Gaming in the Universe of A. Bertram Chandler

[Richard]

Hello!

I am about to start an online campaign set in A. Bertram Chandlers 'Rim Runners' universe (spaces available if anyone interested), and I wondered if anyone had any thoughts, ideas or practical experience in running Traveller in this setting.

I've already come up with an adaptation of the Mannschenn and Ehrenhaft Drives, and am thinking about the alien races mentioned in the novels.

The Droyne chargen seems a good match for the Shaara, and I thought the Virushi could be used to simulate the Streen. I'll be writing some of the other old JTAS races in - any thoughts on adaptation?

Many thanks,
Richard Tongue
Methuslah@tongue.fsnet.co.uk

 

[alanb]

Originally posted by Richard:
I am about to start an online campaign set in A. Bertram Chandlers 'Rim Runners' universe (spaces available if anyone interested), and I wondered if anyone had any thoughts, ideas or practical experience in running Traveller in this setting.

Good call!

I wish I had the time to play.

Chandler's setting is very cool. I haven't used it myself, but it just begs to be used.

It's not terribly easy to get hold of his books here, so I haven't read a lot of them. Still, one thing that occurs to me is that some of Andre Norton's Trader books have a feel that's not entirely dissimilar. Bits of Poul Anderson could be milked too.

You can't go too wrong with good classic trader stuff. All you really need is to ensure that the PCs have interesting stuff to do, to ensure that it doesn't become an exercise in pushing calculator buttons or designing spreadsheets.

Of course, like the good business people they are, players will tend to head for the safest and most profitable routes. You just need to make sure that "safest" and "most profitable" are mutually exclusive categories.

Alan B

 

[Tanuki]

Originally posted by Richard:
I've already come up with an adaptation of the Mannschenn and Ehrenhaft Drives, and am thinking about the alien races mentioned in the novels.

Would you be willing to post those, please?

 

[Richard]

The first problem was one of range - standard Traveller Jump Drives would take decades to travel between Earth and the Rim. So I had to increase the range of Jump Drives, but since the setting was fitted for it anyway, I had no qualms about this.

Below is the 'Interstellar Drive' except from my Player's Notes.

Jump Drive as such is not used in this universe, but each ship retains its jump rating. The standard interstellar drive of the period is the Mannschenn Drive, which consists of a complex series of ever-rotating gyroscopes. Not only is it a Space drive, it is also potentially a Time drive if something goes wrong, and there are references to worlds colonized long before Man left Earth – by humans.

In game terms, the Jump speed of the starship in question is equivalent to an exponential speed rating of parsecs/week. Jump1 is 1 parsec/week, Jump 2 is 4 parsecs/week, and so on. Higher Jump speeds than 6 are possible in this universe, but are rarely found except on specialized military and commercial craft. (At Jump6, a voyage between Earth and the Rim would take about 90 weeks continuous flight. This, however, is rare, and the passage would generally take nearer three – four years.) For each week of service, an Engineering roll (base 8+) must be passed – failure requires the ship stop. Total failure (2) would mean a catastrophe, the nature of which would be established nearer the time.

There is an older form of interstellar drive that is very rarely used; the Ehrenhaft Drive, or gaussjammer. These ships rode magnetic lines of force, but were highly vulnerable to mechanical breakdown or magnetic storms, and further could only travel along fixed routes. In game terms, these work in the same manner as the Mannschenn Drive, but are far more unreliable. This means an Engineering base roll of 10+, with catastrophe on 2 or 3.

Richard Tongue

 

[PhillWebb]

Originally posted by Richard:
I am about to start an online campaign set in A. Bertram Chandlers 'Rim Runners' universe (spaces available if anyone interested), and I wondered if anyone had any thoughts, ideas or practical experience in running Traveller in this setting.

I really enjoyed the Rim books, not so much the "Grimes Super Captain" ones but the tramp freighter ones.

I was thinking about putting together some background information for The Rim about this time last year so I'm interested in seeing your notes if you wouldn't mind sharing them.

Have you done star maps or collected Canon information from the books?

I don't have a lot of free time but I'd be interested in doing some research in my books to put together the Canon material that we could all share. As a collaborative task we could save some doubling up on the work done.

Phill

 

[Richard]

I'd certainly be willing to share anything I come up with - most of my notes are on paper at the moment, but I was planning to transcribe them anyway.

I'm focusing my attention on the Rim at the moment, sifting for major points. I have done a local starmap, but it's rather rough at the moment, and I'll be revamping it over the next few days.

Richard Tongue