TNE:GreatExpedition

The Great Expedition: an adventure of exploration for Traveller: New Era.

In a fragile alliance of recovered worlds on the fringe of a once-massive human civilization, the flame is lit again.

Basic Description

Despite the massive destruction of interstellar war — secession, rebellion, and finally invasion by a truly alien intelligence — a few worlds have, slowly and carefully, taken to the stars again. The stories of how this came to be are long and various, but now the Dawn League, a coalition of a dozen worlds, exists, and has done so for a dozen years, despite threats from within and without.

Every world within two jumps of the League's space has been scanned and explored. The renewed industries of Aubaine's starport have begun to produce jump-3 drives for the first time since the Collapse. The League's nascent governing body has voted, and six ships will go out – to explore the silent worlds, to rekindle the flame, and to find news of the War. What happened to the Others, what happened to the Terran Unions, and what became of the Virus, the hybrid secret weapon that destroyed the organization of both species?

The dangers are many – sleeping ships from the old succession wars, pirates, dictators, savages, and behind it all the spectre of the Others, the machine intelligences left over from the War. But the rewards… are the stars.

Character Generation

General Concept

PCs will be members of a "pathfinder" team, exploring ahead of the mothership, running errands, checking up on the other scouts, and generally doing PC-like things.

Guidelines

• Movers and shakers. PCs should be big damn heroes, even if it's in a quiet way. While it's fun to play a noble/drifter in the standard setting, these characters need to stand out to be on one of these ships.
• Best of the best. A rank 4 in a skill is considered brilliant. Have one. Or two at 3. In a skill useful to the game would be even better.
• Contacts. These will be vital, especially high-ranking ones. The Dawn League is still a small organization, and being in on the ground floor means friends in the right places.
• PC choices influence ship choices. If you're a fighter jock, there'll be at least one fighter. If you're a merchant, there'll be a trade envoy and cargo space. We'll use something like Rank to determine influence. Ship shares will represent 1 MCr per share; the actual ship will represent 10% of its book value in MCr.

Drifter's House Rules

• Each term, use the Events tables from Mongoose Traveller, adapting as necessary to the system. For injury results, use the Mishaps table, but character generation is not necessarily ended.
• Any career gives a minimum of 7 points of skills in its first term; if the career lacks that many, add more points until you reach 7.
• In every term after the first in the same career, you may choose to add [number of terms in career] skill points to any skill previously learned in the career. This simulates specialized career choices.
• The last term for every character will be the Dawn League Technical Academy, "where they separate the men from the goats."

Rules Information

House Rules

• ChalkLine has requested use of a rule where firearms use STR or AGL, instead of simply STR, on the reasoning that the latter drives him bonkers.

Player Characters

Drifter: GM

Drifter is our erstwhile GM.

The Ship

GaoGaiGar suggests for the ship:

A TL12 400-ton Victrix-class Multi-Mission Sloop.

• Jump-3 (some later upgraded to Jump-4 with relic powerplants and drives).
• 4Gs acceleration.
• Crew: 12.
• 40-ton multi-mission pod. Either for:
  • A pod specific to the PC team.
  • A general-purpose "exploration pod", with a vehicle, cargo space, and perhaps a lab. The mothership carries things like a troop carrier pod, missile pod, etc., should a multi-ship combat operation be needed.