I'm planning to run our group through the starter adventures 'High N Dry' and 'Death Station'. After which, we want to adventure in The Borderland and eventually Pirates of Drinax. I'd love to start our adventures in the The Borderland area, which means transplanting the 'High N Dry' adventure onto a different set of systems in The Borderland, or near it at least. Does anyone have experience with this? Where would you suggest we place the customized 'High N Dry' adventure (which system in the Borderland)? Advice?
'High N Dry' In The Borderland?
- Thread starter DeHammer
- Start date
wintertraveller
Cosmic Mongoose
This a good question
shirgall
Cosmic Mongoose
I did do these back to back a couple years ago, but I used Walston and Dawnworld as the settings. For the most part I would use this to pick the worlds you use:
* High'n'dry needs a reason for the ship to be abandoned in the location it is in, which means low population, possibly a small, young world, and volcanic activity makes it a keeper.
* Death Station needs a location that is relatively underpopulated as well, and a reason to be doing shady experiments with combat drugs. I moved it to Dawnworld because of the peculiar impacts that world had on fertility, which was enough of a hook for weird effects on other hormones.
That said, consider Hradus as your starting world, where the crew gets their mission to seek out the High'n'Dry.
Scaladon is a good candidate for High'n'Dry because of the toxic oceans and the penchant of shooting people down who want to fly, which makes the final mission a little easy. People crowding ona plateau and afraid of the toxic ocean is a good setup for a rescue attempt as well.
For Death Station I'd consider Neon, low population, weird atmosphere, little to help a lab ship in orbit, but maybe a few different ways to get a hook to go visit it. It's also off the regular trade routes, so there wouldn't be a lot of traffic.
* High'n'dry needs a reason for the ship to be abandoned in the location it is in, which means low population, possibly a small, young world, and volcanic activity makes it a keeper.
* Death Station needs a location that is relatively underpopulated as well, and a reason to be doing shady experiments with combat drugs. I moved it to Dawnworld because of the peculiar impacts that world had on fertility, which was enough of a hook for weird effects on other hormones.
That said, consider Hradus as your starting world, where the crew gets their mission to seek out the High'n'Dry.
Scaladon is a good candidate for High'n'Dry because of the toxic oceans and the penchant of shooting people down who want to fly, which makes the final mission a little easy. People crowding ona plateau and afraid of the toxic ocean is a good setup for a rescue attempt as well.
For Death Station I'd consider Neon, low population, weird atmosphere, little to help a lab ship in orbit, but maybe a few different ways to get a hook to go visit it. It's also off the regular trade routes, so there wouldn't be a lot of traffic.
Oh good idea. From my first read over of High N Dry, it takes place initially on an ISS (Imperial Scout Services) Base. Then they fly two systems away, stay briefly and fly two more systems to the main location for the adventure... then back to the ISS base. There's few ISS bases around, so maybe I'll have to invent one and use two different secondary planets in two systems as per your suggestion.
Fluffy Bunny Feet
Emperor Mongoose
If you should choose to extend the list of adventures add to the Death Station a dissected alien creature (give it a code name/inventory number) and the issues there trace to drugs derived from it. The creature being Chamax of course. They could be led there by hints in Death Station or sent there by the people behind Death Station (either they provide more samples for the Corp or they cease to be witnesses against it win-win for the Corp).
Arkathan
Emperor Mongoose
And you can always add a couple of jumps to the transit if doing so gets you closer to a good set of systems.
When I ran High and Dry, I substituted in a free trader with a few quirks that one of the players got from char-gen.
They had to do some detective work to track the last reported starport visits to find it.
That cut out the ISS Base altogether.
DeepSpaceAdventures
Banded Mongoose
I've started my group with Flatlined and Death Station on Neon. In the next session, the group will return to Tobia to look for their lost equipment and then I also want to play High and Dry to give them their first ship. We got a new player and she got a scout ship as a benefit, so this matches perfectly.
So yeah, I'm also considering to move High 'n Dry to the Borderlands and I already saw some good advice here. Thanks!
So yeah, I'm also considering to move High 'n Dry to the Borderlands and I already saw some good advice here. Thanks!
Death station is relatively easy: you can drop it just about anywhere if you can think why it won't get pirated after 20 minutes, and link the skilljacking to Oghma.
There's no obviously 100%-match candidate for High n Dry, but there are places that get close enough. Umemii is an obvious match: it has a Vargr presence, is balkanised (so you can use the kinda racist relations with Vargr in one polity you make up, if you like) and although vulcanism has reduced it still has some volcanos and earthquakes (The Borderland, p121). It's TL7 which from memory will make fitting in some details from the original adventure easier.
Tanith has Vargr and is sparsely populated: just make it a remote, slightly lower-tech settlement. Exocet has the volcanos but not the Vargr. Or humans. Or just about anyone.
In the newer Traveller campaign I'm running right now - https://traveller-rpg.com/ - I started the party with Flatlined and Death Station on Sakaliin (Reft 3029) and am now taking them through Islands in the Rift to get them back across to the Trojan Reach. At that point, it'll probably be yet more Pirates of Drinax at some point.
Last edited:
I think the main thing to know when moving where high n dry takes place is if you're gonna run safari world in the future or not. Since Safari World takes place on 567-980, the stop between Flammarion and Watson, thr emptyness of the world is foreshadowed in hig n dry and the revelations of Safari World are more exiting if the players already did go to the empty planet first for a unrelated reason.
On a moon near a Gas Giant in any system you like.
That will rather get rid of the low pressure risk/story element to crossing the crater rim during the retrieval, if everyone is wearing vacc suits out in the cold zone. Got to feel sorry for the dog, too.
Fluffy Bunny Feet
Emperor Mongoose
Gas giants can be in the habitable zone or closer. There can be habitable moons. Wild climate changes due to the position in their orbit are possible.
He said explicitly that he wants it in the Borderland subsector and asked for a candidate system. There is no candidate habitable moon orbiting a gas giant in the habitable zone in the Borderland subsector.
Of course, he can just make one up, but he can always just make something up! He could just drop the system from High n Dry into the Borderland subsector, call it Exe, change all the UWP stats, and away he goes. My own suggestion was for candidate systems that he can use with the lightest of touches, which always makes it far easier to keep straight later.
Fluffy Bunny Feet
Emperor Mongoose
Even outside the habitable zone there can be warmer moons due to having a gas giant that is unusually warm or lots of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (volcanism or animal and plant life that give off lots of methane for example). Could also be a Heinlein style Farmer in the Sky scenario with a "heat shield" to maintain the green house or some other type of terraforming. It would be on the dimmer side but still warmer than one might expect.
Since most systems don't seem to place the gas giants or subsidiary planets specifically you could have one in say a Mars orbit making it warmer than expected and with the green house options above much more Earth like though it could still be in ice age conditions compared to Earth. It doesn't need to be the primary inhabited planet after all.
Since most systems don't seem to place the gas giants or subsidiary planets specifically you could have one in say a Mars orbit making it warmer than expected and with the green house options above much more Earth like though it could still be in ice age conditions compared to Earth. It doesn't need to be the primary inhabited planet after all.
My answer allows him to place it in any system he wants. As FBF Said the Gas Giant Moon doesn't have to be in the Habitable range and there is definitely volcanism on the H&D Planet. Not that your answer is not acceptable. I have found many people don't plan or think about any other planet except the main in the system.
Yep, and like I say he’ll have to swap the perils of the low pressure rim crossing and the dog will be stuffed.
If you want to use a non-mainworld for High n Dry then a neater answer is to use Brief Candle, and stick in some vulcanism and Vargr.
A good place to set "Flatlined", "Death Station", and "High N Dry" in Tobia Sector, in that order, would be Marduk. Very, very sparcely settled, it would be ideal for all three. The Lab Ship ("Death Station") could be just within defensive distance of the High Port, but could just as easily be just outside defensive distance. Oghma is one parsec away, so the slaving operation of "Flatlined" makes more sense there, than at Neon. Torpol's flesh pots would be a great replacement for Tobia, and is only a Jump-2 away, like Tobia & Neon! Mount Salbari from "High N Dry" could be on the agricultural enclave, a boat ride from Marduk downport. The boat ride could replace the train journey. You could even run "Gods of Marduk" on the boat journey over. Once the Scout (or Harrier) from "High N Dry" is being repaired at Marduk High Port, an attack by Oghman Raiders on the High Port and damaged Lab Ship, could lead into Reach Adventure 8 " Makergod". From Marduk, the Borderlands is only three Jump-2's away!
Update:
So what I've ended up doing is having my initial session 0 adventure be on a restricted moon/secondary planet in the Hradus system. The entire system is a high law heavily restricted system, with lot of transplanted Aslan inside the The Third Imperium territory. But the moon/secondary planet I made restricted because of how terribly dangerous it is due to the local wildlife and volatile though habitable environment. I'll use the High N Dry general script, but it will take place on made up planets in systems near the Hradus system and not the Borderland territories themselves. Except the scout ship will be a Serpent Class scout ship.
Then I have planned a special NPC merchant in the Hradus highport. He's an Aslan merchant, which is highly unusual for Aslan. They generally don't abide males as merchants. His name is Trasko and he's be a very curious mix of an Aslan, knowing the ways of his people but not personally being stuck to them. He will appear to respect Aslan culture, and a big part of his business is dealing in special Aslan artifacts, but living in Hradus (which is 20% human) he has blended in quite well with the mix of cultures, and is able to easily navigate cultural differences, making almost anyone feel their culture is respected, including more conservative Aslan who adhere strictly to their 'old ways'. He's a bit of a cultural chameleon. I'm going to have him gently guide the Travellers into doing some work for him exploring/adventuring to find some artifacts of great value. These adventures will take them into the Borderlands, where Trasko also has operations. Then as they get to know each other, the Travellers will eventually discover that Trasko also has his hands in a bit of piracy in the Borderlands....as a 'fence' for pirates. I think this might prove to be a good segway into many adventures in the Borderlands, and eventually into the Pirates Of Drinax.
The special appeal the Travellers will need to get in good with the 'king' of Drinax will be their knowledge & expertise in special artifacts they learn from Trasko. I'm going to create a 'McGuffin' of legendary stature that they have to find and retrieve, which will be the reason for Drinax placing their hope & trust in the Travellers. It could be tied to some old prophecy about restoring power to the Kingdom of Drinax.
I've also created a custom system to represent the way these special items work in Traveller. I think that the quest for special items will really appeal to the players. They might keep a few but it will also be a great source of income as they sell their 'finds' to Trasko who will resell them for profit. I have six classes of 'special item' types:
Prototypes - Any item, whether it also exhibits special crafting or not, that represents a departure from what's normally producible. For instance, a static broadsword.
Well Made Items - gets one special minor bonus such as +1 to hit, or +2 damage
Finely Made Items - gets two special minor bonuses... maybe +1 to hit and +2 damage. Or instead, one special ability such as any 1's rolled become 3's.
Exquisitely Crafted Items (Master Crafted) - Two special abilities and four minor bonuses
Peerlessly Crafted Items (Grand Master Crafted) - Three special abilities and six minor bonuses.
Legendary Items - completely custom specials
Of course, the last three groups are going to be super to exceedingly rare or even unique and extremely valuable/costly. Also, I almost always create some negative aspect to go along with the special bonuses. A 'trade off' of sorts.
So what I've ended up doing is having my initial session 0 adventure be on a restricted moon/secondary planet in the Hradus system. The entire system is a high law heavily restricted system, with lot of transplanted Aslan inside the The Third Imperium territory. But the moon/secondary planet I made restricted because of how terribly dangerous it is due to the local wildlife and volatile though habitable environment. I'll use the High N Dry general script, but it will take place on made up planets in systems near the Hradus system and not the Borderland territories themselves. Except the scout ship will be a Serpent Class scout ship.
Then I have planned a special NPC merchant in the Hradus highport. He's an Aslan merchant, which is highly unusual for Aslan. They generally don't abide males as merchants. His name is Trasko and he's be a very curious mix of an Aslan, knowing the ways of his people but not personally being stuck to them. He will appear to respect Aslan culture, and a big part of his business is dealing in special Aslan artifacts, but living in Hradus (which is 20% human) he has blended in quite well with the mix of cultures, and is able to easily navigate cultural differences, making almost anyone feel their culture is respected, including more conservative Aslan who adhere strictly to their 'old ways'. He's a bit of a cultural chameleon. I'm going to have him gently guide the Travellers into doing some work for him exploring/adventuring to find some artifacts of great value. These adventures will take them into the Borderlands, where Trasko also has operations. Then as they get to know each other, the Travellers will eventually discover that Trasko also has his hands in a bit of piracy in the Borderlands....as a 'fence' for pirates. I think this might prove to be a good segway into many adventures in the Borderlands, and eventually into the Pirates Of Drinax.
The special appeal the Travellers will need to get in good with the 'king' of Drinax will be their knowledge & expertise in special artifacts they learn from Trasko. I'm going to create a 'McGuffin' of legendary stature that they have to find and retrieve, which will be the reason for Drinax placing their hope & trust in the Travellers. It could be tied to some old prophecy about restoring power to the Kingdom of Drinax.
I've also created a custom system to represent the way these special items work in Traveller. I think that the quest for special items will really appeal to the players. They might keep a few but it will also be a great source of income as they sell their 'finds' to Trasko who will resell them for profit. I have six classes of 'special item' types:
Prototypes - Any item, whether it also exhibits special crafting or not, that represents a departure from what's normally producible. For instance, a static broadsword.
Well Made Items - gets one special minor bonus such as +1 to hit, or +2 damage
Finely Made Items - gets two special minor bonuses... maybe +1 to hit and +2 damage. Or instead, one special ability such as any 1's rolled become 3's.
Exquisitely Crafted Items (Master Crafted) - Two special abilities and four minor bonuses
Peerlessly Crafted Items (Grand Master Crafted) - Three special abilities and six minor bonuses.
Legendary Items - completely custom specials
Of course, the last three groups are going to be super to exceedingly rare or even unique and extremely valuable/costly. Also, I almost always create some negative aspect to go along with the special bonuses. A 'trade off' of sorts.
Last edited:
