Reynard
Emperor Mongoose
It seems every Traveller topic on this forum is dedicated to the mechanics of the game from system and ship creation to how far a certain gun can shoot. Desparately missing is discussions about how to create, run and play campaigns and scenarios.
Traveller has the mechanics for general sci fi stories as well as a pre-made universe with lots of background information. Even so many people, especially GMs, are overwhelmed by all the details and not sure where to take a campaign. This thread is for GMs and players to relate what their games stories are like and how they make them successful.
For my start on this, don't micromanage a game! There's a lot of stuff in Traveller that's super detailed but that should be GMs' sandbox designing outside the game. It's all background and backdrop to a story. The players' characters should be oblivious to all but what's in their face.
Watch sci fi movies and break them down into encounters and segues (the transitions between action scenes). Notice what's important in the scenes as part of the action, the background and the props. They're normally not worried about the design of the entire planet just the environment affecting them at the moment. The guts of the spaceship isn't important at the moment as it's just getting from point A to point B though there could be something concerning the ship that focuses the action. And every detail about the opposition isn't important unless the GM brings it up as part of the encounter.
Think of your latest story as a movie. Start with a general concept for the story and create a summary. Break it up into important scenes (encounters) that move it to an end. Don't try to drag players from one scene to the next like old time dungeon crawls that actually have players walk every corridor and decide whether to go left or right evey ten feet. Use segues to describe important imformation that may flavor the story or the upcoming scene. Building each encounter helps me decide how the story will grow and progress giving me ideas for later scenes.
The only time the whole planet is important is on approach or leaving otherwise focus on that patch of real estate the character will occupy. Unless you plan on using it as a regular anchorpoint DO NOT build an entire starport or city or anything that won't see more than a few background shots. Think what the players will see and what will be useful during the encounter. Same with props. More room for storytime.
I'll stop here for now but let's hear others on how they make a story and what they've created.
Traveller has the mechanics for general sci fi stories as well as a pre-made universe with lots of background information. Even so many people, especially GMs, are overwhelmed by all the details and not sure where to take a campaign. This thread is for GMs and players to relate what their games stories are like and how they make them successful.
For my start on this, don't micromanage a game! There's a lot of stuff in Traveller that's super detailed but that should be GMs' sandbox designing outside the game. It's all background and backdrop to a story. The players' characters should be oblivious to all but what's in their face.
Watch sci fi movies and break them down into encounters and segues (the transitions between action scenes). Notice what's important in the scenes as part of the action, the background and the props. They're normally not worried about the design of the entire planet just the environment affecting them at the moment. The guts of the spaceship isn't important at the moment as it's just getting from point A to point B though there could be something concerning the ship that focuses the action. And every detail about the opposition isn't important unless the GM brings it up as part of the encounter.
Think of your latest story as a movie. Start with a general concept for the story and create a summary. Break it up into important scenes (encounters) that move it to an end. Don't try to drag players from one scene to the next like old time dungeon crawls that actually have players walk every corridor and decide whether to go left or right evey ten feet. Use segues to describe important imformation that may flavor the story or the upcoming scene. Building each encounter helps me decide how the story will grow and progress giving me ideas for later scenes.
The only time the whole planet is important is on approach or leaving otherwise focus on that patch of real estate the character will occupy. Unless you plan on using it as a regular anchorpoint DO NOT build an entire starport or city or anything that won't see more than a few background shots. Think what the players will see and what will be useful during the encounter. Same with props. More room for storytime.
I'll stop here for now but let's hear others on how they make a story and what they've created.