Fate of the Sky Raiders session #4: Confrontation with Kalamanaru

I’m running FASA’s 1982 Traveller adventure Fate of the Sky Raiders, and this is my report of our fourth and final session (which is also session #15 of our overall Sky Raiders campaign).

Last time was session #3.

Not too many spoilers here, although I’ve included my overall feelings of how the campaign went, so that will be more spoilery.

The Travellers

Our players and their characters are Terry (playing ex-space pirate Sir Sidderon Dubois), Thomas (playing drifter Felix "Dusty" Pygrin) and Tom (playing Zhodani prole Mustafa Lama Doka).

The players are also playing some of the NPCs: Technologies expert Dr Heinrich Chandragora (Terry), Vargr geologist Dr Goezghae (Tom), and linguistic archaeology specialist Dr Viedistart Mirost (Thomas).

The situation

I spent the gap between sessions working out the results of last week’s montage.

I decided that Kalamanaru arrived aboard the 800-ton Explorer-class ship the PCs had arrived on, along with a 400-ton subsidised merchant and two obsolete (but still dangerous) 400-ton Zhodani destroyers.

The PCs lured Kalamanaru to a docking bay of their choice, and once Kalamanaru’s modular cutter had docked, the PCs opened fire with the refurbished pulse lasers. The asteroid’s guns quickly knocked out one destroyer and crippled the other, but the two other ships moved out of the laser turret’s firing arcs.

However, inside the docking bay, things weren’t so great as training hadn’t gone so well, and the Gardeners turned out to be terrible shots.

So, we have Kalamanaru’s cutter in the docking bay (now pressurised, with the docking bay doors sealed), with his men trapped inside while the PCs watch from outside. Meanwhile, Kalamanaru’s other two ships are out of sight, doing something.

What do the Travellers do?

The firefight

A brief chat with Kalamanaru made it clear that negotiations weren’t going to be easy, so the Travellers decided to take a more forceful approach.

They knew their weapons were no use against the cutter’s hull, so they decided to remove one of the pulse lasers from the asteroid ship’s turrets. (They had manufactured/printed replacements for these, so dismantling the laser wasn’t a huge job.) They jury-rigged a mount for it, and wheeled it to the end of an access shaft – and shot at the cutter.

In response, Kalamanaru sent two men to attack the pulse-laser crew, but the PCs got the drop on them and fired the pulse laser again. The second shot ruptured a fuel tank and boom; the battle was over.

(I hadn’t expected they would use ship-mounted weapons, so there was lots of flipping backwards and forwards through the rules as I looked up pulse laser damage and critical hit locations for ships.)

After that, Kalamanaru surrendered, ending the campaign.

Aftermath

We talked generally about what would happen next. Clearly, the societies aboard the asteroid ship would be in turmoil as news of outsiders spread. (Plus turmoil created as scientists come to study the ship.)

The asteroid ship itself is within the borders of the little-documented Mnemosyne Principality, and I like to think that they are granted some space on one of their worlds. (Curiously, there’s nothing about the principality in Fate of the Sky Raiders.) But for our heroes, it was time to retire.

I wish I had remembered to cap the campaign off with an epilogue from each of the players – a scene from the future. But the discussion rambled into a general look back at the campaign, and I forgot.

Reflections on a campaign

Although short by many GMs’ standards, this 16-session ttrpg campaign (including session zero) was the longest I’ve ever run. I was starting to tire of it by the end, but that may be because I found Fate of the Sky Raiders so hard to run.

(My players kindly said that they hadn’t noticed that I was finding Fate difficult.)

So while I thought that the first two parts were great, I didn’t enjoy Fate of the Sky Raiders. My initial instincts from 1982 were that it would be hard to run, and I was right.

We talked a bit about the asteroid ship and whether it should have had a robot maintenance crew. That’s very SF, but that’s not very Traveller. 

I mentioned that the original book had jump-capable ships aboard that the PCs could potentially find, but that I’d removed them because I couldn’t imagine someone not taking them 5,000 years ago, when the ship was adrift with no engines. Terry pointed out that things can be lost for unknown reasons, but while I can accept that there might be jump-capable ships aboard, I need the adventure to explain a) why they hadn’t already been taken, and b) why the PCs would now be able to find and repair them (as opposed to anyone else).

Overall, I think Fate of the Sky Raiders needs a lot of work. (I know Mongoose are working on an update.) Some thoughts if I were rewriting it (and not changing it completely):

• I would include an overall map of the ship. Perhaps a nodemap, but at least something to give the players a sense of scale and space.
• I would include examples of the different societies, their relations with one another, how they have survived for 5,000 years, and dilemmas and challenges for the PCs. If I were including random tables, I’d make them easy to use during play. I wouldn’t leave it all to the poor Referee!
• I would create a plan for Kalamanaru’s forces, with a series of events. I would have him arrive at a specific location, meet specific inhabitants (who react accordingly), and then move on. This would give the GM something that the characters can hear about and react to.
• I might even plant the seed of something valuable in the ship in the earlier adventures to give the PCs something to aim for. A specific treasure or technology, perhaps.

And of course, actually think about the ship and make it more realistic than it currently is. It has been drifting for 5,000 years and is still inhabited; what does that actually mean?

Colony ships

Here’s a recent YouTube video that examines three entries to Project Hyperion, which explores the feasibility of crewed interstellar travel via generation ships using current and near-future technologies.  Not quite the same as our Sky Raiders’ ship (if nothing else, the Sky Raiders can use artificial gravity), but the concept of keeping a vast ship and its crew and passengers viable for hundreds of years is the same.

I particularly like Proximum, the asteroid ship, which has a governance system based on The Fourth Turning by Strauss and Howe. The Fourth Turning argues that every generation fails to learn the lessons from two generations back. Proximum takes a nicely SF approach to deal with this by having a three-part governance structure:

• The council: Elected representatives making day-to-day decisions.
• Apollo: An AI supporting those decisions – containing all the records so that nothing is lost.
• The Chorus: At age 65, members can enter hibernation and be periodically revived as advisors. These advisors carry the lived memory – while Apollo knows that a famine happened, it cannot convey what it feels like to ration food to your children.

I know that’s way more sophisticated than I have any right to expect from a 45-year-old Traveller adventure, but it’s the sort of thing I hope Mongoose are thinking about.

As for me, I’m glad I didn’t come across this before running the campaign, as I might have been tempted to rework Fate of the Sky Raiders even more than I did, and that’s not really what I want when I’m running a published adventure.

The Sky Raiders campaign in numbers

So anyway, that was the longest campaign I’ve ever run. It was enough – I don’t know how other groups run and play campaigns for much longer. I was ready for a change.

Here are some numbers.

• 32/16: We started on 11th August 2025 with character generation and ended on 23rd March 2026. That’s 32 weeks of calendar time, but we only played for 16 sessions. We try to play every week, but there are occasional breaks. (I think we had a break of over a month for Christmas.)
• 7/5/4: Of our 16 sessions, we spent seven on Legend of the Sky Raiders (including session zero and character generation), five on Trail of the Sky Raiders and four on Fate of the Sky Raiders. In theory, Fate could have stretched out for many more sessions, but I was tired and wanted to draw the campaign to a close.
• 2/30: Our sessions are two hours long, but they often start a little late, and we are easily distracted. I suspect we played for around 30 hours.
• 3/4/3: Most of the time, I had three players. I started with Terry, Jon and Thomas. Tom then joined in September, and Jon dropped out in November.

We’re now taking a break for the Easter holidays, and when we return, we will start something completely different…

Previously: Session #3: To the bridge!

Or start right back at the beginning with my review of Legend of the Sky Raiders. (And here are my reviews of Trail of the Sky Raiders and Fate of the Sky Raiders.)

Fate of the Sky Raiders session #3: To the bridge!

I’m running FASA’s 1982 Traveller adventure Fate of the Sky Raiders, and this is my report of our third session (which is also session #14 of our overall Sky Raiders campaign).

Last time was session #2.

I have deviated drastically from the text, so this isn’t very spoilery now.

The Travellers

Our players and their characters are Terry (playing ex-space pirate Sir Sidderon Dubois), Thomas (playing drifter Felix "Dusty" Pygrin) and Tom (playing Zhodani prole Mustafa Lama Doka).

The players are also playing some of the NPCs: Technologies expert Dr Heinrich Chandragora (Terry), Vargr geologist Dr Goezghae (Tom), and linguistic archaeology specialist Dr Viedistart Mirost (Thomas).

Exposition dumps

This episode was full of exposition dumps. At the end of the last episode, the Travellers had helped the Gardeners of Continuance by fixing their nutrient problem. But this took time, so I asked the players for a scene involving their characters. This turned into a protracted discussion session as they and the Gardeners shared knowledge.

Here’s what we discussed. (Or at least, this is what I remember based on my memory and my notes. I expect I missed things.)

• The PCs continued to learn the language, and we left that in the background. (Nobody had an appetite for roleplaying that.)
• The PCs are still interested in getting to the bridge, which they learn is controlled by a faction called the Synod. They control signals to the processing equipment the Gardeners need, and in return for use of the machines, the Gardeners trade food with them.
• This is one part of the ship – other factions control other areas of the ship. The Gardeners are conservative and haven’t explored the ship much. They are happy where they are.
• There are designs in the 3D printer software that the Gardeners no longer have access to. (These include weapons and components that haven’t been needed for thousands of years.)
• The Gardeners do have some antique Sky Raiders artefacts and items – including masks made of precious metals and jewels. These are sacred objects.
• The PCs explain that bad people (Kalamanaru) will be coming, and they will want to steal the sacred artefacts.

At this point, the players are wondering if this has turned into the Magnificent Seven…

The main bridge

After a failed attempt to hack into the printer software for more useful components (eg better weapons), the PCs realise that they need to speak to the Synod (who occupy the main bridge), and they are escorted to the main bridge and the Synod. (Lorain and all the NPCs are left behind as captives to ensure our three heroes don’t do anything foolish. This also means I can concentrate on the PCs without having to worry about the scientist NPCs.)

We are in danger of repeating everything again, so we cut it short and jump straight to a skill roll, with Sir Sidderon’s social standing and Mustafa’s stewardship supporting Felix’s persuade roll. If the roll failed, we agreed it would mean the PCs were locked up, and we would put the NPC scientists in the spotlight. Fortunately, it succeeded!

(We’ve been talking about printing advanced weapons and armour using the 3D printers, and it’s at this point that I realise that, as I’ve been assuming that the ship has been repeatedly patched and components replaced, the Sky Raiders ought to have been able to completely rebuild their jump and manoeuvre drives. Ah, well, too late to worry about that now. I don’t mention this to the players.)

An amazing TL 9/10 control room

The plan that didn’t quite come together

The players then spent a while creating a plan to deal with Kalamanaru. Their eventual plan involved creating a Sky Raiders-y signal to lure Kalamanaru to a particular location where he could be ambushed.

Tom suggested this could be a montage, and because each player had two PCs, I suggest it had six steps. If they succeeded in four, then the plan would work!

Prepare the signal: Dr Mirost prepared a Sky Raiders signal that would draw Kalamanaru to the right place. (We didn’t actually specify exactly where. If it all works, we won’t need to know where.) 

Printing better weapons: Dr Goezghae used his computer skills to print better quality weapons. Guards aboard the ship had been using cheap-to-print assault rifles (AK-47 type things), but they started replacing them with advanced combat rifles and grenades. And they printed armour.

Refurbish the laser turrets: Dr Chandragora printed new components for the laser turrets and refurbished them, focusing on where Kalamanaru’s forces were expected to be lured.

Training the locals: Sir Sidderon trained the locals in the more modern weaponry.

Sensors: Mustafa used his drones to monitor Kalamanaru’s progress once Kalamanaru arrived.

Ambush tactics: Felix planned the ambush using the local forces.

And how did they do? Well, it wasn’t great.

The first three rolls were really good – with results of 12, 12 and 11 (a total effect of 11). And then it all went wrong, and the next three rolls failed badly (results of 4, 4 and 6), almost wiping out the overall effect. We ended up on an effect of 1, which I ruled was a stalemate with a slight advantage to the PCs.

So Kalamanaru created a beachhead aboard the massive asteroid ship, and we would resolve the situation next week.

Next time

It's time for the campaign finale! But first, I need to figure out what the current situation is. My instinct is that Kalamanaru is trapped on board, and the players have crippled (but not completely defeated) Kalamanaru’s flotilla. We’ll see.

Next: Confrontation with Kalamanaru

Previously: Session #2,  or start right back at the beginning with my review of Legend of the Sky Raiders.

Fate of the Sky Raiders session #2: The Sky Raiders' descendants

I’m running FASA’s 1982 Traveller adventure Fate of the Sky Raiders, and this is my report of our second session (which is also session #13 of our overall Sky Raiders campaign).

Last time was session #1.

I am now deviating from the text a fair bit, so I’m not sure how spoilery this is.

The Travellers

Our players and their characters are Terry (playing ex-space pirate Sir Sidderon Dubois), Thomas (playing drifter Felix "Dusty" Pygrin) and Tom (playing Zhodani prole Mustafa Lama Doka).

I started the session by asking the players to also play one of the NPCs, as I was struggling to juggle everything, and they were being forgotten. So Terry took alien technologies expert Dr Heinrich Chandragora, Tom played Vargr geologist Dr Goezghae, and Thomas played linguistic archaeology specialist Dr Viedistart Mirost. I love how those names just trip off the tongue…

With that sorted, we did a brief recap, and the PCs resumed their push to the main bridge. Next module: an industrial complex.

ChatGPT preparation

Between this session and the last, I had done a little prep. I’d decided that it and the agricultural module behind it would be inhabited by the same group: the Gardeners of Continuance, a conservative faction who didn’t like change. However, their plants were suffering from a nutritional deficiency caused by an unknown defect in their fertiliser production process. They were also slavers and used slaves (from the Pilgrimage of the Silent Vector faction) to operate the machinery in the industrial complex. The PCs would encounter the slaves first.

I had spent a fair bit of time with ChatGPT trying to work out what was going on in the asteroid ship. I decided I didn’t want the ship to be failing – it made it a bit too convenient for the PCs to arrive just in time to save the inhabitants.

So instead, the ship (they call it Elan, or home) is in a delicate balance. Everything is recycled, nothing goes to waste. There are signs of repairs everywhere. However, this also meant that anyone who couldn’t contribute (the old and injured) would be ruthlessly recycled. Elan isn’t Utopia.

Of course, this also meant that the inhabitants would have guns – easily repaired or printed using the 3D printers.

I’m now well off-script as far as Fate of the Sky Raiders is concerned.

First contact

I had a list of slave characters the PCs could meet, and I decided that the first two they would encounter were Virel (who thinks the Travellers are rescuers) and Orren (who wants to escape slavery).

First though, I had to decide what to do about the language. Not wanting to force the players to spend half the game tediously learning the language, I decided that the language was a highly corrupted form of old Vilani and that the scientists (especially the linguists) would quickly be able to translate. So once we had a couple of successful rolls under our belts, I dropped any further rolls, and we roleplayed normally. (I may force occasional rolls in critical situations, however.)

So Virel and Orren met the PCs and found them a hiding place away from the guards. Over the next couple of days, the slaves would pop back when they could and explain what was going on. (So Virel and Orren explained much of the situation described above, including the problem with the fertiliser production process.)

Player discussions

That prompted an interesting discussion among the players about whether they should interfere in the ship’s society. (Particularly over things like slavery and recycling the old.) Of course, one of them noted that when Kalamanaru arrives, the society will be interfered with anyway…

We also discussed the Travellers’ big-picture goal, and they decided they still wanted to reach the main bridge and determine what was actually working to prepare for Kalamanaru’s arrival.

The agricultural complex

To reach the main bridge, they needed to pass through the agricultural complex. And that meant meeting the Gardeners. (Perhaps there was a way around, but the Travellers didn’t have a map, and who knows what they would have encountered had they tried that…)

However, they asked their friendly slaves if there were any overlooked access tunnels they could use, and sure enough, there were. That brought the PCs to a maintenance hatch looking out onto one of the huge dodecahedral farming voids, filled with plants, vertical farms, livestock, more slaves working the fields, and armed guards.

The PCs need to get to the other side of the farming void, so they decide to bluff it out and march across the farms as if they belong.

It works for a bit, but soon they draw a crowd, stopping their progress. As the crowd pulled at their spacesuits and unfamiliar gear, Nysa, the habita governor, approached. She brought them to a central room, which was much more lavish than the Travellers had seen previously, with Sky Raider art and valuables. There, the PCs asked for Nysa’s help in leading them to the ship’s main bridge. In return, Nysa asked for help in fixing the problem with the crops.

So that allowed us to create a skill chain (we like skill chains) to identify the problem, source an appropriate mineral supplement and fix the fertiliser production machines.

Of course, it was going to take time for all this to have any observable effect, but it becomes apparent that it has worked. Hurrah!

We are now on day 14. Kalamanaru might arrive any day now (but I reckon the Travellers have a few more days yet).

Sandbox problems

Tom mentioned that he was having trouble parsing the game because there was no map of the asteroid ship. (And there is no overall map in Fate of the Sky Raiders – just some fairly useless deck plans.)

And it’s a fair point. I don’t actually know where they are in the ship right now. I hope it doesn’t matter…

But my main issue is the scale of the ship, the vast cast of NPCs (both the scientists and the inhabitants) and how little support the GM is given. Frankly, I’m finding Fate of the Sky Raiders itself almost unusable, as I’m finding I need to invent so much. That’s not why I run published adventures! If Mongoose ever get around to their rewrite of the Sky Raiders trilogy, this final third needs a thorough rethink as it is by far the weakest.

Next time

With the machinery fixed and the plants returning to health, the PCs plan to continue on to the main bridge. Assuming that Nysa lets them, that is…

But first, given that they’ve just spent over a week in the company of the Gardeners, I might get them to narrate some scenes showing what they’ve been up to.

Next: Session #3: To the bridge!

Previously: Session #1: The asteroid ship, or start right back at the beginning with my review of Legend of the Sky Raiders.