Traveller General

The Hydrogen Must Flow.

Traveller is a classic science fiction system first released in 1976. In its original release it was a general purpose SF system, but a setting was soon developed called The Third Imperium, based on classic space opera tropes of the 60s, 70s, and 80s, with a slight noir tint.
Though it can support a wide range of game types, the classic campaign involves a group of retired veterans tooling around in a spaceship, taking whatever jobs they can find in a desperate bid to stay in business, a la Firefly or Cowboy Bebop.


Master Folders:
mega.nz/#F!WRQnUIJQ!RWEzUCE1dTTxdQDLkHvNfg
mediafire.com/folder/puqo88hi0x9vs/TRAVELLER
mediafire.com/folder/lcajhdj00lsyo/MONGOOSE_TRAVELLER
4shared.com/folder/SgVP1VoX/Traveller.html

>Classic
mega.co.nz/#F!DkdyQITY!Y1VxiiEtuqDwhHo5wEw65w
>Mongoose
mega.co.nz/#F!yg8gXRDJ!NMUmuB-cH9fINnkRv0242A
Galactic Maps:
travellermap.com/
utzig.com/traveller/iai.shtml

Resources:
1d4chan.org/wiki/Traveller
zho.berka.com/
travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/
wiki.travellerrpg.com/Main_Page
freelancetraveller.com/index.html

Music to Explosive Decompression to:
>Old Timey Space music
youtube.com/watch?v=w34fSnJNP-4&list=RD02FH8lvwXx_Y8
youtube.com/watch?v=w0cbkOm9p1k
youtube.com/watch?v=MDXfQTD_rgQ
youtube.com/watch?v=FH8lvwXx_Y8
>Slough Feg
youtube.com/watch?v=ZM7DJqiYonw&list=PL8DEC72A8939762D4
>Goldsmith - Alien Soundtrack
youtube.com/watch?v=jwCcrhUdgOI&list=PL56A81A723975A961
>Herrmann - The Day the Earth Stood Still
youtube.com/watch?v=3ULhiVqeF5U
>Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygene
youtube.com/watch?v=TlBIQqIPaGg
>Tangerine Dream - Hyberborea
youtube.com/watch?v=9LOZbdsuWSg

Other urls found in this thread:

travellerrpg.com/CotI/Gallery/images/992/medium/1_beo-top-side.png
elvwood.org/Traveller/beowulf.jpg
traveller.chromeblack.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/FreeTrader_BeowulfBoultonStyle3.png
youtube.com/watch?v=mkDs96ykSDU
youtube.com/watch?v=V6aiz_98_LU
youtube.com/watch?v=dayvsQMk1Qo
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_pumped_laser
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Excalibur
nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/#public
blackhat.co.uk/product-category/28mm-miniatures/28mm-miniatures-cobalt-1-sf/28mm-miniatures-cobalt-1-sf-ar-men/
daemonscape.com/contents/en-uk/d5.html
travellermap.com/
app.roll20.net/campaigns/details/558520/tiji-sector
twitter.com/NSFWRedditGif

So I went to sleep last night and overslept and the last Traveller General died. Any one have any good stories from recent Traveller games? Any cool worlds/systems/characters?

Other than that, who else has problems with Mongoose Publishing's poor quality control and/or editorial process?

Pic only partially related to Traveller

Let's talk about Trade & Passage, I guess?

Would anyone install Barracks space specifically for bunking Basic/Standard passengers? Give them a discount rather than charge full price seeing as they're basically hot bunking in open space with 3 to 7 other people?
Who takes on mail? Is it worth it? Can it be captured for ransom if it's that valuable?
Thoughts and Ideas.

Hey Travellers

I'm planning out a large dioarama featuring a landed free trader (scratch built).

Any art or models of the Beowulf style freighter would be appreciated, especially if it has details of the aft section.

Got any sources of good 28mm figures that could be travellers or low port personnel?

Ad Astra Games has one in 1:2500, (1.7"/43mm) and a quick Google search turned up these pics:
travellerrpg.com/CotI/Gallery/images/992/medium/1_beo-top-side.png
elvwood.org/Traveller/beowulf.jpg
traveller.chromeblack.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/FreeTrader_BeowulfBoultonStyle3.png

Thanks for the pick.

If I don't burn out on this whole project, the final model would be 25" long, to be in scale with 28mm figs!

Reaper has a bunch of cheap miniatures, you might find some that would work for service crew and what-not.

So I'm fairly new to table top roleplay in general (have played a few sessions of D&D and I am currently GM for a campaign that has been currently going for a few months) I'm getting curious about other games and systems. Traveller interests me because I'm a big star trek fan and I would like to do something set in space, preferably something exploration based. I guess my question come down to this, which edition of Traveller would you guys recommend for someone that is new to Traveller? Sorry if my question is vague, I haven't put A WHOLE LOT of thought into what I want to do exactly and I've really only been toying with ideas on my head, bit a space campaign intrigues me.

This question gets asked every thread, so there it's not a problem, at least we get the answer out early this time.
Mongoose Traveller is the "easiest" to adapt to. It's rules are pretty straight forward and simple to grasp and Mongoose gives plenty of tables for random charts if you don't want to use DM Fiat for things like availability of goods.
It's currently undergoing an upgrade to a 2nd edition so not all the books have been re-released yet(Currently MgT 2nd only has the Core Rulebook, High Guard[ship building rules], and Central Supply Catalog[extra items and stuff], but it's mostly compatable with MgT 1). Most are available as PDFs in any case.
Character Creation should be done as a group, and make sure you read through it and understand the characteristics and skills, and how they interact.
It's actually a much simpler system than D&D when you get down to the bones of the game.

Previous thread:

...

I'm trying to make the basics of a Traveller campaign where the players try and rediscover Earth. The location has been lost after several millennia, I just need to figure out what kind of things to have them do. I also want some ideas as to why humanity might forget its home planet.

The catalyst for the plot is a blind j-drive engineer looking for working passage back home. . .

Full circle, man. That's basically the hook for E.C. Tubb's Dumarest of Terra books, which were a big influence on Traveller.
I gather from talking to a fan that the way it goes in those books is that the galaxy's a big place, and old, and it has the whole rising and falling civilizations thing going on. There are a number of worlds that claimed to be Earth or its earliest colony or whaever, and rumors floating around that it's out this way or that, because various stellar Empires through history have used the memory of Earth to their advantage.

You may also want to read some of Tubb's Dumarest books, Andre Norton's Star Rangers, Poul Anderson's The Horn of Time the Hunter, and the summary of "the Event" in the RPG Ashen Stars.

A Traveller thread! I'll post a few pictures from my campaign.

Herein lies a simple hover forklift, simple in concept, many uses

You probably want some kind of war where important data repositories were destroyed, explaining why no one knows where Earth is anymore (why keep nav data in your computer when you can just use the local net to plot your jump?)
As for what they can do: 1D
1: Exploring recovering stellar systems and rummaging through ruins.
2: Establishing contact with other lost societies that were unable to maintain their technology.
3: Recovering data and supplies (possibly equipment) from derelict ships.
4: Doing the odd job for the local mafia for a hint of the possibility of the chance for some partially uncorrupted data from an ancient computer.
5: Engaging in 2nd First Contact with alien civilizations.
6: Boning said aliens.

I like Graboids so I threw a few at the players on a desert planet

The asteroid that collided/fused with a satellite they were supposed to pick up was dubbed Turd Rock.

my players had to be impromptu grav-racers once and had to decode what their trucker lingo pit crew were saying.

This looks like a neat cargo/freight ship right? I never got the chance to use it.

Players almost choose this as a their mothership

what theyeventually settled on

This used to be my title card for a month

/saved

How about a Space Elevator that isn't actually anchored to the planet it services?

For point of reference, the cylinder habitats are 30km in diameter.

They both look pretty neat.
The only thing I'd be concerned about in the Spectre is the miniscule cargo space, but given the name implies it's a spy-ship, I guess that's not a problem?

I ran a corny Day of the Dead mission with the players. It was stupid, dumb, meme-tatic, trope filled fun.

What's our favourite rendition of pic-related?
youtube.com/watch?v=mkDs96ykSDU
is mine, it's got the perfect levels of being shitty and being folky

I was going to say, 'Cargo Bay not seen, you have X amount of tons of space left after all other bits and pieces of the ship are accounted for'

I 'attempted' to make a ship interface for the AI core the players found once. I can't remember if I even used this picture or not.

Classic Traveller ship

A crap bar they used to visit

This saved my bacon when I was trying to run chargen with 3 new players all at once over roll20

its funny

all I got on the Beowulf and its not much

Mongoose 2e actually has one of these in the corebook.
No idea how useful it is, and it's split across two pages, which would be fine in print but it's awkward in pdf format.
Better than nothing I guess?

I had a homemade 2 page quick reference sheet for combat, skills, vehicle stuff, and space stuff but all I can find is the skills pdf

found vehicles.

It is actually a lot more helpful then you think, especially with 3 brand new players. Simple, straight, easy.

>Endurance suggested for carousing

My sophont of Zhodani descent.
No Traveller campaign (or any campaign for that matter) is complete without a dramatic drinking contest

youtube.com/watch?v=V6aiz_98_LU
was my first exposure to the song, and the one I still like best

default title card

my players were also infamously late on roll20; whenever that happened I changed their character pics to one of the following and locked their profile so they couldn't change it the rest of the night.

More like the lack of state rooms. There's the captain's room and only one more.

It took me hours to roll my own subsystem with all the worlds, cultures, social norms, tech levels, etc.. Then I found that the donjon site has an auto-generator for Traveller subsystems. The donjon generator is great for making a system on the fly, but as much as a pain as rolling your own subsystem and all the time it takes, by the time you're done making the subsystem, you know that puppy like the back of your hand.

Some of the shadiest merchants to run a monopoly on a desert planet.

Your comms are full of static and this is the last place to get fuel on this god forsaken sand planet, wyd?

Old traveller art?

Hover forklift, beta version

My players landed on a barbarian world and asked me what the barbarians looked like.

I had to improvise.

Later they met barbarians that lived on a coast and they asked what they looked like.

I had to improvise again.

Another time my players were on a ship that got attacked by skimmers.

This was their captain and this is what was looped in the background.

youtube.com/watch?v=dayvsQMk1Qo

Yes. The alien is a Schalli, which places the picture in Old Expanses.

Howdy folks. Anybody know how compatible the original little-black-book traveller is with MgT2? I'm looking at starting a campaign for my FLGS with MgT2, and want to run the original Imperial Fringe campaign that came in the old deluxe edition box for the first rendition of Traveller in the days of yore.

Anybody got tips, advice, or wisdom for this? Can it be done? Should it be done?

The lego one makes more sense, actually. Why would you need an extending mast, when you can just fly up to the level of the rack you need?

Plots and mechanics are usually well separated in Traveller adventures, and only a couple editions use different PC mortality assumptions (TNE and TH being the two big ones) so adventures are usually very portable. This is particularly the case when porting TO an edition with a lot of "stuff" support, so you don't have to guess what the adventure specific thingy does in the edition you are using.

Imperial Fringe is typical Classic in that it is a framework for adventure with a few specific tools, but not a hardwired minute to minute straightjacket. Use the mechanical bits from MGT2, the plot hooks from Imperial Fringe, and away you go. As long as the bits and pieces you need are in MGT2, you can ignore the CT versions in Imperial Fringe unless you really want to keep that rendition. A prime example is the Scout Ship. The Mongoose Scout is not the same ship layout as the CT Scout, but they are both Scouts. Use whichever one you like.

...

Thanks for the helpful response, user!

Since D20 Future and Alternity Star*Drive "borrowed" a lot of its vibe from Traveller, I figure we can borrow their ships.

Great answer, cheers!

Posting some Traveller-esque ways to start the players off.

Let's be honest, the players are doing 6 regardless

Are these manga or translated novels?

The captains got a double-sized stateroom, AND an office the size of a normal stateroom. I'm guessing it's effectively a 1-person yacht, i.e. the ship doesn't have an actual mission, it's just a star-hopping RV.

Those are actually English novels translated into Japanese. It's the Honor Harrington series, which is available for free from the author.

Kick ass chick from Space!Britain commands a ship and does the right thing, no matter how much shit she gets from the Space!Nobles. The main antagonist is Space!Arabia, and they do some pretty nasty stuff in the name of winning their war with Space!UK.

The author actually handles space combat really fucking well, most of it takes place over the course of a few hours, and there's heavy reliance on some kind of hardish sci-fi weaponry.

Its been a while since I've read them, okay?

Overall its a really well written series, IMO, that explores morality and human relationships, while at the same time delivering an interesting sci-fi read.

Not to mention killing POV characters at a near GRRM clip.

Yes, that too.

Post books for inspiration
Pic related is my current campaign.

>heavy reliance on some kind of hardish sci-fi weaponry.
You mean Bomb-Pumped Lasers? It's actually one of the missiles available in MgT 2e High Guard. It's like the Cabasa Howitzer, but instead of using a solid homongenous material you have rods of an excitable material to focus the radiation in specific arcs.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_pumped_laser
The Project Excalibur page even links to HH
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Excalibur

Oh I know the series.
The one where he felt Hornblower.. er Honor should have died just a bit after
THIS ONE but fans and publisher demands kept her going even if on the periphery.
(I'm re-reading and on this one right now)
The fact that she did keep living has sort of earned her a bit of a Mary Sue rep despite all the bad shit that happens to her and those surrounding her.

Hang with the Salamander and you are gonna get burned.
She's as Mary Sue as Richard Sharpe is Gary Stu.


I find the other characters and plot are kind of "Meh" later Cauldron of Ghosts made me go back and re-read the others.
I haven't finished it and have a ton of stuff I will choose over going back for a few months.

- and I can always re-read lt. Leary.

LIVE SPACEWALK

nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/#public

Makes you want to run orbital dont it?

Whoa.

>You mean Bomb-Pumped Lasers? It's actually one of the missiles available in MgT 2e High Guard. It's like the Cabasa Howitzer, but instead of using a solid homongenous material you have rods of an excitable material to focus the radiation in specific arcs.
These were also part of TNE.

"Well, it’s actually – I originally projected the series to go about eight books, and Honor was supposed to die about mid-point in the series, at which point we would find out about the real secret villains, etc. etc. that were running around. And there was supposed to be a twenty-year hiatus in the Honorverse time stream in which her children would grow up, graduate from the Academy, and deal with them.

Obviously, my original estimate was a little off, since when I got to the point in the story arc where she was supposed to die, it was up to book fifteen."

It was actually going to be either the assassination by Mesa or the Battle of Manticore, several books further down the line.

The reason she didn't was because his wife told him not to kill her off because it would upset the fans.

Eric Flint (the co-author of Cauldron of Ghosts), along with Travis Taylor and John Ringo, all tend toward larger than life characters.

Both cool and terrifying. Cool, because it's FUCKING SPACE. Terrifying, because it's 1970-1980 tech that their doing it with.

[kinda off topic:]

Meanwhile, C.J. Cherryh is up to something like 17 Foreigner books now, because that's what's selling, so they're the only thing her publisher is letting her write

I miss the days when publishers trusted their writers enough to let them write what they want.

Yeah. A lot of good SF authors ended up in license work (SW, ST, etc) because of this, and it has been going on for 20+ years.

Have a Traveller ship.

Is that a transit van? That thing's the type-a of earth, or at least of britain.

(the hilux is still the type-s/j)

Check your scaling - I've seen a 20mm scout, and it's huge.

Perhaps not personnel, but Black Hat do some nice armed dogges.

blackhat.co.uk/product-category/28mm-miniatures/28mm-miniatures-cobalt-1-sf/28mm-miniatures-cobalt-1-sf-ar-men/

Security, maybe, or a merc group hired for something.

GZG do some useful little vehicles in 15mm, but Daemonscape have the license to produce some of them in 25mm. Note that they are a bit small compared to modern 28mm figures, but they'll be fine, and they do some nice little flatbeds and utility vehicles you might find around a starport.

daemonscape.com/contents/en-uk/d5.html

Working bump.

>1970-1980 tech
As far as actual capability in space goes, they were higher tech than we are now... we couldn't even build the ISS without rebuilding the whole knowledge base and supply chain required for manned space flight and delivering big cargo to orbit.

Aaand we're letting it all fall to the wayside yet again. Buh-bye, ISS. I guess space belongs to China now. That's a comforting thought.

It's horrifying that we (Los Estados Unidos) are letting our space program atrophy when, if anything, our government should be pushing HARD for privitization, with government backing, of space exploration and industry. Any money made in space would be TAXABLE after all, and there is PLENTY of cheap stuff in space, the expensive bit is getting shit out of the well.

Anyway, who wants to build a Traveller Crew with me, unless we can get some more discussion going?

SPAAAAACE is, sadly, just a place for a powerful nation to erect monuments to its greatness. When once we built statues and temples and skyscrapers to glorify our power, now we build space stations. To be sure, private wealth will still glorify itself in space; but we little people have no future there.
In Traveller, we often play out a bunch of retired gentlefolk trucking around the galaxy looking for profit and adventure; but the reality of the future would more likely be a bunch of twenty-something dilettantes playing with dad's executive fartrader for the lulz. Has anyone taken their Traveller games in that direction?

I'm down. Mong2e rules?

MgT 2E.
Lets roll first to see how many Travellers are in this particular Group: 1D+1 or 2D-5?

Rolling up a single character using Mongoose takes a big chunk of a thread. Doing up to seven is crazy, man.

Well, every post is that term for each character rather than just one, so it's the same number of posts until we flesh out backgrounds. It also lets you tie the connections to specific events between characters.

Rolled 2 + 1 (1d6 + 1)

2D-5 can go negative and is weighted toward 2, so 1D+1 I'd say

Okay so we have 3 Travellers that have met up and decided to tackel the galaxy.
We need 2D for each stat (3 Physical 3 Mental, x3 Characters), break it up to 18D in pairs for physical stats and 18D in pairs for Mental/Social.
and the 2nd number of the 3rd pair for each character determines gender, because I say so.
Even Female, Odd Male.

So roll 18D for physical at once, then 18D for mental?

Rolled 3, 4, 6, 3, 3, 6, 1, 4, 2, 1, 4, 1, 4, 5, 5, 3, 6, 3 = 64 (18d6)

I keep forgetting it's "dice+xdx" and not "roll+xdx"

Rolled 5, 2, 2, 5, 1, 3, 4, 3, 2, 4, 5, 1, 4, 6, 1, 4, 1, 6 = 59 (18d6)

Okay this is getting ridiculous, that's a streak of seven guys, if you count Denglebert and crew.

Apparently space is a no-girls allowed zone

Well actually I guess it depends if you go
A's STR A's DEX, A's END, B's STR etc or
A's STR, B's STR, C's STR, A's DEX etc

We'll go SDE/SDE/SDE, just so we can get a girl.
799774 Female
535766 Male
989A57 Male
2 above average and 1 solid average human.
Background Skills= Education DM +3
so Female 3, 1Male 3, 2Male 2

If you want home worlds, we can use the Traveller Map, or the Tijii Sector project I worked on last year before my computer blew up and I lost the pdf.
travellermap.com/

app.roll20.net/campaigns/details/558520/tiji-sector

I vote the solid average guy is from Reference, and thus has Vacc-Suit and Mechanic

Core Sector, Cadion Sub-Sector, Reference(0140): B100727-C, with Gas Giant, Navy Base, Scout Base, and Research Station.
Trade Codes: Na, Va
Vacc-Suit 0 and Mechanic 0 seem like a good fit.

My Third Imperium knowledge is pretty shite, so I'll just throw out general planet types and you can fit them to any planets that spring to mind.

I'm thinking 2Male is from an arid world, so I'd say Survival and Carouse? Maybe The world has a culture with a big emphasis on hospitality and celebrations?

For Female, I'd say a high-tech garden world with lots of trade traffic. So language, medic and science

Also I got the guys EDUs mixed up, so 1Male gets Art. Vacc-world habs can be pretty boring, so the inhabitants have to make their own fun

Well, Saven is just Jump-1 away, and it's a Desert Hellworld...

One of the things I like about the Imperium is that it is a bit more "wild" than it lets on. Plenty of backwaters to get into trouble on, even in the Imperial core.

Sorry about that, family supper.
Markun, it's Jump-3 from Reference (or a J-1&J-2 if you don't mind refuelling in an Amber Zone). Low-Pop, Garden World.

It's only TL 10(A), but it does have access to a higher tech base in the Sub-Sector. Jump-2 to Xamdas and it's TL 13 and Class B Starport.