Mustered Out on Mertactor
Mertactor. Some would say it was the last planet at the Third Imperium’s borders, others say it is the doorway to freedom. The Mertactor star system, part of the District 268 Subsector, lies far from the capital of the Third Imperium, many months from the Imperial Court and the close supervision of the Emperor. The Spinward Marches, which holds District 268 and 15 other Subsectors, are both a backwater and a frontier, an under–developed region bordering upon independent space and less–than friendly neighbors.
The Spinward Marches is an eventful region. High–tech industrial worlds are interspersed with all but uncharted backwaters and there are many forces at work. The great powers of the Third Imperium and the Zhodani Consulate jockey for position as independent planetary systems align themselves as best suits their purposes. The Imperial Megacorporations and smaller business entities engage in cut–throat competition while mercenary units never seem to be short of work.
Entered onto this stage are five individuals with certain skills and rare knowledge. Recently discharged from their respective careers, they found that freedom after years of service is turning out to be not all that they thought it was going to be. The interplanetary drifter who chose a career of hard and deadly work rather than the plush existance of his family. The wise cracking Army engineer who is haunted by painful memories. The Marine with no social graces and a quick trigger finger. The Rogue who is as viciously deadly as she is beautiful. The scholar who left the security of academia to gamble on a life of adventure
They never guessed that it was going to be this hard to find some work after mustering out. Mertactor seems to be a terrible place for finding a steady job. It’s as if there are more ex-service types looking for work here than there are jobs for them – unless they fancy spending the rest of their lives drilling rocks on some god-forsaken asteroid belt for a living, or herding groats across the seemingly endless plains across one of the Ag Combine Worlds.
Although things are starting to look pretty desperate, the Marches are a place where skills can be sold and knowledge can be dangerous; where an independent starship or a band of adventurers can make a profit between the cracks in the system. There is always a job going…
just don’t ask any questions and be sure to get paid in cash.
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Mustered Out on Mertactor is the sequel to Mustered Out on Regina and is played using Mongoose Publishing Traveller rules and set in the Spinward Marches in the years 1106 to 1107– as close to canonical as the GM is able to make it.
The game is played completely online every Sunday using the Roll20 Virtual Tabletop Program, Skype (voice only) and with additional material, interaction on this Obsidian Portal site.
The game is played completely online every Sunday using the Roll20 Virtual Tabletop Program, Skype (voice only) and with additional material, interaction on this Obsidian Portal site.
GM:
NickPendrell
Stream
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Mustered Out on Mertactor Comments
Eca IV and back counts as one jump as you were in transit for 8 days in total.
Hey Nick, since Glisten, How many weeks of training did we get, jump wise? 1 week to Overnale I know, but then does going out and back from Eca IV count as 1 or 2?
Luv it. Cheers. Will is almost a real doctor!
Thanks Steve, 1KP for 2 jumps sounds more reasonable to me.
So Jay, you’re now a bit further ahead than you thought Will was.
in skill advancement wiki. 1 KP= 2 jumps.
Can anyone remember where and what I wrote about swapping karma points for jumps-worth of training?
I can’t remember. Jay says that he thought that I made the exchange rate as 1 karma point = 1 jump.
Maybe I did say that (Alzheimer’s is obviously setting in). If so, I might change it because I haven’t been nearly as generous with karma points as maybe I thought that I was going to be when I came up with the rules (not because you’re not playing well enough to earn them – just because I keep forgetting about them).
Oh – I didn’t see the bit about it taking 1d6 minutes. That’s not so good for keeping Will involved in the combats then. You’ll need to get Autumn involved as a backup first aider!
On the combat medic front, note that first aid takes 1d6 minutes. So, if Will stops to help an injured crew member, both are pretty much out of the fight.
Good to see the medic (soon to be an actual Dr I might add) getting some GM love!
Revised Taeva Armament (Can you delete old one?- I can’t).
Her vacc suit is DR 10 and has its own Army Gauss Pistol/ Holster and Monoknife.
When not in vacc suit armor is DR 9 Gelcloth,and Reflec Vest giving DR 12 lasers.
Sometimes (on ship) this will be a Crew Coat but DR is same (gelcloth).
In ninja mode her gelcloth steathsuit is now also DR 9.
Gun is an army gauss and a snub when this not allowed.
Always carries a stealth knife and a yawara bo (as knuckleduster), and wears Fierah.
Usually has concealed needletto and two Hurling Monoblades (shoulder holster), and either a Monowire Knife or a Monoblade knife (2d and 1/2 armor or 1d6+5).
In ninja mode will carry a monofilament bolo also.
Actually there is one other rule that is stupidly hidden away in the Encounters & Dangers chapter which says that, if a character has lost at least one point from all his stats, then he can do nothing except to crawl a maximum of 1.5m.
So to clarify once and for all. First damage goes to END. If this takes END to zero, he is KO. Second damage goes to either STR or DEX (or END, I guess). Once again, if this takes the stat down to zero, he is KO.
If a character takes a third hit which can only come off his last remaining untouched stat or else he will be KO’ed, then he will be only able to crawl then until he gets medical attention.
I quite like this way, actually. For one thing it makes the medic a much more important part of the combat operation and, secondly, it makes it harder to reckless characters to do some heroic charges that mean I have to do some fudging to stop them being killed.
Thanks for the damage clarification. If we decided that long ago I either missed it or forgot.
Will has his own funds already for his cybernetics and some of his armour. He’s happy to buy his new vacc suit with a cash distribution from the kitty.
I do recommend we acquire the medical drugs we discussed some time ago. I think it was about Cr28k or so.
As I said I need about 300k. The option I suggested a while ago seemed to address what everyone wanted trucks/suits/cash etc.
From my perspective if a load of money is spent before split I probably won’t have that 300k I need for the suit and equipment upgrades.
True on the grav truck, it’s over 800k, but we just sold our air/raft, which will cover most of the outlay on the new vehicle. I’m good either way, though, we just need to decide so Nick can set the shares and the kitty.
re. combat I’ve been playing what Grim said. Did we not discuss/ agree this variation a long time ago?
I would say just let everybody buy vacc suits out of their own money. The more we spend on group gear the smaller the shares will be. Everyone wants different vacc suits/ costs. We are already spending a shitload on a grav truck.
@Jay, I know it’s wrong (though it feels sooo right) but (as I understood it) we’ve been playing with
1. 1st shot straight to End, if End reaches or goes below 0, target is Unc,
2. Subsequent shots to targets choice, target remains standing until 2 stats are at or below 0.
Both ways have minor advantages and disadvantages, but if we want to go with a more strict interpretation of the rules, I’m cool with that! Grim tends to be either unconscious or standing valiantly over a pile of dead bodies either way, lol.
On another note, before the close of today’s session Steve mentioned “assisted training” for those of us who weren’t going under the “cyberaugmentatio” knife. What rules are we using for this and where are they located? Also, I think I asked this before, but are we assuming a 4 week recovery period for Glisten Cybersurgery (at TL15) vs. a 5 week recovery period for Collace’s “New You” clinic? This would be kinda cool as a charcter benefit for those who “waited” for enhancement…
Finally, as regards finances and Nick’s question regarding group purchases vs. payouts, I’m assuming the GravATV as designed by Dom has passed a majority vote to be paid for by the Princess, but what about VaccSuits and Armor? Should we just give a 50k stipend to each player and then declare the rest of the pot as dividends, to be divided according to Ship Shares?
Grim (the magnificent ;)/Ian
On the issue of combat, I just want to straighten out the damage thing. I’ve been playing according to the rulebook which, as I read it, says:
1. All damage comes off END until it hits zero (and, with the optional knock-out we’re using, if the first hit knocks END to 0 you’re out cold [the rules actually say that any hit, not necessarily the first hit, but that’s silly since END has to get to 0 eventually so that’s a typical MG screwup]).
2. Once END hits 0, further damage comes off your choice of STR or DEX, but all dmg must come off one or the other.
If we’re doing something else, fine by me but I’d like to know what it is!
Grim currently uses a simple Cloth/Reflec combo for most situations, unless aboard ship, where he wears a fireresistant EnviroSuit in Engineering. He has a lower TL gel cloth suit that he’d love to trade in on the TL 14 Glisten version when we get to Glisten which he’ll then make his base armor. He’s already got a gel cloth repair kit.
As to weapons, on permissive planets he carries his Gauss Rifle and an Autopistol (to be replaced at Glisten with a Gauss Pistol). Where a Gauss Rifle is disallowed or is inappropriate, he has access to (in order of preference), the aforementioned Autopistol, a Snub Revolver, or a Heavy Body Pistol. He has a combat/hunting knife he carries on extended field missions, but blade weapons really aren’t his thing unless all other weapons are disallowed. As everyone is by now aware, he has an Auto RAM 6 shot Grenade launcher, generally only used for full on assaults where weapons legality is either not an issue or where he has been cleared to use it by the authorities.
Unless in a vacc suit Taeva’s armor is always the same; currently TL 13 Gel Cloth (DR 7) and a reflec lined vest. After Glisten this will upgrade to TL 14 Gel Cloth (DR 9).
Always carried: Yawara Bo (boosts unarmed damage to 2d6-2 as brass knuckles)
Hidden stealth knife 1d6+2
Usually carried: Needletto 1d6+1 ignores half armor but stupidly counts as one effect level higher on a hit rather than more simply being 1d6+2.
2 concealed throwing spikes/ knives
On worlds where people swish about with open blades she will carry a blade.
Her gun will be an Army Gauss pistol where allowed and otherwise a snub.
Grenades suit to taste/ availability. WIll add a stiletto on asssault type missions as extra knife (substituting for blade if she is carry one of those).
I am considering buying a really expensive sniper rifle for those specific moments but this won’t usually be carried.
William is easy:
William’s Law Level Strategy
To save my having to keep checking with you every time, what would be useful is if everyone could give me a list of how their character is armed and armored according to Law Level.
So it would stretch from:
Law Level 0 = RAM Grenade Launcher | Laser Rifle | Battledress
through …
Law Level 9 = Plastic spoon | Thick woollen cardigan
If you can post them here to start with, perhaps one of those who have figured out how to make tables will be kind enough to put them up on a Wiki page in a nice, easy-to-read format.
Maybe a job as a belter might not be such a bad career move after all:
http://mashable.com/2012/04/26/planetary-resources-asteroid-mining-trillions/
When I was little we often used to visit my Liverpool Gran (Dad’s Mum)at weekends or even midweek sometimes. It must have been late 60’s and I was perhaps 7 or 8, and I seem to remember I had this drawing toy with plastic animal shapes that I used to keep at her house, and my memory is of drawing with the brown plastic shapes while Gilligan’s island was on- it used to show at maybe 6-6.30pm in the evening (virtually every weekday evening I think).
“My Great-father worked for Glisten’s System Defence Department. He was a sensor expert. His role was watching for Zhodani activity, but he said the radio spectrum was flooded with ultra-low-level ancient Solomani stuff that they just broadcast into the ether millennia ago. Anyway, that was the theme song for a serial entertainment about a hapless crew and their passengers stranded on an alien planet. They built ground vehicles out of vegetation. Don’t know how they ever got into space with that level of thinking, but GP used to say that the show nicely captured an old empire in its declining days on Terra. Anyway, the jingle sticks in your mind.”
(OOC What is it with you Empire types and your fascination with Gilligan’s island? For god’s sake, Steve knows the lyrics too…lol! OOC)
Grim, noticing that Will is singing a different tune, walks up and says, “Good on you Capn’! And where’s that catchy song from? Well never mind, I think we need a ship’s song, you know, just to pipe the passengers on and off with…and I think you’ve hit on just the melody,” with that Grim sticks out his hand for Will to shake.
Come sit right back and you’ll hear a tale
A tale of a fateful trip
That started from this tropic port
Aboard this tiny ship…
“dahdadadah, dahdadada…” hums Grim as he walks by Will after using the fresher…
“Daditdah, dadadah…” hums Jie a while later sa she passes Will in the corridor on her way to check the course of the Princess…
“dahda…” Arvor is humming striding towards the port turret when Will cuts him off abruptly.
“What is that insidious tune you’re all humming?” Will demands.
“Well, last week Grim and I were looking over some of the holovids Kiiimmmiii and Laarrii had stashed away for the passengers. Seems the kids were collectors of old vids, I mean really old vids. Anyway we came across one we really liked, about a band of adventurers dirtside on old Terra. We’ve been passing it around, ask Grim where the copy is if you want to see it. Kinda cheesy, really, but with a very catchy theme song. Called the “B-team”, I think. Hey, have you noticed that Grim doesn’t wash his hands after he uses the fresher? Maybe that’s why he has trouble finding a date."
With that, Arvor resumes his march to the turret, presumably to calibrate his guns, leaving Will with a tune stuck in his head.
“Dahdadadah…” he begins humming.
Nice. May I humbly suggest delaying the theme song until after a larger map and the dancing girls?
That looks pretty cool in black!
Updated the Front Page. Slowly learning. Hope you guys like it. Next…A Theme Song!
Re this week’s game: we go on Daylight Savings Time this Sunday throughout North America. Do you in the UK? if not, I think the game start is one hour later for Ian and I at least.
I have CC3 and its add-ons if we need to redo the thing. Would that help improve clarity Nick?
Also, I’ll miss this week’s game (although there’s some hope I could make the last hour or so).
I’ll email you the .png file I made tonight. Here’s the link where I found the originals…
http://www.ace-dog.co.uk/Traveller/DeckPlans/DECKPLAN.HTM
Ian
Yes, send it through to me and I will see how it looks when it is blown up to the correct size.
Resizing on Gametable is pretty basic but simple. You just put them in the board, click on them and then resize to the number of squares you want it to be by a process of trial and error.
Might not be able to use it then, as it’s only 250k in the original format :-(
I did transfer it to a .png file and load it into my OSU, but I don’t know how to resize it yet! LOL, maybe I’ll just send you the file and let you play with it?
Ian
That map does look nice as it’s in colo(u)r.
How big is the original file? If it’s big, then I can use that one instead.
The ‘Empress Manuela’ plans that everyone has already was sized for 15mm figures and so it’s a good size. If these maps are too small, they tend to pixelate quite badly and don’t look so good.
Hey Jay, yup it’s a CC3 version I pulled off the web, more for fun than anything though! There are quite a few far trader variants, including the Mongoose one and the classic “Marava” that came from CT. Not sure which Nick is gonna want to use: last game we used the CT version as the “Empress Manuela”, so that’s already in Nick’s master underlay library.
Ian, I like your deckplan better than the MGT version. CC3?
That front page is fantastic Russ.
Jay
That is really pretty cool Russ! The pictures and captions are very cool, plus it makes it easier for us if we want to reread a particular adventure. Thanks!
Hey guys, I tried to spruce up the Home page so readers wouldn’t be overwhelmed by the amount of text we made so far. I’m not very good at ‘Wiki’-ing and it’s taken me this long to do this, but there are some real fancy O.P. sites out there with cool stuff I would like to
stealer… I mean learn from. I’m open to suggestions if you have any. What do you think about the Home page having little pictures of us that can link to our characters. There would be a sentence of description i.e. Will the professor that knows too much!STR is already factored in as it raises the to-hit number and so the Effect, which is added to Damage. The Klingon will feel Jie’s might.
Hey guys, I got to thinking. If Jies STR is 11 and has a 1 Modifier then she hits a Klingon with her cutlass (Damage 2d64) would she add in her STR modifier to the damage? I don’t see it in the rules. Any ideas?
Yeah, I got pretty into it too, when it looked like we were playing Terra Mariana. Emded up getting a copy of The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia. Fun read!
Unfortunately that game never got off the ground thanks to the combination of my girlfriend supposedly coming to stay for a couple of weeks and staying the whole summer together with the fact that trying to read the GURPS rulebook proved an impossibility due to my lazinesss or ADD whatever it is.
It’s a shame as the roleplaying part of it was really cool and it could have had potential.
I really wanted to pick up a copy of ‘The Northern Crusades’ as it seems like the definitive text on it, but couldn’t find a pirate version of it anywhere and it was before I became a Kindle junkie.
I later found out that someone had actually created an entire roleplaying system just for the game:
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=80746
I picked up a copy but never had time to do anything other than leaf through it. It looks pretty cool though.
Nick just noticed your other game-The Northern Crusades is one of those periods I’ve always meant to wargame: those Gripping Beast Teutonic Knights are just so damn good.
Have you read ‘The Northern Crusades’ by Eric Christianssen, or ‘The Monks of War’ by Frere’ Desmond Seward?
Now he tells me we don’t have to play nice. Grim is going to purchase some RAM incindiary grenades. Just in case ;-)
You asked for it. Williams’s bringing it now!
Please don’t get too wrapped up in feeling as if you have to take the moral high ground all the time. The main impetus for setting this campaign in District 268 is that, in most cases, what you do on one planet shouldn’t have any effect on what you do on others (unless you piss off a really big and vindictive megacorp). One of the reasons why the previous campaign ground to a halt was because of the constant fear of the law being on everyone’s backs, which is something that I am going to try and steer well clear of in this game.
I felt a bit guilty about last week’s game as it was really only Taeva and Arvor who were able to bring their skills to bear. For an out-and-out combat monster like Jie, things are going to get dull if she doesn’t have the opportunity to blast some bad guys with her laser rifle from time to time!
So, without trying to push you against your wishes, I had designed this scenario for you to firstly use your wits and stealthiness to first of all bring the odds back more into your favor but not so much that there isn’t going to be a bit of fighting involved. That’s a reason why everyone on the world you’re finding out is a sneaky bastard!
Gents: as I write this it’s 2 am. I’ve got out of town guests for New Years Eve and they ain’t leaving! I suspect I won’t make today’s game; if I do, it’ll be 2 or 3 hours into it at least. Apologies— I’ll try and catch up. Good luck!
Grim chooses VaccSuit 0.
Ah skill learning, hmm I’ve dithered a bit. I finally choose….Blade 2 (original choice).
I suspect Jie will hone her skill at the Laser Carbine, working on Gun Combat-Energy Rifle trying to bring it to Level-4-. That evening she bought A TL12 Med Kit, eye protectors TL8 Flac Jacket to wear over TL9 Ablat, a TL10 Comm (super cell phone), 2 Cutlasses (Cutlass-ie?) and a body Pistol for those special occasions. Total weight=14 Kg (plus TL 11 Laser Carbine=17Kg).
Remaining cash minus items, food and board for last week, new pair of nice stilletto high heels and a drunken bar fight tab= 13.5 credits. Dang.
You will always need to have Hamachi up and running before you can connect Gametable. Without Hamachi running, you will just get error messages saying “Cannot Connect” or something similar as Gametable won’t be able to get through my fire wall without it.
William will be working on Gun Combat 0, or if you require a speciality, Gun Combat (slug pistol) 0. He’ll be purchasing some medical equipment and a vacc suit (exact details to be worked out tomorrow morning (my morning) before we start playing.
Query: do we just hook up tomorrow through GameTable or do we need to also do the H? “break thru the firewall” program too/first??
Thanks and talk to you “tomorrow”,
Jay
Yes, this is fine if you want to let me know which new skills you want to start learning. You can then start on them during the jump to Collace.
If anyone wants to buy more gear, they are able to do so during the evening.
Please can everyone let me know what they would like to be doing during the evening and add any new purchases to their sheets before we get things underway this evening.
(oops, got excited and jumped the gun, bought my tool kits, handcomp, autopistol, ammo, and armor out of the “central supply catalog” already…just adjusted for level2 Engineering program, cost me another 10k CrImps…Grim really does need this job now, lol}
Oh, also, now that we know all the PCs, can we add additional equipment to our starting list? William would like to acquire some medical gear and a vacc suit.
Nick,
Are you going to use the “learning new skills” rules (p59 of the rulebook)? If so, we might want to settle on the skills we’re each working towards improving.
Woohoo! Game on!