Drive Shticks and Ship Design

2.5.2 Piloting Shticks

The following are the piloting related shticks. I have removed any that make your vehicle better since I do intend to make vehicle creation rules (albeit very fast and loose ones) since the ship is a key narrative space rather than the thing you grab the wheel of to get in the fight.

Counterslam

Opposing vehicles take +3 Chase Points from

Bumps for each shtick you have in this, up to 3 shticks.

Floor It!

+1 Handling when an opponent narrows the gap with you for each schtick you have in this. Up to 3 shticks/

Hold on Tight

+2 to Chase Points dealt an enemy vehicle when you close or narrow the gap with it; add another +1 for each   extra shtick, up to 3 shticks.

Riding the Edge

For a 1 point Fortune spend you can decrease the shot cost of you ship actions (both drive and guns) reduces by 1 for the remainder of the sequence. Once done the sequence is over the stress does 5 chase points to the ship.

Neve Tell Me The Odds

Pay 1 Fortune to ignore any negative modifiers to Piloting from obstacles and conditions until end of fight.

Oh No You Don't

As an interrupt after your vehicle takes Chase Points spend 1 Fortune and 1 shot to reduce your vehicle’s total Chase Points by 5.

Ram Speed

For each Shtick in Ram speed add +1 Crunch when you ram or sideswipe a vehicle, or +2 to your Damage Value when you hit a pedestrian. You can take this up to 3 times.

Tools of the Trade

After you make a successful Martial Arts attack with vehicle tool as an improvised blunt weapon, spend 1 Fortune as an interrupt to give it a Damage Value of 15 until next sequence.

2.5.3 Ship Design & Shticks

I can, and likely will, build out a whole bunch of vehicle stats, but let me lay out a really simple mechanism for building vehicles as if they were characters; the focus here is on Scout ship to Free Trader sized vehicles that the PCs might actually fly

In all cases they have Acceleration, Handling, and Frame of 5, Classic of 0. They also have 5 points to split between those, with no more than 4 in any stat.

Is this looks like character creation, give yourself a cookie.

Shticks come next: There are 12 ‘spaces; on a Free Trader sized ship once you take out controls, drive and crew cabins (it has space for 3-6 depending on how you partition out the rooms). Each player who has a character on the crew is able to pick a shtick from the list below (though they don’t have to – we let each player pick so everyone has a stake in the shared space of the ship). They all have a space cost on the ship, which reduces the money the ship can make on each trip. And if we were going to go nuts on Resources as a real thing we’d care a lot about, but we don’t. So basically any cargo is going to have a 1 Resources #, which is the number of Spaces you need free for the Jump 1 trip to score 1 Resources. The best cargoes have a low 1 Resources #, while the most common ones have a high number. Illegal ones generally have much lower 1 Resources #s for all the obvious reasons.

Ablative Armor (1 space each)

The ship has armor on it that wears down under attacks. Still, it gives 10 extra life points for each time you take this, up to 20 more. This costs Resources 1 to replace

Classic Model (1 space each)

You’re driving an out of date ship where everything is bigger and clunkier and you lose space because of that but it’s also a classic model, the sort that keeps on working forever. Each shtick you have in this up to 3 gives the ship a bank of Fortune Points to spend on any ship related action – either in chase scenes or to reinforce the bonus of other Shticks.

How is this still flying? (1 space)

The ship is a quirky mess of jury rigs and work-arounds that take up space and confound the unwary. This doesn’t provide you any immediate benefit, but anyone other than the normal crew tries to pilot, repair, sabotage or modify her it is at such a penalty that the original crew will get the ship back when it breaks down and strands the thieves some-where awkward, or be able to escape confinement within in and retake the ship from the pirates.

Hyperspectral Sensors (1 space)

This is a top of the line sensor array that gives a +2 on any rolls made to sense or detect things around the ship. This is usually an Info/Science roll but it could be something else. In any event, this is better than normal.

Jump 2 (3 spaces)

For a sizable investment in space you can have a Jump 2 drive rather than a Jump 1 drive. This opens up several new routes, but the loss of space is prohibitive. A Jump 3 drive costs 10 spaces (7 more than a Jump 2) and is all but out of the range of this sort of ship, though tight quartered scout ships might have one.

Maneuvering Rockets (1 space each)

These give a +1 Handling; Handling can’t be higher than 9, but you can take this multiple times.

Navi-Computer (1 space)

You have a superior navigation system that gives you a +2 bonus on Navigation rolls (or the skill at 8 if no one on board has it). And yes, the navi-computer takes up as much space as a missile bay or tons of grain shipment. It’s Traveller. You’re lucky the damn thing doesn’t have a reel to reel memory tape.

Reinforced Spaceframe (1 space each)

These give a +1 Frame; Frame can’t be higher than 9, but you can take this multiple times.

Repair/Fabrication Space (1 space)

There is a repair shop, with a nice rack of tools and the tools needed to create many key ship components. Having this on the ship gives a +2 on an Repair tests to fix the ship and a +1 on any other Repair tests.

Secret Compartments (X Spaces)

You can designate a certain number of spaces as beign Secret Compartments. These are hidden and hard to access and can’t be used for other cargoes but it does give you cargo space with a Deception 13 to avoid being spotted by the authorities. No more than 1/3^rd of your space (round up) be Secret Compartments.

Science Lab (1 space)

This is a well-stocked science and medical lab on the ship. This lets you add a +1 to any Info: Science or Medicine rolls on the ship and gives an increased survival chance for Low Passage guests if you bother to track their status.(It’s now a Medicine 3 roll rather than Medicine 7)

Ship Gun (2 spaces internal, 1 external)

This is a ship to ship weapon that does 15 damage on a hit; that can be Chase Points to another ship (resist with Frame) or Wound Points to a human (resist with Body). What’s that? It makes no sense for a guns that ear through ship armor to do that little damage to humans? Hahahahaha! Have you never seen an action movie? The guns can be obvious or concealed except when firing at no cost as either choice brings advantages and disadvantages. If you have more than one gun you can have more than one gunner shooting on the ships actions. An external gun requires someone outside in a vacc suit to aim and fire.

Ship Missiles (1 space)

Missiles do a damage of 16 against human sized targets or 20 against vehicles (and take out Fighters on a roll of 4+) but have a capacity of 4 and a reload of 10 shots. Damage from these weapons is resisted with the ship’s Frame. (Note – don’t get hit by missiles!) Unlike Ships Guns you can’t have someone outside firing them to save space.

Superior Drive (1 space each)

These give a +1 Acceleration; Acceleration can’t be higher than 9, but you can take this multiple times.

Well Stocked Bar (1 Space)

The ships has a better than normal stocked galley and bar. In addition to any morale improvements this gives you it lets you sell your accommodations as Middle Passage with a straight face (Low Passage is freezing the passengers, or cramming them in like sardines). If you hire additional entertainers (2 entertainers per passenger) you can even stretch things with a good sales roll as High Passage for a one jump trip; each High Passenger takes at least 3 spaces.

Example: IMTU Chimera

Acceleration 6

Handling 7

Frame 6

5 players: Science Lab; Extensive rack of repair tools, Socked Galley & Bar; Hidden Gunnery Unit; Secret Compartments 

IMTU Drive Shticks and Vehicle Combat 1

2.5 Drive Shticks

The players were asking after these so I feel I have to work in some elements of high speed chases and ship to ship combat for this game. I don’t know how common these were in CT (though speaking with an old CT player his group apparently had a lot of them) and the ‘everyone on the same ship’ doesn’t lend itself to the Fast and Furious style chase fights of Feng Shui so will be modifying some elements of the Star Trek RPG.

2.5.1 Ship Combat Essentials

My main goals are keeping things exciting and giving everyone something to do. My secondary goal is to have the ship combat mirror regular combat as much as possible in its mechanics. These are mostly compatible.

Scaling

In a regular fight the scales are Mook, Named, Mech and there are slightly different rules for each level of opponent to ease bookkeeping. Same thing her, where the scales are Fighter, Trader and Capital ships.

Fighter ships are analogous to Mooks: they do not have health points and are either sill fighting or out of the fight. They can be dangerous if they are really skilled or appearing in masses but since they aren’t the scale that PCs normally operate at we’re glossing them over. They have a single score for attacking, dodging & maneuvering.

Free Traders serve the same function as Named PCs, and they cover any vessel of similar size, which also means some combat ships. They have health tracks and rely on different skills for what they’re doing, in part so multiple PCs can contribute dice rolling for the action.

Capital Ships are the really big ships, either the large navy vessels or the big merchant ships. They have large amount of armor that let them soak up an enormous amount of damage and can be festooned with weapons. They fight by slugging it out because they’re too big to dodge.

This is a very superficial explanation of the FS2 drive rules. Go purchase those for the real high octane thing.

Basic Rules

As I intimated before the system is really abstract. Chase Points are the equivalent of Health, and if your enemies get to many of them before you do you get to decide what happens to them: do you escape them, are they blown to smithereens, do they have to stand down and be boarded? This should make sense in terms of your tactics for the fight but you ultimately get to decide. Similarly if you get too many Chase Points first they get to decide what happens to you. Fighters, as Mook equivalents, don’t have Chase Points and instead are taken out if your maneuver or attack has an outcome of more than 5.

Vehicle Stats

Vehicles have 4 stats that take the place of a character’s stats.

Acceleration

Use this in place of Reflexes for Initiative.

Handling

This takes the place of Body for Maneuvers – as the acting party it’s your Handling +2; defenders just use Handling.

Frame

Takes the place of Body for ramming and sideswiping. It’s Frame +2 if you’re hitting, Frame by itself to shrug off hits.

Classic

This is a special Fortune point pool that applies only to the most enduring ship models. The Beowulf class free trader, for example, has a Classic of 2, because it is one of the longest serving models out there. These ships will usually have lower vehicle stats, being nothing special, but will run forever and come through in a crunch.

Action Skills

Initiative is determined by the vehicles Acceleration score. This determines when the ship can go – not necessarily the people in the ship, who may be able to do other things.

Every 3 shots the ship can take action as if it were a player character (or take a snap shot to go faster for a penalty, or g more slowly for a bonus). Those are going to be rolls against Piloting, Guns or both depending on the described action. For simplicity’s sake these two are linked, so the pilot taking a lot of active dodges will deny the gunner clear shots and delay their actions. The pilot and gunner (who may be the same person) have to make the rolls to do these things.

Bridge Skills

Hrm, this gets a little confusing since they are not necessarily skills used on the bridge, but…. In any event all of the usual rules for bridge skills supporting action skills apply – a 3 shot action and a die roll against the target’s Mind score to, if successful, give one ally a +2 on their next roll. This has several uses in space combat

Command can coordinate two other PCs actions, so giving either the gunner or the pilot a +2 on their next roll. Often a complex maneuver that needs split second timing, the PCs providing the bonus can feel free to describe whatever insane thing she wants the others to accomplish.

Info: Science makes use of the ships sensors and comn arrays to detect opponents (this can always be used to replace Mind for these perception checks), but also to predict opponents moves based on their drive signatures, locate weak spots on their ship, jam their sensor arrays to make them easier to dodge or pilot and so on.

Repair can be used to fix the ship (restoring health points lost) but as with the Medicine skill it can only be used once a fight with a shot cost of 6, so there are tactical decisions as to when to use it. Until that point PCs can use the Repair skill to super charge or modify the engines or other systems for a Drive bonus or fiddle with the targeting or missile loads for a guns bonus, or come up with some other tech idea.

Through the Comms system any PC can try to engage in social combat (deception & intimidation, possibly command and trader) to defuse the fight or throw off the opposition. Usually in the heat of a gunfight this is limited to the usual +2, so lets not get the theory that your Intimidation 13 will end all fights before they start forever.

Other skills can be used as the players and GM deem fit the scene, but the rules are usually the same. 

IMTU Memetic Shticks

2.4 Memetic Shticks

Here’s another place where we are seriously diverging from Classic Traveller. The psi-powers as writ just didn’t fit the world we were using (I really didn’t like the ‘magic’ feel to them when everything else, saving the Jump drive, was fairly hard SF). Memetics and Biomods fill that gap, as both are newer twists on super-human powers in SF stories.

Our Memetics are a combination of hypnosis, meme theory carried to an extreme and a galactic human linguistics code touched on in John M. Ford’s Princes of the Air and turned up to 11 in Neil Stevenson’s Snow Crash (and other places). Ultimately the strongest progenitor of the memetic powers are the Bene Gesseret from Dune, since that has strong antecedents in the imperial SF that informs CT.  People with the proper training are able to influence or even control humans, implant suggestions, erase memories and similar feats of mental prowess.

Memetic training is not incredibly rare. Characters with a 13 or higher in any socially based Bridge skill can claim a memetic origin for the extreme skill rather than a bio mod.

Like Bio-Mods, Memetic shticks require Meme point spends for more powerful uses. There is no Memetics action skill so trying to use it in combat has the standard bridge skill in combat rules unless a Meme Spend option says otherwise.

2.4.1Memetic List

Command Presence

You are naturally able to command attention and respect so your orders carry more immediate force. This is intended as a combat use ability and therefore requires a Meme spend.

Meme Spend: you can temporarily end any conflict with a barked command and a brandished firearm. Everyone stops what they’re doing and has to talk. If your opponents restart hostilities after talking, you get a pre-initiative Outcome 16 guns check on the target of your choice (which need not be an opponent).

Memetic Download

You have a sizable amount of information loaded into your mind over which you do not necessarily have control. This is an advantage so it’s not going to possess or control you. You and the GM can define the broad contents of the down load and you will gain one immediate benefit from it (such as speaking a language, or knowing how to use an obscure device) but that’s the extent of the immediate advantage.

Meme Spend: With a 1 point Meme spend you can consciously access the memetic download. This just gives you key pieces of information in the area covered by the download, either provided by the GM or your suggestion.

Memetic Transfer

You are able to, with a short whispered conversation transfer vast amounts of data into another sentient being that understands your language. If used in a casual way the utterance of a single syllable into someone’s ear will transfer the immediate plan of action and their part in it, or similar amounts and complexities of information.

Meme Spend: with a 1 point spend you can make someone the recipient of a Memetic Download shticks to unload an enormous amount of information – your entire life, essentially - assuming they have the skills to unpack it, or temporarily give someone a skill you have at your skill level at the outcome of your Memetics tests or your skill level, whichever is lower. While the memetic download is permanent the skill transfer lasts a single scene.

Registering

This is the act of asking someone a series of innocuous direct questions in order to learn how to tailor your commands to them later. Make a Memetics test against your targets Mind stat. If successful you can add that outcome to any social rolls against the target for the remainder of the scene. The target only registers what you’re doing on a critical failure or if they already know this ability exists and you have it, in which case they may deduce it normally.

Meme Spend: with a one point spend you are able to use the Voice shtick on your target, assuming you have it. Yes, you have to spend a meme point to even activate the other ability.

Voice

The ability to control others merely by work choices, body language and the shadings of tone in the high speech. This lets you use your Voice skill to compel obedience in others. At the baseline level this lets you influence thoughts and motivations, even more than you can with Registering. Any successful Mind check and the target will rationalize a way to follow your instructions for the scene, unless you order them to do something suicidal. PCs are able to burn Fortune points to break out of this, and make a Mind check every few minutes to likewise resist control, as can named opponents; Mooks are putty in your hands.

Meme Spend: with a 1 point meme spend (over and above the one needed to Register someone enough to use this shtick at all) you can take physical control over the target with a Voice roll against their Mind. Mooks do whatever you tell them for the remainder of the scene. Named characters will be under your control for the remainder of the sequence in a fight, or for a few minutes otherwise – unless they spend a fortune point to break free.

Human Lie Detector

Your senses are attuned to various nuances in speech, tone, stance, facial expression and so on that make you impossible to lie to. You will always detect straight up lies and have a +3 on Investigation rolls to see through more complex Deceits.

Meme Spend: with 1 point you can immediately allocate blame for a complex event based on body language, speech patterns, etc. You must be able to interview the people involved, either in a group or individually.

Linguistic Origins

Every world has a slightly different way of speaking, looking and acting that someone trained in memetics can learn to read and identify. With a Memetics test against their Mind (or Deceit if they’re actively trying to fool you) you can tell someone’s social rank, area of origin and schooling.

Meme Spend: With a one point spend you can perform Sherlock Holmes level background deduction on all life circumstances down to individual background events. The GM will either provide you something prepared or you can throw in your own plot elements.

Meme Space

You have been trained to enter a hypnotic state and let the superflow of the memetic universe wash over you. In practical terms this means you can make a Memetics roll to have the GM remind you of anything that had occurred in play so far and indicate what other plot elements it connects to without telling you exactly how.

Meme Spend: with a 1 point spend you can either ask the GM how any plot element links exactly to other things that have already happened or get an oblique reference to how it will tie to things happening in the future. All the standard caveats about precognition in RPGs apply.

Memetic Clairsentience

With any viewing of a conversation – be it a grainy video footage or peering at the people through a crowded room – you can observe every facet of the conversation, from topics to specific quotes to body language.

Meme Spend: with a one point spend you slip into a hypnotic state and are able to hear any conversation that is currently happening near you (say, on the same space station) or in the immediate past (last week) as long as you know who all the participants are. Or were.

Memetic Manipulation

This is the ability to set up long term memetic trends to influence a culture. This has few practical applications in the realm of game play, but any player with the Memetics skill can permanently spend one Meme point (the spent point still counts against the cost of buying more) to initiate such a change in a system-wide environment over the course of several months. Exactly what this is and entails is left to the player and the GM to determine.

IMTU Lifepath 3

1.7.8 Historical Events & Orphan Dice

If the player has dice that are outside sets they pick off of following list to determine which key background events they were at. Each carries certain advantages

1x1a: The Dinner Party of Infamy (Doc, Gears, Jack)

Characters who were here must have had some special cachet or notable characteristic. They can choose to take Status 10 if they don’t already have that or raise any Archetype Bridge skill from 11 to 12.

1x1 b: Empire takes sector capital:

Being here means you fought bravely but briefly in the battle and then geared up for the fight; Increase any Archetype Action skill from 11 to 12 or take Info (Republic) at 10

1x2 a: Misaimed Attack (Jack)

You might not have seen a lot of combat in your career, which may be why you were at so badly bungled an attack on the imperial side or so caught by surprise on the Republic side. You learned from this mistake and can increase Guns or Drive skill to 11.

1x2 b Battle of Baltimore:

This brutal long siege is what broke the back of the Imperial desire to press on. Having been there you can raise Martial Arts, Repair or Survival to 11.

1x3a: Solar Flare and Flagship Evacuation

You were part of the battle and the relief effort that combined turned the tide of the war, and forced you to use skills you don’t normally use. Pick any one Bridge skill in your Archetype and raise it to an 11, but you must justify how it was used..

1x3b Prion Plague (Skipper, Doc)

You were part of the science team that either accidentally unleashed or tried to contain the plague or the crew on one of the ships involved in the evacuation to he Reef. Pick any one Bridge skill in your Archetype and raise it to an 11, but you must justify how it was used.

1x4a: Vargr Treaty Signed

You were present at the Vargr treaty negotiations, at least at the end of them, which gives you either Status 9 or Info (Vargr) 10; In either event you can speak Vargr.

1x4b: Post War Relief Efforts

You helped negotiate and organize the post war relief efforts and re-opened diplomatic ties with the Empire. This gives you either Status 9 or Info (Imperial Trading Families) 10, which is a good way to open plot threads….

1x5a: Forge Battle:

You were present when something really weird happened, and drove you to learn more about it. Add Info (Science) or Info (Precursor) at 10.

1x5b: Memetic Event (Skipper)

Something inhuman was downloaded into your brain. Add the Shtick Memetic Dowload, but you cannot start play with Memetic points to access the higher levels of the ability.

IMTU Lifepath 2

This is the middle bit of the Lifepath system, see the last post for more details

1.7.4 Promotions

The longer you’re in the service the more opportunities you’ll have to get promoted to an officer status, with higher pay, more benefits and better training (along with a ton more responsibility). Not everyone gets promoted in their careers, so if you don’t have any sets here you mustered out as a well-regarded Warrant officer, sergeant or petty officer. Alternately if you have a status score higher than 9 you can assume some sort of promoted rank but don’t get any of the advantages listed below for having the sets.

Mechanically, sets here increase your characters Status more than anything else, but there are a wide array of other advantages. The Scout Services does not have ranks, so convert any 4s to 5s or 6s of your choice. If you’re a Specialist use whatever service you’re tied to.

2x4: Officer

You are officially an Officer – albeit at the equivalent of a naval Lieutenant JG or an Army Lieutenant. Your Status increases to a 9 (if it’s already 9, make it 10) and you gain the shtick Decorated Officer, which provides you social advantages anywhere the GM thinks that would be relevant or, with a Fortune Point spend, automatically have your officer status be advantageous to the situation.

3x4: Second Promotion

You’ve received a second promotion, making you a full Lieutenant in the Navy or Marines, a Captain in the Army or something similar. Your Status increases to 10 (if it’s already 10 make it 11), you gain the shtick listed above any Archetype skill to a 10. (If you’re a Merchant Captain, add any Bridge skill at a 10.)

4x4: Third Promotion

A third round of promotions and you’re a Commander in the Navy or Marines, a Major in the Army or something similar. Your status increases to 11 (if it’s already 11 make it 12) and you gain the other advantages above.

5x4: Fourth Promotion

At this point you’re Captain in the Navy or Marines or a Colonel in the Army or the equivalent. Your status increases to 12 (if it’s already 12 make it 13) and upgrade to Decorated Officer 2, which in addition to the other effects lets you make a Fortune Point spend to gain Resources 1 in play once per game. (This can’t be activated during character creation when Resource Points are 50 times for valuable, but clever thinking)

1.7.5 Non-Career Skills

Of course not everything you did during your career tied directly in to your work in the service. You also picked up a few other things along the way. Scouts tend to have a lot of sets in this area given their inability to get promotions.

Mechanically these sets let you fill out skills that aren’t in your Archetype. This is really useful for the Navy Officer and other archetypes that only have 8 skills, less useful for the Doctor, who has 12.

2x5: Jack of All Trades

You’re a broadly skilled individual who has picked up a little of this and a little of that. You gain the shtick Jack of All Trades which lets you make a 1 point Fortune spend to gain any skill you don’t have at a 9 for the scene.

3x5: Led an interesting life

You’ve read a lot, done a lot, and practiced a little of this and that. In addition to the Jack of All Trades shtick you gain one new Info skill at 10 and another skill you don’t already have at 9.

4x5: A little of this, a little of that

Much as before you’ve branched out a lot in your experiences. Take the skill you raised at 3x5 and increase it to 10, then add 2 more skills you don’t already have at 9.

5x5: Just enough to be dangerous

Now your ability to fake it is unsurpassed. You upgrade to Jack of All Trades 2, which means your Fortune spend gives you a 11 in any skill you don’t have at at least that score for the scene, but any critical failure will be truly horrific.

1.7.6 Mustering Out

When you finally leave the service they always give you something for your trouble. At the very least you ended up with enough to carry you through from mustering out to the start of play, but you may have received more. The mustering out benefits are generally stingy to promote the sort of behavior that creates player characters.

Mechanically this determines what major equipment you have with you at the start of play. See 2.3.3 for a little more on this but any dice in this category equate to real, long term benefits the character can draw on in play rather than smaller cash payments.

1x6: Armament

It is very common for veterans to leave their service with a ceremonial blade (Marines and Merchants), licensed firearm (Army), or a choice of the two (Scouts, Navy)

2x6: Resources 1

In addition to the ceremonial weapon some leave the service with a major piece of equipment; This set gives Resources 1, Pre game resources are detailed below

3x6: Resources 2

As above but you have 2 pts of Resources

4x6: Resources 3

As above but you have 3 pts of Resources

5x6: Resources 4

As above but you have 4 pts of Resources

1.7.7 Resource Options

Here are some immediate suggestions on places to spend those resource points

Traveller’s Aid Society (Resources 1)

Your mustering out involved a lifetime membership in the Traveller’s Air Society – this is a reciprocal organization of people who ply the spaceways that is surprisingly well funded. Gain the Shtick Traveller’s Aid Society for the ability to make a Fortune Spend to find some way to get TAS support; if you don’t have any Fortune points left you can still call on them for help by guaranteeing to accept a complicating TAS plot thread in this or next session.

Merchant Ship (Resources 1+)

Each point of Resources spent gives you 5 years of ownership in a 45 year lease on a free trader. You have to make payments to the bank for the mortgage and keep it fueled and in repair but it’s a special sort of freedom. Minimum crew is 3, easy rooms for 6

Scout Ship (resources 1 or 2)

The scout system will give mustering out members free use of their aging ships, but those ships can’t be sold or passed on – they still technically belong to the scout service. For Resources 1 it’s an old, nearly decrepit ship that requires a lot of maintenance, while for 2 Resources it’s nearly new and was moved out of service for some unspecified bribe.

Marine Quality Vacc Suit (Resources 1)

This is a top of the line vacc suit; it gives the wearer Armor 2, a weapons pod that gives +1 to unarmed damage due to extendable blades and firearms equal to a small pistol, self sealing to protect from gasses/vacuum, magnetics to sick to hulls and propulsion systems for slow zero g flight.

Army Mech Suit (resources 3)

This is a vacc suit (less advanced than the marine one) covered in an armored exoskeleton. It gives Armor 4, multiple different firearms options and jumpjets to manage both high atmosphere/in orbit drops and really long leaps once on planet. It’s a humanoid tank. Avoid fighting them.

High Passage (Resources 1)

This is a luxury 1 week trip for one (that can be on a Jump 3 ship for what it’s worth) with all the trimmings. This includes perfectly cooked exotic cuisines, designer drugs, copious amounts of alcohol, and all the best entertainment. The tickets are transferrable and most be accepted (as long as the offering cruise line is still in business, though you need not fly that particular line), so they are sometimes are used as currency on the border between the rim and the core. 

IMTU Lifepath 1

1.7 Lifepath

In his ground breaking work Reign, Greg Stolze came up with a brilliant random background simulator, where people would roll 11d10 and look for matches, each pair (trio, quartet, quintet) were compared to a chart where each number tied to a certain profession, so 2x1 and 4x6 meant you had some experience as a beggar (the 1s) and a lot more experience as a soldier (the 6s). It was up to you to decide what order those were in – were you a beggar who was press ganged into a life in the army or a career soldier who had fallen on hard times? – but each came with some skills or abilities. Any ‘orphan’ dice were used to determine life events that were sprinkled into that order, and those also carried skills or abilities. Each character ended up with the same number of points spent but a quick and easy way to get a framework for their character’s story.

IMTU couldn’t work quite the same way since so much of the character background is tied up in the template structure but I still wanted to put something in. I isolated 6 elements of character background from the CT rulebook:  

1)       Length of enlistment

2)       Combat & Survival

3)       Specalized Training

4)       Promotions

5)       Non-Service Skills

6)       Mustering Out

And since both CT and Feng Shui are d6 systems…well, I’m sure you can see where we’re going here. Orphan dice are applied to a table of key historical events for the setting: 10 or 15 things (2 or 3 columns of 5) that happened in the campaign setting that people might have been involved in (see 0.2.4 above – this would be different for a different campaign). There are no orphan dice for mustering out – any roll of a 6 means you got something of note.

Everyone rolled 6d6 and then had 3 ‘master dice’ that they could set to whatever number they wanted after the roll. This guaranteed at least some sets and gave the players a decent amount of control. While the descriptions for each set are the same across the board the bonus varies based on the Archetypes service. (Noted below)

1.7.1: Enlistment length (1s)

Default assumption is that everyone signed up at 18 and served at least one 6-year term. Each 1 you rolled (even if it’s an orphan; those are connected to the further back in time events) indicates another 6 years in your service. Once you have a set you’re 36 and have spent 18 years in the service. (Note that one particular biomod messes with your age, so triple these numbers if you have that one.)

Mechanically the 1s improve your ability in the core skills of your career – things rated 13, 12 or 11 in your archetype. You should apply these increases before making any decisions for the higher sets.

2x1: Mid-career professional (36)

At this mark you have served long enough in the service to have some real experience under your belt. Take your 13 rated skill and increase it to a 14. (Marine Commanders and Everyday Heroes can chose one 12 skill to raise to 13.)

3x1: Old Hand (40)

With another 4 years in the service you have some added breadth as well as depth. Increase your 13 skill to a 14 as above and increase any one 12 rated skill other than Status to a 13. (Army Grunts, Marine Security, Navy Legacies Scout Scientists and Doctors increase any one 11 rated skill other than Status to 12)

4x1: Professional (46)

At this point you’re at the high end of your career in the service, with everyone knowing you’re very broadly experienced. In addition to the advantages above you make take any one skill other than Status rated an 11 and increase it to 12 (Army Grunts, Marine Security, Navy Legacies Scout Scientists and Doctors increase the skill they would have boosted to 12 at 3x1 to 13 instead)

5x1 Forced Retirement (50)

Many of the services have a 32 year and out policy, given the size of the Imperium and the number of recruits pushing up. Once you’re 50 you’re expected to have been promoted out of the field, move to a teaching position or, in the case of player characters, gone on to another career. Rather than the paths detailed above you can either a) raise your 13 skill to a 15 or b) raise your 13 skill to a 14 and raise two 12 skills to 13s. (Marine Commanders and Everyday Heroes can chose one 12 skill to raise to 14. And a second 12 skill to raise to 13.)

1.7.2 Conflict and Survival

Life in any of the services comes with risk; sometimes this is action in hot military zones, sometimes it’s being stranded on alien worlds.  In either event the character walks away more experienced or they don’t walk away.

Mechanically the 2s give you shticks and increase action skills, repair or survival. If you have a set of 2s make sure you have a variety of high risk actions you can natter about at the drop of a shot glass.

2x2: some individual incidents

You have been involved in several individual incidents – pirate raids, tense battles, a lost in space event – that gave you some significant expertise. Add one shtick based on your service: Navy = Blade or Guns, Marines = Blade or Bio, Army  = Guns or Bio, Merchant = Blade or Drive, Scout = Blade, Gun or Drive, other = Blade or Drive

3x2: Time in a Crisis Zone

Rather than, individual incidents you have spent sizable chunks of your career in a part of space where such incidents are common, or a shorter time in a full-fledged hot zone. In addition to the Shtick above you are able to raise one of your Drive, Guns, Martial Arts, Repair or Survival to an 11; if you pick one of those skill not already in your archetype you add it at a 10.

4x2: Terms at the Front Line

You have spent entire terms of service at the most dangerous places in the Imperium. No one does that without being obscenely lucky, or needing replacement parts. In addition to the numbers above increase either the Fortune or Bio parts of your Meta stat by 1, no higher than 4.

5x2: Always on the edge

Your entire time in the service was in high risk areas, either by choice, necessity or accident. In addition to all of the above you may take the skill you increased in 3x2 and raise another point (to a 12 if it is a archetype skill or 11 if not).

1.7.3 Specialized Training

Inside every service there are skills that are necessary to have but aren’t core or critical. Many people are tagged to receive special above and beyond training in these skills to make sure the service has the people on hand that it needs.

Mechanically these sets increase skills in your archetype set at 11 or less, and ideally 9s and 10s.

2x3: Took a Class In It

You were picked out to get better at a single skill and have to take regular refresher classes. Increase any two Bridge skills (other than Status) already in your Archetype to an 11

3x3: Certification

You are fully licensed and certified in that specialized skill and can now practice it professionally when you leave the service; increase the one of the skills raised in 2x3 to 12.

4x3: Vacc Suit Training

In addition to the Certification you are also trained in how to use a Vacc suit to a high enough level that you take no penalties while in it. This includes zero G training and the ability to pilot a mech suit if one is available. This is such a valued ability that it ends up under a lot of certifications. If you already have this shtick from your archetype, select another one from your Archetype list.

5x3: Multiple Certs

Having attained mastery in your original certification you have moved on to another one; pick another Archetype Bridge skill to raise to 11. 

IMTU Templates 6: Specialists

1.6 Specialists

These are backgrounds outside the usual career structure. The characters probably did serve in one of the branches (Doctors get hired as outside specialists for the Navy to protect royalty, Everyday Heroes/Gamblers often have backgrounds with Scouts or Merchants, etc.) but they’re more defined by other attributes.

1.6.1 Big Bruiser

You may have come from any background but your defining characteristic is your size and strength, which are second to none. You can handle yourself well in a fight and would have been an asset to the Marines or the Army, served intimidating presence in the merchant or naval trades and would have helped in a variety of capacities in the poorly-resourced scouts.

Body=11, Mind 5, Reflexes 5, Meta 0

Divide 5 points amongst your stats other than Body, with no more than 4 in each stat

Skills

Drive 9; Gambling 10; Guns 8; Info (pick) 11; Info (Pick) 10; Intimidation 13; Martial Arts 12; Repair 11; Sabotage 9

You may swap your Repair skill for another skill you don’t already have, or trade it for a +2 increase in any skill other than Martial Arts or Intimidation.  You may swap your Sabotage skill for another skill you don’t already have, or trade it for a +1 increase in any skill other than Martial Arts or Intimidation.

Shticks

Shtick 1- Strong as Hell: adds 3 points to your Body (already added); your blows are hard enough to drop Mooks on a 4+ Outcome.

Shtick 2- Tough as boot leather: you can take 10 more wound points than normal before facing impairment or death.

Shtick 3: Pick one Blade or Drive Shtick

1.6.2.Everyday Hero/Gambler

You’re an ordinary Joe or Jane, but you’re the one every-thing happens to. In some cases you’re basically good hearted, helping out those who are less fortunate who constantly stumble in your path; others with your luck turn to a career as a professional gambler, traveling with the wealthy on high passages or having a side job on a merchant trader that consistently gives you rubes to fleece. In either case you’re loyal to your friends and help out those who are less fortunate, just to keep your luck going.

Body 5, Mind 5, Reflexes 5, Meta (fortune) 6

Divide 3 points amongst your stats

Skills

Deceit 12; Drive 10; Gambling 12; Guns 8; Info (Choose) 10; Info (Choose) 9; Intrusion 11; Martial Arts 11; Medicine 9; Survival 9; Trader 11

You may swap your Trader skill for another skill you don’t already have, or trade it for a +2 increase in any skill other than Deceit or Gambling.  You may swap your Medicine skill for another skill you don’t already have, or trade it for a +1 increase in any skill other than Deceit or Gambling.

A lot of your ‘skills’ benefit from your incredible luck, with stumbling onto what you need to survive on alien worlds or having guards take conveniently timed naps for intrusion.

Shtick

Shtick 1- Strange Luck: Add 3 points to your Meta, added in. You are a magnet for strange occurrences, but you also always use your full Meta for fortune rolls, even if you’re already spent some points.

Shtick 2- Improvised Weapon: you gain a +1 AV on any improvised weapon – cooking implements, barstools, irreplaceable alien vases in your cargo hold, whatever – or any firearm you pick up in the fight and fire for the first time. Of course if you start carrying anything around it’s not improvised any more.

Pick one Blade or Drive Shtick

1.6.3 Doctor

You are a highly specialized, highly trained expert in the medical arts; it’s likely you have just come off of a stint as a doctor on a Naval vessel, but you could have just decided to head into the Black looking for adventure, or be the chief of a small medical support team on a space station. Whoever you were before, now you’re the person who can all but guarantee that if the body gets back to sick bay even slightly alive you can get them back up and moving. Eventually. 

Body 5, Mind 7, Reflexes 5, Meta 1

Divide 3 points amongst your stats.

Skills

Computers; 11; Drive; 9; Guns; 9

Info (choose); 11; Info (choose); 10; Intimidation; 9;

Investigation ; 11; Martial Arts; 9; Medicine; 13;

Status; 11; Survival; 9; Trader 9

Shticks

Pick 2 of the following Shticks

Shtick 1 – Information Node

Shtick 2 – Blink Speed Forensics:

Shtick 3 – one other Bio, Drive or Blade shticks

IMTU Templates 5: Merchants

1.5 Merchants

Merchants have a background in the large, Imperially-chartered merchant ships that tied the Empire together with trade. They are now on their own, savvy businessmen, some of whom border on the criminal with shady deals, fleecing the rubes and engaging in trade wars, but they’re excellent at weighing risk against profit.

1.5.1 Merchant Captain

By the time you mustered out you had made it to your own command of one of the mid-sized merchant vessels, and spent time on some of the really big ones. While even those aren’t as big as the imperial warships they are damn site larger than any free trader. Still, the work of moving things on relatively routine hauls pales after a while, and on exiting from your megacorp you have the chance to do something new – open up new trade routes, act as a manager for mercenary companies, whatever.

Body 5, Mind 5, Reflexes 5, Meta 1

Divide 5 points amongst your stats, with no more than 4 points in any one.

Skills

Command* 10; Deceit 11; Drive 12; Gambling 11; Guns 8; Info (Navigate) 10; Info (pick) 10; Martial Arts 10; Status 10; Trader 13

Shticks

Shtick 1- Smooth Operator: spend a Fortune Point to temporarily bamboozle anyone with a line of patter. This won’t make them your willing slaves but it will distract them and reduce the difficulty of any social tests by 3.

Shtick 2- any Guns or Blade shtick.

1.5.2 Merchant Broker

Sure you spent time on the merchant vessels, but your real skill lay in connecting the people who needed something in one place with someone who had it in another, by way of someone who could actually move it. Now that you’re out from the big merchant chains you can actually start putting this web of connections to personal use. While you no longer have nigh limitless resources behind you there are plenty of ways to make a killing.

Body 5, Mind 5, Reflexes 5, Meta 0

Divide 6 points amongst your stats, with no more than 4 points in any one.

Skills

Computers 10; Deceit 13; Drive 12; Gambling 10; Guns 9; Investigation 12; Martial Arts 9; Repair 9; Trader 11

Shticks

Shtick 1- Knows a Guy: Unless entirely implausible (mis-jumped to a planet no human has ever seen level implausible), spend a Fortune Point to have a connection anywhere where there are enough people to call a town. It might be a friend of a friend of a friend, but it’s enough to get you some support, depending on what you ask.

Shtick 2- pick one guns or blade shtick

Merchant Quartermaster

The Quartermaster of a major trading ship is responsible for getting the cargos in and out, and making sure the ship is fully supplied. They also have to be a dab had at repairs and possible vacc suit certified to get out of the ship and assist. When you scale that down to the Tramp Freighter level, like many of your old friends from the company have, you suddenly become chief mechanics, space based contact expert, primary programmer and heaven knows what else. But it certainly keeps you busy!

Body 5, Mind 5, Reflexes 5, Meta 1

Divide 5 points amongst your stats, with no more than 4 points in any one.

Skills

Computers 10; Deceit 10; Drive 9; Gambling 13; Guns 11; Info (Choose) 9; Martial Arts 10; Repair 11; Sabotage 9; Survival 9; Trader 12

Shticks

Pick 2 shticks from Guns, Blades or those listed below.

Shtick 1- Scraps and Remnants: you have all the stuff in the corners of the hold that you couldn’t move, or the sample copies of things that look interesting. You can always make a Trader roll to see if you have something that might serve for your purposes, or spend a Fortune point to guarantee it.

Shtick 2- Merchant Vacc Suit Training: you have logged a thousand hours in both standard vacc suits and industrial cargo loaders that are essentially mech suits with the serial numbers filed waaaaay off. You suffer no penalties when wearing a Vacc suit or in zero gravity. You know just enough to run a mech suit without penalty (Advanced Vacc Suit skill is a prerequisite). 

IMTU Templates 4: Scouts

1.4 Scouts

The Scout service is constantly looking at new jump points, new worlds, new opportunities and are usually the first to coming back with the reports of new threats. Of all the imperial services they have the most autonomy, but they are also the furthest from resupply, so each Scout ship is a small, on its own unit on the fringes of known space.

1.4.1 Scout Pilot

Someone has to boldly go where no one has gone before. And you were the sad one didn’t step back fast enough and got the job. It’s not all bad – the pilots are the commanding officers on the ship, albeit over a crew that is threadbare and perhaps crazy. Eventually you mustered out, but your skill set lends itself to going back out into the black.

Body 5, Mind 5, Reflexes 5, Meta 0

Divide 6 points amongst your stats, with no more than 4 points in any one.

Skills

Command 11; Deceit 9; Drive 13; Gambling 9; Guns 8; Info (Navigation) 12; Info (Choose) 9; Martial Arts 9; Repair 10; Status 9; Survival 10 ; Trader 10

Shticks

Pick 3 shticks between Blade and Drive

1.4.2 Scout Scientist

The Scout services job is to stick their damn fool noses into places Humaniti has never been before. Naturally there are scientists on board to record what happens when the nose hits the new! You’re one of those people, expanding the frontiers of human knowledge one stick poking at a time, either by making first contact with new races, analyzing the relics of an ancient alien race or just being the first to breath the air of a new world. Nothing fazes you – not when there’s still so much more to be learned!

Body 5, Mind 5, Reflexes 5, Meta 1

Divide 5 points amongst your stats, with no more than 4 points in any one.

Skills

Computers 11; Drive 11; Guns 10; Info (science) 13; Info (Choose) 10; Investigation 9; Martial Arts 8; Medicine 11; Repair 9; Survival 10; Trader 9

Shticks

Shtick 1- Information Node

Shtick 2- Pick any two other shticks from Guns, Blades, Bio or Drive

1.4.2 Scout Scrounger

For all the Army guys kvetch about how bad they have it in terms of supplies compared to the Navy, they are rolling in working gear compared to the Scout Service. When you’re out past the rim there are no good drydocks to pull into for parts – even the stuff you pay dearly for has already been reused and repurposed. That’s where you come in: keeping the scout ship (or the independent vessel post mustering out) running for just enough jumps to limp back into port. Plus everything else on the ship, including the crew – they expect you to fix them too.

Body 5, Mind 5, Reflexes 5, Meta 1

Divide 5 points amongst your stats, with no more than 4 points in any one.

Skills

Computers 12; Deceit 9; Drive 11; Guns 10; Martial Arts 9; Medicine 9; Repair 13; Survival 11; Trader; 9

Shticks

Pick 3 Shticks between Guns, Blades and the one below

Shtick 1- Have it on hand: For one Fortune point you can always have the tool you need on hand, or find make the part you need to keep the ship going with one day’s work and at least one complication in obtaining or installing it. (for 2 fortune points you can skip the complication, but where’s the fun in that?

IMTU Archetypes 3: Army

1.3 Army

The Army are ground based forces – tasked with claiming, securing and holding areas. Sometimes they do this with guns, sometimes with tanks and sometimes with mech battle armor. They constantly complain that they have worse resources, worse medicine and tougher jobs than the Navy. This is because it’s true. Unlike the formal nobility of the Navy it can be hard to tell an Army officer from a regular grunt on the ground; unless you’re Army. They just know.

1.3.1 Army Special Ops

The tip of the spear, the Army Special Ops units are the first ones on the planet, scouting the ground, making contact (good or bad) with the natives and otherwise gathering information before all the boots hit the ground. They are well rounded, smart, capable and deadly shots.

Body 5, Mind 5, Reflexes 5, Meta 0

Divide 6 points amongst your stats, with no more than 4 points in any one.

Skills

Command 9; Deceit 10; Drive 8; Guns 12; Intimidation 9; Intrusion 10; Investigation 11; Martial Arts 9; Repair 9; Sabotage 13; Survival 12

Shticks

Pick 2 shticks between Guns, Bio and those listed here

Shtick 1- Army Officer: add 3 to your Command score; you are a higher ranked Army officer

Shtick 2- Forward Observer: you’re highly trained in getting into specific locations and calling in direct or indirect fire from your ground or air support. Split 3 points between Repair and Intrusion and add Info (Indirect fire) at a 12.

1.3.2 Army Grunt

One of the troops, the Army Grunt is the one that’s doing the complex work of clearing and holding ground, and then the arduous task of policing it until civil authority is put into place (Imperial bureaucracy used to be very good at this sort of thing, but these days it gets harder and harder). You mustered out armed with experience, initiative, bravery, a work ethic and blow the hell out of things if required.

Body 5, Mind 5, Reflexes 5, Meta 0

Divide 6 points amongst your stats, with no more than 4 points in any one.

Skills

Command 9; Drive 8; Gambling 9; Guns 13; Info 10; Intimidation 11; Intrusion 9; Investigation 9; Martial Arts 10; Repair 10; Sabotage 10; Survival 11

Shticks

Pick 3 shticks from Guns, Bio or those listed below

Shtick 1- Army Officer: add 3 to your Command score; you are a higher ranked Army officer

Shtick 2- Army Vacc Suit Training: you have mastered moving and fighting in a vacc suit. You suffer no penalties when wearing one or when using a mech suit (Advanced Vacc Suit skill is a prerequisite). You also suffer no penalties in Zero G, not that it happened much in the Army.

1.3.3 Army Medic

Unlike the Navy and Marines, who have top end medical facilities on their ships the Army Medic must make do with what they can carry onto the battlefield, scrounge from the environment or, in a perfect world, have in their tiny Surgical Unit Vehicles. Many argue this makes them superior to the surgeons hired by the Navy when it comes to working with independent traders; no doubt you would agree. You’re adept with medicine under harsh conditions, and making conditions harsher for people who try to stop you from getting your boys back home.

Body 5, Mind 5, Reflexes 5, Meta 0

Divide 6 points amongst your stats, with no more than 4 points in any one.

Skills

Drive11; Guns 11; Info (choose) 9; Investigation 10; Martial Arts 8; Medicine 12; Repair 10; Status 9; Survival 13

Shticks

Pick 3 shticks between Guns, Bio and the two shticks below

Shtick 1- Army Officer: add the Command skill at 11; you are a higher ranked Army officer

Shtick 2- field Medicine: spend a fortune point to be able to find/repair/replace any medical gear you need, removing all field penalties for that patient.

IMTU Archetypes 2: Marines

1.2 Marines

The marines are the close combat arm of the Navy, performing ship defense and boarding actions. They are hands down the scariest close combat fighters in the setting because firing pistols on spaceships is not terribly smart. When NPCs their main weapons are sabers, quiet arrogance and a fanatical devotion to the emperor.

1.2.1 Marine Commander

You’re from the classic lead from the front, out fight the enemy, don’t give up the ship Marine – Marines work their way up from private to officer status so you’ve years of experience to back up your reputation. You’re very likely still in possession of some advanced biomods. Whatever your background you’re dedicated, tough and well able to command troops in any engagement, from the front, where a real commander belongs.

Body 5, Mind 5, Reflexes 5, Meta 0

Divide 6 points amongst your stats, with no more than 4 points in any one.

Skills

Command 12; Computers 9; Drive 8; Gambling 9; Guns 10; Info 9; Intimidation 10; Intrusion 12; Investigation 10; Martial Arts 12; Status 11

Shticks

Pick 3 shticks between Bio and Blade shticks

1.2.2 Marine Incursion Leader

One of the toughest jobs for a Marine is the incursion crew, who at the first on board enemy ships, sometimes fighting in soft, or even hard vacuum. You were one of these, and damned good at it – scary and effective, you could often end encounters just by your arrival and a growl.

Body 5, Mind 5, Reflexes 5, Meta 0

Divide 6 points amongst your stats, with no more than 4 points in any one.

Skills

Command 10; Drive 8 ; Guns 9; Info (choose) 10; Intimidation 12; Intrusion 11 Martial Arts 13; Sabotage 11; Status 10

Shticks

Shtick 1- Marine Vacc Suit Training: you have mastered moving and fighting in a vacc suit. You suffer no penalties when wearing one or in zero gravity. You are also cleared to use a mech suit, (Advanced Vacc Suit skill is a prerequisite). Marines generally disdain their use, but you can run one.

Pick 2 other shticks between Blade and Bio shticks

1.2.3 Marine Security

Marines maintain security on capital ships, and you had that difficult job. This might have been done through special training and biomods, through hard-nosed pragmatism, or perhaps a willingness to bust heads, but you managed to keep the peace in a chaotic environment. Those skills have some use in the broader galaxy.

Body 5, Mind 5, Reflexes 5, Meta (Bio) 1

Divide 5 points amongst your stats, with no more than 4 points in any one.

Skills

Command 11; Computers 10; Deceit 9 Drive 9; Guns 10; Info (Choose) 10; Intimidation 11; Intrusion 9; Investigation 13; Martial Arts 11; Medicine 10; Status 9

Shticks

Pick two shticks between Blade, Bio and those listed here.

Shtick 1- Blink Speed Forensics:

Shtick 2- Human Lie Detector: 

IMTU Archetypes 1 - Navy

1.0 Templates and Paths

CT had a lifepath system, where a series of decisions and rolls gave you your character from enlistment to start of play with all skills earned from that. I wanted to keep something similar for IMTU but Feng Shui works on a series of broad archetypes that the PC lightly modifies. To square the circle the archetypes are all very standard Traveller concepts (and if you read all them you’ll learn a decent amount about the setting, such as what Jay called the ‘great chain of griping’ between the services) and then we add a life events section stolen conceptually from Greg Stolze’s Reign. That gives some skill boosts and key events in the PCs life. Combined these give us an effect like the CT lifepath system but without all of the fuss.

1.1: Navy

The Imperial Navy is the world of capital ships, often floating cities staffed by highly trained professionals of all stripes, expert naval academy graduates and the children of the nobility (who sometimes know what they’re doing).

1.1.1 Navy Officer

You spent years working your way up through “the High Command”, from smaller frigates to the massive capital ships, and know the ins and outs of the direct command and indirect bureaucracy of everything up to the Imperial city-sized vessels. You’ve certainly qualified on core weapons training and can take the helm of a ship if needed but your real expertise is in the air of command and the ability to interact smoothly with the Imperial nobility (of which you may be a member, but maybe you just know how to work with them. Now that you’re freelance you can put those skills to a profitable use, and perhaps do some good free from Navy bureaucracy.

Body 5, Mind 5, Reflexes 5, Meta 1

Divide 5 points amongst your stats, with no more than 4 points in any one.

Skills

Command# 13; Computers 9; Drive; 10 Guns12; Info (choose) 11; Intimidation 9; Investigation 9; Martial Arts 8; Status 12

Shticks

Shtick 1- Command Presence (Bio or Guns)

Shtick 2– Never Misses: (Bio)

Shtick 3 – pick one other Guns, Bio or Memetic shtick

1.1.2 Navy Engineer

Someone has to keep the Imperial Navy in space, and that’s you. You’ve taken apart, repaired and replaced every part on their ships (which given their size is a LOT of parts) and despite what other services say about how the Navy has replacement arts to spare, those people never had to jury rig systems during a capital ship battle to keep the lights on. As an independent contractor those skills are in high demand from big corporate jobs and merchant liners, but who want to deal with their stultifying chains of command?

Body 5, Mind 5, Reflexes 5, Meta 0

Divide 6 points amongst your stats, with no more than 4 points in any one.

Skills

Command# 9; Computers 13; Drive 9; Guns 9; Info (Science) 9; Info (choose) 9; Martial Arts 11; Repair 12; Sabotage 12; Status 10; Trader 9

Shticks

Shtick 1- Jump Drive Physics: You can, with a difficulty 15 Repair roll, modify a jump drive to do something bizarre. This might super-charge the ships hydrogen scoop to make it a limited use force field or magnetic grapple, push into Hyperspace at a non-jump point, act as a Jump +1 drive, whatever. Failure means GM decides what happens.

Shtick 2- Pick one Blade Shtick,

1.1.3 Navy Legacy

Members of the Noble Houses know they should give back to the Empire. For many this means a posting in the Imperial Navy. An officer posting, of course: anything less would be demeaning. On one of the larger ships, certainly: one can’t go without comforts. You entered the Navy a useless lump of privilege, cosseted by a system designed to protect you while giving you the illusion of service. For some reason you have struck out on your own, perhaps to see what you can do without relying on family, or perhaps as an agent of your family to expand their power in subtle ways.

Body 5, Mind 5, Reflexes 5, Meta 0

Divide 6 points amongst your stats, with no more than 4 points in any one.

Skills

Command# 10; Deceit 11; Drive 10; Gambling 11; Guns 9; Info (Imperial trends) 9; Info (choose) 10; Intimidation 10; Martial Arts 8; Status 13; Trader 10

Shticks

Pick 3 shticks between Bio and Memetics

IMTU Resources

If I’m going to mention Resources in the Bio Shticks I need to define them.

In character creation, Resources 1 is worth a very large amount of money or legal authorization. Examples were:

·         1/8th of a merchant ship (5 years invested on 45 years of payments)

·         Combat-quality vacc suit (Armor 2, self-sealing, weapons pods, propulsion, magnetics, etc.)

·         High Passage on a passenger ship for one for one week. Decadent Imperials have a lot of cash.

·         In 2015 US$ it’s about $40,000

This is to keep PCs focused on only buying big, character defining things.

In play that’s too high to be a good metric. Now Resources 1 equals roughly 1/50th that amount, which comes to.

·         1 Month of docking fees and medical care at JW station

·         1 Month of upkeep, fuel and crew food for the ship

·         1 Month of payments on the ship’s loan.

·         Rumblewear for all PCs (see 2.2.7)

·         Cheap blades for all PCs (break on a Fumble, plus whatever other problems come up)

·         One Quality blade.

·         1000 “Credits”, just to keep things simple.

·         Resources 8 will buy you a Pistol.

·         You need another Resources 4 for a legal permit.

·         Resources 12 will buy you a Rifle or SMG

·         You need another Resources 6 for a Wildside rifle permit, good for hunting on low tech planets. No other Rifle or SMG permits are acceptable.

I like the game within a game of the Free Trader concept but want to make it as easy and conceptual as possible.

Players know they need to make 3000 credits a month. 1000 credits of which come as in-kind payments from JW Station where each week of work for the station covers them for a month. A 2 week Jump drive round trip pays this month and next but they have to cover their other two obligations. This should be enough to keep players hopping and make clear which deals are worth taking, which ones aren’t and which ones are too good to be true.

There’s a constant run of smaller deals – mail and supply runs through the reef – that are assumed in this as none of them take much fuel and they help defray expenses and buy little indulgences. That’s what gives the group pocket change, and it makes the rest of the currency system invisible while keeping the feel of scraping by that’s needed for a starting Free Trader game.