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Count Anjiliac Pushes Back on Reports of Chaos Within His Court

March 29, 2018 No comments

POROZLO TODAY / 325-1122 / Staff Writers

ANJILIAC CITY – Count Para Anjiliac sought to push back Tuday on news reports that “chaos” has enveloped his court, saying that staff turnover and turnover are part of the normal course of business.

He also warned that more dismissals may be on the way but offered no comment regarding the unverified reports that his security forces were recently involved in arresting multiple members of his bureaucracy on Nemso Orbital three days ago.

“People will always come and go,” the count’s spokesperson said in a morning briefing with planetary media. “His Excellency has insisted that he desires a strong dialogue before making a final decision, but maintains that he will exercise his rights under Imperium law to dismiss those who are not proving their worth.”

Later in the day, during a joint news conference with the prime minister of Nemso, Count Anjiliac again dismissed the idea of staff turmoil and said he will not have any trouble filling all of the positions that have opened up within his court.

Staff turbulence has been a regular feature of Count Anjiliac’s administration since he assumed his fief in 1101 Imperial following his father’s demise.

Most recently, twelve crewman and officers serving aboard one of the count’s personal starships were taking into Imperial custody for unspecified crimes although experts close to the investigation indicate that they were jailed on espionage-related crimes. This marks the fourth such arrest in the last ninety days, prompting experts to suspect the long-simmering cold war between Count Anjiliac and Countess Varin Arabella of Rhylanor is once again flaring up.

Campaign Logs, Traveller: The New Deal , , ,

City Drug Crisis Blamed on Lax Peacekeepers

March 22, 2018 No comments

MADUA NEWS / 325-1122 / SAKHILE NDLAZI

LACK of law enforcement lies at the heart of the drug scourge that has taken root in Lesser Madua and North Beach, with concerned residents claiming drug dealers continued unhindered because peacekeepers did not stop them.

This was the feeling expressed during a Regional Drug Meeting held in North Beach yesterday, where local councillors, NPOs, churches and concerned community members discussed the drug crisis and its impact on the city.

The meeting is part of an initiative to establish regional and local drug action committees across the province. Councillor Masello Mahwayyi claimed the metro peacekeepers showed no initiative in fighting drug use. As a result, the community had lost faith in them. When peacekeepers did act, she said, they focused on “catching the small fish” – drug users, rather than the “big fish” – drug lords and drug sellers, suggesting corruption was at play.

“The peacekeepers know exactly who the dealers are, and even who their big bosses are, yet are protecting the drug dealers because there is something in it for them,” she said.

She pleaded with law enforcement agencies present at the meeting at Landfall Hall to set a good example and lead the anti-drug fight in the city.

Recovering tempest addict Tebogo Makobe, said that when a dealer was arrested with a user he was set free, while the user was detained.

MMC for Health and Social Development Sakkie du Plooy said the aim of the local action committee’s task was twofold: to provide children and parents with information to prevent drug use, and to help users find the support they need. “We are using a community-oriented primary care approach, the Community Oriented Substance Use Program (Cosup) could become a model of effective best practice.

“This approach is making Nemso a global leader in community-based response to the care and treatment of people who use drugs.”

Cosup was founded in 1120 – eight sites are operational across the greater Madua area. More than 2500 people are enrolled, with 450 on medication to help them reduce and eventually stop tempest use.

Campaign Logs, Traveller: The New Deal , , ,

GURPS: Traveller, “The New Deal” Session 4.09

March 19, 2018 No comments

Spinward Star, LLP

Corporate Retreat, Part Four

  • Dirtside on Porozlo, the crew are aboard the train-bus Pod en route to Nemso.
  • During the trip, Buck finishes his hack into Sam’s computer and, with Sae’s assistance, they identify links to Monsaanti-Neogene Corporation.
  • There is a brief delay on the train line during which Sae is embarrassed by a very young child who is ecstatic about seeing a puppy!
  • Shortly before arriving at Nemso, Ella receives a voicemail message from Abe that strongly indicates that he’s on Porozlo (against her orders!) and is now at the Madua Metro Diner. Almost simultaneously, Sae receives a coded message from an unidentified number that all but confirms his theory that they’re being tracked by their financial accounts. Luckily, a former co-worker of Ella’s from the taxi company she once worked for happens to be pulling into the station terminal and he owes her a favor…
  • Following a quick, high-speed trip to the Metro Diner, the crew discover Abe chatting with a woman who introduces herself as Ivixia Dannica, an agent entrusted with extraordinary authority operating on a ducal warrant signed by His Grace, Leonard Stephanos Kirgashii, Duke of Rhylanor. She is tasked with apprehending Breyon Sodhii, who was once an Envoy himself until he went rogue.
  • After confirming that their foe is Monsaanti-Neogene, Ivixia offers an alliance: she wants to hit a data farm to track down Sodhii and would appreciate if the crew could provide a distraction by hitting a MNC facility. She offers three solid targets – one an abandoned oil rig no longer in use, one an island mining facility, and the third a building here in Madua, Nemso. After much discussion, the crew decide to go for the triple distraction: they will rent a pair of aircars with company assets, then send one to the oil rig and the other to the island. While this is going on, they will then hit the Madua building personally.
  • To that end, Eddy and Sae hit the startown, seeking out personal contacts first to get some clean funds (so as to avoid drawing further attention to themselves) while also purchasing gear like contragrav belts and explosives. Buck and Haank attempt to hack the building schematics but find they’ve been intentionally blanked out. Ella reaches out to the lawyer firm to arrange for them to begin researching (through the courts) the island and the oil rig in the hopes that this will cause further distraction.
  • The following day, while Aris lurks in a secure location so he can remote pilot the two air cars, the rest of the crew move to assault the Madua building.
  • And then, Aris announces that one of the two air cars has been shot down…

GM Notes:

  • Andricus (Aris’ player) was out and will miss the next three or four sessions due to wedding and work stuff.
  • Since we’re livestreaming our games every Saturdays (6:00PM Eastern) at Ronnke’s Twitch channel and then later uploading the stream on the YouTube channel, we’ve decided to dial back on the extensiveness of the recap to just the overall outline..

Campaign Logs, Traveller: The New Deal , , ,

Peace Conference Collapses, Fails to Approve Count Anjiliac’s Propositions

March 15, 2018 No comments

ANJILIAC CITY, 324-1122. The latest round of peace talks between representatives of the Free Commerce and Private Ownership blocs ended in failure yesterday following a bitter dispute centered around the nature of reparations.

At the heart of this ongoing disagreement is the Republic of M’Dwailei’s continued insistence that the Almarac Federated States return the island Tychon which the AFS seized during the recently ended war, as well as pay for damages incurred. The AFS continues to insist that the seizure took place legally and has petitioned for further redress in Rhylanor courts.

Count Anjiliac, who has made establishing a planetary governing body one of his primary objectives, is claimed to have threatened both representatives with execution by fusion gun in the closed session for their continued belligerence, but this report remains unverified. Facing staunch opposition by Free Trade bloc representatives, his latest resolution to establish a ‘Global Security Council’ was voted down.

Notably, the Democratic Republic of Digloiotti and the Stepozhevac Union sent no representatives to these rounds of talks. Both nations are members of the Private Ownership Bloc but are currently engaged in a regional border dispute that experts fear may spill over into open war.

Campaign Logs, Traveller: The New Deal , , ,

GURPS: Traveller, “The New Deal” Session 4.08

March 13, 2018 No comments

Spinward Star, LLP

Corporate Retreat, Part Three

    • Dirtside on Porozlo, Sae observes the approach of the utility vertols and is then startled when Aris passes out after eating some of the newly delivered pizza. The vargr opts to act quickly: he breaks into and hotwires a pair of cars.
    • The rest of the crew exit Sam’s apartment and take the stairs down. Along the way, upon hearing loud noises emanating from the roof, Ella pulls a convenient fire alarm which results in many people in the apartment building attempting to escape as well.
    • Sae, upon seeing armored personnel lurking outside the building while numerous building inhabitants come streaming out, decides to cause a distraction by firing a couple of rounds in the air. This results in chaos as some of the civilians see the armored people and go for weapons which results in some of the armed troopers shooting back.
    • Whoever is running this op orders the troopers to withdraw as distant sirens can be heard. The crew (sans Aris and Sae) don’t immediately rush out but instead try to help the casualties until the EMTs arrive, then make their escape (after grabbing Aris who they discover passed out in the back of an idling car.)
    • The crew decided to take Aris to an urgent care clinic where they learned he’d been roofied. Relying on common sense, I had the on-call medic refer this to a cop who checked with the PCs … who failed their Fast Talk rolls and gave conflicting stories. This led the cop to call this in which resulted in Detective Kennex showing up again. After giving him the full story, he arranged to have them taken to the precinct to fill out paperwork and make statements.
    • In the police SUV, the crew (sans Sae who has lurked in the periphery to avoid notice) are startled when one of the utility vertols drops out of nowhere and opens fire, grievously injuring the driver. Ella takes over and expertly escapes the vertol. Behind, in a rented car, Sae observes a half dozen air skimmers suddenly attack the vertol which is forced to retreat very quickly.
    • At the hospital where the crew has taken the injured driver, the crew converse again with Kennex who is understandably frustrated at these events. Against his captain’s orders, Kennex arranges to get the crew out of the city via a train while he tries to figure out what is going on.
    • The crew board the train-bus Pod and with loud clanks and hisses, it pulls out of New Gevae…

GM Notes:

      • I thought this episode was a complete mess. The PCs kept catching me off-guard; Sae’s decision to cause the distraction with the discharge of guns, for example, caused me to go all blue-screen of death. The pulling of the fire alarm was not obvious thing that I should have been prepared for but wasnt. Further, the decision on the part of the PCs to stay behind to attend the casualties was totally in-character for many of the PCs but something I had not considered at all.
      • As the PCs got on the train … bus … thing (we started calling it a ‘Pod’ I think), I had each player describe a passenger. Amusingly, the last time we were on a train, the GM at the time did the same thing…
      • Since we’re livestreaming our games every Saturdays (6:00PM Eastern) at Ronnke’s Twitch channel and then later uploading the stream on the YouTube channel, we’ve decided to dial back on the extensiveness of the recap to just the overall outline..

Campaign Logs, Traveller: The New Deal , , ,

Porozlo News Report (324-1122)

March 8, 2018 No comments


Digloiotti says soldiers killed in border skirmish with Stepozhevac

GIOMAE, Democratic Republic of Digloiotti (Traveller News Service) – Digloiotti soldiers were killed and wounded in a cross-border skirmish with Stepozhevac troops this week, Democratic Republic of Digloiotti’s military said on Tuday.

Each side accused the other of violating the poorly-demarcated border, the scene of periodic clashes in recent years. During the recently ended world war, millions of people were killed in wars in the region.

Donovon Ndjike, a spokesman for Digloiotti’s army in East Kiivo province, said he did not yet have exact figures but that Wonday’s fighting broke out when an army patrol came under fire from Stepozhevac troops 200 meters into Digloiotti territory.

“According to our information, there were deaths and injuries during the exchange of fire, which took place several hours before the two countries declared a ceasefire,” Ndjike said.

Stepozhevac’s army denied it had crossed the border in response to Count Anjiliac’s demand for a report stating instead that Digloiotti troops “violated our territorial border and subsequently attacked our defensive position”.

Both sides asked the count to dispatch a team to investigate the incident.

Since the end of two major wars in eastern Digloiotti between 1100-1107, Stepozhevac has backed a series of insurrections in the region, saying its actions were necessary to neutralize perpetrators of Stepozhevac’s 1098 genocide who fled to eastern Digloiotti.

Reporting By Fiston Ross

Campaign Logs, Traveller: The New Deal , , ,

GURPS: Traveller, “The New Deal” Session 4.07

March 5, 2018 No comments

Spinward Star, LLP

Corporate Retreat, Part Two

  • Dirtside on Porozlo, Buck arrives in time to see Ella and Haank being led out of the mall toward waiting ground-skimmers. Suddenly, an unseen sniper engages the group, killing two and sending the rest scattering. The crew manage to retrieve their weapons as the team led by “Roxy” are either reduced or flee.
  • On the highport, Eddy and Sae are cornered by a trio of addicts; when Sae kills one and grievously injures a second, they order their makeshift drone to engage. It does but uses riot gas, which blocks line-of-sight by the survivors (who are calling up the ‘rest of da boyz’) but forces Eddy and Sae to retreat and find an alternate escape plan.
  • The crew dirtside are interviewed by responding police but are released, thanks in part to Haank having vid of the encounter. The lead cop – Detective Kennix – especially takes a liking to Ella and provides her his contact info. In case she needs … anything.
  • Eddy and Sae meet Aris (who has temporarily damaged Jim’s weapon systems), then head dirtside upon receiving Haank’s summons. They arrive just as the police are letting the other members of the crew go.
  • The Crew then decide to investigate Sam’s place which they locate easily enough. While Aris and Sae wait downstairs (particularly for the pizza that Eddy just ordered), the others head up and break into Sam’s apartment, hoping to find some sign of him.
  • Eddy begins canvassing the other apartments, introducing himself as a ‘friend of Sam’s’ but this proves to be problematic when he tries to smooth talk a young lady only to discover she has a musclebound boyfriend on a hair trigger. He also gathers (from certain familiar clues) that Sam might have been a little too friendly with this lady. A fight ensues that Haank intervenes in so he can take down the tankhead.
  • Outside, Sae hears a familiar sound and observes the approach of two unmarked dropships. While one provides overwatch, the other deploys some of its armed personnel…

GM Notes:

  • A bit more disjointed than I would have liked. I should have run the two ‘combats’ simultaneously instead of splitting them up like I did so as to avoid having so much dead-time for fully half the party.
  • I’m still getting a handle on certain parts of the Traveller universe – the ‘highport,’ for example … I only just realized that all ‘official’ starports are run by the Imperium (though a planet might have lesser spaceports. As a result, the CR was retconned a bit. Not that it mattered to Sae who has that stealth attache case thing…
  • Since we’re livestreaming our games every Saturdays (6:00PM Eastern) at Ronnke’s Twitch channel and then later uploading the stream on the YouTube channel, we’ve decided to dial back on the extensiveness of the recap to just the overall outline..

Campaign Logs, Traveller: The New Deal , , ,

GURPS: Traveller, “The New Deal” Session 4.06

February 25, 2018 No comments

Spinward Star, LLP

Corporate Retreat, Part One

  • Seven days after reuniting with Admiral Gloval, the crew departs 627-301 and head for Porozlo. Ninety-six days pass.
  • Upon arrival at Porozlo, the crew split to their own interests.
  • Buck encounters Ulysses Pitt, his commercial enemy, and the two end up getting drunk together which patches up their relationship.
  • Sae is summoned to his Imperial Intelligence contacts where he discovers that his operation in the Aramis sub-sector was wholly unsanctioned!
  • Eddy is mugged on the station and attempts to pursue the thief but the man escapes. Furious, he reaches out to Sae for help in hunting this guy down.
  • Ella and Haank go dirtside for the court date with Monsaanti-Neogene Corporation where they get hints that MNC was not expecting any members of the crew to show up. Afterward, Haank is contacted by “Roxy” who he believes is Sam’s latest girlfriend; she arranges to meet him and Ella at a nearby (familiar) mall food court.
  • Meanwhile, Eddy and Sae have tracked down the former’s mugger in a run-down hostel where they discover him dead, evidently of an overdose. They search the body and room but do not find the stolen monies. Sae, however, discovers a concealed camera observing the room and, as he attempts to get it, armored men kick in some doors…
  • At the food court, Ella and Haank meet with Roxy with the former quickly becoming suspicious. Her deception revealed, Roxy makes a signal and suddenly, the two are surrounded by armed personnel…

GM Notes:

  • Andricus was out for this session.
  • Spent a little more time than I would have liked trying to figure out how much each PC was paid.
  • We skipped the 96-day trip to Porozlo because it wasn’t all that relevant.
  • Since we’re livestreaming our games every Saturdays (6:00PM Eastern) at Ronnke’s Twitch channel and then later uploading the stream on the YouTube channel, we’ve decided to dial back on the extensiveness of the recap to just the overall outline..

Campaign Logs, Traveller: The New Deal , , ,

GURPS: Traveller, “The New Deal” Session 4.05

February 19, 2018 No comments

Spinward Star, LLP

Crucible, Part Five

  • Flashback: Ten minutes earlier, on the engineering deck, Rolemnarla sneaks around like a gobliny Obi-Wan Kenobi. He remains undetected and appears to cause a massive cascade failure. Alarms shriek, warning of imminent core containment failure. All hands are warned to evacuate.
  • The ‘exfiltration’ team made up of Ella, Buck and Aris ‘borrow’ the system defense boat and launch, hoping to hook up with the ‘rescue’ team on the medical deck; simultaneously, the ‘rescue’ team (Haank, Eddy & Sae … plus the unconscious Ibrahim) opt to get off the station via an escape pod. The two groups reunite soon after.
  • A fast gig is observed leaving the station, protected by six fighters. Three of these fighters angle sharply toward the system defense boat, las-guns flashing. A fierce lightfight ensues, leaving the three fighters destroyed and the SDB lightly damaged.
  • The crew are able to deduce the destination of the gig: a jump system grav-anchored alongside an icy planetesimal. Recognizing their only way out of system, Ella aims toward it as well and a race is on! The three fighters then move to engage the SDB while the gig continues to burn hard toward the jump shuttle.
  • Two of the fighters are destroyed and, when Eddy’s attempts to talk the gig into surrendering fails, it too is shot down.
  • A strike carrier arrives in-system during the fight, commanded by Admiral Gloval, much to everyone’s surprise. The crew then realize that far more time has passed than the two or so days they’ve experienced. They’ve lost more than 188 days…

GM Notes:

  • We used GURPS: Spaceships for the lightfight and it worked fairly well. I made a couple of mistakes along the way, but that’s par for the course. I also introduced a spaceships range band chart that was heavily influenced by the starship range chart thing in the first d20 Star Wars RPG (which, ironically, I hated at the time because I was so accustomed to actually using miniatures for everything.) We then used some modified Chase rules that I sort of hashed out before the case for the race. I’m thinking of  trying to rewrite them and maybe submit them to Pyramid magazine…
  • This completes Season 4, Adventure 1: Crucible.
  • Since we’re livestreaming our games every Saturdays (6:00PM Eastern) at Ronnke’s Twitch channel and then later uploading the stream on the YouTube channel, we’ve decided to dial back on the extensiveness of the recap to just the overall outline..
Campaign Logs, Traveller: The New Deal , , ,

GURPS: Traveller, “The New Deal” Session 4.04

February 12, 2018 No comments

Spinward Star, LLP

Crucible, Part Four

  • Flashback: Ten minutes earlier, in the medical, the three rescued spacers from the INS Drake wake from low berth, begin screaming, and then start killing everyone present. Alarms sound.
  • The crew are reunited and, with LT Thanisson’s aid, formulate a plan that requires them to split up. Haank will take Eddie and Sae (acting as a prisoner) to rescue Abe, while Ella will lead Aris and Buck to the flight deck to “liberate” the system defense boat.
  • Both groups are forced to go through security checkpoints but encounter no real difficulty thanks to Thanisson’s remote assistance.
  • In surgical area, the rescue team discover that Abe has been implanted with some sort of implant by a sociopathic doctor who is very pleased that this subject survived. Sae has had enough and shoots the man in the head. While escaping, the crew are set upon by security personnel and must defend themselves.
  • At the same time, Ella’s time encounters resistance in the form of the system defense boat’s crew but handily cut them down in a short but fierce firefight.
  • Suddenly, the entire station trembles. Alarms begin sounding: ‘Core breach detected. You now have ten minutes to reach minimum safe distance…”

GM Notes:

  • The simultaneous firefights on two different maps was an experiment that worked out nicely, though in the future, I will need to name some of the bad guys differently so as to better differentiate between them.
  • No one was really surprised that Sae shot the doctor after the state they found Abe in.
  • Since we’re livestreaming our games every Saturdays (6:00PM Eastern) at Ronnke’s Twitch channel and then later uploading the stream on the YouTube channel, we’ve decided to dial back on the extensiveness of the recap to just the overall outline..
Campaign Logs, Traveller: The New Deal , , ,
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