• Trading flavor: TNE has a nice starport exchange rate chart that could come in handy. Also has (a variant of TW2K's?) maintainence guildlines. Traveller d20 (T20) IIRC also has some similar guidelines as well as a good trading system that's more detailed than CT/MT but more conducive to adventures than full-blown Far Trader. It does require a lot of dice rolling but there is at least one T20 trading program out there.
  
  
• Variations on weapons, armour, and equipment: try Striker/AHL/Snapshot and T4's Emperor's Arsenal. Emperor's Arsenal in particular covers the technology levels this game would be at in better detail than core Traveller. Not 100% sure if damage levels are the same as say CT or MT. TNE's FF&S along with the blackpowder design sequences in the World Tamer's Handbook could also be used though it may produce different results. I believe G^3 has been mentioned up thread, another useful tool.
  
  
• UWPs: take your pick of world detail from Book 6, DGP's world books, TNE's World Tamer's Handbook, GT's First In, GURPS Space, etc.. For that third world feel take a page from Hard Times, TNE, and 1248 and run ports through a custom Collapse procedure.
  
  
• Metagaming & tradestuff stats: TNE's World Tamer's Handbook has a metagame on bootstrapping a colony along with stats on basic materials. Good for trading info as well as plotting on a Company settlement/colony or remote community. T4's Pocket Empires could generate ruling families & elites as well as metagaming polities. GT's Far Trader has been mentioned upthread IIRC and also doubles as a crash course in economic principles.

If I was going to run this style of TRAVELLER game ....I'd still use the GURPS game mechanics, mainly because of the real world reference available in 20 years plus of GURPS books.

 Also the idea can be easily overlapped with an Illuminati themed vcampaign or secret in-game.

- E.W.C.

Quote from: KoltarIf I was going to run this style of TRAVELLER game ....I'd still use the GURPS game mechanics, mainly because of the real world reference available in 20 years plus of GURPS books.

Uh-oh.  You're brooching a topic for another thread -- Is Traveller a rules system, or a setting?  Somewhere, months back, there was just such a thread right here.  Brief, but one of Nox's good ones.  To the point, though, you're right (as was SionEwig's suggestion a few pages back), that a robust system that already models the modern world would work well.  In fact, two pre-eminent philosophies could dominate this project, too -- one that promotes the spirit of the setting through contemporary mechanics, the other that promotes an ideal through nostalgic grognardism. I confess that I've fallen firmly into the latter camp, though that in no way diminishes competing ideas (heck, somewhere a couple of weeks back, I was briefly considering Modern d20 Modern).  The real point is, once you have the setting in your head, figure out a way to play it and make it work for you.

!i!

Quote from: Ian AbsentiaTo the point, though, you're right (as was SionEwig's suggestion a few pages back), that a robust system that already models the modern world would work well.  In fact, two pre-eminent philosophies could dominate this project, too -- one that promotes the spirit of the setting through contemporary mechanics, the other that promotes an ideal through nostalgic grognardism. I confess that I've fallen firmly into the latter camp, though that in no way diminishes competing ideas (heck, somewhere a couple of weeks back, I was briefly considering Modern d20 Modern).

This I think would make a very good thread, especially as to why Contemporary/Modern settings seem to attract the systems they do.

QuoteThe real point is, once you have the setting in your head, figure out a way to play it and make it work for you.

!i!

This is exactly right.  Many SYSTEMS are possible for use in this (or most any) SETTING.  And let's face it, the setting is more important (at least to me).

Seems appropriate to post this.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6395033.stm


Pirates seize UN ship off Somalia
Map of Somalia showing Puntland
Pirates are reported to have hijacked a UN-chartered cargo ship delivering food aid to north-eastern Somalia.

The ship, the MV Rozen, had just delivered a cargo to Somalia's Puntland region when the pirates struck, a World Food Programme official said.

There have been no reports of demands from the pirates and it is not known if any of the 12 crew have been injured.

Piracy has become rampant off the coast of Somalia, which has had no stable central government for years.

A World Food Programme spokeswoman, Stephanie Savariaud, said there were deep concerns for the safety of the crew.

"We know it has been hijacked by pirates but we do not know how many pirates there are," she said.

Ms Savariaud said the Rozen had delivered 1,800 tonnes of food aid to the semi-autonomous Puntland region of Somalia and was returning to its home port of Mombasa in Kenya.

And here I was just starting to stat out Mombasa and Mogadisu tonight.

!i!

And another adventure idea for this, one that we haven't thought of.

QuoteThis repo man drives off with ocean freighters

It's a rare specialty that can be dangerous, given parts of the world in
which he must operate.

By Dan Weikel, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, March 1, 2007

IF repossessing a used Chevrolet can be tricky, consider retrieving the
Aztec Express, a 700-foot cargo ship under guard in Haiti as civil
unrest spread through the country.

Only a few repo men possess the guile and resourcefulness for such a
job. One of them is F. Max Hardberger, of Lacombe, La. Since 1991, the
58-year-old attorney and ship captain has surreptitiously sailed away
about a dozen freighters from ports around the world.

"I'm sure there are those who would like to add me to a list of modern
pirates of the Caribbean, but I do whatever I can to protect the legal
rights of my clients," said Hardberger, whose company, Vessel
Extractions in New Orleans, has negotiated the releases of another dozen
cargo ships and prevented the seizures of many others.

His line of work regularly takes him to a corner of the maritime
industry still plagued by pirates, underhanded business practices and
corrupt government officials, waters the Aztec Express sailed right into.

The saga began in 2003 when the vessel's Greek owner died and his
company did not keep up payments on a $3.3-million mortgage.

Bahamian court records show that an American businessman who had used
the vessel to haul 235 used cars from the northeastern United States to
Haiti did not pay the charter fee, contributing to the loan default.

Once the ship arrived in the Haitian port of Miragoane, the businessman
bribed judicial officials to seize the vessel and sell it to him in a
rigged auction, according to court records.

Meanwhile, a violent rebellion threatened to topple President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, making it impossible for the lender or the
owner's relatives to contest the sale.

The condition of the Aztec Express further complicated matters. Its main
engines were out of commission, having been idle and untended for months.

Hardberger was hired by the New Jersey-based mortgage holder. He flew to
Haiti and drove with an armed bodyguard to Miragoane.

He gathered two important pieces of information. Watchmen stationed on
the Aztec Express sold fuel from the vessel on the black market. Second,
port authorities had a cellphone, but they could use it only at the
harbor's soccer field, where cellular service was reliable.

Hardberger managed to get the guards off the ship by offering to buy
fuel. When they came down to the dock to discuss the transaction,
off-duty Haitian riot police hired by Hardberger held them at bay.



MEANWHILE, an oceangoing tugboat also hired by Hardberger slipped into
port and backed up to the Aztec Express. Under a full moon, the crew
began cutting the anchor chains with blowtorches.

In case harbor officials noticed and tried to call for help on their
cellphone, Hardberger had paid a witch doctor $100 to cast spells on the
port's soccer field. The witch doctor marked the field with gray powder,
a clear warning to believers in voodoo, the nation's dominant religion.
No call ever went out.

Once the freighter was freed, the tug hauled the ship out of port and
headed for the Bahamas, where British-based maritime laws give a high
priority to lenders' claims.

The next day, however, another tug intercepted the ship. Its captain
said he had been sent to take over the operation.

Hardberger's team checked with the marine towing company hired for the
repossession and found that no relief boat had been sent. It then
summoned the Bahamian coast guard, which detained the other tug on
suspicion of attempted piracy.

Hardberger said the second tugboat had been sent by the American
businessman when he learned that the Aztec Express had been pulled out
of Haiti.

In the Bahamas, a court upheld the ship's repossession and ordered its
sale to settle the lender's claim.

"Haiti has a corrupt legal system where cronyism and corruption are the
order of the day," Judge John Lyons wrote in his decision. "Justice is
dispensed according to who can pay the going rate."

Hardberger said small-to-medium-size cargo ships such as the Aztec
Express are among the most vulnerable to chicanery and illegal seizures.

Often operated by small shipping lines, these modern-day tramp steamers
regularly visit developing countries plagued by unstable and corrupt
governments.

In the worst-off nations, Hardberger said, it is possible to seize a
$10-million ship with a $100 bribe to a justice of the peace.

"You need more than what an attorney can do in some of these countries,"
said John Lightbown, a ship owner who recently sought Hardberger's help
to avert a seizure in Haiti.

"Deals can be bought and sold under the table. Max gets into the middle
of things. He's been around the block," he said.

"I don't know anyone who does this, except for Max," said Jonathan S.
Spencer, a New York-based maritime adjuster who determines the monetary
losses of shipping accidents. "It's hard to say how much people like him
are used. They work in gray areas of the law. They are very discreet,
and the people who hire them are discreet as well."

WITH his graying hair, walrus mustache and moderate build, Hardberger
doesn't fit the profile of a swashbuckler.

He taught history and English at parochial schools in Louisiana and
Mississippi after graduating from the University of New Orleans and
earning a master's degree from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.

Outside the classroom, he worked on Gulf Coast oil rigs and the vessels
that served them. For several years in the 1980s he skippered a cargo
ship in the Caribbean and later wrote "Freighter Captain," a novel based
on the experience.

In 1998, after a four-year correspondence course, he passed the
California bar exam on the first try. He now practices maritime law,
mostly in the Caribbean, but regularly comes to Southern California to
handle cases.

Hardberger fell into the ship extraction business in 1991 while managing
two freighters for Morgan Price & Co., a wastepaper exporter in Miami.

Morgan Price had chartered one of the vessels, the Patric M, to a
Peruvian company that used it to carry steel to Venezuela.

When the company refused to pay Morgan Price $80,000, the Miami firm
instructed the captain to dock at Puerto Cabello in Venezuela, its
destination, but not unload the cargo.

In retaliation, Hardberger said, the Peruvian firm bribed court
officials to detain the Patric M in port and allow the company to
operate it. A judge even jailed the master and chief engineer, but not
before the engineer was forced at gunpoint to power up the vessel's
cranes so unloading could proceed.

Hardberger flew to Venezuela. He says he persuaded court officials to
put the captain and chief engineer under house arrest at a hotel.

Hardberger then met with the two men. The captain refused to participate
in the repossession, fearing for his safety. When the chief engineer
agreed to help, he and Hardberger slipped out of the hotel through a
laundry room.

In the evening, they took a taxi to the waterfront and walked along the
port wall that was topped with barbed wire, finally gaining entry by
crawling under a railroad gate.

Once inside the port, Hardberger said, they hid in doorways, culverts
and the shadows of shipping containers to elude guards and stevedores.

"Extractions are a big risk. If you get caught, you are looking at a
very serious charge," Hardberger said. "In some countries, you could
wait two or three years for trial and end up with a 20-year sentence."

At the unguarded ship, both men climbed the gangway, and Hardberger
found the first mate, a heavy-set Panamanian, who agreed to cooperate.

The Patric M's crew, which had not been replaced by the Peruvian
company, was assembled in the mess for a briefing. Everyone signed on to
the plan.

Later in the evening, the crew cut the ship's lines from the deck. The
main engine came to life with a few deep thumps.

Proceeding at "dead slow ahead," Hardberger steered the 340-foot cargo
ship past a naval base and through the narrow harbor entrance.

En route to Aruba, Hardberger said, he received a radio message saying
Venezuela had notified Interpol — the global police agency — that the
ship had departed without permission.

He soon found an isolated anchorage off the island of Vieques, Puerto
Rico. The crew ground off the original name and identification numbers
that are stamped into the steel of every cargo ship when it is built.

All the Patric M's documents — plans, ledgers, log books and
certifications — were copied and altered to reflect its new name. The
originals were destroyed, including its Panamanian registration forms.

Then, Hardberger said, he found a country willing to register stateless
vessels, no questions asked. He declined to name the country, but there
were only a few at the time, such as Honduras, Vanuatu and the Marshall
Islands. International regulatory agencies have since banned the practice.

About a year after acquiring its new identity, the Patric M was sold by
Morgan Price.

"International waters," Hardberger said, "are worse than the Wild West.
In many ways, there is little or no opportunity to avenge the wrongs
people have done to you."

For the last 3ý years, Hardberger has operated Vessel Extractions with
Michael L. Bono, an admiralty law attorney and one of his former high
school students.



BEFORE repossessing a ship, they make sure the vessel has been seized
illegally and the claims filed against it are fraudulent.

If negotiations and legal methods fail, the company will proceed with an
extraction, a step that might include payments to local officials if a
nation's government is corrupt.

Those payments, Hardberger said, are made under exceptions in the
federal Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits U.S. citizens
from bribing foreign officials to retain or obtain business.

"In a rogue state, you can't tie your hands behind you," Hardberger
said. "It is common to find that the court system is rife with corruption."

Extracting a ship can cost a client $100,000 or more.

If a repossession is requested, Hardberger and his team quietly enter
the country involved. They seek out friendly officials and trusted local
contacts such as ship agents who tend to a vessel's logistical needs in
port.

"You need to pick up clues about the ship and what is said in the bars,
at the ship chandlers and in the local whorehouses," Hardberger said.
"Crews are not that sophisticated and talk about their orders and
departure times. You can really keep track of a vessel this way."

Hardberger said he does not carry a firearm, though he has hired
bodyguards, as he did with the Aztec Express. Stealth and trickery are
the preferred methods.

"I do not want my face seen," he added.

Such tactics were employed in April 1999, when Hardberger was asked to
extract a 280-foot cargo ship that had put in for repairs at Drapetsona,
a part of the Greek port of Piraeus. "It's a place," he says, "where
ship names are repainted quickly."

The small freighter was Hungarian and, despite the fall of the Soviet
Union, was still equipped with a commissar's office. It contained a
secret radio room and the complete works of Lenin.

When the repair company charged four times the agreed-upon price to fix
a huge dent in the stern, Hardberger said, the owner refused to pay.
Port officials then denied the vessel a clearance to leave.

Hardberger and the ship's agent got permission to move the ship to a
port anchorage under the ruse that she needed refueling. The new
location would make it possible for a crew to reach the vessel by launch.

Then, with everything in place, Hardberger waited for the weekend of
Greek Easter, a religious festival marked by rich pageantry and
widespread celebration.

To help the coast guard enjoy the event, Hardberger arranged for the
ship agent to drop off several cases of ouzo at the station, which
overlooked the port.

At 2 a.m. on a Sunday, a crew boarded the unattended freighter and
sailed it out of the harbor unnoticed.

Hardberger, who coordinated the operation from shore, sat in a seaman's
bar in Piraeus with friends, including the ship's agent. In the ancient
port, they toasted their success with vodka.

Ah, repo men.  I was just reading a story about a maritime security company -- originally created to provide on-board armed defense -- had branched into repossession work.  Kind of a fall from grace for them.

!i!

I missed a game session this week since we had the Autumn Geektogether. So I'm hankerin' after some gamin'. When that happens, I get to thinking about all sorts of campaigns I could be running... and I remembered this one.

Here's a YouTube clip from some movie where pirates attack a cargo ship, and the crew tries to fight them off. They're speaking French, but it's an action movie - boiling water in the face of a pirate is an international message.

And this would be a great intro clip for a campaign

Now that I'm only playing and not GMing in my face-to-face group, and that I have GAMERS all expanded and pretty much finished, it might be time to run this kind of game online, I think.

And with so very much inspiration in the news this past year from a certain coast of Africa.  Don't forget about the carrier group headed over there for antipiracy action.

Necroing this thread because this will be the campaign I run from Wednesday onwards

Holy necromancy, Batman!

Wonderful! This is a great idea and I'm glad to have more to read about it.

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;314789Necroing this thread because this will be the campaign I run from Wednesday onwards

Seriously jealous. It's a genius concept for a campaign.

You know we're gonna want to hear what ruleset you're using and good shit like that.