Best adventures?

[Daidoji Dave]

I keep mulling and putting off a real campaign, so in the meantime I'm thinking of running some published adventures in series. Which, since I don't normally collect and read adventures, raises the question of what to run.

So, what are the best adventures of the Traveller line? I'm particularly interested in Classic-era adventures, as I have the idea a fair number were published that I don't know anything about, but I'd consider converting anything.

 

[Supplement Four]

The Traveller Adventure, of course, is a go-to. It's got everything: space combat, bar brawls, secret insertion missions, trading, subterfuge, alien worlds and alien customs, and lots of gun combats.

The campaign does require extra effort on the Ref's part.



Another adventure that I think is dynamite is Cold Dark Grave. BITS published it, and I think it was released at a con or something. I don't see it on their web site.

This is a fantastic adventure that uses Golden Age Traveller lore and has all the elements that most people think of when they think of Traveller.

Like all BITS stuff, it is written for T4, which is a very easy conversion to CT (and don't forget the helpful BITS task system).

 

[mike wightman]

Most of the CT adventures require quite a lot of referee input to flesh them out - I see this as a very useful feature.

My all time favourite CT adventure is DA Death Station - I have used it many many times, altering the nature of the threat on the lab ship/station, the location of the lab ship/station, the patron/corporation/government that hires the PCs to investigate (even had it as a random encounter for a free trader crew on one occasion), the NPC mix of the team sent to investigate etc...

Many of the DA can be mined for extra scenarios beyond their original purpose.

Of the long adventuresI have used Kinunir, Research Station Gamma, Twilight's Peak and Leviathan as the basis for whole campaigns.

 

[Blue Ghost]

What Mike said. I had my players on edge when I ran Death Station.

I also took some dudes through the first couple of Dragon Lance modules. Great fun. Someone else here years back also ran a fantasy Traveller adventure, and things went fine until the players ran out of ammo :devil:

 

[Fovean]

Adv 9 Nomads of the World Ocean and Adv 10 Safari Ship are my favorites of the old Classics because they combine wilderness/environment challenges with political/moral quandaries. But a solid +1 for Death Station as well.

For a more military theme "Aces & Eights" is a great Kelly's Heroes type adventure (I always change the opening however). I'll try to dig up which issue of JTAS that was in.

 

[Dulinor]

For a more military theme "Aces & Eights" is a great Kelly's Heroes type adventure (I always change the opening however). I'll try to dig up which issue of JTAS that was in.

#14.

In addition to the excellent suggestions by the above posters, two more recent adventures were a huge success with my group : One Crowded Hour and Type S.
Both were reprinted by Mongoose in _Crowded Hours_, along with two much less interesting adventures.
And of course, Type S is now known as High and Dry, for Mongoose Traveller 2nd ed.

 

[Gray Lensman]

Virtually all the CT stuff requires at east a small amount of fleshing out.

My favorite thing was The Traveller Adventure, Since they all require some work anyway I always put that work towards slotting the other CT advevntures INTO The Traveller Adventure, always made for a good long lasting campaign.

just my two coppers, oops, I mean credits
YMMV

 

[Keklas Rekobah]

^Another vote for "The Traveller Adventure". It provides a decent framework, a variety of sub-adventures, and enough wiggle-room for additional adventures (whether commercial or home-grown).

 

[mike wightman]

The only thing wrong with the Traveller Adventure is the very start. The opening scenario is a bit difficult to get away with these days.

Spoiler:

Breaking into a museum at the behest of some randomly encountered Vargr?

Nope, not going to happen.

Spoiler:

Smuggling said Vargr onto the ship, past city security. through customs and starport security?

Nope, not going to happen either.

 

[aramis]

The only thing wrong with the Traveller Adventure is the very start. The opening scenario is a bit difficult to get away with these days.

Spoiler:

Breaking into a museum at the behest of some randomly encountered Vargr?

Nope, not going to happen.

Spoiler:

Smuggling said Vargr onto the ship, past city security. through customs and starport security?

Nope, not going to happen either.

You live in too civilized a place.

I've seen players do far less legal and far more risky events simply because they think of Traveller as more like the wild west.

 

[mike wightman]

I wouldn't call Newcastle civilised, especially on Friday and Saturday nights

The first couple of times I ran TTA I didn't have a problem with the illegality, but with age/maturity and a better understanding of what TL11 security systems would be capable of then I started looking for an alternative introductory scenario.

Back on topic, sort of, one of my best campaigns started with the players hired to be the bodyguards as outlined in the introduction to the DA Marooned - I fleshed out the weeks and events that lead to the marooning.

 

[Timerover51]

I would recommend running Research Station Gamma followed by Twilight's Peak, both written by Marc Miller. You might need to tweak Research Station Gamma a bit so that the characters have a ship for Twilight's Peak.

Then there is also Marc's article on Victoria/Lanth in JTAS 2, although there is a missing page in the Bestiary Article on Kudebeck's gazelle that you would need to get as well. Is does not affect the article at all. That one you would need to work on a bit, but with a planetary population in the millions, there is a lot of unoccupied territory to work will as well.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Someone here said they had never seen anyone successfully complete Twilight's Peak. I had to tweak it some to keep my players from getting fried.

 

[mike wightman]

I have run it three times - once reskinned to T2300 - every time it ended in a TPK.


Back to adventures - if bug hunting is your thing then you can not do better then the DA Chamax Plague/Horde.

 

[Supplement Four]

You live in too civilized a place.

I've seen players do far less legal and far more risky events simply because they think of Traveller as more like the wild west.

It is a rare day when I agree with Aramis, but I do here. He's right, at least in my experience, about the Traveller wild west.

I kinda think Marc thought that too, through his comment after seeing Star Wars for the first time, saying, "THAT is Traveller."

 

[Blue Ghost]

I seem to recall his interview stating that they were parallel developments, though I don't doubt that SW influenced Traveller's creation.

 

[aramis]

I seem to recall his interview stating that they were parallel developments, though I don't doubt that SW influenced Traveller's creation.

SW was released after CT 1E went to press. (MWM in Dragon Magazine.) About a day after. So it literally can't have affected the core.

SW clearly impacts Bk 5, and thus also the OTU, but not the initial core. Marc has stated that his own military service, plus 40's, 50's, and 60's SF novels, are the shaping force of the core.

 

[Blue Ghost]

That's what I thought, but I wasn't sure. I thought that interview with him some ten plus years ago he alluded to the fact that SW was developed apart from his creation, but at the same time, ergo "parallel", but neither aware of the other.

 

[Brandon C]

In Traveller, I have always preferred Patrons to adventures, even the short Double Adventures. They better fit my improvisational GMing style.

I ran The Lady in White three times for three different groups. The setup was nearly identical in all three cases, the truth (and resolution) were not.

 

[infojunky]

The best adventure.... Right now for starting a campaign I would start with the Imperial Fringe. From there I would start pulling in parts of the various Double Adventures and maybe bits of the Alien Realms book as well.