A Roll20 Traveller Campaign based on the classic Aramis Adventure.
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This adventure begins on the world of Aramis, capital of the Aramis subsector, situated on one of the major trade routes through the subsector. The Aramis subsector is located in the Spinward Marches sector, a frontier province on the fringe of the Imperium, part of the Domain of Deneb. The Aramis subsector is on the border of the Vargr Extents, the astrographic territory dominated by Vargr governments. Only two subsectors to spinward lies the leading edge of the Zhodani Consulate which has fought several wars with the Imperium over the years in this sector. Other polities in the sector are the Federation Arden, the Darrians and the Sword Worlds, far to spin/rimward. To trailing is the Deneb sector, and beyond that Corridor which lies between the Vargr Extents and the Great Rift (a vast expanse of very few stars) and provides the link to the main body of the Third Imperium.
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The Spinward Marches have been settled since the 400s but is still primarily a frontier sector, due to its distance, and the presence of known hostile foreign powers with the ever-present shadow of war. It has not seen the influx of development and colonization one might think in seven hundred years, but has remained a buffer zone where Imperial presence is more noticably defensive and military in nature than in the core sectors. Still, there are hundreds of worlds in the sector that carry on and prosper. High-tech worlds lie scattered among lightly populated developing worlds.
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This campaign will use a slightly home ruled version of Mongoose Traveller 2nd Edition. The home rules are to allow for smoother use of roll20 mapping systems. They are also to allow for more options for play to take high risk/high reward actions and work together in a combat situation.
Intro to Traveller This campaign is set in the far future where interstellar travel is a reality. Starships, travelling much faster than light, carry merchandise, passengers and information from world to world, linking worlds separated by many parsecs into economic, political and social communities. The primary influence on the nature of interstellar society is the jump drive. Jump drive provides the means for starships to travel from star system to star system with comfort, ease and speed. That speed is not instantaneous however; each jump, regardless of distance, takes about one week (168 +/- up to 24 hours). Ships with large heavy jump drives can jump up to six parsecs (about 20 light-years) in a week. Smaller jump drives have a maximum jump of one to two parsecs per week. Your current vessel is capable of Jump 1. This makes it only able to travel to words within 1 parsec of each other. The Aramis trail is a grouping of planets within 1 parsec. The March Harrier is currently limited to these planets due to the jump drive and the fact that it is a trader subsidized and owned by the Grand Bank of Aramis. The Bank controls 80% of the activities of your vessel. The bank also takes a large cut of the profits that only partially goes to the mortgage on the vessel. If you can just keep ahead of the debts for 30 years the ship can be yours free and clear. Until that time you owe your soul to the company store. Communication does not travel faster than light except when carried aboard a starship, resulting in circumstance similar to the Age of Sail (and all of recorded history before that). This forces institutions of interstellar scope to be decentralized. Officials and military officers must have considerable freedom of action; no one can check back with headquarters on every decision if communications out system takes at least two weeks. Entire worlds within the Imperium conduct their affairs with little or no interaction with the higher levels of Imperial government. Honor and trust take on new significance when members of a chain of command must depend on subordinates to carry out instructions without direct personal supervision. Greed, ambition and chaos also have great potential when there is such a long delay in communication. For example, the Fifth Frontier War (1107-1110) was ended a year before news reach the Emperor. The Empire tries to maintain the Imperial presence by huge colonization efforts from the core worlds to the border worlds. An example is the Forboldn Project. The project was created in 987 and the first colony ships arrived between 1010 and 1020. Millions of core world Imperials are arriving in cold storage swelling the population of Forboldn. They bring with them skills and also the culture of the core worlds. Into this borderland known as the Spinward Marches come your crew. |
My Traveller Universe
Each GM stars with the canon Traveller universe and makes it their own. My Traveller Universe has a few changes/additions from the canon. Aslan- Aslan are much closer to the Hani from the Pride of Chanur series. Vargr- The Vargr have many variations of Vargr that follow common terran dog breeds. The wolflike Vargr are joined by Vargr bulldogs, pitbulls, even chihuahua races. Minor races from Star Frontiers- Races from the classic RPG are placed in the Spinward Marches. They are minor races that have spread to only a dozen worlds but do add flavor and fun to the game. Dralasites are short, gray amoeboid-like creatures (they are actually multi-cellular unlike true amoebas) capable of changing their form to a limited extent by extending and retracting pseudopods. Lacking a digestive system, they consume their food by surrounding and absorbing it. A network of nerves and veins intersects at a Dralasite's two eye spots. They cannot see colors, but have a well-developed sense of smell. They have a sense of humor that the other races often find strange or quirky, and a love of bad puns. Vrusk are an insectoid race with eight walking legs and two five-clawed manipulating arms. Their ant-like heads included two antennae and two mandibles. They are omnivorous. They are noted for their logical minds and their society is structured as commercial ventures. Many Vrusk give their company name before their given name. The Yazirian race are anthropoids similar to various terrestrial apes. They are muzzled, lightly furred, and have patagia stretching between their arms and legs which they can use to glide over short distances in low gravity (their home worlds are all low-gravity). They are descended from a nocturnal species, and prefer to wear tinted goggles to protect their eyesight during the day. They are said to be rather violent and pushy, and have a custom to choose a "life-enemy", which could be anything; a company, person, or a concept. Yazirians have a "battle rage" or a berserker state of mind. The Sathar are a race of mysterious, worm-like beings who are the enemies of the Empire (they are not intended to be used as a player race). They have wormlike bodies of 3 to 4 meters in length with two tentacular arms that end in fine tentacles for manipulation and two tentacles that end in paddles that can be used for heavy lifting (including acting as "legs", lifting the front of the creature off the ground in a humanoid-like stance). Their eyes have two pupils each, giving them good peripheral vision. |