Five Parsecs From Home: Campaign Turn 6

The last time we saw our crew, they had just finished one of two jobs available on the Hospital Planet of Bargol 3. Knowing that they had a job in hand, most of the crew spent their off time training and prepairing for the mission brief.

On a remote part of the planet, a Private Organization is conducting experiments using the local flora to see what kind of medicinal properties might be found. The outpost was in need of some supplies and our crew was tasked with the delivery.

The task was not so simple, however. Some of the local fauna, colloquially known as Razor Lizards, had become agressive towards humans. This would prove to be a bit of an understatement. On route, two members of the crew (Cinders and Lance) got cut off from the rest by a roaming pack. Fortunately, they did not have to engage, but it did mean that they would be unavailable during the combat to come.

Upon arrival at the destination point, the three remaining crew found themselves outnumbered 2 to 1 by a pack of Razor Lizards. Wither set up in a sniper position to cover Pint and Skins as they tried to deliver the goods to the drop point. While Withers was doing a good job providing cover, the other two kept missing their shots (I don't think Skins rolled over a '3' the entire game). As a consequence, the sheer number of Razor Lizards were too much for Withers to shoot down. 

Things got very sketchy when Skins found himself overwhelmed. The razor sharp claws of the pack leader found their way through his combat armor, but just as Skins was about to see a limb ripped off, Pint lived up to his Hulker ways and pummeled the creature enough that he eventually look a limb for himself. Seeing their pack leader dismembered, the rest of the pack lost their appetite and fled.

Ironically, the Campaign Event noted that recent events taught the crew an important lesson. I had to chuckle, because everyone knows: never split the party!

Gamer ADD: Interpreting the Map

If one compares the maps of The Shattered Imperium (1122) and Peace Finally Comes (1125), one of the first things that jumps out is that two of the factions have disappeared: Strephon’s stronghold in Gushmege and Margaret’s stronghold in Delphi. This suggests one of three things: 1) Strephon was not, in fact, assassinated and he has regained control 2) Lucan has managed to defeat both Margaret and Strephon or 3) Margaret has ascended the throne.

Option 1 seems the least likely. The possibility that Strephon survived and wasn’t just a body double or an android never felt very plausible and the territory that served as his stonghold has collapsed into a frontier claimed by no one. Had Strephon re-claimed the throne, that area would not have been abandoned.

Option 2 also has its problems. The first is the personality of Lucan. He is not presented as someone who would accept anything but victory. A peace treaty that so radically reduces his territory is not something I imagine Lucan would willingly accept. There is also the oddity of the Imperial Starlane. I interpret this as an establish trade route connecting the Imperium with various independent worlds and clusters in Massila, Diaspora, and the Solomani Rim, Daibei, and, most importantly, Vega (now surrounded by the Solomani Confederation). This is the strategy of someone capable and with enough patience to play the long game. Lucan is neither.

Option 3 is the most likely and (for me) the most attractive. Margaret has familial ties to the Imperial family. She is also a moderate who wants to return to the values of Strephon’s Third Imperium: “an efficient well-run government that encouraged trade, industry, exploration, and stability.” She has support within the Moot. She also strikes me as the most likely candidate to get the support of the Brother’s of Varian who seek justice for the assassination of Strephon and Lucan’s brother (and rightful heir) Varian. Finally (and most importantly in terms of interpreting the map), she is married into the family that runs Tukera Lines, a megacorporation that reached every corner of the old Imperium.

For me, this last piece of information is convincing. The existence of the Imperial Starline on the map is most easily explained by Margaret’s temperment, outlook, and resources. She would play the long game, using trade and stability as beacons to bring back lost territories into the fold. She would also be one to maintain a connection to Vega and see their existence as a necessary counterweight to a much expanded, if not stronger, Solomani Confederation. Strenghtening that tie and helping to maintain a ready defense of that territory would put a lot of pressure on a Confederation trying to strengthen their hold on new territories unused to the centralized and authoritarian mechanations of the Solomani Party.

That leaves me with one mystery: how was Lucan deposed? I am sore tempted to believe that the Brotherhood of Varian convinced Lucan that Strephon survived and that this information was being leaked throughout his territories. Given his temperment, I would imagine Lucan would try by any means to have Strephon (or his body double) killed.

While it is tempting to have Lucan be coaxed into a battle to destroy Stephon’s remaining fleet only to be overwhelmed and killed by ambush is tempting, I don’t see Lucan putting his own safety at risk. Rather, I think that a second assassination tied to Lucan would be too much for the moderates of the Imperium to bear. A coalition of moderates, the Brotherhood, and an Admiralty sick and tired of incompetant and selfish leadership could dethrone Lucan with evidence that he assassinated both his father and his brother and illegally seized the throne.

This helps explain why Strephon’s stronghold has yet to be re-intgrated into the Imperium: they are still angry with a system that let them down on multiple fronts and multiple occasions.

While certainly not the only way to interpret the map of Peace Finally Comes, it is the one that gets me more excited about Traveller than I have been in decades.

Gamer ADD: Traveller Edition

Back in June, James over at Grognardia shared an amazing piece of lost GDW history: a map of the Imperium at the end of the Rebellion.

I have a love/hate relationship with Traveller. I love the setting and I think that the character creation system is one of the best mini-games in the entire history of RPGs, but I’ve never really known what to do with any of it as a GM. The scale is so large and the setting is so…settled.

As a consequence, I found the idea of the Rebellion to be really interesting. It created conflict, it broke the massive setting into a variety of smaller fronts…but I still had no real idea what to do as a GM. Nothing ever really inspired me.

The New Era was a mistake. It did an awesom job of radically reducing the scope of the Traveller setting, but it did so at the cost of everything that made the Third Imperium interesting. GDW went bankrupt shortly thereafter. Marc Miller produced another version of the game set at the dawn of the Third Imperium (I still have a copy buried somewhere on my book shelf), but it suffers from the very same problem as the New Era. It lacks everything that makes the Third Imperium so interesting to me.

Enter this wonderful map. This may very well be the most inspiring map I have looked at in a long time. I have found myself mentally preparing an actual Traveller campaign; however, what fascinates me is not the idea of the campaign itself (the likelyhood of actual play is fairly low at this point in my life), but the reason why I finally have a grasp at what a Traveller campaign might look like.

Over the years, the most successful campaigns I have run (regardless of genre or system) all have one thing in common: there was something lost that everyone is trying to find. The best way I know how to set this up for a D&D campaign is the Points of Light model, where the Bright Empire has collapsed and the PCs are now some of the main actors in trying to re-discover/re-establish the values of the Bright Empire in a sea of Chaos.

The Rebellion, the New Era, and Marc Miller’s Traveller all have the right idea: they are all striving to create a Points of Light setting for use with Traveller. The reason that they all fail is due to timing. Marc Miller’s Traveller chooses the wrong Bright Empire. Instead of trying to re-establish the Imperium that is so beloved (the Third), we are istuck flailing about trying to re-establish the First and Second. The New Era goes too far. The utter destruction of such a vast empire makes the dream of re-establishment nigh-impossible. The Rebellion comes the closest to success; however, it is set during the collapse instead of its aftermath. Rather than re-discovery and re-establishment, PCs are asked to fight for the survival of the Bright Empire.

Realizing this, I have come to understand why this map excites me so much: there are a dozen sectors on this map that could be used as the starting point for a Points of Light Campaign. The Bright Empire may not be what it once was, but it still exists and the dream is still alive. A PC may be beyond Imperial territory, and may even be within enemy territory, but they have the ability to become a Light in the Sea of Chaos.

The best part of all of this to me is that for the first time, I feel like the Third Imperium can now become my version of the Third Imperium.