CHARACTER UPDATE: Moving to Second Edition Mongoose Traveller

As we have reached a point in the game where the various party ships are being assessed and possibly upgraded, I have decided to upgrade the game system to Second Edition,

Differences: very few, and they are outlined below.

TLDR: I'll update your character sheets and ship stats and present on Friday. There will be some decisions to make at that time, but only really very minor ones.

Characteristics

No change. The six characteristics, their value ranges, their bonuses, and how you get them are all unchanged

Careers

Minor changes that have no impact on your characters. The careers are more or less identical, as are survival rolls, advancement rolls, etc.

Skills

The actual skills in game are for the most part unchanged. There is some rationalisation of some skills, and some more subtypes for others. I think it's an improvement overall.

• Unchanged: Admin, Advocate, Astrogation, Broker, Carouse, Deception, Diplomat, Explosives, Gamber, Gunner, Investigate, Jack of All Trades, Language, Leadership, Mechanic, Medic, Melee, Navigation, Persuade, Pilot, Recon, Seafarer, Stealth, Steward, Streetwise, Survival, Tactics, Vacc Suit.
• Changes to subskills: Animals (Riding and Farming replaced by Handling), Athletics (Flying removed), Art (Acting and Dance merged into Performer), Drive (Hovercraft and Walker added), Engineer (Electronics removed), Flyer (Airship and Ornithopter added), Gun Combat (now only Archaic, Energy and Slug are the three types), Heavy Weapons (now Artillery, Man Portable and Vehicle), Trade (renamed Profession and adding Belter to the list of examples).
• Significant Changes: Electronics added, which merges in as subskills Comms, Computers, Remote Ops and Sensors. Sciences now replaces Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Social Sciences and Space Sciences. Electronics is no longer a subskill of Science, and Astronomy and Cosmology have been added.
• Removed: Battle Dress is removed, and the armour requires only Vacc Suit skill to use. Zero-G is removed and instead you use Athletics (Dexterity) to move around in zero-g environments.

Skills Limits

There are some skill limits in place, which we'll either ignore for current characters (i.e. max level of 4 for a skill) or are not relevant as we are nowhere near the limits (max number of skill levels known is nowhere near impacting anyone).

Training Skills

Great improvement!
In order to train up an existing skill or learn a new skill the character needs to commit to one or more Study Periods. A Study Period is equal to 8 weeks of study and practice. The 8 weeks of a Study Periods need not be consecutive, but each week needs to be a full 5 days of 8 hours a day learning and practising. NOTE: Usually this is only possible when Jumping, so I'll count jump weeks only.

• NEW SKILLS: Once 8 weeks of training is complete a Study Period is complete. At this point you need to make an Average (8+) EDU check. Success means you've learned a new skill at level 0.
• EXISTING SKILLS: If you are improving an existing skill above 0 the number of successful Study Periods required is the skill level you want to get. So learning Vacc Suit-1 means one Study Period, and Broker-3 means three successful Study Periods.
• FAILING: If you fail a Study Period check you have to commit to a new Study Period, but you gain a cumulative +1 DM for success checks for that skill.
• Note: Learning or improving Athletics uses the appropriate characteristic (STR, DEX or END) in place of EDU.
• Note: Jack of All Trades cannot be learned or improved, but having Jack of All Trades adds the JoT level to success checks. Your innate ability to pick things up is to your advantage. (This means Lady Nitrane gets +3 DM on Study Period checks).
• Library: the Harrier has a Library which means that every week of learning and practice counts as two weeks towards a Study Period.

Failure doesn't necessarily indicate that you don't understand it. You might be distracted, or the captain is having you do extra chores.

Combat

No changes here.

Equipment

No real changes here.

SpaceCraft

Big changes to how drives work. This is in fact the stimulus for me converting to the new system.
No longer are there "Type A" and "Type D" drives. The drives now take up a percentage of the hull depending on the rating you want. Manoeuvre and Jump drives use Power Points, which unsurprisingly are produced by the Power Plant.

What does it all mean? I'll convert over the Harrier, Far Scout and Frontier Trader and see,

Space Combat

Improved and slightly simplified. Rather than a Hull Value and a Structure Value which are reduced slowly by weapons fire only if those areas are hit, there is a Hull Value that works more like hitpoints. These are removed by damage from weapons and reduced to 0 means 'ship dead'. If the attack has an effect of 6+ (ie you roll 6 more than you needed, after all mods are taken into account) then you get a critical hit, which is the traditional 'you hit a drive' or 'you hit the fuel tanks' that are more common in the first edition and classic editions.

Weapons are now handled slightly differently - the values for damage are about the same as now but stacking is different (i.e. more than one in a turret) and the modifiers are different (e.g. pulse lasers get a +2 to attack, beam a +4 even though they do less damage).

What effect this will have in combat I'm not sure - I expect that you'll breach the hull and take the ship out a lot quicker most of the time. I'm sure an opportunity to try it will arise.

Trade

The extreme ends of the purchase and sell modifiers are less extreme. No more "you get 400% of the base value" as it maxes out at 160% but other than that it's more or less the same. We'll be using the online tool anyway.

Planets and Systems

No change to planet stats, although it's a little clearer in the book what happens with law levels and you lot ignoring them

That's about it.

Home Sweet Home

This episode starts on Clarke and then progresses by way of Torpol back to Drinax, where it all began.

Finally getting the reward money from the authorities on Clarke, and noting that Vii Lon is now up to full health, the party decide that it is best to do one more run to Torpol to drop her off. To that end they get cargo and head back.

The trip is uneventful, and the cargo sells for a good amount. The available cargo however is not particularly worthwhile so the party decide that heading straight to Drinax is better than waiting for more cargo to become available.

Rather than head to Drinax with the entire fleet, it is decided that the Harrier will head to Drinax with sufficient extra crew to man the Frontier Trader which is hoped can be repaired enough to make the trip to Pourne. The other ships are heading directly to Pourne under the command of Krrsh and will meed the party there.

On arrival there are no members of the royal family to greet them, so the party wait. While this is happening the additional crew head to the mothballed ship to start getting her back online.

To be continued.

The long and winding road

The story continues in the Thebus system before heading through Oghma and Torpol to Clarke.

Nitrane and Unter continue to investigate the lab ship. They find another air/raft bay (empty) and what appears to be another engine room (door blocked) and then a secondary bridge.

At this point however they hear Sparrow say "Uh, guys!" and then the link goes dead. An alarm in the vacc suit systems alerts them to the fact that Sparrow's suit is suddenly very low on air. They decide to push ahead as it would be the quickest way to where Sparrow was guarding the lab ship crewmember.

Passing a row of stateroom doors they come across one that is open and a figure lurches out at them. A fight ensues in which damage is taken by the party thanks to a giant metal club that the inhumanly strong crewman is wielding. They are forced to kill him.

In the meantime Slaid had reached Sparrow's body, out cold from nasty blunt force trauma to the head. The visor on the vacc suit helmet badly cracked. Slaid tapes up the helmet and then shares air with Sparrow, meaning both now have only a little air left.

Deciding to rendezvous at the lift up to the docking ring, and appraising the ships waiting nearby that they have encountered some problems, Nitrane and Unter come across another lab ship crewman coming out of the kitchen locker that held corpses. This person is wielding a frozen human leg as a weapon.

This person, the one they captured originally, is inhumanly strong as well but is eventually killed.

Going up the left the party find that they have next to no air left. Sharing the air keeps two alive for a bit longer, but means everyone is now in a precarious situation. Luckily Ben Parr and Adro Venniser arrive with spare air bottles and some quick changing brings everyone's air levels up.

Krssh arrives in an air raft and makes it easier to bring across the still comatose body of Sparrow into the Harrier, where the best medical bay is waiting for him. Extreme quarantine and bio-hazard procedures are in place just in case he's infected, or able to infect others. Sparrow is stabilised and brought around. The head wound is treated.

Professor Jim Cheese has been looking through the data brought back hours earlier. With some clever insights he has determined that the danger is passed. The research in the lab ship related to combat drugs. An explosion, the cause of which is unknown, caused multiple experimental drugs to be released in to the air vents simultaneously. These killed 80% of the crew and researchers instantly. The remaining crew were affected in different ways but with a common theme of periods of lucidity, periods of inhuman strength (and inhuman behaviours) and then periods of exhaustion.

Any active reagents have long ago dissipated, been scrubbed by the air system, or are in other ways totally inert. This reassures the party and work is put in motion to clear out the lab ship for sure (the shipboard marines take this task), the engines are checked and maintenance performed, the fuel tanks are resealed and pressure checked, and the hull repaired. That last required some planetside work so a course is set to Thebus.

Thebus is a safari tourist world. There are plenty of spaces in which to land that are well away from prying eyes and the work is done.

Jumping to the Oghma system there is hope that the ships crews (all of which are at absolute minimum levels) can be bolstered by new additions. Also this is a good place to pick up more cargo to sell on Torpol to pay for improvements to the ships in general.

Oghma is a warlike space-faring planet. The inhabitants are renowned for their slaving, raiding and pillaging, and indeed a good number of crew are hired here. A number of suitable cargoes are found and the jump is made to Torpol.

Arriving in Torpol Captain Slaid advises Provost Falx that they have returned. When they reach his office he is there, drink in hand and dressed in his bright orange robes (with tony golden fez with scale model of the starport on top). He welcomes them profusely, offers drinks, and is then wowed by Captain Slaid's amazing presentation of the proof that the mission has been completed. A round of applause is followed by Falx asking two colleagues (each with their own tiny structures on their heads) to also see the presentation. They are likewise amazed and the reward money duly handed over.

The matter of Vii Lon is also raised. Unfortunately she almost died when the low berth was opened (she had been in there for 20 weeks, way beyond the normal expectancy). As luck would have it she was roused in an advanced (even for TL15) medical bay. It turns out that she was indeed an official representative of Torpol, with a very senior position (if her health insurance cover is any guide). With her needing expert medical care (and the planet only being TL8) the party are asked to look after her a little while longer.

The cargo from Oghma is sold for a tidy profit, and with making the jump to Clarke with empty holds something to be avoided, more cargo is found and loaded into the ships.

The jump to Clarke is uneventful. Arriving, it is still a dark, depressing place. Keeper Malos is less impressed by the presentation by Captain Slaid and he moodily takes the proof to show his colleagues. The cargo is sold for more profit, and the party wait.

To be continued...

The Continuing Saga

The party starts on Palindrome, and make their way through the deep space fuel depot and Noricum to Thebus.

On Palindrome the party decide to get the far trader (formerly belonging to Ferrik Redthane) fixed. This takes 9 days or so, and that means shore leave for the crews, and plenty of time to buy cargo and find new crew.

When fleet leaves it consists of the Harrier (The Phoenix), the salvager, the far trader and the far scout. The crew on board is at minimal levels, and there is an assortment of cargo that can hopefully be sold for a tidy profit.

Arriving at the fuel dump in empty space, the ships refuel and realise that the resources here are limited. Perhaps in future they should bring some fuel? The refuelling is not without incident, but very little can go wrong if they take things slowly.

The next jump is to Borite. There they manage to sell all the cargo at the starport above this primitive planet and make a tidy profit. No crew can be found to hire, nor any useful cargo to buy, so they jump to Thebus after refuelling.

In the Thebus system the lab ship is known to be in orbit around an uninteresting distant rocky planet. Arriving in system near this planet the lab ship is found (eventually) and then before exploring it the party make the decision to refuel in case they need to make a run for it, which means a few days travelling to the nearest gas giant, refuelling, and returning.

Back at the lab ship the party scan for signs of life, which requires that the ship be very close. Numerous life signs are detected but the resolution is not fine enough for more details. A visual scan of the ship is made which detects three possible entry points; the two air lock hangar doors or the pinnace docking ring. The latter is selected.

Slaid attempts to open the door which takes 40 minutes, needing to use computers to break in. There they find an elevator shaft which leads from the zero-G pinnace ring down to the normal gravity of the ring.

Emerging into a partly lit reception area the party ask for signs of life and are told that there appears to be something 15 metres away, but that scanning is difficult.The party also quickly realise that the circular nature of the vessel makes it difficult to see more than 10 metres in either direction. The furthest that can be seen - if they lie flat on the floor and look up - is less than 15 metres.

Moving through the ship the first section consists mostly of staterooms. Some have had their lights destroyed and others are intact. Some have bedding removed, and even mattresses. In one a dead body is found in the cupboard.

Other rooms are found, including mess hall, private lounges, a scientist library (the contents of which made their way back to the party ship thanks to Sparrow taking them there), and a galley with a freezer full of dead crew.

In the middle of that a small herd of escaped lab animals are encountered. Some are stunned, but the effects wear off quickly enough that conventional weapons are used to dispatch them.

Exploring further the party find the bridge and the first drive bay. In the bridge Slaid breaks into the computer and is able to unlock the iris doors throughout the ship. He gets to work on more information about the ship. Unter and Nitrane explore the drive bay, and in the upper deck they find a living crew member.

The figure is crouched over and appears to be paying no attention to the players. Nitrane tries to get his attention by hitting the wall, but while the figure appears to have heard the noise it does not look up.

After some closing of airlocks and moving around the figure sees the party and freaks out. He starts shouting but because they are wearing vacc suit helmets they can't make out what he is saying. Nitrane grabs him in a bear hug while Unter departs to find something to bind their captive.

While this is going on Slaid is assaulted in the bridge. Minding his own business he is hit by another wandering crew member. Not one to put up with that kind of rubbish he shoots a her, killing her.

Sparrow, who left earlier, returns with an improvised speaker to allow the party to communicate with the captive. He understands what is being said but unfortunately the party still will not open their helmets to hear what he is saying. They eventually bind him in a stateroom and Sparrow stands guard.

Unter and Nitrane continue exploring the ship. They find an air/raft dock, cargo bay and the main laboratory. At the far end of the lab is a mound of tables, chairs, mattresses and anything else not bolted down. This appears to be a lair for one of the unfortunates on board. Breaking into it the party find a hatch cut into the floor that leads into one of the fuel tanks.

Breaking it open reveals nothing else of interest so they continue. A second lab is found and in the corner of this, another assemblage of furniture makes another lair. It seems that the people affected by whatever happened on board have some animalistic urge to create protected homes.

To be continued...