16.6.16 III. Natoko & Patinir (chapters: In Search of Longer Legs & Patinir Belt)

Natoko B582211-8 N Lo

[I vividly recall handling the rescue of the prospector in the latter section VERY poorly. I was a bit ill and tired and barely let them ‘do’ the rescue. Much too much of me reporting and limited excitement. If I could do one bit again, it would be this. Still, they had a lot of fun doing a seafari and seeing rare wildlife and a big whirlpool on Natoko. Not even in the book… And they took advantage of the Captain’s player being away to fit the demountable tanks and lose some cargo space.]

From my notes:

We recapped the previous session particularly mentioning Wolblutn encounter and meeting with Eneri Gilaan.

Had news arriving as they arrived in system. (The point of these is to keep it unclear what’s plot and what’s not.)

News Item: Four prisoners, including Axel Hermon, escape from the Imperial prison planet of Newcomb (Solomani Rim 2913).

News Item: Arkesh Spacers ships begin accepting large numbers of cargoes to Querion (Spinward Marches 0614), trading with the Sheol.

News Item: Delta Research announces its new series 12/136 Logical Heuristic Processor (Organic) Computer System [LHeP(Or)], which includes brain cells grown in vitro.

[IIRC these are all from the Traveller Timeline for around this time (early 1105).]

Lots of delays on arrival at Natoko.

Meet Usseni Zaveno, mousy tight-lipped broker

Meet Ulrich Baseru, larger than life, broker, smoking a cigar with a red band indicating the microparticular filter is in place. He has a deal to take 40 tons x 3 to prospectors in the Patinir Belt. Can offer limited amount of Credits but a better deal is his demountable fuel tanks – although they’ll take a couple of weeks to fit if crew does it.

In a break from the fitting the crew look at the (limited) attractions on Natoko. Angels Fall, Flying Dreams and a Seafari tour. I’ve no idea now what the first two were – I may not have had anything in my head than the title – but they opted for the third choice and dressed in waterproofs took a day trip RIB ride out to a big impressive whirlpool and saw some wildlife on the way or on the return, including a rare seegle flying above some nearby cliffs.

Patinir C000632-9 As Na Ni Va

Jump to the Patinir Belt and meet broker Ghan Siverns who tells them business is slow, lanthumum prospecting has dried up and is under navy regulation due to ship building programme, but there are imports from the Vargr Extents.

News item: “Empress Troyhune” planetoid monitor delivered to Rorise (Spinward Marches 3022) as part of Imperial fleet exercises by the million-ton fleet tender “Gorodish”.

News item: Imperial Ambassador to Chronor (Spinward Marches 0304) assassinated; “Pantheress” (a Tigress-class dreadnought) dispatched to receive the body.

Local news item: Director Naismith (Board of Directors) awarded a long service medal for his 30 years of service. “It’s been a privilege”.

Local news item: Pess Ramsdor has completed Major Body challenge in record time of half a year.

After a couple of days, Siverns offers them a local job to fill in for a supply shuttle that’s gone missing. They ship the supplies out to the three prospectors at their three sites and chat with the prospectors. They poke around for the shuttle but no sign of it. On the way back to the main asteroid in the Belt, they pick up a distress call from the shuttle and rescue Garex Arupe the prospector who passes out with the word “Wolblutn” on his lips. I think they checked on the itinerary of the ship but didn’t connect it with the message in Bannerji’s wallet – don’t blame them given it was a couple of months before and my recap didn’t make a big thing of it (although I did mention it again). [As I’ve said, this whole segment could have been much more action oriented for the players. If I could do one bit again…]

Siverns has found them a 100-ton cargo of gemstones for Pysadi.

15.8.16

[post to TML prior to session]

The more I read the chapter of The Traveller Adventure I’m due to be running on Thursday night, the more terrifying it becomes! It seems to be both difficult, large and complex - not to mention rather vital to the ongoing plot.

I have some questions if I may for anyone with a) experience of running this; b) general refereeing experience who might have more of a clue!

- has anyone got a ‘fixed’ map of the Itzeny Church which has no staircase from the 1st floor to the second floor and the second floor to the third floor (although it *is* marked on the third floor and I’m guessing that’s NOT access to roof space!). (My best fix is to replace a bit of a dormitory on the third floor, an office on the 2nd floor and an office on the 1st floor - but before I redraw all the floor plans....)

- has anyone got a colour map of Pysadi? (This is not critical, the nice b/w will do just fine.)

- would folk’s advice be to do the first three pages of background on Pysadi as a handout *before* the evening, a handout *on* the evening, somehow deliver it to players as the evening goes on, or just use it as briefing for the Ref? There’s a heck of a lot there which will be difficult to do on the evening as a handout or as delivery, but it kind of seems necessary.

- does anyone have a handy CT or MgT animal encounter table for Pysadi? (not to worry if not, will just use a prepared one from the Animal encounters book, but just thought I’d ask)

- ok, so the howood is valuable and prices are good - but who actually wants it? anyone in the subsector or is there some market in mind? (I guess the bigger question here is why should the PCs (and the players) care to beetle off into the boonies to harvest the stuff with all the explosive risk there is?!)

- am I right in thinking there is more than 3 or 4 hours of play here? The more I look at this, the more I suspect it probably should be (or will be) a couple of sessions?

- has anyone got any tips on just how you keep so much info in your head at one time - rules, NPCs, plot... I’ve read the chapter three times, made notes of key bits, tried to come up with names of ships/NPCs/animals that the text doesn’t bother to give you even though they seem to be key NPCs etc and still feel the whole thing is daunting. It’s moments like these that I wonder if I’m really cut out to be a referee!

I love the ‘Referee’s Notes’ at the end of the chapter which say, amongst other things: “It is possible that the situation on Pysadi will not develop exactly along the lines blocked out in the text.” - I suspect that goes without saying!! Maybe I’ll make it my email sig...

cheers. I’ll let you know how it goes, in any case.

Right, I’m off to see if I can do ‘voices’ for my NPCs which I’d love to be able to manage.

t “aren’t I supposed to be looking forward to this?” c

[Richard Aiken offered some really useful help in response to this from his experience with TTA]