Who's running/playing in a space campaign these days?

[AsenRG]

At one point I found myself wondering what a "bunch of Joes on a free trader" campaign would look like in a fantasy setting. The players are all crew on a small trading ship making its way from port to port on a large coastline/sea, trading cargoes as they go, dealing with (or becoming) pirates, having one-shot adventures in each port that may or may not be part of a larger storyline, etc. It sounds pretty cool to me, but for the life of me I could find no resource for fantasy/medieval trading rules, and I didn't feel like rolling my own.

Find Mercator and Worlds Apart on Drivethru. No need to thank me, I'm sending you down a rabbit hole!

 

[Sharrow]

At one point I found myself wondering what a "bunch of Joes on a free trader" campaign would look like in a fantasy setting. The players are all crew on a small trading ship making its way from port to port on a large coastline/sea, trading cargoes as they go, dealing with (or becoming) pirates, having one-shot adventures in each port that may or may not be part of a larger storyline, etc. It sounds pretty cool to me, but for the life of me I could find no resource for fantasy/medieval trading rules, and I didn't feel like rolling my own.

For GURPS, but it should be portable into other games with a bit of currency conversion and skill-check translation:

Eidetic Memory - Medieval Sea Trade, in Pyramid #3/87, SJGames' electronic magazine. It's available as PDF from Warehouse23 (https://warehouse23.com/) and DrivethruRPG (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/308603/Pyramid-3-087-LowTech-III).

 

[Triumvir]

For GURPS, but it should be portable into other games with a bit of currency conversion and skill-check translation:

Eidetic Memory - Medieval Sea Trade, in Pyramid #3/87, SJGames' electronic magazine. It's available as PDF from Warehouse23 (https://warehouse23.com/) and DrivethruRPG (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/308603/Pyramid-3-087-LowTech-III).

I recall someone did a version of Traveller set in the Mediterranean in Roman times called "Mercator".

It's easily findable, turns out it was Paul Elliott who I think is the Zozer guy.

(That link is straight to the pdf download by the way.)

 

[S'mon]

I was running a PBP White Star RPG campaign set in the Lucanii Drift quite recently. Had to shelve it as I can't keep up PBP and one of the players can't/won't do live VTT sessions. The setting was a glorious mix of Star Wars, Star Trek, and more Corporate-type SF like Firefly/Traveller and ALIEN.

 

[S'mon]

It seems like a strong concept. After all, the foundations of modern fantasy include the seven voyages of Sinbad (in The Thousand Nights and a Night). It ought to be easy to re-skin a set of sci-fi trading rules, though decent rules for the seasonality, uncertainties, and asymmetries of sailing would be more of a challenge. I think the major obstacle might be filling the hexes. You would want either a big map with dozens of quirky exotic fantasy lands and islands like what Odysseus encountered and Herodotus described (all unknown to the character-players), or else a random generator of fantasy lands and islands. Such a generator would also be useful for Odyssean or Conanesque wanderings, explorations, and so on.

The archipelago of generator is, I think, a lot more important than the trading rules. A complaint that some players had (and others were able to ignore, of course) about trader games in Traveller was that the crushing burden of mortgages on the ships, combined with the fact that ships only made money while they were en route, meant that PCs were strongly motivated not to have adventures on exotic planets. So there is a powerful reason to handwave the finances anyway. Of course the sailing-ship alternative allows you to plausibly set all the adventures during those times when the ship is waiting in port for a fair wind, careening, waiting for the caravans to bring produce from the interior, etc.

ACKS has fantasy trading rules based off the ones in The Minrothad Guilds GAZ for BECMI D&D - https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17346/GAZ9-The-Minrothad-Guilds-Basic?

 

[Sharrow]

The archipelago of generator is, I think, a lot more important than the trading rules. A complaint that some players had (and others were able to ignore, of course) about trader games in Traveller was that the crushing burden of mortgages on the ships, combined with the fact that ships only made money while they were en route, meant that PCs were strongly motivated not to have adventures on exotic planets. So there is a powerful reason to handwave the finances anyway. Of course the sailing-ship alternative allows you to plausibly set all the adventures during those times when the ship is waiting in port for a fair wind, careening, waiting for the caravans to bring produce from the interior, etc.

That's why Traveller had it that the turn-around for a tramp ship was about five days, and thus ships spent a week in jump, about a day travelling to a world, around five days on-world, and then spent a day going out to repeat the cycle. It also had it that, aside from those members of the crew occupied in managing the ship's upkeep and trading activities the crew would generally have shore leave for most of that (I always assumed there'd be a rotation so everyone got leave from time to time, and so everyone got to get some training in the ship's various jobs). That was explicitly intended as time for them to have some adventure, to try and drum up some side-business, and to generally get into trouble.

Certain of my players were always chafing under this assumption, always wanting to trim a day off here, and another there. I think next time I run a game where this comes up, there might just be some problems as a result of it. "Yes, the ship needs her 'annual' maintenance three months early. What did you think would happen when you demanded a ten day jump-to-jump cycle instead of the fourteen everything is designed for?" from the engineer, and the crew demanding extra pay to compensate for their loss of leave (and at penal rates).

 

[stonetoflesh]

Rereading some of Vance's Gaean Reach books lately has got the wheels turning in my GM brain about running adventures in that setting -- either an investigative-type game, where PCs are IPCC-affiliate agents, or something more picaresque where players "must boldly plan and execute daring schemes for the acquisition of wealth and power," per Traveller book 3.

Thing is, I have nearly zero interest in the Gumshoe-powered Gaean Reach RPG except perhaps to purloin the tagline subsystem. Classic Traveller is an obvious contender, but I'm also strongly considering Rocket Age -- simple 2d6 mechanics, occupations and short skill list are already setting-appropriate, great initiative system, and the GR taglines would dovetail well with the Story Points mechanic.

 

[TheSaint]

For GURPS, but it should be portable into other games with a bit of currency conversion and skill-check translation:

Eidetic Memory - Medieval Sea Trade, in Pyramid #3/87, SJGames' electronic magazine. It's available as PDF from Warehouse23 (https://warehouse23.com/) and DrivethruRPG (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/308603/Pyramid-3-087-LowTech-III).

That is almost exactly what I was looking for. It would have to be modified to incorporate seasonality, regional variations, etc. But it's a great start, thanks.

It seems like a strong concept. After all, the foundations of modern fantasy include the seven voyages of Sinbad (in The Thousand Nights and a Night). It ought to be easy to re-skin a set of sci-fi trading rules, though decent rules for the seasonality, uncertainties, and asymmetries of sailing would be more of a challenge. I think the major obstacle might be filling the hexes. You would want either a big map with dozens of quirky exotic fantasy lands and islands like what Odysseus encountered and Herodotus described (all unknown to the character-players), or else a random generator of fantasy lands and islands. Such a generator would also be useful for Odyssean or Conanesque wanderings, explorations, and so on.

The archipelago of generator is, I think, a lot more important than the trading rules. A complaint that some players had (and others were able to ignore, of course) about trader games in Traveller was that the crushing burden of mortgages on the ships, combined with the fact that ships only made money while they were en route, meant that PCs were strongly motivated not to have adventures on exotic planets. So there is a powerful reason to handwave the finances anyway. Of course the sailing-ship alternative allows you to plausibly set all the adventures during those times when the ship is waiting in port for a fair wind, careening, waiting for the caravans to bring produce from the interior, etc.

Well, the big driver I was thinking of for the campaign would be for the players to not be the owners of the ship. They only get a crew share of the profits. Maybe their goal is to earn enough to buy their own ship or maybe there is some other plot driver that is keeping them sailing around. (Again, unfinished idea.)

Another complicator could be the different polities in the region. Kind of how the Spanish would only allow Spanish traders in their ports. Plenty of adventure ideas there too.

 

[Gringnr]

Did chargen for my upcoming Alien game last night. Good times.

Plot twist: I told the group we're playing the new version of Mothership. Why? Two reasons: one, I want to play Alien. Two, of I told them we were playing Alien, no one would be surprised when a Xenomorph showed up.

Three of the five players played through Desd Planet with me, but it's been a while. Sure. The systems are different, but there are a lot of commonalities, so they're all believing this is nu-Mothership. I did tell one player, and ask if he would be willing to play the (unbeknownst to the rest of the party) Android, and he's on board.

I'm gonna run some of the cinematic adventures, but I let everyone make their own characters, so I'll tweak as needed to make it work.

Oh, and the youngest player, a twenty-something female, texted me a couple weeks ago to let me know that she wanted to lean more into randomized chargen (she randomized all her choices for her "Mothership" character), and was OK with character death. I was so proud!

 

[Kobayashi]

Started a Traveller (Mongoose, 2nd edition) campaign two months ago (we play once a week), how did it go this far?

I had no preconceived idea for the campaign, so we started with a chargen only session to see what kind of characters my players would en up with (I decided to set two limits: only humans and only 4 terms per character, none of my players know anything about Traveller's lore).

I decided to set the campaign in the Spinward Marches.

The characters
We ended up with a failed archeologist (main life event: started up a war between the Imperium and a minor alien species), a failed navy pilot, a failed settler and an interesting soldier (see below).

The "failed" ones all chose a criminal carreer (that I made up on the fly: a smuggler, a treasure-hunter-seller and a guy that helps refugees get to the Imperium), they all get the same event: they all worked on a big heist that paid big time (so the game did the "why are we together?" for me, that's nice).

I asked the fourth player (the soldier) if he would accept working for the Imperial Secret Service. He said yeah, so now he uses his background as a military engineer to find work with a shady crew. The other players don't know that he's an agent.

The campaign
To set-up things, I just started with High'n Dry and then let the players go where they choose while I lay some breadcrumbs that could lead them to other adventures. It's quite easy considering their background. So far they got through Research Station Gamma, Mission on Mithril and are now setting off for Legend of the Sky Raiders...

What was surprising for me was the level of the players interest for the setting. They usually don't care that much about the setting or the rules but here they're asking for information about the politics of the region, two got pretty involved withe trade rules... So I don't really know where the campaign is going to take us next but so far it's pretty fun.

 

[S'mon]

I was running a PBP White Star RPG campaign set in the Lucanii Drift quite recently. Had to shelve it as I can't keep up PBP and one of the players can't/won't do live VTT sessions. The setting was a glorious mix of Star Wars, Star Trek, and more Corporate-type SF like Firefly/Traveller and ALIEN.

I've made the Roll20 game site public after deleting links to the rulebook PDFs - https://app.roll20.net/campaigns/details/13789068/white-star-the-lucanii-drift (do let me know if you spot any remaining rulebook links) - lots of pulp space opera goodness!

​

 

[Johndesmarais]

I was running a PBP White Star RPG campaign set in the Lucanii Drift quite recently. Had to shelve it as I can't keep up PBP and one of the players can't/won't do live VTT sessions. The setting was a glorious mix of Star Wars, Star Trek, and more Corporate-type SF like Firefly/Traveller and ALIEN.

One of my "favorite games that I never actually play". It checks off so many boxes on the list of things I want from a pulpy SF game, all wrapped around a system that nearly every gamer is already familiar with - and I never seem to be able to get it to a table.

 

[S'mon]

One of my "favorite games that I never actually play". It checks off so many boxes on the list of things I want from a pulpy SF game, all wrapped around a system that nearly every gamer is already familiar with - and I never seem to be able to get it to a table.

I do think there is an issue with it in that d6 hp at 1st level games are really opposed to the feel of pulp SF heroic characters. The Mutant Future/Gamma World approach of rolling buckets of dice for level 1 hp then no further improvement would likely work better. Maybe give everyone level 4 hp at chargen then +1 per extra level.

 

[AsenRG]

One of my "favorite games that I never actually play". It checks off so many boxes on the list of things I want from a pulpy SF game, all wrapped around a system that nearly every gamer is already familiar with - and I never seem to be able to get it to a table.

I do think there is an issue with it in that d6 hp at 1st level games are really opposed to the feel of pulp SF heroic characters. The Mutant Future/Gamma World approach of rolling buckets of dice for level 1 hp then no further improvement would likely work better. Maybe give everyone level 4 hp at chargen then +1 per extra level.

Surely you mean 14 hp at 1st level, not merely 4?That would work somewhat better...

And seriously, the big downside of the OSR type of mechanics for pulp is simply the lack of a defense roll. You might say it speeds up combat, and totally does, but 1) against multiple opponents that outnumber you it's not gonna fly and 2) it totally contradicts the feel of the pulps, that characters survive because of their skill, not because they outtough everyone?
Besides what pulp PC doesn't find himself, herself or itself outnumbered early on?

 

[S'mon]

Surely you mean 14 hp at 1st level, not merely 4?That would work somewhat better...

"Level 4 hp" - the hp of a level 4 character. Mutant Future gives typically 1d6 hp per point of CON, which might be too much.

I agree re opposed roll to avoid damage.

 

[AsenRG]

"Level 4 hp" - the hp of a level 4 character. Mutant Future gives typically 1d6 hp per point of CON, which might be too much.

I agree re opposed roll to avoid damage.

Oops, sorry. I thought it's about 4 HP to avoid starting with 1HP, and thought that this isn't nearly enough...

 

[Ynas Midgard]

Oops, sorry. I thought it's about 4 HP to avoid starting with 1HP, and thought that this isn't nearly enough...

Hey, it's nothing to scoff at; having 4 hp instead of 1 instantly improves the chance of survival by 50% (assuming d6 damage dice)

 

[dragoner]

Leveling 10 HP is an interesting concept.

 

[rumble]

It's not how many HP you have. It's how you use them.
Or rather, how you avoid having to use them.

 

[Bunch]

What would happen if your hot dice was rolled each round and used to soak up damage as the player chose? Specifically in say a sci Fi campaign where the weapons may do more damage. So I'm 4th level fighter and I roll 4d10 for how much damage I can soak up that round. Maybe your movement rate gives the range of area you can soak in. So if the group is tight a fighter soaks all the damage for a group or maybe let's a shot or two get through for others to soak up. The number of HD could drop every round to a limit of one so fights don't last indefinitely.


I dunno just spit balling. Maybe someone already does that

 

[AsenRG]

Hey, it's nothing to scoff at; having 4 hp instead of 1 instantly improves the chance of survival by 50% (assuming d6 damage dice)

True, that.

 

[rumble]

What would happen if your hot dice was rolled each round and used to soak up damage as the player chose? Specifically in say a sci Fi campaign where the weapons may do more damage. So I'm 4th level fighter and I roll 4d10 for how much damage I can soak up that round. Maybe your movement rate gives the range of area you can soak in. So if the group is tight a fighter soaks all the damage for a group or maybe let's a shot or two get through for others to soak up. The number of HD could drop every round to a limit of one so fights don't last indefinitely.


I dunno just spit balling. Maybe someone already does that

Sounds clever. Armor might give a fixed soak value... a flat plus.

Could be over complicated too. Everything in combat would be a contested roll.

As an abstraction, every system that encourages only-player-rolls already does this. You roll to see if you hit. Then you took to see if you withstood an attack.