Aslan Route 38: Herzenslust

Previously, on the Aslan Route... The Macavity is headed for Herzenslust to recover backup copies of the lost data cores from the Perfect Stranger.

Sturgeon’s Law, 1109 Week 22

Sturgeon’s Law is closed for business; both ships are refused landing permission and warned off on pain of being shot down. No reasons are given. Consequently, they need to refuel at the gas giant; normally this is uncomfortable but not especially dangerous, however during the first skimming run they get an alert for a sensor lock-on, shortly followed by a two-missile strike. Vila dodges the missiles by the skin of his teeth, then backtracks them to a launch position which Kharrash and Rex obliterate with the lasers of both ships. Reasoning that any resources must be spread thinly to cover a whole gas giant, the two vessels rapidly conduct wilderness refuelling and jump out again, heading to Herzenslust via Elysee.

Herzenslust, 1109 Week 26

Upon arriving at Herzenslust, sensor scans show a force of gunships defending the world, operating out of a space station built from a decommissioned freighter.

The economic and industrial heart of Herzenslust is its capital city, which enjoys greater technological and social sophistication than the rest of the world. The capital has its own Class C starport but this is off-limits to all vessels other than those coming from New Colchis. Everyone else, including the Macavity and the Perfect Stranger, must make do with a rudimentary port over a hundred kilometres away.

The bonded warehouse is part of a starship graveyard at the main port, which turns out to be a fenced compound owned and operated by a company called WrekYard. WrekYard charges a Cr 10 fee to enter the yard, mainly to deter gawkers and idiots who want to climb around the starships, and has a make-an-offer policy on components extracted from the wrecks.

A bored-looking WrekYard employee checks the team's (forged) papers, points out a few details they got wrong, and lets them into the bonded warehouse anyway after they slip him a few Credits to 'correct their papers'. The warehouse appears to have a storage system based on stuffing things in as they arrive with no attempt to sort them and a hashing algorithm of gravity, so it takes some time to find the data cores and extricate them from under a pile of more recently-delivered detritus. They are in fairly good shape, considering.

The employee wanders off to the warehouse office, apparently so that he won’t get roped into helping load up the data cores. While Dr Matauranga, the designated bureaucrat, goes up with him to sort out the paperwork, and Vila stands watch with his stun pistol at the ready, Rex and Mazun get the cores loaded and tied down. Just as they’re finishing this, Vila points out a bunch of local thugs approaching, and the captain and the vargr go out to reason with them.

Mazun explains that the team are a hardened trader crew, the thugs are not really a threat but they could be a nuisance, and he is prepared to buy them off if the price is reasonable. The thugs’ leader says they have been promised money to beat the crew up and kidnap a couple of them, but cash in hand beats promises that could be reneged upon. A price is agreed, and Mazun proposes that they escort him and Rex to the handover – if they play their cards right, they could get paid twice. So it is that he and Rex are led to a sleazy motel on the outskirts of town and handed over to a pair of armed offworlders, while Dr Mataurange and Vila follow in the air/raft.

The thugs are paid off and disappear; Mazun and Rex are dragged into a motel room; and Vila stealthily sneaks up to lurk outside the room in case the two inside need help.

“Who are you people?” one wants to know. “And what the hell are you up to?”

Mazun trots out the usual story, he is repossessing the Perfect Stranger for non-payment of mortgage and has no knowledge of what it might have been doing beforehand, or why.

“This is above our pay grade,” the other offworlder says. “Let’s hand them off to head office.”

Before that goes any further, Rex pops his surgically-implanted forearm claws and lays about him. Those watching on his bodycam from outside see nothing but fountains of blood; it’s over in seconds, one captor down and bleeding out, the other sliced and diced beyond repair even by Dr Matauranga.

While Mazun shoves Rex into the shower cubicle to hose off the worst of the gore, Dr Matauranga stabilises one of the offworlders and he and Vila bundle the man into the air/raft. The other two emerge dripping wet, but at least not bright red, and everyone makes their way back to the ships and lifts off as soon as practical.

Fast Travel, 1109 Weeks 27-51

The two ships return to Zuflucht via Elysee and the Serendip Belt. The captive is unable to hold out against Dr Matauranga’s wide range of illegal drugs, and reveals that his boss told him to impede the Perfect Stranger’s new crew and if possible capture them for interrogation. He thinks he is working for Neubayern intelligence, but Mazun theorises that whoever recruited him would have told him he was working for whoever he most sympathised with, so that doesn’t necessarily make it true.

Considering all the clues the team has to hand, however, the most likely explanation is that Neubayern noticed the Perfect Stranger nosing around, assumed it was working for one of the other factions in the Cluster, and put a stop to it.

The team return to a heroes’ welcome at Zuflucht, and are paid the agreed amount and carried as cargo aboard an outbound Imperial ship back to the Imperium at Cerebin, from where it is only a couple of jumps back to the Aslan Route. Vila’s friend comes with them as far as Cerebin – the whole team are Persons Of Interest to Neubayern intelligence now, which could cause trouble for anyone who stays – then leaves the company. Dr Matauranga busies himself during the trip conducting the kind of experiments on his captive that led to so many disagreements with the Ethics Committee in his former career.

Tyokh, 1109 Week 52

The Macavity arrives at the Clan Iuwoi landhold on Tyokh to find it in turmoil. The clan are all delighted to see the ship and crew back safely, but the head of the clan is at death’s door and Prince Hteleitoirl has taken up with a new female who looks set to become his second wife; while polygamy is the norm among aslan, Elehasei is not impressed with her proposed co-wife and asks to meet with the legally female crew members, Dr Matauranga and Vila, while the males pay their respects to the Prince and his father.

To be continued...

GM Notes

Thus ends Great Rift Adventure 1: Islands in the Rift. I could probably have got another couple of sessions out of it, but this is a group that prefers to avoid interstellar trade and combat - the PCs are deeply involved in trading, but that doesn't mean the players have to be. Traveller is a slice-of-life game where you immerse yourself in the detail of the PCs' lives, but we are not a group that plays that way, and consequently skip through scenarios at a brisk pace.

Rex's player loves fights, and thus has invested the thick end of 20 Advances in becoming the ultimate melee combatant; paradoxically, this means that if he ever does get into a fight, it ends in one or two combat rounds, so the better Rex gets at melee, the less session time we spend on it.

This session brings us to the PCs' fourth Legendary Advance, and it feels like the campaign will wrap up in the next one or two sessions.

Fringe Space: Makavan 012 - Questioning and Arrest

They pulled us out of the car by the side of the road,
They questioned us one at a time
- Saxon, The Strong Arm of the Law

New Hope City, Early August '01

"So," the arresting officer said across the table in the interview room. "Simon Makavan, freelance trader captain, except you don't seem to have done any trading in months."

"Technically, I'm an owner/operator," Makavan said. "What can I tell you, business is slow."

"What you have done," the officer went on, "is shoot a hishen mugger in the spaceport, nose around the warehouse where Crezzi was found gunned down, get involved in a gunfight on the streets in the Pub & Rec district, shoot a basic mugger near the spaceport, and threaten one of our more upstanding citizens in the street, aided and abetted by a razor. Would you care to explain all that?"

"If I understand correctly, officer, three of those incidents were self-defence against unprovoked attacks, one of them is being in the area where a crime allegedly took place on the same evening it happened, and I'm sure the upstanding citizen concerned has neither identified me nor pressed charges, or I'd be sitting here in handcuffs. With a razor in the next interview room." The detective made a face to acknowledge both those points, and the bad taste they left in his mouth.

"There are also outstanding extradition papers against you issued by House Cardenas," he tried.

"That is true, and as you must know I am fighting those in court. It is, I think, rather public-spirited of me not to go anywhere until that issue is resolved, especially with berthing fees being as high as they are."

"You also carry a knife and a laser pistol at all times."

"NHC has open carry laws for those items, and looking at how often I get assaulted in your fair city, I don't plan on giving them up."

The detective sighed, and slid back his chair, realising he had nothing on Makavan, and his interviewee wasn't going to crack under simple questioning.

"All right," he admitted. "You're free to go. But we're watching you, Makavan."

The question of whether that would stop people trying to mug him rose to Makavan's lips, but his House no longer protected him from being rude to public servants, and anyway the man was just doing his job. Makavan decided to quit while he was ahead, and settled for a polite "thank you" and "goodbye".

New Hope City, Late August '01

With funds running low again, Makavan returned to the Snakebite Inn. He nodded to Adrasaia, sitting at one of the corner tables with two other razors.

A grath sat alone at another table, joylessly consuming the soup of the day; Makavan supposed that having no sense of taste was an advantage for some of the stuff they ate, but it prevented them enjoying anything that tasted good. Not that there was much risk of that happening at the Snakebite Inn.

A pair of xeogs sat down across from him and asked if he'd be interested in finding someone for them for three IRD.

"We'd do it ourselves," one explained, "But we stand out, being bright blue and all, and that makes it harder to get close to the target."

"No thanks," Makavan said. One leaned closely and whispered seductively.

"We can't go higher than three," she said, "But we could compensate you in kind."

"Very kind," the other agreed, with a wink.

"Oh, I'm sure you could," Makavan said. "But the cops are watching me, so I need to keep a low profile for a while. Just until they lose interest."

"Your loss," and the pair stood up to leave.

"Yeah, probably."

GM Notes

Lonelog notation for this session...

S1. Involuntary: Questioning and Arrest

d: Investigating officer is Rep 4. No aggravating circumstances.

(note: SWADE treats this kind of event as a three-round Social Conflict)

@ Defend self against accusations.

d: d8w=17 vs d8=7 -> SR => 2 tokens.

d: d8w=3 [PC: Makavan | Benny -1=2] = 5 vs 4 -> +1 token=3.

d: d8w=7 vs d8=6 -> S +1 token=4 => arbiter reasonably convinced

S2. Voluntary: Chillin'

d: 1d4+1=4 PEFs.

d: 3 Razor Exotics Reps 445 -> Adrasaia + 2; A-3, P-1, P-1.

d: 1 Grath Criminal Rep 4 unarmed.

d: 2 Xeog Criminal Rep 44 unarmed.

@ Swap one PEF for job offer.

d: Criminal element Find someone for 3 IRD.

@ decline offer

[PC:Makavan | Wealth +0-1 -> d6]

I said I'd run this for three months and then pause to review, so that's what I'll do.

Next up: That review, and a decision on what to do next.

Experiment 9: Metal Badges

Sometimes, I wonder what the cool kids are playing. (Yes, alright, D&D 5E, but what else?)

It's never been easy to get hard numbers on that; in the past I have tried to approximate based on sales figures or seats in convention games, but for this experiment, let's take a look at DriveThruRPG's metal badges, awarded for high sales.

Caveats

First, just because you buy something doesn't mean you actually play it. Second, the site doesn't count free copies, or those not sold there; so things like Ironsworn (free) or Shadowdark (core rules not available on the site) can't get a badge, and in these cases I have assumed that a game has a badge as good as its best-selling accessory. Third, games that have been on the site longer have had more time to sell, so newer games are probably under-emphasised, and the rankings likely change over time. Fourth, I'm not sure what happens to badges when products are taken down then reinstated, as happened to D&D items, or when they are transferred to a new publisher, as happened with some Two Hour Wargames products.

Finally, there are well over 100,000 products on DriveThruRPG; about 80% of them don't have a metal badge, so having one at all marks you as standing out from the crowd; only a few dozen products have reached Adamantine, so in sales terms those are the creme de la creme, the top 0.1% or so.

That said, let's take a look at the items that pique my interest in one way or another. Alphabetical order within each category, as I can't see actual sales data.

Adamantine (minimum 5,000 copies sold)

Anything that gets this high up is worth thinking about, but for comparison, to get onto the New York Times Bestseller list, you have to sell this many copies in a single week, and the bestselling novels of all time are in the 100-200 million copies range. We're not ending world hunger with our elfgames, however important they are to us.

• Daggerheart (this is the only RPG except D&D 5E with sessions advertised in my home town)
• Dragonbane
• D&D (any edition from 1981 onwards, take your pick, I got bored of writing them all down)
• Ironsworn (estimated), Ironsworn: Starforged.
• Mongoose Traveller 2nd Edition
• Mythic GM Emulator, 1st Edition (my personal favourite) or 2nd Edition
• Savage Worlds Adventure Edition or Deluxe Edition (they both hit Adamantine)
• Scarlet Heroes
• Stars Without Number Revised Edition

Mithral (2,000 copies)

IIRC, back when I was writing RPG stuff for money the minimum viable print run for a game was somewhere between Mithral and Adamantine. In the 1980s, if a company didn't think they could sell this many copies - and they were guessing, because there was nothing like Kickstarter - it didn't get printed.

• Barebones Fantasy (surprised to find this one doing so well, although it's a cracking game)
• Classic Traveller (1981 facsimile edition; considering it's 45 years old, it's not doing badly)
• Mongoose Traveller 1st Edition
• Old School Essentials
• One-Page Mythic GM Emulator
• Original D&D (White Box facsimile, over 50 years old and still going strong)
• Savage Worlds Fantasy Companion (fantasy always outsells every other RPG genre)
• WFRP 1st Edition or 2nd Edition (my personal favourite). WFRP3 was taken down some years ago when the publisher lost the license.

Platinum (1,000 copies)

• Axebane's Deck of Many Dungeons
• Four Against Darkness
• Pathfinder for Savage Worlds Core Rules and Bestiary
• Ruins of the Undercity (another surprise)
• Savage Worlds SF, Super Powers, and Horror Companions
• Shadowdark (estimated)
• Solo 2nd Edition (Traveller solo play supplement)
• Spears of the Dawn
• Sundered Isles (Age of Sail pirate expansion for Ironsworn: Starforged)
• Swords & Wizardry Complete Revised
• Tales of Argosa (one to watch, it hasn't been out long)
• The Pirates of Drinax
• Traveller5 Core Rules

Gold (500 copies)

• 2300AD (the GDW version)
• MegaTraveller Player's and Referee's Manuals
• Nuts! (the highest-ranking Two Hour Wargames product I found)
• The Dracula Dossier
• T4: Marc Miller's Traveller
• Traveller: The New Era

Electrum (250 copies)

• 5150 New Beginnings 2023 Edition
• Classic Traveller (1983 Starter Edition)
• Gold & Glory: Seven Deadly Dungeons (Old School dungeon crawling for SWADE)
• Traveller: 2300 (1st Edition 2300AD)

Silver (100 copies)

• All Things Zombie: End of Days
• Interstellar Overthruster
• No GM's Sky.

Copper (50 copies)

• 5150 Fringe Space
• All Things Zombie: Evolution
• WFRP 4th Edition (surprised how low this was; and this is the VTT bundle, the PDF has no badge at all)

No Badge Awarded

• A Star for Queen Zoe (campaign seed for Interstellar Overthruster)
• Talomir Tales: Distant Shores.

Coda

Is any of this going to change what I play? Nah.

But am I curious? Yes, yes I am.

Fringe Space: Makavan 011 - Intimidation

"If you want to control someone, all you have to do is to make them feel afraid." - Paulo Coelho

No group game last weekend, so how about some more Fringe Space? Don't mind if I do...

New Hope City, Early July '01

The Green at the west end of Pub & Rec was slowing taking over from the Snakebite Inn as Makavan's favourite haunt. If you'd told him last year he'd be having dinner with a razor, he'd have laughed at you, but there he was. His patron was leaving; he could see her outside hailing a taxi.

"Do you think I look dangerous?" he asked. Adrasaia cocked her head on one side and considered this for a moment, appraising him frankly.

"No," she said. "Not in the slightest."

"You do, though."

"That's because I am," she told him. Today, her usual crop top and skinny jeans were covered by a long duster, but he could see a laser SMG on a shoulder strap under it when she moved. If anyone else saw it, they'd decided discretion was the better part of not being perforated.

"How about joining me on a job, then? Shouldn't take more than a couple of hours."

"What is it, and what's in it for me?"

"That lady just getting into the taxi is being squeezed, and she wants me to put the frighteners on the squeezer. I think we'd be more convincing as a pair. I'm getting paid four IRD for the job; I'll split it 50-50 with you."

"You amuse me, Makavan," Adrasaia smiled, showing disturbingly pronounced canines. "Very well. I'm in."

New Hope City, Late July '01

That night, it was Makavan's turn to step out of the shadows near his target. She was out walking arm in arm with a blue-skinned xeog. That could mean anything, and anyway it was none of his business.

"Good evening, ladies," he said, polite as ever. They stepped back, startled, and he noticed the xeog stepped between him and the basic woman, who started edging away from the scene.

That was okay, it meant she was getting closer to Adrasaia.

"What do you want?" the xeog asked, in a silky contralto tone that pushed all the wrong buttons.

"My employer is getting anxious about the demands your friend is making," he said.

"And who would that be?" the xeog said.

"Never mind," the woman laughed. "I know who he means. Tell her to go suck a neutron star, she'll have to do better than you."

"Yeah, we thought of that," Makavan said. Calling a little louder then: "Show her."

Adrasaia grabbed the woman, bent her spine uncomfortably over one knee, and pushed her nose out of joint with the barrel of a laser SMG.

"Stop making demands," the razor hissed. "You won't like what happens if you don't."

"How do you do that without falling over?" asked Makavan, genuinely interested.

"Practice," the razor replied absently. "You, woman; are you clear what you have to do?" There was a terrified nod. The razor twisted, and suddenly she was upright and their target was sprawled awkwardly on the ground.

"We found you once," Makavan commented as he and Adrasaia retreated. "We can do it again."

Later, after he'd paid Adrasaia her share - that was one person he didn't want angry at him - he sat in the comforting ambiance of Egregore's bridge, musing. Not daring to speak aloud or write, because who knew who was watching, or how?

Makavan was uncomfortable with how his personal code of honour was eroding under the constant pressures of New Hope City, which seemed almost deliberately designed to do that. Was he still one of the good guys, he wondered? How could he square the need to keep eating with the demands of his conscience?

To distract himself he tried to find a pattern in the last few months' events.

Xeogs kept cropping up in connection with New Hope's high society circles. Why? Whatever the reason, he had to assume Ribeiro was involved somehow, and that meant Guzman might be, too, so there was a limit to how much trust he could place in Mikal. Pity.

Someone had sent an assassin - or bounty hunter, or something - after him. Who, and why? Most likely House Cardenas was getting bored with waiting for him to be extradited. But why had House Cardenas fallen out with House Makavan anyway?

Were these strands connected at all? If so, how?

GM Notes

My goals for this session were further trials of both the Mass Battle tweak for single combat, and the Lonelog notation. Again, I've used my custom SWADE notation extensions and collapsed multiple dice rolls onto one line when generating encounters.

S1. Involuntary Encounter

d: 1d6=4 -> Chillin' with a Friend. 1d3=1 -> 2 PEFs

@ Swap PEF1 for a Job Offer.

(note: I always assumed I could buy as many Job Offers as I liked, but that's not what 5150NLMV page 32 actually says)

d: 1d6+5=9 -> Shaker. 1d6=2 -> Confrontation, 4 IRD + ship upkeep. 2d6=4 -> Rep 4. 1d6=4 -> unarmed. 1d8=8 -> trophy wife. 1d6=2 -> female. 1d6=3 -> no kids.

(note: pay a visit to another Shaker who is trying to squeeze the patron; this will be the next voluntary encounter)

@ interact with PEF2

(note: PEFs always begin friendly in a Chillin' encounter)

d: 2d6+1d6=6+4 -> Exotic Razor. 1d6=3 packing A-3. 1d6=5 -> Rep 5

(note: The Law of Conservation of NPCs dictates this must be Adrasaia, who has exactly those stats.)

d: 2d6=7 -> reaction Neutral. Persuasion 1d8w=7 -> S => reaction becomes Cooperative.

S2. Voluntary Encounter: Confrontation

@ Choose to engage at night.

d: No. of NPCs is 2 (us) + 1d3=3 - 1d3=3, so 2.

d: Variuous tables => Unarmed Rep 4 Female Basic Shaker with Unarmed Rep 5 Xeog Shaker accomplice. (note: Xeogs again. Interesting.)

@ Try to intimidate targets. Adrasaia 1d10=19 vs Xeog 1d10=8 => SR

(note: target intimidated, mission successful)

[PC:Makavan | Wealth +0-1 = d8]

The notation continues to go well, I think I shall adopt it permanently. The intimidation was successful, so I didn't get to test the combat mod again, but I'm sure Simon is fine with that. However, since splitting the fee with Adrasaia means he only gets 2 IRD (plus ship upkeep), no Wealth die type increase for him this month, and the automatic decay drops him back towards his default d6. Replacing Rep Dice that way is also working well.

I think it will be interesting if the recurring characters have persistent reaction levels; Adrasaia has now shifted from Neutral to Cooperative, so she will start the next meeting at Cooperative. If Simon can get her to Helpful and then shift her reaction more positive after that, she will join him as a party member. She's not strictly a member of the band yet, but I could have had her join for one mission in 5150 by succeeding at a suitable Challenge, so why not.

Fringe Space: Makavan 010 - the Shrine of Taraneh

"If no Confrontation occurs, congrats! You just got paid for nothing." - 5150 No Limits Maiden Voyage

Happy Pi Day, everyone!

New Hope City, Early June '01

Another day, another robbery. A basic ganger stepped out of the shadows uncomfortably close to Makavan, waved a large knife at him, and hissed "Give me your money!"

Makavan looked at him with the arrogance born of aristocracy and months fending for himself in the shady end of NHC.

"No," he drawled. "I don't think I will."

The ganger leapt at him, slashing furiously, but Makavan's armour turned the blade. Makavan sighed, and while the ganger was pulling his knife back for another attempt, drew his laser pistol and shot him.

As the would-be robber lay curled up around the agony of the laser burn, Makavan rolled him over, checked the burn, extracted the robber's wallet, then thought better of it.

"You keep it," he decided, tossing it to the ground near his assailant. "You obviously need it more than I do." He moved off, muttering to himself.

"You get a better class of mugger around the spaceport."

New Hope Desert, Late June '01

As their rented crawler approached the shrine, Makavan made the gesture his AR visor was programmed to recognise as a request to magnify his view. As he thought, the tiny dots in front of the shrine resolved themselves as sentient beings; a pair of women, shading their eyes and pointing at the shrine, while off to one side was a second crawler. Hearing Makavan and Victoria approaching, they turned to look, and waved. Victoria stood up in her seat and waved back.

So far so good; nobody shooting. In fact, neither of the other party seemed armed.

Pulling up alongside the other crawler, Makavan jumped down and helped his passenger out, scanning the horizon for threats as he did so. Victoria strode purposefully over to the others through the sand and talked to them animatedly while Makavan checked their packs and other gear on the crawler's flatbed. She'd said she wanted to be discreet, so he left it there and pretended to be checking something behind one of the wheels until his patron called him over. He walked over and nodded to the ladies; expensive but casual desert wear, he noticed, although not as expensive as Victoria's.

They talked so long Makavan started to think they were deliberately stalling while something else happened, but nothing did. Eventually the other two left, Victoria got out her recording equipment and took footage of the sunset over the shrine, which it turned out was what she had wanted to do discreetly. He had been expecting something more exciting, possibly involving laser burns or large fangs.

After that, he made a meal from ration packs in the crawler; they ate; and he drove her back through the evening coolness to New Hope City.

Money for nothing, he thought. Why bother to keep it secret, though?

GM Notes

This is my first experimental use of Roberto Bisceglie's Lonelog notation, which you can get here, free and in a variety of formats. For this run, I've inserted it below; I immediately found it easier to conflate several of the encounter table rolls onto one line and apply my usual SWADE dice roll notation. For those unfamiliar with that, "w" means the roll is made with a Wild Die, S is Success, R is a Raise, F is Failure, CF is Critical Failure. I don't note Aces separately as you can infer them from the dice roll.

S1. Robbery

(note: involuntary encounter)
d: 1d6=3 -> robbery. 1d3=1 -> one basic ganger. 1d6=6 -> no firearms. 1d6=4 -> Rep 4.
(note: initiative - draw action cards)
d: Makavan 5C, ganger 8D.
d: Ganger rolls to hit d8=9 vs TN 5 -> SR. Damage 1d8+1d4+1d6=3 vs TN 9 -> F.
@ draw laser pistol and fire.
d: Makavan rolls to hit d8w=9 vs TN 6 -> hit. Damage 2d6=14 vs TN 10 -> SR, 1 Wound.
d: Ganger rolls to survive d8=3+2 (self-cauterising) -> survives.

S2. The Shrine

(note: voluntary encounter to carry out current job offer)
@ Approach shrine.
d: 1d3 -> 1 PEF; 1d3=3 vs 1 => no confrontation
? Who are they? Various tables -> 2x Basic Shakers, female, Rep 5
@ Interact with PEF
d: Simon Persuasion d6w=4 S (note: d6 with Wild Die, roll 4, a Success)
[PC:Makavan | Wealth +2-1 = d10]

Well, that notation works well enough. It seems more concise than my previous ramblings; comment invited.

However, I kept getting the urge to wander away from the 5150 scenario generator into something else, say The Scheme Pyramid. There's no reason not to, but at that point, why am I using 5150 at all?

I'm in a weird mood this year, aren't I?

Fringe Space: The SWADE Equivalent of Rep Dice

"Instead of using cash, credits or gold pieces to track how well a Character does in his career, we use Rep d6." - 5150 No Limits Maiden Voyage

As I mused recently, the Increasing and Decreasing Rep Dice which are so prominent in 5150 duplicate other effects in SWADE, and are the clunkiest part of my current rulings. Let's look at their purpose and effects, and see if there are things in SWADE which cover the same ground.

Purpose: Rep dice in 5150 cover both cash and experience points.

• You get IRD for doing heroic things and being paid, and you lose them for doing unheroic things and paying expenses.
• IRD and DRD earned during a month cancel each other out.
• If, at the end of a month, you have only IRD, roll that many d6; if any result is a 6, or is higher than your current Rep, it goes up one.
• If you only have DRD left, roll that many d6; if any result is a 1, your Rep goes down one point. Notice that it is easier to increase Rep than decrease it.
• You keep a cumulative running total of all Rep Dice earned in your lifetime; the total when you retire determines your final wealth and lifestyle, and your overall objective is to make that total as high as possible.

SWADE character improvement is measured by Advances, awarded periodically for playing the game - usually one every other session, in my solo games one every 8 posts. This is the equivalent of improving actual Rep. However, available Advances include Rich and Filthy Rich, which improve your character's salary and lifestyle; these are the equivalent of lifetime Rep totals.

The equivalents of losing Rep points in SWADE are the rolls on the Injury Table or the Fear Table, which can give a character permanent reductions in characteristics or extra Hindrances. However, Advances can be used to buy these off, returning the character to their earlier status - just as in 5150, where increases in Rep can offset decreases.

I normally use SWADE's Wealth optional rules, because I really can't be bothered keeping track of every purchase and titbit of revenue; I did that for a living for over four decades and it is absolutely not fast or fun, though it does sometimes make me furious. That does leave me with the need to understand how expenses and payment are handled.

Expenses are easy, because Wealth die type reduces periodically (monthly) back to your default Wealth die type (usually d6). It can also be reduced by making large purchases. If I were feeling harsh, I could say that there is no limit to how low the periodic reductions can take your Wealth die. I think I might do that for Simon, to represent the crippling financial drag of maintaining a starship. Note however that most Job Offers pay your ship upkeep as well as whatever else you get.

For income, SWADE recommends increasing the Wealth die type one step for an average task, two for a particularly lucrative reward, and three for something truly outstanding. Looking at 5150, I see that pay for a job can range from 1 to 7 IRD, an especially lucrative salvage job could earn you 12 IRD, and a heavy freighter full of contraband could theoretically be worth 17 IRD to its captain. However, looking at the kind of work Simon does, a range of 2-6 IRD is more credible.

So, let's say a Wealth die type increase is equivalent to three IRD, and there's no lower limit to how far periodic losses can drop his Wealth die type. Let's try that for a bit and see how it goes.

Aslan Route 37: Meet the Navy

Previously, on the Aslan Route... The Macavity is on Acadie to repossess the far trader Perfect Stranger for Hortalez et Cie as she is in arrears with her mortgage. The Port Authority is delighted that someone has come to get the ship off their pad, but first they must repair what seems to be deliberate sabotage. They find that the crew hurried to a nearby mining settlement but were shot down on the way back. And someone is watching them...

Acadie, 1109 Week 12

Returning from the mining settlement at Houillon, the crew of the Macavity stop off first at the junkyard where the Perfect Stranger's wrecked air/raft was brought. Dr Matauranga and Vila search the air/raft and find a well-hidden compartment with a data crystal inside, while Mazun talks to the proprietor - a friendly, buck-toothed woman called Kate - and agrees with her that the air/raft should be considered an insurance write-off. Mazun takes carefully selected photos to support this idea, and Dr Matauranga and Kate collaborate on a convincing damage report. Hortalez et Cie are unlikely to send anyone to check up on this.

On the way back to the starport, the team visits the site of the wreck, now perhaps six months old. Despite the length of time that has passed, several more clues are found, the most intriguing of which is a scrap of a note in German; apart from that, the clues simply confirm what they already know, and they return to the starport to work on the Perfect Stranger, ignoring Rex's suggestion that they storm the control tower and kill and/or interrogate everyone inside.

The data crystal proves to be a 2FA key which unlocks access to an extra layer of data in the Perfect Stranger's flight computer; it transpires that the crew periodically took off-site backups of the data cores and stored them in a bonded warehouse at Herzenslust starport. They will be somewhat out of date, but if the original cores can't be recovered, they would be the next best thing.

Repairs take several days, during which time the crew confirms that they are still under surveillance, investigates but rules out the starport staff, and glimpses their watchers often enough to be sure who they are. Once both ships are ready to lift, Mazun tails the current watcher back to a suburban house. After much debate, the crew decides that they could snatch and interrogate one of these people, but that the likely gain of information isn't worth the risk, so both vessels lift for Amondiage.

The evidence so far suggests that the Perfect Stranger was intercepted, and her crew killed, by Neubayern agents, but it's not clear why; perhaps the crew stumbled on a plot by Neubayern to destabilise Acadie, and were killed to silence them?

Fast Travel, 1109 Weeks 13-19

Earlier, the crew had identified the salvage company which removed the data cores which are their main concern, and also the people sent to appraise the ship and the liner they travelled on. Using a combination of this information, boyish charm, and judicious bribes, the team follows the breadcrumbs to determine where the data cores went, taking them to Amondiage, Achille, St Genevieve, and finally the Schlesien Belt.

The team is split across the two vessels, with Mazun, Vila's friend, and Rex aboard the Macavity, while Vila, Dr Matauranga, and Kharrash crew the Perfect Stranger. Cynical, suspicious people might infer a certain lack of trust on Mazun's part towards Vila and his friend. Surely not.

Schlesien Belt, 1109 Week 20

While the others refuel and replenish the two ships, Rex and Mazun go to the Port Authority and trot out their well-rehearsed story; they have repossessed the Perfect Stranger for Hortalez et Cie for non-payment of her mortgage, and are now taking her back to Zuflucht. However, another salvage company has removed part of her last cargo - some data cores - and Mazun wishes to buy them back.

This innocent tale leads to separate interviews for them with Neubayern Navy officers and some bulky marines. Mazun sticks scrupulously to the truth and can back it up with solid evidence, so despite the Navy's keen interest in the past history of the Perfect Stranger, they have nothing on him and are forced to release him. Rex, spoiling for a fight and definitely the crewbeing with the worst interpersonal skills - unless you count intimidation - is much less convincing, but the Navy decide that anyone who was a genuine spy would have a better cover story than a litany of enemies killed over the past five years in other jurisdictions, and let him go as well, with a somewhat more bemused expression.

The team decide that first, the data cores are probably on Neubayern, and they're not going to get them back with the tools at hand, and second, the Neubayern Navy has an unhealthy interest in the Perfect Stranger and the longer they stay in the Belt, the more likely it is that the Navy will invent a plausible story connecting them to her past exploits, which will result in uncomfortable interviews for them which culminate in twenty years' hard labour.

Both ships lift for Sturgeon's Law, arriving in 1109 Week 22, with the intention of recovering the backups from Herzenslust.

GM Notes

And thus the clue I'd forgotten to give them was reintroduced.

As the scenario is written, the Travellers are supposed to identify and track their watchers (which they did) and then capture them for interrogation (which they considered, but decided against) before travelling towards Herzenslust to recover the backups (which they completely ignored, heading off in the opposite direction for several months). It all made sense at the time.

The interrogation at Schlesien Belt was a hard-fought duel of words between Mazun and his questioner, but Mazun said nothing that was untrue and nothing that he couldn't prove, so while the Neubayern Navy is deeply suspicious of the Perfect Stranger, they have decided that Mazun is an innocent catspaw. This means that they stand to learn more by letting him go and watching what happens.

Rex, on the other hand, has a d4-3 in Persuasion and was actually hoping for a fight to the death with his interrogator. He rolled a -2, and it looked like he would get his wish... and then the interrogator rolled a critical failure. You just can't get the staff these days.