Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 033

Alternate Hopper Designs

I forgot to buy hypercharges, yesterday. So let’s make those 10 rolls. 

11, 10, 10, 6, 5, 4, 5, 4, 5, and lucky #7. I’m able to refuel in the last hour of the day at a cost of 1,500 secs. Nothing else looked tempting, except the Pilot/Navigator and Engineer crewmen. I'll pass.

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 118,300 secs. in principle.
1 Hopper with boat guns, TL-1.
1 set of boats guns, TL-3.
2 CU Status unit in Cockpit and Engineering, 8 1 CU Status units in Crew Quarters and 1 1 CU unit in Gunnery.
10 Fuel Units (in Ship’s Boat).
12 Repair units,
14 Life Support Units,
1 U-bot,
7 PS-bots, 1 per character,
6 Heavy Hand Weapons for sale, 4 for characters use,
205 Side Arms for sale,
13 U-suits, 7 for the crew, 5 for sale.
and the ship is fueled with 6 hypercharges.

I have 3,531 secs. left over.

If you like the ships above, I have them stat'd out here.
I also have a generic drawing of all three for any sci-fi campaign, plus a double sized Blockade Buster. The Blockade Buster also has stats for Star Smuggler. And finally, I am working a completely different ship. This one is far to large for Star Smuggler, but would be great for Traveller or Star Frontiers.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 032

Today is Feb 1st. It makes me wonder what sort of calendar they had in mind for this game. Not important. It’s day 32, records day and shopping day because I plan of trouble in the next few weeks. 

Let’s look at the ship first. The non-cargo hold areas are: 

Crew Quarters: 16 CU, reduced to zero by the Stasis Units. These 8 Stasis Units hold a total of 8 people. That is my max crew. I have two more crew slots here. The pilotage holds one 2 CU Stasis Unit. It can hold two people at a time, but there is no reason to do that. There are two crew slots here. The turret holds a 2 CU Stasis Unit, which means only one person can sit here. There are no slots available. Engineering holds a 2 CU unit, which takes 3 CU of space. That area is down to 3 CU of storage. 

A ship with a lot more space.

As I mentioned, my current crew is 7. My max crew size is now 13 or 14, but one of those people won’t have stasis protection. So, 13 then. 

I need a boat and more RU, LSU and FU. I’ll get more chances for these things at the Spaceport, so off we go. 

I get an 11, 10, 8 and 5 by mid-day. That is a pilot/navigator, an engineer or gunner, U-suits or RU and a ship’s boat. I pass on the crew people and take 10 RU, 8 U-suits and the ship’s boat. The suits were 15 each, a premium, but I don’t want to waste anymore time, so I pay it. That’s 1030 secs. 

In the next series of rolls, I manage to get both LSU and Fuel Units, so I buy 10 of each. That is another 20 secs. spent. 1050 secs. total. 

I also want to distribute gear. Duke, Emily, Lefty, and Deadeye get a heavy sidearm each and a regular sidearm. Ratchet gets a regular sidearm. Everyone gets a u-suit and PS-bot. This is a record keeping nightmare as all of my characters are now storing items in the hold because of those blasted stasis units.

Damn. I forgot to buy hypercharges.  

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 118,300 secs. in principle.

1 Hopper with boat guns, TL-1. 

1 set of boats guns, TL-3. 

2 CU Status unit in Cockpit and Engineering, 8 1 CU Status units in Crew Quarters and 1 1 CU unit in Gunnery. 

10 Fuel Units (in Ship’s Boat). 

12 Repair units,

14 Life Support Units,

1 U-bot,

7 PS-bots, 1 per character,

6 Heavy Hand Weapons for sale, 4 for characters use, 

205 Side Arms for sale,

13 U-suits, 7 for the crew, 5 for sale.  

and the ship is fueled with 3 hypercharges. 

I have 5,031 secs. left over. 

February Freeze - Star Smuggler - The One About The Crew

Ok, we've run through 31 days of game play with Star Smuggler and the crew as appeared very infrequently. So, let's talk about them.

In order of appearance, they are Duke Springer, Emily, Ratchet, Doc, Left and Deadeye. Each character has a "class" or set of abilities. Let's focus on the "pure" NPC characters, then I will touch on Duke.

Emily - Captain's Heir

Emily is a Pilot/Navigator. She can fly the ship, drive a skimmer and fire a side arm. She can defend herself in hand to hand combat, but will avoid it. She cannot make repairs or fire the ship's guns. She can operate the ship's radio, which is a distinction between "the ship's necessary crew" and "crew that happen to ride on a spaceship".  Should she die, a payment of 200 secs. will be made to her family.

Emily - Pilot/Navigator
Marksmanship: 4
Hand-to-hand: 4
Endurance: 4

Equipment: Sidearm, TL-1; Heavy Side Arm, TL-1; U-Suit, TL-1; PS-bot, TL-1.
Money: 80 secs.
Salary: 15 a week, due to working in a Status Field generator.
Deathpay: 200 secs.

A note on equipment is important. Whatever Duke gives to his crew becomes their personal property. Emily can and will take this if she leaves the crew. Her money cannot be counted towards the Duke's pool of cash. 

I added a rule for this online play through, Emily is the designated heir to Duke, she will receive the ship if he dies and continue on. I have also added a second house rule, if Duke is offered something at a price that an NPC can afford, they may purchase their own stuff. Say a heavy hand weapon, tech level 5, verses the standard side arm, tech level 1 that Duke gave her. It's more paperwork, but reasonable.  

Ratchet - Ship's Engineer

Ratchet is an engineer. He can perform repairs and preventive maintenance. He can drive a skimmer, fire a sidearm and can engage in hand-to-hand combat, but avoids any combat he can. He can operate the ship's radio, which is a distinction between "the ship's necessary crew" and "crew that happen to ride on a spaceship" Should he die, a payment of 80 secs. will be made to his family.

9 times out of 10, they shouldn't travel with Duke because they can get killed up.

Ratchet - Engineer
Marksmanship: 5
Hand-to-hand: 3
Endurance: 4

Equipment: Sidearm, TL-1; U-Suit, TL-1; PS-bot, TL-1.
Money: 75 secs.
Salary: 15 a week.
Deathpay: 120 secs.

More notes on the characters. Almost all characters will have two values for salary listed, one if their workspace is covered by a Stasis Field, and one without that protection. I figure the NPCs are being paid so little that there is no point and role playing renegotiated salaries based on the addition or loss of that stasis field . Duke provides things to them and will want to restore broken items his ship and make improvements. If that benefits the crew, so be it. 

Engineer's repair and preventive maintenance require a day of rest or RRR to do. If you use anything over T-1, you are either adventuring every other day, or taking a risk. Maintenance adds a bonus to breakdown rolls, it doesn't eliminate them. This is hard to track and the game doesn't say what happens if you maintain something then place it in storage. I assume that the bonus is "sticky" and is only used up when the item is actually used. Stuff does not breakdown until the end of the day. 

Doc - Ship's Doctor

Doc can patch people up and not much else. He cannot drive, operate a weapon or use the ship's radio. Did I mention, all he does is heal people.

Doc - Medic
Marksmanship: 0
Hand-to-hand: 1
Endurance: 3

Equipment: U-Suit, TL-1; PS-bot, TL-1.
Money: 40 secs.
Salary: 10 a week.
Deathpay: 80 secs.

Medics are cheap, they don't receive a sign on bonus nor much in death pay. I don't like that, because they are invaluable. They can't shoot and will avoid hand-to-hand combat. 

These guys can patch you up should you get hurt. 9 times out of 10, they shouldn't travel with Duke, because they can get shot up. In all cases, it is better to bring a PS bot with you. They can't be hurt and can instantly save a life. 

Bones - Ship's Medic

Doc can patch people up and not much else. Like Doc, she cannot drive, operate a weapon or use the ship's radio.

Bones - Medic
Marksmanship: 0
Hand-to-hand: 1
Endurance: 6

Equipment: U-Suit, TL-1; PS-bot, TL-1.
Money: 20 secs.
Salary: 10 a week.
Deathpay: 80 secs.

Medics are cheap, they don't receive a sign on bonus nor much in death pay. I don't like that, because they are invaluable. They can't shoot and will avoid hand-to-hand combat. 

These guys can patch you up should you get hurt. 9 times out of 10, they shouldn't travel with Duke, because they can get shot up. In all cases, it is better to bring a PS bot with you. They can't be hurt and can instantly save a life. 

Lefty - Gunner's Mate

Lefty is one of two gunners I have on the ship. Gunners are in my opinion better than bodyguards and should be hired in pairs. They have the exact same stats as a bodyguard, but can fire the ship's guns, boat guns and skimmer guns in addition to side arms. They cost more, but can do far more.

Lefty - Gunner's Mate
Marksmanship: 6
Hand-to-hand: 2
Endurance: 4

Equipment: Sidearm, TL-1; Heavy Side Arm, TL-1; U-Suit, TL-1; PS-bot, TL-1.
Money: 40 secs.
Salary: 15 a week.
Deathpay: 100 secs.

Deadeye - Gunner's Mate

Except for stats, Deadeye is a clone of Lefty.

Deadeye - Gunner's Mate
Marksmanship: 5
Hand-to-hand: 1
Endurance: 5

Equipment: Sidearm, TL-1; Heavy Side Arm, TL-1; U-Suit, TL-1; PS-bot, TL-1.
Money: 40 secs.
Salary: 15 a week.
Deathpay: 100 secs.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 031

We get our full five rolls today. On the very first roll, I get status units.

Status units are interesting devices. They take up one CU plus the size of the area protected. The one in the cockpit was a 2 CU unit, which actually took up 3 CU, which is why I didn’t need to dump stuff to remove it. The space got bigger, I held a heavy side arm and a was wearing a U-Suit.

They are cheap for what they do. They are 50 secs. per CU in size. I need one that is 3 CU to recover Emily. I also need to replace the one she was in.

Here’s what I am going to do. I have 7 crew. The crew quarters are 16 CU in size. I could purchase a giant Status unit for the whole thing, but instead, I will purchase 8 single CU Status units. That costs 50 times 8, or 400 secs. 

Next, I will purchase an additional 2 CU unit to replace the one that saved Emily in the cockpit. That is another 100. I will also get one 1 CU unit for the ships gun turrets. And of course, a 3 CU units, one to recover Emily. Plus a 2 CU unit will go in Engineering for additional coverage. Now every crew area of the ship is covered.

The cost is staggering. It’s 900 secs. Bur that isn’t the true cost. My crew quarters now only have 8 CU of space. Engineering is down to 2 CU inside the status unit itself plus one CU outside of the unit. The turret has 2 CU, one for the gunner and one for the Status Unit. I am running low on space.

Now there is a trick question in all of this. Can I renegotiate salaries based on providing Status Units? Most NPC will work for less if their area is covered by a Status Unit. The rules don’t say I can renegotiate, but they sort of imply that you can. 

I’m not doing that, it makes record keeping a nightmare. Plus I have two gunners, who gives a discount, the one in the turret or the one outside the turret? If I didn’t have a replacement unit in the cockpit, would that increase Emily’s pay? It seems fair to count only increases, not decreases.

On my very next roll, I get a 3 – No more rolls.

Our assets are:

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 118,300 secs. in principle.
2 CU Status unit in Cockpit and Engineering, 8 1 CU Status units in Crew Quarters and one 1 CU unit for Gunnery.
2 Repair units,
4 Life Support Units,
1 U-bot,
7 PS-bots,
2 U-suit,
10 Heavy Hand Weapons,
210 Side Arms,
and the ship is fueled with 3 hypercharges. 
1 Boat guns, TL-3,
5 U-suits.

I have 6,081 secs.

What I need is more storage space.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 030

We need to get home in a flash, so we are making a double jump. It burns 3 hypercharges. On entry to Regari, we see a ship under repair. There is no encounter.

We need a lot of different things, so we are going to an Industrial area. It takes 4 hours to get there.

We buy 200 Tech Level 1 Side Arms at a cost of 1000. We get no other good rolls.

I pay the crew, which is 80 secs., including Emily who is still trapped in status.

Our assets are:

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 118,300 secs. in principle.

1 Stasis pod 2 CU, (In use, holding Emily.)

2 Repair units,

4 Life Support Units

1 U-bot,

7 PS-bots,

2 U-suit,

10 Heavy Hand Weapons,

210 Side Arms,

and the ship is fueled with 3 hypercharges.

1 Boat guns, TL-3,

5 U-suits.

I have 6,981 secs.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 029

We continue making rolls here in the spaceport.

We sell the ship’s boat, sans it’s guns. Those are nice guns. We make 6,000 secs. off of this one transaction.

We can sell FU at 5 each. We dump all 30 of them as we have no device that uses them. 150 secs. We can sell LSU for 10 each, so we also dump all but 4. Another 250 secs.

We have just enough time to pay on the ship and get to orbit.

Our assets are:

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 118,300 secs. in principle.

1 Stasis pod 2 CU, (In use, holding Emily.)

2 Repair units,

4 Life Support Units

1 U-bot,

7 PS-bots,

2 U-suit,

10 Heavy Hand Weapons,

10 Side Arms,

and the ship is fueled with 6 hypercharges.

1 Boat guns, TL-3,

5 U-suits.

I have 8,061 secs.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 028

We have a pair of options, the spaceport or the space station. Things tend to cost at the space station and sell for less. We move to the spaceport. We need hypercharges.

It takes 3 hours to get the hypercharges. We buy a full load. That takes the rest of the day.

Our assets are:

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 118,300 secs. in principle.
1 Stasis pod 2 CU, (In use, holding Emily.)
15 Fuel Units,
2 Repair units,
24 Life Support Units
1 U-bot,
7 PS-bots,
2 U-suit,
10 Heavy Hand Weapons,
10 Side Arms,
and the ship is fueled with 6 hypercharges.
1 Hopper, with TL-3 guns,
15 Fuel Units,
5 Life Support Units.
5 U-suits.

I have 1,961 secs.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 027

We are off to Imperia again, via Palatek. On arrival at Palatek, we are ordered to stop and wait for an escort to take us into the space station or spaceport. Not a chance. We jump.

And get into more trouble. The ship is hit by a mirco asteroid right in the pilot’s compartment. If it wasn’t for the Status Unit, Emily would be dead. We use a RU for the patch but now have a secondary problem. We can’t recover Emily without a 3 CU status unit. She is stuck in there.

It takes an hour to patch up and start moving again. It takes 4 more hours to get to the surface. Our first priority is to make money. I want to sell these guns, so we are off to the slums. We aren’t detected on entry.


We can sell RU, FU and LSU. We can sell RU at ten times their normal cost, so we unload 20 of them for 200 secs. We also can sell side arms at 40 each. We get rid of 90 of them for a return of 3600.
Our day is done. What a rotten day.

Our assets are:
1 Antelope starship, which I owe 118,300 secs. in principle.
1 Stasis pod 2 CU, (In use, holding Emily.)
15 Fuel Units,
2 Repair units,
24 Life Support Units
1 U-bot,
7 PS-bots,
2 U-suit,
10 Heavy Hand Weapons,
10 Side Arms,
and the ship is fueled with 2 hypercharges. 
1 Hopper, with TL-3 guns,
15 Fuel Units,
5 Life Support Units.
5 U-suits.

I have 3,961 secs.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 026

It will take 5 hours to get to the jump point. I’m gonna make my 5 rolls and hope for the best. I would like a couple of more items.

I buy two hypercharges then fill the ship with Fuel Units and Life Support Units. Every single area of the ship is packed with stuff, to the point that I need to play Russian stacking dolls and fill the Hopper with crap.

We break for orbit and arrive at the jump point in the 10th hour.

Our assets are:

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 118,300 secs. in principle.
1 Stasis pod 2 CU,
15 Fuel Units,
23 Repair units,
24 Life Support Units
1 U-bot,
7 PS-bots,
2 U-suit,
10 Heavy Hand Weapons,
100 Side Arms,
and the ship is fueled with 4 hypercharges.
1 Hopper, with TL-3 guns,
15 Fuel Units,
5 Life Support Units.
5 U-suits.

I have 161 secs. I’m broke.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 025

Ratchet, the
Engineer

We move back to the spaceport and roll for detection. Being in a spaceship, we are detected. The result is holdup men, but because I have more than 2 companions, there is no encounter.

It takes an hour per contact attempt here, so nine rolls. I pretty much want one of everything offered here, so rolling should be easy. Unless I get a 3, which means no more rolls.

I buy a hopper (ship’s boat) for 900. I buy 20 RU at a cost of 1 each. I hire a second medic at a cost of 10. I buy 5 PS bots at a cost of 120 each for a total of 600. I buy some hopper guns, Tech Level 3, for 80 secs.

I still don’t have my hypercharges and I am out of daylight for today. Time to move on soon.

Our assets are:

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 118,300 secs. in principle.
1 Hopper, with TL-3 guns,
1 Stasis pod 2 CU,
15 Fuel Units,
23 Repair units,
20 Life Support Units
1 U-bot,
7 PS-bots,
7 U-suit,
10 Heavy Hand Weapons,
100 Side Arms,
and the ship is fueled with 2 hypercharges.

I have 1,185 secs.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 024

I posted this as a "the Demon Core", but it could just as easily
be a hypercharge.

We are on our way back to Regari. I am down to 2 charges at the end of today. I need to purchase 4 more hypercharges once I get there… If I get there. Palatek is really a bad place.

I’m approached by two ships, which heavily out gun me. I have the option to jump away, so I do that. I enter the Regari system and I am not detected. I descend to the planet. I spent two hours jumping and then 4 more landing. I have 4 hours of daylight left.

Let’s talk about economic cost of space travel. Hypercharges cannot be stored, the can only be installed in empty slots. I have four empty slots. Hypercharges have a standard cost of 500 secs. As a standard cost, they are not modified by wealth codes. This is so you can’t get stuck in a bad system for a want of 500 secs. times a ridiculous number. Another cost of installing hypercharges is, it takes the rest of the day, which WILL screw you an the most inopportune time.

In my last run, I made 4600 secs. I used up 7 skimmers, 20 RU and two hypercharges. The skimmers were free. The RU were not, but didn’t cost that much. The hypercharges cost 2000 secs. for four replacements, which I currently don’t have yet. I really spent several weeks digging in the dirt for less than 3000 secs. It would take forty, forty! runs like this to pay off the ship. That’s not a fun game.

I need those hypercharges and something else to sell. The ruins are right out. I’ve had weeks of that. The Industrial, Mining, Colony and Rural are secondary objectives as they have a lot of good opportunities. I need weapons and I need crew, so we are off to the Slums.

We are detected. We have a contact that wants to buy all kinds of illegal stuff I don’t have. It takes no time.

My very next roll yields something great, heavy hand weapons for 23 secs. each for Tech Level 5 weapon. They also take up 1 CU. My ship can hold me, plus 15 other people in cramped conditions. I want those heavy hand weapons, and a lot of them. I buy ten, one for every crewman, plus 4 extras.

My next roll, I get regular side arms. They cost 4 each, are tech level 4 and take up no space. I purchase 100 of them. Again, one for every crew member. I can’t get hypercharges here, so tomorrow, we will move on to the spaceport.

Our assets are:

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 118,300 secs. in principle.

1 Stasis pod 2 CU,

15 Fuel Units,

3 Repair units,

20 Life Support Units,

1 U-bot,

2 PS-bots,

7 U-suit,

10 Heavy Hand Weapons,\

100 Side Arms,

and the ship is fueled with 2 hypercharges.

I have 2,795 secs. 

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 023

We are still in the city. We have 7 skimmers to sell and I can roll once an hour.

I get another 10 right off the bat. But then roll a 1 which means these skimmers are worth 30 each. No deal. Roll again.

I get a 5 then a 10. I finally get that luck six, which means the Skimmers are worth 20 times more than their base price. That’s a total of 4200 secs.

Before I leave, I pay the crew early and pay that ship payment. I throw an extra 1000 at the principle. That works out to 70 secs. salary for the crew, 1,300 for the interest and to pay down the principle owed on the ship. Remember, there is no adjustment in the interest payment. I read that rule wrong the first time I played and won rather easily by counting the 300 secs. of interest against the principle.

I boost for orbit and then 4 steps out where I will pause for the rest of the day. Technically, I don’t have to pause, but it makes record keeping easier when you are blogging the results. I could back at Regari today, but I want a fresh start in the morning.

Our assets are:

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 118,300 secs. in principle.
1 Stasis pod 2 CU,
15 Fuel Units,
3 Repair units,
20 Life Support Units,
1 U-bot,
2 PS-bots,
7 U-suit,
and the ship is fueled with 4 hypercharges, having used 2 to get here.

I have 3,425 secs. in my pocket. And I feel great!

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 022

This is Deadeye, with a Heavy Side Arm
and an armored U-suit. 

Strategy time. We are in the big city. I have a lot of things to sell, but no ready cash to purchase items. While base prices remain the same, the Wealth code of this planet is 100. Everything is more expensive. I can sell a skimmer at a base price of 30, but due to that wealth code, the price will be double to 20 times it’s normal price, or 600 secs. Each.

The crew is fully healed. We have 7 skimmers to sell and I can roll once an hour.

Guess what? I get a 10 on the first roll which is exactly what I want, sell a skimmer. However, my next roll is 2 on the Base Price Multiplier Table. I can sell each for 90 secs. I’m not doing it, so lets roll again.

I get a 5, a 7 and 11. 7 is Fuel Units, which I could sell but I hardly have any. Five is repair units. I get a six, so they are selling for 20 each. I’ll sell 20 for a total of 400 secs.

The next series is 12, 5 and 7. I’ll check the prices on the Fuel Units (7) and on Repair Units (5). I roll a five for FU and 4 for Repair. Too expensive.

Three more rolls. 5, 5, and 9. I check the prices on each. 3, 5 and 2. Three is x5, five is X10 but 2 is simply twice as much. I will buy those Life Support Units. I’ll buy 20, which keeps my record keeping easy. The total price was 20x2 base price times 2 again. 80 secs.

Our assets are:

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 119,300 secs. in principle.
1 Stasis pod 2 CU,
15 Fuel Units,
3 Repair units,
30 Life Support Units,
1 U-bot,
2 PS-bots,
7 Skimmers,
7 U-suit,
and the ship is fueled with 4 hypercharges, having used 2 to get here. 

I have 595 secs. in my pocket. And I feel good.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 021

Sorry gang, Day 21 is boring. One of those skimmers is down for repair and I need it fixed before we sell it. So we need a day of RRR.

We roll for contacts today, which would really be unwanted. Nothing comes of it, so we proceed to RRR. The Ship's Engineer rule has a quirk, which I don't see anyway of fixing. On a RRR day, we can regain health and he can fix equipment. But does he regain health while fixing equipment? Maybe? I have to check the rules again.

Anyway, we must have that skimmer fixed plus back on day 014, everyone took a hit of damage. RRR will heal that.

Our assets are:

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 119,300 secs. in principle.
1 Stasis pod 2 CU,

15 Fuel Units,

23 Repair units,

10 Life Support Units

1 U-bot,

2 PS-bots,

7 Skimmers,

7 U-suit,

and the ship is fueled with 4 hypercharges, having used 2 to get here.  

I have 275 secs. in my pocket. 

I promised ads on every day of RRR, so here it is.

I saw a few people post on some charity bundles over at DriveThruRPG for the fires down under. 100% of your purchase goes to the following organizations:

Disaster Relief and Recovery - Australia Red Cross
Bushfire Emergency - World Wildlife Fund of Australia

DriveThruRPG and it's publishers have really stepped up, here. There are 5 bundles for every type of interest. I didn't bother to count the number of great titles included with each. All of them appear to have more than a dozen books each.

EDIT January 22nd, 2020: The folks at DrivethruRPG have added 3 more at $9.99 price point for an even better value. Here is a link to the whole category. I'd also like to thank Jeremy over at Thought Eater Blog, host of The Frothcast podcast and all of the others who reshared this post. What a great community we have.

Fantasy Core & Settings $19.95
Starships & Posthumanity $29.95
Modern & Urban Horror $19.95
Fantasy Supplements $29.95
Capes, Grit, and Gunsmoke $19.95

Personally, I'm going for the Fantasy and Core Settings bundle. What a great way to celebrate gaming, a birthday or whatever while helping out those in the awesome but beleaguered OZ.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 020

Let’s talk about the big picture. There is a starmap below.

Moving down one yellow line costs 1 hypercharge and is done relatively risk free. I have to roll for an encounter when I arrive, but that is all. 

If I want to hop two worlds without stopping at the intervening planet, I can burn 3 hypercharges and immediately move from one planet to another. I risk damage to ship by skipping steps and I will also have to roll for entry contacts in a possibly damaged ship.

Additionally, to safely jump, I need to move to orbit (1 hour) then several distances out from orbit. Each step burns an hour. I can, if I am lucky, jump two systems in a day, at a cost of 2 hypercharges. That is my intent.

Why am I skipping a planet? Each system has a tech level and wealth code. The next system over, Palatek, is no better than where I am so I want to go to Imperia. Imperia has a wealth code of 100, the best in the game. This means sold items are worth more. Buying items is also more expensive, so if I can sell the Skimmers at a premium, I can return to Regari or Palatek to buy hypercharges at a much reduced price. They have a base price of 500, so I need to score big. 

My first jump is to Palatek. This takes 5 hours just to get to the jump point and go. Half a day is gone. On entry, I get a 1 which is e93. That event describes a deserted area, nothing happens. I can immediately jump again, so I do so. On entry, I roll a three. This happens to be the same event above, so I can move to a landing area on the planet.

Unfortunately, I roll a six while entering a city space. This gives me a System result, which is a result specific to the System I am in. This one is very bad... depending on how evil I am. The ship is swarmed by beggars. We can fight or pay them to leave. 2D6x5 secs. will cause them to walk away. I mentioned that I could be evil. They have rocks and I have a starship guns. Guess how that is going to go?

Realistically, there are zero consequences to gunning them down. I can't pick them over for cash, because they event says they have none. However, I could spend all day long rolling up number of combatants then rolling massively effective weapon fire on dozens of unarmed people.

It isn’t worth my time as a player and sort of follows the ethic of a smuggler not a criminal. We pay them off with 45 secs.

Our assets are:

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 119,300 secs. in principle.
1 Stasis pod 2 CU,

15 Fuel Units,

24 Repair units,

10 Life Support Units

1 U-bot,

2 PS-bots,

6 Skimmers,

1 Damaged Skimmer,

7 U-suit,

and the ship is fueled with 4 hypercharges, having used 2 today. 

I have 275 secs. in my pocket. I might have made a bad financial call on paying off the beggars, but it saved a bunch of time in addition to not being nutjob insane. 

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 019

Emily reporting for duty. 

We get things done quickly today. I make some great rolls and get my Life Support Units and U-Suits by mid-day. Annoyingly, I also get a roll for a ship and a boat again… I can’t afford those. I buy 10 Life Support Units and 5 suits. More than what I need at a price of 60 secs. I have 690 left.

Since it’s mid-day, I am going to take on some financial tasks. I pay the crew for the week early, leaving 620. I also make an early payment on the ship so I have 320 credits left.

If I don’t change things, I will either become wanted for not paying on the ship next week or lose most or all of my crew.

Our assets are:

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 119,300 secs. in principle.
1 Stasis pod 2 CU,

15 Fuel Units,

24 Repair units,

10 Life Support Units

1 U-bot,

2 PS-bots,

6 Skimmers,

1 Damaged Skimmer,

7 U-suit,

and the ship is fully fueled with 6 hypercharges.

I have 320 secs. in my pocket.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 018

Today, we will recover the cache. It takes 6 hours. From there, we head to back to the Spaceport to get those U-suits and Life Support Units. I roll a new ship, a new boat twice, and a gunner. No help for it. We need another day.

Sigh.

Such is random luck. 

Our assets are:

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 119,300 secs. in principle.

15 Fuel Units,
1 Stasis pod 2 CU,

24 Repair units.

1 U-bot,

2 PS-bots,

6 Skimmers,

1 Damaged Skimmer,

2 U-suit,

and the ship is fully fueled with 6 hypercharges.

I have 750 secs. in my pocket.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 017

Maybe a U-suit looks like this.

On our second last day in the Ruins of Regari, we located a damaged skimmer and another U-suit.

I think it’s almost time to move on. We are close to playing “Russian Dolls”, here. The ship has 60 cu of space in the main bay and another 40 of the boat’s bay. I have 40 cu of skimmers sitting in both bays, plus 20 repair units and 15 Fuel Units. We have 3 bots and two suits. Plus 6 people. I have suits and units of repair and fuel sitting in the skimmers’ cargo and crew compartments.

Each skimmer can hold 6 cu of equipment in the crew compartment. We can technically take on an additional 44 cu of junk before I have to start stashing stuff in engineering, the crew space, and my six secret compartments.

We need to dump some of this stuff, but not until I get those LU and additional suits.

Our assets are:

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 119,300 secs. in principle.

15 Fuel Units,
1 Stasis pod 2 CU,

20 Repair units.

1 U-bot,

3 Skimmers,

1 Damaged Skimmer

2 U-suit,

and the ship is fully fueled with 6 hypercharges.

I have 650 secs. in my pocket.

In the cache in the Ruins of Regari are:

3 Skimmers,

4 Repair Units,

100 secs.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 016

In the remainder of the day, we get lucky and find 2 intact PS bots. I physically rolled dice for this so it must be random.

A PS-bot is a Personal Support bot, it can provide life support to a U-suit indefinitely or to an unsuited person for 1 hour. It can keep someone at zero hits alive and it can call for medical help. It also has a built in radio. It costs 2 secs. a week to operate.

They are kind of useful and sort of annoying. All bots have a weekly run cost, which you don't have early in the game. They are in good order when I regulate them to the hold. Using them triggers the cost, so storing them is a option early on.

Our assets are:

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 119,300 secs. in principle.

15 Fuel Units,
1 Stasis pod 2 CU,

20 Repair units.

1 U-bot,

2 PS-bots,

3 Skimmers,

1 U-suit,

and the ship is fully fueled with 6 hypercharges.

I have 650 secs. in my pocket.

In the cache in the Ruins of Regari are:

3 Skimmers,

4 Repair Units,

100 secs.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 015

A variation of an Antelope Starship with 2 ship's boats.

On this the day, we get lucky and find 2 intact skimmers. I’m beginning to suspect the randomness of Google’s Roll a die feature.

Eventually, I will get to the point where becoming a Used Skimmer Dealer will be profitable. 

Our assets are:

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 119,300 secs. in principle.

15 Fuel Units,
1 Stasis pod 2 CU,

20 Repair units.

1 U-bot,

3 Skimmers,

1 U-suit,

and the ship is fully fueled with 6 hypercharges.

I have 650 secs. in my pocket.

In the cache in the Ruins of Regari are:

3 Skimmers,

4 Repair Units,

100 secs.