Non OTU: Activity Ideas for Exploration Campaign

[SpaceBadger]

I've run an exploration campaign before (short-lived) and am considering running one again. This is a Non-OTU setting where there actually are unexplored sectors so that the explorers may be the first humans to enter these star systems (or if others have been here, they have kept their reports secret for financial/strategic advantage).

I had a few things set up for the explorers to have fun with:

- competing explorers, both cooperative and downright hostile

- worlds w native races of various tech levels for contact/trade adventures

- a cluster that once hosted a multi-world civilization, now gone, for an archeological mystery adventure

- a few clusters/mains w active J-1 or J-2 civilizations for contract/trade/etc

- uninhabited worlds with good atmo that would make great colonies, but to get the best price for their info they needed to bring back not only location but details sufficient to interest colonists and investors

That last category (uninhabited potential colony worlds) is what gave me the most trouble for what activities the explorers could do. I had one worked out in some detail w life-forms and encounter tables, but really there was only so much fun to be had visiting different environments and making notes of what critters they found. It might have made a fun solo adventure documenting hazards, resources, potential colony sites, etc - but for three players they got bored pretty quick.

Any ideas for stuff to make the exploration of a potential colony world more fun? Anybody successfully run one of these?

Also, I'd welcome more suggestions for other kinds of exploration adventures in addition to the stuff I listed above.

 

[Spinward Scout]

Any ideas for stuff to make the exploration of a potential colony world more fun?

Ancient ruins or abandoned colony
Lost treasure/unknown artifact
Dangerous creatures
Gold mine/valuable or luxury resource (or similar 'strike it rich' scenario)
Claim jumper
Pirate (or criminal) haven or other unregistered settlement
Recent meteor crater/other environmental upset
Rewards for finding any or all of those things
A race to survive

If your players are getting bored with exploration, maybe that's not their thing or maybe you just need to mix it up a bit.

Also, starting or ending with: "You just finished your survey report, and..." cuts out the monotonous details - i.e. don't have them play out the boring stuff.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Dangerous critters (including plants).
Dangerous planet - something they wouldn't have discovered with a quick survey, but their ship is broke and they're having to camp out while they fix it. This sets them up for being bored... then something dramatic happens that puts their lives in danger (insidious gas in the atmosphere, the happy spore plant from STOS: This Side of Paradise, a freakishly fast growth/death cycle for everything on the planet, etc.).

 

[CosmicGamer]

For me, I think it is important, so that the players have some insight for role playing the characters "job", to define the mission parameters and not just say "here is a ship, go explore". If it were that easy for any independent adventurer with a ship to go explore, it's likely some better funded corporation, scientific group, or government would have already done it.

Who is backing the exploration mission. Why are they backing the exploration mission and what are their goals.

That's not to say that a wider range of adventures can't be achieved by joint backing. Say by both scientific and commercial entities and even some government grants.

Just saying that since this is the starting point, and backers can help determine the equipment and goals of the explorers, it's important, IMO, to detail this out a little. One mission might require interacting with any locals to assess dangers, possible trade opportunities, mineral rights, the likelihood of safe co-habitation settlement. Another mission might want to avoid any possible issues with locals and only seeks out data from unpopulated worlds. The explorers will, of course, be on there own and able to do whatever they want with the resources/equipment available. But I think they should know what is expected of them. When they are expected to return. What they get paid for and what they don't. And so on.

You may want to think through what a "exploration" contract might cover.

Some of the things that came up in a similar PbP game I was in
- What is the rank structure if personnel are dead or otherwise unable to perform their duties. (What if the player leading the expedition drops out of your game and the NPC first officer is dead(because the GM didn't want to be the one running the group))
- Can the group hire locals, even adding them to their crew. (new players and characters coming to the game)
- Detail ownership or payouts for certain discoveries and findings. (does the backer own the strange technology we recovered from a crashed alien ship? Who gets the pirate ship that we captured?)
- Who is responsible for lost equipment (oops, the ship got shot down by an automated defense system and crashed, damaged beyond repair. Good thing we still have that pirate ship.)
And so on.

 

[SpaceBadger]

For me, I think it is important, so that the players have some insight for role playing the characters "job", to define the mission parameters and not just say "here is a ship, go explore". If it were that easy for any independent adventurer with a ship to go explore, it's likely some better funded corporation, scientific group, or government would have already done it.

Who is backing the exploration mission. Why are they backing the exploration mission and what are their goals.

Oh, they had a very structured mission. The players were some of my old D&D group from high school. When I was on a home visit during fall semester one year at college, I got them to agree to try out Traveller for at least a few sessions during winter break. They told me that they wanted to be explorers visiting new worlds, so I worked like a mad man the rest of that semester to have it all ready by winter break.

I designed the situation (previously unexplored sector now open due to war ending w victory over enemies who had been blocking the path); the ship (800-ton freighter converted for exploring); the sector (roughed out, w a few detailed systems); the employer (development company seeking new profitable colony worlds); the training regimen (boosting a few appropriate skills before the trip); complete crew assignments w NPCs pre-genned for any roles that the PCs did not fill.

They had fun the first session generating characters (two each, to avoid the situation of the whole command team leaving the ship to do stuff on planet); we did that at Thanksgiving break, so they had some time to anticipate getting into the game itself a few weeks later when finals were done.

I gave them the map and let them choose where to go from their starting point, but it was really only semi-sandbox as I had built only a few detailed systems, then keyed systems on the map as certain types. A lot of systems were uninteresting, so just noted what was there and moved on. They came to one system that I had noted w an outpost of a long-gone starfaring race, so I plugged in the outpost that I had ready and they enjoyed a basic dungeon crawl blasting guard robots until they had the outpost clear so that they could try to gather info about the builders, then take off again on their primary mission, finding new potential colony worlds.

The next session they came to a system that I had keyed as having a Terra-type prime colony prospect, so I plugged in the system that I had ready for that purpose and let them go exploring. They mapped the planet, sent down a landing party in the shuttle, encountered and named some various critters, one guy got injured by an arboreal pouncer attacking by surprise (the hide of which he later made into a nice rug for his stateroom), there was a mystery disease which the surgeon had to figure out, a few other things that I don't remember in detail.

That all took two sessions, then we were approaching New Years and our traditional gaming all-nighter, and they wanted to go back to D&D for that, then we never picked the Traveller campaign back up after that.

I think they would have had more fun w one of the lower tech populated worlds, which would have had more stuff for the Trader and guards and xeno people to do, plus a few complications I had ready to prolong their stay, but they never got to any of those systems.

I think they really liked the idea of exploring potential colonies, but not so much the reality of it.

Me, I would have had fun going through all of the detailed checklists from World Builder's Handbook for Scout exploration teams in new systems, but they wanted to kinda handwave that stuff.

Anyway, so that is why I was asking if anyone had run something along those lines w more success, trying to see what I could have done differently to make the exploration parts more fun, as not every world can have an abandoned alien base or living alien civilization or such.

 

[JFGarber]

I'm working through one of these right now. Hook is the rumor of a high-tech alien civilization with advanced widgets and gadgets. Expedition assembly and staffing is via university, while actual funding is by megacorp.

Vehicle is 2,400 ton survey cruiser that I'm attempting to design in accordance with T5. Auxiliaries are (2) type S and a pair of 100 ton large cutters. The idea is that the Scouts can range ahead or to the sides while the main vessel and cutters perform a more detailed system survey.

Gobs of pre-generated characters, expecting that there will be attrition, and not just of my daughter's character(s).

The primary antagonist is nature. I'm trying to map this for a half-dozen or episodes. One will be exploring a temperate world, while another an ice planet and a third a desert. I'm shamelessly mining my library for ecosystems developed by professional authors.

For this particular player, I'm trying to get across the need to pack warm clothes and an extra pair of socks. I'm exaggerating, but you get the picture. She loves puzzles, and I think I can do a lot of puzzles. "The chasm is 55 meters wide, you've got 50 meters of rope, and you left the grav belts in orbit. What now?" and "Air raft failed a quality check and the comm was destroyed on impact. You are having a Bad Day, and it's 350 km to base camp through an unmapped jungle. What now?"

I'm expecting two First Contact situations, but am still trying to figure out the Sophontmaker chapter. I have no idea yet how to impress a thirteen-year-old with that part.

 

[Whipsnade]

Also, I'd welcome more suggestions for other kinds of exploration adventures in addition to the stuff I listed above.

Please excuse my tardy reply. Your campaign sounds like it was great fun, but I can see how you ran out of ideas that kept the players' attention. Let's face it, while most of us would part with limbs and organs to be part of a group actually performing basic survey work on an unexplored world, roleplaying the same activity is boring.

For example, I'd have no problem spending a month or two on a new world taking core samples along topographic lines in a river valley to determine flood periods, but rolling up the same results on a table during a RPG session? Blech.

I think you'll be able to more easily keep your players' attention if you provide them with targeted exploratory tasks rather than general initial surveys. Look at the Mission on Mithril Double Adventure from CT. In return for having their scout/courier repaired, the PCs have to visit several areas on the planet where orbital surveys indicated anomalies. There's an oddly ice-free seacoast in the arctic, a valley with strange shadow patterns, a region with high background radiation, and so on. The PCs visit each site in turn determining the reasons behind the anomalies and your players should be doing the same.

Putting it another way, instead of pointing your players at a haystack that may contain several needles for them to find, you should point them at the needles directly and ask them to determine why the needles are there.

So, borrowing GURPS' nifty turn of phrase, your players aren't First In. "First in" were the orbital surveys and flybys. Ships and drones did a "quick & dirty" sweep through the system in question, scanning every body of interest from orbit, and returning all that data back to headquarters where it's sifted through by various boffins in various specialties. They put together a "wish list" of areas that need further, closer examination and that's where your players come into the picture. Much like the PCs in Mission on Mithril, your players are given a mission, "Travel to System X and check out Sites A, B, C, etc. because of 1, 2, 3, etc."

The mysteries are still there, all you will have done is tighten the focus and shifted all the boring work out of the picture.

Good luck and please tell us how things turn out.

 

[aramis]

Another approach is the "Justification Team" — again, not the "first in" — these are the guys who have been told "Find a reason for us to force-annex this inhabited world despite the protections for pre-spaceflight sentients"...

 

[boomslang]

Another approach is the "Justification Team" — again, not the "first in" — these are the guys who have been told "Find a reason for us to force-annex this inhabited world despite the protections for pre-spaceflight sentients"...

One can also turn that around and do a "Search and Retrieval" mission into off-limits, uncharted territory in pursuit of some fugitive. "Avoid unnecessary or curiosity-arousing contact with the natives (cf. Sabmiqys, The Belgard Sojourn, something in some ATU that's vaguely Lovecraftian and/or pre-Contact Hiver, etc.) but hunt down the fugitive(s) and bring back the Very Very Important Stolen Thing!"

Of course, the fugitive (group) just so happens to have been part of the now-classified First In mission all those years ago, and thereby has a definite advantage when it comes to familiarity with the local situation, resources, hazards, hidden treasures, weird alien culture, and so on...

This can add a sense of both time pressure -- as the characters uncover clues and try to close in on or get ahead of their quarry -- and rising tension -- as they travel farther from home and into the unknown, reluctantly piecing together a puzzle and beginning to realize what nefarious purpose the Stolen Thing might be put to, out here in Uncharted Space...

 

[simonh]

If most words are inhabited, then presumably there was a previous wave of colonization that somehow failed to bootstrap into a multi-world civilization, or did so but was knocked back to a state of multiple isolated worlds. In which case, the question faced when looking at any inhabitable but uninhabited world is why there's nobody there.

A few possibilities:

* Alien monsters. Primary reference points: 'Aliens', 'Pitch Black', 'Jurasic Park'. been there, done that I'm sure.

* Possible sentient alien race. Maybe they're aquatic, or amphibious, or whatever. You need to determine for sure whether they're sentient or not. Maybe only one developmental stage is sentient.

* Deadly virus. Which of course your careless PCs have now caught. Fortunately it's now a weakened strain. Maybe it's an alien plague, maybe it's the remnants of biological warfare. The hunt is on for a cure, either on this world or the homeworld of the lost/fallen civilization the plague came from.

Simon Hibbs

 

[SpaceBadger]

If most words are inhabited, then presumably there was a previous wave of colonization that somehow failed to bootstrap into a multi-world civilization, or did so but was knocked back to a state of multiple isolated worlds. In which case, the question faced when looking at any inhabitable but uninhabited world is why there's nobody there.

If you really want lots of uninhabited worlds, I think you need to have a reason around your first assumption above, so that most worlds are not inhabited and there has not been any prior colonization. In my case it was a jumpgate located in space controlled by sapients who did not have the tech to use it themselves; after a war, it came under human control and thus opened up a new unexplored sector. Somewhat contrived, but otherwise it is kinda hard to see why there would be unexplored space right next to an established starfaring civilization.

There were some previously unknown sapient races in that sector, but they were either pre-starflight and thus limited to a single system, or had only the equivalent of J-1 or J-2 and thus limited to small clusters or mains. Making contact w these previously unknown sapients would be part of the adventure.

 

[pennshome723]

Well your could either pick a subsector that is not on the map and place a Dyson Sphere in it. remember the sphere would be a super structure that totally surrounds the solar systems sun, and located at it center and the inner wall of the sphere would be like planet like. It would be a awesome plot line allowing you to do a lot of things.

 

[Whipsnade]

... a Dyson Sphere...

First, Freeman Dyson loathes the fact that his name has been permanently linked to the "dyson" shell/sphere idea. His proposal had to do with swarm of solar power collectors and habitats orbiting a star and intercepting all the energy that star emits. He never suggested that a uniformly solid sphere of matter enclose a star because, as a mathematician and physicist, Dyson was aware of that, among other things, such a solid sphere was the least plausible application of the idea.

Second, a dyson shell with a radius of 1 AU would have an interior surface of ~550 million Earths. That's more "real estate" than exists in the OTU's Charted Space by a few orders of magnitude.

A dyson shell is simply Far Too Damn Big. It will swallow SB's campaign whole while he tries and fails to even cursorily describe it.

 

[Vladika]

Not enough mass in a star system to build a Dyson Sphere.

 

[SpaceBadger]

A dyson shell is simply Far Too Damn Big. It will swallow SB's campaign whole while he tries and fails to even cursorily describe it.

True. However, if you've read Allen Steele's "Hex", that form exists somewhere IMTU, and for similar purposes (yeah, it's pretty much Hex w the serial numbers not quite filed off). It is not available for exploration or exploitation by other sapients except as the builders allow.

 

[pennshome723]

Not enough mass in a star system to build a Dyson Sphere.

YEAH...a race would need to strip multiple star systems to build one, but most likely it would be a central hum system and seat of their power too. Yes it is beyond our scope to really understand the "why" would they build it...but it would be extremely cool to encounter. It would take for ever to explore as well too, lots of plot lines there for sure.

 

[pennshome723]

I might use a Dyson Ring instead about a star, and that still will be huge to explore for the PCs. The Ancient Race in my campaign the Fabreenie are now long gone but I might make them look like the tall Greys from Pop culture, and say that all that is left of them are clones that are now the small Greys and they can no long clone themselves. They do not have the ability to reproduce and are slowly dying off. Those that do exist are mostly in Cryo sleep and awaken ever once in a while for some purpose.

 

[Sifu Blackirish]

Sifu drops in...

For me, I think it is important, so that the players have some insight for role playing the characters "job", to define the mission parameters and not just say "here is a ship, go explore". If it were that easy for any independent adventurer with a ship to go explore, it's likely some better funded corporation, scientific group, or government would have already done it.

I have been doing some fictional speculation on just such a subject. Have a seat, friend...


from novel TERRAN EXODUS, story SECOND TIME AROUND --- A 'MYRADE ORBITAL' STORY

*** SMARTCARD SCANNED, ACCESS ENABLED ***
*** PUBLIC INFORMATION TERMINAL ***
*** A DataXchang COMPANY ***
*** preferences accessed...searching... ***
*** ...displaying last restore point... ***

*** INTERSTELLAR INDEPENDENT EXPLORERS ***

There is always a need for new planets. Virgin planets suitable for colonies to ease population pressure on Terra, as well as ones suitable for resource extraction. How do we obtain new star systems in this age of technology?

It was a lure for adventure seekers that prompted those initial Survey Scouts to volunteer for their hazardous duties. During the debates over what became the First Survey and our current Exodus, there were visionary politicians that insisted that the Scouts be independent of any other military body. Thus we saw the beginnings of our current system.

According to the still expanding body of concepts and precedents known at this time as United Planetary Congress Interstellar Law, the person who discovers an unexplored star system first is classified as the Primary Claimant. As the literal owner of that star system, he has first rights and claims on any development potential of the system. Of course, an individual does not possess the resources necessary for exploiting a planet, so a system of bids and auctions has been put in place.

A scout ship has the complete data and sensor suite necessary for detailed surveys of a newly accessible star system. This data is distilled down to a simple summary which can be examined by interested parties, and bids are procured. Depending on the preliminary data, floor prices for bids are established. Afterwards interested parties conduct a standard auction where the high bidder wins the right to receive complete survey data and navigational details enabling them to locate the world in question.

Following is the base classification, environmental conditions, minimum and average bid price in eDinars (each unit defined as equivalent to 1/100th an ounce of gold at .999 grade, redeemable in coin at 1/10th ounce or higher, bearer certificates redeemable anywhere for specie) for survey data as of the initial classification from Exploration Services Group Depot, Terra, 2095 AD

CLASS 1
100 THOUSAND, 1.5 MILLION
-PRIME: 60-75% WATER

CLASS 2
70 THOUSAND, 600 THOUSAND
-PRAIRIE: 40% WATER
-NO SEASONS: 50-75% WATER
-JUNGLE/SWAMP: 70% WATER
-OCEAN: 85-100% WATER

CLASS 3
40 THOUSAND, 100 THOUSAND
-ARID: 25% WATER
-TUNDRA: ICE AGE TO NORTHERN US WEATHER
-DESERT: 0-10% WATER
-OUTER EDGE OF HABITABLE ZONE: ‘MARS' OR ICE PLANET

CLASS 4
20 THOUSAND, 70 THOUSAND
-EXTREME SEASONS: MAJOR AXIAL TILT
-NO ATMOSPHERE: ‘LUNA‘
-ECCENTRIC ORBIT
-EXOTIC ATMOSPHERE: ‘TITAN’

CLASS 5
10 THOUSAND
-NO ATMOSPHERE: ‘MERCURY’
-HIGH PRESSURE: MODERN ‘VENUS’


BONUSES
To encourage a high level of activity and commensurate sensor coverage, Scouts are encouraged to perform appropriate infrastructure development.

DATA RELAY FROM OUTSYSTEM TO HUB STATION: eD 1k
DELIVER REFUELING BEACON: eD 2K
DELIVER REFUELING PLATFORM: eD 5K
PATHFINDER FOR COLONY: eD 10K

 

[salochin999]

Please excuse my tardy reply. Your campaign sounds like it was great fun, but I can see how you ran out of ideas that kept the players' attention. Let's face it, while most of us would part with limbs and organs to be part of a group actually performing basic survey work on an unexplored world, roleplaying the same activity is boring.

For example, I'd have no problem spending a month or two on a new world taking core samples along topographic lines in a river valley to determine flood periods, but rolling up the same results on a table during a RPG session? Blech.

I think you'll be able to more easily keep your players' attention if you provide them with targeted exploratory tasks rather than general initial surveys. Look at the Mission on Mithril Double Adventure from CT. In return for having their scout/courier repaired, the PCs have to visit several areas on the planet where orbital surveys indicated anomalies. There's an oddly ice-free seacoast in the arctic, a valley with strange shadow patterns, a region with high background radiation, and so on. The PCs visit each site in turn determining the reasons behind the anomalies and your players should be doing the same.

Putting it another way, instead of pointing your players at a haystack that may contain several needles for them to find, you should point them at the needles directly and ask them to determine why the needles are there.

So, borrowing GURPS' nifty turn of phrase, your players aren't First In. "First in" were the orbital surveys and flybys. Ships and drones did a "quick & dirty" sweep through the system in question, scanning every body of interest from orbit, and returning all that data back to headquarters where it's sifted through by various boffins in various specialties. They put together a "wish list" of areas that need further, closer examination and that's where your players come into the picture. Much like the PCs in Mission on Mithril, your players are given a mission, "Travel to System X and check out Sites A, B, C, etc. because of 1, 2, 3, etc."

The mysteries are still there, all you will have done is tighten the focus and shifted all the boring work out of the picture.

Good luck and please tell us how things turn out.

I'd agree with this except to say they can be "first in" as well but you hand wave the initial survey part. The orders are broad initial survey then send data back with the support ship and await further instructions.

Example:

"After six weeks of orbital and high altitude surveying you've spent the last few weeks relaxing at your tropical island base camp while waiting for your support ship to return with further instructions. Today it arrived and Dynacorp want you to investigate the anomaly at grid 0976."

or make it a standard operating procedure,
1. orbital survey
2. high altitude survey
3. survey ship collates data
4. anomalies detected and listed
5. investigate anomalies

 

[SpaceBadger]

Thanks for the ideas. Those will be helpful next time I have players who want to explore.