Verne traveller?

[iron warrior]

I was looking over an excellent new product called "Verne" (steampunk setting)on rpgnow.com and a thought occurred to me: Has anyone considered a sreampunk version of traveller?

The social order in traveller, with counts, dukes, etc, already seems to have a little in common with the era. Maybe the setting would not have to be changed so muck to make traveller over into a steampunk/space 1889 setting.

Yeah, yeah, I know, the idea of a steampunk jump drive... But then again, according to most scientists the jump drive is bunk at any tech level, so so what?

I know the makers of traveller wrote space 1889, and the question came to me if they'd even considered a setting combining elements of the two.

 

[far-trader]

A few were chatting about this over on the Mongoose forums recently, after some steam vehicles were statted up by an industrious revolutionary

Worth a look, and maybe a resurrection, but don't go stealing too much of our esteamed (I had to do it ) ref's time

...it's time for me to knock off when I'm deliberately punning

Oh yeah, the link:

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=46286&start=0

 

[ShapeShifter]

Traveller Victoriana

Sounds like its full of win. I've perused Edison's Conquest of Mars, with its death-rays and "electric ships" and have tinkered with the idea of adapting both this and the articles from the "Great Moon Hoax" (man-bats, bipedal beavers!) into CT. Ripping good adventure to be had by all!

 

[Putraack]

I've always been a big fan of Space:1889. A few years ago, I thought of using Traveller's rules for that game (which were a terrific minis game, not so much of an RPG), but never got around to it.

That said, they should work just fine, IMO, as the skill levels are 0-7, the abilities aren't far off, and the careers could be swung in with minimal work.

As for jump drives, on the Space:1889 list some years back, someone crunched numbers and calculated that the ether propellers used in that game are exactly 1/10 as powerful as 2300's stutterwarp drives, once you converted hp to MW. Gee, stutterwarp doesn't go to FTL until one is out past Mars' orbit, so someday a ship in my game is going to be REALLY surprised!

 

[FreeTrav]

It's funny that you mention 2300's stutterwarp drive; I was thinking that if you were going to steampunkify Traveller, a good thing to do for it would be to change interstellar drives to stutterwarp instead of "classic" jump - since the stutterwarp is basically a mechaniwockally-generated handwavium field based on spinning an unobtanium rotor, or something like that, you have the perfect imagery for the drive room: a huge steam engine, perhaps bearing a passing resemblance to a railroad locomotive of the 1890s-to-1920s, using the same kind of mechanism to turn the unobtanium rotors, while three guys, black from coal dust, stand between the engine and a pile of coal, shoveling coal into the engine for all they're worth...

 

[Putraack]

Which, of course, leads to the question: did Edison *really* invent stutterwarp, or did he receive it/find it from sources unknown?

 

[RandyB]

Which, of course, leads to the question: did Edison *really* invent stutterwarp, or did he receive it/find it from sources unknown?

Invented. "Of *course* Terran humans are a Major Race..."

On a more serious note, "humans didn't invent it, we got it from someone else" is such a tired, worn out trope that I reject it out of hand whenever it gets invoked. mega:

 

[ShapeShifter]

The captured Roswell Alien just waved his finger and said "Oh, no, you di'int!"

:rofl:

 

[RandyB]

The captured Roswell Alien just waved his finger and said "Oh, no, you di'int!"

:rofl:

I reject your fantasy and the alien contained therein, resigning them both to the gaming table, the fiction novel, and the Wearers of the Tinfoil Hat.

 

[ShapeShifter]

What, you don't like my jaunty aluminium headwear? I fancy it myself. Keeps out all those evil brain-waves beamed directly from the Pentagon...or is it Disney?

 

[RainOfSteel]

[...] since the stutterwarp is basically a mechaniwockally-generated handwavium field based on spinning an unobtanium rotor, or something like that, [...]

Interesting. I always thought the 2300AD FTL stutterwarp drive was a higher quality handwavium than the Traveller FTL jump drive.

 

[FreeTrav]

What, you don't like my jaunty aluminium headwear? I fancy it myself. Keeps out all those evil brain-waves beamed directly from the Pentagon...or is it Disney?

I thunk it were the Joe-Danny.

 

[FreeTrav]

Interesting. I always thought the 2300AD FTL stutterwarp drive was a higher quality handwavium than the Traveller FTL jump drive.

The description of the effect was "higher-quality", in that the explanation of the effect of the handwave did rely on known science (quantum tunnelling), rather than on Cool Space Operatic Technobabble (other universes with different properties). But the drive itself was a handwave as described.

 

[iron warrior]

Where could I find a good, canon description of the stutterwarp drive, please?

 

[aramis]

Where could I find a good, canon description of the stutterwarp drive, please?

Canon to Traveller? Fire Fusion & Steel (TNE), alternate drive technologies. Doesn't exactly match 2300, but close enough. I think FF&S2 also included it.


Canon to 2300? Traveller: 2300 or 2300AD both have good descriptions; Star Cruiser has another, matching description of it.

Semi-canon: 2320 (for use with T20) describes it as well. The forthcoming MgT:2300AD should also include it.

 

[Chuck Anumia]

I reject your fantasy and the alien contained therein, resigning them both to the gaming table, the fiction novel, and the Wearers of the Tinfoil Hat.

As a former member of our nations Military Intelligence elite, I can neither avow nor disavow the reality of a location where items of non-Terran design and development may or may not be stored in a semiarid state located between the US borders with Canada and Mexico.
Nor can I avow or disavow the presence or location of 4 super computers the US government is using to analyze data gathered or generated from the study of such items.

I'm sorry but I signed a statement that I would not disclose any information I had gained while employed by the government for at least 10 years after my discharge from government service. Of course, I signed it more than 20 years ago so my information is more than 2 decades out of date so nothing may remain where it was while I was in the service...