TNE timeline bad bad, but Third Imperium too static

[laning]

While I felt that the canonical late Third Imperium was too static, I really like the Imperium and Emperor Strephon. So, part of me liked the introduction of a dispute over the throne and general disruption of normal and boring life throughout the Imperium. But things very quickly escalated to being full-scale warfare with little room left for anything else. I thought that was overdoing it. Even worse, when TNE came out, it was almost as if *somebody* was trying to turn Traveller into Twilight 2000 or something--a mechanistic, number-crunching, post-apocalyptic existence with little human depth or interest.

MTU is during Emperor Strephon's reign and I am still dithering about whether to plunge the Imperium into any kind of split or have Strephon (or his clone) assassinated. I do not want to depart from the canonical timeline, because that risks making any future published material other-than-useful. It's perfectly safe to ignore TNE, even if I don't adhere to SJG's canon. With utmost respect to Loren and Co., I think I prefer to stick with Marc's rules and ignore SJG canon. Although I think Jesse's illustrations are the greatest.

I am leaning towards having an assassination scenario just like MegaTraveller, followed by an unsettled period throughout most of the Imperium that only occasionally escalates into actual fighting. But the threat of large-scale fighting is one of the biggest problems occupying the thoughts of most nobles, bureaucrats, and other influential persons. How long can I prolong this state of affairs before returning Strephon to a universally-acknowledged seat on the Iridium Throne?

I guess you're saying this thread is not the place to post house rules and the like (?) but I'm just going to mention that I stick to CT for task resolution (sorry, it's intuitive and has zero learning curve), and use the basic Snapshot, Striker, and Mayday systems for combat resolution but with primarily MegaTraveller design rules and specs. I prefer T4 for character generation, and let people make their own choices rather than roll a 1D6. I let them arrange the dice into their basic six stats as they wish, and even let them reroll any die that comes up with a 1 result. I want characters to be heroic, and feel that players should get to play the career path they're most interested in playing. Both these choices increase the fun quotient for everyone, IMHO. Don't worry, I throw very challenging situations at the players, they do not run amok. I'm very interested in trying out At Close Quarters but will probably stick to the GDW publications mentioned above, in the end.

IMTU, I do have one problem with the amok-players threat that I'd like to ask for help with. The players I game with are an extremely intelligent bunch of individuals and impossible to try to stay a mental jump ahead of. I really like to let characters buy a ship, and eventually design and build their own ship. But the marketplace value of a ship is huge, and if they decide to divert the millions they're saving into other things, that can change the nature of the game in a big way and not in a predictable way, either. Even if they've got all their funds sunk into owning and running a ship, what's to stop them from selling the ship and having a too-huge pool of cash then? Besides a very naked and obvious deus ex machina inserted by the referee (me)?

Sure, a ref can give the government or a megacorp a hold over them and use this hold to force them to remain tied to their ship, but this method is just so....well, crude and distasteful. :->

The more the players feel they are captains of their own destiny, the more fun for everyone. I don't want to make them glorified indentured servants who execute a string of fancy errands for their government or megacorp masters.

I have tried the house rules modification of making the prices of ships a lot cheaper by a few orders of magnitude, but then it becomes even more of a puzzle why the interstellar frontier wasn't pushed way back a long time ago.

I'm looking forward to reading any responses on this thread. Thanks, all. :->

--Laning

 

[Murph]

Well it could be. But the TNE universe felt too much like a campaign of AFTERMATH. We ran in the Reavers Deep, and had a very active campaign. The Imperium was just close enough to be useful, but not omnipresent. Added a few systems, and renamed a few IMTU, but it worked overall.

 

[Gatsby]

Rich characters? DGP had an idea, which I adapted - make 'em pay to maintain a Social Standing.
A player can also adjust his SOC by throwing his money around or by being a miser. A character should spend his SOC times Cr250 a month on the basics of food, lodging and incidentals (not special equipment or items not purchased on a regular basis by ordinary citizens). If this is less than his SOC, the lower value will take effect within the month. If the character can maintain a higher value, then he will feel the effects of an increase at a rate of one point per year. As soon as you start this one, they'll start empire building - then it's off to hire security (aka Mercenary units ala Book 4).

Also, maintenence cost of equipment (like that killer Grav car they may have!)is 10%, annually...but that's getting a bit bogged down in the numbers.
Then there is medical expenses.
Remember to make them pay for their travel to other worlds. They may not own a ship, but someone else DOES and worries about his costs.
They'll run low on money soon enough.

Gats'

 

[Murph]

My comments in bold.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by laning:
While I felt that the canonical late Third Imperium was too static, I really like the Imperium and Emperor Strephon. So, part of me liked the introduction of a dispute over the throne and general disruption of normal and boring life throughout the Imperium. But things very quickly escalated to being full-scale warfare with little room left for anything else. I thought that was overdoing it. Even worse, when TNE came out, it was almost as if *somebody* was trying to turn Traveller into Twilight 2000 or something--a mechanistic, number-crunching, post-apocalyptic existence with little human depth or interest. Agreed, If I wanted to play Twilight 2000/Aftermath, I would play those games. This was an failure by Those in Power to realize that frontiers are still exciting places to be.

I guess you're saying this thread is not the place to post house rules and the like (?) but I'm just going to mention that I stick to CT for task resolution (sorry, it's intuitive and has zero learning curve), and use the basic Snapshot, Striker, and Mayday systems for combat resolution but with primarily MegaTraveller design rules and specs. I prefer T4 for character generation, and let people make their own choices rather than roll a 1D6. I let them arrange the dice into their basic six stats as they wish, and even let them reroll any die that comes up with a 1 result. I want characters to be heroic, and feel that players should get to play the career path they're most interested in playing. Both these choices increase the fun quotient for everyone, IMHO. Don't worry, I throw very challenging situations at the players, they do not run amok. I'm very interested in trying out At Close Quarters but will probably stick to the GDW publications mentioned above, in the end. I switched to Cyberpunk 2020 with lots of added future weapons and skills for similar reasons. I think that CP 2020 is actually close to what CT should have evolved into

IMTU, I do have one problem with the amok-players threat that I'd like to ask for help with. The players I game with are an extremely intelligent bunch of individuals and impossible to try to stay a mental jump ahead of. I really like to let characters buy a ship, and eventually design and build their own ship. But the marketplace value of a ship is huge, and if they decide to divert the millions they're saving into other things, that can change the nature of the game in a big way and not in a predictable way, either. Even if they've got all their funds sunk into owning and running a ship, what's to stop them from selling the ship and having a too-huge pool of cash then? Besides a very naked and obvious deus ex machina inserted by the referee (me)? Well there is always the Imperial Revenue Service (IRS) which will strike fear into the hearts of the most hardened and callous merc. Or have the ship provided by a powerful patron, that the players are too afraid of to skip. You get the general idea.

Sure, a ref can give the government or a megacorp a hold over them and use this hold to force them to remain tied to their ship, but this method is just so....well, crude and distasteful. :->

The more the players feel they are captains of their own destiny, the more fun for everyone. I don't want to make them glorified indentured servants who execute a string of fancy errands for their government or megacorp masters. But this can be fun for a while. Let the players unravel the real plot, very film noir. It is always good to have a villain that the players respect and fear.

--Laning<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
And if you do not like The Spinward Marches, Solomani Rim, then try Reavers Deep, Spica, Antares, Ley Sector, Gateway, Dark Nebula and any other of the frontier sectors. Or go even further to the Far Frontier sector where the Sky Raiders Trilogy was based. Lots of room out there.

 

[DonM]

Very interesting... And I'm using CT rules but playing in the GT universe. I guess each to their own.

I always found that if I wanted to set up the players for something different, all I needed to do was send them out of the Spinward Marches.

And the FFW setting has plenty of opportunities in it. We're debating now on perhaps running a game as a military ship during the FFW. The idea is that of a small cruiser, having stopped at Retinae (Imperial research station outside the Imperium, founded in the 500s, as opposed to that bizarreness in BTC) when the first Zhodani come calling announcing the start of the war. Can the ship and crew make it back to the Imperium safely?

DonM.

 

[laning]

Thanks for the replies, and the many good points made. :->

Gatsby has good suggestions about keeping a constant drain on the PC's money supply, but I'm afraid none of those ideas would put a significant dent into the pile o' money that would be big enough for a down payment on a starship. Although making sure they 10% pay maintenance on fancy vehicles, weapons, and other equipment would at least make PC's sit up and take notice. Was it DGP who had the rule about paying Social Standing x cr1,000 per month? I was thinking that was in one of the Traveller rule sets(?) CT, I thought(?)

Murph, I'm glad we have similar views on TNE, although I must confess to being a bit...um, dismayed really, to see someone use Cyberpunk for a Traveller game! :->

I love your IRS, hah. And the idea of a film noir-ish style is intriguing.

I guess our biggest difference, Murph--and this is the crux of my original post in regards amok players--is that I prefer the referee style of just creating a universe and letting the players hatch their own plot. The vast majority of referees prefer creating a plot that will keep the players moving along in a more-or-less predictable direction.

There are two main problems with my preferred style. The first problem, is what I was talking about in the post: let the players run amok in the universe for awhile, with the game philosophy that PCs should have larger-than-life abilities to match the heroic qualities their characters should have, and you wind up with very powerful characters who can run amoke more than even the most laissez faire (like myself) referee is comfortable with.

I suspect the reason most RPG referees prefer to script their own adventures (or purchase published adventures) is because they want to keep control. Yes, it's basically a control issue.

[The second major problem with my preferred style is the referee has to prepare an ungodly amount of background material for every single place the PCs may go and person and organization their encounter. You can't just direct them towards the people, places, and organizations that you've prepared for them and ignore things that you don't plan for them to encounter. A well-prepared referee seems to be required to do orders of magnitude more work, with my preferred style. The large amount of published material based upon Traveller's Imperium appeals to me as basically being background preparation that I don't have to do, because Marc, Loren, and Co. already did it for us.]

Anyway, how does a ref let his players acquire a ship **in a believable way** and yet not fear what **other things** the players might do with the tens or hundreds of megacredits they need in order to buy a ship? Keep in mind that once the players learn how to acquire ten- or fifty-million megacredits, there's no plausible reason for them to stop acquiring more and more money. Or at least, that seems to be part of the problem to me. Having some patron offer a ship in exchange for running a glorified errand is an awfully naked way of showing the hands working behind the scenery of the universe. I don't want things to seem scripted, or mechanistically predetermined.

Perhaps what I should be doing is enumerating the list of ways that NPCs acquire ships, and considering the pros and cons of each for me as a referee.
1. Roll a retirement benefit for it.
2. Earn huge amounts of cash and buy one.
a. On the stock market
b. Discovering valuable ancient artifacts
c. Royalties for an invention or book, etc
d. Steal it
e. Inherit it
f. Damages payment in a lawsuit
g. Brilliant entrepeneurship
h. Brilliant arbitraging
i. Strike oil like Jed Clampett
j. Blah
k. Blah
l. Blah
3. Participate in an employee ownership plan as crew.
4. Get salvage rights to a lost starship and rehabilitate it.
5. Win a ship in a card game.
6. Inherit the ship.
7. My imagination just ran out of steam. Any additional ways anyone can add, please??

Murph and DonM both suggest getting away from the Spinward Marches into other sectors. But then I have to leave behind my shelf full of published background material and start creating fresh background material. A very large task, and I'm avoiding it diligently. :->

As for the other main topic of my original post, I guess Marc & Others felt the same way I did about the Imperium being too static and having too much law and order. even in the "frontier" areas of the Spinward Marches. I always thought that was the implicit reason for throwing the Imperium into civil war. Perhaps I should set my campaign during this civil war (the Rebellion), and continue to ignore any canon emanating from TNE. Just because there's a civil war spanning most of known space and going on for many years doesn't mean it has to visit its full destruction on most systems. Surely there are many worlds where life goes on more or less normally...? :->

--Laning


------------------

 

[Murph]

laning:

Actually, I tend to run a very free-wheeling game. Especially since I have discovered that my player group will more often than not decide to ignore the adventure of the night, and do something completely unexpected or off the wall.

I usually get an adventure for the night, but if they decide to do other things, I have had to learn to adapt, and perform unrehersed as it were.

GMing since 1978.

Actually the Cyberpunk rules, if you leave off the universe specific items and most of the cyberwear work pretty darn well for Traveller. The only problem is career generation, but the players do a pretty good job of it. Also the lifepath generator is great for adventure hooks. Friday Night Fire Fight (FNFF) is an excellent, easy, realistic combat system. Using an MS-Access database, I have included weapons from the stone age to the height of the Imperium.

I found the Solomani Rim to be a nice place for the film noir type adventures since it is a more settled area with many high tech planets.

Another area that I found useful when my player group goes completely bonkers is the patron. Now this can be a bartender with "contacts", a former employer, an omnipresent Imperial Intellegence/Law Enforcement agency, or...

I admit to being very tight with such things as Battledress, fusion and plasma guns, etc. My players know that they are in for a bad time when I start handing out these items. *Heh, Heh, *Fiendish Chuckle**.

One patron was the rich fop in it for the adventure, but sure that he would never really be in any REAL danger. Another was a rock band that hired the group as roadies (Veedback, by John Ford, published in the Journal). Veedback was really great, and the players loved it.

 

[kafka47]

TNE bad, bad, bad???

The greatest thing that TNE contributed was the idea of Pocket Empires. All other versions relied upon client states of the Superpowers. I like idea of small interstellar polities nestled in around bigger polities.

Virus was bad, but read carefully the TNE rules and you see that it was meant there as a threat of not going too far rather a constant presence. Some good work was being done in developing the Regency, showing High Tech Armour which other than 101 Vehicles as never illustrated.

Star Vikings were a comic addition, I had them wiped out by the Empire of Solee, anyhow.

TNE had the potential to create a brand new Traveller setting but never went forward beyond old Traveller.

Classic Traveller is great but too static, I agree. So therefore, adopt a Rebellion or Hard Times milieu as the corrective.

 

[Ron]

Although I agree that the 3I is too static, I don't like TNE either. When MT was published I thought it was a great opportunity to revitalize Traveller's background. I was sadned with the option to some kind of total destruction war. I was hoping for a setting with a several strong nations evolving from the fragmented Imperium.

Anyway, the pocket empires concept was great and I liked the Regency.

 

[jalberti]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by kafka47:

TNE had the potential to create a brand new Traveller setting but never went forward beyond old Traveller.

Classic Traveller is great but too static, I agree. So therefore, adopt a Rebellion or Hard Times milieu as the corrective.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I also stick to the Rebellion and Hard Times Eras. When 1130 came around for my group, the research station developing the Virus was destoyed during the battle between Dulinor and Lucan before Virus was released.

Dulinor was stopped short of Capital and the end result was a continuation of Hard Times for the next 50 or so years. The Imperium was replaced by a patch work of pocket empires.

 

[Unreal John]

I use a home made universe, cheerfully incorporating any useful bits of the 'official' universe which can be filed to fit. When the Rebellion began, I thought seriously about abandoning the insane hard work of maintaining said universe and going to the full GDW version.

There were two things wrong with this: first, Dulinor had to go. While in the real world many have advanced themselves by betraying their greatest benefactors, the successful ones know you cannot broadcast the event on galaxy-wide video and still keep your supporters. Dulinor would have faced a waiting line of ambitious people anxious to do unto him as he had done to Strephon. He just wouldn't have lasted long.

(BTW, it didn't help that the first test run-thought for my group of the the MT combat rules was a recreation of the assassination. Dulinor killed the Emperor with two shots, the Empress with two shots, and then hit a streak of bad dice. He took eight shots to kills Iphegenia, reloading while the bleeding princess tried to crawl away. If the last shot had not done for her, things would have really gotten interesting, because he only had two clips for the body pistol. Had this actually been a 'live' event, having effect in the game, the chance that one of the Imperial security team would not have nailed him before he finished would have been vanishingly small.)

Secondly, I was anticipating the era of the Five Empires (or Four, or Three, or whatever. I thought one or more of the contenders would go under.) when the Rebellion ended in mutual exhaustion. Then TNE wiped the universe clean and started over again. The New Era did not interest my group at all, and TNE offered design rules so complicated that it truly was easier to build my own with the CT rules.

-John Fluker

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by jalberti:
I also stick to the Rebellion and Hard Times Eras. When 1130 came around for my group, the research station developing the Virus was destoyed during the battle between Dulinor and Lucan before Virus was released.

Dulinor was stopped short of Capital and the end result was a continuation of Hard Times for the next 50 or so years. The Imperium was replaced by a patch work of pocket empires.



<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

[soloprobe]

The third Imperium is static enough to make Skullduggery difficult. Like a big city, it's populated enough that a pistol shot ALWAYS brings the law...So My universe is homemade. My game is set in the Solomani Rim, and loosley based on the ramshackle Second Imperium...."Imperial Earth"

 

[laning]

It looks like most of the people posting now have similar feelings to mine about liking Strephon's Imperium, but wishing for more systems that were not part of a monolithic superpower like the Imperium or Zhodane.

I'm not sure how many agree with my feelings about TNE as a rule system that veered off in an undesirable direction, as well. Not the future history of TNE, but the design of the game mechanics. I think a lot of people. Although I understand that there are quite a few gearheads out there who thrive on FFS and certainly don't begrudge anyone their enjoyment from such things. :->

I'm hoping someone will drop into this thread with some tips and tricks for me on how to run an ambitiously large and varied universe, without steering the players or running them through scenarios.

Murph, I think that if your players get fearful when you start handing out FGMPs and battle dress, then your style is still much closer to scripted scenarios than the style I long for but find so difficult to run. Please do not take that as criticism, btw. It is a matter of preferred style, not which way is "better". And in fact, most of the game referees who I've really enjoyed over the years have very much used the style of prepared/scripted scenarios and it went well.

I don't think that means the scenario style itself is more likely to be pleasing to players. I think it means that those specific referees are more comfortable operating that way and that is what they do best. Players will get the most enjoyment from a game when the referee is playing the style that suits him/her the best. Because the referee just does their best job when they're most comfortable and enthusiastic about the way they're doing it.

But you (or someone) can referee a game in which you begin the session with no idea of what obstacles, situations, or NPCs you want the characters to end up facing. Nobody receiving messages from "patrons", nobody following up on clues distributed by the referee into the daily newspaper, no local authorities asking the star travellers to help them with problem X. Just the players deciding among themselves what actions their characters are interested in taking and then basically using the referee as a tool to tell them how everyone and everything else in the universe behaves when the players interact with the universe.

I know that some groups aren't cut out for that sort of adventuring, but I have also grouped (a long time ago, now) with other people who are comfortable playing that way and are full of the ideas and initiative to keep five referees busy handling them, not just one.

I always felt that the Strephon milieu put too much restriction on the possibilities that players might want to pursue. There just aren't enough "wild" locales for exploration and adventure. Sure, you can go off to sectors neighboring the Spinward Marches, but at that point you may as well be creating your own campaign/milieu from scratch. Ideally, a referee can use the large number of published adventures and other material as sourcebooks of data about people and places and events in the Imperium. And only use the plots/scenarios in these books (or from any other source) as things that may or may not be happening anyway that players may never interact with at all, or may get some distant ripple of influence from, or stumble across some small slice of one in passing as they go about their own affairs, but definitely are not scenarios that need to draw the characters into any involvement whatsoever.

I'm spilling a lot of virtual ink over this, but I'm probably still not making very clear just what I'm saying.

At this point in my life, my mental faculties have really suffered from health problems that affect memory and the ability to concentrate. So, that makes it extremely tough to think on my feet as a referee and be successful at my desired play style anyway. I should probably throw my lot in with most other referees and start having each game session begin with certain goals and ideas in mind for the players. A lot of people have a lot of fun with exactly that play style, and it certainly would be more practical given my current mental capabilities. (Since referees spend most of the game session sitting down, perhaps I should say "thinking on your seat" instead of "feet"?

The hour of the night is finally making itself felt and I grow sleepy. Goodnight, all.

Thanks for everyone's contributions so far. They've been interesting, and I'm looking forward to more. :->

--laning

 

[Fulacin Highport]

When it comes to a solution to how to run an interesting campaign, I don't have a 'one-size-fits-all' answer. I was fortunate enough to be with a group that was fairly self-motivated in that the various folks playing had their own plans and agendas of what they wanted to do.

I was also lucky enough to have a friend who was capable to refereeing his own campaigns, and we 'shared' that job, swapping off so that we both got to referee, and both got to play - roughly every second or third gaming session.

We would plan out a number events, 'bad' guys, situations, and ship traffic patterns, and then divide up who'd be responsible for what - since we were handling the 'same' universe, it wasn't a problem. The
players enjoyed themselves between their own various plans and plots, and we could keep them somewhat focused on the 'real' events in the Third Imperium. Since we deliberately started the campaign in 1084, right after the 4th Frontier War, there was a nice, fairly stable future to look forward to.

It seemed to work - everyone involved had a good time (even the occasional 'dead' player had to admit they'd been killed out pretty fairly).

So, as a potential workable solution: if possible, find someone who is capable of 'sharing' the duties of being a referee, and try to plan out some generic villians, and situations. Keep some of the prepublished adventures ready to be hauled out, and be subtle in 'controlling' the players. I'm not
saying it'll work for you, but it worked for us!


------------------
Joe Brown

 

[TheDS]

A technique I'e been using lately is the "start small" approach. I got this piece of inspiration from the "Idol Dreams" adventure in the TNE book, which has the PCs as barbarians with no real inkling of high-tech devices. Thus, it becomes easier to impress players with things like lasers and plasma bazookas, and the characters really wouldn't have any idea what to expect on any given world.

Another technique is to find adventure on one world, or in one area. Look at TV. 99% of shows spend their entire time in one city. Those characters hardly ever travel to another city or country, and only a rare few go to other worlds. Look in the newspapers if you want some ideas for local adventures. Players don't HAVE to travel all over the place.

Make up a number of worlds, cities, people, and stuff like that. Make a few "ecologies" as I call them. Since you haven't detailed much of the universe yet, it's real easy, when the PCs go some place new, to randomly choose a world from your pocket. You'll know a little bit about that world in regards to what kinds of other things you ca pull out of your hat. (You'll know a Hiver colony will not be a prominant part of a K'Kree-dominated world, for instance.)

When the PCs inevitably go to the bar to look for a patron or a fight, you've already got a number of potential patrons to pull a radom one out of your hat. And if he's not believable for this world, then stuff him back in and choose some one else. Meetings are half-chance anyway; why not stack the odds in favor of gameplay?

In regards to the starship question: The down-payment is very very high. 20% is no laughing matter. So instead, make it something different. Make it 1% down. The players will still have the normal monthly payment to make. They'll make it for another 20 years, but who plays a character for 60 years?

Maintenance costs for starships is 0.1% annually, as stated in the book. Other high-ticket items should be likewise. HOWEVER, if your character has a FGMP-15 and he's not been to any TL15 worlds for a while, when it breaks, it's broke. He'll have to find an appropriate world to get it fixed or get the parts. Sure, maybe he'll start stocking up on repair parts like he does ammo. That's fine. Remember to consume cargo space for all this. If he doesn't have a ship, he's not going to be able to cart around his parts, now is he?

Another thing a lot of people don't think about, and which the old Megatraveller computer game pointed out: You can't take illegal weapons out of the starport. When was the last time you saw people carrying rocket-launchers around anyway? The players need to leave the stuff on their ship or they have to turn it in to the authorities before they leave the landing area. They'll get it back when they leave. This includes battledress and other heavy armor.

But if they don't have a ship of their own, and they're having to book passage, then the captain of each ship determines whether they can have weapons on board, and even if they can, it's going to be put in the ship's locker where the PC can't get to it.

If they don't like that, they don't get to ride. (Or they could try to sneak it on, bt only something like a body pistol should succeed.) Think Old West. Back then, when people came to town, they had to turn their weapons in to the Sheriff, and he'd give them back when they left. This was SOP. This was as expected and normal as breathing. Characters should not make a big deal about going around "naked"; everyone does.

Now since you're forcing your players to go "naked" into towns and travel, you don't want every Tom Dick and Harry NPC to be toting heat. If some one is armed, it's with a melee weapon like a club or dagger. if they have a body pistol, you can be sure they've got underworld connections. If they have illegal weapons, you can be sure they hardly ever show their faces and that they're highly wanted.

For the times when imagination falis you, ask the PCs what they think. "How hard do you think this'll be?" "Where do you think you should go?" You can also have an assistant referee. (I find this makes it easier to have realistic opposition; the assistant doesn't have to be in the room when the PCs are plotting, and vice versa.)

When PCs have no idea what to do ("You land at a starport. Now what?"), you can give them clues or ideas. "Potential sources of information about your problem can be found in the datanets, the local library, or you can ask that shady0looking guy over there what he thinks." or "Entry can be attempted by either direct assault, sneaking in the back way through the gate, bribing the guard, surprising the guard, asking the guard for admitance, or you can risk using that damaged teleporter in the cargo hold." or "The man spits on your proffered hand, which you realize after a moment is a token of respect. It would be considered rude not to spit back in his hand." And be sure to say that there may be other options; players don't always know what their characters know, and you can't always think of all the options either.

------------------
Happiness is a warm Meson Gun.

 

[DonM]

I did want to bring up something I've recently added to my FFW campaign (it just started)...

Norris has one faction of nobles within the spinward marches to deal with in my campaign that is missing from the official universe...

Nobles displaced from former Imperial worlds by previous defeats... ie, the former Duke of Cipango, and the titular sector Duke of Foreven sector

Both lines have military officers in the front lines hoping to make names for themselves...

Peace? Peace with mind-ripping bastards who stole our homes and killed those who entrusted us with their protection?

In our last run, I almost convinced one of the PCs to quit the group and join the Duke of Cipango in a desperate mission behind enemy lines.


DonM.

 

[Murph]

Rather than destroying the Imperium, a nice large war to the knife with the Julian Federation would just fit the bill. Neither side giving quarter, or accepting it. Chaos and confusion over six, ten, twenty sectors as the Vargr jump in, and perhaps the Kkree as well. No need to pull that stupid virus, and deus ex machina out of the hat. A major war on the other side of the empire would just fit the bill.

 

[Simon Jester]

The way I've shaken things up a bit is to follow a modified version of MegaTraveller's Rebellion, as so:

Dulinor performed the Assassination and run for home just as GDW presented, with Lucan being the little bastard he is and working his way into the Iridium Throne over his brother's body. The primary difference comes with Strephon NOT heading for Gushemege, but instead continuing on to Capital, and Lucan's ability to control the rumors surrounding his brother's death.

Lucan does the smartest thing he can do and immediately steps down for Strephon, saying only that he took the throne in the belief that Strephon had actually been assassinated. With the rumors surrounding Varian having no evidence to reinforce them, Strephon decides not to disrupt things even more and retains Lucan as Heir Apparent and Crown Prince, but details a close watch on his every move and word.

The Solomani arrange their invasion forces as before, but news of Strehpon's survival doesn't reach them in time to countermand the orders except in the border areas closest to Terra. After the initial successes of the invading forces, the Solomani leadership decides to continue with the invasion, but not before the Imperial forces around Terra are forewarned and reinforced. The Solomani still make significant advances, but not nearly as overwhelming as in MT.

The news of Strephon's survival keeps Vland and Dukes Brzk, Warinir and Margaret from secedeing and setting up their own Imperia, but Brzk does declare his neutrality to prevent the Julian Protectorate from attepmting anything in the chaos. Strephon tasks Margaret and Warinir with at least delaying the Solomani advances until he can put paid to Dulinor.

The Vargr do still take advantage of the instability news of the Assassination causes, as Lucan's orders to move the Corridor Fleet are not countermanded in time to prevent them from cutting off the Spinward Marches, but the Vargr assaults on Lishun sector are stopped cold.

The Aslan ihatei start their expansion drives, both 'behind the claw' and in Reaver's Deep sector, attacking both Imperial and Solomani worlds. They meet with most of their success in the Spinward Marches but not as great as in MT.

In the Spinward Marches, only news of the Assassination had made it through Corridor before it was cut, and Norris promoted himself to Archduke. Once some communication had been restored to the rest of the Imperium at great effort, Strephon confirmed the appointment and tasked Norris with maintaining the Spinward Marches as much as possible and restoring Imperial control of Corridor sector. The Zhodani show restraint and do nothing other than provide support for the Sword Worlds' attacks against the Darrians.However, the Swordies get a little out of hand and initiate attacks agains the Imperium, believing both that the remnant of the Spinward Marches cut off from the remainder of the Imperium is too weak to resist them and that the ZC will actively support them once their attacks show the Imperial weaknesses. The Swordies are wrong on both counts, and their attacks degenerate into a prolonged series of raids.

The Vland Fleet, with the majority of Corridor Fleet, begin to retake sections of Corridor back from the Vargr, but Vargr resistance proves that it's going to take a good while to return to the old borders.

Meanwhile, Strephon and Dulinor go at it hammer and tongs, but cleanly. Dulinor cannot just give up without proving that his actions were wrong from their foundation, but he realises that anything other than civilized behavior, even during war, will do the same thing. Meanwhile, Strephon simply cannot allow Dulinor to go unpunished, but he strives to maintain the Imperium at its best. In any case, neither side resorts to the allout barbarity that made up the original Black War in MT.

So, four years into MTU Rebellion, we have the Imperium largely as one piece, but with big areas of uncertainties (The Marches, Antares, and Capital [very political maneuverings around Strephon in case he should chose another wife/consort, and a lot of pro- and anti-Lucan activity]), four war zones (Ilelish, Corridor, the Spinward Marches and the Solomani Rim) and absolutely no stasis anywhere.

So. What do you think?

Simon Jester

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-If it's stupid but it works, it isn't stupid.

[This message has been edited by Simon Jester (edited 27 November 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Simon Jester (edited 27 November 2001).]

 

[phydaux]

geez, complex. but, you could plop PCs about anywere and they'd have something to do...

 

[kafka47]

Your milieu sounds like how I have been playing late-Rebellion, MT. Save, I do still have Stephon trapped in Gushemeshe as a prisoner of the Court. Meaning that he cannot act without his advisors who caution restraint. However, when millions die Stephon strikes back but fails. His own guilt forces him to retreat.

I have always protrayed Stephon as a weak Emperor, this I know runs counter to cannon. This is based upon how I see the Imperial Nobility. But, his weakness stems from the fact that the Imperium was run out of Capital and the Core subsector whereby intrigue and high politics have corrupted the nobility to such an extent that they have been reduced to lackeys striving for titles. Not that this is not case in the frontier but for me the Core represents a model of the French Court around the Louis IV. In the Rim, I have a type of Fading Suns milieu going on with each of the Noble houses clinging on against the threat of democracy using repression and bribery to keep themselves from the advancing Solomani. In the Marches, the nobility plays the role akin to the Lords and Captains of towns in early American history. In Antares, we have corrupt ancient nobles like in Imperial China or Ancient Egypt. In Iliesh, we have a situation of pre-Revolutionary France whereby the nobility is divided ("For everything to remain the same...everything must change" versus status quo ante). Vland is desparately trying resurrect the Vlani identity against what it sees a polygot Imperium that is certain to fail. In the Old Expanses, we have a nobility that is young and energetic but too far removed from the corridors of power to make a difference therefore, taking upon roles of roving landless but not titleless nobles who eventually settle back home to become new Holdfasts (from Greek myth). This is all I could scrounge from my scattered notes...I am sure that I have more varied examples. As I have always seen the Imperium a composite of different Imperial styles of governance, be it Tsarist, British, Aztec, German, American, etc. often clashing and interplaying so that if players arrive on a world, they never know what to expect.

I would be interested to hear how other people view the nobility.