Proto-Traveller

[Jame]

I'm starting to wonder what'd be a good campaign for Proto-Traveller.

I'll suggest putting it in Ley Sector, since the only Judge's Guild product I have is this one about the safari ship.

 

[aramis]

Parmasson:

Not just cutlas wielding, but swinging from the chandeliers and anime-leaping into cockpits, fast and furious space opera.

Lets not forget, either, relatively small fleets and low trade volumes, in order to justify those smaller ships.

 

[parmasson]

I am sold, Proto-Traveller has my vote too!
Now proudly displaying the “pt” geek code.

Perhaps rather than a set of rules Proto-Traveller is a set of guiding principles.
Small ships (LBB2 limitations)
Small ship friendly economics
Urinkaniizudaashash activities as the standard [corrected from doggy, see following posts]
Rich creamy action with a heroic filling
Limited access to very high technology
Less battledress and more pump action shotguns
Including Striker (sometimes)
A highly revised map. A smaller and easier to grasp Imperium
Whatever kind of computer rules you want (I like the LBBs)
Materials published before 1983
Pirates (Arrrrrgh)
More room for referee customization (perhaps a blank “YTU Here” sector)
Undecided on the role of swords (A matter of personal philosophy)

Please feel free to revise these. I would like to distill it into a single page or less that can be used as a practical guide for players and Referees alike.
It could have as snappy title like “The Articles Of The Proto-Traveller”, or “The Instrument Of Edification”.

 

[JustinThyme]

"Doggy activities as the standard"
Is that "doggie" as in Vargr, or "dodgy" as in deceit?

 

[parmasson]

That is what I get for staying up until 1:30 in the morning.

I see the misunderstanding here, “doggy” is the short form of
Doggyshasekhaaguhenna meaning something like “typical Vargr activities”.* The word will be in common use by the 1100s and I apologize for using it without footnotes.

Vargr activities are by their nature dodgy so the answer to your question is “Yes”!


*Strangely enough this word is also used in some Vilani dialects to refer to a mythical substance called “The Blue Dip”.

 

[robject]

Er, in proper Vilani society, perhaps that would be

daagishasekhaagukhenna

This makes me think that English slang could be wrapped into a Vilanicised orthography to good effect.


actually, it would really be more like

urinkaniizudaashash

urin kaniizu daashash
activity Vargr standard

 

[parmasson]

I stand corrected

 

[Jame]

Okay, sounds good. What about aliens?

 

[robject]

Good question.

The interstellar lizard people, possibly extinct [from Shadows], and the Droyne?

 

[Jame]

The Vargr, K'kree, Hivers and Aslan, but I think they were mentioned. Ithklur, Gurvin (maybe), Vegans and Bwaps, plus a couple in the Zhodani, Aslan, Vargr and maybe Solomani regions.

 

[aramis]

The Virush, Just because it's cool to have mobile massive passifists.

The Darrians and Sword Worlders.

Mentioned in A0, and Sup 3. Also both are easily visually indistinguishable from Normal Humans at range; sword worlders need med-scans to be told apart, darrians have those ears. I honestly believe they are a spock homage.

 

[Jame]

The goblins, which I wrote up here on CotI.

 

[alanb]

Originally posted by Aramis:
The Virush, Just because it's cool to have mobile massive passifists.

The Darrians and Sword Worlders.

Mentioned in A0, and Sup 3. Also both are easily visually indistinguishable from Normal Humans at range; sword worlders need med-scans to be told apart, darrians have those ears. I honestly believe they are a spock homage.

Yes for the Virushi. They are cool. Also Miniphants! OK, they're borderline sentients, but they need to be around.

But my real reason for posting is: when weren't Sword Worlders "Normal Humans"? As far as I am aware, they were of Solomani ancestry. OK, they might possibly tend to be "more Solomani" than most Imperials, but that's still well within the "Normal Human" range.

Certainly, you wouldn't be able to differentiate a Sword Worlder from someone from Vilis, for example.

 

[robject]

ERhm. Are there any aliens to be excluded, then?

 

[alanb]

Originally posted by robject:
ERhm. Are there any aliens to be excluded, then?

Part of the problem is that Proto-Traveller is a subset of the OTU, so it therefore needs to contain at least a decent subset of the OTU's aliens.

Since it appears that people want to preserve the key features of the Spinward Marches and Solomani Rim, that means that the Droyne/Chirpers, the Zhodani, the Sword Worlders, the Darrians and the Vargr are necessary, as are, arguably, the Aslan. The other aliens from the Marches are expendable. From the Rim, we need the Vegans, while, of course, preserving the original Solomani/Vilani stuff. We also definitely need the Aslan here, if only for the Dark Nebula component of the setting.

These are the only "mandatory" aliens. The rest are flavour.

I like, and would therefore use, the Virushi, Miniphants and Dolphins. I would probably also use the Newts and Dandies. I'm rather indifferent to the K'kree and Hivers (and their various associated species), but it's guaranteed that other people will want to use them.

To put it simply, the only species that can really be excluded are the more obscure ones, and even they are going to pop up in many Referee's games. But, of course, that's fine, because Proto-Traveller is a homebrew by definition.

Of course, since we will are shrinking the Imperium, we are squeezing the amount of room for minor alien species, but there are still plenty of options.

And, after all, we don't have a "official" Proto-Traveller map of the entire Imperium, so there is always scope for adding new stuff.

 

[mike wightman]

I'd vote to ignore the Solomani Rim.

It's too tied up in the later vision of the Imperium, it was produced in 1982, and the whole Vilani vs Solomani thing takes us back to using Imperium and Dak Nebula as history books for Traveller.

 

[Jeffr0]

I'd vote to ignore the Solomani Rim, too.

Proto-Traveller is derived from the early Traveller material from before the Imperium boardgame was grafted into the background.

I also vote to leave Earth's location as a mystery (Asimov style) so that we can sidestep a whole slew of "realism" arguments and Yank-Euro worldview conflicts.

 

[Jame]

I'd just as soon have Earth known, as the homeworld of humaniti. If you don't want the Rim, then perhaps the Solomani Confederation could be either done in or altered (i.e. it doesn't have territories in the Rim). Or the Rim itself could be altered somehow. The main thing I'd suggest is that Terra has long been part of the 3I, and was never (or only very briefly) part of the Confederation, if such exists.

Personally I like the Hivers, and don't mind the K'Kree.

 

[parmasson]

If you want to keep the Sol Confederation just reduce it to a subsector and it becomes manageable. Have the Imperium occupy a few systems leading to earth.
If not ignore it entirely.
I am all for keeping it as small and easy to manage as possible.

 

[daryen]

Originally posted by Aramis:
The Darrians and Sword Worlders.

Mentioned in A0, and Sup 3. Also both are easily visually indistinguishable from Normal Humans at range; sword worlders need med-scans to be told apart, darrians have those ears. I honestly believe they are a spock homage.

The Darrians were elves, not Vulcans. In their first JTAS writeup they were short, lithe, pointy ears, and such. There were Traveller's elves.

Then someone "figured out" they were from a low-G homeworld and therefore had to be tall, not short.

Sword Worlders are Solomani humans. Not derived from Solomani, but full, normal, undifferentiated Solomani humans. True, they don't have as much genetic diversity as most modern 1100 Solomani, but they are 100% Solomani humans.