Here's one that occurred to me, for when your players have a couple
more jump-capable ships available:
A rattletrap, lashed-together freighter jumps in-system and starts
frantically signaling for help. Once the players have managed to
ascertain that it's not controlled by Virus, they find that it's an
emissary mission from a nearby world that's in deep trouble, so much
that the inhabitants have decided they can't stay there and have come
to ask to be evacuated to the players' world. Possible reasons include:
- It's one of those vacuum worlds you mentioned. They managed to get
their computers isolated before Virus hit and have been holding things
together with bailing wire and spit since then- but they know it's
only a matter of time before something important fails.
- The planet has an extreme axial tilt, and was previously dependent
on a high-tech weather control system to keep it habitable. Oops.
The storms are bad and getting worse, and it's only a matter of time
before everything they have is wiped away.
- Virus hit the planet and triggered some kind of planetary-scale
ecological disaster, such as a series of 5-10 Chernobyl-scale nuclear
meltdowns, a massive toxin release into the oceans, etc.
- The planet has suffered repeated raids by Vampire ships and can't
hold out much longer. The Vampires are rather stupid and probably
won't follow them (as you noted, the smart ones are still a ways
away), but they're going to keep coming back to this world until it
glows in the dark.
Regardless, the players have the opportunity to organize a
Dunkirk-style evacuation, getting as many people off the other planet
as they can with their Jump-capable ships before it's rendered
completely uninhabitable. If they can do it, they can get a large
number of very willing and technologically literate workers, who could
be vital in keeping things going on their world through the worst
years of the Collapse- and needless to say, anything on the planet
being evacuated they think they can use is theirs. Of course, it's
going to be a huge logistical challenge, and more than a little
dangerous...
-JTD
--- In , "Nick Bradbeer"
<nick.bradbeer@...> wrote:
>
> 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)
>
more jump-capable ships available:
A rattletrap, lashed-together freighter jumps in-system and starts
frantically signaling for help. Once the players have managed to
ascertain that it's not controlled by Virus, they find that it's an
emissary mission from a nearby world that's in deep trouble, so much
that the inhabitants have decided they can't stay there and have come
to ask to be evacuated to the players' world. Possible reasons include:
- It's one of those vacuum worlds you mentioned. They managed to get
their computers isolated before Virus hit and have been holding things
together with bailing wire and spit since then- but they know it's
only a matter of time before something important fails.
- The planet has an extreme axial tilt, and was previously dependent
on a high-tech weather control system to keep it habitable. Oops.
The storms are bad and getting worse, and it's only a matter of time
before everything they have is wiped away.
- Virus hit the planet and triggered some kind of planetary-scale
ecological disaster, such as a series of 5-10 Chernobyl-scale nuclear
meltdowns, a massive toxin release into the oceans, etc.
- The planet has suffered repeated raids by Vampire ships and can't
hold out much longer. The Vampires are rather stupid and probably
won't follow them (as you noted, the smart ones are still a ways
away), but they're going to keep coming back to this world until it
glows in the dark.
Regardless, the players have the opportunity to organize a
Dunkirk-style evacuation, getting as many people off the other planet
as they can with their Jump-capable ships before it's rendered
completely uninhabitable. If they can do it, they can get a large
number of very willing and technologically literate workers, who could
be vital in keeping things going on their world through the worst
years of the Collapse- and needless to say, anything on the planet
being evacuated they think they can use is theirs. Of course, it's
going to be a huge logistical challenge, and more than a little
dangerous...
-JTD
--- In , "Nick Bradbeer"
<nick.bradbeer@...> wrote:
>
> 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)
>