Falling Imperium

[fiat_knox]

Guys, you know that I love the Third Imperium. When Megatraveller came out with its vision of a 3I already fallen, and the history of its destruction from the Assassination of Strephon to the Virus, I kind of lost it for a bit. It was like watching the B5 episode "Sleeping In Light;" a sad event that you never quite forget, and yet wish you had never got to see.

Much though I'm pretty resigned to the ultimate end of the 3I, you know what? I would like to see its ending take a good couple of centuries, and begin gradually rather than explosively with Strephon's death.

Megatraveller's Rebellion plotline came too suddenly. The only reason why that happened at all, other than MWM's authorly fiat, was that the seeds of the Rebellion has been planted a long time before. The 3I, rather than being this lovely place to live in a Golden Age of Humanity, was like an overtaut drum membrane that somebody had tuned too high. Something stretched to breaking point. Something that had to give. One drumbeat too hard, in the right place ...

Strephon's death, taking place hundreds of light years away, was not that drumbeat. The drumbeat that ruptures the Third Imperium should have three very specific characteristics.

One. It should appear innocuous, at least to the witnesses. A plane crashes, killing everybody on board; an Imperial J-6 X-boat Misjumps into the wrong system, its pilot dead, carrying a cargo not meant for the locals. It is only much later, when the rip spreads across the stars, that history will record this incident as A Step Too far - e.g. the plane was carrying an Imperial Diplomat on a mission to end a war; his failure to arrive meant that the war would continue, and spread throughout the 3I ultimately bringing it down: or the X-Boat's message might have contained a warning to the local Duke or Archduke which, because it never arrived, went unheeded, meaning that the Duke blithely walked right into a trap set by his enemies - a death which had profound repercussions rebounding throughout the Imperium).

Two. The event should happen within an adventure, whether as part of the adventure or as an event that takes place in the story that happens to be incidental to the adventure, e.g. the plane crash happens a mere ten kilometres from the characters' location, forcing the characters to get drafted by the local LEOs to participate in Search and Rescue operations: or maybe the characters encounter the stricken X-boat while exploring the outlying reaches of the star system looking for salvage or an icy comet to mine for fuel.

Three. The event should involve the player characters at some point, whether incidentally as eyewitnesses ("Honestly, it just seemed to turn in mid-air and then just go into a tailspin, billowing black smoke from its engines!") or centrally ("Getting no response from the pilot, Captain. Maybe it was an automated X-boat." "They haven't built technology that advanced back in Capital. Take no chances. Assume the pilot's incapacitated, not missing or dead. Alert Status Seven: Ship In Distress. We're going in.")

In any event, the characters must be right at the scene, whether they have a chance to try to put things right or not. Let's not have something happening a thousand light years away, and suddenly it all turns to dust.

Don't have Strephon assassinated in Capital. Have him visit the Marches and die there, on the steps of the Ducal residence in Regina, or wherever in the Imperium the characters happen to be adventuring in.

The rest can then proceed as originally outlined. At least the characters can say that they were there when it all went toes up.

 

[Zparkz]

Why not have the characters do something really heroic and admirable so that the Emperor notices. Sends for them to be nighted at the Iridium throne. just to be there as the Emperor is shot...

I am going for that one =0)

 

[mbrinkhues]

Actually it didn't "suddenly turn to dust" in the MT timeline. It was a number of waves that collapsed the 3I similar to other Empires collapsing. The assasination itself was the first strike that set up a harmonic vibration that slowly shattered the empire:

Initially it was just a guy claiming the throne because "The guy I just shot was bad for the empire" Had been done before. Would have caused some border problems and debates in the Moot but that's it

Then it was a second guy claiming "I am a close relative, the throne is mine". Again not a big thing, his claim was basically solid and correct. Would have caused problems with the Domain of Illelish but that's it.

Sadly the good Lucan was number three in line not number two and number two died under dubious circumstances. So instead of a clean succession we get debates. Not a big deal under more normal circumstances but now we have two claims that are both "not solid"

Still, this would have settled if not for events three and four:

Margaret claiming the throne and being a sideline of the family having a some weight to throw around. Not to mention that she definitly didn't kill anyone

A guy claiming to be Strephon appearing and claiming the throne. But he can't tell where he had been.

It is only at this point where we are set up for collapse with four parties shaking the foundations and dividing loyalties

 

[fiat_knox]

Actually it didn't "suddenly turn to dust" in the MT timeline. It was a number of waves that collapsed the 3I similar to other Empires collapsing. The assasination itself was the first strike that set up a harmonic vibration that slowly shattered the empire

But the empire itself was otherwise healthy. And since all this took place a thousand light years away, I could never get the scale of the event to equate with what the characters were doing.

All they knew was that there was some war somewhere, and then nobody had any kind of money, and then the technology didn't work. It was as if nothing the characters did had any bearing on what was going on.

Now if they'd Misjumped, and somehow emerged a hundred-plus years down the line, maybe gone from 1105 to 1248, and emerged as the Fourth Imperium was almost about to begin, with a chance to shape the 4I, I could make that work, just about, and they'd be so curious to find out what happened to their old Imperium that could have caused it to go belly up so suddenly. Cue the Library Data Exposition device, aka "Read out bits from the Rebellion / Hard Times / Virus summary to them."

Or if they were living through the catastrophe, only it was so damned slow that they could not see how bad bad could get until they were no longer receiving word from Capital, and they get a breathless X-boat pilot Jumping in all freaked out and saying "Capital ... Vland ... they're gone. There's nothing left any more!" - I could make that work.

In the "Time of Judgment" series which brought White Wolf's World of Darkness to an end back in 2004, the first sign of the end of the world began, not with some Antediluvian Kindred climbing out of a mountain after 10,000 years, but with a simple hand held video camera.

Perhaps this "For Want Of A Nail" principle should be applied to any attempt to bring down the Imperium in Mongoose's products. Only, as I have said, the "want of a nail" should come from the player characters' efforts.

If they don't bring down the Imperium themselves, they should at least bear witness to the event which does bring about the end.

That would give the players something they can take with them to Traveller cons: "I ran Megatraveller's Hard Times." "Yeah, well my character threw the switch that activated Virus."

 

[kafka47]

That would give the players something they can take with them to Traveller cons: "I ran Megatraveller's Hard Times." "Yeah, well my character threw the switch that activated Virus."

Actually, I did have my group play the Dulinor infliltration squad. They did not know it was to release the Virus. And, when Dulinor's fleet started attacking each other and misjumps. They retreated into Cold Sleep to wake up in the New Era in a shattered starship in a universe that did not understand nor care.

 

[mbrinkhues]

The empire wasn't healthy. It had faced massiv rebellion (Solomanie) barely a century ago and still was dealing with insurgents and partisans in the sectors near occupied sol. It had a duke who abused an imperial warrent to make himself sector duke/supreme sector commander (Norris), major houses (Megacorps) fighting covered (and not so covered) trade wars and a bureaucracy that could be cheated out of a heavy cruiser! Not to mention the hints at wide-spread corruption (Children of the Marches). Other elements like the Psionik Suppression (and the resulting underground) where not that positive either.

Depending on how one reads other material like some adventures in DGP's "Grand Tour" there are more problems in the 3I like a growing distance between the "haves with title" and the "plebs" (See the problem the group faces in getting back from Sylea) and a "fragmenting" of the 3I in general even encouraged by his Emperor.

 

[kafka47]

Agreed. The CT Imperium was one sick puppy. However, it was not in the state of terminal cancer that would mark the MT years and when the patient actually died but did not tell the family - the Hard Times years.

However, what Traveller postulates is that the Imperium is following Rome...therefore, it ought be on the frontiers where the sense of decay is most felt, yet, in Traveller it is rather ironic the periphery is thriving but the centre is collapsing. Here I agree with Bill Cameron, that it is more akin to the collapse of the USSR.

 

[Antony]

Perhaps there is a Mandella like character incarcerated on the Gaesh who if released could have saved the imperium from itself. Key PCs.

(You do remember that this vessel was being used to house political prisoners back in CTs Adventure 1 so around 1101)

 

[kafka47]

Another important fact, it was not until the onslaught of Hard Times did the Imperium truly end. Throughout the MT era, we had many Imperiums that largely preserved the antebellum around their Safes. Citizens of those areas would have been in for a great shock when the Virus hit.

 

[Theophilus]

But the empire itself was otherwise healthy. And since all this took place a thousand light years away, I could never get the scale of the event to equate with what the characters were doing.

All they knew was that there was some war somewhere, and then nobody had any kind of money, and then the technology didn't work. It was as if nothing the characters did had any bearing on what was going on.

Perhaps this is just my interpretation, But to me it seems as if the problem is not with the setting, but with the Game Mastering. If I reverse your statement I think your saying "nothing the characters do has any effect in the grand scheme of things". If nothing the characters do has any bearing on what is going on, then maybe they should do something different. (to quote a tv show, Save the cheerleader save the world)

Perhaps the characters could save Strephons fifth cousin (twice removed), who latter ascends to the Iridium Throne. Or discovers the Anti-Virus that stops virus and saves humanity from a second long night.

Perhaps the problem lies in the Game Master, not the setting. This was discussed decades ago and what it really takes is work and creativity on the part of the GM. And a willingness to deviate from the "official" history when you put fifth cousin "Bob" on the throne.

 

[mbrinkhues]

Another important fact, it was not until the onslaught of Hard Times did the Imperium truly end. Throughout the MT era, we had many Imperiums that largely preserved the antebellum around their Safes. Citizens of those areas would have been in for a great shock when the Virus hit.

Even Hard Times did not kill that. The safes existed until Virus struck between 1130 and 1135. They had actually stabilized and the black war strikes where mostly over by 1128. Basically you had

+ Three major pockets

Sol, Regency, Vilanie

+ Three big ones

Core/Lucan, Illelish/Dulinor, Margaret

+ Two minor ones

The fake Streppi, Duke Craig

And the Domain Antares/Julian thingy

 

[fiat_knox]

And that's the thing.

Ny the way, the whole Rebellion/Hard Times/Virus thing? It's called "metaplot." It's a storyline that affects the core nature of the game. White Wolf's old World of Darkness suffered grievously from metaplot; they had the Year of Reckoning that brought the Wraith Underworld and the Wraith: the Oblivion game to an end; they brought out Hunter: the Reckoning, killed off a favourite Clan of the Kindred (the Ravnos), and then made Mage: the Ascension unplayable with such delights as the Technocracy winning the Ascension War and the rise of the soul-shredding Avatar Storm.

Point is, White Wolf made the game less than fun to play, even though they did state that the WoD was ending. Nonetheless, I know of a good chunk of people who defy the Wolf and still play the old World of Darkness, still set in the modern day - they just never let go of their old 1st and 2nd Ed, pre-Revised, games. The events from the Week of Nightmares through to the Time of Judgment never happened, and in their world the Camarilla, the Garou Nation, the Traditions etc never died.

Rebellion through to TNE was pure metaplot, and as metaplot goes, it was horrifying.

MWM had to invent Virus, with Godlike control over technology, to bring the Imperium down. The way the story ran, you could spot the joins where "Things could go right here, but I'm making sure they don't."

There came a point when, on reading Hard Times, I got the feeling that MWM really had it in for the 3I. I was going "Oh, now what?" and "What fresh Hell is this?" like watching a blow by blow of a particularly brutal murder where, according to the autopsy report, the murderer switched from stabbing the victim to just repeatedly kicking him in the head while he lay there; and then he switched to pummelling him with a stone; and then it was out with the matches and the gasoline; and then ...

Thing is, the end of the 3I looked and felt vindictive. It all happened per the author's fiat, and the player characters just had to live through a storm not of their own making, beyond their control.

It wasn't any fun to play back then, and it won't be fun this time around either. Not unless you get something done to involve the players as more than just victims running for their lives from the oncoming Hard Times and Virus. Otherwise players and Referees will just ignore the adventure modules with "Set in the time of Rebellion" and "Set in Hard Times" and "Set in the time of Virus" and just concentrate on the games set in and around 1105 - 1108. There are trillions of sophonts around in the 3I, and so the players can conjure up any number of player characters and just run games in the Golden Age of the 3I forever without buying any adventures set after Strephon's assassination.

 

[Zparkz]

So w hats wrong with it being a metaplot?

If you notices, the plotline actuially makes it possible for the players to participate in the events. Very few other people partaking in the action is named outside some advisors or the archdukes themselves.

As I wrote in a previous entry. I plan to put my players in the imperial palace when the fatal shots are fired. I am even going to place them on the very ship Dulinor arrives in prior to the assasination.

Later on, why not, as someone else wrote here, place the players at the spot where the virus is actually activated by the players themselves.

The real problem with MT was that it never really gave out any campaigns where the players could play and be a part of the history. When I bought into MT the only scenario books available was the adventure books frorm CT, and those books doesn't put you a part of the metaplot of the CT campaign at all.

Maybe the Traveller Publishers should go the route that the Warhammer publishers go. Define the story arch. Write material that places the players where the important action are, or where they are a piece of the important action.

 

[fiat_knox]

Or offer the story arc as one of many optional plotlines to lead the characters through in their campaign.

Other options could include:-

1. Invasion! I: One of the outsider alien races tries to take over Charted Space. The Zhodani, the Hivers, the K'Kree, the Aslan, the Vargr. Hells, even the Dandelions. One or some, or maybe all of them all at once. Either way, it's war between sophonts and ... other sophonts.

2. Invasion! II: Maybe not Charted Space as such. Maybe one of the alien races tries to take over a neighbour's space. The Zhodani try taking over the Vargr enclave, or maybe the Droyne try and claim the Trojan Reaches back from the Aslan (with unusually potent weaponry to back up their claim). Either way, the Imperium faces a massive influx of alien refugees.

3. Invasion! III: It's none of the usual races. They're something new, an alien race never seen before. Lizard men. Replicators. Duplicates of major characters from an evil dimension infiltrating this one. A swarm of gigantic planet-killing robots boiling out of the core, all shaped like ice cream cones, firing beams of pure anti-proton, totally impervious to anything but their own primary weapons. Or maybe it's something ancient, pulsing, malevolent, spreading out from the Abyss Rift to engulf this region of the galaxy in darkness and death ...

4. Disaster! The word just got back from the survivors of the final Zhodani Core Expedition. The Galaxy has gone Seyfert. A wave of radiation is coming which will fry every planet in the Galaxy and kill all life. Everybody must flee.

5. Secrets Of The Ancients - Mongoose are already on top of this one. What if the Ancients aren't dead? What if the whole Assassination / Rebellion / Hard Times / Virus thing is an Ancient plot, a prelude to 1, above - invasion?

 

[mbrinkhues]

I liked the Metaplot of MegaTraveller. Hated the "boring, safe empire" stuff of 1105. Actually fell asleep playing "Secret of the Ancients" at least once. So it's two persons, three opinions.

Killing of the 3I is what IMHO made Traveller playabel since the "size" of the playing field was reduced to what a player could see/touch/understand without making roleplaying in general and Traveller in special his prime hobby. It added conflict without needing complex explanations why some stuff happened or why this did not result in a big war.

As for the players "affecting the timeline": Most campaigns don't care about that having a lower power level. And if one plays at this level there is enough space in the MegaTraveller timeline for doing that

 

[rancke]

I just don't get the whole "The 3rd Imperium was too big for the PCs to affect" notion. It's true, but it's also completely moot. It's like complaining about a Three Musketeers campaign because 17th Century Earth is too big and nothing the PCs can do in Paris can affect how things go in China.

Just tune your campaign setting to be a size the PCs can affect and don't worry about the rest of the Universe. There's plenty of room for any sort of campaign you care to run in Charted Space. All the Rebellion did was invalidate much of the paltry few bits of information about the Imperium that we had. And at that it was better than TNE.


Hans

 

[kafka47]

The Metaplot does not bother me in the least.

As in the realms of Traveller, the actions of characters is not likely to effect the timeline and each epoch allows different interactions for the PCs to play. I could understand this criticism if players are were in Dark Heresy/Rogue Trader - but this is Traveller.

Even if players were to gain an audience with the Emperor, they are not likely to survive taking a potshot at him. Similarly, if they know Dulinor was going to kill the Emperor - would they be believed. Or if they go to shutdown Ommicron, surely the research is being duplicated elsewhere. etc.

Metaplot is just a chart for what happens and mood - I just don't get how players who are ordinary joes/janes would be affected by it.

 

[Vargas]

If the PCs are on a world in the Corridor when the Vargr invade, aren't they being directly affected by the Rebellion metaplot? (I may be missing something . . . )

 

[Vargas]

MWM had to invent Virus, with Godlike control over technology, to bring the Imperium down.

. . .

There came a point when, on reading Hard Times, I got the feeling that MWM really had it in for the 3I.

Point of order: Marc Miller can be said to have signed off on the Virus and Hard Times because he was ultimately the guy in charge but he was directly responsible for neither. Virus was the invention of Dave Nilsen (although Frank Chadwick was technically the product line manager at that time?) and Hard Times was written by Chuck Gannon.

I agree with you though that it appears that Gannon had it in for the setting. He seemed to really lack an appreciation for what he was trashing.

 

[fiat_knox]

I agree with you though that it appears that Gannon had it in for the setting. He seemed to really lack an appreciation for what he was trashing.

My point exactly.

MegaTraveller could have set up the demise of the 3I as one of many different endings to wrap up the setting, none of which would be considered canon: its fall from within, an invasion by an external (Extragalactic? Extradimensional? Ancient?) alien force (Virus?) or a crisis such as the crises facing all the races on Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker. Or even just Cthulhu rising because the stars are right at last.

Or indeed a setting where, despite the odds, the Imperium just went on and on, adapting somehow to cope with every change, enduring for the next ten thousand years and becoming unrecognisable to the Imperium the characters are familiar with.