Figured I might as well try this one with my little brother. Anything to avoid playing same old playstation 2 games AGAIN! (he loves certain games and plays them over and over. Or rather makes ME play them and takes all the credit for good performance while telling me how I SHOULD play if I screw up :wink: ).
Anybody ever tried something like this? How it went? Obviously they can't know rules all that well(especially here since we are talking about finnish kid who doesn't understand word of english. Though does find me speaking english very funny and is quick to capitalise my english skills when he plays english playstation games!) but figured that shouldn't be issue since he can describe what he wants to do and I'll tell him what to roll(and boy he loves to roll a dice. I'm going to make wargamer/RPG'er out of him eventually!).
For scenarios I probably need to cut down on subtle role playing and concentrate on quick&fast story with lots of railroading events in preparations if he gets stuck. As said he loves to roll dices so probably lots o' skill tests should be incorporated and since he likes action games where you go punch-punch-punch or bang-bang-bang combat encounters are definitetly in.
For first scenario I figured one where he'll be asked to find missing armed cargo ship which has been missing for a while. He'll be pointed to space station where another worker in corporation he works on has reported captain. After investigating on the station he'll be directed toward restaurant(figured I would go for restaurant rather than bar since we ARE talking about 7yo kid :wink
where either he'll find the captain there which will cause pursuit or if he fails dice rolls he'll be ambushed by the captain with small combat encounter starting up. This will either lead to the pursuit(if he manages to disable the henchmen captain has the captain will flee) or being captured to space ship(where he'll end up captured later anyway so either way story continues).
Haven't gone much further in planning(and probably this is as far as I go in first session(plus character creation) leaving rest for later. But basic plan would be that captain manages to get off the station in time getting headstart on player. Either with his own ship(not sure will I give him one) or aboard company's ship with NPC pilot he'll be provided he begins pursuit in hyperspace(my universum is used. Bit similar to Babylon 5 in terms of hyperspace but not so much linked to travelling pre-determined lanes. Rather it's simply very inaccurate and rather random(if you imagine travelling in 3d space then imagine that going forward will suddenly move you say 45 degrees up and 30 degrees left without you doing anything to alter course. That's how hyperspace in my universum works. And this behaviour changes over the time almost randomly. With beacons you can help navigation but still some random element involved and skilled navigators can save you tons of time by going direction which initially would appear to be crazy(why go 90 degrees paraler to target?) but actually ends up saving time).
Anyway once they reach the ship(by GM fiat if nothing else. Very competent NPC pilot should however ensure that by simple opposed astrogation roll they reach fleeing vessel without GM help) they follow target to real space. There they are ambushed by the cargo ship they are trying to find(we are talking about cargo ship of about 1200-1600dton with medium weaponry). After getting engines blown apart(NPC ship is vastly inferior so no chances of player defeating the merchant) they are captured inside.
Here I haven't thought much but player escapes and then should escape the cargo ship altogether and find some way to keep ship in place until help arrives. I figure escape method from cargo ship could be some sort of shuttle/fighter it carries around. Not sure how to keep vessel in place. Blow up controllers? Though how to do THAT one. Either way this should provide lots of skill checks and probably combat encounter or two as they flee toward shuttle bays.
Anyway what do you think about overall run of scenario? Should be simple enough that he shouldn't have problems of figuring out how to do(afterall it's pretty linear). Hopefully he finds this enjoyable enough that I can get some traveller gaming done with him. Even if I have to make scenarios more simple than I would personally prefer(but in couple of years...Muahmuahmuah!).
Anybody ever tried something like this? How it went? Obviously they can't know rules all that well(especially here since we are talking about finnish kid who doesn't understand word of english. Though does find me speaking english very funny and is quick to capitalise my english skills when he plays english playstation games!) but figured that shouldn't be issue since he can describe what he wants to do and I'll tell him what to roll(and boy he loves to roll a dice. I'm going to make wargamer/RPG'er out of him eventually!).
For scenarios I probably need to cut down on subtle role playing and concentrate on quick&fast story with lots of railroading events in preparations if he gets stuck. As said he loves to roll dices so probably lots o' skill tests should be incorporated and since he likes action games where you go punch-punch-punch or bang-bang-bang combat encounters are definitetly in.
For first scenario I figured one where he'll be asked to find missing armed cargo ship which has been missing for a while. He'll be pointed to space station where another worker in corporation he works on has reported captain. After investigating on the station he'll be directed toward restaurant(figured I would go for restaurant rather than bar since we ARE talking about 7yo kid :wink
where either he'll find the captain there which will cause pursuit or if he fails dice rolls he'll be ambushed by the captain with small combat encounter starting up. This will either lead to the pursuit(if he manages to disable the henchmen captain has the captain will flee) or being captured to space ship(where he'll end up captured later anyway so either way story continues).Haven't gone much further in planning(and probably this is as far as I go in first session(plus character creation) leaving rest for later. But basic plan would be that captain manages to get off the station in time getting headstart on player. Either with his own ship(not sure will I give him one) or aboard company's ship with NPC pilot he'll be provided he begins pursuit in hyperspace(my universum is used. Bit similar to Babylon 5 in terms of hyperspace but not so much linked to travelling pre-determined lanes. Rather it's simply very inaccurate and rather random(if you imagine travelling in 3d space then imagine that going forward will suddenly move you say 45 degrees up and 30 degrees left without you doing anything to alter course. That's how hyperspace in my universum works. And this behaviour changes over the time almost randomly. With beacons you can help navigation but still some random element involved and skilled navigators can save you tons of time by going direction which initially would appear to be crazy(why go 90 degrees paraler to target?) but actually ends up saving time).
Anyway once they reach the ship(by GM fiat if nothing else. Very competent NPC pilot should however ensure that by simple opposed astrogation roll they reach fleeing vessel without GM help) they follow target to real space. There they are ambushed by the cargo ship they are trying to find(we are talking about cargo ship of about 1200-1600dton with medium weaponry). After getting engines blown apart(NPC ship is vastly inferior so no chances of player defeating the merchant) they are captured inside.
Here I haven't thought much but player escapes and then should escape the cargo ship altogether and find some way to keep ship in place until help arrives. I figure escape method from cargo ship could be some sort of shuttle/fighter it carries around. Not sure how to keep vessel in place. Blow up controllers? Though how to do THAT one. Either way this should provide lots of skill checks and probably combat encounter or two as they flee toward shuttle bays.
Anyway what do you think about overall run of scenario? Should be simple enough that he shouldn't have problems of figuring out how to do(afterall it's pretty linear). Hopefully he finds this enjoyable enough that I can get some traveller gaming done with him. Even if I have to make scenarios more simple than I would personally prefer(but in couple of years...Muahmuahmuah!).
So it's less of get him off from playing playstation as getting MYSELF off from being forced to play playstation ;-) (I mean how often you can play sly cooper 3 through before you get bored to death by it 
)
Plus, praise from this character is worth more than a medal from a planetful of idiots. 
