31 Days / 31 Characters - IVAN PETROVO

One of my longest and best campaigns, at least by my own criteria, was a game of modified classic Traveller called Operation: PALADIN. The campaign began with a large group but not long after the first story arc a few of the players had to drop out for varying reasons. Luckily, a few new players joined including Hans, Dave, and Andy. 

Andy's character was...

Character: Ivan Petrovo

AKA: 

 
Player: Andrew Frank Rodriguez

 
System: Traveller - Classic version w/ modification from MegaTraveller and houserules.
 
Nature: Long Campaign: Operation: PALADIN

Gamemaster: Adam Dickstein

 
Circa: 2013-2015

Origins: Like most classic Traveller Player Characters, Ivan was very much a product of random rolls as much as he was any sort of plan by the player. Andy certainly chose which score went to which Attribute (a houserule - no one has to roll in order) and picked which Career to try for (though he still had to roll to Enlist, Survive, Reenlist, etc.). However he and Ivan both benefited from random generation. 

One of my houserules - which I've discussed before - is that if you fail to Survive a Tour of Duty you can decide to embrace the 'Death by Character Creation' that Traveller is famous for or you can say, "Well, he/she/they didn't REALLY die". If that's the case you stop where you are and only get half the skills/bonuses/whathaveyou of the final Tour. You then roll on some custom 'Alternatives to Death' charts that I made (largely based on Central Casting: Heroes of Tomorrow by the late, great Jennell Jaquays).

Here we learn that Petrovo crash landed on an uncharted planet and was presumed dead. In actuality... 

 
Backstory: ...Ivan survived, gravely injured but luckily found by the world's indigenous sentient species. After a month of healing and recuperation, largely thanks to a native plant with anagathic-like properties, Petrovo attempted to contact the Imperial but could not. His ship was destroyed, its equipment completely totaled. He was marooned on this planet where he remained for next three years. He learned to live off the world's resources, became close to the planet's people and learned their customs, and honed additional hunting and fighting skills against the local fauna.

Three of the planet's years later, an Imperial Interstellar Scout Service vessel landed after detecting the wreckage of Ivan's ship while doing a general Type 1 Survey. Telling his indigenous friends to hide, Petrovo makes contact with the Scout Ship's crew. They offer to rescue him and he decides to take them up on it, partially to prevent the Scouts from learning about and disturbing the native culture. 

Dropped off at Bussard Reach, the orbital highport at Leighton IV in the Leighton System (1023 Flux Subsector, Spica Sector), Petrovo searches the public Library Data Systen and discovers he has officially been listed as deceased. In addition, he learns his personal Safari Ship has been berthed at his last assigned base and remains there largely due to Imperial bureaucracy losing the impound order.

Bussard Reach Highport

While on the station trying to decide what to do next, Ivan is approached by a fellow who needs help on the surface of Leighton IV. The guy and his team are zoologists trying to capture an Amanook, a native creature resembling a polar bear crossed with a wolf. There are concerns about the mining operation on Leighton IV effecting the animal's habitat and they need to catch one to aid in the study. Something about Ivan's garb (a mix of standard clothing and accessories from his time on the low Tech Level planet) gave the potential patron the idea that Ivan might be a Scout or Hunter. With nothing else to do and having had a lot of experience with large fauna, Ivan joins the expedition. 

Amanook, Adlult Female

Solitary Arctic Carnivore/Hunter - Leighton IV

After successfully capturing one of the creatures, Petrovo returns to the station and ends up meeting the other PCs. He first encounters the late Dave Cotton's character, who is a Solomani Military Officer investigating some recent goings on in a nearby system (the initial adventure arc). He befriends Petrovo and promises to help him retrieve his ship. He does do this but 'borrows' the ship first to complete a side mission. Eventually the craft is moored at Bussard Reach but Petrovo isn't there at the time, having already left with the other PCs to investigate part of the larger plot. 

 
Overview: I loved Ivan Petrovo. Seriously, what a great character. In a game largely focused on Corporate Espionage and Political Intrigue, Petrovo brought in a much needed dose of action. Ivan wasn't alone in this but he was the most straightforward about it. Ivan was just, ya'know, Ivan. He was a good guy who could fight and would if he felt it was for a good reason. Petrovo wasn't motivated by money, politics, and had no personal agenda beyond 'doing the right thing'. 

What no one realized, including Ivan himself, was that his time on that low tech planet where the ship he was on crashed had changed him. He died during Character Creation, remember? Well it turns out that the native medicinal herbs he was given to save his life contained a unique mix of chemicals and microscopic parasites. The result was an incredible healing factor; a nearly superhuman ability to regenerate. Evidence of the ability revealed itself a few times in the early adventures but it was chalked up to lucky rolls and narrative time passing. It wasn't until a fight with an Aslan Assassin (See Highlights) where he realized, "Oh my gosh! I heal @^#&ing FAST!" 

 
The Highlights:

As other members of the team engaged an Aslan Assassin in hand-to-hand combat, Ivan was setting up on a roof above in hopes of taking the adversary out with a sniper shot from his souped up hunting rifle. The Aslan spotted him somehow and fired a laser weapon that sheered off a few of the fingers on Ivan's right hands and severely burned him. With only his ring finger, thumb, and in serious pain, Petrovo managed to fire off a shot that took the Assassin out completely. Rushed to a medical facility, the entire team, the doctors, and Ivan were stunned when within a day his hand had totally healed, regrown digits and all. It was then that the previous clues to his healing factors fell into place. 

In Andy's own words (slightly paraphrased for context: "The second [big] moment [I recall] was when they (the enemy) unleashed a dang horror out of that satellite vault. A Mech basically. I (Ivan) had to distract it was Hans' character could take out the legs with that massive firearm she'd invented.

The third was when all heck broke lose in the sewer system [of Amaro Highport at Aequine II]. I believe the female Alsan diplomat, Han's character, Marcus' character, his [NPC] sister, and Ivan were literally fighting for our lives as we were being chased by some crazed battle dressed Marines. I sniped 'Master Chief' with what that gun Han's character gave me. Han's kept creating these 'Frankenstein' rail gun rifles and when he finalized the design he was give me the prototype. He was like, 'that one was the experimental version, it's yours now.' lol

When Rex Kinkaid (Marcus' character) went rogue and then seemingly turned traitor, it was Ivan who tried to once last time to talk to him about it. Ivan had become close with Rex's sister Nova and the two had a bond (moreso than anyone else on the team did with Rex the loner). Rex refused to return to the rest of the gang with Ivan but with a nod approved of Ivan and Nova teaming up and maybe more. Rex said, "Take care of her and she'll take care of you." With that, we never saw Rex again. 

Game Info:

Not Available Right Now - Will Update Soon. 

Notes: 

Ivan was great. His simple, straightforward manner and willingness to take action was a wonderful counterbalance to often overly cautious nature of some of his other team members. He could always be counted on to do...not the wisest thing per se...but definitely the 'right' thing. 

In the epilogue of the campaign, Ivan returns to the low tech world where he'd been stranded 7 or 8 years earlier, this time with Nova Kinkaid and a female Aslan warrior who he'd become good friends with in the final 6+ months of the game. They are last seen walking into the dense underbrush, with members of the native species celebrating seeing their old friend once more.

Legacy: I had originally planned a direct sequel to Operation: PALADIN but that project fell apart unfortunately. Given the way Ivan's story 'ends', he certainly could return but I kind of like not knowing exactly what happened next.

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Barking Alien

31 Days / 31 Characters - DEE HOSHIYORU

Creguian (pronounced KREG-e-on) is the name of a Japanese Play-by-Mail Role-Playing Game that began in 1990 and continued on until the parent company Hobby Data went out of business suddenly in 2003. Over the 13 years that Creguian ran, the game became incredibly popular, resulting in a Tabletop RPG boxed set released in 1992.

Additionally, a second boxed set expansion, a softcover supplement, and a dozen published scenarios were produced. Numerous light novels based on the background events of the setting were published as well. Over the course of its 10+ years, the actions of its player base generated and developed the characters, equipment, and events of the game's universe as much as any material issued forth by those running the PBM. 

At a NJ gaming convention in 1992 I met a fellow whose older brother was in the military and had been stationed in Japan for some time by that point. We got to talking about Japanese RPGs and he mentioned his brother playing Japanese made games as well as one or two that were PBM. The older brother had sent some of the tabletop games back home to his younger sibling and in fact, the fella had brought some of these games to the show. We met after the convention for dinner and he pulled a few JTRPGs out of his backpack: Sword World, Horai School Advenure, and none other than Creguian. I'd seen ads for Creguian in Japan's Dragon Magazine and it had always intrigued me. 

The guy ended up running a session with myself and two friends and it was great, largely because of the world building. The Creguian setting was very interesting to me. I honestly don't recall the rules very well, except that it reminded me of classic Traveller, though if I recall correctly it was 2D10 instead of two 2D6 for resolution. That or it may have been a percentile system but I distinctly remember getting a strong Traveller vibe from the game. Before the con ended, this guy was able to photocopy some of the English translation pages and gave them to me. Combining these notes with MegaTraveller I was able to run a short Creguian campaign of my own a week or two later. It rocked and featured this awesome character by a very cool gal I used to know...

Character: Dee Hoshiyoru

AKA: Lady Star, Starlight.

Player: Sasha

I think. I can't clearly remember her name. I can picture her in my mind like our last encounter was yesterday when it's got to be 30+ years since I last saw her. She was of mixed-heritage; her father African-American and Latin-American, her mother Caucasian and Japanese. She was strikingly attractive. 

She always wore a black leather [motorcycle?] jacket, biker shorts, and either a punk band or comic book related t-shirt. That's all regardless of season or temperature btw. Overall she looked like a rock-n'-roll fitness instructor, which incidentally she was. Her day job was as a personal trainer. 

System: Creguian, Tabletop RPG / MegaTraveller.

 

Nature: Short Campaign: Homeward Bound

Gamemaster: Adam Dickstein

Circa: 1992

Origins: I remember discussing my experience playing Creguian with a friend at my job [at a Sci-Fi/Fantasy Book and Comic Book store] when another regular customer standing nearby, Sasha, said how cool it sounded. All three of us got to talking and decided to get together to run a game. Adding two others, we ran a trial session; basically a one-shot just to show everyone what the game was all about. Sasha asked me, "So what happens next?". Checking with the others to see if anyone else was interested in answering that question, I got a resounding 'let's find out'. 

 The Creguian RPG Boxed Set 

Cover and Contents.

Backstory: Dee Hoshiyoru was a drifter with a past she would rather not talk about, moving aimlessly through the stars of the Frontier Sector trying to survive and forget. Although everyone she ran into out there could tell she was native to this life, that she was destined for or came from higher status, no one could argue she didn't belong. Hoshiyoru could hold her own.

On a routine job guarding Outer World cargo headed for the Inner Sphere, Hoshiyoru saw a ghost, someone she thought was long since dead. The daughter of the altruistic, wealthy, corporate nobles who'd raised her was being forced to board a starship of ill-repute. Dee believed she had failed her family, that everyone had been murdered but no, the youngest daughter had survived! 

Banding together with a charming conman Smuggler, a cyborg Mercenary with a Mech, and a dying alien Baptist Psychic, Dee Hoshiyoru - or Lady Star as the Smuggler liked to call her - set out to right what she felt was her greatest wrong so she, the noble's daughter, and all her new friends could be Homeward Bound. 

Overview: I can best describe this campaign as 'Star Wars as written and directed by Blade Runner era Ridley Scott'. Each PC had a reason to chase this group of Interstellar Organized Criminals with the separate but unified goal of 'getting to go home'. For the Smuggler, the crooks had cheated him out of a score that would pay off his debts so he could return to his home planet. The Merc swore he wouldn't return home until he got revenge for the death of his brother. The alien was one of the few members of his species left in the galaxy. The entire race was going extinct. Dee's noble corporates had developed a medicine [of some sort] that might prevent this.

Lastly, Dee is revealed to have been an orphan taken in by the corporate family and raised by their Chief Of Security as his own daughter. She eventually became Security Head herself. One day, a surprise attack on their home ended with the murder of the entire group by a guild of assassins working for a business rival. With her family gone, her reputation in ruin, and even some suggestion by the media that she might have been in on it, Dee ran. She eventually lost herself on the frontier, which is where we see her when the game starts. 

Her real name is actually something different but her adopted father always called her 'Hoshiyoru', which in Japanese means Starlight. 

The two major Creguian expansions:

On the left; a second box set detailing Starship Construction, Space Battles, and other Starship stuff.

On the right; Crisis Point, a soft cover, saddlestitch sourcebook and scenario generator. 

Highlights:

Dee would have interesting, though brief, philosophical discussions with our alien character. His species is referred to as the Baptists (See Notes below). Often his side of the argument would be about the universe have a plan for all of them and they it was all tied to destiny. Dee was of the opinion that the sentient universe the Baptist believed in was either not real or a terrible planner. "This thing has to be the worst tactician ever."

The Smuggler flirted with Dee quite a bit and she back but made it clear at one point that it wasn't serious. He was disappointed but they remained fast friends. In a session towards the end when Dee makes it obvious she's romantically interested in the noble daughter and had been for a while in their adult years, the Smuggler basically sacrificing himself so Dee can rescue the young woman and escape. His last words were, 'After all this, someone deserves a happy ending. Right?"

Game Info:

Unfortunately I can't find any of my character sheets or rule notes on this game (typical of me, I know. I save write-ups of the stories and characters but rarely prioritize archiving mechanics). I did decide to record this character as if she was a Traveller/MegaTraveller PC though so here you go:

Dee's Starlight Armor would basically act as Combat Armor-TL 12, giving her an Armor Value of 10. It adds a +1 to Strength, Dex (but not towards Ranged Weapon Accuracy - only Speed, Agility, and Reaction Time), and End. She can activate a 'Star Field' mode that increases her Str, Dex, and End to +3 and +6 on a Critical Success. Armor Value increases to 30 at this time (a super-charged force field effect). The Critical effect lasts 3 rounds and then the suit gives no bonuses, none at all, for 3 rounds. Following this it returns to normal. It can only be used 3 times in 24 hours. 

Trying to fill this out I realize how different the two games and universes really are. Like most Japanese protagonists, the PCs of Creguian skew younger than those of Traveller. For a starting Traveller Player Character to be competent, let alone proficient, they'd have to have at least a few tours of duty and be someone between 34 and 42 at least. At 24 Dee was one of the two oldest members of the team and was probably more skilled than I made her out to be above, even with fudging the numbers. Really, the above sheet was just for fun and isn't a good example of a Creguian character (or a Traveller one for that matter). 

Notes:

First, the word 'Creguian': It is a word in the alien language of the Baptists, the first extraterrestrial intelligence Humanity encountered. Directly translated it means, 'one who plots'. It is their word for Humans; we are Creguian. Unlike the calm, organized, and pragmatic Baptists, Humans are full of curiosity, determination, and daring. We are viewed as wonderfully energetic and dangerously unpredictable. We are part of the reason the Baptists are in danger of extinction. 

The Baptists get their name - given to them by Humans - for their belief in a sentient universe, which they see as a deity. A rite of passage in their culture involves total immersion in sea water until they nearly drown. If they survive it, they are renewed in body, spirit, and purpose. 

The game has numerous nods to Judeo-Christian names and mythology, attributing this to what survived after the Great War. There aren't necessarily major religious themes however. It's mostly just window-dressing. 

The setting takes place three thousand years in the future and is generally referred to as 'The 3000s'. This is the era after The Great War ended that pitched the galaxy backward technology wise. Although we are in a far future, starfaring, cyberpunk heavy era, a key element of the setting is that Humanity used to be even more advanced. Finding lost technology and abandoned colonies is a common theme (as in the Third Imperium of Traveller). 

I had this idea that each player had a secret 'Power Up' (though I don't think I called it that). If and when they were willing to spend X amount of experience points, they would unlock some cool feature of themselves or their gear. The Smuggler's ship had a hidden pre-Great War Tractor Beam. The Cyborg Merc could unlike a Flight Mode on their Mech they let them, well fly obviously, but also had considerable speed and maneuverability. The alien could 'Commune with the Cosmos', allowing him to ask the GM a question that was almost meta. For my part I had to tell the truth, though I could give an incomplete answer. 

A Creguian Mech Pilot and their Mecha Suit

Hoshiyoru's 'hardsuit', a low-level powered armor that boosted her strength, speed, and toughness, could activate a sparkling force field of golden stars that gave her a small bonus on those things and a huge bonus on a Critical Success (as noted in more detail under Game Info above). 

Legacy:

I've love to run another game of Creguian, as I would an Anime/Manga themed game of almost any kind really. Going through this project I'm realizing how much I miss the days where these games were more common place for my groups and I. 

When I started searching for information and images on this game I thought, 'I'm not gonna find anything. I'll be lucky if the Japanese websites remember it.' I mean, let's be honest. before this post had you every heard of Creguian? This was a Play-by-Mail game, only in Japan, that had only a handful of physical RPG products (not including the tie-in novels), and it ended over 20 years ago. 

Then I found this...

The New Creguian is a reboot/sequel to the original game by new publisher Frontier Works. It seems to be set up as a Play-by-Web game, though further research seems to indicate a tabletop RPG is something they're considering. 

We...the Creguian...live on.

Look! Up in the sky! It's a heron! No, it's a Mitsubishi F-X! No! It's something very different for this challenge...a brand new character! Introducing FAR FUTURE GIRL!

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Barking Alien

RPGaDay Challenge 2022 - Day 28

 

OK first, I don't randomly tag people. I don't do it and don't usually like when it's done to me. Tip for future RPGaDay events, nix this. 

Second, who the heck has a D8 lying around? D&D players that's who. The rest of us would kindly you appreciate you choosing a die EVERYONE probably has, like a D6. 

So I've rolled 1d6+1 and got a 5, plus one makes 6. That's the number of favorite RPG cover art images I will post. See there, now everybody's happy. 

I am a visual person; far more easily and intensely inspired and excited by images than words. When the two meet and merge to compliment each other I am over the moon but it is rare and I am picky. It is my [likely unpopular] opinion that most RPGs across the board still have pretty weak artwork to this day. I am especially irked by Superhero and Anime based games that don't look like professional Comic Books or Anime. Don't make a game about an artform if you can't emulate that artform.

Some games have a 'house style' such as D&D and Pathfinder that might be very popular and technically well done but they just don't do it for me. It would be too easy to just post covers from IP based games since you know the art there will be good and I am biased by the fact that I like said franchise so it may not be fair to favor the art.

This brings us to...

Paranoia - Second Edition

Art by (Not sure - James Holloway? Doesn't look like Holloway)

Neighborhood Ghost Story Peekaboo aka Peekaboo Horror

First and Second Editions

  Art by Nagomi Ochiai

Skyviators of The Cloud Seas aka The Ocean of Clouds Skyviators

Artist Unknown

Traveller - Japanese Boxed Edition

Art by Naoyuki Katoh

Villains and Vigilantes - Second Edition

Art by Jeff Dee

Wares Blade - First Edition Boxed Set

Artist Unknown

Yes, a lot of these are Japanese produced TRPGs for the Japanese gaming market.

As noted in the beginning of the post, I left out games based on Intellectual Properties for this list. If I were to include them, a few would trump the ones shown here. Specifically:

 

OK, almost done. This year has been...well...kinda meh. I think maybe meh is being kind. Not bad but really boring. Not much to make you think or share your ideas. What's your favorite cover art? This one. How long do you game for? A few hours. Might as well have made them yes or no questions. 

Oh well, been kind of a crappy month for me overall so looking forward to it ending on all counts. 

Later days,

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Barking Alien

RPGaDay Challenge 2022 - Day 11

That is a tough one.

Outside of games based on Intellectual Properties and popular franchises, I usually shy away from 'game settings'. I tend to find the settings RPG companies come up with less interesting than coming up with my own. There are some great ones, don't get me wrong, but they're never going to be as good as a campaign world I can specifically customize to the interests and preferences of myself and my players.

I suppose that if pressed to choose one and leaving out IP related settings, I'd have to go with classic Traveller. It has space travel, alien species, advanced technology, and all the Science Fiction-y things that I love so much. I also like that it's a blending of all the classic SF literature that I appreciated so much in Junior High and High School - Isaac Asimov,, Larry Niven, Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert, and many other favorites.

Honestly, including pop culture franchise worlds would be difficult these days as the ones I previously adored have gotten pretty mudded over the past 5-10 years. Too bad there isn't an official The Orville TRPG. If there was, I'd go with that. 

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Kore Wa Jiyū Shōnin Beowulf

Continuing my deep dive into Japanese Tabletop RPGs and the American RPGs that the Japanese love to play, I am moving on to a title near and dear to my heart. Thankfully, its a title that Japan's gaming enthusiasts seem particularly fond of as well. 

I'm talking about...

Games Design Workshop worked with Japanese entertainment company Hobby Japan to translate the Traveller game in 1984. Hitoshi Yasuda, founder of Group SNE, was the lead translator on the product.

The Japanese editions were formatted differently from their American counterparts. The original little black books contained in a boxed set proved popular, so many of the following products were also in the format of boxed sets instead of individual books. The 'Black + Colored Stripe' style of the LBBs was replaced with artwork by noted Science Fiction artist Naoyuki Katoh, well established in Japan as the painter and illustrator of many American Sci-Fi classics that had been translated into Japanese such as Dune, Starship Troopers, The Stars My Destination, and more.

Interestingly, as Hobby Japan preferred to group certain Traveller RPG books together to sell in boxed set, including adventures and additional material, art, and minor alterations were added to make these products work better together. The Japanese edition of classic Traveller is therefore not an exact, word-for-word translation but one that has been purposely embellished for better internal synergy. 

Traveller Referees Accessories

A Japanese Traveller Supplement

with no exact US counterpart.

Furthermore, Hobby Japan was given access to many of the third party products created for use with Traveller by FASA, Judge's Guild, and Digest Group Publications. Not surprisingly, this open attitude on the part of the original creator, Marc Miller, spurred on the Japanese writers to expand the game even further. 

One of my favorite Japanese Traveller products:

The Traveller Robot Manual

combines Book 8: Robots with 101 Robots 

While later editions and variations of the Traveller game that came out in America would also be translated for the Japanese market - namely MegaTraveller and Traveller: The New Era - a very dedicated fanbase of Japanese players continued to play the classic game more or less as it had always been. 

In 2004, Raimei, Inc., an Information Technology and Services company, worked with Far Future Enterprises to publish a 20th Anniversary Edition of the original Japanese Traveller box set. That same year quarterly Japanese gaming magazine RPGamer (Spring 2004, Vol. 5) dedicated an entire issue to Traveller, adding material to the board game Mayday as well as including a Traveller Replay Manga. 

Around that same time, the Japanese TRPG magazine Role & Roll had published a sample Traveller adventure with the numbers all written in English and in the same UPP and UWP order as American products are. The adventure, featuring the PCs' vessel forced to land and do repairs on a planet with huge ant-like creatures, is one I've used regardless of not being about to read the scenario in full (I supplemented a lot of the details with my own ideas.). 

According to my sources, while the GURPS and Mongoose versions of Traveller have made it to the shores of the Japanese islands, the original version is still very popular throughout Japan.

To my knowledge Raimei, Inc. is no longer in business, possibly absorbed into another larger company. I am not entirely sure who in Japan has the rights to original Traveller at present. If anyone out there has any information on the current status of classic Traveller in Japan, please feel free to share it in the comments below. 

For some additional insight and inspiration I recommend checking out the Japanese language Traveller fan website of Kamu Uruhito. This site has been invaluable to me over the years as not only a source of Traveller art and ideas but links to other Japanese Traveller sites. 

I realize that this post talks a lot about Traveller the game and its history in Japan but hardly anything about what Japanese fans do with it. That is to say, how 'Japanese Science Fiction' applies to the Traveller RPG and vice versa. I may have to make that a follow up post as the specifics are both simpler and more intricate than can be easily summed up here.

That is all the time I have right now my friends. I need to make the Jump to Regina. Clear Skies everybody!

Up next, Superheroes...and Superheroes...and Superheroes...

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PS: Since you're all friends of mine, I'll let you in on a little secret - dig around and you'll find that the Traveller site isn't Uruhito's main page (It isn't even his FINAL FORM!) but one of several dedicated to RPGs, models, Star Trek, and a host of other stuff. Have fun!

Finally, some sad news in the world of Anime and Manga. Kentaro Miura, the popular Manga writer and artist known for the series Berserk, passed away on May 6th due to acute aortic dissection. He was 54. I fan of his work myself, my condolences and best wishes go out to his family, friends, and Berserk fans worldwide.

Rest in Peace. 

31 Days / 31 Characters - EMIL FUJIKAWA

One of my best, longest, and most influential games in recent memory was my Traveller campaign, Operation: PALADIN.

It was also, on occasion, something of a nightmare. Fear of being injured, discovered, or any number of other things kept some PCs from being bold when it was needed. This frustrated other PCs who would respond by acting independently in an especially bold fashion that was counter to the rest of the team. You can read more about the trials, tribulations, as well as the good times by checking out the Operation: PALADIN tag. I believe there are some general Traveller posts that may discuss this campaign as well. 

While I've talked about this campaign and some of its character in detail in the past, one character who hasn't received enough attention is my friend Ray's PC, Dr. Emil Fujikawa. 

Character: Doctor Emil Fujikawa

Player: Ray Harris

System: Traveller - Classic version w/ modification from MegaTraveller and houserules.

 

Campaign: Operation: PALADIN

Gamemaster: Adam Dickstein 

Circa: 2013-2015

Origins: The following tale of Emil Fujikawa's creation comes directly from Ray, the player. Take it away Ray: 

"When I started gaming with Adam, I had considered myself a veteran RPG player. My experience gaming was almost exclusively Dungeons & Dragons 3.5, Pathfinder, and homebrews (which used D&D as a baseline to recreate some anime or video game). Oh how wrong I was. Although I claimed to be an experienced gamer, I hadn't played in a game that shared in nearly any of the characteristics that Operation: Paladin would in its roughly three year run.

 

Dr. Fujikawa was my first character for a sci-fi campaign. Despite my fascination with Sci-Fi movies and TV that went back to Stargate and ST:TNG, I had no idea what to expect from the Traveller RPG. What I did understand was that intelligence and caution with just a little bit of daring usually saved the day. So that was what I tried to build into my character.

I decided that I wanted to be a scientist with a focus in Robotics but as I stepped through the character creation system with Adam, I lost sight of my desire and finished three terms of Scientist with only 1 point in Robotics. (At this point, I would like to highlight just how unfamiliar I was with sci-fi games, because I was creating a robotics expert with only the basic understanding of computers that is granted to a character by the fact that I was counting Earth as my homeworld). I started a second career as a Scout in order to round out my squishy Scientist a bit, only to find myself dead. I had failed the Survival Roll of my first term as a Scout and was feeling disheartened as I was starting to like the collection of skills and stats that would become Dr. Fujikawa. Adam too sensed the potential in my nascent character and offered to make it so that that my Scientist/Scout didn't die, but rather (homebrewed chart roll) was captured (homebrew chart roll) on an alien planet by the (homebrewed chart roll) aggressive and violent Ithklur.

This fateful encounter wound up doing two things for this collection of skills and stats to make it into a character. Firstly, I picked a skill that I would get to enhance because I was using it exhaustively during my capture. This would be my Robotics. I stayed alive during my captivity because I was performing forced labor, repairing the robots that my captors used. Secondly, it established that I was on the frontier, someplace where I might be captured by a hostile alien species. That got me thinking, not about how I would get out of this mess, but about how I got into this mess.

Adam was still in the middle of explaining how I was captured and who my captors were, but I was barely listening. My mind was thinking about how a respected Roboticist from Earth would find his way to the space boonies so that he could get captured, be listed as dead, and eventually get freed and reclaim his second lease on life on some backwater space station in Spica Sector. (This is why one of my favorite t-shirts reads, in the classic Traveller font, “You haven't lived until you've died... during character creation.”) Instead of listening to Adam's description of who the Ithklur were and why they might want to hold me captive, I was coming up with a reason for my character to be on the run from very dangerous people.

Before the day was out, I was talking to Adam about my ideas of how Dr. Fujikawa was unintentionally involved in a conspiracy to assassinate the Emperor and replace him with a robotic double. Adam explained how difficult that would be because of the state of robots in Traveller. Basically, robots in Traveller were more R2-D2 than Data and even a C-3PO, without the gold paint, would be a high end model. So I set out to explain in my backstory how my character would be involved in the creation of a fairly rare and possibly illegal model of robot called a pseudo-biological. A model of robot that, thanks to a duplicate 'lab ship' benefit roll, I would start the game in possession of. A couple of weeks later, we started the first session and a couple of weeks after that I gave Adam my full backstory."

Backstory: The full backstory as written and created by Ray with minor adjustments by me to fit it into the setting and story of the campaign:

Dr. Fujikawa's story starts while he was attending Neo Tokyo University getting his doctorate. 

He becomes smitten with a pretty lady, Anna Maria Romanov, who was able to wreck his thesis by talking his robot into a logical failure, multiple times. Eventually they hit it off and she helped him finish his thesis and graduate. It turns out her parents worked at a big time robotics corporation and hired him to work on various projects that all pertained to making a robot seem more like a human.

Eventually, he decides to ask Anna to marry him and she says yes. Unfortunately, they don't have the time to actually get married yet as he gets this big assignment to make a pseudo-biological robot. Luckily, Anna's degree was in art design so they get to work together as she is able to design and create the prototype robot body, while he is putting all of his work from the last 10 years together to create the robot's brain. They finish the robot prototype just before this big tech conference and finally get married. Anna reveals that the robot, "Maria", is physically a duplicate of her, because she has been keeping its design a secret from him as a sort of wedding present.

Then as they are due to leave for their honeymoon space cruise the next day, Anna pulls him aside and plays a recording for him. The recording reveals that Anna was a spy who was assigned by 'her parents' to get Dr. Fujikawa to ultimately build a robot that could pass as human that would be used in a plot to gain control of the highest ranks of government. She was supposed to turn him so that he would join the project willingly but he inadvertently turned her so that she wound up working against the plot. Anna was taking the robot's place and would stall for as long as she could so that he could get away.

The Anna that was with him was actually Maria and he had the only copy of the code and designs to build a new pseudo-biological. They were to get on a lab ship that was newly purchased and find a contact in SolSec (Solomani Security - Space CIA) who would protect them. The contact gets him into the Scout service so that he can disappear somewhere along the frontier, only he actually does disappear when he gets captured by the Ithklur of the Hive Federation. When he is later rescued by the Scouts, he has to recover what is left of his life, while wandering the passages of Bussard Reach space station, at least until he answers a post for a ship to travel to someplace called the Shallows.

Overview: "Throughout the next three years of play there would be many moments that stood out to me as touchstone moments in Dr. Fujikawa's life. From witnessing the death(?) of an NPC that gave him an inkling of understanding into why people had religion, to defeating an Aslan in mock combat by way of an exploding holo-drone, to participating in the arrest of the villain's most helpful minion, a fellow PC."

The Highlights:

"However, the moment that stands out the most to me is when I worked with another PC to infiltrate a Military Weapons Manufacturer and steal the evidence that we would need to arrest the main villain of the story. We had learned that one of the villain's primary lieutenants was an executive at this Government contracted weapons manufacturer. I had tried to hack into their systems but apparently having sensitive information about troop deployments meant that they had good firewalls, so I went to scout the building out and see if I could access an on-site terminal.

I went in claiming to be the parent of a new hire but bailed as soon as I saw the level of security at the front door. I was expecting a couple of overworked security guards tired of working the night shift. What I got was a couple of alert, physically fit guards that were part of a heavily-armed mercenary outfit which came out after the metal detector/x-ray scanner that was built into the front door alerted them that the woman who was pretending to be my wife wasn't what she said she was (that being a Human being). So, we got out of there as fast as we could, meeting back up with the rest of the team and I told them that the mission was a bust.

Having seen first hand how well defended the installation was, I was sure that there was no way we could get in without heavy losses. I argued passionately for hours with the others that getting the info from this location wouldn't be worth it, that we could find the same information stored elsewhere that would be less heavily fortified. I was out numbered. Everyone else insisted that it had to be here. This location was the only place that we could be certain was tied to one of the villain's lieutenants. If we turned back now it would throw out weeks of research and travel to determine the identity of this lieutenant and whoever else we could get to almost certainly wouldn't have the same kind of access to the villain's plans. So I relented. 

The other players changed my mind. I said that we would have to go immediately before the news of my attempted infiltration would bring reinforcements. Everyone scrambled to put a plan together to get me and one other player into the building. As desperate as we were to get this info, I didn't want to risk too many people, especially as most of the players were not combat inclined. That was how I wound up crawling through the sewers to reach a power junction terminal that granted me limited access to the building's security features so that one of my allies could infiltrate the building, access this corrupt executive's office and recover sensitive information from the computer and safe. After that I remember riding something down a sewer pipe that led out to a drainage vent so that we could jump over to our ship. The vessel was waiting for us and flew out of there with the planetary authorities hot on our tail.

This was the single most daring thing that I had done throughout the entire campaign and it held up the premise that I started the campaign with, that intelligence and caution with just a little bit of daring saved the day."

Legacy: A planned sequel to Operation: PALADIN never fully got underway and I haven't run a long term Traveller campaign since this one. The end result is Fujikawa  -who survived and had a solid epilogue in the original game- has not been seen since the Operation: PALADIN campaign ended.

In a twist I couldn't be happier about, Ray and my friend Will (who played the oft mentioned Belarus Hosta in Operation: PALADIN) are currently running a prequel campaign set some 15 years before ours. While Fujikawa doesn't appear, it details how the villain of Operation: PALADIN rose to his position of power and put his plans in place. 

Game Info: Dr. Emil Fujikawa

Species: Human – Solomani

Age: 34 years old.  Born July 25, 1061 IC/5579 AD

Height: 5'10”  Weight: 158 lbs  Appearance: Blue Eyes, Brown Hair

Homeworld: Earth

UPP:77AAC6

Armor Value: 7/0   Hits: 4/5

Scientist (Roboticist): 3 Terms / Scout 1 Term.

Special Assignment: every term

Skills:

Robotics 4, Robot Ops 2, Gravitics 2, Electronics 2, Computer 7, Sensor Ops 4, Mechanical 2, Navigation 2, Engineering 1, Computer AI 2, Laser Weapons 2, Vacc Suit 2, Stealth 1, Grav Vehicle 2, Pilot 2, Forward Observer 1, Instruction 2, Jack of All Trades 2, Liason 3, Demolitions (in training), Handgun (in training)

Special Items: “Maria”, an Android. “The Turing”, an Advanced Lab Ship.

Equipment:

Info Pad, Comm-Comp, Robotics Tools, Liquid Body Armor, Laser Carbine, Personal Drone, Maps of Spica Sector, Heads-Up Display, Wireless Download, Signal Jammer, Body Pistol, Knife, Coral Chunks, Sub-Basement External HD

Credits: 55,140

Next up we travel to that galaxy long ago and far, far away to meet a tough Mandalorian mercenary with a rather droll origin. This is the way of FLEETO WOFF! 

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Barking Alien

Pattern Recognition

I am currently at an RPG crossroads, having finished (for now) two online campaigns I was running and having another one I was in as a player sort of peter out. As I've not yet started any new games to replace the completed ones, I am faced with the draw of my 'Gaming Pattern' as mentioned in my previous post. 

This means I should be feeling the desire to run Star Trek and even getting some ideas for a campaign popping into my head. 

Well, it just so happens I am.

Of a kind. I'll explain...

I keep coming back to this idea of running a campaign based on Star Trek, or perhaps the TV series 'The Orville', using Star Trek Adventures with the premise of a ship and crew focused on Second Contact, as described in the new Star Trek animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks. 

Essentially the idea is that the PCs and their vessel are charged with the follow-up to the more glamorous job of First Contact; it's up to them to get an embassy or permanent research team set up, determine all the best places to eat, make sure all the documentation has the native species' name spelled correctly, and that sort of thing. 

In addition to the somewhat tongue-in-cheek atmosphere that the overall campaign would have, there will be an attempt to get to know a planet and its people better than we usually do in an episode of Space Adventure Science Fiction television. We might spend a little more time with 'mundane' things like studying the world's weather, creature migrations, or particulars of the native culture(s). 

To some extent this idea is one I've had for some time; seeking a way to treat a Starfleet (or Planetary Union Fleet) visit to an alien world more like one from the classic RPG Traveller (in fact I might get the chance to use ideas from Grand Census and The World Builder's Handbook). 

Two additional notes:

Adding more Science Fiction to the baseline of Star Trek style adventure feels like it would need a touch of levity to balance it out and prevent it from potentially becoming dry. This is one of the reasons I like developing the game with a 'dramady' approach. 

Also interesting to point out is the fact that I really miss running comedic games, something that my recent Red Dwarf / ALIEN RPG reminded me. That campaign went especially well and proved once again that combining serious Sci-Fi, quirky characters, and surreal, even absurd situations is an alchemy mixture that results in gaming gold. 

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Barking Alien

PS: A very Happy 54th Birthday / Anniversary to my beloved Star Trek, which first aired on September 8th, 1966. 

Happy Star Trek Day to One and All across the universe!

Live Long and Prosper!