Payn's Ponderings Traveller Editions

[dragoner]

Creating starships is one thing I have not really ventured into. Typically, my games have been in the Spinward Marches or Trojan Reach where the ships are usually traders and cutters and nothing too militaristic.

I did grab the Cephus package for Foundry and switching it up to run Traveller (pretty easy). Im still trying to get the hang of Foundry, I've been running just discord and using excel files for my PoD game.

What differences does Cephus make, and do you like it better than Mongoose?

Cepheus is sort of like rules light mongoose, though I really do not know the current iteration of mongoose that well. A player in the one game brought in the playtest docs he had printed out, and we looked it over before game, and I passed. At that time I was priming for a M-Space (Basic Role Playing like CoC/RQ) that I ran with my setting also. It could probably mechanically work with my setting, though I don't really know what assumptions are baked in.

There used to be a bigger guild of us spacecraft builders, up until about 5 years ago. I like the simpler rules sets, not to have to use a spreadsheet, and to make deck plans. I posted some over on reddit and Citizens of the Imperium, the official Traveller website. I am heavily influenced by the Terran Trade Authority books, last ship the players had was from there.

 

[Thomas Shey]

And there's been some attempt to broaden its usage in recent years with things like Sword of Cepheus.

 

[dragoner]

Cepheus is a painless rules set I have found

 

[Thomas Shey]

Well, base Cepheus still has, as I recall, a pretty big part of the issues I had, but its still a functional rules system outside of that.

 

[MGibster]

Despite playing RPGs off and on for nigh on 30+ years now, I've never played Traveller. During the d20 boom I purchased that version of Traveller. I even had a campaign in mind involving the PCs part of a fleet from a planet that figured out that humans didn't naturally evolve there. The fleet was out in search of where they came from. Rip off of Battlestar Galactica? Never heard of it. We never played it.

I recently purchased Traveller 2nd edition from Mongoose. A few players in my group are interested so I may get to play it yet. I was planning on setting the campaign on Cthonia in the Orichalc Subsector of Alpha Crucis Sector. The Protectorate of Cthonia has recently decided to leave the Solomani Confederation and join the Imperium so much political fun will occur. Good times.

 

[dragoner]

@Thomas Shey True, though I have met that with having there be more directed chargen, such as roll the die, and pick the table, plus similar to packages, and connections to give a number of points, say 3 to be used to increase characteristics, or skills. I think it is good for players to have at least a 2 or 3 in their primary skill, as well as maybe a characteristic bonus of +1. In campaigns, I will offer enhancements, sometimes when a point of a certain benchmark is reached, at the end of an adventure, plus one to a skill. There is still study and training too.

In a way, it is why I think that M-Space is a little better for characters, though I still like the Book 2 starships the best. I have worked on making a sort of 5e adjacent adaptation, which people liked, some do not like it though, just on the basis of of it having those roots. My setting is mostly about maps, sort of as a learning tool too, and I think that is why some have purchased it for story purposes, Winchell Chung of Atomic Rockets, who has made a lot of maps, said that mine were precise, makes me happy.

In a lot of ways, I am a setting before mechanics person though, 2d6 definitely is limited. Traveller has a huge strength in its community too, by far the largest and most active of any sci-fi rpg I have seen.

 

[payn]

Despite playing RPGs off and on for nigh on 30+ years now, I've never played Traveller. During the d20 boom I purchased that version of Traveller. I even had a campaign in mind involving the PCs part of a fleet from a planet that figured out that humans didn't naturally evolve there. The fleet was out in search of where they came from. Rip off of Battlestar Galactica? Never heard of it. We never played it.

I recently purchased Traveller 2nd edition from Mongoose. A few players in my group are interested so I may get to play it yet. I was planning on setting the campaign on Cthonia in the Orichalc Subsector of Alpha Crucis Sector. The Protectorate of Cthonia has recently decided to leave the Solomani Confederation and join the Imperium so much political fun will occur. Good times.

Nice! I have only run games in the Spinward Marches and Trojan Reach. I tried to set up a psionic underground railroad adventure but my players wanted no part of the Zhodani Imperium cold war so they jumped away. Later, I had them run into some Anceint tech that went pear shaped. After that bad encounter, they wouldnt have anything to do with Ancients either. Eventually, they just wanted to trade goods and pay their bills...

My Pirates of Drinax campaign has been much better.

 

[Thomas Shey]

@Thomas Shey True, though I have met that with having there be more directed chargen, such as roll the die, and pick the table, plus similar to packages, and connections to give a number of points, say 3 to be used to increase characteristics, or skills. I think it is good for players to have at least a 2 or 3 in their primary skill, as well as maybe a characteristic bonus of +1. In campaigns, I will offer enhancements, sometimes when a point of a certain benchmark is reached, at the end of an adventure, plus one to a skill. There is still study and training too.

In a way, it is why I think that M-Space is a little better for characters, though I still like the Book 2 starships the best. I have worked on making a sort of 5e adjacent adaptation, which people liked, some do not like it though, just on the basis of of it having those roots. My setting is mostly about maps, sort of as a learning tool too, and I think that is why some have purchased it for story purposes, Winchell Chung of Atomic Rockets, who has made a lot of maps, said that mine were precise, makes me happy.

In a lot of ways, I am a setting before mechanics person though, 2d6 definitely is limited. Traveller has a huge strength in its community too, by far the largest and most active of any sci-fi rpg I have seen.

I can tolerate a certain small degree of randomness, if it doesn't look likely to deflect concept or leave a character weak in an area that avowedly should be their strength (as I recall, Cepheus Deluxe is a hybrid in its approach here), but I'll be honest; from where I sit there's no such thing as too little randomness. I know others prefer otherwise, but that's where I am.

 

[dragoner]

I can tolerate a certain small degree of randomness, if it doesn't look likely to deflect concept or leave a character weak in an area that avowedly should be their strength (as I recall, Cepheus Deluxe is a hybrid in its approach here), but I'll be honest; from where I sit there's no such thing as too little randomness. I know others prefer otherwise, but that's where I am.

Deluxe does indeed have less randomness in it's chargen. I bought the pdf when it came out, but have not dug into much, I mean I also have a hard copy of Light, from Lulu, I read that too, it was good, except that was about as far as I got. I did a point buy system of 42 points for characteristics, 7 points for characteristics or skills, and 11 for skills; worked pretty good. In T5 Marc Miller also says to just pick the skills.

 

[overgeeked]

I prefer Classic Traveller by a mile. Pear it down to bare bones rules and just make up wild stuff for the PCs to deal with. I love the 2d6. The nice and easy bell curve is enough. Roll stats, pick a career (from the expanded lists), and go.

I stumbled across a blog post from someone who played with Marc Miller detailing how he runs CT. Over here. Really helped me stop worrying about all the pointless and fiddly rules and just get on with playing.