General Is there any concise summary of Traveller setting lore to help potential players?

[coliver988]

Ace & Dog

The site (poking around old sites from the concourse) has a 2 page summary that may work: http://www.ace-dog.com/Traveller/Traveller.htm

 

[SpaceBadger]

So, i migrated to online gaming forums, and thats where the mary sues, self insert fantasies, and all that exploded. Theres been countless virtual cretins. And it has been getting worse.

Have you tried running Play by Post here on CotI? I ran my SBRD campaign here on CotI as a PbP and really enjoyed it, especially having some dedicated Traveller grogs as players. Yeah, it got slow and dragged sometimes, but that was probably my fault as often as the players' - I was dealing w a lot of pain and related medications, diving back into Traveller as escape and distraction so I was usually online more often than the players, but sometimes it knocked me out so completely that I couldn't post in a timely manner. Still, it was a lot of fun and lasted about 16 months, IIRC. Links in my sig if you want to check out the threads or the Traveller-subwiki that I used for library data, subsector maps, etc. (Game was set in sorta-ATU in my idea of Reavers' Deep and Daibei midway through the Long Night.)

 

[Tiikeri]

Have you tried running Play by Post here on CotI? I ran my SBRD campaign here on CotI as a PbP and really enjoyed it, especially having some dedicated Traveller grogs as players. Yeah, it got slow and dragged sometimes, but that was probably my fault as often as the players' - I was dealing w a lot of pain and related medications, diving back into Traveller as escape and distraction so I was usually online more often than the players, but sometimes it knocked me out so completely that I couldn't post in a timely manner. Still, it was a lot of fun and lasted about 16 months, IIRC. Links in my sig if you want to check out the threads or the Traveller-subwiki that I used for library data, subsector maps, etc. (Game was set in sorta-ATU in my idea of Reavers' Deep and Daibei midway through the Long Night.)

First of all i hope you have fully recovered from those health issues.

I dont think this would be the best place for me to run a game. My imagining of traveller is quite different from most peoples as im sure you can see from posts in imperial culture and other threads. Changes like that wouldnt go over too well. I also dont know the rules very well, and i think that wiuld be frustrating for people., and last but not least, my stories tend to revolve around around human dysfunction where there are no good choices, kind if like the movie platoon, where even the ororagonist commits murder but its the right thing to do in that story. I think it would grate on people here.

 

[flykiller]

Its like going to the drive thru and getting a different rat in your burger every time.

(laugh)

The good thing is that my creative writing is much better than it used to be.

yeah, we can see that. (grin)

 

[kilemall]

Most potential players ive run across regard everything as a chewtoy.

They think the setting is a romper room for their cartoonish power fantasies and giggling absurdities, a modeling runway for how special their characters are.

As soon as i say scifi they want their lightsabers and swiss army knife cyberlimbs. They want to be the best whatever in the galaxy at 18 years old because theyre just that kewl. They want nanotech magictech to instantly grow whatever they want so they can say, "I win again!!1!"

As for asking what theyd like to do, they respond with 'well, what can i do?'

I think ill just oresent them with a narrative that they might enjoy like freewheeling space pirates or good guy underdogs against the jackbooted meanies (because of all that mud in space) or the corporate greedheads from which they liberate a cute furry pet that is intelligent and has psionic powers.

Its always intrigued me how people playing ostensible good guys do the most horrible things with the most threadbare of justifications. Perhaps the jackbooted meanies ysed to wear regular shoes and ve pretty mellow until they had enough of 'good guys' wrecking every startown on the main. They restored order to the sector and this is the thanks they get.

May be the new Star Wars movies understand their new audience better then we do.

 

[Tiikeri]

Its more an understanding of the soft malleable vessels into which they want to pour the film's messages.

 

[Condottiere]

Short term: box office.

Long term: merchandizing.

Medium term: theme park.

 

[Tiikeri]

"What's cuter than porgs? Baby porgs!" - Kathleen Kennedy


Anyway, thanks for your responses guys.

 

[estar]

Hi,
Is there a concise noob friendly source i can direct potential players to?

A little late with my answer but this is what I use as a starting point.

http://www.batintheattic.com/downloads/Adventure_Handout.pdf

The Teaser
This is the age of the Third Imperium. In the year 1105, the Emperor Strephon rules over an empire of eleven thousand worlds. On the far reaches of the empire lies the Spinward Marches, the frontier of the Third Imperium. A crossroads for humans and aliens it is a dangerous place, but for those who dare to cross the abyss between stars, fame and fortune waits.

 

[ovka]

The site (poking around old sites from the concourse) has a 2 page summary that may work: http://www.ace-dog.com/Traveller/Traveller.htm

I found this last year and copied it into a word doc so I would have it. I didn't want to post the word doc because I didn't remember where I got it from. Thanks for finding it. I think this may be the sort of thing the op was looking for.

Cheers,

Baron Ovka

 

[Tiikeri]

By the way...

...I finally did trick someone into playing a play by forum game about the Interstellar Wars. It will cover first contact with the Vilani and the start of the Interstellar Wars. It's very slow paced, but it's an enjoyable writing experience. Steady as she goes.