1) In Act 2 & Act 3 (p. 51 - Antares Inner System - Right Column about half-way down) it notes concerning the star Antares that:
"The Vilani called the star Nushua Kisha, roughly translated as ‘Smouldering Giant’."
I don't know if you want to make a change or put an addendum in the paragraph or not concerning a secondary name, but going all the way back to DGP Vilani & Vargr and in the online Vilani Dictionary, the historical Vilani name for Antares was "Mika" from "Mikasirka".
" . . . the eventual supernova explosion of their host star and that their souls and those of their ancestors will be resurrected and made conscious again when the star’s core subsequently collapses upon itself and it becomes a white dwarf."
Antares A will eventually collapse into a Neutron Star (probably a Pulsar initially), not a White Dwarf - it is too massive.
Righto! I've finished reading Act 1 back-to-back, so here's my notes on it.
As per usual, entries with [?] appended are ones I'm not sure if there's actually been a mistake. Page 4, 8th Paragraph: "(...) and then makes a rough transition into another comms call as he continues to stroll down the mall with his hovering drones in tow." - There has been no mention of a mall before this moment, making the exact setting of the meeting a bit unclear. Page 12, 'The Ship's Captain', 2nd Paragraph: "In the court of Emperor Paulo II, he was once a front runner (...)" - Paulo III, not 'Paulo II'; Firstly, there was no 'Paulo II', but a Paula II (b.752, d.836). Secondly, she croaked before the Solomani Rim War, so the chronology doesn't works out. Page 13, 1st Paragraph: "(...) the last Emperor’s List to be given by Paulo II before he died." - Paulo III, not 'Paulo II'; see previous. Page 37, "The Rogue Agent", 2nd Paragraph: "Dylyr is a psychopath, one who should never have had the honour of being assigned to the Angin programme by the Emperor, but Emperors are not perfect, especially not Cleon II (also known as ‘Cleon the Mad’) the one who originally commissioned Dylyr." - Cleon II was not Cleon the Mad, but actually 'Cleon the Weak' – the Emperor known as 'Cleon the Mad" was Cleon III (244 to 245). The chronology presented unfortunately does not work, as the Anguin Wafers were created during the tenure of Emperor Anguistus (326 to 365), hence the name, as detailed in Agent of the Imperium. Solving this particular one might actually require @MongooseChris's intervention. [?] Page 38, "Libby", 2nd Paragraph: "In this encounter, she is travelling from Reference towards Core, on a flight plan similar to – but not exactly the same as – the Confederate Route." - While not strictly necessary, stating that Libby is going to Core Subsector might be less confusing to folks unaccustomed to Traveller cartography; unless it was meant 'Capital' itself instead of Core? [Suggestion] Page 41, "Duchess Colyere hajesta Damae of Auris": Why wasn't the much more impressive portrait of the Duchess shown in Page 215 of The Third Imperium not used? It is more coherent with her other depiction on Page 97 of Act 1, and in my personal opinion, makes her feel more like a threat than the current one. Page 48, Clues Table: "Before disappearing, its transponder pinged its location before disappearing." - Redundancy Department of Redundancy [Suggestion] Page 48, 5th Paragraph: "They may repeat the process until they obtain the specificity required (Effect 3+)." - Suggestion: add a cumulative DM+1 per previous attempt to the Electronics (Sensors) roll; that way after the players have fumbled the roll there's a greater chance of their getting an 'EUREKA!' moment, reducing the possibility of failure-induced frustrations. Page 51: How come the Harbinger's Power Plant be Power 20 when its Jump Drive alone eats up 60 power? The ship may now be a wreck, but it must presumably have worked as an actual Starship at some point... Page 55, 1st Paragraph: "[The Pilgrims'] android bodies seem very simple." - But weren't they previously consistently described as clones? It may sound nitpick-ish, but there is a meaningful difference. Page 58, "An Audience With the Moot", 4th Paragraph: "The being who stands before you here today is an arti cial husk containing the recorded consciousness of Adulan Oldothon Ilethian, (...)" - But wasn't he called 'Adulan Astrin Ilethian' on page 54? Either name works in the end (Oldothon presumably being his mother's family name), but they should be consistent among themselves. See also the commentary section at the end of the post. Page 72, "Travelling to Farhome", 4th Paragraph: "The liner will operate at a reduced capability of jump-1, necessitating a stop at Basilling, but with its Class A starport, this poses no operational problems." - But isn't the Ventura Fortuna rated Jump-2 when disconnected from Velos, as per the Singularity Sourcebook, Page 32? Page 83, 5th Paragraph: "Higher levels of Effect yield the data from all subsequent levels as well." - Surely meant to be 'Higher levels of Effect yield the data from all previous levels as well'...? Page 118, 1st Paragraph: "However, should they encounter slurry or briny seas, the solar sailer can dip its blades into the water and becoming a traditional boat." - Either 'and become' or 'becoming' sans 'and'. [Suggestion] Page 126, "But What Does The Bargain Want?" Box: "The mural has a default setting (its original appearance is shown in the introduction to this Departure on page 101) but its programming was intended to reflect the wishes of the artist." - Suggestion; as there is no actual image depicting The Bargain, perhaps change "its original appearance is shown" to 'Its original appearance is described'? Page 134, info box: "The Derku and Gekhuu syndicates have several such craft with varying specifications This one happens to be available when the gangs see their opportunity to eliminate Enoula." - Missing full stop between 'varying specifications' and 'This one happens'. Page 137, "Internal Null Field": "(...) requiring a longer recovery time than similar augments, such as subdermal armour." - Though not strictly necessary, knowing how much longer would be a great boon here, for use during this or other games by the Travellers. Page 167, 1st Paragraph: "Assigning Uugnii to the Imperial Navy and making it into a depot was as much about denying it to the everyone else as it was gifting it to the navy." - Extra 'the' between 'denying it to' and 'everyone else'. Page 172, "Bon Appétit", 3rd Paragraph: "Some of these peaks reach within a few metres of the ocean service, making for a colourful display just below the surface." - Surely 'surface' instead of 'service'? Page 185: "Siege engines are a class of battleship that is almost exclusive the province of the Imperial Quarantine Agency" - either 'the exclusive' or 'exclusively'. Page 190, "Civil War", 2nd Paragraph: "(...) or simply beydeciding the outcome and then letting the Travellers play whatever role they choose." - 'or simply by deciding the outcome', not 'beydeciging'.
There is an additional continuity snarl that probably needs addressing;
that of Dulinor's son, Adulan. Let me preface that this is probably my favourite departure, tied with Knight Moves, so I very much want this to work, and the points I'm raising here should NOT be perceived as condemnations, in the slightest. That out of the way;
In previously published materials, in particular GURPS Nobles (SJG, 2004), Dulinor was said to have a daughter: Isis Arepo Ilethian, born 076-1088 on Dlan (see GURPS Nobles, page 97). Relevant paragraph replicated below:
Isis Arepo Ilethian was born on 076-1088 on Dlan, the only child of Duke (later Archduke) Dulinor Astrin Ilethian and Lady Jessica Dilan Arepo. At the age of 12 she traveled to Capital to enroll in the Karbiili School (p. 32), where she soon met and befriended Grand Princess Ciencia Iphegenia (p. 90). Lady Isis graduated with honors from Karbiili, then continued her studies at the Sibelian University on Dlan, eventually taking an advanced degree in political science.
The friction points are her being described as 'only child' and that she herself is not of Virasan faith. There's always the possibility of a retcon, but I've been trying to think of less 'Imperial Quarantine Agency'-like ways to handle this. One possibility that has crossed my mind is that Adulan might have transitioned at some point between 1105 and 1120 and adopted the name 'Isis' – complicating, though not fully precluding this avenue is the fact Adulan is highly religious, whereas Isis is not.
Another possibility I've considered is that under the Virasan faith, once someone is fully unducted they're no longer considered to be the children of their parents, therefore 'justifying' the description of Isis as the 'only child' of Dulinor and Lady Jessica.
Another, arguably simpler solution is to simply say Dulinor married twice; either Lady Jessica died and Dulinor remaried, or Dulinor had a wife who died and he then married Lady Jessica, whichever option makes the timeline work (Adulan's unstated intended age does not permit me to suggest a date).
That out of the way, what an adventure! Loved it to bits.
Further commentary I have on the book is that in Seas of the Ancients I felt like insufficient information was given the Referee as to what, exactly, the Guunie structures conveyed to Naalir. While this is later made explicit in Act 2, I do think it important to also list it in the Departure proper to allow the Referee to have a clear mental picture of what is transpiring, even if they have indeed read the entire campaign. Also unclear are why the structures were planted on this world in the first place, and why did the Ancients bother building hunter drones to catch it? Did they? The chronology doesn't seem to line up; the Guunies started to fly around 150,000 ago, the Ancients were then long gone. Were the Ancients hunters just... a defense mechanism, and it identified the Guuni structure as a threat? Inquiring minds wish to know...
A similar critique could be made of Winds of Change, as there were multiple instances of 'for reasons not clear as of yet' or similar, which are never explicity clarified – while I do have the ability to use inference to piece it together myself, I do think it would benefit the Referee nonetheless to have an explicit explanation of what exactly has transpired.
This final section on my post is now entirely my own, subjective opinions, and may thus be safely ignored by everyone
Overall I really enjoyed Act 1, far more than I had expected to. The feeling of 'learning' about the Core and both its high and low societies was masterfully executed, and as I've expressed in the past, I am just an absolute sucker for the 'mundane problem-solving' style of adventures that the running of a Luxury Liner provides.
I strongly suspect that it is partly because of this that Seas of the Ancients was the Departure that least excited me – though it was definitely an interesting read! I've been mulling it over trying to figure out if this is just a matter of my own personal tastes or something objective, but I'm mostly certain that it's just a consequence of the kind of stuff I like, I suppose.
What I do think is not just my own preferences, however, is that both The Offer and Seas of the Ancients felt less... cohesive? Tight, might be a better word...? than The Virasin Complaint and Knight Moves. I think this might be an inevitable consequence of their more sandbox-y nature. I wish I could better articulate why I felt this way so I could offer some actionable feedback, but oh well. Maybe it'll come to me later.
On the subject of The Offer though, one thing that jumped to me was that leveraging Ghorrd's family against him is explicitly called out as a possibility on Page 120, yet nowhere in the adventure prior to this point has it been hinted at! How can players act on a piece of information if they have never had the chance to discover or stumble into that information?
But yes, I think that about sums up my thoughts on Act 1, at least so far. And Chris, if you're reading this? Outstanding work mate, right on!
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
wiki.travellerrpg.com
