Introducing Characters

[Chuck Anumia]

Add the current Patron to the PC's list of "Known Contacts".

Invite the PC's to "Test" new inventions, equipment, ship types for a mega corp.

 

[Whipsnade]

Originally posted by jatay3:
[QB] How does one make the feel of beginning such a campaign look real?

Jatay,

Oh, that's an easy one!

Astron is a project its founders are attempting to launch despite opposition from the Border Worlds and Imperium. The requirements are lots of secrecy, lots of misdirection, and a cell-structured management style among other things. Prior to launch, Astron will be run more like an espionage campaign than a colony project.

Because of that, your PCs will NOT be in on the Big Secret from the start. As you mentioned, there are lots of ships and equipment to gather. Let your PCs get put to work on that end of things. Astron will also have need for plenty of red herrings to confuse its opponenets. The activities of the PCs can be those misdirections, so much the better if the PCs don't know themselves.

All the PCs know is that there is a job to do, but they have no idea WHY the job needs doing! It's only after they have performed well and that their superiors trust them that they will be let in on the secret, and then only in small doses.

Run your Pcs about doing things like:

- Arranging for low profile warehouse space in a number of different ports. Naturally, the types of folks who store nondescript shipping containers without asking too many questions aren't upstanding citizens.

- Arranging for 'equipment upgrades' for various ships and small craft, again performed by less than honest types.

- Running about on 'nail missions'; i.e. tracking down vitally needed parts or information critical to the project.

- Making, guarding, and/or transporting important purchases.

- Acting as deniable cut-outs.

- Trailing various Border World or Imperial agents and trying to frustrate their plans.

- Engaging in any of the activities listed above only not to directly advance the project. Instead, their actions are meant to decoy, misdirect, or confuse any of Astron's opponents as to what the project is actually working on.

At various times the PCs can and should believe they are working for smugglers, ECMs, mercs, a criminal cartel, terrorists/freedom fighters, or any of the Confederation's intelligence services. Keep 'em guessing. Learning about Astron, even learning that htey have been working for Astron, should be the reward for a lengthy 'Project Preparation' campaign.


Sincerely,
Bill

 

[jatay3]

Icon 1 posted April 29, 2005 04:25 AMApril 29, 2005 04:25 AM Profile for Larsen E. Whipsnade Send New Private Message Edit/Delete Post Reply With Quote
quote:Originally posted by jatay3:
[QB] How does one make the feel of beginning such a campaign look real?Jatay,

Oh, that's an easy one!

Astron is a project its founders are attempting to launch despite opposition from the Border Worlds and Imperium. The requirements are lots of secrecy, lots of misdirection, and a cell-structured management style among other things. Prior to launch, Astron will be run more like an espionage campaign than a colony project.

Because of that, your PCs will NOT be in on the Big Secret from the start. As you mentioned, there are lots of ships and equipment to gather. Let your PCs get put to work on that end of things. Astron will also have need for plenty of red herrings to confuse its opponenets. The activities of the PCs can be those misdirections, so much the better if the PCs don't know themselves.

All the PCs know is that there is a job to do, but they have no idea WHY the job needs doing! It's only after they have performed well and that their superiors trust them that they will be let in on the secret, and then only in small doses.

Run your Pcs about doing things like:

- Arranging for low profile warehouse space in a number of different ports. Naturally, the types of folks who store nondescript shipping containers without asking too many questions aren't upstanding citizens.

- Arranging for 'equipment upgrades' for various ships and small craft, again performed by less than honest types.

- Running about on 'nail missions'; i.e. tracking down vitally needed parts or information critical to the project.

- Making, guarding, and/or transporting important purchases.

- Acting as deniable cut-outs.

- Trailing various Border World or Imperial agents and trying to frustrate their plans.

- Engaging in any of the activities listed above only not to directly advance the project. Instead, their actions are meant to decoy, misdirect, or confuse any of Astron's opponents as to what the project is actually working on.

At various times the PCs can and should believe they are working for smugglers, ECMs, mercs, a criminal cartel, terrorists/freedom fighters, or any of the Confederation's intelligence services. Keep 'em guessing. Learning about Astron, even learning that htey have been working for Astron, should be the reward for a lengthy 'Project Preparation' campaign.
--------------------------------
That's also a good idea!

 

[jatay3]

How do they handle the advertising? Do they hold off on recruiting colonists until they are prepared?

 

[Whipsnade]

Originally posted by jatay3:
How do they handle the advertising? Do they hold off on recruiting colonists until they are prepared?

Oops, sorry Jatay, didn't see your question right away!

How do they recruit colonists? Two words: Low Berths.

They're going to ship 'em out there in low berths anyway and the colonists won't be going with the first several trips. They can run a nice, careful, low profile, few people a month, recruiting effort. The colonist signs on, an accident is taged or they just 'leave', they're popped into a low berth, and they simply wait until the low liner flies out to an already prepared colony site. Simple no?

The Project could pop a dozen people per month per Sword World (less on lo-pop worlds, much more on hi-pop ones) while they're getting everything else ready. They can be freezing people out even before the scouting party launches!

Imagine the Project takes a decade from first secret meeting to when the low berth liner leaves and the Project is freezing an average of 50 people a month across the whole of the Sword Worlds. That's a pittance when compared to the population of the Confederation, but after ten years it adds up to 6,000 people. Is that enough for youir colony? And that doesn't include the various advance crews who went out earlier; frozen or warm, or the folks who worked for the Project for 10 years in return for their one-way ticket.

I don't think the Project will have trouble recruiting. I do think they'll have trouble keeping it quiet and storing a few thousand low berths some place safe!


Have fun,
Bill

 

[Fritz_Brown]

They may also have trouble with keeping people in low berth that long. But, hey, when you get 6,000 people, what's a few hundred croaking off before the ship leaves? You just have a few more slots to fill, and you hope the new recruit doesn't ask why he's not with the other newbies at the other end of the row....

 

[jhulse]

I have used this method in the past quite successfully. When your PC's roll up their characters, you make them roll play their last term. Or at least their last mission of their last term. I used "The Leviathan" adventure (sort of) and all the PC's were crewmembers. They were part of a strike team sent on a mission. No matter what type of character or background my PC's played, I was able to find a reason for them to be aboard the ship. Since it was a merchant cruiser, it had no real affiliation with the Emperium, Sword Worlds, or what ever so it could pretty much go anywhere. In fact, the adventure occurred on the fringe of Sword World Territory. After the adventure is over (and thus the characters last mission of their final term), that is when they muster out. From then on they can form their own group, help pool their recourses to buy a ship, or what ever they want to do. There is no "awkward introduction" at a space bar or anything like that. The pc's would have already known each other for at least one term, perhaps even longer. It would be an opportunity for them to also pick up some NPC crew or guards. They will have automatic contacts with their old crewmates, and perhaps even pick up some enemies based on how their introduction adventure goes. Especially if these are newbies, new to the Traveller universe, this would help them to understand how things work. They are given orders, objectives, etc... After they're on their own, they would better understand "how to play traveller", what to expect, how to interact, etc...
Like I said, it has worked for me in the past, and I think it will work again. Consider the first adventure as a prequel to their characters adventuring lives.
Jaknaz

 

[jatay3]

I don't mean the process of recruiting people-as you said that would be easy.
I meant doing it without Imperium-BWA knowing.

 

[jatay3]

Here's some idea's that I have come up with.
The Astron Project was organized by the "Vinland Society" a magizine published for exploration buffs. The Astron project waas talked about for a long time on the pages of the magizine but until just recently it was considered an idle frolic. This will explain how they managed to get recruits. Also why they were ignored: the BWA just didn't percieve them as a threat. I would also change the schedule and have the Imperium know something about the "mysterious sponser"-that way they have a more plausible reason to be harrassing an ostensibly harmless group then humoring the parionoia of that miserable jackal Commisioner Muli(whom the Imperium probably dispises anyway).
Most of the original members were from Greve Henrik II universeity. One was even the son of the Greve. Thus the founders would have blue-blood enough not to fill odd doing something like this.
By the way do any Israeli posters have ancestors who took part in the original Zionist movement and left behind journals-it would make an interesting comparison for what it feels like to go about "building a nation in one's basement". The Astron's do sound like the Zionists in some ways though they have an even harder time of it with "100 parsecs" to travel. As I said I am to shy a person to imagine myself doing such a thing on my own initiative. For that reason it would be interesting to hear more from someone who actually was involved in something like this.

 

[jatay3]

By the way: two posts seem to be missing from the first page of this.
Maybe the Imperium is after us!

 

[jatay3]

For the initial adventure, the Scout that rolled up the Scout Ship, is the easy one to get them steered into a good campaign.

quote:
Scout Base Commander: Well John, you are going on Detached Duty. Excellent. It says here in your papers from Sector HQ, that I am to place at your disposal a surplus Type-S. No Problem.

Lets see, I have the "Bad Penny" available, it is only 120 years old and shold be finished with the annual maintenance in a couple of weeks... Oh I also happen to have this Prototype TL 13 Type S+ that we tested for the service and they decided not to buy it, so it was declared surplus.. But I was thinking I should save that one for someone that is willing to look into _____ for me. Unofficially, of course... [Smile]


--------------------
I have a couple of seats open in my online, real time, T20 Gateway Domain Campaign. For some insight to my T20 online campaign, look here.
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excellant! the commander of the scout ship they aquire is an Imperial agent.

 

[jhulse]

I began a campaign earlier last fall. I mixed up the character generations a bit. As apposed to the PC's simply rolling their last term, and then starting the game trying to figure out how they would meet, I made them Role play their last term. (actually it was the last mission of their last term) Here was my scenario. The players were all crew members of a 2500 ton Merchant Cruiser nearing the end of their final terms. The Merchant Cruiser was employed by a large firm to locate and then extract CEO who's government had gone into civil war. The "bad guys" wanted to capture all important people for ransom and/or leverage, so they (the bad guys) were also after the same CEO. The first game was fast paced and fun, and introduced the players to the Traveller Universe. It allowed me a bit of control because the players "had orders" and a specific goal, and time limit, and an adversary after the same objective. So I was able to keep the players well focused on completing the mission. After the adventure they "retired", and I had them finish with the normal mustering out roles. Now they all knew each other so there was no "Hi, I'm bob, wanna adventure?"... The decided on a direction, made a plan, and pooled their resources together an bought a ship. My style of gaming gives players at least 2 or 3 plot hooks. I always have enough pre-written of each plot hook to hold me over to the next game, once I know which direction they intend to go. Takes a lot less paper work and prep time. Plus it gives me a little control on how I handle the PC's without seeming to "be in control" of what the PC's do. I have ran three more times (we switched back and forth between the new Serenity RPG) and plus the fact I do a lot of fantasy LARPING. I will pick back up and run more later this spring. Anyway, that type of character introduction worked well for my campaign style. Good luck.
Jak

 

[JAFARR]

Originally posted by jatay3:
the theoretical is:

I can imagine joining an organization like Astron. Unfortunatly I cannot imagine founding one. Therefore I am curious as to how people start making such things into a reality. What is the borderline between exchanging stories at Brubecks and carrying out such dreams? What type of person(s) actually do take such things beyond the stage of telling a yarn, then ordering another Lambic Red? Has anyone hear studied or taken part in such a thing?
----------------------------------
obviously not many have actually taken part in something of the scale of Astron Project. What I was wondering was whether anyone was present at the founding of a commercial, political, charitable, recreational, etc organization who might know what "turning the dream into reality" actually was like.

Back when the Powerball lottery was over 300 million dollars, I realized that you could buy it by purchasing every possible combination - about 147 million of them. However no 1 person could possibly buy that many entries in the timeframe needed to take advantage of such a big pot. My dream is to found a buyers club to take advantage of these big jackpots. I think that would be on the same order of grandness as the Astron project. To make it work would require co-ordinating almost 300,000 people buying 500 entries each and getting them all sent to the collection center in time to collect the prizes. How to insure that someone doesn't get greedy and try to keep a winning ticket is just one of the obstacles.

 

[Whipsnade]

Gents,

Check out a story Dalton is writing here at COTI:

Dalton's Fiction

It contains a very nifty way to introduce players from very different careers!


Have fun,
Bill

 

[kafka47]

Bill, I think you missed out this is a prelude to a much larger Campaign that he will be running over the Internet using ScreenMonkey and a whole host of other paraphenial. As I know the story arc (and no, you cannot bribe me), let me tell you it is very impressive and ties nicely into the re-write of the Traveller rules that he is also doing. The guy is very talented and a gentleman to boot.

 

[Whipsnade]

Kafka,

I got that bit, but I didn't know how far along things were! That campaign sounds great and I hope Dalton shares more with us.

I was suggesting that folks take a page from Dalton's playbook. He's obviously 'introducing' characters from widly different backgrounds in a wholly plausible way. No 'You All Meet In A Bar' or 'You're All Friends Anyways' stuff.


Have fun,
Bill

 

[archhealer]

[/qb]

Back when the Powerball lottery was over 300 million dollars, I realized that you could buy it by purchasing every possible combination - about 147 million of them. However no 1 person could possibly buy that many entries in the timeframe needed to take advantage of such a big pot. My dream is to found a buyers club to take advantage of these big jackpots. I think that would be on the same order of grandness as the Astron project. To make it work would require co-ordinating almost 300,000 people buying 500 entries each and getting them all sent to the collection center in time to collect the prizes. How to insure that someone doesn't get greedy and try to keep a winning ticket is just one of the obstacles. [/QB][/QUOTE]

Actually, this has been tried by many groups/organizations. Many states now have laws prohibiting exactly this.

 

[archhealer]

Bah. That last post didn't work right. Oh well.

Anyhow, I generated an organization IMTU that helps add some characters into a campaign; it's called the "Nest" and they have offices on numerous worlds, and loose ties to the TAS. They are essentially a temp agency for mercs and freelancers. If a character is looking for work, they can go to the local Nest office, submit their specializations, resume, etc. and then when somebody needs a person for a position, usually security or somesuch, the Nest calls the most qualified person currently available.

I've introduce a few characters into campaigns this way, when the party really needs somebody with a particular license or skill that none of them have.

Additionally, I often RP seperately, alone, with new characters until I can bring them together with the party in the main campaign. It's very labor-intensive but I think well worth the end result; the players have already established a style and personality for their character before the even meet the party.