Best published OTU Traveller scenario or campaign you have run?

[harunmushod]

What is the best Traveller scenario or campaign you have run in the official Traveller universe (OTU)?

Include: any version of Traveller; any adventure you have easily adapted to OTU and successfully run.

Don't include: adventure seeds (e.g. Amber Zones or Parron Encounters); Traveller or CE material in different settings that you haven't adapted and run in the OTU.

For context I'm going to be running my first Traveller campaign for over 10 years and fiveish editions later in MGT2 (last one was MegaTraveller) and am looking for a library of good published stuff to run. Most of the players have played Traveller before but will happily play good adventures intended for beginners.

I will return the favour and publish a list of the most recommended scenarios and campaigns recommended here and on other forums.

Thanks.

 

[ottarrus]

I have two...
The Traveller Adventure campaign [we got about halfway through before the group broke up]
Beltstrike [the Bowman Belt box set]

 

[NOLATrav]

Nomads of the World Ocean. Would love to see Mongoose update this one.

 

[Varulv]

Last Flight of the Amuar. It takes the players through a number of isolated star systems. A mini campaign in itself.

Reach Adventure 4: Last Flight of the Amuar

Reach Adventure 4: Last Flight of the Amuar

www.mongoosepublishing.com

 

[collins355]

Easy, Lords of Thunder from MTJ #4

 

[TrippyHippy]

Pirates of Drinax, as a whole.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Best scenario?
Death Station
Best campaign?
Twilight's Peak (the original and still the best)

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Second Twilight's Peak.

Loose format campaign where story chunks and side missions can easily be run whenever you want in what order you want. No railroading required.

 

[Condottiere]

Played?

Amber to Red.

 

[ottarrus]

Second Twilight's Peak.

Loose format campaign where story chunks and side missions can easily be run whenever you want in what order you want. No railroading required.

The problem with Mongoose's Ancients Redux campaign is that the players end up ENTIRELY too over-the-top powerful.
With the Mystery of the Ancients solves, the PCs augmented to a fare-thee-well, and in control of extensive Ancient technologies, we have reached the Traveller version of KotDT 'Gawdsawfulness'.

 

[ottarrus]

Nomads of the World Ocean. Would love to see Mongoose update this one.

In Mongoose's Solomani Rim materials, they refer to the adventure a lot...
And with the release of the Vehicles Handbook and the World Builders Handbook, scraping the rust off of it shouldn't be too hard.

 

[NOLATrav]

In Mongoose's Solomani Rim materials, they refer to the adventure a lot...
And with the release of the Vehicles Handbook and the World Builders Handbook, scraping the rust off of it shouldn't be too hard.

I’ve looked at doing it for a little while but my group is wrapped up in other things at the moment. But a professional release for 2e would be grand.

 

[MongooseMatt]

I’ve looked at doing it for a little while but my group is wrapped up in other things at the moment. But a professional release for 2e would be grand.

It is on the List of Things to Do, as we like it a lot as well. However, we are thinking a re-imagining rather than straight conversion is the way to go.

Give us a little time on this one, it will happen

 

[harunmushod]

It is on the List of Things to Do, as we like it a lot as well. However, we are thinking a re-imagining rather than straight conversion is the way to go.

Give us a little time on this one, it will happen

A re-imagining would be welcome. I've never played Nomads of the World Ocean but I didn't like it when read through it. The worldbuilding is great but the adventure itself seems railroady. Much preferred the other Keith brothers' sea-based adventure, The Drenslaar Quest and the accompanying rule book The Underwater Environment, both from Gamelords for CT and available on one of the FFE CDs.

Perhaps a revision and re-imagining of all three? Or one book giving rules for all four environments (the others being mountain, desert and arctic) covered by the Keith brothers and another adventure book revising or reimagining the accompanying adventures?

 

[ottarrus]

A re-imagining would be welcome. I've never played Nomads of the World Ocean but I didn't like it when read through it. The worldbuilding is great but the adventure itself seems railroady. Much preferred the other Keith brother's sea-based adventure, The Drenslaar Quest and the accompanying rule book The Underwater Environment, both from Gamelords for CT and available on one of the FFE CDs.

Perhaps a revision and re-imagining of all three? Or one book giving rules for all four environments (the others being mountain, desert and arctic) covered by the Keith brothers and another adventure book revising or reimagining the accompanying adventures?

There are several early 'Approved for Use With' Traveller authors that 'are official canon until proven otherwise - and even then I might argue about it'
John Ford and the Keith Brothers sit at the top of that very short list. But then, that's the great thing about Traveller... Each era of its development has generated some excellent content by talented visionaries. More so, I think, than most other games.

 

[NOLATrav]

Give us a little time on this one, it will happen

Excellent, that is great news. Thank you, Matt!

 

[Farqs]

I don't even want to think how long ago we played the Legend of the Sky Raiders; it was great fun but I can see that it will benefit from a bit of sprucing up. Otherwise hard to see you would go badly wrong with The Traveller Adventure or Beltstrike especially as a start up. A.

 

[harunmushod]

Best OTU Traveller scenario or campaign

This is on the basis of 34 posts between 2014 and 2024 asking for best or favourite scenario, campaign or starter scenario, on facebook, reddit, rpggeek, rpg.net forum, mongoose forum and citizens of the imperium.

I'll be the first to admit the poll is far from accurate. In particular, it discrimates against recently published scenarios. All of the top 10 were first published in some form before the earliest of the polls (that is, before 2014). I did at least try to identify people who recommended the same thing in more than one forum but that all depends on them having the same user name, so there might still be some double counting.

But, hopefully still a useful list.

1. Twilight's Peak 25
2. The Traveller Adventure 24
4= High and Dry 15
4= Shadows 15
6= Death Station 14
6= Sky Raiders trilogy 14
7. Pirates of Drinax 13
9= Annic Nova 11
9= The Chamax Plague 11
10. Murder/Mysteries on Arcturus Station 9

Special mention to The Lords of Thunder as the highest scoring magazine scenario (4 votes, MegaTraveller Journal #4)

Link to the main spreadsheet: https://1drv.ms/x/s!AiAcP3zPiMjzgoZYQUiA6wWPMcuh4A

 

[Saladman]

I'm of fond of two that play well, but possibly get downgraded for having either a thin premise or railroaded opening. Divine Intervention is a really good heist/breaking and entering adventure in play. The premise is a little thin (are you sure a corrupt theocrat living on a floating city powered by offworld tech is going to fall for a holographic projector?), but it's also the easiest thing in the world to change (say, planting or picking up a recording device). Then, Across the Bright Face is a good hexcrawl on the vac suit, screwdriver and laser drill end of science fiction. But the opening is either an in media res start or a straight up railroad depending on how much you play it out, so it's best as a one shot or a campaign opener before players get a ship, harder to fit in to an ongoing campaign.

Now a heresy - I always thought Annic Nova gets overrated. The prize, the ship, is only really cool if the players not the PCs know why it's different and cool, and that comes better from having played Traveller for a while than just from being told. And the structure of the adventure is slow burn at best, it's exploratory-mystery-building suspenseful music but without any jump scare. I'd rather fold it in to a campaign that otherwise has some combat, some excitement, and some more roleplaying with NPCs than have it set the tone for a game. If people report they enjoyed it more than I did I believe them, but as a recommendation I think it should come with an asterisk behind it - save it for around after the midpoint of a campaign, or for a party of veteran players.

 

[harunmushod]

I'm of fond of two that play well, but possibly get downgraded for having either a thin premise or railroaded opening. Divine Intervention is a really good heist/breaking and entering adventure in play. The premise is a little thin (are you sure a corrupt theocrat living on a floating city powered by offworld tech is going to fall for a holographic projector?), but it's also the easiest thing in the world to change (say, planting or picking up a recording device). Then, Across the Bright Face is a good hexcrawl on the vac suit, screwdriver and laser drill end of science fiction. But the opening is either an in media res start or a straight up railroad depending on how much you play it out, so it's best as a one shot or a campaign opener before players get a ship, harder to fit in to an ongoing campaign.

Now a heresy - I always thought Annic Nova gets overrated. The prize, the ship, is only really cool if the players not the PCs know why it's different and cool, and that comes better from having played Traveller for a while than just from being told. And the structure of the adventure is slow burn at best, it's exploratory-mystery-building suspenseful music but without any jump scare. I'd rather fold it in to a campaign that otherwise has some combat, some excitement, and some more roleplaying with NPCs than have it set the tone for a game. If people report they enjoyed it more than I did I believe them, but as a recommendation I think it should come with an asterisk behind it - save it for around after the midpoint of a campaign, or for a party of veteran players.

Across the Bright Face just missed the cut with 8 votes. Divine Intervention only got three votes but it's one I'm fond of too, and one that was updated by Mongoose in JTAS #8.