I think they ought to have published at least a supplement (to both Striker and Traveller as one booklet) with a set of example vegicles.
Vent-Rant MegaTraveller what I hate about it.
- Thread starter Murph
- Start date
Spinward Flow
SOC-14 5K
Animal, vegetable or vehicle encounters supplement?
One of the books in Striker contains that typo.Animal, vegetable or vehicle encounters supplement?
5 ton carrot, tracked, with a pulse fusion gun.
kilemall
SOC-14 5K
Biotech Striker supplement.Animal, vegetable or vehicle encounters supplement?
To be real honest I just mined it for stuff for the Journal version of Robots. I't big problem is it too 1980s, which part of the problem Sith Striker as well.
I think DGP dropped the ball all-right but I take the 1120 maps in the Rebellion Sourcebook as its original intent for the setting. Territories are static with unclaimed regions between. There's opportunity for espionage, ship warfare and political maneuvering but there's still a place for trade and exploration (after a fashion in the formerlly central part of the TI map). If it had gone this way it would have avoided all of the uncertainly gamers had about their maps being changed out from under them and hence ambivalence to the setting.
GypsyComet
SOC-14 1K
That may be the assumption the "Peace at last"/Faction Exhaustion map that HIWG was circulating was based on, but it assumes a relatively "polite" war much like the Barrack Emperors period 500 years earlier: Fights are not over territory, but over the Throne itself. The problem with that is that the war was already three years old so territories were inevitable, AND they had created Lucan, the implacable and likely insane defender who was worse than the attacker. Then they depicted Margaret's husband as representing a corporate intel service with cartoon levels of evil. And then there's the Solomani, set up as vindictive combatants with a racism problem.
The map was NOT going to remain static and the war was NOT going to be polite. Arguably the Black War would have started even earlier and wrecked the "non-aligned" regions faster, but any hopes of a static map in a multi-front war are deeply misplaced. War stories are all about changing conditions.
But you may be right, given the treatment of the war in Knightfall. Suffer orbital bombardment, taken prisoner, lose ship, escape, regain ship. Thank you for participating in the Rebellion, you may now resume your irrelevant nonsense without hearing about the war again.
The map was NOT going to remain static and the war was NOT going to be polite. Arguably the Black War would have started even earlier and wrecked the "non-aligned" regions faster, but any hopes of a static map in a multi-front war are deeply misplaced. War stories are all about changing conditions.
But you may be right, given the treatment of the war in Knightfall. Suffer orbital bombardment, taken prisoner, lose ship, escape, regain ship. Thank you for participating in the Rebellion, you may now resume your irrelevant nonsense without hearing about the war again.
40 ton Grav Beet with a pear of Heavy Carrot Lasers and a medium Rail Pea-Shooter. Walnut Shell AR 10.
I think the RS 1120 map was a potential meta-solution; it may not be logical, (for some value of logic), but it addressed a perceived need in the game. Conventional thinking was that the TI was static, even boring. DGP flipped the table and literally shook things up. The problem was they didn't know what to do with it after and/or just assumed it could be left in the hands of the gaming community. The incredible lack of Rebellion related adventures would seem to indicate this.
That's my quick take There's a reason why I still play in 1106 in the Marches . . .
Spinward Flow
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Pre-Fifth Frontier War in the Spinward Marches is just ... classic Traveller ...That's my quick take There's a reason why I still play in 1106 in the Marches . . .
Unfortunately, I haven't figured out a way to get Travellermap to show me a LBB S3 (as printed) version of the M1105 sector map (reject the CT Errata changes). I keep finding a whole bunch of discrepancies in almost every subsector deserving correction.
I might wind up needing to edit my own sector data files to run through Travellermap so as to be able to work with something more recognizably LBB S3-ish that is more compatible with 1105 (and earlier).
Able Baker
SOC-10
I do second that sentiment, the T5 and "Errata" changes to subsector data are not welcome in my campaign. Why? Becasue substantial changes werre made without any reason, destroying the intent of the planet's role. A simple example would be the chnage to Victoria. It is supposed to be a "steampunk" planet but got downgraded to TL-1. I do not see any benefit in that.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
I still use Supplement 3 as it was printed and will continue to do so.
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
It was the article on Victoria that appeared in JTAS 2, written by Marc, that got me interested in Traveller. That is still one I reread on a regular basis as the way to write an article describing a planet. And I still use Supplement 3 for the Spinward Marches as well.
GypsyComet
SOC-14 1K
Where are you seeing TL1? Imperial Encyclopedia is showing TL2. Anything later than that (Mongoose aside) can be explained as an *era* based change, and indeed, New Era shows TL3 and 1248 shows TL4.
TL2 was actually the maximum under Classic, given the UWP for Victoria at the time, so the originally listed TL4 was already an exception. The TL was corrected in MT from 4 to 2. Victoria wouldn't get its atmosphere and port changes (both to D) until much later, so the modern version is actually at the minimum TL instead of the maximum.
Much like Steampunk, Traveller TL is a bit slippery. "Steampunk" can include the TL2 to 4 range, but usually settles at 3 to 4, IMO.
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
I am old enough to remember that movie when it came out. I did not see it however. Friends who saw it thought that it was a riot.
I think the biggest issue was the sense of betrayal from GDW for those of us who have been playing Traveller as in my case 1978. The New Era was even worse, since I had no desire to play "Aftermath/Morrow Project" in space. As I said before, rather than the utterly embarrassing "Empress Wave" etc, move the focus to another sector away from the main empires. I bought most of the Megatraveller books and while I liked certain improvements such as moving all the character gen to a rational form, the "improvements" in vehicle design where you needed 40+ hours, a calculator, and a pad of paper to just design a grav car, to say nothing of a ship was, in my mind, a downgrade.
Currently I am running a sector which is based on 2300 history Cyberpunk 2020 character gen, and Original classic traveller designs where the highest tech level is 12.
Currently I am running a sector which is based on 2300 history Cyberpunk 2020 character gen, and Original classic traveller designs where the highest tech level is 12.
YEAH!!! I love the TL 10-12 window and a "small ship" universe. It just has the feel of "RIGHT". Then you throw in TL 7-9 worlds to explore that are NOT part of the "empire" with Fusion powered torch ships and SSTO Space planes and Rotating orbital habitats!
MT: Hard Time: One Small Step and MT: COACC provided a lot of the tools needed to create all that. You just needed to strip them out of the OTU "Rebellion/Collapse" narrative and put them to better use.
Spinward Flow
SOC-14 5K
For more of a "small time" feel in the OTU ... it should be noted that according to LBB S3 Spinward Marches, both the Five Sisters subsector and the Sword Worlds subsectors are limited to TL=12 maximum. District 268 has a single TL=13 world in it, but that world (Collace) only has a type B starport, so no non-military starship construction to be had there.
In fact, if you limit your campaign setting to just the Five Sisters, District 268 and the Sword Worlds, you're looking at a TL=12 maximum for starship construction (and a TL=13 maximum for non-starships and small craft).
So all of the enjoyment to be had in the TL=7-12 range can be had along the fringes of known and charted regions within the Spinward Marches, if you wanted to. It is certainly possible to make use of CT sources to set up all kinds of "pocket empire" settings that strip the polity boundaries while keeping the UWP data. Take the UWPs for the Darrian, Five Sisters, Sword Worlds and District 268 subsectors ... redraw the polity boundaries (and the XBoat routes) and you've got yourself a "new(-ish)" Traveller campaign setting. Just need to tinker with the Darrian UWP codes for TL a little bit and you can easily adjust things to fit within a TL=12 maximum "quadrant" of 4 subsectors if you wanted to for a homebrew campaign setting.
In fact, if you make it more of a "long time ago" setting before the Third Imperium began expanding into the Spinward Marches sector, there's all kinds of scope and opportunity in for frontier campaign stuff in that region of space.
Imagine setting up a campaign that gets going within a few generations of the colonization of Gram/Sword Worlds (post -399) ... before the confederation really gets built out and Gram is in a bit of a "growth phase" and sending out waves of colonization to secure the surrounding star systems ... and then the parochial homesteader squabbles start.
