Anybody run Beltstrike yet or thinking of running it soon?

[Corvus]

pm sent

Thanks for the comments. I agree with the problems you pointed out, yet I still think Beltstrike is a great adventure. The problematic situation is an optional encounter that can be skipped entirely without affecting the adventure. I intend to do that.

... would it be possible to adapt this adventure to these characters?

Hi Totbung, I'd love to bounce ideas off someone else who has run the adventure. Remember to avoid spoilers in your postings.

Beltstrike is an ideal adventure for beginning players and referees; it eliminates many rules, technologies, conventions, and backstory that would be a significant barrier to new players. The setting is one where even a bunch of asteroid miners in a 1-G ship can make a difference to society. It also has plot hooks to introduce more advanced technologies if you want.

However, this makes it a bad adventure to insert into an existing Traveller campaign, especially one where the players have advanced technology or a jump-capable ship.

... one of them is an aslan, and their ship is able to jump.

This will be a problem in the adventure as written. Alien visitors would cause a crisis in the government and religion of Sonares. A single jump-capable ship would revolutionize the economy and military. The players would have monopoly access to billions of customers eager for high-tech goods; the job offered in the adventure is insignificant in comparison.

If you were to use Beltstrike in an existing campaign you will either have to advance the Sonarean technology and economy, or reduce the players'. Probably both. The trouble with doing this is that the players will have a comparatively lesser impact on society. In the adventure as written, a corporation with a 400-ton subsidized merchant is a big deal, and the crew of such a ship will be important and influential. In the Official Traveller Universe they would be pretty insignificant.

Now there's nothing wrong with making the players insignificant, but if they already have a jump-capable trader they may just pass Sonares by as not worth their effort. If you made their existing ship unavailable somehow, the players may just get resentful.

Another alternative is to expand the scope of the adventure; instead of a single ship travelling in-system between orbiting habitats, make the adventure across multiple star systems with competing governments. Doing this would require major rewriting of the adventure.

 

[Totbung]

Thank you both for your answers.

I'll keep in mind your remarks. I really like beltstrike adventure, but since I read it, I was thinking my characters maybe wouldn't suit to this without adaptation. And adaptation means to have integrated the rules before, I think. I think I'll make some scenarii on my own, to get used with the rules.

However, if you plan to discuss about beltstrike, may I participate to the discussion please ? I'd like to help and to discover how other people do their game mastering

Have a nice day, thanks in advance.

Totbung

 

[IanBruntlett]

However, if you plan to discuss about beltstrike, may I participate to the discussion please ? I'd like to help and to discover how other people do their game mastering

Here are my personal GMing guidelines
* Keep it simple
* Know your stuff
* Have fun
* Prior Planning Prevents Particularly Poor Performance

 

[Emperor Herdan]

However, if you plan to discuss about beltstrike, may I participate to the discussion please ? I'd like to help and to discover how other people do their game mastering

Here are my personal GMing guidelines
* Keep it simple
* Know your stuff
* Have fun
* Prior Planning Prevents Particularly Poor Performance

Maybe add another point?
* Players will always do something unexpected/not covered

Its okay to wing it until they've moved back on track. Just note it down and keep the flow going.

Sometimes those side excursions give you material for followup adventures / consenquences (smile)

Take care

E. Herdan

 

[Totbung]

Totbung put some notes down : " *Keep it simple
* Know your stuff
* Have fun
* Prior Planning Prevents Particularly Poor Performance
* Players will always do something unexpected/not covered "

Ok, thanks for all

I'll work on my scenario, and try to keep in mind your advices.

 

[Corvus]

If people are interested, I can give examples of "how other people do their game mastering" from my Beltstrike campaign.

My campaign is taking place in the Official Traveller Universe but not in the Third Imperium, so I had to override a few character generation rules. For example there are no Marines or Scouts, no psionics, no jump drive, gravitics and spacecraft are rare and expensive. I should also have prepared a modified mustering out table before the session.

Humans are the only intelligent lifeform the Sonareans know of, they also know that humans are genetically different from the native wildlife. They can detect no obviously artificial transmissions from space.

The Sonares religion says that humans are a special creation, that they are descendents of the Gods and masters of all existence. This attitude has promoted some environmental damage and overpopulation.

As the Sonarans expanded into space, they discovered strangely-shaped objects, perhaps artificial, made of some indestructable material. Their religion cites this as evidence of the Gods. Other scholars wonder if they are perhaps natural, or evidence of prehistoric civilizations. Player characters have seen these things in museums.

 

[Totbung]

Your presentation is clear I definitely think my player characters won't suit to Beltstrike, but, if someday, I begin a new campaign, I'll re-read this topic

Would it be possible to have your mustering-out benefit table please ? Thank you in advance !

 

[Corvus]

Would it be possible to have your mustering-out benefit table please?

I just used the one from the adventure, but replace ship shares with Cr10000. Ships are rare in my campaign, and wouldn't fit in the adventure as written.

I made sure the players created their characters together and that their characters knew each other, to avoid suspicion and conflict. The players are all employees of LFC, I made several LFC employees be allies of the players, and LFC competitors be rivals or enemies.

This gives the party a goal and a reason for cooperating. It also provides an authority figure who can reward them and keep them under control.

 

[BP]

...It also provides an authority figure who can reward them and keep them under control.

We call them Referees in MTU

 

[Totbung]

Thank you for your explanations. It should help me

Role playing game is difficult as referees have to make an equilibirum between imagination of the players and keep them in line...

Once, I lost control, and it isn't a pleasant memory. That's why I'm questionning myself to be a better referee. Thank you for your advices

 

[Corvus]

I try to avoid being an adversary to the players, you want them to cooperate with you. To that end, I make NPC the adversaries and authorities to the player characters.

One piece of advice I have is to try to give the players what they want. I don't mean to hand out free rewards, but to find what the players are interested in and put that in the adventure.

For example, one of my players is a pilot and another is a doctor. There isn't a lot of need for either in the adventure, so I added stuff. The pilot plotted the orbital trajectory of the asteroid the Factory was on, and discovered it will eventually collide with another asteroid in a few years. He can work on plans to move or tow the Factory or the asteroid.

I also modified one of the Factory Secrets in the adventure for the doctor to work on.

 

[Totbung]

They weren't my ennemies, but, they like to make jokes about almost everything. When there is only one, it's ok, but, when they are three, entertaining each other, it's very difficult to keep under control.

Thanks for your advice, I should keep in mind that, to keep people focused, it's better for them to have a goal

 

[ScottyG]

I ran the first section of beltstrike recently, the group had a detached duty scout courier which broke down whilst passing through the system. (I set the adventure in the Bowman Belt of Five Sisters spinward & changed the system UPP to suit the adventure).

There was going to be a wait to order parts via the monthly haulage transports which come from outsystem, therefore the pc's were available for work and were approached by rep's from the company for their technical expertise & zero g experience ( the group consisted of 3 scouts and an ex marine all with useful tech and space skills).

The only gripe from 1 player was that after the pirates there wasn't any combat (he was playing 'dead space'on xbox 360 and I think it coloured his expectations).

Unfortunately the group then became intent on getting out of the system before the next section of the adventure, but players can be like that. The offer of a retainer was insufficient to make them stay. I think my players prefer brief encounters rather than protracted storylines.

 

[Corvus]

Welcome aboard, ScottyG. I remarked earlier that Beltstrike is more suited to starting players than an established group, especially one with a ship.

My players are natives of the system, and don't own a ship. They are using a modified 200 dton Free Trader, not the 400 dton Subsidised Merchant described in the adventure. The Subsidised Merchant is the LFC flagship and a poor choice for the adventure; it's expensive to run, with unneeded atmospheric streamlining, cargo and passenger space. The deck plans are simply copied from the main rulebook and even show a Jump drive, which is anachronistic to the setting. Mongoose should have used this space to describe a setting-specific TL9 mining craft.

The adventure has lots of background and plot hooks. A minor mention of stimulant drugs in the adventure is turning into a major plot development in my campaign.

Let us know of any ideas or insights you have about the adventure. It is interesting that your players' favorite encounter with the pirates is one that I didn't even use.

 

[Claybor]

I have yet to start up my mgt game, but I have been considering using this as my starting point with the characters being from Sonara and having no clue as to the existance of the imperium yet. This isn't exactly the type of game I planned on starting off with, but so far it's what I have to work with. I don't have much time to create or convert anything myself right now, and the only other adventures I have are the ones from S&P, and none of those realy peaked my interest.

 

[Corvus]

Welcome aboard Claybor, feel free to ask any questions and let us know how your campaign goes. I've mentioned before that I think Beltstrike is an ideal adventure for beginning players.

If you are going to run a campaign I advise you to run through the entire adventure once yourself; making characters, running encounters, and trying to think up multiple possible ways of dealing with each encounter.

When you run the campaign have NPC contacts, patrons, or allies who can guide the players. Make use of the ideas from your run-through, but do not allow NPCs to run the game. Beltstrike is more convenient than most Traveller adventures in that players can contact their patrons via long-distance communication if necessary.

A common problem with beginning referees and players is an attempt to "win" the game by rushing to the last encounter as quickly as possible. Doing this robs everyone of ideas and interactions, and can leave the characters unprepared for the final encounter. Most of the adventure seeds you will get during a campaign will come from your players.

 

[Joshgenti]

Hi,

Saw this forum & thought I might add my 2 cents to the conversation.

I picked up Belt Strike from the Mongoose booth at GenCon this year. And I must say, I love it. I'm running it for a group of players new to Traveller. And it's my first time running a campaign for the new Mongoose Traveller system. (I've ran a couple one shots but that's it) And I wanted to say, I think it's a perfect game for a new group of players. It provides a very rich setting that you can immediately get your players into and provides a host of well done NPCs to use. And handles ship issues, etc... by having a patron capable of handling those issues.

So far my players have enjoyed it immensely. The story has really drawn them in. They absolutely love the intrigue & suspense as the plot has built up. We went a little off the plot line, my players LOVE investigating, so they ran into some plot points a little early... But the adventure's well written and I've been able to handle it without a problem.

Also, I must say, the ability to expand the length of the campaign with side adventures is very nice. There are lots of opening for further investigation where someone running the game has a lot of easy creative outlets, without having to worry about seriously altering the main plot line. I very much enjoy that. Also, there are some mini-adventures in it that you can strip out if you want to run something shorter. So it's very flexible regarding length.

The only critiques I have of the adventure are the following:

1) Timeline is a little confusing regarding the "Factory". I had to make some stuff up to make it seem more plausible. Not sure if that was me just mis-reading something or not understanding or what.

2) A little more mention of rules related to combat in zero-g vacuum. The Traveller rule book isn't 100% clear about that & the (optional) encounter early in the story can be confusing for a new GM.

Also, this is not so much a critque really, but I wish there was more. More NPCs, particularly as potential contacts & allies. More setting info. More extra side adventure options. More stuff. But for what the book needed to be, a small adventure in one paper back book, it is very very good.

-Joshgenti

p.s. If there's a forum spot for referee's to talk about this stuff without worrying about spoilers, I'd be fine posting updates about my game. I'm new to the forums so I'm not sure if that's something appropriate to do or not.

 

[AndrewW]

p.s. If there's a forum spot for referee's to talk about this stuff without worrying about spoilers, I'd be fine posting updates about my game. I'm new to the forums so I'm not sure if that's something appropriate to do or not.

There isn't a separate section. Feel free to talk about the stuff in here.

 

[Chernobyl]

Note that the asteroid belt is called the Schaeffer Belt in the campaign - a direct nod to Larry Niven's Beowulf Schaeffer.

There's more than that in that mod that refernces Niven...which I found pretty cool.

We are nearly finished with Beltstrike in our group.

The mod itself I found fairly disappointing. If every one of your characters doesn't have Zero G and Vac Suit to begin, you're in trouble. Most people had Vac Suit but not all had Zero G, and depended on Jack of All trades to make a lot of the tests on the platform. The resolution table for the second stint aboard the mining platform seemed very illogical (failing a skill check potentially earns a skill improvement!) and there are plot points that are so telegraphed its rather sad. The "Company Town" setting made parts feel rather railroaded.
My PC as a merchant had very few skills to contribute to this mod, with a couple exceptions. I'd have like to seen more options where a wider variety of character types could have contributed.

The overall plot was pretty good. But it seems like you need a party geared for the scenario - your average collection of travellers could come up very short in some places by not having certain skills.

And, my personal reference is for hex-basex maps in sci-fi settings, not the D&D square grid. But that's a gripe against this incarnation of traveller, not Beltstrike. I applaud the extensive maps provided for the station and ships. The ship salvage rules need work though.

After we finish this mod our DM is going to start freelancing us, so we'll see what happens from there.

Chern