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Adventure or Campaign Inspiration Seed

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BRover

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The other day, listening to NPR's Morning Edition ATC, I heard a line in an interview:
Refugees are inherently risk-takers, but also inherently survivors.
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(All Things Considered Morning Edition, 4/22/2020, from the story on Afghans in the US.

I know the idea has been used before, but is there a Refugee or Fugitive career out there? TNE had the Prisoner career, for one term after being arrested (convicted?)

It also has lots of potential hooks--finding a place to settle again, dealing with strangers and strange cultures, maybe vengeance on enemies, or enemies coming looking for their escapees. Or having a reason to go back--rescuing family or friends, needing to deal with things left behind, from inheritances or property to wanting to marry someone of the "right type"--especially of the character is, say, a minor race . . .
 
It also has lots of potential hooks
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it does, but the whole concept just doesn't sound adventurous. probably work better as a background, enabling streetwise etc, than as any kind of game action.
 
Luke Skywalker was a Fugitive after he blew up the Death Star. I don't think it needs to be a career as he was also a Commander in the Rebel Alliance and then Jedi Knight.

A Refugee, on the other hand, wouldn't have a job, I'd think. So that might work as a career.
 
flykiller said:
it does, but the whole concept just doesn't sound adventurous. probably work better as a background, enabling streetwise etc, than as any kind of game action.
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Hence the career (prob 1 term), to allow odd skills, contacts, etc. And hooks for future adventures?

Also--what of the JTAS Amber Zone "Coup D'etat" where the Princess (Glorianna?) is overthrown but escapes--and later shows up as a possible encounter or potential patron? A refugee . . .
 
flykiller said:
it does, but the whole concept just doesn't sound adventurous. probably work better as a background, enabling streetwise etc, than as any kind of game action.
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Right off the top of my head I can immediately think of two sci fi novels that involve refugees in a major way. Ever read Downbelow Station?
Here is a taster from the Wikipedia plot summary:
Set in the final days of the war, Downbelow Station opens with Earth Company Captain Signy Mallory and her warship, Norway, escorting a ragtag fleet fleeing from Russell's and Mariner Stations to Pell. Similar convoys arrive from other stations destroyed or lost to Union, leading to an enormous crisis. The flood of unexpected refugees strains station resources. Angelo Konstantin, Stationmaster of Pell, and his two sons, Damon and Emilio, struggle to cope with the situation. Fearing Union infiltrators and saboteurs, Pell dumps all the refugees in a Quarantine Zone, causing massive dislocations of Pell's own citizens.
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The second is actually the Night's Dawn trilogy.

There is a big difference between refugees who are fleeing something and migrants who are just seeking something better - most Travellers fit into the migrant category where there are refugees there is a backstory with lots of potential for adventure.
 
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mike wightman said:
Right off the top of my head I can immediately think of two sci fi novels that involve refugees in a major way. Ever read Downbelow Station?
Here is a taster from the Wikipedia plot summary:

The second is actually the Night's Dawn trilogy.

There is a big difference between refugees who are fleeing something and migrants who are just seeking something better - most Travellers fit into the migrant category where there are refugees there is a backstory with lots of potential for adventure.
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All true--and I've read Cherryh, Downbelow and several others--Rimrunner is another that sort of fits the trope--but not all of her (yet). But it's not in Traveller--at least not in the tables for careers. And it's used--but not necessarily as a conscious option, if that's what I want to call it. I'm just saying, it might be valuable to keep awareness of the possibilities.

ETA: Downbelow also has the Quarantine on Pell, made up of refugees (!) from other stations, which points to yet more options for storylines . . .

Another set that sort of fits is Brackett's Skaith/Ginger Star series--the prisoner/whatever is not so much John Stark as his mentor, Simon Ashton. Or the Mri in Cherryh's Faded Sun series--not exactly refugees, but survivors of genocide returning to their world of origin. So it is used--but are we in the varied Traveller universes aware of it as much as we could be?
 
whartung said:
No, you don't make a career out of being incarcerated, you make a career WHILE being incarcerated.

Such careers can be Gang Boss, Enforcer, Smuggler, Liaison, Trader, Gambler, etc.
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Yeah--I can see the job description now: "Travelling Prisoner: Have jail cell; will travel." or "Willing (desperate) to relocate." :rofl:
 
Right off the top of my head I can immediately think of two sci fi novels that involve refugees in a major way
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as literature, sure. as a game, I'd pass.

'less of course someone thinks they can run a refugee game here on the boards ....
 
I have ripped off both for scenarios (Downbelow Station and an awful lot of other CJ Cherryh stuff is ripe for inspiration, and I am a big fan of Peter F Hamilton's various sci fi universes).

MegaTraveller Hard Times involved many adventures involving refugees - come to think of it ther are adventure shorts in The Traveller Adventure that icmclude refugees.

In TNR I remember a game dealing with refugees from a Vampire Fleet attack that required PC help to establish themselves - I wanted an excuse to use World Tamer's Handbook

Come to think of it one of the PCs in one of my Hard Times encounters was a refugee...

Then ther is Battlestar Galactica and the adventure that kicks off a brand new campaign setting for MgT The Fall of Tinath both of which are based on refugees.
 
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feature refugees
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feature, not star.

well I suppose life in a camp could be interesting in its own small-scale way. bribe the cooks for more soup, hunt rats, smuggle in cigarettes ....

("baby you don't have to live like a refugeeeee")
 
From the refugees I've come across, camps are a small part of the whole experience. Much is walking long distances, hitching rides, finding dodgy characters who might get you to the next point and avoiding getting arrested and interned or kidnapped and/or killed.

5th Frontier War, Esalin. It's all kicked off and you are on a field trip with your class looking at Geology...Can't go back - Too many Z's...fall in with Guerillas.

Living on the Sword Worlds when the Imperials move in and take over. Need to relocate to somewhere more independent - Narsil?

In Tobia when the Emperor is killed and the Aslan ihatei turn up looking for trouble...need to get to your unit so you can fight back.
 
Andre Norton's book, Star Rangers, could be used as a refugee adventure, as the Star Patrol could be viewed as Scouts, while at the end of the book, a shipload of true refugees arrives.

Then there is her "Dipple" series, which is more undefined, but does include Catseye, Shann Lantee in Storm Over Warlock (still one of my favorite reads), along with the Janus series, and also The Defiant Agents where you have competing groups of American Indians and 20th Century Mongolians trapped on the Earth-like planet Topaz.

Note: Some of these can be found online.

Stretching it a bit more, you have James Blish with his Cities in Flight stories, and a fair number of Christopher Anvil short stories on colonists that are close to refugees.

Then you have the back plot line of Piper's Space Vikings, where the remains of the System States Alliance fleet heads off into the galaxy to find planets far away from the Federation, and succeeds in setting up the Sword Worlds. That would take a bit more work, but it could be fun.
 
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