The Traveller Adventure

[Morte]

I was wondering about getting/running TTA, since it seems to be the nearest thing to a "campaign in a box" for traveller. I couldn't find much about it on rpg.net or google, so I wonder if you folks could chime in...

- How long would it last?
- How finished is it? Does the GM have to provide maps, NPCs, filler adventures, entire world descriptions? Or is it all there?
- Is it railroady?
- Does it involve much psionics?
- What sort of PCs does it suit: greedy, heroic, etc?
- Do you need guns, diplomacy, both, or either?
- Any ship combat?
- Would it be practical for a small group (2-3) of unusually powerful characters, or does it fundamentally need PCs in numbers?
- Is it good -- fun story, nasty dilemmas, balanced challenges, etc?

 

[Jame]

I'm playing it now (not Refereeing). It's about the March Harrier, set in 1105 and so far no psionics. I'm not going to say anymore, partly because I don't know much more and partly 'cause I don't want to spoil it.

 

[DElrick]

Hi Morte,

This is from memory (I'm at work, so I don't have it to hand, plus it's been a while since I last read it), so I'm sure you'll get more detailed answers but:

The Traveller Adventure is a series of linked adventures all based in the Aramis subsector. The book is about as thick as the softcover CT book.

You get brief write-ups of each world in the subsector and the main NPCs you'll meet along the way. You then get a series of adventures, more or less one per chapter, leading you from Aramis into the subsector. Some maps are provided, although you'll probably want to re-draw them larger.

You could probably run the whole thing in six months of weekly play if you wanted to rush it, but plan on at least twice that long.

There are some gaps in the middle and you would probably want one of the Patrons books or something to fill them in, but otherwise it is complete. You might also want the adventure from the K'Kree alien module where they have to rescue a K'Kree from some Vargr (that upset my players anyway...).

There are some railroady sections (particularly the first four or five adventures in the sequence), but it's not too difficult to persuade the players to follow it and it does get better. If your players are like mine, you'll need some of the railroady bits to get them back on track (I can't remember how I stopped them getting back from Scangen in the lovely Vargr extents, where they planned to set up a Howood export business!).

*** SPOILER ALERT ****

It does involve psionics, yes. In fact, it's one of the main plot-lines. But you should start with non-psionic characters.

*** END SPOILER ****

The players will need guns and diplomacy. At Towers, they mind find both useful at the same time.

There is ship combat, but not a lot. Mostly it's a people thing. You can fit more in though, if that is your thing.

The PCs are crew on a 400 ton merchant, so it suits about half a dozen characters (not all need to be PCs), probably not uber-characters though.

I've always liked the Traveller Adventure. I think it's probably the best one GDW did for Traveller and I've run it four times so far. I think it's worth looking out anyway.

Let us know how you get on.

I hope this helps. If you have other questions, ask here or PM me and I'll try to answer them.

Cheers

David

 

[mike wightman]

David's done a pretty good job from memory

I would add that the psionic episodes can be removed from the adventure without affecting the continuity of the story any.

I've run it three times now, and each time has been a blast.

 

[kafka47]

I enjoyed TTA very much. There is even spin-off articles in Challenge. It naturally builds to its conclusion. If you want more details PM me, as I don't want to introduce spoilers.

 

[Whipsnade]

Morte asked: I was wondering about getting/running TTA, since it seems to be the nearest thing to a "campaign in a box" for traveller.

Morte,

It is a 'campaign in a box'. It is also much more. I've ran it through three times and have used pieces of it several times.

- How long would it last?

It will depend. If you stick to the main plot alone with no side trips, about ~12 to 20 sessions. There are a LOT of side trips. The book has three sections of 'amber zones', those old CT thumbnail adventure seeds with six options.

- How finished is it? Does the GM have to provide maps, NPCs, filler adventures, entire world descriptions? Or is it all there?

The main plot adventures are quite detailed with NPCs, a selection of maps, building and ship plans, local color, and other bits of chrome. The much more numerous 'amber zones' are bare bones.

- Is it railroady?

That depends on how 'fast' in game time you want to run it. The players can be involved in lots of side trips.

- Does it involve much psionics?

Not as such. Psionics is part of one main scenario in the book, but the write-up presumes that either no one in the party is psionic or they haven't yet been trained. It's designed so you can either use this adventure to drop psionics into the campaign or ignore psionics altogether.

- What sort of PCs does it suit: greedy, heroic, etc?

The PCs start off trying to make as much money as possible during the short amount of time they can use their subsidized merchant 'off' the subsudizer's 'clock'. There's your greed. The main plot begins when they help a Vargr burgle a museum. There's your illicit or stupid. They also help out a family business, rescue lots of people, uncover fraud, engage in a trade war, and defeat the enemies of the Imperium among many other things. Believe me, TTA covers it ALL.

- Do you need guns, diplomacy, both, or either?

Both in the main plot. Either or both in the many amber zones depending on how you run them.

- Any ship combat?

Yes. Many scenarios can involve ship combat. One, the trade war, even demands it.

- Would it be practical for a small group (2-3) of unusually powerful characters, or does it fundamentally need PCs in numbers?

That's a tough question. The PCs are operating a Type R subsidized merchant so they'll need a crew larger then three. I did run TTA once with 4 players and sometimes only three could show up. However, in that campaign I also let my more experienced players run a NPC too. I'd 4 to 6 is a good number.

As for unusually powerful characters, I don't know how to answer. I never really allowed any unusually powerful characters in my campaigns. No psionic ninjas, no super pilots, no always successful merchants, no Annie Oakleys, nothing like that. I never liked seeing any CT skill get to 4 or above - unless that skill belonged to a particularily nasty NPC I used as the GM.

Is it good -- fun story, nasty dilemmas, balanced challenges, etc?

Yes. There is a real mystery the PCs must figure out, a threat they must thwart, very different challenges ranging from a trade war to being chased on foot across a mountain range to dealing with a vast bureaucracy to saving the girl to infiltrating the bad guy's lair. There are funny bits, scary bits, tense bits, and your PCs can even play at being lumberjacks - lumberjacks with primercord that is!


Have fun,
Bill

 

[aramis]

I've run it 5 times, only once to completion. 9 months.

Lots of good elements which can be taken out and used separately, if you wish.

Not much left to be said, other than, the psionic thread is too easily derailed by psychotic gun-bunny types. Lots of "THis happens so your character does this" bits scattered throughout. Very old-school that way.

There are two boxed sets which provide some serious campaign power: Tarsus and Beltstrike.

Beltstrike includes a mini-campaign (2-3 months), plus rules for belting. Almost all of it is transplantable.

Can't speak much of tarsus, since I never got it.

 

[signless]

We took characters from the Tarsus adventure and moved them smoothly into the Traveller Adventure. That began an almost non-stop campaign that lasted well over a year and a half of weekly game play.
I appreciated the "homecoming" aspects of Tarsus - with the players recent vets of the 5FW, just lookin' for a piece of sky all their own...but the TA is tops in my book for a really good, rounded introduction to the overall game.

 

[Whipsnade]

Morte,

One last thing regarding TTA; It is old school roleplaying. It was written in the early 80s and definitely has a late 70s/early 80s RPG style to it.

Loren Wiseman recently responded to a post regarding the 'job offers' found in CT's 76 Patrons. The poster listed all the felonies the PCs would be hired for; murder, arson, kidnapping, terrorism, etc., and wondered what GDW was thinking when they wrote it. LKW's response was telling. He wrote; It was the way RPGs were played back then.

Keep that in mind when perusing TTA, it's over twenty years old after all.

Traveller isn't alone with this 'problem'. Look at the old D&D adventures for example. They're a bit creaky, overly felonious, and definitely odd when compared to the new stuff too.


Have fun,
Bill

P.S. Wargames suffer from this too. Squad Leader never could have been sold before the late 70s. It's game mechanics were just too much, the learning curve would have been too steep. It took a number of precursor games and many years to get the hobby 'ready' for something like SL after playing PB or AK. (And, no, that wasn't planned!)

Conversely, the very popular SPI games of the 70s seem almost childish now with little or no C3I mechanics, no variable victory conditions, and 'U-go/I-go' mechanics.

 

[hirch duckfinder]

..... The poster listed all the felonies the PCs would be hired for; murder, arson, kidnapping, terrorism, etc., and wondered what GDW was thinking when they wrote it......

I see this issue come up repeatedly and I just dont get it. perhaps they were thinking "now we wouldnt do this in real life so wouldn't it be fun to pretend", which works fine for me.

 

[daryen]

With the caveats mentioned above, I would say the biggest problem I found was in the getting it started. The way it is written, they have to help a stranger burgle a museum. This was a big hurdle when I tried to run it.

Make sure that at least one of your characters have a connection to the stranger so he isn't really a stranger after all. Particularly, try to set it up so the stranger is "owed a big one" by one of the Harrier's crew.

Other than that, it is a pretty fun campaign. I do recommend it.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Originally posted by Bill Cameron:
Loren Wiseman recently responded to a post regarding the 'job offers' found in CT's 76 Patrons. The poster listed all the felonies the PCs would be hired for; murder, arson, kidnapping, terrorism, etc., and wondered what GDW was thinking when they wrote it. LKW's response was telling. He wrote; It was the way RPGs were played back then.

Watch for Flynn's latest Stellar Reaches (#3!). It will have the winners of a "76 Ethical Patrons" contest in it.

 

[flykiller]

The poster listed all the felonies the PCs would be hired for; murder, arson, kidnapping, terrorism, etc., and wondered what GDW was thinking when they wrote it. LKW's response was telling. He wrote; It was the way RPGs were played back then.

aHA! so the truth finally comes out! rpg's are a tool of the devil!

 

[far-trader]

No! RPGs are morality tests!

We all failed

Well, probably

Some of us passed

 

[Whipsnade]

Originally posted by Fritz88:
Watch for Flynn's latest Stellar Reaches (#3!). It will have the winners of a "76 Ethical Patrons" contest in it.

Fritz,

Exactly!

Just as the idea of Squad Leader would have been brought puzzled stares to the wargaming community of the early 70s, the idea - even the need - for ethical RPG patrons in the early 80s would have been nonsense.

It was the way the game was played 20 years ago. Our needs in 2005 are different from the needs of 1985.


Have fun,
Bill

 

[Gundiwolf]

Dang, now you're just making me old.

I was playing Squad Leader (and very quickly Cross of Iron) back in high school.

Oh, and quite a few of those SPI games *did* require/include a lot of C3I, and a few were famous (infamous?) for simultaneous movement via plots.

 

[Shadowdancer]

Here is a link to a humorous thread over on EN World that recalls just what Bill Cameron and others are talking about with regards to the way RPGs were played in the early 1980s. Some pretty funny stuff, and really brings back the memories.

The link

 

[daryen]

Thanks Paraquat! That thread is great, and I am only on post 4!

The ultimately cool/depressing thing is that I still HAVE my die crayons (Armory, I believe). And my exploding dice were white.

 

[clementk]

A similar recent thread on RPG.net. Mostly D&D but there are some bits from other games, including Traveller.

There's a reason we call 'em the Good Old Days

 

[PhillWebb]

Originally posted by Morte:
- How long would it last?

Ahem. My group just passed it's 4 year anniversary on the adventure. But we have had long breaks and probably have only played about once a month on average.

- How finished is it? Does the GM have to provide maps, NPCs, filler adventures, entire world descriptions? Or is it all there?

As has been stated before the Amber Zone/Patron adventures are very bare bones. But in a way I prefered that freedom to work things to my players and their characters.
One annoyance is the almost complete lack of NPC names particularly in the short adventures. Just about everyone is spoken about as their career e.g guard, a noble, a scientist, a merchant the characters deal with at the starport; when they could have been given a name in the same amount of space.
Handouts of the paraphrased letters and communications would have been nice as well. I made my own.
Vemene message
Akerut message

- Is it railroady?

Parts are, parts aren't. There is a lot of railroadings cousin assumption - "of course the players will choose to do X so we can move straight on to the next section".

- Does it involve much psionics?

It's a sideplot that's supposed to be there in the background for ages and spur a hunt for a psionics institute. I allowed one of my group to be psionic , he crit failed to notice the psionic angle but the the group managed to avoid it in a realistic way anyway. TTA doesn't suffer for lack of it at all.

Psionics, particularly Telepathy, does change the the way several of the chapters run though - Lifescan for kidnap victims for example.

Phill