Best CT Adventure?

[Xoph]

After some trial and tribulations most likely involving boarder guards, I finally go my complete CT collection. Now with about 1 or 2 days to prepare I have to get one of the adventures ready for my players.

System: Mongoose Traveller

Universe: OTU

MGT Resources:
Core Book
Spinward Marches
760 Patrons

CT Resources:
Everything in Marc Miller's complete CT CD-ROM

Set up: Players just finished The Rescue and are on their way to a Used Shipyard to purchase their ship. Their fop convinced the leader of the moon in The Rescue to give them a reward, which is 10% discount at the shipyard. I want to turn this into there first adventure hook.

Characters: a Count (admin type- basically the leader), a Baron (fop turned artist), Female ex Space Marine (in full Battle Dress), Doctor, ex Navy Pilot, ex scout/ex Navy Engineer.

Needs: Social stuff... two nobles. Starship stuff. Fun stuff. I don't want to take away their ship or Air raft for the plot. one player already suggested I'd do that and I think that would be lame.

The Question is which CT adventure should I use?

 

[Golan2072]

A3: Twilight's Peak is an option, as it is essentially a treasure hunt across the Marches. Just play up on the information/rumor gathering (which the nobles could do in respected libraries and even more respected tea-parties with their peers) and enjoy the worlds they visit. You might even use it as a frame work and add additional adventures on the way as they visit worlds. The main downside is that large parts of this adventure are just a framework meaning that you'll have quite a lot of blanks to fill.

DA5 - Horde and Chamax Plague is probably the best CT adventure hands down, but is an exploration/horror (Chamax) and military (Horde) adventure rather than the social stuff you're looking for. Chamax is like Aliens while Horde is like Starship Troopers.

 

[Ommadawn]

I concur with Golan2072 with regards to Chamax Plague, if you want to inject a bit of horror and mayhem into the game (and give your marine with the battledress something to shoot at )

I really like the Kinunir too (it was the first traveller scenario I played back in 1982). It can be run any number of ways and give's the characters a lot of freedom on what and how they want to do which let's you cater to whatever style of play they want.

 

[EDG]

I'll point this out about the LBB Adventure books:

If you want a brief concept outline followed by a sequence of discontinuous (possibly random) encounters after which you reach the end, play the ones written by Marc Miller (some people apparently like this sort of thing - I can't stand it myself). A lot of his adventures enforce arbitrary restrictions on the players too for no apparent reason, and they often make assumptions about the actions of the PCs that any sane PC would never do. Special mention goes to Secrets of the Ancients, which is pretty much one big spectatorial railroad.

If you want an adventure with an actual plot and story to it and a continuous sequence of events, the ones that aren't written by Marc Miller are better by far (e.g. the Chamax/Horde).

 

[cbrunish]

Twilights Peak!!! Hands down. And ignore EDGE, I think he complains about anything. I'm suprised he even plays the game.

 

[Chronus]

I gotta agree that Twilight's Peak is one of best. GM it as a background story ... as the players pick up clues on the various worlds, have them run into other adventures/scenarios.

Horde is also great and better, IMOHO, than Chamax. Chamax seems too much like a one or two encounter scenario. Horde is conveniently broken down into eight (or is it ten?) encounters, each with a clear goal to accomplish.

I'm not big on the "ship adventures", such as Kinunir or Broadsword, but for some reason Leviathan has a spot in my heart. The deck plan is just so cool looking with all those big bays and backup systems, but I think it's that exploration feel that appeals to me.

 

[Supergamera]

A lot of the CT adventures had interesting plots and backstories, but often had little way of relaying information to the characters other than railroading. Trying to make sense of "The Argon Gambit" when I was 10 was more than a little difficult, but maybe it would be better now.

That said, "Nomads of the World Ocean" was the first adventure I ever bought, and still holds up; it could probably be translated to other, similar water worlds. Divine Intervention / Night of Conquest also has some interesting ideas, although they adventures probably wouldn't work for your current party status. "Murder at Arcturus Station" could also be fun, although I haven't looked at it in a long time.

 

[Klaus Kipling]

Actually, do listen. EDG is talking mucho senso.

 

[EDG]

Twilights Peak!!! Hands down. And ignore EDGE, I think he complains about anything. I'm suprised he even plays the game.

Again, kindly leave your personal opinions about other posters out of it.

If you don't believe me though, just read the adventures. I went through them in detail on the Avenger boards (here).

Shadows for example is a really idiotic setup. First, your ship takes off after an earthquake but for absolutely no good reason has to check its systems for damage in orbit and not just land at the starport again. From orbit, you detects a pyramid on the surface, and for no good reason you decide to go check it out rather than just phone it in to the starport authorities. And then as you approach the pyramid, you get shot at by a powerful laser and decide (for no apparent reason) to still go ahead and land and then discover that if you take off you're likely to get shot down so you have to shut the laser off before you can do anything else.

The PCs have no reason whatsoever to investigate the pyramid though. They're outbound for Kinorb (presumably on a schedule) and there's other people who are better equipped and more interested on the surface who can go check it out.

Speaking of making stupid decisions, Across The Bright Face is another turkey. It starts with the PCs being employed as bodyguards to some bigwig businessman. While out in the field, he gets assassinated when a worker's revolt starts and the PCs are given an ultimatum - if they come out and bring an attache case that the businessman was carrying then they won't be harmed, and they'd be paid back and escorted to the starport... or they can get shot at and killed. So what do they do? They decide to make a break for it over an entire hemisphere.

That is frankly retarded. Sane hirelings would say "screw this, it's not our problem" (because the workers really aren't interested in them), come out with hands up, hand over the suitcase, and be allowed off world. Instead, we're treated to a dull, endless sequence of random encounters.

Frankly, Twilights Peak is another one that follows the Marc Miller "random encounter" style. There's a core of a plot there (with the Octagon Book and Twilights Peak itself), but no structure to it at all - just a bunch of maps and encounters and the PCs being left to fend for themselves.

 

[Xoph]

Thank you all for your insights!
I never use adventures as they are written either and I NEVER start them the way the module says. :shock: I think I will combine several of these basically grabbing all the best source materials (maps and such), encounters, rumours, et cetera and placing them all within some sort of master plot (as the players allow that is).
The most important things to get from the module is: maps, social groups (groups of characters in a location, with whys and what they wants), Encounters, and a master plot that uses some of the former, in that order.
I will definitely look at “Twilight Peak”, “Horde”, and “Chamax”. Maybe they’ll go on the Twilight Horde Adventure. :wink: I’m still intrigued by “The Traveller Adventure” and want to take the best materials from any other. Does anyone know which CT Adventures have the best encounters and maps for things like towns, asteroids, space stations, or whatever?

 

[Supergamera]

"The Traveller Adventure" is great, but is pretty firmly locked into the basic premise, a 400t Subsidized Merchant. While you might be able to make it work with a Free Trader, any other ship could require significant adjustment and/or railroading.

In fact, most CT adventures tend to be based on a particular ship status, whether it be a Free/Far Trader, Scout/Courier, Special Ship (Leviathan, Broadsword, Safari Ship), or having no ship at all, and taking jobs for off-world passage.

 

[Xoph]

Why does it matter which ship they are flying? Why can't you just bring anything else along?
Even in the safari ship Module couldn't you just use any other ship in its place. The ships aren't that different anything one does the players could do with another. They can just buy cages for their Fat Trader or Corsair to do the Safari thing.

 

[collins355]

Personally I find the FASA adventures to be the best thought-out and written e.g. Legend of the Sky Raiders. Also GDW's Alien Realms.

 

[AKAramis]

"The Traveller Adventure" is great, but is pretty firmly locked into the basic premise, a 400t Subsidized Merchant. While you might be able to make it work with a Free Trader, any other ship could require significant adjustment and/or railroading.

In fact, most CT adventures tend to be based on a particular ship status, whether it be a Free/Far Trader, Scout/Courier, Special Ship (Leviathan, Broadsword, Safari Ship), or having no ship at all, and taking jobs for off-world passage.

Last time I ran The Traveller Adventure, my players were in a type A, by choice, and eventually wound up in 3 type R's and a Close Escort... Which made for some interesting diversions.

So long as it's a routed freighter, by virtue of loan or contract, it's workable. A type A will usually fill once they have enough capital aboard, with spec, and make enough to make payments. A type R, under bk 2, won't... but usually will fill with freight.

Under Bk5, either will fill most hops with spec. Same with MT, TNE, T4. It may not make a whole lot of money at it.

T20, both will fill consistently with spec.

MGT, both should be able to fill with spec.

Tying them to the route, however, is the majority of the plot-rail... and so long as you do that, you have the first third tied up.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Give them a mail contract that ties them to a Postal District if you can't tie them with a freight/subsidy.

 

[Xoph]

They would give their back teeth for a mail contract. that will work well.

 

[Xoph]

So we played our 2nd Session (3rd if you include Char Gen) starting "The Traveller Adventure". I started with a few changes. I moved Baseru to Aramis and made him my used ship salesman. The players seemed to enjoy “Uncle” Baseru Salvage & Surplus; I made “Uncle” loud, boisterous, and a standard half eastern European and half Vilani having had over 15 wives and a lot of children; one of which he wants to introduce to one the nobles on the crew. Their reward for their heroics was a 10% discount on their ship, but the strings required was to run a cargo mission for “Uncle” Baseru and maybe some other stuff... they haven’t filled out the paperwork yet...

From the many old ships I made and after much debate the crew chose a 70 year old Corsair over a 20 year old Safari Ship (that they loved) and a 30 year old Far Trader (that was cheaper). They didn’t even look at “The March Harrier” even with the demountable tanks.
The players checked out the planet, found the wallet, thought the slidewalks were ridiculous, and used their Noble status (a Baron and a Count in the party) to get into the Marquis’ Party where they found the Post Master of Aramis and got themselves a mail contract that will take them along the Aramis Maze (is that what it is called... I don’t have the docs on me). They also picked up some live animals to top off their hold in speculative trade... I have a feeling a 13 or 14 Soc skill along with Broker 1 or 2 can make you a merchant prince real fast.

A couple of questions:
1. One of the crew is high end Doctor (Ex Imperial Research Doctor specialising in Cybernetics and Biologics: Medic 4, LS:cyber 2, LS bio 2) with a TL 14 med lab to install in the ship and I let her make a deal to do surgical cosmetic enhancements on a noble who they met at the party. How would you guys deal with selling this service? (I was thinking of using the price barter service on the Augmentation prices)What about the price of the Med Lab? (I was thinking of doubling the TL14 Med kit price)

2. One Noble is talking about trying to open a casino on board the ship... Any idea how you would handle this? Would it even make sense? Maybe I can find a patron who would want to do this and needed a location off planet.

3.Next session they will be all about leaving on their ship and running into the Vargr. I am thinking of having Vargr captured right away leaving the character with the ornament and lots of questions. Would this screw anything up?

 

[Klaus Kipling]

1. One of the crew is high end Doctor (Ex Imperial Research Doctor specialising in Cybernetics and Biologics: Medic 4, LS:cyber 2, LS bio 2) with a TL 14 med lab to install in the ship and I let her make a deal to do surgical cosmetic enhancements on a noble who they met at the party. How would you guys deal with selling this service? (I was thinking of using the price barter service on the Augmentation prices)What about the price of the Med Lab? (I was thinking of doubling the TL14 Med kit price)

If they were surgical cosmetic enhancements, even up to TL11 or 12, I'd say they should be pretty cheap compared to augments. If they were in the form of genetic therapy or some kind of 'nanonic' rebuild, then they'd probably be equivalent in price.

As for the medlab, at least a whole stateroom. The T20 medbay was 8 dTons, but I can't remember the price offhand. I'd say it would be more than double the price of a medkit, and should include an autodoc at a minimum

A fully equipped surgery could be 10x or more of an equivalent TL medkit.

2. One Noble is talking about trying to open a casino on board the ship... Any idea how you would handle this? Would it even make sense? Maybe I can find a patron who would want to do this and needed a location off planet.

Certainly make sense. An "off-shore" casino could be quite lucrative beyond 100 diameters of a high law level world.

It'd need staff, tho. 2 croupiers as minumum per 'table', waiting staff, and security, and maybe other 'entertainment' . Also need a banker (who is trusted) and lots of seed cash.

I'd recommend gunners and maybe paid escort, as a casino ship is going to be a juicy target for pirates. Pretty sure organised crime would be very interested too.

Not sure even a corsair is big enough to run a casino. A few closed games for select high rolling gamblers, maybe, but your PCs do have the connections for that.

That would make a good subject for an adventure. A liner sized traveling casino and resort and all the attendant plot hooks. (Check out the Satan/Sin City Judge Dredd story).