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NICELabs — Collision Alert
Published: 2011-10-03 15:59:16 +0000 UTC; Views: 2057; Favourites: 15; Downloads: 126
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Description
The ship was making a routine cargo run down in the Lanth subsector. Still a month from their destination the free trader had just spent the last ten days in jump and the crew was ready to see stars again. They should be careful what they wish for. Their current destination was a nondescript world easy to pass by, but they had a gas giant in system and mining facility in high orbit around a planet further in. They'd hope to refuel and blow off a little steam before moving on.The system only had a dedicated space presence for about fifty years so no one even knew to look for a lone comet with a hundred-year orbit. It's trajectory sliced right through the jump lanes. It was a million to one chance but ship and star were in the wrong place at the wrong time so when the freighter came out of jump there was a wall of rock, ice, and gas directly in their path. The ship slammed into the corona and tail of the comet at 2G. The wounded craft lurched and tumbled and as the crew were thrown about the bridge, the main viewports began to crack...
[[[ This weekend I'm helping put on a big non-profit gaming convention.. the Gaming Arts Media Expo (G.A.M.E.) (shameless plug- Oct. 7,8,9 Springfield Mo.). All sort of things going on and while I'll be busy help run the thing, I did carve out a little time to run some Traveller. This is a little illustration I did for the players. This is how the adventure starts... ]]]
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Comments: 34
"Speed times mass equals... Oh %&$*!!"
Next to arriving in the midst of a Sword Worlder squadron out hunting for easy pickings, this has to rank as a free-trader's worst nightmare.
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Indeed... and that was just the start of the adventure
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"How could this day get any worse?!"
Well, funny you should say that, but...
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Indeed.. for this group the players survived (barely) and were rescued... but then they were stuck with a wrecked ship... then comes the guys saying "We'll get you to the next system with enough to put a down payment on a new ship if you'll sneak into palace and hold the noble ruling family hostage to force them into signing over the off-world mining rights from the current company over to us. What could go wrong?"
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That's the trouble with deals that sound too good to be true... Chances are you're not supposed to survive long enough to ask about the payoff.
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True true. One of my favorite scenarios to run at conventions is a tournament module I have. It starts with being offered a huge amount of money, but the players have to have their memory wiped afterwards. As they're discussing whether or not to take the job the guy puts an envelope of cash on the table... 'pleasure doing business with you' and leaves. When they players realize they took the job the look on their faces is priceless 
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Shades of the movie 'Paycheck'. The main character gets accused of fraud, treason, the murder of his colleague... and he can't remember any of it because his NDA involved a mind-scrub of the last 3 years of his life. Oops!
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Yah.. of course this module came out in the '70s so we were there first 
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Fraud, treason, and murder would occur before breakfast. Maybe over the bill for breakfast!
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Yah... well, it's a damn good breakfast!
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Irresistible force meets immovable (moving) object! Gonna be a bumpy trip this time out fellas...
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That it was...not to mention what the locals had the suvivors do to pay for the repairs
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true...or the towing fee for a haul to the starport!
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Indeed... not to mention the travel fees. The materials they mine on the planet surface has a high magnetic/radiation content. Not harmful but it interferes with antigrav and most electronics. No air/rafts and even ships have problems, so they have a space elevator going from the station in orbit to the surface and once there they have to rely on local transport.
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Aha! I like space elevator stations (tethered/ bean stalks)!
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Yep.. and since they couldn't use grav the mining company got the ore they mined up to orbit via launching lasers... was a fun place
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I ran a scenario once where the miners got tired of being shorted by the company, and used their maglev launchers to hurl their ore laden cargo-pods off the surface into low orbit for the shuttle-pilots of the freighters to pick up and tote off.
The first thing LSP knew of the trouble when was the first ore pod was opened back several jumps away at the refinery/ Hi-pop In world, and all of the mangerial staff were inside it (dead of course). By the time LSP got their mercs in gear, Sternmetall had sided with the miners, and the trade war was off and running...
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Yah... they always seem to forget the Mass Drivers 
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Stellatio/ Vilis subsector....yes, you're not alone in thinking of it as a "sensualists resort"-world!
As for mass-drivers...well, no one ever EXPECTS those "civilian payload capabale machines" to be harnessed as primitive artillery, now do they?
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Of course not... that would be silly
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You know this really looks like the bridge of the carrier from the questionably bad "Wing Commander" movie. Right down to the overhead pipes. Just what it reminds me of.
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Interesting... wonder if that was the modeler's inspiration. Well, at least it's about to be smashed into a comet
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Well its about the only good thing that could happen to the Wing Commander movie. However it did have two great qualities: the soundtrack was top notch and the female squadron leader was rather nice.
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Very nice indeed, brings back some old time gaming memories! The crew is discovering that experience is something you don't have until you need it!
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Absolutely, and in this particular instance, most of the players at the Expo are sure to be new to the game, so I wanted to start them off jumping in with both feet into a situation that wasn't the standard 'you all meet in a bar and decide to go adventuring together' way of starting like in nearly every RPG anyone's ever played
Glad you like it 
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I think in pilot's jargon, this is what's known as an "oh shit!" moment
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