Adventure Seed; The false god

[Blue Ghost]

So, I've exchanged PMs with Cryten, and he suggested that this might be a good place to put adventure seeds. My blog readership has dropped, and I'm trying to move onto other projects, so I might be trimming my blog in the coming months. As such, I'd like to share some Travellerness that I posted there. So, here we go

Date;
Year 1098, 127th Day

Place;
Glimmer Drift Sector
Adar subsector
Venad system
Downport

SitRep;
Eskufet lies outside the Imperium and its protection in the Tlianke subsector. It's native inhabitants, labeled Tilans (a colloquel title recognized by the major powers) are a tech level 1 (bronze age) race of mammals that have been contacted, promised a better life, employed by off world companies, and, as such, also abused and taken advantage of. The Tilans are savvy, know their world has essentially been invaded by peoples of other worlds whose technical abilities are above their own. But their improvement in food generation (farming and harvesting local animals) has allowed more free time and for a kind of societal self introspection. To this end there has also been a kind of reformation movement, but the Tilans are subject to the whims and wills of the corporations who have set up shop. There is off world oversight, but the Tilans think it lip service, or ineffective at best.

A group of Tilans approaches the players at the local Starport Bar overlooking the tarmac, and request that they accompany them back to Eskufet to witness their working classes treatment. They warn that getting in undetected will not be easy, and may require smuggling themselves in system and onto the world.

The Tilans state that they are being mistreated; over worked, their young being forced to labor, an economic system that has pushed out their ancient ways to favor the corporate off worlders, and to this end created a new impoverished class struggle to make ends meet for basic needs. The Tilans are now also coping with new diseases, and medical care is exorbitantly high for the wages they are paid.

The Tilans wish witnesses to their plight so they can bring attention to it to the "outside world".

Are the adventurers interested?

 

[flykiller]

d6:

1 - all is as it appears. the adventurers will have to deal with security police and undercover agents in their efforts to expose the corporations' mistreatment of the tilans.

2 - all is as it appears. the adventurers will have to deal with security police and undercover agents, along with an undercover tilan traitor in the group that first contacts the adventurers, in their efforts to expose the corporations' mistreatment of the tilans.

3 - all is as it appears, except any investigation will readily reveal that the tilans themselves also oppress and exploit a class of beings even lower-status than themselves, and that the tilans think that any attempt to liberate these "untouchables" is oppression of tilans.

4 - the tilans who have contacted the adventurers are a criminal class looking for off-world contacts for smuggling and money laundering.

5 - the tilans who have contacted the adventurers are politically ambitious and are looking for off-world contacts to support their attempts at gaining political power over other tilans.

6 - the tilans who have contacted the adventurers are Eskufet security forces looking to instigate a false-flag insurrection justifying a general security crack-down.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Very cool addendum.

 

[Enoki]

Very nice idea and storyline, but what's the payoff for the adventurers? Altruism is all fine and dandy if you're Mother Theresa, but for the average Traveller character, it doesn't pay the bills.

IMTU, they should hire some Ral Ranta mercenaries to massacre their oppressors ruthlessly...

http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Ral_Ranta

They could hire:

Dermif Na... Amoral and unscrupulous mercenaries.
Black äl... The Black Hand will guarantee results once they're paid
Mkono Memusi... They'd gladly kill everything in the system if you pay them.
Owato... They'll send assassins to kill everybody you pay them to or die trying.
Sässiz ölüm... The Sudden Death will live up to their clan name and show up with a pirate squadron to ravage the system.

 

[Orr]

Very nice idea and storyline, but what's the payoff for the adventurers?

That's a very good point. When the need for a payoff is added to the seed, it's more likely the adventurers are hired by a 3rd party who wants to hurt, embarrass, and/or discomfort the companies and governments involved rather than help the "poor widdle" Tilans.

That would make Flykiller's 3rd option the best one: The company is suppressing certain distasteful Tilan cultural practices in the region(s) it controls, some Tilans resisting that, and off-planet parties latching onto the mess for their own purposes. Look at suttee and the Thuggee cult in India for historical examples.

 

[Carlobrand]

So, we're looking at a bronze age culture that has traded the ancient cycle of feast years and famine years for what appears to be something approximating a regulated servitude: they can be reasonably certain their families are never going to go hungry again, but they've realized most of the fruits of their labor are going elsewhere. The effort to produce the goods sought by the offworld concerns rather than focusing primarily on local needs would have impact throughout the local economy and culture. Because the offworld companies can't afford disruptions in the workforce, the promised medical care has put an end to the plagues of old, with their immunizations and the introduction of sanitation and other basic advances that - for lack of an awareness of germ theory - would otherwise not have occurred to the locals. And, of course, the off-world companies are rightly proud of that accomplishment. But, levels of care beyond what is needed to ensure efficient production are tantalizingly out of reach for any but the local elite.

This is likely to be a very sharply divided society. There is going to be a set of people who remember their grandfathers' stories, who are very grateful that their children won't face the risk of starvation and of early death from epidemic disease, who see the loss of ancient ways as a small price to pay for relative security, and they're going to be afraid these boat-rocking reformers and their off-world do-gooders might end up making the corporations go away. Then there are going to be others who remember their 12-year-old who lost an arm in the thresher and their uncle who died of a simple wound infection from a cut working in the field while one of the town elite was given a kidney transplant. The players' reception is going to be a lot more mixed than the story they're given at the outset would lead them to believe, and there will almost certainly be some locals working against the players, either overtly or covertly. Things could get violent pretty quick.

 

[Orr]

The players' reception is going to be a lot more mixed than the story they're given at the outset would lead them to believe...

If the players are stupid enough to swallow the "poor widdle Tilans" story as presented than they deserve everything that happens to them.

... and there will almost certainly be some locals working against the players, either overtly or covertly. Things could get violent pretty quick.

Oh yes. Things should get very interesting very quickly.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Good points, how do the players know the Tilans are truly suffering, and is their lot better than say ten plus years ago, or however long it's been since Imperial businesses first set up shop? Then again, that is part of the adventure.

As for pay ... I'm figuring a few ten-thousand per player; i.e. maybe 30,000 ImpCr worth of goods. It's been one of those issues that's plagued me ever since I first started GMing, and also why I never did much D&D (rewarding EXP).

Maybe the Tilan's have some agricultural goods that are native only to their world, or know the secret of vast veins of ore in local caverns. Something that would both thwart any local abusers, and would bring a fiscal bonus to the players should they help.

 

[Xerxeskingofking]

Good points, how do the players know the Tilans are truly suffering, and is their lot better than say ten plus years ago, or however long it's been since Imperial businesses first set up shop?

As for pay ... I'm figuring a few ten-thousand per player; i.e. maybe 30,000 ImpCr worth of goods. It's been one of those issues that's plagued me ever since I first started GMing, and also why I never did much D&D (rewarding EXP).

Maybe the Tilan's have some agricultural goods that are native only to their world, or know the secret of vast veins of ore in local caverns. Something that would both thwart any local abusers, and would bring a fiscal bonus to the players should they help.

if the abuses are real, then the local duke revokes the charters for the abusing companies, and issues new ones to other companies. the duke gives the players a small thank-you payment (and makes a note of the ship and its crew for the next time he needs a burnable asset) and the companies that stand to profit form the change give the players a much larger thank you (and also make note of the deniable asset)

 

[Blue Ghost]

if the abuses are real, then the local duke revokes the charters for the abusing companies, and issues new ones to other companies. the duke gives the players a small thank-you payment (and makes a note of the ship and its crew for the next time he needs a burnable asset) and the companies that stand to profit form the change give the players a much larger thank you (and also make note of the deniable asset)

So maybe this is an Imperial investigation?

 

[Carlobrand]

Looks like someone trying real hard to trigger an Imperial investigation, likely while someone else is trying real hard to keep it from becoming an Imperial investigation. And, as with many things Traveller, who the actual puppet-masters are and what the actual facts are is something that will not be easy to figure out.

 

[Enoki]

Eskufet, the system in question, is outside Imperial space. Why would the Imperial government care what the f is going on there? They wouldn't.

There are two smaller powers right next door to the system too: The Ral Ranta and the Anubian Trade Coalition.

Since I regularly game this part of the Traveller universe, the Ral Rantans as I have them would gladly, willingly, go into that system and kill everything in it if paid to do it. The Anubians would willingly support the Tilans, even for free probably, just to get their foot in the door and once they've kicked their corporate oppressors out, take over as their new corporate oppressors. Meet the new boss... Same as the old boss... :devil:

If it were my version, as a player, I'd want to know if the Ral Rantans were involved. If there was even a hint they were I'd run from this job as fast as I could. The Ral Rantans aren't to be messed with. They'll hunt you down, then your children, then your grand children for your lunch money...
The Anubians are all about profit and everyone is expendable to a company owner if they make bank out of it. They make the Ferengi of Star Trek look generous...

 

[Blue Ghost]

So maybe the Imperials are trying to justify an expansion?

 

[Orr]

So maybe this is an Imperial investigation?

First sentence in your own SitRep:

Eskufet lies outside the Imperium and its protection in the Tlianke subsector.

Which is it?

 

[Blue Ghost]

Perhaps a reconnaissance then.

 

[mike wightman]

Imperial megacorps get up to all sorts of shenanigans outside the Imperium for the very reason that Imperial authority ends at the border.

Any Imperial expansion into new sectors could upset their neighbours - the Zhodani have fought five wars to curtail Imperial expansion into their space.

That's not to say there couldn't be a lot of ex-scouts pottering about...
or mercenary units...
or rival megacorporation factors...
etc.

 

[Orr]

Any Imperial expansion into new sectors could upset their neighbours - the Zhodani have fought five wars to curtail Imperial expansion into their space.

When was the last time the 3I expanded? Or tried to expand?

The first war with the Zhos pretty much stopped any expansion in the Marches and all the others have just kicked the 3I out of more territory. The Julian War stopped expansion coreward. Would the last expansion have been rimward before all the Solomani troubles began?

Enoki's points about taking into account Eskufet's "neighborhood" are good ones too. There's a Ral Ranta world 2 parsecs away, a marginal one with a poor port and a TL of 8 but still one with 40 million people on it. There's an ATC world 5 parsecs off, low population but it can be used as a base.

Just what are these off-world corps shipping off Eskufet? Food? There's a world, Boilingbrook, with an insidious atmosphere and 70 million people right next door. Maybe Ral Ranta, ATC, or both are interested in Broilingbrook's breadbasket?

 

[Enoki]

Imperial megacorps get up to all sorts of shenanigans outside the Imperium for the very reason that Imperial authority ends at the border.

Any Imperial expansion into new sectors could upset their neighbours - the Zhodani have fought five wars to curtail Imperial expansion into their space.

That's not to say there couldn't be a lot of ex-scouts pottering about...
or mercenary units...
or rival megacorporation factors...
etc.

Like I mentioned, this is an area of the Traveller map that I deal with a lot.

There isn't a lot of canon on this area so I had to invent far more detail myself. My version is:

The Ral Ranta. They're little more than a collection of organized crime that has a common culture and has formed a government out of the ruins of an earlier, more impressive empire. The Imperium doesn't want to get involved with them both because it'd be an endless guerrilla war of terrorism and because they're useful when you need to hire people to do some nasty job on the sly. Need a hitman? They got them. Unscrupulous mercenaries? Lots. That sort of thing. The TAS would tell you to say the hell away from their worlds unless you really have business there.

The Anubian Trade Coalition. They're a collection of robber barons and "plantation" owners ruling their planets with an iron first. The elite and rich are bent on getting more elite and rich by any means necessary. They use psionics to give them an advantage and deal with whoever has cash to offer.
They middleman a lot of deals with the Imperium for things like Hiver and other non-Imperial technology from further out in the galactic arm.

Many of the systems right around the one in question are part of what I call "The Boutique Worlds." These are individual systems that have some unique product to offer and get serious cash from the neighboring empires in return. Many of their products are ones that nobility and other well heeled and connected people want to show off their status.

There are several systems that are Imperial client states, like Kupakii, that have scout bases in the system. These are a sort of tripwire and protection of the trade route from the Imperium to the Anubians. Neither empire wants its trade interrupted by things like Ral Rantan pirates and mercenaries.

Some of the other systems:

Boilingbrook: The upper atmosphere is nice, while the lower is uninhabitable. Sky cities using anti-grav tech float in the clouds. This is something the world is known for being excellent at producing. The sky cities act almost like independent states although there is a high degree of cooperation and some of them are owned by off-world interests like the Imperium, Ral Ranta, or megacorporations.

Ginshar: A race of human chimera who are aggressively xenophobic and reclusive.

Fugitak: An ex-Ral Ranta system that has issues with the Ral Ranta government and went its own way. Hence the amber zone...

So, in the middle of all this, is Eskufet. A pretty much nowhere system and world. Unless there were something of real and unique value there, why would anyone bother to help the locals except out of altruism?
If Eskufet really does have some issue that the Imperium needs to deal with they could send in scouts from Kupakii almost immediately to either deal with the problem or find out what it is for sure. They're right next door, and that's why they're there.

Anyway, that's how I'd be looking at this.

 

[Condottiere]

I get the impression that the Zhodani are trying to create buffer zones, and create alliances with Vargr in order to distract the Imperium in another direction.

The Spinward Marches feel like a frontier, where the Imperium has a presence but not consolidated it's authority.

 

[mike wightman]

When was the last time the 3I expanded? Or tried to expand?

They are still expanding into District 268 in 1105+