Traveller Reach Adventure 2: Theories of Everything Author: Martin J Dougherty Publisher: Mongoose Publishing ISBN 978-1-908460-62-2

Price: £8 Pages: 38

I received this as a complimentary copy from Mongoose for review purposes.

Overview:

"In Reach Adventure 2: Theories of Everything the Travellers are hired as crew and research assistants aboard the laboratory vessel Insight III. The ship is owned by a cooperative of scientists working in a cross-discipline environment to solve problems and discover knowledge as they journey across the vast reaches of space… or so they claim. In fact, Insight III is basically a jump-capable shouting match as its owners bicker, squabble and argue their erratic way across a dangerous subsector. The Travellers’ mission is thus more than merely running the ship and helping collect data. They will need to be advisors, diplomats and bodyguards too, injecting a little common sense into the heady mix of ego and brilliance aboard Insight III. The storyline of the adventure is as much about the interactions of the scientists and crew as the situations they find themselves in, and it may be that the Travellers’ greatest challenge will be keeping the scientists from murdering one another…"

This an adventure book that utilises the Type L research vessel that has seen deployment in many a Traveller adventure since the early days. It does this with a well detailed, well mapped, and interesting mixture of vessel, scientist crew, a clearly define set of research tasks that begin on the planet of Marduk, move to Borite and end in an exciting and potentially emotionally fraught rescue off a gas giant.

This scenario is not novel, but the author, Martin J Dougherty, expands and delivers it well, and in doing so reveals a little more about the wider setting in which Marduk and Borite lies. This is a non-linear adventure book with lots of opportunity for dynamic and freeform roleplaying, and using a limited set of components, the book delivers an excellent series of play sessions, probably 3-4 in total. There is some overlap and re-use of the Marduk material from Reach Adventure 1, but in a way that could enrichen the ability of the PCs to save the bacon of a rather foolish research academic. It is well illustrated with recognisably 'Traveller' like 3D imager, Tyle L ship plans, pinnacle and vehicle stats, and competent character illustrations. It follows the high quality of Traveller 2.0 layout and graphics, and has no apparent typos or grammatical problems.

It comprises of the following chapters:

Introduction: A short, sweet and yet purposeful. Key here is the adventure starts on the planet of Marduk, in the Oghma Cluster, in the Sindal subsector of Trojan Reach, before proceeding into the Borite system. The adventure is suitable for any group of Travellers, but they need to either not have starship or a plot device is provided he.re to relieve them of it with a hook to engage them in "Theories of Everything" for a month or so. Again, so nice phrasing from the author "Using the jump drive in it's present state would fall into the 'might not die' catergory of risks" raised a smile from me. The players do really need a pilot, and an engineer. Referee's Introduction: As noted, this a Sindal subsector, Oghma cluster adventure in the Trojan Reach sector. This is a very well detailed part of the Original Traveller Universe (OTU), and well developed by Mongoose over many years in books about the Aslan and the foundational "Pirates of Drinax" campaign. There is a small amount of necessary duplication from Reach Adventure 1, and other sources, but this is utterly necessary and makes this adventure accessible to a referee or group of players who know nothing of the Reach, or even the OTU. The Insight III: This chapter details the Type L research lab ship, a ring design familiar to experience Traveller gamers, and the complement of quixotic, irascible, heads-in-the-clouds research scientists who own and work on it. These are the academics that the players will need to look after as they embark on a series of field work missions across 3 systems: Marduk, Borite and Noricum. The ships and pinnace are attractively mapped out, detailed for Mongoose Traveller 2.0, and the four scientists statted up and their idiosyncratic personalities and inter-personal relationships explained. There are also 2 other non scientist NPCs, which could be easily swapped out for suitable player characters, so as to avoid the possibility of the players simply watching the referee 'acting out' a cast of NPCs in front of them. With little work a group could also adopt the roster of NPCs and simply play them as pre-generated characters, which would be my personal preference for a 3-4 session extended micro-campaign. Theories of Everything: This is technically chapter 3, but is in fact 3 paragraphs stating that this a freeform open ended adventure. Superfluous, but has a lovely scene setting picture of a snarky note left by one NPC to another that's well worth printing and showing to the players! Hiring On: Here the research project is detailed, in and of itself straightforward but notably it gives the whole group clearly defined tasks, opportunities for roleplaying, and [and this is rare] actual tasks to fulfil when in jumpspace between systems.. Marduk: This could be subtitled "Amongst the Ruins by the Seaside, something Lurks". So as not to spoil it, any player who has played Reach Adventure 1 is going to be able to handle this spike of danger very well, but the duplication of moving pieces is well handled and should delight the group. If the first adventure was not played, then it will be potentially a little dangerous, as it should be. Borite: The culture of Borite is one of carefully nurtured idiocy, a front to ensure that no-one is a potential target for Oghma raiders who target the capture of anyone who can read/write or has numeracy. The interaction of a group of very well educated and in one case very extroverted scientists as such a culture is a potential source of great roleplaying. [I was also minded that an Oghma quisling might even be on planet and taking names..] The Borite field work is very similar to that on Marduk, but is interrupted by a Signal GK distress call from space! Rescue: This is a very exciting, well designed, rescue attempt to save the crew of the far trader Jolly Joel before it tumbles into a gas giant. Slingshots, parallel routing of the Insight III and the pinnace, the number of hour left before disaster, all are carefully explained by the author, and even if you don't know your 2G acceleration from your 4G mobile phone, a referee has all they need to run a space rescue mission worthy of Thunderbirds. Again, not all is at seems, and the crew of far trader are flawed people, the scientists have little common sense, and it might all go completely Pete Tong [Google it..], and a very linear mission has been interweaved with open ended possibilities, some tragic, some triumphant. At the end it is likely that those that live will eventually make their way to Noricum. As the blasted remains of the Sindal Empire a key place in the Pirates of Drinax campaign, this a good choice for Mongoose and Dougherty to leave the players, probably with a new network of contacts, friends or enemies on board a rambling excuse for a scientist adventure in games to come.

Summary: Well crafted, well illustrated, well laid out, well written, high potential for 3-4 evenings of engagement in non combat SF adventure, complements Reach Adventure 1 well. 4.5/5

This adventure starts at Marduk (where the first adventure of this series took place) and involves a lot of time spent in Jump as the party travels to the Borite system. Although shipboard skills are useful there's plenty for everyone to do aboard the laboratory ship Insight III. If you did play Marooned at Marduk, this could be something the party does to pass time/earn some credits whilst their newly-acquired ship gets a well-needed refit. If you haven't, there's a suggestion for a compelling reason why the party might abandon their existing ship and take up this opportunity, or if they don't have a ship this presents an interesting job opportunity with good pay.

The Referee's Information provides background about the Sindal subsector, Marduk and Borite. Most of this can be discovered by the party if they trouble to do any research in the library data or talk to the right people, it's up to you how much you want to share. We then find out about the Insight III, which is built as a ring and is incapable of making landing on a planet - they have their own pinnace for that purpose. The reason for the ring structure is to generate some gravity when they are running an experiment that might be affected by the usual artificial gravity generation methods. It is Jump-capable however. Crew requirements are at least one pilot, a navigator, a medic and two engineers, but there's some wiggle-room in precisely what you have - in many such ships one of the scientists is capable of filling the role of medic, for example. A full specification and deck plans are provided.

The Insight III is joint-owned by the scientists aboard, many think that's the only reason that they've stayed together this long. Certainly, the ship is disorganised and its residents a quarrelsome bunch. There are four scientists, an engineer (who also cooks) and a pilot (who owns the pinnace) aboard when the party encounters them. Full details of each individual are provided, and just reading through them is entertaining - a diverse bunch! Between them they can just about manage to operate their ship, but only at the expense of pulling people away from their studies. Treat this as a 'flying ivory tower' and you get the picture.

The adventure begins when the party encounter one of the scientists - who has written a popular book about Jump which they may even have read - and offers to buy lunch if they will listen to a proposition. Basically, he'd like them to join the Insight III for a few weeks as they travel the area conducting their experiments. In return for helping out around ship, they'll get board and lodging, pocket money, and passage back to Marduk (if wanted) as well as either a cash sum or purchase of the spares they need if they need to have their ship repaired. Assuming they accept, they'll be taken up to the research ship to meet the others and learn more about the mission - they've been hired to do some surveying in the local area beginning with studies here on Marduk - ocean life and geology - then they intend to go to Borite to do more geology and explore some ruins, thence to Noricum for more geology and archaeology, and ending at Thebus. The eclectic nature of the studies reflects the diverse interests of the scientists.

There will be several weeks of Jump travel, in which the main interest will be the dynamics between the scientists who are a quarrelsome lot at times - it makes for interesting role-playing especially for the Referee! For each location visited, there are ideas for how the investigations might pan out with plenty of opportunity for the party to get involved in the action... and of course there is something else thrown in which disrupts the entire schedule and makes this in to a proper adventure for anyone, not just those who enjoy pottering around exploring ruins and taking samples. This involves a tricky rescue of a badly-damaged spacecraft... with, of course, added complications. Real edge-of-the-seat stuff!

Possible outcomes and consequences are laid out clearly, but there's potential for several tense scenes along the way and it's possible to end this in a bloodbath if things don't work out amicably. A sneaky adventure that turns out as a moderately peaceful interlude and ends with a nail-biting scramble to survive! There's also potential - if you like more unusual styles of adventure - of continuing with the laboratory ship or even of using the scientists (or your own ones) as player-characters.

Bought it, read it, but never found it worth running.

This adventure is based entirely around the conflict of a set of NPC's. To run this as intended you need to be an exceptional GM. Or at least be a great voice actor. With out beeing able to play out wierd conflicts between NPC so that the PC find them interesting and try to brake up the fight/argument I think this is not going to work.

I'm playing around with the idea of turning this into a one-shot by using the NPC's as pre-generated PC and letting the players sort out the conflict, and the GM taking the role that was intended for the players.