Old School
Mongoose
AndrewW said:
Well, some of us can.
Pirates of Drinax - GMs thread
- Thread starter Sven2300
- Start date
Well, some of us can.
Old School
Mongoose
Ursus Maior said:
Oh yeah, I remember that now. In my campaign Salvesdes was left at Acrid to be shipped back to the Imperium. Meant to have him reappear later, but then when my players led a revolution on Acrid I forgot about him. Missed opportunity.
paltrysum
Emperor Mongoose
We've just begun "The Demon's Eye" in my PoD campaign. It'll be the fifth of the 10 adventures I've run. My group has been wandering in the sandbox for a while now and I'd been wanting them to take a hook for one of the major adventures. They've been courting Pourne, whom they see as an important potential ally to Drinax. They made inroads with local officials there by solving the Pourne "Patrons and Opportunities" scenario and managed to get an audience with one of their high councillors. She informed them that to be an ally of Drinax, she wants Pourne to be on more of an equal footing with the high-tech kingdom. Sure Drinax is basically reduced to a gravitic city and a Mad Max scenario playing out on the planet's surface, but they are TL14, which is considerably higher than Pourne's 10.
Suffice it to say, Pourne has a little tech level envy problem and to rectify it, they asked the group to go to Tech World, taking a Pournian emissary with them, and establishing a trade agreement by which Pourne will supply certain natural resources gleaned from its Venus-like hellworld in return for access to some of Tech World's technology. They want Drinax to act as a go-between because—in my campaign—Pourne is a poor neighbor and has essentially spoiled most of its interstellar relationships. We ran the first session and the group is about to be introduced to Tech World's Scientific Council. I can't wait for the next session to see the action unfold.
The players in my campaign have shunned the piracy aspect of the campaign. I guess different groups of players have different cultures; mine just does not like the idea of piracy, but they do like the idea of creating a pocket empire out of Drinax. King Oleb and Princess Rao have hired Miria Silverhand of "Honour Among Thieves" to operate the Harrier and to do the actual pirating. The players in my group were recently operating a safari ship of all things until they obtained a modified Ktiyhui-class Aslan courier from the Syoisuis clan during the conclusion of "Prodigal Outcast." The Syoisuis traded the ship for the confession. They intend to use it against the hated Yerlyaruiwo clan. There were other elements of the agreement that safeguarded the Drinax Chain from ihatei invasion as well. Oh, and the Syoisuis intend to assassinate Kasiyl, whom they need out of the way for various reasons.
In any case, here's the ship which the players have dubbed Gryphon of the Void:
Suffice it to say, Pourne has a little tech level envy problem and to rectify it, they asked the group to go to Tech World, taking a Pournian emissary with them, and establishing a trade agreement by which Pourne will supply certain natural resources gleaned from its Venus-like hellworld in return for access to some of Tech World's technology. They want Drinax to act as a go-between because—in my campaign—Pourne is a poor neighbor and has essentially spoiled most of its interstellar relationships. We ran the first session and the group is about to be introduced to Tech World's Scientific Council. I can't wait for the next session to see the action unfold.
The players in my campaign have shunned the piracy aspect of the campaign. I guess different groups of players have different cultures; mine just does not like the idea of piracy, but they do like the idea of creating a pocket empire out of Drinax. King Oleb and Princess Rao have hired Miria Silverhand of "Honour Among Thieves" to operate the Harrier and to do the actual pirating. The players in my group were recently operating a safari ship of all things until they obtained a modified Ktiyhui-class Aslan courier from the Syoisuis clan during the conclusion of "Prodigal Outcast." The Syoisuis traded the ship for the confession. They intend to use it against the hated Yerlyaruiwo clan. There were other elements of the agreement that safeguarded the Drinax Chain from ihatei invasion as well. Oh, and the Syoisuis intend to assassinate Kasiyl, whom they need out of the way for various reasons.
In any case, here's the ship which the players have dubbed Gryphon of the Void:
Old School
Mongoose
Good stuff, paltrysum. We had a blast with Demons Eye, even though it can be more of a railroad than most traveller adventures. And the Ktiyhui class courier is an awesome little ship, if you don’t need cargo room. A 200 ton ship with jump 3 and 12 points of armor? Yes please. Rip out that luxury suite and the shine (no Aslan travellers here) and you’re good to go.
Where’d they steal a safari ship from?
Where’d they steal a safari ship from?
Ursus Maior
Banded Mongoose
Thanks, you three, for sharing. I'm really looking forward to this year's publications. My group and I are on fire right now with all things Traveller. Good feeling, haven't had that for 20 years.Old School said:
Plus, I got so many ideas for writing my own stuff. Maybe, I should finally take up on doing some of my own.
Ursus Maior
Banded Mongoose
Incidentally, the luxury suite comes in at 10 dtons, the same as two barbettes. Just saying. The two existing turrets removed, that leaves one with 2 dtons for pop-up barbettes. Slap in a larger computer, add Broad Spectrum EW, and you're good to go. Oh, and removing the sandcaster gives you 1 dton more cargo, since the magazine can now be omitted, too.Old School said:
paltrysum
Emperor Mongoose
My group talked about ditching the shrine to make more space but they have three Aslan NPC crew members: two male shipboard troops and a female engineer. One of the males caught wind of their plans to remove the shrine and informed them that the removal of a shrine is an insult to the ancestors. Ultimately it was just NPC banter and they could have removed it, but at this point they've kept the shrine intact. I hope to see them use it as a space for character dialogue and drama. If I were a player, I would have found a way to "tastefully" ditch the shrine, but so far they've resisted the temptation to do so.
Ursus Maior
Banded Mongoose
Ancestors are important to Aslan, so there are some really good role-playing opportunities there. Our Aslan player has small scout, which I let him keep for later adventures in the campaign. So his ancestors are taken care of. So far, he has not demanded a separate shrine on board the Harrier. We will see when/if that comes.
paltrysum
Emperor Mongoose
Old School said:
We shifted gears a bit in my group and one of the players who had run one character for the first half of the campaign rerolled. He made a noble and got the Yacht mustering out benefit. He used it to obtain the safari ship.
In other news, we are now further into "The Demon's Eye." An accident just happened at the lab on Tech World.
For anyone looking for a quick mini-game mechanic to deal with the Travellers' Fleet ship encounters w/o dealing with the random encounter tables...basically the ships your Travellers sent out on independent piracy routes while they assume the main campaign missions...I've put together the below table, which has been working out pretty well for us (some great gains, and some great losses) while cutting down time flipping through encounter tables. We roll for every system entered, and the "no encounter" roll doesn't mean the system is empty, but just that the pirate ship hasn't come upon a good opportunity for attacking an isolated ship.
Ursus Maior
Banded Mongoose
Nice idea and well executed, thanks!
Old School
Mongoose
Nicely done. Good abstract resolution system.
paltrysum
Emperor Mongoose
Just want to report that we finished the Demon's Eye. We got to play it right from the script: the group made it to Neumann and Jali prepared her nanite cocktail to cure the planet's ills causing the Immortal Protector to reveal himself. He explained that her cure had only a 40% chance of working and after some great and intense roleplaying, the players convinced the Immortal Protector to stand aside and let her take her chances. He tossed his FGMP-16 on the ground and walked off into the sunset like Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name. For those of you who recall the scenario, 2D are then rolled to determine what happens. I let Cade, the group noble, who took the lead on wanting to let Jali go through with it make the roll. And...drum roll please...he rolled...a 7! Oh, no!
Jali's anti-nanite swarm concoction seemed as if it were working for a moment and then was defeated by a swarm vortex which turned on the good doctor and began to consume her. Tsokszoeun, the Vargr pilot of the group, picked up the fusion gun and blasted her and the swarm which was eating her alive. Multiple swarm vortexes have begun to appear and are tearing up the structures of Marina's Land. Things don't look good. Murphy, one of their gunners pulled a "Chewie get us out of here!" and got the crew into the air/raft to beat a hasty retreat back to the starport.
Next episode: "Escape from Neumann"!
Jali's anti-nanite swarm concoction seemed as if it were working for a moment and then was defeated by a swarm vortex which turned on the good doctor and began to consume her. Tsokszoeun, the Vargr pilot of the group, picked up the fusion gun and blasted her and the swarm which was eating her alive. Multiple swarm vortexes have begun to appear and are tearing up the structures of Marina's Land. Things don't look good. Murphy, one of their gunners pulled a "Chewie get us out of here!" and got the crew into the air/raft to beat a hasty retreat back to the starport.
Next episode: "Escape from Neumann"!
It has occurred to me that the ending assumes that Jali either gets blown to bits or puts her nanotech to the test, but is there a reason why her nanotech couldn't be disabled/cured as a middle ground?
The Archon earlier in the story has his own nanotech that could do this and the Immortal Protector certainly has access to the same thing. Even if she had to be briefly disabled to allow this, she'd be able to return to Tech-World and keep working on the project, which seems like a better outcome for everyone involved than simply vaporizing her.
The Archon earlier in the story has his own nanotech that could do this and the Immortal Protector certainly has access to the same thing. Even if she had to be briefly disabled to allow this, she'd be able to return to Tech-World and keep working on the project, which seems like a better outcome for everyone involved than simply vaporizing her.
Ursus Maior
Banded Mongoose
Thanks, paltrysum, for sharing your campaigns summaries. I'm really looking forward to this episode with my own players and still not sure, what I'd like better as an outcome of the episode: TL-16 AIs as potential allies of Drinax or Neumann suffering a massive outbreak of Grey Goo with AI swarms devouring large portions of its civilization and maybe a couple of knights and paladins coming for Drinax after a year or two, when the worst is over.
paltrysum
Emperor Mongoose
Garran said:
Agreed. A creative group of Travellers who are so inclined should do just that. There's no reason that it has to go as scripted.
With my group there was an extenuating circumstance that I think drove them to do what they did. One of the players had been wounded by one of the Cursed earlier in the adventure. While it did not fully infect him thanks to the use of a TL-14 AutoDoc to prevent it from spreading, he did have some minor side effects that kept creeping up. He could hear things in certain radio wave frequencies and when in proximity to Jali, the two could communicate pseudo-psionically because of the presence of nanites in his system. I believe he felt that if she could generate a cure for Neumann, then it would cure him, too.
In short, with the infection subplot, I dropped a pebble in the water whose ripples probably made him willing to risk the cure even though it had only a 40% chance of success. After it failed, the adventure describes Jali being consumed by a nanite swarm, which I went with.
Had they decided not to attempt the cure and negotiated with both Jali and the Immortal Protector, I could envision a scenario by which they go back to Tech World to perfect the cure. Alas, they did not choose that avenue.
Old School
Mongoose
No reason Jali couldn’t be cured. But what would she do at that point? She’s been driven to recklessness in her labratory by this project, and having inadvertently allowed herself to be taken over by the nanotech, would she turn back now even if she were cured? I doubt it. I think she’d end up in the same spot of her own free will. But your mileage may vary. I think the “no right answer” dilemma is good, so we also played it out to the end, but your campaign could go very differently. The one criticism of Demon’s Eye is thst as written is does railroad the Travellers towards the end, assuming they don’t bail on the adventure entirely. So having them save Jali, for better or worse, is entirely appropriate if your game goes that way.
That’s awesome, paltrysum. Your crew are racking up quite the body count. I suppose revolution and nation building have always been messy affairs. I typed up most a massive summary of the adventure, but perhaps I never posted it. Couldn’t find it just now. My travellers were appropriately freaked out by the impending nano storm, and never felt any real kinship with Jali, so she ate the fusion blast. I did give them what I thought were much more appropriate rewards than the silly MCr1 Lemuel offered in the game as written.
That’s awesome, paltrysum. Your crew are racking up quite the body count. I suppose revolution and nation building have always been messy affairs. I typed up most a massive summary of the adventure, but perhaps I never posted it. Couldn’t find it just now. My travellers were appropriately freaked out by the impending nano storm, and never felt any real kinship with Jali, so she ate the fusion blast. I did give them what I thought were much more appropriate rewards than the silly MCr1 Lemuel offered in the game as written.
Old School said:
Except that's not what actually happened: The Immortal Protector (as her assistant Lemuel) sabotaged the containment to cause the infection and she has been driven by the infection since then.
Curing it would let her go back to work on the nanotech problem - although I suspect that she'd be a lot more picky about who she allowed around the lab!
