OLD GDW Adventures

[jchurchill]

Larsen,

many thanks for the description. I was just looking for a quick yea or yuck but this is more like a full scale review. Thanks!

Adventure 11 - Murder on Arcturus Station: Agatha Cristie meets Our Olde Game. If your group can really 'role' instead of merely 'rolling', it worth trying.
==============================================
I've already stolen from her many tines.

Adventure 12 - Secret of the Ancients: This one answered ALL the CT mysteries so people hated it! Go figure... It will take a lot of work for the GM to pull off, especially when the PCs finally meet You Know Who.
===============================================
The last surviving Ancient? God? The great Cosmic Muffin?


My advice regarding these adventures? Get them all in the Reprints, even if you don't care for a particualr adventure, there's still stuff to plunder in each and every one.
================================================
Yes, that was my ultimate plan. I find most of these adventures provide something to use. I even use old D&D stuff I created [floorplans and maps], and lots of Top Secret floorplans, maps and other stuff but no game system works as well to me as Traveller. I even even used it to run modern espionage games, medieval rpg and 1st World War rpg. [the last can become too depressing if one gets to close to the trenches.]

Thanks again for the reccomendation. I'm still waiting for FF to send me the first order of Books 1-8 reprints and Supplements. Then I'll fill in the rest of the stuff.

Regards,

Secretagent.

 

[jchurchill]

Larsen,

many thanks for the description. I was just looking for a quick yea or yuck but this is more like a full scale review. Thanks!

Adventure 11 - Murder on Arcturus Station: Agatha Cristie meets Our Olde Game. If your group can really 'role' instead of merely 'rolling', it worth trying.
==============================================
I've already stolen from her many tines.

Adventure 12 - Secret of the Ancients: This one answered ALL the CT mysteries so people hated it! Go figure... It will take a lot of work for the GM to pull off, especially when the PCs finally meet You Know Who.
===============================================
The last surviving Ancient? God? The great Cosmic Muffin?


My advice regarding these adventures? Get them all in the Reprints, even if you don't care for a particualr adventure, there's still stuff to plunder in each and every one.
================================================
Yes, that was my ultimate plan. I find most of these adventures provide something to use. I even use old D&D stuff I created [floorplans and maps], and lots of Top Secret floorplans, maps and other stuff but no game system works as well to me as Traveller. I even even used it to run modern espionage games, medieval rpg and 1st World War rpg. [the last can become too depressing if one gets to close to the trenches.]

Thanks again for the reccomendation. I'm still waiting for FF to send me the first order of Books 1-8 reprints and Supplements. Then I'll fill in the rest of the stuff.

Regards,

Secretagent.

 

[jchurchill]

I've never found tweaking to be too hard as a GM. Coming up with my own adventures out of whole cloth, well... that's another problem!
=============================================
See the thread on Homages [French for theft]

 

[jchurchill]

I've never found tweaking to be too hard as a GM. Coming up with my own adventures out of whole cloth, well... that's another problem!
=============================================
See the thread on Homages [French for theft]

 

[jchurchill]

My thoughts in response:

Adventure 1 - The Kinunir

An okay adventure but you get ship plans and the players may get the chance to get salvage a flashy new ride. Elements of are "2001" -- "Open the pod bay doors, HAL."

Adventure 2 - Research Station Gamma

Only vague memories of this but it comes with good lab designs and a number of robots --maybe as someone else noted all the robot designs you will ever need.

Adventure 3 - Twilight's Peak
D&D in outer space at times.

Adventure 4 - Leviathan

Adventures aboard a really large freighter. Useful ship design is the primary help here.

Adventure 5 - Trillion Credit Squadron
Not so much an adventure as a contest in ship building with some campaign rules for building navies and having a war with pocket empires. IN retrospect I really find some of it very useful.

 

[jchurchill]

My thoughts in response:

Adventure 1 - The Kinunir

An okay adventure but you get ship plans and the players may get the chance to get salvage a flashy new ride. Elements of are "2001" -- "Open the pod bay doors, HAL."

Adventure 2 - Research Station Gamma

Only vague memories of this but it comes with good lab designs and a number of robots --maybe as someone else noted all the robot designs you will ever need.

Adventure 3 - Twilight's Peak
D&D in outer space at times.

Adventure 4 - Leviathan

Adventures aboard a really large freighter. Useful ship design is the primary help here.

Adventure 5 - Trillion Credit Squadron
Not so much an adventure as a contest in ship building with some campaign rules for building navies and having a war with pocket empires. IN retrospect I really find some of it very useful.

 

[FlightCommanderSolitude]

...lots of Top Secret floorplans, maps and other stuff...

I was going to mention that Divine Intervention plays a lot like a Top Secret scenario. So if you enjoyed that game, you'll probably like this short adventure. The central plot is very Mission Impossible; plus, you could probably come up with all sorts of other interesting scenarios related to this one.

 

[FlightCommanderSolitude]

...lots of Top Secret floorplans, maps and other stuff...

I was going to mention that Divine Intervention plays a lot like a Top Secret scenario. So if you enjoyed that game, you'll probably like this short adventure. The central plot is very Mission Impossible; plus, you could probably come up with all sorts of other interesting scenarios related to this one.

 

[kaladorn]

Originally posted by Larsen E. Whipsnade:

Mr. Kaladorn,

You can call me Tom. No need for Mister, though I appreciate the honorific.

Kaladorn is a usually unique handle and is also the name of my 14+year old AD&D world.

Oddly enough, that's usually the least of my worries. It seems that most of the CT adventures were written almost timeline/locale free.

Yes and no. Many have some ties to the places they are supposed to occur. JTAS printed a lot of Amber Zones that were very closely coupled to the places they occured. (I realize that's a bit tangential)

Sure, Nomads requires a water world, Chamax a backwater outside the Imperium, and the others require their little bits but you're going to tweak things for your group's needs anyway, tweaking the timeline and locale is almost beside the point.

Well, we may just disagree there.

I rarely tweak an adventure to fit my group... I throw them into it and see how they evolve a coping mechanism.

That's an interesting project. If memory serves, each CT adventure had a date and place listed in the very first section. Collecting them would be simply a matter of thumbing through your Reprints.

Should have mentioned I'd want to include JTAS Amber Zones too. But maybe this is something I should look at doing. Hmmmmm....

The 'coupling' you speak of (great term, btw) is a bit more difficult.

Used in object-oriented program design, seemed to fit.

As you point out, Broadsword does occur during the 5th FW and some of the others have similar ties. However, tweaking them shouldn't be too hard. Broadsword could easily be set elsewhere with the Darrians, Swordies, Vargr, Sollies, etc. filling in for the various parties.

I've never found tweaking to be too hard as a GM. Coming up with my own adventures out of whole cloth, well... that's another problem!

Guess I'm 'zactly opposite, Larsen. I find that I can easily plot (even on the fly) and come up with something my players don't expect but seem to often enjoy. But if I buy a scenario, I don't want to wander through it and hit a spot that I missed 'editing' and which is inconsistent with my situation. I don't mind the cases where this really isn't integral to the story and so I can edit on the fly if need be - but other times, I'd much rather have no adventure than one too hard to change or one too distorted by that change.

I guess I'm a big fan of generic adventure seeds over uber-detailed adventures that don't match well with my time frame or whatnot.

Tomb

 

[kaladorn]

Originally posted by Larsen E. Whipsnade:

Mr. Kaladorn,

You can call me Tom. No need for Mister, though I appreciate the honorific.

Kaladorn is a usually unique handle and is also the name of my 14+year old AD&D world.

Oddly enough, that's usually the least of my worries. It seems that most of the CT adventures were written almost timeline/locale free.

Yes and no. Many have some ties to the places they are supposed to occur. JTAS printed a lot of Amber Zones that were very closely coupled to the places they occured. (I realize that's a bit tangential)

Sure, Nomads requires a water world, Chamax a backwater outside the Imperium, and the others require their little bits but you're going to tweak things for your group's needs anyway, tweaking the timeline and locale is almost beside the point.

Well, we may just disagree there.

I rarely tweak an adventure to fit my group... I throw them into it and see how they evolve a coping mechanism.

That's an interesting project. If memory serves, each CT adventure had a date and place listed in the very first section. Collecting them would be simply a matter of thumbing through your Reprints.

Should have mentioned I'd want to include JTAS Amber Zones too. But maybe this is something I should look at doing. Hmmmmm....

The 'coupling' you speak of (great term, btw) is a bit more difficult.

Used in object-oriented program design, seemed to fit.

As you point out, Broadsword does occur during the 5th FW and some of the others have similar ties. However, tweaking them shouldn't be too hard. Broadsword could easily be set elsewhere with the Darrians, Swordies, Vargr, Sollies, etc. filling in for the various parties.

I've never found tweaking to be too hard as a GM. Coming up with my own adventures out of whole cloth, well... that's another problem!

Guess I'm 'zactly opposite, Larsen. I find that I can easily plot (even on the fly) and come up with something my players don't expect but seem to often enjoy. But if I buy a scenario, I don't want to wander through it and hit a spot that I missed 'editing' and which is inconsistent with my situation. I don't mind the cases where this really isn't integral to the story and so I can edit on the fly if need be - but other times, I'd much rather have no adventure than one too hard to change or one too distorted by that change.

I guess I'm a big fan of generic adventure seeds over uber-detailed adventures that don't match well with my time frame or whatnot.

Tomb

 

[Whipsnade]

kaladorn wrote:

"You can call me Tom. No need for Mister, though I appreciate the honorific.

"


Tom,

Sorry, as I was recently explaining to Dan "Free Trader" Burns, it's a habit of mine. I routinely add the honorific when posting to various 'Net fora. To be honest, it's both a habit and a crutch! It allows me to err on the side of caution while in a public posting-converstation with folks.

LEW - It seems that most of the CT adventures were written almost timeline/locale free."

K - "Yes and no. Many have some ties to the places they are supposed to occur. JTAS printed a lot of Amber Zones that were very closely coupled to the places they occured. (I realize that's a bit tangential)"

Mea culpa. I wrote that very poorly. Nearly every CT adventure has a time and place attached to it, it's just that I find them easy to 'strip' from the materials. Only a very few adventures have their 'foot nailed to the floor' in my experience.

K - "Well, we may just disagree there.

"

Sure, why not?

K - "I rarely tweak an adventure to fit my group... I throw them into it and see how they evolve a coping mechanism."

Again, mea culpa. I don't mean to imply that I presented my players with a string of cakewalks, but I did 'tweak' (in the diminuative sense) certain aspects of each adventure. ForEx: No ship? No problem, they're hired to crew one. Limited combat skills/eqipment? Their opponents (within reason) have the same. Stuff like that.

K - "Should have mentioned I'd want to include JTAS Amber Zones too. But maybe this is something I should look at doing. Hmmmmm...."

Ooooh, the AZs are more vague about time/place than the Adventures. Of course, that's the purpose of an AZ... In the few AZs I've shared with Our Hobby, I've always strove to strip as much time/place requirements from them as possible. Check out the TML Archives and look for 'Tinderbox'. 'Honest Broker' is at Freelance, IIRC. 'Unfixed' should be floating around somewhere too.

The project does sound fascinating though. (hint, hint, CotI article, hint)

K - "Guess I'm 'zactly opposite, Larsen. I find that I can easily plot (even on the fly) and come up with something my players don't expect but seem to often enjoy."

I can plot, but they all seem to blend together, at least in my perception. I like other plots because they include other viewpoints, viewpoints that I can then plunder for my own settings!

K - "I guess I'm a big fan of generic adventure seeds over uber-detailed adventures that don't match well with my time frame or whatnot."

Same here, too much detail is a nothing but a straightjacket for the GM. Look at DGP and their 'Nugget' style adventures. Don't get me wrong, it was good stuff, stuff you itched to use, but try and fit it in your campaigns? Sheesh! You had to be running their campaign in their TU to really use them. What a waste.


Sincerely,
Larsen

 

[Whipsnade]

kaladorn wrote:

"You can call me Tom. No need for Mister, though I appreciate the honorific.

"


Tom,

Sorry, as I was recently explaining to Dan "Free Trader" Burns, it's a habit of mine. I routinely add the honorific when posting to various 'Net fora. To be honest, it's both a habit and a crutch! It allows me to err on the side of caution while in a public posting-converstation with folks.

LEW - It seems that most of the CT adventures were written almost timeline/locale free."

K - "Yes and no. Many have some ties to the places they are supposed to occur. JTAS printed a lot of Amber Zones that were very closely coupled to the places they occured. (I realize that's a bit tangential)"

Mea culpa. I wrote that very poorly. Nearly every CT adventure has a time and place attached to it, it's just that I find them easy to 'strip' from the materials. Only a very few adventures have their 'foot nailed to the floor' in my experience.

K - "Well, we may just disagree there.

"

Sure, why not?

K - "I rarely tweak an adventure to fit my group... I throw them into it and see how they evolve a coping mechanism."

Again, mea culpa. I don't mean to imply that I presented my players with a string of cakewalks, but I did 'tweak' (in the diminuative sense) certain aspects of each adventure. ForEx: No ship? No problem, they're hired to crew one. Limited combat skills/eqipment? Their opponents (within reason) have the same. Stuff like that.

K - "Should have mentioned I'd want to include JTAS Amber Zones too. But maybe this is something I should look at doing. Hmmmmm...."

Ooooh, the AZs are more vague about time/place than the Adventures. Of course, that's the purpose of an AZ... In the few AZs I've shared with Our Hobby, I've always strove to strip as much time/place requirements from them as possible. Check out the TML Archives and look for 'Tinderbox'. 'Honest Broker' is at Freelance, IIRC. 'Unfixed' should be floating around somewhere too.

The project does sound fascinating though. (hint, hint, CotI article, hint)

K - "Guess I'm 'zactly opposite, Larsen. I find that I can easily plot (even on the fly) and come up with something my players don't expect but seem to often enjoy."

I can plot, but they all seem to blend together, at least in my perception. I like other plots because they include other viewpoints, viewpoints that I can then plunder for my own settings!

K - "I guess I'm a big fan of generic adventure seeds over uber-detailed adventures that don't match well with my time frame or whatnot."

Same here, too much detail is a nothing but a straightjacket for the GM. Look at DGP and their 'Nugget' style adventures. Don't get me wrong, it was good stuff, stuff you itched to use, but try and fit it in your campaigns? Sheesh! You had to be running their campaign in their TU to really use them. What a waste.


Sincerely,
Larsen

 

[Vargas]

Here's my 2 cred worth:

Safari Ship worked really well for my group which, by the way, owned a safari ship which they used to haul cargo, freight, passengers, conduct safaris and generally act as troubleshooters from. I've always rather liked that one.

Nomads of the World Ocean and Murder on Arcturus Station are both excellent as mentioned.

And although it's not on the list, Death Station is, for me, the most portable introductory adventure there is (from Double Adventure 3, Death Station/Argon Gambit).

Last, I found Signal GK, at the time it was published, (many years before TNE), to be good but the intelligent chips were the point at which CT Adventures 'Jumped the Shark'* for me. (Although this is impossible to prove given that it was the last CT full size adventure).

Then again, it could just be me. . .

*This refers to the point after which nothing is the same again.

 

[Vargas]

Here's my 2 cred worth:

Safari Ship worked really well for my group which, by the way, owned a safari ship which they used to haul cargo, freight, passengers, conduct safaris and generally act as troubleshooters from. I've always rather liked that one.

Nomads of the World Ocean and Murder on Arcturus Station are both excellent as mentioned.

And although it's not on the list, Death Station is, for me, the most portable introductory adventure there is (from Double Adventure 3, Death Station/Argon Gambit).

Last, I found Signal GK, at the time it was published, (many years before TNE), to be good but the intelligent chips were the point at which CT Adventures 'Jumped the Shark'* for me. (Although this is impossible to prove given that it was the last CT full size adventure).

Then again, it could just be me. . .

*This refers to the point after which nothing is the same again.

 

[Whipsnade]

Vargas wrote:

"Safari Ship worked really well for my group which, by the way, owned a safari ship which they used to haul cargo, freight, passengers, conduct safaris and generally act as troubleshooters from. I've always rather liked that one."


Mr. Vargas,

Yup, the safari ship is a keeper. It's one of the better CT designs, IMEHO. There's a purely merchant version of it, complete with deckplans on the 'Net.

"And although it's not on the list, Death Station is, for me, the most portable introductory adventure there is (from Double Adventure 3, Death Station/Argon Gambit)."

Death Station holds the distinction of being the single adventure most adapted by me as a GM*. You can set it anywhere and anywhen. You can easily tweak it for PCs with snub pistols or PCs with FGMPs. You can make boarding the ship easy or hard. You can even set it off ship.

Death Station is the tofu of CT adventures.


Sincerely,
Larsen

* - Most adapted because I am lazy.

 

[Whipsnade]

Vargas wrote:

"Safari Ship worked really well for my group which, by the way, owned a safari ship which they used to haul cargo, freight, passengers, conduct safaris and generally act as troubleshooters from. I've always rather liked that one."


Mr. Vargas,

Yup, the safari ship is a keeper. It's one of the better CT designs, IMEHO. There's a purely merchant version of it, complete with deckplans on the 'Net.

"And although it's not on the list, Death Station is, for me, the most portable introductory adventure there is (from Double Adventure 3, Death Station/Argon Gambit)."

Death Station holds the distinction of being the single adventure most adapted by me as a GM*. You can set it anywhere and anywhen. You can easily tweak it for PCs with snub pistols or PCs with FGMPs. You can make boarding the ship easy or hard. You can even set it off ship.

Death Station is the tofu of CT adventures.


Sincerely,
Larsen

* - Most adapted because I am lazy.

 

[kaladorn]

Originally posted by Larsen E. Whipsnade:
Tom,

Sorry, as I was recently explaining to Dan "Free Trader" Burns, it's a habit of mine. I routinely add the honorific when posting to various 'Net fora. To be honest, it's both a habit and a crutch! It allows me to err on the side of caution while in a public posting-converstation with folks.

No need for apology, Honorable Sir.

Tis wise to err on the side of caution, especially in a medium where the information bandwidth is restricted to the text at hand, sans any other indicators.

However, I'm just pointing out that I consider your thoughts worthwhile and whereas we may disagree, I am glad to hear them. Hence, feel free to dispense with the formality in my case if you wish.

Again, mea culpa. I don't mean to imply that I presented my players with a string of cakewalks, but I did 'tweak' (in the diminuative sense) certain aspects of each adventure. ForEx: No ship? No problem, they're hired to crew one. Limited combat skills/eqipment? Their opponents (within reason) have the same. Stuff like that.

I tend to have long running campaigns (my last Traveller one was about a year, the one before it 15 months, and the current one is up to three and sailing along). So flipping around the explored galaxy, the timeline, or even the equipment/nature of the team is unlikely. Some small mods feasible, but generally, I like adventures that I can place nearly anywhere, that I can run just about any character type through (though the approach may vary from character type to character type, based on their assets...), and that aren't tied to particular historical events.

K - "Should have mentioned I'd want to include JTAS Amber Zones too. But maybe this is something I should look at doing. Hmmmmm...."

Ooooh, the AZs are more vague about time/place than the Adventures. Of course, that's the purpose of an AZ... In the few AZs I've shared with Our Hobby, I've always strove to strip as much time/place requirements from them as possible. Check out the TML Archives and look for 'Tinderbox'. 'Honest Broker' is at Freelance, IIRC. 'Unfixed' should be floating around somewhere too.

I will look for your work, Sir. I expect it shall be both eloquent and interesting.

The project does sound fascinating though. (hint, hint, CotI article, hint)

Sounds like a plan. Now I'll add it to the plan queue....

Seriously, I think I am going to start doing this.... time to haul out the LBB and JTAS...

Same here, too much detail is a nothing but a straightjacket for the GM. Look at DGP and their 'Nugget' style adventures. Don't get me wrong, it was good stuff, stuff you itched to use, but try and fit it in your campaigns? Sheesh! You had to be running their campaign in their TU to really use them. What a waste.

Now, let's talk about that for a moment:

Is there really any problem with the nugget format?

Does it really differ from the modern EPIC format that the T20 stuff is to be written in?

Is it truly constricting, or in fact liberating?

Was the problem with DGP modules the format or was it the content?

My answers, respectively, are:
No.
Not a lot.
Liberating.
Content.

I think the DGP stuff made poor use of what was otherwise a very potent format.

There are only so many ways to present a plot. Linear (plot line) and nugget (free form nuggets with some specification of interrelationship) and maybe EPIC (with acts, which is like a bastardy of the other two).

Since my PCs tend to use unconventional approaches (sometimes moderately bizarre to boot), I prefer nuggetized formats since that suggest very little requirement for a linear play approach. This easily facilititates adventure blending, red herrings, and unorthodox approaches.

I'd be interested to hear the particulars of your favorite approach and your criticism of nuggets.

 

[kaladorn]

Originally posted by Larsen E. Whipsnade:
Tom,

Sorry, as I was recently explaining to Dan "Free Trader" Burns, it's a habit of mine. I routinely add the honorific when posting to various 'Net fora. To be honest, it's both a habit and a crutch! It allows me to err on the side of caution while in a public posting-converstation with folks.

No need for apology, Honorable Sir.

Tis wise to err on the side of caution, especially in a medium where the information bandwidth is restricted to the text at hand, sans any other indicators.

However, I'm just pointing out that I consider your thoughts worthwhile and whereas we may disagree, I am glad to hear them. Hence, feel free to dispense with the formality in my case if you wish.

Again, mea culpa. I don't mean to imply that I presented my players with a string of cakewalks, but I did 'tweak' (in the diminuative sense) certain aspects of each adventure. ForEx: No ship? No problem, they're hired to crew one. Limited combat skills/eqipment? Their opponents (within reason) have the same. Stuff like that.

I tend to have long running campaigns (my last Traveller one was about a year, the one before it 15 months, and the current one is up to three and sailing along). So flipping around the explored galaxy, the timeline, or even the equipment/nature of the team is unlikely. Some small mods feasible, but generally, I like adventures that I can place nearly anywhere, that I can run just about any character type through (though the approach may vary from character type to character type, based on their assets...), and that aren't tied to particular historical events.

K - "Should have mentioned I'd want to include JTAS Amber Zones too. But maybe this is something I should look at doing. Hmmmmm...."

Ooooh, the AZs are more vague about time/place than the Adventures. Of course, that's the purpose of an AZ... In the few AZs I've shared with Our Hobby, I've always strove to strip as much time/place requirements from them as possible. Check out the TML Archives and look for 'Tinderbox'. 'Honest Broker' is at Freelance, IIRC. 'Unfixed' should be floating around somewhere too.

I will look for your work, Sir. I expect it shall be both eloquent and interesting.

The project does sound fascinating though. (hint, hint, CotI article, hint)

Sounds like a plan. Now I'll add it to the plan queue....

Seriously, I think I am going to start doing this.... time to haul out the LBB and JTAS...

Same here, too much detail is a nothing but a straightjacket for the GM. Look at DGP and their 'Nugget' style adventures. Don't get me wrong, it was good stuff, stuff you itched to use, but try and fit it in your campaigns? Sheesh! You had to be running their campaign in their TU to really use them. What a waste.

Now, let's talk about that for a moment:

Is there really any problem with the nugget format?

Does it really differ from the modern EPIC format that the T20 stuff is to be written in?

Is it truly constricting, or in fact liberating?

Was the problem with DGP modules the format or was it the content?

My answers, respectively, are:
No.
Not a lot.
Liberating.
Content.

I think the DGP stuff made poor use of what was otherwise a very potent format.

There are only so many ways to present a plot. Linear (plot line) and nugget (free form nuggets with some specification of interrelationship) and maybe EPIC (with acts, which is like a bastardy of the other two).

Since my PCs tend to use unconventional approaches (sometimes moderately bizarre to boot), I prefer nuggetized formats since that suggest very little requirement for a linear play approach. This easily facilititates adventure blending, red herrings, and unorthodox approaches.

I'd be interested to hear the particulars of your favorite approach and your criticism of nuggets.

 

[Whipsnade]

kaladorn wrote:

"Is there really any problem with the nugget format?"


Tom,

An inexcusable slip of both the keyboard and brain on my part. I should written 'the nugget format in DGP's hands' as there is nothing wrong with the nugget format per se. Sadly, there was quite a bit wrong with the nugget format as illustrated by DGP at their worse; a strictly linear formated adventure in which a straightjacketed GM leads the PCs in a pre-determined march from Nugget A to Nugget Z.

An adventure consisting of several nuggets arranged in a loose 'skein' is my personal preference. There is a 'goal' and there are several events (i.e. nuggets), but the path along the events towards the goal is 'loose'. Sure, some events will lead to others and, depending on the PCs' actions, some events will exist in their own self-contained 'loop'. Sometimes those events will be the same! It all depends on how the PCs reacted when presented with the events. I guess the picture I'm trying to get across is one of 'multiple paths' towards the same 'goal'.

Over at JTAS recently, Paul Drye reviewed the T20 adventure "Objects of the Mind". He gave it a favorable write-up and also picked a few nits; like why *every* desert culture in the 57th Century is Bedouin and not Bushmen, Navajo, Aborigene, etc. IIRC, Mr. Drye liked the adventure and recommended it.

His one true complaint was how the 'nugget' or 'epic' nature of the adventure only allowed *one* path and one path only. The PCs needed to discover or learn *specific* information in each nugget, they needed to uncover those hints in *order*, and they needed to always react in only *one* way.

I haven't read the adventure, but apparently part of this was due to certain off-stage events happening at fixed times. Mr. Drye pointed out that if the players ever strayed from this lockstepped progression of nuggets, the GM would be in for quite a bit of recovery work. Certain events would happen at a given time, whether the PCs followed the clues in the manner they were *supposed* to or not.

Planning on players to 'stray' from the adventure on hand should be rather high on any GMs session preperation list; high as in Number One on that list, IMHO. I believe that anyone writing an adventure should keep that in mind, not that I always succeed in doing so mind you!

'Straying' will happen, whether the GM wishes it or not. Some adventures run a minimal risk of 'straying'; "Death Station" for instance - get the PCs aboard and there is only really a few things they can do.(1) However, the larger the adventure, the more game time it is allowed to elapse over, the more events or nuggets that comprise it, the greater the chances of the PCs 'straying'. What's more, after a certain size is reached, 'straying' becomes all but automatic.

Once 'straying' occurs, getting the PCs back on course becomes the GM's priority. Some adventures actually help the GM in that task; those that allow multiple paths, and some adventures handcuff the GM from even trying. If the GM has to 'force' the session back on path, if he has to 'show his hand', then the session has become clunky. OTOH, if the adventure allows him to simply slot the PCs along another path and still have them reach the same goal, then the GM's actions are not even noticed. To me, that's one hallmark of a good RPG adventure; regardless of genre, the action flows without the slightest whiff of GM interference.


Sincerely,
Larsen

1 - I had one group of PCs aboard the lab ship in "Death Station" solve their problems by venting the ship to space! It worked... but one of the 'survivors' who got blown into orbit just so happened to have a relative in the subsector nobility. I'd originally planned on the fellow becoming a long term contact and occasional patron; the 'Hire them, they saved me off Arglebargle-IV' sort. Instead, the PCs gained a long term nemisis! It's always nice when the PCs hand you ready-made enemies on a platter, no?

 

[Whipsnade]

kaladorn wrote:

"Is there really any problem with the nugget format?"


Tom,

An inexcusable slip of both the keyboard and brain on my part. I should written 'the nugget format in DGP's hands' as there is nothing wrong with the nugget format per se. Sadly, there was quite a bit wrong with the nugget format as illustrated by DGP at their worse; a strictly linear formated adventure in which a straightjacketed GM leads the PCs in a pre-determined march from Nugget A to Nugget Z.

An adventure consisting of several nuggets arranged in a loose 'skein' is my personal preference. There is a 'goal' and there are several events (i.e. nuggets), but the path along the events towards the goal is 'loose'. Sure, some events will lead to others and, depending on the PCs' actions, some events will exist in their own self-contained 'loop'. Sometimes those events will be the same! It all depends on how the PCs reacted when presented with the events. I guess the picture I'm trying to get across is one of 'multiple paths' towards the same 'goal'.

Over at JTAS recently, Paul Drye reviewed the T20 adventure "Objects of the Mind". He gave it a favorable write-up and also picked a few nits; like why *every* desert culture in the 57th Century is Bedouin and not Bushmen, Navajo, Aborigene, etc. IIRC, Mr. Drye liked the adventure and recommended it.

His one true complaint was how the 'nugget' or 'epic' nature of the adventure only allowed *one* path and one path only. The PCs needed to discover or learn *specific* information in each nugget, they needed to uncover those hints in *order*, and they needed to always react in only *one* way.

I haven't read the adventure, but apparently part of this was due to certain off-stage events happening at fixed times. Mr. Drye pointed out that if the players ever strayed from this lockstepped progression of nuggets, the GM would be in for quite a bit of recovery work. Certain events would happen at a given time, whether the PCs followed the clues in the manner they were *supposed* to or not.

Planning on players to 'stray' from the adventure on hand should be rather high on any GMs session preperation list; high as in Number One on that list, IMHO. I believe that anyone writing an adventure should keep that in mind, not that I always succeed in doing so mind you!

'Straying' will happen, whether the GM wishes it or not. Some adventures run a minimal risk of 'straying'; "Death Station" for instance - get the PCs aboard and there is only really a few things they can do.(1) However, the larger the adventure, the more game time it is allowed to elapse over, the more events or nuggets that comprise it, the greater the chances of the PCs 'straying'. What's more, after a certain size is reached, 'straying' becomes all but automatic.

Once 'straying' occurs, getting the PCs back on course becomes the GM's priority. Some adventures actually help the GM in that task; those that allow multiple paths, and some adventures handcuff the GM from even trying. If the GM has to 'force' the session back on path, if he has to 'show his hand', then the session has become clunky. OTOH, if the adventure allows him to simply slot the PCs along another path and still have them reach the same goal, then the GM's actions are not even noticed. To me, that's one hallmark of a good RPG adventure; regardless of genre, the action flows without the slightest whiff of GM interference.


Sincerely,
Larsen

1 - I had one group of PCs aboard the lab ship in "Death Station" solve their problems by venting the ship to space! It worked... but one of the 'survivors' who got blown into orbit just so happened to have a relative in the subsector nobility. I'd originally planned on the fellow becoming a long term contact and occasional patron; the 'Hire them, they saved me off Arglebargle-IV' sort. Instead, the PCs gained a long term nemisis! It's always nice when the PCs hand you ready-made enemies on a platter, no?