Tripwire...
- Thread starter Treebore
- Start date
The first part is so rail roaded it hurt my eyes, but in practice I think the players will probably not feel it, at least if they don't make silly choices which would require the GM pulling them back on track. Once the players make contact with the second spy in Imperium space things get better, but the choices become a little pointless (see further down my comment on the investigations).
Having thought about it all, I have more issues in the first part with :
* How to get the players at the starting place in the first place? (I may start the campaign by making them have to go pick up their starship in the Zhodani system, like in type S adventure, or create a steping stone system in the Vargr space so they come by there)
* How to convince the players (and myself) that the search warrant for them has been transfered by the Zhodani to the Imperium, while in a tense poticial situation... And that is not taking into account possible strings the players could pull because of their careers (if nobles, navy or agents, etc). And unfortunately it is critical for theim to stay in the campaign that they feel hunted even in Imprium space.
* How to legally justify trading a starship (which they probably do not own at 100%) with another one, and still be doing it under the table... (this may be critical in practice)
And the more worrying elements which I am not satisfied with concern the other parts, and I need to find solutions for my campaign:
* the second part where they go to the independant planets at the bottom of the subsector is where most if the investigation happens, so I find it critical, but the results of the investigations are mostly negative, and the important results (the Zhodani connection) are sometimes pulled out of a hat. Very anticlimatic, just no good, I need to rework that whole thing. I am really dissapointed that the heart of the whole campaign (as I see it) is in fact a serie of investigations that are essentially pointless.
* Appart from a minor encounter at the beggining, the psionic abilities of the Zhodani (not the proles admitedly) are essentially *forgotten*, just like the fact that they are a major interstellar power, on par with the Imperium. Even with the help of the Imperium infiltrating their installations is bound the be near impossible. Also in a hot spot like Jewel subsector they will not be patroling their space with small scout ships and 200 tons SDBs; Destroyers are bound to be the norm (of course a cheap defense system would be to concentrate the fleet somewhere and only use SDBs in the other systems and hope small scouts can pass the information in case of surprise attacks, but the Zhodani can't afford to do it on the cheap on their imperial border!). That all needs to be reworked on, but the problem is as it is the adventure is allready hard enough (thankfully I have prison planet in case anything goes wrong)... A psionic amongst teh players would help, but I don't intend to let that happen too quickly.
Having thought about it all, I have more issues in the first part with :
* How to get the players at the starting place in the first place? (I may start the campaign by making them have to go pick up their starship in the Zhodani system, like in type S adventure, or create a steping stone system in the Vargr space so they come by there)
* How to convince the players (and myself) that the search warrant for them has been transfered by the Zhodani to the Imperium, while in a tense poticial situation... And that is not taking into account possible strings the players could pull because of their careers (if nobles, navy or agents, etc). And unfortunately it is critical for theim to stay in the campaign that they feel hunted even in Imprium space.
* How to legally justify trading a starship (which they probably do not own at 100%) with another one, and still be doing it under the table... (this may be critical in practice)
And the more worrying elements which I am not satisfied with concern the other parts, and I need to find solutions for my campaign:
* the second part where they go to the independant planets at the bottom of the subsector is where most if the investigation happens, so I find it critical, but the results of the investigations are mostly negative, and the important results (the Zhodani connection) are sometimes pulled out of a hat. Very anticlimatic, just no good, I need to rework that whole thing. I am really dissapointed that the heart of the whole campaign (as I see it) is in fact a serie of investigations that are essentially pointless.
* Appart from a minor encounter at the beggining, the psionic abilities of the Zhodani (not the proles admitedly) are essentially *forgotten*, just like the fact that they are a major interstellar power, on par with the Imperium. Even with the help of the Imperium infiltrating their installations is bound the be near impossible. Also in a hot spot like Jewel subsector they will not be patroling their space with small scout ships and 200 tons SDBs; Destroyers are bound to be the norm (of course a cheap defense system would be to concentrate the fleet somewhere and only use SDBs in the other systems and hope small scouts can pass the information in case of surprise attacks, but the Zhodani can't afford to do it on the cheap on their imperial border!). That all needs to be reworked on, but the problem is as it is the adventure is allready hard enough (thankfully I have prison planet in case anything goes wrong)... A psionic amongst teh players would help, but I don't intend to let that happen too quickly.
I just finished running my players thru the "Twilight Peaks" adventure with rather interesting results.
My group consists of a Droyne (with Psionics), a human Doctor/Steward (also with Psionics), a human Navy/Merchant (no psionics), and a human navy/noble (has gained psionics).
They are now heading to report on what happened to the Navy, and to Duke Noris. *HE* will be giving them the task of transporting a rep to the Jewel Subsector for the investiture ceremony, and in the process they will be drawn into the happening shown just prior to that in the book.
The point is that an easy way to get a group into the plot is to have them transporting someone to the Ducal Investiture, and simply putting them in the place to stop the assassination.
Good luck with your game!
My group consists of a Droyne (with Psionics), a human Doctor/Steward (also with Psionics), a human Navy/Merchant (no psionics), and a human navy/noble (has gained psionics).
They are now heading to report on what happened to the Navy, and to Duke Noris. *HE* will be giving them the task of transporting a rep to the Jewel Subsector for the investiture ceremony, and in the process they will be drawn into the happening shown just prior to that in the book.
The point is that an easy way to get a group into the plot is to have them transporting someone to the Ducal Investiture, and simply putting them in the place to stop the assassination.
Good luck with your game!
/Yeah, over all I like the adventure, but there are some serious holes to figure out how to fill.
Plus a Jump 2 ship is considerably worth more than a Jump 1, even if its 40/60/80 years old but been recently over hauled/refurbished. Granted, the set up lets us GM's play fast and loose with the numbers, but still.
Now I normally run my games in Jewell Sector, so I see a lot of ways to integrate the adventure into what I have going on. Plus my campaign has a long established Psionics unit explicitly set up for infiltrating the Zhodani. I even already have a Duke of Jewell sector for reasons very similar to what is outlined in Tripwire.
I personally do not have a problem with how railroady this is, especially in the beginning, but I realize how often life grabs us by the nose and leads us to our next destination, so I see rail roads as often being very realistic.
The premise of this adventure would certainly be such a situation.
As for the "warrants" crossing the borders, I do not see it happening either. Especially since the description will be so weak (they were seen in a Far Trader/Imperial Scout/Marava Class/etc...), gee, it isn't like there are HUNDREDS of each of those types of ships plying the spaceways.
Plus I think a lot of this scenario rests on incompetent police work following up the crimes, especially once its on the Imperial side of things.
Plus, I don't know about you guys, but my spy corps are not ran as incompetently as the Imperial Spy Corps seems to be run in this adventure. Information gained by spies is often time critical, and to have a system set up to where information takes weeks to get anywhere is absolute nonsense.
Plus an Imperial Agent would not be using crypto codes done by some Vargyr in the middle of no where, it would be done by the best and brightest crypto minds the Imperium has to offer.
So yes, I have a lot of little problems with this adventure, but I do see myself running it, just greatly altered to fit what actually goes on in my Jewell Sector.
Plus a Jump 2 ship is considerably worth more than a Jump 1, even if its 40/60/80 years old but been recently over hauled/refurbished. Granted, the set up lets us GM's play fast and loose with the numbers, but still.
Now I normally run my games in Jewell Sector, so I see a lot of ways to integrate the adventure into what I have going on. Plus my campaign has a long established Psionics unit explicitly set up for infiltrating the Zhodani. I even already have a Duke of Jewell sector for reasons very similar to what is outlined in Tripwire.
I personally do not have a problem with how railroady this is, especially in the beginning, but I realize how often life grabs us by the nose and leads us to our next destination, so I see rail roads as often being very realistic.
The premise of this adventure would certainly be such a situation.
As for the "warrants" crossing the borders, I do not see it happening either. Especially since the description will be so weak (they were seen in a Far Trader/Imperial Scout/Marava Class/etc...), gee, it isn't like there are HUNDREDS of each of those types of ships plying the spaceways.
Plus I think a lot of this scenario rests on incompetent police work following up the crimes, especially once its on the Imperial side of things.
Plus, I don't know about you guys, but my spy corps are not ran as incompetently as the Imperial Spy Corps seems to be run in this adventure. Information gained by spies is often time critical, and to have a system set up to where information takes weeks to get anywhere is absolute nonsense.
Plus an Imperial Agent would not be using crypto codes done by some Vargyr in the middle of no where, it would be done by the best and brightest crypto minds the Imperium has to offer.
So yes, I have a lot of little problems with this adventure, but I do see myself running it, just greatly altered to fit what actually goes on in my Jewell Sector.
Both these are pretty RW - communications with spys is a dangerous thing - and the safest ways are often very slow...Treebore said:
And, especially for field operations, the very best and latest are even more rarely employed than one might hope for. Just because military research offers some amazing tech, doesn't mean even the elitest special forces have access to them. The same holds true for intel - sometimes even more so (because of security - and that includes confidence). There are also levels - especially with security - at which technology is chosen to be implemented, irrespective as to what might be available.
IanBruntlett
Emperor Mongoose
I've been running Tripwire for about 3 weeks now. I'm finding that it is the most demanding Traveller campaign I have run (Mongoose Traveller is my first ever Traveller). I'm having to do a lot of preparation work where I sit down with the Tripwire book and make notes and iron out any kinks - in particular making sure that the PCs have sufficient information so they know what they should be doing next.
One reason why its so demanding is that I've photocopied Cryer's requests to the players and let them choose their flight plan. In the end they asked Gakha for some help.
I've had to change a couple of things to cater for MTU - one was to avoid a space borne confrontation and another was to introduce temporary fuel depots so I didn't have to allow the players to upgrade from their current Jump 2 capable craft.
One reason why its so demanding is that I've photocopied Cryer's requests to the players and let them choose their flight plan. In the end they asked Gakha for some help.
I've had to change a couple of things to cater for MTU - one was to avoid a space borne confrontation and another was to introduce temporary fuel depots so I didn't have to allow the players to upgrade from their current Jump 2 capable craft.
BP said:
Well, I agree it doesn't "Have" to be so, but I equate the Imperium with the US in many ways, and since my wife was in US Army Intel, I'll keep my opinion with regards to the Imperium and its agents. Other "lesser" powers may not have he resources and systems I assume for the Imperium, but the Imperium certainly does.
Plus the secret agents have played big roles in many of my Jewell Sector games, so I have them pretty well fleshed out in terms of resources they typically have, how they "report", etc...
Good idea - wouldn't want her to have to go all Top Gun on youTreebore said:
Don't have tripwire, so I can't speak to specifics - only being general... (and reading this to see if I want it... this isn't the first post to refer to railroading...)
Your Jewell Sector games sound like fun - are your secret agents PCs or are they NPC antagonists/informants/allies/clients? And did you weave them into Tripwire?
BP said:Good idea - wouldn't want her to have to go all Top Gun on youTreebore said:
Don't have tripwire, so I can't speak to specifics - only being general... (and reading this to see if I want it... this isn't the first post to refer to railroading...)
Your Jewell Sector games sound like fun - are your secret agents PCs or are they NPC antagonists/informants/allies/clients? And did you weave them into Tripwire?
I did run a campaign several years ago where the PC's were psionics and were agents trained to infiltrate Zhodani society. They were able to get surprisingly deep but when things went bust it was one heck of a run for their lives.
Lets just say that it was both a blessing and a pain in their butts that psionics were/are so breakable in terms of what can happen in game. Ultimately it was a blessing because they got back to Imperial Space alive and with their ship still functional.
Plus their debriefing went a long ways towards writing a training manual for the do's and don'ts of infiltrating Zhodani society.
My current game is actually using Belt Strike as a closed system just inside of Jewell sector, on the Imperium side of the sector. It is meant to be short lived, but if they ask to keep going they will be visited by the "outside".
alex_greene
Guest
I am so proud of my players for last night. They resolved the problem of the Zhodani Patrol situation with an astonishing degree of ingenuity.
When the Zhodani psion came aboard to inspect the ship, they found no trace of Agent Forbes on board. They saw an empty stateroom, no personal belongings, no data storage devices and no trace that the passenger had ever been aboard. And every crewman they questioned responded truthfully with "We have nobody with that name aboard this ship."
They went through all the sections of the ship, even ferretting out a secret compartment the ship's Master used for smuggling contraband. No sign of Agent Forbes. So eventually the Zhodanis gave up and debarked, to continue their seach elsewhere.
After reaching relative safety, the Captain suited up, went EVA out of the airlock and clambered onto the outer hull to tell the vacc suited Agent Forbes that he could untether his vacc suit and finally come aboard.
The Zhodani had been looking for a man hiding on board the ship. The crew could truthfully tell them that they were wasting their time in this case.
When the Zhodani psion came aboard to inspect the ship, they found no trace of Agent Forbes on board. They saw an empty stateroom, no personal belongings, no data storage devices and no trace that the passenger had ever been aboard. And every crewman they questioned responded truthfully with "We have nobody with that name aboard this ship."
They went through all the sections of the ship, even ferretting out a secret compartment the ship's Master used for smuggling contraband. No sign of Agent Forbes. So eventually the Zhodanis gave up and debarked, to continue their seach elsewhere.
After reaching relative safety, the Captain suited up, went EVA out of the airlock and clambered onto the outer hull to tell the vacc suited Agent Forbes that he could untether his vacc suit and finally come aboard.
The Zhodani had been looking for a man hiding on board the ship. The crew could truthfully tell them that they were wasting their time in this case.
Uhm... I think you were Bushwacked! :lol:alex_greene said:
alex_greene
Guest
That was my thought exactly.
Great minds think alike - Bushwacked is the name of the firefly episode!
Suspect'n at least one of his players was sport'n one of 'em brown coats...
Suspect'n at least one of his players was sport'n one of 'em brown coats...
