Read? See?

[BlackBat242]

I tried reading several of Cherryh's novels; they did have a very Trav feel.

Or, to be specific, the parts I read did. Unfortunately, I found her books a bit too hard to get into, because of her writing style, which is a shame because I very much enjoyed the concepts of the books.

Yes, her style is different from a lot of writers... very much an "immersion" style... as in "the reader experiences the events with the characters as they happen", rather than the "watching the events from a safe distance" of the standard "3rd-party observer" or "reading the protagonist's diaries" styles used by most authors.

 

[howardfanatic]

I've not read Cherryh's novels. I read a short story by her once that I liked. I'm not really sure I'd like her style on a prolonged basis, and I'm positive the Chanaur series wouldn't appeal to me. It doesn't even sound remotely interesting-- I'm not saying it's bad, just that it isn't my kind of sci fi.

 

[Commander Truestar]

I've not read Cherryh's novels. I read a short story by her once that I liked. I'm not really sure I'd like her style on a prolonged basis, and I'm positive the Chanaur series wouldn't appeal to me. It doesn't even sound remotely interesting-- I'm not saying it's bad, just that it isn't my kind of sci fi.

Try "Merchanter's Luck" or "Rimrunners"
These are most dead on for Traveller in my book.

As for Aslan being a basis for the Hani in the Chanur series, Carolyn just laughed >

Marc

 

[rancke]

As for Aslan being a basis for the Hani in the Chanur series, Carolyn just laughed >

Well, they are the same as long as you ignore the differences.


Hans

 

[Commander Truestar]

Well, they are the same as long as you ignore the differences.


Hans

I was just commenting on Carolyn's reaction to the question...

Marc

 

[Commander Truestar]

I would point out one thing that is very pertinent to Traveller in CJ's writing...

Almost all of her SF writing has taken place in the same universe. The Hani-Verse "IS" the Downbelow-Verse....The novels take place in both varying times and regions of space but they are all in the same Universe.

This speaks to a point of great importance to Traveller and even the OTU. That is that, just as on present day Terra / Earth / Dirt, you can find vastly different situations, conditions and perspectives.

Right now there are people living in villages in North Korea who have no in-house running water or many of the conveniances we take for granted. They work hard and are near starving for the lack of food. Yet, because of what they are taught, they believe they have it better than the rest of the world and we are all jealous of them and what they have..

So the rule of thumb here would be, "check your point of view at the door".
There are simple basic rules and processes that work and will not be violated, like the fact that any resource or situation will have limits on its availability. Within those rules, thinking individuals will vary widely on everything else. They will speculate outside those rules and every so often they will find exceptions or new rules. And admittedly by and large they die off outside them. But within them, the broad universe of things that can be may well be beyond the points of view your friends and you hold. Seek ever to expand the horizon of your thoughts because the worlds beyond what you can see may well be the most amazing of all

Marc

 

[howardfanatic]

That makes sense. My fantasy stories, sci fi stories, and modern horror stories all take place in the same universe and always have.

My favorite sci fi universe, however, is Asimov's! Robots-Empire-Foundation!
I wish I were as good at it!

 

[Commander Truestar]

That makes sense. My fantasy stories, sci fi stories, and modern horror stories all take place in the same universe and always have.

My favorite sci fi universe, however, is Asimov's! Robots-Empire-Foundation!
I wish I were as good at it!

LOL,
If it makes you happy and if the people important to you enjoy reading it...you are good enough. If you keep working at writing, you will get better. That is how I progressed to where I am.

Marc

 

[howardfanatic]

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

I think I'm good enough (better than good enough, actually, to be cocky about it), but I don't think I'm as good as Asimov. For one, he forgot more about science than I'll never know!

But I just always measure my own writing against the stick of Do I Have Fun Writing It and Does It Meet My Standards of Quality (and my measure is extraordinarily high, lol).

Still, I am enjoying the hell outta Classic Traveller. I may try to bang up a fan fic or two for it.

 

[Commander Truestar]

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

I think I'm good enough (better than good enough, actually, to be cocky about it), but I don't think I'm as good as Asimov. For one, he forgot more about science than I'll never know!

But I just always measure my own writing against the stick of Do I Have Fun Writing It and Does It Meet My Standards of Quality (and my measure is extraordinarily high, lol).

Still, I am enjoying the hell outta Classic Traveller. I may try to bang up a fan fic or two for it.

heheh, good ole Dirty Uncle Ike >
Something about him that was impotant...
He always spun a good tale in person. Loved his contests too.
My friend George was the only person I saw beat Ike when he sprung an ambush
Isaac hadmade a set of lymerics before hand...each using the title of a piece of classical music. And he challenged george to make up lymerics on the fly...
Well, george out-did him and left him to pay for the drinks...LOL
It was a fun night out

Marc

 

[Zowy]

I would like to second the movie, Outland

Gives a good feel for a lower tec, mega-corp mineing outpost. That is run on the cheep, with most of the workers on mulit-year contracts. Life out there is hard. But the wages are high enough to make the unplesentness. Worth puting up with liveing in a bunkroom with 20+ other people. To bad the stims being used by some of the wrokers. Are combat drug rejects. That cause people to go psycho

 

[howardfanatic]

Outland is actually one of my all time favorites.
Having read the first three books now, I'm getting a clearer vision of the game, though they've not said much about the setting. Firefly seems perhaps the closest (though I actually think Enterprise is probably closer to Traveller than it was to Star Trek) TV show, though Serenity seems a little too epic for the Traveller as seen in the core rules.
I'd say, from the core rules, that Ridley Scott's Alien is the closest match.
Good company, that!

 

[Signal]

Outland. Best remake of High Noon evah!

Firefly = my model for Traveller.

 

[hdan]

"Cowboy Bebop" is sort of Traveller-ish.

An old and barely watchable show that just OOZES with Travellerisms is "Starhunter 2300". You can stream it on Netflix if you have that service. I wouldn't pay a lot to see this one, but if you can tolerate bad (and I mean BAD) acting and low-budget sets, it's quite a lot of fun once you get into it. (Plus the prototype for Firefly's Kaylee appears in this show, though she's odd in a very different way than Kaylee was.)

The latest Stargate show is, I am convinced, completely taken from the writers' old Traveller campaigns. I see very obvious references to Annic Nova and a host of other CT adventures.

 

[Supplement Four]

Outland. Best remake of High Noon evah!

I believe they're remaking Outland, even!

Having read the first three books now, I'm getting a clearer vision of the game, though they've not said much about the setting.

Don't forget that Classic Traveller, originally, had no setting. It was meant as a GURPS like, one-size-fits-all set of mechanics in which to play in whatever science fiction your GM could dream up.

As the game progressed, the Third Imperium originated and became more fleshed out.

Even then, though, Traveller with the 3I draws from a lot of scifi sources (the way D&D drew from a lot of fantasy sources--not just Lord of the Rings). There's the Hammer's Slammers-esque feel of the military system. There's the Dune-esque feel for the feudal society. There's the Foundation-esque feel for what became the history of the Third Imperium.

And on and on.

Point being: One man's "feel" for Classic Traveller may not be anothers.

There's lots of room in that game system for many types of science fiction universes.

 

[Grognard]

I am a huge Pournelle fan...

Falkenbergs legion, Prince of Sparta, Janissaries, etc.....different drive tech, but excellent socio-political military sci-fi.

Second Elizabeth Moon.....Kylara Vatta and the Heris Serrano novels.
Cherryh: Merchanters Luck

Dont forget Dietz' Bounty Hunter McCade and Drifter novels. Space Opera, but Traveller-esque.

Joan D Vinge Stardoc

Fifth Foreign Legion novels weren't bad....

More Movie/TV Seconds:

Firefly
Space: Above and Beyond

 

[aramis]

Don't forget that Classic Traveller, originally, had no setting.

Bull. it's got a lot of setting in the rules.

It had the social standing system, the six careers, and the basic definitions of jumpspace travel, starship design, and the mainworld generation rules.
It lacked an explicit setting, but the rules themselves strongly implied one. One that, given the tropes in the rules, will look a lot like parts of the OTU unless you make significant houserules.

Marines with cutlasses. Independent worlds in an overarching imperium of some kind. Lots of Pirates. Merchants with 200Td ships. Small traders and people being allowed to keep small blades when aboard ship. The 100 diameter limit, and a two-week jump travel cycle. Mail pays premiums to ship, but requires a gunner.

Lots of elements of the setting are encased in the rules, and loads of procedural stuff. Stuff that really should be setting variant, but is enshrined in rules.

I'll agree that it wasn't the OTU until the early 1980's, but not that it was setting-less.

Lots of people pushed it to do trek; others pushed it in other ways, but at its core, something not too dissimilar to the OTU is the default state of the rules, and you MUST bend the rules to do alternate settings.

 

[howardfanatic]

The CT setting that can be gleaned from the rule books themselves is sort of a generic golden age sci fi. Thus, it is meant to be a generic sci fi, but one in the military sci fi genre (and to a much lesser degree, hard sci fi). Sci fi has a LOT of genres. I think Traveller does an excellent job with its presentation, and I think it's best to keep the genres of sci fi seperate in an RPG because when they design multi genre sci fi games (like Alternity), the game just explodes into cumbersomeness. CT stays lean by focusing on the 2nd best sci fi genre, and the genre best suited to roleplaying. I mean, hard sci fi is best, but unless your players know a lot more about science and technology than mine do, it is sort of a dead end for roleplaying.

Anyway-- speaking of TV shows and movies:
Lexx seasons 1-3 are very good, but not Traveller at all, unless one is going on a house rule frenzy. However, if you like Heavy Metal magaizne, then the show is not to be missed.
Idiocracy is the most terrifyingly realistic vision of the future ever filmed...

Space Above and Beyond- I remember that one was pretty dull to me. It was, however, INFINITELY better than Earth 2. All I recall of that craptacular show was the main lady character screaming "Uly!!!" every five minutes for every episode I ever suffered through (I liked this girl, see, who liked the show... the things we do for lust).

What about Seaquest? I remember it was cool, but that was long ago now. Anyone seen it recently and like it?

Stargate Universe is awesome! The new Dr. Who is bad ass too.

 

[RKFM]

Howardfanatic,

Andre Norton's Solar Queen series (Sargasso of Space, Plague Ship, Voodoo Planet and others) are a good inspiration for a Free Trader themed Traveller game. And I never pass up the chance to plug for H Beam Piper's books. Start with Space Viking or Uller Uprising.

I triple that for H. Beam Piper. I'm rereading his books now and keep saying to myself "This would make a great Traveller adventure!" Antigrav cars, mercs, megacorps, traders, native uprisings...he's got it all. Not to mention the "Sword Worlds".

Plus you can get almost all of his stuff for free: http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/p#a8301

 

[shadowcat20]

There are a bunch of good military SF authors out there if you are running a Merc/Striker game.

Almost anything by David Drake.

The last legion books by Chris Bunch (Sten Author)

H Beam Pipers Space Vikings ( The Sword worlds were in this book)

The many books (15+) of the Starfisft series by David Sherman and Dan Cragg

And then there is a Traveller book called Gateway to the stars by Pierce Askegren. This was the first book of a series but I never got any of the others. Not sure they were even released. It even had a basic run down on the classic Traveller game in the back by Marc Miller. This book was in the traveller universe so is a official book I guess.