Ideas for a Jewell Campaign?

[Mithras]

My 14 yr old son wants to play a bit of Traveller and I like to use the Third Imperium, and the Spinward Marches in particular. My eye settled on this stretch of star systems, a piece of real estate that formed the De-militarized Zone between the Zhodani and the Imperium following the Third Frontier War (circa: 990):

I need to brainstorm a few ideas now, a story arc or two and possibilities for adventure above and beyond what the planets themselves offer.

I suck at playing aliens, so I'm running Zhodani almost like Star Trek's Vulcans, logical with an ordered and logical society with emotion under control or at least very restrained. I'll probably play down psionics, if they are used, it will probably be telepathic noblemen. Not sure I want the other psionic powers.

The situation after the Third Frontier War smacks a bit of Firefly, a war almost lost, territory ceded, bad blood between the civil population and the military, the emperor forced to abdicate, probably dragging lots of high ranking military officers in the Marches with him. What passes for the 'Outer Planets' in Serenity can be made up with this DE Militarized Zone. I'm not after recreating a Firefly campaign though, just the same adventure opportunities.

Looking at that map ... does anything spring to mind?!?



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[RandyB]

The Classic Traveller Alien Realms has as one of its adventures a scenario that starts with the PCs mustering out on Jewell, then finding their way to Emerald to reunite with their former commanding officer. Set after the Fifth Frontier War, I think the scenario could likely be adapted to the earlier post-war period.

 

[Mithras]

The Classic Traveller Alien Realms has as one of its adventures a scenario that starts with the PCs mustering out on Jewell, then finding their way to Emerald to reunite with their former commanding officer. Set after the Fifth Frontier War, I think the scenario could likely be adapted to the earlier post-war period.

I have the CD-ROM, I'll look that up.

 

[rancke]

Here are my notes for some of those worlds backdated to Year 1000:

1311 Tremous Dex (Non-aligned)

During the Third Frontier War, Tremous Dex was a major Imperial naval base with extensive ship repair facilities. As part of the peace settlement the Imperium abandoned the base, but many of the civilian workers elected to stay. The current population is [in the high tens of thousands or possibly even low hundreds of thousands]. It survives, eking out a living by building small commercial starships, but the long term prospects are not encouraging. The tech level is debatable. Buildings and tools are at TL14 and there is a sizable store of TL14 spare parts, but the locals are hard at work trying to develop the infrastructure to manufacture anything at all.

1411 Rangent (Non-aligned)

Rangent's population lives in great floating cities that drift around the globe semi-haphazardly and can submerge when threatened by violent storms. Big floating harvesters gather plankton from the seas and take it to the cities for processing. Other floats mine the shallow parts of the sea during calms and move out into deep waters when a storm approaches. The starport floats around like the cities and has to submerge during bad weather, causing delays in loading and unloading.


1413 Denotam (Imperial)

Naval base.

Denotam lies on a trade route to Vilis and the Darrian and Sword World worlds beyond. It is also the site of a major Imperial Navy base.


1510 871-438 (Independent)

The 871-438 system is about as useless as any star system in Charted Space. The Scouts maintain a starport there, but it's nothing more than a flat expanse of rock with an automatic beacon located near a frozen lake.


1511 Tionale (Status uncertain) Red Zone

Tionale is the homeworld of a primitive Minor Non-human race and has been interdicted by the Scouts to protect the indigenous population. It was included in the worlds the Imperium had to abandon in 986, but the Scouts have nevertheless kept up the interdict. The Zhodani has protested, but so far has been ignored.

No reliable figures for the native population exist, but it is estimated to lie in the tens of millions. The most advanced native cultures are TL 4.​

I also have some half-finished (quarter-finished? One-eighth finished?) notes about the natives of Tionale that I could post, if you're interested.


Hans

 

[Mithras]

Thanks Hans, I like the Tremous Dex write-up, it has lots of adventure opportunities ...

Here are my notes for some of those worlds backdated to Year 1000:

Hans

 

[Mithras]

Here are my notes for some of those worlds backdated ....

I also have some half-finished (quarter-finished? One-eighth finished?) notes about the natives of Tionale that I could post, if you're interested.

Hans

Hans I'm interested in your Tionale notes, anything I can hang on this bit of space will help fuel adventure ideas. Here? PM? Or email zozer ' at' talktalk 'dot' net.