Help me not make my Traveller game like 50 Fathoms!

[PoppySeed45]

So, I'll assume you know 50 Fathoms, the fantasy pirate game for Savage Worlds. Basically, I mwas super bored of that game (and those players, actually) so I will be switching this weekend to a new group and using Mongoose Traveller.

I suppose, in some ways, Traveller and 50 Fathoms have a few things in common, being about ships and such. One of my players (the only good one from the old group) worries that I might get bored again since "this'll be another pirate game."

I ask then my comrades here - how to make sure Traveller is NOT a pirate game? (I think I know, but I'd love to hear scenario ideas that I haven't thought of).

 

[SnowDog]

How about making characters with that much conscience that they won't practice piracy?

Play with reputation. If PCs practice trading make it harder the more they practice piracy.

Make trading a viable option. Have some interesting cargo not to mention passengers (thing Firefly).

Concentrate on characters that your PCs meet at various ports and have some planet-side action, too.

There, lots of action besides piracy...

 

[PoppySeed45]

Well yes, those things are in my plans, for sure. I just was wondering what others things I might do, mostly to avoid the trap of 50 Fathoms (the game degenerated into the PCs attacking ships and doing this over and over again). The surface similarity to Traveller just caught one of my new players is all.

Thanks though. That's the sort of stuff I need to hear (to know I'm on the right track).

 

[Bygoneyrs]

Remember it all is on you to present and create a interesting campaign / plot to help your character get interested in what it is your trying to lead them to. Try this for a plot, say the players took part in a Lottery where the cost was 100 credits per Lottery ticket and the winners got a share in a Merchantman say a 400 ton ship. Say that the players are the holders of the winning tickets, and maybe throw in a couple of NPCs as well too. They all arrive at said Starport of whatever system, to collect their "prize"! So they get a 400 ton Merchantmen (you design it) and make it slightly older (lower tech) but fully working. The PCs will have all sorts of fun with, and start some other plots too. Maybe there is a NPC hidding on board (define the reasons and etc/ make it s good plot twist). Add in a few strange requests to transport "cargo" to another world with very little questions asked(the client pays a Bonus for that). Maybe have the merchant come with a special bay with a huge AI, and some Robots that are run by the Computer AI. (that could lead to all sorts of fun if the AI was a little ...cracked/insane...LOL) Also plan for some specific systems to break down after a define number of jumps and need to be replaced, modify this if PCs perform maintiance. Then also through in a buch of different merchant client contracts and maby also hit them with a Search and rescue, plus research work, and/or a secret opps work. I tend to hit my players with to many plot seeds to keep them guessing and take them in all different directions at the same time. Plus to I just love plots within plots within plots.

Just be creative and keep the possibilities coming for them and they will never have time to be bored.

Penn

 

[drnuncheon]

mostly to avoid the trap of 50 Fathoms (the game degenerated into the PCs attacking ships and doing this over and over again).

If that's what happened to your 50F game, I think you should be asking the players this question. Why did they keep attacking ships over and over?

Did they feel like piracy was the only thing to do? (I can't imagine that having read the 50F book, unless they never landed or followed up on any of the plot hooks in the book.)

Did they just enjoy being pirates? (Then you may have the same issue in this game, until you figure out what particular itch is being scratched by the act of piracy and how to handle it another way.)

Did they think that's what you wanted? (Some players are very anxious to please - they'll think something like "The GM has plans for a pirate game so we'd better go out and pirate!")

Communication is key. You have to find out why they degenerated into mindless piracy in the first place before you can figure out how to fix it.

 

[PoppySeed45]

snip snap

Thanks for the above adventure idea; something like it might show up for them!

As for the part about talking to the players, did that already, about three times. First time was after one of the sessions (we played about 8 all told) and asked how things were, etc. 2nd time was after a particularly bad session, both right after it and by email. Last time was by email.

Each time, feedback was muted and frankly not useful. No real indications of what they wanted, except that they wanted to do nothing but react to what I threw them. And then when I did that, they didn't bite at anything, or voted down each other when someone DID want to bite, with no one wanting to go along for the ride.

So yeah, I dropped them all save two who didn't do that sort of thing. And we got other players.

 

[alex_greene]

That seems harsh. But then, if they thought that roleplaying games were just purely cerebral versions of WoW, all video game combat and nothing else, perhaps it's for the best that you let them go.

I just realised that there's a thread on 760 Patrons elsewhere in this forum. That book presented far more than just 760 different encounters - each Patron, whether as a protagonist or an antagonist, led to at least three possible adventure hooks.

Perhaps your next mission for the characters could be as a bodyguard for the Famous Performer, who is being pursued by an Alien Stalker and a Paparazzo antagonist Patron; or maybe you could have the characters investigate a threat to a local Noble from someone who turns out to be a mind-controlled slave of a Psionic Adept.

Perhaps you could look into the sourcebooks Mongoose has in store. Scout offers the possibility of having the characters venture into alien territory to look at an uncharted system and catalogue the weird stellar anomaly their probes have detected - only to find a ship in distress drifting nearby, with an alien crew that leads them into yet another adventure ...

Good luck to you with finding non-piratical adventures for Traveller. There are plenty to be had ...

 

[Epicenter]

I suppose, in some ways, Traveller and 50 Fathoms have a few things in common, being about ships and such. One of my players (the only good one from the old group) worries that I might get bored again since "this'll be another pirate game."

Half of the work of an RPG is up to the players. The Ref/GM can only sell the game so far to the players. The players don't want a pirate game, they've already made that clear to you. You'll keep it in mind and avoid a pirate game - it's important to have and run a game you're enthusiastic about, not just "okay this is going to be a Traveller game." The other half of the work is up to the players to make sure it doesn't turn into a pirate game.

1. The easiest way to avoid a pirate game is to run a more structured game. Have a game with a set plot and make it not about pirates. Give the players a clear direction of how the game is supposed to go before the game even starts.

For instance, you could have a game about the fact a struggling free trader is contracted by a Third Imperium diplomat/negotiator. Just outside of the TI, there's two small clusters of planets about to go war - one of them being a group of resource-rich worlds that are run by association of belters and miners. The other is a union of industrial worlds that use said resources to manufacture finished goods. As the Third Imperium's agricultural worlds along the border sell both groups lots of food, it's in the TI's interests for war not to happen. The negotiator wants to hire the players because the merchant vessel is relatively low-visibility and the players have "special extralegal skills" that could be useful - for the last two negotiators died in suspicious circumstances. So the patron would be on board their ship trying to negotiate an end to the crisis before it becomes war, the players alternate between being mercenaries, bodyguards, and private investigators trying to figure out who doesn't want to see the TI negotiate an end to the crisis, only to figure out that the two groups are being manipulated to war by some third group.

2. If the players (or you) hate games like that and prefer to just present a universe and the players decide what they want to do, the impetus for doing stuff is completely on the players. But I find that most pick-up groups are long on lazy, short on creativity (or else they'd be GMing and not you) - don't be surprised if the players decide that "a pirate be free" and go back to the old, boring rut.

 

[GypsyComet]

If you are using Mongoose Traveller, try to look over their shoulders during the (group mandatory) character generation session. Try to get Contacts, Allies, and Enemies on as many as possible, even if it means silently adding them based on the event rolls. Get hooks into the characters that you can use to keep their interest, and yours, high.

By "hooks" I don't literally mean things to drag them around with, but the wider GM usage. Context for the characters to work in can be very important, and the more you can connect that context to the PCs, the more likely they are to want to preserve instead of loot and pillage.

 

[Emperor Herdan]

And don't forget that the PC's actions will cause _more_ Rivals, Enemys, Contacts, Allies as they play. Likewise try to make one or two NPC's that the players have to come into contact with regularly memorable.

One of the most hated, absolutely _hated_ NPC I have currently running was a replacement Quartermaster, who got his job through gambling debts being "owed" to him. He hasn't released _anything_ to the PC's for various reasons. The party went so far as to break in to the base computer system to get the dirt on this guy... Ohh he'll go down like Slim Pickens on the HBomb in Dr Strangelove, but until he does, my heavens do they hate him. Nevermind the hostile natives and Fusion Guns being shot at them no... its the QM they want to kill...

So far the PC's will have racked up 3 Enemies (1 Political, 1 QM, 1 NCO) a Rival (Ex-Slaver Merchant Captain... PC's rescued a village from), Contacts (about 2 high level politicos on a "backward TL6 planet, 1 middlingsecurity agent)... All of which can have hooks for your players!

Take care

E. Herdan

 

[PoppySeed45]

Maybe I should clarify a little.

When I say my old group played 50 Fathoms, I mean that they CHOOSE 50 Fathoms to play - I gave fur different choices (the fifth being I don't run at all) and this is what they choose. We talked about the game, my expectations etc, and everyone said they were cool with it. And then they actually weren't.

Cue me asking the three times I did as I outlined above.

Trust me, when I say I went to bat for these guys and gals, I did so. I stretched, I accommodated, I begged for info, and got none. So I realize that I'm not that sort of GM.

I wanted proactive players!

But as mentioned, 50% is me. So, I've got to make sure my game crackles, and getting some plot ideas here seems a good way to be sure of it, no?

Thanks for the ideas so far folks. Things to think on...

 

[alex_greene]

Give them a little drama. When the story seems to be all about things happening to the Patron, have it suddenly be about the characters. Make it personal, and throw in some jeopardy to force the players to think on their feet if they want to avoid having to roll up new characters.

Let's say the characters are tasked to deliver a cargo to a distant world that's under interdiction. Fair enough. Have them dodge the patrol ships, duck behind asteroids, all of that stuff. But they know they're going to reach shore and put down regardless. The sneaking past Customs bit ... that's just the challenge. The fun part's doing the job, and then going home and getting paid.

They arrive on the planet, and find themselves in the middle of a plague zone. The cargo wasn't narcotics - it was a palliative, that alleviates the symptoms but only for a time. Oh, and the characters aren't immune to the bug, either, so they're stuck on the planet until they can find a cure.

Fortunately, the Patron came along with them for the ride, and he is a brilliant doctor ... so they have to protect that doctor, first against the natives, and then later, when he finds the cure, from themselves.

Because he won't put them at the top of his list of priority cases. Being the brilliant doctor and humanitarian that he is, he wants to take the cure to the people first ...

Run that past the players. See how they react.

 

[PoppySeed45]

That is more what I'm looking for...those sorts of ideas! They were hard to do with the last group; they just wouldn't bite. Mind you, the wo exaples I'll give were AFTER one of our big talks when they said they wanted me to drop them hooks all over the place since they didn't want to plan things themselves. Fine says I.

Example, I did almost what you talk of here in the 50 Fathoms game: the PCs were coming to a place to pick up some extra crewmen and supplies, and it turns out ships are allowed in but no one can get out; there's a plague on. This was a side-story for the medic in the crew, since I'd established that there was some sort of plague going around and the group had seen it in an isolated population before. Foreshadowing and all that.

So, I intro it, doctor gets interested and...not the other players, even though they are offered money, threatened, etc, to stay and help the island. They wanted to run and get the hell out. And that's all.

Another one: I drop hint of civil war brewing on a particular island that the PCs are on. Both sides try to recruit them, one with money, the other with threats. PCs can profit here one way or the other as the island has rare foods and such that can be sold for a lot of money. What do they do? Run away. One player, maybe, was interested. The rest either just sat there or wanted to not get involved.

There are other examples of this. That's when I got fed up. One of them even told me I made the game too easy and that's why he wasn't interested! This, the same guy who vetoes both adventure ideas.

So yeah, new group, and no pirating!

So, keep ideas coming. Let me stay fresh!

 

[omegar]

Remember it all is on you to present and create a interesting campaign / plot to help your character get interested in what it is your trying to lead them to. Try this for a plot, say the players took part in a Lottery where the cost was 100 credits per Lottery ticket and the winners got a share in a Merchantman say a 400 ton ship. Say that the players are the holders of the winning tickets, and maybe throw in a couple of NPCs as well too. They all arrive at said Starport of whatever system, to collect their "prize"! So they get a 400 ton Merchantmen (you design it) and make it slightly older (lower tech) but fully working
Penn

Thats actually a pretty good idea.....And so i shall steal it and mutate it to my own purposes!!!!

thanks.

 

[Bygoneyrs]

Hey I am here to share and help where ever I can, if I have a idea/plot that someone likes, then go for it!!!

Penn

 

[Merxiless]

Mencelus:

Micrometeorstrike.

As the crew is preparing to sail off to planet goodtime charley, for boring adventure X, Have each player state, after you ask in a bored voice "Okay, before you travel to the jump ppint, where is everyone? what kinds of crap are you gonna do for the trip?

Have them state it, maybe give some little scenes to a guy in the shower, etc.

For best effect, this is good to employ at a class E port, middle of nowhere.

Then, Explain a loud rinning ***BANG*** Jump up and down, emphasize that the lights on the ship are out, turbines winding down, and the wind is howling...dex checks to not get pulled down the corridor to

The gaping hole where a micrometeor has smacked into the ship at orbital speed.

Draw a line on the deckplan, though multiple compartments. If they are lucky, engine room survived. Maybe give each compartment on the line of impact a 50% Chance of a hit... some pcs are gonna get blown into space, some will make it to a suit locker. Certainly in space repairs will need to be done.