To my southern US readers...

So, y'all are having a cold snap! Congratulations!

Question for you - have you noticed that all your CFL bulbs (especially outdoor ones) take forever to light up?

Welcome to winter in Canada! Switch on the light, wait forever to see anything...

"When you see Trin's Veil for the first time..."

doc_mystery has suggested I run a Classic Traveller game once our current eight-year-long D&D game winds to a close. I do have a short campaign in the wings for that, and I've been going through some old notes.

One idea I had was to use the curiously skewed pre-generated characters from the 1981 adventure, The Argon Gambit. The first four characters presented for use in this adventure have very unbalanced, almost unplayable, stats, as presented below.

The string of numbers after the descriptive title is the Universal Personality Profile (UPP). Each number reflects a physical, mental, or social characteristic. In order, they are Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Intelligence, Education, and Social Status. These range from 1 to 12 (or higher, if you're lucky), with numbers greated than 9 represented by a letter. Thus, 10=A, 11=B, and so on.

1. Retired Merchant Captain 616668 Age 50 8 terms Cr1,000
Navigation-1, Admin-1, Steward-1, Medic-1 , Pilot-1 , Shotgun-1
Benefits: Ship

2. Ex-navy Lieutenant Commander 118894 Age 34 4 terms Cr2,000
Gunnery-1 , Computer-2, Engineering-1 , Pistol-2

3. Ex-scout 365BB4 Age 34 4 terms Cr1,500
Vacc-2, Pistol-1 , Pilot-1, Electronics-1, Brawling-1
Benefits: TAS member

4. Ex-navy Starman 961797 Age 50 8 terms Cr1,300
Dagger-4, Admin-1, Ship's Boat-1, Computer-1, Navigation-1, JOT-1

With the exception of #3, they are all crippled in some way. #2 is almost certainly wheelchair bound. Once upon a time in this blog, I speculated on their backstories, which I shall now expand upon! In a series of posts...

"New worlds I have to see, the old ones just discarded..."

1. Captain Ajeet Mittal
Retired Merchant Captain 616668 Age 50 8 terms Cr1,000
Navigation-1, Admin-1, Steward-1, Medic-1 , Pilot-1 , Shotgun-1
Benefits: Ship

For 32 years, Ajeet Mittal travelled the space lanes on a lazy course for nowhere. He signed up at Xagra Downport as a ship's hand on his 18th birthday and worked milk runs in the Core. Before long, he'd transferred to a run in the next subsector as a petty officer. When another transfer opportunity came up, he took it. And then another... and another.

That's how Ajeet made his way from the Core to the Spinward Marches. He came on a series of Subsidized Liners, Free Traders, Far Traders, Fat Traders, Fast Traders and Bulk Freighters. Some might say it wasn't much of a career, or much of a life. There's no chance for family or roots when you're moving away from your home, slow parsec by slow parsec. And Ajeet is now so far from Xagra (about 2000 light years) it'd take him years and a fortune to get back. But Ajeet was happy enough, and looked forward to a comfortable retirement on some unfashionable backwater.

Two years ago, he was making a run from Horosho to Glisten in a company Free Trader, with a shipment of water filters for a mining platform. As they left the platform a badly aligned mineral railcannon fired 30 tons of methane ice off course, and directly into his ship.

Ajeet managed to land the freighter with his cargo and crew intact. However, the bridge lost pressure, and for two minutes he worked in a near vacuum. He survived, but suffered irreparable nerve damage. The corporate medicos did their best, but now his hands shake and his legs quiver. The corporation invalided him out with a small pension.

In recognition of his service and heroism, they also gave him free and clear ownership of a 40-year-old Trader. Of course, the legal paperwork and insurance claims took a couple of years to clear up, so he couldn't just sell the thing. He's lived on savings the last couple of years, sleeping in the ship and going out drinking more than he should. But now the money's running out, and the ship is his.

He's hired a crew for a few more cargo runs. Ajeet is hoping to end up someplace he thinks he can retire at last. He's not sure where, or how. Someplace with green, green hills and not too many people.

***

I picture him as a middle-aged, somewhat paunchy Indian man. I'm imagining an Indian Ocean freighter captain I once saw in a documentary, gone to seed but still ready for a new job. (Maybe a fatter Sanjay Dutt?)

His stats and skills (with the exception of that low dex) suugest a stolid, average career man from a lower-upper-class family. He's not a hero or a villain - just an honest merchant making his way through the universe.