On the reactions thread been discussing some ideas on a campaign background for a near future game and its come to ahead that there's actually several different options to pursue.
It was to provide an eventual background to another game currently running set several millennia from now in the Spinward Marches and this was to explain what happened to humanity once it began colonising other worlds.
However one part of the explanation was to have the jump drive invented and a base established on Mars without government oversight with the revelation of what had been happening resulting in the death of the inventor costing humanity access to the jump drive she invented restricting them to the stutter drive through the T2300 era.
But discussion on that made it clear this doesn't work.
So far the inventor was part of a group of research scientists in a program to develop a working maneuver drive however for either political or economic reasons (maybe even religious) its shelved and the team is split apart between the various space agencies with ESA ending up with the first working prototype that was to be sent to Mars to prove the technology works.
However certain information was not just classified but kept hidden as the probe wasn't just using a working maneuver drive but had a prototype jump drive built in and once behind the moon this activated sending it to Mars where it arrived after a week in transit from Earth point of view.
The probe released a satellite before colliding with Deimos (thought to make this sabotage but it works better if it would have crashed on Mars anyway as it didn't have the means to jump back to earth with its fuel expended) and it tethered itself to Deimos before transmitting back to Earth about a day later.
In the meantime the inventor was kicked off the program because of revelations regarding her past that involved links to terrorist factions and the rest of her team and the research materials was transferred to another secure site only to be destroyed and killed in a mishap involving an attempt to field test a replacement prototype.
The inventor was released pending investigation and thats where I was thinking of starting the game.
News of the death of her team and destruction of pretty much all of the research means she is now the only one left who can rebuild her prototype drive(s) and as such is being targetted by pretty much anyone with interest in the new space race.
Unfortunately because sof the charges that got her kicked out not enough care was taken to make sure she was safe and properly supervised so she promptly disappeared with the PCs being put in charge by ESA after they find out she's missing to locate and bring her back safe and sound.
Shocked by her expulsion she has gone to a wilderness retreat to get over the incident and being out of contact with civilisation is unaware of what has transpired even though she did believe her probe launch was successful she hasn't decided whether to bother continuing her research after being kicked off the program.
Any plot holes I should be worried about?
Is this okay for a Traveller game?
It was to provide an eventual background to another game currently running set several millennia from now in the Spinward Marches and this was to explain what happened to humanity once it began colonising other worlds.
However one part of the explanation was to have the jump drive invented and a base established on Mars without government oversight with the revelation of what had been happening resulting in the death of the inventor costing humanity access to the jump drive she invented restricting them to the stutter drive through the T2300 era.
But discussion on that made it clear this doesn't work.
So far the inventor was part of a group of research scientists in a program to develop a working maneuver drive however for either political or economic reasons (maybe even religious) its shelved and the team is split apart between the various space agencies with ESA ending up with the first working prototype that was to be sent to Mars to prove the technology works.
However certain information was not just classified but kept hidden as the probe wasn't just using a working maneuver drive but had a prototype jump drive built in and once behind the moon this activated sending it to Mars where it arrived after a week in transit from Earth point of view.
The probe released a satellite before colliding with Deimos (thought to make this sabotage but it works better if it would have crashed on Mars anyway as it didn't have the means to jump back to earth with its fuel expended) and it tethered itself to Deimos before transmitting back to Earth about a day later.
In the meantime the inventor was kicked off the program because of revelations regarding her past that involved links to terrorist factions and the rest of her team and the research materials was transferred to another secure site only to be destroyed and killed in a mishap involving an attempt to field test a replacement prototype.
The inventor was released pending investigation and thats where I was thinking of starting the game.
News of the death of her team and destruction of pretty much all of the research means she is now the only one left who can rebuild her prototype drive(s) and as such is being targetted by pretty much anyone with interest in the new space race.
Unfortunately because sof the charges that got her kicked out not enough care was taken to make sure she was safe and properly supervised so she promptly disappeared with the PCs being put in charge by ESA after they find out she's missing to locate and bring her back safe and sound.
Shocked by her expulsion she has gone to a wilderness retreat to get over the incident and being out of contact with civilisation is unaware of what has transpired even though she did believe her probe launch was successful she hasn't decided whether to bother continuing her research after being kicked off the program.
Any plot holes I should be worried about?
Is this okay for a Traveller game?
