I will be going through the process of designing phase 3 of my Traveller campaign. The idea was to take my players, totally new to Traveller, and bring them through some of the important backstory in small chunks.

Phase 1 revolved around U.N. space marines during a rebellion on the Mars, Lunar and space station colonies. It was predictably military heavy.

Phase 2 revolved around the first manned intersteller voyage. A generation ship named Prometheus. This was a more political and mystery heavy campaign. Its ending will have far reaching consequences on my version of the Traveller universe.

Phase 3 will revolve around Starleaper 2 and the first FTL intersteller exploration mission. It will be political and exploration heavy. I hope for a feel that is a mixture of Babylon 5's diplomacy and Star Trek TOS's exploration.

Run down of what I have so far (I am not particularly attached to canon):

Starleaper 0 was used to bring fuel to the checkpoint to allow Starleaper 1 to reach Bernard's Star.

Starleaper 1 was the ship that made the first intersteller jump to Bernard's Star. There it encountered agents of the Solamni Empire. THis was not revealed to the public.

Starleaper 2 has been assigned the task of exploring the sectors near Earth. It has been outfitted with several ways to refuel and a tank capable of holding enough fuel for two jumps.

The ship is the result of a deal between several concerns on Earth and Mars. Many of these groups have sent representatives to see that their interests are taken into consideration during decisions.

The Genesis Project- a group looking for planets ripe for terraforming. They are a for-profit organization and hope to find their first recoverable planet on this mission. This is not the over in a day terraforming of Star Trek II, it just shares the name Genesis.

The U.N. Economic Committee- this representative is charged with opening new markets to exploitation by Earth's corporations. They are especially interested in any form of life that can be used as labor but is less technologically advanced than humans. They are also looking for cheap access to unregulated resources. They are also charged with protecting Earth's economy from potentially more advanced civilizations.

The U.N. Science Committee- they are charged with making physical surveys of systems and collecting anthropological data on any alien societies.

The U.N. Space Marines- charged with making sure that the safety of Earth is protected during the mission. They have a Very Large Nuclear Device (VLND) at their disposal. They also have access to a computer virus developed by Joren Krill called that can break down almost any digital computer system.

The U.N. Diplomatic Corps- they are charged with establishing diplomatic relations with any civilization met. They are equipped with th ability to sign short term treaties and grant U.N. trial membership.



There will be other groups to come. I will probably allow players to choose to be from any of the groups, although one will need to play an independet captain.