Freelance TravellerDroyne Coyns
This article originally appeared in the September/October 2024 issue.
Droyne Coyns.
Cheese Weasel Logistics
36 Alloy Coyns, plus 40 cards in tuckbox, all in drawstring bag
Author’s note: I was unable to find current availability information. I acquired my set as purchased ‘swag’ at a TravellerCON/USA; they may have been ‘surplus’ from a production run for a past Kickstarter for them.
These Coyns by Cheese Weasel Logistics are a physical implementation of the abstract idea originally presented in Classic Traveller Alien Module 5: Droyne.
What Did I Get?
The set I purchased came in a black drawstring bag with a velour-like texture, large enough to hold the 36 Coyns, plus a deck of 40 cards (one corresponding to each of the Coyns, plus four that form a ‘user guide’) in a tuck box, all in a resealable plastic bag. The Coyns themselves were in a smaller resealable bag tucked inside the drawstring bag.
Each Coyn is a zinc alloy disc, approximately the size and weight of a United States Kennedy half-dollar coin , which gives them a nice heft. The color is that of a yellow metal, perhaps bronze, and they appear to have been treated to have a limited antiquing/patina to bring out the details of the symbols. The obverse of each is one of the symbols for the Coyns as depicted on the original Kickstarter page (which are not the same as the depictions in GURPS Traveller Alien Races 3), each with one to six dots around the edge; the reverse is the symbol for Droyne, but without the dots around the edge (and the presence or absence of the dots is the only way to tell the obverse of the “Droyne” Coyn from the reverse). This Droyne symbol also appears on the front of the drawstring bag.
The 36 cards corresponding to the Coyns depict the symbol and dots from the obverse of the matching Coyne, plus “Major Revelation” and “Minor Revelation” text for each. When the card is held “upright”, the Major Revelation is at the top and readable, the Minor Revelation is at the bottom and inverted. They are gloss-finish, but not high-gloss, so as long as the light source isn’t reflected directly into your eyes, the cards are readable. The reverse of each card appears black, with the Mongoose Traveller logo (red Eras text and arrow, from the first edition) and the words “Droyne Coyns” in white Optima below. However, if you look closely under good indirect light, you’ll also see the Droyne symbol in a solid circle; this is done in black-on-black, with the edges just barely suggesting a fade-to-dark-grey.
The instruction cards included don’t make mention of using the dots for anything, but taken as a whole, the 36 Coyns could be drawn from without replacement to represent rolls of up to 6d6, drawing one Coyne for each die. Using the instructions provided, or looking at the Casting Ceremony documented in the Classic Traveller Alien Module, one could also enact a Casting for a Droyne character, and then use the drawn Coyns for defining Events that might happen during the character’s Prior Career, instead of rolling against a table like the standard Mongoose character generation uses. One could also conceivably, based on the information in Alien Module 5: Droyne, use the drawn Coyns for inspiration for future ideas and occurrences for a Droyne character.
Because I don’t recall what I paid for them at TravellerCON/USA, I can’t say whether they’re truly good value for the money. I do like them as props, and feel that if you’re going to involve Droyne in a campaign, having these as props would be a very good thing.
The only critique I could make about them is that the symbols are somewhat abstract; in reading about the Coyns in Alien Module 5, I’d formed an image of the Coyns as having somewhat more realistic depictions of those entities that could be depicted ‘concretely’ (e.g., good images of the six races, a flame for ‘fire’, etc.). Since I can’t think of suitable representations for all of the Coyns – and I wouldn’t be able to provide suitable artwork if I could think of suitable representations – I’ll take these and be quite happy.