Thanks TC- it was a pleasure to run it then (your game was the first run I believe, and hadn’t been playtested before.). I quite liked the mock emergency your Emperor created (in which supposed attackers had taken you hostage in the throne room) to test the reactions of your daughter and Dulinor (who was very eager to take the lead in ‘rescuing’ you).

I should mention to folks wondering “Where is the fun in this game? Don’t we know what happens?” - I did a lot of research with the excellent Survival Margin (one of my favourite books for it’s sweep of history) and reading the 1248 Out of Darkness and the Rebellion books in figuring out what was going on to cause the Rebellion (since it isn’t just Great Men of History, but also inevitable social forces) and figuring out where the real tensions lie – between interior and exterior sectors, traditionalism vs. Reform, taxation, Psionic High Laws etc. Nearly every character has a reason to co-operate, and a reason to conflict with every other character. Folks have multiple motives and options for advancement – Dulinor isn’t forced to assassinate the Emperor – he has other options to get the reform he wants. The fascinating bit is how the players interact and what emerges from their chaos- it never goes the same way twice. Though I still chuckle at the memory of when Dulinor did roll snake eyes on his Gun roll- that was just poetic (and he could only really fail if he rolled a 2, 3 or 4 on 2d6).

I do remember running it for some non-Trav gamers at Furnace in Sheffield – the Emperor managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory- he had managed to marry Dulinor off to Iphigenia, send Norris packing, but a last minute moment of paranoia had him order the sabotage of the couples wedding shuttle – but their security saved them in time (it came down to a dice roll) and they led the Rebellion against him instead.

Steve

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

From: Timothy Collinson
Sent: 06 January 2020 22:24
To: Tml
Subject: Re: [TML] Eve of Rebellion review

On Mon, 6 Jan 2020 at 18:33, Phil Pugliese - philpugliese at yahoo.com (via tml list) <xxxxxx@simplelists.com> wrote:

Thanks for all the info.

Sounds like it was all very extraordinary.

It is very different compared to your usual merchant/mercenary/scout Traveller adventure. But it's explicitly what Steve was trying to get away from.

We're very fortunate to have him with us. As the review hints, he brings with him a lot of LARP experience which tells. I don't know how public he is on Facebook, but I love reading his 'after LARP' reports through the year. It sounds intense, but fun - and some great experiences which usually involve travel.

It would perhaps be fair to say, however, that not everyone loves his style of game. While the slots fill pretty much immediately when the signup sheets for his games go up, I do know one or two folk that don't like the freeform nature of them. Not me! I learn at the feet of the very best!