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Hey guys, new Traveller GM here..

E

Elshar

SOC-1
Hope you guys don't mind wall-o-texts. If you do, just skip to the last few paragraphs. :)

I think I may have converted our D&D group to a Traveller group. I'm sort of the stand-in DM for when our normal one hasn't had time to make up a campaign, etc. About a week or so ago he said he wasn't ready for our normal bi-weekly game. I'd been replaying some old Buck Rogers "Gold Box" games (Countdown to Doomsday if anyone cares), and thought it'd be an awesome time to get into Traveller somehow.

I didn't really have any access to any real material except what little I found easily find on the web, and some gurps 4th ed pdfs I managed to borrow from a friend (Who has been trying to get me to do gurps instead of AD&D forever now), and sort of put together a short run.

I'll admit, I had some problems, though. I was really uncertain on character generation, setting, technologies, etc. Admittedly, only 7 days to prepare something for a group of people using a system you don't really know is a feat in itself, but I think I got the important parts down. They flew around, did some menial fetch stuff, got attacked by pirates and nearly eviscerated (I accidentally gave the pirate captain a force sword - 8d+5 iirc, oops.)

I also omitted some things. I'm unclear if this is necessary normally, but I more or less removed money from the game. But, money was a motivator. Confusing, I know. But I just abstracted fuel/docking/maint costs, and their rewards were fairly nebulous 'credits'. In the end, they got a pirate ship that we haven't resolved, so there is that.

Afterwards, I talked to the players and they said they found it fun, but they didn't seem as enthusiastic as I'd hoped. The good part I suppose is that they want to try another session of it, so I've got two weeks to hopefully put something better together. They also really seemed to like the idea of having to play spreadsheet wars - ie, they want to keep track of their exact credits, fuel amounts, ship stats, food levels. And deal with docking fees, fuel costs, trading, etc. I was kind of surprised, really. We haven't done any of that in our D&D games, so when they seemed excited about it, I was shocked, really.

I'm really looking for a gritty universe ala buck rogers, and not really something like star trek or something where everything can be fixed with a tricorder and a plasmatorch. I want them to have to dig into systems, jury rig wiring panels, and hack computer systems. I'm also trying to figure out the mode of space travel. The last game we used a mix of warp/jump technology in that it was warp, but the fuel usage was 'so high' that they could only 'warp' to a system within a certain distance before having to dock up and refuel. So, similar to jumping. Not very conductive to long-range exploring that they probably are going to want to do. So I need to figure out how to address that.

So, where can I go from here? I used gurps space, the basic sets, and interstellar wars as the basis for this campaign. But if I wanted to make my own galaxy, and populate it with my own civs, planets, systems, etc where would I look to find things like that? How can I make the players more involved with the creation of their characters, vehicles, etc? I guess I need a good starting off point of materials to really invest into, and there being so many choices really seems overwhelming.

One of my problems is too many choices. If you had to choose one version and had $100 to spend on books (printed or pdf), what would be the most effective books to get rolling? It doesn't really matter if I have to order them through amazon or ebay because they're out of print. Where there's a will, there's a way, right? :)

Anyways, thanks for the help guys, and I apologise for the verbosity of my post. Future ones guaranteed to be shorter. :D
 
Hello and welcome to CotI!

First of all, I have to ask: Are you using GURPS as a rule set? I'm asking because there are several rule sets for the Traveller background, GURPS being one of them and you did mention using GURPS materials.

Second, your questions and concerns:
1. Removing money from the game: I think it is possible to run Traveller without managing wealth, but if your group likes the economic aspect, then any version of Traveller has plenty of material supporting that.

2. Traveller is comparably gritty. There are no Star Trek type transporters, no replicators, no force shields, no phasers that can be conveniently set to stun, and so on. It is very much a game where PCs need to go out and do stuff.

3. Traveller faster than light drive is indeed based on a jump model, and requires refueling after each jump. However, you do not need to refuel at a spaceport. Since Traveller starships use hydrogen as jump fuel, they can "harvest" fuel from Gas Giant planets (like Jupiter) or from water sources such as planetary oceans or ice asteroids. This "wilderness refueling" is not quite as safe as buying refined fuel at a starport, but it is quite feasible. For an long-range exploration game, the players would jump into a new system and seek out such a source of fuel before they continue on to the next system.

For what to buy: That answer depends on whether you'd like to use GURPS as a rule set or not. If you do, there is a lot of GURPS Traveller stuff (3rd edition though) available as PDFs.
 
The current production Traveller version is Mongoose (MgT). You only need the Main Rulebook to play - it covers everything you basically need for your own setting. The Little Black Book sized one will set you back ~$20. (Mongoose, Amazon, or get the PDF from DriveThruRPG for around the same).

They have lots of supplements out - High Guard is popular for larger starships and CSC (Sup #4, IIRC) is very popular for extra weapons and gear (though suffers some inconsistency with the core rules). Scoundrels, Pirates, and Merchants all have their own books. And there is a cyborg one as well. (Among many others.)

MgT rules are based on Classic Traveller (CT - the original first published in the late 70's) with enhancements to chargen and a unified task resolution system. Its simpler than GURPS and Mongoose is actively publishing tons of books (see www.mongoosepublishing.com).

You can check it out for free with the SRD - it has most of the rules. See the Traveller forum at http://forum.mongoosepublishing.com/ and just ask. There is lots of other free stuff in the way of the free S&P magazine and free campaigns (in the 3I setting).

The black books are 'setting independent'. Mongoose and third parties also have several setting offerings (like 2300 AD and Hammer's Slammers, etc.)

If you are looking to spend more of that $100, the most bang for your buck is probably the CT Reprints/CDs from Far Future Enterprises (http://www.farfuture.net/)... MgT is largely compatible with this older material (much of it is 3I setting specific, but there is still a wealth of stuff to be gleaned for homegrown settings...). Though, seriously, as much as I love CT, I'd probably start with the MgT Main Rulebook.

BTW: www.travellermap.com is based on the 3I setting, but it does have an option to enter your own sector data and get PDFs (see http://www.travellermap.com/post.htm) - really cool for custom settings.

Enjoy!
 
I could see going one of three ways:
1. Keep going with GURPS and get the necessary core material: GURPS Lite (free download) and the GURPS Traveller core book PDF.

2. Mongoose "main book", possibly the Central Supply Catalog, as above. Where the two conflict, the CSC should win. Add the free SRDs and other resources.

3. Classic Traveller, either as:

A. Classic Traveller CD (contents), start with only one of the original core sets as rules and the adventures. Save the rest for later. The rule set I'd recommend is Starter Traveller. The name implies that it's a cut-down Traveller--it isn't, really. The Traveller Book or either of the two 3 book sets (1977 or 1981) would work, too. I used only the three 1977 books and my own material for about 30 years, myself.

B. With DriveThruRPG you can get Classic Traveller books without waiting on a CD in the mail. I'd recommend Deluxe Traveller (about $12 during the December sale!) It has the three core books, an extra intro to Traveller book, and an adventure book all together.

Any of these options gets you everything you need (or a lot more, in the case of the CD), with plenty of your $100 left over for pizza.

I'm not familiar with it myself, but MegaTraveller is another possibility. MT is a favorite of many here. The link goes to a DriveThruRPG bundle of the core books for $27.
 
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Welcome to Traveller and CotI, Elshar.

You'll probably find dozens of different responses here. I would agree that your best route as a beginner would be to use the Mongoose core rules to run your game (which you seem to be doing) and get the CT CD (and if possible the JTAS CD) for background material - they include a number of adventure ideas.

A word of warning, well known in the Traveller community - it's all too easy for a new GM to want to create a whole galaxy and let the players conquer it, but that route will probably lead to burn-out for both you and your players. I would start small and keep it tight. Check out the Traveller Map as suggested above. It details the Third Imperium (3I) and does much of the work for you. You will find that a single subsector of a couple of dozen worlds will give you enough material to keep your players going for years.

Even if you have galactic travel, you will still only detail a couple of dozen worlds, and you open yourself up to 'techsolve' questions like "If we can travel across the galaxy, why can't we...?"

Small, tight and lowish tech will keep your workload down and keep your players hungry.

The Official Traveller Universe (OTU) has been thought out by lots of people over decades. It hangs together well, has a gritty feel, and is a lot less effort than developing your own. I'd really recommend it for a newcomer.

Happy Travelling.
 
Snip...

Elshar said:
I'm really looking for a gritty universe ala buck rogers
Click to expand...

Now there's a description I've never seen before! Anyway, in answer to your general questions, here are my thoughts (for what they are worth).

Rules: Traveller rules are sort of a funny affair. Everyone has pieces that they like from different versions, but nobody seems entirely satisfied with everything in a single edition. For my part, I prefer a little more detail than CT provides, which is why I use TNE. For ease of play, and ease of acquisition, I'd suggest either Mongoose Trav or Classic (reprints can be obtained cheaply). If you and your group aren't intimidated by rules, GURPS is supposed to be good (never tried it), and TNE is very detailed. If they are very familiar with D&D, there's always Traveller D20.

In answer to your $100 question, CT, MT, and TNE can all be acquired for less than that in CD form from Far Future Enterprises, if you don't mind not having the actual books. If you do want the books, CT reprints are fairly cheap. You can get all the necessary TNE rule books for about half that from ebay. Not sure about other editions.

Setting: While all RPGs benefit from a strong setting, in my opinion this is especially true of sci-fi games. I think your players will come to enjoy Traveller if they can identify elements of the setting they want to explore. If they aren't the type to research the universe on their own, you can still introduce them to it by having adventures that concentrate on a particular faction, race, or world. If they are incentive-type players, you can have a reward for using game knowledge, like an extra xp point or a re-roll. Something small, so that it isn't unfair to others, but a nice little perk. Make redeeming it easy, say as little as someone referencing a Library Data entry, or describing galactic directions as "Spinward" or "Coreward." Possibly even just creating a character with a Vilani last name. Anything to sort of nudge them into immersion.
 
I'm really looking for a gritty universe ala buck rogers
Click to expand...

Do you mean pulpy like Buck Rogers? The newspaper comic, the serial with Buster Crabbe and the late 70s remake were all pulpy, but not even remotely gritty.

To me, gritty = CT, while pulpy = WEG d6 Star Wars.

True to its "Dumarest of Terra" origins Traveller is dark, pessimistic, cynical and has a wisp of realism (e.g. Outland, Alien).

Since Buck Rogers and esp. Flash Gordon are the grandsires of Star Wars, I would imagine that the WEG rules would be good for low-fatality, high-flying, action fun without having to worry about slugthrower ranges and calculating profits from speculative cargo, or slurping up hydrogen from the upper cloud-layers of a gas giant.

YMMV.
 
ShapeShifter said:
Do you mean pulpy like Buck Rogers? The newspaper comic, the serial with Buster Crabbe and the late 70s remake were all pulpy, but not even remotely gritty.

To me, gritty = CT, while pulpy = WEG d6 Star Wars.

True to its "Dumarest of Terra" origins Traveller is dark, pessimistic, cynical and has a wisp of realism (e.g. Outland, Alien).

Since Buck Rogers and esp. Flash Gordon are the grandsires of Star Wars, I would imagine that the WEG rules would be good for low-fatality, high-flying, action fun without having to worry about slugthrower ranges and calculating profits from speculative cargo, or slurping up hydrogen from the upper cloud-layers of a gas giant.

YMMV.
Click to expand...

His use of gritty is unusual... but it looks more like he means "in the grime" ala Starhunter rather than "rules that produce accurate simulation" ala GURPS or "Combat freaking hurts!" ala T2K 1E or 2300

I can see the Buck Rogers TV show as "gritty but unrealistic"... Buck is often messing with the machinery, tech's not a panacea, and when stuff breaks, stuff freaking breaks. Further, fighting outside of ship-to-ship is often not good for the participants - Buck's often shown to not enjoy the after-effects of a fistfight. It's also campy as all hell, Buck's damned near a Marty Stu, and season 2 was painfully bad... but at least Buck does get upstaged by one diminutive guest star, and his hand hurts after he KO's someone.

If indeed that's the right Buck, for that kind of action, I'd recommend T20 or Sci-Fi 20. But Mongoose can easily do that kind of "gritty". Most editions can, tho' I'd avoid GT and TNE for that style of Grit.

2300 is better for the Combat Hurts kind of gritty. GURPS can do this one as well.
 
Well, he referred to the old Buck Rogers PC games. These were based on TSR's Buck Rogers XXVC universe, which had quite a different feel from other Buck Rogers incarnations.
 
Tobias said:
Well, he referred to the old Buck Rogers PC games. These were based on TSR's Buck Rogers XXVC universe, which had quite a different feel from other Buck Rogers incarnations.
Click to expand...

Quite similar to the original novel, tho'. Which, aside from the general TL, is comparable to the TV show season 1.
 
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We started out with GURPS 4th. I'm not 100% on this yet, but I'm reading the MG Traveller book and I'm really really liking what I'm reading. So we might end up rolling new guys. For the best anyways, considering our inexperience made some .. interesting characters. On the fence on if that's good or not. :)

Second - I took money out because two of them really don't like micro-managing things. But after talking to each person individually, it seems that two others really want to add the CPA jobset to their duties, so money's back in! (along with supply levels, and other spreadsheety things!)

Part B: I'm actually very relieved to hear that.

C: I'm working up to how exactly space travel works in T. I have lots of questions that I know are newbie questions answered in the book. Just for fun, though:
- How far away do/should they drop out of FTL from their destination?
- How long should it take them (typically) to get from drop-out to destination? (I guess this would be how far/how fast they're going)
- What can I do to make that time not boring? I mean, in most fantasy RPGs, you just say something like "I travel to Winterfell by the main road, camping at night. W, X, Y, and Z take rotating shifts guarding" and then we skip travelling unless something happens. Is that true in Traveller too?
- Exactly how fast is Jump-1?

Again, I assume the questions are answered in the book and I just haven't gotten there yet.

Tobias said:
Hello and welcome to CotI!

First of all, I have to ask: Are you using GURPS as a rule set? I'm asking because there are several rule sets for the Traveller background, GURPS being one of them and you did mention using GURPS materials.

Second, your questions and concerns:
1. Removing money from the game: I think it is possible to run Traveller without managing wealth, but if your group likes the economic aspect, then any version of Traveller has plenty of material supporting that.

2. Traveller is comparably gritty. There are no Star Trek type transporters, no replicators, no force shields, no phasers that can be conveniently set to stun, and so on. It is very much a game where PCs need to go out and do stuff.

3. Traveller faster than light drive is indeed based on a jump model, and requires refueling after each jump. However, you do not need to refuel at a spaceport. Since Traveller starships use hydrogen as jump fuel, they can "harvest" fuel from Gas Giant planets (like Jupiter) or from water sources such as planetary oceans or ice asteroids. This "wilderness refueling" is not quite as safe as buying refined fuel at a starport, but it is quite feasible. For an long-range exploration game, the players would jump into a new system and seek out such a source of fuel before they continue on to the next system.

For what to buy: That answer depends on whether you'd like to use GURPS as a rule set or not. If you do, there is a lot of GURPS Traveller stuff (3rd edition though) available as PDFs.
Click to expand...
 
@ Dragoner, Bytepro, saundby: Thanks for all the links, and the info. I will definitely be busy for awhile reading up on all this stuff. :)

@ Icosahedron: You might be right. I had a very hard time thinking of stuff on the spot. Space is just so ... vast.

@ LeperColony: Thanks! I often feel Star (Trek/Wars) is too 'clean' if you know what I mean. I'll also be checking out the CD. If it's software, does it work in Win7?

@ ShapeShifter/Aramis/Tobias: Interestingly enough, my thoughts were closer to Aramis' "Stuff's always breaking, gotta jury rig this thing so we can GTFO". I also just realized that Buck Rogers is a recurring holodeck theme in ST:V.

Not too into campy comic stuff. Although I would like to do some space combat. "Your combat suit is losing pressure." 'It must be from when that space pirate shot at me, how long do I have?' "About 5 minutes" 'This is going to be tight'

Thanks again guys. I apologize for my absence since my initial post. I thought I was subscribed to the thread so I'd get emailed. Ah well. I read all the comments, bookmarked all the sites. Sub'd now. :)
 
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Elshar said:
C: I'm working up to how exactly space travel works in T. I have lots of questions that I know are newbie questions answered in the book. Just for fun, though:
1)How far away do/should they drop out of FTL from their destination?
2)How long should it take them (typically) to get from drop-out to destination? (I guess this would be how far/how fast they're going)
3)What can I do to make that time not boring? I mean, in most fantasy RPGs, you just say something like "I travel to Winterfell by the main road, camping at night. W, X, Y, and Z take rotating shifts guarding" and then we skip travelling unless something happens. Is that true in Traveller too?
4) Exactly how fast is Jump-1?
Click to expand...


I numbered your question to aid in answering them.

1) Usually, 100 diameters. So the bigger the world they are arriving at, the farther out they appear.
2) Depends on the maneuver drive installed. Faster ships take less time. When jumping to a large world, you arrive farther out as well. There should be a chart somewhere in the book, though.
3) Well, a jump always requires one week, reguardless of how far you actually travel. During that time, the ship is completely cut off from the rest of the universe. There isn't much you can do in jump. Maybe dealing with a stowaway or something, but thats only fun once or twice. You could just do the "You jump. One week later, you arrive at your destination." That works completely fine.

As for the time between leaving the planet and jumping out, thats only a few hours at most, even with a slow ship. Even easier to say "You're there. You jump out."

4) A jump-1 ship can travel 1 parsec (3.26 light years) in one week. (A jump 2 travels 2 parsecs in one week. Even if it only travels 1 parsec, it still takes a week.) But even if you only travel 1 foot with a jump drive, it also takes a week.
 
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The various CD's Far Future Enterprises sells are all CD-Roms loaded with PDFs. So, they work on any machine that can read them and has a PDF viewer.

And they copy just fine to other media for use with most ebook devices that can handle PDF. (Older kindles don't at all - they deal with PDF by conversion, and newer ones are said to be poor at it, but the newest ones might work OK. Sony Readers, and the B&N Nook are pretty good about PDF handling.)

For my PRS-505 and 600, tho, I had to use a PDF-Unlocker utility. The resulting unlocked files work fine.

There is an issue of CD+R vs CD-R... A buddy ran across it using an older machine and the TNE2 CDRom. He wound up simply going down to the library with a 2GB USB stick, and using their CDRom drive.
 
Another newbie GM here. I'm having trouble coming up with a way of getting the party together at the beginning of a campaign outside of the old trope of "ye olde space inn."

How do you guys usually get your parties together?
 
nefffffffffff said:
Another newbie GM here. I'm having trouble coming up with a way of getting the party together at the beginning of a campaign outside of the old trope of "ye olde space inn."

How do you guys usually get your parties together?
Click to expand...

I've often used the "Y'all walk out of the Imperial Services Out-Processing Center together"... but that only works for characters who were in Navy, Marines, Scouts, possibly also Army, Flyer, Sailor, or Merchant, depending upon a variety of factors in your personal TU.

But if using Mongoose, remember that, if they draw connections to each other, they get a bonus skill level from the other character's list. Then all you need to do is justify them running into each other.

My last campaign of Traveller was "active service"... and was in an ATU of my group's creation. The PC's were a Space Patrol Colonel, an Ambassador, and a senior scientist specializing in Jump Physics... They all knew each other from prior service connections. All I had to do was provide the current mission.... Testing the physicist's new J2 drive...

I've also run a game where everyone was a Marine... the PC's were the cadre of a Marine Regiment, deployed behind enemy lines by 'sault-ron hot LZ drop & run, during the 5FW. Hold until relieved. They did... This differed from normal by everyone picking end rank, and generating until they hit it.
 
- "Ye old space inn"
- Congratulations. You've all been drafted. Again. (For a more military type game)
- They are all current members of the military, and are ordered to go. (Either the same unit, or transfers from different units to a new Special Operations unit. Also more for military types)
- XX Corporation wants someone to go to X and do Y. They are paying well. The players characters want the job.
- Terrorists or someone else does something big and bad on Planet Z, where the players just happen to be. Even if they did nothing, the players are blamed (either someone says they did it, or its said they are friends with the group who did, whatever.) The players must either cooperate to escape, or be killed/arrested.
- (If they have a ship) Whoever owns the ship needs a crew. The players just happen to meet the requirements.
- Do nothing, as they are already together. Traveller assumes that characters have past experiences already. The players met way back then. They just happen to be together for something. (anniversary of some important event, birthday party, remembering a comrades death, etc.)
- Planet Y is offering compensation to all interested in starting a new life there (new colony, they need skilled workers). The players have all chosen to accept the offer.
- The players are on the same transport, heading for Planet X. Pirates attack, and the crew is mostly killed or disabled. Its up to the players to repulse the attack and save the rest of the passengers.
- The players wake up from cold sleep on a derelict spacecraft/abandoned military base. They have no idea where they are, or how they got there.
 
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- Patron calls them ("You all have been asked hear today...")
- Government agency calls them (see above)
- One PC gets the 'job' or makes 'the plan' and gathers the others based on past connections or recommendations
- Common grav plane/train/bus breakdown
- They all meet in court (gravbelt citations...)
- They all meet in the lockup, being rounded up in a public event gone bad
- They all play in a band together and are playing in this bar when this guy...

Arranged or chance encounters - either way, its a story and you are the author. I've had chance encounters with old acquaintances and made new ones not only at everyday locations - grocery stores, college lines, crossing a busy intersection - but even several times at various jobs (spanning cities and business domains). Coincidence may seem implausible - but it happens all the time in the larger scheme of things.

Mongoose provides the connection events - in CT it wasn't unusual for us to decide on the relationship between PCs from relatives, common service periods, common interests (ala music), childhood histories, etc.

I sometimes just let my players come up with the reason they are all together, which can be useful background for me to work with later.
 
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