After seven calm days in jump space aboard the sleek, jet black yacht Dark Moon<\/em>, it\u2019s crew of five are awaiting the iminent exit to normal space, heralded by a familiar low rumble.<\/p>\n There is Carmen Marshall<\/em>, 35 year old captain and owner of the Dark Moon<\/em> and Van Dex<\/em>, Carmen\u2019s 39 year old \u201cfirst officer\u201d. The two have been business partners for a while. So far Van Dex didn\u2019t notice anything unusual or even illegal about Carmen\u2019s business practices. After a prior career in the employ of his home world mega corporation Tremous Dex<\/em>, he\u2019s used to the ins and outs of space trading. Carmen has never told much about her home world Raschev<\/em>, why she left, and never went back home. Carmen and Van Dex are non-imperials, they\u2019re from independent worlds far on the spinward edge of the sector.<\/p>\n There are also three passengers: the young and wealthy scientist Suri Brown<\/em>, who specialises on psionicology, and two imperial veterans, medical doctor Edward Phila<\/em> and army captain Walter Kemp<\/em>, they both served in the army and have known each other since they met during the infamous Siege of Gitosy<\/em>.<\/p>\n Over the last few days in jump space some tension has been mounting aboard. A week ago, mere seconds before the jump, the Dark Moon was almost hit by a rocket. The crew realized they were being persued only moments before and couldn\u2019t make much from the sensor readings. After reviewing the recorded visuals of the other ship, all Walter could tell was: \u201cthey\u2019re not imperial and they\u2019re not from Gitosy, that\u2019s for sure\u201d. Carmen seemed tense at first, but shook off her nervousness quickly. Then they came up with a plan: \u201cas soon as we exit to normal, we divert from our course to Vanejen<\/em>, power down and wait if anything pops out of jump behind us, everyone put on vacc suits!\u201d.<\/p>\n They spend some hours \u201clying doggo\u201d, passive sensors show nothing. Then they power up again, do an active sweep some 500.000 km around, still nothing. Soon enough they get hailed: \u201cDark Moon, this is the Tortuga Heritage<\/em>, stand by for boarding\u201d. There is some commotion aboard the Dark Moon<\/em>, \u201cdamn, why didn\u2019t we sense them, not even a jump flash when they emerged\u201d.<\/p>\n But now they\u2019ve got a reading on their screens. The Tortuga Heritage<\/em> is closing in, obviously. They know they\u2019ve still got hours to prepare. As time passes sensors show, that the other ship is a modified far trader, it\u2019s fast and about the same size as the Dark Moon<\/em>. It sports the emblem of a blindfolded skull on it\u2019s fins. They hail the Tortuga Heritage<\/em> and ask for their objective.<\/p>\n Surprisingly it\u2019s captain, one Benjamin \u201cQuicksilver\u201d Turkin<\/em>, is quite frank about this: \u201csee, there\u2019s this bounty of 50.000 Credits on Carmen Marshall\u2019s head – it\u2019s dead or alive, so you might as well eject her from your air locks for us to pick up, but wouldn\u2019t that be a pity? Besides, nice ship the Dark Moon<\/em>, almost pathetic to see her in our cross hairs\u201d.<\/p>\n Walter Kemp turns to Carmen angrily \u201cwhy, surely there\u2019s something about you we should have known, not a bad idea to cycle you through the air lock and be done with it\u201d, but Suri takes a stand \u201cno one is going to take anyone of us\u201d. Van Dex is puzzled. Carmen snarls \u201cI bet there\u2019s more bounty on Quicksilvers<\/em> head then mine!\u201d<\/p>\n After some discussion Walter Kemp picks up the comm: \u201cTortuga Heritage, this is Captain Walter Kemp. I\u2019ve seized control of the Dark Moon, we\u2019ll be awaiting your docking maneuvre, and will exchange Mrs. Marshall for an immediate payment of 10.000 Credits\u201d and Quicksilver seems to bite: \u201cCopy, Captain Kemp, stand by\u201d.<\/p>\n The Tortuga Heritage slowly closes in, both turrets aimed at the Dark Moon, Van Dex has manned the Dark Moons turret aiming at the air lock of the other ship and watches the tubular boarding gantry slowly extend across the gap. Carmen is still in the pilots seat and programs her ships computer to keep a close boarding distance to the Tortuga Heritage.<\/p>\n Suri and Edward take up position in the Dark Moons Airlock, ready to cover Walter, who\u2019s preparing to meet the bounty hunters. All are in Vacc Suits and armed with rifles. Walter has secured himself with a long multifilament, EVA-security chord, tied to the air lock and pushes Carmen\u2019s black, custom made vacc suit in front of him. They\u2019ve filled her vacc suit with some scrap metal for mass and filled it up with hydrogen. Carmen whined at the plan, but gave in. They\u2019ve tied the arms of Carmen\u2019s vacc suit behind it\u2019s back and tied the boots together to make it appear like she\u2019s bound up.<\/p>\n \u201cOk, this is Captain Kemp, I\u2019ve got Mrs. Marshall tied up and will meet you half way between our ships in the gantry. Have 10.000 Cr ready for the exchange.\u201d<\/p>\n He slowly moves out into the gantry. On the other side he notices a woman in combat armor with head lights and a dark visor accompanied by a small combat droid. He knows these droids all to well, and mentally prepares to aim for it\u2019s vulnerable control circuits. Then after a pause:<\/p>\n \u201cNegative Kemp! We\u2019ll meet you on our ship. Make no mistakes!\u201d<\/p>\n Walter moves on carefully, everyone on the Dark Moon get\u2019s nervous.<\/p>\n Suddenly Suri can\u2019t hold it anymore, she jerks on Walters security line, tries to pull him away from danger, Walter shoves the empty space suit away from him, as he get\u2019s pulled back. Van Dex hears the commotion and fires pulse laser at the other ship, Edward fires at the prepared space suit. Both ships get pushed appart from the explosion, the woman in combat armor and her droid spin out into space lifeless. Walter dangles on the security chord in between the ships surrounded by debris and finally get\u2019s pulled back into the safety of their air lock. Carmen face palms.<\/p>\n Walter says \u201cthey\u2019re not getting away with this, now we\u2019re going to board, we can have the Tortuga Heritage! I\u2019ve done this many times while in service\u201d. He jumps, drifts some 150 meters and lands right next to the outer hatch of the Tortuga Heritage. The security line reels out to maximum length. As he manages to successfully open the hatch from the outside (a bunch of amazingly successful Vacc Suit and Electronics rolls), he feels something bump into him from behind. Suri has attached herself to the security line and cable cared accross. Edward follows quickly thereafter. Through the view port of the inner hatch they spot four mercenaries in combat suits, aiming sub-machine guns at them. Now everyone has had enough of this:<\/p>\n Quicksilver panicks and orders his gunner to fire rockets at the Dark Moon, despising the dangerously short distance, Van Dex fires recklessly at the Tortuga Heritage, a couple of explosions ensue, Suri gets blinded by laser reflections from the Dark Moons protective coating. Captain Quicksilver dies from a direct hit to his bridge. One mercenary goes down in the cross fire. The Dark Moon suffers hits to her fuel tankage and the cargo hold, damaging Van Dex\u2019s Air\/Raft badly. They\u2019ll still be able to land.<\/p>\n Finally the Dark Moon\u2019s Crew takes four surviving mercenaries captive, secures ten brand new SR-5 Survival Rifles and four HES-6 Hostile Environment Suits from the Tortuga Heritage\u2019s cargo hold. They manage to restore control of the Tortuga Heritage just enough to put the badly damaged ship on a trajectory for a safe orbit around Vanejen. Then they make for Vanejen Space Port.<\/p>\n Vanejen is a bit larger then Mars, has standard atmosphere, still breathable without protection in spite of some notable industrial pollution. About 60% of the surface is covered with oceans and there are large ice caps on both poles of the planet. The local tech level is similar to Terra\u2019s early twentieth century, and a feudal technocracy maintains a rather permissive law level.<\/p>\n Down dirtside, the crew discovers that the old navy facilities of the class C space port have been deserted more then a century ago. There are no repair facilities, and only unrefined fuel. Seems like they\u2019re stuck on Vanejen for some time. The mood get\u2019s worse as Van Dex finds that his calulations we\u2019re off by some degrees. The Tortuga Heritage\u2019s orbit is decaying \u2026<\/p>\n This has been the first time i\u2019ve played and refereed a game with Traveller5 rules. Writing this session report, I\u2019m surprised how much actually happend in this first four hour session. I had to look up a few things during the session, especially the space combat range bands. And some weapon stats for space combat.<\/p>\n the base mechanic is super simple, roll 2d6 under target number. Basically that\u2019s all a casual player would have to know.<\/p><\/li>\n optional granularity of the system seems to scale well. The rules allow to include technical details to various degree – as long as it\u2019s fun.<\/p><\/li>\n Range Bands are great, they facilitate realistic narrative without bogging down the game by having to count squares or measuring distances on the gaming table.<\/p><\/li>\n ablative armor and the \u201c10 hits put any NPC out of action\u201d-rule, speed up combat resolution nicely.<\/p><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n The Initial Situation After seven calm days in jump space aboard the sleek, jet black yacht Dark Moon, it\u2019s crew of five are awaiting the iminent exit to normal space, heralded by a familiar low rumble. There is Carmen Marshall, 35 year old captain and owner of the Dark Moon and Van Dex, Carmen\u2019s 39 … <\/p>\nAbout the rules<\/h1>\n
Things I liked:<\/h2>\n
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Things I struggled with:<\/h2>\n
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Things to look up in the rules<\/h2>\n
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