Mongoose Traveller Crossover: Alden Colony

[Madarin Dude]

Nice idea I liked everything but the sandworms too cliche' for even myself. As a hook throw in a group that wants to ally itself with the players to gain some advantage. They might see the players as ones who can help them with a problem that will get the players in more trouble than they could do themselves. use the players to help them get revenge on an opposing faction etc.

 

[rust]

Nice idea I liked everything but the sandworms too cliche' for even myself.

Yep, I agree, and those sandworms have already begun to evolve into six-
legged and more ant lion like creatures.

When I start designing a setting, I usually begin with a list of typical key-
words and cliches, and then move on from this brainstorming result, slowly
turning the "archetypical" ideas into more original ones - or at least trying
to do so.

As a hook throw in a group that wants to ally itself with the players to gain some advantage ...

Thank you very much for the idea.

 

[rust]

Member Worlds of the Solar Alliance

Home System

Terra (UWP A867954-10 AP In)
Homeworld, Solar Alliance Capital

Luna (UWP B200556-10 AP Va)

Mars (UWP B530656-10 no De)


Corewards Colonies

Alden (UWP E6A0252-9 no De 63 Parsec)

Cabral (UWP C764654-9 no Ag 38 Parsec)

Enigma (UWP B986654-10 AP Ag 26 Parsec)
Trade point for the trade with the Carud

Galston (UWP A000654-10 AP As, In 37 Parsec)
Corwards Patrol Base

Hope (UWP C868754-10 no Ag 4 Parsec)
First Colony

Jericho (UWP C762654-9 no Re 13 Parsec)

Lao (UWP C657754-9 no Ag 35 Parsec)

Vega (UWP C865754-10 no Ag 8 Parsec)


Rimwards Colonies

Balager (UWP C873654-9 no Re 14 Parsec)

Eskarina (UWP B767654-9 AP Ag 15 Parsec)

Jodosil (UWP C864654-9 no Ag 20 Parsec)

Tajor (UWP C653554-9 no Re 23 Parsec)

Whitewater (UWP B998554-9 AP Ag 29 Parsec)
Rimwards Patrol Base on the Yiskir Border

Yasmin (UWP C867754-9 no Ag 18 Parsec)

Rimwards colonies destroyed by unknown raiders in 2234:
Bernasch (35 Parsec)
Mir (27 Parsec)
Septima (33 Parsec)

AP = base of the Alliance Patrol (= navy + scouts)

Ag = world produces sufficient foodstuffs for its population
In = world exports a high amount of industrial goods
Re = world exports a high amount of natural resources

 

[rust]

This time two subjects where I changed the rules significantly to adapt them
to the setting: Transport prices and unmanned starships.

Transport Prices

In my setting the average prices for transport on board of a starship look like
this:

Freight: 150 Credits per dton per parsec

Trader Passage: 450 Credits per day on board
Liner Passage: 1,000 Credits per day on board
Low Passage: 200 Credits per day on board (trader or liner)

The normal civilian commercial starship, named a "trader", has a hyperspace
speed of 1 parsec per day, the still very rare fast civilian transports with mi-
litary hyperdrives that give them a hyperspace speed of 2 parsec per day are
called "liners".

For freight transport and low passages there is no price difference between a
trader and a liner, the only difference is that the liner needs only half the time
to deliver the freight or low passenger to the destination.
Therefore liners easily outcompete traders on all major routes, forcing traders
to move on to the smaller trade routes where liner service is not yet available.

A normal passage on a trader means a double cabin and a rather spartan en-
vironment, while a normal passage on a liner means a single cabin and some
luxury - and a voyage that is only half as long as that on a trader. However,
the final price of the voyage is almost exactly the same.

For the Alden Colony these prices mean that the transport of 1 dton of goods
over the 63 parsec from Terra to Alden would cost about 9,500 Credits - not
exactly cheap.
A norrmal passage from Terra to Alden, whether slow and spartan on a trader
or fast and luxurious on a liner, would cost about 30,000 Credits, a low passa-
ge (the way future new colonists likely would travel) costs about 12,500 Cre-
dits on a trader or about 6,500 Credits on a liner.
However, all those prices are purely hypothetical. Currently no trader has Al-
den on its route, and there is no chance that a liner will visit Alden in the near
future - if ever.


Unmanned Starships

The Solar Alliance uses a number of unmanned starships with hyperdrives for
various purposes.

The most common one is the message drone. It is used by the military, but
also by remote colonies and outposts that need a means to call for help in an
emergency, but cannot afford a true starship.
A message drone is hardly more than a 10 ton hull with drives, power plant,
computer and sensors. It has a hyperspace speed of 3 parsec per day and a
maximum range of about 70 parsec. When it arrives at its destination, it be-
gins to broadcast its recorded message, repeating it several times, and then
shuts down and becomes space debris - it can only be used once.
A message drone costs 6 million credits, a price that is high enough to ensure
that it really is used only when necessary.

Other unmanned drones are used to transport small amounts of vital cargoes
(e.g. pharmaceuticals, spare parts, etc.) or for exploration (the only drones
able to activate their hyperspace drive twice, and hideously expensive).

 

[rust]

A few basic ideas about the second adventure of the campaign ...

Beware The Hero ... ?

During the second year on Alden, after the visit by the carrion eating Mulagi
and the problems with the Order of Saint Brendan, the Alden Colony suffers
from a sudden increase of survival equipment malfunctions that cannot be at-
tributed to any known cause: Colonists get lost in the desert when their iner-
tial navigation systems cease to work, breathing gear becomes unreliable, ve-
hicles break down.

Fortunately no lives are lost, thanks mainly to a shy young surveyor who is
also a member of the colony's volunteer rescue service. He shows an astoni-
shing talent in finding lost people and jury-rigging vital equipment, and his ef-
forts save the lives of several colonists at the very last minute. No wonder
that he soon becomes one of the very few local heroes.

However, the events seem somewhat suspicious to a member of the Colonial
Office team, an experienced explorer. He was involved in designing and tes-
ting some of the now malfunctioning survival gear, and he is certain that such
a high number of malfunctions is not only unlikely, but impossible - somehow
the equipment must have been sabotaged.

The old scout begins to investigate the series of malfunctions and the condi-
tions under which they occured, and only a few days later he becomes the
victim of a completely implausible series of malfunctions himself: His desert
buggy breaks down, his reserve oxygen tank proves to be half empty and his
communicator does not work.

This scout expected trouble, and was prepared for it, and so he makes it back
to the colony's settlement - almost, at least. He is found only a few hundred
meters from one of the domes, badly wounded, with two bolts from one of
the repeating crossbows manufactured by the colonists to replace imported
rifles in his back. He is still alive, but in such a bad condition that he has to
be placed into one of the colony's autodocs for at least a couple of days.

The security officer who now begins to investigate the attempted murder, al-
so a member of the Colonial Office team, has not much to work with. The on-
ly note the scout left is a quote, something from a long dead guy named Tal-
leyrand about a lady, whom he accuses of loving her friends so much that she
would not hesitate to throw them into deep water in order to become able to
rescue them.

This could point to the shy young surveyor, the local hero who almost miracu-
lously rescued so many colonists from almost certain death. Unfortunately the
security officer cannot ask him about this, because one day after the attack
on the scout the young surveyor is found dead in the desert, with a crossbow
bolt in his head ... and it was definitely not a suicide.

Time for the player characters to take over.