How much can you change traveller and still have traveller?

[Jame]

I think most of you seem to have defined the limits for how much Traveller can stretch. However, you guys seem not to have realized it yet...

My own Stretches would be to:

1. revise chargen to allow even Basic to give a few more skills and attribute bonuses,

2. Revise the tech scale so that computers are a bit more powerful a bit more early on, and also revise it so that quite a bit of the swag is available at earlier TLs (though this necessitates putting in more high-TL swag!); the rationale for this is that a holographic comm should be TL-12 instead of TL-14,

3. Rifles would IMcTU do 4d6 damage instead of 3d6, with Gauss Rifles doing 5d6 damage: i.e. weaponry damage is a bit more scary.

4. Expand the list of available Psionic powers that a Psion can have, even if you make the required power higher (DO NOT expand the frequency of actual Psionic Talent, because having more than one or two Psions would be seriously unbalancing).

I'm sure there's more, but I've listed my house rules somewhere...

 

[Droyne668]

Well, since you insist...

9. Jump-capable ships are usually smarter than their crews. A TL12+ ship is an NPC that can communicate through nanoengineered wireless systems with crew. Library data is transmitted directly to the crew or owner (or passengers if they have the right receivers and authorizations).

10. Chargen - one skill roll per year, even with Basic CT. Starting the game with only Air/Raft - 1 and Cr100 kinda stinks.

11. Back to computers - AI is everywhere. High TL citizens have their own internal Fire Walls.

12. Planetary systems can be crowded - the UPP is only for the primary or capital planet/object. A TL15 system can have trillions of inhabitants scattered from the star out to its Kuiper Belt.

13. STL space travellers are always popping up, many of whom are thousands of years behind the times due to relativistic time distortion.

14. Smart Weapons really are smart. Some work with the ship or grav carrier to make themselves smarter. You can snipe from orbit with a sufficiently advanced rifle.

Best,
Will

 

[aramis]

Droyne668: CT says ships computers are not inteligent until TL17. (CT, TTB, pg 86.)

"Thinking" ship computers are counter to Traveller; both feel and rules.

At best, computers might be trek-like; understand natural speech, but not able to think outside the box. (See also Book 8)

 

[Droyne668]

Droyne668: CT says ships computers are not inteligent until TL17. (CT, TTB, pg 86.)

"Thinking" ship computers are counter to Traveller; both feel and rules.

At best, computers might be trek-like; understand natural speech, but not able to think outside the box. (See also Book 8)

Ach! I'm a heretic! I have knowingly, willingly, and persistently violated CT canon.

Yeah, I know it's not "real" Traveller, but I like it.

Best,
Will

 

[Gadrin]

Droyne668: CT says ships computers are not inteligent until TL17. (CT, TTB, pg 86.)

"Thinking" ship computers are counter to Traveller; both feel and rules.

At best, computers might be trek-like; understand natural speech, but not able to think outside the box. (See also Book 8)

I think that's what T4 was gunning for when they introduced "Companion Bots" in the Central Supply Catalog. They rely on a central computer to handle their AI-like interactions and thought processes. I got the impression that while they are impressive, they won't quite be like Ash from Aliens, or require Decker to administer tests ala Blade Runner. Obviously discard the body and keep the routines and you should have fairly intelligent ships (or anything else big enough to have one), at least in the mold of Trek.

CT computers seem waaay out of date. I think that wireless networks should exist in Traveller (I don't have T20) and that some characters will be able to use their ship in orbit, or on the tarmac as a processing station for certain types of data and comm. Those starship computers should have very powerful computing abilities.

 

[Straybow]

1. Cheap fusion power (relatively speaking)
2. Modest STL transportation (eg, compared to HH's thousands of gees)
3. Modest FTL transportation (no FTL manuevering, point-to-point movement only; travel between nearby stars takes days)
4. No FTL signal communication faster than ship travel
5. Slugthrowers are practical and cheap compared to energy weapons
6. An interstellar socio-political setting involving regular and relatively free travel between inhabited systems

IMO, swords are not necessary, nor an Imperium, nor aliens, nor kludgey computer rules that ignore Moore's Law.

 

[Ganidirsii O'Flynn]

It's simple.

Traveller is a rules system.

The OTU is a canon milieu.

Change Traveller all you want. You do that anyway.

Oh, wait.... you do that with the OTU too!

See? Simple!

 

[BlackBat242]

Direct-interface implants are available in CTU from TL 14+, and have a range of 1 km... but they can also be linked to a comm unit for longer-range access.

"On most worlds of TL 10+, satellite networks (which the terminal can access) will link the entire planet into one large computer net, enabling an implanted individual access to the computer from any part of the world."

From "Computer Implants" by J Andrew Keith JTAS #22.



I would add to the official implant the following:

Plug-in implants are available from TL 12+,
large helmet-style interfaces from TL 10+, and (based on experiments in our real world)
primitive helmet-style "mental keyboard" units from TL 8+.

 

[atpollard]

Taking a Hard Line

In my opinion:

Anything that deviates from the LBB 1-3 is NOT Traveller. Expanding what was presented is ok (nothing wrong with the expanded character generation). Contradictory rules are not (the B5 ship design rules are kind of iffy)

MegaTraveller - Not Traveller.

The New Era - Not Traveller.

T4 - Not Traveller.

T5 - Not Traveller.

Even Striker, Mayday and Snapshot ARE NOT REAL TRAVELLER!!

[I don't actually feel that strongly, I just got tired of reading this "everyone agrees with everyone" mutual admiration society and decided to take an extreme position.]

 

[Hyphen]

Dear Folks -

Reckon I'm with Aramis on this one - his vision seems closest to mine. (And he's a MegaTraveller fan too. )

For example, I've always had aliens in my games (current PC's are: 1 human, 2 Droyne, 1 Aslan, 2 Vargr).

I started with a mate in Sydney who had the LBB's and most of the JTAS books between 10 and 24 - he had the Regina subsector, but created and entire sector around it that was completely different to the Marches (when the Marches came out, there was *no-way* he was changing all that work...).

My first purchase was Starter Traveller and I also managed to get hold of the Paranoia Press books. The Digests were brill, and when MT came out, I grabbed it with both hands. Eventually I "inherited" the JTAS books and LBBs when my friend in Sydney decided to give up playing.

To me - much more than, say, AD&D - Traveller is both the setting and the rules, albiet with more emphasis on the setting. The whole "Roman Empire at its height" feel is the biggest thing to me - the tech of jump and the politics of nobility are simply there to allow this flavour. IMNSHO, of course.

('Natch, this doesn't stop me from warping history IMTU so as to throw off the perceptions of Players Who Know Too Much^TM.)

 

[Fritz_Brown]

[I don't actually feel that strongly, I just got tired of reading this "everyone agrees with everyone" mutual admiration society and decided to take an extreme position.]

Well, then, I agree with atpollard! :smirk:

 

[Ishmael]

Its no longer Traveller when I, as ref and universe maker, say its not Traveller.

 

[Droyne668]

Anything that deviates from the LBB 1-3 is NOT Traveller...

[I don't actually feel that strongly, I just got tired of reading this "everyone agrees with everyone" mutual admiration society and decided to take an extreme position.]

That is indeed extreme, sir.

Mutual Admiration Society...Is that some kind of Hiver organization?

Best,
Will

 

[Jeff M. Hopper]

[I don't actually feel that strongly, I just got tired of reading this "everyone agrees with everyone" mutual admiration society and decided to take an extreme position.]

I agree with your extremist contrarianism.

 

[Icosahedron]

Its no longer Traveller when I, as ref and universe maker, say its not Traveller.

I like it!

IMNSHO, I can include, exclude, alter, borrow, invent or eliminate absolutely anything I want. And if I decide to run it as Traveller, it's Traveller.

Caveat: I suppose I need the agreement of one or more players - unless I play solo.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Much like Hunter's sig, huh?

 

[atpollard]

That is indeed extreme, sir.

Mutual Admiration Society...Is that some kind of Hiver organization?

Best,
Will

If it goes well, none of you will even realize that you have been manipulated.

... but the REAL question is: who is manipulating me?

(wheels within wheels)

 

[navywarlord]

A Traveller point of view

But this made me think on something: How much can you change traveller and still have traveller?

Sounds like a great conversation to me, so....

Ask 100 people to describe something and you get 100 descriptions.... Everyone sees things differently so everyone will have a slightly different version of Traveller that they run....

Personally, I use to run a Spinwards Marches Campaign (with no assassination or civil war) and am now setting up a new campaign based on a naturally occuring "Pocket Universe" which traps misjumping ships (I figure Grandfather got his idea for his artificial pocket universe from this).... This naturally occuring pocket is large (no more then 100 parsecs across - in 3 dimensions) and contains about 200 systems...

Will some people like this idea? Sure - others will hate it. To me, it will still be Traveller.

I've changed, added and deleted other rules from the core rule set and while there are those who will look at what I'm creating and say its not Traveller, I argue that this game (remember, its a game) was designed to allow individual GMs to add their own personality to it.... Its MY Traveller Universe...

I am very impressed with the ideas of people here at COTI and while I don't always agree on some of their rules in their universe - its their Traveller universe and not mine to argue (and those with things I like, I will borrow to add to my Universe, with credit given, of coarse)...

 

[BlackBat242]

I'm with ATPollard...

Mangled Traveller = NO

The Next Error = NO

Twisted4 = NO

Twisted5 = NO

Torture20 = &%$# No

Hero Traveller = NO (Its "Space for Hero system")

Gurbled Traveller = NO (its GURPS)

 

[Golan2072]

I'm with ATPollard...

Mangled Traveller = NO

The Next Error = NO

Twisted4 = NO

Twisted5 = NO

Torture20 = &%$# No

Hero Traveller = NO (Its "Space for Hero system")

Gurbled Traveller = NO (its GURPS)

Do you mean that these rulesets aren't Traveller by your opinion, or their settings as well? If the latter is correct, then almost any MTU or ATU is not Traveller in your book.