Converting famous Science Fiction to Traveller

[Madmax]

I was wondering if anyone has tried using Traveller to create a campaign directly set in any specific well known Science Fiction setting, and how well the campaign went.
I am thinking of something like, for example, 2001 a Space Odyssey as the background, or maybe Asimov's Foundation universe, or Alien, or many others.
I ask because I would imagine the big advantage of doing that would be the players would be immediately drawn into the setting, but the disadvantage might be that the players are TOO familiar, i.e. they have too much foreknowledge.
How did doing this compare to being in a more OTU, or home grown, type of campaign? More fun, less fun, about the same? Was it more work, less work, about the same? Etc.

 

[creativehum]

I know that Mike Wightman, who posts here regularly, has used the original Traveller rules to play in the Star Wars setting, the Culture series setting, and, I believe, one other Big Name setting... but I might be wrong about that.

 

[Timerover51]

One setting that really would work converted to Traveller would be Andre Norton's "Solar Queen" series. Sargasso of Space would be a fantastic setting for an adventure or even a short campaign. Then you have the range of settings in Plague Ship, along with Voodoo Planet with its magic. Postmarked the Stars would be good as well, and probably would not be so well known to players. Plague Ship and Voodoo Planet can be downloaded online. I am basing some of my worlds in the sector I am creating on Norton's book, as well as how I crew Free Traders.

While H. Beam Piper's Space Vikings would likely be too well known to players, considering it is likely the basis for the Sword Worlds, some of his other stories would be good, and most can be downloaded online.

Lastly, James Schmitz's Witches of Karres would be a good one, with a psionic space drive to add as well.

 

[Madmax]

One setting that really would work converted to Traveller would be Andre Norton's "Solar Queen" series...

Well, thanks, but I am not asking for recommendations, rather I am asking what actual experiences referees and players have had using famous settings, i.e. was the whole idea of using a setting that is already known to the players really an advantage in playing the game or a disadvantage, or something else?

 

[GypsyComet]

...was the whole idea of using a setting that is already known to the players really an advantage in playing the game or a disadvantage, or something else?

That really depends on the players, and the details of the setting. Some settings have so much "needed" detail that you have to be more of a setting geek than any of your players or "that guy" will start calling you on mistakes.

 

[aramis]

I've used CT for Star Trek - once - I was totally unsatisfied with it, especially since I had FASA Trek.

I used CT for Tron, again, once. I was satisfied, no one in the group was.

I've more often ported the other way; OTU in: GURPS (before the official port), Vampire, EABA, 2300

 

[mike wightman]

In no particular order:
Star Wars - typical group of rebels vs the Empire, worked just fine.
Dune - a minor house discovering the resources on their planet that would grant them major status if exploited correctly, great fun.
Culture - special circumstances call upon the characters to solve a variety of 'conflicts', so far it has never failed to provide entertainment
Alliance/Union - based on the worlks of CJ Cherryh - very good fit to Traveller
Lensmen - who doesn't like fighting pirates, drug smugglers and terrorists?
Stainless Steel Rat - great scope for doing something with a group of characters who finally get caught, you now work for 'them'
Various books by Niven and Pournelle have inspired Known Space and CoDominium shenanigans.

I really want to run a long term campaign based on Peter Hamilton's Reality Dysfunction setting - I have dipped into the setting from time to time bit never gone full on.

And how could I have forgotten this one - The Pliocene Exiles saga by Julian May - I had great fun expanding the Traveller psionics rules to fit the setting.

 

[Madmax]

I don't know, maybe I am not expressing well what I am looking for, so let me try again and give an actual example.

I recently have been re-watching Star Gate Universe, and have been wondering what difficulties would there be for trying to create a Traveller game set in the Star Gate milieu? The main scenario might be something like SG1, or SG Atlantis, or SGU, or some home made variant.
So I am asking what sort of difficulties/hurdles one needs to watch out for, and be prepared to deal with, when making an existing background into a Traveller game. Are there things that are definitely deal killers when it comes to making such conversions?

Please don't give suggestions for StarGate, I am just using it as an example.
Please do not give lists of SciFi backgrounds that you have used or think would work well.
I am interested in what the process for such conversions is, and what methods have/have not worked.
I was hoping to learn from the experiences of others what pitfalls to avoid, and what aspects of such games are worth focusing on.

 

[mike wightman]

First of all know the setting you wish to use very well. Write down its underlying tech assumptions. Look at the characters in the setting you wish to emulate and then look at the typical traveller career paths, including CotI careers and also Other.

Are there any skills in Traveller that will need to be interpreted for the setting, are there any skills that are missing, can you adapt what is there already.

Consider the scenarios you wish to present and the likely characters that players will wish to generate in order to play in those scenarios.

Make sure all the players are on the same page as you with regards to setting details.

Traveller is a fairly easy rule system to adapt to any sci fi setting, characters have stats, skills, a prior career, and starting resources - all of which can be adapted to the setting you choose.

 

[McPerth]

The first campaig I ran years ago was loosly inspired by Battlestar Galactica.

BY then I only had TTB, and so I had little to no idea of the OTU, and the players were contacted by an the Scouts that had received news (though a far missjumped small ship) of a wandering fleet looking for human territory (Galactica fleet, of course) and they were given the mission to look for it in unexplored territory past the Varg Extents and help them to reach Imperial territory.

 

[BRover]

I worked up a setting including Cherryh's Mri as a mercenary-for-hire minor human race--out in Foreven, from somewhere far to Spinward (from the "Faded Sun" series.) Their current patrons were a non-human minor race, but more details were pretty nebulous. There were a few interactions, but then the party headed in a different direction (literally: into The Beyond, then the Vanguard Reaches). Still, it was interesting while it lasted.

 

[Condottiere]

There are two separate aspects involved, character generation and game mechanics.

Traveller character generation tends to be work specifically for experienced characters, not really for those on a complete hero's journey.

Game mechanics are simple enough to adapt to most franchises.

 

[Werner]

I don't know, maybe I am not expressing well what I am looking for, so let me try again and give an actual example.

I recently have been re-watching Star Gate Universe, and have been wondering what difficulties would there be for trying to create a Traveller game set in the Star Gate milieu? The main scenario might be something like SG1, or SG Atlantis, or SGU, or some home made variant.
So I am asking what sort of difficulties/hurdles one needs to watch out for, and be prepared to deal with, when making an existing background into a Traveller game. Are there things that are definitely deal killers when it comes to making such conversions?

Please don't give suggestions for StarGate, I am just using it as an example.
Please do not give lists of SciFi backgrounds that you have used or think would work well.
I am interested in what the process for such conversions is, and what methods have/have not worked.
I was hoping to learn from the experiences of others what pitfalls to avoid, and what aspects of such games are worth focusing on.

Stargate has some similarities to OTU traveller in that the characters often have military backgrounds, you have your Marines, Army, and Scouts, those would be the most frequent careers I think. The tech level is 7 plus a bunch of higher tech artifacts that get collected along the way.

 

[Grav_Moped]

There are two separate aspects involved, character generation and game mechanics.

Traveller character generation tends to be work specifically for experienced characters, not really for those on a complete hero's journey.

Game mechanics are simple enough to adapt to most franchises.

But be careful when trying to carry over tech assumptions. It's easy to make a system that's fundamentally broken. Then again, the fictional universe you're adapting might be based on broken or inconsistent assumptions...

 

[Werner]

But be careful when trying to carry over tech assumptions. It's easy to make a system that's fundamentally broken. Then again, the fictional universe you're adapting might be based on broken or inconsistent assumptions...

Stargate involves mostly personal gear, not much use for starships.

 

[aramis]

Stargate involves mostly personal gear, not much use for starships.

Not after season 6 or so... the latter seasons are heavy on the ship-based action. Still not primary, but plenty of.

 

[Werner]

Not after season 6 or so... the latter seasons are heavy on the ship-based action. Still not primary, but plenty of.

In a stargate setting, a gate needs to be delivered toward the destination in order to use stargate to travel there. Stargate have on occasion been used for time travel as well as travel to parallel universes.

A typical stargate campaign would start with the discovery of a stargate left by ancients, the tech level of the player characters can be anything.

There are two campaigns I can envision, one where the stargate is in the custody of the government and kept top secret on a need to know basis, the other one is where the stargate is discovered by private individuals and kept a secret for proprietary reasons, possible to maximize one's profits. Another possibility is a time travel stargate campaign, a third one is travel to parallel universes, or perhaps all three at once.

 

[Werner]

I recently had an idea about a stargate campaign with spaceships. A stargate is discovered to a parallel Earth, there is nothing much on this parallel Earth, the highest tech level culture on it is tech level 1 in Traveller terms, but the discovers of the gate exploit it to maximum effect, it just leads to one Earth, but in the sky, a habitable Venus and Mars are discovered. Travelers from our World pass through the gate and push aside the bronze Age culture and start building roads and housing tracts, and finally someone gets around to building reusable liquid fueled rockets such as the SpaceX Starship, and plans are put into motion to explore Venus and Mars, a sort of updated Space 1889.

 

[aramis]

In a stargate setting, a gate needs to be delivered toward the destination in order to use stargate to travel there. Stargate have on occasion been used for time travel as well as travel to parallel universes.

A typical stargate campaign would start with the discovery of a stargate left by ancients, the tech level of the player characters can be anything.

There are two campaigns I can envision, one where the stargate is in the custody of the government and kept top secret on a need to know basis, the other one is where the stargate is discovered by private individuals and kept a secret for proprietary reasons, possible to maximize one's profits. Another possibility is a time travel stargate campaign, a third one is travel to parallel universes, or perhaps all three at once.

The Stargate universe has FTL drives. Pretty damned good ones... Light years per day level. Earth doesn't until defeating Anubis, after which, more and more of the show involves ships...

 

[wellis]

The Stargate universe has FTL drives. Pretty damned good ones... Light years per day level. Earth doesn't until defeating Anubis, after which, more and more of the show involves ships...

Some of the fastest hyperdrives in Stargate are capable of traveling, when having the power source for it, 3 million lightyears in 4 days. Around 273,750,000c.

Goa'uld hyperdrives in Season 4, IIRC, were capable of traveling 4 million lightyears in 125 years (an estimation by a character) so they would have a speed around 32,000c [around 87.67 ly/day] And the Goa'uld are sort of the midrange baseline most people use for tech.

For comparison, the highest speed current Imperial jump drives can reach is slightly over 1000c (specifically around 1019c).

So yeah, definitely faster than Traveller jump drives.