CT Only: Aliens Across The Empire

[Supplement Four]

One of the things that drew me to Traveller, BITD, was how the game treated aliens. These were not just humanoid caricatures. These were living, breathing beings with enough detail to make a top selling science fiction author go green with envy.

OTOH, logically, I find it hard to put the PCs in a place where they will come into contact with all the major races.

In the Traveller universe, space travel, even at FTL J-Drive distances, is still pretty slow. It can take a year or three to get across the Imperium, depending on your transport. And, in doing that, it would cost an untold sum that even large corporations would have trouble footing the bill (not mega-corps, of course).



So...

If you play in the Marches, your players are going to run into Vargr, and to a lesser extent, Aslan. And, possibly they'll run into Droyne or Zhodani.

If you want a Hiver or K'kree or a true Solomani, then you need to relocate your campaign. Hiver/K'kree are on the opposite side of the Imperium--the Trailing side. And the true Solomani are in the Solomani Confederation, Rimward of the Imperium.

Sure, you can concoct a reason for a Solomani, a K'kree, or a Hiver to be in the Marches, if that is where you have your game, but you won't be able to soak your players in that culture--to have them visit a Hiver world and see how these aliens live. All the Hiver they encounter will be visitors on ships. The PCs won't be visiting Hiver controlled worlds--not unless you speed the game up, across time, and move the campaign to a new area of space.


What do you think?

Am I right or wrong in thinking this?

 

[mike wightman]

Technically the Sword Worlders are all Solomani, so are the inhabitants of the Islands Cluster

Your general point in not wrong though, the Imperium is too large for K'kree and Hivers pop up in the Marches.

 

[aramis]

One of the things that drew me to Traveller, BITD, was how the game treated aliens. These were not just humanoid caricatures. These were living, breathing beings with enough detail to make a top selling science fiction author go green with envy.

OTOH, logically, I find it hard to put the PCs in a place where they will come into contact with all the major races.

In the Traveller universe, space travel, even at FTL J-Drive distances, is still pretty slow. It can take a year or three to get across the Imperium, depending on your transport. And, in doing that, it would cost an untold sum that even large corporations would have trouble footing the bill (not mega-corps, of course).



So...

If you play in the Marches, your players are going to run into Vargr, and to a lesser extent, Aslan. And, possibly they'll run into Droyne or Zhodani.

If you want a Hiver or K'kree or a true Solomani, then you need to relocate your campaign. Hiver/K'kree are on the opposite side of the Imperium--the Trailing side. And the true Solomani are in the Solomani Confederation, Rimward of the Imperium.

Sure, you can concoct a reason for a Solomani, a K'kree, or a Hiver to be in the Marches, if that is where you have your game, but you won't be able to soak your players in that culture--to have them visit a Hiver world and see how these aliens live. All the Hiver they encounter will be visitors on ships. The PCs won't be visiting Hiver controlled worlds--not unless you speed the game up, across time, and move the campaign to a new area of space.


What do you think?

Am I right or wrong in thinking this?

You missed AM8 Darrians in the Marches.

2 more aliens appear in the Marches as NPC only: Eiboken and Dandies. (TTA)

One can easily justify Virushi and Newts, as well - both are said to be common in the Scout Service (Virushi would be Field, and News Bureaucracy, given their tendencies).

It's a bit far for Ael Yael, Hivers, and K'Kree - they're entirely too far for anything other than PC's of those races, IMO.

If one adds the Vilani as aliens as implied by the Vilani Language article, and backporting the MT aging resistance... They are close enough for them to be an ethnic minority on more than a few worlds in the Marches.

There's a lot for the Marches.

The Solomani are different culturally only... if you include Tech Level. They lag a level behind on Gravitics, but are a level ahead on medicine.

 

[Supplement Four]

There's a lot for the Marches.

There is. And, the Ref can make up some. Plus, stuff from JTAS.

I was talking more about using the GDW game products, though. The Alien Modules.

I remember buying the K'kree and Hiver AMs, but I've never used them because my games have always been set in the SM.

The Solomani are different culturally only... if you include Tech Level. They lag a level behind on Gravitics, but are a level ahead on medicine.

But, to really experience the Solomani, we're talking SolSec!

And that really needs to be within the Confederation.

 

[GypsyComet]

Moving into the Imperial Core decreases the Zhodani sightings and increases the likelihood of Hiver or K'kree embassies, but the K'kree are supposedly all over the Imperium in embassies. They are less for purely diplomatic reasons than for observation and intel to be used when they decide to go to war with the g'naak again, but they are supposedly widespread.

But really, would you want all of the Major Races to be everywhere? Four of the seven are widespread, but the other three (and the ratios of the common four) divide the map into alien "flavored" neighborhoods. A few of the minor races have similar effects, and you can sometimes use them to replace some or all of the elements a distant Major race might have contributed were they closer.

The implication is that you should be setting a campaign in the part of the map that has the dominant elements you want to use and can be tweaked to include the minor elements.

Aslan social purity can be just as big an existential threat as the K'kree if you are not under the protection of the Peace of F'talr (ie. in Imperial territory), and the Brinn will kill visitors for less reason than either. Zhodani scheming can be replaced by Hiver, Geonee, or Suerrat plans (or the appearance of plans). Free-wheeling anarchy is available from the Vargr, or the Lancians, or (on a good day) from the Luriani. Grumbling tolerance of Imperial privilege can be found at Arden or the Sword Worlds on one flank, the Julians on another, and any number of small states in the Gateway and Hinterworlds regions, or even among the Geonee within the Imperium. Two-faced dealings can be found pretty much anywhere if the Vargr or Solomani flavors are not quite what you were looking for.

The advantage of the BIG map with slow travel times is variety. Uniformity is a goal of several forces on that map, but they've never succeeded and usually suffered for their attempts.

 

[aramis]

There is. And, the Ref can make up some. Plus, stuff from JTAS.

I was talking more about using the GDW game products, though. The Alien Modules.

All the ones I mentioned are GDW products. Virush, Newts, and Ael Yael are in CT JTAS.
Eiboken and Dandies are NPCd in TTA.
Vilani are noted as culturally and ethnically distinct in S11: Library Data N-Z.

And I forgot to include Droyne (AM Droyne) and Chirpers (A7?)

 

[Timerover51]

All

And I forgot to include Droyne (AM Droyne) and Chirpers (A7?)

The Chirpers are covered in Adventure 2: Research Station Gamma.

Edit Note: The Droyne, per se, are covered in Adventure 3: Twilight's Peak with all the information needed to develop and run a Droyne player-character.

Both Adventure 2 and 3 are copyrighted 1980, while the Droyne alien module is 1985.