Have you ever gotten stuck trying to come up with a mission for your PCs? The Patron tables in the Traveller Book tell you who the patron is, but not what the patron wants the PCs to do. I've made up a D66 (roll 2d6 and read the two numbers separately) list of potential missions. Each entry gives you an Activity, and a Target or Object for that activity. Some will involve risk and some will not. Some will focus on using appropriate skills and others will focus on role-playing.
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| Just deliver these two packages to the expedition site outside the inhabited region, he said. What could possibly go wrong, we said? |
Look at your patron again once you have a mission chosen. A Scholar and a Marine Officer, for example, would not want the same Activity done to the same Object.
66 Missions Table
11 transport Self
12 transport Others
13 transport Object
14 vehicle crew
15 capture animal
16 rescue another
21 find lost cargo
22 find person
23 surveillance
24 infiltrate location
25 act as agent
26 guard self
31 guard others
32 guard object
33 guard vehicle
34 provide professional opinion
35 investigate mystery
36 join expedition
41 smuggle object
42 sabotage
43 kidnap another
44 kill another
45 steal object
46 destroy object
51 persuade others
52 frame others
53 repair object
54 aid in speculation
55 perform military action
56 find place
61 act as guide
62 provide expert skill
63 manage assets
64 negotiate with other
65 construct object
66 travel as companion
For example, let's say you roll a 2/6 on Patron Table One and find a Shopkeeper wants to hire the PCs for a mission. On the Mission table you roll a 3/5 - Investigate mystery. So the mission is for the PCs to figure out how his inventory keeps disappearing out of his stock room when only he has the keys, and the locks aren't being broken.
Maybe there's a secret panel in the floor/ceiling leading to the empty storefront next door? Maybe there's a teleporting thief in town? Maybe an employee has made a duplicate key and is selling goods on the black market? You get the idea. Put the two lists together and I figure you've got 4,356 possible combinations of patron and mission.
What other mission types have I missed? Leave a comment with your suggestions.
That's 36 missions.
ReplyDeleteMatt, you're absolutely right. I should have titled the post D66 Missions. That fact reduces the number of patron/mission combinations to 2,592 (36 missions x 36 patrons x 2 patron tables).
DeleteStill a cool table. I love the 76 Patrons book. It can be used for almost any RPG.
ReplyDelete