New Products for Traveller or Cepheus Engine Survey

[Jeff M. Hopper]

So here is a question for all of you out there. What would you like to see as new products for Traveller or Cepheus Engine?

 

[The Pakkrat]

T5.10 Wishlist

Alien Modules for T5.10, featuring Careers that take into account analogous Characteristics, starships that allow for shorter or smaller aliens, Equipment lists that are geared for the alien User, World Generation for specific interstellar races, Psionics as it pertains to non-Humaniti races, an Alien races SophontMaker that allows for sub-species ethnicities or disparate Clans and Castes, some histories that set the race(s) in canon once and for all, a future history that details an alien race post-1200 OTU, subsector-by-subsector maps and details for the alien empire(s) therein, deckplans that make sense for a given alien race, treatises on Government types common to a given alien race, and a BeastMaker and Bestiary for regions of Charted Space that have been found by a given alien race...even those Solomani.

 

[BackworldTraveller]

A detailed account of a high-tech conurbation/archology with patrons, characters, incidents, jobs, residences, schools/places of education, bars/restaurants, places of business, factories, museums, Venues for Sports and Entertainment, Hotels/Flop-houses, Air-raft garages, etc. How do the various SOC levels get zoned? What does "Home" look like. Transport in an archology. Examples of those Networks you get in Mongoose in their urban setting. That kind of stuff.

Somewhere you could play a Thief or Cop or a Civilian operating in and about their home turf.

OR

A scientific research station where the player could be a scientist or researcher. Again the story is a mystery to be solved rather than smash and grab. Someone wants to undertake industrial espionage; have a scientist defect to another megacorp.

 

[agorski]

Alien Modules for T5.10

Yes, the current character generation system is only suitable for aliens that are residents of the Imperium, and that doesn't work for Hivers and K'kree.

I'd like to see a Galaxiad setting supplement.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

For Traveller:

• Solomani!
• Alien Modules using Trav5
• Galaxiad
• More Esseray love.
• Artifacts -:rant: Damn you all! You tease us with with TL 22-32 but no items? I want a Not-Foam wand! :xh:Or maybe a TL 27 prototype Happiness pill.o:
• Trav5 had a homeworld table for characters based on playing in the Spinward Marches. Would like to see how to create tables for other sectors.

For Cepheus:

• Steampunk setting (Everything available available at TL4 but 2x mass/50% efficiency reduction per TL difference or some such)
• Battlesuits - The Traveller Development Pack had Battledress design but this was not made it to Cepheus Engine as of yet. (most likely to keep Cepheus with a more CT feel).
• Cyberpunk!

I don't want:

• Large Ships (or their deckplans) that characters cannot live in or fight and win/survive or interact with beyond communicating.

 

[mike wightman]

For Traveller:
The Galaxiad
T8
The next revision of T5.10 to go back to basics much as D&D did with 5ed - go back to the CT roots and simplify the game engine.

For Cepheus:
a book to show how you can take the various tools that CE offers and use them to design you own setting
A setting based on a long night planet of the week exploration and adventure, Dumarest with the serial numbers filed off.

 

[jcrocker]

We keep hearing about this 'Galaxiad', that seems like a good release.

We've got plenty of rules systems to pick from and/or tweak, revisions on those could wait until after the setting is advanced.

 

[Fovean]

For either (any?) rule set, I’d love to see a deep dive into a multi-star system, perhaps seven to nine stars across the spectrum, each with its own planets, anomalies, factions, what have you.

I think there could be some interesting implications to human endeavors when travel times are constantly changing, certain routes are occluded occasionally, and maybe there’s a few bodies in highly ellipsoidal orbits that show up to disrupt things every once in a while.

 

[BackworldTraveller]

For either (any?) rule set, I’d love to see a deep dive into a multi-star system, perhaps seven to nine stars across the spectrum, each with its own planets, anomalies, factions, what have you.

While this sounds great, I'm not sure how the orbital dynamics would work and still have a functional system old enough to have anything but hot rocks.

 

[Fovean]

While this sounds great, I'm not sure how the orbital dynamics would work and still have a functional system old enough to have anything but hot rocks.

Neither am I But there are new discoveries every day that make me feel like anything is possible.

Also, for me and my group, fun wins out over reality any day. We are talking about jump space and laser guns and what have you.

 

[coliver988]

For either (any?) rule set, I’d love to see a deep dive into a multi-star system, perhaps seven to nine stars across the spectrum, each with its own planets, anomalies, factions, what have you.

I think there could be some interesting implications to human endeavors when travel times are constantly changing, certain routes are occluded occasionally, and maybe there’s a few bodies in highly ellipsoidal orbits that show up to disrupt things every once in a while.

Wish I remember where I read it, but there was an article about a 3 star system unlikely for form any stable planets.

However, as others have posted, new things keep popping up that were considered not possible (gas giants in close orbits anyone?) so who knows. But the interacting dynamics I think would really be tough to capture in a game as some of those time frames are decades in the making, and as such, could really just be the GM's thing to toss in there as needed.

 

[Fovean]

But the interacting dynamics I think would really be tough to capture in a game as some of those time frames are decades in the making, and as such, could really just be the GM's thing to toss in there as needed.

True. I understand enough to know it’s unlikely to be realistic, or even possible. For instance “seven to nine stars across the spectrum” is essentially impossible due to the ages of the stars involved. But maybe it’s two or three “realistic” binary systems that have converged and will separate eons down the road. Perhaps it’s a single star system, with a brown dwarf or rogue star disrupting the mechanics. Maybe what I’m talking about is the moons of a massive gas giant like we’ve never seen before. Or maybe it’s (shudder) the Ancients.

I’m still wrapping my head around my own idea To the OP, I guess you can cross this one off the list

 

[BRover]

For either (any?) rule set, I’d love to see a deep dive into a multi-star system, perhaps seven to nine stars across the spectrum, each with its own planets, anomalies, factions, what have you.

I think there could be some interesting implications to human endeavors when travel times are constantly changing, certain routes are occluded occasionally, and maybe there’s a few bodies in highly ellipsoidal orbits that show up to disrupt things every once in a while.

As the system in Firefly/Serenity? That was pretty extensive, as I recall. Maybe not 7+ stars, though.

 

[MichaelSTee]

Check out the star system used for the 12 colonies of Kobol for the new Battlestar Galactica. 4 stars, each with a full set of planets, including habitable worlds around each. The system was worked up by the series' science advisor (Kevin Grazier, who also worked on series Defiance and Eureka). Kevin has been a guest at several DragonCons. He designed the system to be as realistic as possible.



Here's the summary:
Alpha and Beta revolve around each other, and Gamma and Delta revolve around each other. Alpha-Beta and Gamma-Delta pairs revolve around each other.
- Alpha, G2V: Icarus (Mercurian), Picon (garden), Caprica/Gemenon twin worlds (garden/marginal), Tauron (garden)(moon Minos), Erebos (belt), Zeus (LGG, 74 moons including Nike, Hebe), Persephone (iceball)
- Beta, K1V: Troy (rockball, dense), Pallas (former garden, now dead), Leonis (garden/agricultural), Ouranos (belt), Virgon (garden)(moon Hibernia is habitable), Hera (LGG, 24 moons including Iris, Euboea)
- Gamma, G9V: Thanatos (Venusian), Libran (hot garden), Acheron (belt), Scorpia (tropical), Sagittaran (marginal), Ophion (GG)
- Delta, K2V: Phoebe (hot desert), Aquaria (cold ocean), Aeolus (belt), Styx (), Hestia (GG)/Aerilon (agricultural)/Canceron (agricultural/mining) (2 planets in trojan/greek position)
- Orbiting Gamma & Delta: Ragnar (LGG)(moon Sigurd)

 

[RandyB]

For either: A focus on adventuring at High Imperial Tech Level (TL 14-16).

There's plenty of "shotguns in space" with "high tech artifacts" material out there. Let's see what it's like when the tech is generally available.

 

[BRJN]

Pick one system with a bunch of History behind it - ex: Dingir / Solomani Rim - and detail the system for various "interesting" eras.
- State of Nature: as originally discovered / explored, raw materials, planetography &c.
- Kimashargur pocket empire capital
- Ziru Sirka administrative center, emphasis just before date of Terran contact
- Regional Vilani war coordinating center, early Interstellar Wars
- As conquered by / ceded to Terran Confederation (snapshot)
- Terran Navy HQ and Rule of Man
- Long Night / Dingir League. Aslan Buffer Wars contacts?
- First Contact with Third Imperium
- Solomani Rim War, esp. Battle of Dingir (why here and not some other star nearby?)
- Traveller Golden Age / Solomani War of Liberation

Emphasis on potential adventures in each era of course. Plus describe changes to the man-made facilities made over time (and why).

 

[Timerover51]

I would be interested in something like Lee's Guide to Interstellar Adventure. I have that in both hard copy nd digital format.

 

[Fovean]

As the system in Firefly/Serenity? That was pretty extensive, as I recall. Maybe not 7+ stars, though.

Yes. The Firefly board game is tons of fun and I'd think it'd be very cool to have a similar situation for a Traveller campaign.

Certainly I have my attempted home brew setting along these lines but it'd be nice to see something from a real designer.

At any rate, lots of great ideas in this thread!

 

[aramis]

Firefly has 5 natural stars, 7 protostars that were artificially ignited. The hill spheres of the four outer stars clear each other when orbiting White Sun, but it's not going to be long term stable.

For more information, see The Verse In Numbers.

I've converted the TVIN 2.0 data to traveller formats... it's posted on the board somewhere...

 

[Silverhawk]

I have been playing with the idea of multiple stars that are gravitationally bound but not necessarily orbiting each other. The basic concept is a remnant of a star cluster that has lost most of its members to the galaxy.

This leaves the possibility of having a fair number of stars that are relatively close together but still allows for planets that aren't disrupted by orbital mechanics.

As for what I would like to see. I agree about Alien Modules and/or a in-depth look at a single system or maybe a small region with a couple of systems where you can do adventures with a 'neighborhood' feel.