Martian Nerve Dart-Guns

A long time ago (apparently 19:47 15 October 2018 according to my notes) I started working on something for Moment of Truth RPG (MoT RPG). The idea for the campaign was a Martian planetary romance pulp action/adventure campaign. Primary inspiration came from the Dying Mars setting in the lovely GURPS Mars supplement (though, pretty much all GURPS supplements are lovely) and S.M. Stirling's novel In the Courts of the Crimson Kings, which is itself an homage to previous Martian planetary romances. I grabbed that book off the shelf when I was in high school and read it primarily because I'm a fan of King Crimson.

There's a weapon out of In the Courts of the Crimson Kings which helps to emulate a swashbuckling mode of combat with divergent bio-tech. On Stirling's Mars the guns are alive. If properly nourished, they produce gases and darts filled with a deadly neurotoxin. Getting shot with this neurotoxin-dart gun makes death a near certainty. The gun can only produce one dart at a time and needs time to do so, however. Thus a piratey swashbuckling vibe is established. Shoot your musket living dart gun once and then resort to blades in a combat because it simply takes too long to reload regrow.

In my notes I wrote that the physical damage of a dart gun would resemble a cross between a sling and a thrown knife (according to the MoT RPG weapon tables, p.56).

Weapon	Damage	Close	Optimal	Long	Notes
Dart Pistol	Skill + 5 (4, 5)	C	12m	10m (2)	Ammo: 1, Living, Neurotoxin
Dart Rifle	Skill + 8 (4, 5)	C-1m	25m	35m (2)	Ammo: 1, Living, Neurotoxin

Living: This weapon is Martian bio-tech. It is alive. It requires nourishment (a special food paste for Martian tech and water) and is susceptible to disease. If properly cared for, it replenishes its ammo within four to six hours after shooting.

Neurotoxin: If any damage penetrates the target, the neurotoxin is delivered. The target is racked with pain and spasms. While under the effects of the neurotoxin, the target's throat clenches shut, are in terrible pain, and lose motor function. The target has the conditions Incapacitated and Suffocating. The suffocation counts as a surprise. To end the suffocation the target must succeed an Endurance stat roll with a -1d6 penalty. Once the character has ended their suffocating condition, they may attempt to end their Incapacitated condition at no further penalty.

Initially I had the Damage at Skill + 3 for the pistol and Skill + 5 for the Rifle. Transcribing it, I figured that I would bump it up. In my notes I initially have the conditions of the neurotoxin as Suffocation and Stunning and then switched it in the next paragraph to Incapacitation.

In retrospect, I honestly think that this could use some work. The Endurance rolls to overcome suffocation might become tedious. It could be better to just need someone to administer an antidote and then roll Endurance to overcome the incapacitation.

Cepheus Engine Generic Career Table

I lament that there are no career and life events for Cepheus Engine. So I looked over the various career events from Mongoose Traveller 1e (MgT) and made a generic one. It's very basic right now. It's tough to get specific like MgT did when you're using the same table for space Marines, colonists and scientists.  Since I've got another method for career events that I'm going to detail in an upcoming post, this event table is not likely going to be developed further. I didn't want to let it rot, though, so I humbly present it to you now, knowing full well what it is:

Roll 2d6

2: Disaster! Roll on the mishap table but you're not ejected from the career.

3: Gain a rival; Roll on the Basic Training table and gain an Enemy; or choose a result from the Basic Training table and gain 1d3 Enemies.

4: Gain one Rival or roll on the Specialist table and gain 1d3 Rivals.

5: Roll on the Specialist table and gain a Contact.

6: Gain a skill from the first three results on the Specialist table at level 1.

7: Roll on the Life Event Table.

8: Gain a skill from the first last results on the Specialist table at level 1.

9: Roll on the Personal Development table and gain an Ally.

10: Roll on the Advanced Education skill table for your career.

11: You do exceedingly well. Recieve a +4 DM to your next Advancement roll or a +2 DM to your next Survival roll.

12: You are automatically promoted (or, in a career without rank, choose a result from Personal Development, Specialist, or Advanced Education tables and increase said characteristic or skill).

Reorganized Skills in Cepheus Engine

I was not entirely impressed with the Cepheus Engine (CE) skills. I frowned that there wasn't a skill for deception, that there wasn't a skill for investigating a scene or deduction, or that skills were arrayed in a position that I found a tad confusing. This post is about how I've been reorganizing the skill list, changing cascade skills, adding skills, and, consequently, reorganizing the skills listed on the Career Tables. Cascade skills in Traveller are the same as specialty skills in GURPS.
I figured that Persuade, Deception, or whatever else kind of social pressure/social maneuver mechanic could all fall under Liaison. How the PCs use the Liaison skill (whether by diplomacy, persuasion, deception, or, perhaps, intimidation) will reflect how the skill is handled and resolved. Persuading someone to do something can actually be pretty difficult -- nearly impossible if the target already doesn't want to do it. Depending on what the goal of the PC is and the attitude of the target (the NPC), the difficulty/target number (TN) of the PC may be higher than it is for the NPC, or I may give the NPC more DMs (Direct Modifiers). For example, attempting to fast-talk a guard will consist of a an opposed Liaison skill, where the PC's TN is 10+ and the NPC's TN is 8+. Depending on how compelling the reasons given by the PC are, the TN for the NPC may be raised. A later blog post might go into more detail how I'll be using the Liaison skill in CE.
I threw in a couple skills from Mongoose Traveller (MgT1) -- Art and Investigation. I needed a skill to represent the ability to write coherently and appealingly for the Journalist career I was adding (noted below). I also needed a skill for the Entertainer. That's why I added Art, a cascade skill. I'm using the same specialties of MgT1. To create a successful report on something that the Party does or what they observe, they would have to make a successful Art check, typically based on Intelligence.
I have seen the Investigation skill used in MgT1 primarily as research. This might make sense, but I would just have the player make a Computers check. Computers covers the ability to comb a database for relevant information, and even to find typically inaccessible, secured information (though at higher risk). Investigation is using the principles of detection and discerning motive. Investigation will not only include the skills of finding clues in a crime scene or judging the character of a person by searching their rooms, but also of stringing together the information gleaned from the Computers skill to accurately string together meaning from the information.
Besides adding skills, I have been reorganizing the skill list -- placing the skills under their cascade and rearranging the cascades themselves. I've added Grouped Skills. These are a group of related skills, rather than cascade skills. I did these to cascade skills that are related, but wouldn't realistically allow for defaults between the skills. I did this to two skills: Sciences and Vehicles. Knowing how to fly some kind of ground vehicle doesn't give someone a working idea of how to pilot a submarine, sailing ship, jet, or helicopter. Related, the Sciences are no longer a cascade skill. Knowing Social Sciences doesn't default to Life Sciences. Whether each of those Science skills are Cascade Skills will depend on how cinematic the players and the GM want the game to be. If they don't want the game to be too cinematic, I would use the specialties of MgT1.
I turned Engineering into a Cascade skill. I basically mirrored the specialties from MgT1. I did this because I liked the idea of having there not be a general Engineering skill that serves as a catchall for all types of engineering, from complicated systems from life support to arcane jump drives. If the players want the game to be more cinematic, these specialties could, of course, be disregarded. I tend to appreciate more 'realistic' games, so I divided up the Engineering skills into the MgT1 specialities of: M-Drive, J-Drive, Electronics, Gravitics, Life Support, and Power. I figured that the CE Gravitics skill seemed to be a specialized form of Engineering, so I included it as such. On the career tables, Gravitics would be replaced by Engineering and where it's important that it's listed as Gravitics, Engineering (Gravitics). Where Engineering is already mentioned, it would be Physical Sciences.
Reading through the cascade skills, I also found that Survival was listed as a specialty of the Animals skill. I wasn't sure that this was a mistake or not, but I liked it. I decided to keep Survival as a specialty of Animals, and replaced Survival on the career tables with Animals. Where Animals was already listed, I kept it open for another skill was important or useful for that career. I could also, if I so desired, list the specialty as Animals (Survival).

Modifying the skills -- adding these two skills -- proved important for me to do because I was replacing the Hunter career with the Journalist career. Art (writing) and Investigate would be invaluable for the Journalist, of course. I also wanted to have players who wanted to try making a space detective have that opportunity. The adjustments to make the space detective has mostly been focused on either the planetary defense careers and Agents.
In the future I may post my modified career tables and what I have done to the skills.