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_Aoreriyya: Dawn_ Outline
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From: Derek Wildstar <wildstar@quark.qrc.com>
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To: gwh-local@ocf.Berkeley.EDU
Subject: _Aoreriyya: Dawn_ Outline
This is the current version of the _Aoreriyya: Dawn_ outline, for
putting up on the archive site. Thanks!
***
OUTLINE and DISPOSITION --- Aoreriyya: Dawn (campaign module)
By (in alphabetical order) Guy Garnett, George Herbert, Bertil Jonell,
Michael Metlay, Hans Rancke, and Corran Webster; assisted by the other
members of the TML Pocket Empire discussion group [insert current
membership list].
"The Domain of Deneb goes off the air immediately.
"We keep the flame. Good luck."
--- Deneb, 1130
"Anybody got a light?"
--- Aoreriyya, 1200
Overview: The book will be approximately 100 pages (give or take a
few). Of this, approximately two-thirds will be background data: maps,
world descriptions, major polities, and so on. The remainder will be
adventure scenarios and plotlines for use with at least two different
campaigns.
Aoreriyya is the name early Aslan explorers gave to a 4-subsector area of
Reavers' Deep. Aoreriyya is an Aslan compound word that, loosely
translated, means "New Veldt". The area was so named because of the
relatively high proportion of worlds with near-ideal environments for
Kyusu's native plants and animals.
The background data will detail the major worlds of Aoreriyya in the year
1201, just as several of them manage to regain jump technology. A number
of the more important lesser worlds will also be detailed. Emphasis is
placed on exploration and first contact scenarios, although suggestions
for further adventures on the planets of Aoreriyya are also welcome.
The main campaign plotline deals with the first encounters between
explorers from the worlds of Gralyn and Grendal, and the effort to forge
a viable alliance between the two. Secondary campaign plotlines allow
players to lead a team in opening up a newly recontacted world, or give
them the opportunity to lead their backward planet into the interstellar
community.
Detailed character generation information for citizens of Grendal, Gralyn,
Pendang, Drexilthar, and Solomeia will be provided. This is a variant of
the standard Traveller: The New Era character generation procedure, and
allows the character to be firmly based in the history of the region.
Enough background information will be provided so that the player
characters can be of any species (Human, Droyne, Aslan, Vargr, or
Virushi) encountered on these worlds.
Module Contents
I. The Gralyn Union, an Emerging Pocket Empire
A. Chronology of Reavers' Deep up to 1200.
B. Description of the Gralyn Union
1. Worlds and Cultures
a. The world of Gralyn
b. The world of Askoapoy
c. The world of Botany Bay
2. Gralyn Union Structure and Politics
3. Gralyn Union Army
4. Gralyn Union Navy and Marines
5. Gralyn Union Exploration and Survey Service
a. Description and Deckplans for the exploratory starship
FIDELITY, a converted Rift Merchant (type R2).
b. Crew roster and NPC crewmen (for crew slots not taken
by player characters).
II. Campaign Section
A. Chronology of Reavers' Deep from 1130 to 1210
This includes a chronology of the various things that are all happening
as the campaign progresses, so that the referee is aware of the things
that happen around the region.
B. Primary Campaign
The players are officers and specialists in the Gralyn Union
Exploration and Survey Service. Now that Gralyn and Askoapoy are
building starships again, an exception is made to the ban on "wasting"
valuable starships on "futile" exploratory missions. The player
characters are assigned to the FIDELITY, and are given their first
missions.
1. "Shakedown Cruise"
The explorers are sent out on the first official exploration
mission to leave the Gralyn Union (also the first mission
under the GUESS aegis, and the first exception to the ban on
interstellar exploration). The destination is Khtearle, a
world where two ships dissappeared 10 years ago, just prior to
the ban.
a. Sabotage!
Someone has sabotaged the ship. The players need to
fix the problem before it kills them. Once their
safety is assured, they need to find out who would want
to sabotage the ship, and why, before the saboteur
strikes again.
b. Survey Operations
The explorers will conduct a detailed survey of the
Khtearle system. This should be played out in full
here; so the players will be familliar with it.
c. Enigma
Mysterious signals are detected. The exploration party
investigates, and discovers a piece to the puzzle of
the fate of the missing ships. [This is a hook for
further adventures: The referee will have to decide the
fate of the missing ships, and provide further clues.
By the end of the campaign, the explorers will have
enough information to mount an expedition to find them
(or their remains, if the referee so decides).]
2. "Coreward Ho!"
While larger contact expeditions are sent to Aikhiy and
Khtearle to recontact survivors on those worlds, and bring them
into the Gralyn Union's economic sphere, the FIDELITY is sent
on a long expedition to explore the coreward part of the
Drinsaar Loop. Destinations include Daken, Banff, Marion,
Rintarna, Skeena, Lanixohn, Drinsaar, and Esokhi. This is a
free-form section, where the referee intersperses specific
encounters and situations from the following sections with
routine exploration and special events.
3. "The Teddy"
The exploration team encounters a Technologically Elevated
Dictator. They're going to have to think their way out of this
one, because they don't have enough firepower to shoot their
way out.
4. "Xenophobes"
An encounter with a xenophobic, technophobic community.
5. "The Lost Clan"
The explorers contact an aslan community eager to contact its
parent clan. They will try everything honorable they can think
of to buy or borrow the FIDELITY. When this proves impossible,
they will make the loan of a ship part of their conditions for
any further negotiation. [This is a hook for further
adventures: It will take some time before GUESS can spare a
ship; just about when the PCs finish the main campaign, in
fact. Then the referee can let the PCs get the job of carrying
an Aslan envoy to someplace in, say, Uthaa subsector.]
6. "The Survivor"
An encounter with a member of a long-lived minor race who has
survived, Robinson Crusoe fashion, in some lonely, desolate
place where the PCs can't possibly leave him. [This is a hook
for further adventures: Someday an expedition will be sent to
that survivor's area of space, Farift subsector, and he will be
included in the expedition as a "native guide". After a long
voyage they will find that his homeworld has suffered
greviously in the Collapse and his race is all but extinct.]
7. "Red Alert!"
The first encounter with an Iltharan Vampire starship.
Although foreshadowed in other episodes ("The Teddy",
"Xenophobes", or "The Lost Clan"), the existance of a
human-vampire cooperative will probably take them by suprise.
8. "Ghost Town"
From the primitive survivors on a planet, the explorers hear of
a mysterious haunted city. After some difficulty, they find an
empty, amaxingly well-preserved TL-10 community, big enough to
house 5,000 people. There is some evidence of a fight, but all
in all the town is in a remarkable state of preservation.
However, someone or something keeps trying to drive them out of
the city, and may kill the explorers if they remain.
9. Other Expeditions
Using the starmaps and the scenarios provided, the referee can
generate a number of other missions to send the FIDELITY on.
Not every world will be inhabited, and many worlds will be
routine surveys that don't need to be played in great detail.
The scenarios below are for use with these other expeditions.
10. "Monsters from Outer Space"
The explorers find evidence that another starship is already on
the world they are about to explore. When they arrive, they
find that the locals have jailed "monsters" for crimes they may
not have committed ... and the PCs are next, unless they can
find out who really did it. Once released, the other party is
a group of aliens from a world none of the PCs have heard
of: Solomeia.
11. "We've Been Expecting You"
First Contact scenario for Solomeia. This world is the unique
result of a heterogenous group of refugees from the Final War,
and including at least four different races. It is also the
site of Aoreriyya's only fully-functional Psionic Institute.
Welcome to a world where the humans can be stranger than the
aliens.
12. "Pendang Contact"
First Contact scenario for Pendang. Pendang is a high
population world that survived the Collapse remarkably well.
Believing that they were alone in a hostile universe, they
haven't regained starflight technology. Once someone contacts
them, though, the Pendys put their program into high gear.
Pendang will not stand for being a second-rate world.
13. "Grendals"
The FIDELITY gets sent to explore the Drexilthar Main. This is
the home of both the Grendalites (another human starfaring
world), and the Ilthara (humans in cooperation with a Vampire
fleet).
a. This is also relatively free-form, and can use any of
the scenarios above that were not used in "Coreward
Ho!".
b. Encounters with Ilthara Vampire starships will
undoubtedly occurr here. This should happen frequently
enough that the PCs start to get jumpy.
c. At some point, the PCs will encounter a starship from
Grendal. The Grendalites have been fighting the
Vampires for some time, and the Gralyn explorers have
been attacked more than once. Grevious mistakes are
probably made on both sides, possibly leading to combat.
d. Eventually, the referee will implement the "Marooned"
encounter (below), and the campaign will progress to
its climax.
14. "Marooned"
The collection of Imperial-Era spare parts that serves as
FIDELITY's computer finally fails utterly, strading them in the
new system that they are exploring. A Grendalian ship misjumps
into the system with a ruined jump drive. The solution is, of
course, to combine the sound elements from the two ships ... If
the two parties can figure out how to work together.
15. "Visit"
The explorers go to Grendal, since Grendal is a lot closer than
Gralyn at this point. Once there, they learn about the Vampire
menace. Grateful for the help they've given their Grendalian
counterparts, the FIDELITY is outfitted with a new computer
system.
16. "Gauntlet"
The grand finale. The explorers are asked to take an ambassador
back to Gralyn. The ambassador carries an important business
proposal: Grendal's computer technology in exchange for
Gralyn's jump drive technology). But there are Ilthara spies
on Grendal, and the Vampire easily breaks Grendal's Naval code.
The FIDELITY is 5 jumps away from Gralyn. Will the explorers
be able to evade the pursuers?
17. Campaign windup, with suggestions for further developments and
a few words about the upcoming Vampire War.
C. Alternate Campaign: "Mission to Khtearle"
The PCs are assigned to the expedition to open up Khtearle. This
planet has 50 to 60 million inhabitants (both Human and Aslan) spread
around the world in hundreds of small countries. The exploration
service's only big starship has brought a couple of hundred people and
several hundred tons of equipment to a peaceful spot on Khtearle, and
then left to put other expeditions on Aikhiy and Kremmling. The
starship will be back every 8 or 9 weeks with supplies and personnel.
Many of the encounters from the Primary Campaign (including "Enigma",
"The Teddy", "Xenophobes", "The Lost Clan", and "Ghost Town") can
easily take place on different parts of the same planet.
D: Alternate Campaign: "On Duncinae"
The date is 1198. The players are natives of Duncinae. The world would
undoubtedly be classified as Technologically Elevated Dictatorshipp, if
anyone civilized was aware that Duncinae existed. The place is in a
rut. Your subjects are starving. Bandits run amuck. Space raiders
(Iltharan Vampires from Drexilthar, but the PCs don't know this, and
probably don't care) hit the place on a regular basis. This campaign
is intended to be "different", and can also be used to give the PCs a
home base, if the referee so desires.
a. The PCs find a cache of Imperial-Era technology. They have
the chance to save the day ... or take further advantage of the
situation. The choice should be a source of conflict (and
growth) for the characters. Who wants to "play God", and who
wants to "do the right thing".
b. If the players set themselves up as TEDdies (for good or bad),
then they have to defend themselves and their subjects against
the other dictators, the Iltharan raiders, and brigands.
c. Sooner or later some vital piece of equipment will fail. The
players will have to find a replacement, or locate someone who
can teach them how to fix it.
d. Eventually they will have to deal with knee-jerk pocket
empires, like Grendal or Pendang, who want to boot them out
(preferably with a surgical strike from space) and take over the
place directly. Assuming the attempt is foiled, this could
lead to some interesting diplomatic, political, and military
wrangling as the PCs have to play off their agressors against
each other or more moderate interstellar powers like Gralyn.
E. Alternate Campaign Notes
Enough information is provided for referees to establish campaigns on
any of the "major" worlds in Aorereiyya: Gralyn, Gendal, Pendang, and
Solomeia. Notes will suggest adventures from the supplied Gralyn-based
campaigns that can be easily converted to support alternate campaigns
based on one of the other worlds.
F. World Descriptions
1. Description and map of Khtearle.
2. Description of Duncinae (uses the Khtearle map).
3. Description of Grendal
a. Grendal's history, society, and government
b. Description of the Grendal Planetary Defense Forces
4. Description of Drexilthar
a. The Vampire Fleet at Drexilthar
b. The Iltharans
5. Description of Solomeia
6. Description of Pendang
7. Description of Venice
8. Description of Danelag
III. Support Materials.
A. UWP Listings and Starmaps
a. Second Survey (ca 1115) data for all 4 subsectors of Aoreriyya.
b. Current (ca 1200) data for all 4 subsectors of Aoreriyya
c. Map of Aoreriyya (all 4 subsectors at once)
d. Second Survey map of 16 subsectors centered on Aoreriyya.
e. Second Survey UWP data for all 16 subsectors.
B. Library Data (Imperial-Era) about a number of these worlds, including
those on the Drinsaar Loop, the Lanyard Colonies, Drexilthar Main,
Pendang, Marlheim,
C. Character Generation
a. Gralyn
1. Human
2. Droyne
b. Grendal
1. Human
2. Aslan
c. Solomeia
1. Human
2. Vargr
3. Droyne
4. Virushi
d. Pendang
1. Human
2. Aslan
e. the Wilds (most other inhabited worlds)
1. Human (including "Human-culture" Aslan)
2. Aslan (including "Aslan-culture" Human)
IV. Bibliography
V. Plug for "Aoreriyya: War" and "Aoreriyya: Peace?"
***
wildstar@quark.qrc.com
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