Freelance Traveller

Riding Shotgun

by Ewan Quibell

This article originally appeared in the July/August 2026 issue.

Riding Shotgun. Peter Rudin Burgess
Parts Per Million Limited https://ppmgames.co.uk
42/44pp., PDF
US$9.99/UK£7.55

I read the review of Riding Shotgun by our esteemed editor and I was intrigued. Something in the review piqued my interest. I can’t say what it was exactly, but it was possibly the “breadth of this adventure” remark. Anyway I wanted to have a look so I got the Cepheus version sample file which has the whole adventure in it; you just have to put up with “Sample File” across each of the pages. First off – great sample file; you know exactly what you are going to get because you get the whole thing. It’s a bit like Pay What You Want without being that. What I think this is doing is Peter saying his work is worth £7.55 of your money and he’s showing you that worth in the sample file. I think this is good. If I use this adventure and I think it’s worth it I’m going to go back and buy it for £7.55.

Also I’m not going to review this as such, I’m going to write how I might use this adventure. So it’s going to be a bit of a review and a bit of how I’d adapt this for use. Why? … I hear you ask. And that’s a great question, and here’s the reason why. I can’t use this as is at the table. I can’t just open up the file and run it. It’s not laid out for that, it’s wordy and there are bits all over the place that make it hard to do. So I’m going to have to read through it a couple of times and note what I’m going to take from it, what I’m going to drop, and essentially write an adaptation of the adventure to be able to run it at the table. So that’s one of the things that’s not so good. I’m going to have to do a bunch of work to use this adventure. Now that’s not completely unexpected, it’s just that the easier it is to be able to just take it and run it at the table makes it easier to write the adaptation to be able to run it.

And why do I need to adapt it? I hear you ask … And that’s a great question, and here’s the reason why: Peter’s Traveller Universe is not my Traveller Universe. I don’t play in his Traveller Universe and quite frankly I don’t think his Traveller Universe works, or rather the part of it that is portrayed in this adventure doesn’t seem to work very well. Now that’s not to say that Peter’s Traveller Universe is not good for him, or for others who use it for play, it’s just it doesn’t work for me and I can’t see how it works for others. For example New Oregon or New Oregon II; I’m not sure whether they are the same system/planet or not. I’m going to assume they are because it makes sense in the adventure as Peter kind of writes it that they are the same thing, which is one of the inconsistencies within the adventure that I have to figure out or make assumptions about (not good). Anyway New Oregon is a TL13 world of 30,000 people that is capital of its subsector which (the subsector) has no other TL13 systems, or even TL12 systems. There are three TL11 systems none of which have any substantial population, and there are three TL10 systems two of which have substantial population. I can’t see how New Oregon can sustain a TL13 infrastructure with just 30,000 people without any other systems with TL13 infrastructure anywhere near it … just doesn’t work for me. Now it might do in Peter’s setting, but I’m unlikely to buy and/or use Peter’s setting, because I have my own. It’s just another thing that doesn’t make sense. And it doesn’t make sense in the context of the adventure either because we will be using a TL6 road train not a TL13 grav train, which in itself isn’t a problem as when I read the adventure I assumed it was on a low tech planet and TL6 or TL7 seems to work just fine, and that’s where I would be setting the adventure in my Traveller Universe. I’d be setting the adventure on a TL7 planet with 9 million population.

What about the adventure? In essence the PCs are hired to drive a road train of pressurised liquefied propane between the capital and a plantation where they will swap the propane containers for food and come back. That’s the set-up and pretext and it expands from there, and the expansion can be as large or as small as you wish. Now I’m not one to hold back on a review because of spoilers. It’s up to the reader to decide especially as you know I’m going to describe how I’d adapt the adventure for my Traveller Universe. There will be spoilers so if you are a player and you might be put through this adventure then if you read further and it spoils your fun because you did, well that’s on you.

Before we get to the road train we get to see the capital, we have some sightseeing and a couple of encounters/situations the PCs can get involved in.

Then we have “what can go wrong with the road train”, it can overheat and explode depending on the route taken, it can break down and need to be fixed, it can have rocks fall on it or it can drive into quicksand.

Then we can have animal encounters with the road train, road runners, big bats and scavengers

Then we have people wanting the road train to fail. They spot it, they shoot at it and then try and blow it up. This is where we have the “possibility” of finding out the people who are shooting at the road train “the rebels” are not really the bad guys.

Then we have: at the plantation for the swap over from propane to food before going back and possibly finding out that the plantation people are the bad guys (they are drug (bad class A type drug) manufacturers with dodgy mercs working for them)

Then we have: if the PCs haven’t caused trouble they are asked by the plantation people to come along and clear out the rebel camp (read kill the rebels).

Or we have: if the PCs have cause trouble they are then saved by the rebels so as not to be killed by the plantation people.

Then we have the fight at the rebels camp depending on whether the PCs are on the side of the rebels or on the side of the plantation people.

Then we have the going about the PCs business depending on the outcome of all of the above and the complications that might arise from however the PCs made their way through the adventure.

Now I like all of the above. I like the above because I’m into adventures where the PCs are hired to do one thing but the adventure turns out to be something completely different. In this adventure Peter hires the PCs to do the thing, then complicates it, then complicates it again and then complicates it yet again and allows for some player agency throughout the whole thing. He does it in strange and weird and wonderful ways that don’t make sense, which I’m going to have to change, but the “breadth of this adventure” really is it and is really quite intriguing . Again I know I’d need to change the adventure to make it fit into my Traveller Universe, but because parts of it don’t make sense it’s going to be harder.

The hire is the first issue. There are supposed options for hiring the PCs if they have a ship, but the adventure only works if they don’t have one or don’t use one. The options for if the PCs have a ship is for them not to use it. It’s stuck in orbit, they aren’t allowed to land (there isn’t a downport they can use), and they can’t have options to use it or their small craft to move the propane. Now it’s possibly not practical to use a ship or small craft but if the PCs have them they may wish to try and use them, but Peter is trying to reduce player agency by essentially nerfing them and taking their ship away. This doesn’t work for me, and is bad form in my book. Also this place (New Oregon) is subsector capital at TL13 but doesn’t have a downport that you can land ships on? Really? Anyway the adventure only works if the PCs don’t have a ship, so write it that way “this adventure only works if you don’t have a ship or access to small craft.” So this needs to be fixed. Which isn’t so much of a problem for me because my PCs (at the time when they might do this adventure) don’t have their own starship, but I might need to find a way to ensure that if they hire or use a small craft that the other parts of the adventure can work anyway. There will always be the ability for them to run the road train, but if they don’t I still want to be able to run the adventure.

Another issue with the hire is that the hiring agent hires the PCs because other road trains have been sabotaged (by the rebels) and he thinks it’s an inside (his own company) job. But this guy is a drug dealer, and his co-conspirator knows where the rebels are because they (the plantation people) hire the PCs to go and kill the rebels. So why bother with the PC’s? just kill the rebels and then run the road trains as normal. Another issue that needs to be fixed. I’ll likely change it that he knows the rebels are after the road train and he’s hiring the PCs so as not to put his people at risk and to hopefully work out where the rebel base is, and/or he thinks his company may be already infiltrated by the rebels.

The rebels are ok in the adventure. They are ex-guards/employees of the plantation that have left/run away because they have had a bad experience of the drug that is being made, and they are sabotaging the road trains because the plantation people are the bad guys. Now I already have a dissident movement where I wish to place this to be the rebels, and these rebels are bad guys and won’t be run aways from the plantation. So my rebels may know that the plantation people are bad guys, but they are sabotaging the road trains to gain resources not because the plantation people are bad guys (even though they will be). Slight change but should work.

I’ll go back to the “Show me around the Capital” bit. This bit is a bit of description and a bit of the hire and a couple of encounters all rolled into one. The organisation of this could have been better. It’s not laid out very well and you have to read through the piece to get to the details that you’ll need to run it. Peter introduces us to Salem which I assumed was the capital, but might not be and in the description Peter describes the domes, the buildings, “cut and polished sandstone. It gives them a glass-like finish in shades of yellow through orange to rose” with single story by the edges and multistory in the middle. Champion! This is what I want from an author something that I can use to make this place feel different from everywhere else. I’d use this directly. I’m likely to make my PCs travel from the capital of my planet to a small industrial settlement (Salem) but once they get there this is what it’s going to look like.

Then we get into the hire and the road train. The description of where the hire takes place is good. Peter tried to do a “show, not tell” and almost manages it. He also tries a “show, not tell” about the sabotage of the previous road trains and mingles these in with facts around the mission which gets the information across but is a bit mangled together. I’d re-do this to be better presented and easier to run at the table. Peter then describes the road train and gives the stats for it and some dirt bikes it carries. I’d probably have an NPC show the PCs around the road train so I could do a “show, not tell” on stuff that the PCs will need to know, such as the workshop part and spares which will come into its own in “what can go wrong with the road train”.

The section finishes with the Bars of Salem, where the PCs can get into a Bar fight … and why not? A Medical emergency where the PCs can get involved if they wish, and a drug bust. Peter presents these encounters as just encounters, I’d rather that they integrate or link into the adventure in some manner, but that shouldn’t be too hard to do. I’d probably use the bar fight to introduce the rebels in some way i.e., loyalist and rebel sympathisers get into it with the PCs involved if they are asking questions, or the PCs watch as they get into it. I could use the medical emergency in a similar way i.e., a rebel sympathiser has the medical problem and the loyalists are slow to call the emergency services, and the drug bust can introduce the drug running/production aspect of the adventure.

Peter then brings us to setting off in the road train where he describes the how to control the vehicle. He uses a holovid and describes what that does; I’d use a “show, not tell” by describing the holovid, and I’d probably include this in the NPC showing them around above. Peter has an auto pilot in the road train. I questioned this at TL6, but as the planet is supposedly TL13 it isn’t a problem. I’d not use one. I’d have the PCs have to change shifts to keep driving and have degraded driving rolls if they get fatigued etc. as it means the PCs have to plan more and engage more in the journey it keeps the TL to 6 or 7, but I’d give them an unsealed road to follow if they choose (as opposed to Peter’s autopilot route), and the option of planning a more direct route if they so wished. This is after all a journey that happens quite a lot of the time. The dirt bikes are there so you can have outriders if you so wish, which may or may not help with predicting things in the next bit.

The “what can go wrong with the road train” bit I like. You could base the whole adventure on just this. You wouldn’t need the rebels or the bad guys in it at all. You could have the PCs just having to deal with issues with the road train. Rock slides, sun vs shade, and quick sand, backed up with the animal encounters makes a whole adventure in itself. Peter has these as optional encounters, and I can understand why because his main thrust is the rebels, but I like these, so I’d have them in. Peter also gives us descriptions of the animals and their behaviours, which I’d use as they are.

We get the rebels next where the PCs may spot their spotter, may spot their sniper that is attacking them, or may be attacked by rebels on dirt bikes. Nothing wrong with these encounters I’d use them pretty much as Peter portrays them. I’d have different motivations for the rebels and if captured would give different answers to being questioned, but basically the encounters are fine. In Peter’s adventure by capturing one of the rebels the PCs can find out that they are not the bad guys, which might then lead the PCs into investigating the “plantation people” but that’s not explicitly stated but is kind of expected. For me I’d explicitly do this. I’d give the PCs the opportunity to capture one of the rebels to question them in which case the PCs know that the “plantation people” are drug runners.

We get some GM information about what’s going on and the intention of the rebels. Peter assumes that the PCs know that there are people who don’t like the road train, but doesn’t explicitly make the assumption that the PCs know the “plantation people” are the bad guys. In the next section he is kind of expecting the PCs to go snooping around to find out what’s going on.

The PCs arrive at the plantation and are given a tour by the CEO where she tries to find out if the PCs know about the rebels and/or her drug running or not. We get a description of the plantation and what’s going on. This kind of assumes that things have gone a particular way in the adventure and Peter is hedging his bets a little. While he isn’t expecting the PCs to already know the “plantation people” are the bad guys, he is expecting them to want to find out. So we are also presented with ways the PCs can go snooping around the plantation to find things out. This is fine per se. It’s a little wordy and could be laid out better. There are basically clues that the PCs can find by doing various things. Peter puts a description of the drug and its effects as well as legitimate information around the plantations cover. These need a complete rework to be able to play this at the table.

We then get to the next morning where one of two things happen. Either the PCs are invited to help the security guards (the dodgy group of mercs) go exterminate the rebels; if the CEO thinks they are trustworthy, or they get lined up to be shot; if the CEO doesn’t think they are trustworthy. The “go kill the rebels” plot point is a bit thin. These guys are organised drug dealers; they would be far more joined up. If they knew where the rebel camp was then why hire the PCs? So for me I’d have to work in that the PCs were hires as bait in order to find out where the rebels were in which case the “plantation people” would likely know if the PCs already knew they were drug dealers or at least suspect they are. So I think this bit needs some work to make it fit better. Now if the PCs are lined up to be shot we have a save put in place by rebels in the base intervening for them to get away. For me this is a little light on rebels saving the day. However we will then get a possible chase to the rebel base which could be exciting, or in fact could lead to the “plantation people” finding the base …

Either way we are then presented with a fight at the base. We get a description of the base and the people in it and their motivations and what they plan to do. We get two sides to the fight either attacking the base or defending it depending on how the PCs got there. As this is a straight up fight I think I’d want to run it before playing it at the table. Combat in Traveller is deadly and I want my PCs to live. I want to know that they have a decent chance of coming out alive. Going in with “the plantation people” is the most likely way for them to win, but if the shoe is on the other foot then I’d probably want to get the PCs out before the attack, or in the middle of it. Anyway it’s something I’d want to look at before getting into it.

We then get to Loose Ends, which if the PCs get on the side of the rebels, basically strands them on planet the way that Peter has written it. The drug dealers basically control access on and off planet and the rebels don’t have any other way off. This isn’t particularly wonderful as a close to the adventure. Our PCs should at least be given a way out which Peter doesn’t provide which means a lot of work for the Referee to ensure that they can. If the PCs are on the side of the drug dealers then they get paid and away they go. For me I know that I’m going to need to change this, but in my Traveller universe where I think I might use this I’ll have both the rebels and the “plantation people” being the bad guys so my PCs will have other options getting out even if they don’t get paid.

However Peter has one last trick up his sleeve as he doesn’t believe that the PCs should go the way of just finishing the job they were paid to do so. He railroads an attack on the returning food convoy with such overwhelming force that the PCs need to surrender, when they then get to find out that the “plantation people” are the bad drug dealer guys. I dislike railroads, it takes away player agency and assumes an outcome where I as a referee may need to fudge dice rolls and essentially direct a result. And in this railroad the PCs need to surrender. What if they don’t? I’ll have a TPK on my hands because it’s not gone the way Peter wants. Bad form.

To round it all up what have we got? I think Peter gives us a good premise, he gives us a set-up and he gives us some good things to work with. He doesn’t lay it out very well, the information I need at the table to be able to run this is all over the place. He gives us a setting that doesn’t make sense and that I can’t use, even if I didn’t have my own I wouldn’t be using Peter’s. He allows player agency in some parts, but limits it in others, and the railroad at one possible end is just poor form. He expects the adventure to go in the direction he wants and then if it does go that way there’s no help for the referee to get the PCs out of their new predicament (being stuck on planet).

So to the ultimate question; am I going to use this adventure? I might. There is something that I hadn’t thought of before so this gives me diversity of ideas which is why I look at other people’s adventures; so my players get diversity of thought and thinking. There is a premise I can use in my Traveller universe. There are some good scenes, there is some good action there is lots for my PCs to get involved in. I know I’m going to have to do some work to fit it into my Traveller Universe, but for this adventure I’m going to have to do a lot of work. In some parts Peter gives me help, in other parts he makes it hard. But one thing I will do if I use it is go back and buy it for the £7.55 Peter is asking. Will I check out more of Peter’s adventures? Probably. Is it worth it for you? Download the sample file. Read the adventure. If you use it go back and buy it. If you don’t use it no harm done..