Thursday, April 16, 2009

hey, let's talk about something besides Japan today

Adventure 4: Leviathan is a neat-o Trav product I've long wanted to run. Design-wise it combines a two subsector sandbox with a straightforward mission: mercantile exploration. A big portion of this booklet is devoted to the Leviathan class merchant cruisers.

I've never run A4 for3 big reasons.
1) Traveller is a crusty old game that no one plays anymore.
2) Not that many players actually want to deal with the personnel and logistical issues of running a big ship. In my experience most players want a Millenium Falcon sized operation or Constellation-class hand wavery.
3) Not that many players want to plan out something as complicated as a long multi-jump loop route through a couple of subsectors. Especially when they know the referee is just going to monkey the whole thing up.

So here's my idea on how to get some use out of my copy of Leviathan.

1) Use Mongoose's new Traveller. If necessary trick prospective players by describing it as a shiny new sci-fi game. "Inspired by Firefly."
2) Make most of the crewmembers myself, possibly cribbing from 1,001 Characters if that supplement is sufficiently compatible with the new Mongoose edition.
3) Make the captain an NPC.
4) Use the module as a springboard for episodic adventures. Examples:
  • "Tonight we're starting out with all of you in the shuttlecraft, scouting out a gas giant as a fuel source. You're six hours from the mothership when you pick up a faint distress beacon."
  • "Shore leave on non-imperial worlds can be interesting. The cops wake you up just in time to board the bus for the prison work camp."
  • "That dodgy cargo you picked up two jumps back turns out to be xenomorph eggs. Roll for initiative, suckers."
5) In between sessions, I'd play out the strategic portions of the game as a solo operation.

20 comments:

  1. i might play traveller again. haven't played in 20 years. Stump and Furbutt could come out of retirement.

    how about a mashup of traveller, gamma world and firefly???

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  2. ligedog5:54 PM

    Mongoose Traveller is pretty slick and seems simple to use (and doesn't seem very different than classic traveller). Have you had a chance to look it over?

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  3. Regarding (5), I've always really liked the Pendragon campaign model, and while it doesn't fit in with every game, it seems it could be a good fit for Traveller. Instead of one adventure a year, as it is in Pendragon, you could play it as one adventure a month, or fortnight. And you can easily switch the household/holdings management of Pendragon out for the starship/trading management of Traveller. I think it could work really well.

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  4. If you like the solo aspect surely one or two of your players will also like it and you can do stuff via email or on a campaign wiki between sessions.

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  5. This sounds like a cool idea and not much different from how I've always played Traveller.

    I can't use the Traveller/Firefly comparisson though as all my players know how much I despise Firefly. Its like Traveller with all the cool sucked out.

    AD
    Barking Alien

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  6. What do you mean no one plays CT any more? I'd say it's still one of the more-played sci-fi/space RPGs out there, even with all the Bitter Non-Gamers. :)

    But Mongoose Trav is a nice game--takes a lot from CT, while cleaning it up a bit.

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  7. Kittent: I already mash together Trav and Gamma World for Encounter Critical. And like BA, I don't really like Firefly.

    Zach: I was just being ornery.

    Have you had a chance to look it over?Just got my copy tonight. So, no.

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  8. Again regarding (5), I think doing this is an awesome idea. Having the DM move things along in the background is a great way to manage a sandbox. It's reminiscent of some of the tables in Oriental Adventures, maybe you should take a look at that some time? :)

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  9. I have to agree on the Pendragon/Traveller combo... as much as I've done with both, I'm highly annoyed I didn't think of it.

    Mongoose Traveller isn't a bad place to start, and a lot of CT material should work with it with only minimal referee effort.

    Hoping that shortly, we'll have enough of the T5 foundation in place and solid to run campaigns without borrowing from other Traveller editions.

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  11. An old 'Camelot 3000' and 'Ulysses 31' fan, I too am amazed it never occured to me but a Pendragon/Traveller game is utter genius!

    Jeff called me BA. I'm touched.;)

    AD
    Barking Alien

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  12. There are some good ideas in Leviathan. But if I was to run it again, I would just use the ship, and put it in some real frontier region. (I would NOT use jump-torpedoes!)

    The ship could then do both exploring (and contact), for the scouts, and trade exploration for a Megacorporation. This could be interesting with one scout officer and one Megacorp EO aboard, when the the two missions eventually will contradict each other.

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  13. Heh, well I was more thinking of borrowing the campaign system of Pendragon, but I can see the benefit of mixing in some of the setting too/instead.

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  14. Settembrini4:30 AM

    I´ve found it way easier to find players when taking the game serious as a sophisticated modelling engine for gaming in complex societies.

    But then I´m Retro-Pretentious, and abhor anything silly in my Trav.

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  15. >But then I´m Retro-Pretentious,
    > and abhor anything silly in
    > my Trav.

    Does that include or exclude Vargr or as we affectionately referred to them -- "pound puppies."

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  16. Hey now, nobody mocks canine aliens on my watch, heheh.

    AD
    Barking Alien

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  17. how about a mashup of traveller, gamma world and firefly???What about Dark Star and Red Dwarf instead of Firefly, with a rule-set from the Kitchen Sink Coalition? Everything is best with "moar lazors!" =P

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  18. Settembrini8:33 AM

    ...@tbit:
    Well, I´m of the opinion that reality is sometimes weirder and more inane than fiction. So I keep the Vargr. They are a great source for high falutin´ socio-political dillemmata. I play them straight, and take them serious.
    If they are a source of humour, it´s usually human racism. The history of the League of Antares is rife with complex & believable conflicts, etc.

    I´ll concede that my ability to rationalize Travellerisms into ultra-serious stuff fails me with K´Kree and Aslan.
    YMMV of course.

    In conclusion:
    Putting the Silly into the Trav is as productive as taking it out of the D&D.

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  19. Anonymous8:38 AM

    Crusty Traveller GM raising his hand in the air, over here in the UK.

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  20. I love CT, and still play as often as I play anything else. Which is to say, extremely rarely. The only thing I ever felt the need to tinker with in CT was to boost training somewhat (and that was at repeated player requests). No need for revised editions. IAC, I started to run Leviathan in two parallel timelines. The players had a character in each. Didn't get off the ground before I moved away, and haven't tried since. But it's on my short list of campaigns to run.

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