Did you ever give your players anything really gonzo?

[gloriousbattle]

I did. The disintegrator pistols from Twilight's Peak.

Yep, you know the ones. Can disintegrate anything, including groups, or just wish the enemy marine detachments' fusion guns and battledress to go away... and they do.

On of the players was a level 10 psionic, and two more could get there with psi-boosters. The campaign was winding down anyway, and I thought "This'll be a nice going away present."

Was I ever wrong.

The players immediately decided to take over the universe. I thought about it for a moment, smiled, and said, "Okay. What's your first step?"

It turned out to be not quite as easy as they thought.

The obvious move of just going to Regina and zapping the duke and his Huscarles was (wisely) rejected. It would be one thing to terrify the whole Spinward Marches, but another to rule it.

Trying to become bandit lords of a backwater world located between the Imperium and the Zhodani nearly ended in disaster. The players quickly discovered that though their disintegrators could (and did, twice) destroy lightning class cruisers that enetered orbit around their adopted world, they couldn't do much to stop other ships from showing up in the asteroid belt, and launching big rocks at them, and it got tedious to have to disintegrate those rocks one after another, and keep heading out of their world to chase the enemy off. Then, of course, there was the blockade...

In the end, they settled for entering the service of the Zhodani as an extremely powerful assassin's guild. An unstoppable, universe conquering army they were not, but an unstoppable kill squad they were. They all got to become nobles (most of them were psionic anyway) and they stopped a good two more Frontier wars.

Something a little similar, though on a much smaller scale happened when another group got hold of the powers of the past http://www.scribd.com/doc/67364011/The-Powers-of-the-Past-Special-Skills-for-Traveller-Gaming That lasted longer. The players in that game decided to teach their warrior skills to more primitive worlds and start a Dune-style Jihad.

So, anyone else done this kind of thing? I can see the argument against it: It changes the campaign too much, and lets in too many uncontrollable elements. That is true, but that is also what a lot of science fiction is all about.

 

[pmbnss]

Supership fail

Way back I allowed my players to find a TL 21 AI-controlled warship as a result of a misjump deep in a nebula near Strouden in the Marches during the Rebellion.

The original intent was that they would inadvertantly use the ship as a portal to an alternate universe, where the real campaign would begin.

However, their intrinsic paranoia was such that gaining a vessel that couldn't be hit with TL15- weapons, and could dish out tremendous damage, meant that they were terrified that it would be stolen from them.

Since they assumed that every system that they might go to would be would be populated by psychopathic killer-thieves just awaitin' to gun them down the instant the hatch opened, they quit playing right then and there.

Whoops.

 

[gloriousbattle]

Way back I allowed my players to find a TL 21 AI-controlled warship as a result of a misjump deep in a nebula near Strouden in the Marches during the Rebellion.

The original intent was that they would inadvertantly use the ship as a portal to an alternate universe, where the real campaign would begin.

However, their intrinsic paranoia was such that gaining a vessel that couldn't be hit with TL15- weapons, and could dish out tremendous damage, meant that they were terrified that it would be stolen from them.

Since they assumed that every system that they might go to would be would be populated by psychopathic killer-thieves just awaitin' to gun them down the instant the hatch opened, they quit playing right then and there.

Whoops.

Hmm. There's gotta be a name for that phenomenon: I grow so powerful that everything scares me?

 

[stealth]

When my players decided to take over a planet, they chose carefully.

They found a low population Civil Service Bureaucracy and offered the people freedom from stifling law levels. The world was TL-10, but the players had access to TL-13 gear from Effate and some stuff at TL-15 from Rhylanor.

They established an independent starport that competed with the main port, made contacts with local malcontents and terrorists, raised an army and basically followed the steps in 'Coup 'de Etat: A Practical Handbook' and took over the planet.

It took about a year and was a lot of fun. They basically retired after that.

In another game, players got a-hold of grandfathers inventory gun: point it at an object, press the trigger - the object vanishes and a printed receipt in droyne dated 200,000 years ago floats to the ground.

The lived in fear of the day the warehousing bill would come due, and used it sparingly.

 

[gloriousbattle]

In another game, players got a-hold of grandfathers inventory gun: point it at an object, press the trigger - the object vanishes and a printed receipt in droyne dated 200,000 years ago floats to the ground.

The lived in fear of the day the warehousing bill would come due, and used it sparingly.

:rofl:

 

[leo knight]

My entire first campaign was a continuing exercise in gonzo Monty Haul-ism.

The first was allowing characters to begin with psionics. My first scenario was a cross between "Alien" (which had just hit the theaters) and a Poul Anderson story set on a zooship. The critter running loose was a 400kg, intelligent grizzly bear thing called a Grendel. I decided this could be like Androcles and the lion. It was hurt, lonely, and could be befriended, if they didn't shoot it on sight. One PC telepath scanned the ship for life signs, found the beastie, and convinced it to be his buddy. They wound up taking him back to his home planet (Knorbes, in Regina subsector) and convinced Grendel to let more of his kin become "buddies" with the party. Then they asked me how much custom, Grendel-sized battle dress might cost... o:

 

[gloriousbattle]

Then they asked me how much custom, Grendel-sized battle dress might cost... o:

Utterly cool.

 

[stealth]

The Giant Robot

In one campaign we played at a married couples house, and the kids wanted to play. Why not? I was twelve when I started.

Traveller is hard and scientific, but I was not daunted: the first game was a rescue-the-princess counter-insurgency op, and I let Bryce, the hyper-active one, find a Giant Robot.

Now, it every ten year old kids dream to be a giant robot mechwarrior pilot, and I gave him a 30' tall Big-O looking thing. When he couldn't find the gun controls, I told him: "Maybe it's like a Snyder."

Bryce: "What's a Snyder?"

Me: "It's an atomic powered robot designed for hand-to-hand combat."

Bryce: Pumps fists with glee.

Much mayhem followed, but eventually he figured out how to use the laser, missles, and grappel-chain thingies. We all had fun.

 

[gloriousbattle]

Much mayhem followed, but eventually he figured out how to use the laser, missles, and grappel-chain thingies. We all had fun./QUOTE]

And that is all that matters.

 

[stealth]

A TL-15 35 ton fighter.

With dual fusion guns and a bridge. It was used to probe a black hole.

It fit perfectly in the hold of another players pirate ship.

 

[HiverLord]

In my current campaign (on hold due to one player's foot surgery), the group has found a 3' x 5' oval "table top", constructed of monadium, which has a ~3cm ring around the edge. It is, of course, one end of an Ancient portal. This one happens to be a 'command portal', but no subsidiary portal is around (don't know if I'll ever let them find it, either...)
They figured out fairly quickly how to turn the thing on, which resulted in their finding an 'alternate dimension', ~10x10x100 meters (about one displacement ton or so). The pilot's first thought was 'can we use it to store fuel?' Nope, not directly anyway... They'll probably end up using it for smuggling.

 

[Hyphen]

When my PC's went to Twilight's Peak, I gave them a pair of stepping disks. They also float, due to anti-grav.

Extremely useful for covert insertions: Evmisbe the Droyne teleports in with one disk, activates it, then the rest of the group arrives. It's the Trav equivalent of a Trek
transporter - gets them right into the action.

They haven't found the hidden compartment yet; it seamlessly blends into the side of the disk, and only opens if the user is afraid (I _did_ say Twilight's, right?), and holds a Droyne disintegrator.