Non-Freetrader Campaigns You've Run?

[Poppyseed45]

So, my group just finished a long Burning Empires game and everyone had a blast. Some shuffles are happening in our group roster as people have to handle large personal issues and the like. That leaves 3 players and me, the GM.

We did some talking and folks have decided to give Traveller another go (one of the players played it with me three years ago), and now I'm wondering: what to run?

What I mean is, I like to run "themed" campaigns, such that we have a definite goal of some sort, or a defined story arc, or some such. For Traveller, the default is the "free trader" campaign. I don't actually want this, as it seems to just be a series of adventures linked tenuously together. I'd like something more directed but I'm not sure what.

So, I come here to ask. What non-Freetrader campaigns have you run? Or Freetrader campaigns that had a plot of some sort? Or a campaign that started with a strong premise in a sandboxy setting that went from there? Looking for ideas as this is likely to be run this coming Saturday, character generation and all!

P.S. - Forgot to mention the books I have for ideas (and not interested in buying more at the moment): Traveller Core, Mercenary, High Guard, and 760 Patrons 1st edition.

 

[aramis]

I've run...

• Merchant Ship
• Active Duty Military
  • Active Duty Marines
  • Active Duty Space
• Mercenary Unit
• Trouble-shooters for the Duke
• Patron Driven black ops/criminal ops

The default for most published traveller adventures seems to be that last, moreso even than the merchant ship.

However, which direction you go may require modifications of the character generation.
Also important is which ruleset; if running CT/MT, and doing an active duty game, you'll have a narrowed list of available skills.

 

[rancke]

Naval campaign (players each had three characters, a navy officer, a rating, and a marine).

Troubleshooters for Oberlindes Lines.

A slightly different merchant campaign; PCs were the officers of a ship belonging to a flegdling line.

Otherwise I mostly did one-offs. Law enforcers, treasure hunters.


Hans

 

[Poppyseed45]

I've run...

• Merchant Ship
• Active Duty Military
  • Active Duty Marines
  • Active Duty Space
• Mercenary Unit
• Trouble-shooters for the Duke
• Patron Driven black ops/criminal ops

The default for most published traveller adventures seems to be that last, moreso even than the merchant ship.

However, which direction you go may require modifications of the character generation.
Also important is which ruleset; if running CT/MT, and doing an active duty game, you'll have a narrowed list of available skills.

Well, running Mongoose, though I have the big floppy Classic Trav Supplements, where I was gonna steal Imperium setting stuff, for example.

I am leaning towards a naval campaign - something like it anyway. Thanks for the ideas!

 

[Icosahedron]

I've used Traveller to play post apocalypse games, derelict ship 'dungeon' crawls, mercenary operations, Shadowrun-style criminal operations, and contemporary/near future Iron Curtain spy/escapee games. You can play almost anything with Traveller - I'm currently running a historical swashbuckling game using some of the Traveller rules. (currently recruiting, if anyone wants to PM me).

 

[Dragoner]

Right now, in my online game, the characters are part of a Research and Exploration expedition.

 

[Poppyseed45]

I've used Traveller to play post apocalypse games, derelict ship 'dungeon' crawls, mercenary operations, Shadowrun-style criminal operations, and contemporary/near future Iron Curtain spy/escapee games. You can play almost anything with Traveller - I'm currently running a historical swashbuckling game using some of the Traveller rules. (currently recruiting, if anyone wants to PM me).

Hmm...it's interesting. I might come up with one or two things. Issue is, they like the 3rd Imperium, and so, it can't be TOO far from, well, Traveller, such as it is. The rules are just fine, of course - the question is, what to run with them in the Third Imperium (or my version thereof).

Thanks.

 

[Dragoner]

In other games, what have you noticed they like to do?

 

[Gray Pennell]

I am just getting a group of recalled characters pre 5th frontier war. They a multi group of 40s something scouts, intelligence and commandos. Something is a mist with two missing scouts and these are the few good men to find out what it is. Or as they put it good money after bad.

 

[Icosahedron]

Hmm...it's interesting. I might come up with one or two things. Issue is, they like the 3rd Imperium, and so, it can't be TOO far from, well, Traveller, such as it is. The rules are just fine, of course - the question is, what to run with them in the Third Imperium (or my version thereof).

Thanks.

Amongst the 11 million (?) worlds of the Third Imperium, ranging across 16 TLs and a plethora of government types, you could port any of the games I mentioned into the 3I somewhere:

Post-apocalyptic carnage in the aftermath of a war between Pocket Empires or during the Frontier Wars, Shadowrun-style hacking against a Megacorp, a marooned crew on a TL3 world using flintlocks and blades to fight their way across a continent to the starport, a group of liberals/radicals on a LL9+ totalitarian world trying to cross the 'wall' into the extrality zone, etc.

 

[nats]

For Traveller, the default is the "free trader" campaign. I don't actually want this, as it seems to just be a series of adventures linked tenuously together. I'd like something more directed but I'm not sure what.

IMO the default Traveller adventure is the patron-in-a-bar led one, not a free-trader one. You know, where the characters are sitting around and a patron comes up to them and offers them a job or they get some how embroiled in a job out of the blue one day. For this kind of adventure path you could do with 760 Patrons 2nd Edition. But I once considered the variety of typical adventure types, based on the original 76 Patrons etc likely to be carried out in Traveller, and came up with the following quick list:

Players escape from something - jail, marooned, riots - Rambo, Saturn 7, Alien
Players investigate something - tomb, artifact, ruin, derelict ship, strange world, survey - Tomb Raider, D&D, Dune
Players need to attack something - enemy base, marauding creature, employed as mercenaries, rebels against an empire - Starship troopers
Players need to find something - animals, rare artifact, missing person, imprisoned family, documents, ship, bounty hunting, safari, treasure - Harry Potter, Treasure Island
Players need to rescue something - stranded ship, imprisoned person/animal, colonists off doomed world, provide medicine, princess - Star Wars
Players explore the galaxy - using merchant ship or scout, develop characters as they go, get lost, surveys - Star Trek
Players trade - trading between worlds with pirates, customs, smuggling, getting caught, bounty on heads, mining - Serenity
Players need to protect something - important person, place from bandits, important ship convoy, deal with enemy animals/raiding parties/pirates - Magnificent Seven
Players create something - fantastic ship, mercenary cadre mission, dynasty, business, colony/settlement, haven for psionics - Foundation, Citizen Kane
Players enrich themselves - train in psionics, develop education, get rich quick schemes, outfit a ship, outfit a residence, develop characteristics, develop weapons skills.

Hope some of these provide ideas. But by interspersing this series of short adventures with longer lifelong missions (some of which might come out from doing some of the shorter missions) you can create a full campaign. Such as perhaps one character might be looking for a long lost relative and it may take them through several missions over several months or even years to do it. Another character at the same time might have a hidden past and keep getting the party into trouble with the police but they don't know why. Its this kind of story telling - short missions with longer ones continuing underneath that has formed the basis of most of the great sci-fi series such as UFO, Star Trek and Firefly. The trick is to not make it obvious that the characters are just doing one mission after another but to link some of them into longer ones and have plenty of red herrings and deterrents/dead ends along the way. This kind of campaign can pretty much create itself with just a little work from the referee to keep it moving along, and I would say it is one of the most enjoyable campaigns a referee can run - not just for the players but also for the referee who is creating a story on the fly and doesn't himself quite know where it is going to end up when it sets off.

 

[rancke]

Amongst the 11 million (?) worlds of the Third Imperium...

11,000 worlds in 9,000 systems.


Hans

 

[Khan Trav]

I just ran a scenario on Hans version of Whanga in the Regina subsector. Players are marooned on a low tech world with very low population group of Vargr and a larger group of tribal humans who are hellbent on eradicating the Vargr from existence.

The adventure truly begins when the players, who know nothing of the ground situation stumble upon a group of humans and Vargr who are about to clash and must pick a side.

You have to decide factors such as, is there a right side? If so which one? The players begin with very little detail on this interdicted world and their initial decision of whether to get involved, and if so who to support sets the tone for the rest of the adventure.

In my case the tribal humans are very barbaric low tech level and outnumber the Vargr at about 12 to 1. The tribals also have a small mercenary unit training and leading them against the Vargr.

The Vargr are more organized, higher tech level and have access to a walled town with a pre-collapse survival bunker for weapons.

Hans' version of this setting is much better/different in several ways but I made the setting extremely simplified for play by email purposes.

The mercs are there as part of a covert plan to eliminate the remaining population of the planet. Why? Sternmetal Horizions LIC is purchasing the world and agents involved have managed to aquire survey records that show the two cultures have already wiped themselves out in a civil war. The agents of the sale are simply rectifying the ground situation to match the survey report...

Your players must first stay alive, second, pick sides and third stay alive. The mercenarys are supported by an 800 ton mercenary cruiser in orbit who also has the mission of keeping outsiders from coming or going onto the surface whilst the 'adjustment' is taking place.

Your party is stranded with the gear on their backs and must make the most of a bad situation.

 

[Icosahedron]

11,000 worlds in 9,000 systems.
Hans

Thanks. I knew there was an 11 in it, I just wasn't sure how many zeros.