Traveller General--Zhodani Psiops Edition

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.

Previously on Traveller General: Library Data: Master Archive, snip li link:
/Traveller
Direct link:
mega.nz/#F!lM0SDILI!ji20XD0i5GTIUzke3iv07Q

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

Traveller General Homebrew:
pastebin.com/G1kb29aT

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=3lAsqdFJbRc&list=PLpbcquz0Wk__J5MKi66-kr2MqEjG54_6s
>Herrmann - The Day the Earth Stood Still
youtube.com/watch?v=3ULhiVqeF5U
>Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygene
youtube.com/watch?v=nz1cEO01LLc
>Tangerine Dream - Hyberborea
youtube.com/watch?v=9LOZbdsuWSg
>Brian Bennett - Voyage
youtube.com/watch?v=1ZioqPPugEI

Other urls found in this thread:

spacecorsair.com/wordgen.html
talestoastound.wordpress.com/2017/03/12/traveller-out-of-the-box-another-difference-between-the-1977-edition-and-the-1981-edition/
pastebin.com/Ri94GckL
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

bump?

Hello, yes, is how well does character creation carry over between editions, and what are the Top 3 for character creation?

You'll find Classic, Mega, TNE, T4 and Mongoose to have somewhat compatible results from character creation, though they use those results differently.

As for "best" that's subjective and complex. The Events of Mongoose are a good addition, but you may prefer the skills mix of Classic.

It is a good idea to read Classic's approach to skills as an eye-opener for most other editions. The idea that skills are expertise instead of boolean enablers is an important one.

I get the impression that the only editions that matter are Classic and Mongoose.

That's really dependent on who plays what near you.

MegaTrav is conceptually a cleaned up and unified Classic. The reality is not aligned with the concept, sadly, but it is the edition that saw much of the larger setting get attention. It also delivered on the promise of Classic's moving date stamp. Classic was the first RPG to assume the clock was ticking. Mega and TNE both keep that up, though in different parts of the timeline. Later editions did/do not have the magazine support to keep the clock moving, with the exception of GURPS Traveller, and it is not in the main timeline.

One of the reasons to look at other editions is that they explore other eras within the setting.

Classic and Mongoose look at the so-called Golden Age as the Third Imperium begins its 12th century.

MegaTraveller watches the Third Imperium die in a shattering Rebellion, a decidedly uncivil war that, over 13 years, leaves the Imperium broken into factional islands surrounded by scorched and salted worlds, dead or dying populations, and failing institutions. it ends with the accidental release of a murderous replicating AI which finishes the job, murders billions more, and takes out all of the Imperium's neighbors as well, thus leveling the field.

TNE starts up 70 years later as recovery and rebuilding begin to pick up speed, but the remnants of the AI still must be dealt with. Old grudges carry through a series of wars to end at 1248 (about 45 years later), in which the grudges have been dealt with sufficiently that real rebuilding can actually begin. The timeline basically ends here, but more on that in a bit.

The next edition, Marc Miller's Traveller (colloquially called T4), goes backwards and looks at the first two hundred years of the Third Imperium, showing that the early Imperials broke a few eggs making their empire.

Then came The Traveller Handbook, a D&D3 OGL project also known as T20. Confusing for reasons I can come back to, it chose to cover the last big war of the Third Imperium as that state approached its thousandth year (so a bit over a century prior to Classic and Mongoose). As was a habit by this point, it also chose to focus on a different corner of the setting.

Then came GURPS Traveller. Started by Steve Jackson Games and one of Traveller's original developers (Loren Wiseman), it started with the assumption that the events that launched the Rebellion didn't happen. While it continues the Golden Age, it does so as a variation on the theme.

GURPS Traveller changed eras when GURPS moved to 4th edition, giving us a look at the emergence of Earth as an interstellar power in the distant past more than 3,000 years prior to the Golden Age.

A brief attempt to convert Traveller to the Hero System, presumably in the Golden Era, was killed off when the Mongoose license caused others to sunset.

Mongoose has so far stuck the the Golden Age of Imperial Year 1104.

Marc Miller's next go, overtly referred to as T5, has so far only hinted at era, but appears to have finally moved the clock forward again to the Imperial year 1900. Little detail is available so far.

has anyone ever played a zhodani? how did you deal with it? an all zhodani party? how would zhodani work outside the consulate? being as feared/despised as they are

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Saved all these really cool ideas

If they have prepared properly they will be able to keep their fear and disgust of the dishonest Imperials to a minimum. If a group is all Proles, such as a trader who has crossed the border, or unprepared Intendants or Nobles, the fish out of water thing can be played for table humor even while the PCs are struggling. Because the Noble turban is a sign of their social contract with the Proles, most Nobles could probably be talked into not wearing one in Imperial space. The Zhodani Ambassador on Capital wears a fez, for example, because he's both on official business and needs to remind of his status, while also being used to having something on his head.

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Jump

or JumpGate

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what makes Zhodani commandos so terrifying? is it mainly the psionics, or the gear?

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bump

The gear makes them dangerous. The teleport and undetectable reconnaissance make them terrifying.

to be fair a guy with a knife and zhodani psionic training would be terrifying

Beware the Eplplorstiplitl, these are the deadliest of Zhodani commandos. Their weapon of choice is the Boplto'plenzhier, known to the Imperials as a death-dealing spork.

May your efforts.towards glorious slitlokkving be successful.
spacecorsair.com/wordgen.html

*teleports behind you*

My group had trouble playing an all Zho party because of the inherent noble > interdental > prove pecking order. Players forgot their PC's "place" in the group and those with social power began acting like something out of the Stanford prison experiment.

An all parole group may have avoided some of that, but proves have their pecking orders too.

It's the psionics, even despite the fact that people routinely over sell psionics abilities.

Psionics in Traveller work for periods measured in seconds or minutes and require lengthy recovery periods. There are significant physical hurdles to teleportation involving changes in altitude and latitude and commandos will require help from drugs to make their exfiltration jump.

I always caution players wanting to play psions to read the section in Classic and the Zho AM while playing close attention to the nuts & bolts associated with each ability before making a final choice. The strength costs associated with every ability increase quickly with range and many abilities rely on another ability providing targeting information.

Justify the existence of this starship in the Traveller universe

>solar radiation collectors
>heat sinks
Done.

Someone with more money than they know what to do with.

Again, subjective, I use the original classic canon, but I play Traveller HERO which is the best ruleset for me and my group, but we're probably the only ones who use it!

Hey guys, I'm thinking about learning a Traveller ruleset. Mongoose is still considered the best right?

1e, not 2e, or cepheus engine

you mean mongoose's psion book isn't an accurate reflection of the psionic system?

Eh, 2e is fine as well. It comes down to preference in my opinion as it did some things right, though it did other things worse. That said I prefer 1e.

Anyhow question relating to classic, there are 3 different versions in the archive as far as I can tell (1977, 1981 and a consolidated version) are there any mechanical differences between them or are the latter ones just printing fixes & a consolidated version?

this sums it up pretty well: talestoastound.wordpress.com/2017/03/12/traveller-out-of-the-box-another-difference-between-the-1977-edition-and-the-1981-edition/

The TL;DR of the post:
Small ships in a dangerous galaxy. Pirates prey on the mains, dodging patrols that could be pirates themselves (Customs cutters taking extra "fines and fees" is an example). There is no overarching government to enforce peace between worlds (it might barely exist just to give a common currency), and space travel is expensive (those life support figures? That's every two weeks). If you don't have the Generate program, you have to buy pre-run jump calculations for your flight plan.
If you're not a subsidized merchant, you are running on the thin line of finance, dealing in small packets of freight while you hope to hell one of your cargo lots makes a big score.
>psion book
Sort of, but also not really. It's a "goodies" book, full of powers and little on how to make psionics fit in a campaign.
Also, their "Psionic TL" is pure trash. Throw it away, it has nothing to do with how a society can actually develop an understanding of Psionics, and reads like a history of witchcraft in ancient/medieval Europe - down to the fucking witch hunts being listed as a development in understanding psionics.
Like I said, TRASH IT. Somewhere around here I have a Psionics Index, which does have some house rules attached. Lemme scrounge it up.

>Somewhere around here I have a Psionics Index, which does have some house rules attached.
Well, put it up for the archive

Starting off, just the PI. Full thing is here: pastebin.com/Ri94GckL
Psi Index
0 – No training possible, no techniques to control usage (12+)
1 – No training possible, crude techniques to control usage (11+)
2 – Training up to Talent 0, Control 10+. Discovery of natural enhancers
3 – Training to Talent 1, Control 9+. Refinement of natural enhancers
4 – Talent 2, Control 8+. First artificial enhancers.
5 – Talent 3. Second generation artificial enhancers. First artificially induced instances of psionics (unreliable)
6 – Talent 4, Control 7+. First artificial power multipliers, reliable inducement of psionics in a small segment of population.
7 – Control 6+. Stable power multipliers, large scale inducement of psionic powers.