Have you ever used an Artifact in your game?
What can you tell us about it?
What can you tell us about it?
Have you used an Artifact in your game?
- Thread starter Spinward Scout
- Start date
Enoki
SOC-14 1K
I have one time. In this particular game, I used an artifact-- a small black polished 'stone' looking one-- as a lure for some of the players to start off with. In this case, the stone when held tightly in your hand made you appear to be standing in a windswept field on what was clearly another world. The NPC that owned it claimed to the player that this world had lots of ancient stuff on it.
Of course, the player's character was in a dive bar. The NPC was a grizzled old prospector-type who was trying to get the player character to buy him a drink. The few other patrons in the bar tell the old guy to shut the @%@@!* up while telling the player's character he's crazy and that he's shown that stupid parlor trick to everybody there.
The NPC gives just enough details that what he's saying might actually be true... or he could have just scrambled up his memories... You are left to decide.
The interesting part I hadn't scripted was the PC was a Vargr with an NPC sidekick who worked as a hand / steward on starships and had just been let go. He decided the best course of action here was to buy the NPC with the stone a number of drinks pumping him for information on where he got it, followed by getting him drunk enough to pass out so he could steal the stone...
Of course, the player's character was in a dive bar. The NPC was a grizzled old prospector-type who was trying to get the player character to buy him a drink. The few other patrons in the bar tell the old guy to shut the @%@@!* up while telling the player's character he's crazy and that he's shown that stupid parlor trick to everybody there.
The NPC gives just enough details that what he's saying might actually be true... or he could have just scrambled up his memories... You are left to decide.
The interesting part I hadn't scripted was the PC was a Vargr with an NPC sidekick who worked as a hand / steward on starships and had just been let go. He decided the best course of action here was to buy the NPC with the stone a number of drinks pumping him for information on where he got it, followed by getting him drunk enough to pass out so he could steal the stone...
aa Nantu Y
http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=5339&highlight=aa+nantu&page=9
Check out my post on the aa Nantu Y, a jump re-vector Ancient Artifact.
http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=5339&highlight=aa+nantu&page=9
Check out my post on the aa Nantu Y, a jump re-vector Ancient Artifact.
I tend towards "Long Night" or "Post Empire" settings, so I have lots of "Artifacts" in the games and backgrounds. A recent example was a portion of a Model 9 Computer jury rigged at TL 9 to a Holodisplay and used by a reclusive researcher for genetic engineering research and experimentation.
TL 17+, like Psionics, tends to quickly destabilize a game into something more "superhero" than "space-opera" (based on my personal observations).
TL 17+, like Psionics, tends to quickly destabilize a game into something more "superhero" than "space-opera" (based on my personal observations).
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
I guess that I am not sure what an "Artifact" would be. You could class the ANNIC NOVA as an Artifact, albeit a quite large one. Looking as some of the ideas for Artifacts in another thread, I still am not sure what one would be. I do have a very good chance for what might be called "Artifacts" in the sector that I am working on, as it has ruins of much earlier star-faring races, and also some more planet-bound ones.
Is that a definition anywhere for what an "Artifact" would be?
Is that a definition anywhere for what an "Artifact" would be?
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
Players in my games have come to learn that the word artifact can refer to many different eras.
Within my proto-SM campaign and my Long Night campaign there are artifacts from previous human empires, artifacts from now extinct technological civilisations that rose and fell between the Ancients and the human dominated empires era, there are Ancient era artifacts and then there are the artifacts that predate the Ancients themselves.
Within my proto-SM campaign and my Long Night campaign there are artifacts from previous human empires, artifacts from now extinct technological civilisations that rose and fell between the Ancients and the human dominated empires era, there are Ancient era artifacts and then there are the artifacts that predate the Ancients themselves.
When I see it in Traveller, if it has a capital "A", it means an Ancient Artifact. But it could also be an archaeological artifact of any past civilization. Usually a device of somesort, but things like pottery or scrolls could be artifacts.
Ullarsskald1957
SOC-12
I have had missions for the characters where they are hired to retrieve, or run down rumors of, Ancient and other historically significant artifacts in an Indiana Jones sort of rogue archaeologist way.
