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I have been a bit intrigued reading about classic Traveller and the good reviews about the new Mongoose Traveller. I am looking for information on using it as a generic system for characters/equipment/starship construction to use with a different settings. I am especially wondering about the feasibility of using it for a setting like Star Trek or something similar.
Does anyone have any good links for stuff like this?
I have been a bit intrigued reading about classic Traveller and the good reviews about the new Mongoose Traveller. I am looking for information on using it as a generic system for characters/equipment/starship construction to use with a different settings. I am especially wondering about the feasibility of using it for a setting like Star Trek or something similar.
Does anyone have any good links for stuff like this?
High Guard does have rules on creating ships on the scale you would see in Star Trek, and the main book has a number of variant rules sidebars that discuss how to use technology that differs from the traveller imperium's assumptions.
You may or may not know this, but there are already books slated to use the MongT rules in different licensed settings such as Babylon 5 and Hammer's Slammers.
__________________ "This game requires no gameboard because the action takes place in your imagination..." - Cover of Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rules Set 1.
I read just the other day that the Babylon 5 one is now off the table since the license was not renewed. I'd love to see what they could do with Star Trek or maybe the old Buck Rogers XXVc setting.
I read just the other day that the Babylon 5 one is now off the table since the license was not renewed.
Sauce? The B5 books are still listed as forthcoming on the MP site and amazon in short order.
__________________ "This game requires no gameboard because the action takes place in your imagination..." - Cover of Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rules Set 1.
They fully intend to publish the last 2 books before the license expires.
__________________ "This game requires no gameboard because the action takes place in your imagination..." - Cover of Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rules Set 1.
I'm not familiar with Mongoose's version, but earlier versions of traveller were never really a toolbox of generic ideas. Rather, the setting and rules went hand in hand. I think you would find that FTL travel (jumping 1-6 parsecs using LOTS of fuel, trip taking a week with no communication to normal universe), FTL communications (none), and ship weapons/defenses (missiles/particle accellerators/meson beams on the one hand, sandcasters and black/white spheres for the other) don't really fit into a Star Trek or B5 concepts. You might be able to wave some of it away with "description differences", but you might also end up building things wholesale from scratch if they are key to your ideas of a campaign.
On the other hand, the split of technology (which most space settings do) could certainly be laid out for either setting. Older technology would be easy to identify for any of those "retro" worlds that Kirk, Spock, and Bones beamed down to. Similarly, if Earthforce were barely high enough tech to use FTL (9 or maybe 10 in the classic settings IIRC), the blasted post-apocalyptic Narn homeworld may be primarily earlier tech (TL6 or 7?) for everything except weapons and presumably the Centauri would be one or a couple higher TLs than Earth (11ish?) and Minbari a couple more beyond that (14ish?).
If you're looking for a generic system, I was always partial to Alternity. They provided just enough that you could pick and choose and build a setting from. I'm sure Gurps space is good too, but I was always more overwhelmed with the amount to choose from and discarded much more than I ever used. Gurps Traveller did some of the paring down of generic Gurps Space for you, but again with the intent of casting it into the Traveller type universe/setting.
Last edited by TDRandall; 7th February 2009 at 03:14 AM..
Reason: added the "I" to centaur to get centauri
Like you said, it depends on Tech Level (TL), Star Trek in many areas was around TL 20, IIRC, and very little was written for Traveller at those TL's. However you can definitely set your TL at that and adapt other sources.
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Using the Classic Traveller (or Mongoose Traveller) as a system to run Star Trek could be done, in fact I think a friend of mine did so when were at school 20 yrs ago (using CT; we did not have a time machine).
The problem is that Traveller was built to represent "hard SF" not "space-opera" type SF like Star Trek. Having said this, it is really only the fluff that is incompatible; most of the crunch is OK.
The main problem is probably the ships; Traveller ones are small and claustrophobic and their feeling is dirty and gritty. So you would have to find some new deckplans.
You would also have to throw out tech-lvls, as Star Trek has a complete mixture of tech cheek by jowl (Matter transportation side by side with FTL/Gravity manipulation).
The personal weapons are also slightly incompatible as well; most traveller weapons are slug throwers, not energy weapons, as the latter tend to be very bulky because of large belt or back mounted powerpacks. Not very Star-Trek at all.
All in all, it would not be a big wrench. I remember the Classic Traveller books, which are very similar to Mongoose Trav in alot of ways, did state that you could really use the system to represent any kind of SF.
Still, if I wanted to run Star Trek; I would use FASAs original system or else Decipher's Star Trek and not Traveller.
--- what follows is an off topic rant for which I apologise in advance--
And what is it with the Traveller Universe by the way? I have always REALLY disliked it, even though I LOVE Asimov's Foundation series, which has always seemed to me to be where Traveller "came from". I find the OTU so dry and boring and the Aliens so uninspiring for some reason. Maybe it is because I have only ever played it and never DMed (in other words, blame my DM).
I particularly dislike the presentation of adventures for Traveller; Mission on Mithril was one of the WORST presented adventures I have ever read. I guess it might be because, to me as a Biologist, Traveller is a little too generic in the way it designs living things. I also hate the maps; I am someone who likes a bit of detail and colour to my adventures and maps. I never liked alot of classic D&D adventures and maps for the same reason, though I must admit that as I get older they are all growing on me.
I would have spent so much more time playing/DMing Traveller if the Universe was a bit more flavourful but I realise the above is little short of HERESY for the Traveller fraternity. YMMV I guess!
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I'm not familiar with Mongoose's version, but earlier versions of traveller were never really a toolbox of generic ideas. Rather, the setting and rules went hand in hand. I think you would find that FTL travel (jumping 1-6 parsecs using LOTS of fuel, trip taking a week with no communication to normal universe), FTL communications (none), and ship weapons/defenses (missiles/particle accellerators/meson beams on the one hand, sandcasters and black/white spheres for the other) don't really fit into a Star Trek or B5 concepts.
And, as I have stated above, MongT has sidebars with alternate technologies. So this really isn't relevant.
__________________ "This game requires no gameboard because the action takes place in your imagination..." - Cover of Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rules Set 1.
They fully intend to publish the last 2 books before the license expires.
4 Books actually. The Universe of Babylon 5 should be out this month, and the Warships of Babylon 5 and The Trouble with Drazzi (a reprinted adventured with Traveller crunch instead of d20 crunch) are due out in May. I don't know exactly when the Lurker's Guide to the Gaim is due out or if it is suppose to have d20 crunch or Traveller crunch or both. The license, IIRC, expires in the summer.
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Last edited by dmccoy1693; 6th February 2009 at 01:41 PM..
I have all the Decipher Star Trek books and am reading through them now. I am getting close to being finished with the Player's Guide. I got the entire collection brand new online for $35 before shipping. I am quite impressed with it thus far and think it will fit all my Trek needs.
And, as I have stated above, MongT has sidebars with alternate technologies. So this really isn't relevant.
Wow. Just... wow. Call out the guy for not shooting a bulls-eye, when the entire discussion had veered away from the target completely.
Certainly my contribution was at least in the realm of "using traveller for other space settings", as opposed to, say, asking for the source on news of a lapsing license for a different set of books the same company may be making, or an upcoming completely different setting, or pointing out one's opinion on the usefulness of another's post. (apologies to daddystabz and Urizen) Yet you didn't reach out to give them a drubbing.
The original quesiton at least mentions classic traveller, which I spoke from. There's a sense of needing to know where you may be starting FROM, to know how much work may be needed to arrive at the destination you want. Doing so at least prompted a bit more discussion in the following hours after my post when he was concerned with no responses in the first five hours after his initial question.
Since you evidently have access to the books, perhaps you can give fuller detail to us all which will satisfactorily answer the underlying question. The existence of applicable sidebars is good to know, but I expect we both have come across plenty of books whose sidebars aren't worth the amount of page space given to them.
How detailed/useful/easy to implement ARE the sidebars to transfer from the core setting to another? Are they on the thin end of "handwave 1 parsec per week as 1 light year per hour per warp number used" and "the concept of PPGs is best arrived as using the stats for slug throwers and describing them as energy discharges" and "Vulcans are Zhodani except for the following minor changes, and "You can use Hivers with minor changes to get at both Binars and Borg" and "Minbari tanks are equivalent to TL14 FMPG hovertanks"? Or are we talking full blown "here is how you tweek the rules to get a Next Generation era Federation ship and by the way here are the specific stats for a Galaxy class cruiser" and "here is exactly what you need to to change/add/delete to get B5 telepaths" and "here are full racial stats for andolosians, ferengi, Jem'Hadar, and Tholians"? I'd love the latter rather than the former, but I suspect they are somewhere in between, once you remove any references to copyright/trademark names of races and such.
Hey, sell it well enough and I'm in for a set. I admit that when I first heard about Mongoose doing Traveller my response was "do I really need another version of it?" (it will be the ... 6th? incarnation on my shelves) but if it does crossover well and easily then I will gladly shelve my Alternity books up for something shiney and new.
Wow. Just... wow. Call out the guy for not shooting a bulls-eye, when the entire discussion had veered away from the target completely.
Certainly my contribution was at least in the realm of "using traveller for other space settings", as opposed to, say, asking for the source on news of a lapsing license for a different set of books the same company may be making, or an upcoming completely different setting, or pointing out one's opinion on the usefulness of another's post. (apologies to daddystabz and Urizen) Yet you didn't reach out to give them a drubbing.
I said one sentence to amplify a point that may have been missed, and, which is true of the Mongoose edition that was not true of CT. I wasn't trying to "rub your nose in it" or anything.
Quote:
How detailed/useful/easy to implement ARE the sidebars to transfer from the core setting to another?
They're not exhaustive by many means, but they address the basics nuts-and-bolts aspects. Basically, they are replacement rules (with some tables, costs, necessary tweaks) to design your ship with the alternate technology.
Quote:
and "Vulcans are Zhodani except for the following minor changes, and "You can use Hivers with minor changes to get at both Binars and Borg" and "Minbari tanks are equivalent to TL14 FMPG hovertanks"?
Of course not. TMB is a rulebook, not substantially a setting book. The alien section does have a selection of standard alien characteristics and how to handle them in the game. Again, nuts-and-bolts sort of stuff. You'll have to design your own mimbari and vulcans, I'm afraid.
If you've ever seen Fire, Fusion, and Steel for otherwise, um not to my taste TNE, that should give you some idea of the "alternate technologies" assumption going on here. Except it's in the main book instead of a supplement.
__________________ "This game requires no gameboard because the action takes place in your imagination..." - Cover of Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rules Set 1.
Dang it, there goes the itch for a fight. Forgot where I was and was unfarily expecting the worst. My apologies, sir.
Thank you for the further info, Psion. My wallet, however, will likely curse your name since you have now raised this item back onto my purchasing radar.
There has been a rather extensive discussion of Traveller (including MGT but not limited to it) some time ago - look HERE.
Setting-wise, keep in mind that both MGT and CT are quite rules-light, so it's possible to change the fluff quite a bit without changing much of the crunch. For example, skills won't change THAT much; careers will have to be re-written a bit for more exotic settings, but that's not THAT different; PPGs and phasers probably won't be much different rules-wise from slugthrowers and lasers (respectively) even though their descriptions would vary quite a bit. Ship design would need more serious work, though, and I'm waiting in interest to see how the upcoming B5 book would resolve this issue.
That said, Traveller works best (with the least rules modifications, that is)with grittier settings; Alien(s), for example, will work very well with it, with only a few minor rule modifications required (safer low-berths, androids being lower TL and limited FTL communications being the main ones). Not to mention Firefly/Serenity, which is almost 100% compatible with Traveller...
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