Death Station as a starter set.

[Sigtrygg]

The after play report for the Pioneer scenario got me thinking, what if the Death Station adventure were expanded to a full starter set...

Take the adventure and offer options for each act - options for the hiring, options for the journey to the Death Station, options for the threat faced at the station, options for follow up adventures.

Lots of maps, a set of quick play rules, pre-generated characters, a condensed quick character generation system, equipment/weapons and armour cards, NPC and "monsters" cards...

I recently got the new D&D Borderlands starter set which is aimed right at me for nostalgic purposes, and it made me wonder what a Traveller version could look like

 

[Sigtrygg]

So the first thing to answer - why do I keep harping on about Death Station?

I consider it to be the very best of the double adventures to use as an introductory scenario or even a convention game.

Shadows? Too boring for words... Annic Nova? Similar to Death Station but fundamentally similar to Shadows, it is a boring dungeon crawl. Exit Visa? There is a special room and jacket for anyone who considers Exit Visa or any of the three (four) identical themed adventures as worthy.

Death Station offers the chance to illustrate many of the typical events Travellers face.

1. The hiring - how to get patronage, it could be through contacts that you get recommended to take part in the mission, you may be a member of the ship that is tasked with the investigation, you could be an agent sent to find out what is going on, an engineer, a scientist, a red shirt...
skip over this part for a convention or if you just want to get on with it
2. Outfitting the expedition - players love equipment, give them some time to stock up on items for the mission (equipment cards cough cough)...
skip this part and use a pre-defined equipment list if you want to get on with it
3. Journey to the lab ship - is this going to be a few hours through normal space or do you want to have the lab ship in a distant part of the system or in a different system that requires a jump...
skip this step if you want to get on with it
4. On approach to the station - listen to the players discussing the potential threats they may face, you may want to configure the threat on the staiton to match their fears, or not
5. Investigating the threat - send in the red shirts to find out what's what? How about drones? Hack the comms of the lab ship to use the lab ships own security scanners... is the threat an AI that has taken over the lab ship and its robots, is it a plague that has turned the crew into beasts, is it a new combat nano-virus augment with severe side effects, is it fragments of an alien entitu, a cosmic horror, or how about cyberzombies - you can never go wrong with cyberzombies...

Maps for the meeting room, the ship the PCs use to get to the lab ship, maps for the lab ship sections, tokens, cardboard minis,

pre-gen characters, NPC cards, "monster" cards, equipment cards

A basic rules booklet, the scenario booklet, an options booklet, an equipment booklet, a character generation booklet

 

[paltrysum]

Death Station is great, but consider this: It's a bit of a dungeon crawl. That could be good to help a D&D player transition to Traveller by showing them something familiar and then overlapping the elements of Traveller that are very un-D&D, but it also could hinder them if presented all alone.

What do you think about a trio of adventures, each of which introduces them to a different style of Traveller role playing? A more sandboxy adventure might be nice to include, and... a third type? I'm a big fan of both Flatlined and Islands in the Rift as intro adventures because they enable newcomers to play with most of Traveller's bells and whistles. Maybe those two as well.

 

[Sigtrygg]

That's actually next on my list, how to follow up Death Station with other short adventures, these could be self contained or linked to form the start of a campaign.

Back to Death Staion though by expanding on the meeting, the mission prep, the travel then you are covering all of Traveller's bells and whistles, plus there is a bit of combat, some engineering challenges to fix the lab ship. Intrusion, defeating securty measures, investigating the computer logs to find out what has been going on...

Have you looked at a copy of the D&D starter set based on borderlands - took me back decades... it appears to be popular as a christmas present too...

 

[swordtart]

With the traveller Starter Pack at coming with Traveller Explorers Edition, Death station and Stranded PDFs all for free this represents a much better value as an entry level game than D&D Heroes of the Borderlands. I presume therefore you are suggesting a physical edition?

As to which scenario best represents Traveller, "That would be an ecumenical matter".

 

[Sigtrygg]

Yes, a physical boxed set with the level of extras hat the D&D Borderlands starter set has.

 

[Vormaerin]

Death Station is great, but consider this: It's a bit of a dungeon crawl. That could be good to help a D&D player transition to Traveller by showing them something familiar and then overlapping the elements of Traveller that are very un-D&D, but it also could hinder them if presented all alone.

What do you think about a trio of adventures, each of which introduces them to a different style of Traveller role playing? A more sandboxy adventure might be nice to include, and... a third type? I'm a big fan of both Flatlined and Islands in the Rift as intro adventures because they enable newcomers to play with most of Traveller's bells and whistles. Maybe those two as well.

Flatlined would be a good intro adventure also. I like Islands in the Rift, but I do not think it is suitable for new players and GMs as written. There's a little too much-ness to the situation and the options. Also, it's quite long to complete, practically a mini-campaign.

 

[Sigtrygg]

I don't think Flatlined or Islands are as suitable for a starter set, both are too long and involve too much familiarity with the setting rather than using general sci fi tropes like Death Station.

Neither cover enough of Traveller's bells and whistles for a stater adventure in a small enough package like Death Station does. Now I do like the idea of some follow up adventures, but that would just be a shameless way to get everyone to buy it...

I never expected to by a single product in the latest version of D&D 5e - it has lost me as a customer due to the choices the company have made, or so I thought until sucker punched with borderlands...

 

[paltrysum]

Have you looked at a copy of the D&D starter set based on borderlands - took me back decades... it appears to be popular as a christmas present too...

I haven't. I didn't know what that was. I remember Keep on the Borderlands, but I had to Google to see the starter set. I see they're producing something new this year that's related.

 

[paltrysum]

Flatlined would be a good intro adventure also. I like Islands in the Rift, but I do not think it is suitable for new players and GMs as written. There's a little too much-ness to the situation and the options. Also, it's quite long to complete, practically a mini-campaign.

What I like about Islands in the Rift is that it gets them doing several of the things you do in Traveller:

• Jumping from system to system in a sandbox (some on a rail; some more sandboxy)
• Combat
• Starship combat
• Vehicle combat
• Experiencing different starports, environments, etc.

 

[Sigtrygg]

I haven't. I didn't know what that was. I remember Keep on the Borderlands, but I had to Google to see the starter set. I see they're producing something new this year that's related.

It has been out for a couple of months and is full of goodies, plus nostalgia

 

[Sigtrygg]

What I like about Islands in the Rift is that it gets them doing several of the things you do in Traveller:

• Jumping from system to system in a sandbox (some on a rail; some more sandboxy)
• Combat
• Starship combat
• Vehicle combat
• Experiencing different starports, environments, etc.

And are are a larger page count than Death Station. They would get even larger by the time you add equipment etc that Islands and Flatlined assume you have the core rule book at minimum for looking stuff up.

Add jumping the investigators' ship in Death Station, that one is covered

Combat takes place

Starship combat in Mongoose Traveller... not very good

Vehicle combat in Mongoose Traveller... a bit better than starship combat

my Death Station suggestion - patron meeting location, equipment purchasing location, starport, space, the lab ship

An entire subsector is too large for an introduction, but certainly something worth building up to if a multiple scenario starter set were produced. A few systems are all that are needed, subsequent adventures take place on worlds with different environments . It's the equivalent of advancing a couple of levels in D&D, by the end of the scenario set you should have experience everything Traveller has to offer. I don't think Flatlined or Islands do a good job of that.

 

[mavikfelna]

A physical starter box would be good.
But, we need a convention & demo play kit with these things in a free digital download as well. And a set of short 4 hour play modules that form a starter campaign. As the modules progress, you can add more complicated Traveller tropes and settings but the first several need to be good introductory modules.
Once the kits are available, we need to recruit GMs to run them at stores and cons, with advertising support by Mongoose.
This, and a physical starter box you can hawk to them, would help introduce alot more folks to the game.

 

[Vormaerin]

What I like about Islands in the Rift is that it gets them doing several of the things you do in Traveller:

• Jumping from system to system in a sandbox (some on a rail; some more sandboxy)
• Combat
• Starship combat
• Vehicle combat
• Experiencing different starports, environments, etc.

I like the adventure. I think that those subsystems are a bit much to inflict on a new GM running for new players, which is the default assumption of a starter set.

 

[Sigtrygg]

And also require access to the full core rules, high guard, and possibly central supply catalogue to do them right.

 

[Endie]

Death Station is great, but consider this: It's a bit of a dungeon crawl. That could be good to help a D&D player transition to Traveller by showing them something familiar and then overlapping the elements of Traveller that are very un-D&D, but it also could hinder them if presented all alone.

What do you think about a trio of adventures, each of which introduces them to a different style of Traveller role playing? A more sandboxy adventure might be nice to include, and... a third type? I'm a big fan of both Flatlined and Islands in the Rift as intro adventures because they enable newcomers to play with most of Traveller's bells and whistles. Maybe those two as well.

I totally agree. on the Sandbox thing. Something along the lines of the original Phandelver sandbox seems like a good idea: it was a key part in D&D 5e's success, after all. A setting, initially constrained, with a manageable set of strongly differentiated NPCs and with a choice of 2-3 tasks along classic Traveller adventure patron lines, pretty heavily signposted. Those would then unlock another set of more involved (and challenging or dangerous tasks. Something to demonstrate how deadly unarmoured combat is would be handy, with a one-off safety net (maybe it happens in the foyer of a clinic with a TL14 autodoc )

As one of the tasks the players are introduced to the (currently broken) spaceship that could possibly come from their chargen. But it is broken so 2 more tasks that get it fixed, before a final adventure offworld, or even making a jump to another system.

So a widening world with each set of tasks leading the players and GM through how to run - and play in - Traveller. Justin Alexander has written well about the need to explain how to run TTRPGs for the new GM, since it is not as obvious as we all think!

Death Station is fun, and can work with an experienced GM knows how to play up the horror (it so happens that I run it again last week with a party in their fifth-ever session, and had to make a few additions and some changes to pacing). But there is a lot of white space. As you say, it looks like a dungeon crawl but one with a lot of empty rooms out of the box, only a very few encounters, and those on only two notes. For a dungeon crawl it also lacks some of the tonal variation that a good crawl has, and the antagonists are probably challenging for a newbie GM (playing episodic drug psychosis is tricky!)

People often suggest Flatlined, too, but jings: three fights with as many as 20+ participants in each is tricky for the most experienced GM!

 

[swordtart]

If I want nostalgia for Keep on the borderlands, I just dig out the original. It even smells familiar. I also had the 25th anniversary one that added extras. 5th edition D&D just killed my interest in the game. I'd play 2nd Edition, BEMCI or a clone rather than touch 5th again with a 10ft pole.

 

[Endie]

If I want nostalgia for Keep on the borderlands, I just dig out the original. It even smells familiar. I also had the 25th anniversary one that added extras. 5th edition D&D just killed my interest in the game. I'd play 2nd Edition, BEMCI or a clone rather than touch 5th again with a 10ft pole.

We're not actually discussing whether people want to play D&D here. We're talking about what WotC has done right for their game, and how similar models can be used in the case of Traveller.

 

[Grognardia]

There are many ways to approach the Death Station

Death Stations – and How to Avoid Them by Tales from the Morrigan

A not-so-epic tale of great caution, mild inconvenience, and lunch vouchers

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