Can you tell me more about Traveller? (Forked Thread: Space RPGs?)

[Korgoth]

I actually am not too interested in the Third Imperium setting either. As someone who just a week ago never knew that Traveller existed, the amount of information is just too much for me. The combination of this huge established setting to sift through and my own inclinations for creations (I'll admit it I am a homebrewer at heart when it comes to RPGs and settings) I don't have much need for the Third Imperium info.


In the other thread this one forked from, you mentioned you wouldn't touch the Mongoose version of Traveller. Any particular reasons why or just because it comes without as many 'strings attached'? Is the resolution system in CT still 2d6+abilites+skills+/-modifiers?

Actually the "system" in CT is more open than that. For combat, the base roll is 8+, and you get bonuses and penalties based on whether your Dex is high or low for that weapon (example: the shotgun has a low minimum but requires a high value to get a bonus), skill rating, range and the armor the target is wearing.

For things outside of personal and ship combat it is left rather freeform. The expectation seems to be that the Ref will come up with target numbers on the spot; your roll will usually be modified by your skill level and maybe by your attribute if the Ref says so. Some Refs use a universal system (like the "6-8-10" diff ratings, with standard attribute bonues) whereas others may just do spot rulings. Either basically works fine.

On Mongoose, I have heard rumors that there is some rules weirdness, like being able to armor up civilian ships to be impervious to missiles or something like that. Basically every Mongoose product I've ever bought has had crazy, obviously untested stuff in it that blew my mind with how stupid I thought it was. So I've sworn off buying Mongoose stuff. I actually have no idea how married MongTrav is to the Third Imperium setting.

Anyway, I like the bare bones basic rules and minimalist feel of the 3 LBBs. Then it can be as fancy or as sparing as I choose for it to be. If you do want to go that route, you can get the 3 LBBs in a few different ways. QLI (the publishers of T20) did a reprint that was about 10-12 bucks, but I've heard that their website may be dodgy as far as ordering goes, so you might go with a retailer (online or otherwise). I think this book may be available through Mark Miller's company FFE (Far Future Enterprises), and the product code for it is FE 000. Then there's FE 001 "The Classic Books", which gives you Books 0-8 (the 3 LBBs are 1-3; 0 is an introduction). The later books have interesting stuff in them, but I use almost none of it personally.

 

[RFisher]

I actually am not too interested in the Third Imperium setting either. As someone who just a week ago never knew that Traveller existed, the amount of information is just too much for me. The combination of this huge established setting to sift through and my own inclinations for creations (I'll admit it I am a homebrewer at heart when it comes to RPGs and settings) I don't have much need for the Third Imperium info.

I tend to feel the same way.

But when I do use the 3I stuff, I just use as much as I want and ignore the rest. And I feel free to alter canon at whim.

I’m a big fan of treating published settings as if they were homebrew.

 

[Shades of Green]

On Mongoose, I have heard rumors that there is some rules weirdness, like being able to armor up civilian ships to be impervious to missiles or something like that. Basically every Mongoose product I've ever bought has had crazy, obviously untested stuff in it that blew my mind with how stupid I thought it was. So I've sworn off buying Mongoose stuff. I actually have no idea how married MongTrav is to the Third Imperium setting.

I love CT, and I could tel you that Mongoose Traveller is actually quite good, and more or less a spiritual successor to CT. Yes, you could design any ship to have a lot of armor, but you could do that in CT's High Guard (AKA LBB5 or Book 5) as well. It would be quite expensive in both versions, and can't be added after the ship is built - only during the design process (like in HG). Sure, there are a few rule holes and issues (such as the personal armor rules being mediocre and having no energy point system for ships), but nothing that a few house-rules couldn't solve.

I was part of its public playtest, and Mongoose has listened to the playtesters on several key subjects, ridding itself from a few very bad design error that were in the first draft.

The rules feel like Traveller and are quite light and easy to use.

But CT is also a great choice as well if you like it even more rules-light and like to wing it a lot...

 

[mmadsen]

However, Traveller has long been associated with the Official Traveller Universe (OTU), an Asimov-style (so I've been told) space-opera affair centered on the Third Imperium.

Shades of Green, first, thanks for the excellent write-up, but, second, you really, really need to get around to reading Asimov's Foundation trilogy. Lord of the Rings is to D&D as Foundation is to Traveller. It's not the end-all, be-all, but it is practically the Canon. (Oh, and it's no longer a trilogy, of course, but an industry unto to itself.)

 

[Storm Raven]

Shades of Green, first, thanks for the excellent write-up, but, second, you really, really need to get around to reading Asimov's Foundation trilogy. Lord of the Rings is to D&D as Foundation is to Traveller. It's not the end-all, be-all, but it is practically the Canon. (Oh, and it's no longer a trilogy, of course, but an industry unto to itself.)

The Traveller setting (and to a certain extent game assumptions) is essentially a grab-bag of Campbellian science fiction (as in John Campbell, longtime editor of Astounding Science Fiction). Campbell's two biggest protoges were Isaac Asimov and Robert A. Heinlein (although he alienated both of them over time with his less than pleasant personality). But you can clearly see their influence on Traveller, as well as the influence of other "Campbell-era" writers like van Vogt, Sturgeon, Simak, Blish, Brunner, and del Rey (among others), as well as later authors influenced by the era (such a Niven and Pournelle, I think that the original books even talked about Ringworlds and Dyson Spheres). Pretty much any story by one of these authors could be fairly easily translated into a Traveller adventure hook.

 

[Agemegos]

Shades of Green, first, thanks for the excellent write-up, but, second, you really, really need to get around to reading Asimov's Foundation trilogy. Lord of the Rings is to D&D as Foundation is to Traveller. It's not the end-all, be-all, but it is practically the Canon. (Oh, and it's no longer a trilogy, of course, but an industry unto to itself.)

The Dumarest saga by E.C. Tubb is a more obvious influence on Traveller than Asimov's stuff. I'd even rate Poul Anderson's Technic History (Polesotechnic League stories and Flandry of Terra) as more Traveller-like than Asimov's Foundation setting.

 

[mmadsen]

A basic concept of Traveller is that communications are limited to the speed of travel - there is no "hyperwave" or "subspace", so the fastest way you could communicate is by courier ships, and these at best could cross 6 parsecs (about 19 light-years) in a week-long Jump. Most ships are far slower - a week-long Jump for them cross less parsecs (a parsec is approximately 3.26 light-years). Due to this communication lag, large interstellar governments have to be fairly decentralized - as asking for specific orders would take week, months, or even years. This is a good thing for the game as it means that PCs in a frontier area are on their own, with the major authority figures tucked away a few weeks (at most) of jumps away.

This, as you note, is an excellent example of designing the "magic" of a game system so that it leads to good game play. It' also, oddly, not like Asimov's Foundation, which does feature faster-than-light communication -- although, I assume, it's short-range compared to the breadth of the empire.

 

[qstor]

I actually am not too interested in the Third Imperium setting either. As someone who just a week ago never knew that Traveller existed, the amount of information is just too much for me. The combination of this huge established setting to sift through and my own inclinations for creations (I'll admit it I am a homebrewer at heart when it comes to RPGs and settings) I don't have much need for the Third Imperium info.

Well...any rules version you use gives you the opportunity to generate worlds. Traveller stats with a 'subsector' so you can generate a random subsector and maybe go from there.
GURPS Space is used for GURPS Traveller to generate aliens and worlds. Traveller d20 (T20) uses rules very similar to generate worlds so does Mongoose Traveller. So making your own setting is pretty easy.

I happen to enjoy the Third Imperium setting so that's my choice. There's a amount of material on the founding of the Imperium to the New Era period which you mentioned you found staggering, but I like the detail in the setting. But as I mentioned before generating your own setting is easy.

OH...one thing that I didnt see mentioned on either of these threads IIRC is that there is now a HERO version of Traveller so if you're a fan of the HERO rules system you're in luck.

Mike

 

[qstor]

The Dumarest saga by E.C. Tubb is a more obvious influence on Traveller than Asimov's stuff. I'd even rate Poul Anderson's Technic History (Polesotechnic League stories and Flandry of Terra) as more Traveller-like than Asimov's Foundation setting.

For me its Mote in the God's Eye or the Known Space material both by Niven.

Mike

 

[Woas]

Just to update you all. So far myself an a few gaming buddies I have shown the book to are having a blast just making characters. I'm also having a blast rolling up random planets and comming up with reasons for all the parts to fit together.

I've also been having fun making ships. But I was wondering how one goes about making a custom ship plan? The ship schematics that are present in the book are nice, but is there a way to create your own? For example, could you make a 100 dTon ship by using a piece of graph paper, assigning each block a tonnage and rearranging them? I just counted all the squares of the Type S and giving some wiggle room for the Fuel areas where I can't see the grid exactly, it does seem like there is only 100 boxes. Although - again using the standard Type S as an example - The PP, J-Drives and M-Drives should take up 16 tons of space but only take up 12 squares. Also the cargo area says 23 tons, but the cargo area only would have 12 tons.. unless theres some clause stating the ceiling was higher or something, effectively doubling the space. So it doesn't feel very scaled in some respects. But on the other hand, eye-balling the fuel area and overlaying an imaginary grid, there is 24 tons of fuel and it does look like it could be about that if 1 'square' was '1 ton'. Same with the staterooms.

Or is it more free-form than that; draw a cool design and 'scale' the available room inside it. I mean technically if you took the plans of a Type S and just divided each box in two, you'd have a 200 dTon ship in a wedge shape...