Freelance
TravellerBatch 24381
This article originally appeared in the March/April 2026 issue.
Batch 24381. Timothy
Collinson
March Harrier Publishing
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher/1220/March-Harrier-Publishing
52pp., PDF
US$7.99/UK£6.00
This module starts out with an observation: In spite of “anagathics” (life-extending drugs) having existed in the Traveller rules from the initial publication of Traveller in 1977, there hasn’t been much in the way of treatment in the rules, and perhaps even less in published adventures.
This module offers an opportunity to explore anagathics and some of the politics surrounding them.
Unlike many adventures, Mr Collinson has written this in such a way that the PCs’ actions are almost completely unconstrained, and their participation in the events of this module may be as white, grey, or black hats. While those choices may affect the ‘feel’ of the adventure to the players, it won’t necessarily affect the events that they’ll be involved in. There are several opportunities that the referee can present to get the PCs involved.
Mr Collinson has chosen to present his adventures in EPIC format, with a diagram showing the path(s) of progression through the adventure, and distinguishing between “key” events and other events. The diagram in this adventure is more complex than in other of his offerings; there are two scenes where no specific event described is required, but one of the collection must occur.
The PCs are brought into this adventure through one of several possible routes, ranging from hearing a rumor with indications that a researcher into anagathics needs help to being hired by one of several groups that feel they have an interest (legitimate or not) in the results of the anagathic research. As the PCs follow the clues, they will become aware of other groups and their levels of involvement; they will also be presented with opportunities to assist, oppose, or otherwise play a part in the various machinations surrounding the researcher and her research. The more involved they find themselves – and they’ll become more entangled the more they learn – the more likely it is that they’ll end up meeting major players from other groups, from organized crime leaders right up into the heights of the Imperial nobility.
The PCs will discover that there are two possible sources of anagathics involved in this adventure; the second is not being researched in as organized a fashion as the “primary”, and Mr Collinson gives the reader the “key” that is missing from the second possibility – but there isn’t really enough information presented for most characters to arrive at that conclusion. A dedicated researcher might conclude that the “key” is worth looking into simply for completeness, should organized research into this possibility be undertaken, but this isn’t the focus of the adventure; at best, it’s a potential “hook” for future interest.
Mr Collinson has described himself as somewhat obsessive over making sure that the Referee has everything s/he needs to run the adventure. This often means several appendices to the main adventure, and often some “referee packs” of forms or maps as well. In addition to the main adventure (which has plenty of “boxed” information, plus maps, diagrams, and plans), his “Epilogue” outlines some of the potential societal/ political/ economic implications of a ‘favorable’ outcome to the research; each discussed implication also includes references to fiction in which the described possibility is relevant. He also provides an Afterword that briefly discusses the portrayal of immortality or extreme longevity in fiction, and provides an extensive list of works in which they feature (although one notable omission is Heinlein’s Methusaleh’s Children – though he does mention Time Enough for Love). There is also an appendix that provides six characters suitable for use as the player-characters for this adventure, plus a (potentially very useful) table showing which of those characters has what skill(s).
The Referee’s Pack for this adventure reproduces some of the maps and diagrams, plus the character sheets for the pregenerated characters. There is also a separate file with notes and schematics – but no ‘deck plans’ – for an ATV (which will come in handy; the PCs will need an ATV).
After reading through this adventure, I like it, and think it’s worth having on your shelf of pre-generated adventures. I’d love to see a … sequel? co-quel? that develops the secondary anagathic source as an adventure in its own right. I will go so far as to say that if you should see the name “Timothy Collinson” as the author of an adventure, you should accord it a great deal of respect, as you would seeing the names of the Keith brothers, Martin J. Dougherty, Greg Lee, or Stephen J. Ellis.