Ideas for an old newbie referee

[san*klass]

Having not owned or played Traveller for a very long time, I am eagerly awaiting delivery of a copy of the Traveller Book that I recently purchased from RPG Now.

I initially bought it to run an alternate TNE campaign (played it back in the day, but too complicated for my current tastes), but the more I read in this forum, the more I wonder if I am going to be more drawn to a Classic campaign.

I played Classic, using the TB and a few supplementary LBB's back in the early 80's and loved CT for its open ended "sandbox" play. It was a Referee's dream to run, with minimal preparation and open ended play style. Back then I sketched out a few basic (76 Trombones - sorry Patrons) encounters expanded with details, NPCs and mapped and described locations. I bought quite a few of the Adventures and read them well enough to play at a moments notice too.

For me and my players at the time, that was Traveller, exciting free form adventure, falling from one catastrophe to another while trying to keep your ship afloat (aspace?).

I would love to hear what CT specifically has/does that makes it uniquely it, and how you ran it back in the day and maybe how you run it still today.

Also any recommendations for a good Sector to run that style in, please. I ran in Spinward Marches (natch!) back in the 80's and will maybe end up there again - unless you can suggest anything better? But I need a big sector map for the players to plan their jump routes and trading landfalls etc.

Any and all thoughts greatly appreciated.

 

[kilemall]

How much energy and time do you have to prepare, and how many sessions of what length do you expect to play with the group?

 

[san*klass]

How much energy and time do you have to prepare, and how many sessions of what length do you expect to play with the group?

I guess that I am looking for a published sector setting with (as a minimum) a poster sized sector map (give the players total freedom as to where they "Travel", and a little setting information. The rest I can extrapolate.

I guess the Spinward Marches is the most obvious since it has the above, plus many Adventures set in it (although serial numbers can always be filed off!).

Then there's the Astrogators guide to Diaspora, which can be played as a CT/MT crossover I guess?

I guess I just wondered if there were any other sectors that you could recommend?

 

[Leitz]

Well, some thoughts. First, go play with the Traveller Map. Also, read atpollard's PbP game in progress. Join if you want. Consider ordering the CT CD set from FFE. Have fun.

I like the rules light feel of CT. Other rules have their advantages. For me story is the goal, so rules that don't intrude on the story are better.

 

[robject]

Another suggestion for CT: go to DriveThruRPG and buy the hardcover print edition of The Traveller Book -- yes, it's in publication. And it's worth it. You'll get a fullsize RPG book containing the reformatted text of the three Little Black Books, plus Library Data, plus the Regina subsector, plus patron encounters, an adventure worth running (Shadows), and an adventure that needs work (Exit Visa).

Everything you need to get started. A true gaming kit in a thin form factor.

Newcomers to Traveller, regardless of age, tend not to be wargamers, so rules-light (CT) tends to work well.

 

[flykiller]

I would love to hear what CT specifically has/does that makes it uniquely it

anyone intelligent enough to play traveller is intelligent enough to play it their own way. most do. the ct game framework is sufficiently open-ended that it can be altered or expanded by the referee as he sees fit.

same thing for the otu.

how you ran it back in the day and maybe how you run it still today.

as if the npc's are pc's.

 

[atpollard]

Also any recommendations for a good Sector to run that style in, please. I ran in Spinward Marches (natch!) back in the 80's and will maybe end up there again - unless you can suggest anything better? But I need a big sector map for the players to plan their jump routes and trading landfalls etc.

Any and all thoughts greatly appreciated.

I agree with the suggestion to start with the Traveller Map and look around.

Unless you specifically want a campaign centered on traveling from one side of the Imperium to the other, I suggest you select a tiny area and detail it out (about a subsector). What about a cluster of Imperial Worlds on the border with the Vargr or Aslan space. A handful of relatively safe and familiar worlds with dangerous and exotic worlds just a few jumps away. Adventure lurks throughout the border and the interface between cultures, but you need to get back to the Class A/B starport once a year for maintenance and repairs, so you can't wander too far.

Remember that each star is an entire world and a solar system of other worlds. There should be more than one thing to see or do on a world ... get out of the starport once in a while.

 

[Nick H]

My top sectors for setting a game in would be The Spinward Marches, The Solomani Rim and Foreven. The first two have the most amount of OTU stuff written for it, so you'll have plenty of ready to go adventuring possibilities and Foreven is a sandbox sector for referees: Other than a few planets which are mentioned in OTU material, the rest is for you to design if you want to do that. Plus, you can always nip over to the adjacent Spinward Marches.

How did I run it then and how would I run it today. I'm a much better "actor" as a referee now with giving NPCs a bit more personality. I also am a lot better with remembering the rules! Back then, I ran the adventures as written. Now I often flesh out the undeveloped or blank areas. Other than that, the ethos of the game for me hasn't changed: Get a ship, get some cargo, get a patron and let's go.

 

[JFGarber]

I've enjoyed the Vanguard Reaches sector, basing an on-again off-again campaign for my daughter in Grossdeutchland Confederation.

Vanguard Reaches has smallish human dominated political groups that I can manage and she can visualize. It also has the Consulate and the Imperium right along the edges, which gives me the opportunity to use them as narrative elements without having to care about canon or what the actual size of the Eleventy-leventh Colonial fleet may be.

There are genuine aliens, but not too many. Regrettably, they don't tend to have much description in the Wiki, or visuals, but I make do. That's when a childhood spent collecting coffee table books of SF art becomes useful.

The TL of the dominant worlds is 13, with several more 10-12. This allows me to use T5's tech level effects to good measure to differentiate among the various political groups' capabilities.

And there is a huge expanse of uncharted space just a few short month's travel away. Yay.

 

[Patron Zero]

My suggestion unless your campaign is based otherwise, would be to make whatever ship your PCs operate from be table-top friendly.

I produced an over-size 11x17 deckplan of the PC's vessel, such made 'casual' non-combat 15mm miniatures play possible, it also kept both the PCs and myself aware of where all parties aboard were located.

 

[aramis]

My suggestion unless your campaign is based otherwise, would be to make whatever ship your PCs operate from be table-top friendly.

I produced an over-size 11x17 deckplan of the PC's vessel, such made 'casual' non-combat 15mm miniatures play possible, it also kept both the PCs and myself aware of where all parties aboard were located.

Note that 1/2" = 1.5m is close enough to 15mm.

	Top of Head (5'8")	Eyes (5'5")	1/2"=1.5m 12.7mm=1.5m
5'8 Man is	15mm	15.7mm	14.6mm
1.5m is	13.1mm	13.6mm	12.7mm
Nominal Scale	1:114	1:110	1:118

Note that Gaming Miniatures scales are rather sloppy. Some manufacturers measured to top of head, some to eye-line, a few to top of hat.

Recently, I've adopted use of cubes, rather than miniatures. 8mm eurogame cubes fit nicely on 10.1mm (2/5") squares....

 

[san*klass]

My suggestion unless your campaign is based otherwise, would be to make whatever ship your PCs operate from be table-top friendly.

I produced an over-size 11x17 deckplan of the PC's vessel, such made 'casual' non-combat 15mm miniatures play possible, it also kept both the PCs and myself aware of where all parties aboard were located.

Totally agree, Ialways use some sort of to scale map, for exactly that reason. And for Scifi weapons ranges (and ship sizes) 15mm always makes the most sense.

 

[kilemall]

I'm inclined to go 10mm if any, because I'm already an N scale modeler and there are zillions of buildings and civilians to be had, it's smaller so can fit more in, small facilities easily fit on a normal page and big ones can fit on the table.

There is the nearby 1/144 and 1/150 scales too.

The relatively new Dropzone Command has some seriously alien vehicles, some very cartoonish, if you are careful you can get some really strange looking useful stuff other then 'plasma Bradleys'.

They also built one of the most gorgeous planetary assault ships I have ever seen (I'm gathering not for sale, as PR piece)-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7nrkYqAC9s

 

[Willie Dewitt]

I agree with the suggestion to start with the Traveller Map and look around.

Unless you specifically want a campaign centered on traveling from one side of the Imperium to the other, I suggest you select a tiny area and detail it out (about a subsector). What about a cluster of Imperial Worlds on the border with the Vargr or Aslan space. A handful of relatively safe and familiar worlds with dangerous and exotic worlds just a few jumps away. Adventure lurks throughout the border and the interface between cultures, but you need to get back to the Class A/B starport once a year for maintenance and repairs, so you can't wander too far.

Remember that each star is an entire world and a solar system of other worlds. There should be more than one thing to see or do on a world ... get out of the starport once in a while.

I'm noobing it as well, introducing CT to my long time D&D (1st ed) group. Couple games in and having fun. A merchant mustered out with a Free Trader, but I've had it be an older one getting cleaned up for the new owner in the star port of a corn harvesting planet. Been just dicking around with a couple of minor (but violent) patron encounters. Giving them some action, but they seem to be having fun just talking about future plans with the ship, shopping, fishing, and cooking. In an odd way just being in the outer reaches of a galaxy seems to make every day activity interesting. Sort of like mundane things being done with the knowledge of this vasty universe out there ready to explore (and hanging literally over their heads) suddenly becomes not so mundane. But by next game I must get them out to space trading.

I've been winging it big time. All I had for the first game was Book 1, memories of playing CT at the local game jobber as a kid, and the inspiration doing hard Sci Fi with little to no fantasy elements gave to me. I simply had the planet thought up (with a patron, a freelance loading company manager needing some inside-job petty cash thieves handled discreetly) and the ship with a retiring captain (soon that little seemingly minor detail got me and one players figuring that this ship was to be his mustering out ship). These ideas led to other NPC ideas connected to it all, and the couple of games so far seemingly being moved along by a lot of little details and occurrences.

The sector I've barely fleshed out. I've decided that this subsector has this harvest belt of agriculture planets on the edge of the frontier, mostly run or at least supported by a major corporation (all sort of "organic" in that these planets were perfect for growing things and pollutants are kept to a minimum). I've also thought there might be a processing planet or two a jump away, inducing one specializing in distilling that will have a high alch content in the air :rofl:

That's all about it. I'm barely thinking more than a step ahead of the players and it's working so far. So no big map ahead of time with all the sector planets indicated. I might never provide that to the players. I want to do this all more or less as a "railroad" as I don't know really how long the campaign will go (our group is a D&D group after all), so I'll be at an advantage not doing a "choose your own adventure" sandbox. You'll really need to have things well fleshed out for that, and perhaps that would be my next campaign. But for now my satisfaction will come from how my players react to planned occurrences for the time being. So far this system lends itself well to "winging it," especially if you have good players to help you make the story almost from whole cloth.

 

[mike wightman]

CT 1-3 was not set in the third Imperium, it was a sandbox to design your own setting. The third Imperium was added as an example of how to do it.

My advice to any new ref is to roll up a few worlds to get the feel for that, have the players generate their characters and then pick one of your worlds for them to mess around on.

If they move on - Travellers do travel after all - add more worlds to your growing subsector.

You can stave off the decision about how much of the OTU you will adopt or whether to just keep it completely your own.

 

[creativehum]

I'm noobing it as well, introducing CT to my long time D&D (1st ed) group. Couple games in and having fun. A merchant mustered out with a Free Trader, but I've had it be an older one getting cleaned up for the new owner in the star port of a corn harvesting planet. Been just dicking around with a couple of minor (but violent) patron encounters. Giving them some action, but they seem to be having fun just talking about future plans with the ship, shopping, fishing, and cooking. In an odd way just being in the outer reaches of a galaxy seems to make every day activity interesting. Sort of like mundane things being done with the knowledge of this vasty universe out there ready to explore (and hanging literally over their heads) suddenly becomes not so mundane. But by next game I must get them out to space trading.

I've been winging it big time. All I had for the first game was Book 1, memories of playing CT at the local game jobber as a kid, and the inspiration doing hard Sci Fi with little to no fantasy elements gave to me. I simply had the planet thought up (with a patron, a freelance loading company manager needing some inside-job petty cash thieves handled discreetly) and the ship with a retiring captain (soon that little seemingly minor detail got me and one players figuring that this ship was to be his mustering out ship). These ideas led to other NPC ideas connected to it all, and the couple of games so far seemingly being moved along by a lot of little details and occurrences.

The sector I've barely fleshed out. I've decided that this subsector has this harvest belt of agriculture planets on the edge of the frontier, mostly run or at least supported by a major corporation (all sort of "organic" in that these planets were perfect for growing things and pollutants are kept to a minimum). I've also thought there might be a processing planet or two a jump away, inducing one specializing in distilling that will have a high alch content in the air :rofl:

That's all about it. I'm barely thinking more than a step ahead of the players and it's working so far. So no big map ahead of time with all the sector planets indicated. I might never provide that to the players. I want to do this all more or less as a "railroad" as I don't know really how long the campaign will go (our group is a D&D group after all), so I'll be at an advantage not doing a "choose your own adventure" sandbox. You'll really need to have things well fleshed out for that, and perhaps that would be my next campaign. But for now my satisfaction will come from how my players react to planned occurrences for the time being. So far this system lends itself well to "winging it," especially if you have good players to help you make the story almost from whole cloth.

What Mike said. But also, you seem to be playing exactly as many people might play -- and used to play -- the game. Most importantly, it seems to be going really well.

I'm curious: You speak of both "railroading" and "winging it." Could you elaborate, perhaps with examples from your game, what you mean by that?

 

[Supplement Four]

If you can find it, Cold Dark Grave, published by BITS, is one of the finest traditional adventures I've ever read for Traveller.

 

[Willie Dewitt]

I'm curious: You speak of both "railroading" and "winging it." Could you elaborate, perhaps with examples from your game, what you mean by that?

Well, "railroad" in terms of preparing planets, cargos, etc ahead of time (the meat and potatos of the games so to speak), but having minimal notes on most other things. Riffing of my sparse concepts for the session. Of course, for "winging it" it helps to have great players who engage the material and add a lot too it.

The more I think of it, the more I think I'll want to get a bit more sandboxy after a few sessions for the full CT experience, so the "railroad" (me creating planets without random table help) will more or less fade and I'll be using the random tables a lot more (both before and during sessions) so the players will have more choices of destination. "Winging it" in the purest sense I guess.

Edit: kind of gave "the life story" of my couple of sessions here, but decided to edit all that wordstuff and just answer the question

 

[mike wightman]

I'd like to have seen 'the life story' of the sessions so far.

 

[ovka]

Well, "railroad" in terms of preparing planets, cargos, etc ahead of time (the meat and potatos of the games so to speak), but having minimal notes on most other things.

I wouldn't consider that railroading. That's preparation.

Cheers,

Baron Ovka