How to improve Stranded as a starter adventure (spoilers)

[kirsim]

Stranded, the free adventure included with the Mongoose Traveller Starter Set, is meant to ease new players and referees into the system. It has some great ideas: exploration, survival, the map is fun... but there are some areas where it could be more accessible for newcomers.

Here are a few areas that might trip up a first-time Referee, along with some thoughts on smoothing them out.

Equipment Clarity:

• Several items, especially weapons and gear packs, lack clear stats. For a new Referee, it’s not always obvious what these items do or how to adjudicate their effects.

Overcomplicated Gear Lists:

• The abundance of "kits" and bundles can be overwhelming. Simplifying or condensing the gear section would help a lot.

Survival Mechanics:

• The module spends a lot of space talking about encumbrance and starvation, but it’s undercut by how easy it is for Travellers to avoid real hardship. These rules and mechanics feel like they’re present more for flavor than actual challenge.

Map Inconsistencies:

• The world map and detailed region maps don’t align well in terms of scale. Terrain descriptions and naming conventions could also use a pass for consistency

Some suggested tables that clear out the vague rules and straighten out the gear "bundles" and "kits...


Equipment

Weapons

Name	TL	Range	Damage	Weight (kg)	Cost	Magazine	Mag Cost	Traits
Survival Blade	7	Melee	2D	0.5	Cr150	–	–	–
Machete (Field Kit)	7	Melee	2D	1.0	Cr150	–	–	–
Snub Revolver	8	5m	3D - 3	1.0	Cr150	6	Cr10	Zero-G
5mm Carbine	5	250m	2D+3	5.0	Cr200	10	Cr15	Scope (no DM-2 for long range), DM+2 for recon if used to spy
4mm Survival Rifle	5	100m	2D	3.0	Cr200	1 (Breech)	Cr2	Silent
Hatchet	6	Melee	2D+2	2.0	Cr100	–	–	Tool

Ammo

Type	For Weapon	Quantity	Notes
Snub Pistol Rounds	Snub Revolver (x2)	50 rounds (sealed box), plus 26 loose	76 rounds -- Found in escape pods. Standard 10-round mags
5mm Carbine Magazines	5mm Carbine	2 mags (both fully loaded)	20 rounds -- 10 rounds per mag
4mm Survival Rifle Ammo	4mm Survival Rifle	50 bullets, 50 shotgun shells	Use range 10 if used as shotgun

Armor

Name	TL	Protection	Weight (kg)	Cost	Required Skill	Notes
Crewsuit	10	0	10.0	Cr2000	Vacc Suit 0	Short-term vacc protection, not armored
Arctic Clothing	5	0	3.0	Cr100	–	Cold weather protection only
Field Clothing	5	0	1.0	Cr50	–	Standard clothing

Essentially, arctic clothing and especially the crewsuit are trash. The players should quickly realize that 10kg for no protection should be dumped. Not sure why that was even included. A fun red herring, I guess.

Other equipment. As best as I could surmise:

Escape pod:

Item	Weight (kg)	Count	Notes
Field Clothing Kit	—	1x per traveller	Basic layered clothes + sandals; no encumbrance if worn
Emergency Survival Kit (Personal)	2.5	1x per traveller	Full contents detailed below
Water Purification Kit	0.5	1x per traveller	Funnel, filter straws, tablets, test strips

Contents of the above "Emergency Survival Kit -- Personal" (also found on Crash site 2 as part of the Emergency Vehicle Kit):

Item	Weight (kg)	Count	Notes
Waterproof sock/mittens (x2)	~0.2	1	Included in kit
Waterproof poncho/shelter	0.5	1	Doubles as blanket/tarp
Soft head-wrap	~0.1	1	Face and neck wrap
Fire-starting kit	0.2	1	Flint, capsules, etc.
Chemical heat tablets	0.2	1	Provides warmth
Water purification tablets	~0.1	10	Supplement to filter kit
Water filters (set)	0.5	1	Direct-to-pool filter straws
Canteen	0.5	1	Water bottle
Survival knife (multi-tool)	0.5	1	Knife + pliers/clippers
Food (bars)	0.5	1	1 day
Food (dried rations)	1.5	1	1 week preserved rations (≈8 FU total)
Chemical lightsticks (12)	1	1	Single-use light sources
Clockwork flashlight	0.5	1	Wind-up powered
Whistle	0.1	1	Audible signaling
Small mirror	0.1	1	Can be used for visual signaling
Minimal medical pack	0.5	1	Bandages, antiseptic, painkillers. DM-1 to First Aid checks.

Crash Site 1

Item	Weight (kg)	Count	Notes
Field Medical Kit	3.0	1	Surgical tools, injectors, diagnostics;

Crash Site 2

Personal Bundle (x6):

Item	Weight (kg)	Count	Notes
Emergency Survival Kit (Personal)	2.5	1	See above for contents
Field Kit, Individual	3.0	1	Includes machete (2D), poncho/blanket, 6 lightsticks, fire kit, water bottle, 1 day iron rations
Arctic Clothing	—	1	Cold protection; AV 0
Sleeping Bag	1.0	1	Supposedly waterproof
Respirator + Filters	1.0	1	Air filtration mask

More stuff in the Vehicle Emergency Kit:

Item	Weight (kg) each	Count	Notes
Emergency Light/Signal Kit	1.0	1	12 distress flares
Tent/Shelter (2-person)	5.0	3	Covers 6 people total
Field Medical Kit	2.0	1	Duplicate of Crash Site 1
Chemical testers (food/water)	0.5	1	Disposable strips for safety checks
Water purification still	3.0	1	Passive/active water extraction
10L Water Container w/ Filter	1.0 empty, 10.0 full	6	Large water transport with built-in filters
Field Ration Pack (10-day)	5.0	6	100 FU per pack. Total 600 FU
Hatchet	2.0	1	2D+2 damage, tool or weapon
Emergency Tool	3.0	1	Hammer, lever, jack, spear

Map

Just ignore the planet map. It's wrong. Use the local hex map.

Terrain Types.

If it's obvious from the map, then just use that, but you can also use this table to randomly pick a terrain type, if it's ambiguous from the hex they're on. Also, Marshy terrain says it's 15km, which is impossible to track on 10km hex, so just use 10. Here's a simplified table with how many hexes per day they can move depending on the terrain you roll.

1d6	Terrain Type	Movement Rate	Encounter Roll	Notes (RP)
1	Marshy	1 hex/day	7+	Wet, low-lying, hard to find dry paths. Most common terrain.
2	Marshy	1 hex/day	7+	Same as above. Roll duplicated for higher occurrence.
3	Overgrown	1 hex/day	8+	Dense vegetation, may require cutting or detouring. Slower and obstructed.
4	Hilly	2 hexes/day	9+	Scrubby slopes, clustered trees. Drier terrain, better going.
5	Riverbank	1 hex/day (walking on bank) or 2 hexes/day upstream or 4 hexes/day downstream (in a raft)	7+ (bank) or 9+ (raft)	Bank counts as marshy for travel. Roll 1-3 for upstream or 4-6 for downstream.
6	Lake Shore	1 hex/day (walking on shore) or 3 hexes/day (boat/raft)	7+ (shore) or 10+ (raft)	Banks = marshy; boats allow faster movement but increase encounter chance.

Survival
Hunting and fishing is a wall of text, but can be summarized in the following couple of tables.

Activity	Skill	Roll	Result on Success	Time Required	Notes
Foraging	Survival	6+ (Routine)	1D FU + Effect	1 full day	Includes small game & plants
Fishing	Survival	6+ (Routine)	1D FU + Effect	1 full day	Only in Lake or River terrain
Small Game Hunt	Survival	6+ (Routine)	1D FU + Effect	1 full day	Trapping or bow hunting, low danger
Large Game Hunt	Varies	Roleplayed	See Animal Table	1+ days	Uses weapon + Survival + tactics

Creature	Description / Size	Food Yield (FU)
Plateface	Rhino/triceratops-sized grazer	4D + 12 + Effect
Razormouth	Large-dog-sized apex predator, pack	2D + Effect
River-Hunter	Large aquatic predator, crocodile-like	3D + Effect
Marsh-Hunter	Dog-sized aquatic hunter	1D + Effect
Croconeck	15 kg herbivore, harmless	1D
Ground Scavenger	Tiny winged lizard, 1 HP	0*(no edible meat)*

Weather
Weather is mentioned on the island, but is kind of inconsistent. Use this optionally to add more randomness and flair.

2d6	Weather Condition	Description
2	Violent Storm	Gale-force winds, horizontal rain, visibility <10m. Movement halved, checks involving perception or travel suffer -2 DM.
3	Cold Torrential Downpour	Near-constant heavy rain, temperature near freezing. Hypothermia risk if exposed.
4	Steady Cold Rain	Persistent drizzle with muddy ground. Travel impeded.
5	Fog and Drizzle	Low visibility, muffled sound. +2 DM to stealth, -2 DM to ranged attacks and Recon.
6	Overcast and Damp	No sun, chill in the air, oppressive humidity. Normal conditions but morale suffers.
7	Patchy Clouds and Chill Wind	Cold wind from the mountains, but relatively clear. Ideal for travel.
8	Misty Sunshine	Short periods of filtered sunlight. Swamp steams, insects swarm.
9	Warm Spell	Slightly above-average temperature, ideal for foraging. Wildlife more active.
10	Tropical Rainsquall	Sudden heavy rain for 1d3 hours, then clear. Check for flash flooding if near rivers or low ground.
11	Lightning Storm	Spectacular but dangerous. Risk of fire or damage to gear. Electronics vulnerable.
12	Localized Weather Disturbance	Roll twice more; apply both results in different hexes/parts of the day. Effects may include rapid weather shifts, microbursts, etc.

 

[IanBruntlett]

Interesting! Can you make it available as a PDF or something?

 

[Galadrion]

Bear in mind that while a crewsuit provides no armor protection, it does provide (at least short-term) vacuum protection - which can double as breathing air and similar protection. (As an example of what this could be useful for in a marshy environment, consider this - it can substitute for a diving suit and substitute SCUBA gear, at least for a short time and to a shallow depth - say, twenty to thirty minutes at no more than ten meters depth. I'd recommend having the crewsuit checked over afterward, but if you need something like that...)

 

[swordtart]

Crew suit is also waterproof and in cold weather getting wet can be fatal.

 

[ottarrus]

Emphasize to the players that the emergency gear is not the 'Gucci gear' they'd buy for themselves. All the clothing is baggy and 'one size fits most'. The equipment isn't the guaranteed for a lifetime type stuff, it's mostly one-use emergency only stuff. Not quite disposable, but nearly so.

As for the carbine, a good example might the the M6 Scout survival carbine [pic below]. This weapon breaks open at the breech to feed a .223 rifle round and a low-powered .410 ga bird shot round [using a full powered shotgun round is NOT recommended]. The hatchet is likely an emergency multitool [pic below]

 

[Condottiere]

Prepper quality varies, and how much you spend on your bug out bag.

 

[ottarrus]

Prepper quality varies, and how much you spend on your bug out bag.

Certainly. But most ship captains buy the required survival pack and most people stranded have to live with his penny-pinching. You want Gucci gear, you buy your own.

 

[Condottiere]

I thought that was one of the reasons we have the ship's locker.

The mystery has always been, how big it is, and if we can stuff everything inside.

 

[swordtart]

Ships locker is different to gear stowed in survival pods. This thread is about the survival gear that the captain of the ship in the scenario stowed in his survival pods. Had there been really good gear it would likely end up diverted to other purposes or pilfered by passengers for souvenirs.

Survival gear also tends to be multi-function in order to reduce the number of tools and the overall bulk of the equipment. There is an adage that an adjustable spanner is not the correct spanner. Equipment will be chosen such that a complete novice has a chance of using and so will dispense with many of the fancy do-dads that would take time to become familiar enough with to use effectively. It likely doesn't come with comprehensive instructions (maybe just pictograms) and needs to be low maintenance both while in stowage and when actually deployed as maintenance usually requires additional tools. As an example many blades are stainless steel which not the best for keeping an edge.

It is also, hopefully, equipment that never needs to be used (and in the case of passenger survival gear will never be used by the people procuring it). Even in the event of an emergency a significant proportion of survival equipment will remain with the corpses of people who failed to survive long enough to use it for various reasons. Paying a lot of money for it is contra-indicated.

Much of the time it will be fitted for regulatory reasons or as a placebo.

These design criteria tend to move the equipment away from what you would buy if you were planning to buy a specific tool for a particular job.

 

[swordtart]

As for the carbine, a good example might the the M6 Scout survival carbine [pic below]. This weapon breaks open at the breech to feed a .223 rifle round and a low-powered .410 ga bird shot round [using a full powered shotgun round is NOT recommended]. The hatchet is likely an emergency multitool [pic below]

I think the M6 scout used a .22 hornet round which whilst much better than a .22 rimfire round (also a common survival rifle round) or .22 WMR is not the same as the .223 rifle round* and has inferior ballistics to the .223 (though it is quieter, smaller and tends to produce milder recoil).

The .22 hornet is a good anti-vermin or small game round in a compact package that will be gentle on inexperienced shooters, which is doubtless why it was chosen for this purpose.

*By this I am assuming you mean the .223 Remington.

 

[ottarrus]

I think the M6 scout used a .22 hornet round which whilst much better than a .22 rimfire round (also a common survival rifle round) or .22 WMR is not the same as the .223 rifle round* and has inferior ballistics to the .223 (though it is quieter, smaller and tends to produce milder recoil).

The .22 hornet is a good anti-vermin or small game round in a compact package that will be gentle on inexperienced shooters, which is doubtless why it was chosen for this purpose.

*By this I am assuming you mean the .223 Remington.

There have been several models of the M6 produced over it's long life.
A guy who flew late in the Vietnam War told me the round was a .223, which I'll grant you is a bit hot for a carbine of this minimalist design. Maybe he said it was the .22 Hornet, it seems likely. I was just dredging up a 30 year old memory of a conversation.
In Traveller terms, you can do it a couple of ways... just go with a 2d6 carbine round or a 1d6+2 subcaliber round. Given the challenges faced by the players in 'Stranded', I'm inclined to go with 2d6.

 

[Condottiere]

Survival gear would need to be based on the environment you expect to be dropped in.

For weapons, whether you plan to supplement the iron rations by inviting a nearby rabbit to share your stew, or have a somewhat irate grizzly wishing to discuss existential angst.

I tend to think the most suitable firearm would be a long barrelled snub pistol, with colour coded ammunition.

Followed by a shotgun with sub calibre inserts.

 

[ottarrus]

Condo, we're not talking about environment-specific loadouts here.
'Stranded' presumes the PCs are dropped on the back-end of Fuck-that-istan with the most generic minimum standard gear possible. No custom anything. You open LSP's patented Survival In A Box [tm] kit and this is what you find... the not-quite-useless crap manufactured to minimum legal standard. The stuff will work. Mostly.

 

[Condottiere]

No, I think I'm correct.

As a general purpose survival weapon, the shotgun with sub calibre inserts allows a wide range of ammunition to to be utilized, especially stuff you might pick up.

Possibly, have one custom made for local bullets that are non standard.

The snub pistol, or more likely revolver, is an easy to use sidearm, when you are being threatened at short range.

I had a thought about it a couple of years ago, when I bought Field Catalogue.

 

[ottarrus]

And that works fine IYTU.
But the OP was talking about improving the experience of the adventure as published.

 

[swordtart]

There have been several models of the M6 produced over it's long life.
A guy who flew late in the Vietnam War told me the round was a .223, which I'll grant you is a bit hot for a carbine of this minimalist design. Maybe he said it was the .22 Hornet, it seems likely. I was just dredging up a 30 year old memory of a conversation.
In Traveller terms, you can do it a couple of ways... just go with a 2d6 carbine round or a 1d6+2 subcaliber round. Given the challenges faced by the players in 'Stranded', I'm inclined to go with 2d6.

Sorry my post might have come across as picky, I didn't mean it that way, more as a way of exploring the problem space and the reasoning behind the solution chosen.

I am inclined to agree. The Field Catalogue has 2d6 for a light rifle round (like the .22 Hornet) with a base range of 150m. For reference the .223 would be an intermediate rifle at 3d6 in that book with a base range of 250m. I would peg the .22LR as the "pistol" calibre as whilst you can use it in rifles, they tend to be short range target guns rather than hunting weapons, whereas .22LR pistols are the poor man's self-defence gun.

The shotgun barrel incidentally would be a small smoothbore in FC terms and be doing 3d6-2 probably using the smallest shot possible to maximise the chance of bringing down a bird target (a target that would need a larger projectile in the shotgun round would be better dealt with by the .22 Hornet through the rifled barrel instead).

I don't think this is the case with this particular gun, but there is a breed of cross-calibre guns (particularly pistols) that can use .45 Long colt and .410 without changing the weapon in any way. It need to be able to handle the more powerful .45 round and it is not as good at shooting those as a dedicated .45 but it offers some advantage in flexibility and skirts some permit issues (a short barrel .410 only weapon is often classified as a short barrel (concealable) shotgun and attracts a lot of admin faff).

I'll have to work the M6 up in field catalogue and post it up.

 

[swordtart]

No, I think I'm correct.

As a general purpose survival weapon, the shotgun with sub calibre inserts allows a wide range of ammunition to to be utilized, especially stuff you might pick up.

Possibly, have one custom made for local bullets that are non standard.

The snub pistol, or more likely revolver, is an easy to use sidearm, when you are being threatened at short range.

I had a thought about it a couple of years ago, when I bought Field Catalogue.

We are talking about a post accident survival weapon here, it will be packaged with ammunition. This is not a personal survival kit prepared for a specific expedition. This is in a life pod that will hopefully navigate to the nearest habitable planet as quickly as possible to enable you to survive longer than you would on the ship you are escaping from or with the minimal life support available in a life pod. You don't get to choose what random planet in advance when you are picking out your equipment for the pod. If you are lucky it will be at least in your target system, but in the event of misjump (as in this scenario) you could end up literally anywhere.

A variety of ammunition might be appropriate (signalling, shot , solid) but these will be with the gun if any are provided.

This is not a post-apocalypse scenario where you can be expected to be able to scrounge up ammunition (though for that scenario, your suggestion has a great deal of merit).

I did design the cheapest pistol I could using the Field Catalogue and got it down to Cr5 for an Accuracy -8, two short barrel, single shot derringer type pistol. It came packaged with two rounds each of Incendiary ammunition and Spread 4 Flechette ammunition (the ammunition cost twice as much as the gun!). It would also take conventional Medium Pistol ammunition but none was packed with it. It came in a "tasteful" bright orange box and was designed to be put in with survival kits. The flechette rounds were for snake shot (and at short range it would be hard to miss). The incendiary rounds were purportedly for signalling (very poor flares) but were very effective for fire starting.

Packed with only those two ammunition types it was classed as a survival tool (as long as the seal on the waterproof box wasn't broken) and allowed past some law level restrictions that would otherwise apply. Carrying more ammunition than that contained in the sealed orange box would immediately make it a Law Level 5 Personal Concealable Weapon.

 

[Condottiere]

I probably expressed more precise opinions in some former posts.

But, as a survival gun, you really can't beat a snub revolver for someone who just got dropped into the wilderness, with a zip lock bag full of ammunition.

Any threat larger that can't be dealt with a ten millimetre exploding bullet, and preferably a tad further away than adjacent, shotgun.

For a more paramilitarized survival pack, the advanced combat rifle is about perfect; cheapskate version being the assault rifle.

 

[ottarrus]

Sorry my post might have come across as picky, I didn't mean it that way, more as a way of exploring the problem space and the reasoning behind the solution chosen.

I am inclined to agree. The Field Catalogue has 2d6 for a light rifle round (like the .22 Hornet) with a base range of 150m. For reference the .223 would be an intermediate rifle at 3d6 in that book with a base range of 250m. I would peg the .22LR as the "pistol" calibre as whilst you can use it in rifles, they tend to be short range target guns rather than hunting weapons, whereas .22LR pistols are the poor man's self-defence gun.

The shotgun barrel incidentally would be a small smoothbore in FC terms and be doing 3d6-2 probably using the smallest shot possible to maximise the chance of bringing down a bird target (a target that would need a larger projectile in the shotgun round would be better dealt with by the .22 Hornet through the rifled barrel instead).

I don't think this is the case with this particular gun, but there is a breed of cross-calibre guns (particularly pistols) that can use .45 Long colt and .410 without changing the weapon in any way. It need to be able to handle the more powerful .45 round and it is not as good at shooting those as a dedicated .45 but it offers some advantage in flexibility and skirts some permit issues (a short barrel .410 only weapon is often classified as a short barrel (concealable) shotgun and attracts a lot of admin faff).

I'll have to work the M6 up in field catalogue and post it up.

I didn't think your post was 'picky' so much as precise. Every player in a survival scenario wants to know exactly what they have available, down to the last tent grommet, and that's what I thought you were doing.
And I was also thinking of later in the campaign.
The gear in a Survival In A Box shouldn't be mistaken for the gear a serious outdoorsman would carry on a job. If your PCs show up in front of a patron who is paying them hard credits to do a job in the boonies wearing baggy, ill-fitting and carrying obviously cheap gear, they shouldn't get the pay /respect of a real professional. To put it another way, what's in your pack and worn on your ass is just as important as what's in the holster on your hip.
But, of course, this isn't a game of 'Accountants and Actuaries', and you may not want to have that level of grit in your game. How you handle it at your table is entirely your choice.

 

[swordtart]

I'll have to work the M6 up in field catalogue and post it up.

Actually this is harder than it should be. Whilst the main difference between a rifle and a shotgun is the barrel, the main difference between a Field Catalogue rifle and a shotgun is the receiver. Making a Drilling with a rifle over a shotgun is spoken of but actually the barrels are identical (in game terms as it is all about length). When using a mixed load receiver there is no clear ways forward.

However small smoothbore and light rifles both reduce weight by 40%. They have different effects on capacity (and smoothbore receivers have different capacities as well) but as we are going single shot we can gloss over that. Smoothbores are cheaper to produce than rifles and there is a 25% reduction in receiver cost (I am going to take this off the barrel at least). We are basically talking a double barrel single shot rifle/shotgun and there is already one of those in the book on p70.

We need to adjust the weight (significantly since the example erroneously assumes the default weight for a longarm is 3kg rather than 2.5kg.) and we are a small smoothbore rather than a light one. Wikipedia has the barrel length of the M6 being 14" which is tending to the short. I am inclined to class it as a carbine barrel which will reduce the damage by 1 point and range by 10% but also take quite a bit off the weight.

The example seems to indicate that you get no discount for reduced ammunition capacity if you go the single shot route. This seems harsh given the weight etc. assumes a full load of ammunition. Normally I would reduce for ammo capacity as well but here I'll leave it and we'll say the 14 rounds of shotgun ammunition and 36 rounds of rifle ammunition are stored in the stock.

I can't get a nice table here but basically for Cr150 we get a 2.7kg gun with a rifle barrel with a range of 135m that does 2d-1 and a shotgun barrel doing 3d-2 with a range of 55m/13m (slug and pellet) and internal storage for 36 rounds of rifle ammo and 14 rounds of shotgun ammo.

This seems both better and worse than the M6. Maybe using a handgun receiver would be more appropriate.

For the scenario there are no stats given, and 4mm is a bizarre calibre to be able to have a shot variant ammunition. There was a survival rifle in MGT1 central supply catalogue that is a dismal weapon that looks like it was based on the M6 but worse. Handily however, the damage is bob-on 2D6-1.