Traveller Idea needs a bit of advice

[Hopeless]

So been thinking what with all the recent news about the prospect they might have discovered warp drive it made me wonder about how to set up a campaign based around colonising another world.

Backdrop is that humanity discovered evidence of an artefact near Pluto (think Mass Effect) eventually they build a manned ship able to travel there discovering its an inactive jump gate that once activated allows them to travel to another solar system.

We're not talking Star Gate as this only links to the one solar system, but eventual exploration reveals not every system has a sun with some located near gas giants or ice worlds wandering the depths of space with an Extra Stellar Gate being the only thing remarkable.

Eventually there will be talk about colonising other worlds and I assume by that point the wealthier elements are the ones that get this ball rolling.

However there would also be those who are willing to sabotage others efforts whether out of a belief that they shouldn't leave their home world or just want to make sure their employers/nation/faith/people should be the ones to be first to access this new world...

Well my first question is say we use Orbital supplement and the like as a guide how do you picture this going ahead?

I was thinking there would be years of preparation in advance with scouts sent ahead to locate suitable worlds to colonise and explore (especially those not suitable for colonising!) and there should be quite a network being built in advance to help the first tentative search and later the serious attempts to colonise or explore other solar systems.

How would you handle this?

 

[Hopeless]

Sorry was worried I'd run out of time and have to retype the above!

So my idea is that a world is discovered but a mega corporate attempt to secure this new system results in a colony ship being sent off course so with no evidence of duplicity the mega corp's ship is the next in line for that new world.

I'm picturing there will be using the asteroid belt for suitable mining, refining and building the various ships, space stations and whatever else they will need out there along with research and hydroponics since that will be essential until they can rely on their new home for resources!

So the colony ship is sent and during a call just before they use the Pluto Gate its cut off with indications afterwards that there was a mis-jump (it is Traveller after all! :twisted: ).

The PCs go to investigate having loved ones and/or contacts aboard and in the process learn what happened and naturally try to find them.

The idea is that there's a limited time before their course can't be traced leaving them lost forever but in the attempt the PCs end up lost as well but manage to find their missing colony ship and end up functioning as the new scouts for the colon ship trying to find them a new home and resources so they can survive.

That sounds good enough to you as a game and/or campaign for Traveller?

Any suggestions like should I just have them all aboard the colony ship and then it mis-jumps instead of insuring there's a second ship available to explain how and why they can function as scouts or why its designed for long range exploration?

That last part is stretching this a bit!

 

[Mytholder]

Take a look at the Blue Planet rpg - that's got almost exactly the same setup as you describe (mysterious wormhole beyond Pluto leading to another star system, and the suggestion that there are more wormholes leading to more systems). In Blue Planet, Earth suffers a catastrophe after sending the first colony ship, so there's a seventy-year gap between the initial settlers and recontact leading to all sorts of problems. Great, great setting.

 

[Hopeless]

Speaking of which has anyone read Aquablue?

Its apparently considered to be very similar in style to that setting!

And if anyone has, have they seen an English translation as its apparently French from what I've been able to find?

 

[AndrewW]

Sorry was worried I'd run out of time and have to retype the above!

Could always type it up in a text editor or something then post.

So the colony ship is sent and during a call just before they use the Pluto Gate its cut off with indications afterwards that there was a mis-jump (it is Traveller after all! :twisted: ).

Any suggestions like should I just have them all aboard the colony ship and then it mis-jumps instead of insuring there's a second ship available to explain how and why they can function as scouts or why its designed for long range exploration?

There's the Earth 2 approach, crashes upon arrival. They did run across a scout ship already on the planet with some from that expedition still alive, just in low births.

 

[High Orbit Drifter]

Maybe the jump gate is not just a tunnel, but turns on and off at intervals and/or changes its destination. A colony could be sent through to a great world but the gate will close for the next 4.2 years or something, or after it goes through somebody resets the controls so instead of an opening next month the gate doesn't open for 10 years.

I'm probably thinking of the old Heechee universe, where humans have found the old abandoned pre-programed starships. They can't figure out how to change the programing but daring people fly them out, sometimes returning before they starve or are killed by whatever is at the end of the journey.

People opposing the colonization could be rights groups/terrorists opposed to the forced emmigration of colonists. In Heinlein's Tunnel in the Sky the cost of operating a gate was so high it could only be used for a specific destination once every few years. And there is a scene (I think in the same book) of probably Chinese authorities basically herding otherwise resistance populations through the gates to help get rid of overpopulation. People opposed to that sort of activity might blow up a gate or at least disable it or something, stranding you PCs on the other side.