Originally posted by Nero's Boot:
Hi, everyone! While I've been gaming for well over ten years, I've just now gotten into checking out various GDW games. I purchased a ton of Twilight: 2000 books (the main rulebook, an equipment book, and three or four others, along with a module), and now have finally purchased Classic Traveller. Soon enough, I'll try my hand at getting some 2300AD books.
Some questions, though, to get me prepared for the game:
* What would say the tech level of the Third Imperium is? Would it be comparable to say Star Wars or Star Trek, or it would be more like BattleTech?
* How prevalent are alien races? Do many exist, or is the Imperium a mostly Human civilization? Do they even exist at all?
* I am aware psionics exists in Traveller; how powerful are they?
* How large is the Third Imperium? Does it cover most of the galaxy, or are there still large slices of space left unexplored?
* And finally, do sentient machines exist, and what is the legal ramifications of such machines?
--thank you NB
Here is Marc Miller's explanation of Traveller as Foundation description and he is the creator of the game.
Marc Miller's Foundation Description
Tech level/genre --
This the way I try to explain it to new players and no this explanation is far from perfect so there.
To really apprectiate Traveller, you have to come at from the correct frame of mind. It is more like Aliens in terms of technology than say Star Trek.
It is more like Starship Troopers in terms of tech and psionics than the more fantasy based Star Wars.
Slugthrowing projectile weapons are more common than say laser or plasma/fushion weapons.
Think about a Blade Runner atmosphere for example married with the politics of nobility out of Dune and the megacorps from Aliens and weapons out of Quake teamed with the computers of the Minority Report and throw in some aliens from the Cantina scene in Star Wars.
It is gritty dirty collection of stars with society based on one major assumption -- communication cannot travel faster than the fastest jump ship. Therefore, the government structures of a sector or sunsector of systems has to be a very fuedal structure to allow for quick decisive response in the outlying regions. Think of travel time and communication at the beginning of the age of Exploration and how the Spanish administered their New World assets for a historical comparison.
Starship Travel/Combat --
STARSHIPS AND SPACE TRAVEL
What are the principles of space travel in the Traveller Universe? Let's deal with interstellar travel first.
Jump Drives are the mechanism used to move a starship into jumpspace and thereby take it to a pre-determined destination. Jump drives are rated in terms of the distance they can carry a ship. Jump-1, for example, indicates the ability to travel 1 parsec in one week's time. Jump numbers range from 1 to 6; higher jump numbers are not possible in ordinary usage, although misjumps can carry ships over greater distances. A standard Imperial jump drive consists of four components: a high-yield fusion power plant, an energy sink of zuchai crystals, a jump governor, and a lanthanum-doped hull grid.
So, if your ship is rated as Jump-2 vessel you can move 2 parsecs in one jump and time in the jumpspace tunnel is always one week.
Jump Dimming
Customary practice performed by some starship pilots before entry into jumpspace. The transitions to and from jumpspace are momentous occasions during an interstellar trip. Historically, most of a starship 's power was diverted into the computer and jump drive systems, so that the jump drive could be guided into creating the jump field properly.
The practive of dimming the ship's lights before jump has evolved into a Vilani superstition. Most Vilani-trained pilots will dim the ship's interior and exterior lights before going into jump. Lights are typically dimmed for a period of about two minutes; the lights are brought back up to full strength as soon as the ship is in jumpspace.
What about sub-light travel? It is based on acceleration. Why? Because max speed is basically limited only by the speed of light in the vaccum of space. As long as you keep accelerating you keep increasing your speed. So a manuever drive is rated in G factors. For example a standard Scount Courier is rated on its manuever drive as 2 G.
The manuever drive ratings do not tell you a maximum speed, they tell you how fast your ship can accelerate. So if your ship has a 2G drive, and accelerates for 20 minutes (1200 seconds, 1 standard starship combat round) from a dead stop, it will have a velocity of
V = 2 x 9.81 x 1200 + 0 = 23544 m/s, or ~ 24 km/s.
Now, the reason Traveller rates the drive in terms of acceleration rather than speed is that in space the important thing is how fast you can change velocity, not what your final velocity may be. With basically no drag, with any acceleration and enough time you could theoretically achieve any velocity you want, its just a question of how long it takes you to get there.
Maneuver drives can be made up either of grav modules or thruster plates. Both make use of the graviton. Gravitic drives produce a field which alters the way incoming gravitons react with the ship, allowing them to be used for thrust. Thrusters are more advanced, reacting with both the strong and weak nuclear force to create a reactionless drive usable even outside of a gravity well.
Starship combat --
Starship combat is somewhat divorced of the standard Science Fiction conventions since it was not born out of one particular sci-fi storyline.
The first thing that blows the minds of most players getting on board their first starship is that their ship has no shields.
The most common defense for a starship especially a commercial non-military vessel is an armored hull. The other common defense is a turret mounted defensive weapon known as a sandcaster that emits a prismatic spray to disperse laser light.
The most common weapons for a standard commercial starship (if armed at all) are lasers and conventional missles. Nuclear missles are restricted according to the Rules of War.
For most common armed Escort size ships, Energy Weapons (Plasma/Fushion) are available and defensive technology like Respulsors (used to repulse missles) and nuclear damper screens (to absorb nuclear blasts) are more common.
For larger military vessels, weapons like particle accelerators and mesons come into play. Mesons are very interesting because they are particles that can pass through regular matter but decay very quickly. Translation: They pass into a ship, decay and then explode a ship from the inside out.
The last line of defensives for large military vessels is the meson screen used against meson weapons. It makes the particles decay prematurely.
Weapons are configured in three ways on a ship. There are built into turrets, into large bay configurations or as a huge single mounted weapon along the spine of the starship. These are commonly referred to as spinal mounts.
What does this tell you? Attacks and defenses in this universe are very balanced. For an attack, there is a defense. For every type of weapon, there is a defense. So, what throws the balance?
The only type of true force field type technology available only for large capital ships is the Black Globe Generator. It has a dual purpose in starship tactics. It absorbs all energy. Therefore, a black globe ship absorbs light and is invisible. But, the defensive screen, works both ways so when they are ready to strike, they must flicker the shields in order to fire out.
This flicker is the achilles heel if the enemy attack can be timed correctly. There has been some loose talk of distengrator spinal mounts and white globe generators, but your characters have only heard talk of these types of devices, nothing solid.
For Fleet Tactics, try to think in terms of navy tactics right before World War II where Carriers existed but there is a general consensus that capital ships carry the day in a engagement of interstellar forces.
psionics -- Powerful enough that most refs do not allow them in their game for players.
Size of Third Imperium -- The Third Imperium does not cover the entire galaxy and there is plenty of area to still be explored or create pocket empires from.
Do sentient machines exist -- Yes, but they are very rare because of their costs and their limited usefullness. The canon thought line for the use of robots is they are usually reserved for dangerous and very menial tasks.
so here is 
), Sword Worlders are pure Solomani, and Ardenese are just Imperials "cut adrift" after one of the many Frontier Wars. Neither really counts as a minor human race, just minor independent states.
