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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8371834" data-attributes="member: 42582">I think Classic Traveller is interesting because the rules - written in 1977! - hint at possible approaches to world-building that are more often associated with "modern" RPGs. (I think some of those hints were diluted in later versions, especially the GMing advice in The Traveller Book which leans hard into the standard railroading approaches that were emerging in the early-to-mid 80s.)In my current campaign I came to the first session with three worlds already rolled up (a hostile atmosphere domed-cities world; a water world (hyrdo 9 or A); and a low-TL world with a disease-tainted atmosphere (this was pre-pandemic, should it raise any questions about my good taste!)). I rolled up a starting world after the players had rolled their PCs, and together we helped make sense of it (which is something suggested in Book 3); and then rolled a patron encounter, and related that NPC to the PCs backstories that had been worked out in the course of rolling up PCs and world, and used my pre-prepared worlds to help frame her mission for the PCs.Over the course of about 20 sessions more worlds have been generated, and I've had to locate them all on a star map (though I don't use the canonical sector/subsector arrangement) to keep track of them. I think this is inevitable (or at least hard to avoid) in any "leave blanks" game, especially one like Traveller that places a strong emphasis on the travel/explorative element of play - over time, those blanks get filled in.I've never used any world maps. After an unhappy initial experience with the rules for onworld exploration, which are the one area I've found Classic Traveller to underpeform, onworld exploration hasn't been a bit part of our game. The PCs mostly travel from A to B on a world via their starship or ship's boat, and as far as ATV travel is concerned I've used encounter and evasion rules to manage the pacing rather than focusing on how many miles the PCs have travelled in what precise direction.</blockquote>

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