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Excuse to get players to Zila; The Traveller Adventure

F

foleypt

SOC-9
I am GMing "The Traveller Adventure" and my players are finally making decent money with the good trading around Junidy. The campaign requires that they make a second visit to Zila, only except when they have run out of their free time outside the Aramis Trace I can't see them wanting to come down to Zila again.. especially as they will have to deploy the demountable tanks to get there.. but if I wait for them to start running out of time then there is not enough time to do the rest of the campaign.

Can anyone think of pulls (or pushes) to convince the crew of The March Harrier to visit Zila again.

Preferably not one where they are offered a huge amount of money to bring someone there as I have already overused that "hand of God"
 
They get a customer that is very secretive and travelling with a another character also secretive and they have a smaller crated cargo container transporting them both there. They are paying for complete passage of them and cargo and paying 5 times the going high rate for totally be quiet and not asking any questions at all.
 
If the above does not work and you want to force them to that location, then the authorities step in and take them and their ship under custody.

The authorities have an offer to let them go but they (The PC's) must make a trip to said location with a special cargo.

Dave Chase
 
Thanks for the suggestions! keep them coming


>They stumble across a sizable load of speculative cargo that they think would sell well on Zila.

Perhaps they find a cheap supplier of rubber stamps ;)

Problem is they'd know I was railroading them.

I think part of the problem is that they would have to do at least two jumps with the demountable tanks

one to pass Zykoca and the other to pass the empty space from Carsten to Zila

they lose money on those jumps and there is not much reason for them to make those trips

the scenario just assumes that they will do just so eventually

I like the idea of the authorities on some planet requisitioning the use of the craft.. either in pursuit of escaping fugitive or to carry a mercy mission of food or medicine

Problem is that the Harrier is so slow it is hard to imagine that they would do that unless it was just the last jump from Carsten to Zila.. (and as that would take 2 weeks only if they had no other choice)

Perhaps arriving in Carsten they come across a naval craft in distress that is carrying essential medical supplies (down side to this is that I don't want them to be heroes on Zila as they would change the nature of the scenario there)

However I still need a reason to bring them to Carsten.. perhaps a somebody on Towers has inherited a large claim on Carsten and wants to charter the MH to carry all their mining equipment there?
 
The players know this is a scripted adventure, right?

I would hope that a metagame hint to the players, along with at least some sort of in-game reason for the PCs, would be enough to get them moving in the right direction to experience "the rest of the story".
 
X-Mail from the 'friend' they should have made the first time there, offering them a job of some kind on Zila.

The Patron Encounters (if you haven't run them yet):
Rare Vintage
Pyramids
Go For Broke

If you can get them to Carsten, a 'shipment' (i.e. smuggling) of atrake plants, and the dirt they are growing in, sent in a roundabout way from Pysadi. Winemakers on Zila would pay good money, I'd think, to be able to analyze the soil the plants are growing in, to find out why it makes superior wine.
Roll 1d6.
1.) They are real atrakes and soil from Pysadi. They are stolen and the people getting the crew to take them are on the run. Hilarity ensures.
2.) They are real, but when the crew gets to Zila, the person receiving them is dead - and can't pay, of course.
3.) They are real, but the receiver says they are fake and tries to welch on some or all of the money.
4.) They are real. They crew gets paid and a bonus. And a new friend.
5.) They are fake. The crew is out their pay and the cost to ship them. They've also made an enemy of the receiver.
6.) They are fake. The crew isn't blamed but are given chump change for their trouble.
 
foleypt said:
>They stumble across a sizable load of speculative cargo that they think would sell well on Zila.

Perhaps they find a cheap supplier of rubber stamps ;)

Problem is they'd know I was railroading them.

I think part of the problem is that they would have to do at least two jumps with the demountable tanks
Click to expand...
Obviously the potential profit from the trip to Zila would have to be big enough to compensate for the losses. Which is a genuine problem with J1 traffic, since J2 traffic is cheaper than J1 across two parsecs.

Instead of railroading, try coopting their help. Tell them, on the meta level, that the plot requires them to revisist Zila and ask them what would make them do so.


Hans
 
>The original version is expressly not on a tight timetable. Is the Mongoose version timetabled?

I have both versions

The Mongoose version is pretty much the same as the Classic traveller one - except for the mistakes made in the OCR. They have however added a lot of floor plans for all the trading ships.

Both have a limit of the 80 weeks that they have saved up off the subsidised route


that is 560 days.. my players have currently used up 260 days

BTW.. maybe because I don't come from the US, I don't get the Paul Harvey joke.. anyone care to explain?
 
foleypt said:
>The original version is expressly not on a tight timetable. Is the Mongoose version timetabled?

I have both versions

The Mongoose version is pretty much the same as the Classic traveller one - except for the mistakes made in the OCR. They have however added a lot of floor plans for all the trading ships.
Click to expand...
The maps being redrawn without grids, and often in a faux perspective makes the mongoose one far inferior.

BTW.. maybe because I don't come from the US, I don't get the Paul Harvey joke.. anyone care to explain?
Click to expand...

Paul Harvey was a radio (and briefly, TV) news commentator, who would start with a short bit, then, after the commercial, "And now, the rest of the story..." with a long, but usually quite interesting bit.
 
If you can get them to Carsten, a 'shipment' (i.e. smuggling) of atrake plants, and the dirt they are growing in, sent in a roundabout way from Pysadi. Winemakers on Zila would pay good money, I'd think, to be able to analyze the soil the plants are growing in, to find out why it makes superior wine.
Click to expand...

Actually I like this and it gives a lead into the next part of the adventure. I could imagine that somebody could have arranged the smuggling of the Trake plants to Carsten but the onward transport of the Trakes to Zila fell through and the Trakes are now starting to die and need to be go in a hurry to Zila where as you say could fetch a good price.

So Miner staking claim to Carsten and Trakes to Zila.. hopefully I can get them to go where I want without having to give them too much Mcr as carrot ;)
 
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