Beyond the Zone

Traveller-Beyond the Zone.

PC's

Foxtrot, Zoneworlder, tech-scavenger who lived most of her life in space. Played by Walkie Talkie Noise Decoder.

Carter Wynn, Zoneworlder, smuggler and lowlife trying to make his way in the black. Played by Black Adder LXX.

Jay Murlow played by Aurvandil, Leader of a band of scoundrels, all-around tough guy.

Alexandretta Hawthrone played by ncc2020

ZoolakeemBorraxha played by Downer.

Hamish MacBain played by Antinomian Tendencies, a Security Officer / Gunner with an alarming memory gap.

Ship

• Ship

Setting

This setting deviates from the standard 3I setting details in one major way - the Solomani are not Space Nazis.

While their overall description remains the same, excise any racist cultural doctrine, assuming a stronger attachment to Solomani distrust of the Imperial system. Their major conflicts remain the same, but centred around political and cultural differences rather than Solomani purity. The single party system is still in place but far more factional. The overall construction of the Confederation is alliances of Federations working together. Solomani embrace other sentients wishing to live under the Solomani System, so planets filled with aliens, uplifted sentients or other branches of Humaniti are far more common and equal partners.

This is not to say that the Confederation was all peace and puppies...just that a racial motivation did not exist, a cultural one did. They were still humans, after all.

Tone The overall tone is Frontier adventure - think anywhere from Bab 5 to Firefly to BSG to Stargate, but from the setting and tech of Traveller. Characters are cast in the competent mold - The solid block of lvl-1 Service Skills gained in the 1st term of training sets them up straight away.

The Fenris Debacle

The story on Fenris.

In the third year of the Virus Wars in and above Fenris, the Federation troops based there pulled out, as part of the finalizing of the Zone. Most obvious virus had been removed from the system after a three year war with two infected industrial megacities, who churned out hunter killer bots and drones in the millions. Mopping up was to be left to the Technarchs Council, an interim government, a collection of the owners of the largest intact production facilities on planet. The citizens of the Free City Zone were those who lived in virus-cleared areas, a result of the last three years of fighting. They worked for the Technarchs, but there had been increasing calls for a new Solomani-style assembly to be formed. Those calls went unanswered as the Federation forces prepared to leave.

In amongst the logistical nightmare of extracting One Marine and three Army Divisions from a planet that had suffered a 90% population decline, supplying the local colonial troops with standardised weaponry, leaving antiviral equipment behind and building up an off world diplomatic base, the Federation ignored the increasing hostile protests erupting on the free cities at the Technarchy's unwillingness to move to a more representative form of government. This added to the tension of an already unsettled situation.

A brutal revolution broke out in the final weeks of Federation withdrawal. The Citizens militia bombed Technarch military bases, setting off violent reprisals on the free cities.

The 42nd Marines Battalion of the Terran 3rd division was made up largely of Recruits from Fenris, Hephastios and Terra. They saw the brutality of the technarchs forces (largely corporate or private army) in person during their final -peacekeeping role.

When the time came, they deliberately missed their bug out, and joined the Citizens Militia. They became the backbone of the organised resistance to Technarch rule.

The Federation maintained a discreet base in the system, accessible to Federation Military intelligence ships only. The Federation Major left to command the outpost and maintain contact with the Technarchs was a complex character, but personal prejudices against some of the officers of the 42nd may have led to him biasing reports to the Federation.

The situation remained this way for the next 8 years - after another virus outbreak from deep within the planets crust, a three way war developed that became increasingly brutal as time went by.

The situation changed in 1118, when Citizens Militia finally made off-world contact with the Federation independently of the line of command. A downed scout crew ejected into Militia ground space, and gained a new perspective on the Technarch government. The rescue mission to take them off was sabotaged, but three made it home to tell the other story of Fenris.

By 1120, The citizens militia had opened talks with covert Federation operatives. They also managed to contract several battalions of the Free Foreign Legion in response to the Technarchs bringing in off world troops. By 1123, the Free Cities were on the offensive.

In 1125, the final war broke out. By 1127, the first Free citizens assembly was formed. In those two years a major war was fought and the Technarchs thrown out, destroyed or tried as war criminals. By 1128, the politics and criminal courts took over the revolution. The Federation had a permanent base on Fenris' moon, the colonial navy added it to its regular roster of starports. The place became a de facto member of the Federation, a base for all Zone activities.

The surviving members of the 42nd were restored to their former status in the marines, given rank according to their ranks in the citizens army, and cashiered. Their story has been told in three full length holo features and seventeen different tri-vid series.

Situation.

Thirty years ago , The Solomani Confederation came crashing down under the attack of a sentient cybernetic AI program. It spread at the speed of the Jump ships that tried to warn of its approach, only to find they carried the infection outward as fast as they went. It devastated Confederation space, turning all automated systems into sentient and largely destructive beings.

The Imperium (Third Imperium), with a vastly different computing protocol, managed to halt the spread along its borders. So to, did some of the Federations of planets that constitute the Solomani Confederation.

The Terran Federation managed to stave off the worst of the collapse through a combination of luck and their own highly Imperial-ised computer technology.

Hivers and Aslan had similar success at stopping the spread of the virus at their borders, as did smaller empires with radically different computer protocols. The outbreak that destroyed Solomani space was contained.

At great cost, though. The Black Fleets, the Robot Rebellions, the deaths of entire worlds, all of it affected the collective psyche of Imperial citizens.

The Third Imperium incorporated the Terran Federation as the Terran Autonomous Region at the same time as they declared the Zone. All shipping in and out of the Zone had to pass rigorous checks for infection and all systems were declared Red Zones. The entire region was placed under Imperial Martial Law for nearly twenty years. No private shipping could leave the Zone for Imperial space.

Smuggling, piracy and petty empire building have been the way in the Zone, along with two appallingly brutal virus outbreaks that have ravaged subsectors. The Imperium has kept the border tight. So has the TAR, but they have run a variety of covert missions along the Zone over the years and their intelligence network is well established.

In the last ten years, however, the planet by planet struggle to free systems in the Zone has paid off here and there. There are places the TAR are welcome and their antiviral electronics are famous.

The Imperium is considering formal explorations beyond the Zone within the next four years. The TAR has been given leave to ignore this time limit with regard to exploring and contacting old Solomani worlds near their border and perhaps integrating them into the TAR.

Timeline

• 1132: Now. FERA sends out first long range expeditions to go beyond the Zone.

• 1128: 1 Term ago. FERA formed out of Scouts, Navy, Marines, Federation Merchants, Terran Science Council, recalled retirees and recruits from the Imperium and Zoneworlds friendly to the Federation. Opens first training facility.

• 1126 Imperium lifts total ban on Zone World planets. Limited exploration and assistance supplements already clandestine operations from Federation and Imperium interests.

• 1124: Two terms ago. Imperium and Federation hold joint talks on the political process of repealing zone world classification for applying planets. Zoolakeem Borraxha gets assigned to find Foxtrot, falls in love with her and breaks his contract. FERA picks them both up.

• 1120: Three terms ago. Time of the Second Virus War - a massive outbreak of Virus fleets and robot ground forces in the Kulcukan subsector leads to conflicts right up to the Terran Federation borders. Captain Borraxha musters out and acquires a bounty hunting licence, travelling to a ravaged frontier world with Hamish McBain.

• 1116: Four terms ago. Lance Corporal Borraxha gets commissioned and commands a boarding party on an Imperial cruiser.

• 1112: Five terms ago. Zoolakeem Borraxha joins the Star Marines.

• 1108: Six terms ago. Corporal Murlow scores a field commision. The newly made lieutenant is part of an uprising when Federation forces withdraw from the Zone, leaving the hastily formed Technarchs council to govern post viral Fenris. An entire Battalion refuses to leave, refusing the order to bug out as the technarch forces moved in on the free city zones. The Technarchy remains a diplomatic ally of the Federation and the battalion was declared criminally absent, which was shortly upgraded to terrorist charges when they began fighting Technarch troops alongside a citizens militia. A new outbreak of viral infected robots (modified deep mining units) led to a three-way war.

• 1105: The first Virus War - The Outbreak in the the Solomani Sphere destroys the Confederation and ravages borderworlds of the Imperium.

Three years of bloody fighting stops virus in what becomes the Zone. Private Murlow finds himself fighting millions of hunter-killer robots on Fenris.

• 1104: Seven terms ago. A young Jay Murlow of Jamaica, Terra, follows the family tradition and joins the Star Marines.

The Federation Exploration & Reclamation Agency.

Service in FERA

FERA began as an administrative nightmare but over the last four years has developed into a fairly standardised format.

PCs will undergo a four year term with the following exceptions. Characters gain a skill from the service skills table, but must take all unknown skills at level-0 in lieu of this skill level if there are two or more skills on the table they do not already have. Survival: If a character fails a survival roll, he will be 'repaired' and brought back on line if willing and able. Leadership: Leadership is given based on knowledge and experience related to missions or tasks, not necessarily for rank. Leadership rolls gain a +DM for the highest skill level the character has in a noted skill for that branch. Leadership roll subsumes a promotion roll - FERA needs trained experts and means to keep them.

Branches:

• Operations. Starship and base crews, as well as operational teams.
  • Surv: End 7+
  • Leadership: Int 10+ Pilot, Tactics, leader.
• Technical Support. From field Technicians to virus experts to scientists.
  • Surv: Int 6+
  • Leadership: Ed 11+ Science, engineering, computer
• Contact. Diplomatic and human sciences, including trade relations.
  • Surv: Int 7+
  • Lead: Int 9+ Diplomacy, Science, Trade.

FERA Career Path

Personal Development	Service Skills	Operations	Technical	Contact	Leader
+1Str	Gun Cbt(any)	Zero-G	Mechanic	Language	Leadership
+1End	Medic	Sensors	Electronics	Diplomat	Advocate
+1Dex	Zero-G	Pilot(any)	Engineer(any)	Admin	Tactics(any)
+1Int	Recon	Comms	Sensors	Streetwise	Persuade
Athletics(any)	Vacc Suit	Gunnery(any)	Computers	Science (any)	Deception
Melee Cbt	Stealth	Astrogation	Science(Virology)	Investigate	+1 Soc

Roll mishaps and events on the Scout tables.

The Job

Four years isn’t a lot of time for a region recovering from the aftermath of the Virus wars…the Terran Federation doesn’t have the resources to spare to mount a major operation.

In the usual dance of interstellar politics, the TAR wheels and deals with Imperial sponsors and Megacorps for funding. They reactivate reservists from their Scout and Military services, put in Federation Navy/Scout oversight and pull in every lend-lease mortgage on ships they have. Ambitious retired Imperials from a variety of services are screened, vetted and recruited, especially if the Federation can buy up a ships mortage loan in the deal.

Welcome to the Federation Exploration & Reclamation Agency.

This paramilitary service is being built for entirely one purpose – to go beyond the Zone into old Solomani space, explore what’s there and begin reclaiming worlds. It’s composition after four years is still quite fluid, with a core of returned to service Scout vessels and a few older Naval ships alongside a variety of civilian, merchant and ex-military small craft, normally part-owned by their captain or crew. There are also a number of ships who are subcontracted to the service under a variety of deals.

Your four year mission is to find out...

What lies beyond the Zone?

Few people know anything, and fewer know more than what they have learned in active service or illegal activities. There have been reports of worlds devoid of life except for machines, fleets of ancient, sentient battle groups haunting blasted worlds. But there are also Traders and others who come from Spinward of the Zone - though they are close mouthed about where their homeworlds lie.

It is time for someone to find out.

Character Generation

Any of the Mongoose books or supplements are Kosher. I'll go with people rolling their own characters, as we are all adults.

Houserules

Characters start with attributes of 9, 8, 8, 7, 6, placed anywhere you like (Strength, Agility, Constitution, Intelligence, Education). PC's can raise and lower any of these attributes by 'trading off', for a maximum of 3 points of changes higher or lower.

(example: A,9,8,7,4... +2 in total added to two attributes, -2 from 1).

Roll 1d6, add the result to your attributes anywhere you like, to a maximum of 12 in any single att. Note the amount less than 6 that was rolled — this number will generate bonuses during career paths.

Roll Social Status on 2d6, no modifiers.

Use the usual Traveller generation rules, but get an auto success on a number of rolls equal to the amount of attribute bonuses you didn't roll . These can be any transfer, survival, promotion or success roll the player desires, but are of no use after chargen. They can also be used to choose an event rather than roll. If some are left over, they get used as extra benefits rolls.

Example: Bob rolls +3 on attribute increase, so gets to auto success three rolls in his career path. He uses up two, so gets an extra benefit roll at the end of his service.

Other Chargen changes

• Federation: Maximum 6 terms + FERA (total 7), but preferably only 3 or 4 terms + FERA (total 4 or 5).
• Imperials and Zoneworlders: Maximum of 7 terms (46), unless there’s a pressing reason.
• Anagathics are life extension treatments in this version of the Imperium. They are common and automatic for Rank 4+ in any of the services.
• Skills: All characters receive 6 level -1 service skills (instead of level -0) in their very first term.
• In subsequent terms, characters choose skills from their eligible tables instead of rolling for them.
• Characters may take their last term in the Federation Exploration & Reclamation Agency. If not, they are considered freelancers or hired specialists.
• Transfer of rank into FERA is automatic if you were from a recognized Federation Service and generally extended to Imperial recruits.
• Federation PC's may simply roll an extra term if they are from Navy, Marine, Scout, or Scholar careers.
• Imperials and Zoneworlders (and even a few federation types) may choose to be Freelancers, tied to FERA by ships mortgage or direct payment.

Background

In broad strokes, characters can have the following backgrounds.

Terran Autonomous Region. A native of Terra or one of the other worlds. TAR has only been an Imperial client for thirty years and the politics are still shaky in the region.

Roll up characters as per normal, but the careers can be in the Federations equivalent of Imperial services.

Old Imperial.

A citizen of the Third Imperium. My spin on the Imperium is that it directly owns and controls some planets or systems (any system with a Gov of 5 or 8 ) and there is some difference between being a full citizen or an independent world or polity. The noble system is an Imperium wide Meritocracy, sustained by ancient lines that own vastly powerful systems.

The role of the Huscarles (personal troops) of the more powerful nobles is more important in this Imperium. This can include entire fleets and divisions of troops amongst the high and mighty.

Roll up characters as per normal. Any special Ops result in the army, marines or navy can be taken as a transfer to a nobles’ personal Huscarles.

The Zone.

The broad stretch of systems that marked the furthest extent of the Virus Wars. By Imperial Law, the entire zone is considered to be a Red Zone under full martial law. No civilian shipping of any kind is allowed to cross the zone into Imperial space and all military traffic is thoroughly scanned and examined. Travel within the zone is possible and quite regular in some areas, but systems are heavily patrolled by the Colonial fleet and the Federated Marshall Service. It is, of course, also a hive of scum and villainy.

Active services in the zone

The Colonial Fleet . A Federation- style service formed out of the need for local space policing in the Zone. Famous for its scrapyard fleets of reclaimed Solomani and Imperial vessels. Rolled up as a navy character. Includes Colonial Marines.

The Free Foreign Legion. An auxiliary service formed along Federation lines. Acting as system troops for the reclamation wars in the Zone. Rolled as army or marine (Mercenary) character.

The Federated Marshall Service. The Zones interstellar police force, acting independently of the Imperial Navy and scout service. Heavily sponsored by the TAR and a few Zone worlds and polities.

Rolled as Space Patrol (a separate, third party career) or Agent (Mongtrav).

Maps

The Zone Route

The AO

The Zone from an Imperial perspective.

http://wiki.rpg.net/images/0/01/SolomaniRim_zpsf3ab3e1f.jpg

Question

The Vegan Autonomous Region. I’m not a big fan of the Vegans in Traveller, but would be willing to replace them if someone has a good suggestion. If not, I’ll run them as another branch of Humaniti, but smaller, with faster reflexes and hand to eye coordination and shorter lifespans.