Kehaarcon

 Andy Clarke aka Clarky the Cruel aka Kehaar is one of the stalwarts of the UK grog scene, so it was only fitting that his 50+1 birthday was marked with some gaming and celebration. The drive over to the Wirral was reasonably smooth, apart from a diversion through the back streets of Manchester thanks to some roadworks. I found the pub where we were meeting and settled down for an excellent game of Traveller 2300 GM’d by Tim Farnworth. This was a new setting to me, with a near future hard SF vibe, although the rules were still familiar from the days of the little black books of the original Traveller box set. 

The scenario opened with a crew of survivors from a previous game (actually run in 2019) who found themselves with a cargo of stolen drugs to off load while staying under the radar, literally and metaphorically. We made our way in-system, running quietly when we were pinged with sensors, and choosing not to raise the alarm. This might have been a mistake. When we arrived at our destination we found that it had been attacked by alien raiders and we were now in the middle of a war zone and an ongoing refugee crisis.

We weighed up our options for offloading our cargo and went with a group of Texan mercs who were offering a hefty up front payment in gold. Our contact set up a meeting where we were double crossed and everything went south very quickly. Some very lucky rolls saw the team escape with the gold, minimal radiation burns and a cargo hold full of refugees willing to pay for transport off world. Hopefully the story will be picked up sometime soon!

The evening do was a proper shindig, and it was an honour to be there with oodles of cake, beer and an entertaining live band. We’ll not talk about the overnight accommodation, but I will remember to check the one star reviews on Trip Advisor in the future!