Be All You Can Be (CT AAR)
Thoughts
I always get these pangs of nerves and excitement when rolling up a patron during a session. Today's was a soldier on a planet that is entirely covered with water. Soldiers are often bored on deployment so I played up how dejected they were. A mission to find something hidden in the ocean made sense as well so I decided the soldiers were all tasked with searching the bottom of the ocean for something the officers weren't telling them about. This is also a planet where another player group dumped a bunch of alien eggs a long time ago. Though sadly for me that encounter didn't hit!
Classic Traveller's relationship with time is very interesting. We had a short basic training sequence today where I had the players do stuff week by week which seems to really play to the game's strengths. And it doesn't have the same weight on the referee's shoulders to account for either. I've been running multiple tables across the sector and haven't had any issues with time or rubberbanding.
Session
The players started off by trying to offload their stolen ship. To their disappointment the shipyards on Armanoull have much higher security tolerances now due to an entire planetary fleet being salvaged there illegally. So they bummed around in the starport bar looking for a patron. A group of dejected soldiers came up to nurse some beers and complain about their deployment. A deal was made if the players could find out what the soldier's mission was then they'd hook them up with some credits and some guns.
Lacking any better means, all the players joined the Army. They had a four week intensive basic training where they ran, fought, shot, and swam. The cool refreshing hit of Big Roll'em Cigarttes is a powerful motivator. During the final week's SERE mission one of the players was killed during basic training. They were tasked with swimming 20km back to base as a final test. A fishing trawler pulled up and Cosimo asked if the fisherman would give a ride to shore. The fisherman was disgusted by their lack of pride in their unit and threatened to tell the drill instructor. Private Fish shot and killed the fisherman but was slain by a shotgun blast in the process. Cosimo brought the bodies back to shore so they could be returned to their family.
After passing basic they were given their assignments and in short order broke into an officer's room to learn more about Operation Gilded Needle. They passed on a bogus report of seeing some sort of temple like structure in the ocean and the officers bought it. The officers brought the crew up to speed on the supposed rumors of some long lost sophont temple complex under the ocean.
The players informed their patron about the actual purpose of the mission and went AWOL during their shore leave. Finally the crew made it back to their HQ after a lengthy detention in Nwecomb.