CT Only: A Good Introductory Adventure to CT?

[punkrabbitt]

Which was the one with the Chirpers? Research Station Gamma? That's a good one. If you also have Twilight's Peak and Kinunir, you can drop some hints and rumors for those while you're at it. This is really stretching my memory, but IIRC, both Kinunir and Twilight's Peak are episodic in the sense that you can drop scenes from those adventures into other adventures so it becomes sort of a backdrop mystery for a while. I could be wrong.

 

[aramis]

Which was the one with the Chirpers? Research Station Gamma?

Yes

That's a good one. If you also have Twilight's Peak and Kinunir, you can drop some hints and rumors for those while you're at it. This is really stretching my memory, but IIRC, both Kinunir and Twilight's Peak are episodic in the sense that you can drop scenes from those adventures into other adventures so it becomes sort of a backdrop mystery for a while. I could be wrong.

A2:RSG, A3 TP, and A12:SotA are functionally a trilogy...
That said, Dropping rumors in has been a pastime of many CT and MT GMs... it wasn't as strongly encouraged in TTNE.

 

[Tobias]

Which was the one with the Chirpers? Research Station Gamma? That's a good one. If you also have Twilight's Peak and Kinunir, you can drop some hints and rumors for those while you're at it. This is really stretching my memory, but IIRC, both Kinunir and Twilight's Peak are episodic in the sense that you can drop scenes from those adventures into other adventures so it becomes sort of a backdrop mystery for a while. I could be wrong.

Kinunir is almost purely background, with a few scenarios the referee can develop.
Twilight's peak has a little more through-line and becomes a more standard adventure in its final phase, but mostly it is a loose framework to hang a typical wandering merchant campaign onto.

Both require a lot of fleshing out by the referee and a considerable time investment by the players; IMHO neither is recommendable for new players.

Generally, for beginners, I would go with samples from the double adventures (as did GDW themselves). Death Station, Divine Intervention and Across the Bright Face work well; they require a little more work in adapting to a specific PC group than Shadows and Mission on Mithril (which GDW used.) I used Death Station when recently running an introductory adventure.

Exit Visa, as aramis pointed out long ago, is not really interesting for players. It might have worked better as a solo adventure.

 

[Murph]

I like Adventure 10, Safari Ship as a good starter. I also would like to suggest Twilight's Peak as a good one with a little extra tweaking. Argon Gambit which has been Fireflyized would also be a good start. I also love Duneraiders from the Gamelords line.

 

[Spinward Scout]

The original Introductory Adventure to CT is Imperial Fringe.

 

[aramis]

The original Introductory Adventure to CT is Imperial Fringe.

Whether it's good or not is a divisive topic.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Whether it's good or not is a divisive topic.

What's not to like?

As far as I can tell, it just turns the encounter tables in LBB3 into an entire campaign...

Oh, right.

 

[Murph]

You can use Imperial Fringe as a starting point for a possible intelligence gathering campaign where they get sent to the Sword Worlds, and the worlds along the Zhodani frontier.

 

[Murph]

The Scout Service also acts, or it seems like, an unofficial intelligence agency for the Imperium.

 

[Condottiere]

I think it's pretty official, if I recall the organizational chart correctly.

 

[aramis]

I think it's pretty official, if I recall the organizational chart correctly.

You do.

 

[mike wightman]

Slow morning so relevant quotes:

The Intelligence Branch is an information gathering agency for the Scouts. Its
primary function is to debrief detached duty Scouts when they visit scout bases
for refueling or maintenance on their vessels. The Intelligence Branch also maintains
actives agents (spies) in areas where information Is vitally needed.

The Security Branch is charged with providing security and Iaw enforcement for
the Scout Service. Security Branch Scouts serve as police enforcers on Scout property.
as commandos or shipboard light troops, for special Scout activities. and as
clandestine agents for Intelligence Branch. Agents of the llSS Security Branch have
great authority to arrest, detain. or question individuals suspected of violations of
imperial law, and can demand cooperation from local authorties as the need arises.

 

[Vargas]

What's not to like?

As far as I can tell, it just turns the encounter tables in LBB3 into an entire campaign...

Oh, right.

I hesitate to call it an "adventure", it's more of a concept.

 

[daryen]

Imperial Fringe is not an adventure. It's not even a sandbox. It's a setup premise. In that roll it's fine. It gives the players a ship and a way to make enough money to live on for a while. In that sense, it works well enough. But there is nothing there to hold the GM's hand. The GM still has to make everything up as they go.

 

[Vargr Breath]

I would go with Annic Nova. There are a lot of mysteries about the ship and the crew. And lots of ways of ending the adventure. You can keep the ship or sell it. Go looking for the survivors or the origin of the ship. Also, what were those plants growing in the Hydroponics Area? Could they be some type of drug- good or bad?

 

[Grav_Moped]

I would go with Annic Nova.

Yes and no. And it really deserves a longer answer than I can give right now...

Yes because of the built-in weirdness.

No, because new-to-Traveller players won't have the context to understand the ways in which it is weird in-game.

(I'll come back to this....)

 

[Spinward Scout]

Imperial Fringe is not an adventure. It's not even a sandbox. It's a setup premise. In that roll it's fine. It gives the players a ship and a way to make enough money to live on for a while. In that sense, it works well enough. But there is nothing there to hold the GM's hand. The GM still has to make everything up as they go.

Imperial Fringe gives you a reason to Travel. And if you start in the right subsector (cough, Regina, cough, Aramis, cough, cough), there are plenty of adventures ready to go that the Referee doesn't have to make up. You get money from the Imperial Fringe PLUS money from any other adventure on the World you visit along the way.

 

[kilemall]

Slow morning so relevant quotes:

Let’s not forget postal service with possible harvesting/surveillance of the mail, the act of scout exploring itself which is intel on threats, opportunities etc, and Red Zones not fully interdicted by the navy, which puts them in the role of park rangers or that most feared of orgs, Fish and Game.

 

[Vargas]

Let’s not forget postal service with possible harvesting/surveillance of the mail . . .

It would be encrypted, otherwise it's not worth reading. And none of that "let's break it in 6 hours" stuff from TV/movies, it doesn't work that way.

 

[kilemall]

It would be encrypted, otherwise it's not worth reading. And none of that "let's break it in 6 hours" stuff from TV/movies, it doesn't work that way.

Unless the encryption is specifically limited to allow breaking as needed.