PBP Campaign Opening Available

mr31337

Mongoose
Classic Adventure on the edge of the Imperium during the Fifth Frontier War!

Strictly Business is an ongoing PBP ‘classic campaign’ for Mongoose: Traveller.

We have one space for a character (must have some broker & gunner skills amongst others) that has become available for a PBP campaign. The setting is the OTU in the classic period (1108) during the Fifth Frontier War in the Spinward Marches. The campaign offers semi-sandbox style of play in and around Glisten & District 268. There are a wide variety of story-threaded jobs, missions, adventures. Game-play elements may include but are not limited to; science, espionage, smuggling, intrusion, hacking, investments, business, piracy, diplomacy, trade, starship operation & combat to name just a few.

Much of the setting will focus on operating a starship as a crew, with background trade being a necessary motivator. The overarching theme is that of fairly ordinary people in a series of extraordinary situations; the players will constantly face difficult choices between ethics and duty. Good roleplay will be strongly encouraged and rewarded through the House Rules on XP (karma) and Character Improvement.

For a new character that would fit in well with the existing crew one of the current players has suggested (and it’s only a suggestion, you make your own character) something of a mix between Han Solo and Alec Hardison from Leverage with a bit of Marty Bishop from Sneakers. Whoever your character is, be they nerd or sleuth, marine or entertainer, hacker or broker they must be a team player. Ideally, you will have a willingness to engage with all aspects of interstellar trade. Morally flexible characters are an advantage, uptight and righteous characters are discouraged, and we certainly don’t want any morally reprehensible types. Any social level is acceptable, but there are no automatic titles from high SOC, although titles may be obtained during play and there is significant interaction with the nobility.

A few aspects of the OTU have been toned down to fit into a universe based on harder science rather than pure fiction, such as psionics, although as far as possible the GM will try to remain canonical. All relevant Mongoose Traveller material will be allowed by default, but specific rules may be considered on a case by case basis if not already listed in the Wiki. The only race available to PC’s will be human. All players start as Citizens of the Imperium. There are no initial pirate or psionic careers and while there are no automatic noble titles dilettantes may be acceptable careers.

Mature, friendly, committed and patient players will be best suited to this campaign. Notions of ‘winning’ will probably lead to disappointment; this is a detailed, slow and gritty campaign and will not pander to big egos. Combat should be considered very carefully and not taken lightly, it doesn’t happen much and when it does it’s usually one sided. Player actions will have plausible consequences.

If you can handle all the above and have the time to commit to posting a minimum of three times or more a week for the indefinite future drop by to foxhole53.org and check us out. If you like what you see and are interested in joining the game PM me some details about yourself and your experience playing Traveller and which Mongoose Traveller books and supplements you own. A good working knowledge of the OTU and the core Mongoose rules is expected. You must own a copy of the Main Rule Book and the Central Supply Catalogue. I also recommend owning a copy of High Guard & Merchant Prince.

Now that I have completely put everybody off playing... :lol: ...if anybody has any general questions about the campaign please ask below.

Summary

Race: Human, Citizen of the Imperium
Setting: OTU, around District268 & Glisten, 1108
Desirable Skills: Broker & Gunner(turret)
CharGen: Main Rule Book (p40 ‘Pick Skills’) & Career Books excluding pirates, barbarians & psionics, no automatic titles, min of two terms, max of five terms
Player Personality: Mature, committed, patient & a team player
Required Materials: Main Rule Book & Central Supply Catalogue
Recommended Matrials: High Guard & Merchant Prince
Minimum Posting: 3 in-character posts per week indefinitely
Where: foxhole53.org
Site Features: Dedicated & unlimited private forum on prepaid hosting, graphical secure inbuilt dice rolling within posts, advanced post editing BB codes & a friendly community
 
Regrettably, bobhk disappeared on vacation and appears to be MIA. So currently we are down to four active players, plus GM.

Therefore, if anybody would like to join an active crew of strong, consistent OTU roleplayers, shoot me a PM. :)
 
Not that I want to derail your advertisement for a player, but how did the Character in the first post end up as a "Ship's Gunner-Broker". That strikes me as an unusual skill combination.
 
Ha, yes! Well, there isn't really a short answer to that, but we weren't looking necessarily for a broker-gunner, per se, but somebody with either or both of those skills would have been fine. The character whose slot was being filled was a strong broker who had picked up a little gunnery in the 18 real months the campaign has been running. Neither skill was essential, but the remaining players told me they were desirable, so that's how I ran the ad.

And ironically, bobby who came along for a few weeks before going MIA on vacation actually managed to make a very interesting character called Mazen Ashkent, with terms in the merchant marines and as a dilettante. Here are his terms and background if you're interested, the full character can be found over at the foxhole53.org forums if it is of interest to you.

Terms:
  1. Senior Crewman, Baraccai Technum, Merchant Marines. 1088-1091
  2. 4th Officer, Baraccai Technum, Merchant Marines. 1092-1095
  3. 4th Officer, Baraccai Technum, Merchant Marines.
    - Discharged due to Imperial trade restrictions. 1096-1099
  4. Tourist[rank0], Dilettante(explorer). 1100-1103
  5. Tourist[rank1],Dilettante(explorer), retired. 1104-1107

Mazen Ashkent said:
BIOGRAPHY:

Mazen Ashkent is a product of excess and neglect, born in 1070. His parents viewed children as a duty at first then a hindrance, and so he and his siblings learned live without them as they were always 'away'. They did manage to intrude enough on his future to bar him from military service until he submitted to the draft and joined the Merchant Marine.

He kept his head down and learned the job, managing to overcome his bitterness at not being able to enter the Imperial Marines because of the meddling of his family. Never lacking confidence he stood for promotion and was advanced in rank. Mazen's natural tendency to carouse awoke. Gambling filled any time not devoted to the ship or seeking promotion. Unfortunately, one day a fellow gambler accused him of cheating, there was a fist fight and the matter was never resolved satisfactorily. The man, Stefan Lauritz, became a lifelong rival.

On more than one occasion the ship came under attack, baptising and then hardening Mazen in ship to ship combat. Shortly before his transfer he met an easy going, young freighter captain, Galen Lavancy of the Duchess Delphine. The ship was an impressive, newly built, bespoke merchantman, the kind every free trader dreams of owning one day. Galen thanked him for his work in the freighter's main turret during one such corsair raid, although it was fairly clear that it was probably the Duchess Delphine that had saved his own ship. When they later met in HighPort they got along immediately and became instant friends. They always stayed in touch and always promised to help each other out, but they’ve not seen each other for many years. Mazen later learned Galen was known as something of a smuggler, and somehow he knew he would be a useful contact in the future should they ever cross paths again.

Transfer to a new vessel, Decameron, came in 1096. Gambling led to new problems as the second officer of the Decameron was a horrible player and worse loser. He made a friend that cruise, Manu Nyle, who helped him pass the time when gambling became impossible due to the 2nd officer's scrutiny of his activities. In their free time together Manu taught Mazen more than a few things about manoeuvre drives. At the end of his third term in the Merchant Marine the writing was on the wall. Imperial Trade Restrictions hit the ship and the second officer decided to lay in the word that if we had to lose crew lose Mazen first. Mazen humped back to Mora and settled back into his old life, engaging with family and friends and not caring when he found out his parents had moved to Capital.

On one particularly drunken night out, he overheard a conversation between two rich investors. Nattering on about how big each of their expeditions was made Mazen start to sober up. They were talking about finding some evidence of this or that lost Darrian colony from the Long Night that had amazing artefacts. Megacredits worth of loot just sitting there for the taking on a dingy little world and their boys would get there first.

Mazen chartered a disreputable ship and her crew to take him to the area where the rich bastards had bragged they'd make millions. He bought himself a set of holocameras and a bit of gear and left the world of his birth on a lark. The expeditions to Colada/Sword Worlds were all illegal and the Sword Worlds Navy had a field day shooting down several before they reached their destination. Two ships made it through unseen, one was Mazen's. Mazen reached the site and found, not a significant artefact find, but an anthropological dig of a pre-Maghiz Darrian settlement. The place had been thoroughly looted save for a few wafers of crystal which Mazen thought to be data wafers.

The other expedition overran the site at that point and Mazen fled. When he reached his grounded ship it had been refuelled but the crew was gone. Mazen found the coordinates of another vessel logged on a notestrip and deduced his less than savoury crew had gone to do some 'pirating' of their own. Not wanting to hail the other ship and bring down the Sword Worlds Navy on their heads Mazen took his ruck and left the ship, heading as far away from the area as he could. All the while he was recording his travails, the people he met and the things he did to earn money to eat such as trading labour for food or a place to sleep. He finally made enough friends to get a job on an outbound trading ship. It took him two years to get off Colada. Another year to get out of the Sword Worlds and onto a friendly planet with means to ship him back to the Imperium proper. He'd spend his money on datawafers and passage, food and new clothes.

By the time he reached Mora he was six years away and a different person. Mora was his home base and he had just come in for a landing. What pissed him off was finding out that some jumped up sissy called Drake Grison from the other expedition had published a totally false report about the expeditions, how they had met their fate and what he found at the site. Mazen taught himself to edit holos and pieced together his adventure from start to finish. Wrote dialogue to accompany bits that were impossible to recover with direct footage and pieced together an epic that would shame the lying bastard that tried to take his glory. When that was finished he filed suit and publicly called the liar out so that he couldn't avoid the spotlight. For the last two years the trial was in the public eye and at a dramatic moment Mazen revealed his holo opus of the expedition accompanied by a book, both called, 'Remnants of the Long Night'.

After revealing his proof, its original datawafers donated to TAS for inspection and verification, Mazen's story was proven and his new found enemy shattered in the public eye. TAS rewarded his discovery of the relic datawafers, donated to the Imperium by Mazen, with a TAS membership. The holodrama of Mazen's ordeal made him wealthy in his own right, but needless to say, Grison was now a lifelong and bitter enemy. Mazen spent a few months in 1107 on Mora touring universities until the travelling bug hit him again and he left the place of his birth, perhaps for the last time, again. He first made his way to Glisten, with the intention of exploring over the border into District268 to pursue rumours he’d heard of Ancient artefacts being discovered, but now he would have to be more careful than ever, there was a war on now!

Moving on, Mazen eventually found his way into District 268. His transport landed at Seacheard Down on Mertactor, last stop inside Imperial space. What as he going to do now? He would need a ship and a crew, and one he could trust in the dangerous, pirate infested regions outside of Imperial control. He signed up to the local data network to look for transport or other opportunities. As soon as he was connected his comm beeped, and then beeped again. He looked at the device which indicated a couple of his contacts were on the local network. Odd to think two people he knew would be here, somewhat off the beaten path. One was his old contact, the captain of the freighter he has helped some twelve years ago, Galen Lavanchy, the rumoured smuggler. The other was his former colleague from his Baraccai Technum days, Manu Nyle. It would be worth checking these two out to find out what they were up to these days….

Anyway, we've subsequently had the original player return to play his broker character once again, but we still think a fifth character (and perhaps sixth) would be good for the group. Especially as the crew are trying to acquire a bigger ship.
 
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