So, Supp4 just how do you go about belting in an adventuring ship as opposed to a belting ship?
Why do you have to adventure in a ship?
As far as adventures go, BITS wrote a fantastic adventure that can center around belters called
Cold Dark Grave.
Some ideas for a party of Belters...
-- They find
something buried in the rock.
-- Run an adventure using the first Alien movie as a model. The Nostromo is a tug carrying a refining platform, and look what trouble that crew got into.
-- A Captain of an Adventure Class vessel hires two new PCs. One is a Trader/Broker. The other is a Belter. This Captain is going to add prospecting to his other activities of speculative trade, from world to world. And the Belter is going to help him do it.
-- Run an adventure using the movie Outland as a model. The PCs are Belters, and these belters start mysteriously killing themselves. The mystery is afoot.
-- Use the Trade War section of
The Traveller Adventure as a model to spark up conflict between the PC's Belting Operation and a rival.
These are not very creative ideas. Belting is just another career. I can be a background, or it can be the center piece for adventure. Like the careers in Supplement 4, Citizens of the Imperium, not all Traveller careers need to be military.
As far as Beltstrike goes, remember the way that GDW wrote its adventures. For the most part, they're just settings. It's up to the Ref to come up with an exciting story to set there.
The companion box set is Tarsus. It's just a detailed world. There's an adventure outline for the Ref to use or not. Really, Tarsus is just a well defined world. Again, it's up to the Ref to use the setting for his game as he wants to.
No two Refs running Beltstrike will probably have the same game.
What about a more macro game--not quite on the level of T4's
Pocket Empires--where the PCs are the people in charge of a Belting Operation. You roll to see how each month or so goes with the Belting. The PCs find adventure and intrigue dealing with Vargr Emissarries and Imperial Naval buyers. Then, the Fifth Frontier War breaks out, and the PCs find that there are plants among the workers--psionic Zhodani spies.
That's just off the top of my head but seems to be an interesting plot for an adventure featuring Belters.
Here's an idea.
On a regular adventuring level, why not have an adventure where the PCs stake a belting claim from scratch. NPCs must be hired at some point to run the operation as it grows. This creates the need for more income (thus, the belting). Then, the local criminals come calling, wanting their cut. How will the PCs deal with this, having built up a business from scratch? I see all sorts of adventuring possibilities as the PCs have to deal with sabotage the the criminal organization's vessels (space battles) and bad guys. Throw in a race to obtain a lucrative contract with a nearby world or the Imperial Navy, and you've got the basis for a pretty cool Belting adventure that needs the belting rolls to go well or it will impact the well-being of the PCs.
This is how
Beltstrike was meant to be used. It's no different than
Research Station Gamma or
Broadsword or
Shadows. It's an adventure setting where it's up to the Ref to come up with an interesting scenario for his players.
And, the actual Belting part need not be the center of the adventure. It's there to use if you want or need it. It can be a focus for the players, or it can be just something the Ref throws behind the scenes to create his background (like throwing for the number of passengers available on a World that have Middle Passages). Or, the Ref can just ignore it and use other parts of the Beltstrike set.
The Beltstrike boxed set is a tool--an aid for the Ref--to use in creating his own adventures.
o:
