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Space Opera on DTRPG.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Malenfant
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Malenfant

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I notice on Drivethrurpg that there are a lot of old FGU Space Opera spacecraft and sector atlas supplements going for cheap ($3.50 each) - are these any good? Can they be ported to Traveller easily?

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=70_100


The Atlas concept sounds quite interesting there - they released numbered atlases that were from the "official" background, but non-numbered ones were "unofficial". Could that sort of concept be adapted by QLI? That'd certainly open up T20 as a generic scifi system...
 
I found the spacecraft book useful for deck plans, but as thrash has pointed out "the starship rules in Space Opera are very different from Traveller, in flavor and detail."

I have CT stats for the three spacecraft books somewhere in my hoard of trav notes.
Four file folder boxes in the back of my store room under the wife only knows how much other stuff. She is the one who 'organized' the storage room.

Never saw any of the atlases and never bought the core rules. Looked overly detailed and cumbersome as compared to Classic Traveller.
 
Originally posted by Wolfman:
I have CT stats for the three spacecraft books somewhere in my hoard of trav notes.
Click to expand...
I am _very_ interested in your CT stats, if you ever locate them.

I briefly got into Space Opera during high school (got into Traveller in middle school), played a few brief games, and eventually drowned under the extremely dense rules... Still have many fond feelings towards Space Opera...
 
This may sound like heresy, but during the early eighties I ran a game of Space Opera/BRP.
How is that heresy you may ask?

I based it on the adventures of Earl Dumarest ;)

I still used CT for world design and ship combat (I agree with thrash); but prior to MT introducing me to the DGP task system (I never saw a copy of Traveller's Digest in the North East of England) I had grown tired of the chaotic CT skill system.

Since MT, however, I've never run a Space Opera based game ;)

From what I remember of the Space Opera sector books, the early ones were a setting like a cross between Starship Troopers and Star Trek, with a bit of E.E.Smith's Lensmen thrown in for good measure.
The later ones were based in a far off alien empire (Klingon like IIRC) with a human slave race (it was explained how they got there, but I can't remember).
A couple of the adventure books weren't bad AFAICR.
 
One good point about the Space Opera atlas, it was bsed on a 3-D universe. One bad thing about it (from a Traveller PoV) was that the distances were somewhat realistic for being out here on the Rim: Some stars might be quite a few parsecs from anywhere else, well beyond even J6 travel.
 
groan point
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just for that you get to listen to Narn Opera as sung by Drunk Drazi. :eek:

Or is that Aslan Opera sung by Vargr? It's hard to tell. :D
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on-topic: Is the core Space Opera book needed to understand say a ship, sector, or adventure book or are the stats fairly generic enough?

Casey
 
I never bought the core rules for Space Opera, but did use some of there adventures (ploping in CT info as needed) and as posted above made CT states for the ships in the spacecraft books.
I may used DTRPG to get the rules.
 
I've done the same thing with some of FASA Star Trek RPG stuff.

All this is in four file folder boxes in the back of my storeroom under other stuff.

May take about a week to find the boxes, but RealLife(tm) will not give me a chance to even look any time soon.
:(
 
Okay, I'll take a look at Space Opera stuff sometime but 2300AD and Traveller books are on top at the moment of my list.


Cool. I have a BRP/FASA Trek game I'm toying with. I'll have to think about using CT for ship combat though the built in space rules or a modifed Full Thrust are other options.

Casey
 
Whew.... I have never heard of Space Opera. I had this terrible thought in my mind of a soap opera with a sci-fi bent....

sort of "Blakes 7 meets Days of our Lives"
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:eek:

(shudders at the thought)... Glad to see I was wrong :rolleyes:
 
One of the satellite stations over here did do an SF soap opera some years ago, called "Jupiter Moon" IIRC. Never saw it, but I hear it was pretty bad. Kind of "Neighbours" in space...
 
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You DEFINITELY got me with that one, Tom.. I was just taking a sip of rum & coke when I read it... I now have a VDU and keyboard liberally sprayed with rum & coke :rolleyes:

LMAO, mate. :D (if only we still had stars...)
 
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