Leif's DISCONTINUED GURPS Traveller Game, Recruiting Thread

[Shayuri]

Heh, don't be deceived by the pictures. Traveller is quite futuristic. People don't generally use cutlasses in Traveller, unless they're from a primitive backwater planet. The Imperial Marines are issued cutlasses, but it's more of a Vilani tradition thing than a real combat weapon.

Your average military man will be toting around TL10 combat armor and high energy laser weapons. Well funded units, or space marines, will sometimes have 'battle dress' which is basically power armor, and be toting fusion projectors that can blow through a ship's hull.

Of course, those toys require funds that PC's rarely have access to. Also the Zhodani Consulate's Tech level isn't the same as the Imperium, though it's on par with it.

Running a Zho crew in Imperium space will be a...challenge though.

 

[Bluenose]

3rd or 4th edition GURPS? I have the former, though not the latter. I'll admit to not being the biggest fan of GURPS, but I love Traveller.

As for dirty mind-ripping Zho characters, I'm fine with that. Been there, got the T-shirt. As a suggestion, rather than Imperial space where Zho ships aren't common and are usually on offical business, how about a trader crew in Vargr space. It's unstable enough that a perfectly normal trip into a relatively safe state could suddenly go wrong, forcing a crew to get out of the area while different bands of Vargr are all trying to sort out who the new 'top dog' is.

 

[grufflehead]

Incidentally, GH, I blame Mowgli for almost EVERYTHING, anyway!

And here was me thinking it was DeWar

Conscious I'm not really contributing to the whole brainstorming thing - is there any reading that might be useful to get up to speed on the various factions or shall I just let Mr Google school me?

 

[Scotley]

And here was me thinking it was DeWar

Conscious I'm not really contributing to the whole brainstorming thing - is there any reading that might be useful to get up to speed on the various factions or shall I just let Mr Google school me?

Yeah, I thought DeWar was the official whipping boy too, but then we've known Mowgli a lot longer, so there's a history of blame there.

As for resources:

Leif turned me on this one:
Library - Traveller RPG

and Steve Jackson games' site has a long list of links:

GURPS Traveller: Links

I'm new to GURPS as well, but I did play some Traveler 30 years ago or so.

 

[Scotley]

I am the one that opened the Zhodani Pandora's box with a little help from Leif.

I thought perhaps my character might be a Zhodani Intendant sent to make his way outside Zhodani space as someone in the government decided that the Zhodani should study other cultures with their liars and thieves in order to better understand them. To this end they sent out Zhodani to live in work in other areas and send regular reports back. Not terribly original, but it should make it easy to work with members of other races and go just about anyway the DM wants to run an adventure.

 

[Shayuri]

So basically, you want to be a Zhodani spy/sleeper agent?

That's cool, actually. One question is whether or not the rest of the crew is in on it...are we all Zhodani, have you already begun the grand game of fitting in?

 

[Scotley]

Given the honesty of Zhodani I can't imagine the rest of the crew isn't in on it. It would be up to you all if you want to be Zhodani or not I suppose. Leif suggested the following in an email:

...you can feel free to pass along the report that I have been gifted today with some new inspiration, thanks to the interest expressed by Scotley, Shayuri, Grufflehead, and Bluenose. You'll likely be the crew of a Zhodani ship involved in trade from Zhodani worlds across the border with Vargr worlds, and occasional forays to the fringes of the Imperium. Tech levels of the various races are NOT equal. The Zhodani lead the way in ship technology, the Imperium leads in cybernetics and other medical technologies, as well as weapons technology. (Can you say, "Borg?") The K'kree have made remarkable advances in agriculture. The Vargr, while not generally overtly psionically endowed, have in recent times shown new signs of developing limited psi talents, namely, they seem to be becoming more and more prone to exhibit high levels of Empathic power with extremely long range. The Zhodani are taking great interest in this new talent of the Vargr.

 

[Leif]

I'm totally cool with the party being agents of the Zhodani. Take that and run with it, if you wish!

On an additional note, let it be known that I fully intend to work in other settings and ideas from various GURPS offerings, to include Cyber World, Cyberpunk, and Ultra Tech for sure! Also possibly Ground Forces, perhaps Martial Arts, and almost surely Technomancer at some point. Is this cool with everyone, or would you prefer a more conventional Traveller game?

 

[Leif]

And suddenly the thread fell quiet. *crickets chirping* Did I say something wrong?

RE: "Whipping boy(s)" --Awww, do I have to be limited to just one?? (Actually, I wouldn't have nearly as much fun at ENWorld if Mowgli and DeWar weren't here.)

 

[grufflehead]

Sorry, a couple of the haggises got out of their pens last night so I had to round 'em up and by that time it was late and I was tired...

I'm very happy to try some of those other GURPS books if you want to experiment. I might even be able to borrow some. Meantime, I'll fish out the rulebook and have a read - I'm reasonably familiar with HERO so apart from the numbers, the principle of point buy, skills, advantages/disadvantages etc shouldn't be too, ahem, alien. And I'll try that handy link to the Traveller wiki.

Were you planning on having us ship based a la Farscape/Firefly/Blakes 7/Lexx etc - in which case will we need to fill all the standard pilot/engineer/medic type roles - or will we just book passage if we need to move about and most of the activities will be ground based (or at least on something large and solid like a space station)?

EDIT: WOW! That Traveller Wiki is incredible. I spent 5 minutes reading just the main Zhodani page, so I'd be old(er) and grey(er) before I got through all of it!