GM Tarondor's Secrets of the Ancients - Traveller

Game Master Tarondor

I'll chat with 'Ben' on Discord ... because while I agree with everything posted, all of the points I made are still true too. In the current situation, not having anywhere to drive to will be just as deadly for the professor, so I'm not sure why the decision was made that we just won't bother to try to save her. Slinging a critically injured person around and racing through the yard to cars which may not work doesn't make sense to me yet, sorry.

I'm just here to be Chuck and have him react to the things he knows. Table talking out every situation seems like it could bog down the flow of the game. I like that everyone will interpret and perceive situations differently. It lends to be IN character instead of just thinking of the optimal solution. It's a fun dynamic to react to what other people do and think on what my character would know and not know. It's on of my favorite RP aspects: learning how other players react/handle things and using it as cues for my own actions.

I appreciate the urgency to save the Professor but just can't like in-character and OOC knowledge enough to justify it at the moment.

Looking forward to learning how we all operate together! :)

Roll call to see if we've lost anyone?

Could have sworn I posted the Stealth check....

Roll call to see if we've lost anyone?

Yeah. Been a bit since we heard from Erryll. You still with us, E?

Alright, my friends! I am off to GenCon in the morning and won’t be posting for the next week. Please expect me back on or around Tuesday the 9th of August. If I am the GM for this game, I’ll see ya then! If I’m a player, please feel free to bot my character as appropriate.

Stay safe and I’ll talk to you all in a week!

PS: I’ll be away the whole second half of August, too. Nerd vacation now, family vacation then. :-)

Enjoy! I am totally envious :)

Hi folks!

As previously mentioned, I am on vacation. I may be around a bit this weekend (August 20-21), but then I’ll be gone until at least August 28. See you ‘round!

Sorry, moving the discussion from the game board to here. I think we need to track down the dandelion and get some answers before we head off the planet. I think that we might find out more about what is going on and it might help us to prepare for whatever we might find on this planet. Just my 2 credits worth.

Concur with staying on planet to chase that lead. Going off planet would only give more time to people going after Professor.

Sounds good. Are we bringing in the authorities or not?

So, no finishing the story she started and officially hiring us, and no access to actually being able to contact her assistant. Just a vague lead about a possible planet to investigate we're not exactly sure what, but obviously people are being killed over it.

To start with, I didn't write this adventure, so I can't take credit or responsibility for any loose threads. However, the story has nothing directly to do with Professor Ujinka's research. If this was a face-to-face campaign, I'd be fine with going way off script and I'd make that a side quest if my players showed interest in it. But given the length of the campaign as it is, I'm going to try to keep us focused on the main story.

It may be a railroad, but I promise it stops in lots of interesting places.

Much of the story won't take place near this part of space, but some of it will and you can count Professor Ujinka as a Contact.

Sounds good. Are we bringing in the authorities or not?

That's my question also.

Oh, weird. I really thought that was where the story was going. Thanks for correcting me, or I would have been keeping that in the back of my mind as unfinished business the whole time. :)

Hooray! I believe one of my Contacts was adjust to be the Professor. :)

In discussion, the DM told us that the storyline has nothing to do with the professor's research or that planet, so going there doesn't lead us anywhere unfortunately. I think our only storyline option is the lead in Startown, as you suggested in discussion previously.

Yeah. Reading the adventure, you don't realize that it won't go as the authors foresaw. You just read. But of course it's completely logical to want to pursue what you know about Professor Ujinka. I guess they just figured you'd want to pursue the murder of Uncle Vlen more.

If we were playing this at home, I'd let you pursue the Professor's story and move the "onramp" to the main story there. But this method of play is already slow. I've learned in my many other games to stick to the main story line and be a bit more obvious with the clue stick. :-)

Silly me I knew that it was a red herring, but mixed it up in my mind that we were supposed to go off-planet to the research assistant...will retcon my actions accordingly!! Off to find a dandelion!!

Sorry folks. Have been busy this weekend and into the next week. Please bot Chuck. He's a straight shot and computer wiz. Very team oriented.

Hello Friends

I have unfortunately had a health crisis come up and find myself needing to step away from the boards for a time while I work on getting better.
I am really sorry for all the games I play and more so for the ones that I run. I do not know how long it will be before I come back onto the boards, but I hope it is not too long.

Please take care of your selves and I wish you all health and wellness.

Daniel

Oh no! I hope to see you back soon, Daniel! Take care of yourself!

Take care of yourself Daniel!

Folks. I am SO SORRY for not posting sooner. Life has gotten a bit hectic for me and the fam. We're all healthy, just having to double down at work (to include building a side-hustle now...**sigh**) with the current economy and have had little time for Pathfinder. :(
I think I will have to bow out of this game (and others) for the time being, but will keep this thread bookmarked for the future.

Well folks, we're down to three players and one of them hasn't posted in over a month.

I think of this as one of the most interesting game I run, but perhaps I'm not right about that.

Can I get a sense of whether you'd like to continue, and if so whether you have someone you'd like to recruit for the game?

I like the Traveler system and the game overall, and I would like to know how the story ends, but I don't have any extra special attachment to this game... it does sometimes feel a little scripted, but that happens with published modules, totally understand.

If you want to let it go and focus more on the other one (or other things) instead, that's totally okay with me.

Honestly, I've come to think this is the better story by far than Skandersvik. It's a great story, but yeah, all modules are scripted to a degree.

I think this is the one with the better story potential in terms of the canon of Traveller and the Imperium, I am just not feeling engaged & connected at the moment.

I had really hoped to come through the character gen process with more of a team feeling, which is not present. I fought for Erryll's character differentiation, after actually having been pretty set on jettisoning him, fought for him to have tech from Darrien for both flavor AND execution, but I have not once felt inspired to engaged that in the story.

I don't have a problem with it being scripted, I think we have a problem as a team wrapping the script around these characters.

If you guys want to continue, then I am still here, and fine with moving on. :)

Erryll, I'm not sure how you expect me to engage with your Darrien ancestry - that's for you to bring forth, I think. If the story goes to Darrien, then I'll be all over it, but for now it's on Regina where there isn't much engagement with the flavor of a people from dozens of parsecs away.

I think that's a little like saying you wish you Scottish heritage were a bigger part of a story set in Japan.

Look, folks, I'm enjoying the game personally. Perhaps you could enlighten me what you'd like to see more of, understanding the limits of a pre-written adventure. I'll do what I can. I hoping to make the scenes we -are- in engaging and cool, and I'm open to side treks or unique solutions. But not to the story being completely free-form.

Erryll, I'm not sure how you expect me to engage with your Darrien ancestry - that's for you to bring forth, I think. If the story goes to Darrien, then I'll be all over it, but for now it's on Regina where there isn't much engagement with the flavor of a people from dozens of parsecs away.

I think that's a little like saying you wish you Scottish heritage were a bigger part of a story set in Japan.

Look, folks, I'm enjoying the game personally. Perhaps you could enlighten me what you'd like to see more of, understanding the limits of a pre-written adventure. I'll do what I can. I hoping to make the scenes we -are- in engaging and cool, and I'm open to side treks or unique solutions. But not to the story being completely free-form.

That wasn't meant to be an indictment of the GMing or the story tbh: maybe more of cohesion and inspiration overall. I should feel inspired to bring Erryll's background into the story, I'm not tho. We couldn't even get our act together enough to rent car(s). That isn't a GM or story thing, it's a team interaction thing.

I don't need him to "be in Japan" - I need him to want to be.

Maybe we should just get all of the people in recruitment. Play by post is notorious for people dropping out, and that way the party will have enough people to survive for a while, even with people bailing.

On a somewhat related note, Jhaeman, who expressed interest most recently, is a very good DM (in a Starfinder game of his) and would probably be a fun person to play with, which is probably part of the argument, but definitely not all of it.

I've certainly considered it. I'm concerned about having seven players, though. It always means someone's not got anything to do.

Not necessarily. This stuff is about creativity. I feel like there is always something to chime in about if you want to. Good to drive the plot forward, but also good to be searching for traps if your character is the paranoid type, or looking up the history of the planet, trying to make side trades and hustles, taking selfies, practicing your acceptance speech, video taping the whole crime so you can put in on your vlog after the statute of limitations is up... whatever. :)

Not necessarily. This stuff is about creativity. I feel like there is always something to chime in about if you want to. Good to drive the plot forward, but also good to be searching for traps if your character is the paranoid type, or looking up the history of the planet, trying to make side trades and hustles, taking selfies, practicing your acceptance speech, video taping the whole crime so you can put in on your vlog after the statute of limitations is up... whatever. :)

I agree: there's always some rp that can be added even if there's nothing to roll

Well, let's hope you're right. I invited four new players.

HOW WE WILL PROCEED - NEW PLAYERS

First, please read the First few posts of this thread to get a sense of how your character should be formatted.

We will proceed in slow steps TOGETHER. Please don't jump ahead.

If you do not have access to Mongoose Traveller 2nd Edition, please purchase a PDF.

Mongoose Publishing site.

Drive-Thru RPG site.

ALL I want at this time is for each new player to pick a character name and a hoped-for career.

Hello everyone! Signing in as requested. Glad to be here.

I've read the Player's Guide. How are you planning to do this additional round, with so many there are options? A group build as though it were a fresh campaign, fully integrated with the same limits, (like no one takes the same careers as the any in Group 1 as well as group 2), somewhere in-between? Wait for the others to check in then decide?

If I seem overeager, it's only because I am, but if I'm too pushy just let me know.

Ninja'd

Currently the name is

Nicholas Kaya of mostly Solomani descent

aiming for someone to fill in some of the engineer gaps but willing to adapt to what others want as well.

Yep, but which career path will you choose?

I was thinking of the Citizen worker career path but am open to Merchant or Navy as well. I guess some of it may come down to is Group 2 coming in as individuals or as an already unified group?

Camris checking in!

I was thinking of the Citizen worker career path but am open to Merchant or Navy as well. I guess some of it may come down to is Group 2 coming in as individuals or as an already unified group?

I open the floor to new players and old to comment on that. It'd make things easier for them to come in as a group, of course.

Hello everyone,

as already mentioned, I would go for a scholar. After playing around with some letters, I will be called: Malaxius Harvel. But all ooen for debate, if something doesn't fit the group.

Hmm... some ideas. If you wanted to belong to Zirelle's former pirate crew and she called you for backup, that could work.

You also could have a particular grudge against the bad guy we are going to find. That seems like it could work in a lot of cases.

You also could be related to the guy that was murdered in some way... one of the characters that left was, which was the impetus for the current adventure. We came here initially to investigate that murder.

Overall though, you should probably go through the character building process before you solidify anything, because, you know, you might start out with one idea and end up a pirate. That's what happened to me. :)

Overall though, you should probably go through the character building process before you solidify anything, because, you know, you might start out with one idea and end up a pirate. That's what happened to me. :)

Totally agree, but that can lead to a sort of chicken and egg problem. You try to make links and connections but things can go sideways on that, also because not all players may have the same number of terms even if only 4 or 5 are allowed. The timing may not line up. All part of the good and less good of Traveller, creating a character is a bit Hmm, complicated is the wrong word, involved I think is better. The system plays out though mostly simply when set up is done.

On that note should we make direct connections with group 1 at all, they already have their allotment of connection skills but that doesn't bar group 2 from getting a couple of their own?

On that note should we make direct connections with group 1 at all, they already have their allotment of connection skills but that doesn't bar group 2 from getting a couple of their own?

That's a good idea.

Checking in. Thanks for running!

New players - please list a character name and a hoped-for career, if you haven't already.

Sorry, I'm a bit slow! I've skimmed the Player's Guide and the first few posts of this thread as suggested. For the list of available careers I'll need to download the rulebook PDF I take it?

Yes, you will need the pdf, but here is an overview so you can choose now:

Agent (Law Enforcement, Intelligence, Corporate)
Army (Support, Infantry, Cavalry)
Citizen (Corporate, Worker, Colonist)
Drifter (Barbarian, Wanderer, Scavenger)
Entertainer (Artist, Journalist, Performer)
Marine (Support, Star Marine, Ground Assault)
Merchant (Merchant Marine, Free Trader, Broker)
Navy (Line/Crew, Engineer/Gunner, Flight)
Noble (Administrator, Diplomat, Dilettante)
Rogue (Thief, Enforcer, Pirate)
Scholar (Field Researcher, Scientist, Physician)
Scout (Courier, Surveyor, Explorer)

I have an idea for a Noble (Dilettante) named Gerhard Ginsquallor that could be fun, but if that idea doesn't work, I can think along another direction.

Navy (Line/Crew) for me.
Name of Lincoln "Linc" Forgrave.

1. Veshly - Nicholas Kaya - Citizen (Worker)
2. Humwa4015 - Malaxius Harvel - Scholar (???)
3. Jhaeman - Gerhard Ginsquallor - Noble (Dilettante)
4. Camris - Lincoln "Linc" Forgrave - Navy (Line/Crew)

Good enough to get us started.

ROLL UP CHARACTERISTICS
Roll 6 rolls of 2d6, in order.

Anything below 5 gets raised to 5. There will be many chances to modify these as we go.

The Refere might possibly tell you to reroll if your roll is just terrible.

The characteristics are:

STR:
DEX:
END:
INT:
EDU:
SOC:

Go!