Speaking on that contenious issue of adventures...

[kafka]

(pardon the double post) but I thought I would try a larger audience...

Thinking of adventures...I just wonder where is there a happy medium in Traveller. I like the sandbox of many CT adventures but I also liked the structured ones like Flaming Eye, Knightfall. Project Steel, was good but lacked more detail. And, I found Tripwire to be quite alien to Traveller although, parts of it, I did recognize as the same school that spawned the Guilded Lily. So where are good adventures?

My happiest memories were of the old AD&D TSR modules which gave elabourate background details, description text boxes (that allowed me to skim and improvise) and visual props. Traveller has never come close to emulating this. What other SF game systems have? I have tried Fading Suns and I find it even more open ended than Traveller with few exceptions. Gamma World is an AD&D clone but with SF dressing? Alternity/Star*Drive is something that I cannot decide? So what are the suggestions from this board?

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

Yes a few "generic" non-3rd Imperium adventures would be good.

 

[kafka]

Actually, other than Cthuloid Stars, I am not likely to buy non OTU adventures save the generic ones that Gareth is engaged in. I like many of the settings that Mongoose is applying to Traveller but I have been only buying the main rulebooks not supplements or adventures.

So, I would strongly like to see more of the OTU featured in the Traveller line with the other lines being branches off from the main tree (the OTU) rather than lines in their own right.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

As I prefer the "original, generic" 'Traveller' rather than the 3rd Imperium flavour, I certainly would be interested in adventures.

However, what I really would be interested in would be some fully fleshed-out planets (with maps, lots of maps!!!).

 

[Nathan Brazil]

There are two things coming at me of the original post. "Generic" and "fond memories".

On the fond memories side of things, having played many of the old modules, they were sufficiently open ended that you could do whatever you wanted within the module. Creatures in one dungeon room had little interaction with others. Above ground, you often had the implied support of the locals to get what you wanted done. No authorities messing about with your personal power and what not. It would seem to me that largest element there is the personal freedom to mold your own destiny.

Generic is another thing. A generic setting is that it should be evocative enough that everyone is on the same page when you mention something without mentioning the setting itself. Back in the day for AD&D and CT, Greyhawk and OTU were the first (or only) puablished settings, the baseline that everyone could look at and compare their own variation or homebrew compaign from.

For Traveller, I would think, a generic adventure should give freedom for the players to do as they wish with little or no harrassment from athorities. It should also make use of only what is written in the main rule book without the use of mentioning the Third Imperium.

Hmm. OTOH Leviathan was pretty good on the not being interferred with.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

"Flexability" and "Adaptability" are the keys.

Varied and mutable so that any adventure could be used with any setting or background — you want to set it on a "Ringworld-esque" construction... fine. You want to place it in the 3rd Imperium... fine.

The trick is to sell the idea to everyone. Great ideas and plots (OK, I know, easier said than done!) are the bedrock to hang the GM's favourite setting "flavour" details on.

 

[OddjobXL]

In defense of Fading Suns, there really were only a handful of actual "adventures" published. Most of the material revolved around the setting as a whole. The beauty of Fading Suns in the eyes of many is that it's so broad that you can adapt almost any adventure from any setting to it with just a little work. So, yes, it might take that little work but you can bring over those old D&D adventures you like and convert them. Maybe there aren't orcs or kobolds but Changed Ones or golems or husks or simply isolated tribal cultists work just fine.

I could easily see running Traveller's Prison Planet in Fading Suns, as administered by the Guilds perhaps, or Cthulhu adventures, involving no doubt the demon-hunting and mystical factions in the Church, or (to wander further afield into obscurity) the old naval campaigns from Privateers & Gentlemen using FS's Noble Armada.

But getting back to Traveller you might want to check out MG:T's already existing adventures. I've only picked up Prison Planet and Beltstrike so far and both are detailed and fairly open ended. I'd agree there's no way to avoid the complications of authority and politics though. That's just a big part of much of the Traveller universe including these settings.

 

[Anonymous]

I really do like the rules but I am not a fan of the OTU, it just never caught on with me. I much prefer my own campaign world(s) and modify the adventures that come out to that. Either way is fine just as long as we keep seeing quality work come out, I have no problems tweaking to fit my needs!

 

[Captain Brann]

HI
As I have based my PC's in the Sword Worlds so that they have limited Tec at the start, I have had to adjust the adventures I have used so far.
Started with Rescue from SP; then Type S Adventure, haveing the PCs compete with an imperial group who had the parts; then used the Shadows on the same planet. Now they are off with there empolyer to travel in the Sword Worlds and the Iperium, some will be home made adventures and some adepted.

More one off and campaigns please, which can be set in different area's.

Chris

 

[IanBruntlett]

I don't know when Campaign Guide will be published but take a look at http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=42588 for more details.

 

[kristof65]

However, what I really would be interested in would be some fully fleshed-out planets (with maps, lots of maps!!!).

IMO, what Traveller screams for is "Locales", much more so than Adventures. I played a lot of CT back in the day, and while I faithfully purchased all 13 classic adventures, I didn't use a single one of them as any thing more than resource to mine NPCs and Locations from.

One thing that seperated CT from it's fantasy cousins at the time was it's use of Patrons. CT taught me that a good NPC was far more useful to the health of my campaigns than any published adventure was. It's an attitude I've carried with me into all of my RPGing, not just Traveller.

CT/MT's 3rd Imperium also did a great job of providing high level overviews of the territory within those characters could interact - 1,000s of worlds, governments, etc as well as vehicles to convey them around.

MGT has carried that tradition on with books like 760 Patrons, and 1,001 Characters, Spinward Marches, Traders and Gunboats, etc.

But what Traveller has always lacked is a good place for those two extremes to meet. We can take our PCs/NPCs and put them on a Type R Merchant ship to travel from Regina to Rhylanor, but what do we find when we get there?

A few CT, MT and TNE adventures detail some planets, and GT has it's Planetary Survey books, but what most GMs really need are starports and other locales where Traveller types would spend the majority of their time. Locales that fit anywhere, that could reasonably be found on Regina, Rhylanor or Bumfatoo.

While I would happily buy Planet type sourcebooks as our good Lord High Munchkin proposes, what I'd really like to see are sourcebooks on starports and the locations within them. I can use all sorts of online tools and computer programs* to generate planets, star systems, etc, in no time at all but finding a good, fleshed out starport or a dozen would be a god-send to me. But it goes beyond starports as well - Traveller in general could benefit from some generic location books that any GM could use no matter if they game in the 3I Spinward Marches, 3I Solomani Rim, or their OTU.

I'm not talking about just flooplans, either - things like how these locations normally operate, their staff, etc, make them much more valuable than just a floor plan. A map of a starport bar is helpful, but a description that tells me the heavily indebted owner is married to the bookkeeper but sleeping with his chief waitress, that the bartender is a local blackmarket contact and the booze deliveries are every Thursday at noon not only gives me lots of adventure fodder as well, it gives me lots of hooks to drop it into my campaign when and where I need it.

Starports in particular could benefit from this treatment. PCs in every Traveller campaign I've played, GMd or even witnessed spend a lot time in Starports, yet they're one of the weakest areas in terms of how many published resources are available for them. Not only would maps help, but lists of businesses, offices, notable NPC positions, logistics information, etc would all be beneficial.

A Class A or B starport could be a sourcebook by itself, while 2-3 Class C or D starports could probably fit in a book, and a dozen or so lesser starports. As the line grew, othr locations that could beneift would be Military bases, corporate headquarters, government buildings, shopping venues, warehouse districts, and so on.

Anyway, that's just my $0.02.

 

[OddjobXL]

I was going to suggest GURPS Starports: Gateway to Adventure.

http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/traveller/starports/

Seems you've got an idea that's good enough to already have come to fruition. It would take a little adapting through to MG:T.

But, I could see Mongoose doing something along these lines as well. Maybe more in depth examples with a little City state of the Invincible Traveller color to them. Block by block exposes rather than just major figures in the starport, for example.

 

[Stainless]

However, what I really would be interested in would be some fully fleshed-out planets (with maps, lots of maps!!!).

IMO, what Traveller screams for is "Locales", much more so than Adventures. I played a lot of CT back in the day, and while I faithfully purchased all 13 classic adventures, I didn't use a single one of them as any thing more than resource to mine NPCs and Locations from.

...Lots'a stuff deleted...

Anyway, that's just my $0.02.

+1

 

[Stainless]

Tarsus was a good seller back in the GDW days. A MGT version of that (or another planet but in the same style) would be very useful. Not so much an adventure but detailed background and adventure seeds.

 

[dmccoy1693]

noted for (near) future reference.

 

[OddjobXL]

The book [GURPS Starports] offers little in the way of "ready for use" starports and characters. It describes "what is in a port" using GT terms (even the port classes are different) and has basic writeups of IIRC three ports in the back (No deckplans) using the GT:Starships construction system. It also describes the GT view on how a starport works including stuff like unbribabel custom officials (1)

I would prefer something along the lines of the old "Starship operators manual" intermixed with port and port official descriptions. Including the "starport" surrounding a port since that is what makes a port come alive. Read a "travellers report" from any tourist travelling one of the channel networks. The "ports" themselves are interchangeabel but the surroundings are important. I expect similar for "Imperial Starports"

(1)MGT PLEASE ignore that bit if you ever write a starport book

The Starship Operator's manual is pretty great stuff but I disagree that all ports would be generic. I'm sure there'd be the equivalent of temporary structures of a modular nature dumped onto primitive sites but other starports might make use of some existing structures (which might have some unusual architectural/cultural fingerprints), be located in different kinds of terrain, employ native materials and artisans, etc. It would all depend on exactly what sort of agreement the Imperials came to with the locals and how important that hub might be to corporate or military interests.

The reference to the City State of the Invincible Traveller might be a bit obscure but the original RPG city, the first and still one of the biggest and most detailed ever designed, was Judge's Guild's City State of the Invincible Overlord. I think, if translated into a Traveller starport, we'd find ourselves on the same page. It had a detailed, street-by-street and building-by-building, breakdown of this one city. Who lived where, what were they like, what would you find inside?

What really made it sing in a way few other city products have was not only the detailed, you are here and here's what you see, approach to breaking the subject down but references woven throughout to the wider Wilderlands campaign. So maybe your guys are running down an alley to get away from the local constabulary and the break into a darkened shop. You know whose window they've busted into and what they might find inside. Maybe there are a few plot hooks that will draw them into some other storylines, story arcs that could take them across continents and into completely different settings, embedded there.

So, let's take Regina for example. Or pick another large but fairly typical starport that is setting specific to Spinward Marches. That specificity might seem to limit appeal but it could be adapted to hook into other settings and it's important for this central hub to feel like all roads lead to it. This is going to be a cosmopolitan place and the look and feel of all the different enterprises and cultures mingling there will be important to express.

Anywhere the players go should potentially send them into the arms of something interesting that might sling them right out again into the furthest reaches of the Marches. The GM can always tone it down if it would be a distraction, of course, but knowing it's there means knowing there's always something that could be going on. It's not just a city. It's a repository of plots circling around like buzzards.

And they'll come back knowing this is where they'll get the best prices for their unusual discoveries at least, where many of their contacts are, and where they can find the most equipment at competitive prices. It's home base to the extent their ship isn't.

Anyhow, just off the top of my head. I think we're generally on the same page and I think it's a grand idea. If the Marches and the idea of just rolling things on charts are, in general, too vague the very specificity and concreteness of a Constantinople for a campaign to orbit around, with named NPCs and places and a sense of stability and continuity, would add just the thing. A keystone to hold a more freeform and improvisational structure together.

 

[kristof65]

The reference to the City State of the Invincible Traveller might be a bit obscure but the original RPG city, the first and still one of the biggest and most detailed ever designed, was Judge's Guild's City State of the Invincible Overlord. I think, if translated into a Traveller starport, we'd find ourselves on the same page. It had a detailed, street-by-street and building-by-building, breakdown of this one city. Who lived where, what were they like, what would you find inside?

CSIO was good, but JG's City State of the World Emporer was better done.

Same concepts as CSIO, but left just a touch more customizable, and therefore easier to integrate to a non-Wilderlands campaign. That's the model an MGT STarports books should follow.

In some respects starports could be generic - a good real world comparison are airports. Although they come in many shapes and sizes, there are several things you're going to find common in airports. But you're right, to really bring them alive, they should be personalized. One only has to spend some time in different airports to see that even with a lot in common, they all have unique personalities.

 

[OddjobXL]

I'm very sympathetic to the idea of generic as possible Traveller supplements. That portability between settings is a strength of the game. However, in this one instance, I'm going to stick to the idea of a central "The Big City" supplement as being a little more than just a generic starport with some stock characters.

Traveller's got a huge amount of freedom to improvise, and structures that assist that approach to roleplaying, in its DNA. Always has. When I think of why Traveller means something to me that's the heart of the matter.

What it doesn't have is an easy way to latch into a dramatic, approachable, setting with, out of the box, memorable NPCs and themes. Spinward Marches, as a supplement, does a good job defining how the setting works and where everything is. What it doesn't do as well is give the GM an obvious way of exploiting all that detail or putting it into an immediately useful context without a bit of serious mastication.

Enter "The Big City". By instead of leaving bits of history as raw material for mining, old conflicts mentioned as wallpaper, the struggles of the galaxy or even backwater worlds as potential rationales for undefined future adventures: suddenly every door you walk through could have an NPC that personifies each aspect of the setting. Maybe he's just a barber today but tomorrow you might find out about his cousin, the smuggler, out in the Sword Worlds.

A GM that knows zero about Traveller or the Imperium suddenly has a map and a key to work from and one that references individuals, specific plots, and defined locations rather than vague lists of numbers and letters on a hex map. However, those UWPs will feel more like a real place if there's a reason to go there and some personality attached to the experience.

That's not to say what's great about Traveller, the random tables and unpredictable nature of improvised adventure, would be lessened. Those approaches would still be at the heart of things but would work in tandem with a more specific, and defined, city pulsing at the heart of events.

Blah. I think I've used up my bandwidth quota.

 

[kristof65]

That's not to say what's great about Traveller, the random tables and unpredictable nature of improvised adventure, would be lessened.

One of the great things about the 3I setting is that it is so large, which makes room for a lot. You could do detailed 5,000 page sourcebooks on half the worlds in the Spinward Marches and there would still be enough room for most GMs to drop their own ideas in.

Not that we need that many/that large to satisfy us. I'd be happy with a half dozen planetary source books, and a dozen or so city/starport sourcebooks in the 60-200 page range.

 

[Stainless]

All this talk about real world airports reminds me that I spent two hours in Heathrow Terminal 4 yesterday and so "Armpits of the Imperium" as a supplement springs to mind. :roll: