What Setting For Traveller the Movie

[Mithras]

Thinking of starting up a Traveller game, my thoughts go to when. When to set it. If it were a movie then the premise would (probably) be against an epic series of events, a time of tumult.

Not staid. Or peaceful. Something big in the works, epic forces about to unravel, or in full flow.

Yes, there might be a Star Wars-style scroll-up, and small people unaware that they are about to be sucked into perils and situations of great importance...

I know a bit about the OTU, but not a great deal about its history. I have GURPS Interstellar Wars, but what other time periods, or better, events, especially in the history of the Third Imperium would make great epic movies??

I figure that's a great way to start designing a new campaign!!

 

[Nathan Brazil]

During the "Classic Traveller" (1105) era, Serenity, clearly Serenity. Because they are leaf on the wind 8)

You want Star Wars, pick a war (Frontier War, Civil War).

You want a story told from a Southern US point of view (Solomani), the Invasion of Terra in 1002 would be damn good...

 

[rust]

My choice would be the time of Empress Arbellatra:

First of the Alkhalikoi Dynasty (and occasionally considered to be the 18th
of the Emperors of the Flag). Born in 587, served as Grand Admiral of
the Marches and led the defeat of the Outworld Coalition in the Second
Frontier War (615 to 620). Arbellatra returned to the Imperial Core and
defeated the remnants of the Central Fleet under Gustus in the Second
Battle of Zhimaway (622). Proclaimed regent by the Moot in 622 pending
the location of a suitable surviving heir to the throne. Proclaimed em-
press by the Moot in 629. Died in 666.
(from the Traveller Wiki)

You would have a frontier war, a civil war and lots of political intrigues,
all in one package. :wink:

 

[Egil Skallagrimsson]

Exellent idea, Rust., though I always saw the life of Olaf Plankwall as an epic tragedy, that could make an excellent story.

For second choice, I always thought that a campaign based on one or more of the Interstellar Wars, and perhaps the collapse of the Ziru Sirka would be pretty epic, but then, I like ancient history.

Would be interesting to run a campaign with lower than usual available TLs as well. Much the same could be said about some aspects of Sword Worlder history (ok, virtually the whole lot), but (and I am struggling to admit this) the scale might not be large enough for what you envisage.

Or do someting completely different, in a universe far far away from 3I.

Egil

 

[Mithras]

EDIT: Great minds think alike, rust!! /EDIT

I've cracked my old Library Data books open, and I've found something that might serve as an example:


The Reign of Arbellatra, the Third Imperium's 'Diocletion'. Young and stunningly attractive, the ruthless naval admiral leads a daring series of raids against the Outworld Coalition in the Marches (c.620). The PCs are part of some commando mission, redirected to rescue her crashed ship on an occupied world. They gain her thanks. The Second Frontier War ends when a new type of dreadnaught is rushed into battle, perhaps saving the PC's lives duing a hairy battle. The PCs see her ruthless streak at wars end when she hands over an Imperial world to the Zhodanis, despite that world treating her very well (the world she was crashed on perhaps?). End of war. End of movie #1

Hey, it's a trilogy!!

In movie style, we might have to fast forward, or compress the time period. In campaign play we might play one big session 'per campaign year'.

Movie Two. What's this one about? Arbellatra returns to the imperial core with the PCs in tow, (they created military characters in good old fashioned Traveller tradion, right?) and challenges the current emperor Gustav for the throne. He's a navy officer, and murdered the last emperor only two years ago, its how things get done in thecore these days… She defeats the Central Fleet with the crucial help of the PCs and their (nimble) scout ship at the 2nd Battle of Zhimaway (622). Maybe the PCs had to conduct recon, or find the location of the fleet, perhaps kidnapping Gustav, only to findhe is a double… but that the double can lead Arbellatra to the Central Fleet's secret deployment area. 2nd moviesare always weak,mine needs more pep!

Movie Three. With Gustav dead Arbellatra proclaims herself regent, not empress and says she hold out for the true ruler to step forward. She dispatches a search party for the blood descendants of empress Jacquline, last true emperor of the 3i. Of course the party get this job, sent out by Arbellatra herself, noexpensespared in a grand send-off with media, admirals, choirs, bands etc.

Then nothing. No support, following dangerous leads in deadly backwater worlds looking for rumours of lost descendants … The PCs end up facing off against a group of scary mercenaries when they make a miraculous discovery and actually find a long lost relative. Of course these guys are sent by Arbellatra, and headed by her scarred and super-evil chief of security, a battle-hardened Force Commander.

They may or may not get this descendant to Capital. Ever seen Babylon AD? Or Fifth Element? If they do history gets changed. Cool would be getting her to Capital in secret, aided by a Solomani plot who know she is a Solomani pure blood and see the new relative as away to seal the dominance of Earth and Sol oncea gain. On Capital, treachery abounds and in firece firefights the girl is killed or lost, the Pcshauled before a furious Arbellatra who 'tells them off'. Then pays them off with aship or something, and a promise to never speak of the girl …. Snow White?

Arbellatra is proclaimed empress in 629 her young 5yr old son Zhakirov, by her side. The end. (And at age 42 Arbellatra is still a stunning woman!)

 

[Bense]

You could do the Rebellion. Rather like Julius Ceasar, in some respects, with Dulinor as Brutus.

 

[Egil Skallagrimsson]

Re: Mithras

Yep, I'm sold.

Egil

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Mithras, how about this for the Heir plot?

They get the heir back to Capital, but AFTER the Moot has declared Arbellatra Empress...

Now what to do.

The Empress marries the heir, thus solidifying (secretly) the bloodlines and history is saved!

 

[hdan]

Do something based on "Twilight's Peak", but hammed up with more crazy Ancient technologies and the threat of Zhodani invasion.

Plus it might get a few teenage girls to go, thinking the movie was about something else.

 

[BenTOGS]

Already been done.called Serinity . This was, with the Firefly series, the perfect merchanter adventure setting in Traveller. Change the world names & bingo!!

 

[hdan]

I know, I just want more! Plus, I'd like to see a "Firefly" type movie with odder locales and fewer easily habitable worlds.

(I didn't like Serenity much when it first came out. I had been watching Firefly since it aired, and I thought Serenity was painted in too "cartoonish" a stroke compared to the series. I understand the reasons for that artistic choice, but it still made the movie a little painful to watch. However, now that the years have gone by, I'm more fond of Serenity than before.)

 

[Egil Skallagrimsson]

Yeah, Firefly is fun, Serenity a little daft, but the op wanted someting epic, of galactic signifcance, Firefly is much too mundane and work a day for an epic.

The epic part of Firefly, the war, is already over when the series starts.

Egil

 

[Mithras]

Oh yeah, we've had rootless adventurers, merchant campaigns, mercenaries hopping world to world. No, now its time for the epic treatment.

Another one is the rise of Duke Norris of Regina through the Fifth Frontier War, sacking all that top brass, winning the war then getting promoted to Archduke. While the old veteran admirals and generals living in exiled hellholes across the Spinward Marches plot their revenge, mwahhaha!

And their allies will be a secret cabal of Zhodani agents and disreputable Vargr corsairs, masquerading as reputable mercenaries.

 

[rust]

... and disreputable Vargr corsairs, masquerading as reputable mercenaries.

Your universe has reputable Vargr mercenaries ... :shock:

 

[locarno24]

They have a reputation. He didn't specify what that reputation was.

Mithras:
I like. A lot.

The key is getting a political intrigue and then dragging the characters into it (ideally kicking and screaming). The high nobility is full of Vetinari-esque characters and make great fun as patrons and foes (often at the same time!).

Just been reading Making Money, and can almost hear my player's latest patron in one of the quotes:

"What happens if we say no?"
"You walk out through that door and I never raise the matter again."
"...That door?"
"Yes."
"Wasn't there a big pit with spikes at the bottom behind that door?"

 

[Travellingdave]

Mithras: I think your ideas for a campaign are excellent, particularly if you're playing with a group that already knows a bit about Traveller.

If I were really trying to make a Traveller movie, I agree that something around the end of the Interstellar Wars Era is the best bet, for a number of reasons:

1. You have the Terrans as an easily understood group of protagonists. They're us only a 150 years in our future.

2. The Vilani can be handled as an alien culture. They are the OTHER and information about them can be revealed to the players/viewers through the course of the campaign/story.

3. It would allow new players/viewers to absorb the vast history of the OTU in a more digestible pattern and from a perspective of people new to the depth of the Vilani timescale.

4. You could draw parallels between the fall of the Vilani Imperium and the fall of the Soviet Bloc, with the slow, grinding death throes of a huge bureaucracy contrasting with various subcultures enthusiastically throwing off the Vilani yoke ... and immediately falling into chaos.

I was working on a campaign where the PCs were a mixed crew of Vilani/Terran soldiers and diplomats on a Terran warship carrying the news of a final peace accord to the Vilani Sector Capitol. Meanwhile, the sector itself in collapsing around them, allowing encounters with rogue Vilani Fleet elements, newly crowned local dictators, massive refugee movements to the core, and internal intrigue galore.

 

[Mithras]

Visually, I can't help but look at the illustrations in the G:IW book and see Star Trek's Enterprise series, with blue navy jumpsuit uniforms, and Vulcans/Vilani in elaborate robes, golden jewelry and fashion.

I agree the setting is much more immediate and understandable.

A good setting IMHO would be the Interstellar War era. The "good guys" are us (Humans from Earth), the number of true alien races is low (IIRC the Vegans only) and it shows some of the diversity of the human race in space (Genoee, Answerin, The Apeman, Willies)

 

[Rev503]

One idea I always had was kinda an alernate early Solomani period.
The alternate part stems from the fact that the Vilani Empire had already sufferred an internal collapse and pulled out of the Solomani sector before the Terrans built their Jump drive.
After the first interstellar war with a aslan or vagr subrace in the next subsector..the terrans have essentially got themselves control of most of their subsector, lots of military bases and Vilani ruins, beginnings of colonisation.
The main characters are ex-whatever asked to crew a scout or far trader beyond the Terran subsector, basically to explore and do some non-official scouting and report back to military intelligence.

The Epic part comes from seeing the Terrans move from being an early power into the sector powerhouse and the fight to determine what kind of government they will be with the party being in teh middle with their close links to Military Intelligence. Possible protagonsits would include
- Local races just emerging and flexing their muscles
- The Vilani, who occasionaly (yearly) run a caravan through the sector doing everything from bulk colonist ferrywork to trading high tech gadgets all in return for resources
- The hivers, who essentially own the next Sector out and want to "help" the local races
- Pirates (gotta have pirates)
- A cabel of Navy officers planning a military coup
- Politicians who belive a central government is really not the way to go.

 

[smiths121]

Even the IW has baggage - at the time no-one know why the earthlings left the solar system and found well.... more earthlings. The Ancients theories come much later in the time-line, sort of after every stops killing each other, and tens of billion of people die to make the point

I think you want TNE 1201. Everything is hell, even on the civilised worlds, got your aliens (the Hiver) pulling string for some reason or another. Got your "philosophy court jester" as 1950s pulp sci-fi would call it in the Virus (even BSG needed to bring religion in to give something other than hard facts). Lots of fun there in throw away morality and comment - which is what the sci-fi jester has to do, suicide bombers in BG for example.

The characters have to do things that are not nice, overthrow the dictator and watch thousands of people die in the ensuing violence because we are Vikings, it is the best thing in the long run, this gives a nice emotional arc.

Space Above and Beyond is an example of hard fact science fiction IW style, introducing a slow backdrop (read Traveller baggage). It did not do very well. Maybe lessons to be learnt.

The "them against us" bit of the IW argument is a bit 1980s given they are humans. I think the "we are righteous and have kicked some major butt" does not translate into income grossed by a film particularly well in all areas of the world. An interesting take would be from a Vilani colony point of view attacked and "liberated" by the Terrans - just do not see a big audience.

One of the reasons I like Virus, even given it is implausible it gave Traveller back a sense of mystique, missing in MT because the ancients were explained in CT and all we had was the destruction of the Imperium (good for RPG not for films) . I like 1201 because is also a "reset", you do not want any baggage outside of what you can deliver in a 2 hour movie.

hope this all makes sense - on re-reading seems a bit random.

 

[Chernobyl]

I think the "classic" traveller setting would be a little hard to get through to a wide modern audience. Think about it. Look at all the star trek and star wars movies, you have instant galaxy wide communications. Not so in traveller. Hard to deal with characters and events happening in different locations without that.
Also, travel is a lot quicker in those settings. In traveller, it takes a week to make a jump from one system to another. you can't change course, you can't get messages during transit, you're locked in a box for a week. How exciting is that to film? not very, unless your'e doing a horror story. If you acknowledge the travel time in the script, will the audience wonder what happened to the heroes during that week?
Babylon 5 sort of pulled it off, but even they had communications from planet to planet through the "hyper channel" or some such.

I think you'd need to keep the scope small, and the locations limited, so all the exterior restrictions don't concern the main characters.