Riding the Hyperlite

The Scenario

Once I was satisfied enough with the flow of chargen (Character Generation) I had to figure out what the game was going to be. What would be fun to run? When I build a new game, sometimes I like to choose a module to base it around. It's a safe choice because it's always easier to adapt something that already works to what you need it to be than it is to start from scratch.

For ArcanceCon, I chose Kinunir ( DriveThru Link, or FFE for the Deal of a Lifetime ) as my platform because I really wanted to lean into the "classic" of Classic Traveller. Why not use the very first module?

Kinunir is an artifact from a bygone era. In my opinion it takes the best elements of adventure design from the market leader. The entire booklet is centered around a battlecruiser of troubled origin, rendered in great detail. It contains detailed deck plans and crew rosters, equipment locker inventories, and personal effects of particular crew members. Sound familiar? Read anything from TSR during the time (I'm looking at you G123) and you'll see the same thing. It's like a spaceship model you'd build and fill with tiny troopers. Is it useful? Yes, and. I'll get to that in a bit. This information is for the wargamers in the house.

Kinunir also contains a subsector map to give you a sandbox to adventure within, a huge rumor table (that's difficult to use as-is, but great for building my own) a bunch of library data and lore on the sandbox, and here's the best part: 4 solid patron-driven adventure hooks. Each scenario is open-ended. There are no set solutions, and aside from the intro to each there are no clearly-defined scenes or beats to hit for them. Each scenario involves an instance of one of these infamous Kinunir starships either directly or indirectly.

From the 4 presented, I chose the first. A corporate executive approaches the group and asks them to acquire for him two points of technical data on the ill-fated Kinunir-class vessel: the fuel-tankage, and the fittings for the Black Globe Generator. He'll pay the crew a ton of money for the data, but he needs it fast. Then he lays a few options on them: there may be one in a scrap yard somewhere, there may be project team members still on the planet, or you could just steal the plans from the company HQ. And scene.

It's a great hook. Go steal something for me and I'll pay you big monies for it. It's a classic. But as-is it's pretty thin. Who is this clown, anyway? And show me the money first, pal. I addressed these and other concerns by first recognizing that this was a Heist and then using all the stuff in the booklet to fill out everything I need for that kind of a scenario. Go read Justin's book. I did. It changed my life by making me a better Dungeon Referee, and you can, too! ;-)

In my updated intro, I presented three specific clues via the patron, Mr. Nunn-Ya: General Shipyards HQ was on Regina, General Shipyards scrapyard/salvage yard was also on Regina, the former Project Manager for Kinunir was on Regina. "I suggest you start there." And to really set the hook, I would have him slap a CorpoExpense card down to buy HighPass tickets for their trip.

A heist is a multi-phased adventure format that I've abstracted to: passive information gathering, active information gathering, the job itself, and the getaway. It roughly follows the dramatic arc of rising action, conflict, resolution, and denouement. How you implement this is very much an art.

I went in a few different design directions before settling on elements I felt would work well and present a satisfying adventure. I chose:

For the clue list, I cribbed some from the booklet and tied them into the scenario I was running. I put easy stuff at the top, like things that'd be on the newsfeeds. Next was stuff that'd require an internet search, but not a deep one. After that was stuff you'd only get by interviewing people, performing direct surveillance, or cracking into secure resources. Finally, I added 4 clues that were to be "critical success" clues that lead to jackpot results.

My Sets/Locations ended up working better as a ranked-list as well. I had details for the scrapyard and a "data vault" facility, but rest I decided to improvise as-needed. I did make a list of sights, sounds and smells for my two planetary locations, and for each special location. For things like the bar, the starport administration offices, and all the sights and sounds of interstellar travel I wrote a few margin notes for the mood I wanted to convey and reminded myself that players aren't there to listen to me bloviate and wax all poetical. Set the tone and turn it over to them.

The NPC list itself was easy, but adding the details to make them interesting and useful took longer. I had in mind a few former project members that were still on the planet and/or still worked for GS. They'd be people who'd have access to the data the players were after, or who knew how to get it. I made a list of 5 for the first run, but I learned that I can easily get away with 3 or fewer.

Each NPC had a name, and followed the Verbal, Somatic, Material format that I think Justin Alexander and Baron DeRopp came up with. Verbal: a catch-phrase, funny-voice, or verbal-tic. Somatic: A gesture, posture, or movement style. Material: A prop, eg a cigarette, a fidget toy, tinted glasses, fancy boots. This gives them depth when they're met, even if you're just rattling off a list of traits.

For intractability, each NPC had something they wanted but couldn't get, each had a secret that would be awkward if found out, and each had someone close to them who was vulnerable. I wove these things into my clue list and put the really good stuff onto a sub-list of clues specific to each NPC. For example, one of them was "lookin' fer luv" and had dating and hook-up profiles. Digging a little deeper found even more profiles that matched that person, but under different names. Another had left GS in disgrace, but now ran a company that provided janitorial services to GS and clearly had a grudge. Another had ties to extremist political groups, and if they managed to do a little clever sleuthing they would see that person was funneling money to known terrorist groups. How awkward!

I had my clue list. I had my NPCs and I had my sets. Now I'd need an implementation of the game engine, because without it, Traveller can unravel into analysis-paralysis due to in-game moments stretching to infinity. I'll talk about Traveller's Game Machinery and how I implemented it for this game next time.