ANSI A (US Letter) format - Freelance Traveller
ANSI A (US Letter) format - Freelance Traveller ANSI A (US Letter) format - Freelance Traveller
Raconteurs’ Rest(Continued from page 5)Caballero y Barkmann, Naval Customs Inspector.However, since the group hadn‟t done anything yet,there was no cause to detain them. Lt. Caballero yBarkmann was quite unamused at the fact that theyentered the system without any cargo to sell, and expressedhis suspicions.In order to allay these suspicions, the group decidedto proceed to the main world of the Europasystem in order to at least look like they were thereon legitimate business. They found Europa III to be abureaucratic nightmare, not to mention overly brightfrom the glaring white sun, and excessively dusty.The local cuisine of salty tubers and pungent vodkadid little to endear them to the impoverished planet.Appropriate reference to the film “Brazil” was made.Eventually they made their way to the EuropaBelt, and Wilkie guided them based on notable asteroids(he was loathe to tell too much informationahead of time) to the wreck of the Mustang. It wasstill there in the stillness of vacuum, somewhat theworse for wear. A 200-ton trader, the whole forwardsection including the bridge was smashed by a collision.The hull was open to vacuum and there appearedto be engine damage. They took up stationtwo klicks out and flew over aboard their skiff(Tallon was the skiff pilot and consistently madehigh rolls). Wilkie had initially planned on skippingEVA and remaining aboard Juan Fernandez, but noone would back his play.Wilkie in tow, they boarded SRS Mustang. EngineerBessimer decided to begin dismantling the portlaser turret for spare weapons. The rest began checkingout the cargo hold. Most of the pharma was damagedbut the Autodoc was in good shape, still in theoriginal packing materials. They began checking outthe engines to see what shape they were in. Maneuverand Jump were gone but the Power Plant wasstill good.While on EVA removing laser barrels, Bessimerhappened to notice the telltale flare of a maneuverdrive in the rock field several klicks away. He correctlysurmised it to be an ambush! It was asked byTallon at this point “Wilkie, how many people did6you tell about this?” At which point Wilkie revealed,in his trademark outrageous British accent, that hedid shop around the contract a bit (in actual fact, thisrival crew had gotten much more information out ofWilkie than the PCs; they had learned of the probablelocation, and decided not only to get the salvagebut to score a “two-fer” by overthrowing whoeverWilkie actually ended up bringing to the site).They sprung into action admirably. Tallon beganto reassemble the port laser turret. Kelley and Bessimerbegan trying to bring the Power Plant online.This would take Engineering, Electronics and Mechanicaltasks. At least 2 elevens were rolled, and thethird roll was high. Power was restored in half thetime I had estimated. As the unknown vessel, evidentlya 100-ton mining Seeker, came to a stop andlaunched a miner‟s buggy, the group managed to restorethe fire control computers.Manning the guns, the long-silent Mustangopened fire on the miner‟s buggy, but all shots wentwide. The mining Seeker, Fortunate Son, opened fireon Mustang but the wild maneuvers of her own miningbuggy spoiled the aim.The buggy ducked to the forward plane, essentiallyout of arc of the motionless Mustang. It closedto board. Mustang‟s batteries opened up again, andcrippled Fortunate Son by taking out her Maneuverand Jump drives. Fortunate Son did not return fire,hoping that the boarding party would take the ship.Also, pirate captain Jack “the Ripper” Gammon wasunwilling to continue exchanging fire in what wasclearly a losing proposition.The buggy sped up to the opened forward hullsection to disgorge its boarding party. Russ Fraserhad positioned himself near there at a key point, hisservice revolver in one hand and his fancy Marinecommemorative cutlass in the other. The side doorsof the buggy were flung open, and the boarding partyemerged with a leap: “Snake”, with a shotgun;“Curly” with a cutlass; and “Cutter” with his trademarkblade.Russ discharged his magnum, hitting Snake inthe chest and sending him floating off course with a(Continued on page 7)
Raconteurs’ Rest(Continued from page 6)cloud of blood. Russ simply let go of the pistol and itfloated backwards; he readied his cutlass as his foeswere upon him in a flash. I ruled that he would haveto split his defensive malus against the attackers asthere were two of them; however, that was stillplenty. Russ blocked an overhead stroke and thencame down and deflected a low blade thrust with hispommel. His backswing took Curly across the chest,discharging a cloud of gore from his ruined suit. Cutterthrust in but Russ dodged deftly; Lt. Fraser‟s responsewas a cutlass to the neck, right below thejoint of the faceplate (newbies go for the faceplate,but Russ knew better as it is well-armored). The resultingspray of blood filled Cutter‟s helmet andended the fool.Meanwhile, not knowing how the combat wouldturn out, Bessimer chose to overload SRS Mustang‟spower plant. As it turned out, this was not particularlynecessary. The group decided to send a textcommunication back to Fortunate Son from thebuggy. Fraser‟s initial communication was not especiallyconvincing, but Jack Gammon thought that itwas the blockheaded Curly Trejo at the comm, sobought the explanation that Snake, the nominalleader of the away team, was injured.Bessimer and Tallon decided to push the Autodoccrates out the open hull into space, and thenabandon ship in the skiff and collect the crates later.Meanwhile, Captain Kelley and Russ Fraser flew themining buggy (the bubble tint turned all the way toEssay QuestionEssay Question is designed to allow our readersto share their experiences and ideas in playing orrefereeing Traveller, or in designing things to beused in campaigns. Each issue, we‟ll print one ormore questions, either submitted by one of our readers,or invented by the Editor. Readers are invited tosend their answers (and their questions for future issues)to us at questions@freelancetraveller.com;we‟ll print a selection of the answers received ineach issue.max reflectivity) over to the Fortunate Son. Theylanded inside, but Jack Gammon was suspicious.Failing to allay his suspicions, Russ had to open thebuggy‟s hatch with a suspicious pirate at the ready.Fortunately for Russ, the fire from Gammon‟s autopistolwent wide, ricocheting off the interior roof ofthe buggy. Russ returned fire with the shotgun hehad liberated from Snake, and did not miss. Jack “theRipper” Gammon‟s mesh armor was inadequate topreserve him from a close range blast of the 18mmshell, and he fell back upon the bulkhead before expiring,leaving a bloody streak. No medical attentionwas attempted.The group was quite alarmed when they realizedthat the Combine Navy was closing in on their position,and even though the closest corvette was nearly2.5 hours out, there was little prospect of outrunningthe Navy. As they began to panic, Captain Kelley‟slevel head prevailed. Taking stock of their actions tothis point, he realized that as long as they were not inpossession of the Autodoc, they really hadn‟t committedany serious crime.In the end, the Navy awarded them a salvage feefor Fortunate Son (but not for Mustang, which wasnow a burned out shell from the Power Plant overload...which they deceptively explained as being dueto fire from the pirate ship) and bounties for the fourmiscreants they killed. Issued a stern warning againstfuture shenanigans, they were eventually let gosomewhat richer for the exchange. They stopped andpicked up the still undiscovered Autodoc on theirway out of the system. Mission accomplished!There were no responses to last month‟s questions,so we‟re letting them stand as this month‟squestions as well:How do you, as a referee, encourage yourplayers to play “in character”?What, in your opinion, makes an alien race“interesting”? (“Alien race” may include humansother than “mainstream Imperial”.)7
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Raconteurs’ Rest(Continued from page 5)Caballero y Barkmann, Naval Customs Inspector.However, since the group hadn‟t done anything yet,there was no cause to detain them. Lt. Caballero yBarkmann was quite unamused at the fact that theyentered the system without any cargo to sell, and expressedhis suspicions.In order to allay these suspicions, the group decidedto proceed to the main world of the Europasystem in order to at least look like they were thereon legitimate business. They found Europa III to be abureaucratic nightmare, not to mention overly brightfrom the glaring white sun, and excessively dusty.The local cuisine of salty tubers and pungent vodkadid little to endear them to the impoverished planet.Appropriate reference to the film “Brazil” was made.Eventually they made their way to the EuropaBelt, and Wilkie guided them based on notable asteroids(he was loathe to tell too much in<strong>format</strong>ionahead of time) to the wreck of the Mustang. It wasstill there in the stillness of vacuum, somewhat theworse for wear. A 200-ton trader, the whole forwardsection including the bridge was smashed by a collision.The hull was open to vacuum and there appearedto be engine damage. They took up stationtwo klicks out and flew over aboard their skiff(Tallon was the skiff pilot and consistently madehigh rolls). Wilkie had initially planned on skippingEVA and remaining aboard Juan Fernandez, but noone would back his play.Wilkie in tow, they boarded SRS Mustang. EngineerBessimer decided to begin dismantling the portlaser turret for spare weapons. The rest began checkingout the cargo hold. Most of the pharma was damagedbut the Autodoc was in good shape, still in theoriginal packing materials. They began checking outthe engines to see what shape they were in. Maneuverand Jump were gone but the Power Plant wasstill good.While on EVA removing laser barrels, Bessimerhappened to notice the telltale flare of a maneuverdrive in the rock field several klicks away. He correctlysurmised it to be an ambush! It was asked byTallon at this point “Wilkie, how many people did6you tell about this?” At which point Wilkie revealed,in his trademark outrageous British accent, that hedid shop around the contract a bit (in actual fact, thisrival crew had gotten much more in<strong>format</strong>ion out ofWilkie than the PCs; they had learned of the probablelocation, and decided not only to get the salvagebut to score a “two-fer” by overthrowing whoeverWilkie actually ended up bringing to the site).They sprung into action admirably. Tallon beganto reassemble the port laser turret. Kelley and Bessimerbegan trying to bring the Power Plant online.This would take Engineering, Electronics and Mechanicaltasks. At least 2 elevens were rolled, and thethird roll was high. Power was restored in half thetime I had estimated. As the unknown vessel, evidentlya 100-ton mining Seeker, came to a stop andlaunched a miner‟s buggy, the group managed to restorethe fire control computers.Manning the guns, the long-silent Mustangopened fire on the miner‟s buggy, but all shots wentwide. The mining Seeker, Fortunate Son, opened fireon Mustang but the wild maneuvers of her own miningbuggy spoiled the aim.The buggy ducked to the forward plane, essentiallyout of arc of the motionless Mustang. It closedto board. Mustang‟s batteries opened up again, andcrippled Fortunate Son by taking out her Maneuverand Jump drives. Fortunate Son did not return fire,hoping that the boarding party would take the ship.Also, pirate captain Jack “the Ripper” Gammon wasunwilling to continue exchanging fire in what wasclearly a losing proposition.The buggy sped up to the opened forward hullsection to disgorge its boarding party. Russ Fraserhad positioned himself near there at a key point, hisservice revolver in one hand and his fancy Marinecommemorative cutlass in the other. The side doorsof the buggy were flung open, and the boarding partyemerged with a leap: “Snake”, with a shotgun;“Curly” with a cutlass; and “Cutter” with his trademarkblade.Russ discharged his magnum, hitting Snake inthe chest and sending him floating off course with a(Continued on page 7)
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