Showing posts with label Rumors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rumors. Show all posts

Saturday, February 29, 2020

Don't Believe Everything You Hear - Rumors in Traveller

Encounters are a staple of role-playing activity. As the PCs move about from place to place they naturally meet up with NPCs and interact with them.

 Traveller has a mechanism for a type of encounter I've seen in almost no other RPG. In the Encounters section there are tables for encountering Rumors. Here's some of what the rules say about them (TTB, p.99):
Information is a valuable commodity to travellers, and rumors are the source of much useful information.
In any case the idea of the rumor allows the player characters to learn of new exciting an potentially rewarding (or potentially deadly) situations. In many Traveller situations, a rumor is simply information leading to a patron, a job or a potential treasure; . . . 
Rumors are valuable, and once player characters know of their potential, they will seek them out. 
I have no idea what kind of information this gathers.

I admit that over the years of playing, I've struggled to know what to do with the Rumor table. The main difficulty was always what is this Rumor about? An important clue? To what?  An Obvious clue? Why is it obvious?

 It occurred to me that one solution to this is to create a list of rumors to match the table, all relating to one thing.

When the players inquire about a thing or a person, or when the Referee gets an idea about something that the players would find interesting, start brainstorming. Decide what the facts of the matter are. Use the Rumor descriptions in the table as a guide and create the tidbits that will reel in the players.

Example: rumors about a treasure on Worosha.

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Thursday, October 17, 2019

Surprising Research in the Third Imperium

Readers of my blog will know that I run in my own TU, not the canon Third Imperium. However, that does not mean that I don't pay attention to the canon material. For example, I recently ran across this:

Supplement 8, Library Data (A-M) has an entry on Imperial Research Stations on page 33.

I quote a portion of that article:
“Imperial research may delve into many areas. Some examples include: black hole research, both large scale and mini black hole investigation, instantaneous transmitter development (so far proving impossible) advanced gravity manipulation, generic manipulation, anti-matter containment, weapon research, disintegrator beams, black globe development, deep planetary core soundings, nova prevention and prediction. Psychohistory, mass population behavior prediction, psionics, stable super-heavy elements, deep radar analysis, long range detection systems, robotics, artificial intelligence, stasis and time travel, so-called magic, cryptography, bionics, personal shields, x-ray lasers, and high temperature superconductors.”

Wait. A. Minute.

That list said “magic”.
If that's the Earth, where is she standing?

Let that sink in for a moment.

Magic could exist in Traveller.
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Thursday, April 13, 2017

The Armor of St. Oswin

The Tale of Saint Oswin of Mavramorn, patron of non-combatant soldiers.
Fr. Oswin, wearing The Armor.
During the Stavanger-Mavramorn war, (100+ years ago) Fr. Oswin was a Mavramorn Army Chaplain. At the Battle of Five Hills, Fr. Oswin traversed the battlefield, praying and tending to the wounded. He went as always, unarmed, with his clerical stole over top of his light armor jacket. His actions and prayers saved many from death. As he knelt in prayer with a dying soldier, an enemy sharpshooter, an impious man, spotted him and targeted the chaplain. This despite both sides acknowledging chaplains as non-combatants, exempt from attack.

As the sniper fired, a bird startled from the brush ahead of him and took the bullet. The sniper tried to fire again, but his weapon hung fire. Finding no mechanical fault, he fired twice more, each time thinking he had a true shot, but Fr. Oswin appeared untouched. His fifth shot struck Fr. Oswin in the chest, but the chaplain continued his ministrations unharmed. At this sight, the sharpshooter threw away his weapon and made his way to the Mavramorn lines to surrender, asking only to meet the chaplain. When they met, the sniper explained what had happened.

Mavramorn soldiers inspected Fr. Oswin's armor, and found that it had not only a large hole in the chest, but another in the back. The bullet passed through Fr. Oswin without harming him. At this, the sniper fell at Fr. Oswin's feet and begged his forgiveness for his attempt to murder him. The priest forgave him, but the Mavramorn forces took him as prisoner. Fr. Oswin later baptized him into the faith.

The Army gave the Mesh jacket to a church on Mavramorn where it was venerated as a relic, the Armor of St. Oswin. After the war, both St. Oswin and the former sniper ended their days in peace in a monastery.

The weapon which failed to kill Fr. Oswin was recovered by Stavanger forces, but ever after it could not hit a living target. Time and again it was tested and new sights attached. It would hit practice targets, but when fired at a person it would always miss, or fail to fire. After the war it was decommissioned, and went to a church on Stavanger, and it also is now a relic of St Oswin.

Referee's Information:
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Thursday, April 14, 2016

Non-State Actors in the Corridor

For this post I have relied heavily on the personal & group name tables provided in Stars Without Number. Even if you don't intend to play them, support the publishers of free games by picking up their stuff and sharing what's good about them!

In my Traveller Universe, there are some religious radicals, but the 10th century of the Space Age is more an era of political loopiness and wannabe world dictators, like the Yedos. (See Homesteader's Stand) Every crackpot political idea of the 20th century, like every Christian heresy, will rear its ugly head again. 
Fascists!

Communists!

Anarchists!

Monarchists!

Oh My!


Across the map


Lots of rich guys think it's cool to have a private army to secure their big estates, settle scores and do the occasional job to disadvantage their rivals. Nobles are expected to have personal bodyguards and armed retinues.

Arms dealing, especially across TL lines, is frowned upon as being destabilizing, is done constantly, is highly profitable and often is very dangerous. Competition is fierce. 

There are several trade/cargo conglomerates. They are not beholden to any nation or state. These too have their own Private Military Contractors, including armed ships to defend their transports. The PMCs will guard docks, warehouses and ships. Private Naval Contractors, aka Privateers do 'jobs' in space.
Companies & corporations of any size and location may have PMCs.
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Thursday, October 23, 2014

Intel and Tech Briefs for Adventure Inspiration


Anybody who's read my blog for long knows that I am a regular reader of Strategic Forecasting, because I like to keep up on what's going on in the world. But have you considered how you can use real-world analyses to bring the complexity of geopolitics to your Traveller game?  
Each planet/system in a Traveller subsector can be treated like its own nation; neighbors compete for local and regional dominance, for access to markets for their exports and for suppliers for the imports they want.  Stratfor looks at these activities in the real world, but the motivations and decisions and actions they explain can be easily transferred to Traveller, whichever rules set you are playing with. 

To get a sense of the possibilities, visit these sites and explore the content available.
·         www.stratfor.com
·         www.geopoliticalmonitor.com
·         www.janes.com

All of these sites have a mix of free and subscription content. They're not cheap, so choose wisely how much intel you want to access. The free stuff should be plenty for a referee who wants new adventure ideas, particularly for settings where the PCs are involved in local/interstate politics.

I have described what Stratfor is and does elsewhere.
The Jane's Information Group has been a preeminent source of military data and intelligence since the 1890's. IHS/Jane's 360 is a free information source covering the dreaded "military-industrial complex". The site covers land, air and naval technology; who's buying or building or selling what and to whom. 
Geopolitical Monitor is a consultancy firm based in Canada that “offers members original, timely and comprehensive analysis on events of international significance to readers in the English speaking world.”

Here are some recent articles that could be the basis for a Traveller adventure, either in the Official Traveller Universe or in your (or my) universe, or in another published setting like the Clement Sector by Gypsy Knight Games.

"China Builds another island in the South China Sea"  - China is creating new land masses that they can claim as Chinese territory, far from their sovereign waters. It was reported this week that the Union of Socialist Worlds is constructing another planetoid habitat in the uninhabited binary system of Cimarron (Dothan-Talaveran 0400), putting almost the whole of the Dothan Alliance within Jump-4 striking range, if Union naval assets are to be based there. The Alliance has lodged formal protests at this intrusion into their near-space.  PCs can be hired to spy on the installation, to sabotage the work, or attack construction/supply ships on the way to it. Or they might approach it as free traders, looking for a chartered cargo run, and get on the wrong side of the Dothans.

There's a rumor floating around the starport that one of the local defense contractors has concluded a sale with a neighboring system and there are lots of interested third parties who may for one reason or another want to see the arms shipment destroyed/diverted/never arrive.  

Assessing the Threat of Returning Foreign Fighters from Central Asia
Imperials from all across the Regina subsector have over the years travelled to Efate to join with the terrorist & pro-Zhodani group Ine Givar. Now, as Imperial Marines are finally making significant progress in stamping out the organization, many of their agents are fleeing Efate and returning to their worlds of origin, to ‘continue the fight’.  Planetary authorities in Regina, Aramis and Lanth subsectors are stepping up security measures, increasing scrutiny of travel documents, and tightening up cargo and weapons inspections for Travellers coming from Efate and the surrounding systems. The Travellers’ Aid Society has officially protested these measures, stating that the rights of its members are being infringed. 

Every referee can use some assistance in coming up with exciting adventures for their players. What better source than the real world, where all manner of conflicts are actually going on?  Nothing like some grounding in reality to keep the sense of Traveller as a science-fiction game.
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