Charted Space, the Original Traveller Universe is big. It is pretty too big for most practical purposes. There are a few ways to approach this. The most common is to find places that are more interesting for games to take place in (I have some suggestions for interesting places my intro to Classic Traveller post). One can also just roll up your own setting, which is the assumption in the original books.
One thing that might be useful for thinking about in SF settings is what information ships broadcast. While all sorts of things could be, a good model for what information might be valuable is to look at the Automatic Information System (AIS) used by shipping here on Earth. This is a transmitter that broadcasts a position and other identifying information reguarly, originally for collision avoidance, but which is now used for a variety of other things.
This is an entry for the SFRPG Secret Santa. Doubloon asked for a space truck stop, and well, here it is. Welcome to Jan’s Landing: Summary Jan’s Landing is an old, rundown asteroid base built and used by Mzansi Minerals during the mining boom in the near belt a few decades ago. When Mzansi finally pulled out 13 years ago the manager, Jan Huysamen, took over the site for pennies on the dollar and repurposed it as a supply hub, since it was on one of the main routes inwards from the outer system.
The following was intended as a short adventure seed for a simple Traveller adventure, but grew a little in the telling. It is based on the (largely improvised) game that I ran at Festival Draconis in October 2024, but has been formatted to match the style of the Freelance Traveller Active Measures. It is suitable for starting a campaign with or as a one-shot, but should a Referee wish to introduce the adventure into an ongoing campaign, it should work fine, although note that it takes place at the opening of the Fifth Frontier War.
Editor’s note: The following is an extract from partially burned papers from the church of St Almat. They seem to be from the notebooks of one Magister Garius Kal. They may prove to be of use during our current predicament. [Werewolves] are misunderstood. Our folk do not change their form to some sort of bestial wolf during the fool moon. That is how one makes orcs, and it appears to be irreversible once the rage has taken the poor souls.
The Clacks and Post - a Magical not-Victorian Matrix Game Welcome to the city of Endon: greatest city in the world. It is a dynamic, go-getting city that is moving with great velocity into the Century of the Fruitbat. While a great many things are changing, the speed of communication is not one of them. Until now. The New Clacks Company is looking to change that with the power of engineering.
Dramatis Personae: S, playing Padraig - Irish actor, formerly linked to drug running. N, playing Yannis - Belgian hacker who got recruited by the ADIV/SGRS a while back. An, playing Cooper ‘Coop’ - All-American patriot. In an overwatch position. Al, playing Petros - The Dogfather. Tailing the folks outside (player not available) Recap 09 May 2011 The previous session had the PCs watch some intruders waltz into their own intrusion. They took this poorly, and prepared to jump them.
Dramatis Personae: S, playing Padraig - Irish actor, formerly linked to drug running. N, playing Yannis - Belgian hacker who got recruited by the ADIV/SGRS a while back. An, playing Cooper ‘Coop’ - All-American patriot. In an overwatch position. (Player not available) Al, playing Petros - The Dogfather. Recap 09 May 2011 After returning from Scotland, the agents took a bit of downtime to look into some of the things that they had found.
Background I do not really use any VTT tools for running games, but folks running Traveller of various kinds often like having deckplans, at least for the ship owned or used by the PCs. While there is no shortage of deckplans out there, sometimes you just need a new, custom one. A fairly common source for making one’s own deckplans is the set of Starship Geomorphs created by Robert Pearce a few years ago.
Dramatis Personae: S, playing Padraig - Irish actor, formerly linked to drug running. N, playing Yannis - Belgian hacker who got recruited by the ADIV/SGRS a while back. An, playing Cooper ‘Coop’ - All-American patriot. Al, playing Petros - The Dogfather. Recap 06 May 2011 Being so close to the last known location of HMS Proserpine, as a shore base at Lyness, Scapa Flow, the agents decided to nose about a little.