K’Kree Invasion?

[paltrysum]

I would much rather see materials on adventuring in K'kree space or playing K'kree in a campaign than a "K'kree are the coming to kill us" themed story.

I believe this is more along the lines of what we have in mind. But the invasion narrative is interesting!

 

[Vormaerin]

Wars can be interesting. But if Mongoose does another one, I hope they lead with Hard Times rather than a bunch of neat theater of operations maps and big ship stats. Or, at least, proper Naval Campaign and/or Mercenary adventure path.

Something that addresses the needs of players and GMs rather than being a coffee table book.

 

[Terry Mixon]

I believe this is more along the lines of what we have in mind. But the invasion narrative is interesting!

Maybe raiding parties to up the temperature.

 

[CordwainerFish]

And material on what is the equivalent of the Droyne sport for the K'kree

Something like Nessus from Ringworld, probably.

 

[Jarac Rassen]

If you take a look at the map as a logistician would, that's a loooong way off and the Imperium would have a lot of warning during which they could build ships and activate reserves.

The K'Kree have no realistic invasion route to the Imperium coreward of Khuur, at the rimward end of Ley. Everything coreward of there requires a J5 fleet. The K'kree have to cross eight subsectors, with either diplomatic pressure ("hey there as you know we'll absolutely certainly murder you later for being G'naak but for now would you mind letting us establish a precarious logistics chain across your territory?") or many years of military invasion.

Either way, the Imperium has a lot of warning, and the K'kree have to learn how to operate at the end of a logistics chain as long as their current empire is wide, using their vast, expensive and technologically inferior ships and weapons* against a foe fighting only a few subsectors from their industrial core.

Also, some Vargr would probably launch the odd raid - you can't really talk in sweeping terms about such a diverse jumble of polities - but the Vargr anywhere near the Two Thousand Worlds do not want to see the K'kree dominate. Check out GURPS Traveller: Alien Races 2, for example, for info on how the two races view each other: it's much how you would expect borderline wolves and murderous vegans to view each other. Especially so in the case of the Red Vargr that are found at the Trailing end of the Vargr territory.

*Nominally they're not massively behind the Imperium but they have a far more shallow industrial base. "Most starships operating within K’kree space are built to TL9–11 standards." and "The majority of K’kree worlds are within the TL7 to TL11 range... However, this technological capability refers to the cities. On worlds with a‘shirtsleeve’ environment there will always be a segment of the population living a simpler life on a semi-nomadic basis. These herds make use of advanced technology but cannot produce it." - Both quotes from "Aliens of Charted Space Volume 1".

This is why I think a scenario would be so interesting. The Imperium just needs to help fund/train the Gateway states to hold off the K'Kree. And the Vargyr would definitely jump in because I doubt they want to K'Kree to have more areas from where they could strike corewards.

 

[tytalan]

Not likely to happen the only major politicy they share a boarder with is the Hivers and they are scared of the Hivers every since one of the great manipulators converted a K’Kree world into meat eaters (or did they) and the imperium has the lessor Rift and a bunch of other empires between them and the 2000 worlds .

 

[Grognardia]

Oh gods - not another war, please. Ten books of fleet movement and tactical maps with little squiggles and arrows on them. Can't wait for this FFW nonsense to be over.

 

[tytalan]

Oh gods - not another war, please. Ten books of fleet movement and tactical maps with little squiggles and arrows on them. Can't wait for this FFW nonsense to be over.

Some people like that sort of stuff, not everything can be tailored to your desires just like not everything can be tailored to mine. If I had my wish we would get the same number of books for a Rebellion source. Also there’s a lot more in those book than just fleet and armies movements, you really do it a disservice.

 

[Vormaerin]

I am certainly not in favor of another war story for a while, but you can do one that is not a high level analysis divorced from what players and GMs actually need. Obviously, we only have part 1 of 2300's Invasion, but so far it looks like something you can actually use if you are so inclined.

Still, I think 5FW and Invasion should be enough wars for a while.

 

[Fluffy Bunny Feet]

Maybe they should be doing the War as a separate board game with options to run Traveller adventures for bonuses in the board game?

 

[actionman]

The K'Kree have some serious disadvantages, but I'm not up to date on the Mongoose canon for K'Kree so who knows:

• K'Kree have larger bodies, so their ships pack less weapons, armor, and drives per displacement ton than their smaller bodied enemies.
• Do K'Kree still suffer from claustrophobia in vehicle and ship interiors? If so, then their ships have to allocate even more space to dealing with that, rendering them even less efficient compare to ships of other races.
• The K'Kree are too far away from the Julian Protectorate and the Imperium to pose a serious threat. Numbis, Ghiken, and Luretiir-mumble-mumble-mumble would be the only sectors they could threaten.

It seems borders are where they are because of the balance of logistics. If an empire's forces try to expand too far from its borders, they would be operating at the far reaches of their supply lines, while opposing forces from empires on the other side of the unincorporated sectors would be operating closer to theirs, and with correspondingly greater logistical support.

 

[actionman]

Maybe they should be doing the War as a separate board game with options to run Traveller adventures for bonuses in the board game?

Another idea is the reverse: do the War as a separate board game and let the events of the war for the background to player's TUs.

 

[rinku]

"Charted Space Universe" doesn't just mean the 3I. Maybe the invasion is across the J-4 route to kill Vargr, or against the client states near them. Or an ill-advised attack on the Hivers (could even be about the K'Kree-Hiver war from 3000 years ago...)

 

[Procopius]

There's plenty of opportunities for little brushfire wars that player characters can influence directly in the trailing frontier without toe-to-toe all-out space warfare with the Two Thousand Worlds. The Lords of Thunder are due to invade the Renkard Union if MegaTraveller is anything to go by, and after another glorious victory for the galaxy's most fearsome future rendered adhesives, the Lords of Thunder have insurgencies funded by non-state actors and freebooters based in the Megusard Corporate to deal with. Who hasn't wanted to be part of a proxy war, handing over weapons to people you'll absolutely never regret arming? It's the stuff dreams are made of.

 

[collins355]

MJD's "The Trailing Frontier" (MGP40098) has a setting ready for adventuring alongside the K'kree (it is partly a rehash of the T20 book "Gateway to Destiny" which MJD authored with Hunter Gordon).