The Starport Lounge

[Eris]

Welcome aboard, Trawets!

I've been gaming with most of these folks for twenty years, give or take. I play Zaki Shursiia in this game, a former Imperial Army nurse who is a very long way from home.

...and if things go wrong/right she might be even further from home one of these days.

Yeah, JR and Terry have been playing with me online since the 90's, I think...maybe early 00's, Helvorn, Ateno a little less than that, and Tiglath only about a decade (he's the newbie ). IIRC, It's possible that JR and Terry go all the way back to the FidoNet days, well maybe not quite that long, but to the beginning of the first Akus Moby game over email for sure and that was early 2000's. (Remember Pete's U-Pull-Em where you salvaged the parts for the Mae Lee?)

Thinking back: Aron Head, Suz Dollar, Jera Morrison, Bruce Johnson, Greg Smith, Kevin Pittsinger, Derek Stanley, John Sanchez, Paul (who's last name I'm blanking on...he wrote the software for Mark Miller's Traveller Ship Builder...Williams maybe?), Joe Walsh, um, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some folks that have shared online Traveller games with me over the last 40+ years.

Just to let you know I'm a 73 year old retired CS Professor. I started AH/SPI wargaming in the 1960's, picked up D&D in 1974, and grabbed Traveller the summer of 77 to replace my home brewed SciFi game, and have been playing some version of it ever since. I live pretty much in the boonies of NW Florida, so I've mostly played online over email, message groups, and forums through the years.

[terrymixon]

Welcome aboard, Trawets!

I've been gaming with most of these folks for twenty years, give or take. I play Zaki Shursiia in this game, a former Imperial Army nurse who is a very long way from home.

...and if things go wrong/right she might be even further from home one of these days.

Yeah, JR and Terry have been playing with me online since the 90's, I think...maybe early 00's, Helvorn, Ateno a little less than that, and Tiglath only about a decade (he's the newbie ). IIRC, It's possible that JR and Terry go all the way back to the FidoNet days, well maybe not quite that long, but to the beginning of the first Akus Moby game over email for sure and that was early 2000's. (Remember Pete's U-Pull-Em where you salvaged the parts for the Mae Lee?)

Thinking back: Aron Head, Suz Dollar, Jera Morrison, Bruce Johnson, Greg Smith, Kevin Pittsinger, Derek Stanley, John Sanchez, Paul (who's last name I'm blanking on...he wrote the software for Mark Miller's Traveller Ship Builder...Williams maybe?), Joe Walsh, um, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some folks that have shared online Traveller games with me over the last 40+ years.

Just to let you know I'm a 73 year old retired CS Professor. I started AH/SPI wargaming in the 1960's, picked up D&D in 1974, and grabbed Traveller the summer of 77 to replace my home brewed SciFi game, and have been playing some version of it ever since. I live pretty much in the boonies of NW Florida, so I've mostly played online over email, message groups, and forums through the years.

The 80's were only 20 years ago. I'm sure of it.

[joertexas]

The 80's were only 20 years ago. I'm sure of it.

[ateno]

...well maybe not quite that long, but to the beginning of the first Akus Moby game over email for sure and that was early 2000's. (Remember Pete's U-Pull-Em where you salvaged the parts for the Mae Lee?)

I remember that, but it might have been the second itineration of the Ankus Moby. Cant remember dates.

I and my buddy were also AH fanatics who transitioned in dnd about the same time, but i'm just a 63 yo dialysis nurse.

Eric

[trawets]

So it sounds like I may be the baby of the group. I'm only 54.

My wife is from Melbourne and we met in Gainesville. We lived there until 06 when we moved to NC. I had a group there until everyone graduated we played mostly AD&D 2ed but a little paranoia, champions, twilight 2000 and probably some things I'm forgetting.

I had Panzerblitz and Panzer Leader by AH. Never could find anyone to play with. I think I may have gotten 1 or two games out of them with someone else.

[helvorn]

Welcome aboard! My name is Matt Ashley and I have been playing traveler, Avalon Hill/SPI and various miniatures games as well as most role-playing games since the late 70s. I'm forcibly retired now with fairly advanced ALS but still manage with adaptive devices and software. I actually was stationed in Pensacola near Eris for a few years in the early 90s but we never crossed paths that I know of. I play Donovan the veteran merchant and cargo master.

[Eris]

Am I I dreaming, or did I just recently read in a post that you might be looking for an Engineering type to help Doug out now that Bob has scarpered?

If I did read that, does that mean you are open to another player joining? That would push us up to 7 PC's, which I can handle in this game, but is that starting to get "too big for the ship" you have?

I'd like to have a little discussion about this with you folks before I make an offer to anyone else looking for a Traveller game.

[joertexas]

Am I I dreaming, or did I just recently read in a post that you might be looking for an Engineering type to help Doug out now that Bob has scarpered?

If I did read that, does that mean you are open to another player joining? That would push us up to 7 PC's, which I can handle in this game, but is that starting to get "too big for the ship" you have?

I'd like to have a little discussion about this with you folks before I make an offer to anyone else looking for a Traveller game.

I think we're fine with the group we have.

[Tiglath]

'Twas I that voiced the question IC but simply for discussion (somehow thinking that it had come up directly or indirectly in game???) rather than as any kind of observed lack or seeming need. I think this was maybe in response to Doug (as an NPC) requiring frequent assistance but that may well have been more a function of us all "making haste" as a crew rather than any crew shortage per se. While new players are great I'd agree that we are fine as we are and also accept that seven crew might seem to have us "running at a surplus" for a 200t trader (but, in fairness, no more than when Bob was aboard as an NPC).

In short, thoroughly enjoying the game and good whichever way we go.

[Eris]

Y'all were talking firearms over in the game thread. I haven't fired either a long or hand gun in about 50 years. I started going hunting with my father, cousins and uncles when I was 6...mostly squirrel, rabbit. I decided to stop hunting in my early teens. Yes, my father put a shotgun shell between his toes and just about bled out before we could get him to the hospital, but frankly the reason I stopped hunting was I found it distasteful. Yes, animals die if you want to eat meat, and yes, I could (and can) do it if I have to, but there was simply nothing enjoyable about it. I just couldn't see killing anything as a game, hobby or sport. So, I simply stopped.

I gave up target shooting soon there after. Some in the family enjoyed it, I just didn't...I'd just as soon throw darts or horseshoes being cheaper and less dangerous all around. <shrug>

I took Mom to a shooting range about 30 years ago after she bought a little Saturday Night Special "To protect myself" from Walmart. I fired off a few rounds then with her and made sure she knew how to handle it, but still found it...um, meh. The pistol (a 22) was much lighter than the weapons she already had available, so maybe that's why she wanted it. I didn't see a much difference in recoil between it and the 38 we already had though.

BTW, why she felt a need to buy a revolver in the early 90's I've really never figured out. At the time, she had Great Uncle Eris' WWI Colt M1911 (still in working order), Great Great Uncle Joel's service revolver from the 1860's (from the barrel I figure it was a Griswall, but it was a totally rusted mess even then), and a stub nosed S&W 38 my Dad bought sometime in the 50's which would have been better than the one she bought. We also had a bolt action rifle (22L plinker) and three shotguns (1 double barrel, 1 pump and 1 bolt action) all in 12 gauge in the house already.

Oh, I forgot two! We also had Uncle Eris' "pocket pistol" an S&W 32 and his single shot 12 gauge for hunting ("you should never need more than one shot, boy") at that time. Both of which were given to one of my aunts later and have passed down a different branch of the family.

And even with all these firearms, I'm still very much in favor of what I consider sensible gun control. IMO, a firearm should be treated like a automobile when it comes to ownership and use. We don't let just anyone drive a car, and if they are a danger to themselves or others the right to drive one is taken away from them. I think the same thing should be done with firearms. The owner should have met certain standards to have firearms and the weapons must be both registered and inspected regularly for safety. Additionally, any user (and owner) should have to be licensed and tested regularly (physically and mentally) and if they don't meet safety standards have the right to use a firearm canceled and the weapon removed from their possession. Knowing the US, though, I doubt something sensible will ever be done.

[terrymixon]

I respect your views on guns, Eris, even though I don’t completely share them. i’m not going to bring a hot button issue like that into the discussion so I’ll just stick to the factual parts that I feel more comfortable with.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with your feelings about hunting. I did the same thing at about the same time in my life. My family hunted for food and so it was a duty rather than a sport for me and while I was home, I fulfilled my duty, but I stopped as soon as I moved out and enlisted in the Army. I find killing things very much not to my taste and was quite happy to leave that behind.

For my part, I own a number of guns and go to the range regularly. Both my wife and I are enthusiasts, though I am by far more knowledgeable than she is. I get that it’s not a hobby that everyone would get a kick out of and that’s perfectly cool.

I’m certainly not someone that is so far down that line of thinking that I would be considered a gun nut, but I could play one on TV.

When I was in the Army, I got my fill of shooting automatic weapons, and I was one of the designated people that carried a rifle with a grenade launcher. Let me tell you, firing high explosive 40 mm grenades is a lot of fun. Over the years, I’ve shot a number of different weapons and while I don’t consider myself an expert in anything, I certainly have a good grounding and how it all works.

None of that needs to intrude into the game mechanics. I was just making a comment that when you’ve got a pistol with an extended magazine sticking out the back end of it, it’s going to get hung up on something when you least need it to. Far better to keep a regular sized magazine inside the weapon while it’s holstered and when you need to switch to a new magazine, you’ve got something more sizable to go to.

One of the thing to keep in mind with something like that, is that for someone that’s trained in the use of a weapon, you can swap out a magazine pretty darn fast. It’s a matter of hitting the magazine release and even while the first one is dropping, you’re bringing the second one up to slam into place and release the slide. A professional like.Sigrun would know that. Even so, it hardly matters because this is just a game. We’ll do whatever sounds cool and roll on.

[Tiglath]

Chipping in with the "other side of the pond" view here I'm a wise enough fool to not comment on hot topics but would observe that there are political issues that become such "sacred cows" that even though they may or may not need addressing (e.g. the hugely expensive and inefficient NHS in the UK) party politics on all sides steer well away from "grasping the nettle" in the purely (apolitical) public interest.

I think I'm a (vanishing?) rarity in shooting experience as a Brit having shot (merely at "Skill 0") handguns and shotguns with military (cadet) experience resulting in a qualification as "Marksman" on the Lee Enfield and an endearing affection for the Bren gun.

Having laid out my (un)qualifications for tactical firearms comment I'll add that they are informed by a career as a (proper) Detective (when the CID were still an elite) serving in the bits of London where there was more than enough to do and villains didn't give themselves up too easily. I can therefore only say that I have experience in taking firearms away from people without being operationally armed myself.

I entirely agree with the appreciation that extended magazines or indeed any addition to a formed design concept risks a compromise (and inevitably delivers).

See here Han Solo's over enthusiasm with the Mauser C96 - adding a redundant barrel shroud, a flash eliminator and a telescopic sight can surely have only compromised the weapon for a shootout across a card table in Mos Eisley! [Indeed the (unadorned) C96 got Sir Winston Churchill "out of the brown" at Omdurman where he was no doubt grateful for both its handiness and magazine capacity].

FWIW IC Sigrun's concept for ship defence is that the crew pre position for a set piece action (and now swap in their available extended mags).

That she doesn't include herself among the defenders might mean she has a whole different method of "defence" in mind... and quite possibly that her personal fighting style is something of a niche tactical choice. Referenced in the IC thread.

However (certainly in RP and game terms) what could be more piratically "Arrr" than a belt full o' pistols???

But then, of course, in game there's always people who have to push boundaries... and add axes...

[Eris]

I respect your views on guns, Eris, even though I don’t completely share them. i’m not going to bring a hot button issue like that into the discussion so I’ll just stick to the factual parts that I feel more comfortable with.

Hey, that's fine Terry. I don't know your views on guns, other than you have them and enjoy using them for target practice...which is fine with me. So, I'll say I respect your views as well. You aren't a gun nut and I'm not a gun hater. I doubt there is really a lot of difference in our views on that subject.

I suspect you would agree with me that folks, generally, should be at liberty to live their life as they choose. I also suspect that to paraphrase Oliver Wendel Holmes you would agree that "the liberty to swing your fist ends at the tip of my nose." In a Democratic Republic, like the US, it's always been a balancing act between those two statements to get the Laws we follow into some sort of balance.

Honestly, all I was really trying to do was move what was becoming OOG, IMO, in the game thread over to here in the OOG area. I'm okay with most any sort of discussion in this thread, but I won't continue this one, even here.

[terrymixon]

I respect your views on guns, Eris, even though I don’t completely share them. i’m not going to bring a hot button issue like that into the discussion so I’ll just stick to the factual parts that I feel more comfortable with.

Hey, that's fine Terry. I don't know your views on guns, other than you have them and enjoy using them for target practice...which is fine with me. So, I'll say I respect your views as well. You aren't a gun nut and I'm not a gun hater. I doubt there is really a lot of difference in our views on that subject.

I suspect you would agree with me that folks, generally, should be at liberty to live their life as they choose. I also suspect that to paraphrase Oliver Wendel Holmes you would agree that "the liberty to swing your fist ends at the tip of my nose." In a Democratic Republic, like the US, it's always been a balancing act between those two statements to get the Laws we follow into some sort of balance.

Honestly, all I was really trying to do was move what was becoming OOG, IMO, in the game thread over to here in the OOG area. I'm okay with most any sort of discussion in this thread, but I won't continue this one, even here.

I didn't think we were all that far apart. No two views are exactly the same and I'm not bothered. I agree with the above.

[Tiglath]

Take a look at the Cepheus Tables and let me know what you're looking for. [/ooc]

(OOC: I think we're good for a basic loadout of general issue guns. However, as the PCs try to give themselves an "edge" I suspect we're all after "exotics" from Central Supply Catalogue or similar but here I'm wary of the "clutter" inherent in adding ever more "exceptions" to basic rules.

In fairness, the CSC rules do little more than allow 4d6-3 for magnum rounds (vs 3d6-3 for a 9mm autopistol).

However, I'm just as happy for this all to be dealt with in narrative / "Kriegsspiel" terms!

For interest only (and just in case any might have missed it) I'll append below Ken Pick's wonderful article "filling in the blanks" in the Traveller (Black Books) armoury.

https://www.freelancetraveller.com/feat ... vslug.html

[Eris]

Take a look at the Cepheus Tables and let me know what you're looking for. [/ooc]

(OOC: I think we're good for a basic loadout of general issue guns. However, as the PCs try to give themselves an "edge" I suspect we're all after "exotics" from Central Supply Catalogue or similar but here I'm wary of the "clutter" inherent in adding ever more "exceptions" to basic rules.

In fairness, the CSC rules do little more than allow 4d6-3 for magnum rounds (vs 3d6-3 for a 9mm autopistol).

However, I'm just as happy for this all to be dealt with in narrative / "Kriegsspiel" terms!

For interest only (and just in case any might have missed it) I'll append below Ken Pick's wonderful article "filling in the blanks" in the Traveller (Black Books) armoury.

https://www.freelancetraveller.com/feat ... vslug.html

If you are looking for something exotic, ie. not in the tables in the link I posted, tell me about it and I'll see if it's available. You'll need to keep up with any modified stats when you use anything exotic. Just to let you know, though, exotics are going to be rare, expensive, easily broken, not easily maintained or supplied with ammo, and did I mention rare. As an aside, if you go looking for Fusion or Plasma weapons you won't find them nor will you find Battle Suits or Combat Armor. I'll also be rolling to see what is available at the vendor.

[Tiglath]

Take a look at the Cepheus Tables and let me know what you're looking for. [/ooc]

(OOC: I think we're good for a basic loadout of general issue guns. However, as the PCs try to give themselves an "edge" I suspect we're all after "exotics" from Central Supply Catalogue or similar but here I'm wary of the "clutter" inherent in adding ever more "exceptions" to basic rules.

In fairness, the CSC rules do little more than allow 4d6-3 for magnum rounds (vs 3d6-3 for a 9mm autopistol).

However, I'm just as happy for this all to be dealt with in narrative / "Kriegsspiel" terms!

For interest only (and just in case any might have missed it) I'll append below Ken Pick's wonderful article "filling in the blanks" in the Traveller (Black Books) armoury.

https://www.freelancetraveller.com/feat ... vslug.html

If you are looking for something exotic, ie. not in the tables in the link I posted, tell me about it and I'll see if it's available. You'll need to keep up with any modified stats when you use anything exotic. Just to let you know, though, exotics are going to be rare, expensive, easily broken, not easily maintained or supplied with ammo, and did I mention rare. As an aside, if you go looking for Fusion or Plasma weapons you won't find them nor will you find Battle Suits or Combat Armor. I'll also be rolling to see what is available at the vendor.

I think we're pretty much on the same page! My idea of "exotic" is here limited by a TL 9 world (TL 10 at an imported stretch)...

I'll post up a shopping/wish list directly.

[Tiglath]

Our gun store shopping list (guide prices included from Central Supply Catalogue):

Ammo (for export! ):
Snub pistol HEAP rounds x200 4000 Cr
9mm ACR Discarding Sabot rounds x200 4000 Cr
9mm ACR HE rounds x100 1500 Cr

Also any armour piercing variant ammo for any of the below as available.

Guns:
TL 7 Heavy / Magnum (~12mm) autopistols x6 @500 Cr Total for six = 3,000 Cr

TL 8 Autosnub pistols up to Six (per availability) @200 Cr

Only if no Autosnub are available: TL 8 Super Heavy Revolvers or Automatics (~12mm to 14mm) up to 3 @ 1000Cr

TL10 9mm ACR support variant with sustained fire heavy barrel x1 (No game effect but the barrel is longer! ) 1,300 Cr
Bipod and box magazine for above 50 Cr and 25 Cr

TL 5 600 Nitro Express (15.7mm big game rifle) x1 plus 50 rds ammo 1,200 Cr

TL8 Snubmachinegun (SMG snub variant) x1 plus 200 rds HEAP ammo 350 Cr

TL 9 Heavy Bodypistol 4 rd mag "Derringer" chambered in 10mm snub or ~13mm "Ball" ammo 600 Cr

TL 6 Assault Autoshotgun with 20 rd box mag 250 Cr Slug rounds (20 Cr for 20)

Eris, please tell me which of our choices are available and I'll do the book keeping and brief each player as to what they got. Thank you.

Everything is Jenghe TL 9 or below unless marked in red.

If some of the "specials" are available then they will require an additional ammo purchase as shown.

Edited added all weapon TLs and weapon for Doug!

[trawets]

That is what I like to come back to, a screen full of action. Checked around lunch, nothing then this evening a bunch.

As far as guns go Doug would be interested in some different shot gun rounds if available. Sabot, buck and ball, flechette, stun, slug, different size of buckshot. Different tools for different jobs.

[Tiglath]

As far as guns go Doug would be interested in some different shot gun rounds if available. Sabot, buck and ball, flechette, stun, slug, different size of buckshot. Different tools for different jobs.

Sigrun has added a gift for Doug - because nothing shows you care (for absolutely everyone in your field of fire) more than a trench/street sweeper.

TL 6 Assault Autoshotgun with 20 rd box mag 250 Cr Slug rounds (20 Cr for 20)