On 24/11/21 08:41, Timothy Collinson - timothy.collinson at port.ac.uk
(via tml list) wrote:
> <snip>
>
> Thank you! <lifts glass> Cheers!
Keep calm and rock on!
> <snip>
>
> I certainly do feel that across 36 sessions/6 years, I'm *much* better
> at "letting go" of any plans I might have than I used to be.  But I'm
> aware that we're still being guided by The Traveller Adventure and my
> (need?) to be doing that - or at least, now, bringing it to a close. 
> It would be quite interesting I guess to try a true sandbox with my
> players and see where we ended up.  A year or four back I don't think
> we could have done it as they were either too new to Traveller or
> perhaps didn't have characters with enough drive of their own.  (Not
> true in all cases.)  But I think that has changed as well and I think
> my players might have a much better handle on setting their own goals
> and so on now.  (And, I'd like to think, I've given them perhaps just
> enough of an idea of the setting where they were new, that they'd be
> able to set sail for their own dreams in a universe we still all
> recognized.)
>
> But I think it might need quite a conversation about what we're up for
> and what general direction.  And perhaps some detail about whether,
> say, there should be more/less combat, dice rolling, agency and so on.

That's how Parental Advisory has swung over to exploration - I straight
up asked Herr Sweep, Easy Frag, Wombat, dingus and Eddles "WHAT DO?",
then paid attention to their answers.  It was now _my_ problem to fit
that into the story.

<snip>
>
> I can't help feeling I'm missing a trick (in terms of excitement) in
> having limited combat and opportunities for this kind of thing. 
> THough the little we have does get talked about as quite memorable. 
> Tess, with no weapon skill, hefting an auto rifle she's just picked up
> and firing it in the general direction of the Kforuzeng coming through
> the windows of the governor's mansion back on Aramanx in Wolf at the
> Door, thus taking out their leader with her mighty roll of <12> first
> shot, is the stuff of legend.  Loyd's unskilled attempt to fire an SMG
> in each hand causing the friendly fire incident on Egon likewise.
>
> Perhaps keeping it limited makes it more memorable!
>
I was more highlighting the impedance mismatch between a GM very much
unable/unwilling to improvise (not Ceilingrat) and one who can (self,
Ceilingrat, Collision, Herr Sweep, Eddles).  The latter has a better
chance of keeping up (improvising madly) with a bunch of _players_
working as a team.  It arose out of this after one mid-Shadowrun session
break for tucker:

Ceilingrat: Rant about being outsmarted, out-thought, and out-cunninged.

Herr Sweep: "And you're comparing yourself to three _perfectly normal_,
_average_ blokes, right?"

Ceilingrat: *beat*

Eddles and I fell out of our chairs and hit the floor, pissing ourselves
laughing.

You have to keep in mind the difference between D&D 3.x and Trav -
combat is a lot more lethal in the latter, and I've noticed my PCs going
out of their way somewhat to avoid it.  Thus, limited opportunities
(but, being PCs, trouble will find _them_, especially when GM decides it
will) can make for more memorable occasions - last I looked, Trav PCs
weren't (generally) Murder Hobos.

>
>
>
>     If you're looking for a module (which _I_ think is selling yourself
>     short enough you'll run afoul of FSA restrictions on short
>     selling), how
>     about Mongoose's version of _Secret of the Ancients_ ?
>
>
> oooh yes, it's top of my list of options
> Well, maybe 2nd.  One of my bright ideas is to try a 'grand tour' of
> LBB adventures perhaps with JTAS Amber Zones thrown in as well.  (It's
> a bit of a snag that they can't quite be made to run like that - as
> either they're not all merchant trader with ship type things or are
> set very far apart - Solomani Rim for example as well as SM - but I
> could perhaps 'reimagine' some of them to make them work.  On the
> *other* hand I think two of the LBBs can run into the finale of SotA
> so that would kind of kill two birds with one stone.
> <snip>
> But it wouldn't surprise me if the *players'* preference was to
> continue with who they are and see where they end up and ignore all
> the above.

 From what I've seen of Deepnight Revelation, tonight, from this small
ship, we're going to ROCK civilisation.  Sounds like an AU-west-coast
Pendulum song, come to think of it.

If you can string multiple modules together (as you said, two LBBS
in/around SoTA), why not have your cake, eat it, and make off with the
bakery as well?

Your , or your group's, idea of "epic scale" seems to be at least an
order of magnitude greater than mine's - getting home from the Goofy
Holler (27 pc misjump) was impressive enough for them. Taking a shufti
at Travellermap and the DNR books' names, that campaign looks to be on
the multiple hundreds-of-parsecs scale.

Daring to be stupid and small scale also has worked out brilliantly in
PA - Easy Frag works with dangerous goods in his day job and I've tried
to paid attention to what he has said when moving dangerous goods in
PA.  The slice-of-life aspect - such as freaking right out because your
master's ticket expires in 3 months, or resolving rubber cheques - is
one of the highlights, according to Herr Sweep.

>
>
>     Through accretion, decisions you've made, etc, Collision's Traveller
>     Universe does indeed exist,
>
>
> That's a scary thought!
To whom?  Your resident feline employer? :)
>
>     somewhat closer to the Golden Age OTU than
>     the Advisoryverse is to the ISW OTU.
>
>
> Well, we've tried to stick to the OTU where we can.  I like doing
> world building, but I'll do my utmost to try and do it round anything
> already published for that neck of the woods (planets or rules).
>
> *Maybe that's why Jim seemed to fit in like a hand in glove.  I have
> to catch myself from thinking he's been with us the whole time!*

Emphasis mine.

I think you've done a much better job than you give yourself credit for.

I set myself up for having to worldbuild by jumping clear of the Golden
Age with its attendant culture-shock concerns, as I've outlined before.

Will we see Collision's take on the ISW?

>
>
>     You are also a _significantly_ more experienced GM than the Collision
>     who sat down to start running TTA.
>
>
> That is very fair.  Though I'd still like to have a clue what I was
> really doing with personnel and ship combat...
> and I still think I should somehow be giving players more agency still.
One way around that, lifted from back in day with Eddles and Herr Sweep,
during the very tail end of the post Cold War 1 hangover (May - Sep
2001), was generating expendable characters and doing deathmatches,
getting familiar with the combat rules (for Cyberpunk 2020, in that
case) through brute repetition.  Still didn't stop us missing a _major_
armour rule for 20 years...
>
>
>     _I_ think you and your players would be better served by you running
>     something bespoke in CTU (again, I'm coming from a milieu where
>     sessions
>     where the vast bulk was improvised are still talked about over a
>     decade
>     later, but the from-module stuff disappears without trace).
>
>
> That's interesting to hear.  And not dissimilar to my experience where
> I think, for example, that our two days on Carsten is vividly
> remembered but I'd challenge any of my players to remember much about,
> say, the Psionics Institute chapter.  And I'm not quite sure I get
> why.  I felt as I prepared similarly, was as committed to both,
> enjoyed both. I wonder why.
Which ones were _unalloyed Collision Course_ and which were retreaded by
some git named Tim? :P
>
> <snip>
>
> The snag is, I rather like the comfort blanket that I have in having
> at least some semblance of a plan to follow and the "guarantee" that
> as TTA is a classic I can't go *too far* wrong with it.  (I appreciate
> that's no guarantee really, but it's psychology rather than fact.). 
> (I also like how TTA has very good variety and fear that doing my own
> thing (or allowing players to do so) we'd soon get stuck in a rut of
> alternating between 'hot escapes' and failing to woo fair maidens with
> a bit of toilet (roll) humour thrown in so it wasn't *too* samey.

_Thank you_ for helping me rumble this.  Out of the two of us, you're
the one with more recent Trav experience, but I've been GMing in
GM-must-be-flexible milieux for ... damn.  More than 22 years.  Think
I've been haunting the TML for nearly 20.

I've run multiple systems (mainly modern/scifi - eg Spycraft 2.0,
Shadowrun 4A/4E, GT, MGT2, Infinite Worlds) for multiple, diverse,
groups (having a nearby FLGS with twice-weekly RPG nights for a few
years massively helps) over that time - must have got good at it while I
wasn't looking.

And in that time, no plan of mine as a GM has _ever_ survived contact
with the players.  I suspect your feeling of security is very much
illusory - perhaps you might be better served by red-teaming your plan(s)?

As for variety, I can offer this snippet from Herr Sweep:

"What Would Drake Milford Do?"

Liberally steal from Parental Advisory, then take a file to the serial
numbers.  Ancient GMing trick, dating back to at _least_ 1977.

> <snip>
>
> Though I'm still keen to get back to my own dilettante nobles idea for
> a campaign which I think is a starter. (Just a bit taken over by Jim
> V's wonderful look into Element class cruisers and Olav Plankwell!)
How about dilettantes forced to Get Dangerous (after the previous
competents died in mysterious gardening accidents) and (re)build their
family's standing/reputation/wealth/etc?
>
> <snip>
>
>     - Likewise, tagging along with a Solomani recon expedition to the Rim
>     (as Milky Way's radius is now lower-bounded by 30 kpc, that's a
>     good 20
>     kpc walkabout).
>
>
> Yes, good thought.  Hadn't thought about going in that direction, but
> don't know why not.

At least in MGT2's case, seems to be a baked-in assumption of "Golden
Age In Charted Space or GTFO" until very recently, becoming "Golden Age
or GTFO".

<snip>
Another idea, with a lot less Travelling than normal, would be the one
outlined in GT: Starports - executive staff of {Insert
Beyond-Black-Stump Low-Class Port Here} having to keep the place
running, slip improvements past the subsector office of the SPA, the odd
nuclear bombing, barneys with planetary customs officers, balance the
local criminals (government included - look to the Caribbean and Malta
for inspiration re: selling passports) etc.  The _port itself_ would
become a character as well as the major setting.
>
> I should add, of course, that I'm not against the idea of taking a
> break if someone else wants a turn in the chair....
>
> But I've also come to realize, the more I read of other gaming
> experiences, that having a steady state ongoing group is a real
> privilege and not guaranteed.  For that I'm very very grateful and
> feel it's not something to be put aside lightly.
Even one is a big privilege, let alone multiple (like I had for a while
there at the FLGS in question).
>
> But many thanks for your thoughts and encouragement.
>
> tc
>
Hey, it was partly selfishly motivated - I want to be able to _read_
some game session writeups on the TML without having to _post_ them. :)

Alex