Play project
Call of the Wild's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| How well does this adventure adhere to the jam's theme? | #11 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| How novel/creative is this adventure? | #14 | 3.167 | 3.167 |
| Is this adventure clearly written and roughly within the word limit? | #14 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| How appropriate is this adventure for a science fiction game? | #14 | 3.833 | 3.833 |
| Would you run this adventure? | #15 | 1.833 | 1.833 |
| Overall | #15 | 3.067 | 3.067 |
Ranked from 6 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
What system is this designed for?
Traveller
What are the necessary assumptions of your adventure?
Traveller assumes no communication faster than travel. Travel of 1 to 6 parsecs (depending on ship type) will always take about a week. Anti-gravity is common, AI rare, and Humans have populated the stars – but so have a wide variety of alien races, including uplifted canine aliens called Vargr. They are a colourful, somewhat chaotic race who rate charisma as important rather than social standing and inhabit the coreward sectors of Charted Space. Planets may be at various stages of technological development and are generally ruled by their own governments. Nobility, psionic powers, Ancient progenitors, robots and life-extending anagathic drugs may or may not exist but are not germane to this adventure unless the Referee introduces them.
This adventure assumes a Vargr protagonist (one is provided but your own PC could be used instead as long as the PC is on the run from various factions), Charted Space and a copy of the Core Rulebook for Traveller (other editions may easily be used). Access to Aliens of Charted Space: Volume 1 (which was used to create Dhoukhi and provides additional information on the Vargr race) and travellermap.com may be useful but are not required. Mention of the ‘Chases’ mechanic by Michael Brown in Burst Transmissions, vol.1 or Burst Transmissions Compendium is made and can be used but isn’t absolutely required. The nature of the Vargr race has tended to splinter any interstellar government into various polities and one of these, the Glory of Taarskoerzn, sets the scene for this adventure. Library data exists here: https://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Glory_of_Taarskoerzn but the Referee can make as much or as little of that as required.
Is there any sensitive content in this adventure?
Mention is made of slavery but does not need to form a major part of the adventure and the slavers could be replaced with ‘prison guards’.
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Comments
I like the character of Dhouki, and it is an interesting set up for an adventure. I understand the player is going to be playing a specific character but in some parts, especially in part 2, it seems like you laid out exactly what the player should be doing. I like the star map and it is a very robust adventure, I could see it taking 3-4 sessions to complete. Nice work!
I think one assumption of this adventure that you may not have noted in the assumptions section is that there is only one player, controlling a preset character.
The portrait of Dhouki looks like an AI-twisted Paddington. Is that intentional? :)
Hi there, thanks for the comments.
On the first, the second paragraph says that it's for a vargr character and although there is a preset, strictly, it doesn't have to be him and could be your own. The only important thing is that he's on the run with various factions interested in chasing him down. But you're right, it could have been stated more clearly as it's not until the prologue text in the adventure itself that you really find this out. I assume I can edit the text, so I'll do so - thank you.
As for the second, yes and no. The image was created by an AI art program from prompts aiming to generate a vargr and was posted over on a Traveller art Facebook page. There the likeness to a shady brother of Paddington was noted. As I have no artistic ability, had nothing else to illustrate the adventure, and found itch.io (which is new to me) rather wanted one, I asked the original poster if I could use the image and he was amenable. While I could have lived without him looking *quite* so much like Paddington, I rather like the rough hewn look and the hat pulled low to hide some of his features!