The Traveller
Hey Nerds,
I am back here after a summer sabbatical of getting married! After lots of running around and travel for various life/friend/family commitments - I am grateful to now to be back, more settled, and able to lock into some hobby.
In my wanderings this year I have got to spend time with so many great hobby friends – and one of the things that I have been thinking about is creating a game (with a flexible, evolving narrative) that I could drag and drop friends into to play anywhere.
As much as I love a skirmish, and the look and feel of a rank and flank – my first true love is a dungeon crawl. As much as punching a dear friend in the metaphorical face (via small toys) is great – there is something awesome about playing against the environment and working together to tell a story.
In steps The Traveller.
There is a work in progress rules ‘packet’ for those who are interested/want to give it a go.
The Idea
A co-operative dungeon/space-crawl. Run as a tabletop roleplaying game using 3 - 5 characters and 5 - 15 NPCs/enemies per adventure. The narrative evolves over time with instances of The Traveller’s appearance being documented and shared.
Inspired by a mixture of classic fantasy and sci-fi and other great creative pushes in the 28 community (Iron Sleet’s The Pilgrym, The Wier’s Vastarian). I fell in love with the idea of a Don Quixote styled knight on an endless quest around the galaxy.
The Traveller is roaming around a setting that is “40k adjacent”, using our love/knowledge and cultural osmosis of all things GrimDark but with room to include other things too.
I was also keen to make it not reliant on either purely sci-fi or fantasy tropes – visits to feudal worlds, hive Cities and forgotten tombs should all be possible and not feel out of place.
Mechanically, I have used the OnePage Rules Quest (StarQuest) engine – with some suggested tweaks to balance out the roleplay vs tabletop elements.
The story centres on The Traveller. A knight clad in mismatched, ancient armour on a quest that seemingly has no end. He acts as a semi-playable NPC that drives exploration across multiple worlds.
Each quest involves a small group of fellow characters accompanying The Traveller on a quest. These characters are created around the following archetypes:
The Pilgrim – fanatics, worshipers and zealots bound by faith.
The Adventurer – Veterans, soldiers of fortune seeking adventure and fortune.
The Mystic – Seers, psychics and wielders of the warp.
The prompt from me is think - Eisenhorn/Ravenor style Inquisitor warband. But crucially, one that could travel back in time as well as forward. Heroes, freaks and random dudes from a backwater feudal world all get pulled into this random knight’s orbit.
The aim is to run games from now and all next year – building up to a small narrative events using OPR Quest as an excuse to have various missions running across multiple tables.
I had this kind of image doing loops in my head. A knight surrounded by a small group of devoted warriors and freaks exploring a ruin with an impending sense that something exciting/terrible is about to jump out at them.
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Below is fluff and flavour text.
Read ahead to get a feel for the setting and character.
The Setting
A distant future.
Humanity has spanned the stars. It has evolved to be both less and more. A time where heroes are grown not made. To be truly alive is to live on the fringes of this galaxy.
A galaxy of empires.
Empires that have risen, expanded and fallen. An endless cycle of conquest and decline. The living, the dead, the unhallowed all vying for their own corner of the stars.
Amongst this rises the traveller. An individual with such animus - that all who meet him are swept into his orbit. A questing knight seemingly from another time and place - neither fully human nor saint but enough of both to keep the myth alive.
Join him on his quest.
A rare pict of The Traveller - clad in his ancient armour, covered in esoteric motifs.
The Traveller
He wakes. His breath catches. He can’t breathe – a crushing weight sits on his chest. A shriek of metal over metal. His chest plate - the tombstone on his chest lifts - as his ancient armour remembers to keep him alive for another tenuous moment.
The dull glow of the half-ruined reactor bathes his head in light and heat like a slipped halo of some fallen angel. Through half-lidded, bloodshot eyes he sees the outlines of those around him.
In the grey half-light, he can’t make them out fully, but he can describe their ilk like they were etched on his own soul. The rogues and soldiers – here for profit, glory and stories to tell. The zealots – unquestioning and blinded by the faith. The witches - shunned by those that know of their arcane powers but lethal when driven to act.
Another nameless world, appropriate for this nameless knight on his endless quest.
Arise Sir Knight. It is time to find some answers.
How to Get Involved
If you are interested – hit me with a comment here or ping me on Instagram. I will be running various games all over and am trying to get a whole bunch of people invovled.
Regardless of whether we can physically get in the same room - I would encourage you to explore the theme. Bash your own “The Traveller” and crew and run an adventure in parallel.
I am still polishing a full packet but will share the parts that I have here as I go.
Hope you feel inspired and looking forward to rolling some dice with you at an event soon.
Sam/Shame
