Tested a Chat app and ran a Traveller game too
Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2024 1:18 pm
Hey everyone, just wanted to share our epic Friday night – it was a total blast! The guys and gals from the sci-fi group joined me for some fun adventure. We dove into our first Traveller game session using the https://battleward.com website, and let me tell you, it was something else! We were testing out this new chat system that's got video chat capabilities. It’s called Rocket chat, an open-source thing that you host yourself. It means you need your own website and web hosting service to get it going, but once you do, it’s like your own secure little corner of the internet. You can set up public chat rooms or even go secret-agent style with password-protected private rooms. Pretty cool!
Our main goal was to give this Rocket chat a whirl, but we also wanted to dive deeper into a Traveller adventure. And guess what? The night was a massive hit! It was only our second time playing Traveller, and it totally knocked our Discord experience out of the park.
So, our adventure ended up being set on this ancient, unknown 300-year-old Merchant/Freighter, Type-MJ, just floating around a massive asteroid. It had been damaged, either by hits with asteroids and meteors, or energy weapons. Or both! I put together some custom deck plans for the ship so everyone could keep track of where they were, especially when they decided to split up (which happened quite a bit). Picture this: no power on the ship, pitch-black everywhere, and no air to breathe – spooky, right? So, our explorers had to suit up in these low-tech TL-10 vacuum suits (that was all they had available on the players ship!) to venture through this eerie, derelict ship. It felt like they were astronauts on some long-forgotten space mission. The suits' lights were the only things piercing through the absolute darkness, creating these intense, shadowy scenes as the adventurers explored.
The Traveller session was chock-full of exploration and surprises. There were dangers lurking around every corner! I kept the ship layout under wraps, so every time the players entered a new stateroom or compartment, I had to do a quick roll on this nifty table I whipped up. The thing’s a game-changer – it ensures that no two playthroughs will ever be the same.
The real kicker was in the engineering section. I rolled and they got an encounter... The crew ran into this space fungus called solominous kreupanan fungi – nasty stuff (Yeah. I made the name up on the spur of the moment). It probably hitched a ride on some cargo or stowaway and managed to spread like wildfire, even in the vacuum. Turns out, this funky fungus was likely what knocked out the ship’s power. The twist? This plant had a mean defense mechanism. Our adventurers found out the hard way since they totally skipped reading the onboard database, which, you know, had all the important details on this space plant.
Two of our players got injured by the fungus when it managed to get on their suits, and while they made it out without kicking the bucket, after they patched their vac suits, every time they did something strenuous, they had to roll against an average of their STR & INT just to stay conscious from the pain. Spoiler: nobody passed out, but there were some close calls.
We had our fair share of other close shaves and a ton of laughs. The game kicked off at 6 pm and we rolled all the way through to 2 am, with a few pit stops for food and bio breaks. And get this – the players didn't get to explore the whole ship. There were whole sections they didn't even touch because it was pitch black and nobody wanted to rush in blindly. Was the ship empty of crew and other "things"? Only time will tell.
So, was this a full-blown gaming session? Well, not exactly. It was more about testing out the new chat system, but hey, any excuse to game, right? And the chat system? Worked like a charm, just as it said on the website. I'll still keep looking around for a simpler but just as versatile live voice chat system, however.
Can't wait to see when we can do this again!
Until then, keep those dice rolling!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The stats for the ship are as follows:
Ship: Aster
Class: Rose
Type: Merchant/Freighter
Architect: Brant & Michaels
Tech Level: 11
USP
M-B223352-240000-45000-0 MCr 1,559.935 2.5 KTons
Bat Bear 1 12
Bat 1 12
Crew: 34
Passengers: 12
Low:10
Cargo: 310.000
Fuel: 1,075.000
EP: 75.000
Agility: 1
Ships Troops: 2
Craft: 1 x 10T Ship's Launch, 1 x 50T Ship's Shuttle
Fuel Treatment: Fuel Scoops and On Board Fuel Purification
Cost in Quantity: MCr 1,247.948
Architects Fee: MCr 15.599
Detailed Description
Pretty nice ship. If it hadn't been for... HA! I'm not telling.
I'll try to post the deck plans and some pictures of the ship.
Our main goal was to give this Rocket chat a whirl, but we also wanted to dive deeper into a Traveller adventure. And guess what? The night was a massive hit! It was only our second time playing Traveller, and it totally knocked our Discord experience out of the park.
So, our adventure ended up being set on this ancient, unknown 300-year-old Merchant/Freighter, Type-MJ, just floating around a massive asteroid. It had been damaged, either by hits with asteroids and meteors, or energy weapons. Or both! I put together some custom deck plans for the ship so everyone could keep track of where they were, especially when they decided to split up (which happened quite a bit). Picture this: no power on the ship, pitch-black everywhere, and no air to breathe – spooky, right? So, our explorers had to suit up in these low-tech TL-10 vacuum suits (that was all they had available on the players ship!) to venture through this eerie, derelict ship. It felt like they were astronauts on some long-forgotten space mission. The suits' lights were the only things piercing through the absolute darkness, creating these intense, shadowy scenes as the adventurers explored.
The Traveller session was chock-full of exploration and surprises. There were dangers lurking around every corner! I kept the ship layout under wraps, so every time the players entered a new stateroom or compartment, I had to do a quick roll on this nifty table I whipped up. The thing’s a game-changer – it ensures that no two playthroughs will ever be the same.
The real kicker was in the engineering section. I rolled and they got an encounter... The crew ran into this space fungus called solominous kreupanan fungi – nasty stuff (Yeah. I made the name up on the spur of the moment). It probably hitched a ride on some cargo or stowaway and managed to spread like wildfire, even in the vacuum. Turns out, this funky fungus was likely what knocked out the ship’s power. The twist? This plant had a mean defense mechanism. Our adventurers found out the hard way since they totally skipped reading the onboard database, which, you know, had all the important details on this space plant.
Two of our players got injured by the fungus when it managed to get on their suits, and while they made it out without kicking the bucket, after they patched their vac suits, every time they did something strenuous, they had to roll against an average of their STR & INT just to stay conscious from the pain. Spoiler: nobody passed out, but there were some close calls.
We had our fair share of other close shaves and a ton of laughs. The game kicked off at 6 pm and we rolled all the way through to 2 am, with a few pit stops for food and bio breaks. And get this – the players didn't get to explore the whole ship. There were whole sections they didn't even touch because it was pitch black and nobody wanted to rush in blindly. Was the ship empty of crew and other "things"? Only time will tell.
So, was this a full-blown gaming session? Well, not exactly. It was more about testing out the new chat system, but hey, any excuse to game, right? And the chat system? Worked like a charm, just as it said on the website. I'll still keep looking around for a simpler but just as versatile live voice chat system, however.
Can't wait to see when we can do this again!
Until then, keep those dice rolling!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The stats for the ship are as follows:
Ship: Aster
Class: Rose
Type: Merchant/Freighter
Architect: Brant & Michaels
Tech Level: 11
USP
M-B223352-240000-45000-0 MCr 1,559.935 2.5 KTons
Bat Bear 1 12
Bat 1 12
Crew: 34
Passengers: 12
Low:10
Cargo: 310.000
Fuel: 1,075.000
EP: 75.000
Agility: 1
Ships Troops: 2
Craft: 1 x 10T Ship's Launch, 1 x 50T Ship's Shuttle
Fuel Treatment: Fuel Scoops and On Board Fuel Purification
Cost in Quantity: MCr 1,247.948
Architects Fee: MCr 15.599
Detailed Description
- TONNAGE
2,500.000 tons standard, 35,000.000 cubic meters, Flattened Cone Configuration - DIMENSIONS
30 meters Wide x 15 meters High x 60 meters Long, 5 decks
98.4 feet Wide x 49.2 feet High x 196.8 feet Long - CREW
11 Officers, 23 Ratings - ENGINEERING
Jump-2, 3G Manuever, Power plant-3, 75.000 EP, Agility 1 - AVIONICS
Bridge, Model/5 Computer - HARDPOINTS
2 x 50-ton bays, 4 x Hardpoints - ARMARMENT
2 x 50-ton Plasma Gun Bays (Factor-5), 3 x Triple Beam Laser Turrets in 1 Battery (Factor-4) - DEFENCES
1 x Triple Sandcaster Turret in 1 Battery (Factor-4), Armored Hull (Factor-2) - CRAFT
1 x 10T Ship's Launch (Crew of 1), 1 x 50T Ship's Shuttle (Crew of 2) - FUEL
1,025.000 Tons Fuel (4 parsecs jump and 30 days endurance)
On Board Fuel Scoops, On Board Fuel Purification Plant - MISCELLANEOUS
32 Staterooms, 10 Low Berths, 310 Tons Cargo - COST
MCr 1,575.534 Singly (incl. Architects fees of MCr 15.599), MCr 1,247.948 in Quantity - CONSTRUCTION TIME
136 Weeks Singly, 109 Weeks in Quantity
Pretty nice ship. If it hadn't been for... HA! I'm not telling.
I'll try to post the deck plans and some pictures of the ship.