CT Only: A Good Introductory Adventure to CT?

[Golan2072]

I'm currently playing D&D 3.5E with a group of friends, playing a 3.5 hour session every other week. I was thinking about running a Traveller adventure for them as a one-off for some change of pace. One player is a HUGE fan of Firefly/Serenity, so she'll probably LOVE Serenity-style adventures very much (and thus Traveller); the others are pretty much open-minded. Most are experienced RPGers, who played mostly D&D, except for the Firefly fan, who is newer to RPGs (started playing D&D 3.5E a year or so ago and hasn't played anything but D&D).

So I'm looking for a fun-packed Traveller adventure I can run in 3.5 hours to a group of 2-4 players who are unfamiliar with Traveller, in order to introduce them to the game. What do you recommend? I have both the CT CD and the JTAS CD, as well as a few newer MGT adventures, all in PDF, so I have a lot to choose from.

 

[Limburger59]

With a Firefly fan I'd think an adventure on board a ship would be better than a planetary surface. Here are three introductory options:
The classic Annic Nova
A Dagger at Efate in JTAS 8.
the short adventure Death Station

 

[mike wightman]

Death Station. My answer is always Death Station.

You don't have to stick to the threat as written, if you want the baddies on the station to be pirates, cyberzombies, alien bioroids, cthulhu based extra dimensional entities go for it.

The patron can be changed too, it could be the government sponsor of the station, the megacorp backers, a worried relative (noble, rich take your pick), a shady dealer.

The lab ship can be in orbit of the main world, a moon, deep space, a gas giant's rings.

Just take the basic adventure and tailor it to what will hook your group.

 

[Piper]

You might want to take a look at "Adventure 4: Leviathan".

The adventure as written is too long for a single session but you could limit the number of systems they'd need to visit and, if they decided to continue, the rest of the adventure is still there.

Needs a fair amount of fleshing out to be playable but it's an interesting couple of subsectors.

You could replace the ship with a standard free trader or far trader (you'd need to add a few star systems to make viable jump routes).

 

[mike wightman]

Death Station done the Firefly way.

Ship and crew hired/forced by shady dealer to transport a group of 4 scientists to a research station orbiting a nearby gas giant.

The 4 scientists are actually mercs who have the mission to cleanse all traces of a megacorps dodgy research.

The trip to the gas giant can be a fun role playing experience as the PCs and the scientists rub shoulders.

At the station there is the task of getting on board the rotating lab ship.

The merc team goes in - they die/are cyborgisised/taken over by alien parasites/hunted for sport/gift their bodies to great Cthulhu.

The PCs now have a choice - run away or go in themselves to kill the monsters and take the loot.

For real suspense do not reveal what happens to the merc team, just suggest nasty things - your players will often imagine far worse than you.

 

[Golan2072]

Death Station done the Firefly way.

Ship and crew hired/forced by shady dealer to transport a group of 4 scientists to a research station orbiting a nearby gas giant.

The 4 scientists are actually mercs who have the mission to cleanse all traces of a megacorps dodgy research.

The trip to the gas giant can be a fun role playing experience as the PCs and the scientists rub shoulders.

At the station there is the task of getting on board the rotating lab ship.

The merc team goes in - they die/are cyborgisised/taken over by alien parasites/hunted for sport/gift their bodies to great Cthulhu.

The PCs now have a choice - run away or go in themselves to kill the monsters and take the loot.

For real suspense do not reveal what happens to the merc team, just suggest nasty things - your players will often imagine far worse than you.

I *LOVE* this!

 

[tbeard1999]

Double adventure 5 -- Chamax Plague and Horde. Just inform your players that this came out several years before Aliens.

 

[Timerover51]

Chamax Plague and Horde would be good, although you would have to run only one of the scenarios in Horde. Chamax Plague would give them lots of targets to shoot at.

As your players are used to D&D, probably Lab Ship would be good, as that would be close to a D&D adventure, with science added. Basically you are dealing with Werewolves that do not change shape.

 

[SpaceBadger]

Chamax and Horde is one book I don't have, but I would agree with Timerover that if your players have experience w D&D, something that resembles a dungeon crawl can be a good transition. There are numerous "alien base" scenarios out there, or else make your own. If you want to make sure it is a shoot-em-up, have the aliens all gone and the place guarded by warbots of varying degrees of deadliness. If you want to leave the option for peaceful contact rather than just shooting, you need some actual aliens to talk with; maybe have them in cold sleep and they get awakened by the arrival of visitors?

 

[Spinward Scout]

Shadows can be similar to a 'dungeon crawl'.

 

[Timerover51]

Shadows can be similar to a 'dungeon crawl'.

True, and you get that with the free Starter Traveller download from DriveThruRPG. For that matter, Shadows would make a good D&D adventure base too, just have to add the odd monster and some treasure.

 

[Golan2072]

How interesting is Shadows?

 

[Timerover51]

How interesting is Shadows?

Go to DriveThruRPG, download the free copy of Starter Traveller, and see for yourself. It is more of a thinking adventure than a shoot-first and ask questions later. You also are fighting a time limit before your vacc suit begin to break down because of the atmosphere.

 

[Golan2072]

Go to DriveThruRPG, download the free copy of Starter Traveller, and see for yourself. It is more of a thinking adventure than a shoot-first and ask questions later. You also are fighting a time limit before your vacc suit begin to break down because of the atmosphere.

I have the Traveller CD-ROMs, so no need to download that again

I know that adventure and have read it, I was just wandering how did it work in the experience of people who have run/have played it.

 

[mike wightman]

It's boring.

 

[Piper]

Seconded boring.

 

[Supplement Four]

Shadows boring?

It depends on what the Ref does with it, like so many other GDW adventures. I'm not sure Shadows was meant to be run as-is. Like Kinunir, Research Station Gamma, and a ton of other GDW adventures, I'd say that they are meant as a starting point for creative Refs. The idea is to build upon them, making the adventure special and interesting.

Yes, if you run Shadows straight out of the box, as written, like a D&D adventure, then sure it would be boring because it's incomplete. The GM creative part is missing.

It'd be like running Annic Nova without the Ref creating anything else. That'd be boring as hell.

Many/Most GDW adventures required Ref input. They're meant as adventure supplements, not as complete, contained scenarios that don't require additional work and specific game customization.

 

[mike wightman]

Oh I agree with you - see my treatment of Death Station earlier.

All of the short adventures can have this sort of treatment. But as written Shadows and Annic Nova are the worst sorts of dungeon crawl.

Any adventure can be made much more interesting with cyberzombies...

 

[tbeard1999]

Chamax and Horde is one book I don't have, but I would agree with Timerover that if your players have experience w D&D, something that resembles a dungeon crawl can be a good transition. There are numerous "alien base" scenarios out there, or else make your own. If you want to make sure it is a shoot-em-up, have the aliens all gone and the place guarded by warbots of varying degrees of deadliness. If you want to leave the option for peaceful contact rather than just shooting, you need some actual aliens to talk with; maybe have them in cold sleep and they get awakened by the arrival of visitors?

The Chamax Plague is a bug hunt on a derelict starship (400 ton converted subsidized merchant). So it's something of a dungeon crawl.

Horde is a mini-campaign, dealing with an invasion of a TL5 world by these bugs. Pity GDW never made that into a detailed campaign...

 

[tbeard1999]

Shadows boring?

It depends on what the Ref does with it, like so many other GDW adventures. I'm not sure Shadows was meant to be run as-is. Like Kinunir, Research Station Gamma, and a ton of other GDW adventures, I'd say that they are meant as a starting point for creative Refs. The idea is to build upon them, making the adventure special and interesting.

...

Many/Most GDW adventures required Ref input. They're meant as adventure supplements, not as complete, contained scenarios that don't require additional work and specific game customization.

I agree (and it's something I miss in "modern" RPGs). However, I do think that those adventures *are* boring when run "as-is" (or by an inexperienced Traveller GMs or for inexperienced PCs). So, it might be better to leave them for later adventures.