Traveller Hero: Pirates of Drinax

[Steve]

Things have continued to percolate on in this campaign, and it looks like we have gotten past the midway point. A year and a half of real time since it began has gone quickly.

 

in our last session the PCs finally managed to find the Treasure of Sindal and were in the process of sorting it. An old Hunted showed up, and they launched a high-yield nuclear torpedo from their cloaked Harrier-class vessel in true Klingon Bird of Prey style.

 

Unfortunately, they realized too late that they would also be caught in the blast radius, forcing the pilot to high-G it out of there with only a brief window of time, like something out of the Expanse. Some commentary was exchanged before that on the foolishness of wizards landing a fireball too close to their own feet. Launching a multi-megaton nuke at too close of a range is the Traveller equivalent.

 

Deciding to clear up some old business, they headed back to the pirate haven of Theev. One of the PCs was shocked to be given a seat at the Council of Theev instead of the group being taken out back and getting their brains blown out. The PC in question is now a bit paranoid about this setup, and has already dealt with one revenge assassination attempt by a member of the former Council member’s kin.

[Jkeown]

I like what I'm seeing here. Thinking about running the new Fifth Frontier War adventure. Might use this method of character creation. After Meta-Earth and Caleon's latest arc, I could use some "normal characters." 

 

I'm a stickler for 6th Edition, tho. Might take some re-working from Mongoose Traveller 2E to HERO 5E to HERO 6E...

[Steve]

6 hours ago, Jkeown said:

I like what I'm seeing here. Thinking about running the new Fifth Frontier War adventure. Might use this method of character creation. After Meta-Earth and Caleon's latest arc, I could use some "normal characters." 

 

I'm a stickler for 6th Edition, tho. Might take some re-working from Mongoose Traveller 2E to HERO 5E to HERO 6E...

It really wasn’t too much trouble to build the characters in 6th. The conversion information in Traveller Hero made it pretty easy. Skills didn’t really change much from 5th to 6th and character complications were not much trouble either.

 

I’m running a higher point campaign, but that is partially due to Imperium Marines costing quite a bit of points for their skills, and all of them stayed in to retirement age.

 

Navy types convert more cheaply, I noticed.

[Durzan Malakim]

I'm used to players surprising me when I GM. I'm not used to surprising myself as a player in @Steve's game. This week I surprised everyone when a standard lightsaber duel instead became my "Han shot first" or "Captain Mal kicks a man into an engine" moment. My character, retired Imperial Marine Brigadier turned space Pirate Captain Nemos was supposed to duel his hunted Judas Cain, a former Imperial Navy Captain and possible Zhodani infiltrator. Before the fighting started, Judas began villain monologuing about how the outcome of the duel didn't matter because he had several clone backups to carry on his search for vengeance. Not only would he keep sending clones after me until he killed me, but he'd also hunt down my crew to avenge the death of one of his other clones that we had killed with a nuke. I don't begrudge the man for having clone backups because I also have a clone backup, but we have very different views on the nature of clones and whether the sins of the father (the original) fall on the child (the clone).

 

My character thinks of his clone as more of a twin brother with his own identity, wishes, and desires. Given their shared history, their goals are mostly aligned, but had my character died in the duel, he'd not expect his clone to carry on the grudge or avenge him. In fact, he'd explicitly not want him to carry on the grudge because Captain Nemos has a greater mission he wants to complete. I even recorded a message along the lines of "if you're hearing this then I'm dead" to tell my clone to carry on the greater mission. However, when I learned that the duel wouldn't end the grudge, I realized that there was no point in being honorable and fighting fair. So I asked my fellow PC @L0rd_Magg0t to "take the shot" from his sniper overwatch position. I used the distraction to decapitate one clone, and then next phase I disarmed (literally) another clone that was acting as his second. I was surprised by how much outrage I felt about the duel not mattering. It felt like Judas was bragging about being able to cheat until he won, so I decided to cheat first. I learned in that moment that this character has a weird code of honor. This code of honor includes the idea that clones are not disposable copies of the original that are enslaved to carry out the original's will. It also includes not suffering the insult of breaking your word. For Captain Nemos the outcome of the duel was supposed to settle the matter, but Judas Cain broke his word by not being willing to abide by the outcome of the duel.

 

It was a great role-playing moment for me, and I look forward to seeing what consequences come from this choice. I think this is the most morally gray character I've played. No one thinks of themselves as the villain of their story, but Captain Nemos is just one "ends justify the means" choice away from being a bad guy. He has principles, but if you're on the wrong end of them he looks pretty villainous.

[Steve]

Yes, I was prepared for an epic duel, but things did not go quite as anyone planned.

 

I have lightsabers as an Ancient tech device, so very, very rare in Charted Space and seen as exotic relics rather than something you would fight with. Since no one is a “Jedi” and such combat training doesn’t exist, even among the Zhodani, characters are one bad roll away from losing limbs.

 

Judas Cain had the ability, thanks to his psionic training, to deflect the sniper shot, but doing that dropped his Block bonus just enough to fail his roll against Captain Nemos, who attacked in the same phase. The loss of one clone stunned the other one based on how I have them written up, so two phases was all it took to end a fight I thought would go one or two Turns.