Traveller Campaign Ideas: TAC-SQUAD

[Shrale]

TAC-SQUAD

Formed by Harmony Frost with permission of her handlers from Blackhawk, TAC-SQUAD isn't
a combat group but rather a small team of capable people who are familiar with space
travel, the Marches, and who can think fast and act decisively. If you can handle a gun,
so much the better.

Characters: any type of Traveller character is possible, including CT or T4 or
GURPS. It's up to you. I prefer to be rules-lite and RP-heavy. If you're used to
GURPS then characters up to 200 points are welcome.

Races: I'd prefer you stick with the anthropomorphic Traveller races so they can do
things like all ride in the same starship and breathe the same atmosphere, etc.

I don't want more than 4 players, just to keep it manageable. More than likely
it'll be first-come, first-reserved. Hopefully I'll get at least one player !

Types of characters: (just a few samples, feel free to expound)

Detached Duty Scout -- either a vanilla scout or an S3 leftover. Should be a pilot and
have his own ship preferably a Sulieman with jump-2. Shouldn't be a stranger to combat
or guns, but doesn't have to be Rambo either. A seasoned, wily fellow is just fine.

Psionic -- any race or background you want, including something mysterious like a pocket
empire secret service background. I'd prefer a PC of no more than 125 points for this,
just so you don't steal the show. I may allow GURPS Psionics too. It'd be nice to be
a non-Zhodani, since the campaign is mostly a 3i show.

ex-Vargr Cosair -- you were taking liberty on a planet with a buddy. You waited at the
starport for hours after the rendezvous time but the shuttle never showed. The next
week you read about how Imperial Navy ships identified and chased a corsair to the
outer system and destroyed it. Your buddy and you have to work passage back to the
homeworld to resume your careers. He took working passage on a starship, you stayed
after reading an ad for Blackhawk, needing qualified persons, preferably with military
backgrounds and felt it applied to you...

Technologist -- no this isn't Cyberpunk 2020 but technology is all around, whether
it be handcomps, radioes or larger computers. You know your stuff, how to operate and
tricks to make them sing for you. Data flows from your fingertips. You might be good
with your fists or a gun too. If it's got electronics, you probably can get it to do
your bidding. You can also pilot an air/raft.

ex-Athlete -- you blew out your knee and lower leg playing FLASHPOINT a rather physical,
rugged sport popular in the Marches. You got a bionic replacement, but the trouble
is, it forced you to retire, since the stigma associated with your prosthetic isn't
welcomed by the league. Now what do you do? There's a few underground pro-leagues,
but the pay isn't that great, and the people tend to be grim, hangers-on to their
past glories. Is that what you want to turn into? Then you read an ad for Blackhawk
needing able-bodied men to fill positions... hell, you used to shoot skeet and you're
also not bad behind the wheel of a groundcar.


LEADERSHIP

Harmony Frost -- a good looking female who at first seems out of place. Ex-army and
you recall seeing her name a couple of times associated with bounty hunting of all
things. Very capable with firearms but wily, and can think like the opposition. Not a
bad martial artist and adept at planning. She's got a courtesy rank of First Lieutenant.
You call her "loo" or "ma'am", but never by her name.

The Corporal -- a rather large specimen of the Saurian species (from Behind the Claw)
at 6'-4" and 225 pounds. Knows combat, and heavy weapons and not bad at tactics. Doesn't
say much except to bark out orders or gnash his toothy maw like he's saying: "chop,
chop!" Apparently, he served with Harmony Frost in the army, but doesn't talk about it.

I'll post a few scenarios next.

[Shrale]

POSSIBLE TICKETS

RANSOM

A businessman sent his two daughter away to boarding school, with a guard. The ship
never showed, presumed lost. Just when he was getting ready to leave to search an
x-boat communique arrived with a strangely worded request for tuition for his two
daughters. Obviously a ransom demand by pirates, the team is enlisted to go to the drop
point on another world, and escort the father to pay the ransom and protect him (as
he's worth a nice sum himself). Obviously if they could capture the kidnappers...however
the safety of the man and his two daughters is paramount, the rest would be gravy.

INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE

A security guard in the Swords surprised a group of thieves stealing a cargo of
expensive champagne from a storage facility at the Gram starport. His only description
was of a ghastly looking fellow, dressed in a black starship jumper, tall, scraggly
hair and an eyepatch; accompanied by three hooded men and -- get this -- a glowing,
ghostly figure of a man who looked like something out of an old Solomani horror
flick...hmmm...The guard is old and did take a nasty knock on his head...

However four jumps away, a startling report makes the headlines of the JTAS news service,
that a musuem was robbed and the security cams show some sort of glowing spectre moving
about the place...what's happening ?

Anyway, thanks to your technologist a list of ships present in both ports at the time
of each caper nets two matches: one the PEABODY of Frontier Freight and the ABBADON,
owned by a front company of a Lanth corporation.

TREES COMPANY

Several hundred square miles of pristine forest has disappeared off 728-907 in the
Vilis subsector. UNIFIED PRODUCTS is certain an off-world group of resource plunderers
is making the planet their own all-profit operation. Trouble is UNIFIED doesn't have
the resources to guard the planet. They'd like the players to either catch them in
the act. So overflights are possible, spotting the loggerheads in action or...the
technologist of the group gathers market prices on resources on most of the nearby
worlds. Several have recently depressed lumber markets, possibly indicating a glut of
timber. Of course there are two other worlds who have timber prices in the neighborhood
of those pre-depressed worlds...

DOUBLE TROUBLE or

IS THAT AN ACR CLIP IN YOUR POCKET, OR ARE YOU JUST UNHAPPY TO SEE ME?

After completing a mission on a nearby world, the team gets permission from Harmony
Frost to make a lateral jump and enjoy some R&R, while the team's Detached Duty Scout
visits a friend on a nearby world. When they get dirtside, the starport readout shows
the friend's ship, a Beowulf, to be on a trip rimward. However, just for something
to do they take an air/raft to look over the friend's home. They quickly find out the
posting at the starport was an error, and the man and the crew are indeed here...and
armed to the teeth. After a tense scramble which finds the PCs surrounded by men with
weapons the scout's old buddy appears, SMG in his hand. Some terse interaction follows
before the man reveals a set of dark circumstances...

[Shrale]

I recently picked up T4's Milieu Zero so that might be another option.
I'll try putting together some Contact-2 stage scenarios this weekend.