Traveller noodling...

[gridlore]

While waiting for my comp copy of Interstellar Wars to show up, I've been thinking about what, if any, type of Traveller game I'd like to try to run in the future. Because, frankly, I've burned out on the game. I cannot stomach another debate on how many Zhodani warbots can dance on the head of a pin, or more endless calculations of the heat generated by a Type S Scout (enough to melt the entire ship to slag the first time you fire up the power plant, evidently.)

This burnout is part of the genesis of the Concordat; I want something different to play with, dammit! But still the Third Imperium calls to me. But what to do?

I'm not going to run another bloody Free Trader game. As much as I like them, the tend to fall apart quickly. Besides, I want something grander, something epic.

So this is what I'm thinking: A game set at the end of the Civil War and running through the Arbellatra Regency. The characters would be officers of the fleet Arbellatra gathered on her march to the Core. The beginning of the campaign would be the final battles of the Civil War, and Grand Admiral Arbellatra becoming Regent.

Now canon indicates that she took the Regency in order to search for a legitimate heir to the Lentuli dynasty. Guess what the characters are assigned to do?

This would be a grand quest, starting with a few clues. The team would have to negotiate hostile courts (not everyone is thrilled with this Admiral from the frontier taking the throne, no matter what she calls herself) intrigue, red herrings, and the possibly the last pockets of fighting. Along the way, they might have to track down war criminals, deal with mysteries left by the war, and negotiate unfamiliar territory.

And there's a dark twist I've been considering. What if the actual reason for the heir search is to eliminate them, leaving the path clear for Arbellatra to take the throne without fear of a dynastic challenger? What happens if the characters actually find the Empress Nicholle's third cousin twice removed or something?

Things could get interesting.

Comments

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

I can see turning this game very dark. The characters track down a potential heir, and report this to their supervisors. Their ship suffers a breakdown, delaying them by a week or two. When they get to the target world, they discover the family they were seeking was killed in a mysterious air/raft accident.

To add to the paranoia, I might even suggest that it isn't Arbellatra orchestrating the deaths, but a cabal of nobles in her court that want her on the throne. She's honestly looking for an heir.

[robertprior.livejournal.com]

Alternately, the heirs are eleiminated unless they would do a better job. The nobles are loyal to the Imperium -- just homicidally ready to ignore law and morality.

After all, what if the players _do_ find an heir who is atently not emperor material, but _wants_ to be emperor? What would that do to the Imperium?

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

Sounds like the birth of IRIS.

[(Anonymous)]

I never liked IRIS -- a variant that somehow got used as canon for a while. The whole "we're good guys so we are above the law" idea bothered me then (and does even more now).