I’ve been thinking about Traveller and Hex Describe again. I’d like to add more “quests” – or patron encounters, as Traveller would say. People that provide some adventure. And I decided upon the following: on a small starport, they are looking for a ship to bring a murder suspect to a nearby big starport.
This is what it looks like:
0403: This is **Cov**, UWP D99A356-8. There is a gas giant in this system.
Cov is larger than Earth, with a diameter of about 14400km. The atmosphere is very dense. The high levels of carcinogenic nano particles make *filter masks* mandatory.
A few thousand people live around the Cov starport. The settlement was originally a penal colony for *Wifema* (_0204_) and gained independence 50 years ago. The resentment is still strong among the locals.
When terrorists on *Wifema* (_0204_) turned out to be locals, it didn’t take long before the navy showed up, overthrew the old order on Cov, and installed a puppet government, currently led by *Lan Gen*. Curfews, patrols, interrogations, allegations of torture, and occasional revelations thereof provide fertile grounds for more shootings, more bombs, more assassinations. These are bad times.
Cov has a **class D** starport. All you can see is the toll house. The harbour master’s office is probably there as well. A bunch of clerks look up as you enter.
The harbour master **Tajeddigt Tonui** greets any new arrivals in person; they’re taciturn and grumpy. Currently, they’re holding **murder suspect** *Alimah Khatibi*, but capital crimes are usually judged in *Wifema* (_0204_) and the harbour master needs a ship to transport the suspect there. This is a case of domestic violence with the suspect accused of murdering their partner. The body has been found and the evidence is overwhelming. “This case is as good as decided!” says *Tajeddigt Tonui*. In truth, however, the deed was done by a close relative and *Alimah Khatibi* is being framed. “I’m innocent, I swear!” they say.
The locals are rich and well off. Economic refugees from neighbouring systems are welcomed for the internal labour marked needs plenty of new hands. At the starport, various agencies are trying to enlist all who came with low passage. The biggest of these agencies is the office of *Ishizu Banking*, run by *Baron Ji Xiaodan*.
I think I like it. I have a bunch of “murder case” templates, and these don’t show up too often. I like it. It’s a good model, I think.
#RPG #Traveller #Hex Describe
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This is very cool!
The results are very gamable 😀
Again this is bias here but I really like the bullet point format Winters Daughter by Gavin Norman uses.
Could the output emulate that at all
For paragraphs I really like Guy Fullertons The Hyqous Vaults as an example. Its free to download and he has a great way of using short snappy sentences. The length never feels too long to get into your head at the table.
– Oliver 2021-02-11 20:51 UTC
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Using bullets would be no problem at all, for Hex Describe. I think the problem is me: are bullet points very important if you have bold, italic, underline, and paragraph breaks to work with? I fear that the information for the quest broken up into three paragraphs (or bullet points) makes them “as important” as some of the other info. And I’m not sure how well that works for the reader.
Let’s try and compare it, though. @wandererbill also mentioned that he’d differentiate player info from referee info, somehow.
0403: This is **Cov**, UWP D99A356-8. There is a gas giant in this system.
Cov is larger than Earth, with a diameter of about 14400km. The atmosphere is very dense. The high levels of carcinogenic nano particles make *filter masks* mandatory.
A few thousand people live around the Cov starport. The settlement was originally a penal colony for *Wifema* (_0204_) and gained independence 50 years ago. The resentment is still strong among the locals.
When terrorists on *Wifema* (_0204_) turned out to be locals, it didn’t take long before the navy showed up, overthrew the old order on Cov, and installed a puppet government, currently led by *Lan Gen*. Curfews, patrols, interrogations, allegations of torture, and occasional revelations thereof provide fertile grounds for more shootings, more bombs, more assassinations. These are bad times.
Cov has a **class D** starport. All you can see is the toll house. The harbour master’s office is probably there as well. A bunch of clerks look up as you enter.
**Patron:** the harbour master **Tajeddigt Tonui** greets any new arrivals in person; they’re taciturn and grumpy.**Quest:** the harbour master needs a ship to transport the **murder suspect** *Alimah Khatibi* to *Wifema* (_0204_) because capital crimes are usually judged there**Case:** This is a case of domestic violence with the suspect accused of murdering their partner. The body has been found and the evidence is overwhelming.“This case is as good as decided!” says *Tajeddigt Tonui*“I’m innocent, I swear!” says *Alimah Khatibi***Referee:** In truth, however, the deed was done by a close relative and *Alimah Khatibi* is being framed
The locals are rich and well off. Economic refugees from neighbouring systems are welcomed for the internal labour marked needs plenty of new hands. At the starport, various agencies are trying to enlist all who came with low passage. The biggest of these agencies is the office of *Ishizu Banking*.
**Patron**: the boss of *Ishizu Banking* is **supreme director** *Baron Ji Xiaodan***Quest**: ...
I don’t know.
– Alex 2021-02-11 22:37 UTC
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I dig the bullets!
These are super helpful to my eye!
– Oliver 2021-02-12 04:00 UTC
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Compromise: using the sidebar?
– Alex 2021-02-12 21:16 UTC
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I dig it** Sidebars ftw**
– Oliver 2021-02-14 20:23 UTC
