Pirates of Drinax - GMs thread

Jali left her home world and struck a deal with the devil (GeDeCo) to get funding and cover for her research, which is banned due to the dangers. She then convinces the other mad scientists to ally with the travellers, who are sponsored by a mad pirate king, to overthrow GeDeCo's control of Tech World. If she is cured, maybe she tries to end the nano plague immediately, maybe she goes back to the lab first, but she's very much the mad scientist and will eventually send her nanotech to combat the storm, or die trying. Or both.
 
Tech-World is essentially a haven for mad scientists who occasionally produce something useful, and in that sense, it's true that Jali is no different.

She's isn't likely to give it another shot until she has a better version of the nanotech ready, though - and unless someone sabotages her work again, getting re-infected also probably isn't part of that program. (She wouldn't be able to try again on the spot because she wouldn't have the nanotech anymore if she'd just been cured.)

Since the Immortal Protector's secret is out, at least to her and to the PCs, there's no reason why she couldn't keep producing new versions for it to assess and only go forward when/if there's one that has a reasonable chance of success; the Immortal Protector intends to ensure that someone keeps working on it regardless, and it might as well be the person who developed the best-so-far. (She's a mad scientist in the sense of being willing to take undue risks but she does want to save the planet, not completely destroy it.)
 
Recently started running Pirates of Drinax and loving it. We recently wrapped up honor among thieves and will soon be Running Treasure Ship.

While reading it i was wondering has anyone had a situation were your group attempts to go after the Henry Ford ? im sure it will come up
with my group as they have been discussing how great it would be to have a floating space dock :)
 
The main issue with taking the Henry Ford is that it would be difficult to do that and still have a good shot at the Martin.

Attacking it in-system, even if it was pulled off before the escorts arrived, would mean that the players are IDed and won't have any chance of getting close to the Martin later.

Waiting for it to jump out of system would mean you have to jump to the same place and make at least as good time in jump-space, capture it, and have enough people to haul it off somewhere while jumping back - and then explain what you were up to for two+ weeks and why you suddenly want to accompany the Martin along its route instead, while hoping that word of the attack doesn't make it back in the meantime. (You won't have any chance to get hired on at that point.) There's only a four-week window before the Martin leaves, so if you miss the Henry Ford for whatever reason then you either have to give up on the Martin to commit to chasing it at increasingly bad odds, or go back and try to take the Martin under increasingly unfavorable circumstances.


Now, if the PCs decide that they'd rather have the Henry Ford than the Martin, that's no problem. It's not nearly as big a prize but it's also likely to be a much easier target of opportunity. The only real downside is that the PCs won't have any chance to prevent or change the Martin's outcomes (it gets blasted apart by Hroal's gang and the GeDeCo document may be destroyed or revealed in the process) to suit their own purposes.
 
Good point and i am going to be steering them in the direction of the Martin.

From looking at the adventures its definitely a turning point in rebuilding Drinax
 
ruhalla said:
While reading it i was wondering has anyone had a situation were your group attempts to go after the Henry Ford ? im sure it will come up
with my group as they have been discussing how great it would be to have a floating space dock :)

That was not attempted in our game but it would add an exciting level of complexity and excitement to the adventure. It'd be tough to do with Komino and Sincerity in close formation. By my thinking, the Travellers have to figure out some sort of way to get aboard the Henry Ford without violence and then taking it. Not an easy thing to do but then, the premise of the adventure is taking an even more challenging ship, the Martin II.
 
Aye would be fun to see them try and get both at once :).

But i will just give them a later shot at a Magenta. i have been working on a later event were they try and steal some Ships from the Mothballed fleet at Tobia/Empire. One being a Magenta class would fit well :)
 
Had this question come up how big is the Floating Palace exactly ? i know it is built using Tl 15 tech and i scoured the material i have but couldnt come up with any number is it mentioned anywere?
 
I think it's deliberately left open. The campaign comes with a map, which shows the main level in abstraction and we read of "gravity dungeons" down in the belly of the beast. But that's about it.

Given the size of the map and applying a guesstimate scale to it (no actual scale given), I'd say the main dome and thus the main level is between 300 and 350 metres at its widest point. That would give us a ballpark figure of 4,500 to 5,000 dtons for that deck, if the ceilingwould indeed be just one level (i. e. 3 metres) high, due to the oval shape of the deck (very rough, its oval not a perfect ellipsoid). The ceiling varies however, since the star port and the royal docks as well as the great hall and the gardens will have much higher ceilings. Essentially, their internal volume in dtons will be much higher and oriented vertically as well as on the X and Y axis. A plethora of domes, additional decks and substructures further contribute to the massive size of the construct.

Given that the structure is described as massive but very cramped and the majority of it will be engineering and substructures, I'd personally ballpark it into the 30,000 to 50,000 dtons area. So, up there with small capital ships such as cruisers. Essentially, imagine a planetoid monitor (50,000 dtons, High Guard, p. 184) with its m-drive, j-drive and the spinal meson cannon stripped out and their space reused for bunks, hyrdoponic gardens and the storage of food and perishable items for 70,000 people.

Well, that's my take on it anyway. :)
 
Makes sense reading through the last chapter i see that the Floating city has a fighting strength of 10 which according to the rules would make it at least in the 10-20k ton range 50k sounds very plausible :)
 
If you're going to cram in 70,000 people, a starport, university and a palace, it'd say more like 500,000 dtons: People 4t x 70,000 - class A starport 100,000t+ (okay maybe a bit less if you take out the residential area already covered, but 50,000 at least - more if you actually had a shipyard) + palace + university + biosphere/gardens + gravity dungeon. Even if you cram everyone into cattle-class at 2t and take out everything else you would get 140,000. Slave pens would be 35,000 dtons just for the people.
 
70,000 is the total population for the Drinax system, not the floating Palace itself. Remember there are tribes of Vespexers living of the surface. I have not been able to find a population number for either the palace or the surface, but I would expect that the palace itself houses only a few thousand at most.
 
I considered that but decided that the Vexpexer tribes are not counted in with the main population in my game. Some tribes allied with chief Grax's federation work with the Floating palace others oppose them in a very mad max meets Fallout kind of wasteland :D
 
ruhalla said:
I considered that but decided that the Vexpexer tribes are not counted in with the main population in my game. Some tribes allied with chief Grax's federation work with the Floating palace others oppose them in a very mad max meets Fallout kind of wasteland :D

Same here. I'd argue that no-one went down and counted in about two centuries. Populations are not stagnant, they either wither away or grow exponentially. And in 200 years of generally improving environmental conditions, the Vespexer population curve will point upwards.

Also, the palace is packed extremely tightly. I have absolutely no problem (again: my universe) to apply only 2 dtons per person for the Royal Palace. I calculated through the asteroid monitor: removing the drives and the meson cannon leaves one with enough room for seventy-something thousand bunks at 2 dtons each. Add royal gardens, rearange the hangars to facilitate rare free traders dropping by and add a construction deck for craft up to 100 dton and that's about it for Drinax. The class A port is a scam, it's what the IISS reported before the Aslan came. What's left is much less plus handmade j-drives from the university or maybe only hand-repaired.

Bigger cabin space is reserved for the high nobility. And even most of those will have to share with their families.
 
Exactly :D i have been describing the Floating city as Extremely cramped with multiple people living in what would once have been a suite of rooms belonging to a single noble. One such being the Home of two Dukes and their extended families.

I have also used the Floating city and its condition and overcrowding to drive home the reason for why the travelers are engaging in acts of piracy
 
Hi! I'm not sure if this is the right place for these questions, but here they go:

According to the Drinaxian Companion, how many Cosmetic RU do you need to repair the Harrier? Only the 60 points specified, or do you add the TRU and SRU multipliers?
  • From p. 60 "[...] requires an expenditure of five Cosmetic RU for every Structural or Technical RU expended. This is in addition to any cosmetic work noted further on."
  • But, in p. 61 "Full restoration of the ship is likely to require 6-10 Structural RU, 12-16 Technical RU and 60 Cosmetic RU."

My calculations, as we've rolled every D3 TRU value, are more like 10 SRU, 19, TRU and 180 CRU!

Also: the section "A Pirate Life's For Me" is intented for the GM? or should I give it to the players? and the same goes for many chapters of the Companion: How to Build an Empire, Commerce Raiding Operations, The Realities of Piracy, Operational Considerations, etc.
 
I gave my Players the information on running a crew from the main Drinax book and information on empire building base building so they had some basis to work on when they are roaming free in the Reach:)
 
I seem to be having one of those glitch in the matrix moments :)

When i started reading up on the Drinax Campaign i could have sworn that there was a system in the Reach whose population had been forced to seek refuge offworld due to some calamity
i think this was in Drinax book 3. And that this Refugee population was fighting itself over control of their old home system.

I Made a note of it to use it in one of my adventures and now i can't find it :P does this ring a bell with anyone ?
 
ruhalla said:
I gave my Players the information on running a crew from the main Drinax book and information on empire building base building so they had some basis to work on when they are roaming free in the Reach:)
Following your advice, I'm editing the info so they have a "Pirate Handbook" ready for the next session. :D

ruhalla said:
When i started reading up on the Drinax Campaign i could have sworn that there was a system in the Reach whose population had been forced to seek refuge offworld due to some calamity
i think this was in Drinax book 3. And that this Refugee population was fighting itself over control of their old home system.

Could it be Delta Theta/Dpres and the Church of Norm fleeing from Goertel/Goertel?
 
IMO the whole structural vs cosmetic, etc RU was abstract rules gone to far. This process adds no enjoyment to the campaign. If the players wanted something for the ship, they had to figure out how to get it. And so the next adventure begins.
 
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