My previous post was me picking a rule set and a highly opinionated descriptions of the ones I own (I should have put the Big Floppy Books (BFB) as a version just to be taunting) and why I picked ST. The reason I needed to pick a set of rules is to have something to go through in an orderly fashion so I contemplate the major points of Traveller gaming. Also it has been years since I actually read the rules start to finish and I expect to discover things I forgot or never read in the first place. It is likely I will talk about the rejected versions because the most awesome thing about having an online community is getting different views. I can post what I originally think as I have before and the opinions others offer universally lead me to a better idea than I started and I thank everyone who has or does take time to chime in.
So the first section is INTRODUCTION which I thought about skipping with the whole I know what an RPG and Traveller is but decided to read anyways. I am glad I did because two things popped out at me "background drawn from adventure-oriented science fiction" and "interstellar travel will be as common as international travel today". Every group has its own way of playing and everyone has their own preferred aspect of playing but "adventure-oriented" seems to indicate a nod toward larger than life characters. Although I doubt we are talking about Kimball Kinnison as the average PC I do believe the premise is characters can accomplish more than "real" people do. This can explain some of the problems I have had accepting the published adventures.
It is totally meta-gaming but I will start before even beginning any kind of play with the need for everyone to be okay with PC finding adventures that might logically have been found long before they arrived. For instance the "Shadows" adventure that comes with ST it seems somewhat incredulous to me that in the 700 years Yorbund has been settled no one else saw the site. The 700 year estimate comes from the dot map charting the settlement of the Spinward Marches from Library Data N-Z (and The Traveller Adventure). It can save some friction after the game starts if players accept that their PCs will benefit (or suffer) from fate putting them in hot spots.
The second point about travel I think needs to be considered in context. The game came out in 1977 (?) and I am aged enough to recall that time. I can tell you international travel was nowhere near as common as it is today. It wasn't unknown but it was still enough of a novelty that someone who had left the country or was from another country stood out. So that is the atmosphere I will try and have my universe recreate. At starports and startown you wouldn't get a second look as everyone is from somewhere else pretty much but away from those locations and PCs will become minor celebrities "Oh my gosh! You've been to Regina? I have seen holograms but what is it really like?" Nice but kind of annoying and really hard to be anonymous. Which is okay because the more sneaky underhanded stuff should be in the cities of "Blade Runner" style.
The next section is ADVENTURING IN TRAVELLER which only has one point worth I feel like emphasizing, "The characters ... search for their own self-appointed goals" I mentioned I have come to believe my most fundamental failure in trying to run (and play) Traveller before is Players need to drive the story more than the GM. Having done far more in the fantasy genre I got used to adapting to what the GM wanted to run rather than exploring the world presented and following what interested me or allowing player to do the same. I feel to have a Traveller campaign be really satisfying the group (GM included) needs to set expectations before beginning because OTU is the ultimate sandbox. It isn't realistic to expect the GM to be able to provide a good session if the PC randomly pick planets scattered all over the sector "just to see what is there" nor in running a sci fi story is it interesting as a player to buy a ticket on the GM railroad either. So what am I suggesting then? Good question for which I probably won't end up giving a good answer but here goes. There needs to be a reason the group is a group much more than in fantasy I think. Ideally that reason gives a very loose storyline for the GM and players to work with.
That doesn't seem helpful to me using generic terms so I will give an actual example. The solo campaign idea which was the start of all these posts came from my idea that all the characters would be from the Solomani Rim. At the end of their generation careers had opted for a return to their homeworld by cold sleep which terrorist hacked the transit orders and had them re-routed to the Spinward Marches. The cold sleep idea comes from repatriation bonds and my belief the Imperium (or major employers) would have a standard clause saying if we move you half way across the universe during your employment we will give you the choice to be returned home on our dime. This seems like a plausible expectation for employees to have and the sorta time travel aspect of low passage also strikes me as a perk of choosing to take it as well.
This starting point explains (without having to actual explain) why the characters don't know much about the marches and gives the understandable unifying factor of being outsiders. I am drawing on my experience of enlisting in the USAF for this. I went from rural New England to (ultimately) Washington DC and even though I never left the US I can tell you it was pretty lonely and strange there. I ended up with some great friends most of whom were from the rural Midwest. Why? The experience of growing up in a town everyone knew everybody else; no malls close by so it was mom and pop stores; being outdoors because there wasn't anywhere indoors to be really and pretty much living free range (due to when my childhood was) meant those guys were the ones I was most comfortable around as we had similar outlooks. So I postulated that Solomani Rim people are most comfortable around others from that region without having to spend time trying to explain it as a thing during play.
Not having a really good idea of the local area makes taking patron offers believable as they wouldn't have anywhere better idea of where to go. The terrorist thing gives an enemy although not one they are able to do anything about or to immediately and brings up the point the Imperium isn't a united and cohesive as the countries we live in today. There maybe a vague let's go home motive but it is like 6 years if they had the money for awake travel or 6 years further into the future if they low berth back by which point they are 12 years behind everyone and evrything they knew. I am not going to have a conversation with myself about what I want to do but if it was for a group of players I would have a conversation about what genre of gaming they are interested in. Knowing they want to fight in the shadow world of conspiracies is different than being the magnificent seven.
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