Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 082 to 91 – March 22nd.

Ok, time to cheat some more and change the parameters of these posts. We are going to spend a whole week here in this one post, as each roll takes 5 hours or half a day.

Doc, Ratchet, Bones, Ace and Lucy are staying on the ships to guard them. They actually have very little combat abilities, it’s more to keep them out of the way. In Duke’s group, we have Lefty and Jon. Emily has David and Deadeye. We are loaded for bear, each character has a Heavy Side Arm, a U-Suit and a PS-bot. The Ruins are pretty dangerous, which is why I left the non-combat characters behind. Ace doesn’t have a PS-bot, so I would have to take a medic along, which I don’t want to do.

Let’s look at the ships as they stand now. I have shuffled a lot of stuff around with only three parameters. First, each ship’s hopper must be able to serve as a lifeboat, so they need 6 empty CU. They are jammed packed with all kinds of things. I put some useful items in the crew quarters, u-suits and life support units. The Antelope has 34 empty cargo bay slots while Alicorn has 50. Theoretically, I could pack 10 or more items into other spaces on the ship, but I don’t want to do that.

I want to find a lot of items here, primarily skimmers and ship’s boats. They will eat up repair units to get them working but it will be worth it. Skimmers are worth a base of 30. Boats are worth a base price of 600 but have the special problem that they can’t get into orbit themselves and there is no place to sell them here. However, I can do the Russian doll trick and pack them into the cargo bay, one per ship and fly them to orbit and then to the next planet in this system. Theoretically, I have 5 pilots, so I could get 3 into orbit in one trip then pick up 2 more per ship for a total of 7. It’s tricky but doable.

Now, I have this cheat in place. Duke’s team will explore and Emily’s team will haul the stuff back to the ships. Technically it isn’t cheating, but I have a veritable army of helpers.

Day 82: we roll 7 and 9. Seven is a damaged skimmer and nine is a damaged robot, U-Bot. The Engineers get to work. The skimmer needs a repair unit as does the robot. We had 35 RU and are down to 33. Everything we find here is tech level one.

Day 83: we roll 10 and 2. We find a side arm and ship’s boat. The boat is needs 3 hits of repair. The skimmer and U-bot from yesterday are repaired. 

Day 84: We find some books in a room (e88) and an intact U-bot. The boat requires one day of repair with 2 engineers working on it. We are down to 30 RU.

Day 85: We find some damaged U-suits which may or may not work if repaired with a repair unit each. We chuck them as they are a waste of time and RU. We also find another room with 30 secs. worth of coins. The boat is repaired.

Day 86: More damaged U-suits, which we throw away. We also find a single RU. We now have 31 RU.

Day 87: We find a pair of damaged skimmers.

Day 88: We find another RU and a side arm. The skimmers from Day 6 are repaired. We now have 30 RU.

Day 89: We find a second boat with 2 hits and another intact U-bot.

Day 90: We get another RU and more damaged suits. The boat is repaired and we are down to 29 RU.

Day 91: We find an intact skimmer before disaster strikes. We get hit by a pulse of radiation and our suits causes a secondary flash which doubles the damage. Duke is down to 2 hits while Lefty and Jonathon are reduced to zero hits. Their PS-bots keep them alive until help arrives.

Here is our haul: 3 U-bots, 2 ships boats, 4 skimmers, a set of books (e88), 30 secs. in coins, and 2 TL-1 side arms. We have 29 RU left. Doc and Bones can keep Lefty and Jon alive, while Duke sits there, slightly charred.

On the display below, I don’t bother to show the u-bots and books. Each cargo bay is holding a 40 CU hopper and two 10 CU skimmers. We are ready for lift-off.

We are heading to the colony for healing and a used skimmer lot.

We have 167,925 in cash and we are still wanted on Palatek.

More Pen Work

What do you think is going on? My wife has asked for a new tattoo, I've been doing starship deckplans. How could those to things come together.

Perhaps, one is warm up for the other. 

Maybe I am thinking of a new project.

Or two.

Pandemic Radio for Saturday, March 21st, 2020

Back in the day, I would've made you cassette tape but in this day and age, those are no longer supported. Even still, this is TheseOldGames and while technology changes the sentiment remains the same.

This series will continue as long as deemed interesting. You can also catch my latest daily series, Strictly (Duke) Springer here. 



This list includes the following songs:

Lightning Seeds  -  Pure
Peter Gabriel - Big Time
Seal - Crazy
Garbage - Only Happy When It Rains
Fatboy Slim - Weapon Of Choice
Utah Saints - Something Good f/ Kate Bush
Sneaker Pimps - Wasted Early Sunday Morning
Ximena Sarinana - Different
INXS - New Sensation
The KIllers - Somebody Told Me
Pop Will Eat Itself - Karmadrome

Youtube was selects as an option as I felt it would be the most accessible. Having said that, someone will probably get the message "Not available in your region/country".

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 081 – March 21st.

Aw geeze. I screwed up. I bought 660 side arms at 15 each only to realize I can only sell them for a maximum of 20 each. That is hardly worth the effort. We made 13200, but I have to pay the crew 1,188 or 132 each leaving 12,012. That was a great roll, but poor effect.

I'll probably get around to redrawing Deadeye. It looks like he's wearing a steel diaper. Since he or she never takes the mask off, I am not sure if he is a man or a woman. Perhaps we need a gender reveal because I know I've been flip flopping pronouns. As an added bonus, I wiped eraser dust off the drawing and it all ended up in the crotch area. "I don't need glasses to erase junk..."

We spend the last hour of the day moving to the Ruins. Deadeye is now fully healed.

I have 155,883 secs. We are wanted in the Palatek.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 080 – March 20th.

We spend all day trying to buy side arms. We get them for 15 secs. each. They are tech level 1. We purchase 660 of them for 9,900. We have two hours left and move to the slums.

On entry we get trailed by bandits, but since we can outrun them in the ship, nothing happens.

Deadeye has one more day of rest before fully healed.

I have 155,883 secs. We are wanted in the Palatek.

New Artwork

Not much to say, these are inked artworks for my wife. The first image has a circle scribed around it. Not sure why I did that but Kitty says it needs to be inked. Not sure how to handle that one. We'll see.

Next up is Ariel. It's a pretty simple design. Kitty wants it as a tattoo, so I may redo it so that Ariel's back is arched more to be the cap on a shoulder sleeve. Again, we'll see. 

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 079 – March 19th.

We move off to the Industrial Area, while Deadeye and Duke are healing. David is on the guns for the Antelope while Michael flies.

We get side arms right away, but the price is 25 secs. each. That is a bit high. We get nothing more of interest today.

At the end of the day, Duke is fully healed and Deadeye has 2 more days.

I have 165,783 secs. We are wanted in the Palatek.

Star Smuggler: e036 Rewrite for New Ships

When I created 3 new ships, I did so without access to e036. I was working from memory. So, let's rewrite the whole scenario using my house rules. The table at the end also addresses e001, which now gives you a choice of what ship to start with.

You can read all of e036 as it stands, but add in the following paragraphs to the end:

"Other options exist if you already own a starship. You may purchase another Antelope ship on credit and can trade in your old Antelope. Assuming you have paid off the loan on the first ship, that is. This option is not available if you owe anything on the old ship. If this ship is paid off, you will receive 60,000 credit against the principal and the interest payment will be reduced.

"You may also purchase a different class of ship under the same terms.

"Ships obtained from e001 have all of the items listed for an Antelope class, meaning you could be missing guns, hoppers and the like.

"When purchasing a new ship, you obtain it under the same conditions as the Antelope in e036. It will not have guns or hoppers or any other equipment. However, you have access to the shipyard's inventory. You may purchase boats (e035), boats guns (e053), ship's guns (e056) and hypercharges (e025). Stasis Units are not available here. Purchases each of these items at the dealership adds a premium. Add 100 secs. to the base price of each item.

"If you wish, you may purchase anyone of these ships outright. Please see the table below for all options.

"When trading in an old ship, you may transfer any gear or cargo from one ship to another, however, you may not remove the ship's guns, boats, boat guns, hypercharges, or permanently installed stasis units in the pilot's area. Items in the cargo hold count as cargo not equipment. If you are missing equipment, the ship is not sale-able and you will have to purchase these items either before going to the dealer (a die roll) or purchase them at the dealer's price.

"You may not roll against Cunning to negotiate the price of these ships, nor may you use ANY another mechanic such as psionics, drugs or pheromones to alter the prices. All attempts to do so will make you wanted in this system."

	Antelope		Alicorn		Blockade Buster		Buffalo
	Price	Interest	Price	Interest	Price	Interest	Price	Interest
Starting Ship	120000	300	160000	400	256000	640	300000	750
Full Purchase	180000	0	240000	0	384000	0	450000	0
Financed	120000	300	160000	400	256000	640	300000	750
Fin. w/Trade	60000	150	100000	250	196000	490	240000	600

Players may wish a refresh on the alernate Hoppers:

Orbiter, e034. 1800 secs. base price. e035 is 2400 secs.
Fast Boat, e034. 1000 secs. base price. e035 is 1500 secs.
Interceptor, e034. 2500 secs. base price. e035 is 5000 secs.

Remember, the Orbiter is larger than most hoppers. Their full description is here.

The Alicorn's full description is here. Click the links for the Buffalo and Blockade Buster.

Look out for more house rules updates.