Traveller Vignette 006

I knew the simple job of salvaging the crashed Sword Worlder patrol cruiser had gone horribly wrong when Jeff's head exploded. In hindsight, he'd taken a laser bolt to the side of the head, flashing a chunk of his brain to steam and since the steam had nowhere to go as it expanded inside the closed skull...well, POP!

At the time, reflex took over and I hit the ground in well-drilled instinct as another bolt zipped overhead. I swore, colourfully and profusely. Whoever was shooting at us had waited for his moment – we were midway between our ship and the wrecked cruiser's port lock, with no cover to speak of. I had an SMG and Andrei had an auto shotgun – ideal for checking out the cramped interior of the crashed ship, but the guy with the laser was firing from well outside our effective range.

And he'd shot to kill without even trying to talk, which didn't augur well....

Comments

  1. NeilSeptember 1, 2022 at 6:32 PM

    (Author's note - it's sometimes useful to have a more graphic explanation of what's happened to an NPC who's been shot, as opposed to "OK, he takes 10 damage and he's down". This sort of "pinned down" situation could also be useful to inflict on PCs - they can deal with it by laying down enough covering fire for one person to move at a time, or by using smoke if they have it, but just shooting back will just get them killed)

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