Traveller is a classic science fiction system first released in 1977. 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.
How would interstellar celebrity work in the Third Imperium?
Asher Jenkins
>Chasing a Rock into Zhodani Space Edition
pic related; it's the Rock in question.
>How would interstellar celebrity work in the Third Imperium?
I'd imagine you'd have most major celebrities known on a roughly sector-wide level, with the general public beyond that having not heard of any but the biggest or most venerable yet. The exception would likely be exports from the Imperial core sector, since that's where the biggest stars and the biggest budget productions would end up, and would likely be hot items for import via the X-boat system.
Gavin Harris
If I release an album on Capital, and send it out over x-boat distribution, It'll take 15 weeks to reach Vland.
So they're 4 months behind what's happening. If I got a J-2 tour ship, and played at each stop (and back), that tour would go for two years. (122 weeks, assuming 1 week in jump, 1 week on world. That's one sector away. That'd be the outer limit of a celeb's reach I'd think, short of people who are legendary in some way.
Personal celebrity would be limited to heads of state. By the time most artists would get noticed reaches the outer areas, they've almost certainly moved on from whatever they're doing.
For imperium-wide celebrity, it'd be more likely a franchise than anything else (Think about the popularity of Dr Who or James Bond) versus a specific person.
A grateful dead type situation, possibly with an evolving lineup, constantly touring, with followers could be interesting though.
Players are hired on a roadies for a touring group - hilarity ensues.
Easton James
>For imperium-wide celebrity, it'd be more likely a franchise than anything else (Think about the popularity of Dr Who or James Bond) versus a specific person.
THIS. Not only franchises, but VR celebrities who exist only inside the computers of media megacorps; i.e. Gibson's Idaru.
Also, the Imperium has canonical "cultural regions" like Lancian, Sylean, Suerrat, etc. Such regions would make achieving celebrity easier within them and harder outside them. Forex: Everyone in the Sylean cultural region loves Shecky Dangerfield's comedy, but everyone not "hip" to Sylean culture doesn't get the joke.
The same effect will be at work with widespread Minor Race like the Bwap.
During the Rebellion those region of the Extents closest to the Imperium are constantly stirred to anti-Imperial actions by a device best described VR personality combined with an "iPhone" or digital assistant. (For a company rightfully accused of sticking to "retro" sci fi, GDW was really ahead of the curve here.) While the user initially enters personal preferences into the device, the device learns more about what you really like by monitoring your use of it. The device also comes with a audio/visual VR personality like Siri or Alexa, which also learns to talk, look, act, etc. more like what you prefer.
The fun part occured when the group manufacturing and/or distributing the device used it to disseminate constant low key anti-3I propaganda via the "tailored" VR personality.
It was a great idea which MT/DGP/GDW completely failed to examine.
>>Players are hired on a roadies for a touring group - hilarity ensues.
Cue John Ford's rightly famous adventure for Classic JTAS: Veedback.
Brody Jackson
Soooo, every jump takes a week regardless of what jump engine you've got.
Does anyone change it so jump 1 takes a week, jump6 takes a day ?
Just wondering, I know the fi means fiction and I can change what I want and stuff - anyone got any other systems ?
ta
Jackson Lopez
I suppose it would make sense if going less than the full Jump distance didn't take as long. Though I wouldn't go too far with it. The limitations on the speed of communication is the neatest thing about the Traveller implied setting.
Both editions of Mongoose Traveller have had alternatives to Jump Drives, as well as Traveller: The New Era.
Jace Richardson
and Traveller5...I think all editions have had alternatives to jump drive they've never seemed as cool/interesting though, IMO
Eli Morgan
Anyone have any cool ancient artifacts? As an example:
Nantu Y This strange, orthrombic crystal is suspended in an orange-gold octahedral frame though by what, it's anyone's guess. The device has two poles at each end of the crystal's frame. When the poles are connected to the Astrogation board of any starship, i.e. one with a jumpdrive, it sits and waits. Powered by the ship, it begins to glow softly. The strange crystal waits until a jump vector is locked in. At any time during jump, seemingly random text characters play across the Astrogation boards. Translated, (a Difficult Computer/Linguistics/Mathematics Check), the message asks if a new vector is desired, Y/N. If Yes, then the Astrogation board wants to know the alternate vector. If the Astrogator calculates a different vector of the same jump distance (in parsecs) and then presses Enter/Execute/Commit, the crystal then glows so bright on the bridge of the starship that everything is in white-out. Average Endurance roll to not suffer a day of blindness. The Nantu Y uses no fuel than is already expended in erecting a jump bubble already in place. But the device bends the vector to the newly input and will finish the jump in that calculated 'hex'. There is a catch. Misjumps and other technical failures of the ship to which the Nantu Y is connected can cause backlashes upon the delicate, orthorhombic crystal lattice, creating tiny cracks in the overall crystal. The Nantu Y can only suffer a finite number (Referee's choice) of damaging cracks before it loses all properties. One interesting detail of the Nantu Y is that the coding for the vector changing technology is written at the quantum level in the crystal lattice and is readable with the right gear, in its entirety from just a sliver of the whole or the whole itself. Of course the code has to be translated the same as the wall of text nonsense on the Astrogation board, (as above). The Nantu Y is not reproducible by anything under TL-20.
Isaiah Roberts
bump?
Logan James
Stutterwarp was pretty dope. Hypergate networks are pretty cool too, since you can fly across the galaxy but still have the same kind of local travel you would anywhere else in a Traveller game.
Easton Russell
the 2300 FTL was cool too just for being so different to conventional FTL systems
Logan Foster
...
Xavier Campbell
Hmm interesting idea. If a Jump6 ship just went 1 parsec, would it take 6 times less time to get there? Personally I never wanted to implement this, taking ~1 week represents the insane distances between stars. Being able to jump much further just means your vessel can make a longer jump in a similar amount of time. I assume the jump drives are calibrated for these longer journeys, so rather than making short jumps take less time, they simply make it possible to go longer distances.
That being said, why wouldn't someone calibrate a more powerful jump drive to go short distances in less time? could this be some kind of technology that exists?
So essentially you would have a Jump2 drive, but its actually a jump6 drive re-calibrated for short range, so takes much less time to jump or something.
It would give a pretty big advantage if a navy all had these short range fast jump engines - they could appear in a system a few days before the enemy trying to follow them.
This is the kind of thing I would probably let my PCs attempt to rig up if they knew what they were doing and spent a few weeks in space dock with good facilities. They would permanently convert their long range jump drive into a short range, high speed jump drive, and if they fucked up the conversion there would be more likely misjumps. Hell, there would likely be more likely misjumps even if they did it flawlessly, being that its somewhat of an experimental idea (or is it? - surely someone in the Traveller universe has thought of this?)
Jeremiah Walker
ooh~ sexy monolith
Levi Johnson
I was trying to think of a story behind it but seriously, "monolith" was as far as I could get Check out this place! That brick fireplace in the bottom floor is pretty damn comfy
Carson Jackson
easy user, 'the Ancients did it'
Connor Ortiz
"Grandpa, why is galactic history so weird?" "Because of the Ancients. Especially that Doc Smith bastard, and his lenses"
Brody Bailey
My players are currently raiding in Zhodani space on behalf of the Imperial Navy. They have a dinky little Tl12 Far Trader with a few guns and secret military upgrades. I'm planning on having pdf related chase them for at least a few sessions. First ship I ever created on my own using MgT2e High Guard rules. What do you think about it?
Brayden Foster
Does anyone have a game that could take another player?
Wyatt Hughes
Maybe, possibly going to do a discord game in the near-ish future. I'll post here. No promises though
Luke Howard
It really should have some sort of weapon that isn't dependent on ammunition. Why does it have acceleration benches? Those are usually for small craft that carry passengers for a short time. You have 21 crew listed, but say there is only 20 crew and only 20 crew have accommodations. You don't have enough fuel to get the full function of your Jump-4 drive, but I assume that is whatthe drop tank mount is for.
Anthony Sanders
Hit me up on Discord mang: Lemmington#7427
Leo Johnson
It has 400 missiles, I'm assuming that's enough for a few engagements, and in friendly space they'd have supply lines to get more. Acceleration Benches are for marines or short range passengers, mostly for marines in my scenario. It should be 1 officer, thanks for pointing that out. And yes, it can carry up to 250 tons of fuel in Drop Tanks to get it's full range. Can't really spare the space to give it 203 tons of internal fuel tanks.
Liam Phillips
For clarification, with Very High Yield, a missile can't do less than 15 damage, and it's multiplied by the effect of the attack roll. A single salvo of 5 missiles should be more than enough to blow a 200 ton freighter out of the sky, so ammunition shouldn't be much of a concern
Asher Wood
1) Bonded superdense is TL16, thus making your ship TL16. 2) backup or secondary computers will save on the high cost of a Core 3) You'll want cargo space for the inevitable shuttle/vehicles. Cut down on the Common Areas. 4) Point defense III might be a bit overkill, depending on setting. Most 3I ships roughly in the same ballpark aren't going to be throwing that many missiles at you. 5) With drop tanks attached, at 500+250 dtons, your ship's Thrust rating drops to 4 (calculating from pre-size reduction levels). Also, 250dtons of fuel tanks is 6.25MCr. That's a lot to lose each time you are jumping.
>multiplied by the effect of the attack roll Effect is added to damage, not multiplied (MgT Core p. 158, referencing p.74: "upon a successful attack, damage is rolled for, with the Effect of the attack roll added to the total")
Unless you meant multiplied in the sense of multiple missiles multiplying the Effect, in which case, yeah.
Nathaniel Howard
Bonded Superdense is TL 14. Molecular Bonded is what is TL 16.
And missiles work differently than other weapons for Effect. You never add the Effect of the roll to missile damage. When multiple missiles hit, you roll damage once then multiply that by the Effect of the roll.
Hudson Foster
>surely someone in the Traveller universe has thought of this?
I'm sure someone in the OTU tried it because jump drive has been in use for something like 250,000 years. They soon found out that's not how jump drive works.
Jumping involves accessing other dimensions. You step out of our dimension and into another, you're literally outside our reality. The "one week" time period comes from how long it takes that other dimension to eject you back "home".
Josiah Turner
You have to look at it from the militaries point of view, not the single scenario. You can't guarantee supply lines will always be intact, or that you can replenish at the appropriate time, or the battle won't go on too long and you run out. No one in their right mind would design a ship with such limited combat capabilities. At 20 missiles per full salvo, you only get 20 attacks total out of 400 missiles. And seeing as how easy it it to shoot down a missile, relying on them that heavily is stupid from a design point of view.
Also, I see nothing that would indicate in anyway that the ship is a "multi-role" ship. It has only 1 option: stand back and spam missiles then run away.
Jack Flores
Even modern day guided missile destroyers have non-missile weapons (guns and torpedoes). Some even carry helicopters in addition (a small craft, in Travellers case).
Christian Wilson
All good points, but entirely wasted on the user in question. He's designed it, therefor it is perfect.
Now, if he had to use it against other designs in a multi-round Traveller space combat tournament at a convention, he might understand your points after his shit gets repeatedly pushed in. He isn't going to understand now however.
One of our favorite exercises at the the old Yahoo ct_starships group was routinely stomping "perfect" ships designed by noobs without any input from the combat rules.
Levi Myers
Stellaris has taught me: Missles are useless,
1) Very, very little damage spread of missile salvos which equates to complete over-kill of one or two ships and the missiles that have yet to hit the original target will still attempt to hit the already destroyed ship instead of smartly acquiring a new target - completely wasting all those missiles
2) If a ship gets destroyed while it's salvo of missiles are in flight, those missiles magically vanish instead of continuing to hit their target
3) Extremely slow flight & very slow fire rate means that your real dps is much lower than laser or kinetic weapons which horribly compounds issue one and two
4) completely and utterly hard countered by PD & flak
some of these points are relevant to Traveller
Robert Sanders
>Stellaris has taught me
Stellaris isn't Traveller.
Isaac Adams
but the general point is still there, over relying on missiles is a bad idea
Lucas Lopez
What I'm thinking is that there are a lot of shows that get the Power Ranger treatment. Basically the same show, but only parts of it are actually the original, and sometimes the local entertainment licensee just shoots their own episodes because it works out cheaper than waiting to import from 4 sectors away.
Michael Brooks
...Why did my brain take that literally?
Now I want five combining ships into one giant mech
Julian Richardson
ithklur or bwaps, which do you like better, anons?
Joshua Lee
Both were little more than one-trick ponies for a long time.
While Aliens of the Rim made the Ithklur more interesting, I don't play in the TNE setting and very rarely use the Hivers in my games.
As for the Bwaps, I use them mostly as annoyances. When my players see one in an office or some other bureaucratic situation, they know lots of red tape and other inane paperwork aren't far behind.
OTOH, I've had players help a NPC Bwap out of a very bad situation and then be rewarded by that Bwap and it's extended family by "grooming" their documents and other paperwork for sometime afterward. They'd land at some port, the usual inspections would start, a Bwap would ask "Are you X who helped Y at Z?", and suddenly everything was smoothed over.
Blake Flores
I like the Ithklur as a concept, and the GURPS books helped flesh them out quite a bit
Kevin Murphy
The GURPS book merely repeated the concepts laid out in TNE's "Aliens of the Rim". AotR is in the Archive above, check it out.
While I enjoyed the Ithklur as presented in AotR, I had little chance to use them. My games takes place on the other side of the 3I and rarely involved Hivers. That means I've little chance to use the Ithklur despite my liking for them.
Carson Gonzalez
Can Traveller be used for transhuman stuff, furthermore, can it do it well?
Henry Howard
Depends on the warfare of the sector. Missiles are good Payload delivering weapons. Once you have a platform optimized for mass missile spam- Your trying to shoot down pockets of 20 rockets per salvo, that instantly hit a target 3 bands away (If I remember right). That is extremely unlikely, Unless you have one defense weapon per pod.
Over relying on ANY weapon is an awful idea. Don't get me wrong. But for a specialist navy core, a missile boat isn't supposed to be in a situation where it gets ganked by other weapons. Its stronger artillery.
You should always have a back up weapon- but if your built to be a platform? Every 'Alternative' option reduces your killing power, and thus reduces the point of the ship.
Also, yeah, this aint stellaris. a Nuclear Missile actually hurts- and isn't arbitrary.
Joseph Scott
>Over relying on ANY weapon is an awful idea.
Exactly. Specialized warships are only good in specialized situations. A specialized warship can work as part of a GROUP of ships because the other vessels cover the weaknesses of the specialized one.
Despite that sincerely believes he designed a "multi-role' ship. That's because he hasn't put it through the combat system against an opponent.
Juan Richardson
Honestly, I think that's what he's going for. At least, That's what I'm hoping for.
No ship alone really does 'Multi-Role'. That's just silly, expensive and real satisfying to blow up.
Dylan Cruz
I'm currently taking a group of previously-only-D&D players through a tour of different games, playing a different one shot every week.
Last week I ran an adventure in a spooky lunar base using Call Of Chtulhu, this week they'll be fighting off a goblin incursion in warhammer fantasy, and next week is gonna be Traveller time.
Any suggestions for a fun one shot? I was thinking something akin to Red November, they'd be couriers on a ship that's about to break down every moment and needs constant care.
Josiah Garcia
It's sorta eh. My preference is "The singularity happened a long time ago, you're the descendants of those who didn't go with it, and they send out agents to grab the people who want a singularity. If your character is a transhumanist, they got nabbed and brought into whatever it is those post humans have built in their basement universes."
I also haven't gotten too deep into MIndjammer though. I just don't like it when someone is forced to play a certain role that leaves unable to help most of the action without convoluted character sheets.
Robert Rivera
>Any suggestions for a fun one shot?
Check out Classic's "Double Adventures" in the archives. All make for good one-shots.
Connor Bailey
Unless you've got nuclear dampeners
Brody Moore
There's also this: missiles are for tiny targets with little PD and light armor. NOw, my preference is for torpedo, especially since I ran the numbers and barbettes blow bays out of the water on how much they take up. The only problem is having enough hardpoints, which is where the bay beats the barbette.
Andrew James
Sure, just gotta spend 50 tons on the things... Which certainly explains every capitol ship ever.
Carter Wilson
>Unless you've got nuclear dampeners
Dampers aren't perfect and big volleys can get through often enough.
Lucas Moore
Checking it out now, thanks fellow traveller
James Anderson
No problem. I routinely run "Chamax Plague" a FLGS game nights with pregen characters. It's always fun with a LOT of shooting. I usually scrap most of the intro too, picking up the story with the players already on the planet and getting ready to step out.
Blake Thompson
does anyone have a favorite adventure for mongoose?
Zachary James
Why are Vilani>all other human subtypes, Solomani nonwithstanding
