New Traveller Player - Hello Worlds!

[nathanbibb]

Hi everyone - short time lurker, first time poster here at CotI. I recently signed up and wanted to introduce myself.

I was an avid gamer in the 1980s and 90s (mostly D&D, AD&D 1e, and AD&D 2e), but did not pick up Traveller until this year. I had been looking into the D&D retro-clones with interest (and some nostalgia), which led me to wonder what other games are out there that I never got into, and then I picked up Traveller a few months ago. I've been hooked ever since.

I bought a 1981 Deluxe box set, so that's been my main exposure. I'm really interested in CT, and I'm trying to grok these rules before I venture into other versions. I also ordered TTB POD this week, so I'll be reading that as well.

There seems to be an almost overwhelming amount of material between this forum, the Free Traveller site, and the various supplements and material available from FFE and others. I'm still getting my head around the jargon and abbreviations, so I'm limiting myself to LBB 1-3 until I get my feet wet.

So thanks for being such an active forum, and I'm looking forward to learning more about this fascinating game. Any advice on how a newbie like myself should get started would be appreciated. I'm also interested in how folks play online (or by mail/forum/etc.), since I don't have any gamers close to me anymore.

 

[McPerth]

Wellcome to CotI then.

 

[Garyius2003]

For CT, including the follow on character books, roll up characters. Best way to get started. Then try a little bit of pretend combat rolls vs pretend armor against character stats.

The best all inclusive crawls to start with a party are Annic Nova or Shadows. If you do Shadows, come up with a decon method or something for the suits to give the players extra time. If Annic Nova, make sure a PC has computer skill. Both are gun light, so you can ease into guns and armor rolls while doing them for real.

For the players, the task skill rolls are fairly easy. You have to come up with the difficulty.

ETA: One or two players can play Annic Nova, with 1 PC back and three forward so long as you have Med-2, Comp-2. Vacc, and Mech/Eng as skills. Sorry, re-read your post and saw the lack of local groups.

 

[nathanbibb]

Thanks for the tips. I've been going through the sections as outlined in Book 0 - I've made a lot of characters (the process itself is addictive), tested out combat once, created a couple of worlds, and done some practice trading.

My only player base right now are my two oldest kids, ages 9 and 11. I took them both through chargen and they loved it. Next I'm planning to practice some combat. But I'm interested in seeing how a real adventure is run. I live in NJ, so I'm thinking of making the drive to PA in October to attend TravellerCon.

Once I get more comfortable with running everything, I might take my kids through Annic Nova - my son's favorite character has Computer-2, and I was wondering how he would use it. I'll check it out once I get the CT CD-ROM from FFE.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Welcome

 

[grendelttroll]

Welcome to the community!

 

[Patron Zero]

A most heartfelt welcome to the 'active' Traveller community, many great people here willing and patient to answer questions and give gentle guidance when such is so asked.

They must be a good mob, after-all they do tolerate me. *wink*

 

[JimMarn]

Howdee and welcome to the show ! And tell.

 

[thalassogen]

Welcome, traveler!

 

[McPerth]

I live in NJ...

May I suggest you to look at the Player Locator Thread (or putting yourself there) to see if there's somone near your home to play with (or at least to talk about it?

You only have to look at the last post to see all offered players, or to copy and paste it on a new post, adding yourself there (in aphabetical order, please), if you want to be on it...

 

[tim_manley]

My only player base right now are my two oldest kids, ages 9 and 11. I took them both through chargen and they loved it.

Hello! And welcome!

My first game was D&D, the light blue book. My 2nd RPG was Traveller. So I've been hooked on this game since, heck, 1980 I think (maybe it was '79... I'm thinking 79...)

I just got my 16 year old hooked on Traveller. I've been running Pathfinder for he and his friends for the past two years. I did a Traveller one-shot and all of them loved character generation. They really enjoyed how you could start with a character that's seasoned in his career with a history.

My preference is CT -- all you need are the 3 books. But, the next one you really should get is Supplement 4, it adds a lot more characters.

 

[nathanbibb]

Hello! And welcome!

My first game was D&D, the light blue book. My 2nd RPG was Traveller. So I've been hooked on this game since, heck, 1980 I think (maybe it was '79... I'm thinking 79...)

I just got my 16 year old hooked on Traveller. I've been running Pathfinder for he and his friends for the past two years. I did a Traveller one-shot and all of them loved character generation. They really enjoyed how you could start with a character that's seasoned in his career with a history.

My preference is CT -- all you need are the 3 books. But, the next one you really should get is Supplement 4, it adds a lot more characters.

Hi Tim, thanks! I have actually been following your thread on Traveller with the kids - mine are not that old yet, but my oldest is about as old as I was when I got into D&D, so I think Traveller will work well for them. They all definitely have fun making characters (and so do I!), so I just need get a good story together and get comfortable enough with the rules to be able to ref smoothly.

 

[robject]

Hi everyone - short time lurker, first time poster here at CotI. I recently signed up and wanted to introduce myself.

[...]

I'm still getting my head around the jargon and abbreviations, so I'm limiting myself to LBB 1-3 until I get my feet wet.

[...]

Any advice on how a newbie like myself should get started would be appreciated. I'm also interested in how folks play online (or by mail/forum/etc.), since I don't have any gamers close to me anymore.

First, welcome!

Second, you've done exactly the right thing to get started: gen characters, worlds, ships, do some trading.

As for online play, there is at least one play-by-post game here on COTI -- Craig's "Permatic Imperium" game. I haven't been keeping up, but I think it may be amenable to players who are familiar with Book 1.