7TV - The Fafnir Operation

The Vegemate; Salty-Good Lurker in Darkness

Since this past Cold Wars, I have been working on a Secret 7TV project,  which I revealed at Fall In! this past weekend. The project involved a grass green Shoggoth from RAFM, a super-spy codenamed "Duchess" and his "quadroon" companion, Agent Kane, an Industrial Spy with No Face, a Violent Sadist, a Promising Middle Manager and a dozen or so armed corporate minions...oh, and a 28mm North Sea oil platform.

It was "The Wreck of the Fafnir Alpha".

Taken whole-cloth from the 7TV 1st Edition "United Radionics" Programme Guide scenario "The Fafnir Operation", I ran this game twice (as is my wont). The scenario revolves around an experimental oil platform suffering from an insurrection, provoked by the Faceless Industrial Spy, actively under suppression by the Promising Middle Manager, aided by the Violent Sadist, with the Super-Spy & Friend seeking an advantage, all whilst being menaced by the Grass Green Shoggoth.

UR Corporate Troubleshooters dig in. Figures by Crooked Dice

As the reader may judge, attempting a play-by-play AAR would be nigh-impossible. The result of the first game was the Faceless Industrial Spy was able to escape through his ability to morph his features and the judicious use of an event card. The Super-Spy and Friend were captured by the Middle Manager and Violent Sadist (oh, DEAR!). Many robots and minions died, and the Grass Green Shoggoth went off, sulking and hungry.


In the second game (in which we ran out of time) many robots were destroyed, only to re-appear on the rear edge of the Troubleshooters by a despicable exploitation of an event card's text (brilliantly done, BTW). The Super-Spy and Friend did Somewhat Better, the Faceless Industrial Spy did not escape, many minions died, and the Grass Green Shoggoth AGAIN went off, sulking and hungry, and vowing never to play these naff rules again.

"Ah. Ms. Kane. What a nice set...of pistols."

In both games, the Corporate Troubleshooter team (led by the Middle Manager and Violent Sadist) won with the most VPs.

"Duchess": Beat down by John Chalice and Ian Ogletree

Other high points - using an event card to remove a stairway, thus forcing the Super-Spy and Friend to jump. Nice. Another card (Re-shoots) called for shifting several extras a few inches, resulting in several robots tumbling off the platform and into the North Sea (and you wondered why an occasional Dalek is found in a bog every now and then...)

Robot Bites Dog

Post Game Thoughts:

Fun Scenario, Fun Rules. One of my players (Ed W.) also runs 7TV in 15mm, using the 2nd Ed. While I have been resisting changing the rules, at Ed's encouragement, I will give 2E another look.

"BOSS! Behind us!"

Also, I plan to run this again at Cold Wars, with some Mods.

There will be objective tokens, some mobile, some not, to encourage the Corporate Troubleshooters off the helipad and into the scrum....Ω

TRAVELLERcon/USA 2016 Miniatures

This year's TRAVELLERcon/USA had a smaller number of miniatures games played, but there was still a nice representation.

Pictures below are from Bill P.'s Aslan Vs Centaurs game. I did not get to play - from what I heard, it was a great deal of fun. Bill also has some very nice buildings that he doesn't deserve that he's fortunate to have, and they add quite a bit to the past-future mood.

Bill uses his own home-brew rules, called "Bill's System" or "B.S." which makes me want to publish my "Keith's Rapid and Point-based System" or KRAPS. Time will tell.

Also notable is Bill's use of the same model grav tank as I use for the Aslan - for more of Bill;s work, HIE THEE HENCE. Bill's aesthetics are excellent and coincide precisely with mine...Ω