[Picked this off of rec.games.frp. Good food for thought -- James]
I thought I would post this, both to give new DM's some advice (if they
want it) and to get suggestions from people. I may have mentioned that
I run a modified Traveller world, and I replied to a suggestion that
Traveller was a "disposable" game by saying, "No, I disagree." Both to
back up my claim, and for the reasons just mentioned above, here are
some of the things you CAN do with the Traveller world.
1) Military mission. This is one of the most common, so we'll get it
out of the way first. Basically, you go in, you shoot the place up,
sometimes you rescue an important person or steal/recover important
equipment or files. If you want to vary this one, use different
terrains, and give the NPC in charge of the enemy (a) different
equipment and defenses and (b) different weapons and troops and (c)
different skill levels (Tactics, Leader, etc.)
2) Trader mission. Actually, I never run these. But I hear they can
be interesting.
3) Exploration. As I recall, there are 11,000 worlds in the Empire.
But the Empire is at least 100 parsecs wide (which a brief bit
of calculation informs us that there are more than 100,000 solar
systems in that area of space--assume one solar system per 10 cubic
parsecs and figure it out for yourself; this will vary depending
on where you are in space obviously, but it is a workable estimate).
So, there are all these unexplored solar systems waiting to be
explored, with bizarre lifeforms, unfriendly settlers or enemy
agents setting up outposts, etc. AND every solar system has a
cometary halo, chocked full of raw materials waiting to be charted,
and maybe a few pirate bases, too!
4) Espionage. You think all wars are fought with guns? No, no, much
of it is what Kippling called "The Great Game." Find enemy agents
stealing secrets. Steal secrets yourself. Stop subversion.
Subvert the governments of enemy countries. Assassinations, etc.
This can be done to/for governments OR corporations (some of those
money boys play pretty rough)
5) Crimebusters. You think the future has no crime? If there is
anything like the mafia in outer space, you have a lot of
adventures in store--either abetting or solving/stopping
(a) assassination, (b) electronic crime, (c) drug pushers,
(d) racketeers, (e) weapons runners, (f) smugglers, (g) art
thieves, and many more.
6) Space military missions. Be a privateer. Prey on innocent
merchants. Get attacked by navy patrols and armed merchants.
OR have your group hired by a local government to BE their
navy patrol or privateers in a blockade/undeclared war against
another planet.
7) I love a mystery. Have your group solve a crime that has already
been committed, usually a murder or a theft of some valuable item.
8) Terrorists. (Actually, this is a variation on military and/or
espionage and/or crimebusting, but it is different enough to
deserve separate mention.) Players can either stop terrorists
(find them before they strike, etc.) or be terrorists/guerilla
fighters in a political cause that they believe in, as opposed
to a merc mission where they're simply being paid.
These are obviously only some of the things you can do with
Traveller. The main variations are (a) action adventures and (b)
thinking adventures, and (c) adventures that require both. If you
game once a week, I think you will find that by varying adventure types
(and villains--it might help to have two or three long term bad guys
with fairly large organizations so it takes a while to finish them off)
Traveller will keep you happy for a long, long time.
I would be happy to hear any suggestions or comments on this subject.
Thanks.
Mark