New to Traveller - Where to start

[Plaindog]

Hi everyone

I am a long time Rolemaster Gamemaster who is sick and tired of playing with elves and dwarves. I need a new scenery and the stars would be perfecet. So now i have found Traveller and started to learn all the rules.

I have started with character generation which was pretty interesting, and we have made two characters so far. We are going to creat 3 more for my merry band of players. So far I have:
- 1 X-marine support medic gone Scholar pysician
- 1 Entertainer Journalist gone Coorporate Agent

Im hoping that my 3 last players will choose something more combat oriented and/or flight oriented.

So far the rules seem reasonable to get my head around. But I have a question about my campaign.

I was thinking of maybe playing the Secret of the Ancients campaign, and I have already hooked Vlen Backett up as an uncle of my journalist.

But before I start a long campaign I would like to find a small, easy adventure where we can learn the gamesystem and get to know the characters playstyles and potentials.

Space travel right now a bit intimidating to start with hehe.

Do you guys have anything to recommend for us?

cheers

 

[Gee4orce]

You could try using one of the Classic Traveller adventure modules - they should be largely compatible with the Mongoose system. Also, Challenge magazine sometimes had short adventures in it - try looking through the back issues here. Both of these are available cheaply. Same goes for the issues of JTAS ("journal of the traveller's aid society").

 

[Dungalad]

Dont worry if your players dont have any combat or flight skill when they end the character creation, you can solve those weakness using the "skill packages" (p-37-38 in the core book).

For a starting adventure, before jumping into the Ancients, i would recomend One Crowded Hour. Its a non-combat adventure but really full of action, as they would need to use tons of skills (leadership, pilot, engineering, 0-G, athletics, common sense.... no, the last one is not in the core book) and is a good way to learn how all works.

And also... as thats and adventure starting in a spaceship wreck they dont need to know each other at first, they can be just the ones amongst the passengers who keep calm and organize all and so...

And its really easy to link that adventure wherever... i just changed the moon where it ends for a moon in one of the non habitable planets on the system i wanted they to start the next adventure. For Secrets of the Ancient you need a dead relative and an heritage? Take a step forward... start with that relative as a NPC in the One Crowded Hour and let the players meet him and see him die... that way they would have more implication when the SotA starts.

 

[AndrewW]

You could also try one of the adventures published in Signs & Portents:

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/signsnportentsarchive

 

[locarno24]

Agreed on the S&P adventures. The Rescue is quite a good one.

Also, if you've got your heads round the mechanics, there's also the B5 Legacies of War series - essentially the plot of B5 Crusade as it was going to be (albeit with the action moved to a group of NPCs not the Excalibure crew).

 

[Jak Nazryth]

When I introduced my friends to Traveller for the very first time last summer, I created a prologue adventure. What I mean by that is I created a scenario that the players ran through, DURING, their character generation phase. I told them it was their last mission of their last term. No matter what their background, they were all members of a crew aboard a large Merchant Cruiser. Their mission was to rescue a VP of manufacturing facility in a company owned town that had been overrun by raiders. This facility was just outside of the Imperium boundaries (fewer rules and regulations) on a moon orbiting a small gas giant. So the moon facility had to hire private protection from time to time. The large Merchant Cruiser was the hired rescue ship.
I let my players get the experience of one short space combat, one short vehicle combat, and 2 short fire fights. Througout the mission, I made sure to give each person a chance to use one of their main skills, like computer hacking, or streetwise to help locate where the VP was in hiding.
Since this mission was in fact, part of their character's background, but mostly a dry run to help everyone get used to the rules, I as a GM "allowed them to win". While several players got minor wounds, and sometimes failed their rolls several times, they still got by relatively unscathed. After the mission was over, the players mustered out as you normally would, purchased their equipment, pooled their ship shares, and prepared for the next game night. The whole mission took a little less than 3 hours from start to finish.

They (being brand new to Traveller) really liked the idea since it gave everyone a chance to learn the rules, learn about their characters strengths and weaknesses, without "screwing up" too bad...
Plus since they were all part of the same crew, they already knew each other as they began adventuring on their own... No meeting at a space bar awkwardness.

As was mentioned before, you can use just about any short adventure from classic Traveller. I might also point out in the back of most Mongoose supplements are series of adventure scenarios or plot hooks (Scout, Merchant Prince, Agent, etc...).

BTW... I haven't played ICE since the mid 80's! I didn't realize it was still around!
best of luck and have fun!