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.
So what have you guys been doing? I'm currently poking at a "Brief Intro to Classic Traveller" text to go in the archive, like a quick overview of the various editions of Classic and rules modules out there for it, since there's so much stuff it can be daunting when you first look at it. It's an idea I've had floating about for a while, but I figured tonight I'd sit down and start going over the various books and taking notes for it. I'll post a draft when I think I've got most everything.
Landon Long
I'm preparing to run my first Traveler game for a bunch of strangers at my FLGS. I'm planning on setting it in the Gvurrdon sector, starting out in the Rrouzasun system and using that as a base of operations for the players. I think I'm almost ready, but I'm still deciding on whether I want to stick with MgT 1e or 2e. I love everything about 1e's books: how small and efficient they are, how they look, the feel of the pages, the COST. Yet I can't deny how accessible 2e is to new players, what with its pretty pictures and simplified tables and options. Plus, I think the boon/bane system is a neat idea. I also wonder how 2e's career term tables stack up next to 1e's.
Justin Lewis
Archive updates: Cepheus Engine is getting moved from the Classic Traveller folder to the MGT folder. That review I read that said it was based on Classic was mistaken -- reading it it's obviously MGT1e based, and google says it was based on the MGT1 SRD, with some tweaks to be more compatible with Classic material.
I'm also adding some third party deck plans that are compatible with Traveller and some other SF wargames, under General Misc/Holistic.
Carson Morales
Hmmm. It's quiet tonight.
Owen Howard
I'm thinking of running a game in a custom setting that mixes the 17-18th century Carribean and the Silk Road c.1400 (the Trade route, not the elicit website) all mixed up in space. Any suggestions for TL ceiling, interesting cargoes, spaceport details, and unique NPCs?
Isaiah Nelson
Could someone tell me what's wrong with megatraveller?
Leo Perez
On the crunch side, folding Striker into core made the game super crunchy, which some people liked, but most people found a bit much.
On the fluff side, the Rebellion metaplot was a bit heavy and felt both remote from the players, and yet close enough to color every situation, which was a change from the very open and changeable feel of Classic's atmosphere. Still, folks who were unhappy about that hadn't seen nothing yet -- in Traveller: The New Era they took the whole setting and burned it to the ground, turning it post-apocalyptic. Which is kinda cool in its own right, but is a very different feel from what most people wanted out of Traveller.
Jack Walker
Huh. I like it. This is a good way to handle it.
Oliver Carter
Are the rules still crunchy in THE?
Nolan Ortiz
Whoops I meant TNE
Christopher Martinez
Sort of. Crunchier in some ways, not so crunchy in others. (TNE also has Fire, Fusion and Steel, the best book if you want to get super crunchy with your starships.) Honestly, I've not read much of TNE. The setting apparently produced a couple of neat books, but it doesn't suit me, and what I read of the books seemed pretty tied to the setting.
Connor Scott
OK. Yeah. It's like this:
You have inherited a helicopter. This shit is expensive as hell to operate, and the cargo capacity ain't that great. You can go pretty much anywhere, but not like a 747. You gotta stop and drop in every other city down the road. So ... how do you make a living?
This is was the answer we settled on to the question:
>Hey guys, we're big DND players. What is Traveller like?
Bonus! first scene of first Traveller adventure I entered into:
>Enter Regina starport bar. >Accost bartender, looking for work. >Nothing? >Drop 20k credits on bar as tip to loosen him up. >Bartender: "Wait over there in that corner a moment, and stay down. I'll be right with you." >Bartender reaches under bar and pulls out a 50cal space machine gun. >Bartender: "Yo, I got business to attend to. CLOSING TIME!" *Cha-CLICK*BUDDAH*BUDDAH*BUDDAH*BOOM*
Not the best adventure I ever had, but it's them first runs that always stay with you.
Asher Jones
>>space fitty I love it.
Cameron Moore
Please do. I don't have a clue to how to start with traveller
Aiden Adams
I've been tapping away at things relating to The Islands. Trying to work out ideas for a horror campaign taking place at an isolated, heavily automated He-3 harvesting facility on a remote low-density "fluffball" moon. Statted out some ships, wrote some fluff for some of the more neglected polities.
Soothing work I hope never to show to another human being.
Aiden Fisher
>Still, folks who were unhappy about that hadn't seen nothing yet -- in Traveller: The New Era they took the whole setting and burned it to the ground, turning it post-apocalyptic. Which is kinda cool in its own right, but is a very different feel from what most people wanted out of Traveller. I am unironically fond of Virus, but these days I'd go closer to the Beast from Homeworld Cataclysm.
>continues making notes for a long-past-Virus setting where there's been a Traveller Butlerian Jihad, and your computer's dtonnage is actually living quarters for your mentat.
Brody Sanchez
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Noah Lewis
What's the least crunchy edition? Mongoose 2e?
Dylan Howard
are there any official sources for super high tech level gear and spaceships? Like shields, teleporters etc
Jaxon Ross
Classic using the ship rules from Starter Traveller is pretty light. (It replaces the complex vector based combat of the LBBs with a simple range-band system) The whole ship combat system is laid out on page 39 to page 42, with two pages of tables in the charts book.
Isaac Butler
Is it possible to let players each create their own race in this system? How much work would it take to get it working? Any pointers as to how to go about it? Any hurdles you foresee?
Blake Parker
The Third Imperium is lousy with minor races, of varying degrees of canon. It shouldn't be too hard to brew up your own. Usually they're mostly fluff, with maybe a minor mechanical tweak here or there to support it, like Vargr swapping out Social Standing for Charisma.
> Asher Sutton has been lost in deepest space for twenty years. Suddenly arrives a warning from the future, that he will return- and that he must be killed. He is destined to write a book whose message may lead to the death of millions in centuries to come. For this reason Sutton is hounded by the sinister warring factions of the future who wish to influence or prevent the writing of this book he has not yet begun to write. > Yet already a copy has been found in the burnt-out wreckage of a space-craft on Aldebaran XII.
Samuel Hernandez
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Ian Johnson
Black globes are a canonical energy shield. The 2nd edition of High Guard for Mongoose Traveller has rules for generic energy shields.
Jason Reed
The Rebellion killed the Imperium. Virus just took care of the cremation.
Ryan Turner
Keeping in mind that the Vargr are actually a Major Race.
Ryder Wright
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Colton Sullivan
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Jacob Cox
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Jeremiah Howard
[WORRY INTENSIFIES]
Blake Martinez
book 14:space stations is not available anywhere on the internet
Uh, thanks, but I've already got it up in the master archive at the top of the thread. Also you need to add the decryption key to your links or it won't let people in.
Dylan Sullivan
huh? i googled for hours a few weeks ago and couldnt find shit, should've waited for the next traveller general, i guess
Christian Hughes
It's cool, I should make the general more regularly. Anyway, the MGT1e folder's supplements are complete up to #16. If you have any other stuff to contribute, though, let me know.
David Robinson
>make the general more regularly Evidence suggests that shitposters flock to constantly rotating Generals like beer swilling redneck antibodies. Space 'em out a bit, since we don't have a handy airlock to actually space the shitposters...
Andrew Wilson
Maybe on other boards, but Veeky Forums's are pretty decent. At least the OSR thread is, they very rarely get that kind of shit going on.
Joshua Hill
Eh, I don't see it. Other boards' generals get filled with waifus and namefag fights and shit, ours just get the occasional driveby shitposter. Maybe I don't frequent the right generals.
Anyway, updates to the Archive are ongoing. There's a couple new things in CT adventures, game modules, and supplements from the CT CD-ROM, as well as more GURPS Traveller stuff. I'm still going through all the things I picked up a while back and sorting them in.
Blake Lewis
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Angel Long
>Maybe I don't frequent the right generals. considering the OSR thread had to recently encrypt the link to their archives after mutliple takedowns you guys have it easy.
also relative newbie to traveller: >get invited to new game [just before fall of empire] >GM and one of players husband and wife >said husband and wife periodically dissapear off to argue after repeated heated dissagreements about rulings >game collapses after barely a month
Still would like to try Traveller though - just dont know anyone local who runs it.
Also does anyone know what happened to that attempt to make a fantasy version of traveller? i keep seeing periodial articles about it but nothing recent about it.
John Bell
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Cooper Parker
Some more Megatraveller books are going up to the Master Archive now, with some TNE stuff to follow.
Thomas Evans
>COACC
>Guy seems to understand how RL air forces work. >Usual number of typos and uncorrected errata for a MegaTrav product. Oh well...
If you go with Mongoose first edition the least effort needed is to just slap some alien features on the character. If you want to put in a bit more effort you might come up with some kind of interesting custom characteristic to replace Social Standing with.
Juan Price
Vargr Charisma is just a slightly less formalized and more mutable Social Status, which is in itself an artifact of the stratified nature of Imperium's Vilani/Solomani caste system.
I get what Miller, et al, were trying to do, but I prefer an inherent charisma-type attribute.
Andrew Bailey
He's a Sydite, one of the few Human offshoots overtly modified by the Ancients. They were in the setting by name as early as MegaTraveller, but acquired the extra arms and cultural details in T20, which is centered in Gateway Domain where they live. They are also one of the farthest Human offshoots to Trailing (righthand edge of the map) in Charted Space.
That pic captures many of the defining elements of the Sydites: big, four-armed, generally bald, not terribly bright, and typically martial in outlook. They told the Imperium to fuck off centuries ago, but a few do work the border in the modern era.
Michael Johnson
Anyone read marc miller's Agent of the imperium book? Is it worth reading?
Sebastian Young
I haven't read it yet, but I hear good things. I'm still trying to get a copy for the archive.
Jonathan Howard
Oh and what other traveller novels are particularly worth reading?
Carson Morales
The Winds of Gath.
(I have never read a Traveller novel)
Brandon Johnson
PDF related has reviews of the various Traveller novels.
Henry Kelly
Oh yeah, and if anybody has Dumarest pdfs, or any other books that influenced Traveller (the stuff in for instance) please share. I'd be happy to add it to the Archive.
Ayden Sanders
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Leo Torres
>"Right! We need to plan a distraction. Something that will let us sneak past the planetary authorities, land, and pick up the dingus. Then we fight our way -" >"Dude? No. We don't need mercenaries for a distraction. Fire ... I mean muster out the ship's company. All I want are you, me, this ship, and the purser. Have him fill the hold with computers. And get some high capacity comm equipment we can strap to the hull." >"Um ... why are you painting out our ship name?" >"She is now known as AOHell. It's a Vilani name. Trust me." >... >Jump in system. >Park in geosynchronous orbit over whatever continent has the most colleges and universities. >Six months later everyone is connecting through our orbital server farm, playing Space Station 1113 and shitposting on 3dholochan. >Planetary economy collapses. >"OK! Find us a place to land without too much rioting and explosions."
The problem with Striker campaigns is they never go as planned. Ever.
James Bailey
Wow, that New Era stuff took a while, but it's finally up. One gigabyte of TNE scans, including better copies of what little was in there before.
Jack Reed
I thought so, but my SF reading tastes are admittedly old school.
Levi Sullivan
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Tyler Hill
Question, if I wanted to start with traveller, which edition/books would be the best to start with?
Ryder Thomas
Simplest to get into would be Mongoose 1e. Get the core book, and you're good to go. Caveat being that outside core, Mongoose's quality control is pretty bad.
Classic is a bit more "assembly required." I've been working on an intro text that will give you the rundown on what's available and help people get started quickly with classic.
Levi Clark
If you are looking for Traveller as a distinct system and experience, then Classic, Mega (with errata and an open mind), or Mongoose 1e are the editions to consider first. MegaTraveller is not as much of a "beginner's edition" as it wanted to be, but it can provide answers to some of the things left hanging in Classic if you need them. Alternately, ask here or at Citizens.
Kit-bashing the system itself is a long tradition with Traveller, seen in both the official magazine and is early articles in other magazines.
Levi Cook
Has anybody tried to run a game of Traveller 5? Or is it just so dense its unplayable?
Owen Price
The book IS dense, but the system is playable. As wth most of Traveller, T5 is modular.
Wyatt White
The K'kree have been here...
Carter Brooks
I hear the latest revision is much better. (It should be up on the Archive by tomorrow. Right now it's zines being added)
Robert Russell
5.09? Yes, it is.
Jaxon Bailey
Oh and speaking of zines, I really dug the featured article in this. It's all about jump physics, and relates the 100d limit to dark matter/gravitons. It also seems to straddle the line between the early fluff about maximizing power output for a jump, and the later bits about jump bubbles. Also, all ships IMTU now give off a burst of blue Cherenkov radiation when entering jumpspace from here on out, because that's just awesome.
Nathaniel Morales
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Bentley Ross
The White Dwarf article compilation is way above upload limit here.
Hunter Thomas
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Owen Foster
>ree bad deckplans useless and fiddly cutter operations why is it a tailstander >but i like it
Angel Perez
My first Traveller campaign was based on the Broadsword adventure and I loved it.
Cooper Robinson
It is an awkward ship in some ways, yes. That's one reason I go back to the original Type C from the 1977 edition. Two Pinnaces instead of two Cutters with extra modules.
Ethan Johnson
Drop it somewhere else then. Sendspace, for example.
The one linked just now is just Andy Slack's compiled 'Expanded Universe' series from very early.
Anthony Scott
There's a lot of stuff that works better in 77trav. Not requiring a power plant equal to the jump drive is kind of a big deal, you can actually fit reasonable numbers in the liner for example.
also, x-boats actually work.
Chase Adams
Okay, new Traveller5 stuff is in. There are several new zines, and The Traveller Chronicle and Megatraveller Journal have had things added. (Chronicle was only issues 9 and 10, now it's complete from 1 to 13)
Brayden Young
Anybody know what this is? I don't know where to file it.
Connor Martin
Setting: 3rd Imperium. Map of Solomani Rim sector (Solomani Sphere).
Brayden Gray
Yeah, that much is obvious, but what era, though? It's not labelled. Maybe I'll just throw it into the General stuff and let the viewer figure it out.
Cooper Rodriguez
The border between the Solomani Sphere and the Imperium doesn't seem to match the data in Mongoose Traveller 1e Solomani book, not the map at travellermap.com.
So either it is wrong, or overs an era that those two other sources don't.
Jose Russell
Yeah, it's definitely not the Classic 1105 era. In addition to the border, there are changes to amber and red zones, and I imagine world data too. That means it's either Rebellion, or Milieu 0, or maybe the alternate timeline from GURPS where the Emperor was never assassinated. It looks similar to the GURPS one, but I see tech levels differ a good bit, they're generally higher.
I was hoping the guy who posted it (since I got it from Veeky Forums) might show up and know what the deal is. I guess it's going into General Setting info for now, labelled "unknown era."
Henry Diaz
Agent of the Imperium is up now, under Books.
Cooper Lee
The TL and Terra's status as an Imperial "colony" put this into a 120 year window at most, but the border is still wrong.
The routes that clutter up the map come from one fan-made trade map generator.
Cameron Rodriguez
I've always wanted to run a game where the players have to establish and grow a new colony on an unclaimed world.
Does that sound fun at all? What sorts of stuff could you do with such a campaign?
Jose Sanchez
There's a book for that, under TNE.
Matthew Cook
Huh, neat. I gotta check that out.
Cameron Adams
Actually, the border does fit the currently defined data fairly well.
The other thing to keep in mind is that the T5SS has led to revision of many UWPs across the map, so this map is probably from pre-revision data.
Mason Garcia
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Ryan Long
If you're into Stars Without Number, the Suns of Gold expansion has some neat material on this that might be worth a look.
