mancerbear
Mongoose
You know what I would like to see? A Mongoose Fifth Frontier War sourcebook.
Fifth Frontier War
- Thread starter mancerbear
- Start date
ShawnDriscoll
Cosmic Mongoose
What politics was that? Other than Joes being in the game.Synther said:
alex_greene
Guest
The background is here. Basically, the Zhodani declared war first, apparently for no reason.ShawnDriscoll said:
ShawnDriscoll
Cosmic Mongoose
That just timelines. Is Traveller against using timelines? It was up to the referees to decide motivations used by both sides of the war for their own campaigns, rather than be spoon-fed "This is exactly what happened on every world without deviation." The politics were whatever the players felt would be interesting to make up at the time.
To this day. Ask 10 players what a Zho is. You get 10 totally different answers. You assume they had no reason for their attack. That would be 1 of 10 answers.
To this day. Ask 10 players what a Zho is. You get 10 totally different answers. You assume they had no reason for their attack. That would be 1 of 10 answers.
kevinknight
Banded Mongoose
In my campaign I used the Tripwire adventure and basically had the Zhodani attack to try and stop the players from succeeding. The players loved it because it really made them feel a part of the universe, like their actions mattered.
mancerbear
Mongoose
My players will be caught up in the Fifth Frontier War, most likely involved in the Sword Worlds actions. I'm aiming at them witnessing a fleet jumping into an independent system and accidently overhear comms and witness an attack on the scout base. They'll be persued and forced to jump, hopefully taking the information to another scout base to proliferate to the Imperium. The two ex scouts will be reactivated along with their scout/courier and they'll find themselves deeply involved. That's the plan, anyway. Still got about 18 months of in-game time to pass, which passes quickly.
alex_greene
Guest
The best thing to do, in the runup to the Fifth Frontier War, is to explore the motivations and get a general feel for what life is like as war approaches.
Things such as supplies running low in Cronor and Jewell, Vargr pirating raids growing bolder, a spy getting chased down by Zhodani agents for the vital intelligence in his possession - footage of a Zhodani Ambassadorial aide and a Vargr diplomat exchanging valises in an abandoned vehicle park on Regina, for example.
Then scandals, crackdowns, increased police and even military actions against psion enclaves "just in case they are harbouring Zhodani agents using Clairvoyance to spy on our bases," and a general increase in the militarisation of society whenever the Travellers come in from the wild. Lots more adverts exhorting young people to sign up, big articles in the news about the Draft Board visiting every population centre in the Marches along the Spinward Main, and a whole lot of rumours such as:-
- Zhodani scout ships are "Misjumping" a lot into sensitive systems.
- There are riots in some of the outlying Zhodani worlds, the Proles actually rising up against the Intendants and Nobles. And something is wrong, because the top tiers don't seen to be able to stop the riots. As if they had lost their mojo or something, but they're desperately trying to cover this up.
- The local underworld has been seeing a lot of psions cropping up, all of them slowly going insane, taking stupid risks, talking about weird dreams. Maybe this is happening to the Zhodani next door too.
- The Zhodani worlds are going hungry. There is some sort of a virus killing their staple plants, and they are losing their psion mojo because they had no idea it was a natural psi drug for them, like coffee stimulating us normal folks in the morning only it stimulates their telepathy or something.
- There is a new gang of Zhodani in the Core-Spinward quadrant. They just ousted the rulers last year. Bloody coup d'etat, so I hear. This lot aren't content to stay behind the Velvet Curtain. They have long wanted to take over the Coreward quadrants, so they could cosy up to Corridor and, well, once they have the Corridor, they'll be in the perfect position to advance into the Imperium proper.
- A lot of Zhodani seem to be coming into Lanth. Something about the Abyss Rift. They're saying it's science, and it's for the betterment of both our polities - theirs and ours - but they're not saying what they're doing. I think they're spying.
- Some Imperial factions have been attempting to tamper with the Zhodani, using this psychohistory thing to manipulate their culture into becoming more Imperium-friendly, even making a few stabs at establishing a democracy with elections and all. And they just got caught out with their hand in the cookie jar. Big scandal. The Zhodani are incensed, screaming about invasions and promising massive retaliation.
- I think it's one man doing this. He's sitting in a hidden base on Jewell, he's five thousand years old, a supergenius supertelepath, he can communicate telepathically with his agents across parsecs and he's playing both sides because he wants the sector for himself. Once the dust settles, he's going to come in with a new faction and seize the Marches for himself.
- It's the Megacorps. They're behind this.
- It's overcrowding on their side of the Velvet Curtain.
- It's overcrowding on our side of the Velvet Curtain.
- It's the Ancients. They never died.
- It's Hivers.
- Blame Obama. He's been dead for five thousand years, and he never set foot off Terran soil, but somehow I see his grim spectral hand in all of this, reaching out from the grave ...
And then, as sales of tinfoil hats suddenly soar, some real juicy scandals. Male Entertainers caught in honey traps "entertaining" Zhodani women, or men, diplomats being killed in "traffic accidents," anti-Zhodani resentment building up, a few market collapses on both sides - make this personal for the Travellers, as some of their most lucrative deals unexpectedly fall through, and a few cargo runs (food, medicines) are seized by Zhodani security on the wrong side of the border.
Then complaints from the Consulate that there is a marked increase in pirate activity across the Velvet Curtain on their side. Have the Travellers encounter an actual pirate corsair on the way into the system, and they're not interested in their cargo at all because their hold is already stuffed with looted Zhodani cargo. Just happy waves and smiles to the Travellers over the comm. The local Navy just ignore them.
Then the Zhodani decide to take action against all of this harassment, activating their Sword World and Ine Givar agents, setting them off, and securing non-aggression pacts with the Federation of Arden. While the Imperials are focusing on Ruie and Esalin, suddenly the reason for their activities in Lanth becomes clear; they've been setting up a Jump route across the Abyss Rift for sneak Zhodani fleet raids. Have the Travellers be the ones to discover all of this, in the course of their travels.
Once the ruses are discovered, there will be no turning back. The war will be on. They'll see it happening all around them, it'll be as plausible as it is inevitable, and they could well even be a party to setting some of the crucial events into motion.
Things such as supplies running low in Cronor and Jewell, Vargr pirating raids growing bolder, a spy getting chased down by Zhodani agents for the vital intelligence in his possession - footage of a Zhodani Ambassadorial aide and a Vargr diplomat exchanging valises in an abandoned vehicle park on Regina, for example.
Then scandals, crackdowns, increased police and even military actions against psion enclaves "just in case they are harbouring Zhodani agents using Clairvoyance to spy on our bases," and a general increase in the militarisation of society whenever the Travellers come in from the wild. Lots more adverts exhorting young people to sign up, big articles in the news about the Draft Board visiting every population centre in the Marches along the Spinward Main, and a whole lot of rumours such as:-
- Zhodani scout ships are "Misjumping" a lot into sensitive systems.
- There are riots in some of the outlying Zhodani worlds, the Proles actually rising up against the Intendants and Nobles. And something is wrong, because the top tiers don't seen to be able to stop the riots. As if they had lost their mojo or something, but they're desperately trying to cover this up.
- The local underworld has been seeing a lot of psions cropping up, all of them slowly going insane, taking stupid risks, talking about weird dreams. Maybe this is happening to the Zhodani next door too.
- The Zhodani worlds are going hungry. There is some sort of a virus killing their staple plants, and they are losing their psion mojo because they had no idea it was a natural psi drug for them, like coffee stimulating us normal folks in the morning only it stimulates their telepathy or something.
- There is a new gang of Zhodani in the Core-Spinward quadrant. They just ousted the rulers last year. Bloody coup d'etat, so I hear. This lot aren't content to stay behind the Velvet Curtain. They have long wanted to take over the Coreward quadrants, so they could cosy up to Corridor and, well, once they have the Corridor, they'll be in the perfect position to advance into the Imperium proper.
- A lot of Zhodani seem to be coming into Lanth. Something about the Abyss Rift. They're saying it's science, and it's for the betterment of both our polities - theirs and ours - but they're not saying what they're doing. I think they're spying.
- Some Imperial factions have been attempting to tamper with the Zhodani, using this psychohistory thing to manipulate their culture into becoming more Imperium-friendly, even making a few stabs at establishing a democracy with elections and all. And they just got caught out with their hand in the cookie jar. Big scandal. The Zhodani are incensed, screaming about invasions and promising massive retaliation.
- I think it's one man doing this. He's sitting in a hidden base on Jewell, he's five thousand years old, a supergenius supertelepath, he can communicate telepathically with his agents across parsecs and he's playing both sides because he wants the sector for himself. Once the dust settles, he's going to come in with a new faction and seize the Marches for himself.
- It's the Megacorps. They're behind this.
- It's overcrowding on their side of the Velvet Curtain.
- It's overcrowding on our side of the Velvet Curtain.
- It's the Ancients. They never died.
- It's Hivers.
- Blame Obama. He's been dead for five thousand years, and he never set foot off Terran soil, but somehow I see his grim spectral hand in all of this, reaching out from the grave ...
And then, as sales of tinfoil hats suddenly soar, some real juicy scandals. Male Entertainers caught in honey traps "entertaining" Zhodani women, or men, diplomats being killed in "traffic accidents," anti-Zhodani resentment building up, a few market collapses on both sides - make this personal for the Travellers, as some of their most lucrative deals unexpectedly fall through, and a few cargo runs (food, medicines) are seized by Zhodani security on the wrong side of the border.
Then complaints from the Consulate that there is a marked increase in pirate activity across the Velvet Curtain on their side. Have the Travellers encounter an actual pirate corsair on the way into the system, and they're not interested in their cargo at all because their hold is already stuffed with looted Zhodani cargo. Just happy waves and smiles to the Travellers over the comm. The local Navy just ignore them.
Then the Zhodani decide to take action against all of this harassment, activating their Sword World and Ine Givar agents, setting them off, and securing non-aggression pacts with the Federation of Arden. While the Imperials are focusing on Ruie and Esalin, suddenly the reason for their activities in Lanth becomes clear; they've been setting up a Jump route across the Abyss Rift for sneak Zhodani fleet raids. Have the Travellers be the ones to discover all of this, in the course of their travels.
Once the ruses are discovered, there will be no turning back. The war will be on. They'll see it happening all around them, it'll be as plausible as it is inevitable, and they could well even be a party to setting some of the crucial events into motion.
mancerbear
Mongoose
Thanks for that feedback Alex. All good information and worth having a good think about.
I'll be starting by going through my old JTAS issues and taking notes of the what the TAS News Service has to say regarding the war and events that led up to it.
I'll be starting by going through my old JTAS issues and taking notes of the what the TAS News Service has to say regarding the war and events that led up to it.
alex_greene
Guest
A suggestion: Make up some of these reports and feed them to your Travellers. Even news reports of sporting heroes hanging up their championship belts to sign up, stories about mysterious disappearances, a communique from relatives of a Contact of yours who went to Esalin for the spa baths and never returned - the more correspondence you can create, the more news reports you can generate, the more data your Travellers will have to make up their own minds what it all means.mancerbear said:
Especially if you can insert clues guiding your characters to determine that, for instance, there will be a flashpoint at which the war will turn into a hot, shooting kind of war.
Then you can have your Travellers, for example, attempting to convince a Subsector Duke to park the 4456th Fleet at Tureded and keep them there, because they're absolutely certain that the Zhodani will be Jumping into that system in particular. And just as the Duke is about to give up the ghost, the Zhodani turn up in overwhelming numbers, forcing your guys to play a huge space battle. Or just get their ship out alive by any means possible.
mining the old JTAS articles for 5th Frontier war stuff is a great place to start.
I would add in some other teasers for the area they are in, or heading towards, to set things in motion and to offer you multiple plot lines to use. Like PC's ever follow exactly down the path GM's so painstakingly lay out...
I would add in some other teasers for the area they are in, or heading towards, to set things in motion and to offer you multiple plot lines to use. Like PC's ever follow exactly down the path GM's so painstakingly lay out...
Synther
Banded Mongoose
alex_greene said:
There's also the fact that the politics towards the end of the Fifth Frontier War directly lead towards rebellion, the assassination of Emperor Strephon, and Traveller: The New Era. That's, generally, considered a path that is best not travelled. Though, I have met a few that would love for that to happen.
mancerbear
Mongoose
Synther said:
Generally is was Virus that led to the New Era. If not for that silly little addition, the Imperium would have recovered without a collapse IMHO
alex_greene
Guest
Of course, the events of the Fifth Frontier War do not have to lead to the rest of the events in the original 3I timeline.
As far as the Imperium is concerned, the Fifth Frontier War could simply be one minor skirmish on the border in what is apparently a recurring thing. They might send in a fleet or two along Corridor to reinforce the Marches fleets, only to find the war over by the time they got there; or they might find the entire area embroiled in a massive war, cordon off Corridor and quarantine the area till the fighting stops; then send in Scouts to assess the political changes in the area; which worlds are now Zhodani-controlled, whether the Sword Worlds have expanded, shrunk or fallen, and so on.
But overall, the Fifth Frontier War in your game need never affect the Imperium as a whole at all. The Fifth could lead to the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth Frontier Wars and so on. A drunk time traveller purporting to be from the year 2367 Imperial could turn up in a bar boasting about how his planet managed to survive the Tenth Frontier War, which was fought with TL 21 temporal planet busters, reducing most of the worlds of the Marches to asteroid fields.
But even then, he could still say that back in his time, there is a highly successful Third Imperium, and that it has reigned continuously from Capital for 1260 years from the current year.
As far as the Imperium is concerned, the Fifth Frontier War could simply be one minor skirmish on the border in what is apparently a recurring thing. They might send in a fleet or two along Corridor to reinforce the Marches fleets, only to find the war over by the time they got there; or they might find the entire area embroiled in a massive war, cordon off Corridor and quarantine the area till the fighting stops; then send in Scouts to assess the political changes in the area; which worlds are now Zhodani-controlled, whether the Sword Worlds have expanded, shrunk or fallen, and so on.
But overall, the Fifth Frontier War in your game need never affect the Imperium as a whole at all. The Fifth could lead to the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth Frontier Wars and so on. A drunk time traveller purporting to be from the year 2367 Imperial could turn up in a bar boasting about how his planet managed to survive the Tenth Frontier War, which was fought with TL 21 temporal planet busters, reducing most of the worlds of the Marches to asteroid fields.
But even then, he could still say that back in his time, there is a highly successful Third Imperium, and that it has reigned continuously from Capital for 1260 years from the current year.
PsiTraveller
Cosmic Mongoose
I am tracking time in my Drinax campaign, and the players are already into 1106 and will get to 1107 pretty quick. Travellering about takes a lot of time. 
I expect them to use the disruption and threat once news reaches them to push for a deal with the Imperium. They will reduce pirate activity and increase trade and gain recognition, and the Imperium will not need as many escort ships and can free up fleets if needed to fight Coreward.
I may well take the campaign along doing various adventures and get to the Final War. I may skip virus (and the Drinax tie in with Dr. Darke from adventure 4).
Come to think of it, my players may well kick off a war themselves. They are frighteningly bloodthirsty.
I may alter timelines and outcomes of the war, any of them if I want to change the timeline IMTU. It is up to the GM and players to act and react and work off each other to develop their own story. I hope yours is fun.
I expect them to use the disruption and threat once news reaches them to push for a deal with the Imperium. They will reduce pirate activity and increase trade and gain recognition, and the Imperium will not need as many escort ships and can free up fleets if needed to fight Coreward.
I may well take the campaign along doing various adventures and get to the Final War. I may skip virus (and the Drinax tie in with Dr. Darke from adventure 4).
Come to think of it, my players may well kick off a war themselves. They are frighteningly bloodthirsty.
I may alter timelines and outcomes of the war, any of them if I want to change the timeline IMTU. It is up to the GM and players to act and react and work off each other to develop their own story. I hope yours is fun.
mancerbear
Mongoose
May game is only into it's second session, 160/1105 odd. They'll start to begin to see odd things occurring, like the gathering of Sword World Confederation ships in some systems. Zhodani ships moving around in Sword World space. Then, they'll be in the vicinity when the Sword World Fleets break the borders and head into Imperial and neutral space. They'll have time to run ahead to a scout base and send the news forward, if they wish... Or they may wish to take advantage of the war in their own way... their actions will have repercussions... we'll just wait and see
PsiTraveller
Cosmic Mongoose
I started my game with the attack on day 29 1105. Second attack was a little over a week later. Players on Drinax heard about the two attacks on days 37 and 39 and headed off to help on day 41 (a few days to plan and load ship). The first adventure takes almost 100 days calendar time. The party was jumping a little faster than two jumps a month, but not by a lot. They were trading as they went and maintaining the wonky ship. The repair and refit of a couple of captured ships adds on some time as well.
The next adventure I ran was the Treasure of Sindal. I want the treasure to offer the moral questions to the group. That is a long adventure time-wise since even jumping and refuelling as fast as you can you are looking at a couple of months travel time to get from one end of the adventure to the other. Add in some trade, repairs, skimming and any ground time and you could be pushing 5-6 months away from Drinax.
The next adventure I ran was the Treasure of Sindal. I want the treasure to offer the moral questions to the group. That is a long adventure time-wise since even jumping and refuelling as fast as you can you are looking at a couple of months travel time to get from one end of the adventure to the other. Add in some trade, repairs, skimming and any ground time and you could be pushing 5-6 months away from Drinax.
If you use the old board-game for background events I would recommend altering the victory conditions ie high tech high pop worlds should be the most important followed by strategic worlds based on either position or trade codes. Taking an industrial world should be more important than a non-industrial one other factors being equal for instance.
