Resources for game in the Spinward Marches, CT

[books]

I'm prepping a classic Traveller game to be set in the Spinward Marches. I have rule books 1-5 and the big map and am trying to find Supplement 3.

What I am after is suggestions of other things that would be helpful, for instance are there any major races in the SM for which there are supplements? How about detailed sector descriptions? Even play aids that GMs just can't live without would be nice. I'm already looking at Campaign Cartographer and Fractal Worlds for giving a better "feel".

Any suggestions welcome,

TIA,

Roger

 

[phydaux]

With out a doubt, the BEST treatment of the Spinward Marches is G:T Behind The Claw.

That little tome should be bound in leather and gold. Martin got it down PAT.

 

[Ranger]

CT sources that come to mind (this is just off the top of my head) are:

Alien Modual 8, The Darrians.

Book 7, Merchant Prince, (discusses some of the shipping companies in the marches).

Adventures 2 Research Station Gama,3 Twilights Peak, and 7 Broadsword, all take place in the SM.

The Traveller Adventure also takes place in one subsector of the Marches.

I am sure there are more that others will think of as well.

Hope it helps

Rob

P.S. Also the game 5th Frontier War is set in the Marches.

 

[Scarecrow]

Try this:

http://www.spinwardmarches.com

It's basically the efforts of the Traveller Mailing List 'Landgrab' to flesh out the Spinward Marches.

Lots of lovely info for you on most of the systems.

Crow

 

[T. Foster]

Spinward Marches Campaign is a very useful late-period CT supplement -- it repeats the UWP info from supplement 3 with some new/extra flavor text, gives a history of the sector (mostly repeated from supp. 11 and/or The Traveller Adventure) and gives a detailed history of the Fifth Frontier War including tactical maps and descriptions of the important personalities. Plus there's an adventure/campaign hook, but it's pretty sketchily defined. Biggest probelm is that it's long oop and not scheduled to be reprinted by FFE for a while yet (there are 3 other volumes in the queue before it), so if you want a copy you'll have to go to eBay, where bidding on this book has been known to get pretty wild ($40+).

For a more accessible alternative your best bet is probably GURPS Traveller: Behind the Claw, which is also technically oop but still pretty easy to locate. Lots of very good info to be found there, even if some of us grumbling grognards complain about its frequent canon-gaffes (see this long, ugly old thread).

Edited to add: FWIW I looked over SMC again last night and noticed that it actually DOESN'T contain that history chapter from S11/TTA. Instead, it has write-ups of the Al-Morai corporation, 154th Battle Rider squadron (including some broken High Guard designs), 4518th Lift Infantry regiment (reprinted from JTAS #9) and the civilian career-tables from Supplement 4. I know I'm just being stuffily pedantic, but figured I'd rather correct myself now than have someone ressurect this thread in 6 months to point out my errors...

 

[William]

Originally posted by Roger Books:
I'm prepping a classic Traveller game to be set in the Spinward Marches. I have rule books 1-5 and the big map and am trying to find Supplement 3.
(snip)
Any suggestions welcome,

TIA,

Roger

Beg, borrow, buy, heck even steal (just so as long as it's not mine

) a copy of The Traveller Adventure. I can not speak too highly of this book. It's the best way to get a good solid feel for the Marches while giving a great set of episodic adventures.

William

 

[William]

Originally posted by phydaux:
With out a doubt, the BEST treatment of the Spinward Marches is G:T Behind The Claw.

That little tome should be bound in leather and gold. Martin got it down PAT.

Err. There is some debate about that book. I'll just say that there are many things some of us would have done differently.

OTOH, for someone with no other CT material, it's a reasonable book. Just a reminder of the old YMMV thing.

William

 

[al duc]

Err. There is some debate about that book. I'll just say that there are many things some of us would have done differently.

OTOH, for someone with no other CT material, it's a reasonable book. Just a reminder of the old YMMV thing.

William

Still, it remains that BtC is the only truly complete Spinward Marches sourcebook. Most of supplement 3 is only UWPs and stats, and the setting was added a piece at a time in further supplements.

Of course, nostalgia can be a very hard thing to beat...

I'll also point out that two of SJG's Planetary Survey describe planets in the Spinward Marches (Glisten and Denuli). I found both of them to be very well made and usefull.

 

[daryen]

For CT stuff, you can get:
- The Adventures Reprint, as half of the adventures take place in the Spinward Marches.
- The Traveller Adventure, which describes a single subsector of the Spinward Marches.
- The Supplements Reprint, which contains a lot of Spinward Marches information in supplements 3, 8 and 11.
- The Spinward Marches Campaign, which as mentioned above, is pricey to obtain.

If you are willing to do a little interpretation, you can always get the Regency Sourcebook. While it is written from the TNE viewpoint, it does contain a large amount of information applicable to the CT timeframe.

If you are approaching the subsector cold, the easiest thing to do is just get GT:Behind the Claw. While it does have a large number of inconsistencies, most are minor. And if you don't know what they are, there is no reason to care. BtC is the most comprehesive description of the Marches available today.

One other thing to be aware of is that the information about the Marches has changed over time. There have been some subtle changes in world data (e.g. 886-945 hex 0230) and lots of changes in stellar data. So no matter what you use, there will be inconsistencies if you look for them.

 

[Vargas]

Yes they are out of print, but The Traveller Adventure and the Spinward Marches Campaign are both top of my list. The JTAS reprints will also have information which, if not explicitly for the SM, contain a large number of jumping off points.

 

[theSea]

Originally posted by daryen:
For CT stuff, you can get:
- The Adventures Reprint, as half of the adventures take place in the Spinward Marches.
- The Traveller Adventure, which describes a single subsector of the Spinward Marches.
- The Supplements Reprint, which contains a lot of Spinward Marches information in supplements 3, 8 and 11.
- The Spinward Marches Campaign, which as mentioned above, is pricey to obtain.

Agreed.

As has been noted, the Traveller Adventure is all about the Aramis Subsector and gives a lot of canon detail about the planets and goings on there. I've never run it but it is *full* of crunchy ref bits suitable for bedtime reading

IMHO, properly run (i.e. a lot of fleshing out by the Ref), Twilight's Peak can be the soul of the Marches. Lots of great ideas in there and a nice backdrop for little side adventures wilst trying to get at the heart of the big mystery.

The Spinward Marches Campaign is set in the aftermath of the Fifth Frontier War and contains a lot of info on the war.

Materials in Spinward Marches Campaign and Suplements 8 and 11 provide a *lot* of historical background for the Marches.

If you are approaching the subsector cold, the easiest thing to do is just get GT:Behind the Claw. While it does have a large number of inconsistencies, most are minor. And if you don't know what they are, there is no reason to care. BtC is the most comprehesive description of the Marches available today.

Yes, but you want to be careful with BtC as it contains spoilers for almost ALL of the CT stuff mentioned above. Don't let your players have free reign with BtC if you're planning on running any of the CT adventures.

With that caveat and the concerns about errata etc. in hand BtC is a great resource for the time strapped ref.

I'd also add that the JTAS reprints, especially the first one (JTAS 1-12) are really essential if you're looking to recapture that '80's Classic Traveller Flavour(TM). The writeup of Victoria from JTAS2, early Contact! articles on the Vargr, Zhodani and Aslan (you can skip these if you have the appropriate Alien modules or GT:Alien supplements) and some of the Amber Zones (esp. 'Foodrunner' and 'Dagger at Efate') stand out for me. The special issue on the 5th Frontier War is kinda cool to have around if you're planning on taking your players through plunging the Marches into war.

JTAS also has Contact! articles on the Sword Worlders and Darrians, but I can't recall if they're in Vol 1 or 2 of the reprints.

HTH

theSea

 

[books]

OK, Here is what I am coming up with:

Gurps BtC
Spinward Marches Campaign
The Traveller Adventure
The Darrians

Since we are starting at Regina The Vargr info
could be useful as could the Zhodani.

Lot's of net resources. It's looking like I
have a wealth of info available from the net,
FFE, and eBay. Too bad I missed SWC on eBay
due to a faulty bidding program.

Thanks all,

Roger Books

 

[phydaux]

Originally posted by Roger Books:
OK, Here is what I am coming up with:

Gurps BtC
Spinward Marches Campaign
The Traveller Adventure
The Darrians

Yeah, but the downside is right now the only one of those you can go to the store and buy is BtC. The next 2 are only due to be reprinted some time next year, meaning we won't see them till 2005.

 

[trader jim]

TheSea - WOW - you read Traveller for a bed time story!! - your hard core man!!! thats great!!!
i like that!!! lets see.....Once apon a time...
far, far away in the future...there lived a little boy named Stephon, and he was an Emporer...

 

[GBoyett]

Originally posted by trader jim:
TheSea - WOW - you read Traveller for a bed time story!! - your hard core man!!! thats great!!!
i like that!!! lets see.....Once apon a time...
far, far away in the future...there lived a little boy named Stephon, and he was an Emporer...

Strephon had two friends that help him rule the Imperium. One was Duke Norris who defended borders from rampaging mindreaders and doggies. The other friend was Archduke Dulinor that worked to help a region that long ago had some very bad problems.

One day Dulinor had a very funny notion on how to make the Imperium a happier place...

Seriously, besides references on the Spinward marches, I recommend incorporating Adventure 0 IIRC named The Imperial Fringe. The premise is that the groups is ask to write updates on the various worlds found in the Marches. It may not be the main campaign, but it could be a nice addition to the main action. Not to mention some pocket change to help with expenses.

You can find it in either the Adventures or Double Adventures reprint.

 

[N.I.C.E. Labs]

Originally posted by phydaux:
With out a doubt, the BEST treatment of the Spinward Marches is G:T Behind The Claw.

That little tome should be bound in leather and gold. Martin got it down PAT.

While Behind the Claw does have useful info about individual worlds, if you use it, don't let your players have access to it like Library Data or you can forget about running all the great adventures that helped make Traveller what it is for many of us. In true SJG form "thou shalt only use my stuff, no matter who I stole it from", the info of the worlds in BtC is rich and thorough...INCLUDING all the spoilers and endings to the adventures like Twilight's Peak and Research Station Gamma. If it's not a Gurps original (that in itself is a laugh), that book makes sure you can't use any one else's adventures.

But I'm not bitter....

Now then....Races you can encounter in the Spinward Marches. Take your pick. Up top you've got the Vargr and Zhodani. At the bottom you have Aslan. Middle has the Darrians and the Sword Worlds. Plus the Virushi, the Droyne...Hivers aren't uncommon, not to mention any minor race you wish to place on a world of your own. Just about all these races have Alien sourcebooks of thier own, and the Virushi are in the Journals.

As for adventures, Definately Twilight's Peak and the adventures associated with it (eg. Research Station Gamma, Shadows, etc.). Since it sounds like you're just starting out and some of those are a bit advance and/or involved, you might give a run for a while with the Amber Zone adventures in the Journals. They're short and relatively easy to set up and run.

 

[al duc]

Seriously, besides references on the Spinward marches, I recommend incorporating Adventure 0 IIRC named The Imperial Fringe. The premise is that the groups is ask to write updates on the various worlds found in the Marches. It may not be the main campaign, but it could be a nice addition to the main action. Not to mention some pocket change to help with expenses.[/QB]

Isn't that the adventure were the PCs are asked to survey all 400+ worlds in the Spinward Marches and to come back with a report in 20 years? I always found that one to be silly in the extreme.

I suppose, however, that the basic idea could be applied to a single subsector without streaching credulity too much. Still, unless your budget is unlimited I don't think this is were your money should be spent.

As usual, YMMV.

 

[GBoyett]

Originally posted by al duc:

I suppose, however, that the basic idea could be applied to a single subsector without streaching credulity too much. Still, unless your budget is unlimited I don't think this is were your money should be spent.

As usual, YMMV.

If your referring to buying the reprint I agree, but it's something to look at if you are already planning to buy the reprint for the main adventures.

 

[Elliot]

THE IMPERIAL FRINGE should be forgotten as a cheapo piece of adventurism added on to the Deluxe Edition of Traveller to make some poor sap buy it (i.e. me!).

Get GURPS BTC and the Classic Adventures and Supplements and ignore the rest (even the Spinward Marches Campaign is v.dissapointing for old Traveller hacks)!

 

[rancke]

Originally posted by N.I.C.E. Labs:
While Behind the Claw does have useful info about individual worlds, if you use it, don't let your players have access to it like Library Data or you can forget about running all the great adventures that helped make Traveller what it is for many of us. In true SJG form "thou shalt only use my stuff, no matter who I stole it from", the info of the worlds in BtC is rich and thorough...INCLUDING all the spoilers and endings to the adventures like Twilight's Peak and Research Station Gamma.

I have serious issues with [BI]Behind the Claw[/BI] (as Martin knows, right Martin? ), but that particular aspect is one I approve of. Those adventure were set at a given time and place and BtC is set at a later date. One of the things I liked about BtC was that the authors made an effort to give the impression that the universe evolved and that things happened as time went by. Some of those things would have made it into the history books. I think the references to Fulacin and Vanejen were handled well (I was less pleased with the references to the March Harrier -- IIRC there is a mention of the MH's famous exploits but no explanation of just what those exploits were).

Hans