Preferences in adventure settings

[phavoc]

As a player, do you prefer doing 1-off type adventures, where you just kind of 'appear' at the site, do the adventure, and then next game setting, you rinse and repeat (sometimes with same characters, sometimes with new ones)? Or, as the player, do you like to have adventures that have sort of anchor to a location where you can stash your loot, establish yourself and gain other interactions and adventures as you build up relationships with NPC's?

As the ref, do you prefer to run adventures as one-offs, or do you like to keep players coming back to some sort of adventure hub?

 

[BP]

One off for both.

Like role playing a variety of characters (PCs and NPCs) and settings that don't have anything pre-existing to contradict.

BTW: good candidate for a poll...

 

[apoc527]

The one-off concept is very weird to me. I have always played "continuously," meaning that the end of one session or adventure is the start of the next one. Now, occasionally the GM will narrate the passage of time, which is kind of the same thing, but usually we don't just "appear" at adventure sites. Besides which, the concept of disconnected adventures (like most episodes of Star Trek) is not something we usually do--normally there is a continuous campaign story arc of some kind.

But, that doesn't mean there is an "adventuring hub," as that implies a very Diablo-esque, "let's go to town" style of play that doesn't seem to capture how we've always done things.

That said, if everyone agrees to the one-off style, it certainly makes hooking the PCs into adventures very easy!

 

[rust]

We usually play campaigns, most of them short ones with about
a dozen connected adventures, some long ones which cover ge-
nerations of player characters and take years of real time. Single
adventures only happen when the players dislike a setting and
decide to abandon it after the introductory adventure.

 

[BFalcon]

Usually, in all systems, I've used the "sandbox campaign" style - where a player group decides where they wish to go and what they wish to do - I'll drop a few hooks in, with a simplicity appropriate to the difficulty and payoff (ie an easier or better-paying job will be harder to spot, meaning that the players need to show a little initiative). The home base is wherever the group happens to be camped at the time and if they loiter in one place or return to the same place, repercussions from their previous activities may well come back to haunt them. Obviously, in Traveller, their "camp" would be their ship, so it's wherever their ship happens to be at the time, but still.

Without repercussions, without extended reward, playing tends to be awarded in cash and physical items, both of which mean pretty much nothing in the long term, except as a way to keep score.

By keeping it realistic, I find (both as a player and as a GM), that it is more rewarding when things go right and more fun when things go wrong (some of my characters in D&D couldn't go back to certain parts of the Forgotten Realms after upsetting a few people, for example).

Given the tech levels and the fact that we already have affective face recognition and number plate recognition software, even walking around a spaceport would be dangerous if someone in power is after a player character - if they're powerful enough, they may well have put a flag on that person's file, possibly as a terrorist, or a "notify this agency" flag, which would make sneaking into the port impossible without some kind of disguise. This makes avoiding the same area more important than in fantasy games where you might be able to sneak into and back out of a city or town without being seen. Far less likely that you'll be able to do so in a high-tech setting.

On the other hand, having an adventuring hub does have advantages in the short term - not least they get used to the area. There's nothing wrong with having one before moving on after a while (usually when things get too hot), but I don't think I'd like one that kept them in the same area, unless you're talking about somewhere like Regina, where the party is going a few parsecs away, but keep returning to the same area for information or to sell cargo before setting out again.

 

[phavoc]

Thanks for the well-thought out input guys.

I didn't post this as a poll because I was hoping for exactly something like this.

I'm in the process of laying down a number of inter-connected adventures/quest lines centering on Heya in the Regina sub-sector. Basically the concept is that the PC's start their first adventure there, and by the end of it they've made some money, some contacts, some allies, and some enemies.

From there I want to expand the adventures and let the PC's have the ability to choose various paths. And, of course, with a few roots, the ref will be able to gently 'nudge' them down a path if they get too far off of it.

And I'm trying to incorporate some of the things that I've put up here on the board (the fuel harvesting station, the containers, and a few other things that haven't made it up here yet).

For better or worse, I'm gonna be sharing all of this. I've always wanted to take these ideas that have been laying around and polish them up a bit and share. It's just gonna take me some time. Oh, and this is all gonna be free.

Viva la Traveller!

 

[BFalcon]

Well, to be honest, there's nothing wrong with having a base of operations while they're finding their feet and learning what they can and cannot do, but then nudge them on if you need to (hired bounty hunters, upset corporates and the like all work well here).

Most traditional D&D groups started out with a few local lads (or ladettes) getting together and exploring a few local troublespots and then moving further and further afield until they got to the nation-wide or even world-wide level and beyond - no reason why a Traveller campaign shouldn't work the same...

 

[Reynard]

I usually write one offs for Traveller. The nature of space travel and world hopping make it easy and natural for adventures to be distinct events. More often than not the players have a starship (DEMAND a starship) and that's their mobile home base. Star Trek was based on that premise and you can say the same for any age of sail based game with ports and places weeks or months apart.

With time and distance between worlds so great the only connection between adventures would be how and why one would be reaching a certain world consitering the constraints of a jump drive. Quite often adventurers are wanderers looking for the next payoff to keep the ship running and food in their stomachs while searching for the Big Find that will make them famous or wealthy.

The intro to the current game can refer to where they came from and link to the last session but players consiter that just color and fluff and wait for the scenario to begin. Another link can be something important happening in a previous game that can have interesting consequences to the latest game but not really part of an overall arc. Something done in a current game could give me ideas for a future scenario.

 

[Captain Jonah]

One offs are all very well for people you don't know but with a fixed group after the first adventure its no longer a one off, it becomes the ongoing mission of the starship "make a buck".

With the entire OTU or other campaign as a back drop it makes little sense to me not to take advantage of all that flavour and background. Plus the name of the game is Traveller, not to include the traveling seems odd.

A campaign can be a set of one off adventures but after a while you have built up enough of a back story for repeats. Go back to the world where you had an adventure a few months ago to see how they are getting on, meet the revenge seeking pirate who had his last ship blown up becasue of you etc.

As has been mentioned demi hubs work for a campaingn that wants to move a lot, withadventures based on or near one world till wanderlust moves them 10 parsecs down the main to the next hub.

Or a not so fixed base from which they travel out and back. If you are settled on a single world you could be gone for months at a time as you make 6 or 8 jumps dealing with an adventure or mission.

I much prefer to have on going campaigns. Even if most of the adventures do not seem related to each other they still build up and when the players are taking fire and the unknown attacker sends them a message of revenge its "Hey didn't we blow up this guys ship back on XYZ". THe game has continuity, history and a sense of being a part of something that random startrek quest of the week doesn't have.

ST: V had no base but was clearly a campaign (yes it was crap, its an example here :roll: ).
DS: 9 had a fixed base, well after they moved it it was fixed. But they still had a vast range of adventures all over the place then went down the bar for a drink. (Yes I know the early bits sans ship were not traveller, I'm refering to the later bits :lol: )

For me its campaigns all the way, evne if the players don't spot the ongoing story arc the Ref knows beter. Mwahahahahahaha.

 

[AndrewW]

I much prefer to have on going campaigns. Even if most of the adventures do not seem related to each other they still build up and when the players are taking fire and the unknown attacker sends them a message of revenge its "Hey didn't we blow up this guys ship back on XYZ". THe game has continuity, history and a sense of being a part of something that random startrek quest of the week doesn't have..

Yeah, that's the one our gunner failed to hit and the gorilla went over there, forced open the airlock, found the power plant and shot his 40mm RAM grenade launcher right into it. Alas, he forgot to seal his suit and didn't survive the attempt. (Just telling the story to the gorillas replacement...)

 

[Hopeless]

I like using canned adventures and then modifying them.

The Traveller game i'm trying to get off the ground is set in Kinorb (the one near Fulacin in case you're checking and yes there's 2) the original idea was that the owner of the lab ship received as a bequest his late Uncle's ship but with a proviso to deliver a package to Kinorb to a medical facility there.
The adventure would involve them using the mining vessel as the lab ship is undergoing maintenance and upon arrival in Kinorb are attacked by a pirate ship that tries to seize the ship.
Depending on their response they should manage to reach the medical facility and learn the package they were delivering is payment for the rest of the late uncle's effects which is a small chest holding an ancient star map of the Spinward Marches its back covered in questions and comments that for now make no sense.

However the way things are going I suspect they might not even leave the Fulacin system given I wanted a bit mored detail on the various systems and got the players involved in fine tuning this detail as their character would obviously have a better idea of whats in their home system.

So going from no gas giants to 2 one of which is so big it has its own inhabitable moons courtesy of its atmosphere allowing them to keep theirs well its making me wonder if I'll ever get to run it!

 

[locarno24]

Yeah, that's the one our gunner failed to hit and the gorilla went over there, forced open the airlock, found the power plant and shot his 40mm RAM grenade launcher right into it. Alas, he forgot to seal his suit and didn't survive the attempt. (Just telling the story to the gorillas replacement...)

"Oh, yeah. He retired, didn't he? You said he bought a farm?"
"The farm, Trance. He bought the farm."
"What's the difference?"
"Torn pressure suit and a bad emergency seal."
"Oh. That is different..."

Always with a running setting, because it helps people get into their characters and the setting if they see some of the same things on a regular basis, and, as noted, have consequences of their actions beyond the end of the 'episode'. If you do this, you can make the players actually give a damn about some of the recurring NPCs - which gives the GM all sorts of nasty options.

 

[GypsyComet]

You got a Gorilla? All we have is an Orang.

Of course, he's got more Zero-G than the rest of the group put together, and his prefered weapons are plasma welder and banana cream pie...

 

[Captain Jonah]

Enough of the anti gorilla jokes or someone is going to get his arms pulled off and beaten with the soggy ends. I'm still alive and kicking human backsides, front sides or any other sides they leave in line of fire :twisted:

I am that uplifted Gorilla in Mike Crosses Online Twilight game, AndrewW is a floating target also known as a grav drone AI host. He has issues though but he's fairly harmless :roll:

The game is at http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/ancient-trails-a-spacer-s-guild-campaign/adventure-log if anyone wants a chuckle.

 

[AndrewW]

Enough of the anti gorilla jokes or someone is going to get his arms pulled off and beaten with the soggy ends. I'm still alive and kicking human backsides, front sides or any other sides they leave in line of fire :twisted:

Good thing AI's don't have arms then...

I am that uplifted Gorilla in Mike Crosses Online Twilight game, AndrewW is a floating target also known as a grav drone AI host. He has issues though but he's fairly harmless :roll:

It's not my fault you biologicals are such an obsolete life form.

 

[phavoc]

Yeah, that's the one our gunner failed to hit and the gorilla went over there, forced open the airlock, found the power plant and shot his 40mm RAM grenade launcher right into it. Alas, he forgot to seal his suit and didn't survive the attempt. (Just telling the story to the gorillas replacement...)

I was just reviewing the thread and trying to understand how gorillas, cream pies and the like got intertwined with things and did a double take here. You said "40mm" grenade launcher... but for some reason I read "40cm" grenade launcher.

I was thinking "holybatmanballs! that's a BIG grenade launcher". Though, lets be honest, it's probably just the right size to launch man-killing pies. Though I hope you aren't wasting GOOD pies as ammo. Perish the thought!

 

[Rick]

Not hugely impossible - the germans had 600 mm Grenade Launchers in WW2! :twisted:

 

[Captain Jonah]

Never waste a good pie, the ones used to kill people are the ones that were left at the back of the oven overnight. You know the ones, crust base tougher than concrete. Filling that has dried out, seperated and turned in flakes of shrapnel like steel. All held together by a thin layer of custard that has turned into industrial rubber and so can survive the launch from the gorilla portable man killing 40cm pie thrower. Urangutans need a bipod when firing this due to smaller size.

 

[GypsyComet]

Orangs will often use the low tech launch option, particularly in situations where the secondary chaff effects of the... round... are desired. The arms and wrists of the Orang allow, with practice, the thrower to put a good 300 to 400 rpm spin on the round, allowing either the chemical (for fresh pies) or shrapnel (for aged pies) load to reach tactically useful dispersal.

 

[Vargrz]

Back to the debate about 1-shots vs. sagas...

I love to run long campaigns, but it is tough in the current group we've got. The problem is scheduling regular games. As a result we do a lot of (very cool and satisfying) 1-shots and if I have a longer adventure, I work to serialize it into easy bite sized pieces! In either case there is some railroading of the action to keep the game moving to the conclusion.