[JBE] Traveller Adventure: Crash Landing

[dmccoy1693]

I had the idea for a short adventure for Traveller and I posted the adventure on my website. Please read it over and tell us what you think. I'd love to hear what you thought and if you would like to see more of these. And I hope it is helpful for your games.

 

[Galadrion]

Looks interesting... actually, it looks like a very useful springboard for GM creativity. I don't know if you're planning on developing this into a salable product, but I could easily see it happening.

Although if I was a player in this game, I'd be wondering what was going on that so many spacecraft have gone down in such a small area in such a short time. Obviously, something not normal is happening...

 

[dmccoy1693]

Looks interesting... actually, it looks like a very useful springboard for GM creativity. I don't know if you're planning on developing this into a salable product, but I could easily see it happening.

*said joking* Everything is salable; the only question is how much.
*serious* I have a number of ideas on ways to take this if people are interested in seeing more of it.

Although if I was a player in this game, I'd be wondering what was going on that so many spacecraft have gone down in such a small area in such a short time. Obviously, something not normal is happening...

I did think of that while I was writing it. I figured if this little adventure experiment goes well, I can address that later.

 

[dragoner]

Sargasso of Space?

 

[Galadrion]

Once is accident; twice is coincidence. This reeks of enemy action. Who, why, and how? (Where and when are at least partially obvious - right here, right now - and what depends on what's being asked. Could be the planet/moon, could be the ships, could be cargo. Could even be something so off-the-wall that the players aren't going to be able to guess without learning some or all of the other answers...)

As I said, this could easily be the springboard into something a lot wider-ranging. A twist on piracy the players haven't seen/encountered before? A subtle opening gambit in a war? Alien action, possibly but not necessarily combined with the previous options? A natural hazard? A previously unheard-of animal encounter, with an equally unheard-of ability to do this? All sorts of possibilities, I see.

 

[phavoc]

In order for the ships to have gone unnoticed, you'll need to provide some sort of background in regards to why scans from passing ships never detect the ships (or crash beacons or survival beacons) on the surface. Perhaps there's a taint or something in the atmosphere that restricts sensor scans to just a few kilometers?

As for the how the ships got there... the moon wouldn't be able to be on a busy route, they would notice the ships missing. So it would have to be a place that is lightly trafficked by local ships. The types of ships there would indicate a variety of reasons why the different ship types are passing the system area. Having some other sort of hazard nearby could be a way to explain why nobody ever came looking for the downed ships.

One potentially plausible explanation for the ship crashes could be:
1) an ancient device that is malfunctioning and randomly brings a ship down. Perhaps there is a whole intact ship down there where the crew was killed when they activated the device? Then the players would have to figure out a way to move fuel from the crashed ships to the one that is fully functioning, but just with dry tanks

2) a (secret?) lab is performing experiments and there is an unintended side-effect that causes the ships to crash. perhaps some new meson communication device on the far side of the moon where the crashes are taking place is so powerful it's shorting out ships navigation systems and causing them to crash. Because the moon is blocking their scans, the lab has no knowledge this is even occurring.

3) there is an astronomical rarity occuring when the moons and gas giant come into a certain pattern, causing massive localized magnetic/spacial interference that causes the ships to crash. since it's a lightly-travelled area, and only occurs irregularly, it's never been detected by any ship other than those unlucky few that happened to be in the wrong place/wrong time.

The necroid soldiers seem a bit of a stretch. Perhaps the soldiers are not flesh and blood but are just plain security bots on the fritz?

Other than that you have the makings of a quick adventure. Could especially be useful as a one-shot tournament or con adventure. Or maybe even as an introduction to Traveller if you have pre-rolled crews on the latest ship crash. You could also add in variables like vehicles are present, or not. Or other hazards on the surface that crew would have to overcome. Put into tables it could be totally random even if you knew what they were up-front.

 

[dmccoy1693]

I gotta admit, you guys have given me alot to think about. Good stuff there.

 

[AdrianH]

Suggestion: while there are four possible ships for the GM to choose from, only one of them is actually present. (Two of them specifically say that all the parts the players need are there, so if the players have done a proper job of searching then they won't need to go to another ship anyway.) The players can meet the paskrin on the way to the ship, the goliath spiders when they get to the ship, and the ants when they get back to their own ship.

If the GM feels that isn't enough, the necro-soldiers are either still in the salvage ship's cargo hold or have escaped and set up somewhere nearby. If the GM is really evil, there are no necro-soldiers but some of the computer cores are lying around the ship's cargo hold. If the players' own greed doesn't prompt them to steal the cores then the cores will attempt to sneak into the players' backpacks and infest them once they're back on their own ship. :twisted:

 

[Galadrion]

Mm... I tend not to like zombies in my sci-fi (don't much care for chocolate in my peanut butter, either) so I'd probably come up with some other analogue for those. The security/combat robots phavoc mentioned sounds quite reasonable - perhaps a Virus precursor? - or maybe some experimental, very realistic android. Terminator or Blade Runner are starting to sound like good models here...

 

[Easterner]

I didn't like it. However with some work it can be improved. As a matter of fact with the many excellent ideas the adventure could be set up in a number of ways to appeal to different groups i.e. the mother of all Patron Encounters. Add various on planet parameters and the adventure core could be run in different circumstances A creature fight, a ancient site under the surface, and other tropes.

As written:
Zanti-Misfits, Borg and Chamax. I think I've seen them before.

Sargasso of space, has to be a reason. For instance PC fix ship and it doesn't lift. The reason for so many wrecks needs be explained, also who stripped them, it implies other ships crashed and left. They didn't mention it. Selling the co-ords to a salvage outfit would get anyone's attention.

The adventure is similar in start to THE EDGE published by FASA High Passage Magazine #3; years ago. Enemy there quite different.

 

[MCEvans]

I like this , I classify this as an 'Amber Zone'. Enough to work with and get going and an end point (fix the ship and get off the rock). As for the finer details that's the GMs job.

For me, GG in a far orbit, the moon can be either a small moon located between two of the GGs Rings or a large moon in a for orbit of the GG that has anomalies.

I would like to see more of these "One Page - Amber Zone"

As for this one, more ships less creatures. Wounded PCs going from point A to Point B and back in Vacc Suits with environmental encounters should keep most PCs on there toes.