I was old School before YOU were old school.......

 So, right.   Here is why I'm paraphrasing the wonderful words of the Tubes....Its not just that I started pretty much in 1975 with three little books that explicitly mentioned Balrogs (more on this later), Ents and Hobbits; it's not just that the only other guy I know personally that has played longer than me has a brown box that he bought from EGG on the basis of it being a chainmail expansion. Nor is it that I never needed an OSR clone* because I still own multiple copies of the original rules, and use them whenever I want to run D&D.  ...It's not even that basically, I've never liked 1E or 2E and firmly considered B/X to be kiddie sanitized marketing tools. 

Hell, it's not even relevant that I'm old enough to want to quote the Tubes on my Blog......

See, those things just mean that I'm an ancient opinionated grognard blowhard who is  ....well, opinionated, possibly undersocialized, certainly too damn sure of himself, and has been playing games since the internet really didn't exist unless you were a colossal technical geek, as well as a gaming geek -and being a gamer had nothing to do with the crude computer ported video games you played. 

Here is why I was OS before you were OS:  In the mid 1980's, back when ADD was all the rage, and the edition wars were about B?X vs ADD......

(and let me tell you, without the forums and blogs and websites, you had to work your ass off to be a divisive polarizing black-and-white-thinking shit-stirring partisan about editions.)

......my buddy and I decided that it would be really cool to run an old fashioned D&D game, using the three little books and some hunt and peck from the supplements.    And we did. For several years. We called it the Nostalgia game at first, but it was really really always the real D&D game to us.

We did this when D&D as a CONCEPT Was Barely Ten FrikkinYears Old ; Gary was still at TSR (abeit fighting with the Blumes and Lorraine Williams and on the way out).  TEN YEARS OLD

yes that's right.  Less than eight years after AD&D was on the Market, He and I were all nostalgic for the simpler retro days of D&D.  .......and that was more than 25 years ago. One quarter of a century ago we were consumed by the desire for a simpler ruleset that was less than a decade old.  We were loons. 

 He is currently posting his campaign stuff on his blog, including (so far) the campaign intro and guidelines, and the surprisingly effective set of house rules for playing my unselfconsciously gonzo OD&D rules approved BALROG. Named Nesbitt.  Read here.  I so command it.

That children, is why I Was a Punk before You Were a Punk.

*Note that I still buy them , run them and play them; and as we know, shill willingly for Swords and Wizardry. That is because I am A Hopeless Case. And they are Excellent rules.  And, well...hopeless case.  Me.  Y'know.

Some last thoughts on the T5 Kickstarter

Well, it broke 2000 backers and $250,000; as has been posted elsewhere, to the grump all this proves it that it is mindless peer pressure and fanboi lack of critical thinking (1) ;  a somewhat questionable assumption, but perhaps they know best.  However, reading one reasonable complaint (2), I realized why I chipped in, and it has little to do with critical thinking (of the kind that weighs everything in terms of what fungible value it gets for me right now)

Here's my thought on the matter:

Honestly, I could not care less [about where the money raise over and above producing the promised product if there is any] . Seriously, I get a product I already like the beta version of, in a format that is, by todays expenses, worth the basic retail price: 75$. If the extra money goes to Marc and FFE for their 501K, no problem for me. plus, consider how much of the final price of any gaming product does not go tho the actual author - I can easily see it as helping him getting a better than 20% return for each dollar you spend on his product when it goes thru normal production. Basic wholesale is 30 -40% of cover -and ask Matt how much of that gets lost due to every other damned thing before the owner gets paid.

See, I like RPGs, I appreciate the work and passion that goes into them, and the ways they enrich my free time and friendships. Assuming even 75% of the money is over and above the upgraded version that the stretches represent, amortize it over 40 years of RPG design for Marc, and it is a small annuity indeed.

Frankly, too, of the main designers of my favorite hobby, a distressing number of them can hardly be said to have profited by their efforts; and if one of them gets a bit of a bump at the end of his career, well, okay by me. Perhaps that will encourage the next generation when faced with the choice of making a decent living from not doing RPG design work or following their muse, and thus making my life more entertaining. In fact, it represents about a $ 2.50 per person per year 35 year subscription for the 2000 backers alone. Not a bad deal for 35 years of traveller fun; especially given the number of crappy movies and books I've plopped down more than 2.50 (or even 25.00) for in any given year, each of those years.

Honestly, for what we give to creators vs what get, we have a great deal going; and I'm speaking of the whole industry here.

Just a few more hours ! That's all the time we've got ! (T5 news & link)

JOIN.  US.

 About 41 hours left as of 4:30 pm PDT

1,709  Backers

$239,263 pledged of $24,000 goal

~41hours to go

Honest to god, this is so cool, I must squeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEE!

And, despite the usual three-five bitter online cranks complaining about "how dare it exist" and "I sure hope it crashes and burns" this project represents 1709 other people contradicting the cranks and nerdpundits  about  just how frikkin great traveller still is after all these years (35 of em)..and using money to make the point, as opposed to obsessive passive-agressive gripe posts on traveller forums and personal echo chambers.
 
So, to the grumpy brigade: TOUGH NOOGIES !

U Fail epic ! SUXXOrZ to B U !

(this explicitly excludes any of you who actually produced your own vision of traveller using the easily available traveller SRD and OGL to at least put your sweat and time where your mouth is as regards traveller's failings)

If you like traveller, and want (must have desire ) the T5 600 pg omnibus , go for the basic $100.00 pledge that gets the book ($75.00 retail, eventually), CD-ROM and various cool swags. Note that if $100 seems unreasonable (as some maintain) consider that the retail price looks to be 75$ when it eventually gets to your FLGS, and most 600 page gaming doorstops cost very similar amounts . How much of a full players handbook, DMG and Monster manual ?  Even for ADD 1 ed ?   MGT costs about 40.00 with less than half the content(this is not a criticism, just an observation).  But, if that doesn't float your grav raft yet, or the money really is tight, how bout just hit a pledge of $1 to make the point if you are happy to see this ?
If you haven't found the link(s) to the site yet, click HERE.
Okay.  Ranting, self-indulgent commercial is over. 

This, BTW is absolutely unsolicited by FFE, Marc Miller or anyone, and is naught but my own dogheaded fanboi opinions.  Don't like em ? post your opinions, and damn the torpedoes -or tell your mom, I'm sure she'll listen. Soy Bomb !

 Back to actual content next post.  Thanks for your toleration  .

Down on the (industrial) Farm; or company town and Latafundi, all in one !

For the new hellhole, I present another Bizarre UWP: a High tech, industrial high population Poor World......
Nevis B6339DC-C
Originally a hardscrabble colonial outpost, half penal colony, half dumping ground for losers and refugees from the collapse of the OLDCULTURE Empire, Nevis entered the long night in great obscurity and remained there until recontacted early in the third Imperium. Minimally habitable, and possessed of no great natural or artificial resources, Nevis shuddered along with only occasional contact and no known raids. Population –originally estimated to be in the 6-7 range was dropping (estimated 5 at recontact), and the local government had become quite repressive in encouraging austerity and survival at all costs.
Ironically, recontact by scout service encouraged the government to bankrupt the remaining resources and economy in attempting to find a local resource to export. And find it they did. A life form native to an inner, less pleasant planet in the system was transplanted to Nevis, in the hopes of developing a new source of protein. Unfortunately, it failed to completely adapt; and while it grew modestly, it was unable to reproduce, and additionally required intensive culturing to survive. All in all it would have been written off as yet another disaster in the colonies miserable history; except that final studies found that one result of decay after the life forms death was capable of easy processing into , locally referred to as Freem. Attempts to process the product on its native planet failed, and it became clear that the final product was a result of the source life form having initial exposure to its home environment, partial adaptation to Nevis’ ecosystem, and the interaction of native & Terran decay organisms following death; Further, the longer the life form was able to survive on Nevis, the greater the yield of Freem.



The local Government petitioned for, and received partial intervention by the scout service, allowing them to control access to the crucial final steps in the process, and to be able to negotiate export conditions from a position of strength; once deals were signed, and bribes finalized, the Government appealed for limited economic contact with its new partners, and the favored megacorps simultaneously turned the screws for access from the other side. *
The subsequent development of the processing industry was to either save the planet or doom it, depending on which side of the fence you lived on.
The need to produce the life forms on their native planet and then gather and safely move them to Nevis for secondary habituation (and eventually processing) pulled in significant off planet capital, and resulted in a boom to Nevis’ previously rudimentary space capacity. Off planet corporations involved in shoved money into the main city, and generously padded the accounts of the local government and the few wealthy native industrialists Rapidly a huge infrastructure was built on Nevis, absolutely dedicated to the management and production of Freem.

Money and technology rapidly became available, and the only remaining bottleneck was population – the husbandry required on Nevis was highly manpower intensive, and absolutely crucial. Accordingly, as time passed and the credits rolled in, the government moved most of the agricultural and industrial population to producing Freem, and simply purchased the needed food and goods from off planet. Additional labor was obtained by the same means that Nevis was originally settled by, as well as the reintroduction locally of the concept of immigration indentures.
Today, the system is a monument (of sorts) to the company town system of industry and a monoculture economy; almost no-one living in the system is uninvolved with the Freem trade, and the vast bulk of the population is little more than subsistence labor, generally hideously indebted to the government. It also should be noted that most of the rank and file suffer from the addictive nature of Freem, and would have significant problems leaving the system.


Thus, life on Nevis can only be said to have improved for the worse; there have been several investigations of reports of outright slavery on the planet, but the government and corporations involved have always been able to just skirt Imperial intervention. There have also been attempts to “export” the source of Freem, but all have failed – as a result, the “customs” patrol in the Nevis system is extremely large, tough and hard-bitten. Similarly, with a huge mass of workers to manage, the police militia is also large, well equipped, and almost entirely composed of off planet advisors. The government is still completely native, but almost all administrative and management positions in the “Nevis General Freem Corporation” (NGFC) are off world employees of the guest megacorps. The government has not changed except thru death or petty internal intrigues**, and is still highly controlling and repressive, and completely self-perpetuating. Indeed, the governing class is essentially hereditary, and, for all intents and purposes, a ruling caste.





* It should be noted that the “Freem Scandal” as the wholesale manipulation of the ISS contact regulations came to be known, did result in a complete revision of contact and interdiction procedures, as well as not a few retirements in the Scout Administration.



**for instance, the vice minister of economic development being fired and his responsibilities divided up between the Ag department and the department of trade; not exactly a tanks-in-the-town-square type of coup.



Adventures:

In the case of Nevis, the opportunity for mildly sociopathic adventurers should abound. Being hired as security team for NGFC can be lucrative for a game emphasizing mercenary contracts, either as cadre or basic security; or, for really mean GMs, as boots on the ground anti-insurgent forces; or hunting down illicit smuggler run farms (think pot farms in Mendicino in the 1980’s.

The system patrols are also an interesting source of employment – if the players have a ship with more than average weapons and/or sensors or engines (gee. Players with an upgunned hotrod. What are the odds of that ?) they can become part of the anti-piracy and smuggling patrols; again, to throw a bit of Moral quandary, perhaps the smuggler is not trying to get cut rate Freem products, but rather to get people off the planet.

Other possibilities are obvious also: they are the smugglers of pirates, or, perhaps, a Merc Cadre down on its luck that is hired by the insurgents to give them a chance; of just a rescue operation for off planet family who has lost people to the plantations.

Run a harmless mission to the capital as a courier; be contacted by anoff-planet executive who is looking for his son, who may or may not have broken a local law, or is reported as “captured or killed by insurgents”; and yet, there is a note that claims to be from him smuggled out of a plantation where he is enslaved……or is it a false flag action to wreck the executives career ?

Finally, consider that a mildly benevolent empire may well be looking for proof of servitude or other abuses, particularly by off-planet interests…….

Traveller worlds again: an enigma wrapped in a puzzle wrapped in a woogy story.

Ashigillii -4 (aka Croatoan )
E766000-0 -RSc

Ashigillii -4 is a potential gem for colonization: A standard atmosphere, ample Hydrosphere and slightly lower gravity all make it a classic and ideal garden world. Well situated in the primary star's habitable zone, its overall temperature is essentially earth normal; a minimal axial tilt and orbital eccentricity makes the planet;s seasons mild, varying from mildly cool to temperate across most of the globe. The local biosphere is at least 45% compatible with Terran metabolism, and numerous transplant species are found; very little of the non-compatible biosphere is toxic, but is simply non-metabolizable

The biosphere is well developed on both land and sea, and is reasonably diverse. No sentient life or sign of sentient life has been found

The system contains no belts, but two gas giants for refueling.

It is also completely empty of human life. Every colony placed on it has failed.

Early History

Available records and evidence suggests that Ashigillii was initially settled in the pre first imperial expansion phase, and possibly a second time in the early consolidation wars period by Vilani fleeing the New Empire. Regardless, when contacted by the first Imperium, it was found to be uninhabited, and enters the eternal Vilani archives as we know it today. Initial scouting reports suggest that the most recent colony had flourished for perhaps 20 years, but was been abandoned as the Imperium caught up with the settlers; however, no further colony has been conclusively traced to a migration from Ashigillii. Additionally, Archeological evidence suggested a previous colonization of the planet had occurred at least 100 years prior to the arrival of the refugees.

At this point, the world was left fallow as a potential site for later expansion, its records filed away, and the scouting teams moved on.

At some point immediately prior to the interstellar wars period, the planet was opened up for colonization by the first Imperium; the subsequent collapse of the first Imperium interrupted the effort, and the colony was isolated from contact with the remains of the Vilani Imperium. When contacted again by the Terran scout service, it was found to be uninhabited, and it was assumed that with the disruption of the colonizing effort, the population had been evacuated, and while no record of such was ever found, the final records of the Villani Imperium are especially fragmentary from this period, and this was simply written off as a failed colony and filed as a potential colony world.

A later attempt at setting up a colony to exploit the world  failed financially within the first year, and the initial colonization and construction teams were all relocated. The world remained fallow throughout the remainder of the second Imperium.

Later History (3rd Imperium)

Ashigillii was recontacted by the IISS of the third Imperium, and was logged as an undiscovered garden world - no significant records of previous colonization were found at that time. Again, Ashigillii was logged and filed, and essentially forgotten for several hundred years.

Eventually, the planet was identified as an ideal colonization venture and further surveyed by private corporations; political and financial wrangling resulted in it being opened to colonization by . The initial construction and settlement went extremely well, and the planet was found to have extensive exploitable resources, especially petrochemicals and rare earths. However, when the colonists and surveyors reported finding signs of previous habitation the parent corporation suppressed the news due to worries about previous claims or IISS intervention. At that point, the colony was on a semi-annual private communications route, approximately 8 parsecs from the nearest xboat link. The colony seemed to be prospering and had a permanent population of approximately 14000 until sometime in post colonization year 15, when all communications stopped.

The Event

The blackout was sudden enough that it was initially assumed that the courier (a private charter) had been lost and several months were wasted until it was confirmed that the courier was not the cause. A corporate investigation of the planet was then begun as soon as was feasible.
Subsequent findings indicated that:

1. The colony was in fact completely empty; there were no physical remains of the colonists; however some feral animals brought by the colonists were found, as were remains of other domesticated animals.

2. There was no sign of evacuation or civil disturbance; some disorder was evident, but it was unclear if it occurred as automated systems gradually failed or as a direct result of whatever happened to the colony.

3. All records were intact up to a period several days before the courier visit previous to the blackout; traffic analysis of that run indicates a sharp drop-off in communications across approximately 24 hours with absolutely no activity except for automated data dumps past that point. This unusual termination of the courier records was close enough to the normal end of file that it was not noticed until well after the fact. Interestingly, no messages were truncated; they simply became shorter, and less frequent.

4. No changes in the ecosystem/biosphere were noted. There were no novel or altered pathogens identified, and the few system capable ships were all cleanly hangared, and in one case prepped and fueled for takeoff.

5. Existing records of on planet communication show a sudden drop-off in communication with outlying areas, essentially co-incidental with the overall silence of the planetary grid.

It must be noted that despite no colonists or remains ever being identified, all investigation teams returned safely, and a semi-permanent research station was set up successfully for 18 months attempting to locate the cause of what was simply referred to as "The Event".

Unfortunately, the corporation’s final response was to cover up the expensive failure, and so, the research station was removed, and vague reports of non-compatible biosphere findings and excessive long term health risks were fabricated and reported to the (overworked) IISS, and the colony was reported closed and evacuated. It is believed that a final set of teams was placed on the planet to clean up the evidence of the event; in fact, the corporate colony was essentially erased.

Current History

Most recently, with the bankruptcy and breakup of the records of the world again became available; unfortunately, what were found were the bogus reports of the long term habitation risks, and the evidence that the colony was evacuated and closed down.
Marked as a low priority by the IISS, the planet was eventually resurveyed and found to be far more habitable than the corporate reports indicated. It was assumed that the reports were cooked by the corporation to keep it secret until it was possible to fully exploit the world. As a result, Ashigillii was again reopened for colonization in , this time by a consortium of small immigrant groups and business interests under IISS aegis.

Initially, the world seemed to prosper, and the locals again located signs of earlier habitation, which resulted in a small archaeological research station being set up on the planet. After 12 years, the colony had a population of perhaps 8000, when, once again, all communications ended. The IISS was able to respond far more quickly that the previous owners, (in part due to the IISS habit of setting up an off planet bases in systems under development). While the investigators were onsite within two weeks of the second event, the findings were essentially the same as from the corporate investigation, with the exception that far more of the imported livestock had survived. There were no signs of disorder, fighting, panic or flight. Records of the actual event do not seem to exist. There was a 24 hour period before blackout during which all monitoring or reporting devices were either shut down, failed, or suffered extensive memory degradation. Despite this, available data does not suggest any unusual power surges or EMP effects. Personal logs and diaries have either been unrecoverable, or have no useful information about the event.
A close examination of the colony indicated that the event may have had some precursor or warning. There were ample examples of vehicles pulled over and shut down, equipment shut off and stowed, etc. The power grids seem to have either been deactivated manually, or to have shut off via failsafe circuits when supervision was unavailable. There are a very few examples of damage attributed to guided vehicles or equipment suddenly losing control.
The planet was immediately red zoned, and placed under high quarantine; an extensive investigation uncovered the actual corporate information on the planet, and clues to its previous history were similarly located. In addition to exisiting record searches of the Villani and Terran periods, the onsite research station had logged evidence of at least two further small settlements during the long night, all failed. One such attempt was clearly by non-human sophonts,; Indeed, it was the investigation of these newly found settlements that had already begun unlocking the planet’s history when the Event reoccurred. Unfortunately, while the research station and its records were intact, the personnel had also vanished. Again the pattern was that of a slowdown of human initiated communication over perhaps 24 hours, followed by a complete cessation. Also, once again, the investigation teams all returned and have shown no ill effects. The planet is currently entirely interdicted by both IISS and Navy elements, and has been listed as highly toxic to human life in standard star data.

Referees notes:

This is pretty much up to you. I have a scenario for it, and if you think I’m going to blab, you’re sadly mistaken !

Some clues  have already been located:

• As noted above, one colony failed early in its history and was successfully evacuated. Records of this attempt are available , although incomplete and hard to locate. Nonetheless, Villani obsessiveness pays off. The records are millennia old, but can be found.
• One possibly significant fact found is that the proportion of Terran compatible local biosphere has clearly increased since the initial Villani survey. While unusual, this is not unheard-of, often the result of a poorly conducted initial survey being later updated.
• A final oddity is that there are no human or remains found in any of the settlements: even recorded deaths and burials will be found to be missing…and no, not freshly opened graves, clawed open from inside, either…just empty caskets. Cremated remains have, however, been identified.

 Enjoy !  Theories welcomed !