Good Society: second editon

A second edition of Good Society, the ttrpg that lets you create Jane Austen-style stories, is coming to Kickstarter soon. You can read about it here, and if you follow their campaign, you can download the playtest packet and see some of the planned changes.

So that’s what I did, and this week we wrapped up our short but very satisfying two-cycle story. These are my thoughts.

First edition revisited

I’ve written about Good Society before on my blog. I played in a game a couple of years ago, and I’ve run one-shots at Furnace and AireCon, with a third one-shot (with the updated rules) planned for Continuum next week.

Much as I like Good Society, it’s not perfect, and I found a few issues with it:

Resolve tokens

Two problems with resolve tokens. The first is that there are too many. You can get resolve tokens from characters, rumours, reputation tags and more. It’s not long before the table is covered in resolve tokens. Worse, I find I often don't use them. Resolve tokens are used to “force” a character to do something they might not otherwise want to. But in so many cases, the players I play with quickly see the drama in whatever is presented and say “that’s a great idea,” and so spending the resolve token becomes unnecessary.

(I do wonder if that’s a structural problem with meta tokens like this. Resolve tokens work fine with players with a “my character wouldn’t do that” mentality – but I haven’t seen anyone like that in many, many years – if ever. Most players I see are happy to put problems in their character’s way – especially for a light game like Good Society.)

That means a surfeit of rarely-used resolve tokens.

Reputation

Reputation doesn’t do very much. Characters can gain a reputation, which has a mechanical effect (more resolve tokens), but is mostly just a roleplaying aid. But only if you pay attention, and in my experience, reputation isn’t something anyone pays much attention to. 

Fiddly character sheets with teeny font

I found this when I ran Good Society at Furnace (I mostly play online), but goodness, the character sheets are fiddly. They look nice, but each character consists of a basic character sheet, a family sheet, a desire card, and a relationship card. Oh, and two connections (more cards). And the font on the cards is tiny – my ageing eyes struggle to read it.

The table at Furnace. It's all a bit chaotic. And hard to read.

Part of the problem is the huge image – which is lovely, but condenses everything else. For AireCon, I completely rewrote the character sheets to be more legible. (And moved the image to a table tent.)

Second edition changes

So while the second edition preview does nothing about the character sheet (although it did introduce a very nice online Google sheet character keeper), it does change resolve tokens and reputation (and some other points).

Resolve tokens

While the rules for resolve tokens have not changed, there are fewer of them because they are no longer generated by reputation or rumours.

Reputation

The biggest change is reputation. There’s an alternative way to earn reputation tags, and during the reputation phase, they now trigger reputation consequences that might be good or bad. (These are great, more on them below.)

Rumour and scandal

Rumours now start as whispers, and the main change is that there’s a new action: overhearing a rumour. So you can roleplay hearing the rumour, which works well. You can also spend a resolve token to turn a rumour into “the talk of the ton,” which is a nice touch.

Epistolary phase and upkeep

These are tweaked slightly but didn’t affect our game much.

Play materials

Finally, the pack includes revised characters, family backgrounds and a playset.

Our game

Our game ran for five two-hour sessions. One session zero, followed by four sessions of play. We completed two full cycles, and we were in our third when we reached a satisfying conclusion.

We had three players: me, Thomas and Terry. I facilitated the game and played a major character. We played online, using Discord and the new Good Society character keeper.

I didn’t use the included playset because it’s the one we played last time, so I chose Family Matters from the rulebook. That was slightly awkward as Family Matters uses the Heir (not part of the 2ed pack), and so I replaced the Heir with the Hedonist from the second edition preview.

We spent a full session on session zero, and we needed that to get the characters and background sorted properly. (I reflected after Furnace that creating a coherent backstory in under 30 minutes is a challenge; I’m not going to try that again!) Even then, we ended up revisiting part of the background later on.

Family matters

The heart of our story was a feud between the Bainses and the Hardwicks.

Terry played Captain James Baines (Careerist, New Money).

Thomas played Solomon Bains (Dependent, New Money), the disinherited son (and previous friend of Eleanor).

I played Eleanor Hardwick (Hedonist/Heir, Old Money), who wanted to bring the families together.

Our minor characters included:

• Arthur Bains (played by me), stern father of James and Solomon
• Marley Jones (played by Thomas), James’ assistant
• Horatio Flinders, Lord Mountwick (played by Terry), Solomon’s benefactor
• Henrietta Bourbon (played by me), Solomon’s friend
• Lizzie Hardwick (played by Terry), Eleanor’s younger sister
• Miss Charlotte Collins (played by Thomas), Eleanor’s friend

Our story

Over our three cycles of play, our story involved Solomon and Eleanor repairing their relationship (after the slight that Eleanor caused), James and Eleanor getting engaged (yikes – she’s engaged to the wrong brother!), Solomon impressing his father and regaining his inheritance, and, finally, James breaking off his engagement to Eleanor (at his father's behest), leaving Solomon to propose to Eleanor.

Along the way, minor characters Lizzie and Marley threatened to steal the show by courting and becoming talk of the ton. 

It was delightful to play, and it felt like a proper Jane Austen-style story with setbacks, complications, and a happy ending. Towards the end, I was aware that I was thinking “And now we need a scene with these characters…,” as if I was an author, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

The new rules and mechanics

Resolve tokens

Even with fewer resolve tokens, we rarely spent them.  Maybe two or three a session? Most often we used them to seal a decision already made. I think that’s fine, and it’s useful to have them in the rules as a fallback – as long as you’re not expecting them to be a big deal.

Reputation

We used the new “reputation by fashion” rules, which sound great in theory but were a bit odd in practice. These work by selecting two reputation tags which represent the current fashion in the ton. The playset includes a table of sixty tags (eg plain or rigid), from which we randomly chose. This meant some headscratching to work out which character best embodied them. Maybe choosing tags shouldn’t be random.

On the other hand, the reputation consequences were great, adding drama to our story. For example, at one point I decided that Eleanor’s father had cut off her allowance, forcing her hand. (I found the consequences that cause your character trouble are more interesting than the others.)

We found that as we approached the game’s climax, we didn’t want to trigger new consequences because they didn’t support the flow of the story. (We had four reputation phases, but only triggered consequences once each, early in the game.)

I don’t think that matters (triggering consequences is always optional), and I wonder if that’s a common experience – focusing on the story rather than the rules as the story approaches its climax. (We did the same with one epistolatory phase as well, when we realised we didn’t have any letters to write.)

I guess if the trajectory hadn’t been so obvious, or had we wanted more complications, we could have triggered more consequences to see what would happen. But it felt unnecessary.

Rumour and scandal

The new rules worked well, particularly having a character overhear a rumour.

My thoughts

So that was Good Society second edition. The new rules are an improvement, especially reputation consequences. I’m not sure how much I would want to play a longer game of Good Society – the game we played felt just about right. 

So, am I going to get the second edition? I am torn between wanting to support the publishers, but not wanting more stuff that I don't actually want (like a book that is 80% the same as I already have, or the alternate settings in Good Society's second volume, which don't interest me much and no doubt will be part of the new set).

And while I would like to play more Good Society, it’s not the only thing I want to play.

So we’ll see. I suspect I'll end up backing it, but probably only at the pdf level.

Adventure 14: Travel Hazards

Travel Hazards is Mongoose’s first LBB (little black book) adventure for Traveller. It was published in 2026 (41 years after Adventure 13!) and is written by Thomas Jones-Low, Matthew Kerwin, James Kundert and Robert Eaglestone.

Physically, Travel Hazards is almost identical to the original LBB adventures. The cover is a little thinner and the paper a little shinier, but that’s about it.

This is my first-impressions review of Travel Hazards; I haven’t run or played it.  And spoilers ahead.

Location and overview

Travel Hazards focuses on Double Sun in the Lemish subsector of Corridor. Double Sun is in a neutral stretch of space known as the Corridor Marchland, established by treaty centuries ago following border skirmishes between the Imperium and the Irrgh Manifest. Corsairs from the Irrgh Manifest and their hated rivals, the Glory of Taarskoerzn, patrol the Marchland to counter each other’s operations.

It took me a good while to figure that out. The library data is towards the back of the booklet, and the map doesn’t show the Glory of Taarskoerzn at all. But thanks to the wonderful Traveller Map, I figured it out. I’m not sure why Travel Hazards doesn’t introduce the situation with a big-picture overview, but perhaps it’s targeted at Traveller-grognards, rather than casual players like myself.

Overview

Broadly, Travel Hazards presents an unusual star system for Traveller, complete with a system map, organisations and NPCs. And to draw the PCs (I note they are not called “Travellers” in the adventure, except on the back cover) in, it offers five patrons to hire the players to help them explore Double Sun.

So let’s explore the Double Sun system.

Double system

As the name suggests, Double Sun is a binary star system – a smaller red dwarf orbiting a larger one. The primary star is unstable, not helped by a heavy ball of iron and nickel orbiting extremely closely, enough to interact with the primary and throw dust and flares into the rest of the system. Further out, the companion red dwarf emits bursts of radiation and plasma, and farther still, the turbulent gas giant makes skimming for fuel a challenge.

All this messes with ship sensors, meaning there’s an effective top speed for piloting craft around the system. And although it isn’t defined in terms of the damage a ship might take, there is a table of hazard events. I would have liked full rules for travelling through the system, which would let the players take calculated risks on how fast they travel.

And with that restricted top speed, if you’re travelling more than 2AU, it’s quicker to jump. However, that assumes that you’re outside the various jump shadows…

The system information is presented in Book 6 Scouts format, but is still easy to read if you lack that book. (I didn’t need it.) Unfortunately, the system diagram is confusing, as it shows the companion much farther out than it actually is – and it doesn’t show the jump shadows, which would have been useful given the need to jump around the system.

So it’s an interesting system, which is lovely to see, but slightly let down by the lack of rules for travelling around it and the wonky map.

Anyway, all this means that Double Sun has been classified as a Red Zone due to “Travel hazards.” Quite.

Inhabitants

Double Sun has around 100,000 inhabitants in several groups.

Spiderweb

Spiderweb is an inhabited 550-km-diameter asteroid with 90,000 xenophobic inhabitants. It is the result of two separate mining operations, the first of which (Web Mining LIC) arrived in Double Sun 100 years ago. 90,000 people is a lot – it’s the population of a medium-sized UK town like Hastings or Burnley. Not everyone is a miner; others include families and support teams. The miners extract metals, gems and crystals, which they then barter.

It’s not clear, however, what they live on. The description of the buildings mentions lots of balconies laden with plants. That doesn’t sound quite enough, so maybe there are underground farms somewhere. NPCs for Spiderweb include the dockmaster and a magistrate.

Unfortunately, Spiderweb is on the verge of collapse – equipment is falling apart, and they are getting desperate.

The Icy Manipulator: The Icy Manipulator is Spiderweb’s only ship, a 1,000 dton patched-together cargo hauler with a cargo net capable of moving up to 3,000 dtons of cargo. It’s falling apart, and something critical goes wrong every six weeks or so (throw 10+ every week). It’s frankly a miracle it’s still flying at all. NPCs include the crew, one of whom is a robot.

Vargrholm

Newcomers to Double Sun, Vargrholm is a twelve-year-old mining settlement run by Ungareen VC, with 5000 miners and support staff. NPCs include the mostly-Vargr representatives and admin staff. Vargrholm trades with Spiderweb via the Icy Manipulator.

Unfortunately for Vargrholm, they must pay protection money to Iron Paw. Speaking of which…

Iron Paw

Iron Paw are a group of Vargr corsairs loyal to the Irggh Manifest. It’s not clear how long they have been based in Double System, but their secret base is hidden in a comet, which is fun. Iron Paw are led by the memorable Grand Admiral Beo, a large male Ursa. 

Others

There are a few other small groups dotted around, most of them being malcontents from Spiderweb.

Visitors

Other than the PCs, visitors to Double Sun might include the IISS, archaeologists, and Vargr naval forces. 

Patrons

Travel Hazards details five different patrons, five ways the PCs might end up in the Double Sun system. Job offers include crewing a supply ship, solving a family mystery, and more. The patrons are a bit of a mixed bunch, but there’s plenty in Double Sun itself to keep the PCs busy.

References

The rest of the book is filled with reference material:

• Library data: Two pages of library data, including a useful description of Lagrange points.
• Ships: Six new starships (in addition to the Icy Manipulator) as well as new ship components such as jump nets (well, new to Book 3, they’re not new to Traveller itself).
• Worlds: A non-standard subsector map.
• Contact Ursa: Genetically uplifted bears. New to me, but I believe they have been in the background for many years.
• Generating Characters from Double Sun: A page on creating characters from Double Sun.

What I liked

I found plenty to enjoy in Travel Hazards.

The Double Sun system: It’s lovely seeing an interesting and dynamic star system full of flavour. Whenever I watch Brian Cox talk about the wonders of the solar system and beyond, it’s immediately obvious that the universe is much stranger than it often appears in Traveller, and it’s nice to see that reflected in Travel Hazards.

The Icy Manipulator: I like that it has much more character than most Traveller ships.

Conflict and drama: The system is full of potential drama, from the failing colony to the rickety ice hauler to the secret pirate base extorting protection money from the miners. Plus, of course, the sheer danger just in visiting Double Sun.

Campaign material: And if you don’t fancy running Travel Hazards as written, it contains loads of material that can be used elsewhere: the Ursa, a cool pirate base, a failing mining colony, and more.

Things that made me go hmmmm…

But a few things struck me as I read Travel Hazards.

The Icy Manipulator: While I like the idea of a heavily patched ship held together with spit and sealing wax, I do wonder where it gets its fuel. It isn’t streamlined, so it can’t skim fuel from Double Sun’s lone gas giant (which is notoriously turbulent – I wouldn’t want to take a rustbucket like the Icy Manipulator anywhere near it even if it were streamlined). So, presumably, the Icy Manipulator uses a fuel processor to extract liquid hydrogen from ice, even though the book makes no mention of it. Let’s hope the processor doesn’t break.

Ursa: I found the Ursa slightly underwhelming. Despite weighing 150 to 500 kg, they get a mighty +2 to their STR roll. They’re also shown standing on their hind legs (the portrait of Grand Admiral Beo suggests an upright position) – which feels wrong and a bit too human-y. (Plus, “…but they can usually squeeze into human vehicles and ships with minimal modifications.” I think that depends on the size of the bear!)

And as for personality, they are as varied as humans – just wary of Humaniti.

I would have made Ursa less human: much stronger, quadruped, and with some interestingly bear-ish personality traits to roleplay. (Curious? Quick-tempered? Clumsy, in a bull-in-a-china-shop way?) And “minimal modifications” be damned; if you have a bear crewing your ship, you’d know about it!

AI illustration of a bear crewmember aboard a ship.
I asked for it to wear a harness with tools, but instead it looks
like it’s into bondage!

Spiderweb: Described on page 20 as a “fully functioning colony”, the whole Spiderweb situation snaps my reality suspenders. It just doesn’t make sense to me. 90,000 xenophobes hiding in a rock, with virtually no outside contact. I mean, what are they doing about a sewerage system? Or an air supply? Or their clothes, or any of the thousands of things that a viable colony needs? And why is there only one airlock to the whole place? 

I would make Spiderweb less xenophobic and have them trade (via the Icy Manipulator) with both Vargrholm and systems beyond to get what they need. (The minerals are valuable enough for the original mining companies to ship so many miners to Double Sun, and I can imagine regular trade with Spiderweb.) I’d still have Spiderweb failing – there might be an adventure there, with the miners seeking help to negotiate support from the Imperium, Irrgh Manifest, or elsewhere.

Mining operations: Although many inhabitants of Double Sun are miners, there’s no actual description of how asteroid mining works. Presumably, Spiderweb and Vargrholm do it differently, but you wouldn’t know.

The biggest problem

The main problem I have with Travel Hazards is its confusing structure.

What we get

Travel Hazards is structured so that first we meet four NPCs, and then five different job offers (sometimes from those NPCs, sometimes not – and presented in a different order to the NPCs).

Then, in “The Double Sun System,” we get a description of the system and its groups, followed by a series of events or options (“The Course of the Adventure”) for each part/group in the system.

After that, in “Concluding the Adventure,” are the outcomes for the various patrons – although not in the order the patrons are presented, nor referring back to how they were originally presented. (For example, “The Corporate Historian” is the third patron, yet this chapter starts with that patron’s outcome in a section titled “Wandering Eye”.

This chapter also describes hidden stuff the PCs might encounter. They might be encountered as part of any patron, so they really ought to be in the overall description of the system.

Maybe it’s me. Maybe I just have a different brain than most roleplayers, but I found it extremely confusing to read. I’d hit a section and wonder who it was relating to, so I would have to flip back and forth to try and puzzle it out.

What I wanted

Instead, it would have been much clearer if the book had a simpler structure:

• Introduction (with a clear one-paragraph summary of the overall political situation, and maybe a high-level map of the area)
• The Double Sun System (with the description and events grouped – so the description of Spiderweb is immediately followed by its events)
• Patrons (with everything for that patron in one place)
• Reference material (the Library Data, subsector map, new ships, details on the Ursa and so on)

I suspect that would make the adventure flow more easily and be much easier to run at the table.

Bonus: Close Orbit Interceptor

As a nice bonus for ordering directly from Mongoose, they included a four-page booklet describing the Korpen Aerospace/Close Orbit Interceptor. I can’t imagine ever using it, but it was a lovely treat to find in the envelope.

Overall

So that’s Adventure 14: Travel Hazards. It’s nice enough, but it doesn’t compel me to run as written. Perhaps if the situations/patrons were more tightly written, I could get into it. So instead, I’m more likely to mine it for parts.

But I’m delighted that it exists – I think it’s wonderful that Mongoose is supporting Classic Traveller. I prefer the LBB format over the modern coffee-table books (although I appreciate that the latter keeps Mongoose in business), and I look forward to Adventure 15 whenever it arrives.

Toxic fandom

In this week’s Geekerati newsletter, Christian Lindke looks at The Eye of Argon and toxic fans in fandom.

This is a slightly depressing read, and it argues that toxic fandom is just fandom - and mainstream fandom has always been toxic.

The article made me think about my reviews of ttrpgs, which are often critical (in the negative sense). But toxic?

While I often find problems in games, I’d really rather not find them. Yes, picking them apart can be fun, but it stems from frustration: I want those gamebooks to be better.

I’m also aware that gamebooks are very personal things – what works for me may not work for everyone. (But I rarely find anyone disagreeing with me.)

I don’t think my negative reviews are toxic, but I can imagine slightly awkward conversations should I ever encounter those authors in person.

A positive review

In case you thought I only wrote negative reviews, here’s my review of a game that I couldn’t find anything to complain about: Lady Blackbird.

Adventure 13: Signal GK

Signal GK is GDW’s last LBB (little black book) adventure for Traveller. It was published in 1985 and written by Marc Miller, with additional design from J Andrew Keith.

1985 is over 40 years ago. Why am I reviewing it now? Well, I recently ordered Adventure 14: Travel Hazards from Mongoose. I’m waiting for the physical booklet to read the adventure in detail, but I couldn’t resist taking a peek at the pdf. And I noticed something slightly odd about the layout – unnecessary indents on paragraphs that follow a heading. 

I’m sure Mongoose know better than to do that to a layout, so I got Signal GK down off the shelf, flipped it open, and sure enough, Mongoose appear to be replicating the old GDW format exactly – even down to the pregenerated characters and the unnecessary indents.

And having taken Signal GK off the shelf, I started reading, and here we are.

So, anyway, this is a first-impressions review. I haven’t run Signal GK – and as we’ll see, I probably won’t. 

Oh, and spoilers ahead.

A physical copy of Adventure 13? Really?

Some years ago, probably longer than I care to admit, I got rid of most of my old Traveller LBBs. I wasn’t playing the game, I wasn’t reading them, and they were just taking up space. So I got rid of most of them.

I kept the books I really liked. Twilight’s Peak. Secret of the Ancients (not that I liked that one, but it had Ancients in it). IISS Ship Files (in my opinion, the best Traveller deck plans ever). The alien modules. And Signal GK.

I’m not sure why I kept Signal GK. I certainly never ran it. I can only think that the central premise in it (the silicon-chip lifeform) was sufficiently appealing that I wanted to keep it. Or maybe it was that those lifeforms led directly to the controversial Virus and the destruction of the Third Imperium. I really can’t remember, but either way, I still have my original copy of Signal GK.

All this is preamble! Where’s your review?

Patience, I’m getting there. 

Before starting to write this, I thought I’d check and see what other reviewers had to say about Signal GK. And the answer is… nothing. At least, not in text. I found a single video review of Signal GK – and that’s it.

So this is my text review of Traveller Adventure 13: Signal GK. Maybe the only one on the Internet.

Overview

Signal GK is a 48-page booklet for Traveller set on the border between the Solomani Confederation and Third Imperium. The adventure is broadly in three parts. First, the PCs must help Dr Roshorin, a Solomani researcher, defect to the Imperium. Then the PCs accompany Dr Roshorin to Cymbeline to confirm his theories. There, they find an intelligent silicon-chip-based lifeform. Finally, the PCs accompany Dr Roshorin to Terra aboard the Ad Astra, a 600-dton Subsidized Liner, where a Solomani agent tries to kill Dr Roshorin.

(Signal GK is also the Vilani interstellar distress call. I imagine that the title of the adventure refers to the Ad Astra’s distress call after the bombing.)

Maps, deck plans, library data

As well as the adventure, Signal GK provides plenty of supplemental information:

The Ad Astra: 14 pages of details of the Ad Astra liner, including illustrations, room-by-room descriptions and deck plans. This is rather nice, and I imagine that back in 1985, many referees bought the adventure just for the deck plans.

The Solomani Border: A two-page spread showing the area in question. The map is subsector-sized, but straddles four subsectors to show all the worlds it needs for the adventure.

Library data: Two pages of library data.

The Biology of Natural Chips: Four pages about how natural silicon chips evolved on Cymbaline. This is lovely – I’m all for weird alien lifeforms.

All that adds up to 22 pages. And when you include the contents page, the front matter, and a boilerplate introduction (another five pages), that means less than half of the book is actual adventure material. Not that I’m complaining; as I’ve said before, I find a lot of adventures are overwritten. Signal GK isn’t one of them.

The adventure

The set-up is that after failing to find gainful employment on Scandia (just because…), the PCs are hired by Colonel Joachim Sanchex, the head of the Imperial Army Intelligence, to secure the defection of an important Solomani scientist. They are well paid and given a Type S scout for the mission.

Now, quite why Sanchex would choose a group of ne’er-do-wells like the PCs isn’t well explained. Deniable assets, perhaps. I think this is so that GMs can just drop Signal GK into their regular Traveller campaigns – although that has never made sense to me. The number of Traveller groups running campaigns in that neck of the Solomani Rim was probably in the low tens. If that.

I imagine that if anyone did run Signal GK, they either moved it (in which case they’d be rewriting all sorts of stuff) or ran it as a one-shot (which is what I would do). And with a one-shot, we can let the players create Imperial Army agents with the skills they think they will need. 

(I would start the game with Sanchex briefing the players and instructing them to plan the mission and assemble a team. The players would then create and equip those characters to suit the mission profile – and then play them.)

Pedant’s corner: The introduction on page 5 says, “the players may use pregenerated characters supplied later in this adventure. A complete roster of available characters is supplied in a specific section of this booklet; these can be used both as player and non-player characters.” Unfortunately, there is no such section. The only characters in Signal GK are the main NPCs.

Structure

Before I get into the adventure proper, I just want to comment on Signal GK’s weird structure. I’m sure it made sense to GDW, but it doesn’t make sense to me. These are the sections:

1. Introduction
2. Referee’s synopsis
3. Characters (actually the NPCs)
4. On Ochre (the first part of the adventure)
5. The Ad Astra (14 pages of description and deck plans of the Ad Astra)
6. The Solomani Border (the subsector map)
7. On Cymbaline (the second part of the adventure)
8. Disaster (part three of the adventure)
9. The Biology of the Natural Chips
10. Library Data
11. Referee’s Notes

That’s not how I would structure the book. The section on the Ad Astra, in particular, breaks the flow of the adventure. I would rearrange it so that the adventure is kept together and the supplemental information (Ad Astra, Chip Biology, and Library Data) is pushed to the back.

I would move the Solomani Border section directly after Characters, as it helps explain the overall political situation.

Anyway.

High-tech adventure

One thing that’s striking about Signal GK is how high-tech it all is. Well, it would be striking if it actually felt high-tech…

Looking at the map, pretty much every world is TL 9 or higher – often much higher. Signal GK starts on TL 15 Scandia and moves to TL 14 Ochre and Cymbaline. By 2026 standards, these are magical worlds full of technological miracles. TL 15 has black globe generators and anagathics. TL 14 has cloning and robots. And that’s just what I can find in 1982’s The Traveller Book. Mongoose’s core rules add floating cities, implants and high-energy weapons and probably more if I looked a little harder.

But Traveller in 1985 hasn’t quite worked it out. (As an example, on Ochre, a research facility is described as being reachable via a dirt-track road, which is used as a visual aid by grav vehicles. I’d change that. In a TL14/15 society, why would there be any roads at all?)

But I think the very high-tech environment has interesting implications for smuggling defectors.

Part 1: Ochre

Ochre is a small desert world with its population clustered around the polar regions. It is two parsecs from the nearest Imperial world (Tamarind), and being so close is a focal point for traffic (and smugglers) between the Solomani Rim and the Third Imperium. The local government is relaxed about smuggling (despite its strict law level) because of the income it brings in from passage fees and inspection duties, and the Solomani Confederation tolerates the smuggling because it is a channel for acquiring Imperial goods and technology. So it’s a leaky border.

So the PCs must cross the border, arrive on Ochre, find and make contact with Dr Roshorin, convince him that they are genuine, and then smuggle him out across the border without the Solomani authorities finding out.

And while Signal GK describes the overall situation on Ochre, it gives no details on how any of that is to be done. I think that’s for the best – letting the GM and players define the world of Ochre will lead to a memorable game. If nothing else, it gives the players huge freedom in how they approach their mission – they’re not constrained by preplanned set pieces or scenes.

Traveller's politics

The Solomani are the bad guys in Signal GK. So who are they?

It’s 1110 now, and the Solomani Rim War was in 990-1002. So 108 years ago, which by coincidence is how long ago WW1 ended, measured from 2026. So the Rim War is pretty much in living memory – particularly given the anagathics users present on all those TL 15 worlds. (I would make Colonel Sanchex a veteran of the war.)

The war erupted when the Solomani attacked the Imperium in a land grab. However, the Imperium fought back and won, and now occupies half of the previous Solomani territory. (So Scandia, our starting world, is, to many eyes, an occupied world.)

The Solomani Confederation is described as having “belligerent and extremist policies,” but Signal GK says little more than that (and I’m reluctant to dig into the wider Traveller background just for this review).

I have the impression that the Solomani Confederation is a bit like the Cold War-era Soviet Union or East Germany. (Although the Imperium are the occupying force here…) And that’s probably how I would play it.

Defection

Defection is a loaded term. Dr Rushorin doesn’t want to leave the Solomani Confederation; he wants to defect. That reinforces the sense of East/West Cold War tensions that I get from the politics.

So while smuggling might be easy (as discussed above), defecting must be harder.

Presumably, the Solomani Confederation considers Dr Rushorin a valuable asset that they don’t want to lose. And having valuable assets working near the border means he will be watched (with TL 14 surveillance). And presumably, he is prohibited from leaving Solomani space.

One of the challenges that real-life defectors faced was what happened to their families. (Although I say this as someone with no personal experience of this!) I imagine defection is much harder if you suspect your family would be threatened.

Unfortunately, Signal GK lacks this dimension. All we know is that Dr Rushorin is a professor at a university on Aquitaine, and is on sabbatical. He is on Ochre, working on an electronics research project and wants to defect to the Imperium before he has to return to Aquitane. Still, it would be easy to give Dr Rushorin a small family that he has brought with him to make the PCs' task harder.

Back to Scandia

Anyway, after all this, the PCs smuggle Dr Rushorin across the border and to Scandia. Solomani Security are soon in pursuit, however… (How soon depends on how effective the PCs have been.)

Part 2: Cymbaline

Dr Rushorin has another reason to visit Imperial space – he wants to go to Cymbaline to prove a theory about naturally occurring semiconductors. So Colonel Sanchex greenlights this (probably to keep the professor out of trouble), and sends the PCs to keep an eye on Dr Rushorin.

Cymbaline is a massive world with a thin atmosphere – the only human-habitable land is at the bottom of vast canyons. Rushorin’s chips, though, aren’t to be found at the bottom of the canyons – his theory puts them on the slopes of outgassing volcanoes.

So this part of the adventure is an exploration into a hostile environment. Unfortunately, Signal GK provides no support for hazards, encounters, or events. Fortunately, Rushorin finds exactly what he is looking for in little over a week – naturally occurring semiconductors etched onto crystal wafers!

(The speed of their discovery by Dr Rushorin suggests that these natural semiconductors are common across Cymbaline.)

Introducing 10987

Remarkably, not only are these naturally occurring semiconductors alive, but some of them are intelligent. And one of them, 10987, is in one of Dr Rushorin’s samples. At which point Signal GK becomes a first-contact scenario, with the PCs meeting a brand-new lifeform.

I’m a sucker for first-contact stories, and classic Traveller didn’t do this very often.

Anyway, obviously, the PCs report this to the authorities (via Colonel Sanchex), Cymbaline is promptly quarantined so that the chips can be studied… Er no. Well, that could happen, but probably doesn’t. Signal GK is silent on the Imperium’s reaction when they learn of the chips, which is a shame.

Instead, the PCs are ambushed by Solomani Security forces intent on capturing Dr Rushorin.

Rather optimistically, Signal GK assumes that the PCs will connect 10987 to a computer. 10987 then warns of the attack moments before it happens. Except that, who in 2026 is going to connect 10987 to a computer? Even in 1985, I’m not sure players were that naïve – that was the era of The Terminator (1984) and Wargames (1983), not forgetting 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). We weren’t short of warnings about intelligent machines!

So I’d probably change this and have 10987 already connected itself to a computer before the PCs discover it.

Assuming he survives, Dr Rushorin states that he has confirmed his theories and wants to return to Scandia – and part 3.

Part 3: The Ad Astra

Back on Scandia, Colonel Sanchex decides things have become too hot for Dr Rushorin and sends him straight to Terra. But before the PCs can take him on their Type S, it is blown up by Solomani terrorists. So Colonel Sanchex books them all onto the Ad Astra, which leaves the following day.

Unfortunately, the Solomani bad guys are thinking ahead and are already on the Ad Astra…

Partway through the journey, in the middle of skimming fuel from a gas giant, the Solomani agent makes his move. He captures Rushorin and escapes in the launch while detonating three bombs that cripple the Ad Astra, condemning it to crash into the gas giant…

GM advice here is painfully thin, and Signal GK breezily says, “The referee must generate a number of different passengers (and insert the <Solomani agent> among them, and then have the entire group interact with the adventurers and Rushorin.” That’s it – no suggestion for potential scenes or ideas for characters or anything else. (And the poor referee has to invent the crew as well – they’re not described either.)

The big problem with this section is that players are reacting to events. They don’t really get to be proactive. As written, the PCs have very little to do until the agent makes his move. And then, once that’s over, while they can help the crew fix the damaged liner, they’re unlikely to be in charge of repair operations because, well, it’s not their ship and the crew is presumably better qualified than they are at fixing the Ad Astra.

(It’s probably telling that Signal GK spends longer on repairing the Ad Astra after the bombing than it does on the characters aboard the liner.)

To be fair to Signal GK, it does say “…the adventures will probably be monitoring their fellow passengers in order to protect Rushorin.” But that’s all it says.

I would make this stronger – just before they enter jump, they receive a message from Colonel Sanchex saying he has intelligence indicating a Solomani agent is on board, but he doesn’t know who.

But then I’d also need summary details of passengers and crew, along with scenes and events. (I’d have one crewmember be suspiciously new, as well.) 

And to prevent the PCs from just hiding in their staterooms for the whole trip, I would have Colonel Sanchex instruct the PCs to identify and capture the agent for questioning.

I don’t know how I’d run this. Previously, when I’ve run Traveller, we’ve skipped most jumps. I ask the players what they’re doing for the week they’re spending in jump space, but we don’t go through it in detail. Managing 20+ NPCs and making the journey interesting? That might be beyond me. (Might be the basis for a fun larp, though.)

What do I think?

It’s probably best to think of Signal GK as three linked adventures. You could run them completely independently.

Defection on Ochre

The first adventure, “Defection on Ochre”, interests me most. It’s the adventure where, as written, the PCs are actually proactive.  And it’s fascinating thinking about TL 14 surveillance and countermeasures, and how the players might help Dr Rushorin defect.

I can’t even imagine how TL14 systems would work, so my approach would be to have my players help set the scene – and have some fun in the planning session exploring future systems and how to beat them. And then we’d run the mission.

Expedition to Cymbaline

Part 2, on Cymbaline, is the weakest. There are few opportunities for roleplaying and few decisions the PCs have to make. This section only gets interesting when 10987 appears – followed by the firefight. (This is potentially an exciting high-tech firefight with plasma weapons and battledress. I mean, Solomani Security are hardly likely to be armed with SMGs.)

So to make this more memorable, I’d introduce events and scenes and maybe even a random table or two. And perhaps a map of the volcano slopes for the PCs to explore.

Signal GK

And the final part, which I would call "Signal GK", could be about flushing a Solomani terrorist out from the crew or passengers from the Ad Astra. But you’d need NPC details and ideas for scenes and events to make it more interesting at the table.

Conclusion

I can’t remember what I thought of Signal GK when I first got it. I never ran it, never used the deck plans, so I don’t think I was that impressed.

Re-reading it 40 years later, and I find myself intrigued by the ideas it contains, but frustrated by how much is missing. How much the referee needs to invent just to make the game work at the table.

Am I asking too much of a 40-year-old adventure? Maybe. I mean, I am reading this with 40 years more life experience than I had when I first read Signal GK. But all of this is stuff that popped into my head when I read it again. I’ve not spent 40 years thinking about Signal GK.

Anyway, it’s unlikely that I will run Signal GK. Or if I do, it will probably only be the first part (on Ochre), because I can see how to run that with minimal prep. Which is a shame, as with a bit more work it could have been a cracking little adventure.

North Star 2026

Last weekend, I returned to Sheffield’s Garrison Hotel for North Star.

North Star is a two-day SF ttrpg convention, but I was only there for Saturday. I met lots of friends, chatted about games and other nonsense, and played two good games.

The Last Caravan

I didn’t know anything about The Last Caravan before we started playing, but according to the website, it’s a “cars and aliens tabletop role-playing game about a midwinter road trip in the wake of an alien invasion.”

Alien invasions – right up my street!

Neil Gow was running it, and my fellow players were Dom, Jag and Josh. We played family members – I was the responsible father (high school science teacher, Jeff) with my two sons, Jacob (Josh) and Pearson (Jag). Dom played the family dog, Cherokee. Dom didn’t get to name his character – and I left that to my sons.

(I’m not sure how much fun playing the dog would be in a campaign. For a one-shot, fine. But for much longer? Probably not for me.)

So that immediately created a fun family dynamic, which we played on during the game. As for the game itself, Neil gave us a quick rundown of the alien-invasion background, and then I received a text calling for help from my ex-wife, Sarah (who I only referred to as “your mom”). That was followed by an alien attack that destroyed our house (and stopped us dithering over what to take), and so we hit the road, where we fought an alien and rescued terrified citizens from a crazy militia.

As the start to a campaign, it would have been great. I can imagine how the relationships would have developed, and the truth about how Sarah and I had split up would have come out. (We didn’t develop that – but I had chosen “regret” as Jeff’s inadequacy, and I’m sure that had something to do with his ex-wife, but I hadn’t decided what that might be, and inspiration didn’t strike until we were almost done, so I never got to explore it.)

And apparently, there’s plenty in the book to explore. But not in three hours.

My character sheet - and a typical dice roll!

Mechanically, The Last Caravan is a FitD game. I’m sure it was fine, but I failed every single roll but my last one, so I might be feeling a bit sore about that…

Anyway, a lovely session to start the day with. Really enjoyed it.

Gee Cows to the Rescue!

And after lunch, something completely different: Traveller.

Gee Cows to the Rescue! was written and run by veteran Traveller player/ref Timothy Collins. We were playing the crew of a rescue organisation a bit like a cross between Thunderbirds and Médecins Sans Frontières. (This was inspired by an article in JTAS, and the organisation’s acronym, GKAO, led to the “Gee Cows” in the title. Timothy had copies of the article for us to read, and gave us neat patches for our ship uniforms! See the photo below!)

I played Chief Medical Officer Sion Alman, with the other four players (Steve, Jane, Josh, and Chris) playing the rest of the crew. We were a player down, so we had one NPC. Given we only had 3.5 hours and it was quite an involved game, I think we would have struggled with six players.

The scenario was in two parts. It started slowly, at a GKAO fundraising event. I found this a little underwhelming – but luckily we were then summoned to our ship to deal with a distress call (two ships had collided), and then it was all hands on deck as we had to rendezvous with two different ships, avoid collision debris, and treat the wounded.

My favourite bit was choosing whether to prioritise the Type S Scout with no comms, the Long Liner with many injured passengers but an onboard medic, or the four rescue balls with limited air. We went after the rescue balls, dropped a launch off at the Scout and docked with the Long Liner.

The GM carefully timed everything and had a detailed timetable in his notes. (The effectiveness of our dice rolls affected how quickly we did things.) That felt very OSR, and I prefer a more narrative approach – if you’re going to have a countdown, make sure the players understand the implications of their actions. The one time this worked was with the rescue balls – we knew they had only two hours of air, and it was touch and go whether we would rescue them all.

Notebook, character sheet - and patch!

There was an interesting subplot about smuggled battledress, which we got hints of. Some of the other players tried to investigate, but I was focused on the rescue. (To make more of the subplot, I would make one of the PCs an undercover agent. Probably not the Chief Medical Officer, though.)

Amusingly, everyone who tried to diagnose the Long Liner’s captain’s injuries failed their roll – badly. (I rolled snake eyes.) So it became a running joke that the captain was hiding his injuries very well.

Anyway, a fun game and a very different to The Last Caravan.

Overall

So that was North Star. I had a lovely day and look forward to returning next year.

Immersion in ttrpgs and larps

Every now and again, I see on Reddit and other places talk about immersion in ttrpgs and larps as being really important.

And because I’m not sure what that really means, I’ve tried to figure it out. 

(Clearly this isn’t the first time anyone has tried to do this, but this is my take on what immersion means to me.)

Define: Immersion

Asking Google (in April 2026) for a definition of immersion brings up this response:

Immersion (noun)

1. the action of immersing someone or something in a liquid.

2. deep mental involvement in something.

Google’s source is Oxford Languages.

#1 Immersion in a liquid

I’m pretty sure nobody in these discussions uses “immersion” to mean being immersed in a liquid. (Although Bubbles is an anthology of hot-tub larps, and Prawn is a larp set in a fish tank and held in a swimming pool. No doubt that players have joked about how immersive those games are. I know I would.)

Immersive experiences

But a broader interpretation of #1 would include immersive experiences, such as immersive theatre (such as Punchdrunk). The closest thing I’ve come to trying one of these was Alien War in London, back in the 1990s. (I’ve written about Alien War before.)

Sometimes these immersive experiences stretch the meaning a little. I think the idea of Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience is that you feel as if you are inside the painting. (I don’t know, I’ve not actually been – despite there being one on my doorstep.)

I’ve not done Bridge Command either. I hear it’s good, though I suspect you have to visit regularly to get the most out of it. If I went to London more regularly, maybe I would try it.

ttrpgs and larp

While I can imagine this kind of immersion in a larp, I don’t for a moment believe that this is what ttrpgers mean when they say immersion. Not unless the ttrpg they are playing is a game about modern-day folk playing tabletop roleplaying games.

And as far as larp goes, I think the idea is that a fully immersive environment lets players inhabit their characters without anything getting in the way.

Which sounds great, but I don’t work like that. I’m never not playing a game, and even immersive environments have elements that arguably drag players out from their immersion. (Some examples: Magic. Tracking wounds. Spectacles. Wheelchairs. Contrails. Power lines. Double-glazing.)

Worse, this kind of what-you-see-is-what-you-get feels a little too re-enactment-y to me. I remember watching magicians in a larp spend minutes casting their spells (drawing patterns in chalk, chanting, etc.), and it looked so boring to me. Can’t I just roll some dice? (And larps where you sleep in character? Ugh – I need breaks!)

Immersion of that sort isn’t a particular draw for me, but what about the second definition?

#2 Deep mental involvement

So this is the kind of immersion that works for me. I can get lost in a book. I can get lost in a video game. And yes, I can get lost in a ttrpg or a  larps.

But strangely, the immersion is different for ttrpgs and larps.

ttrpg/larp immersion as a player

Playing ttrpgs: In ttrpgs, I rarely experience immersion as a player. As a player, there are too many distractions for me to be completely immersed – and that’s not helped by the spotlight nature of ttrpgs. With four players and a completely fair GM, then I am only “playing” for 25% of the time. The rest of the time I am waiting and watching – which is fine, but not particularly compelling, and I’m unlikely to feel “deep mental involvement.” (I hate combat in ttrpgs for this reason. It’s so dull.)

Playing larps: But in larps, the percentage of time that I’m actually playing (rather than waiting or watching) is much, much higher. In the larps I enjoy, pretty much everything I need to resolve my character’s goals is held by other players – so there’s very little downtime. (In a weekend-long freeform larp, I will typically interact with the GMs for only a few minutes in total.) And so I find them much more involving and therefore immersive. The times I hate larps are when I’m bored – which usually means I don’t have enough to “do.”

ttrpg/larp immersion as a GM

As a GM, things are flipped.

GM-ing-ttrpgs: I find GM-ing a ttrpg completely absorbing. I’m fully focused on the players and on managing the game, the rules, and everything else. I’m completely immersed in the game – I don’t have the time to be distracted.

GM-ing larps: But in a larp, particularly the freeform larps I like to write and run and play, GM-ing is often a very passive activity. Once the game is set up and running, players often don’t need the GM. I am often only there for when the players need to interact with the world, and often they don’t need me much at all.

Immersion ≠ staying in character

It’s worth noting that for me, immersion does not mean staying in character. When I’m playing a larp I drop in and out of character quite often – but I’m still completely immersed in the game. (I find it hard to actually stay in character – I’m always playing a game.)

Other forms of immersion

So far so good, but “immersion” seems to have other meanings in ttrpgs and larps.

Immersion = staying in character

Having said that, for me, immersion does not mean staying in character; I recognise that the opposite is true for others. (As I’ve said, I’m lousy at staying in character.)

In fact, the Nordic Larp Wiki has this definition for immersion: Immersion" refers to a state of mind where a player does not need to actively suspend disbelief in the fictional universe, and where role-playing flows as naturally and easily as if you really were the character.

So I think this is about how much a player feels like they are their character and that they are in the game world. How real does it feel in their imagination?

If so, then immersion-breakers are things (in the rules or how the game is played) that pull players out of the game and their characters. (I’m not quite sure why things like rolling dice don’t pull you out of character, but presumably they don’t.)

While I see this in others (or hear about it in larp stories), it’s not something I experience myself. That’s because it’s always a game; I’m always just Steve. (Some people cry. I’ve never cried in a game.)

But maybe it’s a campaign thing? I suspect that over a number of sessions, ttrpg players become attached to long-running characters and may experience this kind of connection. I’ve never played a campaign longer than a dozen sessions or so; I’m usually itching to play something else by that point. So that’s never been me.

Anyway, as I’ve explained, that’s never been me.

Breaking immersion: collaborative world-building

When I am a GM, I like my players to help build the world. I’m a fan of Jason Cordova’s “paint the scene,” so when my PCs enter a new location or meet a new NPC, I might ask them something like, “What tells you that the owner of this store is struggling to get by?” 

But some players don’t like this. As far as I can tell, they feel that the GM should come up with these details. It’s suggested that answering meta-questions like this will break their immersion. 

(As a player, I like this sort of thing.)

Is immersion a player-only thing?

There may also be a player/GM difference. I’ve seen it suggested that those of us who are GMs first and players second (which is certainly true of me), don’t lose their GM-mindset when playing, so they still think about the metagame rather than getting wrapped up in their character.

And as a result, the feeling of character immersion (however you measure it) may be less important to them than to someone who is mostly a player.

But that’s just a theory. I don’t think it’s been tested.

Immersion: Am I any clearer?

Yes, I think so.

For me, immersion is important – but for me it’s the kind of immersion that means I am fully absorbed by something. (And even then, I don’t get that from all aspects of playing ttrpgs and larps.)

The other kinds of immersion? Not so much.

Peaky 2026

I played two great games at Peaky 2026: Triremes in Space and Grease Point Blank. (These are working titles and may change.)

Triremes in Space

Triremes in Space is a 12-player game of Ancient Greeks in space, written by Helen Jones, Megan Jones, Michael Jones, and Ewan Munro. 

Hang on, Ancient Greeks in space? Yes - and this isn't even an original idea! As Megan explained to me afterwards, she was inspired by the second-century travelogue/novella A True Story by Lucian of Samosata, in which Lucian and his crew are blown into space and have a series of adventures. I've never heard of it before, and it's arguably the first ever SF story. 

Spider battle from A True History by William Strang, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Anyway, I was playing Selene of Luna, leader of the Moon people. And I was meeting humans from Terrus for the first time - Spartans, Corinthians and Athenians. All hated each other, and yet I somehow needed to get them to help me with my problem with the sacred cows on the Morning Star...

Structurally, Triremes in Space starts with four factions, with three characters (broadly a leader, a ship's pilot and a warrior - although some factions may have had a different mix). The factions may be enemies or allies – or in the case of the Moon people, unknown.

The Moon people were delightfully alien, and as I was meeting humans for the first time, I enjoyed misunderstanding them and (hopefully) being unclear.

Amazingly, I achieved all my important goals - although it turned out that one of my advisors was deeply dodgy, and I had no idea!

It was also helpful having one of the authors (Ewan) as my other advisor. Inevitably, we hit bits of lore that hadn't been fully explored, and he provided the explanation while also filing the question and answer away for later.

Grease Point Blank

Grease Point Blank is a 12-player 1969 high-school reunion game inspired partly by the movies Grease and Grosse Point Blank. It was written by Nickey Barnard, Philippa Dall, Heidi Kaye, Tony Mitton and Christi S.

I couldn't believe my luck when I opened my character sheet: I was playing the John Cusack character! Okay, I'm trying not to spoil this, so I'm not going to say who I was playing or what happened. But it was so much fun, there was angst, drama, unexpected attention and maybe even murder.

I think my favourite moment was a completely unexpected conversation with Graham, but the game was filled with lovely moments.

Other games

Two other games were also written at Peaky 2026. I didn’t play them, but it sounded like they went well.

For The Greater Good by Adam Hayes, Kirstine Heald, Kevin Jacklin, Peter Jones, and Julie Winnard. Strange goings on in an English village for 8 players.

Lord Gount's Expedition by Clare Gardner, Martin Jones, Alli Mawhinney and Rich Perry. Sailpunk, for 8 doomed players. (I may have got the title for this one wrong.)

And you'll notice I didn't write a game this time. That's because I started, but it didn't work out. That happens sometimes. I ended up talking about Cafe Casablanca and helped proofread For the Greater Good.

Sunday game scheduling

And I have to say, Sunday was lovely. Only four games were running, and that meant that instead of trying to cram three sessions and lunch into about seven hours, everything was much more leisurely. 

So our schedule was:

• 8:30-9:30 Breakfast
• 9:30-12:30 First game slot (Triremes in Space and For the Greater Good)
• 12:30-13:30 Lunch
• 13:30-16:30 Second game slot (Grease Point Blank and Lord Gount's Expedition)

So that was a very leisurely three hours for each game. Nothing felt rushed, and we had loads of time for feedback and relaxing between games. 

(Sometimes we have six games running at Peaky. So that means an additional slot, and all the slots are only two hours long with very little space in between. And lunch is either very early or very late. And no, we can't push into the evening because some people have to leave, and others want to just chill after a busy weekend.)

I'd like to suggest we do that every Peaky, but that means having more games that aren't ready to be run. Is that a bad thing? Maybe not.

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