Monday, December 20, 2021

My Top 10 Classic Traveller Adventures (Part I)

Never let it be said that I don't give the audience what they want. That's why the latest in my year end Top 10 lists covers the adventures of Traveller. Like my previous lists, this one comes with a couple of notable caveats. The first is that this list only considers adventures published during the era of classic Traveller, which is to say, 1977–1986. The second is that the adventures in question must have been published as stand-alone products rather than as, say, articles in the pages of The Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society. The cuts down on the number of possible candidates, it's true, but there are still many possibilities to consider, especially since I'm taking into account licensees like FASA, Gamelords, and Judges Guild (spoiler alert: there are no JG adventures on this list).

I should also remind readers that, like previous lists of this sort, I have deliberately limited it to adventures I've personally refereed or played. That eliminates a handful of worthy contenders for inclusion, to be sure, but not so many that I think it undermines the utility of a list like this one. Still, if in your opinion there's an obvious omission, there's a good chance it's because I don't have any direct experience with the adventure in question. 

10. Twilight's Peak

Twilight's Peak is the third adventure ever published for Traveller and it's a very good one. Indeed, I hesitated to place it so low on the list, because, in some respects, it's a near perfect example of the kind of sober, serious science fiction that Traveller represented (especially in contrast to most other SF RPGs at the time). Unfortunately, the adventure depends heavily on the learning of certain information via rumors in order to proceed from world to world across the Spinward Marches. Even then, these rumors often only lead to the search for yet more information, potentially leading to a long and tedious investigation into matters whose ultimate import is not clear. Admittedly, the final payoff is worth it and the scenario includes a number of interesting stops along the way, but, unlike The Traveller Adventure – which is not included on this list, by virtue of its having been included elsewhere – I found it to lack forward momentum at times. Still, it's well-done and, as I said, a solid example of the kind of restrained science fiction Traveller does better than most SF RPGs before or since.

9. Research Station Gamma

This is the immediate predecessor to Twilight's Peak in terms of publication and deals with many of the same general concepts and themes, most specifically the mysterious, extinct alien species known only as the Ancients. Unlike Adventure 3, Research Station Gamma is more straightforward and therefore easier to use. On the downside, some of that straightforwardness comes in the form of being what is effectively a "dungeon crawl in space" – a common flaw in some of GDW's early Traveller adventures. The fact that much of the opposition in the scenario takes the form of alien animals held inside the titular research station only further contributes to this feeling. On the other hand, the "dungeon" in question is an interesting one, with an unusual architecture that many old Traveller hands look on with some fondness. The adventure is also notable for being one of the few GDW publications to mention, let alone describe, robots, an element of science fiction Traveller largely glossed over.

8. Duneraiders

Published by Gamelords and written by William H. Keith, Duneraiders is a companion piece to the supplement, The Desert Environment (what a surprise!). The scenario itself deals with corporate warfare on the world of Tashrakaar, a mineral-rich planet located outside the borders of the Third Imperium. Tashrakaar has a native population, the so-called Duneraiders, who don't take kindly to the presence of offworlders and with whom the player characters must eventually ally – first simply to survive and later to thwart the machinations of the nefarious Dakaar Minerals corporation. If this all sounds more than a little inspired by Frank Herbert's famous novel series, you're not wrong. Fortunately, William H. Keith is a good adventure designer and he introduces enough new elements into the mix to ensure Tashrakaar isn't just a clone of Arrakis. I must confess to a lot of personal fondness for this adventure, because it's one of the few I first experienced as a player rather than as a referee. I had a lot of fun with it and that plays a role in its inclusion here.

7. Shadows

In addition to its other adventures, GDW published a series of "double adventures," consisting of two shorter scenarios published back to back – and upside down – in imitation of the Ace Doubles released throughout the 1950s and '60s. Double Adventure 1 included an adventure entitled Shadows that is a favorite of mine, due in no small part that it was included in The Traveller Book as one of its sample scenarios (which is where I first encountered it). The adventure focuses on the discovery and exploration of a series of ancient alien pyramids on an inhospitable world. Though another example of a "dungeon crawl in space," Shadows pulls this off exceptionally well, with lots of interesting details and plenty of scope for characters to get into trouble. The pyramids are also a potential source of some remarkable information about their past – nothing earthshattering, mind you, but historically valuable. It's a great scenario with which to introduce newcomers to Traveller and its particular take on science fiction adventure.

6. Death Station

Yet another double adventure and yet another "dungeon in space." Death Station involves the player characters being hired to travel to an orbital laboratory ship with whom their patron has lost communications contact. While he suspects that the problem behind the loss of communications is merely technical in nature, it's possible that it's something more, which is why he outfits the characters appropriately. As presented, Death Station is fairly bare bones, focusing primarily on describing the lab ship in great detail, complete with maps and aids for the referee. However, the true nature of the problem – a psychochemical drug experiment gone wrong – opens up lots of possibilities for a frightening situation. Insane crewmen, escaped lab animals, and lots of hidden ducts and crawlspaces present the perfect environment for a tense handful of sessions. I used Death Station in my Riphaeus Sector campaign a few years ago to good effect. 

23 comments:

  1. Trivia: William H Keith is not only a prolific author (both in gaming and in literary circles under various pen names) he also did a lot of the early artwork for GDW, FASA, and FGU. He's also a Reiki master and knows (or at least knew) one of my former dorm mates at Penn State, but that was decades ago now. The one time I met him in person I didn't register that he was *that* William Keith or he'd have been autographing RPG books all night. :)

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  2. I will give my top marks to Death Station, solely on the grounds that it is the only Traveller adventure I have experienced as both a player and GM. The amusing fact is, in both cases, frying bacon played a pivotal role in solving the mystery.

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  3. Seth Skorkowsky recently did a review/play report on the Mongoose version of Death Station, with his usual suggestions for how to improve the gameplay. Like most of his videos it's worth the time (a half hour in this case) to listen to:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AH1oyUjjUj4

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    1. I listen too his reviews when I'm on walks. Never watch them purely audio but you don't miss much. They are fun.

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    2. Yeah, most of my youtube "viewing" is audio-only while I'm painting or sculpting stuff. Although with Seth you do miss out on some fairly hilarious costumes once in a while. The whole conceit of him dressing up as Jack the NPC and the various members of his gaming group doesn't really need eyesight to work, but the screwball ones like the Vargr mask in Traveller and the one gal who was slowly turning into a snake person in Pulp Call of Cthulhu are worth pausing for a glance. :)

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  4. I am unsurprised that no JG Traveller adventures made it onto the list :). Looking forward to the top 5.

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  5. Good choices all.

    "Duneraiders" always gave me more of a Lawrence of Arabia vibe than a Dune vibe. The sole time I ran it straight, as opposed to plundering portions of it, the campaign quickly morphed into a wargame with few RPG touches. My players were wargamers primarily so the change in emphasis wasn't an issue.

    I cannot begin to count the number of times I've run "Death Station" whether straight, disguised, repurposed, or whatnot. Something about it clicks with me, allowing me to easily tailor it to the needs of the moment. It's been a comedy, a cosmic horror, a diplomatic incident, and an exercise in small unit tactics among many other thing.

    "Shadows" features one of my favorite GM mechanics; the ticking clock. The certainty that their vacc suits will eventually fail thanks to the insidious atmosphere always spur the players to action. Whether it's healing potions, torches, or ammo, resource management is an aspect to RPGs that many GMs often overlook in their games.

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    1. Re: Duneraiders

      I think that Uragyad'n of the Seven Pillars, also by William Keith, is perhaps a closer analog to Lawrence of Arabia, but I see your point nonetheless.

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    2. You are, of course, correct. I routinely mix up the two adventures and did so again when typing my post!

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    3. I found Death Station a little week in its actual execution, but the Lab Ship map design was striking and well done, and I reused it for a number of other adventures (e.g., a research station orbiting a pulsar that was then raided by alien pirates).

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    4. @Dave Pulver I think the opportunity to get (and reuse) new ships was a large part of the appeal of several LBB adventures. The Kinunir, the Leviathan, the Safari Ship and Broadsword mercenary cruiser all saw plenty of use outside their first module appearances in my games.

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  6. I really liked the way Twilight's Peak was integrated into GDW's Fifth Frontier War board game.

    The scenario provided a rare opportunity for PCs to have a strategic impact on the course of the titular war.

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  7. I wish I'd played more Traveller back in the day, and acquired more of these adventures.

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    1. They are all available on the Far Future Enterprises Classic Traveller CD-ROM:

      https://www.farfuture.net/

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  8. Off topic, but given the knowledge of yourself and your readers, is there a high quality blog which writes about Traveller from the bottom up?

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    1. Not directly, but if you google search for "traveller rpg blog" sites like feedly will cough up a slew of popular ones to sample.

      If you leave out teh "rpg" part it will insist on giving you a billion travel blogs instead. :)

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    2. Tales to Astound is a great one. There are several other really good ones. I have an index page on my website covering a bunch of Traveller blogs and other stuff:

      https://ffilz.github.io/Gaming/traveller-reading.html

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  9. Here's hoping I get gift cards for Xmas, 'cuz DriveThruRPG is about to make BANK.

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  10. I've GMed most of the GDW and FASA adventures. The ones that worked out the best in actual play were:

    #1. Leviathan. The ability to command a large starship to do actual exploration of unknown systems was great. Excellent ship design and use of different player/GM map. Having the PCs interview a crew of NPCs to hire on was also neat. Made a huge list of possible crew. Had fun replacing most of the slightly low-key Traveller encounters with more exciting stuff (crashed berserker starships, planet of vampires, new alien races).

    #2. Twilight's Peak. A genuinely epic adventure from star to finish. Great stuff and introduced the Droyne. Objectively a better adventure than Leviathan; we just had more fun modding Leviathan.

    #3. Expedition to Zhodane. Really cool opening with player handout "help wanted" adds and a decent followup espionage and travel plot. I recall one situation where the PCs, after acquiring some guass rifles, managed to ambush a local TL7 Zhodani militia that had poor body armor and they wracked up a huge body count, it was like an Arnold movie...

    #4. The Traveller Adventure. Some good stuff and neat aliens and tradewar, though a bit of a letdown if you've already played things like Twilight's Peak.

    #5. Secret of the Ancients. Not quite as exciting in actual play as Twilight, but great lore, some neat gadgets (shimmersuits) and a real sense of wonder plot; the descent into the gas giant was very cinematic.

    #6. Divine Intervention. Nice mission impossible mission, a cute gadget (the stun carbine). The idea that you have to keep the violence down and clean up all the evidence made this for a nice change of pace. Players enjoyed it.

    #7. Shadows. A memorable if somewhat low-key "dungeon crawl" . Most notable for "worst destruction of a PC's body" who slipped and fell, cracking open their vacc suit helmet in an insidious acidic atmosphere, then had the mostly dead body tossed to slow down pursuit of a swarm of alien rat things, than had another PC open fire on the pile up of the rat-things eating the corpse with automatic weapons. We didn't have a more totalled PC until a few years later when some poor fool was standing outside on the hull of a starship when another starship rammed it.

    #8. Chamax Plague. "Bugs mister rico, zillions of them!" A nice "aliens" adventure that genuinely scared my players.

    #9. The Kinunir. Good deck plans and a nice subsector spanning series of adventure vignettes, but really took a fair bit of effort by the GM to make fun. I rate this high mostly because of the Regina subsector and Imperium lore it introduced and some fun actions we had (e.g., hunting tree krakens for their anagathic properties).

    #10. Azhanti High Lightning. Yeah, it's a boardgame, but I converted the scenarios to adventures. "Haunting Thunder" actually used in play, especially the one with the salvage of the fighters in the ship in the gas giant and alien blobs (Haunting Thunder, was it). That played very well...

    Several of the other ones were useful as source material, e.g., Prison Planet has a great list of Vilani character names, Research Station Gamma had good maps, Nomads of the World Ocean and most of the Keith FASA ones were entertaining reads for the detailed world building (though my players never seemed to enjoy them as much in actual play, preferring the more free-form and anarchic GDW adventures).

    The biggest problem with the GDW adventures were that most of them (save Twilight and Secret) as written were designed for quite low-powered book 1 style parties - not the sort of Mercenary/High Guard designed psi-trained battledress and FGMP-15/X-ray laser armed folks the players had accumulated after Twilight and Leviathan. (We did reboot with some new guys to run Zhodane and again tried it with some of the FASA adventures, but by then everyone was a little jaded, so reverted back to the regular doses of high-powered space opera and ripping of SF-novel plots...

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  11. Nice. I ran the Mongoose (2008) version of Death Station in my solo play last year. Ended up being two rather long blogposts.

    http://travellersandbox.blogspot.com/2020/10/death-station-part-i.html

    http://travellersandbox.blogspot.com/2020/11/death-station-part-ii.html

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  12. Enjoyed the blog posts and dialogue. Looked like fun!

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  13. “ The biggest problem with the GDW adventures were that most of them (save Twilight and Secret) as written were designed for quite low-powered book 1 style parties - not the sort of Mercenary/High Guard designed psi-trained battledress and FGMP-15/X-ray laser armed folks the players had accumulated after Twilight and Leviathan. (We did reboot with some new guys to run Zhodane and again tried it with some of the FASA adventures, but by then everyone was a little jaded, so reverted back to the regular doses of high-powered space opera and ripping of SF-novel plots...”

    Pretty much our experience as well. We tried to play it in a D&Desque manner like the published adventures seemed to suggest, but the power curve just doesn’t work for that style of play. We ended up using it, along with some Top Secret and James Bond 007, as an occasional palate cleanser between our regular D&D sessions.

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