Traveller - Mongoose 2E - Drinaxian Companion.pdf

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DRINAXIAN
C O M PA N IO N
D R I N A X I A N
C O M P A N I O N
CREDITS
CLASSIC TRAVELLER
Marc Miller
Loren Wiseman, John Harshman, Frank Chadwick, Darryl Hany,
Winston Hamilton, Tony Svajlenka, Scott Renner, Doug Poe,
David MacDonald, Wayne Roth, Paul R. Banner.
MONGOOSE TRAVELLER
Martin J. Dougherty
Author
Editor
Matthew Sprange
Amy Perrett, Cassie Gregory
Layout and Graphic Design
Interior Illustrations
Anderson Maia, Angel Muro, Michael Leonard,
Vytautas Bieliauskas, Sandrine Thirache, Cassie Gregory
Andrew James Alan Welty, Colin Dunn, M. J. Dougherty,
Rob Eaglestone, Sam Wissa, Joshua Bell, Maksim Smelchak
TRAVELLER INNER CIRCLE
Marc Miller, Loren Wiseman
Special Thanks
INTRODUCTION
CAMPAIGN OVERVIEW
RUNNING THE CAMPAIGN
HOW TO BUILD AN EMPIRE
TORPOL CLUSTER
TORPOL
CLARKE
BLUE
THEEV CLUSTER
VUME
THEEV
PALINDROME
THE HARRIER-CLASS
DAMAGE & DEFECTS OF THE HARRIER
CREW REQUIREMENTS & SHIPBOARD OPERATIONS
COMMERCE RAIDING OPERATIONS
THE REALITIES OF PIRACY
OPERATIONAL CONSIDERATIONS
FIRST PRIZE
STORIES FROM SINDAL
GODS OF MARDUK
REVOLUTION ON ACRID
FRIENDS IN DRY PLACES
THE CORDAN CONFLICT
LIONS OF THEBUS
LIBERTY PORT
SHIP ENCOUNTERS
EQUIPMENT
BASE COMPONETS
STARSHIPS OF THE REACH
PERSONALITIES AND FACTIONS
CONTENTS
2
4
8
9
19
21
26
30
34
37
40
46
49
59
63
65
68
75
90
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100
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124
133
141
148
177
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214
Traveller
©2020 Mongoose Publishing. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this work by any means without the
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text herein are copyrighted by Mongoose Publishing.
This game product contains no Open Game Content. No portion of this work may be reproduced in any form without
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This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United Kingdom and of the United States. This product is
a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual people, organisations, places or events is purely coincidental.
Traveller is a trademark of Far Future Enterprises and is used under licence.
Printed in China
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the Drinaxian Companion! This volume is an
expansion to the Pirates of Drinax campaign, presenting
additional rules and adventure possibilities along with a
useful summary of the campaign and locations featured
within it.
Pirates of Drinax is intended to be a ‘sandbox’ campaign
which permits the Travellers enormous freedom
of action. One consequence of this is that no two
campaigns are ever likely to go the same way. Indeed,
one band of Travellers might take an entirely different
approach or play in a totally different style to another.
It is quite possible play a Drinax campaign without ever
leaving the Floating Palace, focussing on the political
intrigues of King Oleb’s Court and sending others to do
the actual pirating. Another group might decide to ditch
Drinax entirely and build their own empire, or set of
across Charted Space in their ‘borrowed’ ship and never
look back. There is no right or wrong way to play Pirates
of Drinax, though there are ways the campaign might
never come to its intended conclusion.
This book presents a wealth of material that can be used
to flesh out a Drinax campaign, wherever it might go.
Whether the Travellers are political movers and shakers,
empire-builders, merchants, gangsters or actual no-
kidding pirates, there is something in here for everyone.
The rules presented in this volume make use of a
number of key concepts, which are presented here then
used throughout the text.
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KEY CONCEPTS
Person-Work-Hours (PWH)
A PWH represents the amount of work an able individual
can do in an hour, assuming they have a suitable set of
tools and machinery. Some tasks require only physical or
mental labour, while others will take extra time or cannot
be attempted at all without the right skills or equipment.
An individual with a skill level of 0 (or anyone if the task
does not require specific skills) produces 1 PWH per
hour. Higher skill levels produce 25% more PWH per
skill level. Thus someone with a skill level of 2 produces
1.5 PWH and a true expert with a skill level of 4 works
twice as fast as a person with basic familiarisation.
Labour costs vary considerably, especially if highly
skilled people or unusual equipment are required.
A basic cost of Cr10 per PWH can be assumed
for most jobs, representing payment to workers,
use of minor materials and tools, and other small
incidental costs, but does not include the price of
large or expensive components.
Required Skill Level (RSL)
Some tasks have a minimum skill level associated with
them, the level of skill required to be able to attempt the
task at all. Anyone who can attempt the task produces
the normal amount of PWH for their skill level. Those
who lack the relevant skill do nothing more useful than
get in the way unless a skilled leader builds a team.
Allegiance Code starts at 0 for casual contacts and can
be increased by various methods up to a maximum of
15. AC is treated as a characteristic that provides a DM
on checks to see whether the contact chooses to assist
the Travellers, and can be reduced if they are not treated
well. A contact with AC 15 will do more or less whatever
the Travellers ask of them, including openly allying with
them or fighting at their side against bad odds.
Skilled Team Tasks
A skilled person can lead others in a task, providing
guidance on what to do that allows even an unskilled
team to get the job done. A skilled person leading a
team treats everyone on the team as having a skill level
2 below their own. Thus someone with Mechanic 2
can lead a bunch of unskilled labourers through a task
requiring skill level 0, and a highly talented engineer
with a skill level of 4 can guide a team to carry out a
complex task normally requiring everyone to have skill
level 2.
Leading a team in this manner requires the Leadership
skill at a minimum of level 0. The number of people who
can be led in this manner is two, plus two more for every
level of Leadership the Traveller has.
Asset Value (AV)
An Asset is someone the Travellers can go to for
information or assistance, often placed in a starport
or within an organisation. The AV of an Asset is equal
to their SOC cubed (multiplied by itself, and then by
itself again), multiplied by their Allegiance Code. Thus
a low-status dockworker (SOC 4) who has AC 3 and is
thus willing to undertake only fairly basic, safe tasks has
AV 64 (4 x 4 x 4), multiplied by 3 for a final AV 192. A
minor noble (SOC 10) at the Duke of Tobia’s court who
is willing to do almost anything for the Travellers (AC
12) has an AV 1000 (10 x 10 x 10) multiplied by 12,
for a final AV 12000. AV determines costs associated
with the Asset.
Allegiance Code (AC)
Piracy Response Indicator (PRI)
The Contacts, Allies and associates of the Travellers
can be assigned an Allegiance Code, which indicates
how willing and likely they are to help the Travellers.
PRI is an indicator of how concerned a world
government is about piracy, and the level of response it
is likely to make. The starting level of PRI is based upon
the world’s Starport type, which also indicates the region
of space the world is concerned with.
3
C A M PA I G N O V E R V I E W
Pirates of Drinax
was published in episodic form,
with information presented in chunks throughout
the episodes. This was expanded with additional
publications, perhaps making it difficult to locate
information or keep the timeline straight. The latter
might not be too much of a problem; much depends on
the actions of the Travellers, and they are notorious for
doing violence to a referee’s carefully planned storyline.
Perhaps the most important underlying concept is that
events happen when it makes sense for them to happen
– the sandbox concept works both ways, and your
campaign plays out the way you play it out.
That said, what follows is an overview of the episodes
in the main campaign along with a guide to available
expansion materials beyond this book. Additional
considerations are explored as they become relevant.
C
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ASTROGRAPHICAL
Effective piracy requires a reasonable volume of
vulnerable shipping. Shipping moves along mains and
within clusters, between places where there is a profit
to be made or a need to go. A quiet backwater system
is a perfect place to avoid naval patrols, but it is a poor
prospect for successful attacks for pretty much the
same reasons. If King Oleb’s plan to rebuild the power
of Drinax through plunder and extortion is to work, his
pirates will have to work the main shipping lanes.
Drinax lies on a main of eleven star systems, which gives
access by way of a jump-2 transit to several other mains
and clusters. The Dustbelt, running through the Dpres
and Sindal subsectors, is a good prospect for piracy, as
are the Borderland and Wildeman clusters and the small
groups of worlds around Clarke and Marduk. Operating
much beyond these worlds requires long transits during
which the pirates are not making money or furthering
the aims of Drinax.
Conversely, if the Travellers make a lot of attacks close
to Drinax, it will become apparent that there is a piracy
hotspot or base in the area, and the major powers will
focus their attention on that region. The convenience of
operating close to home must be balanced against the
probability of bringing retribution down on the fledgeling
pirate kingdom.
It is not possible for the referee to predict exactly
what the Travellers will do, especially in a sandbox
environment, but it is a reasonable certainty that they
will carry out most of their operations in these regions.
The referee can make use of this prediction in a variety of
ways. The most obvious is to place scripted adventures in
systems the Travellers are likely to visit, or obtain some of
the supporting products that detail these areas.
A pre-prepared list of ships operating in a cluster or along
a main is a useful play aid. Jump-1 ships are confined
to a local area unless they make a difficult deep-space
transit using additional fuel. This is not commercially
CONSIDERATIONS
LOCATION
Pirates of Drinax
is set within the Trojan Reach, in the
region of neutral space between the Aslan Hierate and
Third Imperium. The Travellers’ likely area of operations
is far from the heartland of either, but both empires
keep a watch on their borders and are entirely willing to
intervene if their interests are threatened. This threat
casts a shadow over everything the Travellers do, and
even the most reckless of local leaders will be aware
that antagonising either great power means being
squished like the proverbial bug.
This factor has many effects on the campaign. It can
act to the Travellers’ advantage, preventing an enemy of
theirs from taking decisive action at a time when they
are vulnerable. It can also derail their plans or send the
campaign in a totally unexpected direction. For example,
what if the Travellers annoy an Aslan clan so much they
destroy the Floating Palace and eliminate the Travellers’
patron? Is the campaign over? Not if the Travellers want
to continue! They might decide to take their resources
and strike out on their own seeking vengeance or building
their own pocket empire. Or they might quietly move
into the wreckage of Drinax and begin rebuilding using
whatever they can salvage. The possibilities are endless…

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