Mongoose Traveller: Hard Times on the Solomani Rim: Session 4

Cast of Characters:

• Baron Khoiayahelu (Aslan noble (Imperial rank is much greater than his Aslan standing) whose family's mismanagement of the family holdings has sent him travelling; keeps the rest of the party from becoming total murderhobos)
• "Chrome" (Droyne Sport pilot who has been separated from his kin and finds new families among various merchant ships he works on; moonlights as the baliset-playing "Red Devil")
• Alex Cross, M.D. (Rough around the edges former technician who became a medical doctor; his lechery is only kept in check by the fact that he has no game)
• Mihai Greenman (Perennial underdog. Former Marine, Arms Dealer, Broker, and Vagabond; always delighted when other people's bad luck matches his own)
• German Carrick (Incredibly popular baliset player who has been laying low the last couple of years after an alleged sex scandal)
• Stanislas Kubik (Very old administrative assistant and steward)

The Story So Far:
While at Bailey, the crew of the Princess Diana were able to help out a soiled dove in distress, fighting off an overzealous fan of her fan dance act. They moved on to the Mercy system, where they encountered the tail end of a Solomani raid on the system. Afterward, they ended up helping out one of their passengers deal with a creepy neighbor. In addition to passenger work, they have become quite the experts at space salvage. In the Uterobi system, Chrome managed to help a local musician drum up some business by donning a bright red wrestling singlet (with his Safety Orange Hawaiian shirt tucked into it) and a luchador mask (meant for a human, so it didn't quite fit the Droyne right) and playing some dueling balisets.

Session 4: Jackson
The trip from Uterobi to Jackson was uneventful. Upon arrival at Jackson, Mihai immediately attempted to find passengers, using German and his baliset skills to help drum up business. Unfortunately, it reminded the conservative citizens of this hot world too much of the ancient Freecreditreport.com jingles and no passengers seemed to want to go to Grant. However, the following morning, a businessman named Denton Angelo contracted a stateroom in the ship while it is berthed at Jackson Station while he furnished pink slips to General Products employees on Jackson.

That night, the gang hit the local hotspots in force, attempting to find information about the potentially lucrative Shulusish - Hayt - Diomedes corridor (noted by Chrome as 3 B-class starports in a 2-parsec separated line). While lots of money was spent on drinks and lots of fun was had, not really any information was found. The conspicuous spending of credits didn't go unnoticed, however. Famous talent scout Edward Noting recognized German Carrick and tapped him to find the next big music thing.

The crew decided that a liberty to Entertainment City in the hinterlands of Jackson was in order. At an all-access and, more importantly, open bar party, the party got to see all of the hot up and coming bands  that Jackson had to offer. Flaccid Bagel, a powertry band, managed to get signed that night by Noting, netting German some extra cash. (I describe powertry as Motorhead meets Aesop Rock).

After a hungover trainride back to Jackson Station, the party returned to the ship. German was happy to receive a royalty check from his publisher and Doc and Chrome went off to check the station's scrap pile. And found scrap. The next day, the party was approached my a besuited man known only as Mister Johnson, who contracted the crew to deliver an attache case to an associate in Grant.

Mihai, after a week and a half of wrangling buyers, was able to sell the fuel system they found in Mercy. They were finally able to find some passengers for Grant. The day before they were to disembark, they were approached by a panicked PFC from the Imperial Army. PFC Babcock missed his flight to the transport which was leaving system shortly. The Princess Di  managed to make orbit in enough time to save Babcock's skin. However, there was a brief moment of panic when the good doctor almost got arrested for assaulting military personnel. Thankfully, the Baron was there to smooth things over.

The following day, the low berth passengers boarded the Princess Di and the ship left for Grant.

What We Learned:

• You can fit a lot into a little over three hours. Four patron encounters and a little bit of trade.
• As Mihai's player mentioned as we closed, we are "getting our sea legs" and can probably now start kicking the game up a notch. I've been adding in layers as I learn about them. For example, this was the first session where the party had to start paying docking and berthing fees. Granted, the whole time they were on Grant it was like Cr150, but still.
• The players keep either lucking our or missing out on some nasty random encounters. One day, I'll get you. :)
• Some nice seeds for future adventures were planted.

Mongoose Traveller: Hard Times on the Solomani Rim: Session 03

Cast of Characters:
Baron Khoiayahelu (Aslan noble (Imperial rank is much greater than his Aslan standing) whose family's mismanagement of the family holdings has sent him travelling)
"Chrome" (Droyne Sport pilot who has been separated from his kin and finds new families among various merchant ships he works on)
Alex Cross, M.D. (Rough around the edges former technician who became a medical doctor)
Mihai Greenman (Perennial underdog. Former Marine, Arms Dealer, Broker, and Vagabond)
German Carrick (Incredibly popular baliset player who has been laying low the last couple of years)
Stanislas Kubik (Very old administrative assistant and steward)

The Story So Far:
While at Bailey, the crew of the Princess Diana were able to help out a soiled dove in distress, fighting off an overzealous fan of her fan dance act. They moved on to the Mercy system, where they encountered the tail end of a Solomani raid on the system. Afterward, they ended up helping out one of their passengers deal with a creepy neighbor.

The Session:
The session kicked off with an expedition into a debris field, where Dr. Cross and Chrome were able to secure some salvage--an old fuel system for a capital ship. The crew of the ship then made the jump to Uterobi. Upon arrival, they were immediately hailed by Port Authority and ordered to stand down at Heskott Station for a full inspection--ripping up floorboards, looking in panels, and leaving everything but the airframe touched. Meanwhile, Mihai attempted to find a buyer for the fuel system, to no avail. He was able to fill the Far Trader with lucrative high-passage tickets, however.

After turning down a job offer from a corporate psion, the crew took on a much more entertaining, albeit nowhere near as profitable, gig--drumming up business for a street musician. In order to announce the arrival of Terront Pace to the startown, they had him duel with the devil for the right to be the best musician around.

Just, in this case, "the devil" was Chrome in a wrestling singlet and luchador mask, attempting to play the baliset from the example shown by German on the last few jumps. Not much money was made, but plenty of talk was heard about the crazy new busker in the startown.

Another quick jaunt into the salvage arena allowed the crew to come into possession of some components, to include some couplings for capital ship batteries. The passengers were loaded on the Princess Di and off for Jackson they went.

What We Learned:
In some ways a less productive session, but all of us are starting to get the hang of the Mongoose Traveller economics subrules. We didn't have the Baron for this game, and German's player had to take off for a hockey game, so the players left weren't always the most conducive for some of the operations presented.

There were some events planned that didn't get triggered that could have been a big deal. The crew doesn't realize how lucky they are sometimes. ;)

Mongoose Traveller: Hard Times On The Solomani Rim, Session 2

Cast of Characters:
Baron Khoiayahelu (Aslan noble (Imperial rank is much greater than his Aslan standing) whose family's mismanagement of the family holdings has sent him travelling)
"Chrome" (Droyne Sport pilot who has been separated from his kin and finds new families among various merchant ships he works on)
Alex Cross, M.D. (Rough around the edges former technician who became a medical doctor)
Mihai Greenman (Perennial underdog. Former Marine, Arms Dealer, Broker, and Vagabond)

German Carrick (Incredibly popular baliset player who has been laying low the last couple of years)

Stanislas Kubik (Very old administrative assistant and steward)

The Story So Far:

While at Bailey, the crew of the Princess Diana were able to help out a soiled dove in distress, fighting off an overzealous fan of her fan dance act.

The Session:

After the brawl at the Sinner's Feast, the crew did a little bit of shopping with their newfound reward. The good Baron wrote some Aslan poetry (which you can read here) for Tania, a treat she absolutely adored from her burly old noble cat-protector. The rest of the crew did some shopping and got the ship ready for some passengers. The five poor souls who flew low passage were tucked into the stasis tubes and the first three passengers showed up no problem. The last passenger showed up in a decked out luxury grav car and negotiated with the crew to arrange passage for the grav car in return for his steward duties. Thus, Stanislas Kubik became the first employee of the Princess Di. He wowed passengers and crew members alike with his cooking skills as German regaled everyone with his Baliset skills.

After a week in jumpspace, the crew arrived in Mercy. Just as it was being raided by the Solomani. Chrome's deft piloting allowed the Princess Diana to quickly avoid the crossfire as Imperial Missile Fighters pursued the fleeing Solomani Raid Cruisers. Zipping away from the conflict, the Solomani were eventually driven out of the system, with one Raid Cruiser being boarded by marines from the Imperial Fleet Carrier Donovan Trent. The fighters from that carrier took notice of the Princess Di and sent over a squad of marines to make sure that the Far Trader was legitimate. After a routine inspection, the Princess Diana was cleared to land on Mercy.

As the passengers disembarked, three things of note happened. First, one of the low passengers was unable to be revived by the good Dr. Cross. One out of five, while higher than average, is still okay. Second, Stanislas was offered a full time job as ship steward and grav car driver. Third, a passenger named Rhonda Willet approached German with a proposition (just not the kind he got when he was on tour back in the day).

It seemed that a neighbor had been creeping Rhonda out. When the Princess Di jumped into system, she received a message from her landlord noting that this neighbor had been very interested in her return. The fact that he is a convicted sex offender only heightened her anxiety. All she wanted was the crew to check out her apartment ahead of time and make sure he wasn't sitting in the closed with a knife or anything.

Never one to shirk away from chivalry, the Baron accepted the task and the whole party went to investigate. German noticed someone spying on them from nearby--likely the sex offender. Upon inspection, it turned out that someone had been in the house while she was gone. Some ideas of vigilante justice were floated, but cooler head prevailed. The police were called and an investigation was underway.

With a little more money in their pockets, Chrome took the Princess Di to a nearby gas giant to refuel as Mihai negotiated some cargo (a few tons of Magnetite Ore and Prepackaged Ramen Bowls) and passengers (a few low-berth souls desperate to get away from the warzone). At that point we called it a night.

What I learned:

• Players can have fun without a single combat.
• The subsystems in the game are both numerous very complex and I need to get smarter about them, particularly the trade rules governing everything from freight, passengers, speculative cargo, and now salvage and mining operations.
• Prestaging a lot of the trade information, just waiting for the dice rolls was useful. I didn't include all of the information I needed, though, so it was a good learning experience.
• We're getting more comfortable with the Mongoose rules. I like them.