Suggestions for introductionary scenario

[tneva82]

Hiya. Ropecon 2008(BIG Finnish RPG/miniature/CCG/LARP/whatever event) is approaching and as I get to hopefully meet a friend who lives unconviniently far away that's excelent time to play a game or two with him. I figured I could introduce him to the traveller. However as I'm pretty damn rookie GM I could do with some help designing the scenario.

Probably going to be 1-2 players(let's see if I could figure out one or two more). Due to distance continuing the campaign isn't going to be that likely continued so whatever I do it would have to be stand alone that can be wrapped up.

I would like to have in it as much traveller stuff as possible and definetly atleast potential for gun fight(unless players figure way to do it peacefully).

So what sort of scenario ideas could work for this purpose?

 

[wlewisiii]

Well, except for the gunfight, "Shadows" is the classic introductory scenario. I find it works quite well for introducing the majority of tropes in the game. If you really want combat perhaps you can get them skittish enough to shoot up the local critters?

William

 

[Deniable]

Have you looked at the adventures in the last two issues of S&P? They're a lot easier to find than some of the older Traveller stuff.

I now have to pull out the reprints and read Shadows.

 

[wlewisiii]

Double Adventure 1 or The Traveller Book are the easiest places to find it. 8)

William

 

[MJD]

Using early Traveller scenarios as an intro to the game can be a bit hazardous. Shadows and Annic Nova involve a lot of walking around looking at stuff and wondering what it does/how to get it to do what you want but very little actually happens. Players who grew up on SF classics like Rendezvous With Rama might appreciate that but others are likely to get bored or feel let down that there was no storyline or plot.

Something like Marooned or Mission on Mithril might be better, in that it has more decisions to make and hazards to deal with, but is still self-contained. I like Horde, of course, which certainly has plenty of excitement.

 

[Xoph]

I'm going to run The Rescue from issue 56 of signs & portants. I'm going to do it on the players way to buy their ship, that way they don't have to deal with that sort of thing. It has everything you are looking for including the gunfight.

 

[rje]

Using early Traveller scenarios as an intro to the game can be a bit hazardous. Shadows and Annic Nova involve a lot of walking around looking at stuff and wondering what it does/how to get it to do what you want but very little actually happens. Players who grew up on SF classics like Rendezvous With Rama might appreciate that but others are likely to get bored or feel let down that there was no storyline or plot.

Something like Marooned or Mission on Mithril might be better, in that it has more decisions to make and hazards to deal with, but is still self-contained. I like Horde, of course, which certainly has plenty of excitement.

Shadows, Annic Nova, and Mission on Mithril are... how shall I put it diplomatically... oh sod that, they're all boring. They're important, maybe in some sense, but egads don't run them!

But, Horde, and its twin, The Chamax Plague... now those are exciting. Do those.

 

[wlewisiii]

Shadows, Annic Nova, and Mission on Mithril are... how shall I put it diplomatically... oh sod that, they're all boring. They're important, maybe in some sense, but egads don't run them!

But, Horde, and its twin, The Chamax Plague... now those are exciting. Do those.

Nah, those aren't boring. If you want that or your players have made you really mad at them, then you run "Exit Visa"... :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

William

 

[GypsyComet]

Or dive right in and run the opening Museum piece from The Traveller Adventure. You get an alien, ethically questionable tasks, and a potential gunfight.

 

[Chronus]

Shadows, Annic Nova, and Mission on Mithril are... how shall I put it diplomatically... oh sod that, they're all boring. They're important, maybe in some sense, but egads don't run them!

In regard to Shadows, I have to ask by quoting myself from another board (if only because I didn't get an answer over there):

Stranded in a remote, and highly undetectable, part of a planet that forces you to battle hordes of creatures while trying to resolve a dilemma within an alien structure in order to escape, all within a 6-8 hour time limit due to the acidic nature of the planet's atmosphere, is your definition of boring???

Pray tell . . . how? Lack of plot, yes. But boring?

 

[MJD]

Exit Visa. Ah yes, the classic intro scenario to Traveller: Bureacracy and Boredom in the Far Future. Has anyone actually run that one?

 

[MJD]

Shadows tends to degenerate into aimlessly wandering around a 'dungeon' wondering what's going on and getting bitten by the occasional snake.

Horde, on the other hand... Horde is fun.

 

[Chronus]

Horde, on the other hand... Horde is fun.

I gotta agree with you there. I think it's my favorite out of all the classic Double Adventures, with the Argon Gambit feeling like a close second. 8)

 

[hogscape]

Starchild from SP57 (I think) looks fantastic. Plenty of play value, well written and TOTALLY Traveller.

From what I've read it will play very nicely indeed.

 

[hogscape]

I went through a bitter period of deep personal self-loathing. During that time, I ran Exit Visa... Solo. It's what I needed to realise that there was something worse than being me... Being a player of Exit Visa. They were dark days indeed but ripping those pages from my original Traveller Book was so cathartic. I eventually saw the light. There's hope for us all.

Except of course for the Ref. who decides Exit Visa would make a legitimate multi-player adventure. That way lies madness.

 

[BenTOGS]

I've run the Classic Trav "Prison Planet" as a intro- players don't know each other, or their secrets. Modified it to include a smuggler doing a regular prisoner run every year thhat one of the Pirate/Mercs knew about.

 

[Allensh]

Shadows, Annic Nova, and Mission on Mithril are... how shall I put it diplomatically... oh sod that, they're all boring. They're important, maybe in some sense, but egads don't run them!

But, Horde, and its twin, The Chamax Plague... now those are exciting. Do those.

Amen!! Quite frankly, I would love to see someone write NEW versions of these adventures using modern adventure writing styles and injecting some actual action and adventure into them.

Chamax Plague and Horde is excellent, as is Death Station and Signal GK.

Allen

 

[AKAmra]

Shadows, Annic Nova, and Mission on Mithril are... how shall I put it diplomatically... oh sod that, they're all boring. They're important, maybe in some sense, but egads don't run them!

But, Horde, and its twin, The Chamax Plague... now those are exciting. Do those.

Amen!! Quite frankly, I would love to see someone write NEW versions of these adventures using modern adventure writing styles and injecting some actual action and adventure into them.

Chamax Plague and Horde is excellent, as is Death Station and Signal GK.

Allen

Then this quote from Planet Mongoose should please you,

"Classic Adventures
You will see some new adventures from us - and some old favourites. However, in many cases we are just taking the title and general concepts. They will be much fuller and richer than their counterparts, as befits expectations in the 21st Century. Current favourites are Prison planet (because most GMs will have to run it at some point!), and Broadsword, though that one will share very little with its predecessor. We are also looking at Trillion Credit Squadron, though that needs a great deal of thought in how it should be played. Still, might be fun if we could get a tournament system out of it!"

And Prison Planet is specifically mentioned. Of course these may be a bit out in the horizon.