GT Universe Only: Running a Spinward Marches campaign in GT

[Procopius]

Hey all,

I was hoping for some suggestions for running a Spinward Marches campaign set in 1120 in the GURPS Traveller timeline. My players are a Solomani ex-belter who's inherited his father's battered Empress Marava-class Far Trader (it can only make Jump-2 every other jump until overhauled), a retired Imperial Navy CPO and SEH-winner who served in the Fifth Frontier War, a Vargr ex-corsair serving as ship's steward, and the ship's engineer (background TBD). I figure the Spinward Marches merchant campaign has to be one of the most commonly run ones out there, do any of you have some suggestions for adventures I can inflict on my guys?

 

[Enoff]

GURPS Flare Star is a free adventure you can find on Warehouse23, I would put a link but I think thats against the board policy. 8-\

Unexplored star systems always promise untold wealth. But the system the crew of one far trader is currently exploring has shown the other side of the balance sheet. There is nothing of value here.
Until they detect the Other . . .
Flare Star is an adventure for GURPS Traveller 2/e where a derelict alien vessel leads the crew of a far trader to a planet filled with danger . . . and opportunity. Flare Star originally appeared in four consecutive issues of Space Gamer magazine. It has also appeared in the Journal of the Traveller Aid Society online. But best of all . . . it's free!

 

[Orr]

I figure the Spinward Marches merchant campaign has to be one of the most commonly run ones out there, do any of you have some suggestions for adventures I can inflict on my guys?

You'll be able to inflict almost every published adventure on your group. It's an embarrassment of riches actually. The CT and JTAS CDs will have tons of adventures to run and ideas to steal. The freelancetraveller DOT com site has tons of adventures and ideas too.

Seeing as the belter inherited the far trader, there's no mortgage right? That's going to give you less control over the players because keeping players "poor" is a big way referee's control their players. OTOH, you've wisely given them a clunker which needs costly repairs and that should keep them scrounging around for cash.

Just throwing out an idea here, you could use Twilight's Peak as the "skeleton" of a long campaign. In between each of the scenarios that make up TP you could cram lots of stand alone adventures from any old soruce.

 

[Hyphen]

You'll be able to inflict almost every published adventure on your group. It's an embarrassment of riches actually. The CT and JTAS CDs will have tons of adventures to run and ideas to steal. The freelancetraveller DOT com site has tons of adventures and ideas too.

And if you don't want to run them as the "crims" (many early adventures posit the PCs as petty sneak-thieves), turn the scenario around. Have them hired to guard the McGuffin, or to quietly retrieve it after the characters (in the original scenario) have acquired it...

Etc etc. ;-)

 

[Orr]

And if you don't want to run them as the "crims"...

Good point. I'd forgot about the "murderhobo" aspect of most of early CT.

 

[Procopius]

Good point. I'd forgot about the "murderhobo" aspect of most of early CT.

Heh. In fairness, sometimes they just kidnap people and keep them somewhere for a bit. I was actually paging through 76 Patrons last night before bed, and it is kind of remarkable how many patrons are looking for well-armed transients. Seems like it might be difficult for the PCs to find work (or even escape off-world in their ship with only 1 G of acceleration) after, say, kidnapping a business magnate for three weeks, or helping an Ine Givar operative raid a militia armory.

Just throwing out an idea here, you could use Twilight's Peak as the "skeleton" of a long campaign. In between each of the scenarios that make up TP you could cram lots of stand alone adventures from any old soruce.

I like this idea a lot; I was just reading TP for the first time this week (I've had the rules and supplements FFE omnibuses for ages, but only just obtained a slightly misprinted copy of the Adventures omnibus), and it seems like it'd be a pretty epic -- in the Iliad sense -- adventure. I'm a little worried my players might stand and fight against the Zhos, or start shooting up the Droyne cryosleep tubes.

GURPS Flare Star is a free adventure you can find on Warehouse23, I would put a link but I think thats against the board policy.

The Messrs. Keith certainly write up interesting adventures -- Traveller is one of the few games where reading the adventures is as interesting as reading the sourcebooks.

Seeing as the belter inherited the far trader, there's no mortgage right? That's going to give you less control over the players because keeping players "poor" is a big way referee's control their players. OTOH, you've wisely given them a clunker which needs costly repairs and that should keep them scrounging around for cash.

There's no mortgage...that they know of. (Duhn duhn duhnnnn) The PC's backstory states he didn't know his father and only received the ship (named The Gulag, by the PC -- an old Solomani word for a place where people worked hard) in his will after being tracked down.

 

[Orr]

Seems like it might be difficult for the PCs to find work (or even escape off-world in their ship with only 1 G of acceleration)...

The long accepted handwave for that particular problem is that most ships have some sort of "anti" or "contra" gravity capabilities. Few of the classic ships can be considered 'airframes' either, so there must be something assisting landings and takeoffs. Later versions added explicit AG/CG machinery instead of implying their existence.

I like this idea a lot...

It's a good place to start. You'll have no trouble coming up with something better.

I'm a little worried my players might stand and fight against the Zhos, or start shooting up the Droyne cryosleep tubes.

The way to avoid that is to have them involved in a few gunfights and ship battles long before they find the secret Zho base and Ancient facility on Fulacin. If they learn early in the campaign how deadly Traveller combat can be, they'll be much less likely to jump into combat on a whim late in the campaign.

There's no mortgage...that they know of...

Delightfully nasty! You and your players are sure to have fun.

 

[Procopius]

The long accepted handwave for that particular problem is that most ships have some sort of "anti" or "contra" gravity capabilities. Few of the classic ships can be considered 'airframes' either, so there must be something assisting landings and takeoffs. Later versions added explicit AG/CG machinery instead of implying their existence.

Oh, I was more thinking along the lines of almost anything being able to catch them since they're about as slow as a starship can be, so it's like robbing a bank and then hopping on a riding mower for the getaway.