What about
7.a. Starships 3: No matter how much a starship masses, only its volume is used to determine how it moves.
What are the Touchstones of Traveller?
- Thread starter robject
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What about
7.a. Starships 3: No matter how much a starship masses, only its volume is used to determine how it moves.
for me, the one touchstone is that Traveller is a toolbox. Especially now with multiple rules sets available: you can choose to mix and match. You can have character levels if you want, you can have non-random character generation if you want. You can have reactionary drives or massless drives.
Beyond that though is the 1 week jump space thing - that that away and for me, regardless of the other parts, it is no longer Traveller.
And for me, that toolbox approach of being a universal game engine (with loosely coupled mechanics so that you can pick & choose) was the big draw (and handicap) to Traveller. Big draw because you can do anything. Big handicap because it is infinite in what you can do and that can be overwhelming if you let it.
Beyond that though is the 1 week jump space thing - that that away and for me, regardless of the other parts, it is no longer Traveller.
And for me, that toolbox approach of being a universal game engine (with loosely coupled mechanics so that you can pick & choose) was the big draw (and handicap) to Traveller. Big draw because you can do anything. Big handicap because it is infinite in what you can do and that can be overwhelming if you let it.
Spinward Flow
SOC-14 5K
Interesting, I don't think that it's a strict 1 parsec per week, just that it takes significant amount of time. Could be a month per parsec, could even be a day per parsec, I think what's more important is that people and news travel at the same speed and that the barrier and boon to politics and economics is exactly that. It's an Age of (British/Chinese/Roman/etc) Empire just set to scifi rather than ancient technology.
D.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
One of my first Traveller experiences the referee hated spaceships - we travelled from world to world instantly via teleporter so we could get on with the adventure.
We were definitely playing Traveller...
We were definitely playing Traveller...
Our operational definition was that a "jump unit" was 1.0E+08 light seconds, and the standard jump time was 6.0E+05 seconds: (Jump Number)*0.97pc in 0.99 weeks. But that was just to establish that no FTL method could be faster than about 167c. This was long before Hop/Skip/Waddle/Whatever drives.
Touchstones?
Space Combat: Traveller uses a 2D model for Space Combat. (True, most games ignore the z-axis, but not all)
Not sure how to define it as a simple touchstone, but Jump Drive and Jumpspace define how interstellar empires work in a Traveller ruleset.
Also, not sure if this is applicable as at least one Traveller setting supports an alternative: Stutterwarp in MgT.
This definition can work. So..
Space Combat: Traveller uses a 2D model for Space Combat. (True, most games ignore the z-axis, but not all)
Not sure how to define it as a simple touchstone, but Jump Drive and Jumpspace define how interstellar empires work in a Traveller ruleset.
Also, not sure if this is applicable as at least one Traveller setting supports an alternative: Stutterwarp in MgT.
Nope. Traveller 2300 had d10's and felt very traveller to many, and TNE was d20.
To most non-Traveller-fans who are aware of it, "That old RPG where you die in character gen" or 'That game with the boring covers"
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IIRC you could not in TNE...
Enoki
SOC-14 1K
I'd say:
Combat is dangerous and you can die. In fact, if you engage in a lot of it, you probably WILL die.
Economics and trade are essential. You are likely to go broke and starve if you aren't paying attention.
Space travel takes time and is expensive. See the part about economics and trade.
If the economy and combat don't do you in, the environment likely will.
Everybody and everything outside your own party / group is trying to get you killed.
Magic doesn't exist, nor do unicorns.
Combat is dangerous and you can die. In fact, if you engage in a lot of it, you probably WILL die.
Economics and trade are essential. You are likely to go broke and starve if you aren't paying attention.
Space travel takes time and is expensive. See the part about economics and trade.
If the economy and combat don't do you in, the environment likely will.
Everybody and everything outside your own party / group is trying to get you killed.
Magic doesn't exist, nor do unicorns.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
On the other hand, you can be frozen and depopsicled at a first rate medical facility, if you don't get autodocced and dipped into a bacta tank first.
You're conflating universes. Bacta is Star Wars.
... which means it's MgT2 also, right?
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
We do fast track the healing factor, artificially.
Spinward Flow
SOC-14 5K
LBB2.81, p44-45: Medical Fast Drug
Biology WANTS you to die. Physics is happy to do tne heavy lifting.
There is no magic in charted space, only psionics and sufficiently advanced technology.
And unicorns don't exist, but you cant prove a negative. That rumor about one-horned, methane-breathing sophonts whose gut biome produces colorful glowing anagathics in their fecal matter is just the drunken ranting of an old detached duty scout with PTSD, several advanced degrees in exobiology, and a twisted sense of humor.
daryen
SOC-14 1K
Traveller, to me, is (in no particular order):
- No levels. (There are effectively classes, but we call them careers.)
- 2d6 is the predominant mechanism.
- Dice only have six sides.
- Skills based system.
- Low granularity. (Medical-3 is a full doctor.) Skill 5 probably means you are the best currently alive.
- FTL travel, but no FTL comms. You have to carry the message out of a system to get it anywhere else.
- Jump drive. Max of jump-6. Takes a week to get there.
- Ubiquitous anti-grav. (Air/rafts!)
- Most guns still use bullets in some form.
- Illogically distributed populations and technologies.
- 2D space.
- Battledress.
- Swords in space.
- Ship mechanics are based on volume, not necessarily mass.
- 100 diameters.
- Human centric, but lots of "types" of humans. Plenty of aliens, though.
- Humans are recognizably human. No transhumanism; no machine intelligence; surprisingly minimal automation.
- Psionics exist, but there is no other overt magic.
Note that some of these have setting implications, but there is no implied setting beyond that.
- No levels. (There are effectively classes, but we call them careers.)
- 2d6 is the predominant mechanism.
- Dice only have six sides.
- Skills based system.
- Low granularity. (Medical-3 is a full doctor.) Skill 5 probably means you are the best currently alive.
- FTL travel, but no FTL comms. You have to carry the message out of a system to get it anywhere else.
- Jump drive. Max of jump-6. Takes a week to get there.
- Ubiquitous anti-grav. (Air/rafts!)
- Most guns still use bullets in some form.
- Illogically distributed populations and technologies.
- 2D space.
- Battledress.
- Swords in space.
- Ship mechanics are based on volume, not necessarily mass.
- 100 diameters.
- Human centric, but lots of "types" of humans. Plenty of aliens, though.
- Humans are recognizably human. No transhumanism; no machine intelligence; surprisingly minimal automation.
- Psionics exist, but there is no other overt magic.
Note that some of these have setting implications, but there is no implied setting beyond that.
