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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9765649" data-attributes="member: 42582">I've read very little sci-fi, but when I first encountered Traveller (in the late 70s, so I was fairly young) it didn't match the sci-fi I was familiar with: Star Wars, Star Trek, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Marvel Comics. When I cam back to it more recently, I told my players (a couple of whom work in the tech industry, one as a fairly serious electrical engineer) that they had to imagine that all the effort that in our world has gone into infotech improvement, in the Traveller universe went into developing fusion and warp drives.(That doesn't deal with the astronomy issues, but my group has not astronomers in it so that's not so bad.)When I ran a couple of sessions for one of my daughters, she did express surprise that, in a game with the tagline "Science Fiction Adventure in the Far Future", people drive cars and use walkie-talkies. When I was her age (and younger), the widespread use of bullet-firing guns as opposed to "blasters" disappointed me a bit. These days, I just see this as part of the setting and accept it.This fits my experience pretty closely, as far as the game is concerned. (Not the reading - I've heard of Dumarest, I think only ever in the context of Traveller, but not read any.)When I came back to the system nearly 10 years ago, with the intention of running it, I had a lot more resources to work with: the notion of "implied setting", for instance; and also all the ideas set out by Vincent Baker in Apocalypse World (and his design blogs/essays over the preceding 10 years). I'd always thought of Traveller as a very simulationist system, but looking at it through the lens of Apocalypse World helped me see it in terms of "if you do it, you do it" - with the GM making moves in response, within the parameters established by the relevant resolution systems and the setting that they help to imply.I also wrote up my own version of the rules, to help bundle together stuff that was spread around different parts of the rule books. Here's an example:[spoiler]Officials and Bureaucracy: Day-to-Day InteractionsTo avoid harassment and arrest by police or other enforcement agencies, and to avoid close inspection of documents by officials (eg police, customs agents, clerks, etc):Throw law level or higher, once per day and whenever officials are encountered (DM -1 if acting illegally).To resolve normal interaction with officials when they are approached (eg avoid close inspection of papers necessary for bank transactions, cargo transfers, personal identification, etc; ensure prompt issue of licence; allow approval of application; etc):Throw 10+ (DMs +5 if Admin-1, +2 per additional level of expertise; or +2 per level of Liaison expertise; a reaction DM may also apply, and inspection always occurs on a reaction result of 2);To be found in compliance if inspected, throw 7+ (DMs +1 per level of Admin expertise; -5 if anything illegal on person, in ship, in papers, etc that are subject to inspection);To avoid discovery of forged or faked documents that are inspected, throw 9+ (DM +2 per level of Forgery expertise).The referee will exercise control over blatant use of forged documents worth over Cr 200, or repeated use in the same location.To bribe a petty official (whose reaction is non-committal or better) to ignore or circumvent laws or regulations, or to ignore poor documentation:Make a cash offer and throw 13+ (or 20+, with additional DM + law level of the world, as set by the referee) (DMs +6 if Bribery-1, +1 per additional level of expertise, +2 if the official’s reaction result is 12; other DMs as appropriate, including if the official is not so petty or the cash offer and/or act solicited are not reasonable); if the result is 9+ (16+ if law level DM is applied), a second throw may be made with the cash offer doubled; if the result is 8 or less (15 or less if law level DM is applied), the bribe is not only refused but reported.To learn the name of an official who will issue licences without hassle, or the location of high quality guns at a low price, or for other activities or to obtain specified items:Throw 10+ (official), 14+ (guns), or an appropriate throw set by the referee (DM +6 if Streetwise-1, +1 per additional level of expertise; or +3 if Liaison-1, +1 per additional level of expertise).[/spoiler]This way of thinking about the game helped me work out how to make it "go". So did the implied setting, which arises from the service/occupation lists, the skills on their various tables, the rules for cargo and passengers and starships, etc. Here's how I've described it:</blockquote>

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