Harry Harrison's Deathworld trilogy, Frank Herbert's Dune series and many of the most successful episodes of Star Trek owe part of their appeal to a common factor aside from well-created characters and plotline. Each work shares a common premise: the heroes (Jason dinAlt, Paul Muad'dib and Kirk/Spock/Bones et al., respectively) are thrust into an unepxected situation completely new and alien to them, a situation which must be understood before it can be changed, or at least escaped. The protagonists enter these situations through little or no choice of their own: they are not asked to become involved , they are not paid for their services, and their major reward at the end of their endeavors is that they regain power over their own destiny. As the characters interact with the environment, and begin to recognize the nature of the challenge to face, the reader/viewer also learns the same facts, and can make his/her own guesses about the proper course to be taken. This formula makes for gripping and exhilarating science fiction adventure.
-from Lee's Guide to Interstellar Adventure, by Gregory Lee, published by Gamelord, Ltd. back in '83. Bolding mine. Lee's Guide is a great little book of ten worlds full of Traveller adventure. Each world is given a UPP range like this:
Port X-E Atmo 0-3 Pop 0 LL 0
Size Any Hyd 0-2 Gov 0 TL Any
So you can drop any of these planets into your own campaign. Each world is given one or more possible locations in both the Spinward Marches and Solomani Rim. Very useful stuff. You can get a cheap copy of this book and several other Gamelords classics from ol' Tadashi at his Different Worlds pages. Linky.
Gamelords Traveller? Awesome stuff by the Keith Brothers, Traveller masters in their own right.
ReplyDeleteGDW and FASA couldn't handle printing everything they produced (they wrote under several aliases so that the issues of JTAS didn't look like just their articles), so Gamelords was their attempt to put out their own stuff.
Their material defines "classic" Traveller. The game and the setting are far worse off for their absence.
Give me Paul Montgomery Crabaugh's game mechanics articles, and the Keith Brothers setting material, and you really don't need anything else.
Wow, that is a great concept for structureing adventure hooks. Though it could lead to railroading if not done right. Also character frustration if they feel powerless and like they are not getting anywhere. But other than that, it could help make a session or two exciting. When you use the organic campaign plotting idea that actions have consequnces I think this works quite well.
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