The Zhodani Base

The big long-distance ski-race Vasaloppet is on today. It is run from Sälen to Mora (9o km). This has inspired me to think about a long distance space race.

We are all familiar with the planet Mora in the Spinward Marches. That should be the goal. As far as I know there is no planet named Sälen, But there is a planet named New Salen in Vland Sector. That should be the start of the race.

Some ideas for the race. All the ships should start at the same time from the ice-caps of New Salen. The first ship to land on the main starport at Mora is the winner. There could be hundreds or even more ships in the race. There should be a huge prize for the winner, since the ships has to spend several months in this race. It should be sponsored by Megacorporations and by nobles at the planet the race passes. There can be a number of classes depending on jump-drive. To avoid that ships try to do a “controlled” misjump, there should be a number of mandatory planets that has be be passed (in order and within a time limit). No violence (or other forms of cheating) will be allowed during the race.

The mandatory planets to visit might be Vland,  Twophur, Kaasu and Deneb. The fastest ships in the race would usually just refuel and continue. The slower might stay for a few days, making repairs and going to parties. A tradition in the race could be to pick up a cargo of Vilani ale at Vland, and on every planet where the ship makes a longer stop, contribute with a part of the cargo to the local race party.

Image from Traveller Map.

Adventure ideas:

The PC’s are taking part in the race in the J-3 class. This year there is a special prize. The winner of the J-3 class will get a contract to deliver all ale from a Vland brewery for a year. Since this is a very nice price for a fast independant ship, there will be some cheating. By others, that will slow down the PCs ship. And by the PCs, as a revenge. Will the PCs win, or will they be disqualified?

The PCs could be hired for a rescue mission, when one of the ships has tried to do a “controlled” misjump and missed the deadline of one of the mandatory checkpoints.

The PCs can be part of a team of ships that each will try to do a “controlled” misjump with the hope that one of them will go in the right direction and win the race. Then the PCs can end up wherever the referee wants them.

T Pyxidis is a star that we have heard about in the news recently. The scientist Dr Sion claims that it will go supernova quite soon and threaten the earth. Other scientists say that this is not the case.

In any case, T Pyxidis is an interesting object that will be interesting to study. Especially in the Far Future when we can go there. It is only 1000 parsecs away. It will only take about 4 years to go there with an average speed of jump-5. So lets equip a 100-kton scout-cruiser and go there! It will be an epic adventure.

Image from NASA. Public Domain.

Only referees should read on.

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The votes have been counted. The winner of the first Summer Zhodani Base 76 Patrons Writing Contest is Raz with his Patron called “Universal Health Care“. w00t!

Image from wikimedia. License: Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 2.0

You may now vote on which of the “Patrons” you think are the best.

The Patrons You can vote for are:

• Luck Handi by Jeff
• Universal Health Care by Raz
• The Hermit by Matt

Only registered users and participants in the competition may vote on the entries they like the most. Everyone else may still express what they think by posting comments.

Give the best “Patron” 2 points, and give the second best “Patron” 1 point. The participants may not give their own entries any points. Send in your votes using e-mail.

The voting ends on October 24:th.

Image from wikimedia. Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 1.0 License

Patron: Civil rights activist
Required Skills: None.
Required equipment: None.

Players’ Information:
On a populated world, a guy whose job it was to monitor a dangerous natural / geological / biological situation has been abandoned by his former organization due to losing a war, but has continued on alone in his duties.

A ruthless and ignorant citizen of the conquerors has eyed his domicile and the compound he occupies for his own and intends to have the hermit removed by the new authorities.

Image from New York Public Library’s Digital Library. Public Domain

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Patron: Doctor, Surgeon
Required Skills: none
Required Equipment: Starship

Players’ Information:
The group is contacted by Dr. Annalise Nassline, a young medical doctor affiliated with a large medical center on Pylkan (Foreven 2834). She and her assistant seek passage to several of the less populated worlds in the Urnian Subsector.  They need middle passage for themselves and are traveling with an eight dton sealed standard shipping container.  She explains that the container is a mobile operating theater, and diagnostic lab.  The pair are on a mission of mercy, treating sophants on worlds with inadequate medical infrastructure.

 Image from Department of Defense. Public Domain

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Patron: Claims investigator/ISS Agent
Required Skills: Investigative skills and a total lack of psionic abilities.
Required equipment: None.

Players’ Information:
The characters are approached at any starport by a middle aged man in good quality casual attire. He has grey hair and an easy confident gait.

The man introduces himself as Gaillard Igsnakiir and says he has a job to offer. He says he is an agent of a legal claims company called “Spin for a Win”. He explains it is a small company and he is very stretched and needs some immediate help to tail and gather information about a man suspected of defrauding the company. He shows the Group a picture of a strange scrawny man wearing a Psi Shield helmet with a “lived-in” but intelligent face. The psi-shield has an unusual protrusion on the right hand side. He says the man is travelling under the name Eneri Fortune, but suspects that the man has used more than one identity.

He goes on to explain that the man took out a claim against the Imperial Secret Service for false imprisonment. The case went to imperial tribunal and Mr Fortune was awarded a large sum of money. During the tribunal Mr Fortune called a man named Liskaguur as key witness.

Gaillard Igsnakiir thinks he has been compromised and that Mr Fortune knows he is following him. The job is for the players to continue the investigation.

Image from wikimedia. This file is licensed under GNU Free Documentation License

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The 76 Patrons Contest is over. The entries are posted above.

Registered users (on the 1:st of July) and participants in the competition may vote (using a points system) on the entries they like the most.

You can start sending in your votes now. Give the best patron 2 points, and give the second best 1 point. The participants may not give their own entries any points.

Today is talk like a Pirate day. How does a traveller space pirate talk?

Some say that pirates are not feasible in traveller. They say that the impies and/or other powers will swiftly crush any piracy.

I do not agree!

If we look at the planet earth, in the year 2009, we can see that piracy does happen in the most unexpected places. It doesn’t have to happen along the coast of a country in anarchy. It could even happen in the Baltic.

What happened (and why) to the ship Arctic Sea could absolutely be transformed into a traveller adventure.

Remember that a pirate could also be a privateer. Then the pirate would be a lot easier. A pdf-file about privateering in traveller can be downloaded here.

Pirates doesn’t only have to operate corsair ships built using book-2. They could also use old warships or government sponsored privateers build using book-5 rules. That would give the pirates a better fighting chance.

To help the participants of the 76 Patrons Contest with ideas, I have decided to list a number of writeups for planets in the Foreven Sector here. Most of these writeups are for the TNE era, but personally I hope your entries are written for the classic era. It is usually possible to extract some information about the planet in the classic era from these TNE writeups.

For more information about the Foreven Sector (and classic data) go here.

Urnian Subsector

• Novoterre
• Benoncra
• Ake
• Kutadis
• Cinboshabo
• Mainap
• Lune
• Capshobem
• Urnian, Urnian CT (Weapon Industries)
• Dinpholasy
• Nanno
• Pylkah, Pylkah CT (Balkanized)
• Taupi
• Ronu CT

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