Lobopods of Mars Chapter 3 Player Characters Dossier

By Henry Edward Hardy with Cadence Boynton, Greg Boynton, John Kelly, Jeff Young, Joe Zapytowski, and Mark Zapytowski.

Copyright © 2025 Henry Edward Hardy.

LOBOPODS OF MARS Chapter 3

Player Characters Dossier

Disclaimer

“Traveller” is a registered trademark of Far Future Enterprises. This homebrew content is neither endorsed by nor affiliated with Mongoose Publishing or Far Future Enterprises. All references to Lobopods of Mars or other original texts remain the property of their respective copyright holders.

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1. Campaign Context

These PCs are a ragtag band of homesteaders, rogues, and would-be survivors on Mars circa 2034 in an alternate-history timeline. Officially, Mars is administered by the Mars Secretariat and its sprawl of petty politics, but beyond the big settlements, it’s effectively frontier territory. Dust storms, saboteurs, hidden cults, and clandestine smuggling define everyday life. Each PC has unique ties to smugglers, local fixers, or fringe religious movements. As a group, they can cooperate (or backstab) to survive in the harsh environment of the Red Planet.

Use these PCs as player-characters for a one-shot or mini-campaign, or as interesting NPCs (allies, rivals, or frenemies) if your table already has its own characters.

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2. The Crew Overview

Below is a quick summary of each main PC. Then we provide expansions for stats, motivations, gear, and personal entanglements:

1. Stuart “Stew” Hobart (a.k.a. “The Hobbit”)
   • A scrappy, diminutive smuggler-engineer from Lake Magog, Vermont, who embraces his streetwise cunning as a means to survive. His infiltration into Mars is half entrepreneurial, half philanthropic—he believes smuggling can serve the “greater good” of local colonists.
2. Lars Brecker
   • A combat-savvy operator from a Swiss/Earth background, drifting to Mars to escape an overpopulated Earth job market. Specializes in advanced weaponry and direct action, but not always sure whose side he’s truly on.
3. Jack Woolpit
   • A mild-mannered but highly educated tinkerer with a knack for communications and planetology. Prefers to avoid direct fights; potential moral compass of the group (unless cornered).
4. Yajtoo Smith
   • A deceptively bright schemer with serious computing skills, remote-ops ability, and links to the rumor mills of Mutch City. Enjoys weaving illusions and half-truths to get out of trouble.
5. Joret
   • A practical all-rounder from a Tibetan background who now works in Mutch City. Skilled with rifles, leadership, and enough mechanical know-how to keep a crawler rolling or patch up a comrade.

Depending on your group size, any subset of these can form the party’s core. Alternatively, use them all as a wide ensemble or a rotating cast.

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3. Stuart “Stew” Hobart (The Hobbit)

Homeworld: Newport, Vermont (Lake Magog area), Earth
Age: Late 20s
Build & Appearance: 5’4” (1.63 m), slight but well-muscled, shaggy light-brown hair, “perpetually youthful.”
Personality Tags: Resourceful, quick-tempered, irreverent
Notable Quirk: Despises being called “The Hobbit,” but can’t shake the nickname.

Backstory Highlights

• Family Smuggling: Grew up on Lake Magog, smuggling cigarettes (and sometimes undocumented folks) across the US–Canada border. Learned stealth, small arms, boat craft.
• Martial Arts for Self-Defense: Bullied in school, took up martial arts from middle school onward. Quietly lethal in close quarters.
• Academic Ups & Downs: Studied engineering but got sabotaged by a rival (Sean Finnegan); left without finishing.
• Underworld Ties: Worked briefly with an Irish mob in Boston, gained a mob boss ally (William Lovett). Encouraged to join the “Mars Games”—the colonist selection competition—so he could expand smuggling networks to the Red Planet.
• Awakening Influence: Also partially sponsored by a member of The Awakening (William Graham), who ironically plastered “Stew (The Hobbit) Hobart” over official signup forms, cementing the nickname forever.

Motivations

Stew sincerely believes that smuggling can serve a “greater good” on Mars: providing short-on-supply colonists with gear or medicine they can’t otherwise afford. However, he will cut corners and break laws to survive. Not above taking personal profit or doing shady side jobs.

Key Allies & Contacts

• Ret. Adm. Poindexter (ally): Gave him covert tasks, possibly orchestrating “grey ops” smuggling on Mars.
• William Lovett (Irish Mob Boss, ally): Nudged Stew to Mars with a view to forging new underworld lines.
• William Graham (Awakening Patron, ally): “Manager” during the Mars Games. Also helped shape Stew’s moral code, ironically while leaning into the “Hobbit” moniker.
• John Zhang (elder statesman, ally): Former Secretariat member; Stew once saved someone in Zhang’s circle by forging a new identity.

Henchpersons

• Ginger Takata (Scholar / Physician): Grateful for Stew’s help acquiring rare drugs and black-market cybernetics. Maintains a small clinic or traveling med-lab.
• Bubba Johnson (Rogue / Bodyguard): Big, not too bright local Marser. Serves as muscle when Stew needs it. Fiercely loyal once paid.

Suggested Traveller-Style Stats

Stat	Value	Notes
STR	8	Quick, wiry muscle
DEX	10	+1 DM; martial arts & quick reflexes
END	10	+1 DM; surprising stamina
INT	11	+1 DM; cunning, streetwise smarts
EDU	11	+1 DM; partial engineering college
SOC	6	Some connections, but from a small-time background

Notable Skills (final ranks at referee’s discretion):

• Melee (Unarmed) 1–2 (martial arts training)
• Gun Combat (Slug Rifles) 1 (hunts & smuggling)
• Mechanic 1–2 (technical college + rover repairs)
• Stealth 1–2 (border smuggling, infiltration)
• Streetwise 2 (Irish mob dealings, black markets)
• Deception 1 (smuggler’s habit)
• Pilot (Small Craft / Ground-Craft) 1 (could handle rovers or small boats)

Equipment & Gear

• Light ballistic vest or environment suit (if on Mars surface)
• Compact slug rifle and a sidearm
• Mobile toolkit (wrenches, patch kits)
• HUD communicator with contraband encryption apps
• Possibly a battered crawler or good access to one

Role in the Group: Stew is the infiltration and fixing expert—good at bridging underworld deals, patching vehicles, and ensuring the team can bypass “boring red tape.” He’s also a capable fighter in short bursts.

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4. Lars Brecker

Homeworld: Switzerland, Earth (migrated to Mars)
Appearance & Vibe: Fit, slightly older than Stew, exudes a paramilitary aura.
Specialties: Advanced weapons, some piloting, direct action or security roles.
Possible Motivation: Searching for real prospects after Earth’s job market dried up; sells his services to the highest bidder.

Use Lars if your group needs an enforcer or “hard-hitting soldier.” He might also be a kindred spirit to Stew—both arrived on Mars chasing opportunity.

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5. Jack Woolpit

Homeworld: (Variant backstory) Possibly from an alternate Earth colony or an advanced region.
Skill Focus: High Education, planetology or archaeology angles, strong with communications or sensor-based tasks.
Personality: Mild, intellectual. Could be the “voice of reason” when Stew’s smuggling deals get too dicey.

Jack’s player might enjoy puzzles, exploration, or researching Martian geology and any hints of Lobopod life.

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6. Yajtoo Smith

Homeworld: Born on Mars (canonical snippet)
Tech & Covert Mastery: Skilled in remote ops, computing, hacking.
Personality: Deceptive, glib, creative with illusions—adept at forging credentials, tricking official logs.
Potential Ties: Possibly knows of or even competes with Stew’s smuggling networks from the data side. Could be best friends or rival hackers.

Use Yajtoo to highlight the urban cyber-savvy side of Mars: forging airlock codes, intercepting clandestine transmissions, or impersonating official channels.

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7. Joret

Homeworld: Earth (Tibet), relocated to Mutch City
Generalist: Adept in firearms, leadership, and enough medical skill to treat bullet wounds in the field.
Likely Team Role: The calmer backbone who tries to keep the group’s morale stable. Good for “field medic meets commanding officer” type.

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8. Story Seeds & Group Dynamics

• Shared Operation: The group might pool resources to buy or maintain a Mars crawler rig, using it to move cargo (legitimate or contraband) across the dusty highways. Conflicts arise over moral lines.
• Secret Missions: One PC (Stew) has old ties to an Earth mob boss. Another (Yajtoo) might be in contact with the Old Believers or the “Kangar Horde.” Tensions flare if alliances are contradictory.
• Local Trouble: The group has to salvage or fix a broken air processor in a small outpost. Meanwhile, they discover sabotage by a rival smuggling ring or a sect wanting them gone.
• Temptation vs. Redemption: The PCs collectively weigh up short-term profit from illicit deals (like transferring unlicensed guns) vs. the possibility of long-term stability for their Martian homestead.

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9. Using These PCs in Play

1. Player-Characters: Hand out each role or let the players pick. They’ll have some built-in alliances and friction.
2. NPC Allies / Rivals: In a campaign with existing characters, you can have Stew appear as a fixer contact offering shady missions, or Yajtoo as the local infiltration mastermind who hires the group.
3. Adapt the Stat Lines: Mongoose Traveller 2e is quite flexible. You can condense or expand the skills to match your table’s complexity.
4. Intra-Party Drama: Because their backgrounds entwine legitimate homesteading with underworld connections and quasi-religious influences, expect morally gray episodes.

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10. Final Notes

“Stew” Hobart is a prime example of the “do-gooder rogue” archetype. He calls himself a “patriot for Mars,” yet he’s no saint. The others each bring their own flavor of frontier cunning, soldierly grit, or scientific curiosity. Together, they form a versatile crew—perfect for the Lobopods of Mars setting, where black-market deals, exiled Earth bureaucrats, religious zealots, and newly discovered life forms all intersect in the dusty red canyons.

Use these characters as stepping stones into bigger arcs: perhaps they eventually clash with major factions in Mutch City or investigate rumored labyrinths below Pavonis Mons. Whether they become heroes or remain lovable rogues is up to your table’s choices.

Good luck—and watch your water supply. On Mars, everything (and everyone) might be up for sale…

29 September, 2025 - Posted by scanlyze | scanlyze | campaign, cyberpunk, Lobopods, Mars, Mongoose Traveller, retrofuturism, role-playing, science, science fiction