Suggestions for a one-off

[jappel]

Looks like I'm going to get an opportunity to do a one or two-session one-off adventure to give my Thursday night FTF group a break. These guys are mostly into D&D, but are open to other things - various members of the group have played World of Darkness, D20 Modern, Shadowrun, heck even 7 Seas.

I had a few of them playing MT at an RPG-a-thon over the summer; we played an adventure I had set in my homebrew MTU (totally non-3I), then plugged in "Death Station" as a continuation after the first adventure wrapped up. Must have been fun since they're asking me to pinch hit for a bit.

Torn between using Sigg's quick & dirty adventure seed method and using something already written - I don't normally mind winging things a fair bit but I think these guys will do a bit better with some more structure than I normally use. So, I'm looking for something that will only take a couple of sessions to play, and I want something with a strong sci-fi feel to make it stand out from what they normally play (some of these guys play D&D 3 nights a week).

I've only skimmed "Research Station Gamma" - would it fit the bill here, or is it potentially too long? (I don't have Ancients, but I do have Droyne IMTU.) "Across the Bright Face" would seem a natural choice but I've already hounded these guys off a rebellious world. "Divine Intervention" or "Night of Conquest" have possibilities. "Smoke Test" on Freelance Traveller looks good too.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

-John

 

[Flynn]

I'd suggest Chamax Plague instead. It runs in a 4-6 hour slot, and the players love it. I've run it in three different systems now (T20, Dragonstar and Star HERO) for three different groups, and it's been a hit every time.

Hope this helps,
Flynn

 

[kafka47]

Flare Star is pretty good. Even though it is GURPS, there are non-GURPS versions out there in cyberspace or through Seeker. Plus, it is free through e23.

I did a booklet of illustrations to accompany the text that made the whole thing come alive.

 

[Maladominus]

Kinunir! Ummm wait... that might be a little too long. But the Kinunir definitely feels very "space opera epic" ....

 

[Falkayn]

For my hardcore D&D friends it turned out that an Aliens style bug-hunt was exactly what they were looking for.

Nice, simple premise, some minor plot twists and resurrected dinosaurs (OK so no bugs) cast as horrible 'alien' menaces.

They got used to shooting things, got to shoot lots of things without getting shot at (much), and generally had a whale of a time.

After that, they were sold on the game ... from memory I used a free d20 Modern adventure from the Wizards website.

 

[Falkayn]

OK, the adventure was Team Bravo: The First Assignment.

The nice thing was it slipped into a Traveller environment very well, and didn't involve any tricky starship stuff.

 

[jappel]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I never actually played "Chamax Plague" way back when, so I'll give it and the "Team Bravo" thing a good look. I really like Smoke Test, but a bit more gun play might be appealing for this go-round.

- John

 

[robject]

And there's always the mix-and-match approach.

I like the tight deckplan of the Kinunir -- big enough to get into trouble, too small to run away -- and I like the bug-blasting fun of Chamax Plague.

Why not combine the two?

Crew chances upon a derelict Kinunir, too good to pass up (can anyone say "black globe"?), and ends up waking up a nest of Chamax on board. Classic "Space Hulk" scenario.

And how did the bugs get there? Is it a cover-up? Lots of fun.

 

[jappel]

That has possiblities.

Remember, though, these guys are pretty virginal when it comes to Traveller, so they'd have no clue black globe is, much less a Kinunir. I also don't think I can whip out approriately sized Kinunir deckplans overnight.

Hmm, but I do have AHL... <evil gleam comes to eyes>

-John

 

[Ran Targas]

^ If they are really newbs you may just want to adapt a favorite sci-fi or action movie to Traveller and run it so it ends differently. This way, the plot is familiar enough so they feel comfortable but twisted enough so they don't know how their actions will change the outcome.

 

[sinistral]

If it's their first time playing Trav, I'd say give them a bit of everything - a bit of space combat, some ground stuff, trading etc. And maybe they're used to dungeon crawls. How about modifying Shadows/Annic Nova ?

 

[jappel]

Not exactly the first time playing for everyone in the group, but close.

Read through Chamax Plague last night and it's down to that or "Smoke Test". What struck me reading Chamax Plague is that it's a pretty cliche story by today's standards, which is why at the moment I'm leaning towards Smoke Test.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

-John

 

[Flynn]

I realize that Chamax Plague is pretty cliche, but I think that's part of its charm for a One Shot, particularly for gamers that don't normally play anything other than Fantasy.

My two Credits, anyway,
Flynn

 

[Andrew Boulton]

If they're used to Fantasy, give them PCs living on an uncontacted low-tech world, and have them stumble across a Scout ship doing a survey.

 

[jappel]

Well, turns out the GM decided to try to finish out the "episode" we're plugging through right now, so this didn't come off last night. Holding in reserve for December, though.

Thanks again all.

-John

 

[Whipsnade]

John,

At first glance, I believe you can most easily 'up gun' Smoke Test with one of 2 tweaks.

1 - Have the probe's computer cores removed prior to the players' arrival. The players then must board the ship they find near the probe and search for them. Make the seeker in the original AZ a free trader or something larger. The hiring firm's rival(s) decided to examine the probe themselves and the players caught them.

Neither side wants to enage in ship-to-ship combat because it will draw the unwanted attention of the local authorities; pull a SDB patrol out of your hat and place it nearby, so a boarding action is in order.

B - Allow the players and the hiring firm to service the probe, then bring in the potential 'pirate' attack I briefly mention.

In this case, the players cannot engage in ship-to-ship combat because the attacking ship is too well armed. However, the attackers want the probe and not an expanding sphere of ship debris. Again, that means a boarding action is in order.

Hope this helps.


Have fun,
Bill

P.S. Oops, forget to add that in both situations a carefully placed missile deployed by the boarders (the players in Option 1 and the 'pirates' in Option B) will 'convince' the defenders to sit and take it. Also, either side will have things the other wants; the probe, the computer cores, captured personnel, etc., and that will stay the hand of any laser battery chiefs from turning the other vessel into a cloud of scrap.

 

[jappel]

Deliciously devious as always, sir! Nice refinements; I like option 1 the most, I think, but option 2 has merit.

Good to see you back. I'd been concerned since the massive flooding up in your neck of the woods - hope it didn't affect you too badly.

-John

 

[Whipsnade]

Originally posted by jappel:
Good to see you back. I'd been concerned since the massive flooding up in your neck of the woods - hope it didn't affect you too badly.

John,

Thank you for your concern. Fortunately, I live in another part of the state entirely.

The storm waters that did so much damage to Asltead only damaged a few unpaved roads hereabouts.


Bill

 

[Merxiless]

I'd suggest giving them something pretty dramatic:

(Heavily influenced by Star Frontier's Crash on Volturnus, crossed with Across the Bright Face)

A scout ship, sent to survey a desert planet that orbits in a venus or mercury-like orbital distance around a flare star.

They insert into orbit, and begin mapping, and discover (through some survey, or failing that, sensors rolls) that there is a source of ice on the dark side of this planet which is tidally, or pretty close to that, perhaps very slow rotation, like a 14 or 15 day cycle, locked to the star, in this close orbit.

At that point, the star flares, and you have a few options (none of this being real hard science, more for the drama, so critics, if I mistake something, please correct me, thanks):

1) Comms and sensors go out.
PLUS, OPTIONALLY

A) The engines misfire, threatening a crash into the sun, planet or loss into deep space orbit around the local sun(s).

OR

B) The ship is struck with a micrometeoroid which causes hull breaches in 2 or more compartments, Plus A, above. (off course through venting gas, or whatever.

The key is to have the ship nearly out of fuel, off course, flying nearly blind, and or almost dead stick, with a 3-axis roll and tumbling.

Pilot and nav rolls, with the computer only helping, or perhaps it too was hit, requiring electronics skill rolls before even bringing it into play.

Trying to correct course, the pilot must stop it from burning up in the sun, which leads to soft (or hard, if you are really cruel) crash on the planet.

From the planet, either work the typical across the bright face mission, as is, with a little modification, or rig your own charts, with the objective of getting to the Terminator division line between light/ dark, where there might be liquid water enough to hole up for the two+ weeks to have the scouts send a rescue mission, when your ship does not report back, etc.

or...perhaps a 2nd ship is also surveying the outer system, and will only take a few days.

Meanwhile, have the party running out of food, water, perhaps a few of them limping from broken legs or back (do this if you have to to those with sciences skill, but leave 'em able to talk, so they can still help out, don't cripple a soldier / fighting type, he'll be useless.

Then toss oh, Sand worms, giant clear colored scorpions, or what have you at 'em.

Perhaps they have an ATV / Crawler, like in AtBF, or perhaps not and have to make do with oh, some kind of high tech dune buggy / moon rover or something.

The key is action, tough choices, like: we got 15 man-days of water and we got 6 people need to survive for a week. Or lack of medicine, enough medkits to heal 2 guys, but 4 are wounded.

Or they THINK they have enough gear to survive, and a beastie tears up a guy, or two, a bit.

Lots of surprises, and plus perhaps one of the surveyors spots some kind of rich mineral resource, as a material distraction, maybe they waste power, or resources trying to check it out, for a rich mining claim. (which could ultimately be worthless, or worth a lot, of course)

Have the whole deal only seem to get worse, before it gets better, until right at the very last, when they are at each other's throats, a cometary trail appears in the sky, the rescue ship.

They board, in tattered clothes, worn down, beaten, exhausted, but (should be most if not all of them) alive, because they acted as a team, and utilized all of thier skills, resources, and equipment.

Good luck with it, whatever happens.