TNS Headlines

[AlHazred]

I'm working on handouts for my Traveller Hero game, to give players info. One thing I'm doing is making the hardcopy handouts resemble a computer screen, with these bars representing other news stories, and headshots next to the open item to show the newscaster reporting it.

Anyway, I'd wanted to include headlines on the other stories' title bars, and that's where my creativity deserted me. I'd like to come up with headlines that sound like they belong in a TNS dispatch, but most of the stuff I came up with is loosely based on current world events. I posted this question to another board, but this is a much more appropriate place. Can anyone help me fill out a list of headlines to use?

I'll start:

1. Ministry of Health Battles 'Mad Groat' Disease
2. Grav Ferry Sinks, 4 Dead, 24 In Cold Sleep
3. Pirates Seize 3 Ships From Local Shipyard
4. Spinward Regatta Gearing Up - Local Nobles Compete
5. Rak Gavren Interview - Filming The Frontier In 3D
6. TAS Offices Burgled - Officials Investigate
7. IISS Reports X-Boat Overdue, Possible Misjump
8. Three Dead, At Least 30 Injured, in Highport Docking Accident
9. Tukera Lines Contracts for Seven New Long-Liners
10. Lanthanum Strike a Scam, Say Belters
11. Mercenaries Repatriated at Last
12. IN Inspector-General Report Alleges Fraud by Contractors
13. Geena Shahurii cancels tour dates in district 268
14. Fewer passengers for major lines in the Marches
15. Alkiiri denies anagethics accusations
16. Surprising upset in Gomibaku Grand Prix
17. Still much work to be done on Lakuu after solar flare disaster
18. Denebian organized crime ring suspected of involvement in assassinations
19. Albano civil war rages on as stranded refugees attempt to escape
20. 7th Star Fighter Tournament suspended due to solar flare
21. Pikus' planetary computer network goes online
22. Xenoarcheologists find tomb complex under the sands of Santander
23. NEWSFLASH: Ortega found guilty in Noble Kinetic Arms scandal, stocks drop
24. Recreational drop pods: dangerous to our youth?
25. ISRA Judge Resigns Over Chute Scandal
26. TNS Interviews: Archbishop Xeron Shandru
27. Scout Service losses at five year low
28. The Regency Ministry of Research has denied the rumor of the virus using the remnants of the Longbow 2 system to broadcast an infection deep within the marches. Illigash Illurith has stated that "Such rumors are baseless and we have no evidence of such actions." Broadcast on April 1 sent by a hacker.
29. TNS feed has been maliciously been hacked and a reward of 40,000 cr has been offered for the arrest and conviction of this individual.
30. The Deneb cup has been suspended after a grav racer crash.
31. Imperial Ambassador to Hive Federation caught in sex scandal. He claimed: "We were only shaking hands!"

Of these, I only contributed 1-6, 25 and 26.

 

[aramis]

Wypoc Dragons kill 3 on hunting expedition

Psaydi religious holding major elevation of new leadership; commercial concerns over howwood prices.

Zilan crop fighting fungal encroachment; prices expected to rise.

"Gypsies" meet in ___ System. (100 Romani vessels gather for weeklong junction to inflatable station in deep system.)

Romani: Who are they, and why do they live on ships?

Admiral caught in love triangle; Duke requests resignation.

Duke caught cheating on husband: abdicates in favor of child.

 

[tinker123]

only the names have been changed...

Confession time - I just grab the current headlines from any realworld news service and change the names/places/details to fit the campaign concept. I find this has two advantages:
1 - the style matches what journalists write
2 - I can recycle the entire article if the players want more

So a quick glance at http://news.bbc.co.uk/ today suggests "Emperor/Marquis rules out Five Sisters exit timetable", "Shoppers face hydroponics price rises", "Paragon Cyberdynamics in Solomani human rights case", and in other news "Solomani restaurant offers plate smashing".

 

[Gadrin]

The Starwars Holonet had an online news service (you can google for holonet) with the same idea as you.

You might be able to bend some of the ideas into traveller-shape or get some other inspiration from them.

 

[Duke]

Protesters march for frreedom of Psionics suspects. Claim lack of due process.

 

[Spinward Scout]

Imperial Ambassador to Hive Federation caught in sex scandal. He claimed: "We were only shaking hands!"

:rofl:

These should be good for the 4th or 5th Frontier War

Jenghe militia digs in as Imperial troops leave Ruie violence

Two civilians may still face charges over Ine Givar abuse

Official: Capitol looking at five candidates for Imperial Attorney General

Ruby Army winning new respect in fight against militants

Imperial firms step up efforts to help domestic-violence victims

Don't forget to check out the GURPS Traveller page. It has a bunch of TNS News entries.

Spinward Scout

 

[AlHazred]

Many thanks for these. To tell the truth, I've been cribbing RW headlines, but they usually don't have the Traveller feel. I'll have to look into the Star Wars Holonet headline generator. I'm kind of surprised no-one's done a TNS headline generator yet.

 

[Gadrin]

Many thanks for these. To tell the truth, I've been cribbing RW headlines, but they usually don't have the Traveller feel. I'll have to look into the Star Wars Holonet headline generator. I'm kind of surprised no-one's done a TNS headline generator yet.

it's not a generator, rather an actual Star Wars periodical (at least for a while)...

http://www.holonetnews.com/45/archives/

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Protesters march for frreedom of Psionics suspects. Claim lack of due process.

And, how do you know there was a lack of due process? It was a closed hearing, after all. ... Go from there. :devil:

 

[su_liam]

Protesters march for freedom of Psionics suspects. Claim lack of due process.

And, how do you know there was a lack of due process? It was a closed hearing, after all. ... Go from there. :devil:

There's a lot of information hidden in that headline. The proceedings must be local. The fact that, "due process," is used with, apparently, a straight face, implies a government of laws, whereas the Imperium is, "a government of men, not of laws." Best chances are democracy, republic or some form of bureaucracy. Some dictatorships and oligarchies might be similarly legalistic, though, but not the canonical Imperium. You can extend it further to presume planets are left to enforce their own laws on psionics. That's not to say the Marines won't come raining down on any planet that refuses to enact anti-psionics laws, but hey...

Another possibility is that neighboring world's governments invade, then the Marines show up to, "enforce the peace."

 

[Spinward Scout]

I'm kind of surprised no-one's done a TNS headline generator yet.

Actually, somebody did. It wasn't headlines, it was a TNS article generator. I tried doing a search here on the board, but it says that the word TNS is too small to search for.



I looked it up in my notes and it was called 'TNS Quick and Easy'. If you don't find it on a Google search or some such, send me a Private message with your e-mail address and I'll send what I have to you. I think I found it on Freelance Traveller or one of those sites.

SS

 

[Sstefan]

I think I found it on Freelance Traveller or one of those sites.

SS

Yupp, that is where I jsut found it... thanks for the reminder of getting some ideas of how to infuse some character to various places.

 

[AlHazred]

It might be interesting to see what would happen if you programmed one of those text generators to generate TNS articles from a base data source, like the Postmodern Essay Generator but for Traveller.

 

[AlHazred]

There's a lot of information hidden in that headline.

That, to me, is the essence of good TNS headlines in a nutshell. The players have to think there might be an interesting adventure/story in any one of those headlines; it should be infuriatingly suggestive, contain local references, yet fail to deliver any meaningful conclusion - the conclusion can be for the PCs to provide.

 

[Spinward Scout]

It might be interesting to see what would happen if you programmed one of those text generators to generate TNS articles from a base data source, like the Postmodern Essay Generator but for Traveller.

Hmmm, that sounds like a fun project. Checking for an e-mail address for the owner of that webpage...

EDIT: Scratch that - can't find an e-mail address on the page.

 

[robject]

Confession time - I just grab the current headlines from any realworld news service and change the names/places/details to fit the campaign concept. I find this has two advantages:
1 - the style matches what journalists write
2 - I can recycle the entire article if the players want more

So a quick glance at http://news.bbc.co.uk/ today suggests "Emperor/Marquis rules out Five Sisters exit timetable", "Shoppers face hydroponics price rises", "Paragon Cyberdynamics in Solomani human rights case", and in other news "Solomani restaurant offers plate smashing".

So then, perhaps a Perl script or other program can grab some headlines from this URL (or -- better -- from its RSS feed), find likely nouns, and replace them with Traveller-appropriate versions.