Help with Campaign?

[Dragonfly]

Hello folks,

I just purchased the Mongoose Traveller rules, and am loving what I'm seeing. However, I have very little experience GMing sci-fi games, and even less experience with the Third Imperium setting.

In order to get my feet wet I'm going to try running the Secrets of the Ancients campaign. I figure the campaign will give me a structure with which to learn the genre and the universe.

I guess I'm writing to ask for some advice as I launch into this exercise. What pitfalls should I avoid? What character types are possible, and which are right out (given the sector that the campaign takes place in)?

One player is interested in making a Zhodani psionicist, for instance. Would this be acceptable given the module I'm running? How about Vargr, Aslans, and other alien races? I know the Traveller universe is very human centered (which I like), but at least a couple of my players will want to make aliens. Any advice on how best to incorporate such characters into my game?

Do you all have any other insights to give me to make certain this experiment goes well?

Thanks in advance!

Best,

Dragonfly

 

[RichardP]

The Zhodani will have problems in a campaign centred in the Third Imperium. The Zhodani Consulate and 3rd Imperium are in a state of cold war, so any zho citizens will certainly be remarked on and subject to hassle. Psionics is illegal in the 3rd Imperium and active use will get you arrested. Mob response is not uncommon.

The Vargr could easily be run with a Zho over in the vargr extents. Aslan don't really go with a Zho but not impossibe. Vargr and Aslan can easily be run togther with 3I humans in a typical 3rd Imperium campaign.

Cheers
Richard

 

[Dave Chase]

The Zho PSI could be undercover agent who has been brought along due to his (her) expertise field of science?

Dave Chase

 

[alex_greene]

As it stands, SOTA is a huge campaign. I personally would not put complete beginners through it until they've had a few one-shot adventures and a minor story arc plot or two under their belt.

Start them off with something smaller, maybe. The characters have a starship, and start trading. A Patron offers them something lucrative - do X job, smuggle Y cargo, and he'll pay off the ship's costs for six months.

Let them dodge the Naval fleet and a pirate corsair among some asteroids while trying to find a hidden base in the asteroids, deliver their cargo and get out intact.

Then ...

... when they get back, there's no money waiting for them, their Patron has skipped and there's a warrant on their heads for a murder they did not commit.

Have them chase the guy down over the course of a few episodes. Have them meet up with other of his victims, fellow Travellers who succumbed to his scam. The TAS are offering membership to any crew that brings this rogue Patron to justice. No million cred fee, no blackball ceremony, no questions.

That will give you a short story arc to follow - three or four adventures, maybe six to ten sittings assuming you split the adventures up.

Then think of something more ambitious. An election on a local world; an assassination plot; or a Professor with a terrifying Ancient Artifact needs smuggling across the border of Zhodani space into the Imperium, hopefully alive with the Artifact, dodging more people with guns.

My point; build them up before hitting them with world-shattering SOTA stuff.

 

[Dragonfly]

Thanks Richard!

I appreciate the reply. So, running a Zhodani in the Spinward Marches would be tricky, but not impossible? How easy would it be for a Zhodani to hide their Zhodaniness - or to be accepted as some sort of exile. I don't mind the player having to deal with being hassled and/or remarked on, and having to deal with mob responses could be grist for the encounter mill. I would, however, like some advice on how to make this work for my player.

Here is one of my issues: I have absolutely NO sense of a galactic map. I don't know where 3I space is, where Solimani space is, where Vargr or Zhodani space is, etc. What would be the best supplement for me to pick up to get a sense of all of that? I guess I truly am a newbie!

Best,

Dragonfly

 

[Dragonfly]

The Zho PSI could be undercover agent who has been brought along due to his (her) expertise field of science?

Dave Chase

That has potential!

Thanks, Dave.

Best,

Dragonfly

 

[Dragonfly]

Hi Alex,

As it stands, SOTA is a huge campaign. I personally would not put complete beginners through it until they've had a few one-shot adventures and a minor story arc plot or two under their belt.

I hear what you're saying here, and you are probably right. However, my lack of confidence with the universe and the genre are part of my issue here. One thing I like about SotA is that it gives me a script to get used to the universe.

That being said, can you recommend some other, mor modest, pre-written modules that can serve as a good lead in to SotA? I like the story arcs you suggest, and may indeed run with them, but I'd feel better having something pre-written, that provides me with stats for ships, robots, npcs, etc. before I start running my own homebrew stuff.

Best,

Dragonfly

 

[alex_greene]

Here is one of my issues: I have absolutely NO sense of a galactic map. I don't know where 3I space is, where Solimani space is, where Vargr or Zhodani space is, etc. What would be the best supplement for me to pick up to get a sense of all of that? I guess I truly am a newbie!

That would have to be The Spinward Marches. And if you want to focus on one single subsector within the Marches, look up the adventure Tripwire, set entirely in Jewell Subsector on the border of Zhodani space.

 

[AndrewW]

Here is one of my issues: I have absolutely NO sense of a galactic map. I don't know where 3I space is, where Solimani space is, where Vargr or Zhodani space is, etc. What would be the best supplement for me to pick up to get a sense of all of that? I guess I truly am a newbie!

http://www.travellermap.com/

Spinward Marches gives you an overview of the Third Imperium and of course covers that area, but doesn't help in showing where the various ares you mention are in relation to each other.

 

[Dragonfly]

http://www.travellermap.com/

Spinward Marches gives you an overview of the Third Imperium and of course covers that area, but doesn't help in showing where the various ares you mention are in relation to each other.

YOWZAH! THAT is a NICE map! And, it helps a great deal. Thanks!

Best,

Dragonfly

 

[GypsyComet]

The random Patron tables in the core book, possibly in concert with 760 Patrons, a random phone book to help with names, and a world description or two (possibly a small cluster or group you can define the relationships between) can keep a startup campaign running for weeks or months.

While much of what it contains is... odd, unofficial, or simply wrong, the Traveller Wiki does have some nuggets for localized campaigns.

As for that Zhodani PC, there are possibilities. We ran with one for years, on the assumption that while the Zhodani phenotype is somewhat distinctive (2m tall, thin, swarthy skin, black or salt-n-pepper hair (blond hair is rare)) there are genetic Zhodani in Imperial space, genetic Imperials in Zhodani space, and merchants who go back and forth *constantly*. Neither citizen can really stand the other's space for long, as Imperials are all crazy, dishonest, and sociopathic, while Zhodani are all mind-ripping (or ripped), painfully honest slaves of the state. Makes for some tension.

The Zhodani nobility wear turbans or fez, and their Intendents wear headbands. Both are symbols of their position and responsibility, and the marks and colors of the headgear indicate status, ability, and areas of responsibility. To not wear them is to conceal your nature, an idea foreign to most Zhodani. A Noble or Intendent required to go without, even in Imperial space, is going to probably still have a tendency to wear hats. Zhodani Proles are not the sheep Imperials think they are, and some are sharp, rich, and powerful in their own way, even if they are not involved in government (which they rarely are). They are also not psionic. An upper class Zhodani trained to operate in Imperial space may be able to cover as a Prole for long periods, but heaven forbid he get caught using psionics.

 

[Hans Rancke]

While much of what it contains is... odd, unofficial, or simply wrong, the Traveller Wiki does have some nuggets for localized campaigns.

I have to take issue with that. I'll leave aside the 'odd', because I've no idea what you consider odd and not odd, but as for the 'unofficial', that's a major point of the wiki, to fill in the vast holes in the setting that is not covered by canon material. There are a lot of ideas in those unofficial bits, and most of them are marked as unofficial (Everything unofficial is supposed to be labeled 'non-canon', but I wouldn't care to claim that there are no mistakes at all. Also, ISTR quite a few articles with canon and non-canon mixed up with no way to distinguish. I try to avoid that myself). Best of all, the non-canon is mostly canon-compatible (sometimes more so than new canon :wink, so it can fit right into a campaign besides the canon bits (You do run the risk that it will be invalidated if some official product later comes along and overwrites it, but that happens with canon material too, and no one can overwrite your own personal campaign, so IMO it's a risk well worth running in return for getting a lot of additional material without having to sweat to make it up yourself).

As for 'simply wrong', I sincerely hope not. If the contributors come across anything that is simply wrong, we simply correct it. The problems arise when canon itself is flat out wrong or self-contradictory or ambiguous or desperately vague. When that happens, the version chosen may be one some people consider simply wrong. When they do, they're welcome to write up their version and post it as an alternative.


Hans

 

[GypsyComet]

In the "odd and probably wrong" category, I'll point to two things in the area I'm currently running a campaign in, namely Arzul and the adjacent Julian Protectorate.

The first thing I noticed is that Arzul, a sector that sits between the Julians, K'kree, and far-flung Vargr states and has never, reportedly, been wholely a part of any of them, roughly out populates Core and Masillia put together. Large numbers of High population worlds out in no-government land, spaced apart by an abnormally high number of Barren worlds.

(I adjusted the cluster I'm using with a bit of casual genocide, knocking most of the Pop 10 worlds down to Pop 9, and most of the Pop 9 worlds down to Pop 8. I'll visit the rest of the sector as needed.)

Second, the area of the Julian Protectorate known in Canon and near-Canon (GT) material to be dominated by the Hkhar in their billions does not, in fact, appear to have many Hkhar at all. The Hkhar Sphere may as well not exist, if you use the UWPs for the Protectorate as evidence.

Your Wiki Avengers may indeed be on their toes in the Marches, and I was thinking very specifically of the District 268 trade wars when I suggested looking at the Wiki in the first place, but the Wiki covers a lot of territory that has apparently become private reserve, and a newcomer won't know the difference.

Heck, even long-time players get caught out. I ran a Rebellion wartime game in a version of Daibei that no longer exists, since the other version that was running around the net at the time got more attention and became the accepted version. Daibei is one of the "lost" GEnie sectors, so there was no old data to work from.

 

[GypsyComet]

I guess I'm writing to ask for some advice as I launch into this exercise. What pitfalls should I avoid? What character types are possible, and which are right out (given the sector that the campaign takes place in)?

While it is best not to overuse it, the D&D standard "You all meet in a bar" is quite acceptable as a campaign starter in Traveller, particularly if a patron has arranged it. Bar fight optional.

As ways to launch the action from said bar, I offer a few examples.

-Coincidental meeting at bar, with one PC looking to acquire and crew a ship. This allowed our group to then go shopping at Mad Eneri's (Slightly) Used Starships, pool their resources, and go make money.

-A combination of coincidence and a couple PCs meeting a patron ship captain for work. About the time introductory drinks were delivered, someone burst into the bar and shouted something about the Solomani invading. The NPC Captain stood up, told the table and a couple of (coincidentally PC) bystanders they were hired, and sprinted for his ship. That sparked a run across half the sector, always looking over our shoulders...

-Hanging out in a star liner's bar as it approached jump point. The traditional dimming of the lights for jump went on for two hours, by which time everyone was showing signs of Jump Sickness. At the end of the misjump, the planet we ended up near was uninhabited, so the PCs were delegated to explore while the crew kept the ship from falling out of the sky. New PCs were rotated out of the rest of the stranded passengers as needed.

 

[alex_greene]

Of course, you could start by having your character sitting alone in a Startown diner, adding an advertisement for a crew to the electronic free want ads post available online courtesy of your local Travellers' Aid Society. He's got a ship - he just needs a crew to run it.

I mean, it's the future. Let's get with the times. Patrons and Travellers alike are bound to have things like free accounts on TASlist by now.

What, you never thought of that?

 

[locarno24]

As noted, I'd start with something simple; look in Signs and Portents for plenty of pre-written adventures (otherworld is a slightly odd one but not a bad starting place, ditto for the flying money pit)

Someone mentioned Tripwire - it's a good idea to start with on two grounds - it introduces the setting ("Me Imperium! Zhodani Bad! Raaaggh!" "...Errr...do you mind, sir?") and the concept of holdover bits of ancient tech, and how awesome it can be if only you can find a bit that works. It's also set near the border, which explains why/how you might have an ex-pat consulate citizen in the region (albeit with a bit of constant hassling).

Essentially, you ideally want the players to have seen (or at least heard of) one or two functional ancient gadgets to know how powerful they are, and to absolutely, unarguably know the races that made them are long dead. Then you introduce Grandfather.

 

[Hans Rancke]

The first thing I noticed is that Arzul, a sector that sits between the Julians, K'kree, and far-flung Vargr states and has never, reportedly, been wholely a part of any of them, roughly out populates Core and Masillia put together. Large numbers of High population worlds out in no-government land, spaced apart by an abnormally high number of Barren worlds.

[snip]

Second, the area of the Julian Protectorate known in Canon and near-Canon (GT) material to be dominated by the Hkhar in their billions does not, in fact, appear to have many Hkhar at all. The Hkhar Sphere may as well not exist, if you use the UWPs for the Protectorate as evidence.

Oh, that sort of oddities. Yes, the OTU is riddled with them. It's the legacy of the opinion, held by the original designers, that a list of unvetted randomly generated UWPs constitutes a finished product and that there is no such thing as an unexplainable UWP. I'm not familiar with the Julian Protectorate -- I don't even think I have the issue (issues?) of Challenge (?) where their UWPs are published (As you say, it's a huge setting), but they can be found Behind the Claw too. The 40th Squadron, for example has neither the population nor the tech level to be a pocket empire, at least not one capable of being a thorn in the Imperium's side (Not even, IMO, with realistic military assistance from the Consulate). The Commonality of Kedzudh has an extremely odd mix of populations and tech levels, etc. etc. (It's possible that these have been fixed by now. I mentioned them during the playtest of MGT:Vargr, but I don't know if anything was done about them, as I never got a playtest copy. Be that as it may, there are plenty of other examples).

The thing is, those are canon oddities. We can't change canon. The best we can do is to add a meta-page that points out the problems (and, preferrably, suggests an alternative). Check the meta-page for the 40th Squadron for an example.

(I adjusted the cluster I'm using with a bit of casual genocide, knocking most of the Pop 10 worlds down to Pop 9, and most of the Pop 9 worlds down to Pop 8. I'll visit the rest of the sector as needed.)

When I vet a subsector (I've never done a whole sector), I try to balance reductions of populations on crappy worlds with increases on good worlds. You can always explain any specific seemingly good worlds with low populations as not being as good as they appear (having problems that don't show in the UWP) or being kept pristine by some powerful empire or organization (reserved for some future purpose), but collectively they represent a statistical anomaly that's every bit as odd as high-population crappy worlds.

Your Wiki Avengers may indeed be on their toes in the Marches, and I was thinking very specifically of the District 268 trade wars when I suggested looking at the Wiki in the first place, but the Wiki covers a lot of territory that has apparently become private reserve, and a newcomer won't know the difference.

We try not to invalidate each others' contributions without very good reason (and even then we try to preserve it as alternate versions), but there's nothing private about any part of the wiki. The whole point of a wiki is that everybody can contribute.


Hans

 

[GypsyComet]

I'm not familiar with the Julian Protectorate -- I don't even think I have the issue (issues?) of Challenge (?) where their UWPs are published

The main sector for the Julian Protectorate was covered, but Arzul was not. It smacks of homebrew driven by a bit of "eh, whatever". World names often not vetted for practicality are just the obvious hint. No listed source is another. Even in its given state, however, Arzul has amazing campaign potential, and the odd UWP trends in it tell me someone tweaked it with that in mind. The cluster right in the center of the sector is, with a bit of work, ideal for a high Pulp campaign, and that's what I'm doing with it.

 

[RichardP]

Dragonfly

you can run a Zho in the 3I. There are traders and diplomats etc. There is the possibility of exiles although the Zho thought police do round up the "unhappy" and re-educate them. The zho are distinctive - a lower grav world has made them tall and willowly. Think they might have some diet differences as well but I could be mistaken.

The marches are an imperial border area. As you can see from the map, the Vargr are north, the Zho are north-west and new aslan territories are approx SW of the marches. The solomani are miles away.

The Vargr are easy to work in. There are lots of traders going across the border + refugees from vargr corsair raids in the extents and even worlds with Imperial Vargr. An Imperial Arch-duke is a vargr. Worlds near the border may have incidents with vargr corsairs and hence have a low opinion of them.

Aslan again have lots of traders and diplomats. The Darrian confederation has Aslan citizens and I am sure that some Aslan will have settled within the 3rd Imperium. Then there are outcasts who have been exiled for reasons of clan honour (usually aslan males). Note that aslan living in the imperium and the Darrian confederation may have adjusted their customs to match the locals and aslan from the Hierate will think of them as culturally contaminated and lots of Aslan do think of humans as barbarians with no understanding of honour.

You could work in Darrians as well as they are an Imperial client state. And don't forget there are 11000 worlds in the empire each with its own culture. laws customs etc. The 3I rules the space between the stars and not worlds. All the individual worlds have to do is pay taxes, support the 3I foriegn policy / armed forces and agree to various economic aspects, local govt and laws are up to individual worlds. Certain things are banned by the 3I - slavery, WMDs etc. but the rest is up to various worlds.

I remember somewhere it said that the imperial core is 4 yrs away from the marches by standard misc merchant vessel and about 1yr out via X-boat and fast liner. Each subsector will probably take someone a month or so to cross using decent liners that follow the xboat lines - that should give you some ideas of the travel times etc.

Hope this helps
Cheers
Richard

 

[Hans Rancke]

you can run a Zho in the 3I. There are traders and diplomats etc.

They'll have a hard time functioning in an adventurer party, though. They're subject to both official and personal harrassment. Think of an American visiting Russia at the height of the Cold War who was also a registered sex offender (As an analogy to distinctive Zhodani appearance, imagine the offender carrying a card with that information prominently on his jacket). Then ramp up the paranioa and the contempt a couple of notches. Psionics really aren't popular in the Imperium. Not a psionic, you say, Joe Zho? Not a spy either? Prove it!! IMTU civilian Zhodani in the Imperium require visas and have permanent "tourist guides" assigned to them by the Imperial Diplomatic Service (they have to pay for them too), but that's just in my TU :wink:.

There is the possibility of exiles although the Zho thought police do round up the "unhappy" and re-educate them. The zho are distinctive - a lower grav world has made them tall and willowly. Think they might have some diet differences as well but I could be mistaken.

Though the height thing would only apply to Zhodani from low-gravity worlds (and would apply to Imperials from low-gravity worlds too).

Aslan again have lots of traders and diplomats. The Darrian confederation has Aslan citizens and I am sure that some Aslan will have settled within the 3rd Imperium.

There are. Canonical details are extremely scanty, but there's a general statement somewhere about there being billions of Imperial Aslan.

Here's a couple of non-canon library data entries of my own about Imperial Aslan (I would have indented them but can't figure out how to do so. [inden][/indent] doesn't work; instead I used color to distinguish):

Hkeoihyoa: Imperial Aslan clan with a large holding on Lunion and secondary holdings on a dozen other worlds in the Spinward Marches, including Regina. The clan owns Khouwa'oas, an interface merchant company that covers most of the Marches.


Khouwa'oas, LIC: Large interface company that covers most of the Marches. It concetrates on trade and freight and few of its ships carry passengers on a regular basis.

The company is owned by the Hkeoihyoa clan. Corporate headquarters are on Lunion and the company has factors on most worlds with Class A or B starports and populations above 50 million in the Spinward Marches.

Stock ownership: Hkeoihyoa: 98%; Imperial family: 2%.

[Ref's note: The company does carry passengers, but almost exclusively Aslan ones who live with the crew; in most of the ships there are no separate passenger quaters.]

I remember somewhere it said that the imperial core is 4 yrs away from the marches by standard misc merchant vessel and about 1yr out via X-boat and fast liner.

It's not quite that bad. From Capital to Mora are roughly 27 high-performance jumps (high-performance = jump-6 except a jump-5 here and there and one jump-4 to hit important worlds), so a rationally designed courier system should be able to get there in between 27 and 31 weeks (depends on turn-around at each stop). High-performance passenger traffic (assuming it exists, which I do but which isn't expressly canon) should average 9 or 10 days per jump, so call it 39 weeks. It would be pretty expensive, though, five times the per-parsec cost of jump-3 passage. I haven't worked out specific Jump-3 and Jump-4 routes, but the distance from Capital to Vland is 59 parsecs and the distance from Vland to Mora is 72 parsecs, so a jump-4 route could be as little as 33 jumps and a jump-3 route as little as 44 jumps (probably a few jumps more to account for astrography). Call it a year by jump-4 and a year and four months by jump-3.


Hans