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Old 09-30-2014, 09:15 PM   #1
Monsewer
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Default Advice for Interstellar Wars

Hello!

I’m standing up an Interstellar Wars game set in the starting date of 2170. Our group is comprised of the Captain, Engineer, Faceman, and an Astrobiolgist who is obsessed with discovering why humans are all over the galaxy.

What are some old Traveller adventures I could use that would easily fit into this timeline and make sense? I know the mysteries of humanity’s ubiquity are solved later in the timeline. Are there specific adventures that deal with discovering artifacts?

I don’t have a problem with messing with the “future” but I would like to keep it close to the timeline if the PC’s aren’t too disruptive (knowing this group, that may be a tall order). I would like to run a regular Traveller campaign with perhaps the descendants of these characters.

Thanks in advance!
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Old 10-01-2014, 07:11 AM   #2
Anaraxes
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Default Re: Advice for Interstellar Wars

Seems like you could relocate Secret of the Ancients easily enough, changing the heavies from Zhodani to Vilani (assuming your crew is Solomani). I'm not familiar with the modern product by that name from Mongoose, but it looks like it's meant to be a long adventure series or campaign, so there might be a lot of stuff to mine there.

Do you want the astrobiologist to actually learn the answer? That is, it's the main enigma for the campaign? Or is that just a driving motivation for the character to get out and explore?
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Old 10-01-2014, 09:51 AM   #3
Monsewer
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Default Re: Advice for Interstellar Wars

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
Seems like you could relocate Secret of the Ancients easily enough, changing the heavies from Zhodani to Vilani (assuming your crew is Solomani). I'm not familiar with the modern product by that name from Mongoose, but it looks like it's meant to be a long adventure series or campaign, so there might be a lot of stuff to mine there.

Do you want the astrobiologist to actually learn the answer? That is, it's the main enigma for the campaign? Or is that just a driving motivation for the character to get out and explore?
Thanks! I'll check out Secrets of the Ancients. Looks like it's available as a free download from Mongoose.

I don't have a problem with her learning the answer, but from a realistic perspective it seems unlikely she'd be able to do it without a vast amount of financing and a long period of peace. The woman playing her is a scientist herself, so she understands that if we play the game realistically, the character may never find out the answer. I do like the idea if we pick up playing in the Third Imperium a descendent of hers does discover the truth.

Last edited by Monsewer; 10-01-2014 at 09:56 AM.
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Old 10-01-2014, 12:51 PM   #4
selenite
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Minnesota
Default Re: Advice for Interstellar Wars

There's some Interstellar Wars adventures on JTAS.
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Old 10-01-2014, 04:12 PM   #5
Monsewer
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Default Re: Advice for Interstellar Wars

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Originally Posted by selenite View Post
There's some Interstellar Wars adventures on JTAS.
Thanks! I just subscribed and am going through them now. There's a lot of good stuff in there.
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Old 10-02-2014, 06:42 AM   #6
Anaraxes
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Default Re: Advice for Interstellar Wars

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Originally Posted by Monsewer View Post
I'll check out Secrets of the Ancients. Looks like it's available as a free download from Mongoose.
So it is. I hadn't noticed; thanks for the tip. I'll nab it, as it might be interesting to contemplate how to change it for ISW.
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Old 10-02-2014, 11:27 AM   #7
Mike Wightman
 
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Default Re: Advice for Interstellar Wars

I think just about every CT adventure or double adventure could have the serial numbers filed off and adapted to the ISW setting.

The ones I can think of that would lead to exploration and discovery:

Kinunir (what made the asteroid belt and why is there anti-matter in it), Research Station Gamma (just make it a Vilani research installation), Shadows, Annic Nova, Death Station, Signal GK - they can all be adapted and reveal mopre of the hidden secrets you wish to have in your Traveller campaign.
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Old 10-11-2014, 03:44 AM   #8
SteveS
 
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: near Seattle WA USA
Default Re: Advice for Interstellar Wars

In addition to classic adventures, you might have a look at the history of the "Solomani Hypothesis". According to canon (I'm not sure which book), Magis Sergei haut-Devroe formulated the Solomani Hypothesis, which stated that all of the 100 or so minor human races originated on the same world. One of the two main candidates was eliminated, leaving Terra. The hypothesis was published in 114 (Third Imperium year), and confirmed in 588.

Assuming your scientist is Solomani (Terran, in the Interstellar Wars era; I think "Solomani" was a later term), the fossil record of Terra would make the home-world part of the Solomani Hypothesis fairly obvious. If the scientist if Vilani (or from anywhere else in the Ziru Sirka, human or not), it might be quite a shock: "What? This backwater world we're fighting might be the home-world of all Humaniti? Ridiculous! Or is it?"

For any Solomani the presence of Humaniti scattered over a hundred or more worlds would be a surprise, and an interesting mystery for a Solomani scientist. A Ziru Sirka scientist would already be acquainted with evidence of the Ancients -- but according to canon, the idea that the Ancients were the ones who transplanted humans to so many worlds was not published until the Third Imperium.

It actually seems a bit odd that the idea that became known as the Solomani Hypothesis would not be published until some 2536 years after first contact between the Terrans and the Ziru Sirka. After all, the Vilani had found Ancients sites on many worlds, and Minor Human Races on many worlds, so the idea should have occurred to someone. But maybe the idea was formulated many times, and published many times, but failed to gain acceptance throughout either the Ziru Sirka or the Terran Empire. Or maybe it was, but it was forgotten during the Long Night, and Third Imperium historians failed to dig up evidence of a version of the hypothesis earlier than the one published by haut-Devroe in 114.

So, maybe the scientist in your campaign is destined to come up with the (seemingly obvious) idea that the Ancients transplanted humans to an assortment of worlds, and possibly the idea that they originated on Terra -- but will be one of the possibly numerous people who came up with that idea before haut-Devroe but failed to gain acceptance throughout the Ziru Sirka or Terran Empire. Maybe it's politically inappropriate for Vilani to publish on that topic, and maybe Terrans don't have enough evidence about the Ancients (or human races other than themselves and the Vilani) to form a plausible hypothesis.

Although you're not particularly worried about the possibility that the characters might change history, even a major success on the part of the scientist might be compatible with the idea that the scientist found convincing evidence that the Ancients were the ones who transplanted Humaniti to many worlds, and the idea that Terra was the original home-world of Humaniti -- but that discovery failed to gain sufficiently widespread recognition to be remembered by the time of haut-Devroe.
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