New Traveller Campaign

[scurry]

Well, my group of 8 players disintegrated under our current DM's tenure, and last night the group voted (quite loudly) for me to start the Traveller20 campaign that I have been dreaming about. Next Monday is the date.

I haven't played Traveller in nearly 20 years, and I have never run it. I have been absorbing the material in T20 and in the old reprints like a madman. But, I am still a little nervous.

The group is largely a High-Fatnasy group that loves d20. They have all said they "want a break from High-Fantasy." I have told them a little about T20, and they are enthusiastic. Aside from the normal Referee advice on running games (I am an old hand), what specific Traveller advice do you all have?

I am about to try to wrap my mind around the new combat rules, psionics, tech, space combat, vehicles and such in a real, practical way: we are going to play. Are there major pitfalls I should avoid?

Does anyone have any advice on where to start it all? Monday will be character creation. The next week, we jump into the fray. What setting would you use? What are some good, classic Traveller ways of getting things going?

 

[bthomps]

If you're stuck for ideas, 76 Patrons is not a bad place to start. You can get the reprints on RPGRealms and I've seen them in some of the local game stores here in Denver. If you haven't seen it, here is an excerpt:

Police, Governor Required Skills: none Required Equipment: none
Players' Information:
While passing through local customs in the attempt to leave Lanqua, contraband
is discovered in the group's luggage, and the group is arrested. After being
taken into custody, the group is escorted to a small conference room, where they
are met by a government official.
A local news agency has obtained information which could prove embarrassing
to the government if made public. Unfortunately, the information included the dossiers
of almost every covert counter-intelligence agent in government employ.
Therefore, the government is forced to use individuals from off-planet, who will
not be connected with the government if caught.
In return for retrieving the information, the government will drop the smuggling
charges against the group, and pay each member Cr3000 and one medium passage
(there will, of course, be no trouble clearing customs).
Referee's Information:
If the group refuses the job, they will be tried and sentenced to 5 years in the
local penal colony. The details of any attempts to escape or avoid prosecution must
be worked out by the referee to suit the individual situation.
If the group accepts the offer, select one of the options below. They will have
the use of whatever weapons they managed to get on planet.
1-2. All is as it seems, and there are no special difficulties, other than the normal
security guards in the news agency office. These should be adjusted to fit the size
and armament of the players' party.
3. The situation is a trap. The government has arranged for the group to be captured
in the process of breaking in, along with evidence that a local opposition
party is responsible. There are no stolen government documents. The group will be
tried and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
4. As number 3, the situation is a trap to discredit the opposition party. The
local police will attempt to kill the group.
5. As in number 1, but the documents were stolen originally by a local criminal
organization who planned to use them to aid in their infiltration of the government.
They will spare no expense to gain revenge if the documents are recovered
by the government.
6. The local government has no intention of paying, and will see to it that each
member of the group is committed to a separate local mental institution. Attempts
of the group to resist this or to escape must be adjudicated by the referee.

 

[tjoneslo]

You could start it the way our DM started our Traveller campaign. The players are passengers on a starship going from one place to another when it suffers a catastrophic failure, misjumps, and crashed (not badly) on a backwater, low-pop, low tech world. The locals are happy to help in what ever way they can, but they want to get paid. And it may be several months before the next regularly scheduled starship.

D&D Tropes to break for Traveller:
1) Killing Things is Good. In Traveller killing things is bad, partly because combat is deadly, and partly because the things you kill have family, and radio communicators, and friends in high places with high energy Meson weapons. BAB=Bad, Skills=Good.

2) Taverns are where the action is. No Taverns!!. There are bars where people drink, and hotels where they sleep and boardrooms where the deals are made. Play up the need for contacts and letters of introduction.
Try and get the players to devise some method of knowing each other, other than meeting in a bar.

 

[themink]

3) Combat is good - Combat is bad, it doesn't matter what you do, unless the ref has stacked the deck a huge amount, players will die if they fight stuff. Even if the players as a group win combat overall, they will still lose a player or two!

4) One against a million works nine times out of ten. True, but only if the one is very very smart and the million are very very stoopid. Normally it works none times out of ten.

5) The bad guys are over there, the good guys cheer when we kill the bad guys - Nobody in is "evil" for the joy of it, nobody gains supernatural rewards for evil actions. Even if you have "bad" NPCs, they often have good features.

6) Repeat above - The good guys lock you up if you kill bad guys without due process.

Aside - If they want a break from high fantasy, why not give them a bleak harsh environment (Hard times). Make things gritty. Alternatively put a sprinkling of Cthulu into you traveller - alkways fun.

 

[scurry]

Thanks for the advice, guys. Depending on how the characters turn out, I may toss these ideas; but I am thinking that I will run a combo of the idea above without making things too bleak for PCs new to the system. I don't want them to hate it after all!

1) The PCs are specifically recruited, individually or as a group, to get on board a star liner as "marshals" travelling incognito. The local government knows that some hijackers are going to try to take a cruise liner, but not who, how, when or where. The senior crew will work with the PCs to a certain degree: if they have a ship, the pilot will coordinate jumps. They will also not confiscate some weapons and will make the anti-hijacking program respond differently to them.

I am thinking of having the government use Travellers because they are dispensible and will not be linked to the government in the case of failure. I am also thinking that there are reasons that they will not go to the Empire...

2) If this works, I am leaning towards some exploration (this may be anathema, but I was going to raid the old Star Frontiers Volturnus module series.

3) The larger campaign will involve some Solomani Movement terrorists.

4) I am also thinking of including the Monk class as NPCs to start. I would like to borrow the idea of the "Monastaries" from Mathew Woodring Stover: monastaries are an independent, sovereign state with no land. They have "embassies," strongholds and whatnot throughout space; but their chief mission is the dominance of Humaniti and the rise of the "Future of Man."

I didn't quite understand the "one against a million comment." Sorry to be a bit numb there. What did you mean?

On the topic of crossovers:
A. I have thought seriously about a world where the locals are a high TL and have discovered a different "frequency" of reality that overlaps a world with different physics. They have a means of transferring people there or back for short periods of time. The other world is a fantasy world - although the different physics of "realities" precludes things like "fireballs" in the "real" world. The planet in the T20 universe sends "actors" to the other world with "thoughtmitters" that transfer their experience back to the "real" world for entertainment broadcasts. I thought it would be neat, although the idea is pure Mathew Woodring Stover (see "Heroes Die" and "Blade of Tyshalle" if you like the idea).

2) Cthulhu in space sort'a works, but getting to dark and gritty is a little hard when you can leap light years in an imperium and when tech is so advanced. I could do a "crash landing scenario" I suppose...

3) I am a little leery of crossovers to start. They are so seductive, but they rob the game of a Traveller feel. What are some other cool crossovers you have tried that have worked or haven't?

 

[phydaux]

First off, the PCs need a REASON to be together. That old chestnut "A Scout, a retired Merchant, a Nobel and an ex-Marine all walk into a bar" just doesn't fly.

Have all the characters be members of the crew of a ship one of the players owns.

OR

Make it a 50s B movie.

They are all in search of the Secret of the Ancients. So, you have The Professor (who does the research), his Lovely Niece (she specializes in being rescued) The Wealthy Nobel (who provides the money) the Famous Archeologist (Indy...). You get the idea. Have the players make characters that fir a role in the party.

Make sure they know "Combat Monster" is NOT a role.

Once you have a premise and the characters fit the premise, the game runs itself.

 

[BluWolf]

Originally posted by scurry:
1) The PCs are specifically recruited, individually or as a group, to get on board a star liner as "marshals" travelling incognito. The local government knows that some hijackers are going to try to take a cruise liner, but not who, how, when or where. The senior crew will work with the PCs to a certain degree: if they have a ship, the pilot will coordinate jumps. They will also not confiscate some weapons and will make the anti-hijacking program respond differently to them.

I am thinking of having the government use Travellers because they are dispensible and will not be linked to the government in the case of failure. I am also thinking that there are reasons that they will not go to the Empire../QUOTE]

Option- The local government is working with the local noble to twart this attempt. The local governement can't use their law enforcement because it turns out there are many sympathetic elements with in law enforcement. The noble is not asking for imperial interdiction becasue he is young and is tryng to make a name for himself as a problem solver. And of course your point, they will be easy to disavow should things go wrong.

 

[Liam Devlin]

--Originally posted by scurry:
1) The PCs are specifically recruited, individually or as a group, to get on board a star liner as "marshals" travelling incognito. The local government knows that some hijackers are going to try to take a cruise liner, but not who, how, when or where. The senior crew will work with the PCs to a certain degree: if they have a ship, the pilot will coordinate jumps. They will also not confiscate some weapons and will make the anti-hijacking program respond differently to them.

I am thinking of having the government use Travellers because they are dispensible and will not be linked to the government in the case of failure. I am also thinking that there are reasons that they will not go to the Empire..

--------------------------------------------------
Option- The local government is working with the local noble to thwart this attempt. The local governement can't use their law enforcement because it turns out there are many sympathetic elements with in law enforcement. The noble is not asking for imperial interdiction because he is young and is tryng to make a name for himself as a problem solver. And of course your point, they will be easy to disavow should things go wrong.

--from Bluwolf.
-------------------------------------------------
You can make this a three part adventure too...
Pt 1 is foiling the Hijacking
Pt 2 Infiltrating the resistance movement
Pt 3 Showdown with the band of pirates/ Sol-resistance. The Old High Passage Adventures are set in the Sol Rim (post war era) in Old Exanses have themes like this. #5 is the big wrap up--just got a copy from my UK friend RichardP today in the snail-mail.

An OOP version of Hard Times has a six part adventure that eventually has a group of Pcs wihout ship getting one, and trouncing the local Pirate band(s) of Pasdaruu subsector (with Starmerc help).

I likeBluwolf's reasoning behind the hiring the PC's.
But like others, you have to find a thread to tie the PC's in on this caper (besides none of them having a ship immediately (or maybe one in hock for repairs!)