Traveller General

File: 1_FLEETALL2500.jpg (159KB, 1280x960px) Image search: [Google]

159KB, 1280x960px

So, how common are starships in Traveller third imperium? The sense I have is than not so many for the trade it could have such a huge polity as it's the third imperium.

>>51522501
Holy shit what a sight
BRB gotta go to the fresher

>>51522516
>>Maint, need you down here.
>>Broken air recycler again, yeah.
>>Yep, spooge in the filter. Dang marines...

File: terran_praesidium_marine_by_sabakakrazny-d5kco2k.jpg (355KB, 900x1510px) Image search: [Google]

355KB, 900x1510px

>>51522607
>going on tour of warship
>guide is a wry old salt
>points out Marine quarters
>"We call this Fort Knox...because it's where the goldbricks live"
His face didn't even twitch

>>51522501
I guess it depends on the wealth and TL of the system?

File: 1_freei.jpg (226KB, 548x900px) Image search: [Google]

226KB, 548x900px

>>51522680
Even in some well to do worlds at standard ImpTech, in the adventures it has at most some SDB and doesn't feels than it has that much life in going and coming spaceships, at least for what I read, poor backwater planets tend to be totally void of them apart of the ocasionally free trader, it feels weird and very empty for such an enormour economy as the Imperium.

File: 1402328241564.jpg (249KB, 640x446px) Image search: [Google]

249KB, 640x446px

>>51522501
I think it's just kind of a failing of the medium, really. In a game like Vega Strike or Privateer you have a visual medium which lets you easily show how alive with signatures for ships and installations a planet's orbit is, but you don't get that information in a tabletop game; it's more difficult, in some ways, to portray in a non-clunky or non-repetitive way.

Also, Traveller tends to avoid the "single-biome world" trope a lot better than some other fiction does. Worlds tend to be more well-rounded, and, therefore, more self-sufficient. You don't see stuff like in 40k where there are forgeworlds that are literally nothing but factory covering the entire planet, necessitating massive constant imports, because the humans in Traveller act more rationally. Which is not to say such places don't exist, but rather that they're much rarer, as generally people don't want to colonize a hellworld where you can't grow food in the first place.

File: fat_trader_in_port_by_drell_7-d5iuyhb.jpg (199KB, 1280x780px) Image search: [Google]

199KB, 1280x780px

>>51522947
Being able to grow food only got you fed, people crave quality/exotic food. Europe didn't grow mace,pepper or silk, but loved it, so it sparked a world wide trade. Imagine the demand of terran foods than can't be growed or made elsewhere, only that would spark an enormous market, living in subsistence is well and good if it's the only thing you can have, but people crave those things. A fat or far trader suplying an entire world of trinkets it's pretty meager desu.

File: 1_folly.jpg (245KB, 1200x1200px) Image search: [Google]

245KB, 1200x1200px

Is there a mongoose starship builder? The system doesn't seem that bad.

>>51526750

Yeah, the core rules are pretty good, it's just the supplemental stuff that gives it a bad rep. I don't know that there's a specific Mongoose shipbuilder program, though.

>>51522501
>So, how common are starships in Traveller third imperium?

The answer, as you'll see, is "It Depends".

> The sense I have is than not so many for the trade it could have such a huge polity as it's the third imperium.

While you're sense isn't exactly wrong, it isn't exactly right either. It's more of a trick of perception.

Leaving the game's various trade systems/rules aside, 90% of the 3I's population lives in 10% of the 3I's systems. Trade and shipping between THOSE systems is going to be heavy no matter which trade system/rules you use.

If you watched the traffic crossing the George Washington Bridge over the Hudson in NYC, you'd "perceive" a huge amount trade. If watched the traffic crossing the Podunk Bridge over Shit Creek in West Bumfuck, Arkansas you'd "perceive" a tiny amount of trade. How common starships are and how extensive trade is will depend on where you look.

Bringing in the game's various trade systems/rules, the "early" parts of Classic (what's referred to as Proto-Traveller) assumed relatively smaller ships in relatively smaller numbers carrying relatively smaller amounts of passengers and trade. The game's literary inspirations - especially the Dumerest series - featured that. The second half of Classic "expanded" those original assumptions; i.e. huge ships in huge numbers etc. etc. etc., and all the following versions followed that expanded thinking.

Despite that expansion, however, there are still many systems like West Bumfuck. The GURPS version's rules creates the heaviest trade volumes, yet under those rules a simple majority of systems have trade routes rated as BTN-8 or less.

A BTN-8 route sees scheduled shipping handling 1000 tons of cargo and 20 passengers a week while BTN1-7 routes have no scheduled shipping and may see one or two free traders a week.

So, as I've hopefully explained, "It Depends".

File: maxresdefault.jpg (83KB, 1280x720px) Image search: [Google]

83KB, 1280x720px

Greetings, Travellers.

I've been thinking about starting a sci fi RPG for my fellow nerd friends. We've been mostly playing D&D3.5, Pathfinder, and Werewolf: The Apocalypse over the past 12 years (with more or less the same core group). All of us have more or less ran a campaign or two over all those years, but always in a fantasy setting (except Werewolf which was modern times). Pretty much all of us dig Star Wars, some Star Trek, Firefly, and games like FTL, the last one being the setting I'd like to play around with. 5 or 6 guys fucking about on a spess ship in spess. We're a pretty casual group (no "that guy") Only one of us is This Guy, who has extensive experience in tons of different systems, both pen n paper, vidya RPG and miniature wargaming.

I've been going through a ton of different systems but Traveller always seems to come back on top. Now to the question itself: I see there is a new Traveller 2nd Edition out since 2016. Should I get into that or consider older/different versions? I'm thinking about a bit of a exploration/military setting with some added cosmic horror as a general background.

tl;dr: advice me best Traveller.

File: 1471764753980.jpg (272KB, 1200x1680px) Image search: [Google]

272KB, 1200x1680px

>>51529270
Well, from what I've seen, here's the rundown.

Classic is for if you want the greatest wealth of written material at the cheapest price. Expect roughness around edges, though, to be sure.

Mongoose v.1 has a goodly portion of stuff written for it. The books and writing have that modern polish, and I've heard the system described as more friendly and accessible. However, it's Mongoose, so a lot of the books are pants-on-head retarded in terms of balance and persist in being very expensive. To use any of the supplements, you'd need to do a bit of research on either the fixes people have come up with for Mongoose's criminally bad writing and editing, or seek out their errata, which can be difficult to locate. (Who needs errata? Our product's perfect! Now cough up $50!)

v.2 claims to fix a lot of the issues with the original. I don't know about that; I can't check it out because I like having money to eat more than I like examining their new product. There's already been chatter about how they've fucked up, though, especially in the department of drives. Big practical downsides include the fact that you may be waiting years for all the supplements to come out; Mongoose ain't exactly spritely when it comes to that.

Personally, I'm most fond of Mongoose Traveller v.1. I feel it's a good mixture of Classic's "has a shitton of stuff written for it" while simultaneously being more accessible to a filthy casual like myself. However, Classic is nothing if not respectable, and if you want to check that out you can look into podcasts like "Behind the Claw" and "Close the Airlock" to get a taste of Classic gameplay. Both systems, however, are fairly rules-burdensome; if rules-light is your thing, you might look into something like Diaspora. There's also Orbital, if you want a lower-tech game.

>>51529854

MGT2 has also annoyed third party publishers, who have jumped ship to the MGT1-compatible clone called the Cepheus Engine.

In general, I suggest folks look at more than one edition, because there's good bits you can steal from pretty much all of them.

>>51529854
If the core book is good, I don't need supplements. Our group is pretty RP heavy, and with both d&d and Pathfinder we only ever used core/advanced/bestiary with very few exceptions. If it has the base rules, a bunch of aliens and animals to shoot and various crap to loot, we should be good to go. I wouldn't want to be overwhelmed with options anyway. According to this https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/16/16668.phtml shit is now better in almost every way. I'll look into diaspora, because I do prefer rules-light, even more so because everyone will be 100% noob with Traveller.

>>51529906
So fluff wise most books are compatible? I've already seen a bunch of different systems including GURPS and d20, but I do think we can just handle the 2d6 system fine.

>>51529854
I got MgT2 just to show I wanted more Traveller, and I already regret it. The system feels rushed, and the hope that they cleaned up the editing and rules errors proved unfounded. It's almost exactly the same as 1e, but without the supplements. There's also the obnoxious fact that the core book references a few other books (like the Companion) which Mongoose has now pushed back indefinitely. Add to that the poor state of High Guard, and it all feels like a cash grab meant to ride the wake of RPG interest that D&D 5e provided.

>>51529998

Yeah, Classic, Megatraveller, and Mongoose all have a lot of mechanical similarities (though they're not 100% compatible) and fluff is all pretty compatible, apart from some of Mongoose's poor editing and writing. (Also GURPS Behind the Claw made some changes fans don't like; I also dislike what they did to the Sword Worlds, turning it from H Beam Piper's Star Vikings into an East Germany expy)

>>51529998
I mention supplements only because they're much more important in Traveller than in, say, D&D. At least in Classic and MgT1, the Core rulebooks are -very- CORE. They contain the bare minimum to play. Supplements add basically everything that would really help to color gameplay, like weapons, "chrome," ships, that sorta stuff. That's why people's ears perked up so hard at the news that v.2's core book was much bigger; there was the hope that we weren't getting an incomplete system which had been cut into multiple books to squeeze more money out. Not sure if that dream panned out.

I think the most important thing to remember is that the version hardly matters at all, in the end. It's the OTU setting which keeps pulling people back to Traveller. It's cool, it's very different from other settings, and it's modular into many different storytelling styles. It's why you get neat variant timelines like TNE where the whole universe collapses into a garbage fire. So if you must place importance on ANY document, it is in principle -this- one: https://travellermap.com/ and this one: http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Main_Page

>>51530264
>>51530073
Thanks a lot, gentlemen (?), I'll read more into it. I just hoped the v2 would be good enough since I assume it was also the easiest to obtain in print, being brand spanking new and all. But if its all shit anyway, its no use really. I'll see whatever version I can get my hands on!

File: 1456464468988.jpg (294KB, 800x739px) Image search: [Google]

294KB, 800x739px

>>51530361
Take a look at the Mega archive link at the top of the thread; it's really best to have a look see at all the systems and see what's good for you. That'll get you a good preview into what you're getting into before you start dropping $5 - $40 bucks on a physical book.

Have fun, and welcome to the club. Hope your first game goes well, whatever you end up using!

>>51529998
Fluff wise it's very compatible, and the mechanics are mostly compatible or at the very least easily convertable between editions. Some other Anon here should have the chart showing how to make those conversions.

>>51522444
What is everyone's favorite Sector or subsector?
Any particularly interesting planetfalls?

>>51522444
In a standard 30 dT ship's boat, if you strip out the passenger provisions and clear the cargo area, you have a clear area of roughly 918 square feet.
That is larger than the average 1 bedroom apartment in the USA in 2016.

File: 05_Civilian_Craft_-_Gudren_class_Hauler.png (4MB, 1280x905px) Image search: [Google]

4MB, 1280x905px

What's the biggest trade vessel you guys have ever seen built for the Traveller universe?

(Pic unrelated, but boy is Vir Inter Astrum cool.)

>>51534093
Depending on the size of the containers, I don't know if I should be applauding or shaking my head.

>>51534347
I'll tell you one thing for sure; I'm definitely stealing the concept of a "SSRR" container for my games. Slick.

>>51534501

They've existed since CT. but they're usually carried inside a pressurized hull.

>>51534530
Did not know that!
Do we have specs on their capacity?

>>51534564

Classic's "Supplement 7: Traders and Gunboats" and "The Traveller Adventure" has them. GT's "Far Trader" has several other versions too, all detailed GURPS' usual anal retentive precision. You can find both books in the links above.

Depending on the rules set, supplement, and/or precision the referee needs/wants, normal cargo containers are 3.85, 4, or 5 dTons.

The SSRRs shown in >51534093's excellent illo must either be airtight, hold subcontainers which are airtight, or hold cargo which can be exposed to vacuum. Placing containers inside the pressure hull means cheaper containers can be used in far more situations.

That does not mean, however, that airtight shipping containers don't exist or that containers aren't occasionally carried in the manner 51534093's illo shows.

>>51534530
I wonder how you would go about building a container of that shape that could withstand vacuum conditions and ensure regular internal conditions for cargo. It's not a very good shape for a pressure vessel, right?

>>51534817
>It's not a very good shape for a pressure vessel, right?

Yup. Then again, will your players notice that level of detail and complain?

You're the referee. You decide where you need to spend time and effort on details. You decide whether the time and effort is worth it.

With Traveller it's easy to drown in unnecessary details.

>>51534817
>It's not a very good shape for a pressure vessel, right?

Yeah, but on the other hand, Traveller's materials science is pretty advanced, so I bet they could take a lot more abuse before failure.

>>51534932
>>51534966
Good points. I'll chalk this one up to rule of cool.

>>51535115
>I'll chalk this one up to rule of cool.

That's the best rule there is!

File: 0f13a345fd424b541e1fd803e1290674.jpg (62KB, 564x729px) Image search: [Google]

62KB, 564x729px

>>51527773
I searched and nada. I can wait I guess.
>>51529269
So there isn't a clear answer and it can go both ways? Okay, I will have IMTU ships are far more common, so getting a second or third hand star ship isn't that hard.

File: chris_foss_meteorite_harvester.jpg (495KB, 1200x1040px) Image search: [Google]

495KB, 1200x1040px

What media do you use to inspire your traveller games anons? I'm using pulp era(the equivalent of my country, bolsi-libros) books, Euro/Lat-comics and of course classic sci-fi lit like Dune, Fundation, Star wars and some animes.

>>51536504
>So there isn't a clear answer and it can go both ways?

Exactly. Lots of big ships carrying lots of trade worth lots of money flying lots of scheduled routes between a few big worlds AND a few small ships flying occasionally between lots of small worlds.

It all depends on where you are.

>>51536544
Films like outland. Series like The Expanse
All the Star Treks

File: 1341085888617.jpg (624KB, 884x1050px) Image search: [Google]

624KB, 884x1050px

>>51532654
>What is everyone's favorite Sector or subsector?
The Solomani Rim of course, because the rest of space is full of smelly horrible xenos.

Seriously though, there are some fascinating worlds in the Neworld and Aldebaran sectors.

>>51536544
Vangelis, Tangerine Dream, Syd Mead, Moebius.

File: 1382568856287.jpg (64KB, 1000x484px) Image search: [Google]

64KB, 1000x484px

>>51532654
The New and Old Islands, definitely. I've been writing stuff around it for ages, nursing a private hope of publishing a splat on it some grand old day. As it exists in MgT1, it's a fascinating microcosm of conflict and intrigue with a lower-end tech level and very few planets. I love it. The idea just tickles the shit out of me that the truest heirs of Earth aren't the Solomani in some ways, but the people who bugged out before "Solomani" was even a concept.

File: angusMcKie.jpg (166KB, 744x1000px) Image search: [Google]

166KB, 744x1000px

>>51536780
From that bunch, I only know Moebius for sure.
>>51536750
Harder sci fi? Nice.

File: Syd-Mead-31.jpg (152KB, 1024x412px) Image search: [Google]

152KB, 1024x412px

>>51536924
>From that bunch, I only know Moebius for sure.
I bet you've seen Syd Mead's stuff somewhere anon. He's the whole reason Daft Punk exists!

As for the music, I do love my late 70's prog rock. It was I who suggested some of the music in the OP such a long while ago. I like it because it's from the same era that Classic Traveller comes from, and has the right "feel" to me.

>>51536544

Like you, quite a bit of pulp and golden age sci-fi because that was GDW's inspiration. Stuff like Tubb, Piper, Anderson, Vance, etc. Later writers are Pournelle, Drake, Steele, McDevitt, etc. (Drake's current RCN series really good.)

Movies/TV is stuff like Outland, Firefly, S:1999, etc. I stay away from Star Wars & Trek not because they're Star Wars & Trek but because they have "FTL radio" among other non-Traveller tech.

I also use a lot of history, action/adventure, & noir media.

>>51537014
From the writers, I Only read Vance (that guy is great), from the others who does space battles better (if at all)?

For a non player, can someone explain Psionics to me?

I know that: You've got a rating between 0 and 15, created at chargen and going down with each lifestage it's untrained. You need to find an institute to train it. Each initiation lets you build up one of three 'types' of your power, which is either some sort of psychokinetic teleport, a sensory boost or some sort of bodily augmentation, and that's based on your strength stat. What am I missing aside from that?

>>51537292
>For a non player, can someone explain Psionics to me?

Which version?

>>51537257

Finding Traveller-ish space battles in fiction is tough because such battles depend so much on the actual tech involved.

Pournelle's and Niven's various CoDominium/Empire/Motie stories probably comes the closest. Ship's move by fusion "rockets", there's a separate FTL drive, weapons are lasers and missiles/torpedoes, etc.

The setting has a "shared universe" series of books called "War World" and a few of those books have space battles in them.

The battles in Drakes' RCN series are good too, but the "propulsion" tech is very different, missiles are huge, and lasers are generally used as missile defense.

>>51537355
I've got the mongoose 5 book.

>>51537495

Sorry, can't help you.

So fellow travellers, i'm running my first traveller 1e session (since quite some time) this saturday and my knowledge got a little rusty.

Usually i would let the ship gunner roll "ship weapon skill"+ intelligence to attack a target.
But while reading the book again it says something along the line of
>Gunner rolls his "Ship weapon skill"
Any attribute modifier isn't mentioned.

Are attribute modifiers addet to ship weapons, as they are added to firearms ?

>>51537638
>Usually i would let the ship gunner roll "ship weapon skill"+ intelligence to attack a target.

Then do what you would usually do and fuck the book. Your game, your rules.

As long as you apply the same rule the same way all the time, there's no problem.

So, thoughts on Cepheus Engine?

>>51538257
Not really.

Anyone has good aslan art? I see a lot of complaints about the mongoose art but not so much "good" art seems to exist about them.

Just got caught up explaining why Traveller is so great to a friend, now the existential dread of remembering I never get to play it sets back in.

>>51540919
A pc game would do wonders for traveller, I dunno why doesn't exist.

>>51541430
Fanbase too small and autistic. EVE already took any niche a Traveller video game could have

>>51541516
I dunno, a small free trader based game could be good. Heck, perhaps a Patricia inspired game but with traveller would be awesome.

>>51538257

Interesting enough that I intend to give it a good concerted read-through one of these days, and it's nice that all the third party publishers don't have to put up with Mongoose's shenanigans anymore.

File: Aslan Politics.jpg (91KB, 523x351px) Image search: [Google]

91KB, 523x351px

>>51540136

Here's a good depiction of one of the routine failures of Aslan "honor." It has the right mix of strange alien and familiar lion-esque qualities to get that uncanny feel just right, IMO.

File: aslan_priestess___by_caesar120-d3hjj3h.jpg (201KB, 793x1007px) Image search: [Google]

201KB, 793x1007px

>>51540136

And here's a more relaxed one that I think does them justice.

>>51541430

There were two back in the DOS days, Megatraveller: The Zhodani Conspiracy and Megatraveller: Secret of the Ancients. Both pretty decent for the era.

>>51541430
shit, I think I'd settle for a super basic trading game where you acquire passengers, mail, and speculate on commodities across a sector while dodging political nonsense and local law levels for extra dosh

File: tactical_error__by_caesar120-d73am2l.jpg (283KB, 788x1013px) Image search: [Google]

283KB, 788x1013px

>>51540136

This one's good, too. Even an unarmed female, one fresh out of an Aslani cryo pod, is a threat to be taken seriously. They evolved from large ambush predators (carnivore/pouncer stock), and are still scary good at it.

File: 1_Assult_Cruiser07.jpg (230KB, 1280x1024px) Image search: [Google]

230KB, 1280x1024px

>>51541915
>>51541939
Nice, they look a bit more alien, but really they are lion people still.

Also how is like the relationship between Vargr and humans? Do humans treat varg like over intelligent pets? Did they breed them for they looks etc?

>>51544496

It's hard to say anything in general about the Vargr because they're so heterogeneous. A lot of Vargr reject the notion that they evolved on Terra, but there are also communities of Vargr that have integrated into Human space and have "Vargr-towns" on various worlds, and so forth.
They are legally recognized as sophonts within the Imperium and have all the rights that entails, though there might be weird places outside the Imperium that treat Vargr as something other than people. I doubt the Vargr would take it lightly, though, one thing they do have is pride, and getting a bunch of Vargr corsairs together to go kick over a human world that puts Vargr in cages is something any remotely charismatic leader could manage with ease.

>>51541430
>What is Elite?
Seriously check out the weapons, the cargos...

>>51546713

Commander Jameson/Captain Jamison is another one - the default Elite name is very similar to the name of the CT example character.

The creator of Elite insists it's all coincidence, though, and that Traveller had nothing to do with Elite. Funny, though, 'cause it's got so many similarities.

File: hnt7.jpg (104KB, 1280x720px) Image search: [Google]

104KB, 1280x720px

>>51541939
>There were two back in the DOS days, Megatraveller: The Zhodani Conspiracy and Megatraveller: Secret of the Ancients. Both pretty decent for the era.
They were super-cool and I sunk a lot of time into them back into the day. It was fun to actually wander around and explore Rhylanor, Regina etc.

Jump-1

File: Battledress SM-C.jpg (114KB, 365x566px) Image search: [Google]

114KB, 365x566px

Are you ready to rock?

File: 1336961712778.jpg (2MB, 1500x1506px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 1500x1506px

>>51552145
Yes sir, I can boogie

File: Solomani Eagle.gif (5KB, 100x139px) Image search: [Google]

5KB, 100x139px

>>51544496

The Solomani (BEST HUMANS) feel like the Vargr should probably be subservient to them, what with being uplifts and all. If they had the chance, they would treat them like a slave race. Seeing as they're on the other side of the galaxy to the Vargr, this is strictly theoretical.

File: sad lawyer.jpg (12KB, 300x192px) Image search: [Google]

12KB, 300x192px

Where do I find other people autistic enough to play this with me?
I'm at college for theatre, and everyone around me are fucking unmedicated ADHD fuckwits, it's easy enough to get along with them in a performance situation, but outside of that they turn into god damn idiot apes. Good enough for DnD 5e, but that gets tiresome.

>>51544496
>Also how is like the relationship between Vargr and humans?

As with so much in Traveller: "It Depends"

In the Julian Protectorate, the Vargr and Humans live together as social and legal equals. In the Long Night's Second Gashikan Empire period, the Vargrs and Humans conducted genocidal wars against each other. In the Imperium, some Vargr in some systems are fully assimilated, some Vargr in some systems are viewed with constant suspicion, some Vargr control their own systems, some Vargr in some systems are permanent second class citizens, some Vargr in some systems are jailed/killed on sight, and everything else in between.

It's Traveller. It always depends on where and when you are. it's always in flux, and t's never some autistic, binary, either/or, all or nothing, choice.

File: 1_image.jpg (186KB, 2048x989px) Image search: [Google]

186KB, 2048x989px

>>51554785
I like the idea of the solomani, but the nazi/comunist/fascist bad qualities undertone without ANY of they good ones make them saturday morning villians.
>>51555352
>>51544616
Cool, so it can exist but it would spark an intergalactic mini war if other Vargr knew?

>>51555954

>Without any good qualities

Read the Mongoose splat on them. It makes them pretty balanced, and gives a fair bit to appreciate. I still wouldn't want to LIVE there, but it's clearly an OK place to be.

>>51555984
>I still wouldn't want to LIVE there
B-but anon...you already do

>>51556013

No, I live in the predecessor to the predecessor to the predecessor to the etc. of the Solomani Confederation. That's like saying Charlemagne lived in the French Republic.

>>51555954
>Cool, so it can exist but it would spark an intergalactic mini war if other Vargr knew?

What part of "It Depends" don't you understand?

During the Long Night, Gashikan killed tens billions of Vargr with nukes, bioweapons, and more prosaic weapons. They fought several race wars over several centuries. They did so much damage to planets in one subsector that the region is still sparsely populated in the Classic Era over a thousand years later. Vargr slavery still exists in the 3rd Gashikan Empire.

Despite all that, the many polities in the Vargr Extents and the Human/Vargr Julian Protectorate haven't wiped out the Gashikan Empire. Fought it, yes. Stopped it from expanding, yes. Rolled it back, yes. But they Vargr haven't combined to destroy Gashikan.

The Vargr are too fractious and mercurial to "do" big long lasting governments with big long lasting goals. Vargrs are far more likely to go off on their own in small groups rather than follow orders and directives from some distant authority.

Use the links above and grab Classic's "Vargr Alien Manual" and Mega's "Vilani & Vargr" sourcebook. Do a little reading on your own instead of asking for Cliff Notes.

That world of yours breeding Vargr like we breed dogs? It could see Vargr corsairs continually raiding it, it could be the target of a "crusade" launched by the new charismatic Vargr leader of a nearby system, it could be ignored because it's too tough, or all three things could be happening now, could have happened in the past, or could happen in the future.

It Depends.

>>51555984
>Read the Mongoose splat on them

Ignore Mongoose's shit because, like nearly everything from Mongoose, it's shit.

Use the links above and read Classic's Solomani AM, Mega's "Solomani & Aslan", and GT's "Rim of Fire" instead.

Of the three, Classic gives off the biggest Nazi/Stalinist vibes. As it always does, fan perception then dialed those vibes up to 11. When you read carefully, however, and pay attention to what you're SHOWN instead of what you're TOLD, the picture is rather different. The Confederation is patchwork of wildly varying multi-system governments. Some echo 1984, some are libertarian paradises, some are in between. The Confederation has even had single worlds secede and then successfully hold off any attempt to force them back into the fold.

Traveller has always been about wheels within wheels. The Zhos were mind rapers, then the happiest most stable human empire, then something else. The Aslan were a Major Race, then frauds, then it didn't matter. Things are never what they seem to be on the surface.

>>51556229

>When you read carefully, however, and pay attention to what you're SHOWN instead of what you're TOLD, the picture is rather different. The Confederation is patchwork of wildly varying multi-system governments.

All of which is covered in the Mongoose book you just shit on. What, exactly, is your problem with it?

>>51556262

First, it's from Mongoose.

Second, it changes rather than builds on previous canon/lore.

There's a difference between fixing something and changing something. The current T5SS project is an example of fixing something. Too much of Mongoose's work is change for change's sake. Mongoose makes changes for the lulz and little more.

The latest version of High Guard is a good example of this. Rather than fix Traveller ship combat, rather than keep Traveller ship combta Traveller ship combat, Mongoose has made it Star Wars Lite because, apparently, we're all too fucking stupid to understand or want anything in sci-fi other than Star Wars.

File: PBF209-Now_Showing.jpg (108KB, 900x300px) Image search: [Google]

108KB, 900x300px

>>51556053
It's funny to think the Solomani of the 46th century would probably lump us all in together
>so there was this Charlemagne guy who landed on the moon and fought Hitler until he was killed by Napoleon the Great, son of Beowulf

>>51556400

I will ask you again.

What is your problem with Mongoose's Solomani splat? Not "What is your problem with Mongoose's High Guard splat", their SOLOMANI splat. What, specifically, do you dislike about it? Can you even point to anything specific about that book, or will you divert off to another totally unrelated splat next?

>>51555197
Having been in your position, check the CompSci, Engineering, Science and Civic Design classes. Keep an eye out for incoming students in the theatre dept, you can catch them and steer them away from what they majority becomes.

File: 1473474345197.jpg (233KB, 660x1100px) Image search: [Google]

233KB, 660x1100px

hey traveller general I haven't popped in lately but just found this on my hard drive so hey

woof woof yo

>>51556417
>No reply
I think you just told him.

How do you fluff the other crew members on a vessel? If I have a small party, but they want a ship with a crew of 8 or so, should I just run the other crew members myself?

>>51563276
Yep. Do a quick roll up of each one so you have stats, and give them goals and issues. And don't forget, when you have NPCs aboard you don't have to be afraid of killing off PCs.

>>51563276
Well it depends. If the campaign resolves around ship stuff (spaceship combat & the like) then it may be worthwile to just have the NPCs on a payroll but letting the players roll for them. If the NPCs are just needed for filling in crew slots (pilot because none of them have it, steward ect) then just assume that they are doing their job and ignore them completely.

>>51564287
Different approach than mine (>>51564343) but it's good advice nonetheless. Though if the numbers would come out to something like 3 players and 5 NPCs then having all of those NPCs being an active member that always participate will be stealing the spotlight a bit too much imo.

>>51564394
True, but you are gonna spend months on a ship with these people. It's a good idea to have a sheet of their abilities and life path, because the players will either be interacting with them frequently, or they might as well be computer systems.

File: 1417894738632.jpg (330KB, 1920x1080px) Image search: [Google]

330KB, 1920x1080px

On travellermap.com, what do the culture and economics stats for each system mean? Where would I find the rules for those?

>>51566605
Those are mostly T5. The Traveler Map should have a page that names them all, but they are supposed to be largely relative values instead of absolutes.

>>51566768
https://travellermap.com/doc/secondsurvey#ex
About halfway down the page. Not much, but something.

Maybe this will help for NPC motivations.

Three Line NPCs - Johnn Four
http://www68.zippyshare.com/v/j2JwF9sO/file.html

Arc Threads
http://www27.zippyshare.com/v/QfLzeTBv/file.html
Character Webs
http://www27.zippyshare.com/v/YaTzlZJB/file.html
Species & Societies
http://www27.zippyshare.com/v/ukoPJcjE/file.html

NPC Development - Character Traits
http://www102.zippyshare.com/v/kcAXHPJ9/file.html

World VS Hero
http://www100.zippyshare.com/v/mpTcJm41/file.html

File: 0a803d061793b567b2509d39be574fe5.jpg (20KB, 564x248px) Image search: [Google]

20KB, 564x248px

>>51530053
I must disagree. MGT2 fixed a ton of fairly minor but consequential issues with 1e, namely: more comprehensive background skills so we're not stuck on planets of hats, integrating university from Cosmopolite and cleaning up the not-greatly written military academies from Mercenaries, rules for changing assignments, cleaning up extraneous skills that overlapped one another, having dodging to (if poorly) compensate for shooting first, and a modernized computer abstraction so that you don't HAVE to play in a setting where computers take up 3,000 cubic meters of space and where a 1TB hard drive is inexplicably TL12 technology. Also, some updates on turret addition math is quite nice, and seems to play better with vehicle rules, if/when that blasted supplement ever comes out

People give High Guard a harder time than I think is fair; the most egregious omission is easily fixed by noting that there are already rules for special fuels in the requisite sidebar in Core 1e.

>>51563276
Dont forget to roll trats for them just like you would any NPC.

A crew member betratying the party at a vital moment can be hilarious. Its also a quick way to give them character.

I often generate the crew with actual character gen, allowing even more character when the PCs know they're ex navy or suchlike.

New guy trying to get into Traveller with a few friends. Any suggestions what edition to play?

>>51572104
>>51529854

>>51572140
Thanks! My bad, it's early as hell here.

File: 1389931940560.jpg (645KB, 1024x670px) Image search: [Google]

645KB, 1024x670px

>>51572223
S'cool. Check out the Mega archive at the top of the thread to get a better sense of what these actually entail; I'd encourage you to have a look-see there since some versions of Traveller are more expensive than others. You're lucky, we've been going back and forth a lot this thread on different versions, so it should prove an interesting read for ya.

>>51561532

My last game, we ended up all getting arrested because our coked-up Vargr pilot crashed into an X-Boat.

I managed to get us out of the death penalty, but we were all still looking at long enough in the slammer that realistically speaking it was a choice between coming up with a new party or just calling it a TPK.

>>51573893
>My last game, we ended up all getting arrested because our coked-up Vargr pilot crashed into an X-Boat.

That sounds fantastic!

>I managed to get us out of the death penalty, but we were all still looking at long enough in the slammer that realistically speaking it was a choice between coming up with a new party or just calling it a TPK.

You could have run "Prison Planet". There's both a Classic and Mongoose version.

File: 1457278618678.jpg (417KB, 1500x705px) Image search: [Google]

417KB, 1500x705px

>>51573893
You guys should do a breakout leg of the campaign! The prison-break arc of "Outlaw Star" comes to mind.

>>51573939
>>51573950

We didn't have it.

If a similar situation ever crops up in a game I run, I'll definitely use it. Also, I'm pretty happy about Mongoose 2 having Prisoner as a career in the core book. It's a small thing, but I dig it.

How do you feel about the playable alien races in Traveller? They seem very unimaginative to me... I mean, lionmen, wolfmen, horsemen, really? Then again the Droyne and the Hivers seem too alien to the point where putting yourself in their shoes seems difficult.

>>51575555
I don't use them (but then I use the third imperium as an inspiration more than a setting because I prefer little empires better) apart of the hivers because they puppeter-like character is too funny, tough some minor races could be pretty fun. In general I adapt species than I like from other series (like SW or B5) and weird them out a bit so players don't insantly recognize them. Or I make them a human race than were modified be the ancients.

>>51575555

To be fair, the Vargr are genetically uplifted wolves rather than aliens who just happen to be canine.

I do get what you mean - the major powers aren't Traveller's strong suit. Some of the minor alien races are a lot more interesting.

>>51575555
As Traveller arose out of, and is built to emulate, the classic SF from the Pulp age right up through Star Wars and beyond, some of the cliche is intentional. The cliche makes some of the races easier to play for both the players AND the Ref. The original authors also stated outright that some of the major races are intentionally easier to grasp.

The doggy nature of the Vargr is intentional, and makes them the easiest to play.

The feline nature of the Aslan is also intentional, though they are actually alien, as it provides a shorthand for play that beats having to read hundreds of pages of anthropology texts.

The horse thing with the K'kree is less intentional, though it can be helpful. The GURPS book for them turned the horseiness up too far, in my opinion.

>>51575555

I think if you go past the surface you'll find they're a lot more interesting and well thought-out than they appear at first glance. (Also, the K'Kree aren't "horse-men" and playing them is liable to be more of a challenge than a Droyne sport)
Hell, even playing a Vargr, the most familiar of the races, is not something I'd put in a player's hands unless I trusted his roleplaying and knew he'd read enough of the material to have a handle on their alien quirks, because despite their terrestrial origins and familiar appearances, their minds are strange enough to mean they're not just humans with a costume.

File: 206223505_81c8a5076c.jpg (93KB, 500x400px) Image search: [Google]

93KB, 500x400px

>>51576359
>>51575555
>horsemen
Heh.

File: K'kree mad.jpg (58KB, 491x287px) Image search: [Google]

58KB, 491x287px

>>51576817

I know, right? Look at the adorable horsie, anon! So cute and not alien!

File: 1465727555454.jpg (103KB, 639x306px) Image search: [Google]

103KB, 639x306px

>>51575555
It's always a balance between,
>dude, that's just a skinny guy with a rubber forehead
and
>poorly_researched_freshman_psychology_101.pdf

If you go way out-of-field with alien psychology, then it can grind your game to a halt (read: Kender), and so some familiarity's not always a bad thing. I personally don't particularly use 3rd imperium material, but the mechanics alone pretty easily suitable for all sorts of sophonts to fill in their shoes.

Godamn, is T5 one of the most autistic books in recent times? IT reminds me to rolemaster.

>>51578161
I don't mind Vargr though I wonder why the Ancient uplifted both humans and wolves. Humans seem obvious since they developed spaceflight and FTL on their own, but wolves? What functional use is wolves in a space faring civilization. It's not like he needed a warrior race since they had no threats back then.

File: traveller 5.png (378KB, 691x771px) Image search: [Google]

378KB, 691x771px

At least it has some interesting things. Look at those big battle dress. It's likea heavy grear/scopedog in size.

>>51578266
To some extent. The trick is that, EXACTLY like Rolemaster, you don't need to use all of it.

>>51578458
Yeah, it would mean suicide for the players if I gave it to them. But it's handy for the DM, the rules for armor making seems sweet, I think I could build a scope dog or any HG mech with ease and adapt it to a less autistic traveller.

So this is my idea.

>Lowish tech Traveller game
>1-2 very fleshed out subsectors, based around earth.
>most systems have more then one settlements.
>Still keeping the 1 week jump/no FTL coms to give it that Traveller feel
>Uplifted races plus some gene-splices and or cloned replicants

Any hints or tips?

File: heng-z-20160610-06.jpg (376KB, 1920x1357px) Image search: [Google]

376KB, 1920x1357px

>>51579239
What kind of games do you want to play? Military, merchant, smuglers etc. Depending of that you can focus the worlds in some aspect or another.

>>51579304
With my players, I will need to have

Military, Merchant, Smuggling, and exploration stuff ready.

>>51578349

Well it's not true that they had no threats - they were wiped out in The Final War after all. The threats were at least from each other, and maybe other things if you don't buy Grandfather's story. (I suspect it's a bedtime story for the grandkids, with a lot of things elided for your own good)

Also, I think it's pretty clear they basically selected Terran humans to be their standard white lab rat, and were running various experiments on them, altering them, dropping them in various environments, and watching hoe it affected them. Dogs, being man's companion species, and biologically similar, were probably being used for related experiments in the coreward region.

File: Pirate_Freighter_Waran_by_TMC_Deluxe.jpg (190KB, 999x799px) Image search: [Google]

190KB, 999x799px

>>51579338
Sounds like a corsair game.
You will need some evil guys (the nazi furry empire for example) than it's okay to steal and plunder, some okay guys (merchant republic of shekelers, freedom land, love station) to sell and buy equip and some stations as freeports, some mooks and losers groups to beat and get hooks for adventures and some eventes in the fringes to get the players interested in exploring them (iridium rush in those asteroids, Alien ruins or whatever), but I'm sure you have the majority of those covered.

>>51579536
I was thinking AI empire that no one is supposed to have contact with. Think Geth/Clycon type that all the other powers are worried will one day jump in with battlewagons or has Manchurian candidates running around. Thus the culture push for uplifts and clones and so on.

File: target_by_sttheo-d8kzrkp.jpg (153KB, 800x909px) Image search: [Google]

153KB, 800x909px

>>51579695
Oh, I made something like that, AI entities than liked to fuck other civilizations pirating they sistems etc, making humans push for bio-techs very hard. But bio-mages, "furries" and trans-humans started lots of disgraces, so anything outside the human norm is viewed with hate or disdain at best. It's also an excuse to have normal humans so players can identify more or less with ease without having them to read the fluff (than will ignore most of the time anyway).

>>51579867
I was going with the same idea to reduce the number of uplifts and so on.

Also, a lot of uplifts and the like are viewed as a type of property.

File: 1472541623735.jpg (691KB, 3300x2550px) Image search: [Google]

691KB, 3300x2550px

>>51580352
>Uplifts viewed as property.
Seems like a good way to stir the pot, uplift rebellion etc.
The advantage of the AI is than players will not feel bad killing robots. Depending of the way you spin it they can be very treatening.

File: 2300ad_1.jpg (235KB, 1000x1288px) Image search: [Google]

235KB, 1000x1288px

>>51579239
So Traveller 2300ad? Back when it was just different earth governments colonizing nearby space and earth was still the most populated (known) world?

File: kennedy2aa1.png (688KB, 3500x2352px) Image search: [Google]

688KB, 3500x2352px

Side note, I like that the 2300ad ships lack artificial gravity so their crew quarters are in rotating sections.

File: Nexus-Stiletto.jpg (84KB, 1011x840px) Image search: [Google]

84KB, 1011x840px

>>51580924
Man I love that kind of ship. Jovian chronicles and Nexus the jupiter incident first mission have the sweetest space ships.
Not the other anon, but how different is 2300 from other travellers?

File: NelsonE.jpg (539KB, 1024x778px) Image search: [Google]

539KB, 1024x778px

>>51580990
Much lower tech, more earth centric, aliens are actually alien, timeline is the same as Twilight 2000 which was also published by GDW. Rules are kinda meh, mongoose published an updated version but I don't know anything about it.

I mostly like it for the setting.

>>51581085
The Mongoose version is pretty much a sourcebook for MgT1, so it doesn't have much in the way of rules itself, just modification of base rules. You need MgT core to run it.
Still pretty neat.

On another note, how does one pronounce Tirane? Tie-ran-uh? Tie-rain? Tie-rain-ah?
I'm guessing it's like Athene, so it's the former or the latter?

>>51581085
>>51580924
>>51580873
I am going for that feel, even if it will be my own setting. I am thinking Traveller meets Expanse with uplifts and clones.

>>51580544
Yep, the idea of AI is that AIs are that most people are scared of them. It is the threat that keeps the humans together into some form of government. (Most likely a confederation of some sort to give locals a lot of leeway). It also prevents culturally people accepting AI's, limiting the computers in game.

File: scully.gif (926KB, 500x579px) Image search: [Google]

926KB, 500x579px

>>51581085
>aliens are actually alien

>implying

File: TheCauseOfAIrevolt.png (207KB, 720x1280px) Image search: [Google]

207KB, 720x1280px

>>51581671
I like AIs and robots as an antagonist, at least usually. I didn't like it in Traveller: The New Era though since it meant the setting that came before was destroyed in the apocalypse.

>>51579509
>Dogs, being man's companion species,
Not really 300,000 years ago.
The choice of canids was probably due to coincidental location on Earth and seeing what would show up in a curiosity trap. Location and socialization is why we didn't get bears or raccoons instead.
(Bears had to wait for the early Solomani to get bored with dolphins and monkeys)

File: poster.png (119KB, 914x1324px) Image search: [Google]

119KB, 914x1324px

>>51579239
If you need a good depth for4 exploration, bump up to four subsectors, put a rift along one edge, and place your home polity next to or close to that rift.

>>51575555
>How do you feel about the playable alien races in Traveller?

As >>51576330 and >>51576359 explain, a playable race doesn't make for a good alien race. Traveller's "better" aliens are barely playable and even Traveller's "pulp" aliens can be "really" alien in the hands of a good roleplayer.

Pet Peeve Time: Vargr are not uplifted wolves. The Ancients sampled Canidae, not Canis Lupus, Canina, or even Canini. The Canidae line has produced something like 40 living and extinct species including wolves, domestic dogs, jackals, foxes, dholes, raccoon dogs, and many others.

The "Vargr = Wolves" misunderstanding is just another example of the Vargr concept being "dumbed down" or "simplified" in order to make the race more playable.

Putting it another way, if the Vargr and Aslan come across as wolfmen and lionmen, the fault is in your roleplaying and not in the design or the materials.

>>51580990
>Not the other anon, but how different is 2300 from other travellers?

Extremely. So much so that, despite it's original name, 2300AD is NOT Traveller. The tech, history, setting, etc. are all completely different. Also, as >>51581085 points out, 2300AD's game system was Twilight 2000's and not Traveller's.

GDW chose an unfortunate name at first which has caused a lot of confusion over the years.

All that being said, I LOVE 2300AD. It's a great "hard sci fi" choice. The Mongosoe version is meh because it changes 2300AD to fit Traveller rather than changing Traveller to fit 2300AD.

Are there any good Traveller actual-play series I should be aware of?

>>51586424
Only one I know of is "Close the Airlock," but I reckon that can get mighty dry for some. It's no "Acquisitions Inc.", y'know?

>>51586424

Firefly.

File: Yeah.gif (3MB, 186x190px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 186x190px

>>51586848

>>51586830

Alright, I check it out.

>>51586848

Mild kek.

>>51587001
You might also check out "Behind the Claw"--it's not a playsession podcast, but Felbrigg has a rather soothing accent, and hearing about a bunch of different people's splatbook brainchildren is pleasant.

>>51587001

He's not entirely joking, it is loosely based on an actual campaign. Joss Whedon won't come right out and SAY his popular IP was founded on Traveller, but he's sort of glanced meaningfully in that direction a time or two.

Also, there's an old (somewhat silly) Traveller radio play called The Chronicles of Ted D. Flask based on someone's campaign from the 80s. It used to be linked from Downport.com, but the link to the mp3 is long dead.
Fortunately your humble archivist found a copy of this weirdness in somebody's files on IRC a couple of years back and I'm sending it to the Library Data right now, under General Misc.

I've seen a few other Traveller actual plays, but they weren't all that memorable.
Though come to think of it, I do remember one had a youtube video with a Barbarian pc narrating The Story So Far with some He-Man references in it that were funny. The AP itself didn't stick with me, but that did. Yeah, here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88KBYA4XQyE

>>51586424
And far too close to real play at times, there is this from White Dwarf back in the day.
http://www.2000ad.org/markus/travellers/image.php

File: White_Dwarf_053_Page_33.jpg (1MB, 1211x1744px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 1211x1744px

>>51587683
The Travellers! I loved that.
>When you've seen one A788899A planet you've seen them all

>>51580352
Could go with the Brin version - of course they're not property, as such! They're a sapient race. They just owe us a hundred generations of indentured servitude for creating them, so that we can properly teach them to be *high-quality* people.

>>51587273
>He's not entirely joking, it is loosely based on an actual campaign. Joss Whedon won't come right out and SAY his popular IP was founded on Traveller, but he's sort of glanced meaningfully in that direction a time or two.
IIRC he knew of Traveller, but never played it. Hung out with people who did.

Bit like Elizabeth Moon's paks series having a damn-near perfect recreation of Hommlet and the Moathouse - she didn't play in that D&D game herself, she was just around for it and decided to write a better story about Paladins.

>>51588051
>IIRC he knew of Traveller, but never played it. Hung out with people who did.

Nah, he's an old tabletop geek from way back. He said in an interview with some web rag back when Serenity came out that it was based on a campaign he played in college. (He also told some other news outlet that the studio wanted a character to die in Serenity, and he couldn't pick, so he got out his "trusty DM's d20" assigned some numbers, and rolled it, and Wash came up.)

This is a brief article on this with the (sparse) facts, and some speculation and logical deduction:

http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/13668/is-joss-whedons-firefly-based-on-the-traveller-rpg-he-played

tl;dr version: I'm not saying we know it was Traveller, but it was Traveller.

>>51588051
>IIRC he knew of Traveller, but never played it. Hung out with people who did.

Nope. He's was a confirmed RPG geek in school. He can't come out and say Traveller was an inspiration for the same reasons popular authors like the late Terry Pratchett couldn't even acknowledge Discworld fan-fic exists.

File: 1_BB1003AD.jpg (1MB, 1920x2400px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 1920x2400px

Anyone has good images about pure Vilani space ships? I read they only could make flat grav plates so lots of tipical traveller space ships than aren't solomani inspired (wedge shaped like the scout or even the beowulf) can't be tipical vilani. I could see something like the plankwell but it's too "new" to be a tipical vilani desing.

File: ahl_wip_3.jpg (476KB, 1280x1024px) Image search: [Google]

476KB, 1280x1024px

>>51590074
Azhanti High Lightning?
Even includes deck plans.

File: 1375281338575.jpg (4MB, 4263x3228px) Image search: [Google]

4MB, 4263x3228px

>>51590318
What makes that one so weird for me is how the decks are at a 90-degree angle to the actual plane of the hull.

File: pic566600_lg.jpg (220KB, 1024x583px) Image search: [Google]

220KB, 1024x583px

>>51590381
I like it, and the mercenary cruiser which also has "vertical" decks.

It'd be impossible to do on a small ship like a scout/courier or free trader but a large ship has the internal volume for it. The smallest would probably be the X-boat, but that's more of a satellite with a jump drive than a proper ship

File: Mercenary - Cruiser 1 - Deck H to J.jpg (100KB, 954x727px) Image search: [Google]

100KB, 954x727px

>>51590430
>the mercenary cruiser which also has "vertical" decks.
Ah yes, the Broadsword. The decks are level enough, the problem comes when climbing into the cutters.

>>51590381

While I don't know why you think having decks perpendicular to thrust is "weird", I do know you're forgetting just what AHL was designed for.

GDW didn't deck plan out a big ship just for shits & giggles. Instead, those deck plans were for a boxed, skirmish level, wargame. Having the ship laid out like a 100+ story "building" in which a dozen or so "floor plans" were repeated meant the game could be played by laying out 1 or 2 "floors" at a time.

If the ship was instead a "through deck" design, in order to play you'd have to lay out a number of 16"x24" inch sheets to represent each of the ship's several 6+ foot levels.

File: Traveller - Classic - GDW 818 - Game 3 - Azhanti High Lighting (e-map Deck Plans).pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

>>51590318
>>51590381
>>51590430
>>51590454

Oh wow, this reminds me of the anon who built one in Minecraft or whatever the program was. That was an amazing effort.

>>51590473

That must have been wild!

File: 1288413118665.jpg (2MB, 2361x2488px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 2361x2488px

>>51590454
I like vertical deckplans. Even battletech had them, though that's because there's no artificial gravity in battletech.

File: 1389950240597.jpg (286KB, 1439x831px) Image search: [Google]

286KB, 1439x831px

>>51590512
It totally got me thinking about it again and I dug this up from the archive
https://warosu.org/tg/thread/27732169
Are you still around, oh glorious mad bastard who made this?

File: 1381812426525.jpg (939KB, 2191x837px) Image search: [Google]

939KB, 2191x837px

>>51590529
>>51590512
The bridge as an example of how it looked inside

>>51590529
>>51590539

Why... it's.... beautiful...

Edit: my captcha had me pick out skyscrapers!

>>51587802
What about my favourite quote
>Keep space clean - Dump in Jump!

>>51522444

So I've always wanted to try Traveller but find the setting dauntingly huge. How much frontloaded work is there to get familiar enough with the setting in order to run a sandbox experience? Am I better off trying Stars Without Numbers?

File: traveller campaign 0.jpg (414KB, 1027x751px) Image search: [Google]

414KB, 1027x751px

>>51592551
Here you go. Traveller Sandbox. Free ship, payment for visiting planets, 20 year timeline.

>>51592551

First, start small, like one subsector. People look at the entire OTU and think they've got to use ALL of it. They don't. Start small and keep it simple.

Look at the >>51592596's post. The file he posted is part of an adventure for Classic called "The Imperial Fringe" and it's exactly what he claims. You can use that adventure as a "spur" for your players to begin travelling and then see where the game takes you. You can find a copy in the trove linked above.

Finally, definitely check out SWN for ideas, suggestions, and lots of referee aids. It's a great system which has been designed from the first for sandbox play.

File: traveller - exit visa.jpg (2MB, 1576x2962px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 1576x2962px

>>51593187
>>51592551
A lot of the old GDW adventures are small in scope. Adventure entirely on a planet: Tarsus adventure book for example is about one very detailed world, then there's the simple ones that are "drive a rover around the surface of a small moon", entirely on a small base: research station or diplomatic outpost, entirely on a ship: recover a derilect ship and deal with whatever made it derilect, and Exit Visa is one of my favorites because it's about dealing with the imperial space DMV and takes place in some space port.

>>51590430
>It'd be impossible to do on a small ship like a scout/courier or free trader
I have some deckplans drawn up for a vertical scout. I've also seen an adorable little 100dTon spherical free trader with vertical decks.

>>51590451
I'm reading Space Viking today. It's the book the Sword Worlds came from, you know? And a whole bunch of other Traveller stuff.

They have warships like that! They raid worlds with Space Vikings, and have four pinnaces aboard! I'm pretty sure that's where Traveller got its Cruiser design from.

Oh, except they're spheres 2000' wide. Slight scale issue.

>>51592551
Disregard setting, apply setting guidelines from CT '77, acquire credits.

>>51593743
>I have some deckplans drawn up for a vertical scout.
A vertical scout in the same hull as the classic Type S, that is, just a tail-lander. It's very laddery. There were specific reasons I handwaved together for its existence.

Should dig that up some time, now that I'm reminded of it.

>>51584276
noted

>>51590451

Shouldn't be too hard if you have the gravity switched off in the entryway. Just a little confusing until you get used to reorienting as you enter the cutter's grav-plate setup.

>>51592596
You'd think he would, ya know, hire two boats. Who the hell wants a 17-20 year mission where spending more than 8 days in port will eventually become a failure condition? What if you have to backtrack or do a refit? How can the guy even guarantee he'll still be in that admin position 15 years down the line? Bah.

>>51593778
>Slight scale issue.

It's due to Space Viking having a very different FTL drive and colonization pattern. FTL speeds are slower and inhabitable/inhabited planets are much much further apart.

Pay attention to travel times in the book. On single trips they spend routinely 1000+ hours in hyperspace so they need hydroponics, carniculture, and a whatever else is needed for long tern life support than Traveller's ships.

>>51594148
>How can the guy even guarantee he'll still be in that admin position 15 years down the line?

A lot of positions are hereditary in the Imperium, it helps keeps things stable. You may get removed for poor behavior or what-have-you, but it may take a year for your superior to hear about everything, decide to remove you, and for the removal to reach you.

Still, I suspect that adventure was thrown together hastily, perhaps to meet a publishing deadline or take advantage of a print opening. (Printing presses have tight schedules and have to run constantly or else they start losing money.) It always felt a bit like "Uhh, uhh, I know! Here's a sector, tell your players to go look at it! There! There's your adventure! Go!"
Heh.

>>51594148
>You'd think he would, ya know, hire two boats.

Whose to say he and others like him haven't hired dozens of boats? You can also get repairs, refits, and even free fuel at scout bases and way stations. As for whether he'll be around to hand out the checks, the players get paid whenever they turn their reports in to ANY scout base.

The jpg posted isn't the entire adventure.

>>51594236
>I suspect that adventure was thrown together hastily

Nah, it's just the way adventures were written back in the 70s. Stuff was more of an outline or suggestion than an uber detailed blueprint.

>>51594279

I'm just saying that one's notably more outliney (is that a word?) than average for the early GDW adventures.

>>51594204
Yeah, it just amuses me that a mercenary ball cruiser with a couple of pinnaces can go a-viking in the sword worlds, they just scaled it down.

Tell you what, though, it's really making me want a sci-fi mod for crusader kings 2. Worlds with a handful of provinces, maybe a duchy's worth, all done as their own islands, but with CK2's emphasis on people and family rather than 4x generica.

>>51594293
>outliney (is that a word?)

It is now because I'll be using it. And, yes, it is skimpy even by the standards of the time. We didn't have the term "sandbox" back then because it was the default assumption, but "Imperial Fringe" was definitely a "sandbox" you could slip all the other published stuff into.

>>51594342
>can go a-viking in the sword worlds,

They don't. They're not using them to raid well populated planets in the Sword Worlds Confederation.

For example, A:7, the adventure that introduces the design, explicitly states that the 10 or so were built for mercenary use outside of the Marches with one even sold to the Aslan. The adventure in A:7 then goes on to present the personnel aboard a cruiser acting in commando role.

No one using them to go a-viking on Narsil, Gram, or Sacnoth.

File: YesIAmSmirking.jpg (19KB, 475x475px) Image search: [Google]

19KB, 475x475px

>>51594493
>They don't.

Oh yeah? Alright then, IMTU they're now based on an older Sword Worlds design... used by raiders during the Long Night! That's why they called them Broadswords in the first place! (So there! How d'you like them apples?)

>>51594818

Works for me. If it works for you that's all that really matters.

>>51594204
>Pay attention to travel times in the book. On single trips they spend routinely 1000+ hours in hyperspace so they need hydroponics, carniculture, and a whatever else is needed for long tern life support than Traveller's ships.
The galactic standard TL12 ship has an indefinite amount of food and water so long as there's power for life support since the black water tanks are hooked up to the food prep console. Food is only an issue if you have paying passengers or don't want to eat reconstituted food paste.

Are there any good one-shot scenarios, with pregen characters, I can use to introduce my group to Traveller?

Classic or Mongoose 1E/2E.

>>51597757

I've heard good things about BITS' module, Cold Dark Grave. They ran it at a convention before they published it.

File: 29820309_p0.png (1MB, 1600x1200px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 1600x1200px

Anyone here has tried a fleet based traveller game?

File: crisis of the confederation.jpg (137KB, 1280x800px) Image search: [Google]

137KB, 1280x800px

>>51594342
Well there is Crisis of the Confederation, which is supposed to model an interstellar republic collapsing into anarchy and neo-feudalism.
It's pretty neat, but hasn't updated in a while

Are there any big differences between MGT 1E and 2E that would make someone prefer to use 1E over 2E, or is the 2nd edition just an objective improvement over the first?

>>51598949

It's debatable. Some improvements, some changes for change's sake. A lot of third party publishers are jumping ship to the Cepheus engine instead of 2e.

File: 1_FELDELANCE007IBL2.jpg (340KB, 1600x1200px) Image search: [Google]

340KB, 1600x1200px

>>51598999
Thats because mongoose shitty move on them, not any fault with the rules, than are good if in need of some polish (Mongoose can't edit for shit).

>>51599106

Yes, but it's worth considering when deciding what rules to use.

>>51598999
>>51599196
Not that anon, but I've been trying to get some friends and local gaming groups into Traveller and it's already hard enough to do so despite the system's long-time history, so trying to get people into third-party offshoots of someone ELSE's system (especially when they have to keep semantically dancing around what system they're coping for license purposes) is even worse. Not to mention it's becoming increasingly more difficult to get people into games with very spartan layouts, so MgT2e at least made a good call in adding some color and modernization to Traveller (though I do like the classic, minimalist style myself).

I also don't want to be that guy who cries "shill", but while occasionally following a Traveller Facebook group I've been noticing how Cepheus engine seems to get pushed a lot in edition discussions. Doesn't really seem to be a case of "a lot of third party publishers are jumping ship" so much as a couple of frustrated third parties are trying to further fracture an already divided fanbase because they don't like how Mongoose has been handling things. It's an understandable frustration, but once again it makes it harder for the consumer to get into the system at all when they now have to pick from multiple warring parties.

>>51599392
>I also don't want to be that guy who cries "shill"

Well that's good, because that shit's poison for a healthy discussion. I just noticed that a number of the bigger third parties are publishing for Cepheus Engine now. And Cepheus Engine is basically just a way to keep publishing for MGT1, like OSRIC was for AD&D. Anything published for it can be used with the MGT1 rule book instead.

Are there any NPC stats ready for use in the MGT 2E core rulebook?

>>51599392
On the other hand, the skill list differences are easily conquered and are the only significant change *to characters* between MGT1 and MGT2, not to mention T4, MegaTrav and Classic.

Are NPCs also bound to the same damage rules as PCs in Mongoose Traveller?

Like, do they need to 0 END + STR or DEX, or do they go down when they're at 0 END?

>>51604442

Unless your edition says different, then yes they are. That's how it was in Classic.

>>51604507

I see, thanks. I guess it's not in the spirit of Traveller to have things like mooks and etc, right?

>>51604649
Not generally, though TNE did make that option available, on the theory that one solid shot takes the motivation right out of most people.

>>51604649
No reason you couldn't. 2e Mongoose Traveller presents some example creatures that just have "hits" (HP) rather than abilities.

I wouldn't bother statting up every mook and critter, just give them a rough number depending on how tough you want them (without doing dumb shit like having a beat cop who can take multiple hits from a plasma rifle).

I think the average gun does 3d6 - 4d6 damage so a mook with 8-12 HP would reliably go down in one or two hits in a gun battle.

I noticed while trying to make a fantasy port of the Mongoose rules that traveller characters are pretty damn durable in a sword fight.

>>51604649
>I guess it's not in the spirit of Traveller to have things like mooks and etc, right?

Yup. The basic "equality" of PCs and NPCs has been part of the game from the first.

While T20 tried to add levels, feats, and the rest of the D&D/d20 mindset and GT tried to add GURPS varying point builds, in Traveller only career terms mattered. PC or NPC, the same number of terms provides the same potential for skills.

>>51605674
T20 added levels as a result of terms. Interesting idea, but it makes the book a bit tangled. And, well, D20...

>>51594493
>They don't. They're not using them to raid well populated planets in the Sword Worlds Confederation.
That was badly phrased. In Star Viking they're raiding _from_ the Sword Worlds, and tend to avoid anywhere that has its own hyperdrive ships.

And yeah Star Viking's basically set in the Long Night.

How well do you guys think Traveller would work as a basis for a slightly more gritty Star Wars-like setting?

>>51605926
Piper, Asimov, and Anderson all used the Long Night to good purpose, and you could see an equivalent in Norton as well.

>>51605978

Not well at all. Each setting's underlying technologies is too different from the other.

>>51605978
Just fine. It's what a lot of people used it for.

I'd handwave ship designs to say the fuel-spaces are actually hardware and the physical fuel tanks are tiny, but that's just me. Still have it cost the same to fill up, and take as long to scoop/slurp wilderness fuel if you want that to be an option - just say it's, er, refining. That's the ticket. Or just handwave that away.

>>51605978
Gritty is a loose term, but aside from Traveller's space magic (psionics) being underwhelming compared to the Force, and silly heroics being typically less survivable, it is reasonably well suited. The backgrounds are there, the weapon selection is wide enough to cover the bases as long as you don't need blasters and light sabers specifically, and the skill system can stand quite a lot of bending.

>>51606010
Scribble "blaster" in front of the gun names and you're more than halfway there. A Star Wars campaign will probably have less focus on the strict mechanics of interstellar travel, so you don't need to go strictly on the week-long jumps draining your fuel tank - your ship's for getting from place to place with the odd fight in it, you do your actual adventuring in hives of scum &c or other worldly places.

Is there anything similar to Cortical Stacks and Ego Uploading in Traveller?

>>51606204

Yep, read Agent of the Imperium, under Books. It's expensive high tech stuff, and probably restricted to boot, but it exists.

>>51606204
Not in official material, except maybe at the extreme tech levels you don't see.

>>51606221
Or perhaps not. >>51606218

ignore me! or don't, because it's really not something that comes up in most sources.

>>51606218
>>51606221

Alright, thanks. I'm trying to wrap my head around the average tech level of the setting.

What's the best introduction to the fluff? The MGT 2E book really delve too much into the setting specifics.

With some minor changes of course, would I be able to use Traveller to run a game in the Battletech universe? When it came to the Mechs and weapons I was just gonna use those rules, but use the pilots to hit and such for the resolution. Thoughts? Any hiccups?

>>51606235

Yeah, I don't think the book says one way or the other, but I get the impression it's probably not general public knowledge that they can do that -- military commanders would get briefed on it, and that's about it.

>>51606256

Fate of the Kinunir is a good look at "the average tech level" and shows a military ship involved in a crisis revolving around a couple of frontier worlds. It shows you a lot of the day-to-day politicking out in adventurer territory.
Agent of the Imperium is more high level and follows an Imperial special agent whose personality gets uploaded into various people to deal with major crises that threaten the whole of the Imperium, and shows a lot more of the core worlds and TL15 stuff and high level noble politicking that runs behind the scenes in the Imperium itself. Adventurers will probably be far away from there, as most people like the freedom of a frontier like the Spinward Marches, the Solomani Rim, or Reaver's Deep or something. Still, it's a good book, even compared against real non-tie-in SF lit I've read, and has loads of interesting stuff going on in it to mine for ideas.

>>51606256
>Alright, thanks. I'm trying to wrap my head around the average tech level of the setting.
Wildly variable, but in general at the higher levels, grav vehicles flying around. The fancy military uses powered armour with plasma cannon, and doesn't nuke people because a) nukes bad b) they have fields that disable nukes, and also guns that can fire through planets and explode inside your ship.

>>51606262
Classic, Mega and MGT1 already use the same dice as Battletech, and the two skills we see in Battletech are Traveller skills in all but presentation.
With very little tweaking, Battletech is basically an extreme variant of vehicle creation and combat for Traveller already.

>>51606262
There are books with mechs in travellers, but not the hulking brute of battletech, the biggest tend to be scopedog or protomech in size. 2300 mechs are the perfect example of that, but t5 has rules for the creation of walkers than is pretty nifty.

>>51606335
>Agent of the Imperium is more high level and follows an Imperial special agent whose personality gets uploaded into various people to deal with major crises that threaten the whole of the Imperium, and shows a lot more of the core worlds and TL15 stuff and high level noble politicking that runs behind the scenes in the Imperium itself.
Except that Agent of the Imperium takes place well before TL15, ending in the 600s. It *might* be toying with TL14 by the end, but it starts early enough that the chip tech the book is based on is prototype TL13 stuff.

File: BT Skill Table.jpg (26KB, 341x209px) Image search: [Google]

26KB, 341x209px

>>51606602
Basic 8+ on 2d6 to succeed.
Pilot roll: +2/+3/+4 from skill and stats
Gunnery roll: +4/+5/+6 from skills, stats, and cockpit targeting comp, with weapon characteristics as the next step (range bands).
BT is Traveller already.

>>51606751
>Gunnery roll: +4/+5/+6
Okay, only +4/+5, but you get the idea.

>>51606634

Hey, you're right. It's been a while since I read it. So that is closer to the average tech level circa 1100.

>>51606774
The computer implant seen in JTAS back in the day was TL14, IIRC, but otherwise sounds a lot like how the Agent describes skill chips.

>>51606751
>>51606609
>>51606602
Thanks! When it came to the mechs I was literally just gonna use BT stats. So large laser does 8 damage etc. Same with movement (unless they do long distance travel). The idea came to me when I realised that the Social Standing stat uses similar ranks/titles as the BT universe. Then things clicked into place from there.

>>51606901
Right, but since BT also has design sequences for winged craft, copters, air cushion, wheels, and tracks, a little tinkering to get grav in there and you are mostly set for vehicular scale.

>>51606956
Any other little bits you'd suggest to take into consideration before I prepare this for my players?

>>51606751
>>51606609
>>51606602
Is the Mechwarrior RPG just knockoff TNE?

>>51606984
Depends on the edition. The first two editions of MW RPG pre-date TNE by years, I think.

>>51607101
Looked it up. MW2e was same time as TNE (1991), but FASA had ceased to be a licensee like five years prior.

>>51606980
BT's core timeline depicts a TL change, and maybe two.

If you make it known that you are simply using BT you may lose the Traveller feel if you have a gearhead or two.

Know what you will allow from BT's vast tech catalog *in advance*.

>>51607126
I was getting some TNE vibes from 3e, but maybe I imagined it.

File: 1460204185008.png (680KB, 1599x724px) Image search: [Google]

680KB, 1599x724px

I really like mechs, I really do. I even like battletech, but the extreme size of the mechs is too stupid for the actual me. Holy shit they are massive.

>>51607191
Eh, maybe. Even an Atlas is only about taint high to a Gundam. Not that I recommend using Gundams. I'm more of a VOTOMs guy.

>>51607166
Don't know that one very well, alas. AToW is a steaming pile of rip-off, bad decisions, and completely inadequate character sheets, held together by editing I can only ascribe to ESL.
FASA was no great shakes in the testing and edition departments, but the current edition is downright masturbatory in volume.

>>51607268
>testing and edition
Editing.
(ironically)

File: phantom_crash.jpg (85KB, 640x480px) Image search: [Google]

85KB, 640x480px

>>51607191
>Holy
Fuck ya phantom crash.

>>51607268
Catalyst's newer stuff is well known for being total shit editing-wise.

File: 55057793_p0_master1200.jpg (346KB, 777x1087px) Image search: [Google]

346KB, 777x1087px

>>51607237
Same here, Heavy Gears, first season CG and Votoms are more my jam I'm watching VOTOMS anime right now for the first time . Damn, those AT are made from explodium.
I was about to ask if some one had made a mech based campaign in Traveller and if they had some points for it. The rules for them are too scatared but mongoose seems to have the best system for them if you use 2300 traveller hardsuits and walkers. Anyone knows if the vehicle sup in the working has walkers/mechs in them to wait? I don't expect to play the game until summer.

>>51607296
Mechs lend a cache to war that Traveller normally gains from other tech, so you need to figure out what the mecha vibe in play is going to be. Is it just another tactical choice in armed vehicles, or has something else fallen away completely to make room for humaniform war machines?
Even early Gundam fell into the "monster of the week" trap, while VOTOMS and Macross were telling stories that just happened to use big robots.

File: a482ee3eaccc0448d5704c48b8ed9794.jpg (88KB, 564x870px) Image search: [Google]

88KB, 564x870px

>>51607289
I use the third imperium more as an inspiration than anything else.
The tech of the the setting I'm making has a lot more biological/machine combinations (lots of computers are semi bio, like drones etc) and caps at the moment at a 12TL traveller more or less for humans. The mechs would be scope dog in size, conected directly to the pilot with a mumbo-jumbo neural whatever ahd have pseudo-muscles. This give them a great a great response and maniobrability, than they exploit in difficult terrain and urban warfare. They can't put so much armor or weapons as a tank, than still exist, but they have they niche as uber infantry.

File: 1288402305427.jpg (135KB, 1064x600px) Image search: [Google]

135KB, 1064x600px

>>51607390
Traveller's "Battle Dress" and Plasma/Fusion Guns tend to bypass the need for mechs. It's a setting where armor didn't keep up with weapons technology so it's not good to be a large target.

I also always loved the rule that plasma or fusion guns ignored all cover and simply punched a hole through whatever they were aimed at. Criminally stupid to use on a space ship since hull/pipes/ship's reactor are all considered "cover" but amazing on the ground or if the target is hiding behind/inside something you don't care about.

File: 205447289_2463fd2ca0_z.jpg (120KB, 512x640px) Image search: [Google]

120KB, 512x640px

>>51608488

File: 0127a26fcc5093f2c47acabf578ca959.jpg (19KB, 564x287px) Image search: [Google]

19KB, 564x287px

>>51598949
We should probably save something saved for this since it seems to come up fairly often.

Generally I'm of the opinion that 2e's improvements outweigh its fairly obvious omissions from 1e, but here are the changes:

Changes from MGT 1e to 2e:
- Streamlined skillset so that there's less overlap and modernized certain skills
- Military academy from Mercenaries and Unversity rules from Cosmopolite are put into core
- more background skills that are no longer tied to planets (read: you can be athletic in your personal time)
- changing assignment rules
- MUCH better handling of electronics and computer items so that the mechanics don't have to be stuck in the 1970s (though plenty of fans will complain that computers were better with vacuum tubes)
- integrated prisoner terms
- dodging in combat
- Vehicles and ships interact better as part of core (shipping size, not having to use Mercenary's not-very-well-thought-out-rules for anti-ship combat)
- More flexible ship construction (you can make 15 dton ships now!), though at the expense of one or two fairly important paragraph omissions regarding power usage/fuel costs
- Much more flexible ship rules for non-Traveller settings. Now, some people complain that this makes the rules too "Star Wars-y", and it's true, 2e High Guard literally has astromech droids, quad-laser turrets, hyperdrives, particle shield generators and super-lasers, all of which is in their own High Technology chapter, but personally I find that having these options is quite nice.

>>51607296
>Anyone knows if the vehicle sup in the working has walkers/mechs in them to wait?
They do, if they ever release it. Vehicle rules would be fine for ATs and the like, but for more space-oriented mecha, High Guard (with some modifications) is a better option.

File: 01b63134afe30199b25eea2c30773fac.jpg (39KB, 564x400px) Image search: [Google]

39KB, 564x400px

>>51605978
>>51606030
Quite easily.

>Star Wars-like setting?
Ships: use MGT 2e High Guard's High Technology chapter; as you'll replace Jump Drives with Hyperdrives, reduce the TL for hyperdrives by ~8 or so, and you'll be golden. This fairly minor change frees up a huge amount of space inside a ship (don't need jump fuel).

>Lightsabers
Arc Swords in any Central Supply Catalogue.

Psionics: you might need to get rid of Teleportation (or bump up its psi rating) and probably Time Travel, but you can easily use any of the various Psionics supplements; MGT 1e's option of using 2x psi would probably be a good fit. You'd probably also have to reduce the recuperation time (possibly instead of hours to minutes) or add that ability as an Advantage to high Psi/Force ratings, much like high INT or EDU ratings do in Cosmopolite.

>>51606262
How funny, I've recently started to think about doing the same thing.

>>51610536
>We should probably save something saved for this since it seems to come up fairly often.

That's a good idea.

File: Caitsith ground type.png (3MB, 1600x1285px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 1600x1285px

>>51607390
Incoming shitty rules for adding Gendumb to your game:
Conceit: Due to autistic and silly things like AMBAC and Minovsky particles, giant humanoid robots are a thing. Therefore the mechanics should reflect that conceit - that mobile weapons develop as an answer to long-range ship-to-ship combat. As such, space-based Mecha are essentially stupidly expensive, over-gunned small-craft Bombers that take advantage of AMBAC to save some fuel. So that's distinct from Mecha created from vehicle rules, which is more appropriate for your AT's and KFs.

New Rules! (using MGT 2e because rules exploits!)
- AMBAC: Instead of other hull options (streamlined, fat sphere of a Tigress), AMBAC is un-streamlined, +10% hull cost but allows the ship/mecha to ignore the -2 DM penalty when dogfighting vehicles (but not the -2 DM penalty when attacking ground-scale targets!) and grants +2 DM while dogfighting (2e core). Finally, weapons mounted onto an AMBAC frame count as a turret with facing: All, for free (yes, take advantage of that 0dton fixed-turret)

- Overgunned: small craft are limited to firm points in hull-mounted weaponry. Mecha, however, may mount additional weapons so long as its power plant can supply the extra power (and space, if not using AMBAC) for those weapons. These weapons may be attached together (and thus act exactly as double/triple/quadruple turrets) or separately. Note that the task penalty for multiple actions still applies. Also, normal rules for changes to weapon range due to firmpoints and so on remain as such for Mecha.

There's other stuff that we can expound on: mecha dogfighting, J-Drives of less than 10dtons, beam melee weapons in space!, etc etc., but the above seems to work at least for my group.

>>51607237
Gundams and gunpla are cool but man, they're big. The smaller 6"ish gunpla are that big despite being made in 1/144, and the 1/100s are ridiculous.

I use some HG gunpla for 28mm SF, but you have to pick the right ones.

I've always gone with a bit of Eva's excuse for giant robots. Why not just build a tank? Because if they're humanoid, the pilot's soul and sense of self merge with the structure and you get a fucking AT field.

This also lets you inject a bunch of religion and knighthood in, which means you can use cool titles and domain styles like prince-bishoprics, rather than just your more common barons and princes and other noble wankers.

It helps that I enjoy the feudal bullshit.

>>51611975
and of course the 3I officially says it's all psionic bullshit and probably a zho plot, but bah to them.

>>51611145
MFW I read the image's header as catshit

>>51612860
It is pronounced, roughly, "ket shih" so you aren't as far afield as all that.

>>51610536

Alright, thanks. Just got done reading through the 2E rulebook, really like these rules. I thought Traveller had overtly complex mathy rules, but it's actually really simple for the most part.

The core rulebook didn't really tell me much about the Third Imperium though, What's the best book to get to know more about the setting?

>>51613073
>overly complex mathy rules
That's sort of the beauty of Traveller: the base rules are actually quite simple and solid, but it can have tremendous depth/complexity/silliness in its supplements (particularly for vehicles).

But the thing is, most supplements across different versions are compatible with each other, so if, for instance, you think that MGT1e vehicle rules are too complex, you can use another version's.

File: 30467707_p1_master1200_Star Wars.jpg (2MB, 1200x994px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 1200x994px

>>51613073
Yeah, traveller get a bit of bad rep for rules, but the only reaally bad is T5. Cepheus and Mongoose are kinda of simple when you learn them. The problem with mongoose are the sups and they terribad editing.

>>51613073 I like this guys stuff but there are other wiki out there. Just remember that more than one set of hands has been adding stuff and sometimes they do not agree on all the facts.
https://regiehammblog.wordpress.com/2017/02/01/this-hitler-nonsense/

Damn thing pate the wrong address - sorry Try this again https://www.tavern-keeper.com/campaign/181/page/1826

>>51613739
T5 is a trainwreck.

(I say this as a kickstarter supporter...

File: 1462041898710.jpg (24KB, 409x226px) Image search: [Google]

24KB, 409x226px

>>51614273
Well, it loves tables and after a quick read I didn't get very well how make from everything a definity system of it all. But it has lots of stuff for other traveller games at least.

>>51607191
That scale is off - iirc Class B and C Hawken mechs are as big as light MW/BT Mechs.

/autism

tfw your emulator didn't play phantom crash right

>>51607191
Why are you using Satsuki as a unit of measurement? I have no idea how tall she is.

>>51607191
It always seems perfectly right to me with the human scale right there. The Atlas is especially hueg on purpose of course but when you add life support, techno-magic engines, and feet of armor and maintain the bipedal aesthetic it just comes out looking like that.

'Course I was raised on Mechwarrior 2 so it's hard to say this is at all an objective stance.

File: 1460217264667.png (3MB, 6888x2467px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 6888x2467px

>>51615256
>>51615219
Jeez, is that better.
>>51615537
It was the same for me, but with time I find them too big. Like the locust would be the maximum I could find a walker to be useful, while a normal one wouldn't be taller than the atlas hips.

File: Autistic_Mech_Size.png (3MB, 6888x2467px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 6888x2467px

>>51615625
More or less like that, adding a not-scopedog. It ease my autism between small enough to be easy to transport and big enough to be threatening.

Jump

File: hyperspace_badjump.gif (17KB, 533x400px) Image search: [Google]

17KB, 533x400px

>>51622106
Got bad news for you mate.

>>51624763
Not quite how Traveller works normally, but hey, whatever works for you.

File: 1472699124026.jpg (304KB, 1280x960px) Image search: [Google]

304KB, 1280x960px

PSA: MGT2e Vehicle Handbook is finally complete after a million years lost in a warp bubble and (at least according to that silly, lying release schedule) should be out later this month.

Probably going to have to wait till next year to get the Traveller's Companion book

File: mecha size comparison a1.jpg (2MB, 6888x4934px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 6888x4934px

>>51615625
>>51607191
>I find them too big.
Friendly reminder that using humans for scale can be disorienting. The F-22 in this is to scale. If the mecha are tank-esque replacements, then sure the Atlas may be a bit chunky. But if they're functionally space fighter analogues, then they're not really all that large compared to gen 4 or 5 fighters.

File: Typhoon.jpg (96KB, 1000x607px) Image search: [Google]

96KB, 1000x607px

I've been looking into Traveller a lot recently and been having fun making characters. No game yet, and I imagine it's more fun making characters in a group and doing Connections, but I might have an online game getting together.

One thing that's giving me a bit of trouble is filling out some of my Contacts and Enemies. Some of the events like "You make an unexpected connection outside your normal circles. Gain a Contact." don't give me a whole lot to work with. That could be absolutely anyone. I just don't have a ton of confidence in my ability to come up with interesting characters from a blank slate. Is there a good system for this? I could just use something like the Exciting Passenger table to give myself a hook I guess.

>>51636123
For some reason I'm always surprised and a little bit freaked out by how big planes are.

>>51636905
>Some of the events like "You make an unexpected connection outside your normal circles. Gain a Contact." don't give me a whole lot to work with. That could be absolutely anyone.
Pick a different career than the one you are in (or might have been in before, if a Mongoose or TNE character) and note that your contact is from that career.

How crunchy is Traveller? I've run D&D 3.5, Savage Worlds, CoC, and WoD in the past.

>>51641052
Depends on edition, but generally way less of a nightmare than 3e and better-designed than WoD.

That said, I play LBB CT & MgT1 with elements nicked from GURPS Traveller.

>>51636905
>For some reason I'm always surprised and a little bit freaked out by how big planes are.
Planes are fucking huge. *lands on new world, opens cargo bay door, hops into piper cub & flies off* well maybe not all planes

>>51641052

From the player side it's pretty light. From the referee side, it varies depending on what rules you're using -- if you're running personal combat and ship combat and trading and stuff all in one session, there's gonna be a lot of stuff you need to know, but most sessions you'll only use a subset of that. The majority of the rules are actually tools for the referee to generate stuff; worlds, ships, things like that.

I'd put most of the popular editions somewhere around Savage Worlds levels of crunch. Classic's Starter Traveller is probably the lightest edition. Mongoose 1e/2e is on the lighter end of things roughly on par with Classic.
The New Era is probably the crunchiest edition of all, at super autismo levels. (But I wouldn't call it a popular edition)

>>51641077

One of my players has the Mongoose Traveller core book, and I don't feel like buying something else so that's probably the version we'll go with.

>>51641144
yeah that's a good one. as with all things traveller, stick to core only when you can - only add in other stuff if you really feel you need it, not just because it's there. this goes double for mongoose products.

>>51522680
Space famas!!

>>51636905
There is a d66 table for random contacts in Mongoose 1ed.

>>51641052
Ranges from simple (CT), mongoose would be about Savage world, GURPS (Gurps Trav), to really crunchy (T4 and T5) but not many play T4 and T5

How easily can I incorporate the Stars Without Number material into Traveller? I really like their Sons of Gold supplement.

File: starvation cheap.jpg (450KB, 900x1174px) Image search: [Google]

450KB, 900x1174px

>>51647016
I'm planning on doing something similar.
It really depends desu familia, I was trying to come up with a decent conversion between Traveller economics and SWN economics.

It's important to remember that SWN is way less centralised that Traveller, and way more small-ship.
Even a Tramp Freighter is a big deal on all but the most populous worlds.

I'm personally going to go for a middle-ground in terms of world-building, with a central pocket empire about 2 subsectors in size, of which a bunch is barely governed frontier

Should I play MGT2e or 1st edition? I've heard mixed things about the 2nd edition diluting the core rulebook in order to sell more books (seperating starship creation to a different book, etc.).

Which one would you guys say is better for a first time traveller GM trying to convince their group to play?

>>51650112
>Which one would you guys say is better for a first time traveller GM trying to convince their group to play?

Are they more familiar with and/or do they more often current RPGs or OSR style RPGs?

If current, MGT1e. As you noted, with MGT1e you get more of the game in one book. If they like the game, you can migrate to 2e.

If OSR, Classic. You buy all of Classic on CD-ROM for about the price of one MGT splat.

With both, start small and keep things simple. There's a shit ton of stuff you can add later when you've got a better handle on the game and depending on what your players want.

>>51650233

Thanks bro. We normally play other current style games like DND5, Savage Worlds, SR5 so MGT caught my eye with the simplicity of the system and cool character creation. I've been looking at a lot of traveller lately and while Classic seems to be what I'd like to play, my group would probably more prefer MGT.

I'll give it a try.

I'm doing some worldbuilding for my space fantasy/Star Wars-esque Traveller campaign right now.

I've scribbled down some rough ideas for factions in the subsector/sector/whatever but I'd like to come up with a few more before I get started on mapping things out. Does /trvg/ have any ideas?

>Merchant Queens of Utune
Space elf matriarchy that controls most of the flow of trade in the region. Even the other empires answer to the Merchant Queens if their trade routes leave their home borders and cross empires. They meet every ten years to elect a Merchant Empress or something who determines which Queen controls which trade route. Possible plot hooks for players include randomly being set upon by a Queen's patrol that is demanding tariffs, meeting with the Empress/local Queen to establish a contract relationship ("let us use your route and we'll run cargo for you"), tasteful lesbian orgies.

>Cartels of Niovis
Basically Star Wars Hutt stand-ins, except they are space dragons. Their worlds are usually anarchocapitalist and they run systems like gangsters. Plot hooks for players include smuggling jobs, bounty hunting contracts, and borrowing money from the loan-dragons.

>Neo-Sapiens Imperium
Name pending. Stock generic multicultural empire composed predominantly of humans. Operates with elements of feudalism, but the lords commune every so often to establish imperium-wide laws and whatnot.

>>51651376
>Empress or something

How about Imperatrix?

(I'm comin' up empty on new factions for you, bro.)

>>51651680
Imperatrix could work. I'll work with it and see how I feel about it in action. Thanks.

File: fossasteroidrefinery1.jpg (389KB, 1280x750px) Image search: [Google]

389KB, 1280x750px

I can't find a GM screen for MgT 1e in the archive; anyone have one lying around?

>>51652971

That's odd, I was sure I had a homemade MGT1 screen saved from a Traveller thread way back, but it's not on my drive anymore. It must have gotten deleted somehow when I was setting up the Archives.