I’m not going to discuss a bunch of bona fides and why our folks are so good.  Many of our people have been involved in the RPG/General Gaming Industry for a long time.  Some on the edge some in the thick of it, but veteran or not I’m extremely happy with the group of people we’ve put together and as time goes forward I think and hope that you will be pleased with the happy serendipity that brought this group together.

John Lees is our Line Editor and Writer.  Since coming on board he’s put the whip to our words and our words are better for it.

Chris Stevens is our Technical Director.  He is bringing us up to speed on our digital presence an area and the great improvements you’ll see over the next months will be due to his efforts.  We also call him our idea guy and look forward to his efforts on the creative side of Terra/Sol as well.

Matthew Hope is a Writer/Developer for us.  He was my co-author on the setting book and along with John provided us the thrill ride that is Beyond the Open Door.

Filamena Young is a Writer/Developer.  We already have an entire campaign arc (Ancient Trails) in the can from her and we look forward to her unique perspective on the setting in the future.

Martin Dougherty Writer/Developer.  A know talent, Martin is extremely prolific and incredibly creative.

Keith Curtis Cartographer/Artist.  Keith provides us with much of the beautiful cartography that we hope becomes one of our trademarks.

Emel Akiah Artist.  Much of what is becoming Twilight Sector trademark artwork can be attributed to Emel’s brilliant eye for art.

Ed Healy Marketing and Advertising Advisor.  An ENnie winning podcaster (Atomic Array) Ed has guided us through the treacherous shoals of communicating with the RPG community.

Rone Barton Industry Advisor and Sound Guy!  Ed’s partner in crime and thus also an ENnie winning podcaster, Rone is responsible for the wonderful sound enhancements available for our products and also points us in the right direction when we start to wander off course.

Then there’s myself (Mike Cross).  No credentials at all just a Cat Herder at heart and thankful the cast I’ve listed above has seen fit to join me on this wonderful journey.

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Beyond that what I did come away from GenCon with was a new sense of how Terra/Sol games should present itself to you the consumers of our products.  I was quite taken with the way that companies like Evil Hat Productions and their transparency and frequent communication have I believe discovered the right way or at least a right to communicate with create products for and sell those products to role playing gamers.  We are all a community and as such we gravitate towards things, be they conventions, games or companies that make us feel that sense of community and let us buy in to them. 

To that end Terra/Sol Games will commit ourselves to be as transparent and accessible to RPGers as we can.  That’s not to say we won’t fall down from time to time but the measure of us will be in how well and consistent we can be in the endeavor.  So I am committing to you all that Terra/Sol will make every effort to listen to as many voices as we can regarding our products.  We will attempt to make our design process as transparent as possible by providing blogs and updates on where products are in the process.  We will provide you information about how we are doing as a company including sales figures (just please promise not to laugh), we will let you know who it is that makes up Terra/Sol Games.  We will try and do all that while still getting at least four hours of sleep a night!

So I guess I should start by letting everyone know that we have started a group we’ve taken to calling the Insiders.  This is a group that we will be running products and content by as it is being developed so we can solicit their input and they can play test stuff if they like and give us feedback.  If anyone is interested in joining the Insiders please contact me at crossmlk@aol.com.  You will be required to sign an NDA because most of what we will be sharing is proprietary information.  But if you’re willing to do that you’ll have access to a forum exclusively for Insiders where we will preview what we’re working are and solicit your input on current and future products.  I hope that you will join us.

Mike Cross                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Terra/Sol Games

 The Ancient Trails: So It Begins adventure and Audio Enhancements have also
 been released as a bundle.  Please take a look at both these free adventure
 products.

 At Terra/Sol Games we really do believe that “The Campaign’s the Thing”.
 Look for our next release, the second installment of the Ancient Trails
 adventure arc which will be out this month and our complete Twilight Sector
 Campaign, ‘Beyond the Open Door’ that will be released at GenCon.  Hope to
 see you there.

 Good Gaming,

 Mike Cross

Terra/Sol Games

If you haven’t picked up your copy of the Campaign Setting why not!  You can rectify that situation by going to Studio 2’s website or DriveThruRPG. 

The first is a piece on life spans in the 30th century.  Enjoy and let me know what you think.

LIFE SPANS IN THE 30TH CENTURY

In the later stages of the 30^th century mankind’s average lifespan now exceeds 200 years.  Death results from accident or apathy more than disease or natural causes.  With a trip to the gene spa every decade or so aging can be prevented, appearance can be chosen and telling the old from the young becomes very difficult.  

One of the oldest sentients alive today is Epsilon Ess the leader of the Deramus Enclave.  Created in 2664 by the beginning of the Twilight Sector Campaign in 2991 Epsilon Ess is 327 years old.  The oldest biological based sentient is Tamaran Suzeil of Earth.  A 292 year old great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother.  Long past her scientifically accepted expiration date Tamaran is still going strong and illustrates one of the key components to longevity in the 30^th century, the will to live.   Committed to her ever growing family she finds happiness and purpose in helping to guide them forward in an ever changing world.  Behavioral scientists say that most deaths in 2991 result from people losing the will to live or becoming more and more accepting of risky behavior in order to maintain interest in their existence. 

The question for players in the Twilight Sector Campaign Setting becomes how to deal with a character with an average life span of 200 years.  Within the Traveller rules this could Obviously lead to some extremely powerful characters.  So it falls to both the players and game master to determine what kind of campaign they wish to run.  For a traditional Traveller campaign a group might limit the maximum number of terms to six.  If you want a very high level campaign you could allow eight, ten or even more terms.  To play with older characters but at a reduced power level you could limit characters to only the most recent skills they used.  After all if you used to be a star pilot but haven’t used the skill in the last four decades you really shouldn’t be as good as it as you used to be.  Game masters and players should decide on how many skills should be available to the players if they choose this type of campaign.

Children of Orion; Massive pirate/smuggler Operation

The Children of Orion are, as they like to call themselves, a ‘planet-free political and ethnic nation.’ Most planet or system-based policing forces see them as roving gangs at best, or more commonly as a dangerous criminal enterprise with so many heads and such a complicated structure there is simply no good way to stop them entirely. Like a hydra, if a family head  is brought to justice, two more appear to replace and avenge him.

They are brutal and violent in piracy, but also in politics. Most ship captains and fleet admirals (or as they call them, family heads,) are law savvy and know just how to protect themselves in case of arrest and find ways out of even the most dramatic legal trouble. Most authorities see the Children of Orion as such nuisances that they let them slip through the system rather then get into the legal nightmare of trying to hold them. Less legally minded systems tend to shoot first and would rather destroy a Child’s ship than hassle with the law.

Of course, the Children have a means of combating that as well. Being politically-minded, when such attacks are leveled against a Child’s ship, they often start on a media-based attack on the planet or system involved, crying out against the ‘racially charged’ assaults and accusing their attackers of attempted genocide. This sort of assault has caused reparations be paid to the pirates and many worlds just won’t risk having to deal with such an onslaught.

The Children feel no guilt in using any of these tactics, physical or political, because they truly believe that they are the spiritual inheritors of the Terra/Sol system. They believe that they are the decedents of Orion, and that they were wrongly chased from their home world long ago. Much of their patchwork ‘culture’ is based on an elaborate myth of the planet. They attempt to stylize their clothing, ships, and even their elaborate tattooing to remind anyone looking at them that they are ‘ancient natives’ to the region.

It is, of course, a lot of bunk. There is no scientific evidence of any original inhabitants of the world and all but fringe anthropologists are certain that if there ever was prior human habitation of Terra/Sol it was certainly not the Children (though the media backlash the Children render to anyone foolish enough to publish or speak about it is often not worth the effort to demonstrate that fact.). It is far more likely that early in Terra/Sol’s history, ancestors of the pirates squatted in system. Most likely they were driven off as the system developed and willfully chose to create the myth of their origins in order to give credence to their criminal activities. While there might be Children alive who are in on the gag, most believe in their fake heritage with religious fervor.

I can’t mention the Ancient Trails path without touting what I believe is an awesome innovation for tabletop rpgs we’ve introduced with this release.  With the first installment; ‘So It Begins’ we have released a companion download of audio enhancements for the adventure.  Hear what Dr. Elsie Itcher sounds like as she hires you to transport her cargo.  Hear one of junkyard owner Buddy Brickers lame jokes as he guides you to the part you need.  These and other audio enhancements await you in the download.  I believe they will add a deminsion to your games that simply hasn’t been available before.  Rone Barton is responsible for these professionally done audio files and I can’t praise his work enough.  Run don’t walk your typing finger over to DriveThrough RPG and download the file, ITS FREE!

Our old friend Matthew Hope is working on the second and probably last installment in the Somnium Mundus adventure path.  We egerly await the final product because if its near as good as his ‘Through the Open Door’ campaign that will be released at GenCon we’re in for a real treat.  ‘Through the Open Door’ will be accompanied by audio enhancements and a 2D tile set of all the pertenant encounter settings for the adventure.  And speaking of Somnium Mundus, look for audio enhancements and 2D tiles for that adventure to be released any day now.

New products will abound this summer as we also release the first in a new line of products called The Starfarer’s Gazette.  Authored by Traveller RPG savant Martin Dougherty, this little jewel will examine a particular piece of the Twilight Sector Campaign Setting giving you everything you should know before you book your trips to these little garden spots.

Other products are also in the works but I’ll leave discussion of them until they get a little closer to completion.  Good gaming this summer and please e-mail or post any questions or comments you might have.  Look me up at GenCon in the Sudio 2 both if you happen to make it to the Con this year. 

Mike Cross

Ratan is the Disneyworld of the Twilight Sector offering a host of amusements to visitors (see the Twilight Sector Campaign Setting Sourcebook pages 78 through 84).  This adventure seed could see the players as visitors on vacation, Monument employees leading a tour or even scientists studying the Marianas Trench nature park (see page 81) where this adventure takes place.

To start the adventure the players are part of a diving tour of a shallow reef on the edge of the trench.  There are quite a few guests as well as several guides and tag alongs (your scientists) taking in the amazing variety of life on the reef.  You are close to the edge of the park and the scientists are marveling at the trench’s famous grav wall (see page 83) which separates the park from and the rest of Ratan’s oceans. 

Scene one:  The players either see a young girl snatched by some sort of underwater robot before they can do anything the robot disappears into the blackness down the trench wall.  The players are not equipped to follow as they’re only in ordinary dive gear and couldn’t stand the pressure very far down the trench wall.  Alternatively if your players are bound to do something stupid like follow the robot down the trench anyway or are not willing to accept a GM fiat that the robot disappears down the trench, then they were not close to the abduction and hear about it when they get back to the dive boat. 

The young girl is a rich man’s daughter and he is beside himself with worry offering crazy rewards for the safe return of his daughter.  The Monument employees are mortified as well.  This kind of thing doesn’t happen on Ratan and they are determined to take care of it right away.   They ask for volunteers to aid in the search.  Of course your hero’s should be first in line.  If not shame or bribe them into it.  If they are still reticent tell them the adventure is over and ask them if they’d like to go see a movie.   Preferably something with real heroes in it.

The Monument employees have been on the radio with other nearby ships and they haven’t been able to pick up anything on radar or sonar that could have been a pick up ship for the robot and the kidnapped little girl.  She must still be down there, 

Scene two:  Suiting up in some high pressure suits (use vacc suit skill) the rescue party take off down the trench wall.  At least one of the Monument employees has a personal sonar scanner (cost 450 credits, range 500 meters, .25 kg, approximately the size of a modern cell phone) perhaps one the players might have had one shoved in his hands as they jumped in the water.

The rescuers split into a couple of groups to cover more ground but will still have communications with each other.  Have the group without the players attacked by the robot.  Someone in the other group is badly injured or killed and part of the rescuers must take that person back to the boat for medical treatment.

The players are able to use the sonar and with a successful Engineer; Electronics skill roll will reveal an underwater cave relatively close to the players position.  If they can’t make the roll have one of the Monument employees make a successful roll.  This must be where the robot has taken the girl.

Scene three:  The players must now enter the underwater cavern and defeat the robot (use the combat drone Traveller Core Rulebook page 95) and rescue the girl.

Epiloge:  The interesting part of this little side trek is figuring out exactly what is going on here.  Is it really a simple kidnapping for ransom case?  Did whoever sent the robot want to blackmail the Dad?  Was the whole thing a ruse for some other nefarious purpose?  That’s for the Game Master to decide.