Shadows Of Sindal

[JeffMindlin]

I have my lovely hardback of this and am working my way through. It looks fun but I have a request/bone to pick (what have I been eating 😉).
It contains some maps but not the ones I actually need - In the first scenario there is a long, multi phase tactical battle. But no map. There are maps of other things so why not? I have to design one. Frankly, that rankles after paying many credits.
I do wonder if these scenarios are play tested? Surely this would be the first things picked up?
This, I’m afraid is a bit of a familiar pattern. Beautiful, well produced books that are a pleasure to own, but not set up to make running the adventure easy. It feels like the author has banged out a setting and story but it has not been produced from the point of view of helping the referee actually run a game.
And by the way - I think saying “run in as narrative” is not a great answer. That can work up to a point but still works best within a map. In order for the players to feel any actual peril and a struggle to survive they have to feel there is a cold hard real fight going on, not just random scenes the ref sets - if they survive it seems like they was never any danger - if they don’t it feels random vindication from the ref.

 

[adzling]

agreed

 

[Ursus Maior]

Cannot wait to get mine! 8)

 

[heselbine]

If I had one criticism of Mongoose Traveller it would be this. Love or hate D&D, they learned a while back about presenting stat blocks and encounters to help run the game.

An example would be a Traveller NPC with a gun. I have to work out the NPCs characteristic adjustment, add it to his Gun Combat skill and then look up the stats for the gun. No big deal but it slows the game. Much better to have Gauss rifle, +2, 4D (guessing that!).

The adventures, even the fully worked up ones, always leave a lot of work for the GM. That leaves them open, and that's what I want, but a bit more help would be appreciated.

Deepnight Endeavour is an example. It's a great adventure, potentially, but the way it is laid out makes it quite tricky to run. To be fair, this is a thread that has always run through Traveller. I remember Andy Slack giving Twilight's Peak 10 out of 10 in White Dwarf then buying the book and not having a clue how to run it.

 

[gilthy]

There was a similar thing with Last Flight of the Amuar.

There's planetary maps and details for a number of worlds en-route, but not for the final destination, nor are there maps (sketch or detail) of the final bit of the journey.

(Mild spoilers for the adventure below)

In the end I created a planetary map for Pa'an and a local map for the crash site of the Amuar. I also created (mostly generated) name lists of the full crew. In my version, more of the people survived, there were two "tribes" of survivors instead of one, a couple more people in low berths in the ship, and the "thing in the cargo hold" had replicated and spread out a bit (and I went for a bit more of an Alien-Predator-hybrid feel for the creatures, in part because the characters in my campaign have been there for a long while, and were a bit overpowered compared to the original).

I certainly don't mind modifying stuff to make it work with my specific campaign, that is to be expected and part of the fun. But (in my view) there was a lot of detail and attention for the earlier part, and that somehow seemed to peter out a bit towards the latter part of the adventure.

(My group, once again having been "around the block" a few times, has their own J-4 trader, which did need changing things up a bit, and they didn't start at the "beginning", coming from a different direction. And were very unwilling to enter Imperium space, as this campaign now is in the Fifth Frontier War timeframe, some of the characters have served with the Scouts, and there has been a recall of Scouts to active service... you're never an ex-Scout )

 

[JNJ]

Not a critic, authors are free of their choices, but curious to know why the included map of planet TKTK is different from the one in "Rimward Adventure 1 : The TKTK convergence" published in 2018.

Maybe the TKTK convergence is considered fanon even if created under licence ?

Thanks.

 

[paltrysum]

Maybe the TKTK convergence is considered fanon even if created under licence ?

I would assume it's still fanon (never heard that term before, but it's obvious what it means). In any case, you will find a tighter looking Tktk map in Naval Adventure 3: Fire on the Sindalian Main. As the author of both Tktk Convergence and Fire, I guess I'm responsible for both fanon and canon. 8)

 

[JNJ]

Maybe the TKTK convergence is considered fanon even if created under licence ?

I would assume it's still fanon (never heard that term before, but it's obvious what it means). In any case, you will find a tighter looking Tktk map in Naval Adventure 3: Fire on the Sindalian Main. As the author of both Tktk Convergence and Fire, I guess I'm responsible for both fanon and canon. 8)

Didn't remember the one in Naval Adventure 3 ... thanks for the reminder .

Great adventures you wrote by the way!

PS : coming from Hârnmaster where they use Fanon/Canon instead of OTU/MTU I guess ;-)

 

[paltrysum]

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed them. Many more to come.

 

[ochd]

PS : coming from Hârnmaster where they use Fanon/Canon instead of OTU/MTU I guess ;-)

Someone else on here has played Harnmaster? And has even gone to the trouble of using the circumflex? Critical success!

Dan.

 

[Old School]

Maybe the TKTK convergence is considered fanon even if created under licence ?

I would assume it's still fanon (never heard that term before, but it's obvious what it means). In any case, you will find a tighter looking Tktk map in Naval Adventure 3: Fire on the Sindalian Main. As the author of both Tktk Convergence and Fire, I guess I'm responsible for both fanon and canon. 8)

Lol, Mongoose doesn't keep world descriptions consistent within their own publications. I certainly wouldn't expect them to try to stay consistent with TAS created products. Some people get really upset over lack of consistency with 40 year old canon. I can't imagine the madness if every TAS publication was canon as well.

 

[JNJ]

PS : coming from Hârnmaster where they use Fanon/Canon instead of OTU/MTU I guess ;-)

Someone else on here has played Harnmaster? And has even gone to the trouble of using the circumflex? Critical success!

Dan.

32 years in Hârnmaster and being french helps with the circumflex