Location: Titan (Foreven/Titan) 1429 A642ABA-D
Patron: Minor Noble
Required Skills: Pilot
Required Equipment: none

Players’ Information:

After mustering out of the Avalar Scout Service, the player visits his cousin, hoping to gain a cushy job in one of his businesses. The cousin is delighted to see the player, and has already arranged a position for him.

Referee’s Information:

The player’s cousin has completely believed the player’s stories, and is excited to have the opportunity to employ such a “highly skilled, heroic”, Scout. The cousin has never been off planet and does not have a realistic view of what travelling really entails, having always lived a spoiled, privileged life. The cousin is an incompetent businessman, and has been depleting his fortune by carousing, but has so far been able to kept this information secret. In most of the cases below the cousin will behave as a spoiled tourist, wishing to visit every ‘exciting’ location, in which to engage in various risky ‘adventures’, with the player as his guide/bodyguard. At the referee’s option the cousin may turn out to have one or more addictive behaviors (drugs, drinking, gambling).

1. The cousin has sold almost all of his holdings, some 40 million Credits worth, in order to buy an interstellar Yacht (Type Y). He now wants the player to be his pilot as the two, plus the cousin’s butler, explore the sector looking for adventure.

2. The cousin has arranged to employ the player as the commander of a Far Trader that runs a route for one of the companies he has holdings in. The pay is good. The cousin will accompany the player on his first run of the route, ostensibly to provide the player with advice on the company’s policies and methods. The Far Trader picks up and delivers cargoes and employees for the company, and does not engage in speculative trading.

3. The cousin will provide the player with a Type J Seeker to scout outlying systems for resources for his companies to exploit. The cousin also provides an experienced prospector to accompany the player. The cousin expects great results in short order, and will arrange to rendezvous with the player frequently to check on his progress. The cousin will, of course, use these meetings as opportunities for carousing.

4. As #2 however the cargoes are (mostly) fake, and the containers contain nothing of value. The cousin is attempting to defraud the company, and let the player take the blame.

5. As #3, however the prospector is in fact an old friend of the cousin who has no real experience in prospecting. He will eventually admit he had just been telling the cousin tall tales of being a prospector, when in reality he was a minor bureaucrat for a mining company.

6. Roll again and use the description for one of the above cases. However the cousin is in fact a shrewd business man despite his privileged life. He quickly learns how to make a profit in the situation described, and does not engage in much, if any, carousing.

Background:

This encounter is intended to be used to start a campaign, and provides initial motivation for the referee to build the campaign on. The first player has spent most of his career in the Communications branch of the Avalar Interstellar Scout Service. The player has visited his cousin, a well to do minor Noble, at every opportunity, regaling him with stories of exciting daring do in the AISS. The stories he has related are true, BUT the player has exaggerated, in fact completely fabricated, his role in these events. In reality he has spent his entire career being little more than a glorified mail man.

If there is more than one player the referee should make the second player the cousin. The referee then tells the cousin player only the information about himself, and does NOT tell him that the Scout player is not the hero he makes himself out to be. Tell the players their backgrounds separately, then let them play out their interaction. Additional players can be hangers on of the cousin, for example the prospector or the butler, or possibly friends of the Scout.