Experience on Zhodani/Vargr/Aslan/alien campaigns?

[Maladominus]

I want to hear the experience of GMs and players that have played as a purely Zhodani, or purely Vargr, Aslan, etc.

I pretty much have only seen/played Traveller from the perspective of playing as a pro-Imperial.

Have you ever run a campaign where your entire playergroup are a bunch of Zhodani psychopaths? Tell me! Is it as fun as it sounds? It it even manageable to GM a bunch of players all having psionics? And how do the players view themselves? Do they view themselves as the "bad guys" bent on destroying a decent civilization of the Imperium? Or do they see themselves as the Enlightened ones... the ones that are trying to change the close-minded Imperium?

Or anyone ever successfully GM a playergroup who consisted of ALL Vargr? A group of pirates perhaps? How did it turn out? Given the fact that Vargr don't do very well with authority.... was the group pure disorderly chaos? Was there a charismatic leader that held the Vargr group together?

And... Aslan....or a K'kree group. Anyone try? I would love to hear about it. One of these days, I might be bold enough to go with a campain of.... *cough* all-Hivers. LOLOL

 

[Shadowdancer]

I have an idea for a campaign, inspired by the movie Von Ryan's Express, about a group of either Solomani or Zhodani agents deep in Imperial space stealing a starship and trying to reach the border.

If done with the Zhos, I would start in extreme trailing-rimward corner of Spinward Marches, and head spinward-core.

If done with the Sols, I would start in the Linkworlds Cluster in Ley and head rimward to the Hinterworlds Sector (it could take some time).

But I haven't gotten to do it yet.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

"Zhodani psychopaths"

Almost by definition there aren't any.

I had a Zho PC in my main campaign. She really wound up the others (calling them proles didn't help). It got very complicated when they somehow ended up in the Solomani Rim - at one point she was pretending to be a Solomani who was pretending to be Imperial...

 

[flykiller]

I had a Zho PC in my main campaign ... at one point she was pretending to be a Solomani who was pretending to be Imperial...

ah. a zhodani noble who lied.

was there ever any doubt?

 

[Andrew Boulton]

She was rather relieved when they ended up so far from home, because she was a little worried about the conversation she'd have to have with the Tavrchedl' if she ever got back.

 

[aramis]

I ran a pure K'Kree party for 2 sessions. The players got lost in keeping track of their herd.

 

[Liam Devlin]

Originally posted by flykiller:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />I had a Zho PC in my main campaign ... at one point she was pretending to be a Solomani who was pretending to be Imperial...

ah. a zhodani noble who lied.

was there ever any doubt? </font>[/QUOTE]================================================
In the fine school of realpolitik, given that the Imperials are untrustworthy, why be honest with them?

And as long he's not lying to his proles...he's okay.

 

[Liam Devlin]

Paraquat!

Great idea! Love to see ya do it up some time!

 

[flykiller]

In the fine school of realpolitik, given that the Imperials are untrustworthy, why be honest with them? And as long he's not lying to his proles...he's okay.

and the difference between the proles and the imperials is ...

 

[Liam Devlin]

Besides physiological?

 

[Maladominus]

Originally posted by Aramis:
I ran a pure K'Kree party for 2 sessions. The players got lost in keeping track of their herd.

That actually sounds fun.... having a K'kree player party surrounded by dozens of NPC herd attendants!

One small idea I had for starting one of my campaigns (with my friends as PCs) would be to have the PCs as a Vargr corsair band (who start out with their own modest pirate ship). But if they roleplay the Vargr correctly.... nothing ever gets done because orders would never be followed, and mutiny against the "group leader" would happen every 10 minutes.

 

[GypsyComet]

and the difference between the proles and the imperials is ...

The Proles are his responsibility to oversee and guide, as defined by his role as a Noble of the Zhodani. The Imperials are...not.

Not... raised to the Zhodani cultural mores.

Not... sane by Zhodani standards.

Not... ASKING for help.

 

[GypsyComet]

ah. a zhodani noble who lied.

was there ever any doubt?

The nobility know that lies are occasionally necessary, but they tend to carry lies heavily, like real world Top Secret types carry secrets. Too many weigh upon a person. And sometimes you cannot ever get absolution, or remove the responsibility of that lie (or secret), because its very nature won't allow it. With the Zhodani nobility, some lies are also terrible secrets.

A particularly ambitious Hiver would revel in knowing that his actions and words 15 years prior were calculated to start a conflict between two worlds that rendered both non-threatening to the Confederation, and that this war actually occurred and had the intended effect.

By comparison, a Zhodani Noble who knew that a deliberate mistruth of his caused two worlds outside of Consular space to war to the same end, he would carry that lie and the deaths it caused for the rest of his life, or until he could have some down time with a Tavrchedl' of sufficient clearance to help him resolve it in his own mind. If the Noble is highly placed, this latter is likely never going to happen.