Pirates of Drinax: Scoundrels Wanted, Empire Optional

Creating your character

Traveller character creation is legendary, a story all its own. You won’t just roll stats and pick a career. You’ll live out your character’s early years, jump from one career to another, make enemies, pick up allies, and maybe lose a limb or two. You might walk away with ship shares, valuable contacts, or regrets you’ll carry across the stars. Every roll matters. Every choice has weight. We’ll create characters together in Session 0, taking full advantage of Traveller’s character creation system. You don’t need to come with a party role or a backstory. Just bring a starting point and a willingness to see where the dice take you. Some characters may already know each other, but not all. That’s fine. King Oleb, and more precisely, Princess Rao, will bring your stories together as the campaign begins. To support character creation, I provide a custom Pirates of Drinax Player Guide tailored to the campaign. It offers thematic inspiration and character creation options based on your homeworld, whether you hail from the glittering pleasure ports and sharp-dealing merchant guilds of Torpol, the somber necropolis-cities and ruin-haunted wastelands of Clarke, the conquered blue-fields and clan-held skies of Khusai, or the frozen starport warrens and outcast-held tundra of Kteiroa, where pirates trade, ihatei muster, and old wounds never heal. Where you come from shapes who you are, and how the Trojan Reach sees you. You’ll also have access to bespoke life event tables designed for this campaign. These add rich local flavor to your personal history and tie your character more directly to the political tensions, shadow wars, and power struggles at the heart of the Trojan Reach. Whether you’ve crossed paths with Imperial nobles, survived a border skirmish, or owe favors to the wrong kind of merchant prince, your past will follow you into play. We use the Mongoose Traveller 2nd Edition core rules with a few light optional rules to enrich character creation. I’ll guide you through each step, and I’m happy to schedule one-on-one sessions for anyone who wants to generate a character in advance or with extra attention. Come ready to discover who your character really is. Traveller doesn’t just let you tell a story. It lets you earn one.

Preparing for the session

Before we begin, you’ll need to: 1. Create a free Roll20 account if you don’t already have one. We’ll use Roll20 to manage maps, character sheets, NPC portraits, handouts, and more throughout the campaign. 2. Join the campaign’s private Discord server. I’ll send the invite once the group is confirmed. Discord is where we’ll handle voice chat, session reminders, downtime discussion, and questions between sessions. 3. Complete a short pre-game survey. This helps me understand your character preferences, tone expectations, and safety considerations. It also gives me fuel to weave your backstory into the political fabric of the Reach. 4. Skim the custom Player Guide before Session 0. This is optional, but highly recommended. It includes setting notes, career and homeworld suggestions, custom life events, and tools to inspire rich, grounded characters. No rulebook required. You should not create a character in advance. We’ll go through character creation together during Session 0, and I’ll guide new and returning players step by step. All you really need is a working microphone, a stable internet connection, and a sense of adventure. Whether you’re aiming for galactic infamy or a private little kingdom in the stars, we’ll start by building your legend together

What Michael brings to the table

I’ll provide a fully prepped Pirates of Drinax campaign in Roll20, complete with custom maps, digital handouts, and character sheets. You’ll receive a bespoke Player Guide designed specifically for this version of the Trojan Reach, with tailored life events, homeworld guidance, faction context, and character prompts to help you build someone with ambition, scars, and history. My GM style is narrative-first, player-driven, and politically sharp. This campaign is built as an evolving sandbox where your choices shape the balance of power in the Reach. Expect dynamic factions, shifting alliances, and major consequences that respond to your actions. The classic Drinax framework has been heavily expanded with new NPCs, political tensions, and storylines rooted in espionage, piracy, diplomacy, and betrayal. I aim for cinematic pacing, grounded roleplay, and dramatic turns: sometimes bold, sometimes tragic, often unexpected. I do my best to voice major NPCs, adapt on the fly, and love when the story moves in directions no one planned. Starship combat, smuggling ops, infiltration missions, and tense negotiations all have their place, but it’s your crew’s decisions that define what kind of campaign we’re running. I use safety tools to ensure tone-setting is collaborative and comfortable. You’ll never be pushed beyond your limits, but you will be invited to make bold, character-defining choices. If you enjoy stories of outlaws and exiles navigating shifting loyalties and broken empires, you’ll feel right at home in the Trojan Reach.

Homebrew rules

This campaign uses a curated set of homebrew rules to deepen character development, support story-driven play, and keep the table responsive to player choices. During character creation, you’ll have access to custom life events, enhanced background options, and a slightly relaxed attribute system, including a limited number of rerolls to help you land a character concept that excites you. Advancement is also supported through tweaks to the training system, giving your characters room to grow outside of character creation. While we use Traveller 2e as the foundation, I treat the system as a flexible framework rather than a rigid rulebook. I may adapt mechanics for social encounters, downtime actions, reputation, or long-term consequences depending on how the campaign evolves. The goal is always to support momentum, fairness, and player agency without sacrificing tension or meaningful risk. If a rule gets in the way of a great story, I’m open to adjusting it. If a mechanic sparks drama, we’ll lean into it. My aim is to build a consistent and collaborative structure where your choices shape the world and your characters leave a mark.

How Michael creates a safe table

Player safety and comfort are core to the experience, especially in a game like Pirates of Drinax that involves moral complexity, political power plays, and the occasional descent into crime, violence, or difficult choices. Before Session 0, I’ll send a Lines & Veils form and a short questionnaire so you can privately flag any sensitive topics, preferred tone, or player boundaries. During Session 0, we’ll review those together, agree on table norms, and calibrate expectations for things like betrayal, romance, violence, and the types of challenges you enjoy facing in play. We’ll use X, N, and O cards throughout the campaign, available via chat, voice, or visual cue, whichever players are most comfortable with. I maintain an Open Door policy at all times: you’re always free to take a break, pause a scene, or step back from content that doesn’t sit right with you. No justification needed. While Traveller often features dangerous situations, interpersonal tension, and ambiguous choices, I aim to keep the table collaborative and respectful. You’re never required to play past your limits, and I check in regularly to make sure the tone still feels good for everyone. We’ll also set aside time at the end of each session for debrief and feedback, whether that means discussing the story or just decompressing together. The goal is a shared world where big risks and bold decisions feel exciting, not unsafe. We play to explore, not to pressure.