Traveller General - Uplift Your Cats, Today! Edition

has anyone ever run a different milieu in a different ruleset?

anybody run pirates of drinax? got anything to say about it?

You better make an adventure out of keeping the ship running. There is so much opportunity there.

...has no one else run it?

>Chargen is purposefully a really good intro to the game's core mechanics.

No it isn't. It teaches nothing about skills, stats, combat, etc. nor does it get the "feel" of Traveller across. Traveller is different - deliberately different - from the d20/D&D style of RPGs nearly all players are either directly or indirectly familiar with.

Having players use pregens in just a session or three so they can get a feel for the game helps them considerably when they later create a "for keeps" PC in chargen.

>>They'll end up with people they know their way around and an actual investment in the fate of their character.

I'm not suggesting they only ever use pregens. I'm suggesting they play the game a time or two first before making their own character. Spending time in chargen without any play experience to guide their decisions will only result in flawed PCs which the players will resent being "stuck" with.

Spending a session or two running pregens through one of Classic's ATV adventures can only help a new player understand the game faster and make better choices in chargen.

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Why do I get the feeling this is from some giantess smut?

You had that feeling too?

>Uplift Your Cats, Today! edition

Admittedly i'm not very knowledgable about the OTU, but this intrigues me.

What would the OTU look like if the ancients had uplifted semi-domesticated felines instead of/alongside canines. How would they differ from the Vargr and the Aslan?

A primitive, barely there society, that sees worse fights for dominance than the Vargr.
With Vargr, dominance fights happen when someone fucks up. With Cats, dominance fights happen when someone comes up with a plan...
For a functioning society, expect highly capable individuals who rely on rather rigid social rules for interaction, with uneven rollout of advanced technology. I can see there being almost no government as the solitary hunter pattern, and the conscious restriction of it via social rules, could lead to decisions and projects being made by small groups that have decided to support them.

because they're fucking giant and giantess-fetish fags can't shut the fuck up about their shitty fetish

Oh hey, it's nice waking up to this thread with some activity.

Anybody ever encounter these weird things in Traveller? Llellewylolys are probably one of the stranger sapient life forms in the Spinward Marshes.

Five-legged dandelions that are stupidly specific with status and formality making up 50% of their homeworld, the rest a cityscape with a smattering of other races? Why not, I guess. Sadly, there's not a whole heck of a lot of information on these bizarre aliens that I could find.

> No it isn't. It teaches nothing about skills, stats, combat, etc. nor does it get the "feel" of Traveller across.

While I can agree that it teaches practically nothing about the mechanics I can argue that it does teach that traveller is different. You are not rolling for your stats then picking and choosing what you want. You are literally rolling up the lifepath of your character that he/she took up until the start of the game.

Arguably your method is worse than having them roll for chars immediately. If they go in to the char creation after this intro adventure with a clear mind and an expectation about the character that they want then they might be off put by the fact that their char is not what they want it to be. I think it's better off to just have them go straight through the char creation in the beginning while they are still in the "Okay so how does this system work? phase, because then they will immediately realize that this is not all about what they think is cool & stuff.

There likely were no "semi-domesticated" felines at the time. Looking for some inherent social structures to build on, the Ancients would probably have ended up with Lions. Without the gender birthrate difference seen in the Aslan, a Terran Lion uplift *might* still have developed similar social structures, or kept those they started with, but it is just as likely that new structures would emerge with sentience.

There have been hints that they are more widely spread than their homeworld, having colonized other Atmo 3 worlds nearby.

The material I can find suggests that the other population on Junidy is overwhelmingly Human, with a small Rebellion-era community of Vargr.

Does anyone know a couple tilesets that'd fit good with traveller? Specifically looking for urban/spaceship/space-station ones as wilderness is the same in all settings and you can find hundreds for that.

>Uplifting cats

Cats are fucking pyscho why would you do this

I mean, we do already have sentient cats if you count the modern depictions of Aslan - just all cats all the time.

Would be more fun if you had 4-legged cats uplifted though.

how would 4 legged cats be different?

they are pretty cool, but jgd-ll-jagd...the alien crystal starfish are cooler, IMO

What's the best Solomani book that doesn't potray them as pic related?

Probably GT's Rim of Fire.

>Arguably your method is worse than having them roll for chars immediately.

No, it isn't. I introduce new players to Traveller monthly at my FLGS Open Game Night and have been doing so for years. What I suggested comes from my experience and it works. It's not a theory. It comes from actual tabletop practice.

Depending on how many people sign up or wander over from other games, most game nights I'll run a "shoot 'em up" pulled from the Chamax DAs or a stripped down RPG session based on the ATV DAs. Sometimes I'll run a big Snapshot free for all and sometimes a Mayday tourney.

When test driving a new game, people want to play it and not fiddlefuck around with prep work. During open game nights, I routinely get people joining my games who got fed up with the 3.5, Pathfinder, or other games where they've been spending way too much time building a PC instead of playing the game.

When you come to my table and jump into Traveller for the 1st time, you can thumb through dozens of pregens, choose one you like, change to another when you want, and play the game. If your PC dies it's no big deal because you have little invested in them and can just grab another pregen.

During play, I talk about chargen, pass around splats, stress the OSR nature of Traveller, point at Classic, CE, and MgT, and generally keep reminding everyone that the game they're playing that night is a stripped down version of the real thing.

Get them to play first. Get them intrigued first. Chargen is fun, but it can be done solo. When people get together with other people, they want to play with other people and not prep with other people.

>Anybody ever encounter these weird things in Traveller? Llellewylolys are probably one of the stranger sapient life forms in the Spinward Marshes.

I've used them, but you're right in saying there isn't a lot of info about them. Classic's TTA is probably the most/best.

While it's a shame there isn't more canonical info on them, that "lack" allows you and I to use as we wish. That's a good thing.

how'd you use them, user?

>how'd you use them, user?

I've always liked using "WTF?" moments in my sessions, those moments in which the players/PCs see something which makes them say "Huh?" while the NPCs around them see nothing out of the ordinary and are shocked that the players/PCs are shocked. I mentioned a good example of this several generals back concerning how "ordinary" robots would be in the OTU.

The players arranged for their cargo to be unloaded and 2 guys show up with several forklifts. Before the players can ask where the stevedores are, the 2 guys speak to the forktrucks, and the trucks start toting cargo containers out. The players goggle at the *robot* forktrucks while the 2 guys don't think of them as robots let alone out of the ordinary.

Humans and Dandelions are said to be pretty much integrated on Junidy with public facilities designed to be able to accommodate both. Think about that and then imagine all the WTF?/Huh? moments you can spin out of "simple" stuff like furniture. Or mass transit. Or supermarkets. Or hospitals. Or courthouses.

I pretty much played the Dandies' mentality "straight"; they're overly formal and status conscious but they're understandable to humans and vice versa. I played up the differing physical aspects however. Dandie and human children, for example, were always escorted up to certain ages because of the need to wear different breathing masks in different locations. Every human the players saw constantly wore a "fanny pack" containing the compressor mask & equipment needed step outside or enter Dandie buildings while nearly all Dandies in integrated regions had slung pouches for the equipment they needed in human buildings.

Atmosphere concerns were 2nd nature for the locals and a constant issue for the players.

Okay so pregens work great for your very specific situation but when I'm sitting down with a small group of seasoned RPG players walking them through chargen is a good way to introduce the world and the very basics of the system. Most people will make 1 or 2 skill checks in mongoose char gen and learn how their stat mods work since they're rolling them upwards of 15 times. Events and mishaps give us a chance to narrate vignettes that place the PCs inside the world and offer teaching moments for the bare bones of the lore. Sometimes I'll run chargen individually with each player leading up to the game, if I think they're going to get impatient waiting for each other to build characters but I find that chargen is a good first step to introduce newbies to traveller.

>small group of seasoned RPG players
>newbies to traveller

One of these things is not like the other.

I suggest that my method works for more people in more situations than yours and leave it at that.

heh this pic is my phone background since I saw it on /tg this summer. and my cats love RPGs.

d'aww

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Ohh... they're all sleepy...

Great pic! Lots of adventure possibilities there!

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Ah, that old GDW obsession for the peaked cap

I love images like this. I wish I had a cosy as fuck space craft and could travel through space exploring for a living.

Have a replicator on board to make minis and a Computer for games and tv. Cosy as fuck between worlds, then landing and surveying new planets.

Fuck this gay earth I just want to leave it so badly but all we do is talk about how many genders there are and racial bullshit when we could be exploring the universe.

So, some of my players want to build things - particularly complicated medical arrays and augments. Is there a crafting system in MGT2? I only ask because I'm lazy and dont want to read all the various books

Would you play in a campaign where the PCs were the hired entourage of an interplanetary rock star?

>I suggest that my method works for more people in more situations than yours and leave it at that.

No your method is good for your very specific situatiton, that being oneshot games. If you are introducing a group to the game with the intent of a long game forcing them to use pregen characters and then throwing them away once your intro oneshot is over is not really a good way to do it. I mean you even mention talking about the actual char generation during your intro session, and why on earth would you do that if your intention is selling the system proper?

But sure let's just leave it at that that your specific method that you use in your specific situation is somehow better than what others use in other situations...

I'm new to Traveller, could you please answer my noobish questions?
-What is currently the game's best version?
-Are there lore-influenced mechanics? I plan to drop the current one to run another similar but not identical 50-60' era space opera setting.
-Is the lore strongly present in released materials or is it common-universe-free?
-How complex is the ship-building system ?(when included)
-How does the combat system work for both melee and ranged weapons? (more like: do you think it could support fencing?)

Read this blog post and try to understand it:

talestoastound.wordpress.com/2017/11/09/the-heart-of-the-classic-traveller-rules-for-me/

Playing the game is the heart of the game. Not chargen, not ship building, not sysgen. All that is fun, but none of it is necessary.

In order to introduce people to Traveller, they need to PLAY Traveller. Creating a character isn't necessary and, going by the number of walk ups I routinely get during open game nights from other games where referees like you are wasting players' time by insisting on chargen instead of game play, people understand that.

>What is currently the game's best version?

There's a pdf which answers that question in the Archive. Look for the "Gertting Started" file in the "Incoming Sept 29" folder.

>-Are there lore-influenced mechanics?

The word is canon. Lore is WH40K shit. A few rules changed between versions and there have been retcons too, but, Mongoose's dreams not withstanding, Traveller has never followed GW's cynical business methods.

>-Is the lore strongly present in released materials or is it common-universe-free?

While canon isn't setting free, it does support a wide range of settings. Settings are primarily constrained by the technology presented in the rules: Jump drive and not FTL comms apart from ships. Both of those can be easily tweaked.

>-How complex is the ship-building system ?(when included)

Depends entirely on the version. Classic Book 2 is relatively simple while TNE's FF&S is rather complex.

>How does the combat system work for both melee and ranged weapons? (more like: do you think it could support fencing?)

Again, the details of personal combat depends on the version. All versions are more deadly and more realistic than many RPGs however.

As for fencing, there is no fencing system in any version per se.

And yet again you bring up open game nights and oneshots as the de facto way of introducing people. Maybe you should be the one that tries to understand what others are saying becase I'm not against the fact that having pregen chars is the best way to do oneshots with games that have a complex char creation. at this point I'm talking to a wall.

Talking to a wall? Did you even read the blog post I linked?

As for "only" doing what I do in open game night and one-shots, I've introduced long term gaming groups to Traveller too. I joined a RPG group in college which had played nothing but ADD and successfully introduced them all to Traveller. I had them PLAY the game first to see if they'd like it before insisting that they invest time in chargen or a specific PC. I've done the same with new RPG groups too, play first, see if you like it, and then invest the time. I don't have people piss away time as a group doing something they can easily do solo.

What you're continually - and deliberately - failing to understand is that I'm suggesting using pregens for only a session or two. It's a test drive, no one is locked in to a PC, no one is even locked in to the game. It's just an introduction and it takes as little time away from actual play as possible.

thanks, I'll go read the archive.

That blog post started with "this is my opinion" was riddled with "in my opinion" and ended with this being the conclusion
>2D6 +/- DM ≥ Saving Throw Value equals success

I'm sorry for ignoring an argument that says that the dice mechanic is the heart of the game. I never knew that people who play PBTA are just effectively playing traveller, after all it works exactly the same...

As for this
>What you're continually - and deliberately - failing to understand is that I'm suggesting using pregens for only a session or two.
I present you thisBut I'm stopping here. This is turning into a pointless shit flinging and I really don't want this general to end up like that.

>I'm sorry for ignoring an argument that says that the dice mechanic is the heart of the game.

So you didn't understand it. Not surprising sadly.

The point the blogger is making is this:

"This is the heart of the game, the brilliance of Classic Traveller. Because it lets you play the game."

He's saying playing the game is more important than any of the various "subsystems" people become enamored with.

You can take my advice or leave it, but you can't deny the fact that my advice is based on decades of experience and not merely theory. I'm done with this "discussion" too.

About fencing, Classic handles melee combat via "swings". A character has a number of swings equal to their STR and, once they exceed that number, their attacks suffer a -DM.

In one of Classic's books, there are a few sentences discussing how a character can deliberately "save" swings by making attacks with the -DM and only choose for a swing to "count" in certain attacks. That's pretty vague and lacks any detail, but it could be a place to start.

You could graft fencing rules from GDW's En Garde onto Traveller. You could also import GURPS fencing rules, especially if you go with the GURPS version of Traveller.

yeah that's exactly what I wanted to do, either using GURPS's rules or diving into the archive to get En Garde.

En Garde is a good choice, especially if you're want fencing to be more about "first blood" than death. En Garde (and GURPS) will give you more weapon choices for fencing too, choices that have effects in combat.

Well, I definitely couldn't run a good copy of my favorite setting without some sort of old fashion duels, all high-ranked military officials and most good taste pirates are equiped with a blaster-rapier mix in it so it would be a bit awkward to just have a generic fight system for that.

En Garde is in the archive?

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>Fuck this gay earth I just want to leave it so badly but all we do is talk about how many genders there are and racial bullshit when we could be exploring the universe.
Aye lad

I don't know yet... I'll just ctrl F all 3 major archives for now.

there're three archives?

curated, semi-curated, and non-curated ones.

Someone on TML is supposed to be working on an article for Freelance Traveller that covers stagehands.
In case your group wants that sort of thing, but nobody pays attention to the tour crew...
Keep in mind, you will need a shit ton of cargo space (instruments, set pieces, wardrobe, and anything that isn't going to be rented locally) and staterooms (or barracks for tour crew).
Minimum? 150dtons of cargo or more, plus beds for 25+ stagehands, plus band, plus add-ons.

can you point me in the direction of these archives?

archive.4plebs.org/tg/search/subject/PDF share/ you should be able to find them in these archived threads, current PDF thread's op didn't care to post the special edition (main one) and annex (new links).

thanks user

Of course I would. John M. Ford's famous "Road Show" adventure featuring the rock band Veedback and it's roadies is over 30 years old after all.

...you've got to be shitting me that sounds AWESOME!

I wouldn't shit you because you're my favorite turd.

The adventure is in an issue of Classic's JTAS magazine.

I'm stealing the basic concept of this for a roll20 game

i thought that sounded familiar

Issue 23 if anyone is interested.

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I hadn't heard of that. He was a hell of a guy, though - even random internet comments by him made reading the comments worthwhile.

And he wrote the best Star Trek novel, How Much For Just The Planet?

Ford also wrote "The Final Reflection" which is my favorite Trek novel. I far prefer his take on the Klingons as seen in his work for FASA and the novels.

Ford did some superb work for Traveller much of which can be found in Classic's JTAS. "Thoughtwaves" is a horror slasher scenario involving the Zhos and an alien archeology site. "Aces & Eights" is treasure hunt against time involving a massacre and a nasty merc unit which is now ruling a planet. "Chill" features eerie happenings along with a guerilla attack during a blizzard and, if handled correctly, can easily misdirect the players by playing on everything they know/fear about vampires.

He did great Klingons, but I'm more of a sucker for comedy and filk.

OK, The Final Reflection may be "better," but it doesn't have as many fun Klingon-Federation interactions. Cinema, golf, food...

Is the OTU a kitchen sink setting?

No, it isn't. While it's wide ranging and deliberately so, the technological assumptions within both the rules and OTU canon still impose constraints.

the rules seem pretty general, IMO, sure it can't handle Big Stupid Sci-Fi like the Culture or Xeelee Sequence, but what can?

>the rules seem pretty general, IMO

Look at them again. No FTL "radio", no "phasers" or "blasters", psionics isn't the Force, etc., etc., etc.

There's a lot of sci-fi Traveller can't do without tons of work by the referee.

is it really hard to re-skin PGMPs into heavy blasters or phasers?

it's not hard, it just doesn't make sense, traveller takes radiation into account

>is it really hard to re-skin PGMPs into heavy blasters or phasers?

Yes it is, especially when you remember what pointed out.

Phasers are tough because they have non-lethal settings which is something Traveller has few rules for. (Classic has a sonic stun carbine.) While blasters might as well be a slug thrower, in many ways they perform even worse than slug throwers.

You can spend time fucking around trying to "Traveller-ize" both and come up with something that sort of works while not "breaking" the rest of combat system too badly OR you can just play a Trek/SW RPG rules set already which has phasers and blasters "baked" into the rules.

but isn't that argument hanging on the thread that Traveller is actually a 'hard science' rules set?

and that your players will be checking all your game physics against real world physics throughout your gameplay?

are those the only valid (or popular) ways to approach a Traveller game?

Not hard... but why not just homebrew a new weapon? Weapons in traveller aren't that hard to make.

i don't mind homebrewing weapons or other gear

or simply 'borrowing' things from other systems

>Weapons in traveller aren't that hard to make.

Making weapons isn't hard. Handling the effects of those weapons is another question.

Using Traveller's personal combat system, tell us how the stun setting on a phaser would work.

You can borrow anything you want. Getting it to work within the system is where the problems begin.

>isn't that argument hanging on the thread that Traveller is actually a 'hard science' rules set?
With the partial exception of TNE, Traveller is detailed SF but not Hard SF. Even TNE's drives are magically efficient, but you can really get down into the weeds of craft and weapon design if you want. Can you design an accurate Abrams, though? No.

>Using Traveller's personal combat system, tell us how the stun setting on a phaser would work.
Lots of dice, but won't damage your third attribute, and the "damage" wears off relatively fast.

does traveller have rules for...advanced cybernetics? and not just prosthesis?

Throw END against target decided by setting.
DMs: If END 9+ DM+1, if END 12+ DM+2 if END 5- DM-1.
Targets
Light stun: 2d
Medium Stun 2d+2
Heavy Stun 3d+1
(Variable target number represents the fuzziness of combat effectiveness versus the lab).
Armor (Classic) provides a DM as if it were facing a Shotgun, excepting Reflec and Ablat. These provide a DM that is half theirs against Laser weapons, due to their energy dissipating nature.

If failed, the character is unconscious for a number of minutes rolled using the stun settings dice.
If the character is wearing primarily metal armor, or is wearing a lot of metal, roll 8+ for CNS complications, DM+1 for Medium Stun, DM+2 for Heavy Stun. For each pip over 8, the character takes 1d damage from neural disruption. This damage requires TL9+ medical care, at 1 week of care per point.
Boom, ruled it old school.

Planning on running a horror game set on a Generation Ship, somewhat inspired by The Thing, Alien, and Pandorum.
Really wanna amp up the sense of paranoia and fear of something lurking in the shadows, but I'm kinda struggling with ideas on how to maintain that sort of atmosphere, anyone got any tips for me?
Used to running heroic fantasy campaigns, haven't run anything like this before.

Three pirates are in a cargo bay when the lights go out, and they start taking suppressed gunfire. The traveller firing at them isn't stealthed per say, but its dark and quiet. What would the pirates have to do to shoot back?