[if there are any TravCon20 attendees reading this, you might want to look away now]
>And on Tuesday I had a (possibly?) bright idea for something to play on the evening we arrive and nothing is scheduled.
>How about the PCs as the crew of the Wolblutn with captain Bannerji and essentially "the other side" of all his mentions
>in TTA? I've already got a fully worked up crew so it shouldn't be a lot of work to cobble together three or four scenes.
>No idea if it will work or be interesting enough for the other five crew members.
Interesting idea if you’re prepared to go off-piste
yes geared up for that (I think).
Although when my original crew went through the governor's mansion (Wolf at the Door), I named the woman he was with on his "Commission" as Loess Thingon. So it occurred to me that she could be the Patron back on Leedor explaining the Sternmetail plan WRT to the lanthenum and outlining their route from Patinir to Aramanx. Then she arrives that the mining camp where they're 'hiding' and Patrons the whole commission idea. But in the spirit of last year's "Thursday night isn't planned, let's run something made up on the spot" which I did last year, I think I'd be ready for them to do whatever they wanted.
and use the possible different outcome of the “adventures” of Captain Bannerji and his crew against what your group find further along the adventure. Or you could just use the outcomes of the sessions for flavour in your TTA campaign.
Oooh, yes, I like that idea. Bannerji and crew rather vanish from The Traveller Adventure after the events of Wolf at the Door (and my lot didn't quite hand him over to the authorities but having taken him (& Wolblutn with some nuclear missiles still aboard) back to the hiport, they then left a rumour on a public message board about a radiation leak at a certain docking port...
It might be fun to have them 'sprung' (by Sternmetal say) and appear as part of the 'big bad' at the end of TTA. (I was again reminded by someone I happened to mention that I was four+ years into TTA that that is (apparently) quite something. As it's my first ever campaign, I've no idea! So perhaps it would be good to actually wrap it up sometime soon!
Whoever is playing Captain Bannerji and his crew get to experience being “ethically challenged” which they may not have before, and which might be quite interesting.
Yes, I think that's what drew me to the idea. They're a bit stupid (Bannerji's INT is 5) and if not *intending* to be criminal (for various values of smugglign), make some poor choices. I have Bannerji's go to line as "It's not *my* fault that x, it was y...."
They get to try and falsify their flight data,
oooh, hadn't thought of that - will have something ready for if they try. not sure what.
be found by the shuttle, shoot it,
I'm *hoping* my instructions about secrecy from Loess and my placing of the lanthanum loading asteroid 'out of sight' at the edge of the belt will give the PCs the freedom to feel they can fire their nuclear missile(s) as the prospector, as per the book. But it doesn't really matter if they don't.
Not sure, if under the Chekov's Gun prinicple I should somehow mention to the PCs that nuclear missiles are illegal, or can I reasonably expect players to know that? It would be quite hard to say it anywhere without it putting them off using them I reckon. (At least, it would be with my players).
Also, does anyone know where their illegality is mentioned in classic Traveller? I can find it in MgT1 (p.111) and MgT2 (High Guard, p.31) but not in The Traveller Book. I'm just curious. TravCon in theory requires MgT2 rules although other things occasionally crop up. (And there are those of us - Steve E is a good example and I'm close behind - who are hard pressed to actually need to open a rule book in a four hour session. (And that's not because we know them so well!)
and try and dodge any ships you want them to dodge @ Aramanx,
Oooh, that's a thought. They're supposed to be hiding out. And although it's only TL8 at Aramanx off the top of my head, I probably need to have something ready for this too. Not sure what. Wonder if the new sensor bits in the new Mongoose JTAS would help? If only I had a handy index to which volume to look in. Ah yes... that's what I created MiniBib1 for!
falsify their flight data again, get involved in the riot that they start there,
Yes, was wondering if I should just have them at the centre and 'seeing' it or actually involved in it. I'll probably let that play out in whatever they want. Although I ought to have a media type shoving a mic into Bannerji's face so he can do his 'no comment' line. Or shoot his mouth off if he likes!
and then if they get a communication from their captain try and capture a bunch of PCs with the help of some Sternmetal flunkies … what’s not to like?
That's what I'm imagining will be the climax (though now I start to list out all the 'activities' I'm going to have keep a tight rein on time to ever get there much before midnight! In my campaign, the Wolblutn crew were just mooching about the ship when the March Harrier crew (& Kfouzorr, the merc) and Bannerji come out of the woods to get off the planet. With Bannerji trying to lead them to the camp rather than the ship so the PCs can be caught. My lot figured out something was up, went straight to the ship and were peeling off the camo netting when the Kforuzeng mercs arrive to try and capture Kfouzorr (and Gvoudzon while they're at when they twig). But I quite like your idea of not even going this far, just using some flunkies and going 'out' to get them. I did assume I'd skip the whole walk in the woods bit as only Bannerji takes part in that so there wouldn't be anything for the rest of the crew to do.
>Can you tell there's an excited Traveller here, once again?! Every year I threaten to ratchet back my refereeing at TravCon
>and every year I get excited about the possibilities....
>Hmmm, yes, now I think about it, why *does* Bannerji stand the PCs up at the TAS meal and hastily depart in the Wolblutn
>after they return his wallet in the Leedor on Aramis chapter?
The PC’s have info that can expose his smuggling. He’s a bit of a wet blanket and jumps at any shadow that comes his way. He expects that the PCs can join the dots from his travel plans to his smuggling so he gets stressed and runs (jumps) away from the situation.
Excellent. That's about what I'd thought but not really formulated so well. (Esp as the travel plans are disguised as a holiday itinerary.) (My players, who to be fair, were all bar one new to Traveller at that point and only on their second role playing evening at that point, made nothing at all of that note. Even though I had it printed out, they hadn't by that stage got to the point of "ah, tc's got a map, *this* must be the adventure" as they did later.)
A huge thank you for your ideas and tips. I'm much encouraged that this is actually doable and will be worth bothering with. I'd better practise some combat which I'm always hopeless at. My dream would be to have an assistant ref who steps in at that point and runs the combat while I have a rest!
And I need to prep a handout on the Wolblutn (not forgetting to list the nuclear missiles and the handgun in the control console!), but that's what today is for. (My wife is away for the weekend. I have piles of handouts all over the place for four(!) games all stacked up and double checking they're ready). I'd say I've bitten off too much but they're all connected (Wolf at the Door, Wolf at the Door from the 'other side'), Two Days on Carsten and Annic Nova (which I ran last week). So hopefully the mental load won't be too much. The physical load on the other hand...
Right, had best get on but again, big thank you!
tc