Ordinary people and even extraordinary people can rarely influence the games Great Powers play. Sadly, all most people can do is try to get through the times they're living in the best they can. Especially rootless adventurers like player characters.
In Classic Traveller, the times were a time of stability and relative peace. In MegaTraveller, it was a time of war, brought on by the foolishness of politicians (them and their "one clear choice").
The war in my post would be a campaign backdrop, as MegaTraveller's Rebellion was. The conflict would open up more adventure opportunities for small groups of travellers. There would be plenty of adventures for scouts and military characters, mercenaries, and merchantmen doing a variety of things, like supplying the military, smuggling, exploiting the trade routes abandoned by the megacorporations, engaging in piracy, or even performing humanitarian operations. But, nothing a small group of people could do would affect the outcome of what politicians set in motion. A small group can turn the tide of a battle, possibly a front, but not a war. The only small group that could affect the war would be the politicians that started it.
Unless of course there is some adventure that features a highly implausible chain of events that leads to a band of scruffy adventurers and their beaked monkeys or telepathic cats (Just so!) doing something that ends the movement of interstellar empires overnight, like flinging somebody's one ring back into the fires in which it was forged, or shooting That One Guy who's personally controlling it all, or stealing some guy's briefcase that happens to have the plans for the entire war spelled out in detail. Or somebody finding some kind of 'living weapon' who just happens to look like some endearing helpless waif, and who just happens to bond with the person who finds her, and who just happens to know The Secret Code to shut down the enemy's entire everything if the PC's can get her to the control room. Or making some impassioned speech appealing to a mighty army's better nature. Or roaming the sector star-triggering people. Or just throwing meat sauce on people because they read a book about psychohistory in college once.
Why are the Travellers a scruffy band of adventurers? What if they happened to be staff in the palace at the time of the assassination? They could alter the entire trajectory of the campaign simply by stopping the assassination, or preventing the death of the Aslan ambassador or the Princess, etc. Innumerable ways to change the story using the PCs with a good Referee, but you are correct, for a bad Referee who only sees Travellers as a scruffy band of misfits, you are correct. They are powerless to do or change anything.
A Highly Implausible Sequence of Events feels more like a novel to me (or a poorly written show, really) than characters doing the small group adventures against the backdrop of the disorder and danger of an immense war that involves the grand fleets of 5 out of 7 empires.
Something that informs my preference is how contrived things feel when everything ends up the same or in mysteriously balanced factions.
Again. Be creative. Why did they divide into almost exactly equal factions? Because someone using Charted Space as an experiment wanted it that way. Someone like that already exists in Canon.
Something that certain campaign backdrops do, like wars and post-apocalyptic settings, is sweep away what is so that individuals can have adventures that wouldn't be possible in a powerful orderly society. The war I described would last probably something like 15 to 20 years, leave devastation lasting a century in its wake, a century of high adventure until the forces of society grow strong enough to make everything orderly again.
This can already be done with little regional wars such as the FFW or in more lawless areas such as the Borderlands. Seems like you guys are trying to reinvent the wheel because you don't like the color. Don't invent a new wheel, just repaint the old one.
Agreed. And the real Strephon could've just had biometric tests done and that would've been it.
NAMB (Nobody Asked Me But), the issue I have with things like this is twofold: first, the PC's would have to be people who would reasonably be there, and reasonably be involved. They would need to be people who've been moving in that circle for years. No one else is going to be that close to the Grand Princess or anyone else important, or even allowed into the facility. Wandering monstersscruffy nerfherdersbrazen psychopathsutter ne'er-do-wellsdown-and-out free tradersSpinward Marches 1105 bar brawl champspoors in general travellers simply wouldn't be there. For them to be there would require some referee / adventure contrivance, like they just happened to save the Princess from someone or something when she was looking for strange doing charity work or whatever. And, all her guards would have to somehow fail, and the travellers step in to do what all her dedicated professionals couldn't do.
IMO, if PC's are involved at that level, they need to earn it. They need to be in campaign after campaign that builds them to that point. That's when the referee should spring something like that. Then it's an incredible capstone to an amazing adventuring career rather than a contrivance.
Or the campaign begins with them in those positions as the opening of a multi-year campaign. Travellers are not 1st level characters like in D&D. They are experienced and in some cases highly decorated individuals. Moreso in previous editions with stuff like the Starburst medals and such at character creation. Hell, you can muster out as a SOC 15 individual if your rolls pan out correctly and you don't mind some aging rolls.
In this case in would be the start to a campaign, not the start of a career as an adventurer.
If you want decorations, you can always award them from the appropriate Event results. Purple hearts are obvious, but any of the ones that mention bonuses to advancement are suitable.
I have said before that PCs can be part of any material ever written for Traveller if the Referee simply writes them in. The official published material is simply what happens if the PCs do not intervene. Why do We need to be spoon-fed plots when the stories themselves reveal innumerable ways for PCs to get involved? YTU ceases to be the OTU at the very first game session because of the PCs. At that first session it becomes YTU, not the OTU.
Yes you can. You can take the introduction to a double adventure and make a multiweek scenario out of it (I did it with Marooned). You can make up anything you like.
You can have an official start date as 1121 and loads of metagame stuff between 1116 and 1121.
You can then make up anything you want to.
But I repeat, MegaTraveller would have been better received if the rebellion was something that involved them from day 1 (or perhaps day -700) rather than something that happens off screen and is done unto them. You wake up in 1121, here is a precis of what happened, so what are you doing now.
How did the rebellion affect character generation? Your last term should have taken place while the conflict was hot. This was never addressed. I, as referee, could do so, but it should be something the setting designers thought of.
If Mongoose ever do it I want them to do what they have done for FFW:
lead up adventures, adventures during the event, immediate aftermath (we are still at stage 2 for FFW).
Could I do this myself? Yes, I have written outlines for scenarios and events from years before, to during the assassination itself and aftermath, then the conflict that follows.
Would people like Mongoose to adopt this approach, or just fast forward to 1121, give you nothing to do and then release another book set in 1125 that has an actual PC scale to it.
Yes you can. You can take the introduction to a double adventure and make a multiweek scenario out of it (I did it with Marooned). You can make up anything you like.
You can have an official start date as 1121 and loads of metagame stuff between 1116 and 1121.
You can then make up anything you want to.
But I repeat, MegaTraveller would have been better received if the rebellion was something that involved them from day 1 (or perhaps day -700) rather than something that happens off screen and is done unto them. You wake up in 1121, here is a precis of what happened, so what are you doing now.
How did the rebellion affect character generation? Your last term should have taken place while the conflict was hot. This was never addressed. I, as referee, could do so, but it should be something the setting designers thought of.
If Mongoose ever do it I want them to do what they have done for FFW:
lead up adventures, adventures during the event, immediate aftermath (we are still at stage 2 for FFW).
Could I do this myself? Yes, I have written outlines for scenarios and events from years before, to during the assassination itself and aftermath, then the conflict that follows.
Would people like Mongoose to adopt this approach, or just fast forward to 1121, give you nothing to do and then release another book set in 1125 that has an actual PC scale to it.
I have or had until last night (grumble grumble grumble) most of the Rebellion-era books. They give a sweeping overview of what will happen if the PCs do nothing. There is plenty of detail where PCs could have "Agency" and change everything. I am not most people though. Most people do not or can not run sandbox campaigns. They need to be spoon-fed adventures. Personally, I love the new Borderlands book, but it just gives a snapshot of time. The Rebellion-era books give you a moving time frame. As a snapshot, time doesn't move in the Borderlands book. It is merely a setting book and isn't telling a story. The Rebellion-era books are telling a story and it is up the the Referee where and how to insert the PCs. I am sure the writers could write adventures in there specifically so Referees don't have to think, but that is just My bias showing. I do not run published adventures. My experiences with being ramrodded down adventure paths by DMs back in the 80s totally turned Me off on running or playing in any published adventures. Every adventure book I buy, I basically take the setting and ignore the adventure. Shadows of Sindal, for example.
When you go to Paal, it railroads you into renting ground transportation or taking the railroad since it says you can not fly in your ship without being shot down. Really? What TL is Paal? At best, they are TL-12 at the Starport, while the planet in general is only TL-6. The PCs have a TL-15 stealth ship. Nothing on Paal could even detect them with out some really unfortunate rolls happening. I can skip almost the entire first third of the adventure as written eventhough the adventure tries to say differently, but the rules as written, do not support that conclusion.
PCs never follow a storyline, at least Mine never do. lol
If you want decorations, you can always award them from the appropriate Event results. Purple hearts are obvious, but any of the ones that mention bonuses to advancement are suitable.
My sword world scholar got a major award and a minor one. I translated from Icelandic and Norwegian to make them sound impressive and SW appropriate... He got a stockinged leg lamp (it's a major award!) and a Bozo button.
I have or had until last night (grumble grumble grumble) most of the Rebellion-era books. They give a sweeping overview of what will happen if the PCs do nothing. There is plenty of detail where PCs could have "Agency" and change everything. I am not most people though. Most people do not or can not run sandbox campaigns. They need to be spoon-fed adventures. Personally, I love the new Borderlands book, but it just gives a snapshot of time. The Rebellion-era books give you a moving time frame. As a snapshot, time doesn't move in the Borderlands book. It is merely a setting book and isn't telling a story. The Rebellion-era books are telling a story and it is up the the Referee where and how to insert the PCs. I am sure the writers could write adventures in there specifically so Referees don't have to think, but that is just My bias showing. I do not run published adventures. My experiences with being ramrodded down adventure paths by DMs back in the 80s totally turned Me off on running or playing in any published adventures. Every adventure book I buy, I basically take the setting and ignore the adventure. Shadows of Sindal, for example.
When you go to Paal, it railroads you into renting ground transportation or taking the railroad since it says you can not fly in your ship without being shot down. Really? What TL is Paal? At best, they are TL-12 at the Starport, while the planet in general is only TL-6. The PCs have a TL-15 stealth ship. Nothing on Paal could even detect them with out some really unfortunate rolls happening. I can skip almost the entire first third of the adventure as written eventhough the adventure tries to say differently, but the rules as written, do not support that conclusion.
PCs never follow a storyline, at least Mine never do. lol
In order to sandbox, people need to care. They need to care enough to read about the setting and understand it, they need to care about their characters enough to think about their personalities and how they would deal with life's challenges in the setting they're in, and they need to care enough about the game and the adventure to do some slice of life type activities as they figure out how their characters are going to handle longer term challenges/adventures. They need to see the slice of life as part of the larger adventure of life.
People who don't care, who are there for laughs, for socializing, for beer/pretzels, or to complain about how they'd rather be playing D&D, they're not going to sandbox. They don't care enough to look for opportunities that the setting presents, or even to have their characters act like responsible adults. They want to be spoon-fed because they don't give enough of a shit to do anything other than demand to be entertained. It's as if they think they're doing you such a big favor by showing up and sitting there, that the obligation is on you to make sure they're entertained. I guess they are doing the ref a big favor; after all, they could be playing D&D right now if they didn't have to take pity on the ref and play his space game once in a while.
The reason I talk about D&D like this is because I've noticed over the years that the great majority of D&D players I've interacted with reject and disparage other games out of hand, say they don't want to learn new rules and so on, then they jump to learn entirely new rulesets to play the next edition of D&D. D&D stopped being D&D with 3rd edition, and 3rd, 4th, and 5th editions were all completely different games except for the name and a couple of settings. I think it's the incremental rewards of levels and experience points that does that.
There could be other reasons for not sandboxing, like they're young people who don't have much life experience or don't have setting books so it's not easy for them to figure out how to sandbox, or they could be unimaginative or busy people, or all they've done is D&D type railroadery and they don't feel like they have permission so to speak for their characters to take off on their own. I agree with your comments about Sindal and its excellent rail transportation network.
Sandboxing also requires to referee to make sure there are opportunities for the player characters to work toward some kind of constructive goal. Real life is a sandbox, and as I'm sure we all know, it ain't easy. The ref has to be ready to generate engaging adventures on the fly in response to player characters' efforts to solve their problems. Going to the labor center should yield something. Joining a mercenary legion should yield something. Getting involved in the planet's underworld should yield something. Getting a job as a startown bar bouncer should yield something. A character using his skills to work at the starport should yield something. By yield something, I mean a path toward little successes that will be interesting mini adventures that build up to a bigger more rewarding adventure that has the potential to change the characters' lives for better or for worse.
I've tried to sandbox, I've really tried, but no one ever wanted to cooperate. Not players, not refs. And I've been huffed at for even trying.
Ram rodded. Doing a Kingdoms style pathfinder. They have a map of the area. I ask them where they want to explore next at the end of a session and ensure that area is prepped for next time. Same with Traveller. I'll keep at least three bounties ready in case they are needed at the start or middle of a session, but a larger selection at the end of a session, and their choice drives my prep.
The reason I talk about D&D like this is because I've noticed over the years that the great majority of D&D players I've interacted with reject and disparage other games out of hand, say they don't want to learn new rules and so on
Judging by the market, books that would sell for the OTU would be Psionics, Merchant Prince/GT Far Trader, and Nobles. Not that I have personal interest in any of that. My feelings are write what you know, being a rust belter our royalty looks like this:
Consequently I show the players this pic when they are looking for a starport dive, say this rig is parked out front, and their reaction is "this must be the place." In fact one of the drop in players was a stripper. Our games are like a lazy river, people float along in the current, got the one innertube with the beer cooler close by; a sandbox with guidance, avoid the Aslan droppings.
Per D&D I bought the new PHB, it's ok, a nice book, rolled up a fighter, rogue, and ranger; overall it's too complex for my tastes. Making a magic-user would be a bit of work. Though that is D&D's deal, if it were Traveller, the magic-users out the gate would be way too powerful. If I were ever to run a game of D&D again, I'd really just like to use my old holmes book with AD&D as extra material.
...Making a magic-user would be a bit of work. Though that is D&D's deal, if it were Traveller, the magic-users out the gate would be way too powerful. If I were ever to run a game of D&D again, I'd really just like to use my old holmes book with AD&D as extra material.
Actually, the current Cephus engine fantasy isn't too bad for magic. You just limit their access to new spells to control the power creep, and even then, it's like learning a new skill after chargen to adapt a new spell into your book. Then there is the corruption mechanic if they abuse dark arts or fail a spell check .
Ran it for a couple of months after my guys defeated the last big bad of their initial arc. They got a ticket to a virtual reality resort, got in nerve stimulator suits and played a game within the game.
Actually, the current Cephus engine fantasy isn't too bad for magic. You just limit their access to new spells to control the power creep, and even then, it's like learning a new skill after chargen to adapt a new spell into your book. Then there is the corruption mechanic if they abuse dark arts or fail a spell check .
Ran it for a couple of months after my guys defeated the last big bad of their initial arc. They got a ticket to a virtual reality resort, got in nerve stimulator suits and played a game within the game.
Sounds cool. Also it's limiting the power of MU's, D&D's design is about doing it too, either way in Cepheus or D&D, it has to be done or change the nature of the game. Superhero games start with a lot of power, sci-fi too, some have real powerful characters. When we kids, my GF described V:TM to me as "supers with fangs."
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