For our first session of the Free Accra Campaign, character creation proceeded in phases using an approach borrowed from FATE-based RPG systems. In each phase, each player told a story about their character’s background, and from that story derived one or more Aspects. Two of the five phases required players to involve other players’ characters in their story.
Arregh Boenval (Chris)
Arregh is a Vargr from the close-knit community of Boenval (aka “Boneville”). Arregh is also a well-placed lieutenant in the military junta. He is generally proud of his success and position, believes in the goals of the junta, and has fully supported suppression of the protestors. On the other hand, Arregh is greatly troubled by the false honor and corruption that he’s seen in the military government. It’s troubled him to such a degree that on one occasion he took matters in to his own hands. Colonel Cobb (Joel) has an idea of what happened, but so far has been willing to keep the secret. Arregh also has some family secrets that can be difficult for him in the nationalistic Vargr community.
One of the events that troubled Arregh was when he was ordered to arrest Kno Moon (David). Arregh knew that Kno had no connection to the protesters.
Skills & Talents: military focused
Sample Aspects:
Morphin (Jose)
Morphin is human and psionic. Morphin is a member of a community of psionics who fled persecution by the Third Imperium. While psionics are not treated harshly in this area of space, because of their history, Morphin’s community prefers to be secretive about their talents. To the outside, they appear as a school of martial arts. Morphin’s individual psionic talents manifest as the ability to manipulate machines and computers with his mind.
Morphin recently found himself in the area of a student protest and the subject of a beating by police officers. Zh’kath (Ben) realized Morphin was an innocent bystander and convinced the police to stop (Morphin does not know this). After the police left Morphin, Atrika (Eric) found him and helped care for his wounds.
Skills & Talents: psionics, brawling, athletics
Sample Aspects:
Zh’kath (Ben)
Zh’kath is a Graken, very large, cat-like creatures who generally prefer solitary intellectual pursuits. Zh’kath was in the Graken version of the military academy but failed out and is now travelling to pursue his fortune. Zh’kath is clairvoyant and telepathic. He is also currently employed by the junta government but is not necessarily a supporter, and in fact, is beginning to question the wisdom of working for them.
Zh’kath helped rescue Morphin (Jose) from a police beating. Leaving his home, he was given a ride off the planet by Kno (David).
Skills & Talents: psionics, combat, security
Sample Aspects:
Colonel Cobb (Joel)
Cobb is human and a native of Accra. He grew up under the shadow of an abusive military father. As his father wished, Cobb joined the Marines, but to get back at his father, he became a doctor. Cobb has a short temper and a cruel streak.
Cobb has an idea that Arregh (Chris) was involved in his superior’s death, but doesn’t care to pursue it as he’s not fond of Vargr anyway.
At one of the protests, Cobb came to the rescue of Atrika (Eric) and severely beat the officer who was beating her. The government, not wanting to acknowledge the violent response of the police, but succumbing to the political pressure of those police, forced Cobb to retire from the Marines.
Skills & Talents: combat, surgery
Sample Aspects:
Atrika Van der Berg (Eric)
Atrika was born to a Solomani mother and a Vilani father, and was raised in a small commune on another planet. When she was 9 years old, that commune was attacked by Kafoe and her father was killed and the rest of the family held hostage. Military from The Old Worlds rescued the colony and the survivors were resettled on Accra.
For a while, Atrika’s mother became hooked on Shik, but she eventually kicked the habit and began working to help other addicts, as well as speaking out against government collusion with the drug trade. Perhaps not surprisingly, this got her mother killed.
Artrika went to college on a scholarship for commune survivors, studied mechanical engineering, and is now finishing up a graduate degree in chemical engineering. She’s become active in the anti-junta protests. At one protest, she helped care for an injured Morphin (Jose). At another, she was rescued by Col. Cobb (Joel).
Skills & Telents: engineering, persuasion, criminal contacts
Sample Aspects:
Kno Moon (Me– NPC)
Kno is an expatriate Solomani who settled on Accra after an extensive career in the Solomani Scout Service. He does not have diplomatic immunity but does have a certain status, as he is on detached duty. Kno was planning a peaceful retirement but apparently chose the wrong planet. He was arrested at the orders of Arregh (Chris), apparently for his connection to offworld political influences. He knows Zh’kath from a visit to the Graken home world.
Skills & Talents: politics & economics, empathy, astrogation
Sample Aspects:
Background information for what is coming to be known as the Free Accra Campaign:
This Region of Space
The campaign is set in the official Traveller universe as described in QLI’s Gateway to Destiny book for T20. This is in the time of the Third Imperium (year 993), though the campaign will be taking place outside that polity, toward the trailing end of Chartered Space, in a region known as the Gateway Domain. It’s a region of space that is more sparsely settled, with mostly independent systems and smaller multi-system polities. Spinward-Coreward (think NW on an typical map) is the Third Imperium. Spinward-Rimward (SW) is the Solomani Confederation, home of Terra. Trailing-Coreward (NE) is the Two Thousand Worlds, home of the K’kree (militant vegetarian centaur-like species). Trailing-Rimward is the Hive Federation, home of the Hivers (manipulative hexapod race most closely resembling starfish). [Check out http://www.travellermap.com/.]
Within the Gateway Domain, the campaign begins on the planet Accra, in the Bright Heavens subsector of the Crucis Margin sector (gamma quadrant). Accra is located in the middle of the Tsavo Reach, a string of independent systems forming an arch located about equidistant between two polities, The Old Worlds to Trailing-Coreward and the Syzlin Republic to Spinward-Rimward. Other polities in the area include Greater Osaka, the Kafoe Dominate (home of a violent alien species at war with The Old Worlds), and the Karhyri Worlds (home to an honorable reptilian species).
For the most part, the systems and polities in this area of space have not been involved in the continuing war between the Third Imperium and the Solomani Confederation. Culturally, however, most of humaniti here is of Solomani origin. The region also contains a large minority of Luriani, who are an amphibious human sub-race. (They breathe air and water and have webbed hands and feet.) Vargr are also common.
The Old Worlds is typical human but is culturally Vilani. It is a stable polity formed by Vilani refugees from the Second Imperium (aka The Ramshackle Empire), which had been formed by Solomani after defeating the Vilani First Imperium (aka Ziru Sirka). Thus, while The Old Worlds is a fairly free and democratic society within its own borders, it adopts a paternalistic and superior attitude to the surrounding systems. The government of The Old Worlds is not afraid to interfere in the affairs of others to promote its own values or interests. For example, The Old Worlds has established a number of (space) naval bases throughout the region, ostensibly to protect trade, provide interstellar security, and offer humanitarian assistance. The influence of these military forces, though, certainly exceeds their public mandate.
The Syzlin Republic is a much younger polity and one that has seen a fair degree of instability over its history. While it is currently constituted as a nominal republic, it is well known to have expansionist goals. The Syzlin Republic is majority culturally Solomani.
Home Base
The planet Accra, for whom the system is named, is very-much Earth-like, with the major difference being a somewhat lighter gravity. Accra has extensive ocean coverage, three continents, and one large archipelago. It is home to a population in the billions, approximately 50 percent culturally Solomani humans, 35 percent Vilani, 5 percent Luriani, 5 percent Vargr, and 5 percent other sentients.
The planet was settled long ago but for most of that history was governed by separate and relatively unstable nations. Then 25 years ago, in a conflict known as the Union Wars, Accra was united under a single government controlled by trade unions. With the support of the people, the Union government nationalized most industries and pursued an aggressive campaign of modernization. The campaign was successful and Accra became a high-tech center of trade in the Tsavo Reach. The capital city, Accra, contains a class A starport, and there are two other local starport facilities on another continent and in the archipelago.
Over time, the Union government became corrupt. A number of factors contributed to this trend, but significant among them was the discovery and cultivation of Shik, an algae with narcotic, as well as addictive and inconsistent anagathic properties. Shik use spread across Accra and criminal gangs began exporting it to other systems. The military leadership of Accra, which was majority culturally Vilani, decided that it could not allow the societal collapse that it foresaw and took control in a coup, which while not bloodless enjoyed widespread support.
Unfortunately, the military junta that has governed Accra for the last 3 years, does not really have the experience and expertise appropriate for civilian needs. Given the trade union base of the previous government, one of the first programs of the new government was to privatize industry. Turning the engines of Accra’s success in to publicly held corporations was supposed to benefit the companies, the workers, and the investors at-large. Instead, major blocks of stock ownership ended up in the hands of a relatively few well-connected people. Those people have and continue to reap significant financial rewards from their positions. The working class, however, has been experiencing increasing economic hardship.
And of course, that economic hardship has led to increasing disillusionment with the military government, and over the last several months, growing civil unrest. As has been known to happen, the unrest began with protests on university campuses. In the capital, Monaca University has been the site of several clashes between protesters and police. Union groups, with support from small businesses, have begun staging demonstrations, and last week were successful at arranging a general strike of many workers and businesses.