Issues with The Traveller Adventure (spoilers)

[the.barwickian]

I'm once again contemplating running a campaign with The Traveller Adventure. I'm forming a group of players who've never played Trav before (so it's this or the other classic - the Ancients saga).

The thing is, It's very much a flawed gem as far as I'm concerned. Its scope is great, its overall story arc is a superb introduction to the classic Traveller setting, there are flashes of inspiration in its blend of linear and sandbox - especially considering its age.

With Mongoose's re-release. maybe it's a good time to discuss ways to really improve the flow of the campaign.

This thread is to discuss the flaws and how to resolve them, avoid them or work around them. Others may have better solutions than I, or flag up issues I hadn't considered.

Spoiler:

1) Gvoudzon

Issue: He's crucial to the campaign, but his ties to the other PCs are far too weak. I think this is the single biggest issue with the campaign, and if it isn't handled well, it can become a game-breaker.

What The Traveller Adventure requires: A long-established ship crew, on their leave, encounter Gvoudzon getting mugged. They're supposed to save him. Then they're supposed to help him break into the museum to retrieve his brooch.

Issue: I can buy them intervening in the mugging to help him. But to go from there to breaking and entering is too big a jump, especially when their ship is in drydock. The only reason is "because he's a PC", which I find very unsatisfying.

Solution 1: Make Gvoudzon a recurring NPC. If they don't help him, he'll get the brooch without their help, and they will encounter him again in other systems. Eventually, they'll get to the stage where they realise his importance. He can always become a PC later on.

Solution 2: Up the stakes. The Vemene target the crew just because they helped Gvoudzon. They believe he gave them the brooch and they keep asking for it. It could even reach the stage where the Vemene kidnap a crew member and demand the brooch as ransom - or steal the rug from the March Harrier's lounge (it really tied the ship together). Issues with this? Total railroading.

Solution 3: Big up the vargr. Make it clear to the crew PCs that the real money to be made in the Aramis hinterlands is in trade with the vargr (it isn't; we'll have to fudge that later), but they're alien. To access the vargr trade, they'll need an insider. If Gvoudzon is to be a PC, his player has to be briefed as well - he needs negotiating power to persuade the other PCs to do the break-in (in the published adventure he's much more of a supplicant). To some extent, this is the implied solution in The Traveller Adventure, but little thought is given on how to do it.

2) The brooch

The issue: using magnetism to hide coded data? Bring in Chloe.

Solution: Choose the handwavium of your choice. I think I'll go with illegal, experimental nanotech. In 30 years' real time, that may seem horribly outdated too.

 

[Whipsnade]

This thread is to discuss the flaws and how to resolve them, avoid them or work around them. Others may have better solutions than I, or flag up issues I hadn't considered.

While the search function will reveal many other threads on this very topic, it will still be fun to rehash the adventure.

<Spoiler alert. Spoiler alert. Spoiler alert.>

There's a BB code for that. You can find a link to the codes at the bottom of the page. The code word is sblock and you place it in the usual brackets, [ ], with the usual backslash, /

I'll use it now...

Spoiler:

Gvoudzon has always been a problem. While the style of play has changed over the decades, look at the original 76 Patrons for example and no players today would ever get shanghaied like they're supposed to in Expedition to Zhodane, I had players in the early 80s balking at the idea of helping a perfect stranger burgle a museum.

MgT has expanded on the old contacts idea so PCs leave chargen with both a history and a list of friends from their earlier lives. Gvoudzon could be one of those contacts, if you can get a player to sign onto the idea.

One way I handled it way back when was to have the players purchase the brooch at an auction. They had an open order from a patron along their route for such objets d'art. He was a collector and reimbursed them if he liked the piece. He also paid finders fees and dropped the occasional bits of information regarding speculative cargoes. After winning the auction by outbidding both Gvoudzon and the local Vemene rep, the players found themselves being mugged. Gvoudzon helped them, clued them in about the nature of the brooch, and the plot was underway.

You'll find other better suggestions in those other threads I talked about.

And...

Spoiler:

.. as for the brooch, I'd stay away from nanotech. Few people understand about how nanotech can, does, and will work so there's a lot of baggage and unspoken assumptions associated with the idea. If you say " nano" to some people you might as well say "magic".

Instead, allow me to introduce you to steganography. There are many, many, many different ways to encode messages. Look at the Wiki page's example of a steganographically hidden picture and let your mind wander...

The brooch could also be something a simple as a one time pad or be one half of a quantum entanglement device.

You can make the brooch interesting without also making it cliched.

Good luck.

 

[Murphy]

Hello. I'm planning to run this campaign too. It's our second Traveller campaign; the first one was a mishmash of homemade adventures, as well as some from Freelance Traveller and a few from CT. They ended up turning mercenary and doing a few tickets until the end of 1106.

Now, since Traveller Adventure takes us back to 001-1105 (and I'm not moving the starting year to 1107 'cause I'm not sure how would this campaign go against the FFW background)... I'm going to take advantage of it and have them hear rumors or meet people connected to the exploits of their previous characters.

Spoiler:

I have an interesting issue here due to conflicting timelines

I've run Rescue on Ruie (from JTAS and Living Traveller) in my first campaign and it was finished by 021-1105. So Mark hault-Oberlindes is kinda supposed to be on Regina at the time...

Let's say the PCs arrive at Zila on 090-1105. It would mean that the Baron is being stalled there since 055-1105 (five weeks) - and so he only had a month to get here from Regina.

I see no better solution here than merely adjusting and stretching the numbers (like I did with Rescue on Ruie in the first place), and delaying the PCs on Zila long enough that the upcoming events become plausible.

 

[rancke]

Spoiler:

I have an interesting issue here due to conflicting timelines

I've run Rescue on Ruie (from JTAS and Living Traveller) in my first campaign and it was finished by 021-1105. So Mark hault-Oberlindes is kinda supposed to be on Regina at the time...

Let's say the PCs arrive at Zila on 090-1105. It would mean that the Baron is being stalled there since 055-1105 (five weeks) - and so he only had a month to get here from Regina.

I see no better solution here than merely adjusting and stretching the numbers (like I did with Rescue on Ruie in the first place), and delaying the PCs on Zila long enough that the upcoming events become plausible.

Are your players CotI people too? Because otherwise I don't see any reason for messing around with spoiler warnings.

It's perfectly possible to get from Regina to Zila in a month. It can be done in about 16 days, plus or minus jump variation. Oberlindes has some jump-5 couriers; half a day out from Regina to Assiniboia Jump limit, 7 day jump to Rethe, a day to refuel (assume Oberlindes Lines has special arrangements in place for fuelling its own ships), 7 days to Zila, half a day to reach Zila surface.


Hans

 

[far-trader]

Are your players CotI people too? Because otherwise I don't see any reason for messing around with spoiler warnings.

Seems prudent to me in any case...

1) It's dead simple to do.

2) Even if one ref's players aren't here, other players may be and the sblock helps them stay honest and avoids accidentally spoiling things for them.

 

[Murphy]

No, my players aren't CotI people. I just figure there might be other players around here.

Spoiler:

If the baron was using a jump-5 courier he wouldn't even be on Zila. His destination is Aramanx and there would be no reason to use low-tech, amber zone Zila as transitional point instead of Violante or Carsten. Besides, he has 50 tons of cargo with him (whatever is needed to establish a new office on Aramanx).

I would say after the Baron got his son rescued he spent, say, three days to handle the local matters and then departed for Paya by fast courier (two jumps, 16 days), picked up the load and set off in a jump-2 transport, planning to go Paya-Violante-Zila-Carsten-Aramanx. After two jumps (20 more days) they got stalled at Zila and spent five weeks there. It's now 095-1105 and the PCs arrive at Zila to save the baron's cargo

I guess that's manageable.

 

[Murphy]

Gah!

They supplied the character concepts they want to play.

Looks like our captain and crew will be NPCs because the characters are:
A Ruby Rhod inspired dilettante (he probably will be the ship's owner)
A child prodigy gifted at tech (apprentice to the ship's engineer, perhaps)
An adventurous TNS journalist (still thinking how to best fit her aboard).

IDK if I'm going to regret this, but now the game's bound to be not just fun but also funny.

 

[rancke]

They supplied the character concepts they want to play.

Looks like our captain and crew will be NPCs because the characters are:
A Ruby Rhod inspired dilettante (he probably will be the ship's owner)
A child prodigy gifted with tech (apprentice to the ship's engineer, perhaps)
An adventurous TNS journalist (still thinking how to best fit her aboard).

IDK if I'm going to regret this...

Have you considered using the background material to create and run an altogether different adventure? One where the PCs are "on foot", as it were? Perhaps something tangentically related to the main plot, though I can't think of anything really good off-hand. Your PCs could run into the March Harrier and its crew from time to time.


Hans

 

[Murphy]

Have you considered using the background material to create and run an altogether different adventure?

Been thinking that. I typically do lots of reworking for most published adventures I happen to run, since I have to translate much of the text anyway (nobody else in our group is fluent in English).

That said, the characters, bizarre as they may be, are not past the point where it becomes easier to re-do the whole campaign than try to roll with what I've got.

Besides, in this case I know my players want to own a ship and sail looking for adventure So I'm just doing them a favor by thinking up a viable agenda for their characters to be able to do that.