[TML] Gerrymandering, was Re: Threadjack Counties

[Richard Aiken]

On 9/8/07, Joseph Paul <josephnjody at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> Hmm, that makes me think of  how to run a Traveller adventures in a 'small
> town' milieu. The rich world-hopping Travellers are stuck in a backwater
> settlement for an extended time. Possible adventures?

Well, let's see . . .

Postulates:

1) Sevier County, Tennessee is located on Aerth, a balkinized GTL 7/8
Imperial world, somewhere near the Outrim.
2) The Class III Imperial Down starport is located in . . . say . . .
Honduras (primarily because the Imperium wants to be able to totally
control the state surrounding it's starport).
3) The PC's Beowulf Free Trader crashlands at Sevierville Municipal
Airport due to failure of the grav drive during final approach to
Aerth Down.  Any landing you walk away from is a good one, but their
poor ship needs extensive repairs it can lift off again.  Not only is
the grav down, but containment on the fusion core was breached
(destroying the engine room ,although the engineer got out before it
went).  Finally, most of their consigned cargos - and their airraft -
were totaled in the crash.

First off, they'll need to deal with all the responding emergency
personnel.  Hey, it's a STARSHIP crash!   Everybody from the County
Sheriff on down to the local (and not so local) Civil Air Partrol
cadets respond to the airport.  It takes the PCs a good hour to
persaude everybody that they are okay and don't really need anything,
except maybe a ride to a local motel.

Just as they are almost ready to leave, the FAA puts in an appearance,
responding from their Knoxville office [I assume there is one, but I
haven't checked].  They want to shut down the airport while they
investigate the crash, but after seeing that there are no injuries or
damage (other than to the ship itself, which doesn't fall under their
jurisdiction) they reluctantly allow that it can be moved in the
morning, and the field to remain open after it is.

Unfortunately, it turns out that this is the weekend of the Shades Of
The Past Grand Fall Car Show.  So the only motels with available rooms
are on some back streets in Gatlinburg (thirty miles away by surface
roads).  On the ride to Johnsons Inn in the Sheriff's cruiser, the
PC's realize they can't connect to the local communications grids with
they comms they have with them.  So they are going to have to buy some
pre-paid cell phones.  All of the cell phone companies are closed at
10:00 pm on a Saturday night, but the Super Walmart is open 24/7.
Since they have Imperial credits, they think they'll get a deal (given
the exchange rates).  But it turns out that Walmart doesn't want to
deal with the hassle of taking Imperial credits (rather than a
standard Aerth credit cards or Merkan dollars).  They'll only do it at
a substantial markup . . .

With their new cell phones in hand, the PCs try to find a construction
firm with the ability to move their ship off in the morning.  But they
only get answering machines.  The Sheriff overhears what they're doing
and tells them that only Blalocks Construction owns cranes big enough
for the job - unless they want to go to Knoxville.  Fortunately, the
county Sheriff can find someone from the company to take the PC's work
order.  Blalocks want's to wait until Monday to respond, but the
Sheriff informs the PCs that the ship has to be removed from the
runway the next day at the latest.  As it's the weekend, the PCs will
have to pay overtime rates.  Again, Blalocks will accept Imperial
credits . . . at a substantial markup.

Now a couple of thousand credits poorer, the PC's next have to field
calls from the firms that were supposed to receive the destroyed
cargos.  Calls to and from all the various firms and insurers quickly
burn through the PCs cell phone minutes and they have to buy more time
to the tune of another couple of hundred.

Johnsons Inn rents them a two bedroom condo at Cr200 per night and
they finally bed down sometime after local midnight.

The next morning, they attempt to rent a local-tech car.  The only
place that's open on Sunday is Enterprise, back down at the airport.
Do they have a local credit card to put on file?  No?  Then they'll
need a LARGE cash deposit.  The local taxi to the rental firm costs
them Cr100 . . .

And that's just the first twelve hours . . . :-)

-- 
Richard Aiken

"Never insult anyone by accident."  Robert A. Heinlein