Salvage & Secrecy

Ernsteyn Industrial Materials (EIM) is a thriving concern operating a pair of Type J Seekers out of the orbital starport of Yres in the Regina subsector of the Spinward Marches. Or was until a week or so ago. Losing a contract with Ling Standard Products came at the wrong time when one of the company’s vessels, the Evan’s Endeavour, suffered a drive failure, and whilst insurance will cover the cost of some of the repairs, it will not cover them all. The company needs a good contract, one that will cover the bills that are due soon. Fortunately, one of the shareholders, Neal Slessinger, a senior starport administrator, got EIM a job. This is to salvage cargo from the Deutsche Post, a merchant tender lost in the wake of the Fourth Frontier War some thirty years ago, with long term plans to go back and salvage the rest of the vessel. However, the Deutsche Post’s location is at the edge of the Menorb and Yres systems. Getting to the site of the lost ship will not be easy and will require Sydni’s Search, EIM ‘s only operational ship, to be fitted with demountable tanks to fuel the necessary Jumps to get into the system and out to its edge. Unfortunately, the company’s only demountable tanks are aboard the Evan’s Endeavour, the vessel in dry dock, undergoing extensive repair… This is only the start of the problems for the crew of Sydni’s Search and the set-up for Cold Dark Grave.

Cold Dark Grave is a scenario of salvage and secrets for Traveller, the Science Fiction roleplaying game and setting published by Mongoose Publishing. The scenario itself is published by BITS UK Limited, or ‘British Isles Traveller Support’, a British organisation dedicated to supporting Traveller, especially at conventions. To that end, Cold Dark Grave began life as the BITS tournament adventure From a Cold Dark Grave for Gen Con UK 2005. It is designed to be played in a single session with six players, though can be run with less, and is both demanding technically and in terms of roleplaying. The technical nature because the players and their characters will need to think about refitting their ship, getting it out of the Yres system without looking suspicious, locating the Deutsche Post, getting on board it, and not only finding the cargo to be salvaged, but also get it off the ship and back to the Sydni’s Search. The roleplaying challenge comes in the form of roleplaying and trusting Neal Slessinger. He is designed to be a Player Character—though with fewer players, he need not be—and despite being (or because he is) a major shareholder in Ernsteyn Industrial Materials, he is hiding a lot of secrets. Secrets that the player roleplaying him has to cover for lest the other Player Characters either beat the hell out of him or simply space him… The likelihood is that one of those will occur by the end of the scenario, but until then, the player roleplaying Neal Slessinger really needs to be good for the others to maintain a degree of trust in him. That said, it both helps that the crew of the Sydni’s Search are desperate to make enough money to keep EIM a going concern and that the scenario is designed to be played in a single session and therefore at some pace, since the players and their characters are unlikely to have the time to worry too much about Slessinger’s caginess. However, if Cold Dark Grave is played in longer, multiple sessions, the danger is that it gets bogged down into the other Player Characters trying to get answers out of Slessinger. And if they do, then the scenario, depending upon what the players and their characters decide to do, will either be truncated or go in another direction and potentially fizzle out.

The plot of Cold Dark Grave kicks into gear once the Sydni’s Search has made its first Jump and arrives at the edge of the system where the crew find themselves on the edge of a huge battlefield of dead and broken ships. This is the first of the physical dangers that the crew will face, but as the physical peril grows so does the moral—and legal, peril. The story is presented as a series of nuggets that in turn give the basic situation and then explore the likely options that the Player Characters might choose. The scenario presents several possible resolutions to the situation that the Player Characters find themselves in and these should bring the scenario to a satisfying solution. That is, for everyone except Neal Slessinger…

To support the scenario’s plot and set-up, Cold Dark Grave includes six detailed pre-generated Player Characters, details and deck plans of both the Type J ‘Wobbegong’ Class Seeker operated by the Player Characters and the Maagukii Class Bulk Carrier operated by the pirates. There are details of the Deutsche Post ‘Earth Mail’ Class Tender, primarily in its current state, though no deck plans are provided. Its internal, highly damaged state is described in some detail as is getting aboard her, finding their way around, and finding the cargo are the most physical challenges that the Player Characters will face in the scenario.

To support the play of the scenario, Cold Dark Grave does include some slightly alternative rules. The ‘BITS Generic Task System’ is designed to handle Classic Traveller, Mongoose Traveller, Traveller 4, GURPS Traveller, MegaTraveller, and Traveller T20, and despite all of those games systems were available in the noughties when Cold Dark Grave was first published, its inclusion has really been superseded by Mongoose Traveller as the dominant rules for Traveller. The ‘BITS Generic NPC System’ is more useful since it simplifies the handling and presentation of NPCs in the scenario.

Physically, Cold Dark Grave is solidly presented. The illustrations are all of a technical nature as is the writing in many places.

Cold Dark Grave is a good convention scenario, played at pace and emphasising the physical peril as much as the moral peril that the Player Characters are placed in. All backed up with the technical detail that you would expect of a scenario for Traveller.