Lovecraft & Traveller?

[Ran Targas]

I love horror Traveller. Terror is an emotion I try to get my players to feel for their characters even more than pride or joy. I think it makes the experience that more real. At a minimum I do this every Halloween but I try more often than that. And I'm always looking for a good horror adventure or even horror movie to adapt to CT for that exact purpose.

To me, humans exploring space would be horrified by what they find as much as they would be filled with wonder; just imagine looking down the maw of a black hole as it rips apart a star system or discovering the gory reproductive cycle of an alien parasite. Not every character (or player) should be able to stare into the face of an entirely new experience for humanity and walk away a coherent or even an intelligent witness; particularly when dealing with aliens.

And an even more fun plot device is to have the players run into one of these intrepid explorers who have looked into the void and cracked under the strain; this in itself can be a horrific experience (see Leviathan for inspiration).

Woohoo! What fun can be had!

 

[Pickles]

There was an excellent CoC SF scenario in an old White Dwarf ... "lost Patrol" or something.

 

[cdward]

White Dwarf CoC article

I have that in the loft somewhere, it was illustrated with pictures of Space 1999 eagle models and Grenadier Traveller Imperial Marines but I can't remeber the number or the title of the article right now.

 

[cdward]

White Dwarf Cthulhu

I remember now...

It was "The Last Log" and in was in 56

Chris

 

[Nurd_boy]

Cross genre works to a point, but if it gets to axe wielding space Dwarves fighting killer zombies, then maybe Traveller isn’t the game you really want to be playing.

remember the b-17 scene from heavy metal?.. lol
a movie that was a remake of an alfred hichcock story 'lifeboat' called 'lifepod' (made for tv), had a group of survivors, one was a genie 'dwarf' genetically engineered mechanic right down to the swiss-army arm with flip out tools..I think they mentioned genies are endentured to work off their creation...so there's your 'dwarves', genies for agriculture can be 'elfish'....now, for zombies a virus like the one from 28 days later, or a parasite could do it... lol

 

[epicenter00]

I once used an Ancient psionic technology that could "curse" complex devices, which really freaked my players out. The effect was partially psionic, but mostly an offshoot of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Basically, it was a technology that TL14-16 3I'ers couldn't understand - the groundwork and theory for it would appear around late TL17. Early TL18, people could fashion useful weapons from it, but by late TL18, protection from such weapons is possible, and by TL19 such protection is so complete and trivial such weapons fall out of favor.

Essentially, the device harnesses the inherent uncertainty that people have about "black box" technologies to make complex devices simply stop working. If you can take apart the device, you'll find absolutely nothing wrong with it, and if you reassemble it after reassuring yourself there's nothing wrong with the item, it'll work perfectly afterwards. The test I think was a throw 3D6 vs. TL of the item (with a "3" on 3D6 always failing). If the 3D6 total was less than the TL, the item is cursed not to function until taken apart and inspected (using the appropriate skill). Ergo, the more complex the device, the more prone to failure it is while more simple devices are less prone to being cursed.

They had to investigate ancient ruins on a "cursed" world where such weapons had been used in such profusion the "curse" memes had been soaked into the very stone of the city - any artifacts taken out of the city had a similar effect. Of course, such effects occurred randomly to the players - like flashlights inexplicably failing in dark underground tunnels, generators failing to function, FGMPs not working (yet black powder weapons did), etc.

Then the players ran into the Ancient biomechanoids that protected the city, whose programming had been slowly and steadily corrupted by such meme weapons for hundreds of thousands of years...

 

[wordserpent]

Cross genre works to a point, but if it gets to axe wielding space Dwarves fighting killer zombies, then maybe Traveller isn’t the game you really want to be playing.

Nonsense! Dwarves are genegtically engineered as colonists for heavy -G worlds that are deficient of sunlight. As for the axe, it makes for a handy tool that every colonist who is roughing-it, should have and keep ready. After all, if tech-level F space marines can wield a cutlass when their standard issue equipment includes Battle Dress and the FGMP-15, why can't a settler on a frontier world wield an axe?

Killer Zombies could be the result of any number of diseases or nano-viruses that have gone wrong. Remember Dawn of The Dead's zombies were the result of a meteor crash.

and while we're on the subject of cross genre, Elves could be humans who have adapted to space in a sublight-speed culture. The have great Dex scores, the live for hundreds of years which allows them to travell vast distances in sublight speed spacecraft and lowlight vision for those parts of a ship that don't get much light because of power restrictions.

Gnomes would be technicians and doctors. A gnomish engineer would be great at getting into those hard-to-reach spaces in an engine compartment (like that pesky power-coupling that is wedged in between the flux-capacitor and the oscillation overthruster). The (half)Orc can be a genertically engineered soldier, strong, short on brains with a fast rate of maturing and a lifespan that is relatively short once age detrioration sets in (thus eliminating a need for retirement benefits). If the high-tech society that bred the Orc has collapsed then they could have decended into the savage state that most fantasy genre's portray them as being in.

I guess Halflings could be an accident. Dragons could be a mature form of Kobold (much like the Chirper-Droyne ecology), Their fiery, breath could be a caustic saliva that burns on contact with the air (sort of like napalm) and they would secrete it from glands much like a spitting cobra's poison sac.

Magic would not exist but psionics certainly could. The rather tame system that we find in the traveller rules should ensure that the Referee can keep things from getting out of hand.

This thread is about Lovecraft right? I don't think the byakhee would be able to fly through space in a hard SF universe. Other things from Lovecrafts stories would work well in Traveller, Chthulhu himself, along with his Star-Spawn could be the last of a pre-Ancient, major race of aquatic humanoids, their subjetcs, the Deep Ones could be bred for work. Azathoth would be a planet-sized creature, pity the fool who misjumps into that system.

Nyarlathotep might be something like the "Q" from Star-Trek only much more malevolent.

The problem with logically explaining the existance of monsters is; why would these creatures have developed intelligence when they are equipped with all sorts of special abilities like breath weapons and psionics and other magic like effects? One rationale could be that the monster in question was designed by a sophont race for some purpose. Though what use a Manticore or Chimera could have is anyones guess.

Other monsters could just be really large animals (with suitable intelligence). A world filled with dinosaurs would make quite an adventure for hunters or a party that has crash-landed their ship.

 

[Cryton]

Dinosaur Planet.....read that, Anne McCaffery I think. As for Lovecraft in Traveller...ever notice that there IS a Narlethotep system listed in the Solomani Rim?

 

[aramis]

Dinosaur Planet and Dinosaur Planet Survivors were both excellent McCaffree books. Neither answers WHY nor HOW... but they do ask WHY there are dinosaurs there....

Traveller, we'd need the same question answered, as the ancients are not ancient enough...

 

[ChalkLine]

I remember now...

It was "The Last Log" and in was in 56

Chris

A superb scenario. That started as a one-off game for us one night and ended up as a six month campaign. Not using the xenomorph from the movie 'Alien' was the biggest temptation I've ever avoided.

Challenge magazine had a few horror/supernatural scenarios from memory. "To Sleep, Perchance to Scream" was one on the Lost Contact With The Outpost motif (every campaign should have a few) and another on HyperSpace Psychic Anomalies that didn't fit in with my campaign but looked like a good scenario.

 

[wordserpent]

...Neither answers WHY nor HOW... but they do ask WHY there are dinosaurs there....

Traveller, we'd need the same question answered, as the ancients are not ancient enough...

How about a Jurassic park style planet. Made by some crazy human biologists who wanted to study dinosaurs?

 

[aramis]

Doesn't fit McCaffree's DP, but yeah, it would work in Traveller.

 

[kafka47]

In terms of flying through space, has anyone checked out the TNE cover with those sinister looking things scaling in open space? Clearly, in the Aftermath of the Dominate and Virus, we going to see a lot more freakish mutations on worlds.

The beauty of bringing in a few Lovecraft beasties is not so much as terrible monsters but victims of maligned universe now catching up. The utter sense all actions leading to some sort of cosmic horror show that is waiting to be played out with all the humans who found religion amongst the stars (ie cultists) can pose as a serious and reoccurring threat to PCs. Who are working desparately to resurrect the belief in an ancient sleeper who must be awakened (shades of dune here) -- some soldier when the right genetic sequence is trigger will awaken the Great Old Ones (alien entities who invade the realm of psionic thought processes from Beyond).

 

[BlackBat242]

Dragon #70: Dwarves in Space has Dwarves as an Alien race from a 1.2G planet with a variable-cycle K2 star, thus accounting for their preference for underground living.

 

[beeber]

...ever notice that there IS a Narlethotep system listed in the Solomani Rim?

yup, and when my players did too, they just had to go look. . . which then allowed me to just run with the CoC/MT crossover i'd been itching to do. i don't remember the details, but it entailed cultists (of course) jumping to worlds mentioned in lovecraft (and related works) as homes to certain beings. they saved the day, with no "elder gods" released. but it was fun winging a SAN mechanic and tacking that on to the creature carnage that resulted.

 

[Merxiless]

The original post is a surprise to me.

I never saw Traveller as Squeaky Clean, nor Static. Most player groups i;ve run for have ended up as vile criminals or worse. And UPPS, and the borders of polities often change, mid-game, in response to ongoing events.

I saw it as whatever story I was trying to tell, not as some kind of iconic "Thing" that I had to adapt to.

Trek, "Aliens", Star Wars, Or my Own. Lots of , in fact an infinite number of stories, in 3I (or other times)

 

[jfetters]

If you're into the TNE rules you could always try and get hold of Dark Conspiracy which used the GDW house rules. I'm not sure if Dark Conspiracy is still in print but I believe there was a web ring covering this system.

Some of the "monsters" used in DC were supposed to be ETs

Somewhere on the web is a Traveller site where the GM integrated the DC background with that of Traveller (basically saying it was the Ancients that initially released the Old Ones and the possession of some Ancients was what started the final war. Grandfather then sealed them into a portal on Io).

Kind of neat stuff. I used the DC versions of vampires a couple times.

FWIW, DC is still out there in a new edition (it's all over the place on eBay).

 

[Jason M Durkish]

My major evil based religion is based off of Lovecraft's works .

 

[Jason M Durkish]

Also I forgot to mention my version of the Zhodani the Cthulhi .
Are also based on Mr Lovecraft's works as well .

 

[BwapTED]

Traveller can seem too squeaky clean at times. Anyone ever thought of adding some gothic horror to a campaign?

Something dark and mysterious
perhaps even upsetting?

Risk of PC death during character generation?




But seriously,

RE Dwarves in space tangent: Yeah, love 'em.
Traveller offers a couple of dwarf-type human variants already. Geonee, the Bye-ren, etc.

I have the Dragon issue with the D&D style dwarves
Nice one. It's even got career path notes for its D&D style dwarves. It also has a nice expansion for low tech weapons, namely axes.


RE Zombies:

Why not?
Or why not something like the Reavers from Firefly?

RE Mi-Go and other Lovecraftian aliens

That was a good call on the Fungi from Yuggoth, methinks.

I could see Moon-beasts, too, although I might interpret their spacecraft differently than the way the "galleys" are portrayed in the Dreamlands stories.





RE Virus: I couldn't agree more. Virus is made of space horror goodness.


Other stuff-


Jump space "ghosts" and other weirdness were covered in JTAS, IIRC.

Insane or corrupt psionicists? The Psionics Suppressions may have been an overreaction, but that doesn't mean there wasn't a serious threat posed by psionic acitivity...

Monsters from the Id!


RE Gothic horror:

If it's Gothic, that suggests a certain set of tropes and certain moral ideas.

So, not just monsters, but villains.

Not just terror, but evil.

Sin, cursed legacies, families and places haunted by the past.