Returning to Traveller last night after a weeks break was a blast. I had planned to spend most of my afternoon preparing for it but of course life got in the way. I had to rush out and get my car fixed by a mate of mine who could not do it the day after any more and so the maps and various other materials I was going to upload went without action.
Luckily I had made a slew of notes at the end of last game and had been giving the game a fair bit of thought as to where I should steer the plot hooks that seemed to sink in. So it was with a good deal of excitement I sat down to welcome a new player into the fold and run some downtime in Regina while The Larksong was being fitted with some armaments and armour before they rendezvous with Jewell’s bodyguard Walker.
Last night we saw a new player join in. An old friend of mine who has been out of the roleplaying scene for around 15 years, +Dave Morris. He gave me a brief on the character to make and I came up with a scientist with a little less capability than he had hoped, but it was a character none the less. He named him Ushtug and we were pretty much ready to go. Joining us also was Moloch the Engineer (played by +duncan mcphedran ), Tark the pilot (I always think of Wash from Firefly! Played by +Scott Cadoo ), Baron Jia “The Accountant” (played by +Justin Aquino ), Professor Babbage (played by +James Austin ), Tyson the medic (played by +Tom Tyson ) and Darrock the security expert (played by +Matt Guyder ). +Seth Blumberg who plays the Captain missed his alarm (he lives in the USA and normally wakes at 5 a.m. or 4a.m. to play) but when he woke he stopped in to apologise. This was totally fine of course! I am in awe that he has the devotion to get up each Wednesday morning to join us and it is totally to forgivable to miss one or two!
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| Dante Woo’s apartments (image courtesy of urbanghostsmedia.com |
There was a lot of pre talk in the game which was good fun. It is really good to get to know all the players a little better this way. We covered some of the things that I was certain the players were not sure of like how much they get paid a month and of course a recap on what had happened from the past couple of games so we knew what was going on! Then we leapt into the game. the players faced with some down time of course hit the bars first off and so I allowed a few days for them to relax and blow off steam. Past this I asked them what they wanted to do. Ushtug wanted to take a visit to the local “Space Mart” to pick up some gear and Professor Babbage wanted to get some intrusion software so he had the edge when he was faced with having to crack into systems.
This sort of software is strictly outlawed on Regina so Tark came to the fore as he checked amongst his scout buddies to find if he could locate someone that could supply the required programs and came up with a name and address (Dante Woo in an abandoned Industrial building) so the group all decided to hire a mini van and head to Dante’s on the way to dropping off Ushtug at Space Mart and a little bit of shopping for themselves.
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| Darrock in his battle dress days (image thanks to escapist magazine.com) |
They arrived in a remoter part of the city and spotted a good number of sentries watching them as they came in. This made Darrock exceptionally nervous and he prepared himself for a battle. Professor Babbage, Tark and Ushtug paid no attention and moved to the front door ringing the buzzer. The group got inside and Darrock decided to go upstairs whilst Moloch and Tyson held down the fort at the minivan. Dante’s place was opulent and filled with activity. The Professor paid the appointment fee (1000 credits) and did not mince words once he was in. For once most of his companions were content just to watch and a transaction was made. The Professor got given the holodisk with intrusion software on it and noticed that the minivan was being targeted by a computer system. Saying nothing they left swiftly.
On the way out of the area the Baron spotted an anti-grav vehicle tailing them from the moment they left. Professor Babbage monitored communications channels and found that the vehicle was intermittently broadcasting on an encrypted channel that was in the bandwidth reserved for Regina’s security forces. Feeling a little bit nervous about his software he had just purchased he uploaded the software from the holodisk back to the computers on The Larksong in an effort to avoid any complications should they be pulled over.
The trip found them make Space Mart and the anti-grav vehicle landed around 200 metres away from them. They all piled out and headed in for some shopping. There was a good twenty minutes of browsing and purchasing from everyone before someone made a check to see if they were being tailed. They noticed three individuals. The first was an older guy in a fine suit who quickly got nicknamed the Silver Fox, the second was a Jeans and T-shirt teenage human who was nicknamed Marty McFly! Finally there was a Vargr, but he seemed not to be working with the other two that were following them.
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| Security footage of the car park after the fire alarm was tripped, immediately before the gun fight (footage actually form a newsfeed on tbo.com) |
The players tried a various array of techniques to try and put the trackers on the back foot. Then they began to make different ways out of Space Mart. Baron Jia, Professor Babbage and Moloch started heading back to the minivan, the Vargr closing in on the Professor, Tark and Ushtug hit the fire alarm as they left the building causing confusion as they surveyed the scene, Darrock made his way directly for the anti-grav vehicle only to find it locked. Moloch saw the Vargr go for a gun and drew his laser carbine putting it in the back of the creature telling him to drop it. The Vargr swung as Moloch fired but the Vargr knocked the gun to the side putting a laser blast into the wheel destroying it!
The following round Moloch managed to shoot the Vargr as Professor Babbage used his foil to finish the creature but not before it got a shot off and dropped Moloch. Ushtug ran over immediately trying to see how Moloch was and the Baron checked the Vargr as the Silver Fox appeared calling for them to lay down. Neither complied and the Silver Fox fired taking down the Baron. Ushtug finally got down professing that he was only a bystander and then Tark, from the throng outside the mart shot the silver fox taking him down whom Darrock threatened with his weapon. Unbeknownst to Darrock Marty McFly had been covering him and also shot dropping the Security expert. Tark suddenly began to get an awfully bad feeling as all the remaining group came together. They got the wounded and grabbed the key to the anti-grav vehicle.
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| The anti-grav vehicle that is being searched for. |
On the way they discovered that the Vargr was a member of the crew of The Valkyrie the same ship that had attempted to hijack the diamonds on Ruie (allegedly). Ushtug took the controls calling out how hard can it be to fly one of these things. After sideswiping the left and right vehicles beside it and collecting a pole on the way up the players see around six law enforcement anti-grav vehicles closing on their location. Which is where I called it for the night! Got to love a good cliff hanger!
Will they get away? Will they get taken in and will the secret Navy organisation they are working for come to their aid? Only next weeks game will tell!