Best published adventures?

[E.D.Quibell]

You might think that having won a galactic war against his kids and grandkids he wouldn't fall for something that simple!

Regards,

Ewan

 

[rancke]

Spoiler:

SOTA has them in GF's pocket universe. They had the disintegrator, and a droyne sport in the party. They call. He comes. They zap. His head ceases to exist.

After which they used their hacking skills to take over Grandfather's robots and went back to their own universe with an invincible army and took over Charted Space, right?


Hans

 

[jappel]

Tarsus - getting set to run this myself; it's actually a campaign setting with a number of linked adventure situations.

Twilight's Peak - another mini-campaign, this time chugging down the Spinward Main. The final action can be pretty impressively dramatic.

The Sky Raiders Trilogy - held by many to be the best CT adventures, it incorporates a ton of classic space opera SF themes. And if you don't hear the Indiana Jones theme running through the back of your head during the first one, something's wrong!

Broadsword - again, more of a mini-campaign, this time with mercs doing counter-insurgency in the midst of the Fifth Frontier War. Had a player pull an Audi Murphy with one of the Sword World AFVs - he went down in a blaze of glory (literally, when the track brewed up) but took a lot of TFL with him. If he'd been a regular, it would have been an SEH moment.

Prison Planet - never ran this but always wanted to.

The Traveller Adventure - reads well and enjoyed by many, but never played.

 

[rancke]

You might think that having won a galactic war against his kids and grandkids he wouldn't fall for something that simple!

You might think that any adventurer with brains enough to pour sand out of a boot with instructions printed on the heel would be too mindful of the likely result if it turned out to be a hologram or a robot double or someone wearing a TL35 force field to attempt anything so mindbogglingly stupid.

But that's just my opinion.


Hans

 

[beowulf2044]

I like to match up and link adventures. Marooned with Chamax Plague is good for when your Players get to feeling smug. Same for Research Station Gamma going straight into Prison Planet ("But I'm telling you, we were on a rescue mission on behalf of the little guy with the wings. . .wait. . . where'd he go?")

 

[Brian Smaller]

I ran the Prison Planet adventure after my Traveller group managed to get into all sorts of problems involving a kidnapping. It was fun. I ran it a bit like that TV series Oz, except about twenty years before that came out. The one guy in the party who was something of a pretty boy had a hard time. They didn't call that guy Big Rolf for nothing.

 

[aramis]

After which they used their hacking skills to take over Grandfather's robots and went back to their own universe with an invincible army and took over Charted Space, right?


Hans

Nope. They got chased out by the automated defenses... And wound up dodging INI and fleeing to the hierate.

 

[rancke]

Nope. They got chased out by the automated defenses... And wound up dodging INI and fleeing to the hierate.

I guess one of them must have been carrying a Sylean Scout knife, otherwise they might not have been able to escape. It's amazing how versatile a Sylean Scout knife is; open cans, light fires, escape from TL35 defenses designed by a paranoid super-genius... the list just goes on and on.

So, when those automated defenses had pulled a new body out of stasis and downloaded Grandfather's most recent brain tape into it, did he track them down and subject them to a horrible revenge, or did he just decide the hell with subtlety and wipe out all of Charted Space?


Hans

 

[Whipsnade]

I'm not arguing the choice, but how many people have actually played this as opposed to just reading it?

Vargas,

I attempted to run SotA four times. Failed twice, partially succeeded once, and got through a modified version once.

One of the failures occurred when the players zagged instead of zigged. I had SotA slotted and ready to go, but they went in another direction.

The second failure was definitely due to meta-game knowledge on the part of a player or players. The group encountered the "bubbleship" and immediately began a vehement argument over whether to investigate it or not which quickly went "out-of-character". The "Don't Explore" side won the argument by threatening to split the party; i.e. they would not leave the ship under any circumstances. I should have called a break, but didn't, and thus lost the chance.

I believe the partial success was due meta-game knowledge too. The players became extremely hesitant after arriving in the pocket universe and barely looked around enough to discover the "zoo". After that, they were looking for nothing but a way out.

The success involved a modified version of the adventure during a merchant campaign centered on Grote/Glisten...

Spoiler:

I heavily modified both the location of and lead up to the adventure.

I placed Gramps and his Magical Pocket Universe near Andor/Candory in the Five Sisters and directly involved the Droyne on those worlds. Rather than being mysterious heirlooms, the statues were instead relics held by a mysterious oytrip.

The players were part of an effort trying to negotiate an exclusive trade agreement with the governing oytrips of those worlds. The byzantine political situation among the Droyne meant the negotiations hinged on a the players assisting two Droyne sports on what the humans thought was a religious/cultural/whatever "pilgrimage" or sorts.

The sports represented two rival, yet respectful, sects or parties within the mysterious oytrip. The quickest way I can explain them is to use the Conservative and Experimentalist parties from Niven's Puppeteers.

The adventure flowed normally after this different beginning. There was the signal hunt, the "bubbleship", the trip to the deep space teleportation portal, and all the rest. One of the Droyne, the Experimentalist, stayed in the pocket universe and the other, the Conservative, nuked the teleportation portal once it and the players had exited it.

It's reasoning was that Grandfather or access to Grandfather would fundamentally change what the Droyne had managed to become (partially) through their own.

As always, various government and private intel agencies were very interested in the players' experiences but they neatly sidestepped the issue by allowing themselves to be psionically interrogated by one of the Imperial agencies. In return for that "access", the same agency pledged to protect the players from all the others. (The campaign didn't last long enough for me to explore just how truthful that pledge would be.)

Regards,
Bill

 

[aramis]

I guess one of them must have been carrying a Sylean Scout knife, otherwise they might not have been able to escape. It's amazing how versatile a Sylean Scout knife is; open cans, light fires, escape from TL35 defenses designed by a paranoid super-genius... the list just goes on and on.

So, when those automated defenses had pulled a new body out of stasis and downloaded Grandfather's most recent brain tape into it, did he track them down and subject them to a horrible revenge, or did he just decide the hell with subtlety and wipe out all of Charted Space?


Hans

What's with the sudden snark, Hans?

the disintegrator was from a pubished adventure. (IIRC, Twilight's peak.) The party had no prior knowledge, and with a disintegrator, it's not that hard to escape the platforms to the ship, especially in the nifty ancients-tech space-suits.

Further, once they popped GF, they ran. Nothing indicates GF uses clones. He's PSR15, which with awareness, means droyne are literally immortal.

 

[rancke]

What's with the sudden snark, Hans?

Flashbacks to early days of D&D with people bragging about how they killed Thor .

the disintegrator was from a pubished adventure. (IIRC, Twilight's peak.) The party had no prior knowledge, and with a disintegrator, it's not that hard to escape the platforms to the ship, especially in the nifty ancients-tech space-suits.

That's not what snaps my belief suspenders. What I find incredible, I've already alluded to. That Grandfather should risk a personal appearance without making sure the visitors were unable to harm him; that any adventurer would be stupid enough to imagine that this super-scientific genius wouldn't have taken precautions against getting his head disintegrated; that the automated defenses designed by someone like Grandfather wouldn't disintegrate anyone who threatened the Boss (before he did the deed if his reflexes were merely organic, afterwards if he was faster than the TL35 defenses); and that Grandfather wouldn't have some sort of backup plan.

Further, once they popped GF, they ran. Nothing indicates GF uses clones. He's PSR15, which with awareness, means droyne are literally immortal.

I don't use clones either, but if I had access to cloning techniques and braintapes, I'd make provisions for using them, just in case. I'd hope very much that they'd never be needed, but you never know when some maniac with a disintegrator will show up to ruin your day. Philosophically it's a poor substitute for true immortality, true, but it's a hell of a lot better than nothing.


Hans