Traveller: The Chamax Plague - RPG Review

A ship in peril leads the Player Characters to a remote planet in search of a lost expedition team and the horrible truth about what wiped out a lost civilization. Here are my thoughts, tips, and criticisms for the classic Traveller adventure The Chamax Plague.
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For the updated Chamax stats for Mongoose 2e, you can find the Referee Briefing 6 here: www.drivethrurpg.com/product/...
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Guest Starring Jack the NPC
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#Traveller #TTRPG

[@yaldabaoth2]

I don't know why Jack is so suspicious, the plot seems completely alien to me.

[@Syaniiti]

Jack is a representation of a player, when are your players not suspicious? Especially when somethin alien is going on. My friend had some suspicious players at one point when he was running a Call of Cthulhu game for them, the players just weren't told they were playing Call of Cthulhu until a few sessions in when things got proper weird, alien even. I've also played in one of his campaigns where I to this day don't know what the system was, since all I had to tell him was what my character was good at and what they were bad at (and who they were).

[@itmademesignup9508]

James Cameron stole it also?

[@reuvengritters2983]

HEYO! Hehe, you got me laughing.

[@ericwhite1942]

You lose, sir

[@johnnysizemore5797]

Yeah it's an alien thing for Jack to do....

[@jasonGamesMaster]

I honestly think my favorite running gag is "hold on - random npc - we're coming to save you!"

[@thebolas000]

It's the pose and the flask that really sells it.

[@dutch6857]

Are you calling Nine-Finger-Pete 'random'? The nerve! (Kidding, I get glee from that shtick too)

[@jasonGamesMaster]

@@dutch6857 lol. Most definitely random, lol. Sounds like they rolled for his name on a Hackmaster chart, lol

[@wolfyblackknight8321]

​@@thebolas000 agreed definitely one of my favorite bits

[@matthill5426]

Hey, speaking of ripping off game ideas, here's a useful trick I've used a ton of times in Shadowrun: don't steal from the genre you're running! Everybody rolls their eyes when you present an obvious copy-paste. Instead, steal from different genres, and modify them to what you're running. One time I was watching a western with a train heist, and I thought, "if you changed that to a maglev bullet train, and swapped the revolvers for 10mm automatics with APDS ammo, and traded the Well-Fargo gold bullion for prototype cybernetics processors coming from an Ares Macrotech research subsidiary, you'd have a pretty good Shadowrun adventure!" Worked like a charm! Mafia movies make great inspiration for running thieves' guilds in D&D too, and it makes more your thieves' guild more instantly-relatable when everybody can reference Goodfellas for how the thieves might react to any given proposal. For instance, mafias/ thieves guilds love dealing in favors. "I'll make this thing happen for you, but in return you owe me a favor. Could be next week, could be next year. You owe me. Do you know what that means?" Plus, everybody has an idea what your thieves' guild is capable of doing, and what's within their power to ask for.

[@Syaniiti]

I've had a train robbery in Rogue Trader, a race in Dark Heresy and just did the Dare (Seth reviewed it at some point) in Shadowrun. Although we're currently essentially playing Kids on Bikes Shadowrun-edition (affectionately called Runners on Bikes by the players).

[@MonkeyJedi99]

If you swap out your prototype cybernetic processors with medication to treat a serious medical problem due to incomplete terraforming, your scenario sound mighty familiar, dong ma? Almost like you should be winching your crew into the train from your ship flying overhead like some sort of leaf on a breeze.

[@kevinbaird6705]

I ran about 10 sessions of D&D5e in Eberron based on the initial Dead Man's Switch plot of Shadowrun Returns. (It helps that Eberron Dragonmarked Houses are basically multinats already).

[@dutch6857]

@@MonkeyJedi99 Shiny

[@ericwhite1942]

Yeah, he's right. Old Noir movies, superhero comics, westerns, Kung fu movies. Expand your horizons.

[@ricksherman34]

Thanks for continuing to support the Traveller system Seth !

[@SSkorkowsky]

Thank you very much.

[@S0nyb1ack]

Oh god... I don't think we have a CD drive in any of our laptops around here anymore XD To be honest - when you recounted the similarities to Aliens I saw them, but before that part I got more Starship Trooper vibes (bugs, queen bugs, psionic abilities for the queens), but with the bugs being less smart/organised. Of course that movie comes even later - though the book existed in 1981, so maybe it was a bit of an inspiration?

[@SSkorkowsky]

I'm sure the Starship Troopers novel was a big inspiration behind both the adventure and Aliens. It's just more fun to think Cameron ripped off the adventure.

[@jasonGamesMaster]

I was picking up more Expanse, at least at the beginning... then you got to the acid spitting bugs... lol

[@TheDaltoncalford]

If you ask, they will provide it all on a USB key

[@SSkorkowsky]

Wait. What?

[@jasonGamesMaster]

@@TheDaltoncalford nice call out!

[@skylarking12]

One of my two favorite adventures. My kids and I turned this double-adventure into an all-summer-long campaign. I came up with a little add-on that links Chamax Plague to Horde: The ship's boat from the Challenger is the one that fell into the sun at adventure's start. Turns out the survivor in that ship panicked, and left everyone else behind during the initial attack. When the Chamax bugs attack the science team, they escape up the glacier on a tractor that breaks down on the ice, and continue on foot, dragging one injured member on a sledge made from scavenged tractor parts. Rescue team locates the tractor by following its bloody trail several Km's out of camp. It has a lipstick message scrawled on the windshield for Delradi from his scientist girlfriend: "Come get me" and an arrow pointing up the glacier. The survivor science team is holed-up above the frost line on the glacier. Delradi's girlfriend has mad survival skills, located a cave alongside the ice, with running water, where they all hole-up until the rescue party comes, attracted by a smoky signal fire of tractor parts... The cave is warm enough for liquid water, the survivors think it's geothermal. It's not, though. During their med check after rescue, they are discovered to have mild radiation exposure symptoms. Again, this doesn't fit the known geological data for that region. Going back to the cave to check it out later, players discover the back of the cave is a hole leading into an alien laboratory, the radiation is from an old fission reactor still running; the radiation shielding's been removed on purpose as a means to kill any Chamax bugs that enter the complex. It worked, and the lab is as it was on the day of The Fall. Inside the lab is a developmental laboratory for the systems of the escape ark/colony ships that took off for a sublight flight to nearby systems. And dead, non-bug, alien skeletons; the engineers and scientists left behind to defend. There's a hangar/launch bay with the launch cradle empty and the secret overhead door closed, indicating a ship launched from here. You can see, breadboarded out, all around the complex, the escape ship computer systems and drive systems and hibernation systems in developmental form. All the evidence is here to point to a last-minute sublight starship evacuation to nearby worlds, which ties into Horde: our players will know right away what's going on with the unidentified saucers from seeing this lab. Instarspec will create an entire expedition just to investigate and exploit the discoveries of this lab. In our campaign, there was an original Chamax sapient alien still in the hibernation test rig, it is revived automatically when the radiation shields are replaced on the fission pile. The alien uses the breadboarded computer system to translate and communicate to the players. We nicknamed him "Bug Rodgers" Bug Rodgers' mate is on the escaped ship. They couldn't thaw him out fast enough to take him along when they had to leave. Rodgers wants your players to track down the sublight ship. A long while back I made an audio file of the last logs of the Sharrin Challenger and the science team, link here. kzbin.info/www/bejne/npLNgWCEjqeBhpo

[@NetworkedOuija]

You're an absolute legend for providing your handouts. Always happy to see new videos!

[@deecap71]

A couple of adventures after this, throw in Horde, just to watch the players faces when they realize what comes pouring out of that alien ship.

[@DahVoozel]

I just want to see the look on Jack's face when he is told their ride off world has been commandeered by emergency decree.

[@richmcgee434]

"Oh, not those things again!" Horde is a great adventure for players starting out on mercenary or just gun-running paths.

[@DrFranklynAnderson]

This adventure is going full History Channel meme: I’m not saying it was Aliens… but it was Aliens.

[@DrFranklynAnderson]

Oh wait, this was published _before_ Aliens?? What a twist! I for one enjoyed the AvP reference. That movie may be the closest we ever get to a big-screen adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness.

[@michaelb.3994]

I had the pleasure to play through this adventure recently as my introduction to Traveller. It's a really fun adventure and our GM made it come to live with big deck plans and great atmosphere. We were actually able to safe the ship heading towards the sun with some very lucky rolls. And boy were we freaked out when one of the tag-alongs sneaked off to go rummage through one of the cabins. We were expecting him to betray us or to be on the corps payroll for some shady operation. Turned out, he was just searching for his fiancée. 😅 So, also that variant works. Thanks for the review and the handouts! Seeing your video pop up on my feed just made my day!

[@richmcgee434]

It's a really solid Traveller intro. I've used it three times over the years for different groups and it's played out differently each time. Works well in other systems/settings with minimal work - I ran it in FFG's Rogue Trader RPG almost unchanged. Purge those xenos! :)

[@jinxtheunluckypony]

It’s always wild when you see games like this that clearly inspired popular media. You’ve got to wonder how the scenario writers feel when that happens.

[@ricksherman34]

In the old school JTAS series, maybe around '81 or '82 there is an article that lists out Classic Traveller specs for Alien Xenomorphs.... When I get home I'll post the exact issue. ( JTAS #4) .

[@chriscooper654]

Ran this (and its sibling-scenario "Horde") for a couple of different groups back in the day, plus a couple of follow-up homebrewed scenarios involving surviving members of Chamax's sentient race (as suggested in the epilogue of "Horde"). Turned into a mini-campaign, kinda. Definitely a fun run. Thanks for the trip down into acid-drooling darkness, Seth!

[@richmcgee434]

One of my GMs did the same, with the surviving native Chamax sapients explaining that the bugs were actually an invasive species that had been dumped on their world by another starfaring xeno species as deliberate ecological warfare. We wound up exploring deeper into the unknown parts of the sector and eventually found several dead worlds, some burned by atomics and some stripped by bugs. The species that killed Chamax tried a similar stunt with another small interstellar power and got their own world nuked seven ways to Sunday in retaliation. There were remnant populations from both sides of the war living in decaying space habitats, and we wound up playing diplomat for a while before bringing ambassadors from both back to talk to the Imperium and beg assistance. By the time a relief expedition got assembled and sent back out there they'd managed to restart their war and finish each other off. Kind of tragic, but that's what you get when you play with WMDs whether they're biological or nuclear.

[@chriscooper654]

@@richmcgee434 Wow, I'm sorry I missed out on that campaign!

[@JosephusHellyer]

I'm a simple man: I see a Seth video, I click.

[@napkinpope5352]

Speaking of Cameron ripping off great sci-fi stories, think of how similar Alien is to this scenario, then realize that Avatar is just as similar to an Ursula K. LeGuin novel called “The Word for World is Forest.”

[@gaminreasons8941]

I know you often come up with new ways to say "hey spoilers here, if you go past this point it's your fault." But the comment about reddit almost makes think it actually happened.

[@SSkorkowsky]

That it did.

[@bigteej5821]

I might have said this before. But Jack's trigger discipline is both noted, and appreciated.

[@SSkorkowsky]

A buddy once told me his trigger discipline was so ingrained that he instinctively did it when holding a spray bottle of Windex like a dork. I laughed, but the next time I grabbed a spray bottle I realized I did it, too.

[@burningphoneix]

My favorite reoccurring gag is Jack enthusiastically becoming a model employee when payment is mentioned.

[@JacksonOwex]

I wish I had a group to play games with that aren't just, and this is AT BEST, a fantasy ttrpg! Thankfully I have these videos to feed my cravings a bit!!!

[@foleylione]

Seth I want you to know that I’ve been DMing since 1989 or so and you really helped me level up in the last few years by seeing how you adapt anything and everything in prep or on the fly. Now any adventure in any game system is much more possible.

[@johncollins7631]

It is time to complete the circle and adapt this adventure for the Alien TTRPG now.

[@Starcraftgamer97]

I second this!

[@benjustbenwilldo2215]

my first thoughts exactly

[@jackleg2007]

Another great video. The Keith brothers wrote so much Traveller material. Another idea, if the ship is still airworthy, power it up, and take it into the upper atmosphere to make the creatures hibernate. Also, how did the queen get on the ship?

[@SSkorkowsky]

Those guys were prolific as hell. It blew me away when I saw how many pseudonyms they used to mask the fact they were writing so much. The big queens it explains in Horde can get carried around by her minions (kinda like in Starship Troopers)

[@richmcgee434]

@@SSkorkowsky Not to mention real-world ants and termites. Lots of eusocial species have immobile breeders that can be transported around by the neuter workers in a pinch. Traveller owes its continued existence the Keith brothers. They really built the foundation the whole edifice rests upon. Wrote quite a bit of fiction too - the William Keith Bolo novels are still my favorites in the whole range after Laumer himself - who was another Keith, of course. :)

[@NefariousKoel]

The extended versions of the bugs, in the MgT2e supplement Seth showed in this video, has a juvenile queen. Which has legs and looks similar to the others in it's youth. Makes it easy to say a juvie queen was spawned, walked into the ship while it was small (along with it's new group of chamax), took a squat and started growing into it's full queen larva-looking stage after making it's nest in the ship and feeding for awhile.

[@itmademesignup9508]

Love Seth's content! Not nearly enough Traveller players on Roll20.

[@JacksonOwex]

You could have just stopped that sentence at "players"! I wish I could find more people who are just willing to play something other than generic fantasy or, worst case scenario, ONLY D&D because everything else is "too complicated" or some other lazy BS!

[@itmademesignup9508]

@@JacksonOwex well, OK, I'm a very rookie DM, but to you and Seth's reach, anyone want to try Traveller, I'll make a game on rolld20

[@ricksherman34]

There are quite a few Traveller fans out there... Check out the stream I did with Knights of Last Call last week.

[@dustincameron787]

Hey, Jack's buddy survived in this one. Score one for our favorite hard drinking social butterfly! ;~)

[@MrChupacabra555]

Ah, the Chamax Plague: I remember reading this adventure even before I read 'Starship Troopers' (both are about Giant Alien Bugs in a way 😁)

[@SSkorkowsky]

Thank you very much. I ended up reading Starship Troopers well after seeing the film version and was in for a surprise at how incredibly different they were.

[@MrChupacabra555]

@@SSkorkowsky I just made a realization: I play....well, read, since my playing days are long behind me 😥....the Starfinder TTRPG by Paizo. In it they have a race called the Swarm: Your 'standard' Space Locusts. However, in an introductory adventure against the race, one of the first critters the players come across is almost exactly the Chamax in looks called a 'Dredger'. Although it doesn't have an 'acid attack', many other members of the Swarm do, so I could easily see this 'base' critter upgraded to have an 'acid spit' attack 😄 Almost makes me wonder if this was an 'homage' or not to Traveller and this adventure.

[@richmcgee434]

@@SSkorkowsky Good lordy, really? Did that make the SST film watchable for you? I read the novel decades before and Verhoeven's deliberately pissing all over a book he proudly claims never to have read made it intolerable for me. If Heinlein had been alive there would have been a lawsuit, guaranteed - but of course Verhoeven is too much of a coward to have pulled that stunt with a living author. The book's an odd read, although supposedly much-beloved in gaming circles. The thing that always stood out for me is how much of the page count has nothing to do with actual combat for what's lauded as a seminal work of military scifi. Haldeman's Forever War (you have read that, right?) was written as a deliberate counterpoint to STT's pro-military philosophy and still winds up spending more time on battles than Heinlein did, which is pretty ironic. FW's by far the better book, especially for a modern audience, but you'll never see that adapted to film. They're both very realistic about how little the grunts doing the fighting actually understand the grand scope of their respective wars, though. Even when he becomes an officer Rico doesn't really know squat about the big picture. My headcanon insists that he's been a totally unreliable narrator throughout (how could he not be when all he gets is propaganda?) and that the books ends where it does because he dies seconds later in yet another futile drop assault. FW's Mandella is even more clueless and doesn't want to be fighting in the first place, and the time-dilation effects of FTL travel leave him a complete fish out of water as the war progresses, right up until the "surprise, war's over, it was all a misunderstanding" ending.

[@WoobooRidesAgain]

Honestly, I'd use the fan illustrations for the chamax for the module, but use the new illustrations for making my own insectoid species that are basically the exact opposite, helpful and kind sapient creatures or just oddly adorable animal intelligence insects. Because I am a sucker for cuteness and those new chamax are just too adorable to me to just throw out.

[@DjigitDaniel]

Came for the Traveller content, stayed for Seth, ended up with an mind blowing James Cameron theory. Mr Skorkowsy, I'd buy you a drink. LOL

[@WizardofOd]

Jack is one of the best creations on KZbin. He's suffered through so much, but still gets excited over a free meal voucher.

[@skyblazeeterno]

who doesn't? :)

[@toveandrews17]

I don't know why my mind went there, but your comment about misreading and therefore calling them Charmax, made me imagine the monsters a hybrid cross between the pokemon Charmander and alien xenomorphs... I can't get this image out of my head now, so thanks :p

[@Adrian_Lee6113]

These videos make me want to play Traveler so much! Love these

[@sollytom6266]

This was my first Traveller purchase. The Starter Traveller box was a gift from my Mom. In retrospect, Chamax Plague has elements of the bug movie THEM!!! and it foreshadowed Walking Dead, where they used the zombies to hide from the zombies. But a bit less disgusting.

[@richmcgee434]

Horde is even more obviously inspired by THEM, where it becomes n outright military campaign against the bugs.

[@sollytom6266]

@@richmcgee434 Can't argue that! 👍

[@malec8517]

Have people really complained that Seth spoiled a module for them?!?!

[@SSkorkowsky]

Oh yeah. One dude in the Traveller board a year or so back posted some rant about what a bad guy I was, even though he admitted my covering Traveller was what got them playing it in the first place, but now they couldn't play those specific adventures because I'd spoiled them. The community reply was pretty much, "Dude, his spoiler warnings are as clear as they can get. You did that to yourself."

[@jimyoung9262]

This is why we have warning labels not to drink the water in our car batteries.

[@vanessaeve925]

This looks like so much fun! Thank you so much for sharing your handouts too!

[@777Looper]

Me, listening @ 3:30: "The ship is called what?" Me, pulling up the video: "The ship looks like what?"

[@cadenceclearwater4340]

Exactly, AVP rules 🤘

[@jpl484]

Thanks for getting back to Traveller, the original double adventure has come up a bunch lately. Great to see you give it the usuall treatment .would love to see another Traveller 2e playthrough!

[@chrisschuber9149]

Keep bringing up AvP, Seth. You rock dude.

[@jefferydraper4019]

Void Spiders from Shadows of Brimstone make great Chamax!!!!! The Lost in Space movie had a great example also on the derelict earth ship.

[@Erik-ic4fw]

Fantastic review! The look at how to update these old adventures is always great.

[@Radiotomb]

Oh Sweet! New Traveller content!!! Thanks, Seth!

[@Partagus7]

definitely going to use this for my next session. Thanks for such great reviews and providing useful handouts and tips on running these classic adventures.

[@geoffdewitt6845]

These reviews are awesome, man. Thank you for doing these!

[@jameshenderson4876]

That was a fun overview. And that FFE CD-ROM is indeed excellent. Top value and jam packed with Traveller goodness!

[@Stormbender27]

Glad to see you do more Traveller content! Another great video. Thank you!

[@damianlaw8815]

This is actually a great adventure to introduce experienced hard core "D&D/Pathfinder only" folk to Traveller. I have run this adventure recently as a two session one-shot using the original rules set and my group had a blast. I stayed silent when one player said, "Strength isn't necessary for this game because it doesn't affect gun combat" and watched with perverse satisfaction when another player who took his advice struggled and could only carry a body pistol. Chronic kronkers (optimizers) beware.

[@ImaginerImagines]

Great one. Love that you brought this up to date with modern Traveller and what you did with it overall. Great comparisons with the movies. Thanks for another great RPG vid.

[@MaxWriter]

I was thinking Chamax Plague came out before Aliens while you were talking about it. I've had this scenario for years and have the original double-adventure booklet. Great stuff. Another fun review. Thanks!

[@timothymallory6706]

After Alien, but before Aliens.

[@Alex-tx7ih]

Some of your reviews are just helpful perspectives for how you ran the adventure. This one has like 7 sources that you managed to find to add an enormous amount of context! Amazingly well done!

[@Reaperman4711]

3:27 oooooooooohhhhhhhh. "Pinnace." I was hearing something slightly different. A rocket with rounded stabilizers.

[@terrancat]

Mud Shark is an AWESOME nick name.

[@RupertFoulmouth]

New Traveller content!! Thank you so much for the virtual tokens. Looking forward to more Traveller content.

[@l0stndamned]

The hydrogen solution sounds like the sort of thing my players would come up with if they ever played this. The massive explosions that might interrupt their Sub-zero fatalities would be a feature not a bug.

[@oz_jones]

And even if it's a bug, it also got crushed in the explosion.

[@Solly-Tom]

This was the first Traveller adventure I bought, way back in the middle 80s. I hope you cover the other half, Horde.

[@raulandraderios]

Love the Traveller content.

[@theophilusarenz1791]

Thank you for new Traveller content!

[@raphaelperry8159]

Prepare for players to snigger at how rude Pinnace sounds.

[@sleepinggiant4062]

How did you foreshadow that killing the queen would summon all nests w/i 2 km? That's pretty sweet that this adventure came out before the movie. I do love that movie.

[@SSkorkowsky]

The only way to foreshadow that would be if they get to the logs in the Bridge and see how the science team encountered a waking queen and killed it, then shortly after this swarm came for the ship. The more likely way would be the PCs killing the queen and then after a few minutes you could have them see out the windows this wave of bugs storming out from the ruins toward them and they only have a few minutes to get out and back to their ship before they're overrun.

[@sleepinggiant4062]

@@SSkorkowsky - oh, I have several ideas on how to do it, I was just wondering if you did. Having such a terrible outcome with no warning is something I tend to avoid. Like simply using the radio and it wakes up the whole nest - that's really not a screw up on the party's part.

[@NefariousKoel]

@@SSkorkowsky - Since the bugs can communicate via radio frequencies, you could also have the players comms start coming alive with ominous ever-increasing screeches over their radio comms. As if the hive is inadvertently threatening them over the radio while talking to each other. Ratchet up the ominous alien horror sounds in the background.

[@cobrachicken07]

Jack's positioning of flask and pistol were in accordance with his nature. Great video, Seth. Your content is amazing. Your books are, too. 👍

[@germanbenitez5691]

Alien, starship trooper, this adventure, all of them are inspired or steal something from the 1950 book "The voyage of the space beagle". Excellent review, as always. Thank you, Seth, for all that you give.

[@richmcgee434]

Much as I like van Vogt's work, SST doesn't draw on any of the four short stories (dating back to 1939) that he awkwardly kludged together into that novel. That's Heinlein, pure and simple, and it doesn't much resemble anything van Vogt ever wrote. Alien and Chamax Plague have similarities to both Black Destroyer (which also birthed the displacer beast in D&D) and Discord In Scarlet, but there are dozens of less well-remembered "horrifying alien on our ship" stories out there, many as old or older. The pulps were full of them for decades, and almost every major author wrote at least one. The Horde adventure has a whiff of SST but really resembles the movie THEM more than anything.

[@germanbenitez5691]

@@richmcgee434 you're right: "Horrifying alien on our ship" was a common trope of the pulps. I always saw the xenomorph like a merge from the creatures depicted in The Beagle, but now that i think about it, it's a merge from decades of ci-fi, and owns much more to Heinlein in any case.

[@dustinmitchell4711]

The Aliens parallels are just wild. I wonder if Cameron was inspired by this, or if there is an earlier sci-fi story they are both based off of.

[@itmademesignup9508]

If you think this is bad, wait 'til you see what Cameron stole for "Terminator"... Cameron is a shit writer - see either Avatar movie for examples - who only is capable when he has script to go by.

[@richmcgee434]

I can't begin to count the number of pulp scifi stories that featured "dangerous alien(s) on a derelict ship" over the years, dating back into the 1930s. It was practically a subgenre unto itself. Bit more common for there to be one Big Bad alien menace (ie Alien, not Aliens) but you can find examples of both styles with some poking around.

[@oz_jones]

​@@itmademesignup9508 I absolutely hate the Avatar. It is pretty as hell but that's about the nicest thing i can say about it.

[@pberrigan19]

Awesome video Seth! 😂. I know I always say that but, as a person who is wrapping up a Free League Aliens campaign, and is looking for something to make my players feel like big shiny heroes again, this adventure, with the modifications you presented, sounds perfect. It also helps that a while back I ran that Pirates of Drinax adventure that featured the Chamax. Thanks again!

[@danielbroening]

Fond memories of this one. Great review.

[@BobtheOdd]

Jack: "Holy crap! How the hell do you bring up an AvP reference in almost every single video that we do? Ain't nobody else want to remember that movie. " Seth: "That's their loss." 😂

[@patrickmiller4229]

Love your videos Seth! Traveller has been a huge favorite system of mine and running my own homebrew setting. Would recommend playing and maybe covering the module Last Call at Eneri's Cantina.

[@BomberSteve]

my favourite traveller adventure from the day. The 2nd part of this double adventure is an amazing mini campaign. Great video as always Jack...I mean Seth.

[@davewire87]

I was literally thinking last night that it’s been a while since Seth graced us with a review.

[@Papercut337]

New Traveller video! I haven’t been able to play it often, but I’ve fallen in love lol

[@KhanTrav]

Running a Chamax encounter right now. Thanks for the content and ideas.

[@SSkorkowsky]

Best of luck with the game

[@richmcgee434]

This (and Horde) are two of the very few published adventures for any system that I've run more than once. I usually treat modules as a one-and-done thing, but these have been hauled out for new groups three times over the years.

[@chewbaccavader6538]

My favorite traveller content!

[@tabletopgamingwithwolfphototec]

I actually like AvP.

[@SSkorkowsky]

I knew I liked you.

[@jasonGamesMaster]

​@@SSkorkowskyI mean, the first AvP is squarely in the middle, quality wise, for both franchises. Alien and Aliens, Prometheus, AvP, Alien 3, Covenant, AvP2, Resurrection. Predator, Prey, Predator 2, AvP, AvP 2, Predators, the Predator.

[@Syaniiti]

@@jasonGamesMaster I disagree with Prey > Predator 2, heck I'd put Prey below AvP making AvP an above average predator movie. I'd also play AvP before Prometheus. but then I'd put Prometheus in the bin with Covenant AvP2 and Resurrection. This would make AvP the 4th best Alien film, the and the 3rd best Predator film meaning it's a better Predator film than it is an alien film. But then, opinions are great in that way aren't they.

[@jasonGamesMaster]

@@Syaniiti I really like Predator 2, tbh. Sometimes I even think it might be better than the first, but other times not as much. I really enjoyed Prey, although like all of the Predator movies, it has its cheesy moments. I think I like the BONES of Prometheus more than the actual execution, tbh. I saw a fan edit that really changed my mind on it. Theatrical cut taken purely on it's own merits, I agree with you, but I can't unsee what could have been lol.

[@Syaniiti]

@@jasonGamesMaster If we're talking "could've beens" then all of the movies are clear masterpieces. But only 3 of them are actually really quite good, a couple are pretty good and the rest are definitely some of the movies that have been made.

[@mollywantshugs5944]

Maybe it’s because I just finished Halo 1 for the first time, but the name gives me space zombie vibes

[@northernsarcasm7616]

Yeah! More Traveller content from Seth!

[@matthill5426]

You changed the Pinnace to a Serpent? That makes sense, Pinnaces have very Serpent-like qualities. :D Sorry, if I ever run Traveller, Pinnaces are getting renamed to Pinnacles. The joke is funny, but I'm not letting it get in the way when I'm trying to set a serious, high-stakes mood.

[@Wraithing]

It's a start, but it really depends on your players and their frame of mind as to whether this makes any difference. I remember a time when I was really hoping to achieve a sombre mood for a scene. I vaguely recall it was some kind of funeral, but maybe it was a massacre. I do remember the set-up started well and that I'd removed a couple of potential jokes in NPC and location names. But (now, decades later) the only thing I can remember with any clarity about the whole adventure is the phrase, "spicy bum juice," along with debilitating, red faced laughter and one of my mates nasally regurgitating his fizzy drink into a takeaway pizza box. Aren't RPGs amazing! lol

[@dutch6857]

Back when, I had read Pinnace as Pinance and always pronounced it 'pen-anse'. It was only while watching Seth's how-to-Traveller vids that I realised my young self was wrong (again)

[@danielmcgillis270]

I just managed to convince my D&D group to try Traveler, I told them you only need two dice. Like literally 2D6. That sold them.

[@SSkorkowsky]

Well... you could. But some weapons do more than 2d6. And then there's Boon/Bane dice, which is best rolled with 3d6. And, of course, there's those times one particular die is being a difficult jerk and needs to be exiled to the boo box and you need a spare d6 to replace it.

[@danielmcgillis270]

@@SSkorkowsky Well, there is only one type of dice to worry about. That is one of the things they liked about the idea. Also the setting. And yeah there are always times when a dice has to be banished. I have a dice jail where the offending dice can sit and think about how it has let me down. 😉

[@robbabcock_]

Awesome review!

[@benjaminlocks]

Thank you so much for sharing!

[@aklevah1]

I scored a pdf of this in a Traveller bundle that was on Bundle of Holding a while back.

[@SanJacintoArtGuild]

Thanx muchly, Seth!

[@Faldang]

Man, I love the first AvP movie, and I love the references :)

[@grafspe807]

I read this as "The Climax Plague"

[@antwan1357]

great content , keep up the good work.

[@benjustbenwilldo2215]

Great work I'm running some alien soon but want to get my players into traveller and this is a good way for my group to get aboard.

[@janwitts2688]

Played this in 82.. always have a spare power pack for your Las carbine..

[@falcon989]

By the way, the way “Pinnace” sounds when spoken aloud is hilarious

[@christianbraun5426]

Great T-Shirt. The Spektral Krew approves!

[@briansmaller7443]

I have run this many times - love this adventure. Looks like you had fun. Now run your guys through the Sky Raiders Trilogy.

[@michaelconnor1542]

You mean to tell us, the "writer/director" who was sued by and lost to Harlen Elison for Terminator? Stole from one of the top ttrpg on the market at the tim?

[@richmcgee434]

The guy's a jackass, granted, but let's be serious, you can find scifi horror stories based on "dangerous alien critter(s) on derelict ship" in pulp magazines dating well back into the 1930s. There were hundreds of them long before this module or the film came out, some good, most bad. Deciding what specific source he stole from is futile, and do you really want to accuse the Keith Brothers of cribbing their plot as well?

[@zeedar412]

Yay! Back to traveller!

[@gavinboyer4634]

Ooohh, Pinnace. Sorry, misheard that for the first few minutes of the video. I need to get my head out of the gutter.

[@euansmith3699]

Maybe run a mash-up of this adventure and the Awful Green Things from Outside? 🤔 That way, the Chamax could react differently to different weapons. 😄

[@richmcgee434]

Heh. Scene of Jack holding a pool cue in one hand and a fire extinguisher in other and saying "I don't know why these are more effective than our laser pistols, but you have to go with what works."

[@echo-49]

Yay, ... another Traveller adventure ... I love it.

[@AdolphusOfBlood]

Seth, Farfuture do still sell their CDs of traveler content. I have the golden age CD and the double adventure is on it. It's not cheep for a single adventure PDF, but it is an option to get this adventure in PDF.

[@OsirisMalkovich]

Oh! _Pinnace!_ Definitely didnt hear that correctly the first time.

[@adreakane5447]

I agree with Seth, AvP is a blast of a movie, love it

[@TheManKnownAsAi]

I thought the sequel adventure to this was pretty interesting where the Travellers later find themselves on a low-tech planet under attack by ships bearing Chamax. The explanation for the whole thing is a little contrived, but it reads like an awesome 50s alien invasion movie starring the Travellers

[@lavenderspectre103]

Sounds like a really fun adventure! I might run it in a customized version of Stars Without Number

[@artaweunderhill4480]

Hi Seth. Thumbs up - as always. Maybe you should watch S1 of Helix a science fiction horror drama TV series and make an astonishing stories adventure including but not limited to: + a SuSAG Black Ops Rescue Mission + an Arctic Research Station + a Experimental Anagathic Drug + a Pathogen Amok Run + a Stealth Cloaked Zhodani Cruiser + a Zhodani Infitration Team ...after all when Cameron could copycat Chamax - the world is your oyster....

[@AyebeeMk2]

This is THE adventure I keep trying to hoodwink my players into, they are too experienced too fall for the rescue mission lark, and since their ship is usually 'wanted' they would ignore legal nicities; they will meet the Chamax one day ....

[@davidwright7193]

Any Traveller party I have known would have pulled back and nuked the site from orbit, as the only way to be sure.