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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gambler1650" data-source="post: 9718872" data-attributes="member: 11033">Adventures... I see a lot of 'dungeons in space' type of adventures which is understandable because most people come from the Fantasy end of RPGs before SciFi.  Derelict ships, ancient alien structures, etc.  Sure, those are great but if that's all that you do, you're not exploring the things that can make SciFi different. I think it's probably important to NOT do a 'site crawl' as the first thing in a campaign.  At the same time, it has to be something interesting.  I read a Traveller 2300AD module recently (Rescue Run by Mongoose) because it seemed geared to a relatively new group.  All I could think while reading was "So boring."  Basically it was a skeleton of an adventure with almost no 'weird' bits.  It's SciFi.  You should experience SOMETHING interesting.  Instead you get:1) An order to go to another planet in system to rescue researchers stranded at a research station before the planet's orbit moves too far from the star for them to survive there.2) A possibility to interact with another similar group and/or locals in the city - all human and 'normal'.3) The trip to the other planet.  There are a few encounters, mostly local system traffic all heading inwards because of word of a Kaefer attack out of system.  There's one encounter which is a couple of Kaefer raiders being chased by military ships.  The main point of this encounter - in addition to making the system feel 'lived in' like the other encounters - seems to be for the players to get used to obtaining sensor locks on other ships because it's obvious they shouldn't involve themselves in any way (and the Kaefer aren't going to stop to chat).  I also quibble a bit with the idea that the system NEEDS to feel lived in.  This is space.  Beowulf has far less people on it than Earth.  And the appearance of raiders from an attack in a whole other system that happen to cross near the characters' ship is a coincidence of the most amazing degree at least in a nominally 'hard sci-fi' setting.4) They get to the planet.  They can fix some damage to the habitat/station and mediate between stressed researchers.  The damage fixes are just straightforward rolls, and not too hard at that.  There's no real info given as to what happens if the characters fail their rolls.  They can also discover that someone secretly 3D printed something potentially illegal or at least highly restricted.  But they can't find out what.  Oh, and they're told that one of the researchers went missing during a storm no one likely could have survived.  And another one is coming so it makes no sense to go out and look for the missing researcher.5) The storm hits, possible random damage can occur.  There's no information given as to the effects of the damage (water treatment plant, life support, etc) and/or how the characters can fix it.  Maybe there are more general rules for this in the main Traveller rules (I'm reading them at the same time as the modules, so I may not have gotten there yet).6) Turns out that the missing researcher is convinced the rescue team is part of a Pentapod takeover plot.  The module doesn't say why he thinks this - though it mentions he's a bit on the crazy side when it comes to aliens.  You would think if he actually thought this, he would have said something around one of the research team before the current period of the adventure.  He's the one who secretly printed out a handgun.  Which if the characters could figure that out would have been able to prepare for something.  Like the attack the missing researcher makes.  The characters have to subdue him and then get everyone together and leave when the storm ends.7) They get paid and praised.I guess if you're doing a strict Firefly type of campaign this would be ok... After all, there's not much 'weird' in Firefly beyond the Reavers and some of the science that the legitimate government sponsors.  But the base setting of 2300AD is one with aliens and this is an alien world.  The world itself has no indigenous life larger than 2mm, and the characters will see none of even this.  What they will see is a Pentapod from a small base away from the human research station.  It comes to the door after any possibly damaging event and asks if there are any expended/surplus human bioshells for trade (seems to be referring to dead humans).  A student recalls the main professor asking "Trade for what?" but the response or lack of response by the Pentapod isn't given.  When the humans are about to escape the planet, the Pentapod returns and gives them a patch from a uniform for a human space ship the characters haven't heard of.  Turns out, this is probably the most intriguing element of the adventure - the Pentapod and what it wants leading to questions of 'why?'.  But there's no actual information given to the referee so that they could reasonably play a question/answer session with the Pentapod and player characters.  Turns out this is explored in much more depth in the 2nd module of the series.So, what you get is a by the numbers plot with almost no actual agency, no exploration, and no uniquely Sci-Fi weirdness that the players can actually interact with.The second module has a section that I find absolutely dumb.  The players can decide on a number of overland routes to a destination.  Along the way a number of things can happen depending on how safe a route they took.  Almost all significant events have to do with damage to their vehicle that slow them down and require rolls (no thinking) to fix.  Then some actually truly interesting stuff happens which I won't spoil (I didn't care about spoiling the first module as pretty much none of it is interesting).  And then the characters have to use the same procedure for much of their return trip which is described as a race against time before the planet becomes completely uninhabitable as it moves on its orbit.  But... no actual timetable is given, and if there were and the characters died because of too many random damage events, I think my table wouldn't play Traveller ever again.  Fortunately(?) there's no actual time table, but it means the rolls for the events and the rolls for fixing damage are basically meaningless.So based on reading those two, I can come up with a couple of Sci Fi adventure precepts (which to be fair, apply to almost any adventure):1) Something significant in the adventure should be weird (where weird = alien or just something outside the usual human experience).  By significant, I mean something that can be interacted with, explored by, and then respond to the characters,2) Straightforward rolls to solve a problem, especially when there are no consequences if you fail OR if the adventure stalls if you fail are to be avoided with extreme prejudice.  At LEAST give the characters a way to make the rolls more in their favor or alternate paths forward.The only way I would ever use "Rescue Run" is in a paragraph summary of the group's first mission as a flashback (that the players don't have to playthrough).  It's just too mundane, especially as a campaign starter.</blockquote>

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