PDF Review: On Wine Dark Sea

    This has been a neglected blog over the past decade I have had it, however, I can always take time to review gaming supplements. This is one of them, and one of the few I've felt passionate about reviewing.

    A fairly simple PDF, "On Wine Dark Sea" is 48 pages of text with a few public domain illustrations. At the great price of FREE, it's mostly written to players of various d20 based fantasy games, but it's fairly system agnostic. Even the 2d6 The Sword of Cepheus would work with these ideas.

    It starts with an origin for the idea, what it is, and what it isn't. It's not a full campaign. It is much closer to say, Adventure 0: The Imperial Fringe, than most roleplaying adventures. There's a starting idea, that the players are in a zero level death funnel at the Fall of Troy. Anyone who survives, ends up as a 1st level Adventurer. There's some ideas to start with, as for missions to take to get out of the city, or engage in looting for both Greek and Trojan parties. Perhaps the players join Odysseus in the Trojan horse! There's quick and dirty rules to organize the armies, and character levels as well. Some of them are tougher than others. In this case, a 1st level character is a tough adversary. Once the scenario is done, survivors advance to 1st level. Not your typical dungeon fantasy setting!

    From then, there's an entire Aegean world to explore, or fight. Instructions and an explanation of Patron Play are included. Patron play, to be honest, reminds me of how the Avalon Hill classic Diplomacy works. Everyone has a plan, and they all get interfered with. The party has to navigate a changing setting, and the best part, if you ask me, is the referee doesn't have to come up with the changes! He just lets the players duke it out. For what it's worth, I would advise having a day between patron turns and in person play, so players wouldn't be quite as familiar with their orders. That's a technique I used in college, to write a paper, and let it sit for a while to revise.

    I can give this little project two thumbs up for having great ideas to use and abuse no matter the setting.

Review: GURPS Traveller Interstellar Wars

    The final physical book published for the GURPS Traveller line, and the only one for Fourth Edition, GT Interstellar Wars provides us a look at the first contact between Terrans and Vilani and the centuries of conflict that followed. Published in 2006, I was reluctant to get a copy because of edition compatibility. Also, I prefer the 3rd Imperium era.

    A 240 page hard cover book, the full color nature is typical of post D&D 3rd Edition publications from established gaming publishers. The copy I am borrowing from Hiverlord is in good shape, and eminently readable. The illustrations are of high quality, and the text readable. SJ Games really does produce quality supplements, and this is no exception. It feels like a book that can see regular use for a while. The illustrations are a mixture of computer renderings of starships that were common for the GT line, and quality illustrations. The style differences are not enough to distract the reader and break immersion.

    Structurally, Interstellar Wars is laid out in a familiar manner. Sections on background, characters, and starships offer a logical structure for both an initial read-through and later reference.

    Chapter 1, pages 6-16, is an introduction to the setting, and a basic history and information, including introducing some Vilani terms, and describing both Terran and Imperial societies. Including the differences between our era and the Terran Confederation of the 23rd century and later.

    Chapter 2, pages 17-46, provides an overview of the entire period, from the near future, including unification of Earth under the UN, to the fall of Vland in 2303. Much of this is based on prior material, including Jon F. Ziegler's GT Rim of Fire, but explored in more detail. An important detail is the nature of ethnic background of Sharik Yanglia was noted, and now expanded as a minor Human Race.

    Chapters 3, 48-68, and 4, 69-93, are similar in desribing the Terran Confederation and the Vilani Imperium. Both offer notes on society, structure, and military operations. The Imperium chapter also has a section on subject races. Alongside the familiar Answerin, Bwaps, Geonee, Suerrat, Vegans, and Nugiiri, we meet the Anakundu and Dishaan as well. The military sections provide, if you ask me, a justification for the 3rd Imperium's Marines to use the cutlass, as well as the Draft in practice. Nice little nods, if you ask me.

    Chapter 5, pages 95-132, covers the setting. Nine subsectors of the Rim, in detail a few thousand years before the 3rd Imperium. This provides some interesting information about the worlds previously covered, but has far less information than either of the 3rd Edition. One notable item, is the starport classification has returned to the Traveller standards of A-E, instead of GURPS Space using Roman numerals. My description of Persapera/Sol (SR 2028) does work with the offical, but it's been a few thousand years. 

    Characters are chapter 6, pages 133-157, and that is almost entirely GURPS 4e. For the non GURPS player, the description of social standing is most useful, as are Vilani military titles. Notable, the Ziru Sirka's fleet uses impenetrable function titles.

    Chapters 7, 159-168, provides a primer on how Vilani technology and Terran differ and work together. It also provides that much-needed information on society. Vilani social engineering for stability means computers are always dedicated. It also notes the limits on technology in this era. Biotechnology is noticeably limited.

    Chapters 8, 9, and 10, pages 169-186, 187-218, and 219-227, are all linked, Chapter 8's focus on starships is more informative on operations. It includes skill checks, chrome for operations, and the like. It also has the all important speculative trade tables, and how to work that into the setting. Chapter 9 is starship design, and is a refinement of the 3rd Edition one in the core GT book, and GT starships. It also includes a variety of sample designs from 10 dton fighter to the 30,000 dton Indomitable-class battleship, featuring a meson spinal and Jump 3. It also provides another justification for the Detached Duty scout ship. Chapter 20 is starship combat, and is serviceable.

    Chapter 11, 228-238, covers campaigns. It offers a default "Terran Free Traders" campaign, and other campaigns. Options, detailed as a few paragraphs, include main fleet and commerce raiding naval campaigns, ground warfare, occupation duty, exploration, colonization, and diplomacy/espionage. The one page offers some great alternates, including playing through the entire war with a cast of characters, time travel from the 3rd Imperium (Ancients Device!), secret Psionic masters, and a crossover with GURPS Infinite Worlds. The remainder of the book is a useful index.

    Conclusions? The book is a worthy addition to the GT canon. It is obviously a product of when it was produced, and includes some things in the future history that have changed radically. However, that does not detract form it. The ideas are still good, and workable. If a player is in a GURPS 4e group, and wants to try the Traveller setting, this book would work for that. Don't get it if you have little interest in this era. I did find the nods to the established Traveller setting to be amusing, but slightly distracting, as well as the references to Mesopotamian culture that also came from Imperium. Notably, the name of the family that was the Apkallu Kibrat Aban Kushamii being Sharrukin and then Anglicized to Sargon, is a clue to which of the authors wrote that section. Or at least provided the idea. Most of them got me to crack a grin, or connect the mechanic.

Drye, Paul, et al. Interstellar Wars. Steve Jackson Games, 2006. 

Mediocre Movies as Adventure Fodder

A few weeks ago, after getting hit by the ad blitz for it on other social media, I watched the rather forgettable "thriller" The Last Thing He Wanted while out of town on business. The plot, once you make sense of it, is a major power runs illicit arms shipments into a politically controversial brushfire war, with a sympathetic bystander drawn in. Except she's not really a bystander, in having previously covered, ostensibly from the side of the rebels, a neighboring civil war.

After I finished the movie, my opinion is that it was something to watch while waiting on the Friday Night pizza delivery to get to me and then eat the pizza. Also, it could have used another draft or better editing.

However, many of the set pieces would be good for Traveller adventures. Having a dying friend or family member offer a big payday they'll split with you is an reward pull. Dirty secrets of the government works a well, even if you're running a Traveller Universe where Norris is as great as the propaganda makes him out to be, and Strephon is the Good King. Powerful governments often make cruel decisions and work with unscrupulous people, and good men will accept doing them as the alternatives are far worse. Or maybe the crew gets hired to take some cargo to an unmarked starport on a backwater, along with a representative or two, and the crew is their ride back, but they don't make it. Do the characters make their scheduled departure, or go after them? People those with sources, like organized crime bosses, spymasters, and successful smugglers, who can easily track down an obvious outsider doing shady things. Just keep the travel times in mind here. Perhaps the new friend is really the agent of a government official you are on the wrong side of. Don't be afraid to steal ideas from forgettable movies and books.

Adventure Review: The Kinunir

A snip of the Kinunir from p. 14 of the adventure for review purposes

Adventure 1 The Kinunir was the first official adventure published for Traveller in 1979, two years after the release of Classic Traveller. It's an interesting read, and it has some ideas. But here's what I got from it

For running, it's a very bare bones set up. There's three entry points, and it's largely up to the referee to get the characters from the entry to the adventure itself. It's a more bare bones approach than the current ideas on how to write an adventure. This is less the modern adventure with everything scripted out, more of a frame work to build into your universe.

In a fundamental difference, the Imperium is not as pleasant in this incarnation as it is later on. The Imperium disappears politicians it doesn't like and locks them in prison hulks. They ruthlessly use Ancients technology and Anagathics for the ruling class, and make it difficult for lesser nobles and players to get access to it.

Warships are built with imported components. The scrapped Adda Dubsar lays on its ways on Regina, a TL A world, fitted for a Model 7 computer. At least for its own purposes, the setting is implicitly allowing for equipment on a world to be produced outside of it's stated tech level. It can either be a plot point or something like current era ships built in China but fitted with Western weapons and sensors. I see "Tech Level" as mostly relating to what is commonly available on the world.

Also, we begin to see information about the wider setting. Somewhere in this Imperium is a Vegan Autonomous District-this won't be detailed until 1982 when Solomani Rim is released. For a J-4 ship presumably built in the Spinward Marches, it's a long journey in the Official Traveller Universe. There's also mention of the Fourth Frontier War, and Express Boats. It's starting to merge the small ships of the initial release into the large ships of High Guard and later editions. Also, Strephon and Iolanthe are mentioned, complete with UPP's.

Generally, this is an interesting addition to any Traveller collection, and a fodder for ideas as well. The Kinunir and similar ships can make give your Free Traders a real threat with out a big ship, or be Big Daddy for merc campaigns, especially if the Marines are deployed. It's setting neutral for the most part, and easily adapted. A lost starship is a great adventure hook in any science fiction setting.

Book Review: The Mote in God's Eye and The Gripping Hand

A fan build model kit of the INSS MacArthur in the possession of Jerry Pournelle

This winter at the instigation of Ronald Stepp on my prior post, I read both The Mote in God's Eye and The Gripping Hand. While The Gripping Hand post dates the publication of Traveller by over a decade, Mote can be considered a forebearer, as it was written shortly before the release of Classic Traveller in 1977. Beowulf Shaeffer from Niven's Known Space stories was profiled in Supplement 1 from 1978, so I think it may be a good influence. The Mote in God's Eye is the first part, and The Gripping Hand is the after the break.

Fundamentally, Mote is a book about events, and not people. The Second Empire has arisen, and in the process of establishing it's rule. A daring action leads the dashing noble officer Roderick Blaine into command of the battle cruiser MacArthur. Heavily damaged in this pacification action, it is sent back home, with two important passengers, Lady Sandra young woman from a prominent family conducting field research, and Horace Bury, a merchant suspected of starting a revolt. It is the only starship on the scene as an unknown solar sail spacecraft appears, and disables the unknown ship. Finding out it's from a non Terrestrial race, and this is the first time chance for a First Contact, the MacArthur and its passengers are reassigned, to the first first contact with an alien intelligence.

And what an alien intelligence the Moties turn out to be. A biologically casted species, who must reproduce or die, they are an excellent foil to humanity. They understand the technology of Alderston Drive for interstellar travel, but do not have the Langston Shield that allows human ships to take more damage and even enter the photosphere of a star. Neither party really understands each other is hiding something, like the Imperial Battleship Lenin at the only Alderson point that leaves the system, or the Motie Warrior Caste. The Humanity is just as alien to the Moties psychologically, especially when the MacArthur's engineer meets them. Humanity's lack of specialization drives some of the Moties mad, as well as our reproductive biology. Locked into their star system, the Moties are in an eternal Malthusian Trap.

The characters are not particularly memorable, as they fill roles in the story, and are archetypes for the most part. The big character development moment is for Bury seeing a dead man's space suit filled with Watchmaker Moties causes him to radically change his position, from resentful of the Empire, to knowing it is the only force that defend humanity from the aliens. The final resolution involves a blockade being established at the request of one of the Motie mediators once the truth of the Moties is known. The book ends with Bury getting blackmailed into becoming an agent of the Empire with an officer, Kevin Renner formerly of the MacArthur, reactivated from getting out as his minder.

Book Review: Terminal Lance: The White Donkey

Terminal Lance has been around for a while, and is kind of a guilty pleasure to me, a non-combat veteran and a Navy type. However, Maximilian Uriarte has been one of the first and consistent voices on military life and issues in the past few years. He’s covered everything from the insanity of uniform issues (see here) to garden variety gripes and notes like how unpleasant MRE’s are. His three times a week strip is largely slice of life humor, but The White Donkey is a more serious work. Here, Abe and Garcia go from a pair of junior enlisted jokers that are easily transformed into guys the (military reader) would be familiar with to far more real Marines.

The plot question is largely Abe trying to understand why he joined the Marines, and what he was looking for when he joined. The story is fairly episodic, with it kicking off on a training exercise that culminates in an extension because the very green platoon leader misplaces his rifle. There’s a flashback sequence with Abe’s not-quite-girlfriend where the question comes up as well. The next episode is a pre-deployment exercise at Twenty-nine Palms, CA, and then some leave time. Abe and Garcia are inseparable buddies here, and being from the same state, end up on the same flight home on leave that serves as another major episode. Mr. Uriarte handles the dealing with family members as well, with the leave episode, and an unpleasant exchange with Abe’s sister. The pre-deployment section ends with a briefing on where the Iraq episodes will take place.

Operation Iraqi Freedom is a major event in the story, and it was for the Army and Marine veterans who served during that time frame. The titular white donkey appears, and it stops the convoy that Abe and Garcia are in. The minutiae of war from the bottom appears in several stories. Sweeping for fragments of IED’s, working with the Iraqi police (who initially lacked uniforms, so wore day-glow belts to denote their status), and little operations as well. However, the story goes from slice of life, to a much darker tone when Abe ends up shooting an innocent man who was charging a checkpoint. He is shook up about it, yet his NCO comes in, and talks with him about how what he did, was not a bad thing. Next it’s back to slice of life, but Abe’s crisis gets worse. A conversation with and Iraqi police officer, at this point uniformed, shows how out of touch Abe has become. It culminates when the normal vehicle commander cannot do a mission, and he makes Abe the commander for one. On this fateful mission, it gets worse, and events lead to Abe, seen as a guy who has potential, going out of control. Once he goes home on leave after Iraq, he does little but drink, and leaves a bar he’s met some old friends with because he can’t stand the “Did you kill anyone?” question. In a drunken stupor, he drives off, and it comes to an emotional end.

This is a good story about what happens, yet its rawness maybe off putting to some. In some ways it reminds me of King Rat, and The Things They Carried, as both are wartime stories written to help the author come to terms with what he saw. And combat, especially combat, is hell on our minds. We train and socialize ourselves from infancy that violence to others is not acceptable, and this is the one time that taboo goes away. About the last third of the story is dealing with that stark fact.

Applying this to Traveller is fairly straight forward. The US Marines have been an influence, even subconsciously, on how American players have seen the Imperial Marines, but this can also be for any veteran character, particularly single term troops of any service. An issue that came up from his personality, or other reasons. Also, the episodes of the training and combat sections are useful in ideas for scenarios in military and mercenary games. The boot lieutenant forgetting his weapon, cadre instruction on finding IEDs, and joking around with some buddies when a round comes through randomly are nice little starts for a session. Also, the characters can serve as valuable NPC portrayals as ideas for how to play troops on the front line.