<<< Ish newbie to Traveller! Hey all!

[Twinfun]

Hey all!

To introduce myself vaguely, I've played the Star Wars RPG, and the D&D RPG in the past just a wee bit, and am now considering Traveller as my next RPG. The theme seems more universal and open than the Star Wars RPG (allows me to come up with ideas more easily in my opinion), and D&D runs me 3 books...not very attractive to newcomers when they see me whip em out.

Well, now I call upon you wise Traveller players for advice. From what I have read about Traveller thus far, it seems to fit the bill that I have laid out, but I have read some complaints on how the core rulebook does not include much of the lore of the Traveller universe as it should include.

If these statements are true, what are some ways for me to tap into the lore? Would I have to check out Traveller supplements? Story books? Simple Google searching? (Google hasn't turned up much besides Wikipedia, but that may be since I don't know Traveller lingo.)

Thanks in advance!

 

[Seriayne]

There is a Traveller Wiki that's passable to pretty good, and includes lots of references to the game supplements that the articles come from - though it also includes a fair bit of non-canon and sometimes contradictory material.

If you're talking Mongoose Traveller's core rulebook for starting out, I might suggest their The Spinward Marches book - which has the old canon setting for most of the original adventures, lore, etc. Its pretty good as a starter setting due to it being a frontier sector at the nexus of 3 major racial/political groups (Vargr - space wolves, Zhodani - culturally psionic humans, and Imperium ' -base-line' familiar humans/human cultures) . That should be enough to keep you busy for awhile and give you a good point of departure if you want the 'classic' Traveller milieu feeling.

The supplement also includes a pretty good overview of the history of the 3rd Imperium, of which the Spinward Marches contains a decent chunk.

There are older books from various incarnations of Traveller (GURPS Traveller core book has a pretty good historical overview, The Megatraveller core book Imperial Encyclopedia is another), but availability is going to be a problem in a lot of cases - most of them are collectors items now, though sometimes you can get lucky and find one or two at reasonable prices.

There are -lots- of other supplements and books out there that many would consider invaluable (I really like anything by Digest Group Publications for instance), but on a budget, or to keep your lugging of materials around/daunting the new players to a minimum, you can get by with pretty much the core + The Spinward Marches.

 

[Seriayne]

Oh and if you get the supplement, do get their poster map for the Spinward Marches - Those things are almost -always- cherished, useful, neat to look at and just pour over the information in your books/supplements/etc.

The information may all be in the base book, but the look and feel of a big black map for the whole region has a drastically different feel/effect on one, especially when thinking up multi-star system plots, war timetables, 'dead zones' and gulfs of sparse stellar population, figuring out relative distances for political intrigue or travel times, etc.

 

[Twinfun]

I Google imaged "spinward marches map" and found a plethora of trade maps.

Would those be sufficient? I would probably be able to just cut out an area of the map that will be involved in the given storyline in Photoshop and print it out.

Other than that, thanks for the reply!

The Spinward Marches supplement seems to be a renowned addition to any Traveller player, so that is something I'll be getting if the guys enjoy Traveller.

 

[Sifu Blackirish]

Maybe you could go 'old school'

If you really want to get into the meat of what TRAVELLER is about, check out some of the edition specific forums right here.

Since you played 'modern' D&D you might be okay with the T20/d20 version, (can't give a recommendation, ever played it)...

or if you want to immerse yourself more in the system, try the basic MegaTRAVELLER (MT) stuff (everything from 10 years of crunchy bits and pieces bolted on is stripped, cleaned, and reassembled nicely)...

If you want to see where it all came from, dive head first into Classic TRAVELLER. (Bare minimum of detail in the 3 LBBs, supplements and adventures add details but don't always agree with each other)

That's the real beauty of TRAVELLER. You can mix and match pieces from almost any version to fit what you want, you can steal...err...get inspiration from other games/novels/movies, you can have any level of detail you want for whatever pieces you want. ENJOY!!!

 

[Hemdian]

Welcome.

To start with you might want to read “The Fifth Imperium” column (mirrored on Freelance Traveller) about refereeing Mongoose Traveller.

Then there is Marc Miller’s site (the creator of Traveller). There are a number of free guides ... even if you don’t use the Rebellion the Megatraveller guide can give you insights into the Imperium. Earlier versions of Traveller are available as PDFs on CD-ROM which can be ordered here.

Many fans have their own Traveller web sites. Mine is called StuffOnline.

 

[Whipsnade]

Twinfun,

The others have pointed out just where to begin mining the vast wealth of Traveller material available, so I'll limit myself to a few suggestions.

• Use what you want and ignore the rest. The game is nearly 35 years old now, it's gone through several revisions and systems, and the amount of material produced is staggering. Sadly, a lot of that material doesn't work well together.
  
  You'll see many of here, with myself in the forefront, nattering on about how to make A work with B, how tab C can fold into slot D, and similar kinds of things. Ignore all of that.
  
  Play the game, play the game they way you want to play it, and the hell with everything else.
  
  
• Traveller is very different than D&D. Your RPG experience so far has been with D&D and D&D derived games. Traveller is much different and one of the ways Traveller is different is the fact that Traveller kills player-characters rather easily.
  
  Combat in all versions of the game is deadly and players who aren't used to that will balk. More importantly, you'll find yourself as the GM interceding more often to prevent player-character deaths and each time you intervene you weaken the session.
  
  Instead of jumping right into a campaign with characters they care about, run your players through a few one-session or single adventure games with stock characters. This way they can get a feel for the game and learn about it's differences before they lose a character they care for.

Good luck and good gaming!


Regards,
Bill

 

[ShapeShifter]

Welcome!

I'm also new to Traveller (Classic Traveller, to be exact) as of 3-4 years ago and thus far I've been having a blast.

It's just my opinion, but I think Mongoose is ruining Traveller, whether purposely or accidentally. Your best bet is....wait for it....Classic Traveller, which is available from Mr. Miller's site farfuture.net, mentioned in the above posts.

The Traveller wiki is okay for little spoonfuls of data, if you can stomach the frequent hacking into their pages and the deletion and/or rewriting by spammers or other malicious types.

The site travellermap.com is a spectacular and fun way to learn about the official universe.

Also (as mentioned by other members) there are a plethora of fansites of varying quality.

Have fun!!!

 

[beowulf2044]

If you do decide to go with Mega Traveller, don't forget to get ahold of the 30+ pages of errata, availible for free on the internet.

 

[fiat_knox]

Use what you want and ignore the rest.

You'll see many of here, with myself in the forefront, nattering on about how to make A work with B, how tab C can fold into slot D, and similar kinds of things. Ignore all of that.

A vast chunk of the stuff you can shove into Whipsnade's Oubliette is the opinions of grognards, who will often come up with statements such as this:-

IIt's just my opinion, but I think Mongoose is ruining Traveller, whether purposely or accidentally.

Enjoy the game, discover its inevitable flaws and develop your own grognardiness.

Grognarditude?

Grognardity?

Grognarderoonery?

Ahem.

 

[Icosahedron]

Well, I'm biased in favour of Classic Traveller, but since Mongoose Traveller purports to follow CT (with an arguable degree of success) and the whole of CT, with all the maps, background on aliens, culture, history (up to the Imperium's peak) etc, is available on the CT CD for $35, it's a way of seeing what's in Mongoose's pipeline and maybe saving yourself some costs in the longer term. I would also recommend the JTAS CD.
If you're a gearhead, into designing your characters' equipment from scratch rather than picking items from a list, I'd recommend Striker (included on the CT CD) and/or Fire Fusion and Steel. The two design systems are not properly compatible, but you'll learn how to fudge it over time.
Welcome to Traveller.

 

[Twinfun]

Twinfun,

The others have pointed out just where to begin mining the vast wealth of Traveller material available, so I'll limit myself to a few suggestions.

• Use what you want and ignore the rest. The game is nearly 35 years old now, it's gone through several revisions and systems, and the amount of material produced is staggering. Sadly, a lot of that material doesn't work well together.
  
  You'll see many of here, with myself in the forefront, nattering on about how to make A work with B, how tab C can fold into slot D, and similar kinds of things. Ignore all of that.
  
  Play the game, play the game they way you want to play it, and the hell with everything else.
  
  
• Traveller is very different than D&D. Your RPG experience so far has been with D&D and D&D derived games. Traveller is much different and one of the ways Traveller is different is the fact that Traveller kills player-characters rather easily.
  
  Combat in all versions of the game is deadly and players who aren't used to that will balk. More importantly, you'll find yourself as the GM interceding more often to prevent player-character deaths and each time you intervene you weaken the session.
  
  Instead of jumping right into a campaign with characters they care about, run your players through a few one-session or single adventure games with stock characters. This way they can get a feel for the game and learn about it's differences before they lose a character they care for.

Good luck and good gaming!


Regards,
Bill

I'm not a hardcore RPG player, and find that Traveller fits my bill. I can say that because I skimmed through a PDF copy of MongTrav before ordering, so I already have a good idea of what I'm getting.

One-session/single adventure scenarios is all I'm familiar with right now anyway; D&D seemed to make it difficult to implement benefits for players after they tackle quest after quest except for rewarding them with some neat item. Contacts, systematic world building and ship travel, and automated back story at character creation are some of the things that are going to make scenarios more exciting and different through each play session when compared to my D&D material.

Also, I have read beforehand how Traveller is not for the feint of heart, but as previously stated, I feel I can implement, with ease, quite a plethora of possibilities with the seamless options provided in the core rulebook; No more "Room, fight, room, trap, room, trap, room, key, fight, trap" like what I have normally been doing.

Also...just curious. Has anyone tried RPG sessions through Skype?

 

[D. Foxx]

I have been using ooVoo, a Skype alternative, for more than three years. I started with ooVoo because the beta version at the time allowed for up to 6 video calls at once, for free. That said, since ooVoo is out of beta, you need to pay for more then one-on-one video capability. Myself, in Florida, and a friend, in Washington D.C., have used it and love it. We have coupled the video call portion with the FantasyGrounds II software just reccently and have enjoyed the additional capabilities that FG2 brings. You do, however, need a lot of screen realestate or dual monitors or it can get a little cumbersome. PM me if you would like more details.

 

[Ronnke]

It hasn't been mentioned yet, but you also have GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars. It is very rich in detail about the Interstellar Wars period from both the Terran Confederation and the Vilani Imperium points of view. I have played various incarnations of Traveller over the years, but it this particular one that I have found the most fun and interesting.

There is one drawback, there is little follow up material, so you need the type of GM that is good with google, or able to build his/her own campaigns.

In order to make use of this book you would need the following:

GURPS Basic Set: Characters
GURPS Basic Set: Campaigns
GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars

An additional recommendation but not vital is:

GURPS Ultra Tech

So there are a few books you need, but I guess one benefit is that you can use the Basic Set books to play a whole bunch of other settings as well.

 

[jatay3]

It hasn't been mentioned yet, but you also have GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars. It is very rich in detail about the Interstellar Wars period from both the Terran Confederation and the Vilani Imperium points of view. I have played various incarnations of Traveller over the years, but it this particular one that I have found the most fun and interesting.

There is one drawback, there is little follow up material, so you need the type of GM that is good with google, or able to build his/her own campaigns.

In order to make use of this book you would need the following:

GURPS Basic Set: Characters
GURPS Basic Set: Campaigns
GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars

An additional recommendation but not vital is:

GURPS Ultra Tech

So there are a few books you need, but I guess one benefit is that you can use the Basic Set books to play a whole bunch of other settings as well.

I have said this before lots of times, but ISW is a good entry level because Terrans are not to different from people today. Also the book is simply handsomer then the others.