Keklas Rekobah
SOC-14 1K
The Prime Directive, and Other Guidelines
1. "The Most Fun for the Most People, Most of the Time."
You can't please everybody all of the time, but you can make sure that each player has his or her shining moments. This is the one, over-riding rule of all RPGs, and it must never be violated, unless you enjoy losing players ... and friends.
2. "Science-Fiction Adventure in the Far Future"
Traveller is not Dungeons & Dragons. Neither is it a romantic comedy set during the Victorian Age. Traveller is What It Is, and that is...
3. "Shotguns In Space."
This is (IMHO) the overall theme of the game. I was inspired more by "Outland" (rent the video), "Stargate" and "Firefly/Serenity" than by the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises (Trek/Wars are too fantasy-like for my tastes, and in some ways too magical).
4. "Ordinary People Faced With Extraordinary Circumstances."
This is the secondary theme. For inspiration, look more toward the "Indiana Jones" series of movies rather than any of the "James Bond" releases.
5. "Sometimes, You Die."
Stuff happens. Bad stuff happens. Bad stuff sometimes happen to good characters. The trick is that if a character is played heroically, then he or she should be given a hero's death. Conversely, if a character is played poorly, then he or she might deserve a loser's death.
6. "Actions Have Consequences."
I had a pair of characters wandering around a TL-12, LL-8 world looking for a plasma gun. Neither of them were Marines, and neither had Battle Dress, but they just had to have that plasma gun. The local police arranged a little "sting" operation, and the two characters were caught "Soliciting for unlawful firearms and/or firearms of a strict military nature." The penalty carries a penalty of 3 years hard labor, but a plea bargain could be made for time served in exchange for a little side job of a covert nature. This brings up...
7. "There Are No Problems, Only Opportunities."
If the characters seem to have played themselves into a dead end, give them a way out of it -- a way that is mined, poisoned, and lined with barbed wire and machine-gun nests, but a way out nonetheless.
8. "Monty Haul Is Dead -- Now, Get To Work!"
The trick here is to make the characters work for their rewards. If you've ever played World of Warcraft, you know that the game has "Quests" that characters must fulfill in order to receive a paltry reward. Others, called "Chain Quests" bounce the characters from continent to continent, delivering messages and supplies, and fighting bad guys all along the way. Nothing is given, everything is earned.
9. "Call for Franz Kafka! Ernest Hemingway On The Line!"
IMTU, the characters never encountered the squeaky-clean environments depicted on a typical Star Trek episode. Instead, they did most of their work in environments that were less than ideal -- "Outnumbered in a back-alley knife-fight, at night, during the monsoon season" gives a general idea of the kind of odds they were <* ahem *> occasionally up against. Otherwise, there were gangs, tongs, cartels, and other criminal organizations to deal with, in addition to the usual politicians, bureaucrats, merchants, military, and law-enforcement officials. Sometimes, the bad guys and the good guys were the same people.
10. "It Is Only A Game, And The Game Tells A Story."
Keep notes. What the characters do may become a story. It may never be published outside of a website, but it is a story nonetheless. Besides, the characters' actions may also generate a reputation for them -- as a group or individually -- a reputation that may precede them to their next port-of-call, and you'll want to get the details right. Right? You wouldn't want the wrong rumors to get started about those characters, now would you?
11. "The Characters Drive the Action."
Finally, try to keep the game from becoming a plot-driven vehicle for your own ideas of what a story should be. In my early days, I spent hours developing an adventure, only to have the characters "walk off the map" during the first few minutes. I made the mistake of trying to herd them back, instead of providing something else for them to do. You can't always stick to the script, sometimes, you have to improvise.
There's a lot more advice, but that's for another day.
1. "The Most Fun for the Most People, Most of the Time."
You can't please everybody all of the time, but you can make sure that each player has his or her shining moments. This is the one, over-riding rule of all RPGs, and it must never be violated, unless you enjoy losing players ... and friends.
2. "Science-Fiction Adventure in the Far Future"
Traveller is not Dungeons & Dragons. Neither is it a romantic comedy set during the Victorian Age. Traveller is What It Is, and that is...
3. "Shotguns In Space."
This is (IMHO) the overall theme of the game. I was inspired more by "Outland" (rent the video), "Stargate" and "Firefly/Serenity" than by the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises (Trek/Wars are too fantasy-like for my tastes, and in some ways too magical).
4. "Ordinary People Faced With Extraordinary Circumstances."
This is the secondary theme. For inspiration, look more toward the "Indiana Jones" series of movies rather than any of the "James Bond" releases.
5. "Sometimes, You Die."
Stuff happens. Bad stuff happens. Bad stuff sometimes happen to good characters. The trick is that if a character is played heroically, then he or she should be given a hero's death. Conversely, if a character is played poorly, then he or she might deserve a loser's death.
6. "Actions Have Consequences."
I had a pair of characters wandering around a TL-12, LL-8 world looking for a plasma gun. Neither of them were Marines, and neither had Battle Dress, but they just had to have that plasma gun. The local police arranged a little "sting" operation, and the two characters were caught "Soliciting for unlawful firearms and/or firearms of a strict military nature." The penalty carries a penalty of 3 years hard labor, but a plea bargain could be made for time served in exchange for a little side job of a covert nature. This brings up...
7. "There Are No Problems, Only Opportunities."
If the characters seem to have played themselves into a dead end, give them a way out of it -- a way that is mined, poisoned, and lined with barbed wire and machine-gun nests, but a way out nonetheless.
8. "Monty Haul Is Dead -- Now, Get To Work!"
The trick here is to make the characters work for their rewards. If you've ever played World of Warcraft, you know that the game has "Quests" that characters must fulfill in order to receive a paltry reward. Others, called "Chain Quests" bounce the characters from continent to continent, delivering messages and supplies, and fighting bad guys all along the way. Nothing is given, everything is earned.
9. "Call for Franz Kafka! Ernest Hemingway On The Line!"
IMTU, the characters never encountered the squeaky-clean environments depicted on a typical Star Trek episode. Instead, they did most of their work in environments that were less than ideal -- "Outnumbered in a back-alley knife-fight, at night, during the monsoon season" gives a general idea of the kind of odds they were <* ahem *> occasionally up against. Otherwise, there were gangs, tongs, cartels, and other criminal organizations to deal with, in addition to the usual politicians, bureaucrats, merchants, military, and law-enforcement officials. Sometimes, the bad guys and the good guys were the same people.
10. "It Is Only A Game, And The Game Tells A Story."
Keep notes. What the characters do may become a story. It may never be published outside of a website, but it is a story nonetheless. Besides, the characters' actions may also generate a reputation for them -- as a group or individually -- a reputation that may precede them to their next port-of-call, and you'll want to get the details right. Right? You wouldn't want the wrong rumors to get started about those characters, now would you?
11. "The Characters Drive the Action."
Finally, try to keep the game from becoming a plot-driven vehicle for your own ideas of what a story should be. In my early days, I spent hours developing an adventure, only to have the characters "walk off the map" during the first few minutes. I made the mistake of trying to herd them back, instead of providing something else for them to do. You can't always stick to the script, sometimes, you have to improvise.
There's a lot more advice, but that's for another day.
