CT Only: Rumors

[hdan]

When I was doing most of my CT playing, we didn't bother with things like Rumor rolls, so I'm fuzzy on how the system works. Or rather, how people use the system.

In the latest Freelance Traveller, there's an adventure where they specify to roll a check one per week for a chance to hear a rumor. I recall the CT rules also suggesting one check per week.

My question (at long last) is this: If your ship generally only stops over in a system for one week, how are you meant to handle this? Either you "get lucky" and find a clue, or you just shrug and leave system? Or should you hang around possibly for months, losing money on the hopes that you'll run into a rumor?

Were I to referee such a scenario these days, I'd probably test once per day. If I had a full rumor matrix, maybe once per day per rumor seeking player, with the understanding that, for example, a Steward attempting to find passengers isn't going to make that check. (Though you could argue that finding a rumor while seeking passengers is valid too, so maybe just per-player.)

Thoughts? For those of you who use the CT Rumor-Matrix system in your games, how do you handle things?

 

[Supplement Four]

My question (at long last) is this: If your ship generally only stops over in a system for one week, how are you meant to handle this? Either you "get lucky" and find a clue, or you just shrug and leave system? Or should you hang around possibly for months, losing money on the hopes that you'll run into a rumor?

The Ref can always "force" a rumor, of course, to jump start an adventure. But, how it can be handled (and how I think it is intended to be handled) is for the rumor list not to be consulted for more than once per time period suggested. So, if it is a week, then only one attempt per week is used. And, if that means the ship only calls on the planet once every three months, then that's when they hear whatever rumor is rolled.

In the old days of gaming (D&D had adventures like this, too), there was a lot of randomness.

If I wanted to run this "by the book", I'd rely on the trading mini-game. I'd let the players go where they wanted to go. I'd roll for cargoes and passengers. And, the PCs would just travel from place to place until someone did something impromptu on a world (picked a fight in a starport bar, for example), or until the players heard a rumor--that would set the adventure in a new direction.

Many times, the rumors heard were not on the same world. The PCs speak with other Travellers. So, the rumor could refer to another world.

I remember Twilight's Peak starting off this way.

You can easily run the ship through a few worlds with the players, rolling for cargoes using Books 1-3 (not Book 7 as, when running this quickly, you don't need to know what the cargo is--just how much cargo and how much you got for freight). Maybe the players would do some speculation. And, about the time this got old at the gaming table, someone would hear a rumor.

Running it by the book, I'd just roll on the rumor chart as the players went to that world (or where the rumor could be heard), and once I knew what the rumor was, I'd find a way to roleplay it into the stop-over.





Random play can be quite fun. Roll for cargo. Roll for passengers. The Ref really has no idea where the game is going. In space, roll for a random ship encounter. On worlds, roll for a random encounter. Roll for a rumor. With NPCs, roll their reaction. Use the Law Level to roll for a legal encounter (anything from, "Hey, it's a 200Cr fine for spitting out your gum!", to "Your external baffle plate is out of spec. We won't OK clearance for you to leave until you fix it, and your berthing fee jumps by a factor of ten after a week.")

You can throw for Patron encounters, Animal encounters, Adventure encounters, too.

Situations grow out of these random things. I've had some very fun game sessions like this in the past.

Really, it's not too much unlike an adventure like Across the Bright Face/Mission on Mithril where the players are just exploring hexes, and the Ref is throwing for random encounters.







If I wanted to use the generic Rumors matrix from page 101 of TTB, I'd just do it like this.

It's says once a week the table is consulted. And, typically, ships stay in port a week and are in jump a week.

While in port, I'd throw on the rumor chart. Let's say I get a result of 63. That's rumor J - Completely False Information.

Here, I'd put my thinking cap on, as a Ref. (I like this kind of stuff.) What, I would wonder, should I give the players false information about? I'd look for roleplaying opportunities to mislead the players. I won't know what the subject is until I stumble upon it. As we role play, I'd just find something--usually something dramatic and/or something important to the player involved.

In jump, I'd roll again on the rumor table. And, this time (the following week), I roll a 21, which is rumor B - Minor Fact.

Here, I get creative. I've got to give the player a minor fact. So, I say, "As you were browsing the entertainment library, looking for something to pass the time off duty, you stumble across a news article that announces that Revnun Jacobsoni, the designer of the V2B Baffle plates, was found dead. You check the date, and you see it is now been almost a year....(Minor Fact).

...then why did that port yardsman you spoke with at your last port say that he actually had dinner with the guy just last week? (Player finds out about the Completely False Information from last week.)

And now, we're off to the races...

What does it all mean?

I dunno?

But, it will be fun finding out.

That's what random, dice roll gaming is all about.

 

[hdan]

I've never run a true sandbox Traveller game before. (I know, shocking!) When I was young, we ran Traveller a lot like we ran AD&D - whoever came up with an idea for an adventure Refereed, everyone else played. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Now, my groups tend to be even more plot oriented, and a lot less fluid in who's running the game.

Maybe someday I'll find a group willing to go full-sandbox.

I hadn't even thought of the idea of using the week in jumpspace for rumors. Of course a passenger or some media the players picked up might know something interesting. I'm not sure how well an itinerant group who might take months or longer to reach any conclusions would serve the needs of a planetary patron. But I suppose in those sorts of instances, the rumor table wouldn't come into play.

Good food for thought.

 

[Supplement Four]

Many times, I find, that game start out sandbox, with me having no idea where they are going. But, once I generate a few details (either by random rolls or things that pop up with roleplaing), the plots start to emerge, and the game turns from sandbox to plot-based.

 

[Supplement Four]

Maybe someday I'll find a group willing to go full-sandbox.

From my experience, it takes a great Ref with an excellent knowledge of the rules and setting in order to run a sandbox well. It's much, much easier, in my estimation, to run a scripted, event-based scenario.

With the event-based scenario, the Ref only need to prepare the events that he knows will happen at some time during the game.

With a sandbox, the Ref must be prepared for ANYTHING at ANYTIME.

 

[Supplement Four]

I also think that to run a sandbox well, a Ref needs "floating plots" ready to go--circumstances that can be interesting to the players should nothing turn up impromptu. The Ref throws one of his encounter ideas at the players and sees if they will bite. This buys time time for next session. Once the game is rolling, the sessions usually get easier for the Ref to prepare.





For example: Let's say that you've got one player (for simplicity), and you're doing a sandbox with him. It's a Naval character. He's just mustered out.

The Ref starts the game on a world that is not the PC's homeworld. Right there, the Ref has thrown a floating plot at the player. The PC may want to go home.

The main reason to do this is to remove all of the PC's support. You want him fresh, on an unexplored (by the character world).

Have some answers or contingency encounters for likely questions the player may have:

Why didn't the Navy drop him off where he enlisted?

Well, they try to do that, but duty comes first, and with the saber rattling on the Zho border, your vessel was attached to a new fleet and traveled to the border.

They won't help the PC get back at all.

That's where you got the High Passage when you mustered out. It won't get you home, but it will get you started. The other option you didn't like--and that was to re-up with the Navy another term. You decided against it (and the player did decide to get out of the Navy when he did).

If the player does start heading home, then the Ref has bought himself time to create "home" for the player in a future game session.





I also like to give the player a problem quickly--though, the player may not realize it at first.

Now that you've mustered out, what are you going to do?

I'm going to head over to the nearest starport bar and get drunk! I just spent 12 years in the Navy, and I'm out! Hell, I'm going to buy the entire bar drinks!

OK, but...you only mustered out with 1,000 credits. Where are you going to sleep? How many days can you feed yourself on that? How are you going to get off the next rock once the High Passage is used?

Crap! I need a job!

And, boom....we've got a "pull" for an adventure. The player will look for work, and I'll figure a couple of ideas, throw them his way, and see what interests him.

We're off to the races.

 

[TravellerX7]

[removes lurker cloak]

Hi all!

I wrote the adventure that hdan is referring to ("The Asklepios Recovery"). Supplement Four is correct as to the Rumor time periods. I've always interpreted the Rumor rules to mean throw once per whatever time period best fits the adventure; whether once/day, once/week, or longer. I believe the default is once/week.

Good to know there are people enjoying my little contributions to FT. Thanks!

[redons lurker cloak]

 

[hdan]

Hey TravellerX7 - I am rather impressed with your adventure. Clearly, since it's inspiring me to try to get my group to do some Travelling. Thanks for making it available.

S4 - I have to say that you make me want to try a sandbox campaign. I'm not that great a GM to be honest, so I worry about being able to pull it off. "Practice makes perfect," I guess.

 

[Supplement Four]

I wrote the adventure that hdan is referring to ("The Asklepios Recovery").

Can I download it somewhere?


EDIT: Ah..found it in the current issue of Freelance Traveller, Mike.



2nd EDIT: Interesting....the adventure is written for Classic Traveller, yet is uses the UTP (DGP's task system, designed for CT but also used in MT). It's not your usually CT throws.

 

[Supplement Four]

S4 - I have to say that you make me want to try a sandbox campaign. I'm not that great a GM to be honest, so I worry about being able to pull it off. "Practice makes perfect," I guess.

If you decide to run one, you may want to start with Adventure 3 Twilight's Peak. That old GDW adventure starts like a sandbox, using rumors, while the players explore and trade along the Spinward Main. When the PCs bite on the correct rumor, the adventure becomes more plot based.

The section on rumors in the adventure is a nice read, showing one way rumors can be used in a game. Remember that rumors aren't always something a PC hears from an NPC. As stated in the Traveller book, rumors can be given to the PCs in a number of different ways. IIRC, one example in the TB is to put the info on a billboard.

Interestingly, the rumors in Adventure 3 are not provided on a random roll. Most are site -based. When the player reach a particular world, the Ref should find some creative way to give the info to the players "in-game".

The other two rumors (the mandatory rumors) are plot-based, given to the PCs at certain points during the adventure at the Ref's choosing.

 

[Supplement Four]

RE: Rumors

Players are smart, especially Traveller players. I do remember an instance where a player got intrigued with a rumor he had heard and spent a lot of time using world and the ship's library.

I found this a great way to impart some additional rumors, but since he as so intent, I allowed him to make rumor checks more often than once a week.




Mike's adventure mentioned in this thread uses a time increment of 1 hour. IIRC, that means you roll 3D6 and multiply the time increment, so we're talking about an average of 10 hours per info search. I think that's about right. It'll keep the player from greedily soaking up all the rumors in just a few moments of game play and dice rolls, plus it will allow the Ref to start throwing some other costs of the search on the PC. "Hey, your ship has been in berth a week, and tomorrow, the port cost increases by a factor of 10."

It's a little bit of a reward for interested PCs allowing them to obtain the rumors faster than once a week, yet it doesn't give the goose away in one day, either.

I'd strongly suggest to sticking by the time scale the rumors were designed, for, though. If the adventure says once a week, then have a damn good reason to give two in one week (change the time increment on the task, if you use them, so that one week is the average).

 

[hdan]

If you decide to run one, you may want to start with Adventure 3 Twilight's Peak. That old GDW adventure starts like a sandbox, using rumors, while the players explore and trade along the Spinward Main. When the PCs bite on the correct rumor, the adventure becomes more plot based.

Adventure 3 is one of my favorites.

I ran Twilight's Peak (sort of) back in High School. It was a pretty fast-n-loose take on the adventure since my players were expecting a "d&d module" experience. We wound up on the target world after a session or two, treating the rest of the adventure as mostly an extended "find a treasure map", and the final destination as a dungeon crawl. What can I say, it was the 80's, and as always, I'm the only one who reads the setting backgrounder stuff, so they had no idea why that particular alien base would be at all controversial.

(Sorry for the semi-spoilers, LOL.)

I *almost* got some people interested in running "the Peak" at the office, but we started at a bad time (right before a big "crunch") and I was never able to get them back on board after the OT stopped. I had planned to have them start on a standard "run the Spinward Main" sandbox adventure and then drop the relevant rumors and try to lure them into the mystery of the Gyro Cadiz.

The same group had previously played Death Station as a one-off using the pregens and seemed to have a good time, though I found that I had to quickly re-imagine the setting to get away from the 70's feel and into a more modern scifi setting. They were all about hacking into security cameras and stuff.