The Motherload

[Jive Professor]

Greetings everybody. New Traveller player here with an interesting situation.

I'd always heard of Traveller as being one of the RPG "old guard", one of those games EVERYONE had playd in the 70's 80's, and the concept had always intruiged me, but being that there were so many versions of Traveller flying around out there, I was kind of at a loss on where to start with it. So I'd kind of given up on trying to play it.

Fast forward a bit and I'm hanging out with some friends Friday night. Turns out a friend of this friend just recently passed away, and my friend became the sole inheritor of his game collection. This friend of mine already had taken what he wanted, and there was so much of the rest he just couldn't fit it all in his apartment, so he's been looking for good homes for these games. He asks if I want Traveller. I say sure, why not, I'd love to check it out.

Then we went to the trunk of his car, and he promptly gave me the following sourcebooks at no charge:

CT:
The Traveller Book
LBB - Understanding Traveller
LBB - Characters and Combat
LBB - Starships
LBB - Worlds and Adventures
LBB - Mercenary
LBB - Lightning Class Cruisers
LBB - Azhanti High Lightning
LBB - Snapshot
LBB - Library (A-M)
LBB - Library (N-Z)
LBB - Twilight's Peak
LBB - Expedition to Zhodane
LBB - Broadsword
LBB - Prison Planet
LBB - Murder on Arturus Station
LBB - Secret of the Ancients

Journals:
War!
Hivers

MegaTraveller:
Knightfall
Fighting Ships of the Shattered Imperium
Rebellion
Referee's Companion
World Builder's Handbook
The Diaspora Sector
Assignment: Vigilante

Marc Miller's Traveller:
Marc Miller's Traveller
Anomalies
Central Supply Catalog
Long Way Home
Fire Fusion and Steel
Gateway

Traveller: The New Era:
Traveller: The New Era Box (only book inside)
Traveller Player's Forms (2 copies)
Smash and Grab
Fire Fusion and Steel
Striker II (2 copies)
Reformation Coalition Equipment Guide
Survival Margin: Gateway to the New Era
Referee's Screen
Brilliant Lances



Whew! That's a ton of sourcebooks! So far, I've only managed to read about 2/3's of The Traveller Book, but wow, I'm totally amazed. I can't wait to run a game. Thing is, I have so many sourcebooks, but I have no idea which ones are quality supplements and which ones I need to gloss over. CT seems the most appealing so far...

If I were to run a CT game, say about a group of smugglers, are there any other sourcebooks I would need?
I love CT's story, but is there anything about the rules I need to know, like loopholes to be prepped for?
How good are MegeTraveller, The New Era, and MM Traveller? Ruleswise? Storywise?
Are there any other books I need in general? I've gotten so much for free, I've got no problem investing a little to get some excellent sourcebooks.

 

[Jame]

For a CT smugglers campaign, you'd need LBB 2, which is starships and trading under the LBB2 rules, and LBB 7, Which is an expanded merchants and trading book.

You might also want to look at our Classic Traveller section down below; doubly so, since I'm soon going to put up a Career Table for smugglers.

Welcome to the forum!

 

[Jive Professor]

For a CT smugglers campaign, you'd need LBB 2, which is starships and trading under the LBB2 rules, and LBB 7, Which is an expanded merchants and trading book.

You might also want to look at our Classic Traveller section down below; doubly so, since I'm soon going to put up a Career Table for smugglers.

Welcome to the forum!

I think LBB2 is contained in The Traveller Book, or at least some version of it. I've got the hardcover one with the Han Solo brigade on the jacket cover, and there's some pretty extensive starship sections in there...or is that just the beginning?

 

[Plankowner]

The Traveller Book has Books 0-3 included with only minor modifications. If you want to play Classic Traveller, that is the resource to use.

Azhanti High Lightning, Snapshot and Striker are alternate personal combat rules for use with Traveller. Some people like them, some don't, your milage may vary.

Sounds like you got a good haul. Congrats and welcome.

 

[aramis]

Jive:

LBB2 is contained in the Traveller Book, but Bks 4-8 are not.

Therefore neither High Guard revised design rules nor Merchant Prince Trade are included.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Nice windfall, man!

Sounds like you got a good haul. Congrats and welcome.

"Good haul"? Sounds like he got a GREAT haul!

And, BTW, that World Builder's Handbook is a rarity. It goes for big bucks on eBay. If you wanted to get rid of it, some folks here wouldn't be adverse to a good offer (wink, wink, nudge, nudge ) - but you'd need to do that over in the Duty Free Shop (one of the forums here).

Oh, and I'll repeat the Welcome! Ask questions, and browse a bit. (And, most folks won't mind if you ask a question that's already been asked - this place is huge!)

 

[robject]

That is, indeed, a great haul. You may never need any additional Traveller material, ever again.

A smuggler's campaign, eh?

The Traveller Book, for sure. You'll be able to generate a crew, you've got personal combat, you'll have a ship (a Far Trader, probably) and ship-to-ship combat, and interstellar speculative trade for those ill-begotten cargos.

If you wanted those smugglers to run around Imperial space, I'd suggest using the Regina sector, which is in The Traveller Book, together with the map from Twilight's Peak, which maps out some nearby space.

If the group morphs into a mercenary group, then you can plug in material from Broadsword.


Library Data can give you plenty of ideas for plots.

I also suggest flipping through Referee's Companion, which has lots of generally useful forms and charts for almost any Traveller game.

 

[Merxiless]

Yeah, there's enough there for years.

As the others said: Traveller handbook, maybe consider welding in some chargen and skills from MegaT. or not.

And i 'd pay a good price for world builder's it is pretty rare.

 

[tinker123]

welcome aboard, professor!

There's a LBB supplement "Traders & Gunboats" which would add some typical small-ish starships and save you designing them all from scratch to detail your smugglers' encounters with the law. I'm thinking of the 100-ton Type S Scout, and the System Defence Boat (SDB) in particular, though there's also the type A2 Far Trader in there.

Deck plans and specs are included, but be warned that none of them actually conform to the rules for starship design, and the "200-ton" far trader has a deckplan that uses 400 dTons!

Ironically, your cheapest/easiest way to get hold of it might be to buy the CT CD from far future enterprises - which gives you the whole set, including the ones you've already got.

 

[Jive Professor]

Wow, thanks for all the replies guys. Hm, big bucks you say? Methinks I should set aside a few tons of cargo space for "Rare RPG Sourcebooks" next jump... (aka, I'll certainly consider it, after I've had a thumbing through to decide if I want to keep it for my Gollum-esque self)

I already made my first go at The Traveller Book, and my God, why didn't anyone show me this game before? 90% of the RPGs I've played in the past have said "Oh, you can't just dungeon crawl or kick in the door, you have to THINK to survive!" but the most detailed portion of the rules is the combat system, but not CT. Since I posted, I've gotten four people (plus myself) super-hyped for a game, and went through the roll-by-roll for generating my own subsector while using the Regina sector as a tool for purposes of the legend. I realize that a quick google search comes up with tons of resources for sub-sector generators, but I wanted to get an appreciation for the way in which the values were derived.

I'm a big fan of old games anyway, they have a certainly style to them (I realize there's about a ten year jump, but reading through CT for the first time reminds me of the first time I read through Rifts, which is a system VERY heavy into the old-school line of thought for rpgs...love it or hate it) but CT is a fantastic game, even without nostalgia.

I'm sort of revising my idea of a "Smuggler" campaign though, since it seems pretty profitable to be legitimate in your business practices. I'm thinking of just giving the PCs a Free Trader with the down-payment already made (one guy rolled up a Social Standing 14), and leaving them to their own devices.

Oh, I do have a question. How do you go about getting your drives configured to run off unrefined fuel without penalties? Is there a cost and/or engineering roll, or is it a DM's discretion kind of thing? Also, is it anywhere in the books I already have?

 

[pendragonman]

BTW, somewhere around here there is a downloadable CT utility and CT equipment compendium.

The utility generates characters, NPCs, worlds, encounters, ships,.....

The Equipment utility has just about any piece of equipment mentioned anywhere in the CT books in one quick spot.

To install the utility, you need to change the .txt file to a .tx_ file.

If you can't find the downloads, or someone else doesn't post a link to them for me (hint, hint ) Send me an email address and I will send them to you.

 

[Jive Professor]

BTW, somewhere around here there is a downloadable CT utility and CT equipment compendium.

The utility generates characters, NPCs, worlds, encounters, ships,.....

The Equipment utility has just about any piece of equipment mentioned anywhere in the CT books in one quick spot.

To install the utility, you need to change the .txt file to a .tx_ file.

If you can't find the downloads, or someone else doesn't post a link to them for me (hint, hint ) Send me an email address and I will send them to you.

Thanks, I'll be checking those out later.

Oh, and I'm not entirely understanding the generation of trade routes for a sector. I compare starports and distances for the two sectors then roll to determine if there's a viable trade route between them, and if there isn't...you just can't travel there?

 

[Whipsnade]

... then roll to determine if there's a viable trade route between them, and if there isn't...you just can't travel there?

Jive,

Certainly!

A trade route only means that there are lots of ships flying regular scheduled trips between those two systems. That means you can simply buy a ticket.

No trade route doesn't mean no travel however. A tramp trader could flying there and you could buy a ticket from them. Or you could charter a ship to go there. Or you could fly your own ship there. Or you can try many other ways.

Sometimes in Traveller, getting there is ALL the fun!


Have fun,
Bill

 

[Plankowner]

{SNIP}

Oh, I do have a question. How do you go about getting your drives configured to run off unrefined fuel without penalties? Is there a cost and/or engineering roll, or is it a DM's discretion kind of thing? Also, is it anywhere in the books I already have?

Well, unfortunately, that information is in Book 5, High Guard, which you don't have. There is a device called a "Fuel Purifier". It is not mentioned in the basic books, but is assumed to be installed on any military or Scout ship. I believe the term used was "Military Engines" but there really isn't an explanation.

You can either assume every ship has it and drive on (a common variation) or make those players pay for the good stuff so you can soak a few more credits from that bank account! Alternately, say a Fuel Purifier is non-standard but can be installed for a few tons and costs a few tens of thousands of credits (just make it up).

 

[ravells]

I'm so sorry to hear of the passing of your your friend's friend. I'm sure he would have loved to have seen his traveller stuff being played and giving pleasure to someone who appreciates it. Glad it fell into your hands. Enjoy!

 

[BlackBat242]

"and went through the roll-by-roll for generating my own subsector while using the Regina sector as a tool for purposes of the legend. I realize that a quick google search comes up with tons of resources for sub-sector generators, but I wanted to get an appreciation for the way in which the values were derived."'


Absolutely!!!

This way you will understand it in a way you never would have if you had used the short-cut from the start.

The generators are fine to save time and effort for more important stuff... AFTER you understand what the numbers mean and how they are derived.

 

[Jive Professor]

Thanks again for all the help guys. Already got our first session lined up for this weekend and a group that wants to play.

 

[kafka47]

Twilight's Peak & Secrets of the Ancients are a part of a trilogy that you could incorporate Knightfall into with some extra effort by changing some of the locales around that might make a pretty brutal campaign. If memory serves me right, Shadows is also in the Traveller Book using what you know from Library Data A-Z, you will know what to do.

Traders & Gunships will add flair and drama to most encounters, as would AHL, if you want a final showdown between the Federation or Imperium, depending how you rework the above.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

This way you will understand it in a way you never would have if you had used the short-cut from the start.

The generators are fine to save time and effort for more important stuff... AFTER you understand what the numbers mean and how they are derived.

That's why I program my own generators - so I understand!