Overwhelmed - Plot for first time adventurers in Traveller?

[Twinfun]

Right off the bat I'd figure that a scenario that plays solely on the ground would be best for a first time GM for Traveller.

I'm certainly not as experienced in RPG's as most of the posters here, so does anyone have any plots that are easily manageable that take place solely on the ground?

I've did a few forum searches to find similar subjects to no avail, but I did come across the obvious opinion that running small D&D scenarios is like drawing stick figures when compared to GM'ing for Traveller. I guess this would be my situation. I feel that all of my ideas are some variation of a cheezy D&D dungeon run, which isn't the best choice I would think since it seems that combat is much more lethal.

My issue partly comes from the lack of knowledge of Traveller lore, but I am anxious to get a game started; don't want to order and wait for supplements without any prior gameplay.

All ideas and recommendations are highly appreciated!

 

[Seriayne]

Go with your strengths, and branch out from there. There were plenty of early classic Traveller (and quite a few current ones) adventures that are tantamount to dungeon crawls - Its just that they're run much more like archeology or detective scenarios rather than 'room with monster' and 'room with trap' situations.

Story, mood, and hopefully some salvage to make ends meet are (hopefully) going to be just as memorable as defeating a powerful monster.

That being said - creatures, dangers, etc. are easy to come up with - just don't make all of them too lethal.

One of the oldest, weirdest little adventures, was also one of the most memorable - Annic Nova - which basically amounted to a dungeon crawl on a derelict spaceship. There were clues about the crew's demise here and there, and a very real danger of catching the same disease they caught and dying from it if not treated fast enough/properly - if the players let their guard down and walk around with their helmets off or something. The adventure was so odd though, because even in the referee's section, the origins of the ship were never fleshed out. Traveller players have been speculating, coming up with their own origins for the derelict ship, for decades.

It was part of a double adventure, the second half of which was another, unrelated, almost literal dungeon crawl through an ancient, alien-critter infested ruins. It at least had information on the culture that created the ruins, but it'd be -very- hard for the players, given the resources and time of a single adventure, to figure them out. The circumstances were basically a sorta 'deactivate the ancient megaweapon so we can get our ship off the planet without it being destroyed'.

Start small - I think a lot of ref's do, and build out your continuum as you go.

I tend to leave plot threads out all over the place until I have a rogue's gallery of dozens of NPC's -politicians, contacts, antagonists and allies, all with some stake or tangental relation to the player's enterprises.

 

[rancke]

Some years ago I was part of a team that wrote a complete beginners' campaign in the form of a series of linked articles for JTAS Online. If you get a subscription[*], or already have one, search the archives for the term 'Regina Startown', and you should get them all (plus a few extra). It's set in a single location (Regina Startown, of course) and allows the referee and the players to get acquainted with a limited part of the Traveller Universe before slowly expanding the horizons.

[*] $20 for a two-year subscription which buys you over 150 articles over the next two years PLUS access to an archive with (currently) 1266 articles. Possibly the best bargain around.​

EDIT: Forgot to mention: The NPCs and the sample PCs are described in GURPS Traveler terms. However, it should be reasonably easy to make up stats for other rules sets and just use the campaign itself.


Hans

 

[Burocrate]

Other Sites

I must salute Hans and crew who put together the Regina Starport collection in the JTAS archives; well worth the price of the subscription. In addition, I would recommend the Freelance Traveller site and just about any other that fits your style that you can easily navigate to from the Imperial Starport section of this web site.

D&D style games are a decent way to bring fantasy role players into Traveller, so don't worry about your first few adventures. Get input from your players about the tone of the game they want and go from there.

For those new to Traveller I recommend a practice session to run through the combat resolution rules and skills checks. This way no one looks shocked when thier character dies after trying to shoot thier way past an NPC guard with superior weapons and armor.

 

[jappel]

It's actually easier to put them into a relatively constrained environment like a space station or ship. That limits the amount of "world" you actually have to create.

A good place to look for ideas is the Active Measures section on Freelance Traveller (www.freelancetraveller.com), which has a ton of adventures free for the taking (and adapting, modifying, spindling, mutilating...)

Or, keep it simple. Put them all on a starship - then crash it, or have hijackers attempt to take it over, or bump into pirates.

I also note there's five episodes of "Firefly" up for free viewing on Hulu, including Ariel and Trash which would make for great Traveller scenarios.

 

[CosmicGamer]

You could take a look at the PbP Safari so Goodie game here on CotI

Essentially a dungeon crawl on a station.

 

[vitalis6969]

What type of characters are they? What are their specialties?

The characters in our current game are all mercs, we have a frmr Marine, two frmr Army, a frmr Naval Pilot/Scout, a frmr Alphabet Soup Agent and a doctor.

Tons of my ground based adventures have a serious third world feel and are based off of the last 40 years of African or Asian history, i.e. toppling governments, fighting revolutionaries, protecting farmers from separatists, etc. Very "Dogs of War" type of a feel.

But there is tons of stuff you can do on the surface and even in our espionage, colonization or trading games I haven't found Traveller any harder to run than any other game.

-V

 

[jawillroy]

Maybe set the party up so they're in a position to tick off a vindictive minor but well-connected noble? Keep it innocuous at first, so maybe they don't realize what they've done, but when they keep getting harassed at every bureaucratic juncture, stop getting jobs, won't be allowed off planet, etcetera, they'll have to figure out how to get out from under the bad guy's thumb...

You could keep something like this going for a while!

 

[kafka47]

I found MgT's Prison Planet very easy to run and read. Provides a nice segway into future adventures...as the players after playing it out...could become fugatives trying always to live life under the radar until they clear their name. Sometimes, there is a job that will get you a more powerful Patron. Sometimes, the Patron might betray you and not only keep the money but attempt to turn you over to Joe Law (think Pitch Black for what might happen next). The cast of characters that appear in Prison Planet could be part of an underworld crime syndicate who also wants the characters...in the meantime just one of the players is actually not who they think they are...they were a runner/agent whose brain was wiped and a new personality was created. Problem the RNA memory transfer was interrupted and there is more than one memory there.

 

[Kilgs]

One Desperate Hour is an excellent quickie adventure.

I would agree that putting them in space restricts their options and your work. I recommend some form of ship crisis so you can get folks used to their roles. In my PbP game, I had them wake up as prisoners in a space station and need to escape... instant danger and need to cooperate helped ease out those "Hi I'm Bob" moments.