alex_greene
Guest
From the Planet Mongoose blog:-
This sounds mighty cool.
(emphases mine)
This sounds mighty cool.
The Ancients Are Coming (?)
- Thread starter alex_greene
- Start date
Sounds promising.
Just please please please for the love of god don't have it so the players are railroaded everywhere and then strapped down and forced to listen to a GM NPC's monologue about how all-powerful he is and what's he's really been doing behind the scenes with nobody noticing.
I'm sure you won't do that though, because I know you guys can do better than that
Just please please please for the love of god don't have it so the players are railroaded everywhere and then strapped down and forced to listen to a GM NPC's monologue about how all-powerful he is and what's he's really been doing behind the scenes with nobody noticing.
I'm sure you won't do that though, because I know you guys can do better than that
Mongoose Gar
Mongoose
From my (very preliminary) notes for the adventure:
The more we use the Ancients, the less awesome they become. We keep the number of ancient artifacts and bases showing up in other books to a minimum. It’s much, much too easy to use Ancient tech as a MacGuffin in plots (I’ve done it myself), but Ancients are like Evil Sorcerers with Zombie Armies in Conan – one appearance is awesome, but they quickly become repetitive. Traveller is not ‘about’ the Ancients – they’re one piece of the whole game, and must not be allowed to dominate it. (I’m stating that mainly for my own benefit – I love Ancient races, and unless I consciously check myself, I’ll use ‘em everywhere.)
The Ancient books need to have a use in the game. It can’t be a book that basically says ‘here is awesome stuff. Your players will never see it.’ The big weakness of the old Secrets of the Ancients is that the second half basically tells the players to sit down and be amazed. The players need to be masters of their own destiny.
The more we use the Ancients, the less awesome they become. We keep the number of ancient artifacts and bases showing up in other books to a minimum. It’s much, much too easy to use Ancient tech as a MacGuffin in plots (I’ve done it myself), but Ancients are like Evil Sorcerers with Zombie Armies in Conan – one appearance is awesome, but they quickly become repetitive. Traveller is not ‘about’ the Ancients – they’re one piece of the whole game, and must not be allowed to dominate it. (I’m stating that mainly for my own benefit – I love Ancient races, and unless I consciously check myself, I’ll use ‘em everywhere.)
The Ancient books need to have a use in the game. It can’t be a book that basically says ‘here is awesome stuff. Your players will never see it.’ The big weakness of the old Secrets of the Ancients is that the second half basically tells the players to sit down and be amazed. The players need to be masters of their own destiny.
I'm all for it. After all, if Babylon 5 Could have the Vorlons cruising around and Sheridan still gets to do COOL STUFF, then the same can be said of a detailed interlinked Ancients series.....
It's all easy. After all, no mater what the book, the only thing that railroads a player in the end, is the GM.
~Rex
It's all easy. After all, no mater what the book, the only thing that railroads a player in the end, is the GM.
~Rex
alex_greene
Guest
That's the thing. The Ancients are long dead ... yet they've got Artifacts popping up all over the place.
Particularly the people who deny that they existed at all. They're the ones that the Ancients keep dropping by their houses and abducting them for fun and games with the anal probes ...
Particularly the people who deny that they existed at all. They're the ones that the Ancients keep dropping by their houses and abducting them for fun and games with the anal probes ...
Honestly, what I'd really like to see is the Ancients being a threat, that the races in Charted Space have to take action against. If Grandfather and his goons are revealed as still manipulating everything, then I don't think the major governments are are going to be OK with that.
And then you can have some cool B5-esque "Now get the hell out of our galaxy" confrontations to get them to stop meddling. Or you could have some epic battles to shut down the wormholes to their secret pocket universes permanently. That sort of thing would be quite fun, I think.
And then you can have some cool B5-esque "Now get the hell out of our galaxy" confrontations to get them to stop meddling
. Or you could have some epic battles to shut down the wormholes to their secret pocket universes permanently. That sort of thing would be quite fun, I think.Dave Chase
Mongoose
Hmm, that would be a neat idea (EDG's comment).
Maybe a huge new twist would be that some ancient race created a machine that stopped FLT from working except the Jump drive.
Now if that machine could be broken or have some ECM of a sorts thrown at it, that could cause some major situations.
Dave Chase
Maybe a huge new twist would be that some ancient race created a machine that stopped FLT from working except the Jump drive.
Now if that machine could be broken or have some ECM of a sorts thrown at it, that could cause some major situations.
Dave Chase
I agree about the Ancients as a threat, but I would prefer to use them
as a mysterious threat no one can really do anything about because of
a lack of reliable information where and how to deal with the problem.
However, these ideas are not mutually exclusive, it should be possible
to write the material in a way that allows both, the mysterious threat in
the hazy background as well as the epic battles.
as a mysterious threat no one can really do anything about because of
a lack of reliable information where and how to deal with the problem.
However, these ideas are not mutually exclusive, it should be possible
to write the material in a way that allows both, the mysterious threat in
the hazy background as well as the epic battles.
alex_greene
Guest
Erm, (spoilery bit below):-Dave Chase said:
This was the (literal) plot device of Tripwire - a set of Ancient devices that disrupted Jump space across several light years.
Dave Chase
Mongoose
Hmm, alex_greene
I am talking about the reverse. A device that has been active for 100's of eons that makes all FTL Other Than Jump impossible.
If one was able to jam it, then other forms of FTL could work.
Dave Chase
I am talking about the reverse. A device that has been active for 100's of eons that makes all FTL Other Than Jump impossible.
If one was able to jam it, then other forms of FTL could work.
Dave Chase
towerwarlock
Mongoose
Well you could have multiple Ancient Races:
1) The Ancients that we are familiar with from Traveller - who meddled with EVERYTHING and wiped themselves out.
2) The Old Galactics from the Federation of the Hub series - who are still arround, their ancient empire has crumbled. They let us younger races deal with problems unless it happens to be a problem left over from their empire's time. The rest of the time no one even knows they are arround.
3) The Thrint - lost ago fallen. Every once in a while one emerges from stasis and tries to take over. We are all slaves and food to them. (see the Man Kzin Wars series.)
1) The Ancients that we are familiar with from Traveller - who meddled with EVERYTHING and wiped themselves out.
2) The Old Galactics from the Federation of the Hub series - who are still arround, their ancient empire has crumbled. They let us younger races deal with problems unless it happens to be a problem left over from their empire's time. The rest of the time no one even knows they are arround.
3) The Thrint - lost ago fallen. Every once in a while one emerges from stasis and tries to take over. We are all slaves and food to them. (see the Man Kzin Wars series.)
Rikki Tikki Traveller
Cosmic Mongoose
Since Gar is writing this book (or series of books...) I hope some the IDEAS from B5 about ancients makes it into the Traveller mythos.
I don't want the actual B5 aliens, but the mystery and AMAZING TECHOMAGIC (insert burst of lights here) are brought over.
The Ancients in Traveller are a bit boring. There tech was never really explained. Telling me it is TL25 means nothing if you don't give me some examples of what TL 25 can do.
I know GURPS later did something like this, but not Classic Traveller.
Bringing the mystery and wonder back to the Ancients will be a good thing and from what I have seen of the B5 stuff, Gar is the man to do it!
I don't want the actual B5 aliens, but the mystery and AMAZING TECHOMAGIC (insert burst of lights here) are brought over.
The Ancients in Traveller are a bit boring. There tech was never really explained. Telling me it is TL25 means nothing if you don't give me some examples of what TL 25 can do.
I know GURPS later did something like this, but not Classic Traveller.
Bringing the mystery and wonder back to the Ancients will be a good thing and from what I have seen of the B5 stuff, Gar is the man to do it!
