What happened after Pirates of Drinax?

[Grandz]

I don't know howuch this has been discussed in past threads. I'd like to know what your players have done after they completed the Pirates of Drinax campaign?

What was the kingdom of Drinax like at the end of the campaign?

How long did the players continue playing after the campaign?

What did they set out to do and how did the events in your Traveller universe take place?

My players are currently about to start the Prodigal Outcast.

 

[agentwigggles]

Nothing good!
Probably!
Depends what Mongoose does with Fifth Frontier war.
But to my understanding, soon after the FFW, the Emporer has an attempted assassignation, and a double is killed. The Emporer is slow to come back to their life.
Which causes a crisis, and the start of lots of civil wars. And the start of the end of the 3rd Imperium.
And now some future crafting!
With no 3rd Imperium, to keep Aslan at bay in the Trojan. They start to expand out, into it. The newly formed Drinax Empire, being like 150-250 years, just hasnt had the time to mount any real navy to stop Aslan expansion and gets eaten in decades or a century or so.
Maybe GedeCo decides to become a pocket empire on Theeve.

If that doesnt happen. Then Aslan expansion is a when not an if. New sons need more land. Drainax still not in a position to be the Dam of the Hierate, align itself with the Imperium.
And thats the start of Diplomatically annexing the empire as a whole.
So new Drainax Empire is around few few centuries, if that.

 

[Vormaerin]

Yeah, if you accept that the Aslan reproductive rate is so high it is producing this constant gusher of ihatei, then that's certainly true. That's one of the assumptions I find pretty dubious. Only a quarter of Aslan are born male. And the first born male is going to inherit their parents' land and not be ihatei. Even if you assume most younger sons do go that route, that isn't a huge amount. Especially if you consider that the vast majority of the Aslan live on the other side of a rift and have a wide open "southern" border to expand into instead of taking the jump 5 route to throw themselves headlong into battle with humaniti.

 

[Sigtrygg]

A couple of questions.

How many capital ships does Drinax have by the end of the campaign and what is the capacity for construction?

Contrary to popular belief (hur hur Aslan are Kzinti and eat people, hur hur and they are Kilrathi and are totally dedicated to war) the majority of Aslan land acquisition is done peacefully.

Drinax could likely do a deal with any Aslan clan interlopers and grant them land in exchange for fealty...

 

[Vormaerin]

The Aslan as written in the sourcebooks have highly ritualized behaviors to reduce and limit conflict. So they are clearly not "dedicated to war" and they can't eat the same foods as humans without treatment, so it's pretty unlikely they can eat humans. Obviously, despite the Heirate's homogenizing efforts, its likely the Aslan do have multiple cultures. So the fact that *some* Aslan somewhere behave like that is possible.

Ihatei are Aslan males who feel that service to their clan does not provide an adequate chance of gaining land and glory, so they choose to go off in expeditions to acquire land beyond Aslan space. These are the guys with no prospects at home. So what probably happens is that every once in a while, a rich younger son convinces his clan to grant him a surplus ship and he gathers up whatever randos are currently disaffected and off they go. Most likely somewhere as close as possible to what the clan already owns. Unless he's some sort of exile or I hate my family type, which is probably not all that common.

Every Aslan neighbor is going to have constant low-grade conflict as a result of this. But the idea that they have major warfleets is silly, imho. Especially in the Reaches, where their clans are busy in a war against the Glorious Empire. Which means they need warriors and ships and have a means of getting land rewards for the same already.

Whether Drinax can stand up to that or not depends a lot on how well the PCs do with their pocket empire building. But I doubt they would lose to most Ihatei. Lose to a war with a major clan and its vassals sometime after the Glorious Empire finally falls? Maybe.

 

[CordwainerFish]

Ihatei are Aslan males who feel that service to their clan does not provide an adequate chance of gaining land and glory, so they choose to go off in expeditions to acquire land beyond Aslan space. These are the guys with no prospects at home. So what probably happens is that every once in a while, a rich younger son convinces his clan to grant him a surplus ship and he gathers up whatever randos are currently disaffected and off they go.

So, literal translation 'second son', idiomatic translation 'failson'? I think I like that.

 

[GypsyComet]

Depends what Mongoose does with Fifth Frontier war.

Aside from adding chrome, the Fifth Frontier War's general shape and outcome are already known. It runs through 1107 and 1108, and the Aslan are not really a part of it since it mostly takes place in the coreward half of the Marches. I could certainly see Zhodani efforts to distract and destabilize the Imperium in Trojan Reach leading up to it, but Pirates probably overlaps that already.
The Emperor is assassinated in 1116. A side effect of that is that the assassin also guns down the Aslan Ambassador to the Imperium. The leaders of the Aslan, the Tlaukhu, decide that this nullifies the Peace of Ftahalr and ends their relationship with the Imperium except as new territory. This leads to the Trojan Reach Aslan "invading" (more of a migration with guns) the rim ward edge of the Marches and taking most of Imperial Trojan Reach (and the adjacent slice of Reft) by 1120. That move bogs down as the forces behind the claw gain understanding of the ihatei. In Reavers Deep and Daibei it creates a three-party war zone as the Solomani also invade the area.
The Trojan Reach continues to be Aslan dominated, though that moderates over time, through the rest of the Rebellion. The Rebellion ends in 1129 with the accidental release of Virus, a civilization killing super weapon. The Marches learn of it just in time to blockade its progress through Deneb sector and they convince the ihatei to blockade the rift crossing. The rest of Charted Space burns...

 

[Condottiere]

So, literal translation 'second son', idiomatic translation 'failson'? I think I like that.

Aslan or Asian?

Would explain why Aslan keep getting lost in other people's space.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Should also point out that we are talking about events in the future.

And the future is not set.

 

[alex_greene]

I don't know howuch this has been discussed in past threads. I'd like to know what your players have done after they completed the Pirates of Drinax campaign?

What was the kingdom of Drinax like at the end of the campaign?

What, apart from the month long hangover from all the celebrations, and everybody scrambling around the ship trying to find where they left all their clothes?

 

[GypsyComet]

Sorry but that is mostly non-canon / made up.

The Aslan ambassador tries to save Strephon and dies, yes. But the Aslan do not blame the 3I - they blame Dulinor and at best his faction

The Ithahei do not close the rift crossing on their own. The home clans do a "last stand at Camerone" thing and order them not to return/destroy all that comes after the messenger

The Domain of Deneb is not effected by the imperial cival war. Norris conveniently err finds another Imperial Warrent, declares himself ArchDuke, takes his toys and makes up his own lil playground

"Mostly?"
The migration of the already trans-Rift Aslan is a direct consequence of the assassination and subsequent fracturing of the Imperium. The new ihatei from the central Heirate are not, as they were launched earlier, but their redirection into Imperial territory when they arrive definitely is.
-Rebellion Sourcebook, GDW, 1988, pages 58-61

The ihatei did not "close" the trans-Rift path. The central Hierate made it clear at a cultural level that ihatei sent that way don't come back, but the route wasn't closed, as such.

I will cede the idea that the Aslan Ambassador's death being a strong cause may be interpreted as an unreliable narrator account, something which MegaTraveller engaged in sporadically, but Hard Times maps do show conflict and a fall into wilds for much of Daibei, including areas the Solomani should have no interest in. That can quite reasonably be blamed on Aslan incursions.

Your last statement indicates a disdain for previously published Canon, so discussing the details any further is probably not worth your time or mine.

Should also point out that we are talking about events in the future.

And the future is not set.

If Mongoose wants to foster another timeline split that's on you, but there are plenty of stories to tell in the Rebellion period without changing the big story. Literally ten thousand worlds worth, over a twelve year period. The Fifth Frontier War is smaller, but similar; there is no need to change the outcome to produce more material.

 

[Vormaerin]

I get the impression that Mongoose just intends to never define the future. FFW, WotA, Singularity... they all sound like possible futures more than defined futures. They all seem like: "want to make your PCs important factors in this kind of evolution of the setting? Here's how!". A rebellion/core intrigue campaign along those lines would be pretty interesting. But repeating GDW's mistakes with metaplotting does not strike me as a good idea.

 

[alex_greene]

I get the impression that Mongoose just intends to never define the future. FFW, WotA, Singularity... they all sound like possible futures more than defined futures. They all seem like: "want to make your PCs important factors in this kind of evolution of the setting? Here's how!". A rebellion/core intrigue campaign along those lines would be pretty interesting. But repeating GDW's mistakes with metaplotting does not strike me as a good idea.

You can use these campaigns as tools to develop your own future setting. Even a 3I which continues as it is for another century or two. Or you could take up the Deepnight Revelation or Solomani Rim Expeditions campaigns, and have your characters visit far flung parts of the galaxy, only to find Charted Space completely changed on your return.

 

[Vormaerin]

*I* can do whatever I want in my campaign. So can you in yours. But, like the other thread, this topic is about what Mongoose, the publisher, is or might be doing. And Mongoose is NOT the referee or the players.

 

[GypsyComet]

*I* can do whatever I want in my campaign. So can you in yours.

Agreed. Canon is for Writers. That's how it is in Hollywood, and how it is intended to work in gaming.

But, like the other thread, this topic is about what Mongoose, the publisher, is or might be doing. And Mongoose is NOT the referee or the players.

Yup. I have registered my dislike of their *apparent* approach to upcoming big events already. Don't get me wrong; Martin is a rare treasure in gaming, in that he knows how to write wars. Mongoose would be remiss to not take advantage of that talent.