Uizk 0409 A624625-B N Ni
The steward who comes to fetch Lin to get her off the ship does not even try to feign courtesy. Lin can only imagine the trouble her little display might have caused for their further dealings with Düningen. But she hardly cares, as she does not intend to ever see this ship or her homeworld ever again.
She goes immediately to an information terminal, and discovers that the recruiting hall is located at the downport; a stroke of luck, as she's dying to stand on the surface of a new planet!
But a week on, she still hasn't done so. The atmosphere on Uizk is more poisonous than her homeworld's, and so thin that it requires compressors added to one's breath mask in order to take in enough to breathe at all. She's not bought one as she doesn't intend to stay long, and really can't afford the Cr150 it would cost. Besides, there's no compelling reason to leave the downport. It's sprawling --several kilometres from end to end-- and contains everything an offworlder could possibly need. Plus, despite the two merchant marines she overhears in the restaurant complaining about the crowds of people everywhere, all she can see are the wide open spaces; her home precinct had a higher population than this whole system.
The recruiting hall turns out to be a series of self-help kiosks with an electronic readerboard above. The scrolling job announcements go by on an endless loop, which seldom takes more than a standard minute before it repeats. There's a smaller side board with static announcements, and a single bored clerk behind plexiglass whose permanent scowl broadcasts that she'd rather read her novel in peace instead of talking to vagrant spacer trash like Lin.
Lin watches the other jobseekers as they come and go, and tries to guess which of them are actually spacers; most of the jobs advertised are for dockworkers and service staff. She doesn't need to come here every day, as she can get the same postings sent directly to her hotel room terminal, but said hotel room is smaller than most prison cells she's been in, so it's nicer to go in person and stretch her legs.
She does overhear one lead (whilst sitting in the holo-cinema waiting for the countless adverts to finish before Twilight's Peak IV: The Octagon Conspiracy finally starts) as two grizzled naval veterans are talking about the 'mysterious ship' docked in bay 49. One swears it's an impound, suspected of piracy. Her mate tells her not to be daft; it's a subsidised merchant that had to sack the whole crew and the owner aboard is quietly trying to hire on a new one before the bank gets wind. Lin is happy she waited until after the film --even that last funny bit after the end credits-- to chase up the rumour, for she arrives to find bay 49 empty, and when she asks, the security guard laughs and says she's the fifth person today to come looking.
She's been spending the bulk of her days wandering through the port and trying to behave like a normal person, instead of a Düningener. She's found that she can be far too direct when addressing others, and her ideas of personal space coming from a far too overpopulated world don't help matters much. Her previous line of work involved dealing with everyone from lowly warehouse workers to high officials, so she'd learnt to be somewhat of a chameleon, but even so it takes three days of adjusting her manner before people stop reacting to her like a madwoman.
Her first instinct was to make a circuit of the local pubs and see who she could prise some information out of, but the pain meds she's on aren't the kind that are fun to wash down with a few shots. And she's been mostly off her food, and the thought of sitting somewhere she could smell the kitchen... She instead pays a visit to a chemist, who sends her off with a local stomach remedy which seems to help a bit, though the admonition to avoid operating heavy machinery whilst taking it makes her laugh -- perhaps the technological superiority of her homeworld wasn't just propaganda.
[Narrating her week in the order it was played out would have been very clunky. So...
Ship encounter: 1200t battle cruiser, warn of unidentified ship (this was noted, but it never came up)
Starport encounter: Mysterious ship landed at the port, no-one allowed to see it or go near it, though there are plenty of rumours around. (I combined this with the rumour below)
Whenever I get a PC/party in this sort of semi-aimless situation, I always use Travelling Alone (link). The original sequence in my notes was:
>Upkeep
SOCxSOCx10= cr250, cr690 remaining
>buy
no
>healing
-cr5 for different anti-nausea meds
>options
look for a job, need 10+ : 2D=7, no
>Hear rumour
misc, potential patron
major, aid +1 DM on job search
>options
look again for job, 2D=9, not quite
(truth of rumour? mostly false, no DM)
>buy/sell
no
>end
The next week (starting on 071-1105) is more eventful and less background-y, so I'll take it in order.]
Lin is starting to worry about her credit balance. Maybe she oughtn't to spend so much time at the cinema, but the lure of films that haven't been chopped up or banned outright by Düningen's Censor Bureau has just been to great. [>Upkeep, -CR250] And she still can't drink, so killing time down the pub hasn't been an option. And there's not really much else to do than window shopping [>buy], and that doesn't keep her mind off the slight tremor in her hands she's been noticing the past few days.
[last END roll for side effects fails, -1 DEX]
So to save on funds, she begins to explore sections of the port that she'd previously avoided. The commerce centre is loud and annoying, so she quickly flees. The wing with hotels she can't afford is not much better, but she does happen to pass the Travellers' Aid Society office & hostel, and notices the glowing banner in the window: 'Three days only! Accepting New Applications for Membership. Standard Fees. No Invitation Required!'
"Drat," thinks Lin, "only Cr999,565 short!" [>Event, Opportunity to make TAS application (open entry)]
Not much else to do this side of the port but window shop [>buy, >healing]. The boutiques here remind Lin of nothing so much as the sorts of over-priced shops that make Düningen's long-distance maglev stations such a misery to visit. Actually, some of the chain stores are exactly the same ones.
Maybe it's time to go back and check the recruiting hall again. At least there she's among her kind of people.
[> seek patron; d6=y
I made the usual die rolls to set up the patron meeting, and rolled a mission on the tables in Solo--
d66=smuggler
reaction=10!
mission: Provide Protection on a Journey
target: prototype.
Ship? free trader
Destination:
Q: Where? (1d6): 1-4 within jump-1, 5-6 jump-2: d6=j-1
Q: Which system? (1d6): 1 Düningen, 2-3 Uizk, 4-5 Drokkotli, 6 Invetsch: Drokkotli]
Nothing again! As she walks away, her ruminations about how long she can hold out before she has to apply for a cargo handling job are cut short as she notices someone walking on a course to intersect with hers. His salt-and-pepper hair and beard say he's older than she is, but not by much (and she's looked in the mirror every day since getting off Düningen to see if the strain of it all has finally summoned the grey hairs she know are lying in wait for her). His brown leather flight jacket is well worn, and maybe a little tight to zip up easily any more. But his gait is confident and his smile seems genuine; she's at least curious to see what he has to say.
"Trying to find a new berth..."
"You seem like you can probably handle yourself. The way you keep watching other people--"
"Force of habit."
"Ex-military?"
"Hahaha! Nothing like that."
"Too bad. I'm putting together a small security detail."
"Now that I have experience in."
"Seriously?"
"Not as muscle, obviously, but I've run a fair few protection gigs in my day."
"Well, friend, you may just have saved me having to post a recruiting ad. Not that the expense is an issue, but I have the feeling the clerk hates me! I'm Captain Elleder, by the way."
"Lín."
"Alright, Lin, why don't we discuss the job somewhere a little less out in the open. You hungry? There's a great Nivatrian place that I always hit up whenever I get out this way."
Lin has an immediate twisting in her guts at the mention of it, but decides she can't let bad memories rule her future. Besides, she never did get that promised bread and tails...
"Lead on!"
[I always like to have a few extra characters ready on the sidelines
I also needed a few more rolls to fill out the job:
Q: Others in the security detail? 1d3=3*
Q: How big is prototype? d6-1=3t
Q: Mainworld delivery? likely (3+): O4 C4 - yes, but...
+Event: Introduce a new NPC - Betray / Advice (=will not listen to anyone else and will make things more difficult)
type: d66=noble
*oops, I was so excited by the prospects afforded by the New NPC introduced in the Event that I forgot to roll up the other two. He was generated totally at random, other than swapping his highest-rolled characteristic into SOC to make him a noble. I'd have raised it to 11 I'd had to, but there was no need; his rolled UPP was an amazing 9ABB6C.
They'll ship out at either the end of the Travelling Alone sequence or Options.]
Lunch is pleasant, the job seems legit, the pay offered is decent, and the Captain does not show himself to be an idiot, so Lin happily accepts Elleder's offer. It's not the pilot's chair she wanted, but if she acquits herself on the mission (he keeps calling it a mission, but she'll let that slide), maybe she can angle herself for the position later. If not... she'll see where things stand when it comes to that point.
After lunch, the captain excuses himself, saying he's got some business to attend to in the commerce centre. He reminds her that they ship out in [1d6-1=] two days. Lin goes back to the hotel, intending to use the public library data entries available on the vidscreen to brush up on some pertinent facts about her 'homeworld', and maybe some about Vinstreg for good measure. The good captain had noticed her hands shaking at dinner, and she had to repeat her story about needing hospitalisation after picking up a parasite there.
Six hours later she finds she's been sucked into the science network and has just watched back-to-back programmes about Vinstreg's long tradition of undersea viticulture.
[>hear rumour: Fact about Environment
>Options]
Fortunately the medicine means she has no trouble sleeping for 10 hours at a time, but her waking hours in the final two days on Uizk seem endless, up until the last. When she checks out of the hotel, she goes to the nearby self-service laundry so she doesn't show up to meet her new shipmates with a bag full of dirty pants. But the dryers are old and poorly maintained, and the robot attendant is worse than unhelpful, so she has to wait anxiously for it to finish a second cycle.
She practically sprints across the starport to the restaurant where the captain has set the rendez-vous. She gets there three minutes late and gasping for breath; not exactly the first impression she'd hoped to make!
next post: the crew
Thanks for sharing, looking forward to finding out more about the mission!
ReplyDeleteDo you have a ‘process’ for fleshing out non-game detail (eg the recruitment hall kiosks) or do you just recognise where a post/story needs it? I struggle a bit with this, and I wonder if writing up detail after you play (your method, right?) helps with this, as you are in a ‘writing’ mode rather than a ‘playing’ mode, if that makes sense.
Good question. I'm afraid the answer is mostly 'random inspiration at the time', both when playing and when writing up my notes later. Some of the scenes I play out are really vivid in my head, and the details are just me attempting to re-create them in words. Some scenes are so striking (to me) that I don't need to record any of it at the time, and I'll still remember how Ienvisioned it months (>cough< or years >cough<) later when I finally get round to writing any of it up nicely. I had a really clear picture of the restaurant where Ling met her crime boss at the end of Part 2. I even had a crystal-clear image of her crossing the street outside to get to it, but this didn't add to the story at all so ended up on the cutting-room floor, so to speak.
DeleteSome details occur to me as I'm playing and do get noted, like when I rolled Healing in the Travelling alone sequence and decided it meant she wanted to try different anti-nausea meds. I even deducted the 5 extra credits on her character sheet.
One of the great joys of Traveller is trying to figure out how the setting works. A lot of the details are just me trying to rationalise X or Y thing that happened, or adding flavour to the worlds so they all seem like different places. I spend a lot of time looking at UWPs and trying to tease something interesting from the numbers. I do a lot of this kind of world building in my head when I'm on the bus (much of the next post got worked out on my commute). The kiosks were my answer to finding a job as an itinerant spacer, especially one who had only recently arrived and hadn't yet figured out all the on-world bureaucracy needed to get planetary net access, or was too poor to get it. Then I gave Lin a reason to go when she didn't actually need to visit it in person as a way to flesh out her personality more.
And sometimes, as you say, there are gaps in a post that need to be filled, so I will invent something as I am writing. I do the same thing when GMing a group though. I'll just extemporise little bits of local colour and, if I do it right some of them actually turn into interesting diversions later, or at least a running bit, like all the names of holo series & films being old Traveller modules. It's easier when I'm writing, as there's no one waiting for the answer, but I find the mind-set is broadly the same.
Thanks for the reply. I find that I lean towards getting the descriptive down while I'm playing, but then I don't seem to get as much playing done.
DeleteWhen I was GMing in my Scarlet Heroes setting, one of my players casually mentioned he had forgotten the world was covered in red mist, which was really jarring to hear. We'd stopped the campaign so I decided in my solo game I would bake the flavour of the setting into the hexcrawl procedure. Now I'm blogging and picking up Traveller, and wondering if I need to do something similar, or try to get into a "writing" mindset while I'm mid-playing, or simply separate the two.
After I replied, I did happen across one of my Cryptworld adventures where I started out by writing a lot more details in my notes. Once it took off, though, the notes went back to my normal sparse level. I think it can be a good method of getting things rolling, even though it does slow down play considerably.
DeleteThere are a few parts coming up where the environment affects my travellers' missions. I've tried to add lots of little details beyond just the bits that directly affected skill rolls. You'll have to let me know if it worked!