How do you not Rebellion?

[Sir Brad]

So you are playing a classic era game, and regardless of system you have chosen you hit 1116and don't want to go down the Rebellion story path, what do you do?

Do you go with a no plot history or do you dare to do something more interesting?

Personally I Kill Dulinor on his way to the Assassination, something goes wrong with his air/raft causing it to crash in to the palace, no one thinks to call off the War and the Fleets & Armies loyal to him begin operations just as planed thinking the months dead Dulinor is now Emperor, the pre-recorded messages rally the people of Ilelish to a cause that never was. This Zombie of a Stillborn Coup becomes known as the "Ilelish Uprising" and later the "Ilelish Cavil War" as Dulinors daughter declares for the Imperium and becomes the political leader of the Imperial loyalists in the Ilelish region.

more fallout of this is the Solomani annex worlds and states or start proxie wars in the Client states in Reaver's deep Hinterworlds and adjoining sectors as well as supporting civil unrest throughout the imperial parts of the Solomani Sphere as the Imperium is occupied with Ilelish and the Varg.

The Varg, Incursions by Corsairs and even Nation States originally from Windhorn and Meshan but soon spreed along the entire frontier within a few years, The Imperium is forced to fight off raids and even full blown Invasions from Spinward Marches to Antares and back. Non Varg worlds in the Extents petition the Imperium to help them throw off "Varg Oppression".

In short there are Brush Wars and all kinds of Shenanigans to to keep Travllers occupied for Decades of game time to come.

 

[Spartan159]

*Yoink*

 

[Jason Breck]

Personally, I pretty much ignore the whole thing. But that's just me.

 

[Timerover51]

I played Classic and ignore the whole thing. Now I am working on my own sector to use, totally outside of the Imperium, far to the Rimward of the Solomani area. So no Rebellion at all.

For that matter, if you were using the Solomani area, you also would not have to worry about a Rebellion, whether it occurred or not.

 

[robject]

I ignore Rebellion when I don't want it.

Heck, GURPS did that successfully for how many years?

Generalized: I ignore everything I don't want in the game.

 

[jcrocker]

+1 on the 'ignore' option.

Although there was, back in the day, one of the April Fool's issues of Challenge magazine that stated Strephon had just been taking a really long shower.

 

[BRJN]

Dulinor's cruiser misjumps into a deep space hex; he is out of the picture for years.

There is a Traveller News Service feed from a no-Rebellion alternate history. Go ahead and steal neat ideas from it for your campaign.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

So you are playing a classic era game, and regardless of system you have chosen you hit 1116and don't want to go down the Rebellion story path, what do you do?

I only do one-shots. So never reach 1116.

 

[mike wightman]

The OTU appears to be stuck in some T5 reality manipulation timewarp.

It is always 1105...

 

[Xerxeskingofking]

Alternative setting : the regency.

Dulinor makes it to the emperor and opens fire. He hits stephron, and kills the heir and the consort, but is killed by the Aslan ambassador. The emperor is still alive however, but is critically injured and rushed into hospital where he's kept in a medically infuced coma.

The imperial rules ofor succession don't cover theverything incapacitation of the emperor, and a major political crisis looms as the llelish revolt.

The brothers, lucan and varian, declare a joint "regency " to govern until the emperor is recovered.

That was two years ago. The revolt has ground on, with fighting concentrated in a few key systems. The regent's seem unable to pry enough forces out of the rest of the imperium to crush the revolt, fearful of border incursions by surrounding powers. The emperor shows no sign of improving, and dark words are being said about them in dark places. Rumours abound that theyou planned this as a means of taking control. Rumours also talk of a breakdown in the relationship of the two regents....

 

[robject]

The OTU appears to be stuck in some T5 reality manipulation timewarp.

It is always 1105...

This is amusingly close to the meta-story. :rofl:

 

[Shadow Shack]

So...where are these official timelines published?

 

[robject]

So...where are these official timelines published?

THE ANCIENTS (-3,000,000)
Only sparsely treated by a handful of supplements:
Twilight's Peak
Secret of the Ancients
Alien Module: Droyne
...also, the MegaTraveller Imperial Encyclopedia has significant parts of data from the above supplements.


THE INTERSTELLAR WARS
The death of the First Imperium at the hands of the Terrans. Probably best covered by GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars, but also supplemented by the board game Imperium.


MILIEU ZERO (-30 to +30 or so)
The Milieu Zero Sourcebook (Imperium Games/T4) covers the late years of the Sylean Confederation and the early history of the Third Imperium. Originally a reasonably thick and meaty hardcover. Worth getting if you're interested in this period.


GOLDEN ERA (1100-1116)
Imperial Encyclopedia (GDW/MegaTraveller). The "Golden Era" (1100-1116) timeline is probably best contained here, which bookends the times in question nicely. I do note that some useful entries (corporations in particular) are omitted from this publication; I have an appendix that fills the gaps (not as many as one might think).

Inside the Golden Era, The Spinward Marches Campaign (GDW/classic Traveller) Has a very good timeline (with pictures!) of the Fifth Frontier War (1106-1110 or so).


REBELLION and VIRUS ERA (1116-1130, 1200-1299?)

Survival Margin (GDW/TNE) The Rebellion timeline (1116-1130, 1200) is probably best summarized (with pictures!) in this TNE introduction, which bookends the times nicely.

All three of the above I heartily recommend, and are available from FFE.

(The Traveller Wiki probably has these in various forms. I have not checked; the wiki tends to be highly inclusive, and so may have unofficial material mixed in.)

1248. The continuation of the Rebellion timeline into the post-Virus, pre-Wave period. There might be a good timeline in MJD's 1248 material -- if there were it would probably be a pretty good resource.


NO-REBELLION, NO-VIRUS ERA (1116-1200)

No-Rebellion era (GURPS). A split in the timeline. Signs of the split are evident going back to 1115, with the split being complete by 1116 for sure. There is no rebellion, and therefore the Virus catastrophe is avoided. This timeline is probably contained somewhere in one of GURPS' Traveller supplements. Anyone know?


GALAXIAD (1900)

Galaxiad (FFE). There are I believe brief mentions in the Traveller5 Core Rules, which also briefly overviews the dozen or so "eras" in the history of Charted Space.

The post-Collapse timeline is held tentatively in my head, has a few data points, but has a lot of not-sufficiently-answered questions surrounding the progress and fates of empires in the 1200s. Marc also has the timeline in his head, and it probably varies from mine in some unknown ways.

The Rebellion and No-Rebellion timelines merge somewhere around 1450 (exact date unknowable).

 

[mike wightman]

There is no one true timeline due to how the empress wave affects the setting.

Rather there is a series of branching timelines.

I've put the default wave version in parenthesis.

0-200 early years of the Third Imperium as detailed in T4 (w0)

500-700 detailed by Agent of the Imperium (w2)

1105 CT proto Imperium small ship (w0)
1105 CT proto Imperium HG80 big ship (w0)
1105 CT revision, more established Imperium (w0)
1105 MgT cinematic cartoon physics Imperium (w2)

1116-1130 Rebellion era MT leading to Hard Times (w0)
1116- GR ATU lorenverse (w0)

1200 TNE and the empress wave - and this is where the timeline splits into three versions for everything (w1)

[w0 there is no wave
w1 there is a wave, it is a lightspeed phenomena as described by TNE authors
w2 there is a wave and it is FTL]

1248 The new new era as detailed by T20 (w1, note that this setting is made invalid by the w2 retcon)

1900 Galaxiad (w2)

 

[robject]

w0 there is no wave

I prefer to categorize w0 as a different setting entirely, because it has so little in common with the Third Imperium setting. Proto-Traveller. Small ships. Different aliens. Different map, except for the original Regina subsector.

And by "original", I mean Regina is TL10 of course.

 

[mike wightman]

I prefer to categorize w0 as a different setting entirely. Proto-Traveller. Small ships. Different aliens. Different map, except for the original Regina subsector.

And by "original", I mean Regina is TL10 of course.

w0 denotes any setting where there is no mention of the wave at all.

With hindsight and the magic of retconium then if the wave exists in 1200 then it must have existed in previous game eras.

Any of the settings could be w1 since the lightspeed wave is a long way off in space and time.

The w2 ftl wave is a different kettle of fish. Because it propagates ftl it may not have existed during the ISW or even early Imperium eras.

 

[mike wightman]

This is amusingly close to the meta-story. :rofl:

Holographic universe and or ancestor simulation...

 

[BRJN]

ShadowShack,

In the Traveller Wiki, look up the page for "Traveller News Service". Scroll down a bit to the links dated year-by-year. Read and explore to your heart's content. Profit (or Inspiration) !