Freelance Traveller

#55: The End Is In Sight

This article originally appeared in the March/April 2022 issue.

Some six years and 38 episodes into The Traveller Adventure we may be about to finish. I know I’ve thought that for a couple of sessions now but I’ve always known it could take a while to actually complete. Now, arrived at Jesedipere, it might just take a couple of sessions to wrap up the campaign.

Long time readers will know that it was long my dream to play The Traveller Adventure which had sat on my shelves for years, decades even. No obvious opportunity. Then a referee muttered about running it across a weekend of TravCon but decided it would too demanding to referee and not play at all, or that no one would want to commit to just one game across all the slots when there were so many other things to choose from. I suspect he was right on both counts. Having had my hopes raised and then dashed, lunchtime discussion in the staffroom at work afterwards, and the expressed interest of several colleagues to play, finally galvanized me into throwing in the towel and agreeing to try refereeing it; despite my fears. The interested parties were part of a Library bookgroup which met in a pub after work and had just switched from monthly to bimonthly meetings. The obvious thought was to play Traveller in those ‘in between’ months.

The initial group enjoyed it for a couple of years but a couple changed jobs and a couple felt they’d had their taste of it and had helped me get it out of my system. Meanwhile, we’d added a few people along the way who’ve either stayed with us or emigrated to foreign climes. The pandemic hit and we moved online so we were able to add a ‘distance’ player. A core of five of us have remained steady-state across the last dozen or more sessions.

It is with mixed feelings that I see the end approaching. It’s certainly a natural break point and I’m probably in need of a break myself. It’s not so much that every other month, or a bit more frequently of late, is so demanding, but with some ill health issues to deal with, it is a constant ‘presence’ in your mind and your thinking. On the other hand, I’m really enjoying it, love seeing the players interact with the material of the evening, love seeing the classic book (and the setting) brought to life, and have become particularly aware in the last months reading about others’ experiences how precious it is to have a good group willing to play regularly.

We’ve not discussed the ‘future’ formally although brief comments suggest there are a variety of options. Taking a break; another referee for a time, a ‘lighter mode’. Not to mention that were we to simply continue I have a hundred thoughts about things I’d like to do! But I’ve absolutely no regrets about starting, would encourage others to do so, and will be fascinated to see how the endgame plays out.