Where to start an exploration/small scale politics campaign?

[Jakob]

So, I'm not exactly new to Traveller, but haven't played in ages, and I know next to nothing about the Third Imperium. Still, I'd love to read some of the current material with an eye to running a campaign at some point in the future ... I'm wondering what would be most interesting if I want to go for a combination of exploration/sense of wonder and small scale politics (as in politics that are relevant to one or maybe two planets, not more ...).
I was thinking of a combination of Rim Expeditions, World Builder's Handbook and Maybe The Great Rift ... but are the Rift and the Rim neighbouring regions? or are they totally apart from each other? In terms of concept, they sound similar ...

EDIT: Oh, I think I'm getting Rim/Rift now ... so Rim is actually the outer rim of the galaxy, from Solomani/Terra outwards, while the Rift is the other direction, the literal rigt between our spiral arm and the rest of the galaxy ... right?

 

[MasterGwydion]

So, I'm not exactly new to Traveller, but haven't played in ages, and I know next to nothing about the Third Imperium. Still, I'd love to read some of the current material with an eye to running a campaign at some point in the future ... I'm wondering what would be most interesting if I want to go for a combination of exploration/sense of wonder and small scale politics (as in politics that are relevant to one or maybe two planets, not more ...).
I was thinking of a combination of Rim Expeditions, World Builder's Handbook and Maybe The Great Rift ... but are the Rift and the Rim neighbouring regions? or are they totally apart from each other? In terms of concept, they sound similar ...

EDIT: Oh, I think I'm getting Rim/Rift now ... so Rim is actually the outer rim of the galaxy, from Solomani/Terra outwards, while the Rift is the other direction, the literal rigt between our spiral arm and the rest of the galaxy ... right?

In the Imperium these two terms Rift and Rim usually refer to the Solomani Rim which is part of Solomani Space, and the Great Rift which divides the majority of the 3rd Imperium from the domain of Deneb (Deneb, the Spinward Marches, the Trojan Reach, and Reft sectors)

 

[GabrielGABFonseca]

So, I'm not exactly new to Traveller, but haven't played in ages, and I know next to nothing about the Third Imperium. Still, I'd love to read some of the current material with an eye to running a campaign at some point in the future ... I'm wondering what would be most interesting if I want to go for a combination of exploration/sense of wonder and small scale politics (as in politics that are relevant to one or maybe two planets, not more ...).
I was thinking of a combination of Rim Expeditions, World Builder's Handbook and Maybe The Great Rift ... but are the Rift and the Rim neighbouring regions? or are they totally apart from each other? In terms of concept, they sound similar ...

EDIT: Oh, I think I'm getting Rim/Rift now ... so Rim is actually the outer rim of the galaxy, from Solomani/Terra outwards, while the Rift is the other direction, the literal rigt between our spiral arm and the rest of the galaxy ... right?

Rim Expeditions details an area of space that is quite removed from the rest of Charted Space, and populated mainly by the Solomani Confederation, who are one of the two go-to antagonists to the Third Imperium – but it is definitely an excellent place to set a game revolving around exploration and small-scale politics. And it would pair very well with the World Builder's Handbook, as it'd allow you to really flesh out the systems that are purposefully left undefined so players can go there and explore. So excellent selection there!
The only downside is that, by being so far from the rest of the setting, it'll be harder to introduce the other elements through play.

Another possibility you could consider instead is swapping Rim Expeditions for the recently released The Borderland – it's a relatively self-contained cluster of worlds close to the Third Imperium border in the Trojan Reach sector, and very close to the Spinward Marches, which while just a frontier in-universe, out-of-universe is the throbbing heart of the Charted Space setting. It's also a crossroads where you can bring in a lot of the setting staples; the Aslan, the Vargr, the Darrians, Sword Worlders... It also pairs well with The Great Rift, which details some of its neighbouring sectors like Reft and Riftspan Reaches.

So it'll come down to just how much of the rest of Charted Space you want to have nearby for ease-of-use in future when you're more acquainted with the setting, really.
And speaking of getting acquainted with the setting – feel free to ask any questions you may have!

 

[Jakob]

Another possibility you could consider instead is swapping Rim Expeditions for the recently released The Borderland – it's a relatively self-contained cluster of worlds close to the Third Imperium border in the Trojan Reach sector, and very close to the Spinward Marches, which while just a frontier in-universe, out-of-universe is the throbbing heart of the Charted Space setting. It's also a crossroads where you can bring in a lot of the setting staples; the Aslan, the Vargr, the Darrians, Sword Worlders... It also pairs well with The Great Rift, which details some of its neighbouring sectors like Reft and Riftspan Reaches.

So it'll come down to just how much of the rest of Charted Space you want to have nearby for ease-of-use in future when you're more acquainted with the setting, really.

I was already thinking about Borderlands, as well, so that sounds like a really good combination; I didn't realize before that Borderlands and the Great Rift are adjacent - I think that's what I'll try for starters.

EDIT: Are there published adventures set in the Borderland? I suspect that the Reach adventure "The Borderland Run" might lead there, but are there others?

 

[Condottiere]

The way I see rimward expansion, is that it's Confederation humans going into terra incognita, without big power competition.

The most optimistic view would be minimal political interference from the Confederation, though buoyed with self interested push to influence, if not bring to the fold, these unclaimed systems.

One reason to have CAVALRY outposts, would be to defend colonists against indigenous aliens.

 

[Starglim]

Are there published adventures set in the Borderland? I suspect that the Reach adventure "The Borderland Run" might lead there, but are there others?

There were several (Trojan) Reach Adventures, of which I have "Into the Borderland" (which I think is now in The Borderland) and "Counterweights and Measures" (which is not), as well as sourcebooks for single worlds and small clusters that have probably been collected to some extent in the sourcebook, all from Mongoose 1e days supporting Pirates of Drinax.

 

[CordwainerFish]

I didn't realize before that Borderlands and the Great Rift are adjacent

The Traveller Map

An interactive map of the universe of the Traveller role playing game, incorporating official data and fan submissions. The site also provides services for generating custom maps and APIs for incorporating maps into other sites.

travellermap.com

You'll have fun and lose a great deal of time on this site. I sure do.

 

[G'Naakbusters]

I might suggest something different -- the trailing regions. Gateway, Crucis Margin, Glimmerdrift Reaches, Hinterworlds, Leonidae.

Lots of non-aligned space with small world-states and pocket nations, where the superpowers have loose influence or randomised client states, fulfilling that "smaller, localised politics" requirement.

Exotic in that it borders the Hivers and the K'kree, and a number of intriguing minor races, while also having lots of "standard Humaniti" to ground the region.

 

[Terry Mixon]

Or Reaver’s Deep, in between the void, the Imperium, the Aslan, and the Solomani.

 

[MasterGwydion]

I might suggest something different -- the trailing regions. Gateway, Crucis Margin, Glimmerdrift Reaches, Hinterworlds, Leonidae.

Lots of non-aligned space with small world-states and pocket nations, where the superpowers have loose influence or randomised client states, fulfilling that "smaller, localised politics" requirement.

Exotic in that it borders the Hivers and the K'kree, and a number of intriguing minor races, while also having lots of "standard Humaniti" to ground the region.

This is actually the region I first started playing in way back when, but a lot of material needs to be created by the referee as that part of Charted Space is woefully underdeveloped in published material. There is some, but not a lot.

 

[G'Naakbusters]

This is actually the region I first started playing in way back when, but a lot of material needs to be created by the referee as that part of Charted Space is woefully underdeveloped in published material. There is some, but not a lot.

This is true, unfortunately. And a lot of the interesting stuff is scattered across multiple sources; not always practical or possible to access if you're not a completist.

I still await the "Great Hiver Manipulator Campaign" set in the general region...

 

[Jakob]

This is true, unfortunately. And a lot of the interesting stuff is scattered across multiple sources; not always practical or possible to access if you're not a completist.

Too bad - it sounds pretty good, but I'm looking for a 2-3 book solution at the moment ...

 

[MasterGwydion]

Too bad - it sounds pretty good, but I'm looking for a 2-3 book solution at the moment ...

Pirates of Drinax is in the Trojan Reach. It is a 3-book sandbox campaign with some good local details. The Borderlands Book would make a great companion to it. If you felt like getting more into the Aslan, you can, but you don't really need more than PoD and the Borderlands. They have also published several adventures in this area and most of them are extremely easy to fit into any campaign in the area. This gives you the option of including as much or as little as you would like.

 

[Jakob]

Pirates of Drinax is in the Trojan Reach. It is a 3-book sandbox campaign with some good local details. The Borderlands Book would make a great companion to it. If you felt like getting more into the Aslan, you can, but you don't really need more than PoD and the Borderlands. They have also published several adventures in this area and most of them are extremely easy to fit into any campaign in the area. This gives you the option of including as much or as little as you would like.

I had a look at Pirates of Drinax a while ago, but decided that it probably wouldn't work for me. My campaigns - if I get to play any - tend to be stuttering, on-off things, so mostly, adventures need to work on a stand-alone basis. That's why I was thinking about exploration/small scale framework - like a Star Trek planet of the week thing. The way I understood Drinax, it's a long campaign where you play freebooters pursueing a larger political goal. For me, that would already constitute "large scale politics".
I'm thinking of a "come to a place, deal with problems, move on to the next place" thing.

EDIT: Wow, the Drinax campaign is truly massive! 600 pages, + 200pp companion and what else ... it's impressive, and I usually really like Gareth Hanrahan's RPG writing, but this is just too much for me. It's probably great, but I'm hoping for one or two 200pp sourcebooks and then a bunch of 30-40 pages stand-alone adventures set in the same region.

 

[MasterGwydion]

I had a look at Pirates of Drinax a while ago, but decided that it probably wouldn't work for me. My campaigns - if I get to play any - tend to be stuttering, on-off things, so mostly, adventures need to work on a stand-alone basis. That's why I was thinking about exploration/small scale framework - like a Star Trek planet of the week thing. The way I understood Drinax, it's a long campaign where you play freebooters pursueing a larger political goal. For me, that would already constitute "large scale politics".
I'm thinking of a "come to a place, deal with problems, move on to the next place" thing.

EDIT: Wow, the Drinax campaign is truly massive! 600 pages, + 200pp companion and what else ... it's impressive, and I usually really like Gareth Hanrahan's RPG writing, but this is just too much for me. It's probably great, but I'm hoping for one or two 200pp sourcebooks and then a bunch of 30-40 pages stand-alone adventures set in the same region.

You are looking for the Reach Adventure series. and the new Borderlands Book. That should cover everything you listed above.

 

[Varulv]

You are looking for the Reach Adventure series. and the new Borderlands Book. That should cover everything you listed above.

Or just the Core Rulebook and The Last Flight of the Amuar. That adventure alone will give you many sessions with different types of challenges.

 

[MonsterX]

I would recommend starting out in the Spinward Extents, both because there are interesting things going on there, but also because it is right next to Theron, Iphigenia, and Fulani which are three very thinly populated sectors, in which you can do some genuine exploration. There are UWPs for the worlds t but the description is pretty basic and it is easy to put all kinds of things out there. My DNR players are going through Theron right now. IMTU, there are many settlements that are mostly kept secret due to fear of raiders, there are raiders and pirates, explorers and ihatei, refugee ships from wars in Theta Borealis, primitive races that are desperate to acquire advanced weapons to defend themselves from raiders. Hermits and monasteries, cultist communities, criminal groups on the run. There are large trade ships of spacer communities that live aboard their ships, plying multi-month routes from the Extents, Consulate, Regency and Theta Borealis and back, able to turn a profit by driving hard, monopolist bargains with the isolated small settlements and primitive aliens desperate for tech and weapons to defend themselves.

 

[Vormaerin]

Definitely recommend the Spinward Extents as the best option, with The Trailing Frontier as the second best if you want to do actual exploration/trade pioneering type activity.

The Borderlands is an excellent book and the Rift has cool stuff, but unless you are going to dive into the "explore empty hexes" type stuff, the Rift is not actually an "exploration" region. At least, not without a very highly specialized ship.

 

[rinku]

If you're looking at only a few planets with local intrigue, maybe ignore the established map and just roll up or design a subsector?

Are they in the published material? Doesn't matter. Even in Chartered Space, there are thousands of undocumented planets settled thousands of years ago by several extinct empires, plus the whole "Ancients seeded the galaxy with humans" thing. But it could as well be YOUR alternate Third Imperium with this subsector of yours replacing one around THIS spot on the map. But frankly, there is rarely any need to locate a home grown subsector anywhere specific when the focus is intended to be staying in it. Point to some spot on the big map and say it's around THERE. Or not.

Before we got the big map, Regina subsector was a frontier subsector 44 weeks from the core by X-Boat but about three years by commercial travel (Adventure 1: Kinunir, 1979). That was enough to establish where it was and what it was.

 

[GabrielGABFonseca]

Definitely recommend the Spinward Extents as the best option, with The Trailing Frontier as the second best if you want to do actual exploration/trade pioneering type activity.

The Borderlands is an excellent book and the Rift has cool stuff, but unless you are going to dive into the "explore empty hexes" type stuff, the Rift is not actually an "exploration" region. At least, not without a very highly specialized ship.

Not in the sense of being the first to ever go to those systems, true, but there are a lot of unmapped or mysterious planets detailed in the systems of The Borderland that could afford a lot of sites for exploratory missions. I do think it is probably the best balance between being "fringe" but also being connected to the setting at large.

Another possibility though is grabbing Spinward Extents like Vormaerin said and putting that World Builder's Handbook to good use by fleshing out the Foreven Sector, immediately Corewards of the Beyond sector detailed in Spinward Extents — Foreven is what's called a 'Referee Preserve', perpetually undeveloped in canon materials so that Referees would have an area adjacent to the Marches to make their own as needed.

You could nab the existing stellar position data from the freely available site [here] and fill in the information you need using the WBH as required.