GM Tarondor's Secrets of the Ancients - Traveller

Game Master Tarondor

I'm down with a heavy flue and screens mostly give me a headache. So I may be a bit infrequent the next few days. I updated botting info if you need it.

Feel better, Malaxius!

Best wishes to recover swiftly.

PLAY IN TARONDOR’S HOME GAME!

This message is going out to everyone I play with. Or really, anyone who happens to see it. Don’t be shy.

I’m a long (really long) time GM and my home game has been online since 2020. But it has also dwindled in size and I’d really like to have more great players! So, since we play online that means anyone could potentially play with us. Interested? Just drop me a Private Message!

DETAILS
My players and I are in the last book of an Adventure Path (Age of Ashes) and we’ll be wrapping it up in the next 2-3 months. When that’s over, we’d really like to have more players. 6 to 7 players would be ideal. Right now we are 3 players plus me.

We play every other Sunday from 12-6 Eastern time. We -don’t- use any VTT’s (your GM finds them distracting). We just talk over Discord and use Google slides for images and maps. Works great and there’s zero learning curve.

PLAYER’S CHOICE
One thing I’ll be doing differently this time is that instead of me telling the players what we’re going to play, I’m going to offer the players a choice of 5 or 6 potential campaigns I’d be willing to run (including a few different game systems) and let the players tell me what they want to play. I expect we’ll be playing Pathfinder 2e, but if the players prefer sci-fi or superheroes we might be using a different system.

So anyway, if you’d like to join us and want to have some input in what we play, now’s your chance to get involved!

WHO I AM
I’m Tarondor. My real name is Scott Nolan and I’m a lawyer, a dad, a husband and a big ol’ nerd whose RPG credentials go back to the 1970's. I love pretty much every style of gaming from “kick in the door” to deep roleplaying. I don’t care if you’ve got forty years of experience or if you’ve never played the game, so long as you’re good at getting along with others and don’t think that “what? It’s what my character would do!” is an excuse for screwing your party.

My own style leans towards epic quests. You can get an idea of my GMing style from the many games I run here on the Paizo boards. You can also check out my various guides to character classes and whatnot by clicking on my Profile.

Ooh. Everyone is welcome, but leave your baggage and agendas at the door. We’re just here to sling dice and have fun.

If you’re interested, let me know!

9am PST every other Sunday?
I could manage to caffeinate myself by then, maybe ...
None of my characters are morning people either tho ;)

IanAndrewTroi#9275

Sounds really interesting. But if I do the timezone math correctly, that's probably too late for me Sunday evening, because I have to get up at 5 on monday again.

I appreciate the consideration for your live game Tarondor but it's been many years since I could do a six hour play session. Hope your game goes well.

In this game should we proceed to post for round 2?

I’m gone for the 5th and 6th. See you Friday or thereabouts.

Folks, I'm under the weather -and- busy with taxes. If I am a player, please bot me. If I am the GM, I'll be back as soon as I can.

Folks, I want to apologize for my absence. It was a combination of several personal things going on, filing taxes (I own a few businesses so it takes awhile) and having a fairly bad case of bronchitis (which I’m still not over). Nonetheless, I wish I had posted to let you all know I’m still alive.

My plan is to return to all my games tomorrow (Thursday the 20th).

Hello, hello!

I’m working on a major trial tomorrow. I’ll be back online shortly after that.

I too would like to apologize for irl distractions taking me away from gaming: I started an amazing new job this past Monday, but it took a lot of time & focus. I am, however, back and catching up right now :)

What a waste... so much loot. An entire freaking private station.

I am not sure we were meant to loot it all. But if we were we apparently needed to go in blazing.

Yeah, I think you are right that we weren't "meant" to... I just don't like when the game prevents you from getting loot. Loot is part of the fun.

With some exceptions, Traveller really isn't about loot the same way that D&D or Pathfinder is.

I mean, it certainly -could- be. But that's not its base assumption.

I'm okay with dying.

That sounds like you're choosing to bow out of the game, Zanbabe. I'd be very sorry to lose you. But if you either choose to let Zirelle go and start a new character or just end your part in the game, thank you for playing.

Please clarify what you want to happen so I don't act on assumptions.

PS: I like Zirelle! I'd miss her!

If Zirelle dies here, then yes, I will bow out. I don't see a way to save her (or any of the prisoners) at this point, and although you posted all the places where people were put into the pods... there are also posts about them already taking the shuttle out as well, so perhaps that illustrates why so much of it seems up in the air.

As I read it, they already left before I even started running (Linc posted that he was emergency boosting away), then you had me roll a check, but also said the pods weren't launching, which was my only other way off, and so survival itself seems like a retcon of some sort here.

If Zirelle miraculously survives, I will keep playing her. I just am not seeing how that happens at this point, that's all.

Well, Zirelle succeeded in her Vacc Suit roll. If she heads for the shuttle, she'll survive. If she heads for the pods, she's got about 30 seconds, so we'll see what happens. Maybe she's the hero of this scene?

What you don't know is that Harlen planned all this, and wants you to survive and the guards and smugglers to die, for reasons that will be revealed much later. Maybe he doesn't get everything he wants and you rescue them?

Heck, this is meant to be cinematic. If she gets out an airlock and closes her vacc suit, she can be blown clear of the exploding station [ooc]Calling Michael Bay! and be picked up later.

If you want. If you want to stop, just let me know.

As far as not solving things by retconning, normally I would agree, but if we had realized immediately that the pods weren't working, which we would have if we were doing this in real time, then we could have saved some people rather than letting them all perish. Finding out after we had moved on necessitates some flexibility... and play by post is going to be like that a lot if we are out of rounds and posting a bunch of stuff before it gets confirmed.

I don't know if that is the case. In fact I think, if it were obvious at the time, the DM would have given a hint or made us do an electronics check to spot that they don't operate. We can't know of course, but I suspect that they were fully functional as we shoved the prisoners inside, but were deactivated by the general shutdown of the stations systems, which just happened while you were sprinting towards the shuttle.

If that were the case, wouldn't some of them have jettisoned... the first ones, and then stopped later? Also, I assume escape pods are built to work when the power is out... being emergency features after all.

Not if the self-destruction-sequence was designed to disable them on purpose at the last moment as a kind of trap. As the DM just wrote that this guy actually wanted his crew to die here, that would make a lot of sense: people would seal themselves into the pods instead of looking for another way to save themselves and only realize that they are as much deathtraps as the rest of the station, when it's too late.

You had no chance to know the pods weren't working. Not that you'd know, but there's more here than meets the eye. You'll discover it in time.

Posting this in all my games that have activity: won't be posting today because my right eye is swollen up so that I can only see a blur out of it, and even though I can still see and type, it's obnoxious and giving me a headache. Will be back when this goes away, hopefully tomorrow, and sincerely apologize for the absence.

RL comes first always. Hope that your recovery is swift and complete, Zirelle.

Get well soon. And take all the time that needs.

That sounds awful. Sorry to hear it, Zanbabe! Get better.

Somewhat apropos, my 10-year old has a cold. He informed me that it might be yellow fever.

That sounds awful. Sorry to hear it, Zanbabe! Get better.

Somewhat apropos, my 10-year old has a cold. He informed me that it might be yellow fever.

Much like when a nurse meaured my height incorrectly ... and I said, omg do I have osteoporosis!?

Hello!

I’m off to a vacation tomorrow. I’ll be back after June 21st. I will not be checking my games.

If I am a player, please bot me. If I am the GM, I’ll see you soon!

Tarondor

Hey folks! I’m back.

For our 35th anniversary, the wife and I took the kids to the Black Hills and Yellowstone National Park. Saw the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Jewel Cave, Devil’s Tower, the Bighorn Mountains, Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. We saw bison, bears, bighorn sheep and elk up close (relatively) and even (supposedly, I’m not sure) a mountain lion at some distance. Despite our best efforts, we saw no wolves.

A came home with a bonus gift: COVID. So I’m taking things slowly, but I’m getting back to my games today.

Get some rest. Life comes first. :)

Yep, rest away, do what you have to. We can wait for you to be healthy, don't push too hard that just causes more trouble. And COVID that's some bad luck there. May you find better fortune in your tomorrows.

Dear GMs and Players:

I apologize for my absence over the last 8-9 days. I have suffered a serious bout of COVID. That plus the stresses of business and family have really beaten me up, physically. I am now up and out of bed, but I continue to live life in the slow lane.

I don’t want you to worry about me. I’m not gone, but I do ask your patience.

If I am your GM, I will return soon. If I am your player, I will understand if you remove me from the game.

Best Regards
Scott / Tarondor

I’m back. I won’t bore you with the details, but life has gotten a bit harder for me. For one thing, I’m about to have a third child in a few weeks, so I’ll be quite busy for a while.

I’m dropping some of my games, but this isn’t one of them. I hope to be able to dedicate greater attention to this game from here on out. Now back to our show.

I need to let everyone know why I've been a bit distracted lately. I have to move in a couple of months for the first time in over a decade, and it is an interstate move for the first time ever. So much of my energy is going to that and it is going to be even busier as the move date approaches. So I am going to be a bit slower till the move is completed, hopefully by the end of September. So don't let me slow down the game, if you need to move on, do so.

Both of you, please, love your life. Your life is what brought you to us, and if it needs a little more attention, give it. It will only make you more fully engaged when you return.

Love & Light to you both.

I'm in no position to complain, and wouldn't if I was. Take all the time you need.

Ah, DO we have our own ship?

Nope.

Cough, cough..ALELL! Cough Cough.

I have dropped out of this game. I told the Referee a few days ago, but wanted to make sure you all knew.

Zirelle leaves some equipment behind

Artificial Gill TL8 | 4Kg | 4,000 Credits
Breather Mask TL8 | -- | 150 Credits
Bugs (4) | TL11 | Audio/Visual/Data | 300 credits (x4)
Electronics Toolkit TL7 | 2Kg | 2,000 Credits
EM Probe TL10 | 1Kg | 1,000 credits
Forensics Toolkit TL8 | 12Kg | 2,000 Credits
Light Intensifier Goggles TL9 | -- | 1,250 Credits
Gauss Pistol | 13 | Range: 20m | Damage: 3D | Weight: 1Kg | 500 Credits (but taken from Harlan) | Magazine: 40 | Magazine Cost: Cr20 | Traits AP (armor piercing) 3, Auto 2 (when attacking with a burst of fire (can't aim), add the auto score to damage)

with a note, saying that she needs to get back to her husband and her retirement.

I am sorry to hear that. Take care.

Sorry you can't continue; good luck out there!

Hey gang!

I’m off to GenCon and won’t be online until I get back next week. And -then- my wife is having a baby, so expect my presence to be spotty for a bit!

Thanks for bearing with me.

Scott / Tarondor

On vacation to Alaska for a couple weeks. Bot me as needed!

Sad to see you go Zirelle, you were the linchpin. Hope things are good for you.

Goodbye Zirelle - it's a pitty you have to go. And congratulations to the DM on the new family-member - that's the best reason in the world to go easy on the hobby stuff.

Sadly I'm also a bit distracted at the moment: we are renovating a house and moving into it - with two little kids around, because daycare and kindergarden are closed during the summer-holiday, that keeps me really busy at the moment, especially during those times that would be usually free for hobby stuff - e.g.: when they sleep.

Holy smoke, Alaska is awesome!

Sorry to see you go Zirelle, Good luck!

I'm really sorry - just realized that I had forgotten about this forum for over a week. There has just been too much to do - If things get moving again, just bot me till the start of next week. Then I should be back with a daily check for updates again.