It's all about the story
- Thread starter Reynard
- Start date
Reynard
Emperor Mongoose
If it's there you have to use it. Just because Traveller has starships it doesn't mean you have to fly from system to system. Star Wars is lucky enough to have interstellar travel based on the speed of a writer's need. Traveller is more like the age of sail, distances between points of interest are far and time consuming and the adventure doen't start until you sight land. As a note, Star Trek is much the same.
As some have mentioned, entire campaigns can take place on one world. This is an ideal way to create a series of pre-generated adventures which are discovered by wandering, overhearing rumors and taking jobs through patrons. It allows for a more realistic time frame players can grasp and system hopping is a way to move the campaign to the next exotic location for another series of adventures. This can save players a fortune on ship costs. Players without a ship of their own can logically take passage on a ship to their next destination and focus on the adventures.
Don't forget adventures can involve interplanetary travel within a system from planetside to moonlandings to asteroid belts to 'something' circling the far gas giant. A single system can have a wide variety of environments.
As some have mentioned, entire campaigns can take place on one world. This is an ideal way to create a series of pre-generated adventures which are discovered by wandering, overhearing rumors and taking jobs through patrons. It allows for a more realistic time frame players can grasp and system hopping is a way to move the campaign to the next exotic location for another series of adventures. This can save players a fortune on ship costs. Players without a ship of their own can logically take passage on a ship to their next destination and focus on the adventures.
Don't forget adventures can involve interplanetary travel within a system from planetside to moonlandings to asteroid belts to 'something' circling the far gas giant. A single system can have a wide variety of environments.
Egil Skallagrimsson
Mongoose
To sandbox or not to sandbox? I have only come across this term in role playing since I returned to the fold about 3 years ago, wargaming "sandboxes" are a different thing.
20years ago when I was playing and DMing fantasy games (mainly AD&D), we did play some "free form" games, which were sandbox by another name. Some worked better than others (one became notorious, successive groups wandered around a city, nothing happened, so we got bored and started attacking people/castles etc, until eventually overwhelmed and killed, I think that happpened 4 times before the DM gave up and realised that needed some reason for us to be exploring his city).
Now I run a mix, some sessions are very open and rely on the players to initiate something, with me throwing in a variety of randomly generated "meetings" from whatever MgT tables I happen to be using that evening. It helps that my group are a mature and co-operative bunch (i.e. don't just hide in their space ship)
Others sessions are based on an "adventure" which will contain difficulties and problems, and will start as quite a detailed plot, though events might change that. Again, it helps that players get the hint accepting a job from a patron.
One thing I think is very important is discussion with your players before you start, "what kind of sci-fi genre shall we do?" etc, but I am lucky that my little group is pretty mature and well informed.
I tend to avoid excessive dice rolls, until dangerous activities start (usually combat), when I then become all wargamer and take the (modified) dice rolls as final.
Egil
20years ago when I was playing and DMing fantasy games (mainly AD&D), we did play some "free form" games, which were sandbox by another name. Some worked better than others (one became notorious, successive groups wandered around a city, nothing happened, so we got bored and started attacking people/castles etc, until eventually overwhelmed and killed, I think that happpened 4 times before the DM gave up and realised that needed some reason for us to be exploring his city).
Now I run a mix, some sessions are very open and rely on the players to initiate something, with me throwing in a variety of randomly generated "meetings" from whatever MgT tables I happen to be using that evening. It helps that my group are a mature and co-operative bunch (i.e. don't just hide in their space ship)
Others sessions are based on an "adventure" which will contain difficulties and problems, and will start as quite a detailed plot, though events might change that. Again, it helps that players get the hint accepting a job from a patron.
One thing I think is very important is discussion with your players before you start, "what kind of sci-fi genre shall we do?" etc, but I am lucky that my little group is pretty mature and well informed.
I tend to avoid excessive dice rolls, until dangerous activities start (usually combat), when I then become all wargamer and take the (modified) dice rolls as final.
Egil
All groups have thier own charecter.Some are able to sfl generate ideas, others need nudging to one degree or another. Somethimes a lot of nudging.
I try to not write up to much, to far in advance. For one thing I am pretty good at doing it on the fly. For another, sometimes you get a big disapointment. Like the time I dd a full pyramid complex for a Conan gameand the party decided that it was to dangeropus and didnt go in at all.
I try to not write up to much, to far in advance. For one thing I am pretty good at doing it on the fly. For another, sometimes you get a big disapointment. Like the time I dd a full pyramid complex for a Conan gameand the party decided that it was to dangeropus and didnt go in at all.
I go with sandbox.
But the ref needs to have a few adventures/types ready for use with various plot hooks.
It also helps to put 'toys' of various types in the sandbox without making the players 'play' with a specific truck or shovel.
That way, you can see what sort of toys/adventures to set up without railroading the players.
Also, by moving the unused toys around, it gives the appearance that the setting is live and not static.
Plus, the players won't always know if those movements are meant as red herrings or not; pc's can be extremely paranoid.
But the ref needs to have a few adventures/types ready for use with various plot hooks.
It also helps to put 'toys' of various types in the sandbox without making the players 'play' with a specific truck or shovel.
That way, you can see what sort of toys/adventures to set up without railroading the players.
Also, by moving the unused toys around, it gives the appearance that the setting is live and not static.
Plus, the players won't always know if those movements are meant as red herrings or not; pc's can be extremely paranoid.
I've been trying to get a traveller game off the ground for about a year or so by now.
The first player got his character ready and the other two are slowly getting there since their lives make it difficult to look at this until the weekend.
I've had to lend my copy of the pocket handbook to the fourth player as he was not replying to my emails so I've been able to order a replacement which I'm still waiting on but thanks to Leisure Games and bits and mortar I have a pdf to refer too so I can still make some progress.
Anyway my initial idea was setting it in the spinward marches but rather than use traveller canon i set it out using the lost fleet series for inspiration.
The x boat route were changed to a series of hypernet gates allowing instant travel across star systems with jump drives being only used to reach those systems not on the gate network.
However 14 years previously the gates all unexpectedly exploded taking most of the high technology, ships and people since they tended to congregate where they could earn the best living.
The resulting mess caused the Solomani Empire to sunder into four parts, the remaining oart of the Solomani Empire controls most of the systems but only because their opposition don't have the means to further their borders at present.
The Sword Worlds rose after most of their sectors' systems were destroyed and control the second largest area of the Marches.
The Darrians renamed the Aryans are the most advanced and have automated warships but lack the numbers and resources to seize control.
Finally the Zhodani have been renamed the Theocratic Consulate and I picture them ass the religious led nation who have the strongest link to the past but lack both the manpower, resources and strength necessary to do anything more than hold their own border along the Cronor sub-sector of the Marches.
Now my original idea involved a big mystery and I did a copy of the entire Marches systems and wrote a number of questions on the back to use as physical evidence that something big was going on.
Since then the players have gotten only so far generating their characters but Fulacin now has two gas giants, one of the player's is running a psion who was brought to Beck's World as a child and trained as an Adept with no mention of their past, another player is running a Support Marine who took part in the initial Sword Worlds uprising, another player is running a scientist and former scout who owns his own lab ship and recently came into the ownership of a mining vessel.
The last player who has just emailed me his character so far is a former citizen who became a scout who apparently served in the Sword Worlds scout service and made several trips into imperial territory only to end up far from home after his ship was attacked.
What i mean is that I had a set idea of what i was planning to run and after reading their characters so far I've been altering and updating according to what they've sent me and find it intereting that my original idea is slowly changing into something I wouldn't have expected a year ago when I started!
I'm looking forward to seeing where this leads, I just hope I'm up to the task but thats a story for another time!
The first player got his character ready and the other two are slowly getting there since their lives make it difficult to look at this until the weekend.
I've had to lend my copy of the pocket handbook to the fourth player as he was not replying to my emails so I've been able to order a replacement which I'm still waiting on but thanks to Leisure Games and bits and mortar I have a pdf to refer too so I can still make some progress.
Anyway my initial idea was setting it in the spinward marches but rather than use traveller canon i set it out using the lost fleet series for inspiration.
The x boat route were changed to a series of hypernet gates allowing instant travel across star systems with jump drives being only used to reach those systems not on the gate network.
However 14 years previously the gates all unexpectedly exploded taking most of the high technology, ships and people since they tended to congregate where they could earn the best living.
The resulting mess caused the Solomani Empire to sunder into four parts, the remaining oart of the Solomani Empire controls most of the systems but only because their opposition don't have the means to further their borders at present.
The Sword Worlds rose after most of their sectors' systems were destroyed and control the second largest area of the Marches.
The Darrians renamed the Aryans are the most advanced and have automated warships but lack the numbers and resources to seize control.
Finally the Zhodani have been renamed the Theocratic Consulate and I picture them ass the religious led nation who have the strongest link to the past but lack both the manpower, resources and strength necessary to do anything more than hold their own border along the Cronor sub-sector of the Marches.
Now my original idea involved a big mystery and I did a copy of the entire Marches systems and wrote a number of questions on the back to use as physical evidence that something big was going on.
Since then the players have gotten only so far generating their characters but Fulacin now has two gas giants, one of the player's is running a psion who was brought to Beck's World as a child and trained as an Adept with no mention of their past, another player is running a Support Marine who took part in the initial Sword Worlds uprising, another player is running a scientist and former scout who owns his own lab ship and recently came into the ownership of a mining vessel.
The last player who has just emailed me his character so far is a former citizen who became a scout who apparently served in the Sword Worlds scout service and made several trips into imperial territory only to end up far from home after his ship was attacked.
What i mean is that I had a set idea of what i was planning to run and after reading their characters so far I've been altering and updating according to what they've sent me and find it intereting that my original idea is slowly changing into something I wouldn't have expected a year ago when I started!
I'm looking forward to seeing where this leads, I just hope I'm up to the task but thats a story for another time!
