In The Black - A Quest in the world of The Expanse

Reader mode
[X] On a rock hopper, mining asteroids and living as close to the edge with your family as you can, outrunning dusters and blues when they catch you with your transponder busted and spending a weekend every month fucking around on Ceres while your family sells ice and nickel. (Vacc Suit 0, Mechanic 0, Athletics 0, Carouse 0)

Texas Red said:
(Science 0, Medic 0, Profession 0 [Ability to have an honest job], Electronics 0)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
How hard would it be to pick up those three Skills later?

Like Belter MC seems to be most likely to try to dive hard into transhumanism by cybernetics?
 
[X] On a rock hopper, mining asteroids and living as close to the edge with your family as you can, outrunning dusters and blues when they catch you with your transponder busted and spending a weekend every month fucking around on Ceres while your family sells ice and nickel. (Vacc Suit 0 [Ability to use a space suit at all), Mechanic 0, Athletics 0, Carouse 0)

Reject modern gaming, return to dad-sim. Hehehe, mining laser go BZZZT.
 
[X] Working the dome covered fields on Ganymede, learning the sciences and trades closest to the skills of a farmer on Earth. (Science 0, Medic 0, Profession 0 [Ability to have an honest job], Electronics 0)

This doesn't seem to be as popular as the other options, but I like it.
 
012345 said:
How hard would it be to pick up those three Skills later?

Like Belter MC seems to be most likely to try to dive hard into transhumanism by cybernetics?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Depends on how character creation goes. Scholar would be a good career to go into if you want that.
 
[X] Working the dome covered fields on Ganymede, learning the sciences and trades closest to the skills of a farmer on Earth. (Science 0, Medic 0, Profession 0 [Ability to have an honest job], Electronics 0)

While I wish Mars won, hard mode can be interesting. If this quest lasts we can work towards our own ship and maybe some gene therapy/mechanical augmentations.
 
Last edited:
[X] A void-cloaked space station, like Pallas, Tycho, or some tiny one out in the Trojans. Life around there was either cushy or so dangerous you wonder how you survived your childhood, no in between. (Electronics 0, Admin 0 [Sorting through bureaucracy], Vacc Suit 0, Streetwise 0)
-[X]Tycho

[X] Working the dome covered fields on Ganymede, learning the sciences and trades closest to the skills of a farmer on Earth. (Science 0, Medic 0, Profession 0 [Ability to have an honest job], Electronics 0)

Because mega engineering projects call to me and knowing how to do electronics is important when every ship part has a computer controlling it or needing to be hacked to make it work if acquired from the gray market or salvage

For those who don't know Tycho station is the mega engineering station of the solar system. Generation ship construction, constructing and spinning asteroids to turn into stations, etc. with our stats pointing to smarts growing up there would be very beneficial to us
 
Last edited:
012345 said:
[X] On a rock hopper, mining asteroids and living as close to the edge with your family as you can, outrunning dusters and blues when they catch you with your transponder busted and spending a weekend every month fucking around on Ceres while your family sells ice and nickel. (Vacc Suit 0, Mechanic 0, Athletics 0, Carouse 0)


How hard would it be to pick up those three Skills later?

Like Belter MC seems to be most likely to try to dive hard into transhumanism by cybernetics?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
If I recall most of the augments and cybernetics are seen on earthers or martians or in corpo science/kill teams in the show and books. Makes sense given they'd be expensive as fuck and a body would need constant grabity to heal well from an elective surgery like that. It's actually a point in the books that a POV character needs surgery to live but can't get it because they can't get gravity due to reasons I don't want to spoil.

So if we want to go augments or such we'd have to go to a station or planet and grow up on one for our body to be healthy enough to accept them.

There are drugs you can take to make belters able to walk on a planet with gravity but there very expensive and require months of daily injections to strengthen the body enough to survive in a gravity well environment
 
Last edited:
[X] Working the dome covered fields on Ganymede, learning the sciences and trades closest to the skills of a farmer on Earth. (Science 0, Medic 0, Profession 0 [Ability to have an honest job], Electronics 0)
 
[X] Working the dome covered fields on Ganymede, learning the sciences and trades closest to the skills of a farmer on Earth. (Science 0, Medic 0, Profession 0 [Ability to have an honest job], Electronics 0)'

This seems like the most straight-forward match for our character's stats. I won't lie, the other options do all sound cool. Particularly playing a well-educated and intelligent Ceresian street kid. I definitely want to play some kind of dwarf planet-born belter. The inability to live in a regular gravity well sounds tough, but working and living dwarfside might make it easier at least. Also thanks for the recommendation on The Expanse. It's been something in the corner of my eye for a long time but I might actually check it out now. I love hard sci-fi that then develops into things more speculative/esoteric. Peter F Hamilton's "Night's Dawn" trilogy/universe is really good for that imo.

EDIT: We're very... very close to having a +2 in our intelligence or education. I wonder if it's possible for us to (eventually) improve one of those. If I had to guess I'd say education is a lot easier to improve than intelligence but with transhumanism who knows.
 
Last edited:
Texas Red said:
6-8 is average, 9-11 is above average and add +1 to checks with that skills, 12+ is very above average and adds +2. 5-3 is below average at -1, and 2- is -2.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Thank you! So it seems that we're quite a good specimen, a little bit clumsy but also fairly smart. In that case I will vote

[X] Working the dome covered fields on Ganymede, learning the sciences and trades closest to the skills of a farmer on Earth. (Science 0, Medic 0, Profession 0 [Ability to have an honest job], Electronics 0)

to get the most skills that seem to fit our stats.
 
Last edited:
[X] Working the dome covered fields on Ganymede, learning the sciences and trades closest to the skills of a farmer on Earth. (Science 0, Medic 0, Profession 0 [Ability to have an honest job], Electronics 0)

Good to be on the center of the solar system's biotechnology, where no one would dare to attack.
 
0-2 First Term
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Working the dome covered fields on Ganymede, learning the sciences and trades closest to the skills of a farmer on Earth. (Science 0, Medic 0, Profession 0 [Ability to have an honest job], Electronics 0)

    Scratch that, you were born on Ganymede. The best place in the system with less than .3 G to gestate and give birth. Your parents were botanists, and you envied them since you could understand it. You were perfectly aware of how lucky you were, growing up in not only a gravity well, but one with a magnetosphere. You developed your own personality separate from your parents as you entered your teens, though you still picked up a few things from school, most of your science classes, how to work an honest job, how to patch yourself up if you're hurt after your first bone break reminded you how fragile you were.

    When you were 18, you graduated your standard education and were ready for your next steps in life. The whole system was laid before you, you could do anything you wanted. How did you start your life as an adult?

    Some options in standard Traveller have been excluded, as Belters don't really have an opportunity to join them.


    [ ]University (roll EDU 6+ to enter)
    -Choose two skills from this list to get, one at level 0 and one at level 1: Admin, Advocate (legal shit), Astrogation (space navigation), Art, Electronics, Engineer (ship engineering), Medic, Navigation, Profession, Science

    [ ]Agent INT 6+
    -Law Enforcement (Security corporation)
    -Intelligence (fuck the pigs, fuck botany, become an informant for the Outer Planets Alliance)
    -Corporate (If you can't beat em, join em)

    [ ]Citizen EDU 5+
    -Corporate (Just another desk jockey)
    -Worker (Just a clock puncher working to build the infrastructure of Ganymede)
    -Colonist (Keeping the family business going with growing food for The Belt)

    [ ]Drifter (Automatically Qualify)
    -Wanderer (Space Bum)
    -Belter (They're always hiring on ice miners headed to Saturn)

    [ ]Entertainer INT 5+
    -Artist (You make paintings, hologram art, or YouTube videos)
    -Journalist (Make sure The Belt knows what's up)
    -Performer (Actor, dancer, singer, athlete, etc.)

    Merchant INT 4+
    -Merchant Marine (Working on a megacorp's trade ship)
    -Free Trader (Working on a small, employee owned ship trading whatever you can around The Belt)
    -Broker (Working as a trader portside)

    Rogue DEX 6+
    -Thief (Steal shit. It's a living!)
    -Enforcer (You're a little tougher than most, put it to use, break some legs!)
    -Pirate (Fuck an honest living, become a pirate!)

    Scholar INT 6+
    -Field Researcher (Exploring the Jovian system to further science)
    -Scientist (Creating new methods of hydroponics and fertilizer types)
    -Physician (Becoming a doctor isn't very hard in The Belt if you seem like you know what you're doing)


    For those unaware with Traveller, your backstory is broken down into 4 year segments called "Terms". You have to roll to get into careers, and if you fail, you have to take the Drifter career or "submit to the draft". Unfortunately, Belters don't really have a military in this time period, so if you fail, you have to become a drifter for that term. This continues until you decide to end character creation.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • [X]University (roll EDU 6+ to enter)
    - [X] Engineering 1, Astrogation 0

    17 percent chance of getting Drifter for the term. :-/

    Ship's engineer, pilot, and science-guy sounds good for a narrative to work off of. Prospectors involve a lot of survey and minerology and such. Wandering around marking out good mining sites seems like a solid way to get interesting things happen to a character on account of travelling so much. Being a Uni grad with those skills goes a long way -- especially if you've got the demonstrable ability to hold down a decent job (Ganymede childhood).
     
    Last edited:
    [X]University (roll EDU 6+ to enter)
    Don't want to start off with exactly what Praxidike did, so lets avoid Scholar.
     
    [X]University (roll EDU 6+ to enter)
    - [X] Engineering 0, Science (Pharmaceuticals) 1

    @Texas Red Would we be able to take double engineering but one of them focusing on crash couches or profession focusing on juice? Being able to make custom/boutique crash couches and anti g force drugs
     
    Last edited:
    inbred martian said:
    Being able to make custom/boutique crash couches and anti g force drugs
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Only ever saw those in use on the Martian gunship(s). So just being able to have them at all on a Belter vehicle would be kinda impressive. Not that the Belters have any gunships of their own -- that was Fred Johnson's ambition with Tycho Station but at least as far as the TV show goes we never saw it come to fruition.

    That's a course for development actually. Modify those shipyard tugs to light railgun (not quite PDC because they're too small to have the relevant ammo and charge to do more than fire a small railgun at point blank range and come back to recharge) drone swarms -- be a hell of a weapon to confront, while the human-occupying mother-control ship stays safely well away.
     
    Logos01 said:
    Only ever saw those in use on the Martian gunship(s). So just being able to have them at all on a Belter vehicle would be kinda impressive. Not that the Belters have any gunships of their own -- that was Fred Johnson's ambition with Tycho Station but at least as far as the TV show goes we never saw it come to fruition.

    That's a course for development actually. Modify those shipyard tugs to light railgun (not quite PDC because they're too small to have the relevant ammo and charge to do more than fire a small railgun at point blank range and come back to recharge) drone swarms -- be a hell of a weapon to confront, while the human-occupying mother-control ship stays safely well away.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Cool, ya if we're going off of the show more than books makes that makes sense, in the books it seems like every ship has a crash couch per person. And the beds in every room were crash beds. And Tycho station even made a ship able to keep its crew alive for small 8g burns to catch the Behemoth after it missed Eros.

    Maybe we'll be able to make a small corporation around making crash couches for the OPAs belter navy. I'm sure nobody makes military grade couches for belter physiques and bodies.
     
    Last edited:
    Last edited:
    Logos01 said:
    I like that enough I'll adjust my vote to match.


    So "Science (Pharmaceuticals) 0" right?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    You already have Science 0, so to take pharmaceuticals you have to increase it by one, which allows you to pick a specialty. So you have to use your 1 rank skill to get that.
     
    Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Back
    Top