Gentlemen of the list,
After some years of faffing, I've recently started to run a Traveller
game again. The players are seasoned RPGers, but none have ever played
Traveller before so the background is entirely new.
The idea was to run a Birthright-like game, where each player has a
high-level PC who gets some say in how the world runs, but will take
on secondary characters for more action-orientated adventures. I have
three players, who are playing the Marquis of Tahspeck, the planetary
director of Ling Standard Products and the Commander in charge of the
Imperial Navy assets in-system.
The game is set in the Sinta sector of Corridor in 1130, at the rift
edge of Strephon's Worlds. The game has begun on the (backwater) TL-10
ice world of Tahspeck, with the arrival of the Virus. In this
particular TU, Virus requires a TL11+ computer to infect it, between
which fact and the fact that (my) Tahspeck is being strip-mined by
megacorps from Inarli so it's not on many people's jump routes, it has
weathered Collapse reasonably well, losing only about 25% of its
population and retaining eight system defence boats largely intact
(out of an original flotilla of sixteen.)
We're three sessions in now, and the players have fought off the
initial infection. It wasn't entirely bloodless - between a handful
of nukes and nineteen ships crashing into the planet, over a million
people have died - but the situation is heading for stability. The
immediate external threats are gone, and they just need to deal with a
rioting populace and some internal Vilani/offworlder politics.
It's only a matter of time before they start exploring other nearby
systems. They have very limited jump capability (one 200-ton naval
auxiliary with jump-2 survived) but they went to great lengths to
preserve LSP's shipyard largely intact, so they'll be able to build
something jump capable before very long.
I have a number of ideas for situations they may encounter on some
nearby worlds (some are obviously going to be graveyards - a TL-13
vacuum world doesn't have good prospects) but I'm very open to
inspiration for interesting things to throw into their paths. This is,
of course, immediately after/during the initial Virus rampage, so
there's been no time for societies to evolve as in the New Era. Mostly
it'll be societies in the immediate aftermath. Also, I presume that
most of the Virus strains active here are Samson Inducers and Killers
- the Doomslayers and Empire Builders are some way behind - so the
interesting Virus behaviour is a while away.
My overall plan is that the world will go through a period of
"fortress years" where they have to stabilise their situation and
build up their defences while coming under increasing levels of
Vampire attack, which will gradually subside as the number of ships
tails off, after which explorations can happen in earnest.
But! If anybody feels inspired to suggest any plausible and dramatic
situations that might occur on nearby worlds in the immediate
aftermath, I'm all ears. They're certainly limited to J-1, and if
they're determined they can recce as far as a four-parsec radius
without refuelling.
Nick
(All keen again)
After some years of faffing, I've recently started to run a Traveller
game again. The players are seasoned RPGers, but none have ever played
Traveller before so the background is entirely new.
The idea was to run a Birthright-like game, where each player has a
high-level PC who gets some say in how the world runs, but will take
on secondary characters for more action-orientated adventures. I have
three players, who are playing the Marquis of Tahspeck, the planetary
director of Ling Standard Products and the Commander in charge of the
Imperial Navy assets in-system.
The game is set in the Sinta sector of Corridor in 1130, at the rift
edge of Strephon's Worlds. The game has begun on the (backwater) TL-10
ice world of Tahspeck, with the arrival of the Virus. In this
particular TU, Virus requires a TL11+ computer to infect it, between
which fact and the fact that (my) Tahspeck is being strip-mined by
megacorps from Inarli so it's not on many people's jump routes, it has
weathered Collapse reasonably well, losing only about 25% of its
population and retaining eight system defence boats largely intact
(out of an original flotilla of sixteen.)
We're three sessions in now, and the players have fought off the
initial infection. It wasn't entirely bloodless - between a handful
of nukes and nineteen ships crashing into the planet, over a million
people have died - but the situation is heading for stability. The
immediate external threats are gone, and they just need to deal with a
rioting populace and some internal Vilani/offworlder politics.
It's only a matter of time before they start exploring other nearby
systems. They have very limited jump capability (one 200-ton naval
auxiliary with jump-2 survived) but they went to great lengths to
preserve LSP's shipyard largely intact, so they'll be able to build
something jump capable before very long.
I have a number of ideas for situations they may encounter on some
nearby worlds (some are obviously going to be graveyards - a TL-13
vacuum world doesn't have good prospects) but I'm very open to
inspiration for interesting things to throw into their paths. This is,
of course, immediately after/during the initial Virus rampage, so
there's been no time for societies to evolve as in the New Era. Mostly
it'll be societies in the immediate aftermath. Also, I presume that
most of the Virus strains active here are Samson Inducers and Killers
- the Doomslayers and Empire Builders are some way behind - so the
interesting Virus behaviour is a while away.
My overall plan is that the world will go through a period of
"fortress years" where they have to stabilise their situation and
build up their defences while coming under increasing levels of
Vampire attack, which will gradually subside as the number of ships
tails off, after which explorations can happen in earnest.
But! If anybody feels inspired to suggest any plausible and dramatic
situations that might occur on nearby worlds in the immediate
aftermath, I'm all ears. They're certainly limited to J-1, and if
they're determined they can recce as far as a four-parsec radius
without refuelling.
Nick
(All keen again)