My first T20 campaign.

[Weaver95]

I've been lurking about on the forums here abouts, thought it was time to chime in and say 'hi'.

Hi.

Anywho, reading these forums finally inspired me to get off my rear end and start up a T20 Traveller game at the local game store. Much to my surprise, players crawled out of the woodwork to play and I had to beat 'em off with a stick (damn high law levels...). Finally had to cap the number of players at 7 before it got ridiculous.

It's been a while since I've played Traveller, and I've dug up all the old suppliments I could find. I had a bit of a problem thinking of an idea to base my campaign around, and finally I got an idea.

I decided to base my campaign around Ancient devices, time travel and stopping the New Era from ever happening.

Had the first game last week, and everyone was totally surprised with the direction of the campaign. After being hired by a mysterious patron to jump to an isolated star system in the Rhylanor Subsector (spinward marches) and do a series of passive scans, they find a smashed Vargr Raider exiting jump near the coordinates they were told to explore (with a massive neutreno/gravitic surge and a big radiation burst). On board, they find thier own corpses (advanced in years - dead of jump sickness, radiation poisioning or battle damage) a psycho-historical database and evidence that 1116 was the start of a really bad time for the universe. They also find evidence that two other missions jumped back in time in a desperate attempt to change the future (using barely understood Ancient artifacts) and that at least one of those missions overjumped and set things up for them to take a stab at saving a future that will never know what they've done.

All in all, it got a very positive response from my players. The campaign starts in 1110 imperial (just after the end of the fifth frontier war), and they've got six years to stop the assasination of the Emperor. To give themselves some breathing space, they've decided to try to ratchet up boarder tensions between the Imperium and the Consulate and see about kicking off a sixth frontier war (or continuing the fifth war, if you will). With the aid of some covert assets that know of thier database and thier self appointed mission, they're next move is to salvage a gunboat from the wreakage of the recent War.

All in all, this should be an interesting campaign to create and play. If there's enough interest, I'll post what they've been up to from time to time.

 

[apoc527]

I know I'd love to read about your campaign. Hell, I'd love a place on this board for people to post their campaigns and adventure ideas. It'd be a good resource for all the GM's out there and would be nice to have for you when you have to unexpectedly have to GM a game.

 

[Weaver95]

I didn't find much in the way of new ideas for a Traveller campaign, which is why I hit on the idea of recycling all my old adventures and bringing things up to date with T20 rules. My challenge this week is to convert the old Gazelle class vessel stats to T20 system before the game on wednesday night.

They're gonna search for the ship in the Chronor sector (after hiring a boat to help 'em recover the gunboat) and have to be a quiet as possible while doing it.

Anyway, I thought the idea of a 'prequel' might be fun to play with. The players are all pretty psyched and were conspiring all sorts of ways to kickstart a 6th frontier war and assasinate some nobles. They know if they get caught they're dead sophonts tho.

 

[Ellros]

Originally posted by apoc527:
I know I'd love to read about your campaign. Hell, I'd love a place on this board for people to post their campaigns and adventure ideas. It'd be a good resource for all the GM's out there and would be nice to have for you when you have to unexpectedly have to GM a game.

Check out the Random Static folder apoc. Several GM's have posted stories of their campaigns, and are still continueing. They are great reads!

 

[Weaver95]

What!? no comment on my campaign idea?

Sheesh!

I'm still combing my brain (and several back issues of JTAS) for ideas on what to put on a derelict Gazelle class gunboat.

 

[Flynn]

Weaver,

Sounds like a great idea. It's much broader in scale than a similar effort run by an old friend of mine, Glenn St Germaine, who ran an IISS Rangers campaign based on his JTAS article of the same name. At one point, they encounter a group of time travellers from the TNE future, who came back to prevent the assassination of Strephon, thus leading to the GT timeline.

Keep us posted,
Flynn

 

[Weaver95]

I'm kinda interested to see how it'll play out myself. I re-read a few things from the Foundation Trilogy (and associated books) to get more of a feel for psycho-history.

I am also somewhat disturbed at how enthusastic they all are at kicking off a 6th frontier war and destabalizing the spinward marches even further...so i'm going to try for a more 'x-files' feel to the game. maybe have them run into psych-historians trying to muck with the historical trend, but using non-violent means. Or maybe the Zhodani find out what they're doing and decide to 'help' them.

Not sure exactly which way to go yet, but I have time before that becomes an issue. The next game is wednesday, and i'll just worry about this one or two games at a time.

 

[Ellros]

Sorry about that

It looks like an interesting storyline all right. Should be interesting to see what you plan for the characters, and what ideas they have for starting another war. I like the time travel intro.

 

[Weaver95]

Hey, it's all cool and stuff

I have plans for the characters, but the storyline I wrote is open ended. I learned many a year ago to outline my campaign plots and allow for much player generated chaos to my storyline.

Like I said, the best idea they came up with was kicking off a war, and assasinating the Bad Guys if all else fails. Later on they might think of something less violent, but it'll do for now I guess.

 

[Liam Devlin]

As TNE GM/ player...I had to pop in hereticaly and suggest for non violence/ short of Taking out Dulinor and the whole entourage (Btw, shoot Kuligaan anyways)..from the saboteur side of Dept.D4C(Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap)...some slow acting corrosives in Dulinor's SHip's Lyhd fusion coolant pipes...guaranteed to burst when least expected, and short of a refit and thorough overhaul, they'll have to pull and replace every pipe due to damage throughout the system.

[cited from MT-Arrival vengeance/ Cadion/Core stop--an ISS CL was in orbit-marooned by sabotage from Hand Of Varian group...]

heretically yours,

 

[Weaver95]

I'm thinking that sooner or later, this group is going to opt for some sort of brain washing as a 'non-violent' means of solving the problem. IF they can get Dulinor or Lucan alone for a few hours anyways....

Personally, I wouldn't want to spend time in the same parsec as this group, they're just that disturbing...(Two Vargr, an Ursa merc, a Solimani marine and a viliani engineer that won't leave 'his' engines).

 

[Liam Devlin]

Originally posted by Weaver95:
I'm thinking that sooner or later, this group is going to opt for some sort of brain washing as a 'non-violent' means of solving the problem. IF they can get Dulinor or Lucan alone for a few hours anyways....

Personally, I wouldn't want to spend time in the same parsec as this group, they're just that disturbing...(Two Vargr, an Ursa merc, a Solimani marine and a viliani engineer that won't leave 'his' engines).

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Well, remember yer the GM! And of course, altering timeline events is tricky...if they kill Dulinor, do they precipitate his heir's response in vengeance anyway? Disuading him? Dissuade away the reasons that drove him to it?! I know it wasn't glamorous of me to suggest it, but should they oprt for a higher speed (faster working) corrosive for His Graces ship's coolant system, they will have a critical Fusion plant by the time he's in Jump space...(who knows, maybe Dulinor goes to the future!-thus out of your campaign! No fault to anyone they can finger...!)

 

[Weaver95]

One of the things I have planned for them is that the more they manage to diverge from the 'mainstream' traveller universe, the less useful the database(s) they recovered from thier future ship will be...the universe they're in will change, and in fact already *has* changed in many respects that aren't detectable yet.

I read a few *very* dumbed down articles on time travel and quantum realities before starting this campaign and despite my now adamant hatred of Heisenberg, I do at least have a few ideas on how to muck with the player group...the point being that changing the timeline isn't going to do it...changing it at the right time/place is what has to happen.

 

[Liam Devlin]

Originally posted by Weaver95:
One of the things I have planned for them is that the more they manage to diverge from the 'mainstream' traveller universe, the less useful the database(s) they recovered from thier future ship will be...the universe they're in will change, and in fact already *has* changed in many respects that aren't detectable yet.

I read a few *very* dumbed down articles on time travel and quantum realities before starting this campaign and despite my now adamant hatred of Heisenberg, I do at least have a few ideas on how to muck with the player group...the point being that changing the timeline isn't going to do it...changing it at the right time/place is what has to happen.

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Good fer you! Incremental changes to the TU, some of which you can say occurred because *they* came back in the first place! (An Analog short story reminded me of this concept-guy goes back to cure Robert Heinlein's TB, cuz he didn't like his sci fi writing, then gets back to future he doesn't recognize-starships are taking off and the scientist asks a starport guard "Do the Russians have these too?" Guard answers, "Naww, Admiral Heinlein won't let em into space!"). Be careful what you change!

I must concur though, yer assessment that they have to change the event itself at moment of happening. What if one of them has to jump in front of the emperor Strephon? (A Magnum revovler has only so many rounds...). The Aslan Ambassador took two rounds fer His wife and daughter..Strephon took one or two...6 bullets...whose fate changed a TU...small things like that. (Sorry watched 12 Monkeys recently!)

 

[Weaver95]

Not only do they have to worry about the small things, but they can't let the big things get away from them either!

Last game was spent in the Spinward Marches, searching for a Gazelle class gunboat to salvage. With a gunboat at thier disposal, the crew believes insurgency/counter-insurgency operations along the Imperial/Zhodani border will be easier to handle. Of course, they've already spaced the crew of the A2 Far Trader that brought them to the Plaven system and are currently investigating why the imperial base in the system went silent.

Next encounter - Brain Sucking Aliens from Beyond Space/Time!

Why? Because I have to have at least one encounter with a brain sucking alien. It's a personal thing....

 

[Liam Devlin]

Brain sucking aliens from beyond...whoo Hoo!get em Weaver95!!! a wee bit of horror should give em a start! (btw...why did they space the A2's crew?)

 

[Flynn]

Weaver95,

When's the next installment on your campaign? I'm interested in hearing more about the campaign's progress.

If you have a website, I'd love to check it out.

Thanks,
Flynn

 

[Weaver95]

Hmm...

let me gather my notes and see about putting up a proper report when I get home. I usually post from work and don't have access to my Traveller stuff.

I currently don't have a web site (laziness is a terrible thing my friends) tho, so I'll just post things here.

 

[Flynn]

Weaver95,

Just wanted to check to see if you'd had another session recently.

Thanks,
Flynn

 

[trader jim]

i am very jellious (spelling) of this post because i wanna play TOOOOO......great ideas ....goood hooooks.....