Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
If you want to re-invent Traveller, get a copy of the Cepheus Engine, where it is possible to cut and paste, and have at it.
Reinventing Traveller
- Thread starter DaltonSpence
- Start date
Enoki
SOC-14 1K
Yes, it would change Traveller a lot. It would make skills and gaining them more akin to D&D and most other RPG's rather than the system it has now. That would come with the same advantages and disadvantages of those systems.
Traveller, as it stands, is more geared towards generating a character for a scenario or specific game then discarding it. Sure, some characters could continue to be used for multiple scenarios or games, but there really isn't a mechanism for a character to grow over time and be developed by the player as that happens.
Instead, it's all luck of the throw on what skills you end up with for the most part during character generation. I'd say that for many players that would be seen as a negative.
The way you avoid having overwhelmingly powerful characters is by keeping skills and personal development to realistic terms with aging still involved as it now is.
Note One version of FMA (the RPG version of Stargrunt) runs along those lines as well. Been toying with that and And Savage Worlds.
The key point of Traveller character progression is that it is not generally measured in personal development, but instead in resource accumulation (money, ships, and -- as per '80s television specials, the real progression is the friends you made along the way).
This is actually pretty realistic. It also places a heavy burden on referees, who need to provide their players with character-appropriate (and player-satisfying) rewards rather than just handing out Experience Points.
Character (personality) growth happens within role-playing rather than through rule mechanics. This is a heavy burden on players, who need to keep their PCs in character, and considering how their PCs would incorporate their in-game experiences into their personalities.
And the rules have little if anything to support those aspects.
Spinward Scout
SOC-14 5K
I tried 'inventing' a Jump Multimplexor (or something like that). It let you multiply your Jump factor so you can go up to 36 parsecs. Just an idea - didn't really do anything with it. Could have been an Ancient Artifact.
I also tried inventing an 'FTL' communicator. Each world would have a transmitter/receiver. Transmissions up to 35 parsecs before needing to be repeated. I think I put it at 1 parsec travelled every 5 minutes. Communications with Capital in hours, maybe days. I can't remember offhand. I left it open whether it would be built or not.
I also thought about a Robot who got infected with Virus and became sentient. That could have been fun.
And everything on my blog that's linked in my signature below. I've got Psionics, general Starship info, Scout stuff, and some generic space stuff. Don't read if you don't have a lot of time on your hands.
Enoki
SOC-14 1K
Actually, it's more like John Boyd (the OODA loop) once said:
"You can be someone or do something."
Accumulation of wealth and physical 'stuff' is one way to play the game. The other, and more difficult to game, model, and achieve, is personal growth. That is, to become someone.
Right now, in Traveller, as designed by the rules the former is easy to achieve, the later is nearly impossible.
T2K plays well, but the stepping dice up/down for difficulty and other mods is a pain.
that really doesn't hold up... all non CT editions provide ample opportunity to raise/change skills... Mega's is fast enough I had to enforce the experience limit... but at least it limited immediate upgrades via the setting calendar. TNE, T4, T20, GT, and HT are per session, no calendrical limits.
MGT1 is calendar weeks of study, which can also bde boosted bhy the GM with free weeks on a per-session basis. I'm certain T5 has some somewhere, but I'm not looking for them.
All the above mechanic/dice throws would have been nice. I might not have boxed it up from age 15-32! But most of my 'tweaks' are setting-wise as it would have made a huge impact if there were more early examples of different Imperiums. I sometimes wonder if that would have kept the OTU from getting so rigid for a couple decades... it seems like folks are becoming more open to different settings now (thanks to folks making gems like Travellermap and other such tools IMO--breaking it down
-A more interesting Solomani Confederation
-More xenos...
Honestly, I really love Traveller. I definitely set it aside after my tweener years when loading up a ship with laser weapons and traveling to a primitive tribal planet and getting stinking rich got a little stale. But really it was an intimidating book with lots of math, orbital trajectories and such... so that really turned me off. Too young to drop rules we don't like, old enough to want to play it "right". Luckily, I found my way back to it and then a couple years later Mongoose kicked in and I've been having the time of my life.
And no, we never asked where the tribals got their hands on credits. Its the future! We were 12 and had Mercenary... we all needed that PGMP ASAP! And by Strephon, we were gonna get it!!
-A more interesting Solomani Confederation
-More xenos...
Honestly, I really love Traveller. I definitely set it aside after my tweener years when loading up a ship with laser weapons and traveling to a primitive tribal planet and getting stinking rich got a little stale. But really it was an intimidating book with lots of math, orbital trajectories and such... so that really turned me off. Too young to drop rules we don't like, old enough to want to play it "right". Luckily, I found my way back to it and then a couple years later Mongoose kicked in and I've been having the time of my life.
And no, we never asked where the tribals got their hands on credits. Its the future! We were 12 and had Mercenary... we all needed that PGMP ASAP! And by Strephon, we were gonna get it!!
The thing with Traveller is that the adventuring domain is complicated enough to warrant characters with life experience.
You don't just throw unwashed 18 year olds out into the world with nothing. The character generation process is the "leveling up" part to get them somewhat prepared to deal with the complexities of a technologically advanced civilization.
Even "Stranger Things" has adult characters in it.
You don't just throw unwashed 18 year olds out into the world with nothing. The character generation process is the "leveling up" part to get them somewhat prepared to deal with the complexities of a technologically advanced civilization.
Even "Stranger Things" has adult characters in it.
I always just figured it was a response to some off-hand comment at a gaming table about "old dudes can't adventure" overheard back in the 70's from some 16yo. Walking home, buzzed on beer and pot, Miller says to himself "oh yeah? Well I'm gonna make a game where us old dudes have all the ships, money and competency! And if you try to stay alive too long you die! Cuz living this long ain't a walk in the park!!"
Of course, Miller was a pup back then too so just my errant dreams... but its a nice image.
Of course, Miller was a pup back then too so just my errant dreams... but its a nice image.
The version I'd heard (quite apocryphal, of course, and this is just by way of saying I don't recall who put it out there) was that it was basically a bunch of former military guys imagining playing out a far-future version of their retirements.
Marc, certainly. He was prior service when he met Frank Chadwick at Illinois State.
I don't recall if Frank, Loren, Tim, or Rich, were prior service, tho' it would not surprise me if they had. A cursory search doesn't turn up any reference to service, tho'.
Bill Keith was also prior service. - Navy Corpsman. Andrew isn't noted as such. Can't scrounge up references for J. Andrew Keith having served
A sci-fi story stimulator...?
The Third Imperium can be a pretty grim place. '77 was the year of Star Wars & the Evil Empire, after all. But any OTU has to have someplace "bad" to justify player characters carrying around all that armamentThe most dystopian OTU is the Third Imperium - if you read between the lines it is a pretty grim place except the frontier regions - although MgT is going with the white hat happy clappy yanks in space Third Imperium.
The TNE setting is oddly the one with the most freedom and potential for exploration and rebuilding, players can make a difference for the side of the good.
As to spending 40 years looking for or developing a setting to suit your needs -
Take my advice - write up a once page outline of what the player characters would know about the setting, ask your players what sort of adventuring they are after, and then get playing. The setting will come alive when there are players running around in it.
You do not need to know the serial numbers of the battle dress undergarments of the fourth cohort, seventh maniple, eleventh star legion to get started having fun adventures.
You don't need to map out an entire sector either, all you need are the planet the players start on and the systems they can reasonably travel to during their initial adventure. The setting will naturally evolve with the players, and don't be afraid to borrow or steal setting or plot ideas the players are discussing among themselves.
That doesn't mean it has to all be that way; or even mostly that way.Indeed, but the 3I is not that "out". You can't really "fight" the 3I, you can only try to run away. If the 3I turns its attention on you, it does not end well for you. So, it's more a "keeping your head down and staying in the shadows thing" to keep their eye off of you, than running around strapped Just In Case.But any OUT has to have someplace "bad" to justify player characters carrying around all that armament
Sorry about that. My right hand is faster than my left, and I don't always catch it.
That's one of the big holes in the Star Wars "Rebels vs. the Big Bad Galactic Empire" theme.
However, the Third Imperium doesn't pretend to rule (most...) worlds. It rules the space between them. That leaves lots and lots and lots of places to go where you'll doubtless need to defend yourself, or make someone else defend themselves (for the right price or cause...).
Sure, you can play the "Rebels vs. the Empire" games. But you don't have to. And that was the point. Making the Third Imperium ruler of the space between worlds (like Britannia ruled the waves) was a brilliant choice, and one difficult to duplicate without it being an obvious copy.
Last edited:
Yes, too many people expect it to be a hardcore physics space sim, when really it’s more about being able to RPG sci-fi stories.
I guess all those transit time flip/burn or gravity/encumbrance formulas got people thinking physics sim.
I've said it before: The Third Imperium is what you'd get if all of 20th C. Earth's international agreements and institutions (everything from the World Bank to the Hague Conventions) were run by a heriditary UN backed by the firepower of the western military alliances. Not the countries themselves, just the agreements and institutions.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
No it isn't, because the UN promotes individual rights, while the Imperium couldn't care less about how planetary governments treat their people providing the taxes flow.
Taxes and trade- so both have a mitigating effect in that there has to be a certain level of not revolting/genociding for taxes and rule of law when dealing with external trading/contractural law at least.
The other part is that the 3I would need to promote some sense of identity and buy-in to get people to fight for and support the realm.
Probably more like the colonial sail era of Europe, where many people never went outside 30 miles of their birthplace while others heeded the call of adventure/for the king/opportunity and signed up for service.
