Too Saksi For My Ship

In this session of Traveller, the Deepnight Revelation makes its way Rimward towards the Federated Commonwealth of Worlds. I didn’t have anything major planned for this – just a pre-planned course for the ship to take, and some chances to visit worlds. Whether anything major came out of it was very much up the players, but I was hoping to get most of the way down through the Commonwealth in this session.

A couple of jumps took them to the system of Psadytomi, which was the first world within the Commonwealth that they would meet. It is a mining world, though has grown to have a population of about 140 million due to its importance. This is the first that any Commonwealth world has heard of the Deepnight, so people are surprised, scared and somewhat suspicious when the 75,000t vessel comes out of jump.

There is a Commonwealth navy ship here, the CSS Hornet, a 1,600t vessel which feels severely outmatched. Fortunately, the Deepnight has a liaison officer from the CSS Illustrious onboard, Lt Moray, who is able to explain things to the captain of the Hornet, and provide validation codes that convince him that the Deepnight is a ‘friendly’.

The crew offer genuine Old Earth alcohol (actually brewed on the ship during the voyage), and ask about the local sports. The latter consist of ‘Push’, a form of Rollerball, various other contact sports and speeder bike racing. So it’s a bit of a chance for R&R, and getting to know the locals.

Shortly after the identity of the Deepnight has been confirmed, a small 100t Jump-3 scout jumps out of the system, on the way to tell the rest of their civilisation about the foreigners.

There is the question of how to pay for R&R, since the Imperium Credits that the ship has are pretty much worthless. They will have some local ‘Commonwealth Credits’ which they picked up from Tradeport, but other than that there is an exchange of information (mostly world survey data, which the planet’s governor is happy to receive, as well as a request to transport financial information at high speed across the sector) for access to local bars, brothels and other establishments. This is a corporate world, and the planetary governor, Dana Kachowsky is a senior manager of a chemicals company that runs the mining operations. She and Amelie (representative of the Deepnight corporation) get on well, making a deal relatively straightforward.

There are some bruises from taking part in the local sports, a few nights spent in cells for some of the crew (including a couple of the Vargr, who got into a big fight after being mistaken for ‘furries’), but otherwise things go smoothly.

After a few days, it’s time to jump onwards. The next jump takes them briefly into Bifrost sector, and from there to Olympus sector and the world of Yve. It is a TL 10 world with an A class starport and more varied culture and commercial base. There are many interview requests from the press, which provides the ship with a bit of income in local currencies. Tours of the ship command a hefty price, as do presentations and talks from the science teams.

There is a definite buzz aboard the ship, and a boost to morale. It has been ten years since they left the Imperium, and many of the crew had forgotten what it was like to be in civilisation. They’ve encountered individual worlds, but this is a proper star faring civilisation, with a true melting pot of different planetary cultures and even races. There are Droyne here, though castless. There are various sub-species of humans. Though there is a boost to morale, there is also a hint of home sickness.

Eventually they come to Red Vand, another industrial world but this one takes the entertainment districts to the next level. Huge sprawling cities, with casinos, bars, sports halls and plenty of other entertainment. There are more press tours, and even a request to access the ships logs. Not from scientists, but movie producers who want to make a holoseries on the voyages of the Deepnight Revelation. Lord Sivas and Amelie sign a deal worth several million commonwealth credits.

Some of the crew take part in speeder bike races. This is basically grav bikes, with an enforced altitude in order to keep things ‘interesting’. Khadashi does okay, but Shiiguma crashes and injures herself. I did a simple choose a difficulty to make a roll against. The higher the difficulty, the better you do. But if you fail, then there’s a chance of a crash and serious injury. Shiiguma rolled low on both her skill and the damage roll, so just some bruises and a scar to remember things by.

Some of the crew try to sell dodgy ‘supplements’, including Gland-u-like. A side reference to a dodgy drink being sold by the same player in our Call of Cthulhu campaign.

It should be noted that there are two write ups of this campaign. This one is mine, and tends to be quite serious. The players have their own, which is private. Whether it ever gets shared (or turned into a world famous TV series or something) I have no idea. But the tone is somewhat different. Consider the title of this post, or this following extract:

Another mining world (Class M). But with a fairly large population, approximately half a billion. It’s a world of hard-working, hard playing, rugged folks (and carpetbaggers). We consider selling them TL15 ‘Gland-u-like’ but decide that this is unethical (and possibly a violation of the prime directive as ‘Gland-u-like’ is a genuine panacea and would undoubtedly completely change the course of their civilization).
— From The Exciting Voyages of the Sex Thing

There is talk of crew members staying behind in the Commonwealth, and possibly taking on new crew members to replace them. After they leave Red Valda, it becomes apparent that two of the crew had gone AWOL anyway.

A few more jumps, takes them through the Saksi system, after which the crew celebrate new year for 1118. A couple of jumps later they get to Maine, a TL 12 world with a class A starport and one of the major worlds of the Commonwealth. I had planned that the players would get some information at this world, since there’s a chance to talk to big universities, navy HQs and important political leaders.

But it was decided that here was a good place to stop for the evening. Which gives me more time to read ahead and decide what information they’re going to need for the last part of the journey.