Review: Tripwire

"Initially, one or two sub-sectors should be quite enough for years of adventure..." - Traveller Book 3, Worlds and Adventures

Once I'd decided to use the Jewell subsector for my next solo space opera game, it seemed worthwhile to get this, so I did.

In a nutshell: Short campaign for Mongoose Traveller 1st edition, published in 2009. 93 page PDF written by Simon Beal, available here, price $15 at time of writing.

What You Get

Introduction: This sets the scene; tensions are rising between the Third Imperium and the Zhodani Consulate, and the PCs - the crew of a jump-2 ship - are about to be drawn into espionage and political intrigue. 

Jewell: Unlike the rest of the book, this five-page chapter is mostly player-safe and shows what the PCs know about the subsector; major powers, capsule descriptions of worlds, subsector map, timeline of relevant events. I would probably use the first three pages of this as a player handout, because this version of the subsector differs from other implementations. The last two pages have spoilers.

The next six chapters (Passenger, Data, Conspiracies, Keystone, Tripwire, Coda) take the PCs to every world in the subsector, beginning on Farreach when they take on a passenger for Esalin. Each chapter includes some more details on the relevant worlds, statblocks and descriptions for major NPCs, and the next piece of the plot. This is generally linear, with each encounter leading to the next with little flexibility, except for two periods, in each of which the PCs are are given a group of half-a-dozen worlds and have to visit each of them, but in whatever order they like. To collect the set and complete the campaign, the PCs need to work out some way of making three-parsec jumps.

Finally, there is an appendix of general-purpose encounters, NPCs and gear that can be added as needed, including deck plans and statblocks for a couple of Zhodani ships. Many of the NPCs are passengers, who can become involved in the plotline and join the group, possibly replacing earlier PCs.

Loose Canon

My players have a habit of relying on the Traveller Map and Traveller Wiki during play, so as I read through the product I cross-checked the information in the campaign against those. The sources are somewhat different, and you will have to choose which set of world descriptions and which nobles you want to use; the plot and encounters should be usable either way.

On the plus side, it makes me feel less guilty about constantly changing things in my campaigns; if it's good enough for the publishers, it's good enough for me.

As an aside, when I run this for my players I intend to pair it with Zozer Games' Into the Neutral Zone; that requires me to establish that Arden is a matriarchy (obviously, the principal NPC matriarchs will be called Dale and Aura). I don't think that contradicts established canon, but given the extent of the differences between this version of Jewell and the current official one, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. The world writeups in that contradict both editions of Mongoose Traveller, but that's a problem for Future Me.

What I Think

The plotline is, as I said, linear; it also assumes that the PCs are loyal to the Third Imperium, to the point of being willing to kill, torture, and risk their own lives for it. The players would need to be aware of, and buy into, those assumptions from the outset.

If you can accept the assumptions, though, this is rather a nice little campaign. Things I like about it:

• At an estimated 20-30 sessions, it's about the right length for the games I currently run.
• It's limited to a single subsector, and entirely self-contained; I don't need to have a dozen extra products to run it.
• The basic black and white layout means it's a small file, just over 6 MB.
• It would make a nice run up to the the Fifth Frontier War.

Things I don't like are that the artwork is a little basic, and it diverges a great deal from what is now established Third Imperium canon; not only is it self-contained, but you need to keep it that way.

I'm pleased with my purchase, and I wish Mongoose had done - or would do - more short campaigns like this, focussed on a single subsector. Maybe a bit less railroad and a bit more sandbox, though.