"But why am I Travelling with these clowns?"

[jappel]

This theme has surfaced in a couple of other threads lately, so I thought it deserved it's own.

It's a common problem when starting a campaign or adventure; just why are all the PCs in the same place, much less working together, to begin with? The old "You meet in the Startown tavern" just doesn't cut the mustard.

In the campaign I just started, the players have pregenerated PCs with some basic background info and the reason they're on the planet in question. Each has his own reason to be in the lodging-house where they began: the free trader was injured and his ship left while he recuperated, the ex-Marine officer is travelling home after a military consulting job and awaiting his connecting ship, etc. Then came the anti-offworlder riot (which began as protests against the force occupying this conquered planet, but I digress) leading to the need to work together in evading the rioters and trying find a way to safety.

How have others tackled this?

John

 

[kaladorn]

Good topic.

If you're doing an 'in service' campaign, such as my 'They Also Serve...' game, its simple: they're all assigned to the same mission by the Agency. Why each is working for the Agency, now that is a matter for some GM-player discussions.

In my other running Merchant Campaign, I made them kids from the same neighborhood who'd went offworld around the same time and ended up demob'd after the 5FW and coming home. So they already knew each other beforehand and had common cultural references.

Friends from the service also works well, as long as the group is small or not too heterogeneous (ie Marines + Navy with maybe a Scout and this might work... Noble, Rogue, Diplomat, Pirate and Army might be harder to use this on).

What are the possible types of interest:
1) Friendship - new or old
2) Common Background - service, homeworld, you name it
3) Common Interests - everyone is a Merchant forex or everyone likes Grav Pogosticks
4) Common Orders - In service.... so everyone gets sent to X and just goes... because that's what puts the S in Service.
5) Financial Opportunity or Obligation - debts owed, money hoped to be made
6) Explorers - They want to see the universe
7) Rich Travellers/Playboy Nobles - They want to see the universe (IN STYLE!)
8) Civil Servants - Nobles, Bureaucrats, Agents... all of these could be working together to some end
9) Politics - Noble hijinks, rebellion plotting, etc.
10) Religion - oft overlooked, but maybe a devout bunch may be pilgrims or missionaries or just refugees escaping persecution
11) Race - A bunch of Vargr banding together due to persecution or just feeling more at home with a pack of like minded folks
12) Crime - all have criminal records of various forms or perhaps are wanting to engage in some lucrative criminal activity
13) A Cause - Maybe they are all members of the Panetheistic Eco-Terrorist Army (PETA) and are out to make a point (with a bang!)

Those are some ideas.

 

[The Hinterworlds Rambler]

In mine, our antiheroes were intercepted by pirates while in the process of being deported by a Hiver controlled Government. They were given the choice to join or dance on the end of an airlock, har!

We also have a married pair of Vargr, corsairs on "dispersal" on thier honeymmoon, no less... that were marooned on a mudball when thier vacation liner came under attack by K'Kree. To date they have been there, in a crashed lifeboat for nearly 60 days...

Ye say ye got a merchant crew do ye? (wringing hands) what sector would that be in, lad?

 

[jchurchill]

We also have a married pair of Vargr, corsairs on "dispersal" on thier honeymmoon, no less...
=================================================
[must resist urge to make bad jokes...must resist...]

 

[The Oz]

We usually used the "old friends from the service" routine. Once the advanced character generation systems came out, we'd analyze the character's prior service histories finding out just when the PCs could all have been on the same mission, or at least in the same area at the same time. Sometimes we'd have to get pretty creative to explain things.

 

[grendelttroll]

Most of my campaigns happened to be free trader ones. Sometimes all was what held the characters together was that they decided to sign on a ship that happened to be owned/operated by one of the players. The friendship came later, as they went on. It got apparent when, crisis after crisis, they stuck together - even if the characters had opportunities to quit.

I guess it has a lot to do with the players' motivations. If players create characters who would not have anything to do with each other, that's counter-productive. I have had that happen. It isn't just the carreer/class the player chose, it's the 'tude. It might be prudent to insure that your players have the right ones for your campaign.

I know this sounds obvious, but I have seen this too many times with peoples' games. It is forgotten too many times.

 

[kaladorn]

Originally posted by Baron Saarthuran:
Ye say ye got a merchant crew do ye? (wringing hands) what sector would that be in, lad?

Currently in Jumpspace, bound for Focaline (Aramis/Spinward Marches). But if you want to tangle with them, I advise you that you do so at your peril. They are in a type MF modified fast merchant, a 300-ton heavily armed and stealthed vessel designed for fast, secure, and quiet cargo transport and delivery. The powerplant could power a much larger vessel and she's pulls a fair G and has a lot of agility for a Merchie. And the pilot is 'Hell on Grav-plates'!

 

[kaladorn]

Mr. Troll,
Your sentiments are excellently formulated and entirely correct.

 

[Shadowdancer]

For the T20 demo I recently ran, I considered using the following idea as the reason the characters were brought together:

They were in the Linkworlds shortly after the start of the last war between the Imperium and the Solomani. All of the characters were of Solomani descent -- either ex-pats or the descendents of Solomani colonists. All wanted to "go home" to the Solomani Confederation, either to fight in the war for the Solomani, or to avoid possible harrasment from the Vilani in the Ley Sector.

A deep cover SolSec agent brings them all together. The good news -- he has arranged for them all to travel to Solomani space. The bad news -- they have to steal a starship to get there.

I envisoned a sort of "Von Ryan's Express" in outer space.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

We also have a married pair of Vargr, corsairs on "dispersal" on thier honeymmoon, no less... that were marooned on a mudball when thier vacation liner came under attack by K'Kree.

Hmm...this mudball wouldn't be the moon of a gas giant, would it?

[must resist urge to make bad jokes...must resist...]

If these jokes involve the phrase "doggie style" then I got there first

If players create characters who would not have anything to do with each other, that's counter-productive.

You can have a lot of fun if you take a group like that and put them in a situation where they *have* to work together.

 

[Zutroi]

Two effective techniques I've used (although #2 shouldn't be over-used!):

1 - The players sign on with the same local hiring-hall/temp agency following their diverse services. That they are the ones hired for a particular job is entirely coincidental. If they choose to hang around together afterwards...

2 - The players are travelling along, oblivious to one another, when the ship is hijacked. This provides wonderful incentive for the players to learn to work together quickly!

 

[Jame]

"But why am I Travelling with these clowns? For laughs, of course! Why else would I join the circus?!? Oh, and they're paying me, too..."

I just had my group get together under orders, to be a group of scout-agents.

 

[vegascat]

I have tried this before.
You wake up naked in a ships hold. You see a stack of uniforms with strange insignia. The only decorations on the walls are a large flag on each wall and a poster. The poster reads,
"Welcome to the Grand Fleet on the nation of Pourdoss. You will be filling a great need to defend the glorious people from the perfidious Zhodani. Put on the uniforms and you will be enlisted in the Grand Fleet."

This shanghi senario is real fun, especially if one of the PCs is actually a Zhodani.

 

[rancke]

Originally posted by jappel:
It's a common problem when starting a campaign or adventure; just why are all the PCs in the same place, much less working together, to begin with? The old "You meet in the Startown tavern" just doesn't cut the mustard.

[snip]

How have others tackled this?

I have started two campaigns lately. One was a merchant campaign where the PCs were hired by a small fledgeling line to crew one of its ships, the Silver Sphinx, a Golden Gryphon Class merchant (This was a 400 T unstreamlined design that I worked out from the GT rules). The idea was to see what sort of adventures you could have while jumping back and forth between the same 8 or 9 systems.

Unfortunately this campaign is on hiatus for the moment because the players became unable to show up. I still hope it may be revived some day.

In the other campaign the PCs are a group of troubleshooters working for Oberlindes Lines. This is still going fine, albeit slowly; we only play once a month on the average.


Hans

 

[grendelttroll]

Originally posted by kaladorn:
Mr. Troll,
Your sentiments are excellently formulated and entirely correct.

Thanks. After 20+ years of Traveller, you learn a thing or two other than Jump coordinates!

 

[mark_rotteveel]

In my current campaign, all the players are ex-military (although not from the same arm, and most of them are mechanics or clerks).

The only thing they had in common was they were mustering out at about the same time in nearby missions. Then they were offered a 'volunteer' mission... This was the first adventure.

To drop into some back-water planet with a TL5, where someone had picked up the EPIRB of of a starship. Locate said vessel, get it into some semblance of working order, and get out.

The party is part of the Humano-Vargran Confederacy Deteched Naval Service (DNS) - sort of a reserve fleet. The reason they wanted in? Well, you're retiring and wondering 'what now?' when someone says "Hey, if you wanna join up with this bunch of no-hopers, and rescue a ship, you get salvage rights to it.... waddya say?"

For a share ownership in a starship? Who wouldn't? (Of course the starship is really more of a star-'thing'....)

This approach worked for me. It got a party and a ship, and also room in the campaign to have both military and merchant adventures. They own the ship, are free to do whatever they want, but may be 'called upon' by the DNS to do a specific mission....

I read through this twice before posting it. I think it makes sense

 

[Elliot]

When (a long time ago) I used to write scenarios (for my group not for £$£$£$) instead of a skeleton narrative I always used to write a 'ways in' part - how players from various backgrounds entered into the scenario.

I never liked the 'you are on a merchant ship so there' approach of GDW adventures - we played (i didn't ref) the Traveller Adventure with the March Harrier as a noble PC's yacht - fallen on hard times. It worked fine!

 

[signless]

I agree that the "there you are" sort of introduction to an adventure leaves a great deal to be desired.
I enjoyed the way the setup happened in the CT mod. "Tarsus", the players are veterans freshly mustered-out from the Fifth Frontier War.
I also enjoyed The Traveller Adventure enormously (Man, what a GREAT game that turned into...).
Giving your players backgrounds, and letting them fall together in some natural way makes for a much less contrived gaming scenario.
While there's something to be said about tear-assing around space in your own starship...I've always found it much more enjoyable when there are plenty of stories to tell about how you got the starship in the first place...

 

[Malakor]

When I started my campaign, I put the characters all on a liner en route to a distant world [for whatever reasons they wanted to come up with]

Started the game with a little roleplay/get to know each other and the npc's, then when they come out of jumpspace, the alarms go off [Misjump], the ship get's damaged by an asteroid and they have to crash land on a nearby planet.

The system I dropped them in was a red zone that had suffered a catastrophic meteor swarm, transforming the world into a barely populated wasteland.

the player characters were the only "functional" surviviors of the crash, and had to work together to get themselves and the others offworld and into space.

It was a lot of fun, and after 7 sessions of survival and finding an antiquated jump ship to get offworld, they had plenty of reasons to work together.

 

[clementk]

[Asu takes over the keyboard]

Just want to point out not all clowns are bad folk and can be quite fun to travel with.

[note: Asu is biased after all being ex-Carny/Circus]

And that travelling together as (or with) an acting troupe or other group of entertainers can be a way for just about anyone to earn some creds/passage. Anyone who can lift stuff, drive a vehicle, try to make a joke or act, etc. can earn some creds. And who doesn't like it when the Circus comes into town?

[Asu tumbles offstage with the keyboard]