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Plan for New Campaign

Richard

SOC-11
I’ve managed to get a new campaign going, and am planning to run the players through one of my favourite CT adventures: Leviathan. Naturally, I’m not planning to run it as written – I never had any use for the ship, and would like the PCs to be masters of their own destiny. So, I came up with this. (I’m still looking for a player for the campaign; alternate Sundays in London, England. Contact me at Methuslah@tongue.fsnet.co.uk if interested.)

******SPOILER ALERT. ALL LONDON PLAYERS KEEP OUT!!!!******


The players (four) will have two characters each; essential because they will start out with a small two-ship line running out of Pax Rulin subsector. The ships; a Free Trader and a Scout, (both of which will be gained during character generation), giving them flexibility. The basic concept is that a group of old friends decided to pool their resources upon retirement, and that this turned out to be considerably more than they had hoped. Naturally, the Free Trader is of greater immediate use and shall be the focus of the first session.

Before play begins, the owner of the Free Trader has used his connections to pick up a coup; a mail contract for the Berengaria Run in Pax Rulin. It ties the ship to a specific route, but means a guaranteed payment at each port. I’ll have a little fun in this adventure with unusual cargos, an attempted hijacking, and so forth, but the main item will be a misjump, that will take the PCs to open space – hex 0603 of Egyrn subsector. They will be saved by the discovery of a large, floating ice object; allowing them to refuel and get back to the nearest planet – it will be a difficult trip back though, as they have to pass two Red Zone worlds to get anywhere near civilization. It will, however, give them something valuable – Jump-2 access to almost all of Egyrn subsector – exclusive access to a dozen new worlds.

(I was thinking about this for a while before setting up the campaign; why would Egyrn subsector be unexploited? The simple answer is economics – no Jump-2 route into most of the subsector, no populations large enough to bother with and an aggressive local pocket empire. Nothing for the big companies, but a small outfit might be able to make a killing!)

So the campaign proceeds from there. One set of PCs in Pax Rulin, conducting the usual Free Trader business and building up enough money to buy a Far Trader to exploit their new worlds, and another set in Egyrn, exploring the new worlds and getting into trouble. Of course, by the time the PCs have begun to get their business up and running, the Fifth Frontier War will be about to start….

So, what do you think? Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions?

Richard
 
Even with some really lucky spec trading it will be quite a while to build up money for a Far Trader or other suitable J-2 ship while paying off the Free Trader. Unless they end up with a 40 year old ship, paid off (exceedingly unlikely)?

For the Far Trader itself, a bank won't like the ship being taken into an agressive pocket empire. The players will need the purchase price up front. Or have one built and hope they can pay it off by the time it is completed.
 
I agree with Straybow: an A2 might have to be one of the gimmicks. The Scout is perfectly understandable -- they're scouting, after all. The A2 probably ought to be an old rustbucket with a spotless engine room, or something.
 
I have a plan for that - taken out of 'Wanted:Adventurers'. One of the scenarios involves a Far Trader that is suspiciously cheap (around MCr4), but with a lot of complications tied up in it. At the appropriate time, I can introduce it.

Richard
 
Richard,

I'm running a game of Fifth Frontier War (the boardgame) via PBEM. Let me know if you'd like to borrow any of the "history" being developed - there will be differences from the OTU history that you may find useful!

I like your macguffin here - the secret that will give the PCs some rather unique leverage, but will have to be protected! You might consider having the players encounter the classic Leviathan or a similar exploratory trader and have to concoct an explanation about how they're getting around in a J2 vessel. Or any of the governments or military powers with interests in the region, whose curiosity (and unwelcome attentions) may be aroused...

John
 
Well, the Fifth Frontier War is scheduled to start in my campaign in about six months, game time (and I accept your offer - boy will that throw the players!) I was thinking of have the Zhodani launch an attack through Egyrn - which would lead to some interesting questions on behalf of the Imperial Navy, as to the possibilities of a counter-attack!

There are also tradewar possiblities. Leviathan states that Arkesh Spaces (a quasi-pirate shipping company) use the Outrim Void as a hideout - I think they'd be very interested in a Jump-2 route into the void...

Richard
 
To make it interesting, the players could discover a dead ship with burned out jump drives at the ice planetoid. The crew dead of mysterious cause. The jump drive core melted into slag from a bad missjump. A terror frozen in one of the frozen berths, psionic by nature.
IF the players can find out what killed the origional crew and remove it, get a new core for the jump drive, hire a few NPCs to maintain the mail contract, then they may be able to survive.
 
you could have a time limit also like after a certain amount of time another spacial object will crash into the Ice planetoid like another planetoid or astroroid.
 
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