Hi Readers,
Just wanted to let you in on my current MegaTraveller (I guess) adventure.
I haven't played much lately and don't know the official background of the
Ancients but here's the deal.
Some friends of mine go hiking in Canada (roleplaying themselves) and awake
to discover that a spaceship is landing out on an island in the georgian
bay. they decide to ignore it and can't get through to anyone on the radio
so they are considering leaving when the gang from Blue Book show up to
study the thing. Of course these "earth defense forces" simply begin
shooting my characters with a long range taser to knock them out and get
them out of the way when the Characters are misteriously transported into
the ship. Well, the ship is a tech TL23 or whatever built by the
Grandfather (Ancients) himself to go to early earth to get some
"primative"/ or pure human DNA samples and/or psionic brain prints. En
route the ship was attacked by an AI missle designed by the "children" to
intercept the ship and render it inactive by whatever means necessary. The
missle is "programmed" to be a tactical genius which means it was able to
out fly and eventually attach itself to the Ship and inject micromachines
that disable ship systems and repair robots on the Ship. Of course the
Ship is run by a Triumvarate of AI's whom all have personallity quirks and
aren't getting along at the moment. This lack of cooperation is the
fundemental reason the Triumvarate is unable to remove the invading
computer. Another importent note is that the missle has done its job and
the "Children's Fleet" backing it up in hopes of capturing the Ship never
showed up for reasons unbeknowst to the missle. After years of limping
through space and time the Ship finally makes it to earth and the Missle AI
is beginning to get depressed, "I did my job and look what I get for my
troubles."
SO the Character are teleported on board and are addressed by one of the
Ship's AI's if they wouldn't mind helping out in some repairs. Of course,
they first have to lay back and relax in the "Accelaration" couches to
receive instruction on how to help. I used this as a device to allow the
characters 3-4 levels of skills involving engineering, computing, piloting,
commo, etc. I rolled success task and for partial success I had the
characters get only 1-2 skills but latent psionic skills become active.
Cool huh?
One of the main problems with getting the ship off the ground was that it
barely had enough fuel to get in orbit let alone jump anywhere. So I had
the player bargain with the missle AI for some of its antimatter fuel for
some of the information on the Ship's computers concerning the "CHildren".
I used the genetic end-dates from Blade Runner idea but official
information on the Ancients and there conflict may lend other information
to be importent. Well after a mild skirmish with US gnd forces the Ship
takes off intercepts a few nuclear missles the russians shot from an
orbiting station with its black globe and jumps into hyperspace. At this
point the player have lost all control of the ship's computer's and are
just along for the ride. Going through a "Children's" blockade the
characters finally get to Grandfather's black hole/pocket universe and are
examined by the head man itself. It looks at them with whatever
superabilities It has and them tells them they can go home. A polite robot
asks them to return all property that is the grandfather's ie all the high
tech stuff the pocketed from the ship and then asks them if the missle is
their's. Well it certainly isn't the grandfather's why should the robot be
concerned about it. They repond of course it is and the robot tells them
it will be marked for delivery and asks them to step through this door.
Well, somehow the characters are unceramoniously dumped at and an old alien
installation somewhere in the traveller universe with an intelligent
missle. The "warp field" around the pocket universe caused time to advance
several millenia and the character are now in the Imperium, or Rebellian,
or somewhere sometime. I have been considering the idea that maybe the
real cause of the virus is this tech 21 AI on the missle. Or maybe it
saves a planet from being infected by the virus and the planet rewards the
character with there last remaining 40 year old partially operational Scout
ship. Or the character adventure around for awhile in the rebellion and
when they meet the virus the AI which they installed in some ship barely
manages to put them all in stasis before it becomes brainfried. Etc.
What do you guys think? A rather crazy, and powerful beginning but I think
it has some promise. Imagine trying to fix a tech 13 jump drive with tech
9 and tech 23 engineering skills. What do you mean its not sagashiating
correctly doesn't it have a kanootin valve? Shit...try hitting it with a
hammer!
Take Care,
Karl
Karl Crandall
[email removed]