The point of Traveller

[DMC64]

I'm sorry if this question s really dense. I think I must have missed something really big and obvious and it's bugging me.

Back in the old days, I played D&D. I always wanted to play Traveller, but my gaming group wasn't in to it and I was really cash strapped, so it didn't happen. I read some about it, but that was it. When I saw the Classic Traveller stuff on CD, I bought it and I've thoroughly enjoyed going through it, but here's my question...

What's the point of Traveller? There are no Experience Points, no Levels. I'm going to be the Referee and my two kids are going to be the players. What do I tell them? How do they know they've progressed in the game?

Like I said, pretty basic question and probably really dense, but, there it is. Anyone want to help out?



Dan

 

[whartung]

What do I tell them? How do they know they've progressed in the game?

Their characters aren't dead yet.

Traveller success is generally measured much like "real world" success. You've made your fortune, you've risen to a level of power and responsibility, you have respect of your peers in your careers, you have the most read blog on the internet, etc.

One can argue that if your character goals are to "reach level 2" in your RPG, the goals aren't defined properly (from an RPG stand point). Level 2 "happens", but should not be a goal in and of itself.

It's not like "we need one more adventure, then I ding level 2, then I can ... umm.. I don't know what I do then".

In computer RPGs leveling for leveling sake is intrinsic as leveling is how you empower your characters.

But in Traveller a shotgun is a shotgun, and it doesn't really care what "level" you are. Appropriately applied, your character is going to have a bad day. And a cup of coffee is 1Cr whether you're SOC-0 or SOC-F. So, success is measured differently.

 

[atpollard]

What is the point of life?

[OK, probably over the top, but it illustrates the basic point.]

In life each person decides what activity brings them happiness and satisfaction. Success at a job. Fishing with the kids. Starting your own business. Hiking the Appalachian Trail. Each person decides for themselves.

Traveller gives you rules to do lots of different things. Each set of rules can function as almost a mini-game within itself. They can also be combined to create almost any adventure you can imagine.

So what have people done?

One common 'game' is to form a band of adventurers in a free trader and wander about trying to locate enough cargo and passengers to pay the mortgage, or make some money on speculative trading, or when you come up short, to seek a patron to hire you for an adventure to earn some desperately needed money to pay the bills and keep your ship. The result is a string of adventures that feel like the old TV show Firefly.

Another possible 'game' is to create a squad of mercenary soldiers who get hired to go on a series of missions.

Success is still measured in the D&D terms of getting Treasure and better Equipment, you just don't need to sweat XP or leveling up.

An example of one ongoing campaign is found in my signature where there is a play by post game that involves a 4 man team that lands on a planet 30 days ahead of a planetary invasion to disable a superweapon. Things do not go quite as planned. See what they chose to do.

 

[pendragonman]

I once ran a solo game. The guy generated a 5 term Navy character. After mustering out, he took passage to an industrial world where he bought a house. He then found a job working at a shipyard where he could apply his mechanical skills.

He then bought a car. On his first day off of each week he did his household chores. That night he would participate in some form of entertainment. The other day off was rest.

He kept doing this week after week. I kept waiting for him to do some sort of adventurer-esque activity.

I finally asked him what he was trying to achieve. His response was that he was proving that in Traveller a player can do literally anything that the player wants to do, provided that the player is ready for the consequences.

 

[flykiller]

What's the point of Traveller?

being there.

a different life. a different world. what could have been. what could be.

 

[jcrocker]

Fun in a SF setting.

What do your kids think is fun?

If they want to work through a D&D lens, they can still do dungeon crawls through abandoned alien settlements. Or are they abandoned? Better keep that shotgun handy, just in case.

If they want to find information, they can try to decipher what happened to a lost civilization, or why that colony failed during the Long Night. Something a little more lucrative, there's a merchant ship that went down on a little known planet, and it had a few hundred kilos of gold coins in the hold, and the bank is offering a 10% finders fee.

Poke around the Traveller Map, especially in the Spinward Marches, lots of worlds with lots of options.

Progression isn't measured by XP or levels. If that doesn't appeal to them, that might be an issue. But a lot of things magic can do, science can do - from water purification to Fusion Gun, Man-Portable.

 

[Condottiere]

Mid-life crisis.

 

[McPerth]

What's the point of Traveller?

And never forget, as with any game, its point is to have a good time with your friends; and, as in any RPG, is to "live" situation you cannot inb real life.

 

[LeperColony]

I'm going to take a different tack and try to address your question from a game standpoint, rather than an abstract one (not that the answers you've received are wrong).

In D&D levels are, in theory, a means to an end. A dragon terrorizes the realm. The king puts out a call for adventurers. At the beginning, you are too weak to take on the dragon directly, but as you fight his minions, you become stronger until eventually the showdown happens.

However, for some players, levels are not only the means, they are also the end. There is a category of player that derives their enjoyment from the increase of numbers. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm not slamming it. Other people may talk about those players with some degree of condescension, but I say whatever floats their boat.

But my point here is that D&D very much follows a fantasy paradigm where the heroes start out weak, and have to get stronger to fight the villian.

Traveller, on the other hand, follows a more common Sci-fi motif in saying that at the start, you are more-or-less as good as you're going to be. You may learn a thing here or there, or acquire a new toy, but as a person you are who you are.

Thus, the "point" in Traveller becomes which sci-fi tropes you choose to emphasize, at least for a lot of early experiences.

You can recreate Firefly, where the story is about the close crew of a small ship, struggling to stay afloat in a hostile universe.

You can recreate Star Trek, where the story is about a Scout crew exploring the galaxy, surveying new worlds and new civilizations.

You can pick and choose from a whole universe of sci-fi ideas as a basic frame for your game. Then, the "point" of it is to advance within that paradigm, just like the "point" of D&D is to kill that dragon and save the kingdom.

 

[LeperColony]

By the way, I wanted to add that I think the OP's question is a good one.

I've pitched Traveller to gaming groups before, and there does seem to be a basic lack of understanding regarding "what you do."

For some people, it's the sense of scale. Not that they know too much about it, but from what they've heard, it's all intricate and complicated and might be cool if you put in the effort, but hey, we can also just break out something we know...

For others, it is the open-ended nature of the setting. The idea of playing "Firefly" appeals to lots of people, on the surface. But many players are at a loss if the setting and the story doesn't tell them what they should be doing.

I also think that Traveller has, unfairly, a sense of being "old fashioned." It's a game for old gearheads, who don't want you there, even if you wanted to be there (which you didn't).

 

[BlackBat242]

Exactly - and there really IS a Traveller form of "leveling up" - its just not phrased that way.

Your character musters out with some cash & a few items of equipment. He has to pay for passage to another system. But then he has a couple of good jobs, scores some money and gains a bit of a reputation, and is hired by the NPC owner of a starship.
Ka-ching - you just "leveled up", now your transportation, room, & meals are provided free, and a lot more opportunities are available.

After a while, you save up enough to buy into a joint-venture with some other PCs, and are now part-owner of your own ship. You now have a lot more freedom of action - yes, you have "leveled up" again.

Your group makes some money, and picks up another ship (or trades in the old one on a larger/newer/better one. Yes, you know what just happened.

Eventually each PC might be in charge of a separate ship, and the group is starting to be a player in sub-sector (or even sector) events, politics, business, etc.

You can modify that progression for each different career - that Baron who is the Imperial authority on that world might just well be a retired (or semi-retired) adventurer who "made it big" and was given a "life title"* and noble rank - and if he plays things right (and chooses good lower-status PCs/NPCs to hire/be Patron to), might even receive higher "life titles" (or even a hereditary title) and become a power to be feared/respected in the sector!



* A "life title" is a Noble title given for service or achievement - it is only for the recipient, and neither the title nor any attached properties, duties, etc are passed on to the recipient's heirs - they instead revert to the Emperor upon death.

"Hereditary titles" are those that are passed to one's descendants or to an otherwise designated heir.

 

[LeperColony]

It is also edition dependent. I know the OP specifically referred to CT, but there are other versions of Traveller where character advancement is more (T20) or less (TNE) a thing, but still a thing.

 

[aramis]

I'm sorry if this question s really dense. I think I must have missed something really big and obvious and it's bugging me.

Back in the old days, I played D&D. I always wanted to play Traveller, but my gaming group wasn't in to it and I was really cash strapped, so it didn't happen. I read some about it, but that was it. When I saw the Classic Traveller stuff on CD, I bought it and I've thoroughly enjoyed going through it, but here's my question...

What's the point of Traveller? There are no Experience Points, no Levels. I'm going to be the Referee and my two kids are going to be the players. What do I tell them? How do they know they've progressed in the game?

Like I said, pretty basic question and probably really dense, but, there it is. Anyone want to help out?



Dan

The point of play in Traveller is to enjoy the experience. If your Character generates a story you enjoy, you won... even if the character is now destitute in a debtor's prison in some vargr hovel. Or is a fine red mist.

Or, as my buddy Steve F. can share, sometimes it's the struggle being lost that makes the rest of the struggles more fun. (6 20's in a row in TNE — that's 6 fumbles — resulted in his character dying by crushing depths inside a gas giant... and the rest of the party dying of starvation, in orbit above...)

I've more memorable stories from Traveller than from D&D. Better settings, better character generation, and no need to "climb the XP tree".

And, if you want character growth...
In CT, Bk2-81 page 42, Bk2-77 page 40, TTB page 103
In MT, in the player's manual.
In TNE, T4: in the core rules for each.
In T20: well, it's got XP and levels.
In GT/GTIW, and HT: XP are simply extra build points to spend.

 

[mike wightman]

First of all - what is a Traveller?

I wrote this in another thread:

A Traveller in game is a person who has had the epiphany that what they have been doing with their lives so far is over and they have to head out on their own.
Their old career is gone, and the society they were part of no longer wants them in that role. Rather than lie down and wait for the end they break with society norms and begin to Travel. They adventure, seeking to gain rewards that actually matter:
a sense of worth, money, reputation (not social status since they are now living outside societal norms)... that sort of thing.
Remember what it says in the Final Word to referees:

The players themselves have a burden almost equal to that of the referee: they
must move, act, travel in search of their own goals. The typical methods used in life
by 20th century Terrans (thrift, dedication, and hard work) do not work in
Traveller; instead, travellers must boldly plan and execute daring schemes for the
acquisition of wealth and power.

So the rewards are:
knowledge - you learn the secrets behind the setting
money - think of Cr like experience points, you can use them to buy upgrades to your equipment or (requires referee input) your character
contacts - you gain NPCs who owe you a favour, employ you when needed, or are out to get you

 

[mike wightman]

The point of play in Traveller is to enjoy the experience.

Best reply so far

 

[Condottiere]

In terms of character development, that starship has transitioned.

You open up a (scifi) novel, and the adventure starts with pregenerated protagonists, whose character may evolve throughout the story, or watch a teevee series, where if that happens, it's glacial.

 

[whulorigan]

Another way to think of "Levels" in Traveller is thru Character Generation ("CharGen"). In a way, the number of prior terms that you serve during CharGen are functionally equivalent to levels. The difference is that you do all of your "leveling-up" right out of the start-gate.

So instead of rolling up someone in his/her late teens who knows nothing and has few skills and has to acquire them thru play, think of it as getting to choose what level you want to be ahead of time and working the character to that level during CharGen (i.e. choose your prior career [=Character Class] and how many prior terms of experience you want to have [= Levels] and generate the character to that point).

You just don't get to add more levels after play starts.

Just as in real life, "experience" does not make you bigger, stronger, more personally powerful (physically/mentally), etc., based on how many activities you have engaged in, but rather real improvement (education, skill-training, some physical/mental training, etc) takes years of practice and effort, and the longer you attempt to get more skills, training, and "abilities", the more likely you are to be older as a result, and start suffering the effects of aging. (Note that there are rules in Traveller for skill improvement after play begins, but gaining a point permanently generally takes about 2-4 years of game play). Also keep in mind that a single point in a skill (or a single +1 DM) on a 2D6 curve represents a much more significant bonus than "+1" on a flat D20 probability distribution.

The subtle side-benefit of this game-wise is that unlike D&D, you do not eventually evolve into an "unplayable" character that can't be challenged because he has become "uber-powerful" (unless you as the GM give them too much stuff ). You do not need to continually be inventing new "tiers" of encounters or "monsters" to challenge the players. The focus is on the campaign and the story, and the characters' interaction with it as they gain reputation, social-power, and/or wealth and "stuff" as the campaign progresses, rather than being "character-focused" where the campaign world/universe is a mere canvas-backdrop to facilitate action for the group. Theoretically a campaign can continue indefinitely (as long as the characters are still alive).

 

[Condottiere]

You also start worrying about Medicare and sourcing Viagra.

 

[Vargas]

The result is a string of adventures that feel like the old TV show Firefly.

I got snagged on that sentence and then realized that it will be 14 years this Fall since the show came out . . .

 

[robject]

I finally asked him what he was trying to achieve. His response was that he was proving that in Traveller a player can do literally anything that the player wants to do, provided that the player is ready for the consequences.

Wow!?