Travelling with the times...

[Alias]

As I'm pretty new to running Traveller I'm gonna be making a whole host of stuff up, places, people that kinda thing. So what I wanna know is how do you see the Universe of Traveller, do you run a "straight" game or have you introduced new concepts and ideas(widespread use of an internet being a good example). Do your computers in the game still spool tapes or has that changed? I think you know what I'm on about so lets hear your ideas!

 

[Alias]

As I'm pretty new to running Traveller I'm gonna be making a whole host of stuff up, places, people that kinda thing. So what I wanna know is how do you see the Universe of Traveller, do you run a "straight" game or have you introduced new concepts and ideas(widespread use of an internet being a good example). Do your computers in the game still spool tapes or has that changed? I think you know what I'm on about so lets hear your ideas!

 

[Falkayn]

My players haven't read much official Traveller stuff, but I still don't deviate much from it. There are certain provisions made for modern tech ideas, like portable tablet computers, memory cards/sticks, etc. But much of that stuff is really only descriptive fluff and has little bearing on the adventures we play.

IMO important things to ignore/leave out are:
* Industrial strength nanotech (it's just too nasty).
* Major intrusive/beneficial biotech (this isn't cyberpunk).
* Weird-ass unbelievable spy tech (controlled by law level).

The players are reasonably science savvy, but as they all play fantasy RPGs they seem able to just accept that the game universe has certain laws of its own.

 

[Falkayn]

My players haven't read much official Traveller stuff, but I still don't deviate much from it. There are certain provisions made for modern tech ideas, like portable tablet computers, memory cards/sticks, etc. But much of that stuff is really only descriptive fluff and has little bearing on the adventures we play.

IMO important things to ignore/leave out are:
* Industrial strength nanotech (it's just too nasty).
* Major intrusive/beneficial biotech (this isn't cyberpunk).
* Weird-ass unbelievable spy tech (controlled by law level).

The players are reasonably science savvy, but as they all play fantasy RPGs they seem able to just accept that the game universe has certain laws of its own.

 

[Alias]

Afraid I have to disagree with you about "descriptive fluff". An excellent example is an episode of Cowboy Bebop in which Spike and Jet recieve a tape after some searching they find out its a Betamax and not VHS and so an epic quest begins. Having no knowledge of either VHS or Betamax when they find a "Tape" player and grab the wrong one! With the level of difference in Tech Levels on each world in Traveller eveything can come down to little details!

 

[Alias]

Afraid I have to disagree with you about "descriptive fluff". An excellent example is an episode of Cowboy Bebop in which Spike and Jet recieve a tape after some searching they find out its a Betamax and not VHS and so an epic quest begins. Having no knowledge of either VHS or Betamax when they find a "Tape" player and grab the wrong one! With the level of difference in Tech Levels on each world in Traveller eveything can come down to little details!

 

[plop101]

Alias writes:

Do your computers in the game still spool tapes or has that changed?

Actually, I've tended to look upon ships computers as the overall electronic warfare/sensor rating for a ship. Since I'm using High Guard, I can get away with that concept.

Falkayn writes:

IMO important things to ignore/leave out are:
* Industrial strength nanotech (it's just too nasty).
* Major intrusive/beneficial biotech (this isn't cyberpunk).
* Weird-ass unbelievable spy tech (controlled by law level).

Yeah, what he said. For me, the nanotech just doesn't prove out. Biotech emerges, but at much higher techlevels and extremely exorbatant costs.
Anagathics spring to mind here. Spytech also suffers from cost, plus availability. Sometimes thats law level affecting it, sometimes its market forces.

On a different tangent, my universe starts of the same as OTU in 1105, but begins to change during the Fifth Frontier War. Norris, other significant personalities, bite the dust. New personalities emerge. New forces to save or challenge the Empire clash with each other. A fun time is had by all!

 

[plop101]

Alias writes:

Do your computers in the game still spool tapes or has that changed?

Actually, I've tended to look upon ships computers as the overall electronic warfare/sensor rating for a ship. Since I'm using High Guard, I can get away with that concept.

Falkayn writes:

IMO important things to ignore/leave out are:
* Industrial strength nanotech (it's just too nasty).
* Major intrusive/beneficial biotech (this isn't cyberpunk).
* Weird-ass unbelievable spy tech (controlled by law level).

Yeah, what he said. For me, the nanotech just doesn't prove out. Biotech emerges, but at much higher techlevels and extremely exorbatant costs.
Anagathics spring to mind here. Spytech also suffers from cost, plus availability. Sometimes thats law level affecting it, sometimes its market forces.

On a different tangent, my universe starts of the same as OTU in 1105, but begins to change during the Fifth Frontier War. Norris, other significant personalities, bite the dust. New personalities emerge. New forces to save or challenge the Empire clash with each other. A fun time is had by all!

 

[hirch duckfinder]

Originally posted by Alias:
As I'm pretty new to running Traveller I'm gonna be making a whole host of stuff up, places, people that kinda thing. So what I wanna know is how do you see the Universe of Traveller, do you run a "straight" game or have you introduced new concepts and ideas(widespread use of an internet being a good example). Do your computers in the game still spool tapes or has that changed? I think you know what I'm on about so lets hear your ideas!

i find that the classic rules are very adaptable . i tend to let the players assume stuff and go with that , they will automatically immagine something that works for them . if they ask questions about how things work , make something up that fits ; thus you build your imperium together .

with computors , it all depends on tech levels . anyone flying a space craft clearly has access to handheld computing , unless it's something very archaic . internets exist locally where tech level supports it , but of course they can only communicate across interstellar gaps by sending chips + info on jump ships , so they are up to date on local info , but very unreliable for recent news from afar . on wealthy / teched-up worlds you expect a news update to come in on every x-boat .

 

[hirch duckfinder]

Originally posted by Alias:
As I'm pretty new to running Traveller I'm gonna be making a whole host of stuff up, places, people that kinda thing. So what I wanna know is how do you see the Universe of Traveller, do you run a "straight" game or have you introduced new concepts and ideas(widespread use of an internet being a good example). Do your computers in the game still spool tapes or has that changed? I think you know what I'm on about so lets hear your ideas!

i find that the classic rules are very adaptable . i tend to let the players assume stuff and go with that , they will automatically immagine something that works for them . if they ask questions about how things work , make something up that fits ; thus you build your imperium together .

with computors , it all depends on tech levels . anyone flying a space craft clearly has access to handheld computing , unless it's something very archaic . internets exist locally where tech level supports it , but of course they can only communicate across interstellar gaps by sending chips + info on jump ships , so they are up to date on local info , but very unreliable for recent news from afar . on wealthy / teched-up worlds you expect a news update to come in on every x-boat .

 

[Keklas Rekobah]

Stuff that I keep out of my game:

-Nanotech.
-Custom Genetic Engineering ("Eugenics").
-Light sabers.
-The Undead (medically, psionically, or traumatically induced "Lobots" or Zombies do happen...).
-Magic ("Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" - Arthur C. Clarke)
-Any person, race, or item unique to any movie or TV show that has the word "Star" in it's title.
-Any person, race, or item unique to any movie or TV show having to do with time travel.
-Any person, race, or item unique to any animated movie or TV show, especially Anime.
-Smurfs.

 

[Keklas Rekobah]

Stuff that I keep out of my game:

-Nanotech.
-Custom Genetic Engineering ("Eugenics").
-Light sabers.
-The Undead (medically, psionically, or traumatically induced "Lobots" or Zombies do happen...).
-Magic ("Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" - Arthur C. Clarke)
-Any person, race, or item unique to any movie or TV show that has the word "Star" in it's title.
-Any person, race, or item unique to any movie or TV show having to do with time travel.
-Any person, race, or item unique to any animated movie or TV show, especially Anime.
-Smurfs.

 

[hirch duckfinder]

Originally posted by Keklas Rekobah:
Stuff that I keep out of my game:

-Nanotech.
-Custom Genetic Engineering ("Eugenics").
-Light sabers.
-The Undead (medically, psionically, or traumatically induced "Lobots" or Zombies do happen...).
-Magic ("Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" - Arthur C. Clarke)
-Any person, race, or item unique to any movie or TV show that has the word "Star" in it's title.
-Any person, race, or item unique to any movie or TV show having to do with time travel.
-Any person, race, or item unique to any animated movie or TV show, especially Anime.
-Smurfs.

WHAT??????
NO SMURFS?????????????

 

[hirch duckfinder]

Originally posted by Keklas Rekobah:
Stuff that I keep out of my game:

-Nanotech.
-Custom Genetic Engineering ("Eugenics").
-Light sabers.
-The Undead (medically, psionically, or traumatically induced "Lobots" or Zombies do happen...).
-Magic ("Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" - Arthur C. Clarke)
-Any person, race, or item unique to any movie or TV show that has the word "Star" in it's title.
-Any person, race, or item unique to any movie or TV show having to do with time travel.
-Any person, race, or item unique to any animated movie or TV show, especially Anime.
-Smurfs.

WHAT??????
NO SMURFS?????????????

 

[Sophiathegreen]

The AK-47 is still use by than lot of military force round the world. It isnot the latest or most high tech weapon around but it have it good point. It than
assualt rifle than can take abreaten than still work.
It will fire with sand in it barrel as well as dirt in the barrel. It was make for than real battlefield
condicion. It is easy to maintrain and you can train than mondron on how to maintrain it.

I remember afew year ago the entire debt card banking
system in USA, Candara and Western Eupore came to than halt for three day as the only computer that ran it has to be shut down in NJ as than nearby river was overflowing it bank and water was starting to flood the basement so they turn off the
computer. To this day with all the many trillion of
dollar in the banking systen why don't they have other computer elsowhere take over from the one in NJ.

 

[Sophiathegreen]

The AK-47 is still use by than lot of military force round the world. It isnot the latest or most high tech weapon around but it have it good point. It than
assualt rifle than can take abreaten than still work.
It will fire with sand in it barrel as well as dirt in the barrel. It was make for than real battlefield
condicion. It is easy to maintrain and you can train than mondron on how to maintrain it.

I remember afew year ago the entire debt card banking
system in USA, Candara and Western Eupore came to than halt for three day as the only computer that ran it has to be shut down in NJ as than nearby river was overflowing it bank and water was starting to flood the basement so they turn off the
computer. To this day with all the many trillion of
dollar in the banking systen why don't they have other computer elsowhere take over from the one in NJ.

 

[Glee]

One of the reasons that I enjoy either fantasy or science fiction role playing is that in my view the rules are simply guidelines and the campaign is only limited by the imagination of the collected group. I allowed time travel in my game one time and the players travelled back in time and disrupted the historical thread which caused the destruction of the society as they knew it. The final result was that the group regenerated new characters and descided not to use that technology again. Another idea was to place magic in the universe, however, discussions between the members descided that magic was only some form of psionics or technology that the characters did not understand. Remember that Star Trek episode where Captain Kirk used CPR to revive a victim and was elevated to the status of a god. I find that as long as the group agrees to the technology and the game remains balanced, there is no problem introducing any idea from the world of science or fiction into the campaign. The idea is to stimulate the imagination and enjoy the company of friends. Thank you for allowing me to post my opinion. Happy Gaming.

 

[Glee]

One of the reasons that I enjoy either fantasy or science fiction role playing is that in my view the rules are simply guidelines and the campaign is only limited by the imagination of the collected group. I allowed time travel in my game one time and the players travelled back in time and disrupted the historical thread which caused the destruction of the society as they knew it. The final result was that the group regenerated new characters and descided not to use that technology again. Another idea was to place magic in the universe, however, discussions between the members descided that magic was only some form of psionics or technology that the characters did not understand. Remember that Star Trek episode where Captain Kirk used CPR to revive a victim and was elevated to the status of a god. I find that as long as the group agrees to the technology and the game remains balanced, there is no problem introducing any idea from the world of science or fiction into the campaign. The idea is to stimulate the imagination and enjoy the company of friends. Thank you for allowing me to post my opinion. Happy Gaming.

 

[TRAV]

Sophia your post about the AK47 was good. My understanding is that currently the three military rifle designs most commonly used in the world today in order are:
1 AK type actions
2 M16/AR15 type actions
3 M-1 Carbine

This is just a bit of trivia but the AK and the M-1 carbine have existed since the 1940s to me that is major technological longevity...

Sorry for the OT but I wanted to show off...

 

[TRAV]

Sophia your post about the AK47 was good. My understanding is that currently the three military rifle designs most commonly used in the world today in order are:
1 AK type actions
2 M16/AR15 type actions
3 M-1 Carbine

This is just a bit of trivia but the AK and the M-1 carbine have existed since the 1940s to me that is major technological longevity...

Sorry for the OT but I wanted to show off...