Traveller General--Sub 100 Replies Edition

drivethrurpg.com/product/192332/Near-Space

It has two versions, the one I posted that only has known stars, and pic-related with a bunch of hypothetical stars. Said stars a labelled HSC (hypothetical star catalogue).
I'm pretty sure the HSC version is mostly for plausibility, especially seeing as Earth is more than one parsec from Proxima, requiring humanity to develop Jump-2 before interstellar travel can happen

So could I request shares of any Deck Plans and Ship/station layouts anyone has?

Not only the ugliest Traveller ship, but the ugliest ship in all of science fiction.
Luckily for Mr. Chung, Atomic Rocket is more than enough to redeem him

Any? That's a lot of stuff. Can you be more specific?

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Attached like a big mosquito to an iceteroid.

>Can you be more specific?
Well, the Gurps Traveller deckplans are missing from the Mega, to those would be really nice, but any would be appreciated. Ones like this look nice, and the ones posted a few threads age
archive.4plebs.org/tg/thread/53086180/#q53168558
and
archive.4plebs.org/tg/thread/53086180/#q53217316
are what prompted me to ask. So stuff like that?

huh? what's he got to do with that ship?

Every time I see a map in Traveller I'm reminded of just how small scale SWN is by comparison. Ironic considering the name.

There are only a couple ships with plans unique to GURPS, and they are all on hex grid. Bleh.

"Looks nice" doesn't always mean "useful", and many of the people making deckplans are utility driven.

He did the original art, 40 years ago.

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Chung didn't think up Annic Nova. Chung only produced the drawings following MIller's directions. Miller is responsible for ship's design and look.

Why do these have numbered areas but no legend to tell what each area is?

>Why do these have numbered areas but no legend to tell what each area is?

Perhaps so you can decide what each area is?

You've already been told what the primary purpose of each deck is, are you too fucking stupid to use your imagination and customize the rest to fit your own needs?

I'll bet you're one of those pathetic clowns who can't even come up with a back story for your PC without using ideas from someone else in the form of tables.

Tell us, how do you play a RPG when you've no imagination?

to be fair, it's only small-scale in what the players will probably interact with.
Kinda like that advice for Traveller that 1-2 subsectors can provide years worth of play.
The Terran Mandate is arbitrarily huge, so it could be smaller, equivalent to, or bigger than the Third Imperium

Chill, gramps. There's nobody on your lawn.

Exactly. Crawford wisely left the size of the pre-Scream Terran Mandate unspecified along with many other things so people would focus on creating PC-scale play. Putting it another way, there's a difference between PLAYING a RPG and PLAYING WITH a RPG.

Thanks to all it's "grand scale" systems, Traveller is a perfect example of the "play with" RPG. You can happily spend 1000s of hours rolling up entire sectors right down to the animals found on a single world's specific beach without ever actually playing the game with other people.

There's been discussions at COTI suggesting that the "play with" numbers are far larger than the "play" numbers.

The many tools within Traveller have always supported that idea. World building, ship building, and character generation are all solo games in their own rights.

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And from what he has said, MM flipped the final art over. The folder solar collectors were supposed to be the chin, not the forehead.

Miller finally provided the in-game explanation for Annic Nova last year at a 'con. Whether this explanation dates from the period just before June of '79 when AN first appeared in JTAS or is a retcon thought up years or decades afterward is anyone's guess.

AN is an example of Putarch's famous thought experiment: The Ship of Theseus paradox. Plutarch wrote about how Athens had preserved the ship Theseus and his companions used to return from Crete. He remarked that various planks and other fittings had been replaced as they rotted to such an extent that philosophers argued about whether the ship on display was still the same ship or something else entirely.

In AN's case, the ship is 1000s of years old, predating not only the 3I and Rom/2I, but the 1st Imperium too. A Vilani mis-jumped aboard an early starship ending up damaged who knows how far from Vland. Not only did aliens found and rescued him, they also repaired his ship improving it in the process. The solar collection canopy was installed so he didn't need fuel and TWO jump drives, J2 & J3, were installed to work exponentially. Depending on how you configure them, the AN's max range is either 2^3 (8) parsecs or 3^2 (9) parsecs.

The castaway returned home, used the AN to get rich, and the ship was passed down among his descendants ever since. Of course, over all those 1000s of years, enough stuff has been repaired and/or replaced to raise the question about whether the 1105 AN is still the same AN from those pre-Ziru Sirka, 1st Imperium days.

What did use to make this, user?

farfuture.net/FFE-CDROMs.html

Okay, I thought of getting two Twilight 2000 CD's.
That would mean being only one CD from 4 for 3 promo.

And the whole Traveller thing, whlist I never played it, seems cool. I never read a traveller suplement/book in my life.

So which CD's would make best Traveller experience? Is Challenge mag one worth getting?

Thanks for answer.

I thought Traveller HERO was only two books, but the HERO CD lists many more books and supplements I did not know existed. So there is an idea you wanted to have some stuff to add to the Mega folder.

Other than then I dunno. My experience consists mostly of the GURPS traveller, so I can recommend that, but tell you if you would find it better or worse than others.
They have a overview of the Gurps Traveller offerings here
farfuture.net/GT Guide to GURPS Traveller.pdf

but don't see one that give the same level of info on the Traveller HERO line.

Dunno. I just harvest this stuff.

whats the best version of traveller for someone new to rpgs?

Mongoose, T4, GURPS Traveller, and TNE are all at least decent at communicating with beginners, while T5 and MegaTraveller are "hard mode" and assume you already know something about RPGs in general and Traveller in particular.

Are there any published books on it? From the looks of his blig pist it seems pretty nice

Would the rules for cybernetics from the MgT2 CSC and the augmentations from Mindjammer be compatible with Cepheus?

Probably. Haven't read them to make sure, though.

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>whats the best version of traveller for someone new to rpgs?

New to RPGs? Classic.

Classic has the fewest rules, the fewest bells & whistles, the fewest skills, the fewest things you need to remember while you're trying to learn to play.

For most part Classic boils down to "Roll 8+". No matter what you're doing, roll two six-sided dice, add the points from relevant skill, and if you roll 8 or better you succeed.

Once you get used to playing, other versions add more rules which can make play more fun, interesting, tense, complicated, etc. However, learn to play with the simplest rules set first.

I would recommend Cepheus Engine. Nice, simple mechanics (2D6). Not too much assumed knowledge. The first chapter is a nice introduction to SF roleplaying.

that's fucking badass

Do I let the players know if an attack would otherwise hit them before I ask them about reactions?

With a rank or two of Tactics in the group that would be an interesting way to portray it, but normally the combat system is fairly straightforward.

Does the other side have surprise? If so, no warning should be given. If the PCs can spring an ambush, NPCs should also be able to do so.

Trav isn't D&D and the PCs aren't invincible supermen. Actions should have consequences, failing to plan/act should have consequences, and fuck-ups should have consequences.

Sorry, what I meant was that if they're already in combat and an attack is about to hit them, should I let them know before they attempt to dodge or jump for cover?

>Sorry, what I meant was that if they're already in combat and an attack is about to hit them, should I let them know before they attempt to dodge or jump for cover?

Dodge a bullet? Tell me, are your playing Traveller or the Matrix?

If they're under fire, they already should be in cover or looking for cover.

If someone opens up with a crew serviced weapon like a HMG, they can stay under cover while it's firing. But going for cover or dodging the same instant a weapon fires? Fuck no.

Yeah but lets say the attacker rolls a 2 resulting in a completely botched attack, is it really so far fetched to say that the player wouldnt be able to tell his opponent is definitely not going to hit him with this attack?

>Yeah but lets say the attacker rolls a 2 resulting in a completely botched attack, is it really so far fetched to say that the player wouldnt be able to tell his opponent is definitely not going to hit him with this attack?

In combat? Fuck no. In police work? Maybe. Idiots with guns? Probably.

Scenario #1 - Idiots with guns - You're the Mayberry Sheriff's Office and Andy has just given Barney the single bullet he's allowed. True to form, Barney loads his revolver and, while holstering it, the gun goes off. No one dives for cover or takes any other actions because it's Barney being Barney.

Scenario #2 - Police Work - Hoodrat is waving around his glock, holding it sideways, never aiming, etc. Police are drawn and aimed at him while trying to talk him "down". Hoodrat's gun goes off, police don't diver for cover and most likely drill the piece of shit.

Scenario #3 - Combat - Patrol working through city, jungle, forest, steppe, etc. Gunshot sounds, everyone drops into cover.

Telling a player that the gun just fired by that someone trying to ATTACK them, i.e. the ATTACKER, somehow MISSED him before said player chooses their action is meta-game munchkin bullshit.

Think of it this way. It's D&D and the PC is facing off with a giant. The PC readies his sword and shield but, before he can announce which action he's taking, you tell him "Oh the giant failed his to-hit roll, so you can do whatever the fuck you want."

Does that make any fucking sense to you?

Sound of bullet being fired comes after the bullet flew by you in most cases.

If you heard gunshot before being hit, it means you already have been hit with other, latter shot.

Is that one of the old Judge's Guild designs for Classic?

Even for the period, the JG designs were godawful but a 3D treatment makes them look good.

It's actually the original creation of an artist called Arcas, for the 2008 Traveller calendar. It's a "200-ton Alexandria-class Free Trader", specifically the 'New Orleans'.

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Going to start my first game of Traveler soon, but the character creation looks rather intimidating, compared to what I'm used to. I want to create a ship expert type character (pilot, navigate, mechanic, etc.), but it seems entirely possible that you might just get shit luck and end up an entirely creating different character.

Any advice on what I should be aiming for if I'm trying to for a ship expert, or just any Traveler advice in general for a first timer?

It originally appeared in the FASA folio "Adventure Class Ships Vol 2"

>Even for the period,
The JG ships were a bit primitive, but the presentation in Starships & Spacecraft was on par for the day. Graphic layout in the 1970s was non-trivial, since the dawn of DTP was still eight years away.

Scout, Merchant, or Navy are the three best places to get those skills. If you are using Mongoose, use the PC connections to fill gaps.

Thank you for the citation, lore-user