Maladominus
SOC-14 1K
Hi all,
I wanted to cover a very neglected topic in Role-Playing Games:
Creating and sharing adventures/scenarios and missions that require the use of thinking skills, problem-solving skills, investigative skills, and require zero use of guns/physical violence. These are scenarios where the SUCCESS or FAILURE of the adventure will rarely be affected by the characters' use of a single Gauss Pistol shot or Laser Carbine blast.
I would like to share one example that I recently used in our online Classic Traveller campaign. I deemed the scenario a success, since after the scenario was completed 2 of the players congratulated me on creating this scenario, and the fun and excitement the group had. Funny. The characters had ZERO opportunity to use their gauss rifles, laser pistols and ACRs at all. I gave them zero opportunity for combat, yet I had been told the player group had a "blast"! Anyways, I will share the set-up summary of my scenario below, and in return, I would appreciate hearing more ideas for "gunbattle-free Traveller scenarios".
=================================================
"Blade Runner"
Premise: For months, the adventure crew of the Rotten Luck had been contracted as explorers and liaisons by the Solomani science foundation ConTech.
Premise 1) ConTech's CEO contacts the adventurers. She says that ConTech has a little problem... and requests the group's assistance. Problem is that ConTech (in the past couple decades) has done joint projects on Artificial Intelligence robots, in conjunction with other companies such as Panstellar. To test out how well their androids will perform, one of their "prized androids" 104D (aka Tenfordee) has been on a 5-year lease to a popular and charismatic Vice-Governor of the planet Viallalta (Magyar sector).
Premise 2) In the recent week, ConTech was notified that Tenfordee, who had served as the loyal valet-robot to Vice-Governor Valero, had been "arrested" as prime suspect for the gruesome assassination of the beloved Planetary Vice-Governor Valero.
Premise 3) ConTech leadership insists this is impossible! Tenfordee would never do something like this! Impossible. The android's programming was solid, well-tested, over and over. The droid was never programmed with any combat skills or the ability to perform some kind of ghastly murder. There's no way their droid would have done this. The Viallaltans must be mistaken. ConTech leadership is sending their "troubleshooters" (the PCS) to Viallalta post-haste.
Premise 4) Before the adventurers starship could reach Viallalta, Tenfordee is already scheduled for trial. The current climate is VERY hostile to the poor Android (locked up in solitary confinement). Viallalta is a reasonably high tech planet, and still retains some Agrarian features. In the Old Days, some old-timers remember when Viallalta was once a gorgeous pristine Terran-like garden world. No goddam robots. No androids. And the cities did not encroach on the vast countryside. And the Viallaltan farmers used simpler tools (albeit high tech ones), not some robots to harvest their bountiful crops.
Today, these old timers now support an ultraconservative political party, The Viallalta Humanist Party, who came to power some years ago on the platform they they would ban ROBOTS from the face of the planet. This party (and their political allies) have gained in power and support, and have promised to bring Viallalta back to "The Good Old Days".
PC Investigation) Upon landing in Viallalta, the Adventurers do the first logical thing. They visit 104D the android in his prison cell, locked up in a tower building in Viallalta's capital city (also its starport city). They interview the droid. Tenfordee states that he is innocent, and cannot remember having taken any action to harm the assassinated Vice-Governor.
Tenfordee "I was in the kitchen, chopping up vegetables, preparing the Vice-Governor's favorite meal. While I admit I had a sharp kitchen utensil in my hands at the time, I do not recall being outside in the mansion's patio... where the Governor was killed".
[multiple stab wounds by a sharp assassin's blade]
The Players are stumped. But by this time, they buy the presumption that the droid is innocent. But how can they prove it? Gathering the evidence was the heart of this scenario.
What the Players don't know yet)
The Vice-Governor had a former Kitchen Chef a little over 1 year ago. At that time, the Vice-Governor dismissed his Human Chef, in favor of allowing the android Tenfordee to delegate and take over as Head Chef of the Vice-Governorial kitchen staff. The android 104D was programmed to be an EXCELLENT cook, with high culinary skill programmed into him.
The dismissed human chef was vindictive of this move and swore revenge on that android.
Months later, the "Chef" had been contacted by agents of the ultraconservative Humanist Party, as well as by one of its seedy allies... the off-and-on Solomani terrorist party called SMMC -- "The Sovereignty of Man Over Machine".
It was time for another election on Viallalta's capital city. And the popular and beloved Vice-Governor Valero was.... a moderate. His politics did not jive well with the growing sentiments of the ultraconservatives, and those who opposed the hateful "machines".
It was time for the ultra-conservatives to sieze power. And they planned to do it two ways:
#1) Kill that damned moderate Vice-Governor, to pave way for more conservative Anti-Technologist candidates to have a chance!
#2) Blame the beloved Vice-Governor's death on an android itself! Prove to the rest of the world how unstable, how flawed, and how troublesome these androids/robots are to society.
The Former Chef? He was a Human chef who had masterful culinary skills himself, and was extremely proficient with a Blade. Also, he was a former kitchen staff who was familiar with the layout of the Vice-Governor's own mansion. Best of all, the Chef already have a motive for revenge. All that was needed is for the agents and operatives of the ultra-conservative SMMC and the Humanist Party to spend some weeks to train this chef... to be the perfect man to perform the assassination. The android would be framed.
Resolution in my Play Group)
The adventure lasted about 2 to 3 hours. I was quite pleased that my Players managed to succeed. First, I already knew that they had the following Traveller skills:
Legal-2
Hunting-2
Recon-1
Admin-2
Liaison-2
Bribery-1
Streetwise-2
Carousing-1
Many of these skills were used to perform a huge investigation. They HAD to gather convincing evidence to support that the Android Tenfordee was innocent. And that it was another individual that performed the murder. They succeeded with this part of the scenario.
The day before the "trial", it was expected that should the Adventurers not be able to present evidence in court in DEFENSE of the android, it was expected that Tenfordee would immediately be "terminated" once he was pronounced guilty of murder. Androids were not considered full citizens of any Solomani planet. In fact, they would be lucky if they even had HALF the rights due to a normal Human citizen. Hence, an Android could be put to death instantly without the chance of legal appeal.
During that day, a single gunshot was fired in this entire scenario. Just as the characters were leaving their starport hotel.... a marksman assassin from the SMMC terrorist group attempted to kill the ONLY character who possessed Legal-2 skill. Had this character been killed, the Adventurer Group would have had a rotten chance to present their "evidence" in a Viallaltan court of law.
As GM, I simply allowed the Dice Roll to take its role here. The dice were rolled, the character (somehow!) decided to don his Cloth Armor that morning as he was jittery from the very tense political situation on the planet. Fortunate for him, the marksman's bullet missed. Immediately, the Players took evasive action and hurriedly took cover. The marksman failed and fled right away. He was never caught.
The next day (in court) .... I allowed the Players to role-play the Legal defense of the framed Android. The players performed spectacularly! No dice were rolled. I required the players to talk things out and convince the dour hooded Viallaltan Judges (NPCS) that their ConTech Android was innocent of the murder charges! They did this in a convincing manner. The one character who possessed Legal-2 skill simply served as "assistant counsel" to a civilian defense attorney (who was sympathetic to the pro-Technologists). But the characters still had to provide all the investigative evidence.
They presented not just one, not just two. But they presented FOUR separate pieces of evidence they had gathered in the past 3 days.... in support of the Android's innocence. After both the sides (prosecution and defense) were heard, the jury came with their verdict:
Tenfordee was innocent.
Conclusion)
The framed Android was released and set free by the Viallaltan High Court. He was turned over to the PCs. The PCs immediately whisked him away back to their starship... and they left the planet ASAP. They returned to another system where they dropped off Tenfordee to the waiting ConTech representatives. They were paid Cr150,000 for their successful mission task.
** I plan to distribute this scenario in a more formal Traveller Scenario format in the near future, so that it can be used by other GMs.
I wanted to cover a very neglected topic in Role-Playing Games:
Creating and sharing adventures/scenarios and missions that require the use of thinking skills, problem-solving skills, investigative skills, and require zero use of guns/physical violence. These are scenarios where the SUCCESS or FAILURE of the adventure will rarely be affected by the characters' use of a single Gauss Pistol shot or Laser Carbine blast.
I would like to share one example that I recently used in our online Classic Traveller campaign. I deemed the scenario a success, since after the scenario was completed 2 of the players congratulated me on creating this scenario, and the fun and excitement the group had. Funny. The characters had ZERO opportunity to use their gauss rifles, laser pistols and ACRs at all. I gave them zero opportunity for combat, yet I had been told the player group had a "blast"! Anyways, I will share the set-up summary of my scenario below, and in return, I would appreciate hearing more ideas for "gunbattle-free Traveller scenarios".
=================================================
"Blade Runner"
Premise: For months, the adventure crew of the Rotten Luck had been contracted as explorers and liaisons by the Solomani science foundation ConTech.
Premise 1) ConTech's CEO contacts the adventurers. She says that ConTech has a little problem... and requests the group's assistance. Problem is that ConTech (in the past couple decades) has done joint projects on Artificial Intelligence robots, in conjunction with other companies such as Panstellar. To test out how well their androids will perform, one of their "prized androids" 104D (aka Tenfordee) has been on a 5-year lease to a popular and charismatic Vice-Governor of the planet Viallalta (Magyar sector).
Premise 2) In the recent week, ConTech was notified that Tenfordee, who had served as the loyal valet-robot to Vice-Governor Valero, had been "arrested" as prime suspect for the gruesome assassination of the beloved Planetary Vice-Governor Valero.
Premise 3) ConTech leadership insists this is impossible! Tenfordee would never do something like this! Impossible. The android's programming was solid, well-tested, over and over. The droid was never programmed with any combat skills or the ability to perform some kind of ghastly murder. There's no way their droid would have done this. The Viallaltans must be mistaken. ConTech leadership is sending their "troubleshooters" (the PCS) to Viallalta post-haste.
Premise 4) Before the adventurers starship could reach Viallalta, Tenfordee is already scheduled for trial. The current climate is VERY hostile to the poor Android (locked up in solitary confinement). Viallalta is a reasonably high tech planet, and still retains some Agrarian features. In the Old Days, some old-timers remember when Viallalta was once a gorgeous pristine Terran-like garden world. No goddam robots. No androids. And the cities did not encroach on the vast countryside. And the Viallaltan farmers used simpler tools (albeit high tech ones), not some robots to harvest their bountiful crops.
Today, these old timers now support an ultraconservative political party, The Viallalta Humanist Party, who came to power some years ago on the platform they they would ban ROBOTS from the face of the planet. This party (and their political allies) have gained in power and support, and have promised to bring Viallalta back to "The Good Old Days".
PC Investigation) Upon landing in Viallalta, the Adventurers do the first logical thing. They visit 104D the android in his prison cell, locked up in a tower building in Viallalta's capital city (also its starport city). They interview the droid. Tenfordee states that he is innocent, and cannot remember having taken any action to harm the assassinated Vice-Governor.
Tenfordee "I was in the kitchen, chopping up vegetables, preparing the Vice-Governor's favorite meal. While I admit I had a sharp kitchen utensil in my hands at the time, I do not recall being outside in the mansion's patio... where the Governor was killed".
[multiple stab wounds by a sharp assassin's blade]
The Players are stumped. But by this time, they buy the presumption that the droid is innocent. But how can they prove it? Gathering the evidence was the heart of this scenario.
What the Players don't know yet)
The Vice-Governor had a former Kitchen Chef a little over 1 year ago. At that time, the Vice-Governor dismissed his Human Chef, in favor of allowing the android Tenfordee to delegate and take over as Head Chef of the Vice-Governorial kitchen staff. The android 104D was programmed to be an EXCELLENT cook, with high culinary skill programmed into him.
The dismissed human chef was vindictive of this move and swore revenge on that android.
Months later, the "Chef" had been contacted by agents of the ultraconservative Humanist Party, as well as by one of its seedy allies... the off-and-on Solomani terrorist party called SMMC -- "The Sovereignty of Man Over Machine".
It was time for another election on Viallalta's capital city. And the popular and beloved Vice-Governor Valero was.... a moderate. His politics did not jive well with the growing sentiments of the ultraconservatives, and those who opposed the hateful "machines".
It was time for the ultra-conservatives to sieze power. And they planned to do it two ways:
#1) Kill that damned moderate Vice-Governor, to pave way for more conservative Anti-Technologist candidates to have a chance!
#2) Blame the beloved Vice-Governor's death on an android itself! Prove to the rest of the world how unstable, how flawed, and how troublesome these androids/robots are to society.
The Former Chef? He was a Human chef who had masterful culinary skills himself, and was extremely proficient with a Blade. Also, he was a former kitchen staff who was familiar with the layout of the Vice-Governor's own mansion. Best of all, the Chef already have a motive for revenge. All that was needed is for the agents and operatives of the ultra-conservative SMMC and the Humanist Party to spend some weeks to train this chef... to be the perfect man to perform the assassination. The android would be framed.
Resolution in my Play Group)
The adventure lasted about 2 to 3 hours. I was quite pleased that my Players managed to succeed. First, I already knew that they had the following Traveller skills:
Legal-2
Hunting-2
Recon-1
Admin-2
Liaison-2
Bribery-1
Streetwise-2
Carousing-1
Many of these skills were used to perform a huge investigation. They HAD to gather convincing evidence to support that the Android Tenfordee was innocent. And that it was another individual that performed the murder. They succeeded with this part of the scenario.
The day before the "trial", it was expected that should the Adventurers not be able to present evidence in court in DEFENSE of the android, it was expected that Tenfordee would immediately be "terminated" once he was pronounced guilty of murder. Androids were not considered full citizens of any Solomani planet. In fact, they would be lucky if they even had HALF the rights due to a normal Human citizen. Hence, an Android could be put to death instantly without the chance of legal appeal.
During that day, a single gunshot was fired in this entire scenario. Just as the characters were leaving their starport hotel.... a marksman assassin from the SMMC terrorist group attempted to kill the ONLY character who possessed Legal-2 skill. Had this character been killed, the Adventurer Group would have had a rotten chance to present their "evidence" in a Viallaltan court of law.
As GM, I simply allowed the Dice Roll to take its role here. The dice were rolled, the character (somehow!) decided to don his Cloth Armor that morning as he was jittery from the very tense political situation on the planet. Fortunate for him, the marksman's bullet missed. Immediately, the Players took evasive action and hurriedly took cover. The marksman failed and fled right away. He was never caught.
The next day (in court) .... I allowed the Players to role-play the Legal defense of the framed Android. The players performed spectacularly! No dice were rolled. I required the players to talk things out and convince the dour hooded Viallaltan Judges (NPCS) that their ConTech Android was innocent of the murder charges! They did this in a convincing manner. The one character who possessed Legal-2 skill simply served as "assistant counsel" to a civilian defense attorney (who was sympathetic to the pro-Technologists). But the characters still had to provide all the investigative evidence.
They presented not just one, not just two. But they presented FOUR separate pieces of evidence they had gathered in the past 3 days.... in support of the Android's innocence. After both the sides (prosecution and defense) were heard, the jury came with their verdict:
Tenfordee was innocent.
Conclusion)
The framed Android was released and set free by the Viallaltan High Court. He was turned over to the PCs. The PCs immediately whisked him away back to their starship... and they left the planet ASAP. They returned to another system where they dropped off Tenfordee to the waiting ConTech representatives. They were paid Cr150,000 for their successful mission task.
** I plan to distribute this scenario in a more formal Traveller Scenario format in the near future, so that it can be used by other GMs.
