#RPGADAY2020 1. Beginning.

#Beginning. 

I don't know where it began, but I know how it began. It began with my parents. Way back in '77, they took me to my very first con. And then another and another. 

I recall a zillion different games. Mostly WRG, but tanks, dragons, rayguns and so many other things I hadn't seen before and perhaps some I will never see again. But I won't forget them. 

Since then, I've read a hundred different games and played more most of them. And the the process continues. 

As my son reads his copy of the Dungeons and Dragons Essentials Kit, I have two other kids that I have encouraged to enjoy their own creative ventures. Sure, they don't do games as much as their brother, but they have their creative outlets, art, music, stories, etc. Which are just as different as Wargames Research Group is from D&D, but it's a beginning. I hope I've given them a beginning as good as I had.

Thanks for the beginning, Mom and Dad.  

Striker - 1977 First Look

A while ago, I stumbled across a copy Striker by Game Designers' Workshop. Ironically, I thought it was a copy of Tractics which is very much unlike Striker. I have never played this game despite having it on my shelf for decades. I'd love to launch right into a review, but like everything else in the Traveller world, the game is complex. 

One of the nice things about this particular game is, it was published in 1979 and is right where I came into the Traveller world myself. For some demented reason, I took a liking to Star Frontiers after playing a few games. My Traveller got put aside, despite having the simplified rules. I can truly say I have nearly zero concept how Traveller works. Either 70's Traveller or today's Fifth edition. So I am looking at 40 year old Striker with fresh eyes. 

Striker is a boxed set of 3 classic looking black books. These 48 books are 5 3/4 by 9 3/4 with yellow stripes and text. The titles are: Rule Book 1 Basic Rules, Rule Book 2 Advanced Rules and Rule Book 3 Equipment. There is a fourth 16 page "booklet" called Design Sequence Tables and 3 loose leaf pages of tables, which was described as "six pages of tables". 

The game used to have a set of dice and I believe I still have them mixed with every other die I own in a jar. Since I have 100 six siders, I doubt I will ever find or identify them. I recall they were smaller than normal dice but my memory could be shot.

I wish I could say, I bought this game at such and such a store way back when but I didn't. Not only did I have my own gaming group, I also belonged to two or three other groups. I am sure that someone gave me this set. I don't have the proof of some one's name written in the books. I do like that best, but I have something better. 

Way better! 

My set has hand written notes by an unknown author. This isn't a campaign setting, a set of characters sheets or a battle plan. 

This notes are old, yellowed and I don't understand them any more that I do Traveller. But even if these papers didn't have a title, it would be incredibly clear that someone back in 1979 was writing a computer program to automate many of the instructions from Book 3. 

I love the books I have with past owner's names. These notes make this one extra special to me. 

I shall not be reviewing Striker until I have an excellent grasp on the rules. 

I couldn't bring myself to write on it.

No, no. I shall not write on this. 

It is a hint about my next old game review. 

Star Smuggler Silly Sequence - r332, r335 and r339 - Slaves

I've been monkeying with Star Smuggler, again. Right off the bat, I had Duke march into the Slums in the first hour of play. I immediately got the result r332 - Opportunity to Buy Items, Young Slaves. They have a base price of 100 to purchase and can be sold for the same, but only on planets that have a high wealth modifier. You will make money on this transaction, if only you can get them there without being board by the police or customs. 

This one is interesting because they have no stats, therefore can't do anything. So, why would you want these slaves if they can't do work? Under a first time play condition, the player doesn't know that they only have two chances to sell slaves and many, many more chances to get caught and those almost always result in an automatic loss. It's sort of a sucker punch from the author. 

I imagine Duke is Han Solo with the serial numbers filed off. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense for him to be keeping slaves. What are they doing as he jets around the universe? If he buys people, wouldn't prospective hires wonder if doing a bad job will land them in a cage? It just doesn't work in my mind. 

To alter this scenario, a simple change is needed. Give the slaves stats. There are only 6 professions in the book: Pilot/Navigator, Starship Gunner, Bodyguard, Skimmer Driver, Engineer and Medic. Assigning a number to each gives the slave a set of skills and statistics. 

But what good is that? If Duke purchases a slave then sets that person free, they may sign on as crew. I would suggest a Cunning roll for this. It isn't that Duke is tricking the person, Duke is pitching a glamorous life on a starship. Duke is a business man and expects these crewmen and women will work one week for free. At the end of following week, if he doesn't pay them, they will walk off. He doesn't get a second chance with a Cunning roll because they know he is free-wheeling with promises based on the first one. One thing they would NOT get is a death payment. 

Now the flipside. If Duke DOES NOT free them, every time he gets into trouble the slaves will try to make a break for it, either joining the enemy, seizing the ship or taking the hopper to escape. Every time someone isn't guarding the slaves when trouble starts, Duke has to make a Cunning roll to avoid this. Every darn time! 

 

I kind of like this idea. One other advantage of this change is Duke is not permitted to take a Skimmer Driver off their homeworld. They just won't go. In this case, a freed Skimmer Driver will travel with the crew of the Antelope. 

In this run, Duke has 750 secs to start and a Cunning of 3. He decides to spend about half of his cash on 3 slaves, then sets them free. He makes his Cunning roll twice, but misses the third. It turns out that the two people willing to stay on a crew are a pilot/navigator and a medic. 

I am not sure how to handle their papers. Perhaps they kept them or the slaver gave them to Duke when the purchase was made. Neither one seems right, but that's what I am doing. 

The only other mod to this is ignoring the line about slaves in r335 and r339. Obviously, Duke could be a slaver and sell them, but it seems weird. 

Star Smuggler - e005 Expansion Suggestions

In my last post, I looked at a double entry under event e005 and suggested that two of these events could be rewritten to direct the player elsewhere. 

In e005, you discover a 2-7 robot caravan. The robots are carrying stuff. The table gives the following results: life support, fuel or repair units, food, refined ore. Additionally, they have a controller which causes the robots to follow a predesignated path. You can capture it and use it on your own bots. 

The effects of seizing this device are a trap, a police sting, something causes all of your communications devices to breakdown or nothing at all. The police sting and the breakdown appear twice, so you would want to change these two. Both of these events can played through other events: e117 is an entry event on Cubro and e017 is also linked to e003 and an entry event into a scientific area on any planet. 

But how does one come to e005? What were you doing when this happened? This event occurs twice, via the entry and contact table. Once for rural areas and once for mining. Each of these events occur on a flat 1 in 6 every time you are detected entering these areas. This would indicate that you don't want to make the changes too special. 

The first thing that popped into my head would be a robotic orbital shuttle lands to recover the robots. Since it's robotic, you can steal it with no fuss. But what to do with it? 

The orbital shuttle as spelled out in r215 has a capacity of 50 cubic units. As a general rule, the amount of cargo space necessary to carry a vehicle is 1.6 times the vehicle's carrying capacity. So you would need at least 80 CU of storage space bring this ship on board the Antelope. The boat bay is 40 CU and the cargo bay is 60 CU. You'd need to remove the wall between the hopper bay and the cargo bay to make it fit inside the ship. The alternative would be to cache it on the planet. 

Another simple idea is that another Antelope class ship lands, with a crew that mirrors your own. By removing the cargo from the robots, you can attempt to storm this ship and take it over from inside after the bots are recovered. 

The rules are not clear as to what happens when you have two ships. And that option is offered in e036, so this is not entirely out of bounds. You need 120,000 secs to purchase a new ship, so the barrier isn't how many ships you have but how much money you have. 

If you are using this as a guide for another RPG or allowing many people to play this solo game, you could have fun by switching e017 or e117 to e005. Another robot caravan shows up! The characters would be stuck in a case where they have gotten a lot of great loot, but have to pick and choose what they take because of cargo space. 

Other possibilities are that someone comes along to see what is delaying the robots. These people will either be from rural areas or from mining. You could "warp" this event into any of the encounters in those regions. Some of them are very interesting. It's all up to you. 

I shall be looking to see if I can find another "wedge scenario" in the rule and events booklets. I don't think I missed one, but we shall see.