The ancients in your campaigns.
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kafka
Mongoose
Given that I never assumed the Ancients as a singular entity but rather a time period in which the Droyne were clearly the most technological superior but not the only ones on the block...Players may find myriad of "Ancient" sites without being the Ancients...
Furthermore, there are entities older than the Droyne still out there. IMTU, Ancients are usually are the things that border on the supernatural....that is broken down into Super->meaning above our current understanding & Natural ->meaning still within the normal workings of the universe but using technology that would be perceived as magic even by the most advanced scientists within the Imperium and beyond...
Furthermore, there are entities older than the Droyne still out there. IMTU, Ancients are usually are the things that border on the supernatural....that is broken down into Super->meaning above our current understanding & Natural ->meaning still within the normal workings of the universe but using technology that would be perceived as magic even by the most advanced scientists within the Imperium and beyond...
No Ancients in my current setting, in fact no sentient aliens at all - well,
at least at the campaign's beginning.
There will be a couple of strange mysteries that are difficult to explain
without the hypothesis of intelligent spacefaring aliens, but there will be
no proof of their existence, at least for a very long time - no ruins, no
artefacts.
An example for the kind of mysteries is a bacterium that is found on two
planets several parsec apart.
The DNA of the two subspecies is slightly different, so they could be the
result of an extreme case of parallel evolution, or some of them could
have travelled on an interstellar comet, or some careless human explorer
could have introduced them recently ... or there have been spacefaring
aliens ...
In short, when the campaign starts, any precursor species and other ali-
ens will be the stuff of more or less weird conspiracy theories.
at least at the campaign's beginning.
There will be a couple of strange mysteries that are difficult to explain
without the hypothesis of intelligent spacefaring aliens, but there will be
no proof of their existence, at least for a very long time - no ruins, no
artefacts.
An example for the kind of mysteries is a bacterium that is found on two
planets several parsec apart.
The DNA of the two subspecies is slightly different, so they could be the
result of an extreme case of parallel evolution, or some of them could
have travelled on an interstellar comet, or some careless human explorer
could have introduced them recently ... or there have been spacefaring
aliens ...
In short, when the campaign starts, any precursor species and other ali-
ens will be the stuff of more or less weird conspiracy theories.
Captain Jonah
Mongoose
rust said:
Yes but thats what the goverments always say.
Old timer said:Hello again, second post this evening, getting the hang of this new technologyJust wanted to know how other GMs out there use the ancients in their games. I really like this part of traveller, and many of my player groups have had very interesting times when poking around ancient sites. My take on the ancients is similar to the way portraid in project steel, though some times the sites end up DOOM like( the games not the film). How does everyone else use the ancients, if at all?
I decided to run Mongoose's "Secrets of the Ancients" campaign so I guess I'll find out.
To be frank, I've always avoided using them at all in the past. I've always liked the Ancients aspect of the OTU, but preferred to keep it locked up in the annals of history. I was more interested in exploring the culture of the Zhodani, Vargr, and Aslan. I'm glad to say I'll be giving the Ancients their spot in the limelight for a while.
One of the ways to think about the Ancients in OTU culture is to compare them to the real world and our knowledge of dinosaurs.
Thanks to the media trumpting everything science reveals about them, we all know what a Tryanasaur looks like, that Raptors were intelligent hunters, etc, etc. But the fact is, we really know very little about their day to day life, which species were smart and which were dumb, what colors they were, etc. A large part of our common knowledge of dinosaurs is mere speculation - some of it driven by science, but much by popular culture and media.
Thanks to the media trumpting everything science reveals about them, we all know what a Tryanasaur looks like, that Raptors were intelligent hunters, etc, etc. But the fact is, we really know very little about their day to day life, which species were smart and which were dumb, what colors they were, etc. A large part of our common knowledge of dinosaurs is mere speculation - some of it driven by science, but much by popular culture and media.
kafka
Mongoose
Here is a twist that seasoned players may like...have them play non-bipedal aliens with a TL 7. Have them blast in an Apollo-style rocket and land on their nearby satellite. Have them discover the ruins of a fantastically advanced civilization destroyed by some catastrophe.
The year is 1248 (if you don't know - this is well into the New Era). The place would be an abandoned Imperial Scout base that was responsible for the interdiction of the planet of the locals (I don't know why...maybe there was a plague or the locals are psionic)...so they have no knowledge of the Imperium and what came after. Here is an opportunity to do a Stephen King by taking the familiar and turning it against the players.
The year is 1248 (if you don't know - this is well into the New Era). The place would be an abandoned Imperial Scout base that was responsible for the interdiction of the planet of the locals (I don't know why...maybe there was a plague or the locals are psionic)...so they have no knowledge of the Imperium and what came after. Here is an opportunity to do a Stephen King by taking the familiar and turning it against the players.
Not a bad idea at all. Post-apocalyptic science fiction is perhaps my favorite genre. The New Era milieu is a rich roleplaying environment. I never found the RCES campaigns very interesting but I had a blast running a Regency-based campaign some time ago.
Not sure I would want to go back to that milieu but even without running your campaign in 1248, there are plenty of backwaters in the 1105 OTU that would serve as a great location for running a campaign like the one you're describing.
Not sure I would want to go back to that milieu but even without running your campaign in 1248, there are plenty of backwaters in the 1105 OTU that would serve as a great location for running a campaign like the one you're describing.
kafka
Mongoose
starpilot said:
I do agree with you on one level the problem with setting in the CT/MgT era is that there would be a lot of background noise that any TL 7 civilization could pick upon...even if they don't have ears. There would be lights in the sky...etc.
1248 provides a good long duree in which the candles of the night flicker in the interstellar void.
Captain Jonah
Mongoose
kafka said:
Yes and no. Here on earth since 1901 we have been chucking out radio waves. So there is a wavefront of radio and tv signals 110 light years deep heading out from us. However as we avance and use higher frequencies, burst transmissions, fibre optic, laser/microwave etc the back end of that wave front becomes less noisy.
Far enough foward to a point where every house on the planet has ultra fast broadband, TV/Radio/Comms etc are all delivered by fibre optic.
Aircraft and spacecraft switch to interferance free methods of talking to each other and the ground and as far as tech 7 goes that wavefront of noise fades away.
Here we have been able to hear the noise we put out for 110 years. So an inhabited world 100 light years ago that put out its first signal 100 years ago would just be reaching us and our signals to them. However if that world put out its first sigal 300 years ago and its radio wavefront was 150 light years thick then it would have passed us by before we had the tech to listen in.
Random stuff is still possible, remember the WOW signal. But you get to the point where an advanced enough technology becomes undetectable to a more primitive society.
In terms of the post rebelion timeline. The hard times would actualy increase the noise output as planets drop in effective tech level and switch back to maintainable simpler technology. From the 1120s on as worlds fall backwards due to black war attacks or lack of off world support the background noise in the wilds would jump significantly.
In the OTU the fact that a world is only tech 7 inside the Imperium is an indicator of what it can make for itself not what it can use, they are free to import technology/medicine etc from the nearby worlds. Only the poorest or most stubourn lower tech worlds in the 3I would be completely free of at least tech 10+ stuff.
Lights in the sky are reported all the time, rubbished by the goverments and wrapped up in wild theories by the conspiracy theorists. Are they all weather ballons or ball lightning or are they careless ships doing flybys from the scout base the 3I has set up on the dark side of luna. Is Marc Miller secretly a renegade 3I covert observation scientist sent here with a team to keep us under observation and now trying to tell us the truth without actualy saying so. :shock:
As a side note. All those 1940s/50s/60s UFO drawings, ever notice how a lot of those wedge shaped ones look like type Ss :shock:
kafka
Mongoose
I agree with much of what you say...save IMTU worlds are cuddled until the Rebellion...when it hit the proverbal sh*te hit the fan and the worlds fell and they fell hard.
I really played up the post apocalyptic aspect of Hard Times and TNE and 1248 when I ran them. Also, I tend to play a Harder version of SF therefore much of the Traveller worlds are sustained through terraforming of some sort. Doesn't mean they are not habitable but there are an awful amount of quarries (obscure British SF reference) as opposed to Southern California movie lots.
All this contributes the deadly silence as the years march forward.
IMTU the Droyne were the Ancients and have degenerated into the Chirpers.
In the last decade someone or thing has begun to distribute these things called Coyns though...the Droyne are back
(Oh and Coyns are suddenly extemely illegal, especaially as the very occcassionaly trigger psionic powers in humans...)
In the last decade someone or thing has begun to distribute these things called Coyns though...the Droyne are back
(Oh and Coyns are suddenly extemely illegal, especaially as the very occcassionaly trigger psionic powers in humans...)
kafka
Mongoose
steelbrok said:
Actually, it is the OTU. There is something that the Coyns possess whether it be psionic or racial memory or that they are the 3D shadow of n-Dimensional construct. They are magic. 'nuff said.
The Droyne fell down to Chirpers almost universally after the Fall. However, this did not mean that Granddad did not pity some and ascended some back to full Droynehood but because they possess an almost placid lifestyle...it makes me think the Agents from the rebooted Secrets of the Ancients do actively intervene in the remainder of the Droyne settlements...how much of the Droyne are aware of this...is hard to say.
Following the official line, normal Droyne shouldn't be any more of a perceived threat to Grandfather or his children than Chipers. Genetically, both can be considered brood stock Droyne. Technologically, both can be considered insignificant (it's like debating whether stone age or Victorian technology is going to be more effective against a jet fighter...).
I don't think Grandfather or the kids would be too concerned as to the Chirper/Droyne state of affairs, though it is always possible they could be pawns in some scheme or other.
I don't think Grandfather or the kids would be too concerned as to the Chirper/Droyne state of affairs, though it is always possible they could be pawns in some scheme or other.
Captain Jonah
Mongoose
rinku said:
How dare you sir.
The super scientists of Victoria’s ere would have that jet fighter sorted out in no time, the fleet of steam powered maxim armed balloons of Her Imperial Majesties Air fleet would shut the bugger down as soon as he dared to overfly the Empire.
Hurumph.
kafka
Mongoose
rinku said:
But, also following the official line...Granddad does occasionally give presents like Disintegrators to his Droyne to deal with the pesky humans. Clearly, Granddad or his children stumbled upon the way to bring out the long regressive genes and reverse evolution.
But, if Granddad was a Natural "20" and hence a mutant and freak, it is only a good policy of insurance to prevent that mutant happening again but nature always seems to have a way of subverting the best intentions of science. Hence, I see the Droyne coyns as more a surveillance device designed to keep Droyne societies in check.
And, as I said in the earlier post they exist as a shadow of a much more complicated device in the n-th Dimension hence why Imperial scientists even at TL 16 cannot figure what makes them tick.
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