What are we playing here?

How strict should we be with our events when it comes to linking characters together? If it all has to make sense chronologically, I might have to make some kind of flow chart ;)

It is really cool when we can go "what were you doing 8 years ago? Oh, we were both in prison? That would be because of <link>...", or "... you were fired and I was promoted, I wonder if those services (Careers) are linked, yes, maybe Rival we each got a term and two ago was secretly running both and that is why I got fired the next term, it takes them that long to notice and act...". That way the dice make a story.

But those are less important then making the links, so we can fudge things if we need.
It looks complicated from this side, but working backwards --once everyone is done-- should be simple enough. Those '4 year Terms' can have overlap with each others, we can generalise the specifics.

Question to all players and GM.

As my character backstory is that his whole home planet was sealed and erased from official records... by "the government" and his whole career he will try to find some information about this by the official channels... at the point we will gather to become real Travelers... he will have a very low trust to officials... and will have very high demand to find the truth... he may start to have some inclinations for... well... criminal activities.

I'm not asking about pursuing my character backstory - if it will ever come to this: it has to be natural and by other players intentions. But I started to wonder what you think about introducing some kind of mafia/rebel themes in our game? So called "good guys against corrupted system". But such attitude "sometimes" leads to some criminal activities... of course only in government's official's eyes... :)

But I mean more "mafia-like" then rebel -> cyberpunk. Gaining power to "do good things"... hopefully in the end there will be more good things then bad ones... But we would have to balance on the line sometimes.

What do you think about such themes?

Traveller, and Travellers seem like a good fit for 'rebels'. 'Law-abiding traders' does not sound like the most interesting story. :)
Of course. I am not keen on us being pirates, but skirting or stretching the law is almost expected.
I think Traveller could do Cyberpunk quite well. I have heard of people using Traveller's rules to run Cyberpunk 2013 (stupid name) to get around its wonky rules. There are adequate rules for 'hacking' and such.

I am a big fan of mafia related stuff (movies, series, boardgames) so that would work for me , but I'm not sure how to fit in my character. Have to take a look at that first.

My character was a smuggler and a spy, so he's definitely had experience with the not-so-legal side of things. A mafia-like faction would be something he might have come in contact with.

Cat would not mind some shady dealings. I'm starting to picture her rebelling against her family, so getting involved with those on the wrong side of the law would work with her.

It looks that my character Rafael has acquired a Free Trader(or Far Trader) ship during his career as Marine Merchant! I'm really happy, as it could be a good fit, vessel for some "special businessmen and businesswoman" that we are talking here about. But it should be equipped with some weapon. And I think it is possible?
Do any other character got a ship so far? What day you guys think about flying in this thing? Should we choose the Far trader version instead ? From what I was looking at this subject so far - probably it could be a better choice - for activities that may be not the best in government eyes...

I didn't rolled for its quirks yet... wonder what that will be:)

Go for the Far Trader. It's got more range and cargo capacity.

The Far Trader has less Cargo capacity, 63 tons vs 81 tons. It does have a bit more fuel capacity, but remember that we are TL9, so there is no Jump2.

Both of those examples are TL12 ships, so we will need to make something comparable.

Isn't it that, every ship is TL12 or more? Even most basic SCOUT/COURIER ? At least in core book? So we won't get any ship? :(

And why you have chosen this limitation to TL 9 ? You have established it before I came to this game, so I won't discuss with that... but I would like to know what is the reason ? I have read most of the discussions here, but don't remember reasoning for that?

To precise: I'm not claiming that there is no reasoning for that:) Just don't remember where it is? Or don't remember reading about it.

Their examples might be mostly TL12+, but they are only examples.
No, you still get a ship. It just won't have any Tech higher than TL9 or maybe TL10 for the miraculous/cutting-edge stuff. The only things that are likely to be impacted is that there is no Jump2 (though people are working on it, and you may end up getting it as a special treat), even Jump1 is outside the reach of most people, so your having a Jump Drive at all makes you special.

'Crystaliron' armour is also not available, but this applies to everyone, so it leaves you on equal footing.

I think that you may be limited to a Semi-Streamlined Hull. Don't expect to be taking your 200ton spaceship into atmosphere all the time.

This is off the top of my head, we were thinking about working out ship details in the story, and possibly creating our own, but we can work this Benefit into that, using your choice as a basis, Cat's Ship Shares can contribute too, and your time in Scout Services might affect things as well. You are (currently) 'majority share-holder' of the players (though the group still only owns a quarter of the ship), and the main Pilot, so maybe you are the 'captain'?

Presumably you don't have possession of your Trader while working for the Scouts? Or are you more of a Free Trader --still a 'Merchant'-- but out on you own? The Scouts are not very tolerant of trading on their time (so don't tell them).
That's a really fancy ship! What do yo mean 'most basic'? :)
It is what the players chose. It is also what the recruitment was for, and what I have been thinking of ideas for since than. I had not expected it to be that low, but once the players suggested it the potential was clear, it is an exciting time to be exploring, technology as not become commonplace and 'normal'. It is much more Firefly and BSG than Star Trek/Wars.
We did not need a lot of 'reasoning', it was what everyone wanted, I initially proposed higher (on basic assumption) but everyone wanted lower, and we had to drag it up to TL9 to ensure we had Jump Drives.

We did not 'reason' about it much since it was clear that lower TLs were better for gameplay. We can talk about it --and what it means-- here, but don't expect it to change at this stage.

Finalizing my character creation I had some ideas for the mishap that I rolled:
MISHAP: You have no idea what happened to you – they found your ship drifting on the fringes of friendly space.

This is it:
What do you all think about that? I think it supports earlier idea about us becoming a "good mafia-guys". And gives some reasons to cross the line of so called official law? It of course doesn't mean that every character was falsy accused for that crime. It could be that as the were working for the officials on that case, they found out that there is something fishy... and reporting their doubts to officials... made them also enemies of the state? Or something like that?

See my point about trying to align all the Connections in my reply in the Character Creation post. Reply there, since this is a question about that Character Creation.

Let's maybe sort out our connections and histories in the How do we know each other? thread before thinking too much about this recent event?

If that will be the case, I think we will need further modification for the example from the core book, as that example don't have any Air Raft or even place for it. No?
Ship shares are good potential for connection between our PC indeed. I don't mind to be a captain - of the ship. Raf's strong resolve would be handy in this and he will probably be very distrustful for others, but it is not a bad thing for a captain of a ship I think.
Raf's main purpose of enlisting in scout was to make the most contacts he can, and find good "markets" for his future activities.

"Trading on a duty? Never! Unless... you have something very valuable to sell? We Scouts have to examine extraordinary things, you know." :D

But certainly Raf didn't allow any scout official to have even a hint about that... as he naturally don't trust any officials. And wasn't doing too much of it. Only in really "safe" situations. About the Trader while in Scouts - as I written in my PC creation thread:So... I don't think Raf had the Trader during the time he was at Scouts.
"Yyy... I meant of course "the first choice ship" as it is sooo good!" ;) And I heard it is iconic for Traveller RPG? And it has some weapons... I would like to take part in at last one space battle at some time... So maybe we shouldn't limit ourselves for this one roll, and only leave this 25% ownership to lower the debt? But I also think that this ship being mainly for "trading only" is an interesting limitation, to have - to overcome. But probably it is not my "dream ship". But... (again) sometimes learning to go with what you have, can be more interesting then getting exactly what you wanted - at very beginning?
The BSG is the best show for me. So: I don't have any other questions:)

I hope I have done that?
Ok, good point.