Marduk-Oghma + Lab ship game: suggestions?

[Putraack]

I have a small group of players who are open to my running some Traveller soon, and while I would love to continue my on-again/off-again Drinax campaign, I also have a lot of the Reach adventures.
AND they've got characters already; one of them rolled up a Lab Ship as a Benefit.

SO, I think I would like to mash together the existing Lab Ship, "Theories of Everything", "Makergod", "Marooned on Marduk", and "Gods of Marduk". And maybe some other bits & pieces I may have lying around.

Any suggestions, especially from any GMs or players who have already done theses? Tips on cutting & pasting? Thoughts on timing-- which did you run first, for instance?

 

[Anstett]

I am running a very sandbox version of PoD.

I started off with Marooned to give new players to Traveller a taste of how the rules work. They then headed to Drinax to a meeting with King Oleb. From there is has grown into 5 different Cohorts of travellers.

One of the players got a Lab Ship (The Pioneer) and we started laying the ground work for Theories of Everything, Gods of Marduk, and Makergod with the intention of leaving them breadcrumbs to come back to when they are ready. One group went off to Thebus, another is headed towards Arunisiir, etc.

I do not think there is a wrong way to link them together or in which order. I do think starting with Marooned is a good way to build up a base.

 

[Endie]

Theories of Everything is quite tricky if the players have their own science ship. It's actually easier if the players don't have any ship at all! Marooned on Marduk is fun and they can just have any ship so long as they have a reason to go down to the surface when the attack happens. Makergod is a great adventure but a lab ship will play no part (except maybe in getting boarded and taken!) without a lot of big changes.

But I'm maybe just being needlessly negative since I hate the lab ship as a starting ship. The rational move for players is to immediately sell it off and get a mortgage-free proper, cheaper ship with useful capabilities!

 

[rinku]

Nah, you just need the right Patron or quest. They make good hospital ships too; labs are the same size as medical bays - I'd let anyone that wants to, swap labs for medical facilities one for one before play starts, especially if they had terms as a physician.

You could also reframe ownership, so that they're not expected to directly pay the mortgage, but to carry on research for the institution that is the Lender (why limit yourself to banks?). Whatever the research is should involve a lot of travel, but also a reporting schedule.

You could also go the tourist route. Big safari ship/wandering space hotel. Labs -> recreational areas or luxury accommodations. Or menageries.

 

[Putraack]

Theories of Everything is quite tricky if the players have their own science ship. It's actually easier if the players don't have any ship at all!

My first thoughts are to: a) have the "Everything" scientists as one of their first charters, and
b) add Maris as one of the research group.