I'm getting good use out of Secrets of the Ancients.

Quote from: RPGPundit;829918I'm getting good use out of Secrets of the Ancients.

Is that setting-specific, i.e., tied to the Imperium thing?

Also, does it actually reveal the secrets of the ancients or is it just some vague stuff that leaves it open?

(I don't use the Imperium. Don't care for it.)

Quote from: Matt;829947Is that setting-specific, i.e., tied to the Imperium thing?

Also, does it actually reveal the secrets of the ancients or is it just some vague stuff that leaves it open?

(I don't use the Imperium. Don't care for it.)

Yes and no.

The Ancient were a race that dominated our region of the galaxy 300,000 years ago. They fought a great war among themselves, shattered a few planets into asteroid belts and then disappeared. Among the things they did was litter this region of the galaxy with abandoned bases and leftover trash. Along with taking Homo heidelbergensis (human circia 300,000 BC) and scattering them among the stars. Nobody quite sure what the deal with this was. It was either to use us as test subject or as servant.

Anyway this meant by the time Earth expanded into the Star there were at least two dozen worlds with native human civilizations and one of them, Vland, discovered intersteller travel two thousand years ago. Their expansion stopped just short of Earth and our first contact was with them.

The truth behind the Ancients was that they were basically the modern Droyne, an somewhat humaniod alien race that has biological castes. 300,000 years ago one of them was born as a highly intelligent immortal mutant. This individual had two generations of progeny and became known as Grandfather.

The Final War came when Grandfather felt his progeny was interfering with his work and he decided it they were a bad idea. So he wage war to get rid of them all. And in the Third Imperum Mileau, he succeeded.

After making sure that the ordinary Droyne were properly settled and taken care of, Grandfather used high energy gravitic to pinch off pockets of realspace into private universes. Many of these bubbles remained connected to our universe through a teleporter portal.

As it turned out one of the portal remained active on the planet Regina, a high tech, high population planet in the Imperium in the Spinward Marches. This is the focus of the Secret of the Ancients by GDW. The adventure includes among other thing a ancient ship that is essence a series of spheres connected via teleporter portal with the fuel and power planet stashed away in a bubble connected to the rest of the ship via a special portal.

The thing is that in the present day of the Third Imperium, the metaplot around Grandfather doesn't amount to much. He basically has these bubbles scattered around and it doing whatever research he wants to do. And he doesn't really care what the outside world is doing unless somebody manages to make their way in and bothers him. So for a non-imperium campaign, it is easy to use the material and just represent Grandfather as one of those weird Star Trek style uber beings coming out of nowhere.

There are also two very different versions of Secrets of the Ancients. The Classic Traveller version and the Mongoose Traveller version.

Quote from: RPGPundit;829918I'm getting good use out of Secrets of the Ancients.

I like it a lot, even though I don't care at all for the origin of the Droyne. Like Chirpers even less. Don't use either in my games. But I do like all the individual plot hooks in the book.

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;830081I like it a lot, even though I don't care at all for the origin of the Droyne. Like Chirpers even less. Don't use either in my games. But I do like all the individual plot hooks in the book.

Cool to know. I don't use any of the Imperium races (Aslan, Vargr, Droyne, Zhodani, etc.) or setting and was wondering if this might still be worthwhile.

Quote from: Matt;830094Cool to know. I don't use any of the Imperium races (Aslan, Vargr, Droyne, Zhodani, etc.) or setting and was wondering if this might still be worthwhile.

It's useful to read through to learn how to make a sandbox adventure/setting of your own for Mongoose Traveller, if you've never role-played and/or refereed in a sandbox before.

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;830198It's useful to read through to learn how to make a sandbox adventure/setting of your own for Mongoose Traveller, if you've never role-played and/or refereed in a sandbox before.

I'm talking about the original, not the remake.

Quote from: Matt;830577I'm talking about the original, not the remake.

The original Traveller stuff is mostly unremarkable.

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;830610The original Traveller stuff is mostly unremarkable.

For instance?

I've seriously changed up the nature of the Secret of the Ancients adventure, it's not really going 'by the book'.  Its been gonzoed up, as my recent blog entries suggest.

Quote from: RPGPundit;831204I've seriously changed up the nature of the Secret of the Ancients adventure, it's not really going 'by the book'.  Its been gonzoed up, as my recent blog entries suggest.

Yes, was reading it the other day. Pending your follow-up installment.

Quote from: Matt;831326Yes, was reading it the other day. Pending your follow-up installment.

They come out roughly every two weeks, because that's how often we play.