Pirates of Drinax - GMs thread

[Sven2300]

Hi,

Someone else out there must be GM'ing Pirates of Drinax.
Let's use this thread to share questions, stories and ideas.

My first question:

Have you run your first case of piracy with ship combat?
How did it go?
Mongoose Traveller 2nd ed space combat seem deadly and their ship is small.
We don't want them to die or get their ship blown to pieces in their first attempt of piracy!

/Sven

 

[paltrysum]

Just started Pirates two weeks ago and we have our second session this Sunday. I'm not sure if we'll get to another bout of ship combat but we have used MgT2's ship combat rules multiple times now. The players have done well in most instances. They got involved in two fights and came out the victor, but let's just say the scale was pretty small: their armed trader vs. a scout ship and the second time vs. a Lancer-class corvette (a modified Beowulf as published in "Last Flight of the Amuar"). The third time they came up against a threesome of pirates and they stood down and allowed their cargo hold to be pilfered. Had they fought, I think they would have been wrecked pretty badly.

As for fighting with the Harrier, they have a lot going for them, especially if they manage to get the ventral hardpoint reconfigured and equipped with a good weapon. The Harrier is also pretty good at running if the odds don't look favorable. We shall see. I recently saw a referee publish his group's exploits and they actually lost the Harrier in combat. Hard but not impossible to recover from that one, especially if they embark on "Lost Treasure of Sindal."

 

[Rauffrey]

I'll be starting a Pirates of Drinax campaign soon and my current plans will be to set the Harrier vs a basic Free Trader for their first piracy attempt, to help teach them the ship combat rules and against an opponent that is unlikely to be able to defeat them.

 

[arcador]

The harrier's greatest asset is stealth and speed.

Combined with the particle barbette it can keep its distance and pot-shot many of the ships. Not to mention it doesn't have any missile defence except running and dodging.

It's not designed to withstand heavy damage. Even 200 dton ship armed with 2 x triple pulse turret can significantly damage it (avg hit 11 dmg vs 4 armour, not counting effect).

With superior stealth it can wait for the perfect moment and target, hit, plunder, and run.

 

[PsiTraveller]

The ship needs upgrades for its weapons right away. That was the verdict from my players. particle barbette is awesome for inflicting crew hits and doing some nasty damage from beyond range of most opponents. The players also had TL 14 missiles so their missile attack had a better sting. They added lasers to get missile defense and extra damage.

 

[Annatar Giftbringer]

Not to mention it doesn't have any missile defence except running and dodging.

Running, dodging and electronic warfare, greatly aided by its military countermeasures suite.

 

[paltrysum]

My players' pilot has Pilot (Spacecraft)-4, so he's pretty thrilled with the idea of having 6G to play with for dodging and maneuvering. With the ship's stealth and countermeasures, it seems to me it is only likely to be seen if it wants to be seen, and when in combat can hold its own against any comparable opponent.

 

[CaladanGuard]

The ship needs upgrades for its weapons right away. That was the verdict from my players. particle barbette is awesome for inflicting crew hits and doing some nasty damage from beyond range of most opponents. The players also had TL 14 missiles so their missile attack had a better sting. They added lasers to get missile defense and extra damage.

This is one thing I found after my Travellers put a missile turret on the Harrier. By base rules, the Smart trait on missiles uses the higher of either ship TL or missile TL...so with a TL 15 Ship, vs the standard TL 12 ships floating about. Missiles can really ruin someones day.

 

[PsiTraveller]

Missile combat with smart missiles is very effective if you have multiple missiles. The Tech advantage is a bonus to the roll, which multiplies damage, up to the number of missiles in the salvo, so having a single missile salvo does not increase damage. 2 missiles allows for double damage and 3 missiles allows for triple damage.

My players ended up in 2 ships, one of the ships had a triple missile turret ( lasers in a second triple turret for missile defense and attacks)

The 4D attack from the particle barbette would do 14 points on average. This is critical hit level damage on a 200 ton ship, from cumulative damage effect, plus whatever critical hit effect from the attack roll. An Effect based critical hit is not likely from very long range, with the -4 DM range modifier. But at very long range vs a free trader for example it is quite likely the Free trader does not have a weapon that can return fire. The free trader has 80 hull points so 14 points is a critical hit, and 2 hits would give 2 more critical hits (8 points being a critical hit, 10 percent of hull, so 28 points is 3 critical hits).

This means in 2 rounds the Harrier can inflict 3 critical hits on a ship that might not be able to return fire at all.

At closer ranges a salvo of missiles can shatter a small ship if they get through. 3 missiles with an Effect of 3 (triple damage) could do enough damage to shatter a smaller ship.

Be prepared for stealth attacks from shorter ranges with this in mind. Short flight times to prevent EW countermeasures that reduce the number of missiles.

 

[Putraack]

I ran the first adventure shortly after the PDFs began appearing, then I started the campaign with a different group. I don't remember how the first fights went, other than the PCs won. It was my first time with Traveller rules, and we probably botched a lot of things. I still don't own High Guard, that might change things for me. I don't remember stealth entering into it at all, maybe that's something from 2nd edition I missed?

Later in the 2nd campaign, it seemed to me that space battles dragged on, and both ships ended up taking beatings, even if it was only an armed freighter.

I began hand-waving boarding actions, since one of the players had a power armor suit, and everything just bounced off him.

I'm thinking of restarting the game, not sure which group, since I've gotten the Patron adventures and the Harrier book from DriveThru. I might start with the Navy side of things, and run from there for a while. One of my players enjoys the paperwork side of things, I should put her in charge of ship supplies and tracking diplomacy among systems.

 

[Cpt.Future]

Hello,

two weeks ago together with friends we have decided to jump into the PoD campaign. Before starting with player character creation and the first scene with the King we have chosen to use our first game session only for the purposes of getting used to ship2ship combat in MgT2; and for this session I will setup different situations with different skill sets and ships in order to get used to the rules. Do you have any recomendations?
I plan something like this:

1. 2 equal ships with equal skill-sets in the crews
2. as above with varying degrees in the skills
3. Fartrader vs Harrier
4. not decided yet

Best wishes!
Cpt. Future

 

[paltrysum]

The Harrier, in working condition, will shred the Far Trader. You might want to throw a close escort at it or something similar.

 

[PsiTraveller]

If they have a radiation weapon do not foget the damage to crew. In a small ship with only a few crew the radiation damage can lead to the target giving up because there is nobody left to drive/fight/aim/countermeasure vs missiles.

Go over the rules for radiation damage. Ships without shielding can end up having a lot of cooked crew.

pg 75
Radiation: When a Radiation weapon is fired, anyone
close to the firer, target and the line of fire in-between
the two will receive 2D x 20 rads, multiplied by 5 for
Spacecraft scale weapons. This effect extends from the
firer, target and line of fire a distance in metres equal to
the number of dice the weapon rolls for damage. If the
fusion weapon is Destructive, this distance becomes ten
times the number of dice rolled for damage.

So that is 140 rads X 5 = 700 rads for damage from a spacecraft.

pg 77
Vacc suits and other measures of protection reduce
radiation exposure, as shown on page 96. The hull of
a spacecraft decreases the radiation exposure of those
inside by 500.

So an average attack will do 200 rads of damage to a crew member

151-300 rads = 2D damage short term

Cumulative

151-300 rads = -1 END permanently

So unless the crew are in vacc suits when the ship is attacked they may lose a crew member from damage

 

[bklokis]

Here are a couple potentially pedantic questions that are relevant to me as a referee, I'd like to hear opinions on:

1 - The Drinaxian Royal family is always referred to with their title of nobility and their first name. Is their any documentation of the family's surname? Or have other Referees just made up their own, or just ignored the issue altogether?

2 - I've always imagined the name Drinax to be pronounced "Dry-nax", however recently heard someone pronounce it "Drin-ax" with a short 'i'...is there an official pronunciation out there? For my ears "Dry-nax" has a more powerful ring to it.

 

[Baldo]

...Recently heard someone pronounce it "Drin-ax" with a short 'i'...

This, I say. But I'm from Italy...

Let's add another pedantic question:

1): Pirates of Drinax starts in the year 1105;

2): Honour Among Thieves and Treasure Ship both take place in the year 1105;

3): The Vorito Gambit is supposed to happen seven years after the destruction of Vorito Highport (1105, again).

Hmm... But how many months or years we need to complete a Pirates of Drinax campaign? And the Fifth Frontier War (1107), the Rebellion (1116) and Virus (1130) are supposed to happen in Mongoose Traveller too?

 

[paltrysum]

2 - I've always imagined the name Drinax to be pronounced "Dry-nax", however recently heard someone pronounce it "Drin-ax" with a short 'i'...is there an official pronunciation out there? For my ears "Dry-nax" has a more powerful ring to it.

We call it Drinax with a short i, but hey, you can do it however you like! I do pronounce Byrni with the long "I" though, so to each his own, I guess. I just have a hard time believing that there's this chivalrous knighthood on a planet pronounced "Bernie." :shock:

3): The Vorito Gambit is supposed to happen seven years after the destruction of Vorito Highport (1105, again).

Considering that just the first adventure is taking about 2-3 months with travel time included, I think their time estimates might be a little off.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

I say Hiver with a short "i". Like river. Depends on the generation ship your ancestors were from, I guess.

 

[ochd]

I've been saying Dry-nax, but it does sound like a brand name for paper towel. I think I prefer the short i pronunciation, but too late to start changing now.

Never thought of or noticed the lack of a family name for the royal family. Good question. Perhaps the Sindalians and their offshoots have a mononomial culture.

Dan.

 

[paltrysum]

I don't know about that Dan. There is a precedent in space opera: We came to know Han Solo as "hawn" in "A New Hope," and then suddenly, in "Empire Strikes Back," along comes Lando and he's "han." You can switch. It's not too late.

 

[mac40k]

We call it Drinax with a short i, but hey, you can do it however you like! I do pronounce Byrni with the long "I" though, so to each his own, I guess. I just have a hard time believing that there's this chivalrous knighthood on a planet pronounced "Bernie." :shock:

Hmm, and here I thought it was pronounced beerny.