Spinward Encounters

[IanBruntlett]

Spinward Encounters: A compilation of adventures for Traveller set in the Spinward Marches, most of them centered on the dangerous Amber Zones of the sector.

Will these be new adventures or will they be from Signs & Portents or pre-existing Traveller books?

What style will they be in? Structured like Secrets of the Anceints or more freeform?

Typically what is the average number of pages per adventure? The higher the page count, the more time will have to be invested into preparing to referee it.

 

[RichardP]

They are all new unpublished adventures

 

[RichardP]

There are 64 patron encounters (similar to the old GDW 76 patrons). 4 per subsector. Each one details a small job with several paragraphs of information for the players, several paragraphs more for the referee giving the real picture and then several possible endings for the referee to choose from. They are each about 3/4 of a page long.

There are 16 more detailed amber zones (average 6 pages long) with longer adventures. 5 are set in District 268 and can be used as a campaign

Hope this helps

Cheers
Richard

 

[IanBruntlett]

Hope this helps

Indeed it does! A book I will definitely buying

 

[Alan Hume]

As will I

 

[Stainless]

Very interesting. At one of the Traveller Open Days Matt told me there was no money to be made in publishing adventures, and then they announced the Living Traveller Campaign, et al.

However, this appears to be a different format to traditional adventures (e.g., Tripwire), so I suppose they're going to see how this one floats. I look forward to hearing more about it.

 

[IanBruntlett]

Very interesting. At one of the Traveller Open Days Matt told me there was no money to be made in publishing adventures, and then they announced the Living Traveller Campaign, et al.

Well, the publication of Compendium 1 and Crowded Hours suggests otherwise And having them in hardback form means the books will last a lot longer than a ring binder of adventures published in Signs & Portents.

 

[RichardP]

Stainless

It was written by a bunch of traveller fans (the people who bought you the Freedom League Sourcebook, the 4 operation dominoes adventures and the last two parts of the Guilded Lilly adventures all for Traveller TNE) as well as the Field Manual).

Pleading guilty as one of the authors

We just thought there was not much out there for 3I adventures except for the old GDW stuff.

Cheers
Richard

 

[Nuclear Fridge Magnet]

And some of the old GDW stuff I still own looks kind of creaky, compared to S&P offerings like "The Thing in the Pit"!

I'll definitely get a copy of this one.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Very interesting. At one of the Traveller Open Days Matt told me there was no money to be made in publishing adventures, and then they announced the Living Traveller Campaign, et al.

This is true.

However, you also need adventures present in the range in order to support the rest of the books - it is a Catch 22 for publishers

With Secrets and the Living Campaign, we decided to 'make an investment' in adventures and distribute them freely/cheaply, to give players access to all the adventures they should need.

The theory is the rest of the range then takes care of itself, and we get at least a little kudos for supporting the range well

 

[simonh]

I've heard this said many times before by publishers in the RPG industry. Adventues and campaigns play a vital role in showing people how a game can/should be run and as a catalyst for GMs to come up with their own ideas, but don't sell well.

I hope this strategy works, certainly reading the Ancients installments has been useful for me. A good scenario brings the setting alive in your immagination in a way that supplements rarely achieve, even if you have no intention of running it.

Simon Hibbs

 

[DFW]

I've heard this said many times before by publishers in the RPG industry. Adventues and campaigns play a vital role in showing people how a game can/should be run and as a catalyst for GMs to come up with their own ideas, but don't sell well.

AD&D adventures sold VERY well. I guess it depends on quality & mktg skill.

 

[hdan]

Yeah, I know part of the flavor of Traveller is "roll up the next adventure!", but I like having "D&D Module"-type adventures as well, like "Shadows" (which could stand a bit of reworking) and "Death Station" (which got one in a recent S&P). Heck, I wouldn't mind seeing many of the old CT adventures get "Mongoosified". (Might I suggest "Safari Ship"?)

And of course SotA is a fantastic repackaging of one of CT's most curious but boring adventures into a real rip-roaring space opera for fans of the more "cinematic" experience.

I'm looking forward to checking out and most likely buying Spinward Encounters when it comes out.

 

[IanBruntlett]

AD&D adventures sold VERY well. I guess it depends on quality & mktg skill.

Also, they had a regular magazine, Dungeon, dedicated to providing adventures.

 

[DFW]

AD&D adventures sold VERY well. I guess it depends on quality & mktg skill.

Also, they had a regular magazine, Dungeon, dedicated to providing adventures.

Yep. 3rd party support also. Early Trav had a lot of that too. I.P. enforcement has caused that to shrivel over the decades...

 

[Stainless]

Very interesting. At one of the Traveller Open Days Matt told me there was no money to be made in publishing adventures, and then they announced the Living Traveller Campaign, et al.

This is true.

However, you also need adventures present in the range in order to support the rest of the books - it is a Catch 22 for publishers

With Secrets and the Living Campaign, we decided to 'make an investment' in adventures and distribute them freely/cheaply, to give players access to all the adventures they should need.

The theory is the rest of the range then takes care of itself, and we get at least a little kudos for supporting the range well

I think my not particularly well written words have been slightly misinterpreted, but I may have misinterpreted the misinterpretations. So I won't bother to try and unpick it all

Matt, I fully grok your reasoning for the free adventures (you told me as much on the occasion I referred to above). I think it's a laudable approach, so I'm very interested to find out if you think it's been worth the investment or not (not that you could know with any scientific precision, since you can't do a negative control and then compare revenues).

RichardP, thanks for that info. It sounds doubly interesting. If you find it's a success and want to write another one, please let me know as I'd be interested in writing adventures for it (although I'm STILL working on my MLTC scenario).

 

[RichardP]

Stainless

PM me sometime, I might do another one but it depends when the writing muse hits me

Cheers
Richard