Seffix' Oddball Cozy Slice-of-Life Campaign

[Seffix]

Yes, I am GMing a cozy slice-of-life Traveller campaign.
It's a PbP game with one player besides myself; I describe it as Anthony Bourdain meets Gillmore Girls in spaaaace, following the life of a low status cook on Emerald, her scientist BFF, and the people they are bringing together to crew the Lab Ship that was dumped on the scientist, (much to her dismay) in the first act of the first episode.

I am using the experience system from the Core Companion with 3 modifications:
1) Characters get an extra xp per episode if they punch a f@sc!st in the episode.
2) Since this focuses on relationships, the player may add or change a ally/contact/rival/enemy at the end of an episode
2a) If a relationship is spoken or thought about in an episode, the character gets +0.5 xp for the episode.
2b) If a the character interacts with a relationship in an episode, the character gets +1 xp for the episode.
This means characters get a lot more experience per episode, but since it takes a few months to complete an episode, it balances out.

Other rules:
No firearm will ever be pointed at the character.
At least 10% of each episode will involve describing food preparation (This is tough for me since I have no culinary skills whatsoever).

Anyhow, here's some of the Slang in use on Emerald:
Boff — (n.) Self important prick
Budge — (i.) Damn.
Cousin from Kearb — (Trope) A non-existent character from an old vid series. Over the course of the series every single character pretended to be the ‘cousin from Kearb’ without realizing that the cousin had been made up the entire time.
Crat — (n.) Technocrat. Bureaucrat. Autocrat.
Cr3 is Cr3 — (Emerald) “A penny saved is a penny earned.” Comes from a number of “Samaritan” rewards given by Emerald government. Usual response is “Every Cr helps.”

 

[Jame Rowe]

That's an unexpected take on Traveller. I hope you enjoy it!

 

[joyofvilanicooking]

I love this so very much and can't wait to hear more of the campaign!

As you are planning something food related I have 4,000 words written on various alcoholic beverages in Traveller, if that will help. Traveller5 has a table for determining the taste and nutrition of any part of any animal or plant in the universe. Aslan and Vargr like fresh meat, and Aslan attach their food to wee robots so they can hunt it at table. The Imperial Research Station on Vreibefger is focused on improving the quality of animals for consumption, so it's either a burger heaven or the Planet of Dr Moreaux. The Vilani eat a lot of Earth foods: cucumbers, potatoes, cheese, apples, lobsters, lentils. And ofc watch out for Vilani food. It is an acquired taste. Oh, FYI, the Zhodani eat certain foods that would be fatal if ingested by a Solomani or Vilani.

You can always find groat satay and Terran fusion barbecue in Vargrtown, just on the other side of the extrality line. I always recommend the Aslan rancher on the far side of the world whose female relatives run an excellent steakhouse. There's an attached reserve where you hunt the beast that you'll eat. (It's a Fterlie thing). The feed said that there's a shiguli apostate serving Vilani fusion cuisine at the TAS restaurant (Terran ingredients, Vilani uh, "cooking" techniques). But don't eat the corndogs by the Hiver delegation (old Dave Nielsen joke). I never liked the Droyne/Bwap place, though–black ants, live or dead, are not my protein source of choice. When I was at the starport, I picked up a copy of "Vegetarianism for Everyone", but it turned out to be a political manifesto published by The Lords of Thunder and not a cookbook. Huh.

 

[Seffix]

@Jame Rowe It takes a couple months to get through each episode/adventure, and it is fun so far!

@joyofvilanicooking I would love to collaborate! The main character has a provisional NV-Shugilii certification.
“Provisional?"
“I passed all the exams, including the practical, but haven’t done work in a certified Shugilii facility.”
“Why not?”
“They only hire Vilani.”
“And what does NV mean?”
“Non-Vilani.”
Yes, she faces a fair amount of Vilani racism, but her love of food and can-do attitude (and Profession: Cooking skill - 4) usually save the day.
The Vargr accept her more than the Vilani because she speaks Gvegh well and came in 3rd place in the South Eritrea Oukfellaerrg Skewering Competition last year.

She is considering getting artificial taste receptors so she can tune her sense of taste to match her target species (I'm reading John McQuaid's book Tasty).

And while I recognize your Semiotic Standard pic, I'm afraid I don't know Dave Nielsen.

 

[MasterGwydion]

This is an amazing idea for a campaign and one which I have not heard of before. It is very rare for Me to hear about an original campaign idea after gaming for so many decades! Very nicely done! I wish I was playing!

 

[rinku]

I find myself reading a bit of the cozy end these days. I think Traveller is a system well suited to it, since there is no inherent reward system for action or combat (unless you add one), and the task system easily covers whatever social or civilian situations you may find yourself in.

 

[joyofvilanicooking]

I'm afraid I don't know Dave Nielsen.

Hey there, mate! Thanks for the reply. Dave Nielsen was one of the original GDW designers behind Traveller and Traveller: TNE. In Survival Marigin, a sort of news compilation bridging MegaTraveller and TNE, Dave had a standing joke about Hiver larvae (e.g., baby Hivers) , which people were always mistaking for corndogs. Dave had a great sense of humor, and I like to keep his quips alive.

The South Eritrea Oukfellaerrg Skewering Competition is about insults? Or BBQ, e.g., meat skewers? Ha ha ha.

Artificial taste receptors are great! I love it. There's also something from Traveller5: a new psionic power called clairgustance–the ability to taste what someone else is tasting using the power of your mind! It sounds like you, me, and the other denizens of this thread are the only ones who would be stoked to have this power in our game. So go ahead...get that character psi-tested and trained by a Zhodani chef.

On Vilani cooking, I always go back to the core shiguli culinary techniques: things can be rot-pickled, mold-ripened, decay-fermented, sludge-poached, bile-cured, flame-charred, fungal-soaked, shade-dessicated, soddened, slime-macerated or acid-bathed. And even if they're traditionalists, the Vilani (as per the Vilani Glossary and Grammar) have words for cucumbers, potatoes, cheese, apples, lobsters, and lentils. Those foods made inroads, even in the Ziru Sirka Grand Empire of the Stars.

Full props for setting the campaign on Emerald. It's a brilliant world, at the Imperium's very edge, abutting the Zhodani and not too far from the Vargr. Keep up your Emerald lingo, too.

If you visit perchance the website, I have a randomizer that generates sad starsip autochef meals and another for Traveller taverns (including space booze). They're under perchance org javaspaceman.

Yeah, it would be great to collaborate, but it sounds like you're doing crackerjack work and I am just blathering on haha.

I would love to know what is in store for your campaign!

Cheers mate!

 

[Seffix]

@MasterGwydion There are a fair number of 'cozy' games out there these days, but it took Bu & Embla's Guide to the Starports of the Marches to make me consider using Traveller for it. I wish I had the resources for more players, but life... sigh...


@joyofvilanicooking Oukfellaerrg kewering is all about kebobs, their texture, glazes, spice rubs, and sauces, but I really like the idea of Vargr having verbal roasts with the big prize being kfaegzoukhin (charisma) boosts for the winners. Maybe there's a JTAS article in that?

I will figure out a way to work corndogs and clairgustance into the game. The starship has 'disturbing psionic echoes,' so that might lead somewhere. Nice website! The Future Space Capitalist Company Generator fits perfectly with the BFF's company/sponsors (which we just learned gives its employees all the greenies (anti-hangover pills) and Etha-Nah (preprandial alcohol blockers) since it's cheaper than having their employees out sick.


Quirks of Emerald:
2degree axial tilt and minimally eccentric orbit mean seasonal variation is trivial. Luckily the climate is generally benign. There is a lot of joking about winter and how other worlds have weather. It will be a shock when they finally get offworld.
The North Pole points directly towards Cronor, so everyone thinks of the Zhodani as coming from the north

More slang (gv = Gvegh; vl = Vilani):
Drellop — (n.) Anything that is always in season on Emerald, but might be subject to a seasonal variation on a planet with seasonal variation
Drink a drulch — (v.) Fuck up
Drulch — (n.) chemical waste, something foul
Gnangkaeak — (a. gv.) Fur-soft. An undesirable quality in meat
Grra – (n. gv.) Mom
Gveak aeagz — (n. gv.) “Paper Fang” One night stand.
Magii-magii — (n. vl.) Hijinks

 

[Seffix]

More slang (vl = Vilani):
Daaad mamkamkan — (n. vl.) Old shit
Dandinlan — (n. vl. possibly derived from Galanglic) Proud person
Dort — (n.) idiot
Duffy — (n.) term of endearment
Faak — (i.) Fuck! in spaaaace
Flakker — (n.) Bastard or Vilani
Gaagapgush — (n. vl.) Idiot
Gagiim. Lushzapdu ir birkhanga mumakgar. — (toast. vl.) Cheers. May you prosper harmoniously.
Gagiim. Kilamishu kugi kirgidni. — (toast reply. vl.) Cheers. May tradition favor you.
Kigidkishkhu — (n. vl.) Vilani take-out, the literal translation means eating in sordid loneliness.
Shugizikkhad — (n.vl.) Maitre d’ of an upper class shugilii restaurant

What can I say, a lot of slang is vulgar...

 

[G'Naakbusters]

More slang (vl = Vilani):
Daaad mamkamkan — (n. vl.) Old shit

Alternatively, when spoken with the correct preadult whine, "father, I protest, for mother has already given me permission".

 

[Jame Rowe]

I've been playing with the concept of my own setting, and it'll have a Vargr variant.

A couple slurs they have for humans are "flatmuzzles" and "nofurs."

 

[actionman]

A couple slurs they have for humans are "flatmuzzles" and "nofurs."

I can imagine the humans calling them "furries" and the Vargr and Aslan not getting it.

 

[Jame Rowe]

I can imagine the humans calling them "furries" and the Vargr and Aslan not getting it.

And the Vargr who get it will have one of two strong reactions (which we won't be too specific about).

 

[actionman]

(which we won't be too specific about).

Mercifully.

 

[Seffix]

I've been playing with the concept of my own setting, and it'll have a Vargr variant.

A couple slurs they have for humans are "flatmuzzles" and "nofurs."

How about bald pugs?

 

[rinku]

I can guarantee you that with actual aliens that fit the bill being around, especially the Vargr, there's going to be all kinds of new and exciting kink in Charted Space. The "forbidden" romance between species is almost certainly a popular genre, and would range from the mild (Vargr/Human) to the likely impossible (Hiver/K'Kree - BUT WHAT A STORY!!! OMG CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!?).

Real life attraction and romance between sophonts is going to happen, though not as often as in the fiction. A Human/Aslan pair that want to take things further and start a family run into many of the same issues as same sex couples do now, with similar solutions - adoption, surrogacy, donors, fostering. Advanced medicine may offer some extra ones like cloning or genetic engineering.

 

[Condottiere]

 

[actionman]

there's going to be all kinds of new and exciting kink in Charted Space.

Humanity's last line of defense against the Xenopervs:
THE CONFEDERATION MARINES

And the Tezcat. The noble Tezcat remain pure.​

 

[MongooseBella]

Yes, I am GMing a cozy slice-of-life Traveller campaign.
It's a PbP game with one player besides myself; I describe it as Anthony Bourdain meets Gillmore Girls in spaaaace, following the life of a low status cook on Emerald, her scientist BFF, and the people they are bringing together to crew the Lab Ship that was dumped on the scientist, (much to her dismay) in the first act of the first episode.

I am using the experience system from the Core Companion with 3 modifications:
1) Characters get an extra xp per episode if they punch a f@sc!st in the episode.
2) Since this focuses on relationships, the player may add or change a ally/contact/rival/enemy at the end of an episode
2a) If a relationship is spoken or thought about in an episode, the character gets +0.5 xp for the episode.
2b) If a the character interacts with a relationship in an episode, the character gets +1 xp for the episode.
This means characters get a lot more experience per episode, but since it takes a few months to complete an episode, it balances out.

Other rules:
No firearm will ever be pointed at the character.
At least 10% of each episode will involve describing food preparation (This is tough for me since I have no culinary skills whatsoever).

Anyhow, here's some of the Slang in use on Emerald:
Boff — (n.) Self important prick
Budge — (i.) Damn.
Cousin from Kearb — (Trope) A non-existent character from an old vid series. Over the course of the series every single character pretended to be the ‘cousin from Kearb’ without realizing that the cousin had been made up the entire time.
Crat — (n.) Technocrat. Bureaucrat. Autocrat.
Cr3 is Cr3 — (Emerald) “A penny saved is a penny earned.” Comes from a number of “Samaritan” rewards given by Emerald government. Usual response is “Every Cr helps.”

No I love this

 

[Seffix]

These are something like wabi-sabi/natsukashii in Japan culture, or folksy in American culture, or gezellig in Nederlands culture... but Villani.
Shusi — (a. vl.) Comfy and old fashioned
Umgi — (a. vl.) Folksy and old fashioned

Ghuzoukhin ghoog — A school to help Vargr develop charisma (kfaegzoukhin). They are often run as kults. Low charisma Vargr are often assumed to go to them.


More Emerald slang
Uengu — (n. gv.) Bitch (fig.)
Varm — (n.) Small, annoying animal / pet
Zethdo aeldhoeo alkhoe tuedh ouzdhagzang — (i. vg.) (S)He smells like (s)he thinks (s)he has to sell (her)himself

And some music on Emerald:
Fidhl — Sword Worlder fiddle. Some have built-in amplifiers
Fidhlumadhr — Sword World Fiddler
Nozho — Music style. Post 4th Frontier War. Nozho is a contraction of No Zhodani.
Parasymphonic — Music style. tedious beat, popular on Emerald 1020-1040
Rroegni — Mournful style of Vargr song