Props?

[Trent]

Do you use props in traveller rpgs or just describe everything?

In today's world props for traveller are easy to get and use, and not that hard on ye olde pocket either.

An example might be an old, obsolete cell phone that's contract has expired or isn't worth renewing anymore, but has some useful functions on it like text message storage or voice message recording.

The party discovers it onboard a dead ship and replays the last messages. (This works great if you have a friend not in the game who is a decent voice actor, and or some sound effects you got off the net and played over your speakers while recording the message.)

Another option might be a the party finds a multi-century old comm device somewhere, only to find it sans battery. So then they have to find a log obsolete battery, then they find maybe no useful messages on it, or perhaps vital data.

A phone that can display images might have a horrifying image saved on it for the players to behold, and remember even cheap images look like most others when displayed on a little LCD screen. (Download some images from the cthulhutech website and put them on a cell phone or old digicam. Let your players find the gadget with the understanding that it contains images of something that will be relevant to their missions and watch the look on their faces as some images from cthulhutech appear. :rofl

If you can score an old 8 track recorder at a yard sale, let the players find it as a way of showing them how outdated the thing they found is to their players, then, of course, they need to find the 8 track player...o:

 

[rust]

Do you use props in traveller rpgs or just describe everything?

I do not use props beyond maps, pictures and thelike, mostly because I have
experienced that the use of props that are more or less easily recognizable
as items from our current civilization can destroy the suspension of disbelief
as well as support it.
For example, the use of an old cellphone could work quite well, but it could
also cause a player to wonder why the reptiloid Yiskir use antique Nokia or
Samsung electronics.

 

[Jame]

Our group uses maps and mini characters generally. Other stuff like vehicles, trees and buildings depends on who's running.

 

[Hemdian]

Do you use props in traveller rpgs or just describe everything?

In addition to the usual maps and occasional minis use ...

• I use character sheets as props. Not only do they have a mug shot but when the player is about to make a roll where failure means death they have to pass their character sheet to me: if they make the roll they get it back, if they don't I rip the sheet in half before them. Being asked for their character sheet makes them reconsider their actions.
  
  
• I use equipment sheets as props. Modeled after the format devised by DGP it usually sports a picture as well as any stats. A player gets a sheet for each item they have, if they have two of something then they get two sheets. If they lend or give an item to another player they hand that item's sheet over. This simplifies bookkeeping and avoids arguments.
  
  
• I use sound effects. Not event sounds but background ambient sounds. I have "general starship hum", "engine room", "bridge beeps", "seashore", "crowds", "urban", "wilderness", "storm", "arctic wind", etc.
  
  
• And once, I did get a friend who was not in the gaming group to record the log entries of an abandoned ship.