Friday 27 December 2013

Solo Traveller - Episode 6: Are we there yet?

New Dlemmis/Foreven (3134 B641400-B) / Date: 198-1106

[Slowly breaking myself into the MGT Trade rules (in the main book) alongside Star Trader. On the voyage from Veegint to New Dlemmis, I skipped over all the trading, as it was just the province of the NPCs, and I didn't feel like tracking their finances. I'm still leaving their credit balance as an abstract idea, but it's time to figure out passengers and cargo.

There are 10 staterooms in the bog standard Free Trader. Five of these are given over to the crew; Daffid has his own even though he doesn't often sleep there at the moment. The usual pilot isn't here, but since she and the Captain are inseparable buddies (despite her jealousy over his ownership of the Galatea), he's sealed off her room for now. Eshtam has been given her own room for the voyage. This leaves 4 staterooms for passengers.

Whilst Eshtam, Zet, and Daffid were off getting into trouble, Captain Aalir and Gelray were out trying to drum up some business. As the Captain intended to leave after only 72 standard hours, I have decided to halve the available cargo and passengers.

Two middle and four high passengers are available. (Q: Are any of the high passengers travelling together? No, and... they're all strangers.) So 4 high passages it is.

Q: Who are the passengers? Using the Get NPC (Science Fiction Genre) tool from http://www.rpgsolo.com and my basic human origin table produces the following:

Virtuous fugitive. Human Female
Arrogant navigator. Solomani Male
Impulsive gambler. Human Male
Hypochondriac recluse. Human Female

That's enough detail for now. I'll find them stat blocks if it becomes important.

Finding cargo proves less successful. There is only 1 minor cargo (a mere 20t) available for transport, and nothing for speculation. To save time, the Captain didn't try to sell any of the speculative cargo he picked up on Veegint, so there is still (1d6x10) 20 tons of basic machine parts still in the hold, plus the (1d6x5) 5 tons of contraband.

Following the Star Trader flowchart, it turns out that the Captain meets no contacts on New Dlemmis, there's no port encounter of any significance and no ship encounter. So, on the afternoon of 201-1106, Captain Aalir welcomes his passengers aboard, and the Galatea lifts off from New Dlemmis. Five hours later, the Captain dims the interior lights (as is tradition) and orders Eshtam to activate the jump engines.

Question time:
Q: Does Daffid keep schtum? Yes, but... he becomes insufferable towards Eshtam  and Zet.
Q: Does the Captain suspect anything happened? No, but... he is cold to Eshtam and cross with Zet, thinking they both were bickering with Daffid on shore leave.
Q: Does the Captain actually do anything about these three? No.

Referring to Star Trader for an event during jump, it transpires that '[t]here's one obnoxious passenger people try to avoid. This trip will be miserable unless someone deals with him'. Dealing with him requires a Bribery or Liaison roll.

Randomly determine which passenger: Arrogant navigator.
Q: How (asking Mythic via rpgsolo.com) is he obnoxious? Judgementally / Small. (Small next to Judgemental makes me think small-minded; sounds like a Solomani-superiority thing to me...)

The Captain is the only person in the party with a useful skill (Bribery), but he's not about to give money back to a paying passenger just to keep him off people's nerves.

Q: Is there an incident? No, and...]

It's a miserable trip all around. The annoying Solomani spends most of his time in the lounge, causing the other passengers to take their meals at odd hours and hide in their staterooms to avoid him.

Eshtam spends most of the trip locked in the bridge or her stateroom. She feels like she's in a tenuous enough situation with the Captain to risk starting something with a paying passenger, no matter how stupid and obnoxious ('Really?' she thinks. 'Solomani superiority? In the Foreven sector? What's the actual point?'). Luckily, the Captain doesn't expect her to take a shift on steward duty since she's not really one of his crew.

The rest of the crew fall to bickering over who has to play steward. Daffid and Zet can barely be in the same room together. Daffid spends a lot of time 'maintaining' the drives and power plant. Zet hides in his room. Gelray is harried by the hypochondriac, offering to play steward on occasion just so she'll leave him alone (the solomani scares her a bit). The Captain is abrupt and peevish with everybody.

The Galatea continues through jumpspace.

150 hours go by.

160 hours. Can it really be taking this long?

165 hours.

166...

No comments:

Post a Comment