Starship Traveller
Solution
By Lafe Travis
With this Fighting Fantasy adventure I
suspect Steve Jackson was inspired by the Traveller role playing game, which was fairly
popular in 1983. This adventure has the feel of "Lost in Space" and "Star
Trek".
This is definitely not one of my favourite
Fighting Fantasy books, and I suspect many others feel likewise.
For one, it's in a different genre from the
previous books. It diverged from the fantasy setting to a science fiction one. But other
science fiction Fighting Fantasy books, like "Space Assassin" are engaging, and
have more of an exciting plot leading up to a final confrontation.
Like the Traveller role playing game,
Starship Traveller is told in a dull scientific manner. You often face the same choice of
whether to beam down to a planet or to continue onwards. The passages had little
characterization of the crew members, something which made Star Trek so successful.
The artwork was also dull. Its simplicity
may have been aiming for a futuristic look, but it only detracted from the excitement.
The adventure introduced a new set of
complicated rules. On the adventure sheet, you now had to keep ability scores for seven
crew members, and scores for your starship's weapons and shields.
There are also rules for three different
types of combat. If you engage in any of those combats, you need to make a note of where
you are in the book, because you must go the end of the book and consult the appropriate
rules.
There are only 340 references in this
adventure instead of the 400 in the others. (#13 Freeway Fighter has less too.) Though it
doesn't make the adventure any easier to solve.
Starship Traveller is very difficult to
solve. It states: "It is unlikely that you will find your way back to Earth on your
first adventure." How very true if you're playing this adventure for the first time;
or even after many tries. You are not given any hints what choices you should be making,
so it's easy make the wrong ones and suffer horrible deaths, or have you missing the
opportunities to collect what you need to complete the adventure.
The solution I've devised only requires 41
correct choices to get to the end. I haven't found a more efficient path. Before I present
the step-by-step solution, here are some hints. You may wish to use only these hints and
solve it on your own.
Although interesting, most of them are
deadly and offer nothing useful. I've gone through every set of choices, making detailed
notes. Without the knowledge, a person will probably beam down to most of the planets out
of curiosity.
To successfully return to your own star
system, you need the proper Space and Time coordinates of the black hole which will return
you.
There are several planets which offer
Sectors and Stardates, but only two of them are correct, and they lie near the end of your
travels. So no matter what routes you choose in the first half of the adventure, you'll
still be put on the proper track if you can make it as far as halfway.
The proper Space coordinates are on the blue
planet Jolsen-3, but getting there is tricky. Only if you've beamed down to the small grey
planet with the poisonous atmosphere, will you be given a choice afterwards to go to
Jolsen-3 (11). This means infecting the ship with the poisonous gas, and a very risky
skill roll for your medical officer (337). This is the only dice roll you'll make in the
entire solution.
On Jolsen-3 at reference 222, you can accept
or refuse the food, but eating the drugged food is the quickest way to the portal lab. If
you'd prefer not to be drugged, you can get to the portal lab by refusing the food (144),
accepting his offer (158), and stepping through the portal (53). Once through the portal,
you'll be faced with a confusing maze of pathways, with only two safe ways out and many
deadly paths; so make notes.
This solution does not have you gathering
incorrect Sector and Stardate information.
The planet with the correct Stardate
information is the green-grey Terryal. More than one path leads there - simply head for
the small black planet after the starport instead of the space wheel.
It is questionable if you should offer the
Terryals information about your weapons and ship in exchange for the Stardate to get home.
But perhaps the Starship Traveller does not have a prime directive.
One trick used in the book, will be to have
a different set of choices on where to go next if you beam down to a planet, compared to
the choices you'd be given if you ignore the planet. Most of the time, you'll have more
destinations to choose from if you've beamed down to the planet. I suppose it's a sort of
reward for the dangers you've endured on the planet.
So now I present to you my walkthrough of
"Starship Traveller"! Read no further if you'd like to have another go at
solving it yourself. For those reading this solution, I encourage you to follow along with
your book.
(1) You are pulled into the Seltsian Void, a
known black hole!
(256) You awaken in uncharted space
(86) Press on towards the life-bearing
system ahead
(321) Avoid the dull blue planet and
continue onwards
(44) Avoid the next planet in the purple
star system
(250) Ignore the last civilized planet and
leave the system
(34) You warp 2.2 lightyears to the next
star system
(203) Ignore the medium-sized blue-green
planet
(126) Warp 3.3 light years to the large red
planet
(261) Head for the small grey planet and
beam down
(66) Tell the landing party to return to the
ship
(18) Seal off the docking bay - it stops the
deaths
(337) Get the Medical Officer to search for
an antidote
(223) You must roll the dice above her kill
score
(46) The antidote works!
(2) Head for the blue planet
(222) Beam down alone to Jolsen-3 to meet
I-Abail
(98) Accept his offer of food and drink
(127) You"re drugged and taken to the
portal lab!
(53) You are forced to enter the portal into
a strange dimension
(293) Take the left-hand fork
(322) Again, take the left-hand fork
(214) Take the right fork this time
(318) Take the left-hand fork
(232) Step off the path into space
(41) The experiment worked! [SECTOR 159 is
given]
(253) Continue into deep space
(109) You don"t need to visit the
spaceport
(320) Enter hyperspace for the small black
planet
(104) Ignore this planet and proceed to
another one
(118) Beam down to the greeny-grey planet
(4) Follow the Terryal child named Luff
(148) Accept Luff"s offer for
information about how to get home
(229) [STARDATE 21 is given] You honour your
agreement with Luff
(191) They collect the information about
your ship and weapons
(120) You leave Terryal and return to the
bridge
(296) You"ve run out of life-supporting
planets to visit
(324) Have you learned any Space and Time
coordinates?
(216) Sector 159 - Stardate 21 = ???
(138) You arrive at a black hole and are
pulled into it...
(340) You"ve made it back to your own
universe!!
There are three Space and
three Time Coordinates in the adventure:
(055) Sector 288
(232) Sector 159 (correct)
(280) Sector 083
(074) Stardate 77
(148) Stardate 21 (correct)
(325) Stardate 45
There are 8 possible combinations of Space
and Time Coordinates, but only one of them will get you back to Earth (Sector 159 and
Stardate 21). The rest of them will have your ship lost in space for the rest of your
life. The combination of Sector 288 and Stardate 45 is not possible, because you'll either
learn one or the other on the planet Fioral.
On the planet Cliba reference 83 (not
visited in this solution), you are told Warp Speed 3 is needed to effectively enter the
black hole. This information is not required to get home safely.
After fully exploring every part, my opinion
of this book has somewhat improved. I"ve derived some enjoyment from playing through
the possibilities. Seeing overall how it was written gave me a new appreciation for this
book in the Fighting Fantasy series.
Document modified on Sunday, November 26, 2000