{"id":1091,"date":"2013-10-03T07:23:26","date_gmt":"2013-10-02T21:23:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.olympusrpg.org\/?p=1091"},"modified":"2016-05-26T05:06:03","modified_gmt":"2016-05-25T19:06:03","slug":"gurps-traveller-the-new-deal-session-1-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.olympusrpg.org\/?p=1091","title":{"rendered":"GURPS Traveller, \u201cThe New Deal\u201d Session 1.20"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"halo4cryo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Unconquerable, Part III<\/h3>\n

\"21b\"<\/a>The medibot that surprised the Crew declared that they were not allowed in this area, and attempted to shoo them out the door. As waking up a crewman was their best shot at getting things working on the derelict warship, they were not willing to leave. The robot did not appear to be armed at all, except that it could undoubtedly call down more securitybots, the presence of which would force the Crew to hurry the process of waking the crewman, neverminding the obvious consequences of any exchange of fire. If they attacked it, they would have to disable it quickly before it could call for help. Without other obvious option, Haank tried to hide his rifle behind Buck as he raised it, hoping to surprise the medibot, and opened fire; Smith, growing impatient, also opened fire about the same time. The others followed suit. As the helpless medibot was riddled with needle-fire, debris flying off in all directions, it continued to politely insist it not be fired upon, lest the cryo-tubes be endangered, and informed the intruders that security had been dispatched to their location\u2014they hadn\u2019t been fast enough\u2014before its power systems finally failed, and it hung, limp and lifeless, in freefall.<\/p>\n

Abe immediately started the wake-up procedures for the chosen crewman, moving as quickly as he could\u2014normally takes ten to fifteen minutes\u2014as they expected a troop of securitybots to arrive at any minute. Meanwhile, everyone else surveyed their surroundings to determine their best defensive options. There were two entrances to this cryo room: to port, a long hallway lined with living quarters leading to one of three elevator clusters; to starboard, a medical office that opened into the rest of the medical area, a maze of offices and operating rooms that included another, closer elevator-cluster. Buck made for the starboard elevator-cluster, the closest, and began disabling the doors, as he had on the bridge, taking Smith with him for cover. Buck finished in time to hear the elevators activate, and the two hasted back to the cryo-room, where Haank and Ella were observing a handful of the up-armored securitybots exit the port elevator-cluster, advancing tactically down the corridor. Haank took careful aim with his gauss rifle at the lead robot, but when he pulled the trigger, nothing happened; he quickly cleared the electrical contacts and reseated the magazine, and lined up another shot. He fired again, and missed. Having been attacked, the securitybots sought nearby cover and hid there, calling out, in Zhdent, for the intruders to lay down arms and surrender.<\/p>\n

Abe continued working; they figured they had another ten minutes to go, so they needed to delay. It occurred to Ella that the securitybots were likely attempting to avoid a firefight in the vicinity of the sleeping crew, lest they be caught in the crossfire, which gave the Crew a bit of leverage to negotiate. Ella requested the securitybots speak Galanglic\u2014they complied, and repeated their demands\u2014and (speciously) threatened to kill the defenseless crew if they didn\u2019t back off, but they were unconvinced of her sincerity. As they continued, fruitlessly, to attempt to negotiate, another handful of securitybots exited the elevators to join the others, bounding tactically down the hall, closing in on the Crew\u2019s position. Eventually, Ella gave up trying to talk her way out, and had Buck seal the door closed; they knew it wouldn\u2019t prevent an assault, but might slow it down anyway. As Buck finished, they could hear the robots\u2019 quickly advancing steps outside, eventually moving through the hallways to surround the block.<\/p>\n

As Buck moved to the other door to seal it off as well, Abe announced that the crewman was waking. Crewman Beqr shook the long sleep out of his head, and surveyed his surroundings, to find he was alone in the company of \u201cthe enemy\u201d; he was understandably confused and frightened. Haank tried to calm him down, speaking Zhdent, and explained the situation a little at a time (as it would undoubtedly be a bit of a shock): the War was over, the sides having agreed to a cease-fire ten years back, and his ship was derelict, left behind by those who had stolen it; Haank offered to allow him to view the ship\u2019s logs. As the information settled in, Haank explained that the Crew was here to salvage the ship, but are running afoul of its automated security, and would appreciate some help in bypassing it; in exchange, he offered, on the Crew\u2019s behalf, to help wake up the remaining crew, and help them get home, wherever that might be. As they helped Crewman Beqr to the starboard door, it became clear that the young crewman didn\u2019t quite trust these Imperials, and had no idea how to properly proceed, to the point of near-panic. The Crew opened the door and called out to the securitybots, informing them they were sending someone to negotiate. The robots recognized Crewman Beqr and advised him to step aside and allow them to seize the intruders, while the Crew encouraged him to take charge (being the only legitimate crewman currently active) and demand security stand down. The Crew, via Haank, tried everything they could think of to negotiate an exit, but the ship\u2019s computer, cut off from the outside world, had no idea the War was over. After some prodding, the robots stated that the intruders were to be held until the captain\u2014who was deceased<\/em>\u2014returned to deal with them; also, Crewman Beqr would be placed back in cryo-stasis. Crewman Beqr was no help at all, mentally paralyzed, as he just couldn\u2019t process what to do in this highly unusual situation; he ended up retreating to a corner of the office and curling up there, out of the way.<\/p>\n

\"Color<\/a>At that point, the securitybots charged through the lab in an attempt to execute their mission; the Crew opened fire. The robots pressed their way into the cryo room through a hail of gauss-needles, attempting to close and wrest away the Crew\u2019s weapons. Some of the Crew took advantage of the lack of gravity to move to the ceiling, clearing lanes of fire. Smith emptied his gauss rifle into the assaulters\u2019 chassis, slowing their advance. Haank\u2019s gauss rifle misfired again, and he immediately transitioned to his pistol, unloading into one of the robots that was previously \u201cstunned\u201d by Smith. The robot in front failed to disarm Jones and moved on to Buck, turning its back to the others to its own peril\u2014it fell\u2014before another followed into the cryo room. Smith\u2019s gauss rifle ran dry, so he charged into the lab to knock away the rifle of the still-recovering robot there. Abe, having determined his sonic stun pistol to be all-but-useless against the medbot, found a fire extinguisher, and was preparing to do\u2026something with it, when the room began to fill with a fog billowing out of the ventilation system. To be continued\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Notes<\/h3>\n
    \n
  • This was the second session done entirely in freefall; there was quite a bit of three-dimensional movement in the fighting, mostly just switching from floor to ceiling to get out of the line of fire<\/li>\n
  • The dice continued to refuse to cooperate this session; Haank ended up with concurrent 17s resulting in rifle malfunctions, and a 15 on the diplomacy attempt toward the end<\/li>\n
  • Smith, once again (played by Abe\u2019s player), showed what a combat-monster he was, in spite of his actual stats to the contrary\u2014he did a lot of damage. Also, he actually emptied the magazine on a gauss rifle\u2014something not witnessed in quite some time (with 60 a shot magazine)<\/li>\n
  • A bit of a combat surprise: Haank\u2019s ETC Heavy Pistol w\/ APHD actually ended up doing equivalent damage, per shot, to the high-powered gauss rifles, versus the Unliving<\/em> robots, thanks to the larger piercing type (pi<\/em> instead of pi-<\/em>) plus the same (5) armor divisor<\/li>\n
  • We ran into some weirdness fighting the robots this time, in that there is nothing in their stats to say they can\u2019t be \u201cStunned\u201d or suffer the usual head-blow effects; the GM ruled that since they weren\u2019t specifically statted such that they were immune, then they weren\u2019t\u2014which is how GURPS 4e<\/em><\/strong> normally works<\/li>\n
  • Along a similar line as above, we ended up \u201cnegotiating\u201d with robots, which feels weird for the same reasons. In this case, designated \u201cautonomous\u201d\u2014having limited or full AI\u2014and not being statted otherwise (that is, they didn\u2019t have Indomitable<\/em> or anything similar), they were ruled susceptible to manipulation<\/li>\n
  • Had to wrap mid-fight, to be continued next session<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Unconquerable, Part III The medibot that surprised the Crew declared that they were not allowed in this area, and attempted to shoo them out the door. As waking up a crewman was their best shot at getting things working on the derelict warship, they were not willing to leave. The robot did not appear to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,14],"tags":[38,36,39,37],"class_list":["post-1091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tnd_logs","category-the-new-deal","tag-campaign","tag-gurps","tag-recap","tag-traveller"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.olympusrpg.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.olympusrpg.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.olympusrpg.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.olympusrpg.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.olympusrpg.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1091"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.olympusrpg.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2057,"href":"https:\/\/blog.olympusrpg.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091\/revisions\/2057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.olympusrpg.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.olympusrpg.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.olympusrpg.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}