Greetings!

[OjnoTheRed]

I've just joined the forums because I've come back to my precious MegaTraveller after many years. It's been so long I missed some cool looking supplements like Knightfall, and GURPS Traveller, Mongoose Traveller and T4 have just passed me by!

I'm going to stick to MegaTraveller, and after encountering the great blog zho.berka.com I started googling Traveller, and of course found this forum and an enormous community.

Just thought I'd say 'hi' and ask - do any of you have general tips for getting a new player group together and where do you start - there's so much background. For instance, I was thinking of starting by sitting down with each new player individually and generating a character, using the process to prompt their imagination and explain things on-the-go so they'd have a reasonable picture of the universe around them when we go to sit down and play a session. But the draw backs are being focussed too much on the numbers and detail, time consumed in doing this for each player and overwhelming new players with detail.

I'd love to hear of strategies to getting started!

 

[Jame]

Welcome to the forums. Happy New Year!

 

[Hemdian]

Welcome Ojno.

Well if you can find a group of potential players who are new to Traveller you need to start small, provide them with as much information as they want, and build on that over time. Simple adventures to begin with, complex campaigns later.

The thing to realise about the immensity of the background is you don’t need to know everything. It’s there to gives you (the Referee) more choices but you only need to know a relatively small subset ... and your players only need a subset of your subset. In fact your players can be fairly ignorant and still have a good time.

I’d probably go with some of the adventures from BITS: They were originally written for use at conventions and so are fairly self contained. They also have pre-generated characters with hints on motivation and how to play them. (Also, you might want to pick up the BITS Task System free PDF which will make it easier to use adventures from one game system in another.)

I would allow the players access to the CT supplements “Library Data A-M” and “Library Data N-Z”. Just leave them on the gaming table for the players to flip through as and when they want but don’t require it (and make that clear to them).

Happy Travelling

 

[rancke]

The thing to realise about the immensity of the background is you don’t need to know everything. It’s there to gives you (the Referee) more choices but you only need to know a relatively small subset ... and your players only need a subset of your subset. In fact your players can be fairly ignorant and still have a good time.

Very neatly put, Hemdian. I'm going to save your words and repeat them when the occasion arises.

As for Ojno, welcome to these forums. You may be interested to know that I and a couple of other people have written a series of articles for the online Traveller magazine Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society Online which combine into an introductory campaign set on Regina. Simply do a search of the phrase 'Regina Startown' and you should get a listing of them all (plus a few more).

JTAS Online is a great resource and one of the best bargains around. It costs $20 for a two-year subscription, which not only gives you 150 articles over the next two years but also access to the archives which, as of today, has 1214 articles stored. This includes 110 Amber Zones, 142 Casual Encounters, 92 Campaign Settings, and 84 Short Adventures.


Hans

 

[OjnoTheRed]

Thanks heaps guys. Hemdian, great advice, great thinking - start small, I'll remember that ("OK players, here's the background. 15 billion years ago there was a massive explosion ..."). I like the idea of just leaving the library data on the table so they can "search the library computer" whenever they want.

Thanks for the link to the resource, Rancke2. I've still got some of the old adventures and supplements, so just starting on a world like Regina with a patron or two, then maybe try out the Kuninir or a similiar one.

... and not least of all, thanks for the welcome, Jame.

A great start to being part of the community, makes a huge difference when one nervously posts as a newbie and people are very welcoming!

 

[spinwardpirate]

Welcome!!!

I've still got some of the old adventures and supplements, so just starting on a world like Regina with a patron or two, then maybe try out the Kuninir or a similiar one.

Ah yes... I'd love to take my newest set of players on a romp through Twilight's Peak!