This past weekend my sons and I went on vacation to Charleston, SC. Saturday brought heavier rain than we anticipated. This curtailed our plans and kept us inside the hotel for a good part of the day. Fortunately, Dad thought to bring along The Traveller Book and some dice. We had a map of the Holtzmann's Corridor subsector, but none of my other notes. They chose to begin play on Armstrong's World, so were for a change not playing Imperials.
Keep in mind the following:
PCs were rolled on the spot
I used the random encounter and rumor tables, with results enforced
I used the reaction tables, with results enforced
I provided a little imagination for the details
In the span of just a few hours of gameplay, the following adventures happened:
Their PCs took ship as temporary crew by a Belter patron. They flew off-planet to a gas giant ring system and went ice asteroid mining. The mining expedition lasted three weeks of game time. The trip featured a near-brawl aboard ship with an NPC. A crewman got lost, a damaged suit almost killed one PC. On top of this, they still managed two separate strikes of crystal deposits. In three weeks of adventuring,they made a net total of 30,000 credits each. The patron offered to take them along back to Ferrocore, but they decided against it.
Within the next two weeks, they had witnessed two riots, and faced arrest as criminals in a case of mistaken identity. They only observed the first riot. They got dragged into the second one. An aggressive security guard handed one PC a beat-down which could have landed him in hospital. Later in the week, they waded in to rescue people caught in the blast of a terrorist firebombing.
The local media caught their heroics. A local Elite NPC (ASW has no Nobles, as such) who met them the week before (another random encounter) made them guests of honor at a private airshow. They made some contacts that could be turned into Patrons and more adventure.
After the fire-bomb, though, they'd had enough of the turmoil on Armstrong's World. They wanted to leave the system. Armstrong's World is on only one Trade Route, which meant they needed a charter to go anywhere other than Holtzmann. They waited a few weeks, cooling their heels until a suitable ship appeared.
Each week they checked for a Ship Encounter. This was the chance of a ship being in-system and going to where they wanted to go. They also needed a positive reaction throw from the Captain to accept passengers.
After some time, they found a Mercenary cruiser which was willing to take them off-planet. It was heading to Ferrocore. This was the first step in the plan to travel to Narok and pursue adventures there.
One PC had Engineering experience, and so was able to convince the Captain to offer him a Working Passage. The other brother decided that his PC, a Flyer, was not suited for space-borne adventures. He decided to that PC would remain on Armstrong's World.
A few minutes later, he had a new ex-Navy PC with a Knighthood. The new PC was ready to go and on-station at Ferrocore when his brother's PC showed up.
The new duo chartered a Launch and flew out into the belt to examine a mining project the Knight's family owned. On the way there, they flew near to a rock orbited by an armed pinnace which warned them to keep well off. On the way back they docked with a ship full of partying belters. [The first was an encounter with Security Guards and a low/negative reaction. The second was an encounter with Rowdies but a high/positive reaction.]
I had to do almost zero prep for this adventure. The Random Encounter, Reaction and Rumor tables gave me all prompts I needed. They found opportunities, faced dangers and challenges, all while having complete agency. I didn't force them into a narrative, but the encounter table was starting to build one. Armstrong's society was facing a lot of stress and heading towards civil unrest. The boys could have stayed and interacted with it, but chose to avoid the approaching chaos.
We may, or may not, continue adventuring with these two PCs. Whether we do or not, I can use what happened around them as Rumors or background events in the Friday night game that's ongoing. That group has no plans to visit ASW, but maybe once they hear about the situation developing, they might change their minds. That's up to them.
image credit: Pixabay
No comments:
Post a Comment