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Converting Adventures
- Thread starter cdward
- Start date
epicenter00
SOC-13
If that's the case, I'm really looking for something with a bit more potential as part of a mini-campaign. So far it sounds like Kafer Dawn is getting the highest recommendation. I think I'll have to see if I can scrounge up a copy. Thanks!
Another suggestion I'd have (which requires a bit of legwork on your part, but a lot of GDW packaged adventures aren't really much better than outlines anyway):
If you're setting your game in the circa 2300 period (not 2320) and your players are die-hard Travellers, I would suggest getting a copy of the Colonial Atlas and Invasion. Why?
In my campaign, I decided to find some reason for my players to be on Kolonie Zwei when the Kafers smear it from the map.
If they're military/merc types they can be on their way to Aurore to be advisors or just guns-for-hire to the TANSTAAFL government.
If they're of a more merchant bent, perhaps they're on Kolonie Zwei to sell widgets from the Core and pick up exotic stuffs on their way back to Alpha Centauri.
You can use it opportunity to show your players the differences 2300 and Traveller:
* No anti-grav. Make those merchants really look closely at the costs of moving goods planetside (cheap) and getting it up to orbit (hugely expensive).
* That ships aren't so often held by private individuals.
* Nationalist tensions that run rampant in 2300.
* People nervous about the Kafer threat (but more scared of the local administration's "Cry Wolf" policy).
* Corporate intrigue (if you're playing more of the "Rotten to the Core" style).
Let them get into barfights, meet attractive members of the opposite sex (or the same sex if they're that way), intrigues, and so on. Let them get a feel for Kolonie Zwei.
Then spring the Kafers on them. There's actually quite a bit of time from when the Kafers are sighted to when they arrive at Kolonie Zwei. If the players don't have a ship, make them sweat finding a ride off of the planet along with hundreds of thousands of other murderously desperate people, all of whom will be dead in a few days.* If they have a ship, make them fend off attempts by the authorities to commandeer it, have rich people offer them outrageous amounts of money for space, desperate armed men and women trying to seize their ship by force, families trying to at least get their kids on board the ship even if they cannot. No matter what they do, they can't take everyone. Make them agonize over it no matter which choice they take. Make them realize the Kafers are playing for keeps. This isn't the TI where the Zhodani are going to be content making the TI spend its power and taking a few planets, Vargr raiders are just annoying, the Solomani are more Hogan's Heroes than Waffen SS, etc. At some point the players are going to return to Kolonie Zwei (maybe after getting to Aurore and doing "Kafer Dawn") and they'll know that all those people they left behind are dead.
* The Kafers don't wipe out every dome on Kolonie Zwei, either. If your players can't get off of the world, you could also make a fun adventure having your players trying to survive in some smaller, partially destroyed dome. Though it says the Kafers attempt no landings, perhaps curious or bored Kafers do land on the world for salvaging human tech for study or just to see if there's survivors to fight. Eventually some passing blockade runner should rescue them, but make 'em sweat it with supplies, oxygen, and power running low. If you're really sadistic, let them stay in contact with a few other scattered groups of survivors via radio and make them be too far away to help as they're overrun by Kafers, run out of basic requirements (food/water/oxygen/power) and die off before rescue comes.
couldn't agree with epicenter00 more. Start small is my advice..a few local adventures...maybe even in one room (IN MEDIA RES for cthulhu is an excellent example of a drama kept in one room). Keep the first few adventures in just a couple of streets or neighbourhoods and just as things may be getting SERIOUSLY dangerous and the pc's are out of their depth with say, a local gangster, spring the invasion on them...a scramble for the few available space craft heading out from the dying colony could not only test the pc's skills but also their morality as they leave people possibly more deserving behind....
Something else you could do is have several adventures in the '2300' setting (but using 2320 rules) then have something drastic happen like a falling out between pc's or a seperation at the height of the war.... only for a chance meeting between the pc's 20 years later... and a villain they thought long dead.
(reaches for rules)
Something else you could do is have several adventures in the '2300' setting (but using 2320 rules) then have something drastic happen like a falling out between pc's or a seperation at the height of the war.... only for a chance meeting between the pc's 20 years later... and a villain they thought long dead.
(reaches for rules)
tanstaafl2300
SOC-9
Scenario Idea
Start small huh?
How about characters that start as new small town militia members, run a few small patrols with animal encounters, perhaps a small time bandit run-in. this is all just to get them in tune with the area, flora/fauna, and local personalities.
Then spring a few larger connected adventures on em, just to get them out into the larger colonial area.
this gives them a small base to start with, only about 20 or so NPCs to deal with. Gives them a sense of belonging, so they feel a loss when the bandits/kafer attack while they are gone galavanting off to the "big" city.
Most of my old games were way out in the hotback or just on the edge of the destroyed towns (first invasion playing). But I would like to try putting this scenario down south of Tanstaafl City, down on the Red River like in Red for instance. Lots of new critters to find down in the swamps.
But, what about the kafer? Did they land down in those parts? Was this area untouched, other than orbital bombing?
Fleshing this all out seems to be hard for me, but perhaps it's just me, I find it hard to get my mind around the current situation on Aurore, and Tanstaafl Colony to be exact. There are lots of kafer just running around on the planet, where were the landings? Out in the hotback? How are they surviving with the same food problems that the humans have. How do they re-arm themselves. One would think that the colonist who have faced two invasions would not just be sitting by letting them live out their little alien lives in the desert without openly committing genocide at ever chance they have. "Oh, you have a tacticle nuke, and it's only 1000Lv, I'll take two!"
I guess this should have been posted in the "My 2300 Universe" section, but since it does have to do with converting adventures perhaps I can get some ideas in this section.
Tim
Start small huh?
How about characters that start as new small town militia members, run a few small patrols with animal encounters, perhaps a small time bandit run-in. this is all just to get them in tune with the area, flora/fauna, and local personalities.
Then spring a few larger connected adventures on em, just to get them out into the larger colonial area.
this gives them a small base to start with, only about 20 or so NPCs to deal with. Gives them a sense of belonging, so they feel a loss when the bandits/kafer attack while they are gone galavanting off to the "big" city.
Most of my old games were way out in the hotback or just on the edge of the destroyed towns (first invasion playing). But I would like to try putting this scenario down south of Tanstaafl City, down on the Red River like in Red for instance. Lots of new critters to find down in the swamps.
But, what about the kafer? Did they land down in those parts? Was this area untouched, other than orbital bombing?
Fleshing this all out seems to be hard for me, but perhaps it's just me, I find it hard to get my mind around the current situation on Aurore, and Tanstaafl Colony to be exact. There are lots of kafer just running around on the planet, where were the landings? Out in the hotback? How are they surviving with the same food problems that the humans have. How do they re-arm themselves. One would think that the colonist who have faced two invasions would not just be sitting by letting them live out their little alien lives in the desert without openly committing genocide at ever chance they have. "Oh, you have a tacticle nuke, and it's only 1000Lv, I'll take two!"
I guess this should have been posted in the "My 2300 Universe" section, but since it does have to do with converting adventures perhaps I can get some ideas in this section.
Tim
epicenter00
SOC-13
But, what about the kafer? Did they land down in those parts? Was this area untouched, other than orbital bombing?
Kafers, fulfill the role of goblins, orcs, and trolls in fantasy games. Frankly, they're bright enough to be where they need to be in order to be a threat, but brutish and cruel and thus unsympathetic. They can pop up anywhere where you need them to be since they're bright enough to operate stolen vehicles. The location of the landings aren't important - by the time of the Invasion, it's assumed the Kafers don't really have anything approaching Ch*!! anywhere on Aurore, even in Novoya Kiev. By the time 2301 and the Invasion rolls around, they're relegated to the role of "wandering monsters." Perhaps they stole a vehicle to get away from an area that had gotten too hot for them or trudged in on foot from somewhere else.
Fleshing this all out seems to be hard for me, but perhaps it's just me, I find it hard to get my mind around the current situation on Aurore, and Tanstaafl Colony to be exact. There are lots of kafer just running around on the planet, where were the landings? Out in the hotback? How are they surviving with the same food problems that the humans have. How do they re-arm themselves. One would think that the colonist who have faced two invasions would not just be sitting by letting them live out their little alien lives in the desert without openly committing genocide at ever chance they have. "Oh, you have a tacticle nuke, and it's only 1000Lv, I'll take two!"
It's not like GDW thought this through really well. Remember, Kafers are wandering monsters. It's assumed that by 2301, Kafers are no longer a huge menace, I think it's mentioned somewhere that they're really no more dangerous than the local flora and fauna in most places - there's just not enough of them left anymore after some large battles in the French and Tanstaafl areas (Novoya Kiev is different) - the larger bands of them have been killed off and the survivors scattered. You can assume that the military and mercenaries do regular sweeps to look for Kafers. Ironically, you might actually find more of them in Tanstaafl. Since it's a commercial venture which then became private, you could assume that the colony is sort of short on money hiring all those mercs (with what money? who knows) so perhaps they don't patrol as much as they should.
As for what the Kafers eat and how they get more ammunition for their weapons, it's a good question. You can be certain GDW didn't really consider this. You could assume that Kafers eat by stealing foodstuffs from human habitations (again, back to the fantasy world thing - in a world with so many tough monsters, why are there still 1st level farmers, wouldn't they be extinct?). They're probably armed with weapons they take off of the humans they kill (the dumb Kafers who can't operate human weapons are dead by now). That's the prosaic answer.
If you want to make stuff up, you can always ask yourself what exactly the "Kafer Rot" is that is mentioned in the Aurore Sourcebook. While the people on Aurore seem to think it is a bioweapon, it's probably more likely that it is some Kafer "smallpox" equivalent. If it's not, then either the Kafer or Ylii know their biotech and perhaps Kafer digestion is more flexible than of we humans and they can adapt themselves to feed off of some Auroran native flora and fauna. The question of weapons - I can only imagine they've scavenged weapons from dead humans.
tanstaafl2300
SOC-9
1d6 Kafer attack from the woodline!
OK, point taken, wandering monsters is pretty much the idea, but...this is not to go against your post, but....
My players are a little more into the common sense gaming, in D&D you can just say "the river is purple and flowing uphill" just because that is the way it is in these parts and the characters understand. But to say the kafer are everywhere isn't going to fly with my group especially since I push the realistic futuristic game.
I understand that this is my world and I can do what I need to do but I really hate setting up a campaign just to have it contradicted in the next module.
So with all of that said....Where would be the best places for landing during the second invasion? A basic run down of the invasion would be helpful with a timeline of the fighting. I figure the Kafer have lived in enough fear to have increased their intelligence somewhat and therefor they are a more diabolical advesary than they were after the first invasion (think Viet-Cong).
I guess the best way for me to handle this is to set my campaign to just before the invasion and run it the way I see fit. I already have the overall history of the war so I just need to make up the invasion part.
But since I am trying to put together an adventure to post to the forum, would this be of interest to anyone who is playing in the 2320 era?
Until I get further guidence from you 2320 history buffs, I am just going to have to wing it.
I do appreciate the advice though.
Tim
OK, point taken, wandering monsters is pretty much the idea, but...this is not to go against your post, but....
My players are a little more into the common sense gaming, in D&D you can just say "the river is purple and flowing uphill" just because that is the way it is in these parts and the characters understand. But to say the kafer are everywhere isn't going to fly with my group especially since I push the realistic futuristic game.
I understand that this is my world and I can do what I need to do but I really hate setting up a campaign just to have it contradicted in the next module.
So with all of that said....Where would be the best places for landing during the second invasion? A basic run down of the invasion would be helpful with a timeline of the fighting. I figure the Kafer have lived in enough fear to have increased their intelligence somewhat and therefor they are a more diabolical advesary than they were after the first invasion (think Viet-Cong).
I guess the best way for me to handle this is to set my campaign to just before the invasion and run it the way I see fit. I already have the overall history of the war so I just need to make up the invasion part.
But since I am trying to put together an adventure to post to the forum, would this be of interest to anyone who is playing in the 2320 era?
Until I get further guidence from you 2320 history buffs, I am just going to have to wing it.
I do appreciate the advice though.
Tim
epicenter00
SOC-13
OK, point taken, wandering monsters is pretty much the idea, but...this is not to go against your post, but....
My players are a little more into the common sense gaming, in D&D you can just say "the river is purple and flowing uphill" just because that is the way it is in these parts and the characters understand. But to say the kafer are everywhere isn't going to fly with my group especially since I push the realistic futuristic game.
I understand that this is my world and I can do what I need to do but I really hate setting up a campaign just to have it contradicted in the next module.
So with all of that said....Where would be the best places for landing during the second invasion? A basic run down of the invasion would be helpful with a timeline of the fighting. I figure the Kafer have lived in enough fear to have increased their intelligence somewhat and therefor they are a more diabolical advesary than they were after the first invasion (think Viet-Cong).
I guess the best way for me to handle this is to set my campaign to just before the invasion and run it the way I see fit. I already have the overall history of the war so I just need to make up the invasion part.
But since I am trying to put together an adventure to post to the forum, would this be of interest to anyone who is playing in the 2320 era?
Until I get further guidence from you 2320 history buffs, I am just going to have to wing it.
I do appreciate the advice though.
Tim
Hey, people love their fantasy games. I do too, but yes, I understand the point of the 'realistic' sci-fi. The Kafers undertake basically four major incidents in the 2300 and 2320 universe. They attack Station Arcturus, they strike Eta Bootis (Aurore). Then there's the Invasion of 2301 and then further fighting in the 2320 period. I'm not that big of a buff on 2320 yet, but given I've run through a few campaigns in the 2301 Invasion, I'm pretty firm up on it.
Essentially, if you're looking for ground auction, the Kafers are noted to have landed troops on Dunkelheim, Kimanjano, Crater, Beta Canum Venaticorum, and Joi. Fighting against Kafers is almost always noted to be bitter, though the campaign book points out the fighting on Kimanjano was notable due to the large numbers of professional forces (US Marines, Texas Rifles, Foreign Legion) on the world and the noting of a number of new Kafer vehicles sighted in the fighting and is probably a good "stand up" fight for a military-oriented campaign. BCV is notable in that it changes hands three times - the Kafers take it from humanity, then we take it back, then the Kafers return and take it away from us again, then we finally liberate it once and for all. The fighting on Joi is noted to be particularly bitter - however, the humans relieve the planet before it ever fully falls to the Kafers.
However, for actual "resistance" scenarios, Crater is probably your best bet, followed by Dunkelheim.
In the pre-2320 period, Nous Voila gets pasted so badly that the terraforming fails, sending it back towards an ice age. In addition, large numbers of Kafers were landed on it by the retreating Kafer fleets. Human rescue missions going in to rescue survivors have to contend with roving, and desperate, Kafers. Zapamoga, NARL, IEX, and the Life Foundation all sponsor these rescue expeditions, while others might sponsor expeditions to the devastated villages for less noble (looting) expeditions.
Scenario seed
Now that gives me an idea, an Immigrant from France in the 2290's brought along his/her priceless collection of Royal Doulton porcelein figurines, when the Kafers invaded they were hurriedly buried, and the immigrant fled back to earth, now they are wanted back and the insurance company thinks that paying a group of adventures to go and see if they are recoverable is cheaper than paying out.In the pre-2320 period, Nous Voila gets pasted so badly that the terraforming fails, sending it back towards an ice age. In addition, large numbers of Kafers were landed on it by the retreating Kafer fleets. Human rescue missions going in to rescue survivors have to contend with roving, and desperate, Kafers. Zapamoga, NARL, IEX, and the Life Foundation all sponsor these rescue expeditions, while others might sponsor expeditions to the devastated villages for less noble (looting) expeditions.
Hmm. I'd like to see the policy that would actually pay out in cases of:
'Invasion, War, Environmental Catastrophe, and/or depradation of a prolonged nature resulting from psychopathic xenomorphs from beyond Arcturus.'
They seem to have enough trouble lately handling the 6ft inundations of half of northern England.
'Invasion, War, Environmental Catastrophe, and/or depradation of a prolonged nature resulting from psychopathic xenomorphs from beyond Arcturus.'
They seem to have enough trouble lately handling the 6ft inundations of half of northern England.
Scenario Seed
Well it is a "fiction" game!
Chris
Hmm. I'd like to see the policy that would actually pay out in cases of:
'Invasion, War, Environmental Catastrophe, and/or depradation of a prolonged nature resulting from psychopathic xenomorphs from beyond Arcturus.'
They seem to have enough trouble lately handling the 6ft inundations of half of northern England.
Well it is a "fiction" game!
Chris