Mapping, Reviews, Traveller

Megara – For the blood thirsty

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Megara is the 12:th of the “Quick Worlds” from Gypsy Knights Games. This might not be the most interesting one in the series, but it is still a useful one.

Megara

The idea is that a referee can use this (or the other books in this series) in his/her own universe to save some time when a more detailed world is needed. The referee can then change anything (e.g. the name of the planet or the UWP) to fit a planet in his/her own universe.

The planet Megara has a UWP of C9887B7-D. If you want to match it with a planet in the OTU, then maybe the planet Dakar in the Ilelish Sector is a good match. Dakar has a UWP of B9887BB-A. Any planet with a star-port between A-E, size 6-9, atm 8, hydro 8, pop 7-8, gov B, law 7-C and tech-level 6-D would probably work fine. It is actually impossible to create the UWP of Megara using classic rules. The tech-level is too high. But nothing in this pdf suggests that the tech-level must be this high. There is a maglev train, but that might be imported.

In this pdf, there are descriptions of the system with an image of the gas giant, and an overview image of the system. There are some general description of the planet Megara, and an isodecahedron map. Then there are some more specific descriptions of the planet and the people and cities and politics, and of the big herd animals called Betas. Finally there are a few adventure hooks.

What I would have wished for would have been some more detailed adventure hooks, an image of the Betas (and animal encounter tables), some notes on gas giant refuelling (since the gas giant is within the 100 solar diameters from the sun) and maybe some notes on the seasons due the the eccentric orbit.

There are also some other problems with this pdf. I hope Gypsy Knight Games (and other publishers) will learn from this constructive criticism and avoid such problems in the future.

Continue reading Megara – For the blood thirsty →

Adventures, Reviews, Traveller

Spinward Encounters – Adventures in the Spinward Marches

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The contents of Spinward Encounters are really really good. I love adventure, and this book is packed with them. There are 64 Patron type Adventures (4 for each subsector in the Spinward Marches), and 16 Amber Zone type adventures. Many of these are well thought out, and are a bit longer than a normal (classic) patron or amber zone. A nice thing about a few of the amber zones in the District 268 is that the referee can connect them into a mini campaign.

Spinward Encounters

As a referee, you might think that only four adventures for each subsector makes this product a bit overpriced. But if you are playing in one of the two most popular subsectors (Regina or District 268), then it would be easy to lead your PCs into the five adjacent subsectors. Then you would have 24 useful patrons to play, and for Regina five extra Amber Zones, and for District 268 nine extra Amber Zones. If you play in any of the Vilis, Lanth, Sword Worlds or Lunion subsectors, then you can use 36 patrons if you let you PCs travel into neighbouring subsectors.

The problem with this book is that the layout is quite bad, and that there is no proper index. An index is something that would be very useful if you want to plan to integrate any part of the book into your campaign.

There are a few nice images in the book. I like the one with a Bwap and a Vargr on page 33. This image is probably meant to illustrate the patron at Jesedipere at page 16. As I said, the layout is quite bad… In this image you can spot the Serenity in the background. Maybe also in the image on page 27. That was a nice Easter egg. LOL!

Continue reading Spinward Encounters – Adventures in the Spinward Marches →

Reviews, Starships, Traveller

The Pretty Penny – A Pretty Deck-plan

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This product is a deck-plan of the Type M Subsidized Merchant “HIMS The Pretty Penny” from Scrying Eye Games.

Front Cover

It is the second deck-plan of about 20 that they have planned to release. I hope they do the Shivva Patrol Frigate. 😕

You can also get an air/raft in the same style for free.

The scale is 25 mm/square. The side of a square is 5 ft.  This fits a number of counters, card board heroes and miniatures nicely. But it doesn’t match the classic scale exactly (but close enough). It also makes the deck-plan of the ship quite large. The ship is fitted within 19 pages that you have to assemble yourself. It would have been nice if there was a hi-res image-file includes as well, so you could print it out on a large printer/plotter.

There are lots of details in the images. This is very nice compared to the standard classic deck-plans. Now you can see how everything will fit, and where all the rubbish will end up… Have a look at the engineering work station below. 🙂

Work Station

The need for deck-plans has always been there. In my group, and in other groups that I have played in, we have always used deck-plans. Even though there might not be any combat within the ship, it is always nice to see where your character lives and works. If there is combat within the ship, a deck-plan is a must.

Combat can be solved using standard traveller rules, or using special on-board rules like Snapshot.

Even though this is a very nice product, I will not use it. The reason for this is that my group is quite tainted by what the March Harrier from the Traveller Adventure looked like. The March Harrier is a type R. (The classic type M is a 600-ton Subsidized Liner.) There are a number of elevators in this ship. Where is the Launch? This is not the same ship. It doesn’t match the March Harrier. But for a new group it would probably be very nice to have this pretty deck-plan on their gaming table.

This is what I think a classic type R should look like.

Adventures, The Base, Traveller

The Zhodani Base 76 Patrons Writing Contest – 2011

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It is now time for The Zhodani Base 76 Patrons Writing Contest – 2011.

This years first prize is a $20 Gift Certificate at DriveThruRPG.
Second prize is a $10 Gift Certificate at DriveThruRPG.
I decided to stop giving away books, since the postage to send them all over the world was too expensive.

If you win you can buy lots of traveller goodies that you might have missed.

The style of the entries should be in the style of the patrons in CT Supplement 6, 76 Patrons.

Past winners are:

Two of my own patrons can be found here:

The contest starts now and ends 30 Sept 2011. Write as many entries as You like.

After the 30:th of September 2011, all entries will be posted on the Zhodani Base. Registered users (on the 1:st of July) and participants in the competition may then vote for the entries they like the most.

By entering the contest You allow your entry to be posted at the Zhodani Base. All entries might also be posted in PDF format as a free down-loadable file at the Zhodani Base.

All entrants will be given credit for their work and will retain the copyright on their entries.

Some general guidelines:

1, Each entry should be less than 1000 words.

2, One image may be used in each entry. You must either have the right to the image, or it must be used under some sort of free license. Wikimedia Commons is a good place to find an image that You can use. Please provide information about the image. (Is it Yours? If not, where have You found it? What license is used?) Note: You don’t need to use an image.

3, Each patron should offer 6 options.

4, Each patron should be placed in the Foreven Sector. You may use the version of the Foreven Sector that can be found here at the Zhodani Base. (You don’t have to use this version.)

5, Please don’t force the PCs to sign up for (what they think are) illegal activities. It is better if they find that out later, or in some way are forced to take illegal action… 😈

6, Please use a spell checker! 🙄

Send Your entries by e-mail. Please use plain text format and attach the image, if You select to use one. Word files will not be accepted!

As an alternative, contributors to the Zhodani Base may log in and write their entries here. Entries posted that way will be made visible when all other are.

Please include a preferred nickname (that can be Your real name) to show on the Zhodani Base. If You expect to win, include an address to send the first prize to.

Some help: (That you don’t have to use.)

You may use Mongoose Traveller rules to design something for your patron, since the Zhodani Base now has a Foreven Free Sector License.

Fessor Subsector
Map made using Traveller Map Post API.

Reviews, Science Fiction, Starships, Traveller

Traveller Inspiration: Free e-books

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Traveller was first published 1977, and was inspired by even older science fiction. While this means that the computer rules used in traveller might feel a bit obsolete, it also means that for some of the books it was inspired by, the copyright has expired. (The computer rules are quite easy to ignore or modify anyway, so that doesn’t matter much.)

At Project Gutenberg, some works that has inspired traveller can be downloaded in several formats that will fit your e-book reader. It is also possible to read them directly on the web.

Here is a suggestion of five books for you to download:

1, Space Viking by H. Beam Piper

In Space Viking, there is a group of planets called Sword Worlds that are named after legendary swords. Doesn’t that seem familiar… The image below of the spherical ships  is from the book. They look a lot like the Mercenary Cruisers from traveller.

2, Deathworld by Harry Harrison

Jason dinAlt is the hero of the Deathworld books. In the Traveller Supplement 1, 1001 Characters, you can find his stats as hero #3, the Rapscallion Gambler. Jason dinAlt is skilled in gambling and also has a psionic talent, that can help his gambling. In Traveller, gambling is a skill, and psionics isn’t impossible.

3, Gambler’s World by Keith Laumer

Jame Retief is a Diplomat for the Corps Diplomatique Terrestrienne. In Traveller Supplement 4, Citizens of the Imperium you can find his stats as hero #5.

4, A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Hero #1 of the Traveller Supplement 1 is John Carter. In the Solomani Rim (0239), there is a small planet named Barsoom.

5, Triplanetary by E. E. Smith

Triplanetary is a Lensman prequels. Kimball Kinnison of the Lensman series is hero #2 in the Traveller Supplement 1. GDW also published a game called Triplanetary before they published Traveller.

Mercenary Cruiser?

Image from Project Gutenberg. Copyright expired.

Mapping, Observances, Traveller

Eire Subsector

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day :mrgreen:

Eire Subsector

Derry

Map made using Traveller Map Post Function.
Click map for larger version!

I hope this will be more useful than the Merry X-Mas Subsector.

I do think that this almost follow the rules for popular subsectors from a previous post. We have some backwater worlds, but they are not independent. We have 2 interstellar states. We have obvious adventures, and also a place called home. Dublin for some of us, Armagh for Eamon, and maybe somewhere else for someone.

The obvious adventures can be taken from the news (old and new) about Ireland.

This leads me to my suggestion of 4 races in this subsector. They should represent the Celtic, the Norse, the Protestants and the Catholics (or Old and New English). The lazy could use Humaniti, Vargr, Aslan and Bwaps or any other Traveller races that might fit. The more ambitious may want to invent their own races. An interesting scenario would be if the Humans represent the Celts. Then this will be in the far far future, when Humaniti have been driven away from their home-worlds to this cluster at the edge of the galaxy. Another interesting scenario could be if the Humans are the latest (New English) invaders. Then there might be some interesting moral dilemmas about the genocide of the original inhabitants of this cluster.

One thing to note about the map is that the towns and villages that are not in the map are still there as secondary populated worlds. E.g. Banbridge is a planet in the Armagh System. In the empty systems within the borders, there might be deep space objects.

Continue reading Eire Subsector →

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