Traveller: Strange Heavens – Campaign Introduction

While this page is primarily intended for the players in my upcoming Traveller campaign (it references a private Discord server), I’m sharing it publicly to provide background on the campaign as I’ll be chronicling the sessions on my site.

Unlike some of the other campaign intros I’ve written in the past, this write-up is intentionally left vague as the campaign will be far more driven and shaped by the desires of the players and actions of their characters.

INTRO

Too much is never enough. While still much of the current galaxy remains unexplored and/or unexploited, the Third Imperium’s desire for growth and longevity cannot be abated. Enter the Genesis Transcendent, a colony ship that will take 20,000 participants on a voyage of more than 2.5 million light years to the Andromeda Galaxy.

Even with the Faster Than Light travel afforded a Jump Drive, the massive distance will take hundreds of years to traverse. To ensure the safety of the passengers, all aboard must do their part. Teams of 50 will awake from stasis to perform maintenance, navigation, and ship checks for a month’s time before returning to suspended animation for the next crew to take over. With an estimated travel time of 750 years, all passengers should age less than 2 years doing their duties aboard the Genesis Transcendent.

The Genesis Transcendent is stocked with everything to handle the challenges a new galaxy may present. Once a destination planet has been chosen, the ship itself comes equipped with transportation, limited terraforming capabilities, and seeds to start a new life. The hull can be disassembled to provide structures and other use, allowing new generations of humanity to flourish and expand throughout Andromeda and, one day, beyond.

What could possibly go wrong?

RULES

Strange Heavens uses the Mongoose Traveller 2nd Edition rules and equipment. Traveller is a d6-based system.

Rules can be purchased from Mongoose directly in hardcover or PDF format: https://www.mongoosepublishing.com/us/traveller-core-rulebook.html

Cyborg Prime has good text overview of the rules: https://www.cyborgprime.com/traveller-rpg-blog/how-to-play-traveller-traveller-rpg-character-creation#traveller-rolling-dice

Wargaming in Miniature YouTube channel has a video series on the rules: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lQXcYQzqwM

Seth Skorkowsky has also done a video series on the rules: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdCq91MP9wE

The Traveller wiki covers all the various rule systems and can provide some lore: https://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Main_Page

THE CAMPAIGN (THEMES)

While the Strange Heavens is, ostensibly, set in the Third Imperium universe, the player characters will be so far removed from the goings-on of their home galaxy that many common themes of Traveller (such as trade, piracy, and ship combat) will not apply. The two primary themes of Strange Heavens are survival and exploration, with secondary themes of community and politics.

CHARACTER CREATION

Though there are alien races in the Traveller setting, the Genesis Transcendent is a human-only ship. Characters must be human. Use the #planning channel on my Discord to discuss character thoughts. Player characters do not have to know each other at the start of the campaign, but it will help if there are some connections and diversity of roles.

Character generation will often grant various NPC contacts and enemies. These NPCs will not be lost as the PCs leave the galaxy; their roles will be transferred to the population aboard the colony ship.

People from all walks of life are among the passenger manifest of the Genesis Transcendent and all passengers are considered crew. This site has a great tool for Traveller character generation: https://munsondevelopment.com/

INSPIRATIONS

Strange Heavens is largely inspired by the early episodes of sci-fi TV series like SGU: Stargate Universe and Battlestar Galactica (2004), which saw a small population simply trying to survive on minimal resources.

The game also draws inspiration from movies like Pandorum, Passengers (2016), Sunshine (2007), and Europa Report.

I would be remiss not to also credit the video game Mass Effect: Andromeda as a source of inspiration.