Junkyard world in 1248/TNE

[kafka47]

I am working on a world in the Wilds that has descended into a quasi-xenophobic world with a strong isolationist tendency. The way that this world has maintained their independence is that the world used be a prime arms manufacturer for the black war and was well equipped with PADs & Meson weapons and whatnot.

The problem is that the locals have descended to TL 7 and just have enough awareness to shoot at almost anything that moves and can keep the machines working thanks to the hereditary Order of Engineers whom the population depends.

Another strata is the junk dealers who go into the blackened areas underground warehouses, production facilities which were all subjected to CBNW (but what do the robots care?) to retrieve items for trade.

Now, the players ship misjump into the system, in exchange for a vital component, they must journey to another world using the bootstrap technology of a primitive spacecraft to fix the sensors on an Imperial Research Station that the local use to maintain their defence grid.

Naturally, all sorts of nastiest things await in the station. Of which the core of the adventure will take place.

So, I have the hillbillies in space, we will have the space shuttle with lander on steroids, I have the possibility of Virus lying in the system and the nasties in the research station. Any ideas, how to augment this adventure?

 

[Jame]

What kind of combat robotics does Virus have at his command?

 

[kafka47]

That is where I was divided, I was thinking of raider/pirate lurking in a Gas Giant's atmosphere or just the pinging of an Early Warning System in which weapons are not present but gives the impression of PADs being readyed.

 

[Badbru]

You could add in the "race against time" element.

The sensors have to be fixed before the virus fleet that is refueling at the gas giant gets done and moves onto the mainworld, or better yet, steer away from virus and have a crippled passenger liner/low berth evacuation ship drifting towards the mainworld. Sensors and comms need to be put back online to enable the locals to determine the non hostile intent of this big ship and prevent the catastrophe that would be it's needless destruction.

 

[kafka47]

Well, the locals have dealt with the Virus in their own backward way. Befriended the elements that might reside in the factories and kill anything that resembles a threat.

Which is why they want to get the sensors on board to prevent incursion by a much larger and hostile force.

When they do return to space, they hope to also salvage some of the shipyards for something more useful.

 

[Liam Devlin]

Hmmm.

Interesting!
Former Blackwar munitions maker eh?
Planet ought to be at least TL-C former tech for meson gun battery (Keipes in PoT had only one, but it was deterrent enough lying along the Thoezennt-Aubaine-Khulam Main (Arvid next door was site of two Dawn League/ RCES vessels going missing to Vampire sweeps iirc).

If your talking robotics..(and harkening back to TL-C) have you seen this:
http://www.comstar-games.com/traveller/ss1-robot-charted-sapce.php

Suggest if your writing this out in T20/HG you get one Kafka47 if you haven't already. Written up by our very own Stellar Fanzine guy, Flynn! A great asset to your library's arsenal.

How to complicate --err augment this?

The planet like Badbru suggest repels or has repelled vampire fleet (s) since collapse. They (the anti-social locals) have them down to pattern, and this is where they get the time element from--if the locals trust the players enough to tell them!

The locals want their doohickey fixed, but might not give the players the exact time the Vamps will return (in other words omit certain facts, not outright lie to them).


Another element, the local version of the Starfarer's Mercantile Guild lurks nearby and will use the window of opportunity to land and conduct some planetary mischief (there are Blackwar weapons stocks here after all, and missile warheads, etc..) of their own.

The Guild/ Rogues/Raiders pull their heist and the PC's stand to face the blame for it (mistaken identity trick #2).

The presence of Virus might be there, but with the TL7 present tech, cannot infect anything on the main world. It might be dormant, waiting for someone to "waken it up"..

Possibilities are nearly endless, but you ought to tailor it to whatever 1 ship 1 crew can handle, IMO beofre getting way over the top.

 

[kafka47]

Oh, one more provision that I forgot to mention. The adventure is being developed for a Con. So the audience may entirely newbies...or seasoned vets or more likely a mix.

 

[Liam Devlin]

Then you want something they can sit down and knock out in four-six hours of table play then.

Best elements of time-table deadlines work for short- 1-shot games like this.