This is the free trader Dragonslayer... Calling anyone... Mayday Mayday... We are under attack...main drive is gone... turret number one not responding... Mayday... losing cabin pressure fast... calling anyone... please help... this is the free trader Dragonslayer... Mayday...
Traveller
Welcome to Dragonslayers Space.
The first roleplaying game I ever played was not AD&D, it was Traveller. Now I am reviving this experience and a new campaign based on the Pirates of Drinax campaign source material that takes place in the Trojan Reach. I am calling this the Dragonslayer Space Campaign.
What are we doing here?
This Dragonslayers Space campaign is a combination of several different points of entry, all combining to form a full and complicated campaign.
Like a traditional RPG game we meet live every so often to interact and roleplay the story. We use Fantasy Grounds to do this, continuing my tradition of a chat based game. We also use this site for a Play by Post type of RPG between sessions. The chat logs from the live sessions are integrated with the In Character and Out of Character posts into one timeline. Out of Character posts are for players to compare notes on what they want to talk about to advance the stories, and share comments on things outside of the game.
We add two more things to this grouping. There is a Ships Log that functions as a summary of in character entries to create summaries from that character's point of view. This is also be the Library Entries area for details the players want to record on the places they have traveled, and who they have interacted with. Because of the nature of this type of game we have an additional type of Out of Character place to post called Referee Questions. This is a place to discuss, debate, and learn about the Traveller 2nd Edition ruleset we are using. It is the FAQ for our game.
Introduction to a Dragonslayer Drinax Campaign
I want to lay out the ideas and structures for this Traveller campaign. I am calling it Dragonslayers Space to bring two long story threads together. I have described what I hope for out of this campaign as "lordz in space" but only a couple of my good friends will understand that reference. So I wanted to provide two introductions to what I hope to accomplish. Here are two pieces of writing that will help familiarize you with how I envision this campaign.
The first is from a GM who ran his version of the Pirates of Drinax adventures in 2020 & 2021, paraphrasing some of the introduction from the Drinax books.
Welcome to Pirates of Drinax
As a Traveller in the Pirates of Drinax, you will find you have a huge amount of choice in what to play and how to play. Once playing within the campaign, you can truly do anything – while there is a storyline behind this campaign, there is no set outcome. The basic premise begins with you and your fellow Travellers being given a ship and a letter of marque by the King of Drinax, with a mandate to create support for a new multi-system kingdom. However, this is by no means what you are required to do.
You could, instead, decide to set up your own pocket empire within the Trojan Reach, complete with its own pirate fleet loyal only to you. You could, perhaps, become true agents of chaos and trigger a war between the Imperium and Aslan Hierate that you will profit from. You could, maybe, create the kingdom the king has asked for and then depose him, setting yourself up as ruler in his stead.
There are many other factions and powers throughout the Trojan Reach, and you will find their own plans do not revolve around you. Do not be surprised if a seemingly inconsequential event suddenly blows up into interstellar warfare in a region you do care about!
Quote from: https://travellerpiratesofdrinax.obsidianportal.com/
Here is a deeper description of what a Drinax campaign can look like, from the original game designer.
The Pirates of Drinax – A Traveller Campaign
The Trojan Reach is a cross between the Afghanistan of the Traveller universe, and the Caribbean of Traveller – it’s where empires run aground and mortally wound themselves, and where fortunes can be made on trade and commerce. The First Imperium never conquered the Reach; the Second Imperium left isolated colonies across its expanse, and even the Third Imperium claims no more than a sixth of the stars here.
During the long night, another petty empire arose here – the Empire of Sindal. The Sindalians were barbarian raiders who crowned themselves kings and conquered several dozen worlds before their subjects rose up against them. Today, Sindal is a ruined world of a few hundred dirt farmers whose ancestors once ruled all the night sky, and the Sindalian empire is remembered in confused tales of a golden age and of wars amid the stars. As Sindal collapsed, outlying regional capitals became the seat of even lesser kings, and the longest-lasting of these was Drinax.
Drinax’s kings claimed half the worlds in their subsector for generations. The Drinaxians were wiser than their cousins; they learned to hide the iron fist of orbital bombardment behind a velvet glove of trade and protection. Drinax itself became a garden world, fat and plump, an oasis of culture and technology in a dangerous and barbaric sector. The floating palace of Drinax – a huge citadel of beauty and art, suspended on a grav platform of prodigious size – was a wonder of the galaxy.
Then, another empire came to the Trojan Reach. The Aslan were numerous, hungry, aggressive and confident, and the Empire of Drinax was fat, lazy and wholly unaware of the sheer numbers and might of the Hierate. The Aslan trade routes with the Imperium ran through the Kingdom of Drinax, and the kings became greedy. They demanded tolls, taxes, bribes… and the Aslan were incensed. In a single bloody war lasting less than a year, the Aslan shattered the last surviving remnant of the old Empire of Sindal. Drinax’s subject worlds were either conquered by the Aslan or revolted. Drinax itself was blasted to ash, leaving the floating palace as the only remaining property of the King of Drinax.
One palace… and a few ships.
That was a generation ago.
Today, the trade ships from the Imperium and the Hierate pass by broken, beggared worlds. The worlds once claimed by Drinax realise they have exchanged one master for another, and that the Aslan have even less regard for them than the kings did. The Imperium and the Hierate pretend to be friends while they jockey for position. The sector stands on a knife edge. The right pressure could push half the Trojan Reach into the claws of the Aslan, or force an already overstretched Empire to extend its forces deeper into the sector, or permit Drinax to rise again.
Now is the time for corsairs and privateers, for rogues and empire-builders. The King of Drinax offers a small band of trusted, resourceful bastards the chance to make their fortune. He gives them a ship and a letter of marque. They are to go adventuring in the Trojan Reach, to prey on shipping and to build up support in the worlds once held by the Kingdom of Drinax, and to play the two great powers off against each other. If they succeed, they will become princes in the renewed kingdom.
If they fail, the stars will be their grave.
Quote from: https://garhanrahan.com/2021/06/02/the-pirates-of-drinax/
