Classic Traveller Double Adventure 01b - Annic Nova solo play

Introduction

Three versions of running the Classic Traveller adventure Annic Nova solo – one using my own solo RPG, one using an SF version of 3 Dice (4 Dice SFRPG) and also another SF version of 3 Dice (4 Dice PPS SFRPG)

Background

I am attempting to replay solo Classic Traveller adventures.  I started with Traveller RPG but then moved onto writing my own, streamlining them as I go.  I use a spreadsheet to run through the adventures that has grown into a monster with dozens of buttons, macros and formulas that I cannot remember how they work!   I ran through Annic Nova with a version of the spreadsheet and then completely rewrote the rules.  I then got jack of that and while on hiatus looked at various solo RPGs I had previously acquired.  I tried an SF version I wrote of Dungeon Roll but was unsuccessful.  I ended up looking a 3 Dice and all its derivatives and wrote an SF version.  I worked up a simple spreadsheet for replay and ran a few generic adventures through it and then tackled Annic Nova again to see if it worked with CT adventures.  While 3 Dice SF does not provide the level of granularity of characters compared to other RPGs, for running solo adventures I find I am just looking for the main difference of the characters – why use one in a situation over another?  And I also found I needed to make more choices with 3 Dice SF.  And lastly, the way I generated the narrative using 3 Dice was more conducive to adding to the narrative.  I think I had gone too far in formulaic narrative in my older spreadsheets.

After doing 3 Dice SF I still thought there was room to improve it to what I was looking for and revised it to a new version 4 Dice SFRPG.  I found I could automate the adventure flow entirely so ran a party through 4 Dice SFRPG with no human input to see if they could reach the end.  I may not do this automation in future though.

Game with 3 Dice SFRPG

Note that this is almost the raw narrative generated by the spreadsheet but did add some dialogue.

Prologue

The date is 001 1105 on Keng. The party is:

·        Riley Kidd, a female Human from a rich background with good skills.

·        Kaylynn Gallagher, a female Human from a poor background with good skills.

·        Niko Davila, an intimidated male Aslan from a military background with good skills.

The team need to find a treasure: The Annic Nova!

Act 1: Investigate

To succeed the group have to pass a number of tasks to obtain a working spaceship.

The group travel to the space location. It is quiet and calming.

Scene 1 Space Obstacle

It is daytime.  It is in space they discover the possible location of a spaceship. The task seems routine. The possible bonus is a clue (to the spaceship whereabouts).

“I’ve got this,” says Kaylynn.

Kaylynn has great skill but fails badly and breaks some special equipment in the process.

Riley steps up. “Here, let me.”

Riley continues with the detection task and brings it to a successful conclusion.

Scene 2 Spaceship Hazard

It is outside the spaceship the party have their safety endangered trying to enter the ship. The task seems easy. The possible benefit from completion is having time to recover.

Niko tackles opening the airlock with great skill and succeeds.

Hooray, the encounter is finished! With time to recover once inside, Kaylynn regains some health.

Scene 3 Command Obstacle

It is afternoon.  It is in the command location the team try and solve how to use the computer. The task seems fairly easy.

Riley has great skill and succeeds.

“It looked hard to start with, but in reality computers are computers no matter who invented them!”

It is now completed.

Scene 4 Engineering Obstacle

It is afternoon.  It is in the engineering location they are attempting to understand engine operation. The task seems very hard.

Riley tackles the task and loses faith and decides not to continue.  He hands it over to Niko. Niko has great skill and succeeds.

“Thanks Nico.”

The task is complete! Riley regains some health.

Scene 5 Commons Hazard

It is now the next morning.  The adventurers may potentially become sick from the disease aboard the ship. Riley becomes sick (in a week so) and his skill level is reduced permanently.   The rest recover fine after a small period of convalescence.

They have a ship!

 

Game with 4 Dice SFRPG (automated)

This was a single run though completely automated.  It is the raw narrative to provide as an example.

Here is the automation rules I used (based what dice rolled are not random):

Acts: 1

Adventure aim: 3 (an unknown spaceship)

Scene 1: Zone 6, Objective 6 (Investigate but this is just a placeholder and not using objectives), Location 1, Class 3, Reward 6 (They have found a clue to the spaceship's location.)

Scene 2: Location 5, Class 5, Reward 2 (They have broken into to spaceship.)

Scene 3: Location 1, Class 3, Reward 6 (They have figured out how to use the computer.)

Scene 4: Location 3, Class 3, Reward 2 (They now understand how the engines function.)

Scene 5: Location 4, Class 5, Reward 1 (They have the sickness disease.)

Prologue

The date is 001 1105 on Keng. The party is:

·        Ibrahim Curry, a dim male Aslan from a military background with great skills.

·        Meadow Velez, a female Human from a industrial background with great skills and a grenade.

·        Kendrick Mullen, a snobbish male Robot from a space background with average skills especially technical.

·        Kamron Hutchinson, a male Robot from a space background with good skills and a stimpack.

The team need to recover an object, specifically an unknown spaceship.

Act 1: Investigate

To succeed the group must talk to people in the area to determine a way forward.

The party travel to the spaceship location. "Hmm.  No weapons or blast to be found.  At least there is less danger here!" Anxiety levels are low.

Scene 1 Command Obstacle

It is now the late hours.  In the command zone the party are subject to sudden darkness and attempt to resolve this. The task seems routine. The possible benefit is a clue.

Ibrahim applies good technical skill and succeeds.

Hooray, the encounter is finished! They have found a clue to the spaceship's location.

Scene 2 Cargohold Hazard

The main part of the day is over.  It is evening at the moment.  While in the cargohold locale the party are paralysed and try and overcome it. The task seems trivial.

Ibrahim has great survival skill and is successful.

It is now successfully completed. They have broken into to spaceship.

Scene 3 Command Obstacle

The time has moved to the morning.  In the command region the team squabble and attempt to resolve this. The task seems difficult. The possible benefit is a clue.

Ibrahim applies good technical skill but does not succeed.

Meadow acts with great technical skill and gets a win.

The scene has come to a successful conclusion. They have figured out how to use the computer.

Scene 4 Engineering Obstacle

The time has moved to the morning.  In the engineering locale the group squabble and attempt to resolve this. The task seems trivial.

Meadow applies great technical skill and succeeds.

The encounter is won! They now understand how the engines function. Ibrahim recuperates.

Scene 5 Commons Hazard

It is the early hours of the day.  In the commons region the party have their safety endangered and try and overcome it. The task seems trivial.

Ibrahim applies great survival skill and succeeds.

This event is now done. They have the sickness disease.

Finally, the objective is completed.

Adventure aim completed successfully.

Ibrahim still at great skill level; Meadow still at great skill level and has: a grenade (1); Kendrick still at average skill level; Kamron still at good skill level and has: a stimpack (1).

Older Game run through

This is the run though with the older spreadsheet.  I am now favouring 4 Dice PPS SFRPG over the older rules.

Chapter 1 - An objective is established

The story begins on Keng during the late hours on 001 1105 with the team located in the command area of the space locale.  The team leader is Leslie Figueroa with the other members being Ouraeglluez, Diego Valentine. The starting tension is low.

Leslie Figueroa is an introverted human female politician from Keanou with average fortitude. Notable attributes are Survival, Mind, Interaction, Combat. They are armed with a knife.

Ouraeglluez is a disagreeable Vargr male business magnate from Human with average fortitude. Notable attributes are Survival, Technical, Mind, Interaction, Vehicle. They are armed with a shotgun.

Diego Valentine is a thoughtless human male police officer from Human with high fortitude. Notable attributes are Survival, Mind, Interaction, Combat.

Keng is an Imperial planet located in the Spinward Marches. It is a small sized world with a breathable atmosphere, little or none (desert world) and is at a agreeable temperature. The tech level is similar to 17th-19th C, population is average and the law level has highly restrictive measures. The government is based on dictatorship with an aristocratic society and an average economy based on agriculture and industry. It has landing pad only and no military bases.

The team need to find a treasure: derelict starship. To achieve this requires around three clues and may take up to six scenes to complete.

Chapter 2 - Solve a puzzle concerning the method to enter the starship

That they may fulfil the challenge at this time the band of travellers must work out a puzzle concerning the method to enter the starship. 

Inwardly, the team have no misgivings about the task. Before attempting the challenge, it seems the adventurers may need to overcome one possible problem along the way.

It is early hours in the command's outside spaceship. On this occasion an issue arises for the travellers to confront.

The group require cautiousness to continue. Leslie gives it a try with high talent.  Leslie has overcome the hazard.

The band require cautiousness to continue. Ouraeglluez undertakes to achieve success with average talent.  Ouraeglluez has overcome the hazard.

The group require cautiousness to continue. Diego takes it on with high know-how.  Diego did not get through the hazard.

It is late hours in the Command's outside spaceship. It is a strange sight to see something out of place and unexpected like this. Diego is laughing far louder and more often than others. Finally the party are ready for the undertaking to fathom out a puzzle concerning the method to enter the starship.

The party have a go at decoding the puzzle. Leslie endeavours to settle the matter with very high know-how.  Leslie solves the puzzle and gains a clue.

They manage to get into the "Annic Nova" without breaking anything.

Chapter 3 - Solve a puzzle concerning the working of the ship's computer

In order to carry out the upcoming difficulty the team must work out a puzzle concerning the working of the ship's computer. To do this the group need to travel to the space command area.

The tension level is low. Looking at what is required to perform the challenge, it seems the party may need to survive a few possible difficulties along the way.

It is daytime in the command's work area. It doesn't have to be stark, but this area is devoid of any attractive décor. While travelling through this locality a predicament takes place for the team.

The crew have their survival threatened. Leslie looks to conclude the task with average know-how.  Leslie did not get through the hazard.

The team have their survival threatened. Ouraeglluez seeks to settle the issue with low expertise.  Ouraeglluez has endured the hazard but wounded in the process.

The party have their survival threatened. Diego endeavours to carry out the task with low proficiency.  Diego could not beat the hazard.

It is early hours in the Command's Bridge. It doesn't have to be stark, but this area is devoid of any attractive décor. Leslie is squinting. At last the party are primed for the test to solve a puzzling problem concerning the working of the ship's computer.

The party labour at working out the puzzle. Leslie endeavours to settle the matter with high proficiency.  Leslie manages to easily solve the puzzle and gain a clue.

Chapter 4 - Solve a puzzle concerning the working of the engines

In order to carry out the next difficulty to overcome the travellers need to solve a puzzle concerning the working of the engines. To do this the gang need to travel to the space command area.

The air is quiet and calming. Preceding the execution of the challenge, it seems the crew may need to surmount a few possible complications along the way.

It is evening in the Command's Engineering. A broken light is still visible.  It is a strange sight to see something out of place and unexpected like this. Diego is chewing something. At last the group are ready for the challenge to solve a puzzle concerning the working of the ship's computer.

The band attempt to solve a puzzle. Leslie aims to complete the job with high capability.  Leslie solves the puzzle and gains a clue.

The party have solved the working of the Annic Nova.

Note that Leslie and Diego have contracted the disease and become sick in about a week.

The band of travellers find time to rest and recuperate. Leslie Figueroa needs to recover and remains carrying an injury.   Diego Valentine needs to recover and is no longer able to continue with the team.      

A high price to pay for a ship.

4 Dice SFRPG – an adventure set in 2124 Colonising the solar frontier

Introduction

I am playing solo the boardgame The Final Frontier about colonising the Solar System.  I thought I can test my 4 Dice SFRPG by playing some adventures along the way.  This is a one act adventure taking place in a Rural zone.

Adventure

It is 2124 and Earth is recovering from World War 3.  Nation alliances and boarders have been redrawn.  As Earth stumbles back to some sort of normality, thoughts turn to space.  One of the first powers to do so is the APA, the Asia-Pacific Association, which has a five year lead on space technology.  They use this to great advantage to implement a Martian colony years before anyone else has a chance of doing so.

Prologue

The date is 322 2124 on Murrua, the newly formed APA colony Mars. There is an issue of stolen treasure and a patron has commissioned a team of local investigators for recovery.  The investigative team, only formed this year, consists of:

·        Rashad Gillespie, a snobbish male Human from an industrial background with good skills and a survival kit.

·        Noel Santana, an intimidated male Human from an industrial background with average skills and excelling at survival.

·        Annabelle Calhoun, a shy female Human from a rich background with good skills and a vibroknife.

·        Skip, an intelligent robot from a space background with average skills and a vibroknife.

From left to right: Rashad. Noel, Annabelle and Skip (the robot).

“So Rashad, what the deal?” Noel asked.

“Stolen treasure.  Intricately carved bones of extinct animals.” Rashad replied.

“What the-? “

“Apparently a family heirloom and with the growing instability on Earth the family sent it out here to Mars.  Worth a fortune apparently – carved a 100,000 years ago.”

“But why not leave it in the Lag*?”

Annabelle cut in. “Probably still did not feel they were safe their either.  I know the last war barely touched the Lag, but with space now getting more attention, I would not trust being there either.  There is a reason we are out here on Mars and not back in Earth orbit.”

The room was silent for a moment in agreement.

Rashad then said “Patron’s pretty sure his political opposition has it – apparently both for desire and revenge!  But pretty sure is not fact.  The only lead is that the mining boss is a mate of his and he has hinted he has an idea of where the bones are.”

*Lag: Lagrange orbital stations

Scene 1 Mining Achievers

The party travel to the older mining area of the colony. The tension level is low.

The machinery seems old, possibly was not new when it was shipped out; but it is obviously functioning well.  It seems run down but still performing.

Surprisingly, they manage to get a meeting with the big boss, Selena Vance.  She is friendly and they begin conversing. Selena is not very helpful and does not have much in the way of a direction forwards

Talking to Selena in her office.

“Look around the site, there may be something that my help you here.  I don’t know where they are holding up but someone may know something.”

On the way out, Skip slyly pockets a vibroknife he saw lying on a desk.

“Just being a little vindictive.” Skip thought to itself.

Scene 2 Rough Obstacle

The main part of the day is over.  It is evening and the team are passing through a rough zone while walking around the min. The team carefully traverse a perilous area but with the warning signs and fencing it was a trivial exercise to resolve.  But while negotiating around it Annabelle finds some booster drug that looks like it was accidently dropped. She picks it up. “You never know when it may come in useful”.

On the mining site.

Scene 3 Mining Obstacle

The team come to a dead end and cannot go on.

“Damn.  We will have to go back.”

The team go back but go around the other side of the perilous area, not realising it is not as well marked as the other side.

On the way back, Noel injures himself here.

Rashad gets out his survival kit to help traverse the area but Noel slips and twists his leg.  He is OK, but limps the rest of the way.

 “Unbelievable!” Annabelle says.

“What?”

She picks up a small packet.  “Another booster drug.  Some person sure was unlucky to lose two of them.”

Scene 4 Agricultural Hazard

The team get to their quarter late but are up very early.  Still tired, they head out to check out the underground agricultural farms near the mining area.

Walking along the path in the agricultural warehouse.

A large farmhouse complex can be seen at the end of the farming warehouse.  On their way towards it, Rashad stumbles on the paths and falls into the plants off the trail.  This would not be so bad except he grabs out wildly at the rest of them and pulls him with them.

“Hey!” Noel calls out “My leg still hurts you know!”

As they are getting out of the foliage back onto the path they spot someone coming towards them.  He looks directly at them.

They spot one of the politicians.

“It’s one of the politicians we are looking for!”

Skip says it too loudly and the politician realises the team wants something.  He turns around and runs down a side path.  The team, well three of the team as Noel can’t run, give chase.  They spot him going through a door into another warehouse.  They slow down and wait for Noel to catch up

“Come on, Noel – this is the best lead we have had in two days!”

Scene 5 Rough Citizens

The next warehouse is still be configured for use and has a number of workers hard at getting it ready.  Close by, Rashad sees four manufacturing workers.

Talking to some workers to discover where the politician went.

“Have you seen a guy running past here?” Rashad asks bluntly.

Next to him Noel rolls his eyes “This is not the time to be snobbish Rashad…” he thinks.

Noel was right.  The workers just look at one another and shrug.  Rashad realises he will get no more from them.

 “Thanks for nothing.” he mutters as the team continue on.

Scene 6 Rough Achievers

They come into view from behind some machinery and run into three opposition politicians.

“We have been looking for you” Rashad says.

The three look at each other and then look at Rashad.  And then get pistols from under their costs.

The engage the politicians.

One of them fires at Annabelle who is busy fiddling with the booster drug package to get it out.  She is winged in the arms, drops the booster drug over the ground and drps to the ground beside it.

Skip whirls with his two vibroknives and two politicians run for it.  Rashad grabs the other one before he can fire.

“You obviously know why we are here.  Where are they?”

“Where’s what?”

Rashad loses his patience. “The bones! Do I have to get Skip here to help you remember?”

Rashad and Skip put pressure on the politician.  Noel looks after Annabelle.

The politician spins a great story about how they were rightfully his and so he had done nothing wrong.  This more than anything convinces Rashad he is on the right track.  A little more persuasion and they find out they are at the colony resort, hidden in one of the party rooms.

Scene 7 Resort Obstacle

The main part of the day is over.  The team navigate through a spot of quiet between the loud noises of different parties to either side.  It is only fleeting as they then enter into one of the party rooms.  Deafening noise, flashing lights, bodies thrashing.  Rashad, running on nothing and having barely any sleep, cannot take it and heads for the door.

“I’m leaving!” He says into Annabelle ear before collapsing exhausted as soon as he exits.  Annabelle signals to Noel. “You go with him – make sure he is OK.”

Rashad and Noel outside the club.

Annabelle and Skip push through the crowd to one of the corner booths.  While Skip keeps people away, Annabelle lifts up the chair and takes the bag stashed there.  She opens it and peers inside and sees a carved box.

“Yep, the box with the bones as described.  Let’s go”   

A blurry shot of Skip and Annabelle in the club.

They make it back outside and collect Rashad and Noel.  The next day, after a decent nights slepp, they had the bones back.  Investigation completed.

“Rashad, you are looking better today” Noel says.

“Yeah, and I see you are not limping as much anymore.”

Postlude

Rashad is still not fully recovered from his exhaustion. Noel is still got a leg wound – it will take a while to recover. Annabelle’s arm still hurts from being wounded. Skip is the only one unscathed, or unscratched at least. 

Introducing 4 Dice SF RPG (two versions!)

Introduction

I have been tinkering of and off for 8 years on solo RPGs with the aim to run through the Classic Traveller adventures.  After building a number of complex assistance spreadsheets I have created one (well, two) based on a SF variants of the 3 Dice rule.  I tend to play with the more complex version (4 Dice SF PPS RPG) but both are fun.

The SF RPG are available on this blog page.

Background

I have been trimming down my solo RPG spreadsheet to have less and less skills and attributes.  I was down to 8 attributes (no skills as skill level incorporated into a character’s attributes) and then 4.  When I was moving the spreadsheet to 4 attributes I also had a keenness to rope in many of the sprawling supporting tables to all be d6 based.  I started on that path and also looked around at d6 based games.  While doing so re-discovered 3 Dice (an RPG) that I remember looking at a few years ago. I went down a rabbit hole for a week downloading and reading everything on 3 Dice and variants – especially 3 Dice Dungeon and the SF exploration-based version Hex Rangers (archive.org).

The other variants did not really seem to add what I needed so I used 3 Dice. It seemed like a simple enough system so coded it up in a spreadsheet. What I likes it I managed to do it without macros, buttons etc. to drive the game (which is what my previous spreadsheet had grown into). Each row in the spreadsheets had the same formula, based of values in the previous row.  So could play a game just by entering one value (to select the adventurer to use) in each row.  So much simpler to run!  I then quickly moved onto an SF version.

# Dice, And 3 Dice are really good for pulp type adventures.  The idea is not that each scene is very difficult to complete nor equal to the adventuring party in skill/weapons, but that the party need to succeed over a number of scenes ad gradually are worn down as they progress.  Like in pulp movies – how else do the heroes manage to dodge and shoot their way through so much opposition J

4 Dice SF RPG

4 Dice SF takes 3 Dice and makes it more SF-ish.  The main changes are:

• The three attributes (Mind, Body, Spirit) become three or four adventurers, each adventurer having a single stat.  Each adventurer can have and use gear, weapons or blast.
• Each task is 4 rolls – location, class, opposition level and reward. Class is the type of opposition – Citizens, Professionals, Achievers, Criminals, Obstacle or Hazard.  Opposition level is the difficulty that the adventurers need to roll against. One reward is now a clue.
• To provide some adventurer differentiation, each adventurer has a hindrance that gives them a -1 modifier against one particular class.
• Added in acts: defaulting to four acts, each act takes place in a zone (each has 6 locations).  There are 6 random act goals (e.g. obtain a clue, visit a certain location, encounter a particular class, gain XP).
• A roll of 6 is a critical failure with the adventurer also having a 50% chance of losing an item.  A roll of 1 is a critical success inflicting two hits instead of 1.
• There are also options for races, location effects on the game and an end of adventure scene. The rules were designed to run Classic Traveller so the races are all Traveller but could easily be modified.

The non-optional rules fit onto one page, and options another page.  So still quite short. I found that with hindrances, I missed the concept of skills (a positive to the dice roll) and also that gear and weapons could be used against any opposition class.   So I moved to creating a new version.

The 4 Dice SF RPG are available on this blog page.

4 Dice PPS SFRPG

4 Dice PPS SFRPG (PPS is short for Pulp Pure and Simple) adds the concept of skill.  There are three skills and each adventurer may excel at one skill.  Each skill assists with tasks against certain classes.  I also added in restrictions on gear and weapons use to only particular opposition classes.  Skills and gear/weapon restrictions (and skills) do slightly increase complexity but this is offset with an improved narrative (in my opinion).  Other changes:

• There is a possibility that an adventurer with a stat of 0 may die rather than recover.
• With an adventurer having a skill, the hindrances are now optional.
• Changing skills mid scene (e.g. interacting with Citizens then decide to fight (survival skill).
• On a critical failure (a 6) a adventurer will go out of the fight (ran away, fell unconscious, decides to give up) 50%% of the time or lose an item for the other 50%.  An out of the fight adventurer is not available for the rest of the scene but is Ok for the next scene.

Due to the way I have coded up the spreadsheet, the only entry required is to select an adventurer for a task roll, all the rest can be random.  I did some automation so that optionally each task could select the adventurer with the highest stat (not necessarily the best chance – I kept it simple and ignored skills, gear and weapons for the calculation of “best” adventurer).  I have run this automation about 100 times and the party succeed about a third of the time.  By selecting the best adventurer, I think this would increase to about two thirds.  So the game engine is likely performing ok – not too hard, but not easy.  And a string of bad dice rolls will derail you regardless!  I actually take to time to read the narrative generated automatically (I have a simple translation of the numbers into sentences) as a good way to pass the time.

The 4 Dice SF PPS RPG are available on this blog page.

Where to from here?

Well, I have replayed Annic Nova with 3 Dice SF and also with 4 Dice SFRPG.  My next goal is to programme up the steps for Twilight’s Peak and give it a run through. Or just run some adventures.

I would also like to be able to convert some of the scenes to quickly run them with miniatures using rules such as the Two Hour Wargames Chain Reaction-type rules, and/or expand 4 Dice SFRPG with Possibly some mechanisms from the Four Against Darkness series.  Alas, I fear that may be too time-consuming for me with so many other projects and so will continue to just use 4 Dice SFRPG.