RPGADay 2025: Day 1, 2025-08-01

2025-08-01: 1 - Patron - Where - Lesson - Lucky

I guess the first time I saw the term "Patron" in gaming was when I played Classic Traveller for the first time. In the context of gaming, a Patron was someone who paid the player characters to do a one-off job, often hideously dangerous, and paid them barely enough to live.

This brought to mind the Pied Piper of Hamelin, and I figured that Patrons were like the Burgomasters of that German town - desperate enough to hire an outsider to be a consultant, but tight with money once the job was done.

I was only a kid back then. More or less. Fresh into my fifth instar. At the time, I was living in Manchester. I didn't stay long. There was a real world Patron, who wanted me to do a job. He offered a couple of grand for me to do it.

I was lucky. I was just going home, thinking about it, and I heard that he'd been swept up by the Law. The place he'd been running got shut down so fast. I was off the hook.

I don't think many modern gamers, particularly those who actually run and/or play games like Traveller, are aware of the sheer utility of games like these for teaching people lessons in real life.