I'm running Traveller with my son. He is playing the Captain of a 100ton ambulance ship. The ship can manage Jump 2 but is unarmed. On board they currently have an Imperial Noble and a diplomat from a neighbouring nation called Hartoum.
They were making their way back to Imperial space when they miss-jumped deep into Kiro Space. The Kiro are a bit like the Borg, but friendly.
So now they are trying to find a Jump-2 route back to the Imperium before the Kiro realise who they are.
So far the story hasn't really been about the ship, despite the fact that the capabilities of their shop influence everything they do. They are getting low on food and they do have to stop for fuel every two parsecs.
It's been fun so far. All generated from the dice and the first three little black books.
Uncharted Worlds has this move... It's called "Recklessness". It basically short circuits normal PbtA rolls and says "when you try something unbelievably reckless, roll a d6 - on a 4-6 it's an amazing success, on a 1-3 it's a horrible terrible failure".
Had a player who was the pilot decide to save his crew from another ship by initiating a short burst of the jump drive to ram his ship into the opposing ship. Reckless as hell. Guy rolled a 1. The jump calc was off by a few decimals, and he ended up fusing both ships together irrevocably.
Aaron Griffin i want to love Uncharted Worlds, and this story brings me closer. It and I never quite bonded, and I'm not sure why. Do you love it? If so, why?
Playing a teen-melodrama on a generation ship, the young captain is huddled up in an airlock, having locked the door ... the equivalent of locking herself in the bathroom. She has just learned that the planet they thought they would be able to settle on is not really suitable. She could choose to set the ship down anyway, breath real air, see a sky, but she'd be betraying her people's hope for a home where they could rebuild.
As the shipboard AI, I ask her (because speakers) whether it would be so very bad to set off to the next system, spend her entire life in the interstellar medium, and maybe have the hope that her grandchildren would get a chance to try again. "Is a planet such a big deal? You have me! I have always loved you, and I always will. Isn't that enough?"
I hit her with Misery Bubblegum's "Yes, No or Flee" rule, where you have to either answer an uninflected "Yes, that's enough," an uninflected "No, that's not enough," or flee the scene.
I had gotten into the habit of pulling that move on people when they isolated themselves in a place with no escape, for that extra bit of force. I forgot that an airlock has two doors. Whoops.
William Nichols The ship was tagged on to an Imperial diplomatic convoy which had travelled into Hartoum space. The ambience was there in case of emergency.
There was an emergency.
The talks were attacked, the crew of the ambulance ship flew in to collect the wounded Hartoum diplomat and try to save his life. At this time they also picked up the Imperial diplomat Lady Stoke.
Lady Stoke ordered them to return to the Imperium. The ambulance crew sprang into action, and headed for jump distance, only to see two Kiro ships breathing down on them.
We were playing by the book, and in Traveller if you jump when within 100 diameters of a planet you miss jump. Their ship was indeed within 100 diameters when they decided to jump.
Adding in all the mitigating circumstances, Owen was rolling 2d6+1 for the jump, and only a roll of 13 would have been a miss jump. He rolled a double six.
Random distance and direction put him deep in Kiro space.
Fortunately, that deep in the Kiro don't yet know what is going on in Hartoum space, but as their ambulance gets closer and closer to the border, the chance of them encountering some Kiro who do know what is going on only increases.
I've turned our Spelljammer/Planescape/Pathfinder campaign that lasted over 3 years with my Catfolk rogue into a story over on Fanfiction.net if you're ever interested in reading. We had a haunted Hammership and used it to travel across multiple spheres and dimensions. :)
William Nichols I didn't get Uncharted Worlds either. The Moves all seemed far too vague to really add anything. Not that I've had a chance to play it to find out if that's actually the case.
William Nichols I do! But I think it harkens back to the Paul Beakley posts about how some pbta games tend to use moves-as-skills. UW is definitely in the "moves as skills" camp. If you think of the game a bit more like World of Dungeons in space with 3 core moves instead of 1, it all comes together.
UW has it's goblins though. Particularly if playing for long periods of time, advancement gets muddied. The forthcoming supplement should change that, though.
Aaron Griffin It's not super heavy weight, but it's certainly not light either. It has a lot of rules but none of them are individually complex.
There isn't a Lite version, probably because it wouldn't really work, there aren't any systems in there which aren't necessary at some point.
Each version (and there are now over a dozen) added options to the core, folding in supplements and adding new gaming trends, so the lightest version is probably the first three books of Classic Traveller. These were written in the 70s though so they aren't the easiest to learn (although they are clearer than most 70s and 80s RPGs IMO).
Probably the easiest to get into now would be either the Mongoose's recent 2nd edition or the Cepheus Engine which is a clone of the Mongoose's first edition. Either of these has a nice balance of modern clarity and not too many rules. Cepheus has the bonus of being free on Drivethru.
I immediately thought of that moment in the play-by-post Star Wars game we did, where my character and Misha B's were on an EVA, swimming between two ships on a line, and talking to each other via helmet-reverberations. It was cinematic and romantic and neat.
I've got a feel that something like a Correllion Corvette (Leia's blockade runner) could be ideal for a group of PCs to hang out on, though I'm not sure how I want to do it yet.
I'm running Traveller with my son. He is playing the Captain of a 100ton ambulance ship. The ship can manage Jump 2 but is unarmed. On board they currently have an Imperial Noble and a diplomat from a neighbouring nation called Hartoum.
ReplyDeleteThey were making their way back to Imperial space when they miss-jumped deep into Kiro Space. The Kiro are a bit like the Borg, but friendly.
So now they are trying to find a Jump-2 route back to the Imperium before the Kiro realise who they are.
So far the story hasn't really been about the ship, despite the fact that the capabilities of their shop influence everything they do. They are getting low on food and they do have to stop for fuel every two parsecs.
It's been fun so far. All generated from the dice and the first three little black books.
How did they miss job? Why is there a noble and a diplomat onboard an ambulance ship? Are they injured?
ReplyDeleteWhat would happen if the Kiro realized who they were? Assimilation?
I love this. I love space stories on a ship that aren't about the ship at all.
Uncharted Worlds has this move... It's called "Recklessness". It basically short circuits normal PbtA rolls and says "when you try something unbelievably reckless, roll a d6 - on a 4-6 it's an amazing success, on a 1-3 it's a horrible terrible failure".
ReplyDeleteHad a player who was the pilot decide to save his crew from another ship by initiating a short burst of the jump drive to ram his ship into the opposing ship. Reckless as hell. Guy rolled a 1. The jump calc was off by a few decimals, and he ended up fusing both ships together irrevocably.
Aaron Griffin i want to love Uncharted Worlds, and this story brings me closer. It and I never quite bonded, and I'm not sure why. Do you love it? If so, why?
ReplyDeletePlaying a teen-melodrama on a generation ship, the young captain is huddled up in an airlock, having locked the door ... the equivalent of locking herself in the bathroom. She has just learned that the planet they thought they would be able to settle on is not really suitable. She could choose to set the ship down anyway, breath real air, see a sky, but she'd be betraying her people's hope for a home where they could rebuild.
ReplyDeleteAs the shipboard AI, I ask her (because speakers) whether it would be so very bad to set off to the next system, spend her entire life in the interstellar medium, and maybe have the hope that her grandchildren would get a chance to try again. "Is a planet such a big deal? You have me! I have always loved you, and I always will. Isn't that enough?"
I hit her with Misery Bubblegum's "Yes, No or Flee" rule, where you have to either answer an uninflected "Yes, that's enough," an uninflected "No, that's not enough," or flee the scene.
I had gotten into the habit of pulling that move on people when they isolated themselves in a place with no escape, for that extra bit of force. I forgot that an airlock has two doors. Whoops.
William Nichols The ship was tagged on to an Imperial diplomatic convoy which had travelled into Hartoum space. The ambience was there in case of emergency.
ReplyDeleteThere was an emergency.
The talks were attacked, the crew of the ambulance ship flew in to collect the wounded Hartoum diplomat and try to save his life. At this time they also picked up the Imperial diplomat Lady Stoke.
Lady Stoke ordered them to return to the Imperium. The ambulance crew sprang into action, and headed for jump distance, only to see two Kiro ships breathing down on them.
We were playing by the book, and in Traveller if you jump when within 100 diameters of a planet you miss jump. Their ship was indeed within 100 diameters when they decided to jump.
Adding in all the mitigating circumstances, Owen was rolling 2d6+1 for the jump, and only a roll of 13 would have been a miss jump. He rolled a double six.
Random distance and direction put him deep in Kiro space.
Fortunately, that deep in the Kiro don't yet know what is going on in Hartoum space, but as their ambulance gets closer and closer to the border, the chance of them encountering some Kiro who do know what is going on only increases.
I've turned our Spelljammer/Planescape/Pathfinder campaign that lasted over 3 years with my Catfolk rogue into a story over on Fanfiction.net if you're ever interested in reading. We had a haunted Hammership and used it to travel across multiple spheres and dimensions. :)
ReplyDeletefanfiction.net - Chronicles of the Spelljoined Chapter 1, a dungeons and dragons fanfic | FanFiction
William Nichols I didn't get Uncharted Worlds either. The Moves all seemed far too vague to really add anything. Not that I've had a chance to play it to find out if that's actually the case.
ReplyDeleteThese are all pretty dang great!
ReplyDeleteWilliam Nichols I do! But I think it harkens back to the Paul Beakley posts about how some pbta games tend to use moves-as-skills. UW is definitely in the "moves as skills" camp. If you think of the game a bit more like World of Dungeons in space with 3 core moves instead of 1, it all comes together.
ReplyDeleteUW has it's goblins though. Particularly if playing for long periods of time, advancement gets muddied. The forthcoming supplement should change that, though.
Brian Ashford Traveller has always seemed super heavy weight to me, from the outside looking in, is there a "lite" or "quickstart" version anywhere?
ReplyDeleteAaron Griffin It's not super heavy weight, but it's certainly not light either. It has a lot of rules but none of them are individually complex.
ReplyDeleteThere isn't a Lite version, probably because it wouldn't really work, there aren't any systems in there which aren't necessary at some point.
Each version (and there are now over a dozen) added options to the core, folding in supplements and adding new gaming trends, so the lightest version is probably the first three books of Classic Traveller. These were written in the 70s though so they aren't the easiest to learn (although they are clearer than most 70s and 80s RPGs IMO).
Probably the easiest to get into now would be either the Mongoose's recent 2nd edition or the Cepheus Engine which is a clone of the Mongoose's first edition. Either of these has a nice balance of modern clarity and not too many rules. Cepheus has the bonus of being free on Drivethru.
I immediately thought of that moment in the play-by-post Star Wars game we did, where my character and Misha B's were on an EVA, swimming between two ships on a line, and talking to each other via helmet-reverberations. It was cinematic and romantic and neat.
ReplyDeleteYou two had quite the love story, Robert Bohl.
ReplyDeleteI've got a feel that something like a Correllion Corvette (Leia's blockade runner) could be ideal for a group of PCs to hang out on, though I'm not sure how I want to do it yet.
this is a pretty awesome list
ReplyDeleteJonathan Beverley I am very pleased with what folks have come up with!
ReplyDelete