Adventures during character creation

[DanDare2050]

I found using the Mongoose 2e character development that each term became something like a mini adventure when dealing with the events and character connections. It occurred to me that character development could be a vehicle for more developed adventures.

Has anyone actually had adventures for their players while they are going through a term of service? If so what are the tricks and traps?

 

[-Daniel-]

I found using the Mongoose 2e character development that each term became something like a mini adventure when dealing with the events and character connections. It occurred to me that character development could be a vehicle for more developed adventures.

Has anyone actually had adventures for their players while they are going through a term of service? If so what are the tricks and traps?

Just a suggestion, if you are going to try this, make sure the players all agree on the number of terms they all will do. If one character stops at two terms and the other goes on for six, the two really shouldn't interact until the last two of the older character. This is why I often wait until the end to have the connections worked out so they make sense from a time line sense. :mrgreen:

 

[Reynard]

Think about what it means to run a term of adventures. That's four years of Traveller adventuring. Everybody better be in the same career path and the same place as some sort of team. The first term would be four years of basic training learning those zero level skills. The referee could use the survival advancement and events tables to create adventure ideas.

 

[-Daniel-]

Think about what it means to run a term of adventures.

Hum, what if the adventure were not the whole term but rather one event from their term?

I do agree that this would only work if the characters were alive and out in the world at the same time and at least in closely related careers.

 

[Condottiere]

Every night in my dreams
I see you, I feel you,
That is how I know you go on
Far across the distance
And spaces between us
You have come to show you go on
Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that the heart does go on
Once more you open the door
And you're here in my heart
And my heart will go on and on

 

[Reynard]

So.... did he make or fail his term survival roll?

 

[Hopeless]

Okay someone's over reacted! :twisted:
All he said was that he got his new laser sword and the jerk he told tried to ram him with a military grade destroyer... and missed!!! :shock:

Tour description: Earned a new skill (Melee/Laser Sword 1) narrowly avoided being run down by a crashing super battleship... but have a new cool weapon!!! :lol:

 

[hivemindx]

I think it is useful to do some role playing for connections if it seems appropriate. I wouldn't class this as running an adventure. It might not even require any dice rolling. Just ask the two players concerned to describe what the connection represents and you can add your own embellishments and ask them for more details. For example:-

A marine is injured and wants to make a connection to someone in the Scout career. The marine is asked how he happened and he says he was beaten by insurgents. You tell him that he was drinking in an off base bar on a world with a weapons ban and he got grabbed up by some locals (who flout the ban but only to the extent of some knives and pipes). The players decide that the marine was drinking in a bar got jumped when he went to the toilet. The scout realises that the marine was followed in and grabs a steak knife off the table and goes in too. He finds the marine badly beaten but the two of them manage to persuade the thugs that they should leave now rather than risk getting stabbed and/or arrested by the locals and/or rendered to an Imperial Navy black site.

I think you should avoid anything more complicated than that because you don't want to drag out character generation too long and you don't want the adventure to lead things in a way that the character generation rolls indicate.

 

[DanDare2050]

Think about what it means to run a term of adventures.

Hum, what if the adventure were not the whole term but rather one event from their term?

I do agree that this would only work if the characters were alive and out in the world at the same time and at least in closely related careers.

That's what I was thinking.
My players all started at the same time and we almost, in a short hand way, played out the term events and particularly the connections. While doing that it added material to the campaign (here's the write up of the session).
I'm thinking it might be possible to have mini events played out for a couple of minutes. And if all the players are together then a more full adventure, putting character dev on pause.

 

[DanDare2050]

I think it is useful to do some role playing for connections if it seems appropriate. I wouldn't class this as running an adventure. It might not even require any dice rolling. Just ask the two players concerned to describe what the connection represents and you can add your own embellishments and ask them for more details. For example:-

A marine is injured and wants to make a connection to someone in the Scout career. The marine is asked how he happened and he says he was beaten by insurgents. You tell him that he was drinking in an off base bar on a world with a weapons ban and he got grabbed up by some locals (who flout the ban but only to the extent of some knives and pipes). The players decide that the marine was drinking in a bar got jumped when he went to the toilet. The scout realises that the marine was followed in and grabs a steak knife off the table and goes in too. He finds the marine badly beaten but the two of them manage to persuade the thugs that they should leave now rather than risk getting stabbed and/or arrested by the locals and/or rendered to an Imperial Navy black site.

I think you should avoid anything more complicated than that because you don't want to drag out character generation too long and you don't want the adventure to lead things in a way that the character generation rolls indicate.

I really wish this forum had a like button.

You could have very light role play like that. Imagine the thugs try it on for a bit (but their morale is low) so you play a round of combat. If the marines are on the losing side they can flee, otherwise the thugs surrender or flee. The two outcomes produce different flavour. Or at the start an intimidation check would be warranted to see if the thugs just slink off.

I think these mini adventures could involve some discussion and potentially one encounter. Can that encounter change the PCs development path? I'll have to think about that. My gut says yes.

 

[Solomani666]

Yes.
I often do it as flashbacks.
I also do this if in the middle of a campaign and only 1 person can play.

 

[DanDare2050]

I have been running an experiment to use character development as a process to flesh out worlds. I am putting the results out at RPG Geek.

For player characters I'm going to experiment with creating event choices where the player can trade off outcomes and maybe take a risk.

 

[DanDare2050]

I've added in my faction system to the NPC development experiment. It broadens the scope of what to do with the narrative side of the events. Interestingly its also generated additional NPCs. I have a contact and an enemy but now there is also a new terrorist leader coming out of the events generated. Also the factions have progressed and the main characters have developed factional relationships.

 

[FreeTrav]

@DanDare2050 - Would you please be so kind as to write up your 'faction system' as a potential article for Freelance Traveller (Doing It My Way section)?

 

[DanDare2050]

@DanDare2050 - Would you please be so kind as to write up your 'faction system' as a potential article for Freelance Traveller (Doing It My Way section)?

Hi Free Trav. I have just started a series of articles, Low Prep Traveller Factions, on my own Strange Flight Blog. However I would be happy to write an overview with links to my articles at Freelance if that's allowable. A nice resource by the way, thanks for the link.

Just had a browse through some GM tips, notably the one on Campaign Star Maps. Interestingly the gist of my articles at Strange Flight has been about developing Low Prep, Rich Content, Roll Your Own Traveller Campaigns. I was going to write a "pulling this all together" article for Strange Flight but I wouldn't mind doing that for Freelance instead.