Survival in traveller

[kaleotter]

I have been wanting to run a campaign in traveller for a while now, and have finally gotten a chance to. The first part of the campaign as I have it planned is a survival/escape story. In this game, a recent civil was has just ended, and the act of setting up a new democratic government has been undertaken. The players play former rebels, corporate or criminals, who have, for one reason or another been 'deported' to a colony world that serves as a planet sized prison. Here they are expected to carve out a niche for themselves, while facing off against nature, each other and the less salubrious members of the colony, all under the watchful eyes of the media corporation who funds the world, turning the 'colonists' exploits into media for the masses.

I was wondering if this seems like a good concept, and what I can do to evoke a gritty survival game until the players find their niche, or a way off planet to other endeavours.

 

[CosmicGamer]

By all means do whatever you and the players will enjoy. These are just comments, my thoughts, which can be ignored if they don't work for you.

Traveller is a far future sci fi game where people can travel through space to new and exciting worlds. As such, I'm often puzzled by how often a survival or other premise that strips away the tech and space setting occur.

Here is a snippet from a PbP game I recently started

I'd like to create a Sci Fi game and not just a combat, mystery, survival or whatever game with a Sci Fi setting.

What I mean by this is that I'd like combat to be less about bar brawls or a bunch of mercenarys or thugs shooting it out with slug weapons and utilize more Sci and tech like robots, combat drones, holographic decoys, EMPs, combat drug enhancement, and a 3D battle with combatants in armor and vehicles that are not limited to the ground.

Mystery/crime solving will be less likely to have puzzles and clues that players need to figure out and more likely utilize the characters high tech science, computer, and other skills.

Survival will be less likely to be about being stranded in some contrived manner which leaves characters without any possessions and needing to be wilderness gurus and more about role playing characters dealing with a loss of life support, power, or other technology they have grown to depend on and utilizing high tech items in innovative ways.

I'm not saying that a survival scenario can't be fun. Role playing a spacer character in nature.. "This air smells funny and whats with all those twirping sounds?" Getting grossed out seeing where food really comes from. Spitting it out because it tastes disgusting. "People eat this? Man, I wish I had a protein tube."

 

[kaleotter]

I think, in part that this is due to the fact that survival stories strike a chord in people. I used to on books focused on characters being stripped of home comforts and being forced to adapt to a new situation. I'm currently participating in a DND based survival campaign, but I get the feeling that it'll draw to a close as character power levels built and skill checks like survival go from simply being relatively easy to being trivial.

The idea that I'm going for with this adventure is something closer to mad max/the hunger games. I want technology and its use to overcome opposition and the harsh environment (and eventually intend to give the players the option to leave and move on to other things), but its use is limited and controlled by factions on Kappa. I also wanted to run a game where survival skills remain relevant, and Traveller is surprisingly good for this.

 

[Egil Skallagrimsson]

I have been wanting to run a campaign in traveller for a while now, and have finally gotten a chance to. The first part of the campaign as I have it planned is a survival/escape story. In this game, a recent civil was has just ended, and the act of setting up a new democratic government has been undertaken. The players play former rebels, corporate or criminals, who have, for one reason or another been 'deported' to a colony world that serves as a planet sized prison. Here they are expected to carve out a niche for themselves, while facing off against nature, each other and the less salubrious members of the colony, all under the watchful eyes of the media corporation who funds the world, turning the 'colonists' exploits into media for the masses.

I was wondering if this seems like a good concept, and what I can do to evoke a gritty survival game until the players find their niche, or a way off planet to other endeavours.

Sounds like a good plan. The good thing about "survival" type background to a plots is that it allows a range of different skills to be used, as the group head towards their goal, and some particularly Trav problems can arise, such as survival on a low g world with a tainted atmosphere, very short days, bizarre weather, and very unique (and dangerous) life forms.

Egil

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

The old Star Frontiers RPG had a module called "Crash on Volturnus', basically it was all about survival on a primitive planet after the ship the PCs are on gets hijacked by Space Pirates, they escape, crash on a planet and basically survive fighting various factions along the way in their attempt to find a way off this planet.

 

[Reynard]

Try finding Adventure 8: Prison Planet and/or Double Adventure 4: Marooned/Marooned Alone both to run and for ideas on survival scenarios.

A survival adventure can be a great way to have the characters originally meet and have an incentive for travelling as a team.

Here's an idea too. Take that ship a player may have earned at mustering and make it a goal for escape from the adventure with some inventive reason such as salvage rights or a pirated vessel from years ago to keep it.