I just want a feel of where most CT campaigns started. S3 suggests two options: Regina and Glisten subsectors. I started a quick poll elsewhere and was surprised to find everyone said "roll my own". So what's the answer at CotI? Do you use Regina, Glisten, another published subsector (share which one and why you picked it), or do you create your own (either by the book randomly or planned doesn't matter for purposes of this thread).
where do campaigns start?
- Thread starter Alex
- Start date
I've run one-off games in various bits of the Marches for the sake of convenience, but whenever I've wanted to run a campaign I've created my own TU, for purposes of being able to control flavor, plot framework, and to be free of application of OTU canon by rules lawyers.
My players always know that any game I referee always begins in a tavern. This started with the stereotypical D&D campaign having players meet in an inn/tavern. This has led to other campaigns starting in cantinas, taverns, starport bars, and a gambling casino (Star Wars, started on Bespin).
I started my most recent campaign in the Spinward Marches, Five Sisters subsector, on Iderati (the most trailing world of the pocket of Imperial presence in that subsector). The players were all Scouts (it's a "themed" campaign) who were given a lift to the edge of their operating area at mustering out time. Two of them rolled a ship, but the base at Iderati didn't have one, and sent them on to Flammarion, where a contact is going to hook them up. (Enter Mongoose's "Type-S" adventure.) I suspect they'll do odd jobs for a bit, and maybe get a survey commission for some small area well off the X-boat path, inspired by the T-20 linkworlds mini-campaign.
I'm considering pulling a "Mass Effect" on them, and have the Aslan or some unknown alien race begin to threaten the stability of the region. They will most likely have their Type-S traded in for something like a Patrol Cruiser, and be given a mandate to find out why the X-boat traffic from the Five Sisters has been interrupted.
My players like their stories a bit more "operatic" than some though.
I'm considering pulling a "Mass Effect" on them, and have the Aslan or some unknown alien race begin to threaten the stability of the region. They will most likely have their Type-S traded in for something like a Patrol Cruiser, and be given a mandate to find out why the X-boat traffic from the Five Sisters has been interrupted.
My players like their stories a bit more "operatic" than some though.
It depends on how much work you want to do yourself and how much material written by others you want to be able to use. Two subsectors have been detailed in book length, Aramis (The Traveller Adventure) and the Sword Worlds (GT:Sword Worlds). After that, Regina subsector probably has more material available than any other place. Especially if you count all the articles published by JTAS Online. Glisten/District 268 has quite a bit of material too, although some of it is contra-canonical.
Hans
Hans is dead-on. If you want to get something started, then don't make more work for yourself; pick one of the more detailed subsectors of the Spinward Marches and use it.
Then, if you later decide you want to do your own thing and you have enough time to do it, just wrap a completely homebrewed sector around that subsector, and it's yours.
I've run two major campaigns in the OTU... one was far away from it, but in the same universe (an isolated group of humans dropped far away from the Imperium by the Ancients). The other was based on Glisten during the 5FW. That let me use all the 5FW material in JTAS and the books, but we weren't on the front lines.
I took the Zhodani stuff from Leviathan, and speculated that since the fleets were busy elsewhere, the "war" in Glisten, District 268, 5 Sisters, and the rimward subsectors of Trojan Reach operated more like an extremely violent tradewar, with the occasional TL 11 Swordy big ship to stir things up, and a huge Impy presence in the 5 Sisters that wasn't going to leave it. Fun merchant/paramilitary stuff, all done with ships under 2000 tons. Lots of "privateering".
But I agree with Hans and Rob. It's about how much you want to have to work on it... the more "official" stuff you use, the less you have to do yourself.
I took the Zhodani stuff from Leviathan, and speculated that since the fleets were busy elsewhere, the "war" in Glisten, District 268, 5 Sisters, and the rimward subsectors of Trojan Reach operated more like an extremely violent tradewar, with the occasional TL 11 Swordy big ship to stir things up, and a huge Impy presence in the 5 Sisters that wasn't going to leave it. Fun merchant/paramilitary stuff, all done with ships under 2000 tons. Lots of "privateering".
But I agree with Hans and Rob. It's about how much you want to have to work on it... the more "official" stuff you use, the less you have to do yourself.
Gray Lensman
SOC-13
[/Ramble Mode On]Like a lot of people I imagine, I started in the Spinward Marches. I ran mostly published stuff only made up what I had to (Darn College kept interfering, go figure 
).
In 1984, I used the following tidbit from Supplement 3: The Spinward Marches as a way to get my characters to cross the vast amount of space between the Marches and the Solomani Rim Sector..
(from Supplement 3: The Spinward Marches, GDW, 1979, Page 32...
). In 1984, I used the following tidbit from Supplement 3: The Spinward Marches as a way to get my characters to cross the vast amount of space between the Marches and the Solomani Rim Sector..
(from Supplement 3: The Spinward Marches, GDW, 1979, Page 32...
There is evidence that deep vallies on the surface of Pimane contain both atmosphere and life, although the surface plains are star-baked vacuum.)
I placed some Ancient transplanted Vegans there and got the party involved in getting a delegation of them back to Muan Gwi. I still used mostly published stuff even though by then I was out of school (Darn Work ), everything I could get my hands on (magazines/fanzines/published adventures ect. ect.) just filing off the serial numbers so to speak.
), everything I could get my hands on (magazines/fanzines/published adventures ect. ect.) just filing off the serial numbers so to speak.Nowdays I am working up a spinoff from the OTU during the Interstellar wars era (may actually finish it one of these days)[Darn BECMI and 3.5 Campaigns ]
]I guess the point I am trying to make is start where/how you feel most comfortable. File off serial numbers as you see fit, roll your own as you see fit. One thing about CT is that LBB 1-3 allow you to do just that, a simple framework of rules to get you started.
And don't discount other genres/rules systems either, inspiration is where you find it.
[/End Ramble Mode]
[/End Ramble Mode]
G
gloriousbattle
Guest
For me, the where in a physical sense doesn't matter as much as the where in the "under what circumstances" sense.
I will often start a campaign on the battlefield, with the player's force being destroyed by some horrible weapon, and them having to flee for their lives into the mysterious Blood Nebula.
"THE BLOOD NEBULA?! But no one's ever come out of there alive!"
"Beats the Hell out of facing three Solomani battleships! Now, DAMMIT MR. NAVIGATOR, I SAID JUMP!"
In my newest campaign, I think the game will start with a murder on a university campus, in my own, Dark King Sector.
I will often start a campaign on the battlefield, with the player's force being destroyed by some horrible weapon, and them having to flee for their lives into the mysterious Blood Nebula.
"THE BLOOD NEBULA?! But no one's ever come out of there alive!"
"Beats the Hell out of facing three Solomani battleships! Now, DAMMIT MR. NAVIGATOR, I SAID JUMP!"
In my newest campaign, I think the game will start with a murder on a university campus, in my own, Dark King Sector.
Bars are the 'typical' starting point. In a campaign I'll be running soon, the players will be mistaken for crew from another ship and waylaid, then get dragged into a Trade War. [Yes, this is a rehash of an old, old campaign, don't remember if it was CT or canon...]
The starting point really depends on the players, though.
The starting point really depends on the players, though.
ShapeShifter
SOC-13
I like to throw the PC's right into the action from the onset:
* completely surrounded by machete-wielding bravoes itching for bloodshed.
* on the verge of being skewered on the pointy spears of a terrible band of sluglike Zogwargs.
* in the fiendish clutches of the colossal snot monster of planet Plootarg!
Will Spaceman Spiff make it out alive this time, or will he meet a terrible end?!?!
Stay tuned...!
:rofl:
* completely surrounded by machete-wielding bravoes itching for bloodshed.
* on the verge of being skewered on the pointy spears of a terrible band of sluglike Zogwargs.
* in the fiendish clutches of the colossal snot monster of planet Plootarg!
Will Spaceman Spiff make it out alive this time, or will he meet a terrible end?!?!
Stay tuned...!
:rofl:
Willie Dewitt
SOC-11
In my little campaign, one character started with a Free Trader. So it was a no brainer that I would just have the games revolve around that with the other PC's as crew.
If there had been no ship. I prob would have started with a pub, a brawl, and then the appearance of a patron with a job for them. You know, classic first game of any genre
If there had been no ship. I prob would have started with a pub, a brawl, and then the appearance of a patron with a job for them. You know, classic first game of any genre
ShapeShifter
SOC-13
:rofl:
GM: "You're two seconds away from explosive decompression! WHAT DO YOU DO?!"
Player 1: "Gaaaaahhhh--"
Player 2: "You see, this is why we have resurrection in D&D!"
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
Most of mine start with the Death Station adventure - with a twist.
My last game the characters all started down and out working in a starship salvage yard. Stir in a healthy does of Dim-witted Gangsters, a Plot to corner the market on a new source of Anagathic drugs and ill suited attempted recruitment of a new students of a local Psionics institute, generated much GM amusement.
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