Dune starter set: Agents of Dune review

Agents of Dune is Modiphius’ starter set for their Dune RPG. It has a grand ambition, which is to teach roleplaying to people who have never played or run a ttrpg before, with play starting only a few minutes after opening the box. Does it succeed? It’s hard for me to say, because I’ve been roleplaying for over 40 years. 

But I’m going to try and figure that out anyway.

Caveats

I am not particularly a fan of Dune. I read Dune in school, and it was fine. (I may have been too young.) I may have tried to read some of the sequels. I can’t remember. 

I enjoyed the recent movies, but I don’t know the detailed lore.

Anyway, I bought this in Modipheus’ Black Friday sale. I wouldn’t have bought it at full price, but I did because I picked up the Masters of Dune campaign, and apparently, this is a lead-in. (And I also thought it might be helpful to understand the rules.)

I haven’t played or run the starter set – I have only read it. (Well, and run through a few scenes as a solo player.)

I’m definitely not the target audience for two reasons: I am an experienced roleplayer, and I’m not a Dune fan.

Given that, these are my thoughts.

Contents

The sturdy box contains:

One introduction leaflet, with a letter from the head of the PC’s house setting the scene and telling them they are taking over Arrakis from the Harkonnen. (Yes, this is an “alternate universe” version of Dune where the Harkonnen aren’t quite as vile as they are in the source material, and the handover to House Nagara isn’t a trap. You might not like this. I’m fine with it.) The back page has a summary of key rules: conflicts, attack sequence and determination.

Five 4-page pregenerated characters, all from House Nagara and including a mentat and a Bene Gesserit. The back page summarises the rules for skill tests.

Some counters with mysterious symbols. These aren’t always explained.

Five d20s with worms instead of 1s. They’re quite nice, and easy to read.

Two decks of cards, representing characters, assets and more. Standees are also provided.

Dice, counters, cards.

Handouts, trackers and maps. Various bits of card that are used during the game.

Adventure booklet. The core of the boxed set is a 116-page “campaign experience” that teaches the rules through a series of three acts, each divided into scenes. There’s a lot of text for the GM to read to the players – but they don’t need to read it all at once. Play can start pretty much as soon as the box is opened.

(Incidentally, here is a post from Modiphius outlining their approach to their starter set.)

The campaign experience

The campaign starts in Act 1 with the PCs being trained by the Harkonnens on Giedi Prime. Act 2 introduces the PCs to intrigue on Giedi Prime, while Act 3 moves the action to Arrakis. Each act is broken into scenes, with new rules introduced gradually. The story itself is quite fun, with dastardly Harkonnen, an assassination and spice harvesting on Arrakis.

So the first scene of Act 1 is “Seeking Discipline”. The PC’s shuttle is under attack. They are on the bridge and must first use the control panels to identify the problem. This is done by the GM reading out text, and the players responding to it (and rolling dice). Depending on the PC's actions (or the dice roll), the GM reads another paragraph.

So it’s a little like a choose-your-own-adventure, but with a GM.

My experience

To test it out, I took three PCs through the first few scenes, rolling dice and making player decisions. While it taught me the basics of the game, I’m not sure it was a good introduction to roleplaying. The focus is definitely on rolling dice rather than roleplaying, which seemed to be a bit of a miss.

And I expected the book to do less handholding as it went on, with the last few scenes presented more as a traditional adventure. But no.

While this approach is more restrictive than experienced players might like (there’s no tactical infinity here!), it allows for some intriguing moments that are effectively cut scenes. (For example, in an early scene, they are all attacked by traitors with dartguns. Friendly NPCs deal with the attackers (the scene is there to hint that all is not well on Giedi Prime), and the PCs aren’t in real danger – but there’s nothing they can do about it. I imagine some players may object to the lack of agency, but I didn’t mind this.)

Things that really didn’t work

I have no idea how successful this approach to teaching new players has been. I presume Modiphius tested it, but I don’t have any newbies to hand to try it out on. So I can’t tell.

But as I read through the campaign booklet, I tried to think about it as if I were new to ttrpgs. And I had a lot of issues…

Teaching being a GM: I’m not sure how well the game teaches being a GM. It teaches the rules, yes, but there’s more to being a GM than just knowing the rules. Even things as simple as sketching a map isn’t covered.

Scaling: Scaling challenges for different player counts isn’t explained. With my three test PCs, I found some extended tasks almost impossible. They would have been much easier with all five PCs, but there’s nothing that suggests you should be using all five, and nothing to advise a new GM what to do should they have fewer players.

Threat: Threat is the pool of GM tokens they can use to make the PC’s lives harder. The game explains how Threat is earned, and what it can be spent on, but it never explains when or why the GM should want to use it. Yes, I have a pool of Threat. So what? When should I spend it? And more importantly, why do I want to make things harder for my players? As GM, do I want them to fail?

Extended tasks: Extended tasks aren’t explained well. It took me a couple of readings to work it out – a diagram with the difficulty and boxes to be crossed off would have gone a long way. I ended up creating these anyway, but I suspect a new GM might have struggled.

Traps for the unwary GM: At one point the PCs are expected to ask about a prisoner – but the preceding text doesn’t mention a prisoner. And there’s no guidance on which of the PCs to use, if you’re not using all five. It turns out that one of them is critical!

And there are loads of odd little points that I picked up that a newbie might not. Why is the Move skill used to install a security system? Why is Determination used to buy a warehouse? And what on earth is going on with conflicts?

Okay, that last one isn’t a little point. It’s a huge point, so let’s talk about the system.

Dune’s system

Maybe new players take to Dune’s system like a duck to water, but I found it extremely odd. 

2d20

So Dune is an iteration of Modiphius’ 2d20 system. This essentially means for every task, players roll 2d20 and try to roll under the target number. The target number depends on each character’s Drive and Skill (added together), and the difficulty of the task indicates how many successes a player needs.

Spare successes can be used to build something called Momentum, which can be spent for various things – most often, more dice to roll.

So those are the basics. So far, so good. The problem (for me) arises with Drives and Skills.

Drives and Skills

Each character has five Drives and five Skills.

The Skills are Battle, Communicate, Discipline, Move, and Understand. They’re pretty self-explanatory, apart from Discipline, which is stamina and willpower.

The Drives are Duty (what is your responsibility), Faith (what your heart says), Justice (what is right), Power (what you want), and Truth (what the facts are).

And here are some tests the campaign book asks for

• Figuring out what is wrong at a control station.
• Deactivating an alarm system.
• Install spy eyes and listening devices.
• Rescuing a spice harvester from a sandworm attack.

While it’s usually clear what Skill to use (but not always – Discipline seems to have various uses), choosing the correct Drive seems fraught with confusion. And the GM and players have precious little guidance – they’re left to their own. 

And if I struggled with choosing the right Drive (why not always pick the highest?), it’s hard to imagine that new players will find it easy.

NPCs

Maybe things are different in the core rules, but the stats for NPCs are just like the stats for PCs.

This may just be me, but I like NPCs to have a cut-down set of stats. Frankly, in Dune, all a GM needs are typical target numbers to suit different levels of NPCs.

Maybe I’d make an exception for main NPCs, but most NPCs are bit parts and only need to be a couple of lines.

Why bring this up? Well, because there is stuff hidden in a statblock that is easily missed. For example, during Act 2, the PCs meet Sabrya Zavr, a CHOAM negotiator. We are given her full stats (see above), and her focus for “Communicate” (the skill she uses in the scene we meet her) is “Negotiation.” And because that focus applies to the task at hand, she rolls a critical if she rolls below her skill (Communicate – 7) instead of just rolling a 1. So she’s a super powerful foe in the negotiations that the PCs are carrying out – but this isn’t called out in the text; it’s only apparent if the GM pays attention to her stat block.

I know I would find it easier to have cut-down stat blocks for NPCs. I’m pretty sure new GMs would too.

Conflicts

Which brings me to conflicts. These cover situations that go beyond a simple series of skill checks. Although the starter set explains what they are, it doesn’t really explain why anyone would use the conflict rules rather than just skill checks. Instead, the conflict rules are introduced when the starter set uses them.

There are several types of conflict – negotiations, duels, skirmishes, and more. All of them use the same core minigame rules, which involve moving your assets into enemy zones and preventing your enemy from doing the same to you. Some actions let you move enemy assets, which I found a bit weird.

Anyway, I have a couple of issues with conflicts. (Although this is based mainly on what I’ve read, and solo playing one of the conflicts out in the book. Maybe they are better in a full game. I guess they must be, given they are a core part of the Dune RPG.)

First, they don’t feel like roleplaying to me. I’m not that keen when ttrpgs turn into miniature wargames when combat breaks out, and playing out a conflict is like playing a board game.

Second, I’m not sure how well I would run them. One of the reasons I don’t like running combat is that I’m juggling so many other things that I don’t really play the enemies particularly effectively. I forget bonuses, special attacks, and the like. I don’t use cover and special rules very well – I just forget while I’m trying to manage the players, plot, NPCs, and everything else. (If you want to give players a real challenge in their combats, bring in another player to play their enemies… But that’s another topic.) So I’m pretty sure I’d be rubbish at running conflicts.

Third, I am not convinced they feel like the things they are representing. The negotiation, for example, feels nothing like a negotiation and is instead a short board game. Maybe that’s not the case for conflicts, but the negotiation didn’t feel like a negotiation for me.

CHOAM negotiations

From a new GM’s perspective, I have other issues.

• How does one set up a typical conflict? The ones in the starter set don’t seem to have any coherent pattern. The negotiation is very abstract (is it used for all negotiation conflicts?), while the skirmish uses a map. What’s the difference? It’s not explained.
• In a couple of cases, there are special rules. For example, in the negotiation conflict, Sabrya Zavr goes twice. Why? Is that a general rule or a special case for this conflict?

As is probably obvious, I haven’t got my head around conflicts. They may be the best thing about the Dune RPG, but I probably won’t find out until I try them in battle. However, for a new GM, I am not convinced that the starter set explains them well.

Spice harvesting

Harvesting spice has its own mini-game, complete with an irrelevant map. Spice appears, and the PCs decide where to place their harvesters. Sandworms may appear, and Fremen may attack. And if the harvester survives all of this, then we find out if the harvest has been successful.

Harvesting spice on an irrelevant map.

A couple of oddities.

• The spice blow token in that zone modifies the difficulty of the roll for spice production. But it’s not clear if it’s modified upwards or downwards. I think it’s supposed to be modified downwards, so a +2 spice blow represents lots of spice (with increased chance of sandworms), but that should mean it’s easier to harvest.
• The minigame does not reflect that the PCs are the leaders of House Nagara and would have teams of people to do all this for them. Instead, they are running around, making the rolls themselves. (For example, the PCs must make Move rolls to save a harvester threatened by a sandworm. Move? Eh?)
• If the harvest is successful, the PCs can invest in more harvesters. But this just means the PCs are even more stretched as nobody else is making the rolls…

Dune RPG starter set – my overall thoughts

While I like the idea of creating a starter set that lets new players start playing within minutes of opening the box, I’m not sure Agents of Dune works. I like the idea of learning the game as you go along, but I would have preferred a more traditional ttrpg scenario that an experienced GM could use straight from the book.

I’m glad it wasn’t my first ttrpg experience.

Worse, the starter set hasn’t made me want to try the Dune RPG. From what I can see, the system is unintuitive, fiddly and has systems I don’t understand. And I’m no more a fan of the setting than I was before. I could be wrong about the rules, but the starter set hasn’t inspired me to give it a go.

RPG starter sets

I find myself thinking about ttrpg starter sets.

I recently bought the Agents of Dune starter set for the Dune RPG, in their Black Friday sale. I hadn’t planned to buy it, but I noted that Masters of Dune, a campaign I’ve heard good things about, was also in the sale, and I figured that if I were to get the campaign, then I ought to know how the rules work. And it was an excellent Black Friday deal.

So I’ve been reading Agents of Dune (a “roleplaying campaign experience”), and it has made me think about starter sets and, in particular, what purpose they serve and who their target audience is. 

Target audiences

So I don’t know what goes on in the marketing departments of modern ttrpg companies, but I figure there are several different audiences, and they all want different things from a starter set.

The complete newbie: Has never played (or run) a ttrpg before. Needs the starter set to hold their hand and explain both what ttrpgs are, as well as selling this particular ttrpg. Oh, and doing so in a way that they like it so much that they pick up the core rulebook.

Existing roleplayers who are new to the game and the system: This existing GM or player likes the sound of the game, but doesn’t know the system and needs to find out what it’s about without breaking the bank.

Existing roleplayer, familiar with the brand, new to the game: This is someone who has played games by the company before, but not this particular line. (So think of a RuneQuest fan who wants to try Call of Cthulhu.)

Veterans familiar with the game itself: Someone who already plays the game and doesn’t need a starter set. Or do they?

The market size gets smaller as we go down the list. Complete newbies outnumber existing roleplayers, who outnumber those familiar with the company, who outnumber those familiar with the actual line.

Who are starter sets written for?

This is probably obvious, but these different audiences have different needs.

A newbie needs their hand holding. Other GMs need a set of rules and an adventure, and maybe some bling.

What should starter sets contain?

We’ve pretty much got this sorted. Rules and an adventure. Pregenerated characters. Dice. Maps and miniatures or tokens to suit.

An adventure. Maybe more than one. (The Call of Cthulhu starter set has three.) Unique adventures make a starter set appealing to existing players. The first edition ALIEN starter set had the excellent Chariot of the Gods adventure. (I think Free League have made a mistake by putting the somewhat average Hope’s Last Day in their latest starter set.)

The Dune starter set has a longer, more involved adventure (almost a mini campaign).

Rules: Enough rules to play the adventure. As pregenerated characters are usually supplied, starter set typically don’t include character generation rules. Apart from character generation, the first-edition ALIEN starter set had the complete rules (I’m not sure about the current edition) and the cinematic adventures Destroyer of Worlds and Heart of Darkness could be played with just the starter set.

The Dune starter set takes an odd approach to the rules, explaining them as the adventure progresses, but it also includes a free download of the core rules.

Dice: Dice are pretty much mandatory in a starter set. A nice set of dice might encourage existing fans to pick up a starter set.

Other bling: Starter sets can include maps, tokens, miniatures and other bling. Depending on the quality of these, they may encourage experienced GMs to pick them up.

Should a starter set be aimed at complete newbies?

Maybe. I don’t know.

I guess if you think your starter set will appeal to newbies, you might need to write for them. But I wouldn’t tell them how to roleplay – I’d point them to a short YouTube video showing the game in action. Along with rules tutorials.

But I would note that most roleplaying games are ridiculously complicated (and I’m foreshadowing my review of the Dune starter set here), and unsuited for attracting newbies. So targeting existing roleplayers seems like a safer bet – unless the game is very explicitly aimed at bringing new players into the hobby.

What would I include in a starter set?

So my aim for a starter set would be to draw in existing gamers while also giving veterans a good reason to purchase it. I wouldn’t target complete newbies for the reasons stated above.

So a starter set must include:

A good adventure. Clearly, it has to include a great (and ideally unique) adventure. The adventure has to say, “This is how good this game can be.” There’s no point in including a mediocre adventure. The Call of Cthulhu starter set may include three investigations (which is good value), but none of them are new, limiting its appeal for veterans. 

The original ALIEN starter set included the excellent (although flawed, as I've discussed before) Chariot of the Gods – in my view, an excellent adventure. And it wasn’t available anywhere else.

Enough rules: The starter set must have enough rules to run the adventure. It doesn’t need character generation rules or starship building.

Again, the ALIEN rules are good. You get the complete rules (bar character generation), and Free League explicitly say that their cinematic adventures can be run with the starter set. So buyers weren’t compelled to buy the core rules – although many did. (I did.)

To give the Dune starter set some credit, while they don’t provide a set of rules (rules are explained as you play the adventure), Modipheus give you a code to download the core rules for free.

Some bling. Custom dice, maps, handouts, maybe a small deck of cards. And make them good quality. One criticism of the ALIEN starter set is that the dice aren’t particularly great quality dice. They look and feel cheap. I still use them, but I would rather have nicer dice.

Books that aren’t going to fall apart. And of course, it’s nice to have books that aren’t going to fall apart after a few uses. I’m still waiting for that – I find that starter set books (rules and adventures) feel very cheap and aren’t very robust.

My ideal Traveller starter set

So if I were to assemble a starter set for Traveller, what would I do?

I want to create a boxed set that gives new players (and GMs) the Traveller experience. Given that Traveller has a broad scope, I’d have to narrow it down. So let’s go for a merchant game, centred around the crew of a 200-ton Far Trader.

(And, yes, I know that the Traveller Starter Pack exists. It gets bonus points for being free, but it’s only in pdf and I’m not a big fan of either of the starter scenarios as I think they are overwritten, structurally unfriendly, and don’t really sell the Traveller experience to new GM.)

So what would my starter set include?

Rules: A cut-down ruleset. Enough rules to run the game, but no more. So no starship or world building, no deckplans (except as required). And robust enough not to fall apart after a few uses.

Pregens: I’m in two minds as to whether to include pregenerated characters or not. Generating characters is such a fundamental part of playing Traveller, I think I’d include the merchant career path. But only for merchants. And I’d fix the mustering out so that the group ends up as part-owners of a Far Trader, with a mortgage.

Maps: Two obvious maps – a large subsector map (maybe two or four subsectors), and a map of the ship. Plus other maps, if required by the adventures.

Adventure material: Three adventures, half a dozen patrons, and a few casual encounters (as the detailed NPCs used to be called). Enough material for a few sessions of play, along with advice for running the ship.

Dice: Some six-sided Traveller dice.

Other bling: If possible, other bling such as cards for key NPCs, or random encounters, or equipment. (Equipment seems to be a common use for cards in starter sets, but I must confess that I’ve never used them that way.)

A starter set focusing on a different part of Traveller (the Scout service, say), would have different adventure material but otherwise might be very similar.

I think that sounds like something I would be tempted to pick up!

Prelude

Anyway, all this is a prelude as next time I will look at the Dune RPG starter set, Agents of Dune, in more detail.

Consequences 2025

It’s a cold snap in November, so I must be in a thin-walled caravan in West Sussex. Ah, yes, I’m starting this post at 2025’s “Radical” Consequences, the UK’s main freeform larp convention. (It feels very British to have our premier freeform larp convention held in a cold, rainy holiday park!)

I’ve written about Consequences before, so let’s get on with the larps. I played four, ran two and facilitated two games of Fiasco. Phew!

Thursday

Consequences started at 7 pm, so after a happily uneventful drive, I arrived ready to play my first game.

4

4 is an eight-player game set in 2013(ish) written by Graham Charles, Natalie Curd, Nick Curd and Tony Mitton.

I played Charlie, who had been committed to St Agnes’ mental health facility for his obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The game itself was structured into three acts.

• The first is a short exercise set in St Agnes’ to reinforce our names and why we are at St Agnes’. (“I am Charlie. I am here because…. This is Bobbi; they are here because…”) It was surprisingly effective.
• The second act is set a few weeks after a tragedy, with us exploring our feelings about what had happened.
• The bulk of the game is contained in the third act, which is a reunion on the site of the tragedy – where things happen, secrets are revealed, and dilemmas must be grappled with.

It’s a lovely game, and I enjoyed it a lot. (My favourite bit was arranging the wine glasses neatly and turning around to see everyone looking at me, and then someone saying “Oh, he’s just being Charlie.”)

It’s probably not for everyone as it includes mental health issues (OCD, paranoia, hallucinations and more). But if you’re up for that, I definitely recommend it.

And with 4 over, I went to bed.

Friday

Friday was cold, but dry. A lovely day with clear blue skies.

The Omega Delivery

The Omega Delivery is a 14-player science fiction game by Tony Mitton and AJ Smith. It’s part of their series of SF games inspired by Firefly, where their design premise was to write a series of episodic games with a cast of core characters (the crew of the Kestrel, in this case) and guest stars.

Last year, I played one of the core characters (Alex Orban, captain of the Kestrel); this year, I played Wye Oliver, a prisoner aboard the secure facility Omega Station, which is suffering from a huge radiation leak. Into this situation came the crew of the Kestrel…

It was nice to play a guest star this time. Last time, as Captain Orban, I was thrown into a situation without really knowing what was going on. This time, as one of the guest stars, I had a much better idea of what was going on, and that was a really nice change of pace.

Again, recommended. Particularly if you can arrange to play all of them – there are six in the series, and this was episode #3, the season 1 cliffhanger.

To Reign in Hentzau

Photo by TsiJon

To Reign in Hentzau is a 25-player game written by David Townsend and John Golden and set in Hentzau, a tiny Eastern European country in the mid-1930s. Hentzau’s Lord Protector has just been assassinated, throwing the country into disarray…

I played Prince Reinhart, heir to the assassinated Lord Protector, so of course I was never going to rule… Amid numerous scheming ministers, corrupt generals, foreign agitators, and my overbearing mother, I never stood a chance…

It was lovely to play a sprawling, complicated political freeform larp, even if I really was a puppet. I had no real leverage – what I wanted was whatever was “best for Hentzau.” But I’m not sure I ever really knew what that was…

Anyway, I had a lovely time.

I had nothing planned for Friday evening, so I had an early night.

So that’s three games so far, and my character has died in two of them. I’m not saying which, but I am keeping count.

Saturday

Saturday was very wet, and it rained and rained. Walking around the site in the dark became particularly tricky without wellies. (Something to consider if the forecast isn’t good.)

All Flesh is Grass and Aurora Horizon

All Flesh is Grass photo by TsiJon

On Saturday, I ran All Flesh is Grass and Aurora Horizon in quick succession. These are both parts of my long-running saga of first-contact science fiction games. All Flesh is Grass is episode 2, and Aurora Horizon is episode 6.

All Flesh is Grass is set in 1965 and involves a mysterious barrier that appears around a small Wisconsin village. Aurora Horizon is set in 2010 and involves a space mission to explore an abandoned spaceship on Callisto. Both are for 13 players.

Aurora Horizon photo by TsiJon

Both went really well. Aurora Horizon is the more ambitious of the two, and fortunately, Abi K was helping me GM – I really needed it. (Kevin J helped me GM All Flesh is Grass, but that’s easier to run, and we spent much of the game chatting.)

My favourite quotes:

• “Do you WANT to destroy the insurance industry?” (All Flesh is Grass, on the promise of tailored plant-based medicine.)
• “I am not going to change the laws of physics for you!” (Aurora Horizon – Commander Archer arguing with one of the Tau.)

I’ve got a few edits to make for both games. Luckily, they aren’t too significant. I’ll do them now while they are fresh in my mind and while I am still enthusiastic. That way, I can put the games away, knowing I can pick them up and run them later.

Next year, I plan to run Children of the Stars (episode #3) and episode #7 (currently unwritten).

Fiasco: The Ice

On Saturday evening, I facilitated a game of Fiasco with Graham, Alli, Kris Alice, and Clare. It was glorious, and I don’t think I laughed as much all weekend. 

I hadn’t planned to facilitate Fiasco twice. I originally pitched it for Sunday morning, but after a couple of people had signed up, Kris Alice asked if I could run it on Saturday evening, as we were both free.

As is usual with Fiasco, we spent the first few scenes figuring out how the game was going to go, but once we had an idea, it was pedal to the metal. 

I find Fiasco is a great way to hone my improvisational skills. Graham completely shafted my character in his second scene, and with that one call, I became a murderer. I killed my character in my epilogue, which seemed to be the right thing to do.

Sunday

Sunday was cloudy, but at least the rain held off, and the puddles started to dry out.

Fiasco: Dragon Slayers

So this was my original slot for Fiasco. I didn’t pitch Fiasco until after I’d worked out which freeforms I wanted to play. As I had a gap on Sunday morning (and I am an early bird, so mornings don’t frighten me as much as the all-night parties), I pitched Fiasco. 

Joining me were Sarah, Julie, Sophie and Kath, and they chose Dragon Slayers, the fantasy-themed set.

I was slightly anxious, as I had only known Kath for any length of time, but I needn’t have worried. Everyone embraced Fiasco’s darkness, and we had a tale of a necromancer and her apprentice, twin sisters, a bounty hunter and his henchmen. Things didn’t go well for me (again), but at least I didn’t die this time.

LDRBRD

And finally, Ldrbrd, a 12-player game set in a video arcade where we played video game characters. I played Sword Guy from a fantasy video game. 

While I enjoyed Ldrbrd (although I completely failed to save Princess – and arguably was responsible for her doom), I found the three mini-games dragged on a bit. They were a nice idea, but given the keenly competitive gamers in the group, I felt they dragged on a bit.

Ldrbrd had the best-formatted A5 booklet of the con with text large enough that my 60-year-old eyes could read it even in the dim arcade lighting. 

The after-con socials

Consequences is known for its after-game parties. They normally start late (after the evening games, which don’t finish until midnight), which isn’t great for me as I’m an early bird (as already mentioned).

Sunday, though, doesn’t have an evening game, which gave me a chance to socialise before it got too late.

Monday

And on Monday, I had an uneventful drive home.

Legend of the Sky Raiders session #6: Tomb of the Sky Raiders

I’m running FASA's 1981 adventure, Legend of the Sky Raiders, for my regular group. Last time was session #5; this is session #6, where we finish the adventure.

The Travellers

Our players and their characters:

Jon is playing ex-Scout Timo Sosak  8A9B84 Age 38.

Terry is playing ex-space pirate Sir Sidderon Dubois 775ACC Age 34.

Thomas is playing drifter Felix "Dusty" Pygrin 478CB7 Age 34.

Tom is playing Zhodani prole Mustafa Lama Doka 586333 Age 38.

Alongside our heroes, I have nine NPCs who are part of the party: Lorain Messandi (their patron), Jothan Messandi (Lorain’s father, who the PCs rescued last session), Drew Kensing (who fancies Lorain and whose dad financed the expedition), Tallia McKenzie (Lorain’s friend), Hal Lewis (a guide), the hovercraft drivers Dan and Kelli, and two unnamed support chaps. Phew.

This week, Jon can’t make it, so Timo takes a bit of a back seat in terms of decision-making. (With four players, I have told everyone that if someone can’t make it, we will continue playing. When I only had three players, I didn’t want to do that, but with four, I’m more ruthless.)

Another broken hovercraft

We started the session at the end of a long night – it is day 10. The Travellers had rescued Jothan Messandi, but their stolen hovercraft was damaged as they fled. It had a ruptured fuel tank, and they had no fuel. They were on a beach, about an hour’s walk from their camp.

Oddly, they couldn’t raise anyone from camp on their radio.

As they’d been on the go for about 24 hours with no sleep, I told them that all their rolls were harder than usual. So they camouflaged their hovercraft and settled down to rest before hiking over to their camp.

(Their camouflage roll wasn’t great, with an effect of -1. I ruled that while they thought it was okay, it wasn’t great, and anyone searching for them would get a +1DM on their roll. What I knew was that nobody was looking for them – the bad guys in the city didn’t have another hovercraft and would soon have bigger problems as the off-screen government forces would soon find them.)

While they were doing this, Jothan explained that Kalamanaru sent a ship every few months to pick up the artefacts and drop off supplies. He thought that it was due. (This is a potential way for the PCs to escape and is set up in Legend of the Sky Raiders.)

Camp attack

At the camp, the players discover why they couldn’t raise anyone on the radio: the camp has been attacked by natives. They find their guide, Hal Lewis, lying unconscious with two arrows in him. (There is another body, nearby.) 

The PCs stabilised Hal’s wounds, and Hal told them that the natives ambushed them. Dan (the government spy) and one of the unnamed NPCs fled in the hovercraft, while the natives captured Drew, Tallia and Kelli. 

The camp was trashed, but rather than track the natives on foot, the PCs decided to repair the stolen hovercraft and then take that into the jungle. But did they have parts and fuel?

I knew that the natives had stolen some things, and that some things were still in the old hovercraft and hadn’t been unpacked. So I planned to roll the dice to decide whether they still had what they needed. Tom, however, argued that this was a good use of Steward – for packing, unpacking, and organising. So he rolled.

It turned out that they had three days of fuel left, more than enough to mount a rescue. They struggled with parts, however, and the natives had raided the mechanical tool kit for all the shiny metal.

The kidnapping of NPCs and the players mounting a rescue is one of Legend of the Sky Raider’s railroady bits. Canonically, it happens in a specific hex on the map, but it really doesn’t matter where it happens – the tomb of the Sky Raiders could be almost anywhere. Importantly, it was the players’ choice whether to mount a rescue. I didn’t think they wouldn’t rescue their colleagues, but I didn’t force them to. (I don’t know what I would have done if they hadn’t attempted the rescue, though. It might have been a difficult conversation between the PCs and their patron, Lorain.)

Repair then rescue

So they stabilised the wounded Hal, grabbed fuel and bits for repairing the hovercraft, and headed back to the hovercraft. Their initial estimate was that it would take about six hours to repair the fuel tank (the tank was more damaged than originally estimated), but Sir Sidderon rolled so well that I halved that.

Then they set off to rescue their comrades.

I told them that the trail was fairly easy to follow. While it would be harder to track the natives, it was much easier to track the three humans, in their human boots, stumbling along, breaking vegetation.

With another task chain (Sir Sidderon’s Recon roll supported by Dusty’s woeful hovercraft driving and Mustafa’s much better drone piloting), the Travellers arrived at a clifftop clearing with what looked like a stone altar and two statues: the Tomb of the Sky Raiders. They arrived after dark, to find their colleagues being pulled towards the altar…

The natives planned to sacrifice the NPCs to the “Strangers from Beyond” (as the natives call the Sky Raiders), and this was hinted at a couple of sessions ago. (Arguably, the PCs had wasted so much time resting, hiking back and forth, and fixing the hovercraft that it might have been too late and the poor NPCs might already have been sacrificed. But I didn’t have the heart for that.)

Tomb of the Sky Raiders

Using noise and fireworks, the Travellers scared the natives away and rescued Tallia, Drew and Kelli. They then investigated the statues and opened the tomb of the Sky Raiders, where they found human skeletons and treasure.

Lorain, of course, wanted all this to be properly recorded and lodged with the authorities. To my pleasant surprise, the PCs agreed – with only Sir Sidderon pocketing a few trinkets.

Outside, the natives had started to overcome their fear (the players had put Timo on watch outside), so the Travellers piled back into the hovercraft and, after a tricky clifftop descent (Drive Hovercraft supported by a Recon roll to spot a path, followed by Demolitions to clear the way), they sped off into the night.

They didn’t have enough fuel to get back home, but the players remembered their old abandoned hovercraft, which, fortunately, still had fuel. That gave them enough fuel to get back to Val Prezsar and safety.

At which point we wrapped.

Aftermath

I told them I would work out what happens next, but in essence:

• Lorain reported the find to the Mirayn government. They then approved a dig site at the tomb of the Sky Raiders to catalogue and record everything.
• Kalamanaru’s men were captured by the government forces that were tracking the PCs. The government then moves on to Kalamanaru’s illegal base, seizing and impounding everything. Kalamanaru withdraws from operating on Mirayn.
• Jothan Messandi is also charged, but escapes a prison sentence. He is deported from Mirayn, forbidden to return.
• The players have their reward (about Cr100,000) and are reunited with their Scout ship on Alzenei. 

Overall

I enjoyed running Legend of the Sky Raiders, and from what I could tell, my players were enjoying it as well. Excluding character creation, we took six sessions (about 11 hours, give or take a few irrelevant tangents and diversions) to play through it.

The main issues I found were:

• Removing the railroad and giving the players more agency, which was fairly easy to do.
• Extracting the key information for the adventure, which was buried in the text. Were I doing it, I’d reformat much of the adventure to make it easier to use at the gable.
• Inventing more details than I initially thought I would have to - especially the natives and maps.

Overall, Legend of the Sky Raiders is pretty solid, and we enjoyed the Traveller rules, especially task chains, which get everyone working together.

Next time

We will start Trail of the Sky Raiders, the second part of the trilogy. But first, I need a short break to prepare, so we’re skipping a week.

Coming soon: Trail of the Sky Raiders

Previously: Session #5: City of the Golden Walls or start here with my review of Legend of the Sky Raiders.

Legend of the Sky Raiders session #5: City of the Golden Walls

I’m running Legend of the Sky Raiders for my regular group. Last time was session #4, this is session #5.

The Travellers

Our players and their characters:

Jon is playing ex-Scout Timo Sosak  8A9B84 Age 38.

Terry is playing ex-space pirate Sir Sidderon Dubois 775ACC Age 34.

Thomas is playing drifter Felix "Dusty" Pygrin 478CB7 Age 34.

Tom is playing Zhodani prole Mustafa Lama Doka 586333 Age 38.

Alongside our heroes, I have six NPCs who are part of the party: Lorain Messandi (their patron), Drew Kensing (who fancies Lorain and whose dad financed the expedition), Tallia McKenzie (Lorain’s friend), Hal Lewis (a guide), the hovercraft drivers Dan and Kelli, and two unnamed support chaps (who I had completely forgotten about until Thomas reminded me this session).

City of the Golden Walls

I did very little specific preparation for this session, as I had leftover prep from before.

It’s the start of day nine.

After reminding ourselves of what happened last time, I shared my map of the City of the Golden Walls with the players.

They had left their hovercraft and kit, and the two drivers (including the spy), back at their camp – which was about 15km north. (So that’s at least three hours of hiking, which we glossed over.)

First, the Travellers used the drone to survey the lost city (Tlaynsilak, City of the Golden Walls). They had a TL12 drone with them, so I figured it was silent and better than anything the locals had.

(One thing that’s striking is that these old Traveller adventures tend to stick to the TL of the planet pretty rigorously. So the bad guys are using hovercraft, rather than shipping in a couple of air rafts. And they haven’t brought advanced weaponry or security systems. Luckily for our heroes…)

Surveying the city

Anyway, after a successful task chain involving piloting the drone, a recon roll, and finishing with archaeology, I explained that this was clearly a TL 3 civilisation, which was being picked clean of anything valuable by whoever these people were. And they’d been on site for months.

The survey identified where most of the excavation was taking place, a couple of hovercraft loaded with finds, huts used for accommodation, and mechanical excavators. All in all, about 30 people were present, including a small number keeping guard with rifles and SMGs. (The players didn’t know this, but they were guarding more against the wildlife than any intruders.)

And then Lorain spotted her presumed-dead father, Professor Jothan Messandi.

At which point it turned into a rescue.

Rescuing Professor Jothan

The PCs decided to lure a pair of the bear-sized creatures they encountered last session into the camp to distract the enemy. So they spent some time hunting for them, but the closest was about five km away, and they realised it would be hard to drive/lure the animals into the city.

So instead, they decided to wait until nightfall and kidnap Jothan Messandi.

They didn’t need everyone for this, so they sent the NPCs back, apart from Lorain, and waited until dark.

Under the cover of darkness, they crept closer and waited for Jothan to head to the latrine. They then lured him away using a recording of Lorain’s voice and pulled him into the bush. (A complicated task chain that, happily, worked. We’ve become big fans of task chains.)

The professor and his daughter had a joyful reunion, and he explained that he had been working the site for a year, but he didn’t think the Sky Raiders had anything to do with the city. He was funded by Eneri Kalamanaru (of Kalaman Enterprises), but he thought that Kalamanaru would be angry when he learned that there was nothing of real value at the site.

Escape!

As the discussion dragged on, the locals noticed the professor was missing. It was time to move.

The PCs (and Lorain and Jothan) snuck up to the hovercraft and prepared to hotwire them.  Meanwhile, people back at the huts were searching for the professor, and when the Travellers fired one hovercraft up, they started shouting and running.

The Travellers failed to hotwire the second hovercraft, so they sabotaged it using a burst from an ACR. That made Kalamanaru’s people open fire, and as bullets landed around them, the PCs left. Their hovercraft caught a bullet, but they escaped and beached it a few km up the coast (closer to where their camp is).

And that’s where we ended. It is the morning of day 10. The Travellers haven’t had much sleep.

So next time they plan to radio the camp and tell those back at camp to come and find them. They will then repair the hovercraft and decide their next move.

It’s not going to be that simple…

Reflections

Before this session started, I was worried we’d end up with a big fight. Canonically, Legend of the Sky Raiders has the players ambushed by Kalamanaru’s forces. I didn’t want that for two reasons – first, it’s extremely railroady. Second, I didn’t trust my players to do what the adventure expected and surrender – I imagine they would want to fight.

So I allowed them to scout the area and come up with another plan. (In the original adventure, one of the NPCs the Travellers hire is a spy for Kalamanaru – so the ambush can happen. I dropped that idea.)

However, I still need to get the PCs to the climactic scene, the Tomb of the Sky Raiders (where they actually find evidence of the Sky Raiders). According to the book, it’s over to the east of the map – but it’s going to be hard to get the players now.

(I did wonder about placing a clue to the location of the Tomb of the Sky Raiders into the game that the Travellers might find. But that felt too convenient. It seemed unlikely that the PCs would find this map rather than Jothan’s expedition, which has been on site for over a year.)

Breaking the railroad

Legend of the Sky Raiders is a bit too railroady for my liking, so I’ve made a few changes.

Being captured by Kalamanaru at the lost city: As I’ve said, I changed this so they could sneak around the site. I decided not to include a Kalamanaru spy in the group so they wouldn’t be automatically captured.

Government forces attack: Now that the PCs have found and misdirected the government spy, the government forces can’t turn up and try to arrest Kalamanaru’s group (which, as originally written, allows the Travellers to escape in the chaos). Government forces are out there somewhere – and may turn up when their spy doesn’t give them an update. But it’s not a railroad.

Finding the tomb of the Sky Raiders: According to Legend of the Sky Raiders, natives capture some of the party and take them to the tomb for sacrifice. That requires the PCs to be not too far from the tomb, but right now, they’re nearly 100 km away. So I will move the tomb.

Next time

The Travellers discover problems back at camp. 

Coming soon: Tomb of the Sky Raiders

Previously: Session #4: To (not) catch a spy or start here with my review of Legend of the Sky Raiders.

Legend of the Sky Raiders session #4: To (not) catch a spy

 I’m running Legend of the Sky Raiders for my regular group. Last time was session #3, this is session #4.

The Travellers

Our players and their characters:

Jon is playing ex-Scout Timo Sosak  8A9B84 Age 38.

Terry is playing ex-space pirate Sir Sidderon Dubois 775ACC Age 34.

Thomas is playing drifter Felix "Dusty" Pygrin 478CB7 Age 34.

Tom is playing Zhodani prole Mustafa Lama Doka 586333 Age 38.

Alongside our heroes, I have six NPCs who are part of the party: Lorain Messandi (their patron), Drew Kensing (who fancies Lorain and whose dad financed the expedition), Tallia McKenzie (Lorain’s friend), Hal Lewis (a guide), the hovercraft drivers Dan and Kelli, and two unnamed support chaps.

Prepping the session

After session #3, the more I thought about what is coming up, the more I realised how much is actually missing from Legend of the Sky Raiders.

Stats for the natives: I mentioned in my earlier post that the adventure doesn’t provide much detail on the alien natives. But I’ve just realised it doesn’t even give them any stats or skills.

Maps: I can see I will need more maps. At least one more, possibly two and maybe even three. I have got my crayons out.

Yes, I can make this stuff up, but surely it should be in the adventure?

De-railroading and scenes

I’m trying not to railroad the PCs. The Travellers should be ambushed and captured as soon as they reach the archaeological dig. However, instead, I had them spot it (and human activity) from a distance so that they could plan what to do. I’m not ruling out their capture, but I don’t want it to be the fait accompli the adventure presumes.

I’ve also thought up a handful of scenes between the players and the NPCs, dropping in some of the things they need to hear.

Starting the session

It’s the end of day 6, and the Travellers are camped in a native village (Sanalaysa), trying to find out if there is a government spy. They decide to get people drunk to see if anyone reveals anything they shouldn’t. So we set up a task chain: Mustafa served alcoholic apple tea (Steward), Sir Sidderon encouraged everyone to drink (Carousing), while Dusty watched for skulduggery and deceit (Deception). They fail…

Scenes

• Their guide, Hal, told Sir Sidderon that he thinks the scout hovercraft has developed a whine.
• Drew told Dusty that he is ever so grateful for saving his life.

Day 7

Worried about the scout hovercraft, Timo spends all day looking at it and discovers the main rotor bearing was cracked and about to break. Had it happened while they were travelling, it could have been catastrophic. He can’t repair it out here, but he could probably swap a bearing over from the other hovercraft. Either way, they are one hovercraft down.

(Timo rolled snake eyes while trying to fix the problem… Rather than suggest he broke the bearing while trying to fix it, I suggested that the problem was much worse than anticipated.)

The Travellers elected to abandon the scout hovercraft. They can just about fit everyone into the other, larger hovercraft.

A second attempt to find a government spy fails. (I can’t exactly remember how they did this, just that it failed.)

Scenes

• Lorain Messandi (the Travellers’ employer) discussed the Sky Raiders with Timo.
• Kelli (one of the hovercraft drivers) told Mustafa that she had talked to the natives. It seems that natives will grow more hostile as they go deeper into the swamp.  Apparently, the natives fear that humans will awaken ancient, terrible gods.

Day 8

The Travellers packed everything up into their remaining hovercraft and set off, finally leaving Sanalaysa. Their planned route took them around the site of activity and into the jungle so they could approach it from cover.

Entering the jungle, they encountered their first hostile native village—angry natives firing arrows at them. An hour or so later, they encountered a pair of bear-sized carnivores trying to shake something loose in a tree. It’s a lone native.

The bear-sized carnivores were no match for the Travellers’ high-tech weaponry, and they rescued the native, who was very grateful and told them about the "Strangers from Beyond" who caused great destruction before disappearing underground, where they wait sleeping. The jungle natives believe that humans are harbingers of the Strangers from Beyond – and must be driven off. (Hence their hostility.)

The native told the Travellers about a ruined city (Tlaynsilak), but it is a long way away, and the native does not go there. But there is another village closer to Tlaynsilak, that he/she/it can guide them to.

(This encounter isn’t in Legend of the Sky Raiders, but I realised I wanted the players to know why the jungle natives are so hostile. Maybe I could have made the encounter less cheesy.)

When they reached the native village, the Travellers found signs of a massacre. Dead aliens and shell cases. The bad guys have been here.

The Travellers made camp, and this time their plan to draw the spy out worked. (At last!) Dusty spotted Dan, one of the hovercraft drivers, heading into the jungle for his nightly ablutions, carrying his rucksack. (Very Ice Cold in Alex.) Dusty realised that Dan always keeps a close eye on his rucksack. 

But the Travellers were content to wait and observe, for now.

Day 9

In the morning, the Travellers came up with a plan. They explained to the expedition that they have a change of plan and will head east, across the lake, to look at a section of coastline. They waited for Dan to disappear into the jungle with his rucksack, and when he returned, they confronted him and found a radio.

And that’s where we left it.

Next week

The plan next week is to start with a recce of whatever is going on, from the safety of cover. 

I already have my map ready, so I think I’m more or less prepared. I wonder how the players will surprise me?

Coming soon: City of the Golden Walls

Previously: Session #3: The Trail of Stone or start here with my review of Legend of the Sky Raiders.

Legend of the Sky Raiders session #3: The trail of stone

I’m running Traveller's Legend of the Sky Raiders for my regular group. Previously, I talked about session #2. This is session #3.

(The long gap between this post and the previous post isn't because we've stopped playing. It's because I talk about spoilers in this post, and some of those spoilers are still relevant even after session #5...)

The Travellers

A quick reminder of our players and their characters:

Jon is playing ex-Scout Timo Sosak  8A9B84 Age 38.

Terry is playing ex-space pirate Sir Sidderon Dubois 775ACC Age 34.

Thomas is playing drifter Felix "Dusty" Pygrin 478CB7 Age 34.

Tom is playing Zhodani prole Mustafa Lama Doka 586333 Age 38.

We have a full house tonight – everyone can make it.

And alongside our heroes, I have six NPCs who are part of the party: Lorain Messandi (their patron), Drew Kensing (who fancies Lorain and whose dad financed the expedition), Tallia McKenzie (Lorain’s friend), Hal Lewis (a guide), and the hovercraft drivers Dan and Kelli. (And two other unnamed support personnel I had completely forgotten about...)

Into the Outback

After a little business (catch up, check on cats, trade goods), the party sets off into the Outback.

Day one

Each day we made several rolls.

• I rolled for animal encounters (varies depending on terrain)
• I made the Travellers roll for time lost:
• Swamps/jungles: Roll an Average (8+) Navigation (INT) check. If failed, lose hours equal to effect. (You’re lost!)
• Rivers/Lakes: Roll an Average (8+) Drive (DEX/INT) check. If failed, lose hours equal to effect. (Tricky rapids or other obstacles.)
• I rolled to encounter natives (9+)
• I rolled for encounters again

I pulled this together from page 24 of Legend of the Sky Raiders. Canonically, the referee just rolls 1D and subtracts that from available travel time to allow for time lost, but I changed that to a skill check. 

The first day passed uneventfully.

Day two

The Travellers saw a large jaguar-sized creature, but scared it off before it could attack. They then came across a native village, where they spent a couple of hours trading for information and some disgusting foodstuffs (including bright pink berries called “kek” that, if the Travellers understood it correctly, had narcotic properties).

For each group of natives, I rolled on the reaction table – the one that Mg 2nd edition doesn’t have, which I discussed here.

Legend of the Sky Raiders doesn’t give the referee any guidance on playing the natives. They look alien, but we have no sense of how alien they are. They are either “friendly” or “hostile”. (I probably should have thought about this before.)

Day three

After an uneventful day, the PCs arrive at the village of Adalanayra, their target. They traded goods with the natives and learned about the trail of stone, which isn’t far from Sanalaysa, another native village. They exchanged more trade goods for a guide to take them to Sanalaysa.

Day four

Another uneventful day brings the Travellers to Sanalaysa, where they meet the natives. They arranged for a guide to take them to the trail of stone the following day.

That night, Kelli, one of the drivers, tells Mustafa that they suspect that one of the others is a government spy. Kelli doesn’t know who, but it wasn’t unusual for the government to bribe expedition personnel to spy for them. Mustafa’s response doesn’t give Kelli much comfort.

Day five

En route to the trail of stone, Drew Kensing (an NPC) is attacked by a snickersnak. Dusty zaps it with his stunner, and it flees. (I realise as I write this up, that Drew should be extremely grateful to Dusty for saving his life. So I will play that up next time.)

The PCs pretty quickly dismiss the idea that the trail of stone might be a landing strip, but they want to find out what is at each end. (It is straight, like a Roman road.) Unfortunately, they fail their skill check, so nothing happens.

Tom then explains task chains to us all (in a much better way than I could – and even though the players have the rules, they’d not spotted it). And so we decided to try a skill chain the next day.

That night in camp, they discuss the potential spy but fail to take any concrete action.

Day six

Day six is a day of task chains. Mustafa flies a drone, Sir Sidderon uses Recon to scout ahead, and we end with an Archaeology roll, which reveals the trail of stone as it disappears into a huge lake. Another successful task chain, and the Travellers follow it across the lake, where they spot activity in the distance. (It’s an archaeological dig at the lost city of Tlaynsilak, although they don’t know that yet.)

The Travellers return to Sanalaysa and plan to approach the dig from the north, from cover. But that is for our next session.

(I have gone off script here. According to Legend of the Sky Raiders, the Travellers should be ambushed and captured as they approach the archaeological dig. But I’m trying not to make the adventure so railroady – I don’t think the adventure needs the PCs to be captured, although that remains an option should they be careless. We’ll see.)

Plans for next session

So their plans for the next session are:

• Use a task chain to try and identify the government spy.
• Then move closer to the lost city and observe it to see what’s going on.

Reflections on the game so far

I’m being a little more circumspect about my thoughts on Legend of the Sky Raiders this time. Until recently, my players didn’t read my blog. However, Tom has joined us, and he moderates The Tavern (a gaming discussion board that syndicates my blog). By the time I publish this, it will have been a couple of weeks, and the game will have moved on enough that this isn’t full of spoilers for him.

Anyway, I’m now juggling six NPCs – and frankly, they are being ignored. (I’d like a game structure that gave NPCs more prominence, but I suspect if we did that, it would no longer be Traveller.) So instead, I will create a series of scenes for each, a bit like I did with Kelli last time.

Adventure support: Frankly, I’m finding that Legend of the Sky Raiders isn’t giving referees a lot of support now that we are in the jungle. As I mentioned above, information on the Mirayn natives is thin, and three key scenes are coming up that would benefit from maps. Yes, I can come up with my own maps, but it would be nice not to have to.

We’re being followed! Then there’s the bit in the text that suggests the referee should hint that they are being followed.

“During the course of their travels through the Outback, the players may on occasion detect the pursuers by accident, Glints of metal in the distance, a faint hum of hovercraft engines, or a rumour of other strangers picked up from a native village can all be used to point to the presence of these troops. Clues should be passed to the group as if they were a part of the regular encounter process; otherwise, too much importance will be attached to them.”

I couldn’t figure out how to do this – if I told my group they saw glints of metal in the distance, or a faint hum of hovercraft engines, they’d be all over it in a second. So instead, I used Kelli to plant the seed into Mustafa that there might be a spy in the camp.

Actions for next time

I need to:

• Remember that Drew owes Dusty his life. Or that’s how he thinks it.
• Come up with some scenes for each NPC that breathes a bit of life into them.
• Think about how I get them to the scene AFTER the next scene, if I don’t want to be too railroady about it.

Coming soon: To (not) catch a spy.

Previously: Session #2: Mustafa or start here with my review of Legend of the Sky Raiders.