The votes have been counted. The winner of the third Summer Zhodani Base 76 Patrons Writing Contest is Alegis Downport with the Patron called “The Builder“. The runner up is Steven Cabral with the Patron called “A day at the zoo“. w00t! 
The winners will be contacted.
Image from wikimedia. Public Domain.
Required Sills: None
Required Equipment: Starship
Number of Players: 2-6
Players’ Information:
The party is approached by a gang of builders (numbering eight including the leader) who need transport whilst on Urnian/Ovdyo; they have won a contract to refurbish a nobles penthouse and party is asked to transport the gang of burly builders to Urnian/Udika, their materials and equipment to site. They have several tons of equipment (enough to fill the PC’s cargo hold to capacity), including tools, heavy plant gear, bricks and other materials.
If the party asks why they can’t use local construction materials, the lead builder replies that the noble has expensive tastes and specified particular materials for the construction. Examples can be presented to the party, eg. special internal bricks that display soothing, coloured patterns when illuminated.
Image from wikimedia. Public Domain.
Patron: Civilian, Noble, Agent
Required Skills: None, but weapons and wilderness skills helpful.
Required Equipment: none
Players’ Information:
The players are contacted at the starport on Urnian/Urnian/Foreven by a person from the Interplanetary Zoo. The players are offered Cr100,000 each and use of a crewed Safari ship. An uncrewed Safari ship is provided if players have their own ship. Payment is reduced to Cr10000 each and a full yard overhaul is done on their ship while away. They are to see the factor on Ronu for mission details. If needed weapons are provided as would be wilderness survival/hunting gear.
Image from wikimedia. Public Domain.
Patron: Equerry
Planet: Fessor Sub-Sector - Fessor, 2814 B510999-D
Required Skills: Pilot, Gunner, Medic, Comms
Required Equipment: None
Players’ Information:
The group is approached by James Rask, an equerry of House Farkell. He informs the group that they have been recommended by a local government dignitary of high standing that they are reliable people. They are then told of the sad death of his master, Baron von Farkell in a tragic grav vehicle accident that killed him and his pilot. The Baron was an émigré from Frenzie, in the Vilis subsector of the Spinward Marches. The Equerry wishes to hire your group to take the Baron back to Frenzie to be laid to rest in the House Farkell’s mausoleum, along with the Baron’s effects to be returned to his remaining family.
The cryogenically frozen body and goods are to be transported using modified Scout, Type S. The equerry informs the group that on successful delivery of the Baron and his effects, the Scout ship will be signed over to them as payment. Plus each member of the group receives 10 000 Cr. There will be almost guaranteed future employment from House Farkell.
Image from wikimedia. Public Domain.
Required Equipment: Grav Vehicle or Small Craft
3014 Apinanto E431432-6 Ni Po 303 Na
Apinanto is a backwater system in the Saphi Cluster of Fessor Subsector of Foreven. Overlooked by nearly everyone, even the mainworld is largely ignored because fuel is only available from skimming the Gas Giants.
Nine months ago the only inhabited area of the planet, the Apinan River valley, suffered a drought due to a weather monitoring and control satellite incorrectly changing the evaporation from Clark’s Sea. Following this, and because a number of lost resources were recovered from the river, the Jose Council decided to instigate the building of a railway. This was judged as the most efficient use of resources allowing an alternative to river transport in a time of need. Nearly all the population of Apinanto have been involved in its construction, from sowing the seat cushions for the passenger carriage, cutting and preparing the track route, to casting the tracks and building the engine. So far the railway goes from Clark’s Town to Jame’s Town through the villages of Jimstead and O’Hare’s Drift. For the last month the rail service has run once a week between the towns with the engine pulling a single flat bed carriage carrying goods.
In addition to the railway the drought brought about an additional phenomenon, that of an increase birth rate, and Apinanto’s doctors and nurses are struggling to cope with this additional demand on their services.
The council have also been looking at the data they have obtained from the satellite and have noticed another area of the planet where there is rainfall. About 550 km south of the Apinan River valley is a slight depression in the hills, which eventually become Clark’s Mountains, that has been named the Gratia Basin.
The players have made their way to Apinanto for some reason, and they are currently at Apinanto Down. The council approaches the players for help and while the PCs may wish to do so the council can offer little in payment. Their stocks of grain and alcohol are dangerously low due to the drought. They offer a waiver of the landing fee, which is their only real source of off planetary income, and food and lodgings will be free for up to a month if the PCs wish to stay. If the players really are heartless there is about a ton of wood that is earmarked primarily for railway sleepers to extend the railway but also for a passenger carriage, which has a base price of Cr 1,000. There are a number of jobs a party with a grav vehicle, small craft or access to advanced technology could do:
Moving doctors and nurses. As those who are due start to give birth in greater numbers the call on the 15 doctors and 60 nurses of Apinanto increases significantly. The majority of the medical staff work in Clark’s Town Hospital, with only a handful in general practice in other areas. The amount of pregnancies mean that the mothers can’t be brought to hospital as would normally be the case so home births are now the rule. While river transport would normally cope there isn’t enough of it and it isn’t quick enough to move the doctors and nurses to the places they are needed. The players will need to set-up some type of communications to co-ordinate and prioritise the medical staff and use their high speed transport to move them to where they are needed, while still providing cover for those patients in hospital. If the party has medical staff of their own the hospital will be happy for any help they can get, either covering shifts at the hospital, delivering babies or just acting as a mobile spare.
Civil Engineering. The railway needs to progress further up the valley and the sides of the gorge protrude into it a few miles west of Jame’s Town. The Council would like to tunnel through, and while they have the means and expertise to do so they would require a considerable amount of time in which to do it. They know that the application of advanced technologies will be able to considerably speed up the process. If the players have the means they would like them to assist.
Surveying. While the Council has a scan on the planet that they received when trying to deduce the cause of the drought they would like a more detailed one of the Gratia Basin. They will ask if the Players would transport a specialist along with ½ a ton of topsoil, ½ a ton of organic fertiliser, and significant grass and weed seeds to the basin where they wish a more detailed scan to be done and where the specialist will direct the depositing of the cargo for its best effect.
Image from wikimedia. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Generic license.
Megara is the 12:th of the “Quick Worlds” from Gypsy Knights Games. This might not be the most interesting one in the series, but it is still a useful one.
The idea is that a referee can use this (or the other books in this series) in his/her own universe to save some time when a more detailed world is needed. The referee can then change anything (e.g. the name of the planet or the UWP) to fit a planet in his/her own universe.
The planet Megara has a UWP of C9887B7-D. If you want to match it with a planet in the OTU, then maybe the planet Dakar in the Ilelish Sector is a good match. Dakar has a UWP of B9887BB-A. Any planet with a star-port between A-E, size 6-9, atm 8, hydro 8, pop 7-8, gov B, law 7-C and tech-level 6-D would probably work fine. It is actually impossible to create the UWP of Megara using classic rules. The tech-level is too high. But nothing in this pdf suggests that the tech-level must be this high. There is a maglev train, but that might be imported.
In this pdf, there are descriptions of the system with an image of the gas giant, and an overview image of the system. There are some general description of the planet Megara, and an isodecahedron map. Then there are some more specific descriptions of the planet and the people and cities and politics, and of the big herd animals called Betas. Finally there are a few adventure hooks.
What I would have wished for would have been some more detailed adventure hooks, an image of the Betas (and animal encounter tables), some notes on gas giant refuelling (since the gas giant is within the 100 solar diameters from the sun) and maybe some notes on the seasons due the the eccentric orbit.
There are also some other problems with this pdf. I hope Gypsy Knight Games (and other publishers) will learn from this constructive criticism and avoid such problems in the future.
This product is a deck-plan of the Type M Subsidized Merchant “HIMS The Pretty Penny” from Scrying Eye Games.
It is the second deck-plan of about 20 that they have planned to release. I hope they do the Shivva Patrol Frigate. 
You can also get an air/raft in the same style for free.
The scale is 25 mm/square. The side of a square is 5 ft. This fits a number of counters, card board heroes and miniatures nicely. But it doesn’t match the classic scale exactly (but close enough). It also makes the deck-plan of the ship quite large. The ship is fitted within 19 pages that you have to assemble yourself. It would have been nice if there was a hi-res image-file includes as well, so you could print it out on a large printer/plotter.
There are lots of details in the images. This is very nice compared to the standard classic deck-plans. Now you can see how everything will fit, and where all the rubbish will end up… Have a look at the engineering work station below. 
The need for deck-plans has always been there. In my group, and in other groups that I have played in, we have always used deck-plans. Even though there might not be any combat within the ship, it is always nice to see where your character lives and works. If there is combat within the ship, a deck-plan is a must.
Combat can be solved using standard traveller rules, or using special on-board rules like Snapshot.
Even though this is a very nice product, I will not use it. The reason for this is that my group is quite tainted by what the March Harrier from the Traveller Adventure looked like. The March Harrier is a type R. (The classic type M is a 600-ton Subsidized Liner.) There are a number of elevators in this ship. Where is the Launch? This is not the same ship. It doesn’t match the March Harrier. But for a new group it would probably be very nice to have this pretty deck-plan on their gaming table.
This is what I think a classic type R should look like.
It is now time for The Zhodani Base 76 Patrons Writing Contest - 2011.
This years first prize is a $20 Gift Certificate at DriveThruRPG.
Second prize is a $10 Gift Certificate at DriveThruRPG.
I decided to stop giving away books, since the postage to send them all over the world was too expensive.
If you win you can buy lots of traveller goodies that you might have missed.
The style of the entries should be in the style of the patrons in CT Supplement 6, 76 Patrons.
Past winners are:
Two of my own patrons can be found here:
The contest starts now and ends 30 Sept 2011. Write as many entries as You like.
After the 30:th of September 2011, all entries will be posted on the Zhodani Base. Registered users (on the 1:st of July) and participants in the competition may then vote for the entries they like the most.
By entering the contest You allow your entry to be posted at the Zhodani Base. All entries might also be posted in PDF format as a free down-loadable file at the Zhodani Base.
All entrants will be given credit for their work and will retain the copyright on their entries.
Some general guidelines:
1, Each entry should be less than 1000 words.
2, One image may be used in each entry. You must either have the right to the image, or it must be used under some sort of free license. Wikimedia Commons is a good place to find an image that You can use. Please provide information about the image. (Is it Yours? If not, where have You found it? What license is used?) Note: You don’t need to use an image.
3, Each patron should offer 6 options.
4, Each patron should be placed in the Foreven Sector. You may use the version of the Foreven Sector that can be found here at the Zhodani Base. (You don’t have to use this version.)
5, Please don’t force the PCs to sign up for (what they think are) illegal activities. It is better if they find that out later, or in some way are forced to take illegal action… 
6, Please use a spell checker! 
Send Your entries by e-mail. Please use plain text format and attach the image, if You select to use one. Word files will not be accepted!
As an alternative, contributors to the Zhodani Base may log in and write their entries here. Entries posted that way will be made visible when all other are.
Please include a preferred nickname (that can be Your real name) to show on the Zhodani Base. If You expect to win, include an address to send the first prize to.
Some help: (That you don’t have to use.)
You may use Mongoose Traveller rules to design something for your patron, since the Zhodani Base now has a Foreven Free Sector License.
Map made using Traveller Map Post API.
Traveller was first published 1977, and was inspired by even older science fiction. While this means that the computer rules used in traveller might feel a bit obsolete, it also means that for some of the books it was inspired by, the copyright has expired. (The computer rules are quite easy to ignore or modify anyway, so that doesn’t matter much.)
At Project Gutenberg, some works that has inspired traveller can be downloaded in several formats that will fit your e-book reader. It is also possible to read them directly on the web.
Here is a suggestion of five books for you to download:
1, Space Viking by H. Beam Piper
In Space Viking, there is a group of planets called Sword Worlds that are named after legendary swords. Doesn’t that seem familiar… The image below of the spherical ships is from the book. They look a lot like the Mercenary Cruisers from traveller.
2, Deathworld by Harry Harrison
Jason dinAlt is the hero of the Deathworld books. In the Traveller Supplement 1, 1001 Characters, you can find his stats as hero #3, the Rapscallion Gambler. Jason dinAlt is skilled in gambling and also has a psionic talent, that can help his gambling. In Traveller, gambling is a skill, and psionics isn’t impossible.
3, Gambler’s World by Keith Laumer
Jame Retief is a Diplomat for the Corps Diplomatique Terrestrienne. In Traveller Supplement 4, Citizens of the Imperium you can find his stats as hero #5.
4, A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Hero #1 of the Traveller Supplement 1 is John Carter. In the Solomani Rim (0239), there is a small planet named Barsoom.
5, Triplanetary by E. E. Smith
Triplanetary is a Lensman prequels. Kimball Kinnison of the Lensman series is hero #2 in the Traveller Supplement 1. GDW also published a game called Triplanetary before they published Traveller.
Image from Project Gutenberg. Copyright expired.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day 
Map made using Traveller Map Post Function.
Click map for larger version!
I hope this will be more useful than the Merry X-Mas Subsector.
I do think that this almost follow the rules for popular subsectors from a previous post. We have some backwater worlds, but they are not independent. We have 2 interstellar states. We have obvious adventures, and also a place called home. Dublin for some of us, Armagh for Eamon, and maybe somewhere else for someone.
The obvious adventures can be taken from the news (old and new) about Ireland.
This leads me to my suggestion of 4 races in this subsector. They should represent the Celtic, the Norse, the Protestants and the Catholics (or Old and New English). The lazy could use Humaniti, Vargr, Aslan and Bwaps or any other Traveller races that might fit. The more ambitious may want to invent their own races. An interesting scenario would be if the Humans represent the Celts. Then this will be in the far far future, when Humaniti have been driven away from their home-worlds to this cluster at the edge of the galaxy. Another interesting scenario could be if the Humans are the latest (New English) invaders. Then there might be some interesting moral dilemmas about the genocide of the original inhabitants of this cluster.
One thing to note about the map is that the towns and villages that are not in the map are still there as secondary populated worlds. E.g. Banbridge is a planet in the Armagh System. In the empty systems within the borders, there might be deep space objects.
Traveller blog posts
