Traveller RPG (Looking for Opinions)

[payn]

Yeah you can really bork your stat rolls, but honestly having 1 strong physical stat (Str, Agi, End) and 1 strong mental attribute (Int, Edu, Soc) is enough to make a decent character in Traveller. Paying very close attention to skill tables and skill choices when you get to make them is important. Every career has chances to improve ability attributes!

I do have a house rule for chargen that I give my players two mulligans for the entirety of generation. They can use it on attribute rolls, qualification rolls, benefit rolls, etc.

The party I have right now for my Pirates of Drinax campaign looks like this;
Merchant Marine with skills in piloting and trading.
Ex-Navy comms officer with strong skills in sensors and leadership tactics
Ex-Marine grunt with skills in heavy weapons and leadership tactics
An Aslan doctor with strong skills in xenobiology
An of course, a nearly useless debutante that has loads of credits and connections everywhere.

A pretty diverse team that can solve just about any problem one way or another. I certainly enjoy the players knack for avoiding combat when possible. Seems they are always looking for clever solutions. A very refreshing break from traditional kill everything and ask questions later gaming.

 

[Derren]

It's true, the core rule book does a poor job of differentiating species. I do really enjoy the Third Imperium setting, though most of the species are just, lion people, dog people, bug people, etc.

Another push for the Pirates of Drinax campaign product is that they really flesh out the Aslan species. I dont like everything they did, (Aslan males can do this, Aslan females can do that), but the culture and new careers makes a new species finally feel like it.

The problem with Aslan is the special way they roll SOC . Even when you roll completely average you end up with the minimum value of 3. To go higher you need to roll well several times in a row with no bad roll in between.
And as SOC also gets halved when interacting with other races you will nearly always end up with the lowest of the low.
That might be a feature showing that the Aslan society is very one sided, but it means that certain professions are pretty much closed to Aslan.

Also, depending on the edition their looks change a lot. In Classic they were hairy humans, Mongoose 1E made them full furry lions and in Mongoose 2E they are back to hairy humans I think.

 

[aramis erak]

While I try to adapt the campaign to best suit the characters, typically I pitch 2-3 campaign ideas to my group, they select which one they prefer, and then they make characters suited for that campaign. This might be a fun little exercise on how to run a more sandbox game for me though.

Note that Mongoose Traveller (MgT) has a non-random option for char gen. Using it robs some of the feel of Traveller, but it's an option. MgT also has an option for adding key skills to characters after random gen. I don't much like either of those, but YMMV.

 

[amethal]

Note that Mongoose Traveller (MgT) has a non-random option for char gen. Using it robs some of the feel of Traveller, but it's an option. MgT also has an option for adding key skills to characters after random gen. I don't much like either of those, but YMMV.

I don't like them much either, but I can see why they did it. (Although I thought adding the key skills afterwards was part of the character generation process, rather than being an option.)

If you're running a traditional free-form game then I agree it detracts from the distinct feel of Traveller. However, if you've decided to play Pirates of Drinax (say) then you need characters who can at least "get by" as pirates, and the dice alone might not give you that.

 

[payn]

The problem with Aslan is the special way they roll SOC . Even when you roll completely average you end up with the minimum value of 3. To go higher you need to roll well several times in a row with no bad roll in between.
And as SOC also gets halved when interacting with other races you will nearly always end up with the lowest of the low.
That might be a feature showing that the Aslan society is very one sided, but it means that certain professions are pretty much closed to Aslan.

Also, depending on the edition their looks change a lot. In Classic they were hairy humans, Mongoose 1E made them full furry lions and in Mongoose 2E they are back to hairy humans I think.

Are you pulling your Aslan info from a supplement book? Based on the thorough description in Pirates of Drinax supplement, Aslan dont seem to operate the way you imply on Soc skill. They also created a long list of career options just for Aslan. To be fair, they basically just give you the same skill packages as the core rulebook, but the career and life events and are different, which gives alien flavor to the chargen process.

Also, for Mongoose T2 Aslan are back to being lion like, although, some art makes them look like upright lions and others makes them look like human-lion hybrids. Confusing on Mongooses' part.

 

[Derren]

Are you pulling your Aslan info from a supplement book? Based on the thorough description in Pirates of Drinax supplement, Aslan dont seem to operate the way you imply on Soc skill. They also created a long list of career options just for Aslan. To be fair, they basically just give you the same skill packages as the core rulebook, but the career and life events and are different, which gives alien flavor to the chargen process.

Also, for Mongoose T2 Aslan are back to being lion like, although, some art makes them look like upright lions and others makes them look like human-lion hybrids. Confusing on Mongooses' part.

I am basing it on the Mongoose Alien 1: Aslan book, although the stat generation seems to be the same in classic.

SOC is equal to your territory which starts as 0. You have 3 rolls which represent your ancestors success or failure to aquire territory with a roll of 7 being no change, higher you gain territory, lower you lose it and 2 means you lose everything.

 

[aramis erak]

Are you pulling your Aslan info from a supplement book? Based on the thorough description in Pirates of Drinax supplement, Aslan dont seem to operate the way you imply on Soc skill. They also created a long list of career options just for Aslan. To be fair, they basically just give you the same skill packages as the core rulebook, but the career and life events and are different, which gives alien flavor to the chargen process.

Also, for Mongoose T2 Aslan are back to being lion like, although, some art makes them look like upright lions and others makes them look like human-lion hybrids. Confusing on Mongooses' part.

‹soapbox›
Mongoose mangled the aliens in ALL of their presentations; Aslan for T5 are NOT lion-men, are digitigrade, sexist in a quirky extreme...
Vargr are wolf-like, not dog-like in all non-Mongoose editions.
Droyne are the closest, but having had much communication with Don while he was writing it, he was unhappy with changes forced by Mongoose. (he bounced some pre-submission drafts off a few of us at COTI.)
Essentially, if you're going OTU, don't trust mongoose sources.
Heck, if doing the OTU, don't use mongoose sources; they're all wrong to some degree.

As a genre-engine, it's fine. As an OTU engine? Not good. T20 is much better...
‹/soapbox›

 

[practicalm]

I'm in a GURPS Traveller game right now and while our crew has been making a pretty good amount it requires the following.
Someone with really good Merchant skills - Speculative trades are where it's at. The problem is this needs a pretty good amount of seed capital.
For hired freight and passengers you have to stay off the main trade lanes as if the WTN is too good it's been picked up by larger companies.

The best approach is reach out to different groups and organizations and look for contract gigs. Stay at a planet for a bit and explore around looking for side jobs. Use the Scout and Military contacts you have as a player and look for things only a small group can do.

 

[payn]

‹soapbox›
Mongoose mangled the aliens in ALL of their presentations; Aslan for T5 are NOT lion-men, are digitigrade, sexist in a quirky extreme...
Vargr are wolf-like, not dog-like in all non-Mongoose editions.
Droyne are the closest, but having had much communication with Don while he was writing it, he was unhappy with changes forced by Mongoose. (he bounced some pre-submission drafts off a few of us at COTI.)
Essentially, if you're going OTU, don't trust mongoose sources.
Heck, if doing the OTU, don't use mongoose sources; they're all wrong to some degree.

As a genre-engine, it's fine. As an OTU engine? Not good. T20 is much better...
‹/soapbox›

I dont have a ton of pre-Mongoose Traveller experience, so I appreciate the comments.

@OP I'd agree that the genre engine is good for Mongoose Traveller, but the aliens are a weak point, particularly with the OTU setting. Our games are 90% human so it hasnt been an issue.

 

[MGibster]

@OP I'd agree that the genre engine is good for Mongoose Traveller, but the aliens are a weak point, particularly with the OTU setting. Our games are 90% human so it hasnt been an issue.

I just got the Traveller Starter Set in the mail today. After a cursory glance, I'm going to limit the PCs to human. The alien section seems particularly weak. I plan on having aliens in the game but I'm not going to allow PCs to start as one.