Traveller RPG (Looking for Opinions)

[Parmandur]

Wow. Looking at some of the sub-sectors, a Jump 1 seems excessively limiting. I know space is big, but it seems like there ought to be a way for PCs to reasonably get around a sub-sector in your basic Far Trader ship.

The idea is to simulate the extreme difficulty of travel as in the age of sail. Makes exploration downright dangerous.

 

[pemerton]

@MGibster

Like @dragoner I don't know Mongoose, only Classic

Jump drive fuel, as dragoner has said, is 10% of hull size (= 20 for a 200=ton free trader) multiplied by jump number - that's 20 tons for a free trader to jump 1.

In Classic a M-drive doesn't need its own fuel - it runs off the power plant, and P-plant fuel is 10 times the plant number from the drive chart - so that is 10 tons for a free trader. Therefore, in Classic, the free trader has 30 tons of fuel, which allows a jump-1 plus P-plant/M-drive operation for 4 weeks, before refuelling.

In the 1981 version of Classic the Type Y yacht is respecified as having 50 tons of fuel, which allows for 2 jump-1s plus P-plant/M-drive operation. This helped the group in my game when they had to cover a 2 jump distance without refuelling.

 

[MGibster]

Like @dragoner I don't know Mongoose, only Classic

In the 2nd edition Mongoose Starter Set, for some reason they don't list fuel expenditures for jumps with the ship descriptions. But from what I've seen on some Youtube videos, descriptions of the ships in some other products have those costs. In this version, a Yacht as a Jump 1 and carries 22 tons of fuel.

I get that they're going for an age of sail type thing going here. But there are some sub-sectors where PCs with a reasonable ship, a Far Trader or even a Scout, are limited to a very tiny chain of planets. Are they supposed to just go to a empty parsec and hope there's a gas giant or something? Or are parsecs with nothing in them on the map truly empty?

 

[billd91]

In the 2nd edition Mongoose Starter Set, for some reason they don't list fuel expenditures for jumps with the ship descriptions. But from what I've seen on some Youtube videos, descriptions of the ships in some other products have those costs. In this version, a Yacht as a Jump 1 and carries 22 tons of fuel.

I get that they're going for an age of sail type thing going here. But there are some sub-sectors where PCs with a reasonable ship, a Far Trader or even a Scout, are limited to a very tiny chain of planets. Are they supposed to just go to a empty parsec and hope there's a gas giant or something? Or are parsecs with nothing in them on the map truly empty?

Assume the empty hexes are truly empty... unless there’s a hidden naval refueling base or something. But those would be strategically placed.
And yes, jump challenges are part of the game and why a good main string of systems accessible to jump-1 vessels are core to cultural areas in the official Traveller universe.

But even if PCs can’t get their own ship to some systems, there are liners they may be able to book passage on for certain adventure hooks.

 

[pemerton]

In the 2nd edition Mongoose Starter Set, for some reason they don't list fuel expenditures for jumps with the ship descriptions. But from what I've seen on some Youtube videos, descriptions of the ships in some other products have those costs. In this version, a Yacht as a Jump 1 and carries 22 tons of fuel.

That sounds like it is the same fuel per jump as Classic (so enough fuel for one jump-1 by a 200 ton vessel) but a different rule for P-plant fuel (I'm guessing 1% of hull size times P-plant drive number, which would be 2 tons for a 200 ton P-1 vessel).

there are some sub-sectors where PCs with a reasonable ship, a Far Trader or even a Scout, are limited to a very tiny chain of planets. Are they supposed to just go to a empty parsec and hope there's a gas giant or something? Or are parsecs with nothing in them on the map truly empty?

As far as I know, empty hexes are empty.

If you're planning on running a game with a pre-drawn starmap, I'd suggest choosing a subsector with a good collection of systems.

Our first eleven sessions involved the PCs visiting six worlds, none more than Jump-1 from at least one other. PC backstories referenced two more worlds, one of which is also within Jump-1 on the map, the other within Jump-2. I built up the starmap over the course of those sessions, and in its current version it has 13 systems plus an outstation, all within Jump-1 of at least one other system except for that one which is a Jump-2 distance from the others.

The twelfth session involved a mis-jump which sent the characters to a different world, and so far this new starmap only has two worlds sketched out. (We've played fourteen sessions in total.)

 

[MGibster]

That sounds like it is the same fuel per jump as Classic (so enough fuel for one jump-1 by a 200 ton vessel) but a different rule for P-plant fuel (I'm guessing 1% of hull size times P-plant drive number, which would be 2 tons for a 200 ton P-1 vessel).

Fair enough. I really appreciate the time you, billd91, Parmandur, Darren, Dragoner and others have patiently answered my various questions and offered suggestions.

As far as I know, empty hexes are empty.

I've been overthinking this I think. A ship with a fuel scoop ought to be able to collect hydrogen from non-planetary sources like dust clouds and then there's comets and perhaps other sources they can tap that I'm not thinking of. Relying on those is certainly riskier than using using an established route but I suppose it's possible.

If you're planning on running a game with a pre-drawn starmap, I'd suggest choosing a subsector with a good collection of systems.

I'm considering something in the Third Imperium near the border with Solamani Confederation with tensions between the two about to become hairy.

 

[dragoner]

There are two other options, one is to pick somewhere like the Spinward Main to adventure: The Traveller Map

The non-OTU alternate is to assume that there are rogues in the empty hexes: Rogue planets could outnumber the stars

 

[dragoner]

Regina has a lot written about it: Regina (world) - Traveller

It sits toward the top of the Spinward Main: Spinward Main - Traveller

 

[pemerton]

I want to make a plug for random world generation and random patron generation. I think this is one of the strengths of Traveller!

Why does a shopkeeper on this low-population desert world want to hire a motley crew to do something-or-other? Let's play and find out!

(I recognise this isn't the only way, and that there's a lot of pre-generated material out there. But it's something I really like about Traveller.)

 

[dragoner]

I use my own setting, mostly, just with real star maps I made. Though I would recommend one of the standard settings just to lessen the work of learning a new system, and creating a setting, at least at first.