shammond42
Cosmic Mongoose
Wow, that's awesome. Thanks!
Deepnight Revelation - GMs Thread
- Thread starter Tea Rex
- Start date
shammond42
Cosmic Mongoose
JTAS Volume #7 is now available and it has my article on alternate character creation ideas for a Deepnight Revelation campaign. The gist is to split character creation into two parts and run the into adventure in the middle. There's a bunch of other ideas to help take Travellers from any starting point and have them end up suitable for the roles they want on the ship.
You can pick it up here: https://www.mongoosepublishing.com/products/journal-of-the-travellers-aid-society-volume-8
Sorry to toot my own horn, but I wanted to make sure this thread has pointers to all of the available DNR content. There's at least one more DNR article, from a different author, coming later. I'll be sure to post when it is available.
Thanks!
You can pick it up here: https://www.mongoosepublishing.com/products/journal-of-the-travellers-aid-society-volume-8
Sorry to toot my own horn, but I wanted to make sure this thread has pointers to all of the available DNR content. There's at least one more DNR article, from a different author, coming later. I'll be sure to post when it is available.
Thanks!
shammond42
Cosmic Mongoose
Putting a note here for future GMs. JTAS #12 has an article on the Erline home system (by Tim Scharnweber) which may be helpful when running Near Side of Yonder. I thought it was some interesting background information, even if your players don't seek it out.
Has anyone determined what compensation the crew is supposed to be offered for going on a 20+ year mission with a high level of danger, and a substantial possibility of not returning?
I understand that on a meta-level it may not matter to the players because if they’re playing the campaign they’ve already bought in. It doesn’t seem reasonable for the characters to do so at basic rates. I’ve seen it mention that some characters may want to emphasize exploration to increase their bonus, but what bonus is this? Have I skipped over some important information in this regard? To further clarify, my group will be returning to Imperial space after Terminus, and we won’t be going with the suggested ending provided. I’d be murdered if I did that to my players.
I understand that on a meta-level it may not matter to the players because if they’re playing the campaign they’ve already bought in. It doesn’t seem reasonable for the characters to do so at basic rates. I’ve seen it mention that some characters may want to emphasize exploration to increase their bonus, but what bonus is this? Have I skipped over some important information in this regard? To further clarify, my group will be returning to Imperial space after Terminus, and we won’t be going with the suggested ending provided. I’d be murdered if I did that to my players.
They'll certainly be well paid given what they were up against (twenty years of hazard pay?), but the big payoff would be prestige, and not just in the moment-of-glory sense: they'll be in the history books, their work will be talked about in schools, their names will be included alongside other leading explorers/scientists, they'll certainly enjoy celebrity status anywhere they go, etc. Play that up. It should be overwhelming.
shammond42
Cosmic Mongoose
20 years of salary plus hazard pay earning interest sitting in a bank would be quite a bit of money. I think the books mention bonuses, but is vague on how much and for what. As the GM you can basically give them as much money as you want.
I would suggest not continuing the campaign after their return. These characters had their epic adventure, time for a new crew to do different things. I usually end my campaigns by allowing each player to narrate what happens over the rest of their character's life. Sort of like you see at the end of some movies. Let each player decide what their character does with their wealth and prestige and share that with the group.
I would suggest not continuing the campaign after their return. These characters had their epic adventure, time for a new crew to do different things. I usually end my campaigns by allowing each player to narrate what happens over the rest of their character's life. Sort of like you see at the end of some movies. Let each player decide what their character does with their wealth and prestige and share that with the group.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Generation (star)ship.
With replacements in case of attrition.
With replacements in case of attrition.
We won’t be playing much after their return, but they’d definitely will want to return, collect their rewards and narrate their retirements and/or fund their next set of Travellers in a merchant campaign of some sort. I think I’ll give them all a 1-3 point increase in their SOC stats.
If there has not been any guide or standard applied to their compensation I think I’ll go with their standard pay x4 for the duration of the journey. That ought to be enough for most members to decide it’s a good time to invest and retire.
CordwainerFish
Emperor Mongoose
Shackleton's "Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger. Safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success." ad is probably apocryphal, but it's the mood I'd be trying for here.
NotASnark
Mongoose
This thread hasn't been updated for 2 years, but hopefully it's still a good place to ask questions.
For those that have completed the campaign, how did you run the end of it? Did you run things pretty much as defined in the book, or do you do something else? Any advice you can provide on running the ending?
My campaign is now about two sectors from the end, and I'm trying to plan whether to keep things as is, or do something different.
Thanks.
I do have a campaign blog, but the forum won't let me link to it.
For those that have completed the campaign, how did you run the end of it? Did you run things pretty much as defined in the book, or do you do something else? Any advice you can provide on running the ending?
My campaign is now about two sectors from the end, and I'm trying to plan whether to keep things as is, or do something different.
Thanks.
I do have a campaign blog, but the forum won't let me link to it.
shammond42
Cosmic Mongoose
I like Terminus Point and don't plan to change much when my group get's there. I think you need to read the room for that very last bit. Is that going to be a satisfying ending for your players? I can see that some groups would not think so. It would suck to not stick the landing on a long great campaign like this one.
CordwainerFish
Emperor Mongoose
Yeah, I don't consider "and they never returned / no, they never returned / and their fate is still unlearned" to be a deserved reward for humpty-hump years of play.
shammond42
Cosmic Mongoose
I am pretty sure my group, myself included, will be ready to move on to something different by the time this campaign ends. So playing the return journey won't be in the cards. Nor will continuing the journey onward after that ending.
If the campaign is successful, then I think the players buy into the idea that the reward for any success along the way is being able to continue the journey, not fortune and glory. If they've bought into that idea, then the ending is kind of the ultimate expression of that. It could be poignant and thought provoking. On the other hand, if they haven't then the ending could be frustrating and disappointing.
NotASnark
Mongoose
My biggest worry is that my players will take a look at the shell, and go "nope". They are very risk adverse, which means the Deepnight is in good shape still. But they tend to shy away from anything that looks risky unless they can see a really good payout. At this point (about 170 sessions) we're all a bit emotionally fuzzy about exactly what the mission goal is. So I don't see them strongly arguing for destroying it, or even investigating if the risk is too high.
They could also get upset if they feel they've been pushed into a situation which results in the Deepnight getting badly damaged. They've just met the Frank Wild, so I'm hoping that plot thread encourages them to take some more risks with the Deepnight if they have backup ships.
I really don't want to do a return journey either. After about 170 weeks of play, I'd ready to do something new for a bit.
A while back, I did see some comments (I can't remember where), where some people seemed unhappy with the ending to the campaign, which was my main reason for asking to see if anyone had done something different.
They could also get upset if they feel they've been pushed into a situation which results in the Deepnight getting badly damaged. They've just met the Frank Wild, so I'm hoping that plot thread encourages them to take some more risks with the Deepnight if they have backup ships.
I really don't want to do a return journey either. After about 170 weeks of play, I'd ready to do something new for a bit.
A while back, I did see some comments (I can't remember where), where some people seemed unhappy with the ending to the campaign, which was my main reason for asking to see if anyone had done something different.
NotASnark
Mongoose
We started with Islands in the Rift, did things around the Islands for a bit, found the Deepnight Endeavour, and then when the Revelation campaign came out the players decided they wanted to do that. The Legacies adventure was done off screen, and done as a report given to the PCs when they joined the crew of the Revelation.
Terminus could be a few weeks to a few months away, depending on how things go. Making the players want to risk everything is going to be the difficult bit.
blog.notasnark.net/tag/deepnight
Terminus could be a few weeks to a few months away, depending on how things go. Making the players want to risk everything is going to be the difficult bit.
blog.notasnark.net/tag/deepnight
MonsterX
Emperor Mongoose
I've been reading you DNR blog and it is really good and helpful for my own planning as well as just an interesting read in its own right.
Your players might be cautious because they see it as important to get to the end of the mission and save the galaxy. Even if they know risking their ship in a space battle with adversaries they meet along the way might be the "right thing to do", the overriding importance of containing the Entity could make them risk-adverse vis a vis other risks. In the finale, even sacrificing themselves and the ship could be the right thing to do if it destroys the Entity, but before then, any reduction in capabilities is a reduction in the odds of winning the finale.
My players are just entering Theta Borealis now, and I've been using intelligence given by various allies along the way (as well as captured enemies) to help inform their choices. I think a lot of it is about giving the players the information to make the decisions and some idea about the consequences of the decisions. Some of my players tend to look for meta-hints that certain paths constitute "The Adventure", and they're more willing to take risks if they think I'm sending signals that they should do that. I usually try to avoid sending those signals but they find them anyways
To give them real choices while still making sure exciting adventures happen, I try to make things into dilemmas: do you risk encountering Zhodani patrols crossing the Idella Rift, now that the FFW has kicked off, or go Rimward and face Muirimi patrols that have been genociding the Ihatei? By making friends, providing favours and doing diplomacy along the way, they'd got some good intelligence about the route ahead, but making friends also meant making enemies. (In the end, their interlocutors and implications on the second option turned out to be entirely different than anticipated by them, but that also reflected some decisions they made).
Assuming we get that far, which will take years at the current rate of progress,, getting them to go into the shell will probably just be a matter of dropping hints that that's where The Adventure is happening. Getting them to feel like it is a natural sensible thing that their very capable command crew would really decide to do is probably the actual challenge.
Since it is so far away, I haven't thought much about the details, but if they need heavier hints, or better information about WHY to go in, then I'll try to weave more of those information into the explanation, give them some hints to do sciency things on, to help the know what to do next. As to whether I'll use the finale as written, I'm also not sure yet. It seems like to could make a good finale, but the vibe is everything - for my money, the vibe should be at first a bit of WTF? followed by a steadily growing sense that this is really creepy, and then a realization of the danger they are in,. The potential for this is in the adventure as written, I think, but it is more about HOW you do it. If you can't see a way to make it come off that way, it probably makes sense to change it. Or maybe just add some details for extra creepiness.
NotASnark
Mongoose
Now that they've met up with a new bunch of explorers, I think I may add some NPCs in that team that are driven to go and explore, with reasons for doing so. This might help drive them into wanting to take that final step.
Part of the issue is that we've all (myself included) sort of forgotten what the original mission was. The Rifts Edge Transit was a long journey which didn't really have much to do with the mission (with the exception of a couple of mini adventures), so the urgency of wanting to deal with the Entity has faded. It's about 14 years game time as well, so it also makes sense that the crew have sort of forgotten the original mission objectives, not just the players.
Possibly I could do some in-game presentations on the mission, its objectives and why it's considered important. If the mission team start getting excited, that might drive the players to want to get involved as well.
Part of the issue is that we've all (myself included) sort of forgotten what the original mission was. The Rifts Edge Transit was a long journey which didn't really have much to do with the mission (with the exception of a couple of mini adventures), so the urgency of wanting to deal with the Entity has faded. It's about 14 years game time as well, so it also makes sense that the crew have sort of forgotten the original mission objectives, not just the players.
Possibly I could do some in-game presentations on the mission, its objectives and why it's considered important. If the mission team start getting excited, that might drive the players to want to get involved as well.
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