The Long Night

[Mithras]

Being a student of the Fall of the Roman Empire in Britain, I'm considering a short campaign set in some back-water cluster when the Long Night hits. I want it to resemble a post-holocaust scenario, but without the mass-death. The 'mass-death' happens off-screen in populated areas. In fact it will be very neat to keep the reason for the collapse secret. Ships stop arriving, and ships that leave the cluster never return. Is it plague? Computer virus? Alien invasion? Super-nova shockwave? Economic collapse? Who knows?

In this way I can run a subsector and have it fully self-contained, with finite resources, ships and power blocs. Chance for the PCs to mak ea name (good or bad).

I really would like to play up the disconnect - the lack ofexotic imports (what would be in Roman Britain, olive oil, lentils, samian ware, glassware, dried fruits, wines etc.).

I'd need some kind of rift that is too wide to cross with most jump-drives found in the cluster.

My players might try to take over a planet, start a pirate base without the imperials getting involved, or 'get out' ofthecluster, perhaps finding a moth-balled or scrapped X-Boat that needs extensive repair.

Has this been done before - if so, any pointers!!!!!

 

[BillDowns]

Are you talking about the end of the Second Empire or the Rebellion/Virus scenario?

My inclination would be the former. Jump-2 was the max then, wasn't it? So an uncrossable gulf is easier to find or create.

I would also be tempted to throw in an "Arthur" component, with Arthur trying to repel neo-Saxons who could be from an adjacent sub-sector, and neo-Scots from another. I guess neo-Picts come be from some area within the subsector.

 

[Kilgs]

I think the Reaver's Deep Library discusses the influx of pirate lords who infested the sector prior to the 3rd Imperium. There should be some good ideas in the history writeups there.

 

[Gadrin]

Pirates did fairly well in the Reavers Deep sector during the long night, plus the Aslans.

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[BillDowns]

Here's a couple of links to place your play-area somewhere in the OTU.

http://www.travellermap.com/

http://www.utzig.com/cgi-bin/iai/map_top.pl

 

[davebill]

Being a student of the Fall of the Roman Empire in Britain, I'm considering a short campaign set in some back-water cluster when the Long Night hits. I want it to resemble a post-holocaust scenario, but without the mass-death. The 'mass-death' happens off-screen in populated areas. In fact it will be very neat to keep the reason for the collapse secret. Ships stop arriving, and ships that leave the cluster never return. Is it plague? Computer virus? Alien invasion? Super-nova shockwave? Economic collapse? Who knows?

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My players might try to take over a planet, start a pirate base without the imperials getting involved, or 'get out' ofthecluster, perhaps finding a moth-balled or scrapped X-Boat that needs extensive repair.

Has this been done before - if so, any pointers!!!!!

This sounds a bit like the Hard Times MT book - worth a look if you can find a copy (Drivthrurpg?).

The Terrans had J-3 by the end of the Interstellar Wars and so this was still probably top Jump during the 2nd Imperium/Long Night. But even a cluster that's J-2 from anywhere else poses problems for the bulk of Mains-following J-1 merchants, and might be considered economically non-viable, especially if the 'doorway' system is low pop, has a low rated starport, and/or no system gas giant, for J-2 Merchants.

Just some thoughts.

 

[aramis]

This sounds a bit like the Hard Times MT book - worth a look if you can find a copy (Drivthrurpg?).

Yes. It's on DTRPG.

 

[rancke]

The Terrans had J-3 by the end of the Interstellar Wars and so this was still probably top Jump during the 2nd Imperium/Long Night. But even a cluster that's J-2 from anywhere else poses problems for the bulk of Mains-following J-1 merchants, and might be considered economically non-viable, especially if the 'doorway' system is low pop, has a low rated starport, and/or no system gas giant, for J-2 Merchants.

If you're trading with any place that lies more than one parsec away, jump-2 is more economic than jump-1. A jump-1 ship is cheaper than a jump-2 and can carry a bit more cargo, but it requires twice as many jumps to get anywhere, so the effective cost per unit carried is higher.


Hans

 

[Mithras]

Thanks - I'll take a look at Hard Times.

Rather than set this canonically, I was going to create my own setting, with an federation or empire sketched briefly, and the main detail put into world write-ups NPCs and the plots, plans and upcoming events to effect the cluster.

 

[rancke]

Thanks - I'll take a look at Hard Times.

Rather than set this canonically, I was going to create my own setting, with an federation or empire sketched briefly, and the main detail put into world write-ups NPCs and the plots, plans and upcoming events to effect the cluster.

There's really such a vast amount of space and time in Charted Space that has yet to be described with a single word that most plots can find some place to happen. Not all plots... GDW missed a bet when it made the Ancients the only forerunners around (I don't count pasted-on latecomers like the Primordials) so a lot of André Norton and Jo Clayton plots are right out, which is a great pity.

But whatever you decide, you may want to take a look at a tetralogy written by Chris Bunch (who co-wrote the Sten series with Allan Cole) called 'The Last Legion' (Which is alo the title of the first book). Two protagonists enlist in the Federation's military and gets posted to a world right on the edge of Federation territory. Shortly thereafter communication with the center just ceases, leaving the unit to fend for its own.

The first book deals with events on the world itself (lovely political situation) and the next two with trouble with a neighboring would-be pocket emperor and a neighboring rapacious raider culture. Only the fourth explores what has happened to the Federation, and would be difficult to fit into the Long Night. The books aren't bad, incidentally. Not Great Litterature, but OK.

I've toyed with the idea of turning the books into a Traveller setting -- early Long Night, probably close to the Vargr Extents -- but never gotten around to doing anything about it.


Hans

 

[kafka47]

Early Long Night in the Vargr Extents...the fall of Roman and what was left of Gaul and Germania would make interesting backdrops if you wanted to follow historical analogues. However, I think more interesting could be the story of what happened in Bohemia. After Samo established Prague...the feudal intrigues of brother set against brother and mass regencides would seem to be perfect for the Vargr polities in a constant state of flux.

Or if you thinking of Pirate Kingdoms becoming sovereign states...then may look at many of the "countries" of the Carribean for their lineage as Freetowns developing around charismatic strongman (strongsentient?) arise and then fall back down again.

 

[Gadrin]

I've toyed with the idea of turning the books into a Traveller setting -- early Long Night, probably close to the Vargr Extents -- but never gotten around to doing anything about it.


Hans

I thought you hated Bunch, or was it just Star Risk ?

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[rancke]

I thought you hated Bunch, or was it just Star Risk ?

Hated is too strong a word and, yes, it was just Star Risk. On the scale I usually rate books (Do I think I may want to read them again some day?), Sten is "Absolutely, every couple of years", Lost Legion is "Maybe some day", and Star Risk is "I wouldn't waste my time" (which is not as far down the scale as "Not unless it was the last book unread on a desert island", "Not unless I got paid for it", and "Not in any way, shape, or form!").


Hans

 

[Gadrin]

Well I can understand the "No way in hell" attitude...

Strange, I never saw them as any less principled than many of the main NPCs in the various CT adventures:

The Head of the Vemene in the Traveller Adventure who would already have to be rich and powerful to have that position but doesn't think twice about betraying the Imperium to get richer.

The underhanded slavers in the Expedition to Zhodane who have no qualms about drugging the PCs and getting labor that way.

The obsessed Nihil Goldarn from Memory Alpha who goes to great lengths to get revenge in that one.

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[Mithras]

I didn't say in my OP that I fancied writing up some fiction based on the game setting (hence little or no links with the 3I). Bunch's books sound like the same type of thing, and I am going to force myself to avoid them to avoid plagiarism!!!!

I didn't think it would be the most novel idea ... but it has potential

Hard Times is great, is that what MT got up to? I bought the boxed set, but never played it or bought any other suppliments. A slide in economic barbarity ... it all strikes a chord at the moment and I'm reading it with an eye on the news ....

Lots of nitty gritty ideas for the degredation of star-faring culture. Nice call. Howabout Virus and TNE, is that similarly apocalyptic???

But whatever you decide, you may want to take a look at a tetralogy written by Chris Bunch (who co-wrote the Sten series with Allan Cole) called 'The Last Legion' (Which is alo the title of the first book). Hans

 

[aramis]

TNE "wipes the slate" by making computers into monsters.
The collapse of TNE should be about 200-300 years, but they place it at about 60 (given the HT changes).

HT is "The Imperium is collapsing, here's how it affects various places."
TNE is "Production is gone, and civilization is no more, except there, there, there, and there..."

 

[Mithras]

rancke ... do you have any suggestions if I were to set my pocket cluster off the main stage of the 3I? I'd need a nice direct route from original Terran colonisation, a sector-sized 'empire' derived from an early colonisation effort that was never absorbed by the 3I.

There's really such a vast amount of space and time in Charted Space that has yet to be described with a single word that most plots can find some place to happen. Not all plots... Hans

 

[rancke]

Well I can understand the "No way in hell" attitude...

Strange, I never saw them as any less principled than many of the main NPCs in the various CT adventures:

You're talking about my previously expressed inability to accept the protagonists of the Star Risk series as Good Guys? "Them" are those protagonists?

The Head of the Vemene in the Traveller Adventure who would already have to be rich and powerful to have that position but doesn't think twice about betraying the Imperium to get richer.

The underhanded slavers in the Expedition to Zhodane who have no qualms about drugging the PCs and getting labor that way.

The obsessed Nihil Goldarn from Memory Alpha who goes to great lengths to get revenge in that one.

Are any of them supposed to be Good Guys or even protagonists? They all seem to me to be classic examples of Bad Guys.

Kirth Gersen, the hero of Jack Vance's Demon Princes pentalogy, to give a counterexample, is a Good Guy (not even just a protagonist) despite the fact that he is a trained assassin vigilante.


Hans

 

[Hemdian]

Being a student of the Fall of the Roman Empire in Britain, I'm considering a short campaign set in some back-water cluster when the Long Night hits.

Would it be a sudden hit or a slow inexorable deterioration?

Consider the original first book of Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy. After the initial prediction story the subsequent stories describe the escalating isolation of the world of Terminus as the Empire collapses. Terminus’ access to the Empire is through a region of space that first becomes autonomous, then independent ... without that independence being challenged by the Empire. A political ‘rift’ rather than a physical one, created by the emergence of a pocket empire. The tech of the pocket empire slides down, and there are rumours of civilian nuclear reactors failing catastrophically due to the inability to perform routine maintenance.

And to see a similar situation from the other side consider Dalek Empire III, where the world of Velyshaa is cut off from the Galactic Union by the emergence of the Border Worlds Confederation. Here, vital information becomes unreachable as a border forms between the central power and the source of that information ... and that border hardens.

In both cases an apolitical group have to deal with a situation where a central power all but abandons an area and a pocket empire forms in that vacuum. A pocket empire feeling increasingly self-important. A pocket empire that, for whatever reason, restricts or blocks trade running through it.

 

[Gadrin]

No. I see them as neither.

I see them as GM would see them...

If they don't fit on this side, then use them on that side...of an adventure of course.

That's essentially what they are to me. I don't follow the TV "psychology of the mythology" type of cult, where I'm looking for heroes and villains. I spend most of my time:

1. Is this exciting?
2. How could I use this?

I rarely read to fill some sense of fair play or "God, we're short on heroes I need one to make me feel good." That's more the style of comic-books. Blatant. Obvious.

Most movies that fit that vein I either ignore or pick apart, ignoring the appeal for righteousness/fair play/heroism and look for intrigue and that something special that would work as a spark for a good Traveller theme.

Kirth Gersen (whatever) started out as a decent read, but overall it's tough to make a single-point of adventure into a Traveller game where multiple characters exist. Traveller is more of a "team effort" than following one man's road. I think by the time you did, it'd look less like the original and lose it's appeal. I might be wrong though. I'm not a Jack Vance expert, and those have been around for ages.

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