Freelance
TravellerDouble Adventure 2: Across the Bright Face/Mission on Mithril
This article originally appeared in the November/December 2024 issue.
Double Adventure 2: Across the Bright
Face/Mission on Mithril. Marc Miller.
Game Designers’ Workshop (defunct; most Traveller material preserved
under Far Future Enterprises https://farfuture.net)
2 PDFs, 28/27pp., originally single back-to-back digest–sized
softbound
Currently available from FarFuture Enterprises on the Classic Traveller
CD-ROM.
Editor’s note: This is not a review of Mongoose Publishing’s Marches Adventure 2: Mission to Mithril. That adventure is both a homage to and a sequel of the adventure reviewed here.
The Double Adventures were two “short” adventures printed back-to-back in a single booklet. While not as completely defined as the single-volume adventures (for example, Prison Planet, Secret of the Ancients, or The Kinunir), they were more defined than what eventually would be called ‘adventure seeds’, and generally provided enough information that the referee could run the adventure without it being ‘railroad-y’ (something that was common in the early days of the hobby).
Across the Bright Face
The PCs were hired as bodyguards, and have failed at that mission; their principal was killed in front of them, and that more-or-less seems to have been a signal of the start of a revolution. Although the PCs aren’t actually far from a city, the way back to it is blocked, and the city is in turmoil. It seems that their best option is an overland trek to the starport – and they’re likely to have pursuit the entire way.
The PCs are actually offered an ‘easy out’, and there’s no compelling reason presented in the adventure for them to reject it. Nevertheless, the assumption is that they do in fact reject the offered deal, and choose the overland escape. The starport is a little over 2000km away; while it will take several days to make the trip, this isn’t the kind of major months-long or years-long undertaking that the trek in Marooned/Marooned Alonereviewed in Freelance Traveller, May/June 2024 is. Naturally, there will be obstacles in the PCs’ path, some natural, some not.
Dinom (the world that the adventure takes place on) has a severe axial tilt and orbits a bright white (A5V) main-sequence star; during the northern hemisphere summer, the north pole is pointed essentially directly at the system primary. The sunlit hemisphere is called the ‘bright face’, and the winter hemisphere is called the ‘cold face’. The PCs’ trek appears to be able to stay in the twilight zone, where temperatures don’t get extreme (in Dinom’s terms) either way, though their choices and encountered obstacles could force them out of the twilight zone into the ‘hot’ or ‘cold’ zones. The world cannot by any stretch of the imagination be considered habitable; the PCs will have to be in vacc suits or in an ATV (specs and description supplied) for the entire time.
This adventure is noted as having been used at Origins 80 as the Traveller Tournament situation. This suggests that, with an appropriately-experienced referee, it could be completed in a typical convention ‘slot’ of four hours or so. There are a set of pre-generated characters that can be used; the referee can fairly easily adapt the adventure to an existing group. Were I to attend a Traveller session at a convention, I’d certainly consider playing in this; the only significant flaw I see in it is the failure to justify not taking the ‘easy out’.
Mission on Mithril
It should be noted that the presentation of this adventure in this PDF is not quite the same as in the original printed folio; the first half (roughly) has been moderately re-ordered for ‘more rational presentation’. The pages that are ‘out of place’ do not cause textual confusion; one of the pages is a map of Mithril and the other is essentially a ‘table’ of possible events. The text of the adventure is not in any way ‘scrambled’ by this re-ordering.
A set of pre-generated characters is provided; the referee is free to adapt to an existing group, provided that the group contains a retired Scout with the use of a Type S on detached duty.
Mithril is a cold world, snowy from pole to pole, with frequent extreme winter weather, and the ice caps extend to the boundaries of what should be the ‘tropical’ zone.
Mithril is a Sword Worlds ‘reserve’ world, not yet opened up for exploitation. The PCs have come in as the result of a bad jump, one that took three days longer than it should have. There’s damage to a critical part of the jump drive, and they really have no choice but to ask for assistance. While relations between the Imperium and the Sword Worlds aren’t always less than frosty, the planetary warden at Mithril is willing to help; once the characters land, they find that there’s a quid pro quo: The warden and his small staff will effect the repairs, and the PCs will investigate three anomalies detected from orbit that the (Sword Worlds) Confederation wants information on prior to beginning exploitation. The warden will provide a fully-stocked ATV suitable for use in Mithril’s environment(s) to allow them to get to the various sites. While the PCs can carry a good amount of supplies in the ATV, they’re going to end up having to live off the land, and rules for this are provided.
As in Marooned/Marooned Alone and Across the Bright Face, this is basically a hex-by-hex trek across the surface of the world, facing obstacles of various degrees of difficulty. While the mechanics of running or playing this adventure are no more complicated than those of Across the Bright Face, because of the distances involved, and the limitations imposed on the ATV’s movement by the environment, this adventure promises to take weeks of in-game time, and probably cannot be completed in a single convention four-hour slot.
Conclusion
This is one of the classic Double Adventures, and does show its age – but there are certainly elements that can be incorporated from nearly fifty years of Traveller development to ‘refresh’ it. I’d consider it to add value to the Classic Traveller CD-ROM, and not just for completist collectors.