Reviewer's note: This review originally appeared in the February 2013 Freelance Traveller.

I have been sadly remiss; I promised the principal author a review of this product back in mid-2011, shortly after receiving a complimentary copy in e-mail. I cannot even plead “too much hands on my time”; a quick look at Freelance Traveller’s back issues or the Consolidated Listing will show that I’ve written reviews of other products, and non-review articles, in the interim; I can only abase myself and say that I just plain forgot.

Although the version originally sent to me was the first release of the product, this review will focus on the second version, which is the currently available one. The differences are outlined in the third section below. When I sent an advance copy of this review to the publisher, along with my apologies, they alerted me to the existence of the second version, and forwarded a copy, which I looked over for completeness and accuracy in this review. Most of my comments apply equally to both versions.

On the Shelf

I have the PDF to review, so I can’t speak to the binding of the softcover. At only 24 pages, though, I can’t imagine it being much more than the typical magazine, saddle-’stitched’ or stapled, with no separately visible spine. It likely would easily get lost in a pile or on a shelf.

When seen face-on, you see a “clean” design, without a lot of decoration making it hard to read. The company name is written vertically in their distinctive font on a pink stripe along the left edge, bordered by a red stripe separating that from the rest of the cover. The remaining (main) portion of the cover is divided horizontally into thirds; the top third is black with red text naming the product in a sans-serif font, over a photo-render of an industrial setting, centered on a person who might be a mercenary carrying a long gun (a rifle or shotgun) at high port ready to bring it down and fire. The lower third is once again solid black, and the lower right corner carries the Traveller Compatible Product logo.

On Inspection

The title tells you exactly what to expect, and delivers exactly what it promises. There is a title page and a page ‘explaining’ what the product is up front, and a page of Open Game License at the end, but the ‘meat’ of the book is 21 adventure ideas, one per page, in the standard format that the Traveller community has come to call ‘Adventure Seeds’ and which have been ubiquitous in fan venues of all types. Each seed consists of a paragraph or two setting out the general idea behind the adventure, and six alternative outcomes, with the referee and the party left to develop the details. The seed instructions are to determine which alternative outcome is used randomly, but there is no compelling reason that a referee should feel obligated to do so; I would merely write “Possible directions to take this adventure:”, or perhaps suggest that the outcome can be selected “in any manner that seems good to the referee”. This, however, is a nit to which little effort should be devoted to picking.

Differences Between the Versions

The cover has been restyled; the original version’s company name and separator stripe was somewhat thinner, and the artwork was the bottom four-fifths of the cover, rather than just the middle third. The artwork for both editions was taken from the same original; in the first version, it was cropped a little on the left and right; in the second, it was more heavily cropped from the bottom, so that the second version cover art appears to be roughly the top half of the first version cover art.

Internally, some of the text has been elaborated on in the second version, with additional descriptive material in both the setup paragraph and the list of possible outcomes. The page layout elements are also slightly more æsthetically pleasing in the second version. It should be noted that the original version did not claim a tie to the publisher’s Quick Worlds and subsectors (as it predated most of them), but the tie in the second edition isn’t all that strong, and can easily be ‘edited out’ by the referee. Finally, the Open Game License is printed in a smaller font in the second version, so that the entire license fits on a single page (and makes the difference between the second version’s 24 pages and the first’s 26).

Overall, the second version should be considered preferable to the first version. Æsthetically, the minor differences in font selection and layout elements make a big difference; set side-by-side, the first edition looks more amateurish in comparison. More importantly, the more-elaborated text gives each of the seeds a little bit more ‘flavor’; while it doesn’t make any of them stand out, they are just that little bit less likely to garner the “Meh, it’s a seed” reaction.

Conclusion

There’s really little that can be done in one or two paragraphs to make any single seed stand out from the myriad of others—but then, the ultimate value of a seed is in what the referee and the party can do with it.

The chief value of this volume, and its similarly-named companions, is in the convenience of having a bunch of seeds handy, so that one can quickly get started on a session when there wasn’t a chance to pre-plan, or if part of your regular party can’t make it, or for a quick one-off at a con, or… For that purpose, the PDF is a good value (about $0.25 per seed) if one’s imagination is likely to get ‘stuck in neutral’, and a judgement call by the referee otherwise; the printed edition (about $0.50 per seed) is strictly a judgement call by the referee.

While I do not say that you should avoid purchasing this as a single item, my instinct is to wait for it to be part of a bundle at a discounted price.

This early version shows a clear love of the game - unlike 1001 Patrons this book was written with the love of old Classic Traveller in mind - even though, it is not set in the Classic Imperium - there are no excesses each adventure hook is nicely balanced and provides an interesting segway for adventure that treats the players and referee as actors in a much larger drama just merely hinted at. The plots are believable and enjoyable. Cannot wait to see more from this company.

Nicely done, and does exactly what it says on the cover. For Traveller players, the classic "Patron" format is familiar - you are given a brief situation setup, the reward, and then a list of 1-6 possibly complications. The intent is that the GM will secretly roll one of these so the players never know exactly what they are in for, but of course the GM can riff on the theme or just choose one of the options that fits his or her campaign the best.

The plots themselves are good, general and full of potential. I could see using well over half of them in my own game without any modifications. And at least one plot would be fun to play "inside out", with the players being the ones to try to stop some other group from completing the mission.

If you are a GM who likes having a set of "Patron Encounters", you should consider adding these plots to your staple.

This review was written by Leonard Pimentel and first published in GMS Magazine.

Overview

This supplement from Gypsy Knight Games, provides you with 21 plot hooks, each of which is fleshed out in six different ways, giving you a grand total of 126 simple plot threads.

Style

Production-wise, this supplement could have been better. There is very little artwork, which is fine, but it’s all in a style of CGI that seems to be cropping up more and more in small-press roleplaying products: human figures with photorealistic clothes and gear and vacant doll-like expressions. Unfortunately, the lack of expression on these characters’ faces prevents this kind of artwork from being evocative (as made painfully evident when R.Talsorian Games decided to use photographs of actual dolls for its often (and perhaps unfairly) maligned Cyberpunk v3.0). Additionally, the interior layout is completely plain and lacks any design elements at all except for the fact that the plot expansion options are in table format. Finally, the text itself could use minor polishing and could have benefitted from the skills of a professional copy-editor. In short, more should have been done to make this product appealing. Style Score: 2 out of 5.

Substance

This supplement provides what it promises, as long as you understand it promises plot threads rather than fully fleshed-out plots. It includes a number of interesting ideas and lays them out in an exceptionally straightforward manner. While these plot threads need to be expanded for play, they can certainly spark the imagination of a Referee who needs an adventure idea, and they can do so quickly. Additionally, this supplement can be used for almost any science fiction game or, for that matter, for any game in which the players own a large vehicle suitable for long-distance travel. Which leads to one quibble: most of the plot threads assume the character party is travelling around in their own ship. Should this not be the case, this supplement will be much less useful. The only other quibble is that almost all of the plot hooks include one or two options in which everything is exactly as it seems and the resulting plot thread is, frankly, uninteresting. Thus, a good 20 to 40 of the plot threads are rather dull. For a supplement about plot threads and nothing more, it would be hoped that all of the plots would be somewhat interesting. Substance Score: 3 out of 5.

Conclusion

This is, at best, an average product. But it is one I would nevertheless recommend buying because it provides Referees with the one thing they can never be without: plots. Additionally, these plots are delivered in a raw, almost stripped-down format that makes them quickly and easily accessible and fuels creativity. In fact, this bare-bones presentation could make this supplement more useful than one with an overabundance of fluff in which a Referee could get lost as he searched for ideas on the day of, on the way to, or even in the middle of a game session.