I originally wrote Cold, Dark Grave around May 2005, setting it around 1114. The aim was to use it at conventions with BITS, and it ultimately proved popular, even though it could generate the odd TPK if things went badly. Part of the story relies on a betrayal, so there was an edge of character-vs-character friction.
Although the final book has ended up being called ‘Cold Dark Grave’, its title went through several variations as I wrote it up. The first version was ‘Out from a Dark Cold Grave’, which heads the OmniOutliner file with the scenario structure in from May 2025. I later called it ‘A Package from a Dark, Cold Grave’ when I shared the scenario out, and Andy Lilly renamed the tournament print of the scenario ‘From a Cold, Dark Grave’. Finally, it was shortened to its present name when it was released as a book at Conception 2007. As this happened just before BITS started to fall into dormancy, it was one of the rarer books we produced.
Andy’s introduction in the recent release mentions that the scenario was originally prepared for GenCon UK 2005, which was held in Bognor Regis. This would have meant we were running it for multiple tables across the convention. I’m glad he remembered that because I completely forgot.
I wanted a scenario grounded in canon, and I was drawn to the Battle of the Two Suns, which occurred during the Fourth Frontier War in the year 1084. This was a pivotal battle in that unintended conflict, and it was first mentioned in the Classic Traveller Adventure The Kinunir, where it was mentioned as in passing as being the place that two of the ships in the class, the Allamu and the Ninkur Sagga, were both lost in action. It was a battle I recreated at one of the Hebden Bridge TravCons, the largest fleet engagement we ever played out, and one of the more extreme playtests of Power Projection: Fleet.
I loved the library data reference that
“The battlefield is still posted as a dangerous area, littered with debris, and avoided by interstellar transportation.”
I wanted to give the characters a real motivation for committing a crime (carrying out a salvage operation in a war grave), so I set them up as a failing small mining company, family owned and run, suffering in the post-Fifth Frontier War recession. I ended up starting the scenario at Yres/Regina (which was pretty lightly touched by canon at that point) although I had considered Uakye/Regina as well. The scenario proper takes place at the outskirts of the Menorb system.
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| Work in progress in OmniOutliner (2005) |
I sketched up some of the key locations - the wrecked starship, the dock at the start of the scenario, and Nick Bradbeer kindly 3D modelled them for me, both intact and battle damaged. The Tender’s design was inspired by one of Ground Zero Games’ miniatures that I’d used several times. Nick later did an incredible job with the cover too, capturing what I described to him perfectly.
Between Andy and Nick they came up with designs for the Seeker and the vessel being used by the criminal syndicate who try to muscle in. I absolutely admire what they did, as I find building deck plans hugely tedious. Nick 3D modelled the cargo ship as well.
Another aspect I was channelling as I wrote this was the boarding of the USS Discovery in the film (and book) 2010. I wanted the players to feel like they were operating in space and that there were unique challenges and dangers. I also wanted them to feel like ordinary people, trying to do their best in trying circumstances as they board a long abandoned wreck, out of their comfort zone and very much at risk.
The pregenerated characters (and everything else) was originally designed under Marc Miller’s Traveller (T4), although I have a suspicion I may have actually used the Classic Traveller High Guard rules to design the tender as T4 was pretty broken. I deliberately set the characters up so they had reason to zing off each other. This is a really useful trick for con games; give the players something to hang the character on in how they feel about other players and you’ll get some great engagement.
I’m not as certain that I would have made the scenario have such a character-vs-character moment at its core if I wrote it now, as experience has taught me that there are players out there who really dislike that happening. That’s one of the reasons that the conventions I’m involved in have a tag for scenarios that include inter-character conflict. That’s far too often called PvP - it should always be CvC. However, it did work well in play.
The print release at Conception 2007 was expanded from the original, and Andy and I kicked some ideas around, but he fleshed it out and added in some of the material about the star systems, plus how to use the scenario as a longer game. I wasn’t at the con, but a copy soon arrived in the post (around the same time that my first child was born)!
Updating the scenario for Mongoose Traveller 2e required me to convert the characters to the new edition, and then redefine all the skills. I used the Google Sheets spreadsheet to redesign the ships the players touch (and those worksheets are included in case starship combat occurs).
Layout was a challenge; I’m long used to using Affinity Publisher (and before that InDesign) but the earlier BITS books were all in Microsoft Word. This created some interesting challenges on page breaks etc. Bizarrely, the file saved on my MacBook Pro in the current version of Word opens with different pagination in Andy’s Windows based current version of Word despite exactly the same fonts being used. Some of that is printer margins, but it was a frustration.
Discussions with Mongoose meant that we had to release as PDF only, which is a shame. It’s certainly something that we’d love to change in the future. However, for now I’m just pleased that this is back out and available and I hope folks enjoy it.
The scenario 'Delta 3 is Down' will be the next one we release.
24 January 2026
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