Seeking some basic advice for getting started with MGT and VoIP gaming

[LiamKerrington]

Hello everyone,

about one-and-a-half weeks ago two friends and I started to kick-off a new Traveller campaign. It was like a virgin giving birth to it, 'cause we were kinda spontanous when we have started.

We live in different areas and way too far away from each other; so we did not and won't play Pen'n'Paper at the table; we have played and will play with the roll20.net-platform, which btw. is kind of awesome! When we played the first session, all of us were kind of baffled and amazed, how very well this platform works. And so the "lust" to keep things going has started to become stronger and stronger.

As of now we have decided to play based on Classic Traveller/ Mongoose Traveller/ 13Mann Traveller in addition to all the web-based material available. We play in the year 1111.

The gamers pilot a Freetrader; and they have to pay a monthly loan of roughly 30k Credits. Two gamers play two characters; but we have created two more half-player, half-non-player-characters in order to cover a minimum ground of skills and talents within the crew.

The first adventure we have played was one without a fight, although there was the potential of having some bullet/beam-exchange. (And I am glad we had no fight at all, cause a) I got drunk during the session (too much delicious red whine), b) we probably would have had some trouble dealing with the rules, and c) I like games with tension and suspense having no fight at all ...) The adventure was about a freighter that was boarded by pirates. Things god messy, and the ship collided with an asteroid. Huge parts of the ship lost artificial gravity and life-support, while other parts remained in a more or less "solid". The container-sextion held some important data-material for the local tax-offices; in the passenger section of the ship a special ops commando guarded a "dangerous" and important convict. The main-engines of the ship were destroyed or devastated, and kind of a "core-breach" of sorts released poisonous gases in some parts of the ship.

Now the gamers arrived at the ship and explored it from bug to aft. Doing so they were able to understand what had happened. And at the end of the day they were the glorious rescuer of the commando and the prisoner; they also received salvage rights for this ship.

I already have plenty of ideas how to make this adventure and its outcome the entry point into a small, dirty and gritty campaign.

Now as to my question from the Title of this thread:

1) It is a long time ago that I was a regular Referee/ GM in a roleplaying game. I tend to think that I do a solid work. My spurs I earned with (A)D&D, CoC, SR 2, and some more games. With SF, especially with kinda Hard SF games like Traveller I have no experiences at all. So I wonder: Is there any advice you can give me about what to keep in mind, what things typically are "don'ts and dos"?
2) We plan to play from the beginning of the year 1111 right in the middle of the Spinward Marches. We are next to Lunion. So I wonder if there is anything special I should consider or keep in mind with that region - like local turmoil and upheavel, special pirate- or local/regional political campaigns?
3) What products except for the Corebook-Material I should consider buying?
4) If I wish to create kind of a small diary about the adventures, the background of the adventures and how the gamers performed, in what forum-subsection here on CotI I would create such a topic?

The campaign we wish to play is about a small Freetrader-crew earning Credits, paying the bills for the ship, doin' stuff that takes place in legally grey areas and stuff; this campaign is not meant to be the story of heroes or total badass pirates.

Thank you very much for any advice. Best wishes!
Liam

 

[McPerth]

2) We plan to play from the beginning of the year 1111 right in the middle of the Spinward Marches. We are next to Lunion. So I wonder if there is anything special I should consider or keep in mind with that region - like local turmoil and upheavel, special pirate- or local/regional political campaigns?

See that Lunion is the closest Subsector Capital to the Border Worlds, and Iguess that will make it an IN hub and stagging área and full of intrigue. OTOH, trade with the new border worlds state can be both, dangerous and rewarding...

3) What products except for the Corebook-Material I should consider buying?

Off course, either the Spinward Marches Campaign (CT) or the Spinward Marcehs supplement for MgT. I don't know this last one, but, for wat I've heard it's centered in 1105, so before FFW...

 

[Chris Barlow]

1) It is a long time ago that I was a regular Referee/ GM in a roleplaying game. I tend to think that I do a solid work. My spurs I earned with (A)D&D, CoC, SR 2, and some more games. With SF, especially with kinda Hard SF games like Traveller I have no experiences at all. So I wonder: Is there any advice you can give me about what to keep in mind, what things typically are "don'ts and dos"


Speaking as someone who like you started out as a Referee for AD & D and C of C then went on to referee Classic and Mongoose Traveller, I have the following advice:

1. If you can referee AD & D and C of C you can with a few adjustments easily referee Traveller. Compared to the half a dozen large volumes required to referee AD & D, TRaveller only really requires the core rule book for Mongoose or Book 1-3 for Classic Traveller. plus as recommended by McPerth the Spinward Marches supplement/campaign. If you need good referring Traveller referring advice Classic Traveller Book 0 is very useful.

2. If you need ideas for scenarios as well as any good SF novel/short story/film/TV series, most 20th century and contemporary thrillers can easily be "converted" to Traveller. Just substitute planets for countries, spaceships for ships/aircraft, the Imperial Navy for the US Navy/British Royal Navy, the Zhondani/Aslan/Vagr for the USSR/Red China/Nazi Germany and you will be fine. Change the names a bit too, ages, oocupations and sexes of some of the NPC's too. Otherwise you can end up in the situation I was in as a MgT Referee, I converted the early Alfred Hitchcock film "The Lady Vanishes" into a Traveller scenario set on a class R subsidized trader, unfortunately one of the players spotted the plot similarities. Everyone still enjoyed the scenario though.

3. Unlike AD and D, Traveller does not have character levels or an easily determined balance between players and their opponents. As a result if players do something very stupid like attempting to storm the Palace of the Planetary ruler, equipped with only sidearms, they can end up dead or imprisoned very quickly. Tough that's their problem not yours.
4, Remember in a high tech place like the Third Imperium in 1111, very little is actually totally impossible.

 

[LiamKerrington]

Hello everyone,

thank you both of your. You take away some of the pressure I have started to build up.

I think I will order the Corerulebook as well as the Spinward Marches Supplement. And from there on I will move on and look forward to seeing more material I may wish to buy. But I guess it is the best advice to keep the amount of material kinda low. Otherwise I might run the risk and loose focus.

As for adventures: I have a ton of ideas. Since one of my gamers is part of CotI as well I won't go in any detail here. But looking at the first adventure I might say: Pirates, a high profile prisoner, a crashed ship, salvaging rights ... There are so many hooks in this little, straight forward adventure - you have no idea - or maybe you have. :rofl:

Best wishes!
Liam

 

[MUELLERBADENER]

If you're running short of planet side adventure ideas, watch 2-3 episodes of 'Burn Notice' on Netflix and you'll find one pretty quick.

 

[LiamKerrington]

Hello.

If you're running short of planet side adventure ideas, watch 2-3 episodes of 'Burn Notice' on Netflix and you'll find one pretty quick.

Awesome! I will give it a shot!


Something "completely" different: WIth the help of the CotI-Traveller-RPG I tried to get a "better" understanding of the Fifth Frontier War in the Spinward Marches. I would like to know if the campaigns of this war are available within a specific sourcebook? Or is the overall FFW only "available" via a series of different adventures as well as different sourcebooks? If so - which ones? And is there a map somewhere available which displacesthe situation at the end or short after the Fifth Frotnier War?
Based on wiki my current understanding is this one:
Zhodani together with Vargr on the one side and the Sowrd Worlds did more or less independant attacks on Imperial regions - i.e. Zhodani and Vargr focussed on the Subsectors of Jewell, Regina, the better part of Vilis and Lanth; by the end of the war they have control over Jewell and the "coreward" regions of Regina; also they have taken most of the Vilis Subsector and the central systems of Lanth.
The Sworld Worlds attempted to take over the Subsector of Lunion and the "rimward" regions of Vilis; but they failed utterly. And by the end of the war they lost most of the formerly occupied territories; also the Imperial forces have taken a series of systems from the Sword Worlds, which would be considered a "huge chunk" of the Sword World Territories.

Is my understanding more or less right? This is based only on the "facts" from the Traveller wiki, which cover only a couple of system been taken and retaken. Or is part of the armistice from 120-1110 between the Empire and the Zhodani that the originalborders have been re-established?

Best wishes!
Liam

 

[rancke]

Something "completely" different: WIth the help of the CotI-Traveller-RPG I tried to get a "better" understanding of the Fifth Frontier War in the Spinward Marches. I would like to know if the campaigns of this war are available within a specific sourcebook? Or is the overall FFW only "available" via a series of different adventures as well as different sourcebooks? If so - which ones? And is there a map somewhere available which displacesthe situation at the end or short after the Fifth Frontier War?

The Spinward Marches Campaign has the most comprehensive description of the 5FW, including maps of the progress of the war in six month steps. And it isn't all that comprehensive. Some 5-6000 words altogether.

One thing to be aware of is that whoever compiled the chronology of the war on p. 16 goofed most grieviously. Whenever the TNS newsbriefs brought news of some event datelined on some world, he put down that the date was when the event happened rather than when said world received news of the event.

(Example: Regina hears about a Zhodani task force at Ruie on 186-1107. Obviously the news has been at least a week underway. Yet the chronology says that the Zhodani TF appeared at Ruie on 186-1107.)

The whole chronology is riddled with similar mistakes.

(And no matter how often this is brought up, official Traveller publications STILL perpetuate those mistakes ).

The chronology in GT: Sword Worlds has been corrected, but I confined myself to dates that concerned the Sword Worlds.

Based on wiki my current understanding is this one:
Zhodani together with Vargr on the one side and the Sword Worlds did more or less independant attacks on Imperial regions

The Vargr were also independent. The Zhodani attacked from spinwards, the Vargr from corewards, and the Sword Worlds from rimward.

- i.e. Zhodani and Vargr focussed on the Subsectors of Jewell, Regina, the better part of Vilis and Lanth; by the end of the war they have control over Jewell and the "coreward" regions of Regina; also they have taken most of the Vilis Subsector and the central systems of Lanth.

By the end of the war the Zhodani is out of Regina subsector; they're hanging on to Louzy, Mongo, Ruby, and Emerald. They're hanging on to the Federation of Arden, but have been pushed out of the rest of Vilis subsector, which is solidly under control of the Imperial 23rd Fleet.

The Sworld Worlds attempted to take over the Subsector of Lunion and the "rimward" regions of Vilis; but they failed utterly.

The invasion of Lunion may have been planned for the Sacnoth Fleet, but it never got off the ground. The Sacnoth Fleet spent the entire war at Sacnoth.

And by the end of the war they lost most of the formerly occupied territories; also the Imperial forces have taken a series of systems from the Sword Worlds, which would be considered a "huge chunk" of the Sword World Territories.

Most of the worlds that became the Border Worlds had been occupied by the Imperium, yes.

Is my understanding more or less right? This is based only on the "facts" from the Traveller wiki, which cover only a couple of system been taken and retaken. Or is part of the armistice from 120-1110 between the Empire and the Zhodani that the original borders have been re-established?

Yes, this is as of the Armistice 120-1110. The subsequent peace treaty reestablished the status quo between the Consulate and The Imperium (with a few minor twists).


Hans

 

[LiamKerrington]

Hello.

Thank you, rancke. I will update my maps based on your information. That really helps a lot!

And thank you for the link about the FFW. I will take a look at it.

Best wishes!
Liam

 

[Aramais]

Hello everyone,

about one-and-a-half weeks ago two friends and I started to kick-off a new Traveller campaign. It was like a virgin giving birth to it, 'cause we were kinda spontanous when we have started.

We live in different areas and way too far away from each other; so we did not and won't play Pen'n'Paper at the table; we have played and will play with the roll20.net-platform, which btw. is kind of awesome! When we played the first session, all of us were kind of baffled and amazed, how very well this platform works. And so the "lust" to keep things going has started to become stronger and stronger.

As of now we have decided to play based on Classic Traveller/ Mongoose Traveller/ 13Mann Traveller in addition to all the web-based material available. We play in the year 1111.

The gamers pilot a Freetrader; and they have to pay a monthly loan of roughly 30k Credits. Two gamers play two characters; but we have created two more half-player, half-non-player-characters in order to cover a minimum ground of skills and talents within the crew.

The first adventure we have played was one without a fight, although there was the potential of having some bullet/beam-exchange. (And I am glad we had no fight at all, cause a) I got drunk during the session (too much delicious red whine), b) we probably would have had some trouble dealing with the rules, and c) I like games with tension and suspense having no fight at all ...) The adventure was about a freighter that was boarded by pirates. Things god messy, and the ship collided with an asteroid. Huge parts of the ship lost artificial gravity and life-support, while other parts remained in a more or less "solid". The container-sextion held some important data-material for the local tax-offices; in the passenger section of the ship a special ops commando guarded a "dangerous" and important convict. The main-engines of the ship were destroyed or devastated, and kind of a "core-breach" of sorts released poisonous gases in some parts of the ship.

Now the gamers arrived at the ship and explored it from bug to aft. Doing so they were able to understand what had happened. And at the end of the day they were the glorious rescuer of the commando and the prisoner; they also received salvage rights for this ship.

I already have plenty of ideas how to make this adventure and its outcome the entry point into a small, dirty and gritty campaign.

Now as to my question from the Title of this thread:

1) It is a long time ago that I was a regular Referee/ GM in a roleplaying game. I tend to think that I do a solid work. My spurs I earned with (A)D&D, CoC, SR 2, and some more games. With SF, especially with kinda Hard SF games like Traveller I have no experiences at all. So I wonder: Is there any advice you can give me about what to keep in mind, what things typically are "don'ts and dos"?
2) We plan to play from the beginning of the year 1111 right in the middle of the Spinward Marches. We are next to Lunion. So I wonder if there is anything special I should consider or keep in mind with that region - like local turmoil and upheavel, special pirate- or local/regional political campaigns?
3) What products except for the Corebook-Material I should consider buying?
4) If I wish to create kind of a small diary about the adventures, the background of the adventures and how the gamers performed, in what forum-subsection here on CotI I would create such a topic?

The campaign we wish to play is about a small Freetrader-crew earning Credits, paying the bills for the ship, doin' stuff that takes place in legally grey areas and stuff; this campaign is not meant to be the story of heroes or total badass pirates.

Thank you very much for any advice. Best wishes!
Liam

You will also find information about various locales in the Marches at about that time in a truly fantastic, brilliant, superior, and altogether great sourcebook called Cirque. It's licensed for T5, but the adventures and data can be played with any rules set; planetary stats are completely compatible with CT. I can't praise the work more highly, really...of course, I may be biased, as I wrote it.

It can be found at DriveThru. There's no reason that it can't be adapted to your crew and milieu.

On the dating points: Hans writes as a purist, and may be correct from that POV. However, what counts is that the dates are in there as of when certain things occurred. If you'r in early 1111, you can move past that issue to the question of, "What is this planet like now?" This can be an issue in using any source. Both travellermap.com and the wiki, for example, describe the situation as of 1105. While major population changes won't occur on most worlds, Mirriam's minimal population on 1105 has been affected by the war. Other effects have occurred. Looking excessively tall may get you suspicious looks.

Enjoy.

 

[LiamKerrington]

Hello!

You will also find information about various locales in the Marches at about that time in a truly fantastic, brilliant, superior, and altogether great sourcebook called Cirque. It's licensed for T5, but the adventures and data can be played with any rules set; planetary stats are completely compatible with CT. I can't praise the work more highly, really...of course, I may be biased, as I wrote it.

It can be found at DriveThru. There's no reason that it can't be adapted to your crew and milieu.

On the dating points: Hans writes as a purist, and may be correct from that POV. However, what counts is that the dates are in there as of when certain things occurred. If you'r in early 1111, you can move past that issue to the question of, "What is this planet like now?" This can be an issue in using any source. Both travellermap.com and the wiki, for example, describe the situation as of 1105. While major population changes won't occur on most worlds, Mirriam's minimal population on 1105 has been affected by the war. Other effects have occurred. Looking excessively tall may get you suspicious looks.

Enjoy.

This is really good news. I will get "Cirque" asap. This is probably the kind of sourcebook I was hoping to find, although the Spinward Marches Campaign as recommended by rancke before has proven to be a very good source as well; a friend of mine was able to retrieve a copy of this sourcebook in his huge pile of rpg-stuff; and I already dug through all those passage which were of interest to me.
But "Cirque" will bring things to another and whole new level. Thank you very much!

Best wishes!
Liam

P.S.: As for biased - I don't mind. :rofl:

 

[rancke]

On the dating points: Hans writes as a purist, and may be correct from that POV.

I don't write as a purist. I write as someone who believes that glaring mistakes are detrimental to a roleplaying game, straining suspension of disbelief needlessly and reminding players that "it's just a game" just when they're trying hard to ignore that. I also believe that if you publish a commercial game setting, you're morally obliged to make every reasonable effort to minimize the number of such mistakes. In this case we're talking about a couple of man-hours' work. Or asking a friendly fan (like me) to do the work for you, which would be even cheaper.

However, what counts is that the dates are in there as of when certain things occurred.

Do you mean that what counts is that the entries in the chronology show events that occurred, even if the dates are wrong? Because what you wrote agrees with me that the dates count.

If so, that's what counts to you. Turns out, not everybody agrees with you. I must confess that I find these "who cares?" comments quite annoying. The answer is, "those of us who care cares". And the fact that there are people who don't understand why anyone could possibly care doesn't alter the fact that some of us do care.

Now, Liam may be one of the people who don't care, in which case what I wrote won't harm him, as he can just ignore it, or he may be one of those who do care, in which case he now knows something that is useful to him that he didn't know before.


Hans

 

[LiamKerrington]

Hello.

@rancke: I do care - a lot. I try to stick as hard to OTU (or in any other roleplaying game to the official canon) as is possible for me, my spare-time and my wallet. But I look out for those parts which are vague, which are open to de-construction, re-engineering, re-invention, and especially very suitable for very good "story-telling" (in terms of space-opera combined with solid solid Hard SF; this works, I believe in it, lthough others might call me insane about it).

Currently I read "a lot" about the Spinward Marches end especially about the Lunion subsector; and I assume that the "horizon" will become bigger and bigger. But Lunion alone has so much potential for good stories - especially with the "factual" base from good supplements. Your mentioning of the "Spinward Marches Campaign" is and was really amazing. It was not only a good entry-point, it really kicked in. Currently I am in a high gear. And together with the official Traveller-Wiki-material I can already build good backgrounds and establish the hooks for good plots.

I have a very high opinion of Aramis; so I am certain that the material he has worked on will offer much more incredible details about the Marches. And I look forward to have more material to work with. I really appreciate (good) fan-work. I may have high hopes, and disappointment is always close to such things. But I am in good faith.

And I am certain - correct me, if I am wrong - that Aramis had good inentions when he characterized your approach.

Best wishes!
Liam

 

[Kilgs]

One thing to keep in mind, since it gets broken a lot in traveler stuff, is the rule of lawful consistency.

Essentially, do not have adventures where the players must follow the law in one and break the law in the other. It is unfair to the players.

The Traveller Adventure does this... and it's so bloody irritating. If they're the crew of the Firefly, expect laws to be broken. If they are law-abiders, expect the laws to be followed.

 

[LiamKerrington]

Hello.

One thing to keep in mind, since it gets broken a lot in traveler stuff, is the rule of lawful consistency.

Essentially, do not have adventures where the players must follow the law in one and break the law in the other. It is unfair to the players.

The Traveller Adventure does this... and it's so bloody irritating. If they're the crew of the Firefly, expect laws to be broken. If they are law-abiders, expect the laws to be followed.

This is a very good advice. And I will keep true to it as much as I can.

My gamers have decided to consider their crew as a tattered bunch of Freelancers - war-torn, deluded, somewhat tired of some things that happened in their vitae. And still they lust for the stars. When they were in Kegena they happened to stumble upon a rusty old Freetrader. They called her Tin Lizzy. The ship was sitting in a class E Starport, and the former owner and crew simply disappeared. Officials sold the ship after a while at a ridiculously low amount of money which reflected the bad condition the ship was in. Now the gamers have "bought" the ship. And for nearly a life-time they will have to pay the rates for the ship. But more importantly: They want to do business. They do trading (especially between the adventures) in order to cover the costs and get the ship into a better condition. And during the adventures my gamers have decided to be neither good, nor bad; they want to handle situations "practically"; and they will take any opportunity to earn isk that is not too close to being illegal. But they don't mind bargains in the myriads shades of legal grey.

I have no clue what will happen next. But I have decided to put my gamers into a corner of Lunion/ Spinward Marches where they have to deal with pirates, scum and raiders more often - either for the good or for the bad. It will be up to the gamers. Mostly I will have to consider all three major possible outcomes in any encounter: Will they do something "bad", "minor evil" or "good" (in terms of neutral to good)? And how will this affect others NPCs, organizations, and especially networks?

I hope to create an atmosphere somewhere between Firefly and ... The Edge of the Empire (this "new" Star Wars RPG from 2013).

For me it is important that my gamers don't consider me to be the storyteller. I just want to set the stage and "react" to what the gamers are going to do. Certainly I will provide plot. But the focus is all about the gamers and their characters. They are the protagonists; they decide the course of action. The only thing that might occur is that they leave trails which asks for "bloodhounds" to hunt down the PCs ... :devil:

Best wishes!
Liam

 

[aramis]

I have a very high opinion of Aramis; so I am certain that the material he has worked on will offer much more incredible details about the Marches. And I look forward to have more material to work with. I really appreciate (good) fan-work. I may have high hopes, and disappointment is always close to such things. But I am in good faith.

And I am certain - correct me, if I am wrong - that Aramis had good inentions when he characterized your approach.

Best wishes!
Liam

Uh, to be clear, Aramais is not me, Aramis. You've misattributed.

 

[LiamKerrington]

Oh my ...
OH MY!!!

What did I do there? Silly me ... Sorry, Aramis. Sorry Aramais ...

But I am certain taht Aramais also had some good intentions when he commented on rancke's postings ...

*hides in a dark corner and weeps*

 

[rancke]

But I am certain taht Aramais also had some good intentions when he commented on rancke's postings ...

I have no doubts of his good will (Indeed, he quite recently gave me abundant evidence of that). I just think he misunderstands my motives occasionally.


Hans

 

[salochin999]

1) It is a long time ago that I was a regular Referee/ GM in a roleplaying game. I tend to think that I do a solid work. My spurs I earned with (A)D&D, CoC, SR 2, and some more games. With SF, especially with kinda Hard SF games like Traveller I have no experiences at all. So I wonder: Is there any advice you can give me about what to keep in mind, what things typically are "don'ts and dos"?

It was mentioned earlier in the thread but I'd repeat it as it was one of my big problems with Traveller originally and that's if you come from games like D&D there's a tendency to create adventures as a string of combat encounters. This is generally too deadly in Traveller (it's similar to CoC in that way).

Instead - if you're not doing the sandbox thing but creating explicit adventures - I'd say model them as a set of obstacles to overcome to reach an objective where some, most or all the obstacles are non-combat obstacles and the remaining potential combat obstacles are designed around how the players can avoid combat or at least avoid *fair* combat.

If you like gritty combat in a game then in a fair fight the players are likely to take casualties so if they have a lot of fair fights then they're going to die pretty quick so if you like players to survive long term then they need to get into as few fair fights as possible.