Mystery of BT-SHT 365: Ep.5 - The City of Carellon
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- Опубліковано 12 вер 2024
- The thrilling conclusion to my Review/Game Diary/War Stories for the Traveller mini-campaign The Mystery of BT-SHT 365. Today's exciting episode brings us down onto the lost planet where our heroes face-off against their enemies.
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Guest starring Jack the NPC.
I find the sheer amount of "they didn't include a map so I made my own" for this campaign disheartening Edit; Thanks for the link to your maps Seth
Totally. To me the numbers of missing maps, plot holes and missing stats Seth had to fill in doesn’t make the module worth picking up.
@@Ektalon $2. You get what you pay for ...
It's a $2 self published module that overall seems pretty fun, there's a lot worse things you can spend $2 on.
There's free modules with much more stuff put into them
Jerry is my favorite character. Stoic and consistent. Always reliable!
Ninja agent Guy: "I am, of course, wearing full body armor! I am not a..." *Headshot* Modo: "Moron."
Shooting the swordsman reminded me of Raiders of the Lost Arc.
Jerry has his own mini? I *love* that Jerry has his own mini!
What ended up happening got Jerry?
Jerry deserves it XD
I don't know that I've ever seen someone so absolutely delighted by man-portable explosives.
"Use the hand grenades guys, I promise they'll be fun!" - Seth 2020
The way this action was described it sounded like a scene right out of the late 80's to 90's action films ala Navy Seals or Commando, and more importantly, it sounds like you all had fun with it.
It was freakin fantastic!
I love how that quote also sounds like a sadistic game master trying to trick his players into blowing themselves up with the grenades lol
AlteredNova04 I thought the same. If I would do this, none of my players would dare touch those things ever again ^^
@@AlteredNova04 It sounds like something a Paranoia game master would say
Wow, what a finale! Sounds like a proper and epic ending, man, you put a lot of work into both the GM's part and these reviews. You are a driven and dedicated man and I cherish this channel.
Thank you very much.
Hey Jack drop any hand-grenade lately “snobbish laughter”
Thanks Seth I was wondering if you got the reference but it seems you do
ohhhhhhhhh the pain when he said that a player had to miss the session... that one final session, bro, i felt that.
Yup. Jax missed out on the one game he was designed for. So sad.. :(
word! I always tend to have players miss sessions where their character is kinda central to that game's plot. Like a Antiquarian in a game that involves museums, old libraries, etc.
Jorge doesn't miss that many sessions. But when he does, his character would have been perfect for it,
@@SSkorkowsky is that the real name of dweebles?
also bummer missing the final session...
I like how that even with the cool story beats like that Laser Sword Ninja guy intro only for them to be one shot killed really captures the feel of how a game can turn out when you throw players into the mess.
Man, though. I was wanting it to be this epic cool fight. Then - BAM - over before it even began.
@@SSkorkowsky I ran Paper Chase recently for two of our D&D players and they got to the graveyard and the one player (who picked the Lois pregen) just ripped into the graveyard keeper so badly verbally that me as a novice Keeper had to adlib everything and throw the suggestions they gave in the book in the fire. It was fun.
I love these reviews, but am I the only one that sees these go up and says, "Oh cool, Seth is playing Bat Sh!t again! Hahahahahahaha!
You ain't the only one. It's definitely Bat Sh!t.
@@robwalker4452 I'm glad I'm not the only one! I was starting to think that I was bat sh!t crazy! :)
As someone who is learning to GM for a group of new players as a new player (who has no experience playing or GMing!) this series has been a real godsend. I've since run five sessions and thanks to your tips and insight they've all been successes!
Happy to be of help.
13:45 and a partridge in a pear tree
I was just about to say that.
I love the ship battle-mat! And using Hot Wheels cars for the vehicles in the hold is a great touch.
I have been waiting for this series to continue! - Also, a complaint. I have run out of Seth Skorkowski books...
Crazy First World problems
Oh yeah? Well I have run out of Seth Skorkowski videos. :P Yeah, I have watched them all while crafting terrain.
@@erc1971erc1971 relatable. I have just relistened to all of the philosophy playlist while crafting terrain.
I have to agree with the idea of placing the world in the hinterlands. The idea of a Dyson sphere hiding a star is a bit of a stretch for my suspension of disbelief. Any light a sphere contains will still have to be radiated as heat. Any decent sky survey would find an IR source with no visible light star and suddenly the Imperial Navy is knocking on the doors.
^This. Isaac Arthur said it best: "There is no stealth in space."
I haven't played Traveller in 40 years. Now thanks to you I want to pick up all these books again and get reacquainted. Thanks a lot.
Happy to get the old fire rekindled.
These reviews are the reason I'm going to be running a Traveler campaign for my players. Thanks for the inspiration and the great videos Seth. I'll be sure to include an NPC named Jack somewhere in my campaign as tribute.
The reason why “The Shadow of the Petrovskys” adventure is not out yet could be because C. Wilson has been watching your videos. He realizes that he needs to redo “TSotP,” and maybe put out an updated BT-SHT 365. I just hope that the Travellers don’t need that destroyer to complete it.
Reading the comments on BT-SHT 365, it seems like he’s become very hostile to anyone that even mentions Seth’s name, regardless of whether it’s positive or negative.
@@delnagasktruman7241 On the what? My avatar is just a comedy mask, so having a similar wouldn't be too surprising.
@@jesternario Seth was mercifully quite fair and positive. Anyone who would be hostile to fair and constructive criticism has more to learn than just good writing.
@@HeadHunterSix Sadly, there were a lot of comments on the DriveThruRPG page that amounted to "Seth trashed your adventure, so I'm not buying it." He didn't and they weren't paying attention. They just trashed the adventure without ever even trying the adventure for themselves. Rather sad, really.
Keep in mind, I'm not saying Seth trashed the review. In fact, he did a very good job and I ultimately purchased the adventure for myself. I'm just saying that some people did that as a knee-jerk reaction.
@@jesternario I'm not sure that it's a knee-jerk reaction to pass on buying because of an honest review. I might have checked it out myself, but after this series, my own opinion is that it's not worth the $2 given how much I'd have to leave out, retcon, flesh out and basically re-write.
I don't need to try it for myself - it's easy to make an informed decision based on what has been presented. To use an uncouth metaphor, I don't need to try a shit sandwich to know that I wouldn't enjoy eating it.
Looking forward to the next campaign diary/war story!
I love that Jerry was such a character, for barely being a character at all, just because of how the players behaved around him. Character freaks out? Runs to Jerry's room for safety. I like to think that after this campaign, the players take some R&R on a beach, with Jerry's cryopod right there with them to watch the sun set. Hell, include the clone pods too!
As for having to heavily enhance the module, I've had to do that a lot. Some of our fun memories were modules or scenes that were just a nothing sandwich and I had to fill in way too many details, and the players loved what they got out of and put into it. We made it fun, but that puts so much work on the GM! Hopefully this one is re-released with post-feedback updates.
I know I'm late to the party, but you're right in that you can't hide a star. Even a Dyson sphere/swarm wouldn't do it. The radiation is still going to pour out of the star and increase the blackbody signature of the sphere/swarm. At best it could shift it to infrared, but it would still be absolutely detectable. We would be able to detect such an arrangement that close to us with modern tech, so I'm pretty sure most Traveller civilizations should be able to.
Thanks for taking the time to do this adventure review. It sounds like you had to put in a lot of work to flesh it out, but in the end you guys had fun, and - I - had fun watching your review, so thanks again! :)
Seems like this adventure could do with a revised edition with some more amps, better stated things and potholes addressed.
A content warning is also a must.
If you should get the urge to make more videos on the adventures of the Cygnus Crucible's crew I heartily encourage you to do so. Moto is my hero!
A great way to handicap powerful is to add some defective quality to it, for example: the powerful ship at the bottom floor, let it have several missing parts that stop it from flying, being affective in space battles, and properly supporting live, that way you can make an objective so that they can earn the ship. Another good example is the battle armor; have it where it uses a power source and the is in serious need for an upgrade, that way when they are using the many other functions of the suits it drains on the battery just a little faster which can add to the tension.
Notes from a Redshirted Spacejockey;
Greetings from the Goodship Lollipop(i'm stuck in Spaceport right now due to an ion storm...)!
As i sit here in my captain's quarters going over this entire series, i suprisingly find myself agreeing with you Seth. As much Blaster fire as i shoot at this module(you've seen them here before), if a GM can use it to their Crew's enjoyment, then it's certainly worth the two dollars to buy. I just find myself being slightly depressed by the fact the writer of this left so many plotholes just to make you buy his second module(which hasn't even been published yet) and won't even accept constructive criticism on how to fix it. The story itself has a good hook and some nice villians to fight, it's just a shame you have to basically make your own module from the wreckage of this one....
May you never run out of fuel,
Captain Fantastic
Your comments are always a joy to read.
@Seth Skorkowsky-- thank you for the kind words. Out of curiosity mind(you don't have to awnser this), do you have anymore of these War Stories/Campaign Diary's coming up or is it gonna be more single reviews? i'd love a Cyberpunk Campaign diary, as i'm thinking of getting the starter set for my son, who wants to be a GM but do a system different than me...
Probably single reviews for a while. This style of review/campaign diary is more suited for long-plot campaigns and we don't have any planned in the near future.
@Seth Skorkowsky-- thanks for lettering me know! :D
love your books 👍👍👍👍
Please do more Traveler stuff. It reminds me of one of my favorite campaigns: a Star Wars game following group of mercenaries named The Freelancers. The stuff we got up to was insane. In a single session, we assassinated a Hutt, killed over 150 stormtroopers via orbital strikes, and stole a Sith Lord’s personal light saber
I knew nothing about the system and very little about the setting before watching this series, and at the end here I thought I'd look a bit of information up. I was shocked to find out this came out in 2018, with all its many flaws it sounded so much to me like a product of the 80's or 90's.
It's a community content adventure (sort of like DM's Guild for D&D)
holy ... that push-up bra on the wolf at the end killed it :D
PS: always love your stories seth !
I love your campaign diaries. Keep them coming.
I am happy to see this conclude. It was a wonderful series. I hope to one day play Traveler and it's all thanks to you Seth. :D
Edit: Oooh we get to see the minis in the end credits. That's awesome!
Well what a wild ride, but I wonder if this adventure would’ve been half as fun without your amendments? I hope we see more ‘lost episodes of Firefly’ Traveller stories 💜
Your channel has rapidly become one of most favorite channels. Excellent content, engaging storytelling, and great entertainment make for an awesome experience. Seriously, you should do more of these story based video series. You are very good at them and they are addictive as heck. Great job!
Great job with the end credits in this one! The music, the minis, it was appropriately epic!!
Sadly the author of the scenario thinks that all the hard work Seth put into papering over the cracks in the scenario simply prove that he wrote the adventure correctly, in his own words "No gamemaster should think that it is the duty of any written module to hold your hand through everything." he also appears to believe he has no responsibility for the product once published. One thing that is clear from this is that he has no understanding of the use of foreshadowing. It's all well and good to promise answers in 'the next scenario'. But if it's never published then the GM is left hanging, at the very least he should have provided hints to the next scenario in the one reviewed.
@@johnnyfulton4755 But that doesn't really make any of his criticisms of the module not valid. I mean he played it with his group, he encountered problems with it, why would he not be allowed to criticize/make suggestions? Personally I think you're being a bit too forgiving due to the $2 price. If you're going to make a multi part module, you should make sure it's as good as it could be before you send it out, or at the very least be open to update it in order to provide a better experience.
Sweet, I have been waiting for the conclusion. After I finish playing some City Of Heroes with friends tonight, I know what I am going to watch before bed!
15:53
What do we do with a feral hobbit?
What do we do with a feral hobbit?
What do we do with a feral hobbit
Early in the mornin?
Toss em at our foes like a hand grenade!
Toss em at our foes like a hand grenade!
Toss em at our foes like a hand grenade
Early in the mornin!
Another adventure woefully lacking in critical details, that GMs are meant to get from a completely different, unreleased adventure? What is this, _Village of Hommlet?_
Always, I repeat, always give us more! lol
That was amazing to watch, what an epic time you gave your players and yourself! Pity you had to do so much work on it to get up to snuff. Sounds like it could have used a blind play test before publishing.
Also I loved seeing your minis for the adventure! I'm a painter and collector of all things miniature so that was so cool.
I really like your videos they are concise, funny and well scripted. I hope that one day you'll feature my RPG on your channel, when it's done and published that is haha.
In spite of the many shortcomings of the module itself, you presented a really fantastic and entertaining series on it. I always enjoy your content.
Hell yeah, just when I really needed this.
22:10 "Any time a player character has the option to use nuclear weapons, they're gonna use nuclear weapons. This is a rule of roleplaying games." Hell yeah!!!
I loved this series! It's especially interesting to hear how you not only make the module your own, but fill in the (many) blanks it leaves. That kind of thing is super-useful for a GM, to peek under the hood and see how other GMs fix these sorts of issues.
These reviews didn't really sell me on this adventure. It seems like a mix of cool ideas, random mcguffins and shameless firefly fanfiction without much sense. However seeing how you ran it was very entertaining! Would love to see you run TTA(which is imo the best Traveller campaign and maybe the best TTRPG campaign of all time) or Pirates of Drinax(which is very good but imo doesn't quite reach TTA levels. VERY different kinds of campaigns though). I know it likely won't happen since those are something like 10-20+ session campaigns. (I am currently running TTA for a bunch of newbies and it's been a blast. We are currently at session 10 and about halfway through the ""main plot"". It's gonna be a couple sessions of random adventuring before the main mystery plot picks up again!) Anyway, great stuff Seth! Traveller has that great war story aspect where I have talked with people who ran TTA a decade before I was even born. It's crazy cool!
Love these, please do more Campaign Diaries
1:06
It's burritos like those that reminds us all why Taco Bell won the Franchise Wars...
The Emperor Moth He was using the three seashells, if ya’ know what I mean… 😆
I just realized, two years after my original watching, that this could be used as an additional side adventure in the pirates of Drinax campaign… I’ve got some writing to do
Edit: wouldn’t really have to worry about the ships in that case either, just dumb them down a little bit and let the players have their fun
Seth, I just wanted you to know that seeing one of your videos appear in my subscription feed is always one of the brightest spots of my day. Also I recently started listening to Damoren on audible and I am really enjoying it.
Thanks. Hope you enjoy the rest of it. R.C. Bray did a great job with the narration.
Really enjoyed the re-counting and scenario stuff.
What a brilliant Finale! Will we find out what happened to our Travellers after this adventure also where did you get the deck plan from?
The best cinematographic saga out there has finally reached its conclusion
Hey Seth, been watching these reviews of traveler and it's gotten me in the mood to pick up traveler myself, so I'm actually planning on starting up with The Fall of Tinath from the starter set since it seems like a nice short campaign to introduce myself and my players to the system, aside from the guy who's played and run Traveler since its release in the 70s
While I didn't run this adventure I have recently played it and our GM made it that this was a home base for us as we were now working with coraleen and the destroyer was a backup ship for us
4:35 I’m sure your players were ecstatic to get that kind of loot!
Great series; you had lemons and made gold ;-)
The extra effort with your character’s is astounding and thoroughly enjoyed. Keep jack and Jerry in your videos
This was lots of fun. I love these game diaries.
Thanks Seth! Love your videos, and the free map pack will help in my own homebrew Stars without number campaign! Keep the great content coming, you treasure you.
I don't play this game, but I love watching your videos. The fact that you offered all your maps and content you created and willing to give it away for free says a ton about you.
"feral hobbits... Ok that one's a lie"
Start a Dark Sun campaign, and (if your players are anything like mine) it will no longer be a lie
I've binge watched Seth videos while preparing to run Amidst The Ancient Trees scenario for my players. I've GM'd for many years with many different games and game systems but now for the first time I've learned a valuable lesson from Seth that has eluded me for all this time (binge watching made me understand this). In every scenario/module review/war story Seth shows there is this same structure behind the scenes: Seth has made sure he has researched the scenario keeping eye out for plot holes. If such exists he changes the adventure so that those plotholes are filled and the adventure makes sense as a whole. To be able to do this he has to understand the scenario and that means he has put in the effort to learn it. After he has learned it he puts in the effort to understand it - this is where I've faulted many times over the years. Even if I've prepared for the games, I've not made this tiny extra step. These BT-SHT 365 adventures are an excellent (recent) example of this.
I know Seth has a video discussing how to use modules but I couldn't truly understand it until I had binge watched all these videos.
Thank you Seth. On top of all the above, you've helped me spark up certain enthusiasm in GMing that has been lost for years. I am truly grateful.
Happy to be of help. Have fun with Amidst the Ancient Trees.
I love the HotWheels Megaforce car used for the war buggy. A cheesy but fun 80's movie.
i DOUBT i WILL EVER PLAY THIS, SO TO VICARIOUSLY PLAY IT THROUGH YOUR GROUP IS A GREAT TIME FOR ME.
God, now I want to play Traveler. After the Star Wars campaign I was in crashed and burned, I've been aching for some good space chicanery!
Fantastic. A blast as usual.
And finally the conclusion of the most fun sounding, reference laden game I've ever heard. This campaign diary has made me want to try Treveler. It might be something I look into for the future.
WWII Table top skirmish game. Throw a grenade into the window! Miss! Scatter! Back on to the soldier throwing it! YAY!
Did that a few months ago in starfinder
Nothing like a madmax style armed and armored dune buggy.
love the end credits LOL
This is an awesome video, Seth and an excellent conclusion to the campaign. Thank you for making it. I especially liked the “credits” with the PC/NPCs’ portraits and figures.
I will be picking up the corebooks for Traveller due to your reviews, i might never run the system but just having them as inspiration to use for other games would be good enough already, though i do hope to actually use the system, will just have to convince my players to one day play a Traveller campaign somehow, just like i will have to convince them to play half a dozen other systems as well, i may have a problem.
That was a awsome mini-series. Gave me a loot of ideas for my traveller adventures :3
Dammit, I waved again.
Thank you so much for all the work you put into these entertaining videos.
There is an upside to the vagaries of the adventure. It allows the GM to better meld the adventure into his own campaign in the Trojan Reach. I definitely dumped the 1000 ton destroyer and replaced with a 600 ton corvette styled after the Drinaxi harrier.
😆 good mini-series! Hopefully Patreons got access to that creme bruele story 😉 , and other behind the scenes details of this adventure summary.
Seth you are great. I also found out the other day your from the same area as me.
"I have a warship in deep orbit, captain..."
Absolutely LOVED this series of reviews ... Do .... MORE!!!!
Another great episode. One nitpick, Grista wouldn't be able to wear any human fitted battle suits. Vargr legs are canine. Mobility would either be slow or none at all.
Love those miniatures reveals. I think I own all of those somewhere too. Love the ol Grenadier Mad Max too, haha. Normally I stick with my vast hoard of 15mm Traveller, Laserburn, and GZG figures, but the 28mm stuff always oozes charm.
A lack of maps always seems strange to me. If nothing else they help with describing the place or where certain features are when players have questions.
Sounds like someone worked the module out for their group, then only flushed out the details that their group specifically looked into. Finally, they published prematurely, not taking the time to go over their work for continuity issues.
Add a lot of it was never written down it was just in the authors head.
I was happy to see one of your videos show up.
I have liked seeing your Traveller war storys and reviews. I just bought the Traveller starter set based on your review.
My wife and I have just moved to a rather rural area and the only gaming store closed in Dec.
I asked at the local comic shop and you would have thought I had insulted his first born.
He begrudgingly told me about the place across town. Only to find them out of business.
Do you have any one player scenarios that you can recommend for the wife and I to try?
Keep up the good work, love the videos!
Hope you don't mind me answering that. There is an old Classic Traveller double adventure called Marooned/Marooned alone, where Marooned alone is made for just one player. Having read through it, I can say it's not that great, and would need a lot of work to make enjoyable. Other than that, I haven't found anything.
I started writing one myself, and I suggest you do the same. Was going to introduce my girlfriend to Traveller, so I thought a nice "stuck-in-a-time-loop-a-la-star-trek-or-groundhog-day" would be a nice fit. Then you don't have to worry about her character dying, which usually when having only one player means the end of the adventure. If she dies, just reset the time loop. Makes for interesting information gathering as well, as you can gain information in one loop, reset the loop and then she can use that information in the beginning of the loop to solve the mystery on how to get out of it. It also means that you don't have to worry about combat or space combat and how that might kill her all the time which makes for a good introduction to the different systems, and how deadly they are.
My thought was to mix it with an amnesia story as well. She wakes up in a ship, not knowing who or where she is. The ship is in disarray from a crash and is taking in water. She has to escape the ship quickly while gathering clues to her situation. Every time she dies she will wake up on the ship, maybe the planet she is on is set to be destroyed (by some phenomenon) in 2 days. She has two days to survive and escape. Otherwise she's back at the ship again. Maybe some information gained far later and a long way from the craft tells her she needs to search the ship storage, and she has to die to gain access to the ship again. Maybe she sees some signs of civilization in the distance when escaping the sinking ship, and now she has to get there to find transport off the world. Maybe there's an indigenous group of low tech people in the forests that will worship her like a sky god, helping her in her endeavors. Maybe she's really an anthropologist there to study that same people, and the time loop and destruction of the planet is just a fluke. Lots of interesting things you can play with.
@@joeltarnabene5026 I don't mind.
You have some good ideas. I will keep them in mind as I learn the rules.
I would be glad to hear any ideas.
Thanks!
@@Melw44
You might want to read these short pieces on how to referee with just one player. Really good stuff in there.
www.rpg.net/columns/duets/duets1.phtml
www.rpg.net/columns/duets/duets2.phtml
www.rpg.net/columns/duets/duets4.phtml
duets10.phtml
etc.
Thanks for the great guide and all the maps, Seth!
Hey Seth, great reviews.
Would you be able to give a review of *The Pirates of Drinax*, please?
I'd love to hear what you think of it.
Thank you. Really enjoyed the series. Hope to follow some more soon
For the Hand Grenade discussion halfway through the video - my favorite experience with them in a game was in a game of Warhammer 40k: Only War when my group ran up against a demon prince. The demon's sword had just wrecked my character's Chainsword and I had no other weapons that could present any sort of threat to it, so I decide that I would punch it in the face with a grenade.
Twice.
In Fallujah we use something we call gaternades, it is an empty Gatorade bottle stuffed with C-4 with rocks, scrap metal or anything solid duck-taped around the outside. USMC's very own IED.
Your story about grenades and how they somehow tend to always produce the worst result possible reminded me of a Dark Heresy Adventure me and my friends played. During the final showdown with a heavily predator inspired alien our group was slowly getting decimated. Everyone was hurt, wounded and low on morale. So, with a final moment of heroism my character lunges forward, tackles the alien to the floor and pulls the pin on three high-ex grenades that she was carrying on her belt. The moment is epic, everyone is packed with excitement as to what is going to happen next. Will she somehow make it out alive? Will it be enough to kill the alien? Will the building withstand the blast? With that in mind, I roll my 3 sets of 4d6. Only to have all three grenades turn out to be duds that fizzled out with not even a crackle to be heard.
Great adventure and great video. Can't wait to see what's next!!
The minis and maps... well done!!!
Thank you for your video's.
great series. I really enjoyed seeing your process for changing a scenario to work for your group.
Thanks. I get a lot of requests that go like, "Can you show me how to modify and customize a module for my group?" and I'm always like, I can't give you a general how-to on that. It's completely dependent on the module itself and your particular group. So doing a series like this lets me show how exactly that works.
A fantastically entertaining video. I would love to hear more war stories or campaign dairies. I wish my D&D group would try Call of Cthulu but its meatgrinder reputation puts them off :(
Man do I love your skits! Good job bro.
...I'm currently involved in a campaign where my character has discovered a deep and abiding love of grenades. This is partly due to the fact that so far, basically every single use of any kind of thrown bomb he's carried out has been at least effective and at best devastatingly potent.
I am once again impressed, with what you have done with a pretty terrible module.
LOVE the game diaries!! Please more!!! :D
Joy of joys. Cargo lifters are now in 2nd edition update.
That made me so happy when I saw them in there
@@SSkorkowsky We are one step closer to living our dreams of ALIENS in Traveller! You know, short of just playing the ALIEN RPG.