T5 Adventure Arc

[robject]

Anyone care to brainstorm? What would be a cool story arc that a small number of adventures could fit under? I'm thinking of a set of 3 adventure books, plus an introductory adventure, each of which is optional, but all of which fit under an arc. Sort of like Shadows - Research Station Gamma - Twilight's Peak - Secret of the Ancients, though of course not concerning the Ancients. Or like Long Way Home and Gateway. And let's assume the thing should be done well, while we're at it, and not too T5-specific, so that other Traveller brands could use it.

What would your ideal story arc be? And how would you release it?

I'm not sure what my ideal arc would be, but I was thinking of a series of modules like this:

* Introductory mini-adventure plus referee's screen
* Arc beginning - a push; an enigma discovered
* Arc middle - enigma understood; crisis results
* Arc end - crisis resolution

Waaay too vague, but that's where I start.

 

[parmasson]

Do you want it unethical and illegal, ethical but illegal, ethical and legal, or legal but unethical?

 

[parmasson]

The problem is I am not exactly sure what T5 is. CT, MT and TNE all had a defining feature that created a “zeitgeist” that (like it or not) made the universe. It supplied the mood. T4 seems to lack that and so far so does T5.

I have read some of the playtest files and looked at the forum but I don’t quite have the “feel” of it.

 

[deadlock]

Greetings and salutations,

Actually, the mood for T4 is the formation, expansion, and a few wars of the Third Imperium. I am not sure about T5 since I have not read any of the files as of yet.

 

[jfetters]

Agreed, T4, I guess, was supposed to revolve around the expansion of the Imperium in its infancy, but that never really caught on with me.

I generally don't like going back into the distant past of an official setting, because it always seems that history is set.

Has anyone said what the milieu of T5 will be, exactly?

But in answer to the thread, there has to be something as a Pull - something really cool that the players will want to go through hell and back. Depending on the setting, this could be as simple as tons of cash, a TAS membership, Psionic training or (my personal favorite) a starship with some kind of gimmick (J-6, Annic Nova, AI computers, what have you).

Example:
</font>

• Players stumble on a salvage operation by pirates/navy/scouts/intel, who promptly attack the players. They discover one or more people (aliens?) in cold sleep.</font>
• The rescued people have a secret - they know where a stash of starships/relics/cash is, which is the reason they were being salvaged. A rescuee is captured and the location is extracted by the antagonist. The players have to rescue the rescuee (again) and race to the stash location.</font>
• Endgame is a confrontation with the antagonist and some kind of moral dilemma - players have to choose between the gimmick or the lives of the rescued people. (Regardless, the players should get some kind of reward for going this far)</font>

Now, I don't know if that can be streched out over a series of modules, unless they were all folio adventures.

As I re-read what I wrote above, it seems incredibly generic as well, almost like a rehash of the plot of "Knightfall." So it may be better to have the product self-contained, especially if the intent is to allow a ref to "re-work" the content into a different setting.

The old arc you mention (Shadows, RSG, TP, SotA) is only an arc in the loosest of senses - the only real thread connecting them are the coyns and what they imply. The stories themselves were relatively disconnected. IMO, it would be better from a tighter story POV to have everything in one "module." Further modules could build upon the other as a springboard, but by necessity should be standalone.

It is funny, I was in a bookstore today and I saw two shelves full of Dungeons & Dragons game books, as well as a handful of other RPG books that had movie/TV tie-ins (Star Wars, Star Trek, LotR). There was even a Battletech box on the shelf.

I am not sure what the ultimate goal of T5 is, aside from making some kind of a profit, but I was struck at how much of a good brand, like it or not, that D&D is. Traveller used to have that back in the day and I would love to see it back to that status again. It would be nice to be able to go to a normal bookstore and buy Traveller instead of having to hunt online and/or drive miles to the nearest store that may have something.

Anyway, I am starting to bleed into the "Zing" thread, so I will quit while I can...

 

[robject]

I believe the defining feature is either the milieu or the prototypical adventure, right? For T4, it was Milieu Zero, and it had a lot of promise, but the adventures didn't seem to come together.

I don't know T5's milieu, either. How about an adventure that would be in your favorite zeitgeist?

I've thought a little about it. Would a Civil War milieu (year 600 or so) be good or boring? What kind of adventures could be had then? Profiteering? Espionage? How about characters just retiring from service, at the end of the Barracks Emperors period, not unlike the Firefly universe? But what's the actual story for the players?

 

[robject]

I prefer ethical. Occasionally illegal might be fine, depends on the circumstances (back to ethics).

 

[jfetters]

Originally posted by robject:
I've thought a little about it. Would a Civil War milieu (year 600 or so) be good or boring? What kind of adventures could be had then? Profiteering? Espionage? How about characters just retiring from service, at the end of the Barracks Emperors period, not unlike the Firefly universe? But what's the actual story for the players?

Eh. Not too sure about it. After all, we did have the Rebellion in MT. We all know how that ended.

The story ultimately needs to enable the characters to affect change in thier universe. Twilight's Peak and Secret of the Ancients did this well. Most of the other LBB adventures, not so much, as fun as they may have been. MegaTraveller always held that promise, but it never delivered until the release of Hard Times and Arrival: Vengeance, which was the end of the line. TNE did it very well, IMO.

Regardless, I think that ultimately the issue is support. What adventures/sourcebooks will be released concurrently with the rules book? Or even within the rule book.

Love it or hate it, TNE did this pretty well. The rules contained a nice descripiton of the zeitgeist of the TNE universe as well as a couple short adventures to get the feel of the environment. It also had some very good support material released shortly after the rules.

I don't remember that with the T4 book. In fact, I remember reading through my signed copy of T4 and basically saying, "so what? This has all been done before." There was nothing in there to really draw me into the new/old environment, so much so that I never really purchased another T4 product.

T5 itself, along with whatever support materials come out with it, needs to completely immerse the player in the universe it presents. Any sourcebooks for alternate realities (Firefly, anyone? ) should do the same.

 

[parmasson]

I would like to help but I am creatively bankrupt recently. This is how I come up with stories.

Ethical possibly illegal

How about the Imperium in this adventure.
Good Imperium
Benign Imperium
Uncaring bureaucratic Imperium
Rules through force Imperium
Evil Imperium
No Imperium (beyond frontier or TNE)

Type of Hook ?
Patron motivated
Situation motivated
Free choice

Antagonist ?
Big Company
Gangster
Local Official
Corrupt Imperial Agents
Thugs

Payoff?
Banknotes
Medical Tech.
Ancients Artifact
Military Tech
Starship upgrades
Robots
Slaves
Gold

Setting?

 

[robject]

TNE was great for background, and the background was rife with options, opportunity and hazard.

T4 eventually produced the Milieu Zero sourcebook, and it would have been nice if Long Way Home, Anililik Run, et al could have pulled from the sourcebook more for their campaign data. Blah blah, there's so much to say about T4, most of it regretful.

As for the T4 core book, I got the same feeling. It was The Traveller Book, updated. An easlier M0 may have helped. At any rate, I'm all for source material being available when the core book comes out, but there's plenty of material in a core book without having to add milieu-specific material. Plus some are clamoring for the separation between rules and background.

But yes, it would be nice if background data were available when the core book(s) come out.

It is interesting to consider that T4 failed due to a lack of background. Surely everyone who was into T4 at the time knew exactly what its milieu was? Perhaps 'cohesive background' is a better term (if that has any meaning at all)?

 

[Michael Schulz]

Originally posted by robject:
Anyone care to brainstorm? What would be a cool story arc that a small number of adventures could fit under? I'm thinking of a set of 3 adventure books, plus an introductory adventure, each of which is optional, but all of which fit under an arc. Sort of like Shadows - Research Station Gamma - Twilight's Peak - Secret of the Ancients, though of course not concerning the Ancients. Or like Long Way Home and Gateway. And let's assume the thing should be done well, while we're at it, and not too T5-specific, so that other Traveller brands could use it.

What would your ideal story arc be? And how would you release it?

I'm not sure what my ideal arc would be, but I was thinking of a series of modules like this:

* Introductory mini-adventure plus referee's screen
* Arc beginning - a push; an enigma discovered
* Arc middle - enigma understood; crisis results
* Arc end - crisis resolution

Waaay too vague, but that's where I start.

Adding to this and Jim Fetters' comments, I think that if we are talking about a three part series of adventures (plus an intro in the screen or first book) they should emphasize one the defining features of Traveller: Travelling.

This should give the players at least a sense of the scope of the traveller universe, the wildly different political and economic levels, and a couple of key locations that can form the backbone of a campaign.

How does this half-formed and long winded idea sound:

Intro Adventure--Begins on a world on the far fringes of the milieu's Imperium. Ideally a backwater in the process of becoming important. The party is sent by a powerful, but aged, local patron to the Core to deliver a message to their moot representative, to recieve some sort of training or commission.

The short adventure focuses on their perilous trip to the sector capital where they are to get high or low passage to the Imperial capital. Toss in some pirates, assassains hired by a rival of the patron, and a hijacking and you've got some fun.

Adventure One: From the core. This adventure begins with the party's business being concluded and being sent back to the fringes. Here they should get the sense of the vastness and grandeur of the Imperium, and also it's byzantine politics. They leave Capital with a warrant or message for the intro adventure's patron. Ideally this would elevate the patron to ruler of their fringe homeworld.

This adventure should be full of swindles and schemeing designed to make the character's journey back home interesting. In an ideal world, by the mid-point of the adventure, their high-passage tickets have turned into working passage aboard a battered trader heading to their sector's captial. Just getting off Capital alive and with a few credits in their pocket is a success.

Adventure Two--Sector Capital. This adventure gives them a good sense of the sector level movers and shakers in their area. It should give them a good sense of local politics and potential adventure seeds. I'm thinking this is where they get the real 'something is rotten in the state of sector X.' Key elements: make the milieu real, have some serious wrangling around a weak Sector Duke, give the players a sense that things have really changed since last they were there...and not for the better.

Adventure Three--Back home. When they arrive to complete their mission with their patron, they find the world turned on its ear. Their patron has either been displaced, captured or killed, and their rival is in power. The planet is somewhat terrorized and its government corrupt. Empowered by their Imperial warrent or commission the players must try to set things right, without the help of their intial patron.

 

[robject]

As far as effecting change in the universe: that is a good outcome of an adventure, but not required.


The Kinunir - players find a political prison hulk, and a lost, insane ship and the warrant.

R.S. Gamma - players rescue a Droyne. (?)

Twilight's Peak - players affect the strategy of the Zhodani when the Fifth Frontier War breaks out.

Leviathan - players seek out new life and new civilizations. Maybe find lurking Zhodani?

Expedition to Zhodane - players uncover a spy, I think?

Broadsword - players get to be mercenaries during the Fifth Frontier War or thereabouts.

Prison Planet - players get to go to prison.

Arcturus station - players get to be in a murder mystery.

Safari Ship - players hunt for exotic lifeforms.

Nomads - players get to play Lawrence of Arabia on a water world.

SOTA - players find someone hidden and get some toys.

--

The double adventures were just as fun:

Shadows - a small dungeon crawl

Mission on Mithril - fun on a frozen world

Across the Bright Face - political upheaval on a tidally locked world

Night of Conquest - political upheaval on a world in District 268.

Divine Intervention - political shenanigans on a middle-TL theocratic world.

Chamax Plague and Horde - fun with local lifeforms.

--

Even some of the JTAS scenarios can be blown up into nifty adventures.

Foodrunner - politics and shenanigans between Regina and Roup.

Dagger at Efate - more Broadsword intrigue.

Geria Transfer - a little SuSAG-like paranoia.

--


I guess what I'm thinking of, then, can fit in a single volume, and probably contains what amounts to three and a half short adventures -- a pair of double adventures with nice world data, local maps, deckplans, and bios for the major NPCs. Something a little looser and shorter, perhaps, than The Traveller Adventure, but with something approaching that attention to detail.

 

[robject]

Cad Lad - I really, really like the idea of your arc. It follows the Tolkien-approved "there and back again" theme:

* getting there is an ordeal (Twilight's Peak, Annililik Run)
* doing your thing there is an ordeal (every adventure ever written)
* getting home is better, but home is a mess (Tarsus)

This gives the players initial support and two adventures' time to get wise to the way of things, and come back experienced enough to fix the problems with less support (or more in a leadership position).

I would worry over its scope. Given that The Traveller Adventure took an entire book to cover less than a dozen worlds, a trip across a sector could feel disorienting and/or rushed. I'd be tempted to compress the trip to a closer target.

 

[jfetters]

Originally posted by Kurega Gikur:
I would like to help but I am creatively bankrupt recently. This is how I come up with stories.

Well, it is better than being morally bankrupt...

But seriously, that is a good picklist to create adventures on the fly. It's funny how generic stories in general are - it is all in how things come together almost organically, when they come together well.

 

[jfetters]

Originally posted by robject:
It is interesting to consider that T4 failed due to a lack of background. Surely everyone who was into T4 at the time knew exactly what its milieu was? Perhaps 'cohesive background' is a better term (if that has any meaning at all)?

I know what you mean. I think it would be better categorized as "lack of purpose." With Traveller, the background was static. With MT, there was a supposedly dynamic background that did not change until they decided to kill off the entire empire. TNE was wildly dynamic with some specific events targeted to happen (Solee, Regency/RC meetup, Curtain War, Empress Wave) that the characters could get involved in quite directly.

With regard to the official background, I think that, for one, the time cannot run in a 1:1 yearly relationship. Time should be accellerated in the game world to progress the metastory (if there will be one in T5). That way, you can see where things might be headed without waiting three years (and then waiting another ten to find out what the author had in mind... )

 

[jfetters]

Originally posted by Cad Lad:
I think that if we are talking about a three part series of adventures (plus an intro in the screen or first book) they should emphasize one the defining features of Traveller: Travelling.

This should give the players at least a sense of the scope of the traveller universe, the wildly different political and economic levels, and a couple of key locations that can form the backbone of a campaign.

CadLad, I think you are right on the money here.

You must have some kind of interstellar travel in the game. I remember running the adventure that came in the DGP ref screen for a bunch of new players. It was good as an intro adventure, but the players hated it because they never made a jump.

And the story idea sounds fantastic. I really like it.

 

[robject]

Sure, lack of purpose fits.

I didn't realize the Traveller background was all that static. Although, I do recall that timeline in MegaTraveller. Is that what you mean?

I'm sure there's ways around that timeline -- probably the TNE route is best: set up the significant markers, and let the rest of history flow around them. I think that could be done with the rest of the Traveller timeline as well, without any pain (after all, what's been used, other than the years from 1105 to 1125, and some of the hazy, odd Milieu Zero years? Sure, the Civil War details are down, but are they in any adventures? Why can't Marc change them to suit, or even wipe the actual details clean?). There's a lot of empty space in there, and even the MT timeline is sketchy.

And I agree with not locking the time flow to real time.

 

[jfetters]

Originally posted by robject:
As far as effecting change in the universe: that is a good outcome of an adventure, but not required.

I think those make the most satisfying adventures. I probably should have said "affect change in the univers or have a better understanding of how it works (ala Adventure 12)

---adventure list snipped---

I have to say, that I think I liked the double adventures better than most of the full-blown ones.

I guess what I'm thinking of, then, can fit in a single volume, and probably contains what amounts to three and a half short adventures -- a pair of double adventures with nice world data, local maps, deckplans, and bios for the major NPCs. Something a little looser and shorter, perhaps, than The Traveller Adventure, but with something approaching that attention to detail.

Yep, exactly. Probably about the same length as Knightfall.

This thread is really starting to open the floodgates here in my head. Your last paragraph made me think of the classic Giant and Drow D&D modules that were built as a series (especially the underground adventures). Those were pretty short, but I think eventually they published them as one volume.

 

[robject]

Short and sweet. If you're got something to say, say it, don't dress it up with fluff.

I think that's why the double adventures were so useful and fun. They did one thing well.

Gadzooks, I loved Chamax Plague! (Hey, even that had a short story arc, didn't it?)

 

[robject]

Originally posted by Jim Fetters:

This thread is really starting to open the floodgates here in my head. Your last paragraph made me think of the classic Giant and Drow D&D modules that were built as a series (especially the underground adventures). Those were pretty short, but I think eventually they published them as one volume.

And I'm sort of leaning in that direction. Publish perfect-bound short adventures in LBB format. Or maybe just normal format. The first one is the shortest, so throw in the referee's screen to bulk it up. Then publish them together (probably with errata fixes, eh?).

If they're separate, then each has to have its own special gimmick or draw.

For example, one has a special person: an alien, patron, or alien patron, perhaps? One has a special place -- probably some conveniently located spot for a home base. And one has a special thing -- maybe a starship, but maybe some relatively unobtainably high-quality equipment.