"Down those mean streets a man must walk, he thought. And along some of them he will break into a run." - Terry Pratchett, Sourcery
Thalweg, Late January '01
There was nothing much to interest Makavan on Thalweg; its chief value was positional, marking the midpoint of the demilitarised zone between the Hegemony and Xeog space. While it was technically habitable, the cold and ice made it undesirable; Basics might have shrugged on an extra layer of clothing and made do, but the Xeog's preferred costume of thigh boots and a few strategically placed leather straps kept them indoors. Makavan delivered passengers and cargo, refuelled, and replenished stores without needing to leave the spaceport.
Ribeiro and Guzman showed no signs of wanting a ride back, but he and Guzman had hit it off and exchanged commlink numbers. You never knew when you might need an extra trigger finger or a ride somewhere.
Thalweg, Early February '01
The laws on Thalweg were few, and lackadaisically enforced, so Makavan moved cautiously, drank little, and stayed to the better-lit areas. Still, he had to emerge from the ship to do some things, and on his way back in the gathering gloom he noticed two shadowy figures lurking with apparent intent to intercept him; a pair Zhuh-Zhuh with what looked like big sticks.
He decided he had nothing to gain by engaging them, and as soon as he got to a suitable intersection, he turned the corner, and once out of sight he took off. The zhuh-zhuh pounded after him, and he fired at the one in front to discourage him, but missed.
For what felt like hours, but was probably less than a minute, the three of them hurtled through the streets and alleys, tripping over things and recovering, banging into passers-by and staggering on, and in Makavan's case firing odd shots whenever he thought he had a chance of hitting a pursuer without taking out an innocent bystander. Eventually he hit the bigger Zhuh-Zhuh, which was of course the one closest to taking his head off with a length of pipe, evidently somewhere important because it tumbled in a surprised heap in the gutter. The second one was slower, and eventually he pulled far enough away to lose it.
Breathing heavily, Makavan slowed to a pace he hoped wouldn't attract attention, stowed his pistol, and made his way back to the Egregore.
What was that about? he wondered. A random mugging? Or maybe a message from home?
He didn't know what Thalweg's position on extraditing him would be, and he didn't want to risk finding out.
Time to leave, he decided.
GM Notes
It's going to take me a while to adjust to the drumbeat for this game; solo Traveller works best for me at one week per post, and solo 5150 at two weeks per post, but I'm not sure what the best pace for this beast will be. I'll just roll with it and let the pace emerge naturally; it may be that new posts are triggered by events rather than the passage of time.
Now that we've arrived at Thalweg, we need to decide what it's like; we start by rolling 1d3 for planet Class and get a 2, then roll 1d6 - Class to get the Law Level; 2 - 2 = 0, but Law Level is always at least 1. So, Class 2, Law Level 1. What Class 2 means varies from edition to edition, sometimes it means small, sometimes inhospitable; in No Limits Maiden Voyage the main game effect is adjusting the encounter tables.
I felt the need for more detail on Thalweg, and pondered which of my numerous SF RPGs might be best suited to generating the world; but in the end I looked out of the window, saw snow, and thought "That'll do." So now Thalweg is cold.
Simon and Yelena have nothing in common really, but Guzman shares a sense of honour with him, so I decided they would part on friendly terms; Yelena and Simon remain neutral towards each other.
I see I forgot to mention rolling on 5150 p. 26 to see what the end of month encounter was, but since I rolled a 3, there wasn't one. The involuntary encounter (p. 30) for the start of month 2 is an attempted robbery (p. 50); the dice tell me that one night a pair of zhuh-zhuh gangers try to rob Simon. The gangers have non-lethal melee weapons (let's say clubs), and the Rep generator on p. 28 says they are Rep 5 and Rep 4, respectively. That's not good. Now we switch to SWADE to resolve the encounter, and I decide on a foot chase with the city streets modifier. The fiction tells me the zhuh-zhuh are behind so they start on the leftmost card; I give Simon a Notice roll to see how far away he is when he notices them; he gets a 2 and I decide that is worth a two card head start. I deal 9 cards as per SWADE p. 113 and place some meeples on them as I can't be bothered to do anything more photogenic.
- Turn 1: Simon 9C, zhuh-zhuh JH. The zhuh-zhuh go first and opt to Change Position as a Limited Action, giving them +2 to their Athletics rolls. The Rep 4 is rolling 1d8, fails, so stays where he is. The Rep 5 is rolling 1d10 and gets a 9+2=11, advancing two cards and catching up with Simon; but as he didn't declare multiple actions he can't attack. Simon rolls a 17 to change position and moves two cards away, using his action to shoot at the nearest pursuer. His action card and the card he's on are both clubs, and he must make a manoeuvring roll to avoid problems; luck is with him and he scores an 8-2 (club chase card)-2=4, good enough. He rolls a 5 with his attack, -2 for city streets - a miss.
- Turn 2: Simon 7D, z-z 5S. Simon only manages to move one card, and misses again. The z-z likewise both move one card and are out of range.
- Turn 3: Simon QH, z-z 4C. Simon gets lucky and advances two cards, but still can't hit anything. The z-z move one (Rep 4) and two (Rep 5) cards. Both z-z get complications, the Rep 5 is fine but the Rep 4 gets Bumped one card back.
- Turn 4: Simon 9D, z-z 8C. Simon moves up one card and hits the lead z-z with his fourth shot. He rolls 11 damage vs the z-z's 7 Toughness, and Wounds him, which also Bumps him one card away and as he is an Extra drops him. The rear z-z gets a complication and is bumped one card back, but advances one card as well, leaving him where he was. As the z-z have suffered 50% casualties I decide the survivor must make a Spirit roll to continue; he succeeds.
- Turn 5: Simon 2C, z-z 9S. The z-z fails to make any headway. Simon fails his manoeuvring roll to avoid a complication and takes a point of Fatigue, but gets lucky on his Change Position roll and advances two cards. He is now 7 cards ahead of the remaining z-z so tries to Flee; he gets a 6 and succeeds in escaping.
Simon's d4 in Athletics did its very best for him there. However, I'll count that escape as leaving the battle board, which is worth 2 Decreasing Rep Dice. On the plus side, NLMV doesn't seem to have a mechanism for the police investigating gunfights in the streets, not that they would at Law Level 1; so I think Simon gets away with killing a zhuh-zhuh.
No comments:
Post a Comment