Help me to finish my current campaign...

[Stingray_tm]

So far the campaign I created for my players was more or less unfocused. We used Traveller as a stop-gap online activity until we could meet again in real life and so I as referee did not put much effort into designing a real campaign. Instead it was a succession of individual adventure modules, that I had in my possession.

Then I got version 2 of the main rules as well as Pirates of Drinax, and now I am highly motivated to play this campaign with my players. But I would like to have the old campaign getting to a satisfying conclusion first and not abrubtly end it.

Two of my PCs are on the run. One has made an enemy in SuSAG, who is using his resources to find and kill this Traveller and the other player has offended an Imperial Knight, who wants to solve this issue with a duel to the death (which the Traveller would lose...).

I am not sure how to resolve these conflicts to be honest. I do not just want the Travellers flee into non-Imperal space, where they can not be found, since this was the conclusion of the last campaign. I was thinking about getting the PCs caught and then play the "Prison Planet" module but I am looking for an idea how to bring everything to an end.

An idea that was floating around in my head was a very influental prison inmate, which the Travellers could befriend, help escape and after that he could make their problems "go away". Or maybe I will keep the Travellers in prison, until the pursuers catch up with them and then there is a final confrontation. (But I am not sure, how the Travellers could not lose in such a situation).

Any good ideas that are not Deus Ex Machinas or result in the PCs remaining outlaws?

And no, having the PCs just conveniently slip into "Pirates of Drinax" is not a solution, I would prefer, since the Travellers generated do not really work as Pirates (they lack a lot of the necessary skills for Space Combat) and also I would like to start with fresh PCs instead of converting MGT1 characters to MGT2.

 

[AndrewW]

The character unknowingly saves the life of a relatives of the knight and the knight calls off the dual.

SuSAG thinks the character died in an accident, or think they got him when the character wasn't on board when the accident happened or something so call off their hunt and put their resources to use elsewhere.

 

[Tea Rex]

Without knowing the details of the problems of your player characters, it is difficult to offer precise solutions.

I'll try anyway. How about if the enemy at SuSAG has an internal competitor who wants to get rid of him, either because he wants his job or because their enemy is suspected of making crooked deals behind the company's back. Or a boss of the adversary doesn't like the fact that the opponent is wasting company resources on his private vendetta.To secure evidence (or to plant fictitious evidence), he needs people from the outside, the player characters. All they have to do is pick up a shipment of "special drugs" that their opponent wants to sell for great (personal) profit. Their employer hands them papers that will ensure that they are given the cargo. All they have to do now is pick up the cargo before the actual shippers arrive and bring it safely to a SuSAG outpost. Of course their opponents find out and tries to stop them. In the end they will discover that this cargo had been diverted from the corporation's possession through clever manipulation of the books and that the characters' adversary was responsible for this attempted fraud. This ends his career at SuSAG.
Yes, and the Imperial Knight. Such a knight is not such a big shot. Your client could use his considerable influence to dissuade the Knight from his plans for revenge, either through a small financial contribution or through less legal methods.

In the end, they might get a big bonus payment or even be offered a job at SuSAG. And they live happily ever after...

 

[Stingray_tm]

Interesting ideas. Keep them coming

I was just thinking about using a kind of Deus Ex Machinae, even though I did not want to before:

Spoilers for Secret of the Ancients AND Prison planet in white text.

The PCs find a remnant of the Ancients (the players have played "Secret of the Ancients" with different characters before) with essentialy UNLIMITED POWER (at least for the Travellers), which is hiding from GRANDFATHER and SEVEN. They help the Ancient in some way (finding a McGuffin) that enables it to leave its hiding place and avoid the battle between GRANDFATHER and SEVEN. As a reward the Ancient offers them to fix their problems by giving them the means to manipulate SuSAG data (highly advanved virus) as well as impue the duelist with the necessary means to actually win a fight against the knight (nanotechnology). Of course all this technology will stop working just the moment it fullfilled its purpose.
This would be an unexpected callback to previous adventures and even flesh out the situation with the Ancients, which the players are only partially aware of.
Also the Travellers could find that Ancient on the Prison Planet. The official ending of that campaign is for the Travellers to find an starship of unknown origin burried on that planet and escaping with that... So this would even fit into my plans.

 

[Saladman]

How do the players want to solve those two problems? Do they have any ideas or plans, even stuff you might have said or implied wouldn't work? If they don't yet, can you just ask them?

 

[Stingray_tm]

Their current solution is to leave the Imperium and seek refuge either in the Sword Worlds or the Darrian Confederation. But I think this is rather anticlimactic, to just announce that the campaign is over as soon as they have arrived there...

Another potential solution i came up with, which would also be a callback to the previous campaign: The Travellers get cought and transported to a Prison Hulk. Among the inmates is an extremely powerful Zhodani spy that was caught by the previous campaign's characters. The Travellers already showed that they have no real sense of obligation towards the Third Imperium and would not have a problem helping a Zhodani Agent. This Zhodani is already established as a men of honour and if they would help him escape, they would try to help the Travellers in return. (Howewer that might be.)

 

[Condottiere]

They could go to the dogs.

 

[Stingray_tm]

This is how the previous campaign ended, so I can't repeat that

 

[Condottiere]

They could go to the other end of the scale, to avert a catastrophe.

 

[NOLATrav]

Perhaps they are whisked away by Ine Givar operatives, given false identities and fade into the woodwork?...

 

[Stingray_tm]

Having the Ine Givar make them disappear (in a good way) after they had helped one of them, is actually pretty cool. It can even go as far as doing that AFTER they Travellers forcefully dealt with the Knight, who is chasing them. Or even let the Ine Givar deal with the Knight themselves, where the Travellers lure him into a trap. I think I will go with that.

Thanks for all the suggestions!