I have posted a few more updates in the last three weeks, but didn't want to spam this thread, which is nowadays just my private micro-blogging site.
In https://drinax.net/honour-amongst-thieves-5/ the party start in Theev, having spotted another member of Miria's crew heading for the shuttle to the surface when scouting out the Mercifuge in the previous session. They captured him rather neatly, using NPCs well to do so, before stealing the Mercifuge itself. This was easier than normal due to the adventure stating that Miria's access codes were in her hideout. That said, one ominous element of the adventure has been that the player running Deanna - who happens to be my wife (the player, not the character!) - has previous in Traveller.
She is the only one, but the rest are quickly picking up that specialisation is powerful in a 2D6 system. So with cyberware, software, a specialised intrusion computer from the CSC, skill and attribute bonuses anything short of a target of 14 is trivial, which includes most starships and the security systems of at least one starport so far. All I can do is make use of the elapsed time involved and hope she rolls 6 for days spent. Still, if a player invests ina skill, they're telling you that they want to be awesome at it, so I shall roll with it and adapt.
Anyway, I slipped up badly, here. I had wanted to give the players a bloody space battle, since it had been a lot of sessions since that occurred, and I had decided that Ferrik would have the Misery's Company at his base, as well as a Heavy Jump Cutter (my design) with a fighter bay with two drone fighters. I counted on losses on one or both sides, maybe an escape by the Misery's Company at least, to make for a future nemesis.
More fool I, it turns out. Their plan to take the pirates by surprise at what they believe is a hidden base was brilliantly executed: the Mercifuge's arrival was expected and taken as good news rather than a reason for an alert, while the Harrier approached from the far side of the moon using a slow approach. Given the advanced stealth and tech advantage of the So Much For Subtlety - minus 9 in total to the TL12 ships' attempts to detect it - it could probably have just flow in from directly above, but coming over the horizon like a helicopter playing Ride of the Valkyries, the pirates had no warning.
As the Harrier made a low pass and blew up one of the two modular cutter base modules, the party's marines disgorged from the Mercifuge - aka the Trojan Vulture - and blew the door on the other one, leaving its inhabitants more concerned about finding helmets than fighting back. I was perturbed but also kinda proud.
In https://drinax.net/honour-amongst-thieves-6/ there was more of a victory lap going on: visits to Palindrome (where the party met with one of their contacts, and I got to foreshadow with Hink Tabreja from Makergod and Prince Grehai from Shadows of Sindal, amongst others), then a tour of Torpol and Clarke to drop off dead pirates on their way home to Drinax.
At Drinax, we played a series of minigames in which they investigated the Vespexer Tribes then picked tasks that the tribes wanted done, with the aim of winning a cohort over to Oleb. This was a complete change of pace, both in content and speed, and worked really well. I added one of the pages from my minigame to the blog post to give an idea of what it involved, but I may do something similar again later (and the players want to come back and win over the remaining three tribes in any case).
If anyone cares, I also posted more of the shorter diary accounts from Krrsh and Patrick Steward (their robot valet). I've not posted any of Sharyl's versions, I think, so far but I did those too on occasion. Again, it rewards players for revising...
In https://drinax.net/honour-amongst-thieves-5/ the party start in Theev, having spotted another member of Miria's crew heading for the shuttle to the surface when scouting out the Mercifuge in the previous session. They captured him rather neatly, using NPCs well to do so, before stealing the Mercifuge itself. This was easier than normal due to the adventure stating that Miria's access codes were in her hideout. That said, one ominous element of the adventure has been that the player running Deanna - who happens to be my wife (the player, not the character!) - has previous in Traveller.
She is the only one, but the rest are quickly picking up that specialisation is powerful in a 2D6 system. So with cyberware, software, a specialised intrusion computer from the CSC, skill and attribute bonuses anything short of a target of 14 is trivial, which includes most starships and the security systems of at least one starport so far. All I can do is make use of the elapsed time involved and hope she rolls 6 for days spent. Still, if a player invests ina skill, they're telling you that they want to be awesome at it, so I shall roll with it and adapt.
Anyway, I slipped up badly, here. I had wanted to give the players a bloody space battle, since it had been a lot of sessions since that occurred, and I had decided that Ferrik would have the Misery's Company at his base, as well as a Heavy Jump Cutter (my design) with a fighter bay with two drone fighters. I counted on losses on one or both sides, maybe an escape by the Misery's Company at least, to make for a future nemesis.
More fool I, it turns out. Their plan to take the pirates by surprise at what they believe is a hidden base was brilliantly executed: the Mercifuge's arrival was expected and taken as good news rather than a reason for an alert, while the Harrier approached from the far side of the moon using a slow approach. Given the advanced stealth and tech advantage of the So Much For Subtlety - minus 9 in total to the TL12 ships' attempts to detect it - it could probably have just flow in from directly above, but coming over the horizon like a helicopter playing Ride of the Valkyries, the pirates had no warning.
As the Harrier made a low pass and blew up one of the two modular cutter base modules, the party's marines disgorged from the Mercifuge - aka the Trojan Vulture - and blew the door on the other one, leaving its inhabitants more concerned about finding helmets than fighting back. I was perturbed but also kinda proud.
In https://drinax.net/honour-amongst-thieves-6/ there was more of a victory lap going on: visits to Palindrome (where the party met with one of their contacts, and I got to foreshadow with Hink Tabreja from Makergod and Prince Grehai from Shadows of Sindal, amongst others), then a tour of Torpol and Clarke to drop off dead pirates on their way home to Drinax.
At Drinax, we played a series of minigames in which they investigated the Vespexer Tribes then picked tasks that the tribes wanted done, with the aim of winning a cohort over to Oleb. This was a complete change of pace, both in content and speed, and worked really well. I added one of the pages from my minigame to the blog post to give an idea of what it involved, but I may do something similar again later (and the players want to come back and win over the remaining three tribes in any case).
If anyone cares, I also posted more of the shorter diary accounts from Krrsh and Patrick Steward (their robot valet). I've not posted any of Sharyl's versions, I think, so far but I did those too on occasion. Again, it rewards players for revising...
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