Medic 1. Jerry and Steph have Medic 0.
Anyone have any particular roles they wanted to fill (or avoid)? No surprise - Daneel expects to be filling an Engineering role.
Thanks to Daneel for putting this together.
While it's true that you have several good pilots on the crew, someone needs to be at the helm when the particle beams start to fly. Let's try to nail down what's standard so we don't have to wrangle it out each time.
I want to note that while Byron and Steph both have Leadership (very useful in a Captain), Jerry has a SOC of 12 (also quite useful, depending on whether you're shooting or talking).
Nobody has Tactics (Naval), which a captain could really use.
May I suggest:
Captain: ??? (Decide, darn ya!)
Pilot: Ray
Second Pilot: Steph or Byron, if not captain
Astrogation: Steph or Byron, if not captain
Engineer: Daneel
Drive Chief: NPC
Gunner: Ray, plus 1 NPC
Medic: NPC
Marines: 3 NPCs
I assume you'd want a drive chief so that somebody's minding the store when you heroes are out buckling your swash.
Each of you plus the doctor could get their own stateroom, with the final two being split by the drive chief and the marines.
Byron has Tactics 1. He received it in the beginning of his fourth tour.
You have Tactics (Military).
Ah...I forgot the specialty. For what it was worth I assumed the Soc 12 would be the captain. If we want to go skill based that makes sense as well though.
The lack of Tactics (Naval) is a problem.
I just read through the Post Career Education section. Much different - 8 weeks of study (no interruptions within a week) to learn Tactics 0 and then another 8 weeks to Tactics (Naval) 1.
We’re mired already. Nobody is a perfect captain, but we need one. Let’s choose.
Jerry will step up as the Captain. He will be locked in his cabin, whenever possible, studying Tactics.
If Jerry wants the job that's fine by me, but I know both Ray and Steph said they'd be offline a few days (until Thursday or Friday) and I figured they'd want to chime in.
Fair enough. We'll wait to hear from the whole crew on this important decision.
Yes - let's wait and see if someone else wants it.
I like the idea of Jerry as the Captain.
But, I don't want to be the pilot. I'm fine being backup pilot, for in case of emergency, but I can honestly say that as a player flying or driving anything is way at the bottom of things I enjoy doing. I don't even like driving things in real life. I honestly just walk everywhere. Haha. I'd like to be gunner.
What about:
Captain: Jerry
Pilot: Steph or Byron
Second Pilot: Steph or Byron (if not pilot), Ray
Astrogation: Steph or Byron (if not pilot)
Engineer: Daneel
Drive Chief: NPC
Gunner: Ray, plus 1 NPC
Medic: NPC
Marines: 3 NPCs
I will handle pilot duties then.
So, even while we wait for CariMac/Steph to comment on the captaincy, you other players can chime in on how to spend your remaining 8 ship shares. There are a lot of systems that need repair.
Also, now's a good time to discuss the ship's name. "V'Hurg" just doesn't have the right ring to it, somehow.
SOme potential names:
- Resurgence
- Victory
- Triumphant
- Glorious
- Impertinent
- Impotent
- Indolent
- Ignorant
- Illustrative
- Iterative
Well, I think we should either fix the General Systems completely, or as much of the Hull as we can afford.
I'm not great at naming things, but the first ship name that popped into my head is Nebula's Shadow
I vote for the general systems. Hopefully we look scary enough that they mostly just conceded before a fight. Having something break down in the middle of nowhere and being stranded would be embarrassing.
I think would should go with something pirate-like.
Scoundrel
Reaver
Tempest