Solo Traveller - The best campaign I've ever played!

[Mithras]

I've run a few solo games in the past, often just generating worlds, ships, populating a universe of my own making, rationalising UPPs and so forth. Of course I've ran a few trade games, but they soon became exercises in accounting.

That's all changed! I'm currently living an SF miniseries as rich and absorbing as any Firefly, I'm on holiday for two weeks and its taking up my time as much as my two week trial on EVE Online did a few weeks back. I'm just rolling, and adding a minimum of interpretation. It's been quite interesting!

So far so good
For example, we started on Regina Downport, the captain went for a high class meal with his first officer (ex-Navy officer) and through random encounters met a Baron Irendus, reactions good, he knew the exec and invited both to his villa for a party on their last night. Very nice.

We shipped ores to the crater moon of Hefry. After the romantic evening, seeing the rough captain in a new light, his exec opened up to him. This alienated some of the other women on his crew. At the rough bar on Hefry, sharing beers with thre other crewmen, one started a fight with locals and the captain jumped in, and was stabbed in the shoulder, but luckily (have you seen Hefry's law level!) the cops showed up in the nik of time. Now we're on Forboldon after selling Polymers, we've picked up Aluminium for a return to Hefry. The pilot has turned on the exec through jealousy making things tough, the exec is still staying by the captain.

My Organisation
I've found its all down to organisation, and to the crew. Organisation was a nice challenge, and I use the following:

• Regina subsector map + UPPs
• Photo gallery of all ship interior (culled from my favourite SF shows/movies)
• Deckplan of a Type R subsidied merchant
• Crewlist with photos (of some Hollywood actors)
• Notebook/journal, with one page per two week jump/in-system time used to record incidents, cargo purchases and sales etc.
• A minimum of books, Books 1-3, Citizens of the Imperium, Animal Encounters and 1001 Characters
• Crew Reaction Sheet

This last is the most important. I've got five crewmembers, and to create messy love triangles, I've made them all female. All owe the captain a favour and so in a way are rivals, some more than others. The exec is grateful that the captain is shipping her fugitive daughter in low berth, their lives are in his hands (yes very Firefly...), the loadmaster (no steward on this boat, no passengers) was married to the old exec, the captain's best friend, who died before the game begins. The ship is a home for her, meanwhile the pilot is an 18 year old Belter who is devoted to the captain like a puppy, he rescued her from a terrible indentured job she was trapped in and so on.

Each crewman has a 1D6 table, with 2-5 showing a 'things are normal result', 1 showing that the relationship with the captain has deteriorated, and 6 showing that it has developed and intensified. I make these rolls after coming out of jump, note then down, look for a reason, see who might get pissed by that new development, then note a future modifer or whatever. The relationships to the captain determine who he will take into the startown or into the freight warehouses on business, and that might have a knock-on effect, such as making the Baron on Regina as contact, or getting stabbed trying to help Lt. Purcell who is a bit of a borderline psycho.

So after the next jump, I just don't know how things are going to pan out. Its a simple system that removes my arbitrary decisions and just replaces it with randomness and consequence. What if the loadmaster decides she wants to jump into bed with the captain and get herself a steady husband? She's no officer, though, an ex-Army sergeant, not as intelligent or educated as the captain, but the elegant exec certainly is, although she is several levels higher in status than the captain.

The exec table reads, for example:

1........Wants the relationship with the captain to become formal and official.
2-5.....Continues to befriend him, laugh at his jokes, socialise with him.
6........Decides to throw herself at the captain, he's her best hope.

I also have a checklist of acivities for the week insystem, and these are also numbered 1-6 so that if something 'happens' such as the loadmaster declaring her love for the captain, I can find out when it was, refuelling, travelling out to 100 diameters, in the bars and clubs of startown? If something happens in the ship, I have a location table for that too. It gives arguments/events flavour and setting.

Summary
Currently my only problem is that I'm mainly shipping flat rate cargo, and making too much money! Admittedly I'm not paying any ship fees (its a second hand vessel, no idea how the captain got hold of it).

I think I've just realised, that a solo game is very 'flat' when it involves random encounters and trading, with some combat. It needs onboard character tension, a la Firefly, Farscape, Stargate etc. Certainly works here.

Just thought I'd share with you all! Now ... back to Hefry, not that I'm keen having been knifed there two weeks ago ... but first we've got a tourist passenger to drop off at Knorbes, I don't take passengers normally (having ripped out all the staterooms to make an upper cargo deck) but he's a friend of the medic, and I'm letting him fly at a discount. Unfortunately, rolling his reactions, he's told some of the crew about the medic's secret past life that will not undear her to the two who heard it. I need a relationship map I think. Anyone got experience of those?

Bye!

 

[far-trader]

Cool. I've long been a fan of the Traveller solo play. Thanks for sharing

My favorite was a long solo game I did with a Merchie (they do seem the easiest for solo play) and his Free Trader using MT rules. After generating a long career (anagathics ya know) he had a 40 year old type A he'd served on from when it was new. Paid off and inherited from the original owner (his Captain) he set out on a grand tour trading trip from Regina in the Spinward Marches to Saskatoon in the Solomani Sphere, and back I never did finish it up though it kept me entertained the better part of a winter.

As you note organization is key. I started with a few pages of tables and had a binder full of notes, a ship's log in effect, by the time I put it away.

 

[Mithras]

Hi Dan, it seems your forum name is well deserved then! I hope I can keep it up, I suppose key is the fact that it has to be entertaining, you're your own audience after all.

I've just got to get out of the REgina subsector, the stupid names are really annoying me! Maybe I'll head into Lanth subsector...

 

[far-trader]

Yep, being writer, director, actor, extras, and audience is a head full of hats

On my forum name, actually that (while related to and taken from Traveller) started life on the net as my eBay handle (with dreams of buying and selling around the world). Guess I earned the tag there too with sales and purchases on each continent iirc I always meant to put up a map of them but haven't yet.

As for escaping the sometimes silly world names by leaving Regina subsector, well, they're everywhere

It helps if you go with it and apply the personality suggested by them to the worlds. And I don't know if it was intentional or just my own twisted mind but many worlds seem to have a double entendre (?) going if you pronounce them just right/wrong

 

[Mithras]

It's amazing what dice and the Traveller rules can do on their own. With little input from myself, I've had a crewman get disenchanted and leave the ship to be replaced with a young rebellious Marine. The ship almost misjumped and in the ensuing power fluctation a fire trapped the engineer and ended up badly burning the medic who rescued her - but the engineer was a hero, but is pissed off with the captain now because he keeps buying unrefined fuel.

Of late, the captain picked up a smuggled cosignment of ammo for the Workers Revolution on Dinon. Only with bribery and the diversionary charms of the new Marine did he get the stuff past security. Lucky.

On receation into Rhylan city, a Marine encounered our new crewmember, had an old score to settle and took her out in one go during the monorail ride to Rhylan, our crew jumped him and left him KO'd while we hit a hotel bar.

It might not sound like 'high drama'! But for a solo game there's enough there to keep my interested and wondering what will happen next. I'm continuing with the regular character 'reaction' rolls, but a random encounter roll enforced, on the patron table every 2 weeks helps to create a unique feel for every planet fall. Is it a government agent on them, an old comrade etc. If the reaction is extreme, good or bad, I try to tie it into one of the crewmen's back stories, which then gives the NPC added motivation and depth.

So, still going well. The smuggling op made me sweat though. BUt I needed that Cr25,000.

D6. The magic D6. What would solo play be without the D6. When something happens, anything, I roll the D6, with '6' being very bad, and '1' being very good, the situation changing to reflect this. Fate, Luck, Chance, Destiny. Eg. hand over the ammo to the Dinon Worker's agent, say goodbye. Roll d6: on a 6 he will send around goons to try and kill them in Rhylan that night as they are witnesses to the planed revolution. Maybe on a 1 he flags them as useful smuggling partners in the future.