Traveller: Annic Nova - RPG Review 

"...but who would do that?" That stare is the gaze of a GM that has experienced humanity's true inexhaustible resources; ingenuity and stupidity, one time too many.

Jack’s Law of Portal Attraction: The desire of the players to open a mysterious door is inversely proportional to the desire of the GM to have the door opened.

I actually played through this 35 years ago in HS, from the original black book double module. And I can attest that pinnace joke is just as old as the module itself. = /

Handout obsession, next level: Seth 3d-prints a 1:1 model of Annic Nova for his players to explore.

Awesome, another fix of Seth for my addiction. Seriously though, your reviews and philosophy videos are an amazing resource for players and game masters, and I just wish I had found your channel sooner than I did.

This really takes me back. I first got into RPGs as a Sophomore in High School back in.. wait for it... 1980... via a friend who bought this new thing called "Traveler". I had heard about D&D but this, I was told, was a sort of "D&D in a future" (aka Star Wars/Star Trek)... needless to say I was soooooo in. This was literally the first RPG I played, and this was the first adventure. So seeing this still living on and being played 40 years later, wen that brings back many a fond memories.

Yeah, I've been there too. I made the mistake of referring to a vessel as the "captain's pinnace", and now I only use "yacht" or "launch".

Me and my wife played this module... which is the best of all those we used... Years later my character .. a very old ex merchant... had repeatedly refitted the ship... which ended up being the one we usually used... It had dimentional portals from you know what.... a black globe generator.. from.you know what... a prototype drive using shimmer suit displacement technology and a high energy weapon... I think we called this an impulse drive... disentigrator weapons taken from you know where... a highly repurposed interior... with simulator room... lounge... gravity and atmosphere as Regina Regina.. a garden including fish pond in the forward cargo area.... and so much more... My wife died of cancer earlier this year aged 42... and I still remember our happy times on this ship together

16:10 This is all an elaborate crossover, I know it!

Plants zombies in space, created by serpent people that span the ages and 3 separate games.

We used the Annic Nova adventure (I had the double adventure Shadows/Annic Nova) to introduce the Martians from Space 1889 as an Alien race in our Traveller.

Torn space suits?! What did they make their iris hatches from? Broken glass?!

You should post a full length game that you run, I'd love to see your GM skills in action. 20+ years of experience has to be entertaining

Really interesting module, I love Traveller. I'd be running it now, but all my players want to play Champions (curse my cold feet). I'm really looking forward to the full Mongoose Traveller system review if/when you get to it.

Ran this for my players yesterday: In the setting they were in they were colonists on a Tech 8 ship earth had sent to a system 16 lightyears away. Their ship was an asteroid ship with 10k cryopods that was run by an AI named Hera. (AI and robots are more common in my setting, as is genetic engineering and cloning.) Four years ago Hera arrived in the system and founded a colony on an inhabitable planet there, though it was irradiated and had locals living there. Hera had loaned them the first cargo ship she made that she could spare to try and handle colonist issues. One of those issues was a missing mining ship that Hera ordered them to find. After that she had them investigate the kuiper belt mine the mining ship had visited, and they found a second colony ship. This one was lead by an AI named Baal that was worshiped by his 500k people as a god. Yesterday's session started as they were preparing to leace. Before they could there was a Gamma ray burst a 36 hour flight away. 15 minutes later Baal launched a 20 ton 3g scout ship there and the players followed. Baal's people arrived 12 hours before them, but there they found the Annic Nova. They clamped onto the hull beside Baal's ship and spacewalked aboard. All they foumd of the other crew were their space suits, footprints in the dust covering everything, and some evidence they had searched crates near the hydroponics trays on deck 3. The player found the engines and one of them rolled a 12 on a science check to idemtify the devices. I told him that he had read a paper about the possibility of using particle accelerators to make a type of exotic particle that could let you access the 4th spacial dimension. He went nuts about the possibilty of having a ship with hyperdrive, even with its tech 7 Commodore 64 like computer, as the drive was more advanced than anything he had seen. They searched the ship a second time and while they were on deck 1 near where they entered the ship it jumped. They had previously turned on the breaker for the computer and rolled an 11 electronics: computers check to access the security cameras, so they already knew how to use them. They saw two interesting things. 1) there was glowing plasma outside every window. 2) the plants started moving and as they watched a grey human hand with a leaf growing out of it came out of the hydroponics tray. I told the doctor that he scratched at a grayish green patch of akin on the back of his hand and he immediately went to the chem lab and rolled a medicine check of 10 to make something to fight it. I let him make 4 doses of an antifungal drug that killed the spores and kept them from getting reinfected for 24 hours. Since the zombies didn't seem to know how to use the elevator, the mechanic guy built a homeade flamethrower in the machine shop and hit the button in the elevator to send it up to deck 3. A zombie went inside and he hit the recall button, and they blew its head off when the doors opened. They repeated this on the other 4 zombies. Then they made more antifungal and dumped it on the zombies to make sure they were dead. They turned on life support, which threw a warning, but they figured out it was abbout the spores and dumped antifungal in the main air scrubber to clear the ship. 7 days later, agter they had dug around in the computer, downloaded everything, eaten 50 year old alien synthetic rations, learned their language and the fact that the "aliens" were a race of humans with Dwarfism, they dropped out of jump and were hailed by a guy shouting in German. He spoke enough English for them to agree to let him send a security crew aboard, and he impounded the ship for a conglomerate of Megacorps. They let the Pcs salvage a laser turret, the damaged jump 2 drive, and a capacitor bank, and were convinced to throw in 1 million credits, but took the rest of the ship. Now the players are stuck in an unfamiliar system for at least 8 weeks as one of them tries to learn at least 1 rank of Engineering: jump drive so that he can successfully reassemble the salvaged drive and jump home. I ffigured it would be a good way to get them to learn about the wider sector.

I love it when you review the classics and I 100% agree this is the Traveler equivalent of "The Haunting". I played this back in '81 in the double-adventure version and the AN (re-christened as the Hard Six) was our ship for the rest of that campaign.

So Annic Nova is not a name but is something akin to an airplane's tail number. Annic Nova becoming 4000019-00024 which could be said "40k, 19, triple 0, 24"

I don’t have any plans on ever playing this Traveller RPG but Seth’s breakdown and videos are amazing and entertaining. Makes my week watching these.

Great stuff! I would definitely like to run this scenario with some friends who've created characters for The Expanse RPG. The addition of a rival group seeking the Annic Nova is a fantastic touch.

You made some great additions to the module, that was often a problem with Traveller Scenarios. they were very hit and miss, some were great (Twilights peak) while others sucked or required heavy amounts of work by the GM to fill in all the blanks and make the scenario fun. I think your additions are great and I'd totally rip them off if I ever managed to get a group together for Traveller again! :)

I loved your idea of having a competing ship show up. In fact, if you think about it, one is already provided for in the original game: the pregenerated characters are Alexander Lascelles Jamison and the crew of the Empress Nichole. This gave me the idea of using A.L.J. and the Nichole as recurring rivals for a newbe group I am preparing to run a Spinward Marches campaign for. The Nichole will keep showing up and snatching the prize from the players at the last minute, but then, eventually show up to rescue the players when all hope seems lost.

You did what most of us who GM'd Annic Nova did: spiced it up with some actual opposition and situations to deal with. As written, it was never much of an adventure, really. .

I love these videos. I don't play these systems but I sincerely enjoy hearing your thoughts on it and of course the skits are great. I wait for lunch at work and just binge these when I can.

Wow, those old message board posts take me back to my Usenet days. Haven't heard of Doug Berry in years.

Another great review, but what in the hell is it with those doors? Some of the truest words ever spoken!

Excellent video, as always. I really appreciate these reviews and your suggestions. Have used your suggestions for Last Things Last, ladybug, Ladybug and have even done some prep for Secret of Bonehill based on your video suggestions. Please keep them coming. I think I’m going to bave to get this Traveller box set too. Thanks!!

I'm gearing up to do a Traveller campaign with my group,and this video has given me a lot of ideas that I'm considering stea..um..borrowing for running Annic Nova at some point during the campaign. Great video!

HEY SETH! thanks a lot for sharing Traveller Scenarios!

I’m going to adapt this for my starfinder game. Thanks Seth.

Few years ago the local safeway had card reader with a defective stylus. The sign said "pen is broken use finger" but it was missing the first space.

With your ideas it's almost like a new module... Better module, even if it was a great adventure itself. Definitely will use your tips for my run.

My local GM just ran us through the mega traveller Version, using mongoose. We met the ships AI, and proceeded to brick ourselves, as we're in a post AI's blowing up the 3rd imperium campaign. Good times.

What a great review and synopsis of "How You Ran It".

Spoiler Alert: It looks like it’s serpent people, but it’s really Omicrons!!

Would that there were more stuff like this about a game I love (and get to play and run all too little). Well done. I'll be back.

OMG, at 15:07!!! I've totally known Doug for decades at this point. This post was from the TML I'm betting....Been to TML meet & greets with him at BayCon back in the day. Went and shot full-auto stuff in Oregon with him back in the day. Good times :) I also know Ian Stead, who's artwork is in here. There *MIGHT* have been something in there from Sean Kennedy as well (who I also know), but that is like ANCIENT history for me :)

Oh boy more Traveller content!

Currently running Stranded! for my group as an introduction to Traveller. This seems fun.

Love your reviews Seth! Your war stories are great and your Call of Cthulhu tutorials were amazing! The last sentence on Page 17 in the Annic Nova adventure reads "The following keywords are especially important." Any idea what those key words are?

Another great video! Thanks!

Great review as usual. I own a copy or two of this as well. I love ship designs that give you a good picture of the exterior of the ship as well as blueprints. If I remember correctly, the original didn't really have much backstory. That was always a disappointment to me.

I created a second ship that was a maneuver drive for the Annic Nova. It was like a tug. The players had to track the Nova back to its early point. And the adventure was about the players get the Nova updated and using it as a unique ship as well as a linked mystery involving both the race that made the Nova and Aliens from the other early Traveller adventure Shadows.

I dont know why but for about three weeks I dont see your videos in my sub feed and habéis to check your channel every friday

I approve of all this love for Traveller. Great, legendary game that is still as relevant today as it was back then. With some legendary campaigns & material released these last few years (Pirates of Drinax for ex). Another game I feel that would be right in your alley, Seth, is King Arthur Pendragon by Greg Stafford. It's a great game, served by unique mechanics based on the BRP system & tailored for campaign play. Check it out :)

Interesting take on this adventure.

Gotta agree with DocArtemis on this one. Heh. Hearing of this ship-crawl does get my curious about Traveler, but honestly I got enough gaming systems on my plate between Zweihander (I still need to read up more on that, alongside a possible Jack the Ratcatcher, haha), Call of Cthulhu, and Starfinder. And that's the game I'm wanting to host with my pals. There's also Dungeons and Dragons that has become a weekly routine for us. Lucky us, shop we went to closed out and we found a guy that would let us use his building. I think that's my personal problem. So many game systems I see that I like the sound of and want to get into, but I need to slow down and settle with what I've got, otherwise I'll hit a burnout of sorts. I do LOVE Jack's conspiracy theory of Serpent People... Could be worse. Could be an incarnation of the Horror Beneath the Hill (as in the Doors to Darkness scenario collection). XD

Always a thrill. TY.

So Seth's player broke a window to get in, and opened the quarantine door? Ha. Typical players.....

Thank you for the review and suggestions. Definitely gonna have plant zombies when I run this.

I curious about what became of the Annic Nova when the adventure was over. Is she getting Reverse Engineered, Retrofitted, or Cut Up for Scrap?

Nice! New video!

6:30 - I gotta say... that method for maneuvering the ship seems really inefficient.

Well, let’s face it, calling the adventure 4 00 00 1 9 would be as crazy as naming a planet BT-SHT 365.

I have been GMing for three years and have read many modules, but have never run one until now. And only because of this review. So, I thank you. And I thank you for making your handouts available - I am using them.

One of my DMs is handout crazy too

Thanks for the review - I would like to GM that scenario. At 7:26 you show some deck maps - where are they from?

Did they also try docking two pinnaces together, head-to-head?

A module to give people pinnace envy 😊

@SethSkorkowsky Do you happen to still have whatever statblock you used for the plant zombies? I really like the idea, and I'm thinking about stealing it for my own running of this adventure.

The plant zombies are very Dr Who & The Seeds of Doom. Also, I wonder if the people who mad Event Horizon ever played this module...

Can u review outbreak undead id really like your opinion

break it down: strange language - check, non-human design - check, doesn't fit standard access - check, doors are round and meant for a species that can fit through smaller spaces - check Jack is right it is defiantly serpent people

So...it's an _alien_ starship built with _alien_ technology...but it has _Imperial-type pinnaces_ for auxiliaries? Either something isn't adding up or I've gone non-linear.

So with the current High Guard version, the pinnace can’t go in the rear dock. Bummer.

Hey Seth! Could you point me to those deck plans at 7:25? I'm trying to run this on roll 20 and they are delightfully atmospheric. Adding them to the handout folder would be superb

Seth, would you say that this module is more of a framework than a complete adventure?

What are your thoughts on Paranoia? Which editions have you played, if any?

Okay, so me and some friends got into Call of Cthulhu and Hollow Earth Expedition from watching your videos, and we're looking to get into Traveller as well now, so I gotta ask, what would you say is like the most "core" set of books to get for this game? Like.... beyond the obvious starter kit and/or main rulebook clearly, maybe like some really good source books. Or should I just pick up the starter set/core book and call it good? (Sorry if I'm not wording this in a way that makes sense, the best I can explain is, we prefer to use homebrew settings while keeping things as mechanically tied down as we can, so I guess I'm looking for toolkit books? Sort of like the old D&D campaign setting books where it wasn't so much "Here's your adventure" but more "Here's a bunch of parts you can put together as you see fit".)

Which version of Traveller are you all playing? I can't make sense of the 5th edition vs 2nd edition thing.

Did you leave these out on your playlists? I thought I watched all the videos on your playlists that where RPG related (I really enjoy your channel) but I'm now finding a lot more videos. Single ones.

Hey Seth, huge fan of your work! I have a question about Cyberpunk, sorry for being kinda unrelated! I was thinking about runing a game and i am wondering if you could point me to a module or two for a first time GM with a first time cyberpunk group? Thank you even if you dobt awnser and sorry in case you already awnsered elswhere. Greetings from goold ol'germany!

16:00, I mean servant people are smaller than normal humans, so maybe that was a ship of serpent people.

Maybe the module explains, but how is the ship even in the same sector after 15 years? It has to be jumping relatively quickly or it would have been borded the first time if hits a system with a C starport or better.

I want to make a clever comment about opening a branch of that real estate company from your war stories in the Traveler Universe, but I can't find the video!

Did you mean like a PS2 or like a PS/2?

Vargyr? Do you mean...Vaygr!? Have we entered the Homeworld Universe!?

Any chance you'll review Strongholds and Followers?

How do you feel about Cyberpunk Red Vs 2020?

Slightly off topic. In a number of Traveler scenarios, the players are rewarded with a ship. Now ships are very expensive things. It's like giving a low level D&D character a fully outfitted castle. As I recall the ANNIC NOVA is worth about 200 MCR. That could buy 5 free traders. That could really throw off the game. So, how would you handle the situation?

Hey Seth love your Traveller videos! I just bought the core rulebook. Would you ever consider doing a step by step character creation?

When I ran this scenario, I had aliens return to reclaim their ship. Because the PC's fought back, they were enslaved. I was am evil DM back then...

7:01 Your players didn't happen to include Laura Bailey by any chance?

Finally got around to running this adventure this evening. Nothing lso entertaing as 6 guys in their 50s tittering at "pinnace". Why couldn't it be a sloop or a ketch!?

I mean, you basically took a map and wrote an entire original adventure to go with it, but okay. XD Honestly, that's my biggest gripe with Classic Traveller: in any adventure written for it, nothing actually happens. :P

So...the Annic Nova aliens have the same myth associating the Caduceus with medicine?

I should go to sleep after this video. You've been up too late when you stop hearing game master and... something else

After watching this vid, I'll *love* to play Traveller with someone, but I don't know anyone who knows the game; any ideas?

So Seth, this Gamemaster handout addiction you have... would you say it's like a job giving all these handouts? (Sorry, I'll see myself out now...)

The Caduceus expanded universe

Mongoose Publishing let this man remake this for 2e

Space Cape

i gave this video its 420'th like. I feel good knowing what i did, and bad knowing it wont last forever....

I don't think there has been a traveller group I've run that hasn't derailed on the first pinnace I foolishly mention... Because apparently everyone is 12 years old.

Lol, penis. I love this channel and Seth.

Jump Space is not connected to real space as such. The collector wont be collecting free hydrogen unless it is the stuff that was within the jump bubble.

I loved the strange and atypical design of this ship, in addition to that essence of retro-technology. But I didn't like the plant zombie thing too much. If this ship is something like old school tech, then the greenhouse would be more just to supply food to the crew... and even if it were the ship's goal to do experiments or studies with these plants, I think it would be too little plausible and trite that they had so many of these dangerous plants and with such poor containment/security measures. Also, whether it is an invasion of fungi or plants, our bodies are much more complex and have greater defenses than the bodies of ants... which makes zombies of that kind too "strange", even zombies due to bacterial disease or viruses could leave someone in a state of aggression and madness "like a zombie" but the brain damage that would entail would mean that those zombies would have an extremely short lifespan. But well, I think I would prefer not to make any connection with the plants and let the disease in the air be some bacteria introduced by some member of the crew a long time ago in the past and well it simply kills, and the colony of bacteria has proliferated and maintained in this environment. Perhaps the plants are genetic engineering experiments to make them extremely efficient at generating oxygen in an attempt to create a self-sustaining alternative for oxygen generation. and that is the reason there is breathable air even though the ship's reserves should have been exhausted a long time ago.

About breaking a window to enter in a spaceship... I think i remember that windows on an airplane/spaceship are made voluntarily small to minimize the risk of decompression... the players wear spacesuits...

ship looks like a giant pathoge....ah

Actual space ship porn.

Would it be too weird to run a Traveler game in the Event Horizon ship?