Who are we?

[Psion]

Name: Alan D. Kohler
UPP: 686AC8
Age: 33
Country: USA, MD
Favorite version of Traveller: MT, with high hopes for T20.
Service Jacket: Sailors, 1 1/2 Term, (USN Submarine reactor operator), college, scientists 1 term
Skills: engineering - 2, electronics - 2, mechanic - 1, JoT - 1, computer - 3, handgun - 1, Admin - 2
Favorite Supplement: World Builder's Handbook
Favorite Adventure: Adventure 11: Murder on Arcturus Station (is there a more flexible adventure?)
Favorite Sector: Reavers Deep (personal version -- never used nor saw the Keith brothers' version)
Favorite Race: Humaniti, Vargr
Favorite Empire: 3I, Zhodani Consular, Solomani Confederation

Wow. I was 33 when I first posted in this thread. Ah, was young and foolish then.

I'm glad to report I did have a good time with T20, and still think it's a great system, though it needs a few tweaks.

Now, I'm digging Mongoose Traveller, but I am contemplating what it would take to add events from MongT to T20.

 

[Redcap]

Name:

Roger​

Age:

44
I remember Games Workshop back when it was a tiny shop in Hammersmith that was an RPG oasis in the desert, and had a licence to reprint GDW's Traveller material - yeah, I been in the hobby THAT long! :devil:​

Country:

Great Britain (England)​

Occupation:

Bus Driver
(iow Fury Mismanagement Consultant "AAAAAAAAAAAAGH!")​

Military Service:

Territorial Army Royal Military Police
(L/Cpl: "Oh, look, paras marching smartly" Sgt: "GET 'EM - they done something evil!")​

Favourite Version:

System: MT; Background: 3i, no assassination, no rebellion.​

Manipulator or blind sheep?:

Master manipulator
(founder member of now defunct Impossible Scenarios Group waaaaaaaaaay back when
- for eight years we sowed mayhem and carnage across UK Games Fair and UK GenCon events! :smirk:​

Style of play:

Sew mayhem from afar and pick off the stragglers​

Favourite Sectors:

Any and all, with a particular like of the Solomani Confederation and Spinward Marches​

Favourite Region:

Solomani Confederation
SolSec: Because those mutants with psionics are too slow to know all and control all!​

Favourite aliens:

My own creations (currently under construction)
Mwahahahahahahahaha ahem ​

Favourite adventure:

Hmm. Toughie. Jury's still out on that one.​

Favourite supplement:

World Builders' handbook.​

UPP:

777977-0
Lord knows I do my best to imitate the "Invisible Grey Man" ​

 

[Gvadakoung]

Name: Dan'l
Age: 40
Country: USA
Favorite version of Traveller: original GDW Traveller
Military Service: don't ask - I can't say. ; ) But...no.
Favorite Suppliment: Library Data A-M, N-Z
Favorite Sector: Antares Sector (my maps)
Favorite Race: Vargr
Favorite Empire: Third Imperium
Favorite World: Halivar (my own)

 

[Poppyseed45]

Name: Mencelus
Age: 33 (be 34 in 4 days!)
Country: USA (birth), lived in Japan 8 years, now in Hungary for the last 4 years
Favorite version of Traveller: Mongoose Traveller (used to play CT, loved TNE, even tried to run T4 once...)
Military Service: 8 years cadet (4 JROTC, 4 Virignia Tech Corps of Cadets, and was an AFROTC cadet two of those years).
Favorite Suppliment: MongTrav 760 Patrons
Favorite Sector: my stuff
Favorite Race: Humaniti
Favorite Empire: Third Imperium
Favorite World: my own stuff

 

[Madarin Dude]

Welcome Mencelus nice to see another traveller in real life too. I lived in Iceland for two years and Saudi Arabia for 3 and China for 5.

 

[wodan]

Name: Jose
Age: 32
Country: Canada, lived in Spain for a looong time, England for 10
Favorite version of Traveller: Classic, sometimes used SpaceMaster rules for Imperium setting
Favorite Sector: Anywhere near Terra
Favorite Race: Solomani
Favorite Empire: Third Imperium
Favorite World: my own creations

 

[travellernoob]

Name: Brett
Age: coming up on the big 4 0
Country: UK (birth), lived in Austria 2 or 3 years now
Favorite version of Traveller: Mongoose Traveller, free design pack, that's so cool.
Military Service: 1 summer as a chef du plonge on a base in Sherwood Forest, private contractor.
Favorite Suppliment: I'm still looking
Favorite Sector: my stuff (Tarazet , I call it)
Favorite Race: Humans
Favorite Empire: Long dead ones
Favorite World: Dead and creepy ones, let's explore.

 

[Whipsnade]

Sheesh, I've been here nearly seven years now and still haven't done this?

Name: Bill Cameron, aka Larsen E. Whipsnade (If any mod can change sign-in names, please let me know.)
Age: 47
Country: United States of America, but I've spent time on every continent except Antarctica
Occupation: Too varied to be easily summed up. Technology translator, professional pessimist, occasional consultant, and wog straw boss come to mind.
Military Service: United States Navy, nuclear propulsion 1981-1987
Favorite Version: CT because I know it best and it's so malleable. I once ran a pulp campaign set during the 1930s Chaco War with CT.
Favorite Career: The IISS. The Scouts provide a good blend of skills.
Favorite Supplement: Path of Tears. Honestly, can you put more adventure ideas in one book?
Favorite Adventure: The Traveller Adventure. Again, chocked so full of adventures that you needn't even run the campaign in it.
Favorite Short: The Chamax. Spend a session or two blowing up bugs, charging laser packs, and solving a mystery. 'Nuff said.
Favorite Empire: The Third Imperium because of it's cosmopolitan nature. The others are almost one-trick ponies by comparison. (I'll admit I look at the far rimward expanses of the Solomani Confederation with longing. The parsecs are long and SolSec is far away...)
Favorite Sector: The Spinward Marches. Mostly because I've spent so much game time there.
Favorite World: Grote/Glisten/Spinward Marches. Again because I've spent so much game time there.
Favorite Race: Bog standard Humaniti, meaning Vilani, Solmani, and Zhodani along with the less outre human minor races. Nearly everyone else is are humans with either flippers, fur, scales, plumbing supplies glued to their foreheads, or crammed into rubber suits.
Favorite Ship: The Marava for a canonical design, good legs and some cargo space. The 300dTon Clan Trader jump2 merchant and 600dTon Outrim Jade provincial corvette are IMTU designs I'm fond of.

I guess that should cover it all.


Regards,
Bill

 

[Kilgs]

Name: Kilgs
Age: 34
Country: United States of America
Service Jacket: 1 term Student, 1 term Agent (Law Enforcement), 1 term Student, in the middle of a term of Kick-Ass Prosecutor (We wear white shirts because we’re the good guys.)
Military Service: None
Favorite Version: Mongoose
Favorite Career: Agent (duh) and Scout
Favorite Supplement: Gateway to Destiny. No contest.
Favorite Adventure: The Traveller Adventure.
Favorite Short: Argon Gambit.
Favorite Empire: The Third Imperium because it’s everything you want it to be. Everyone else is one-dimensional standard fare.
Favorite Sector: Ley
Favorite World: Terra/Sol, I could be biased because I’ve spent so much time there.
Favorite Race: Humans…who needs evil aliens?
Favorite Ship: Doesn’t matter as long it has J-2 and not enough cargo space to make a living hauling sinks.

 

[Jame]

I'd've thought Mr. Cameron to be older for some reason... Oh well; live and learn.

To update myself, nothing much has changed from the earlier ones except:
Age: 28, nearly 29 (and most of you people make me feel young!)
Service: 1 term University, 1.5 terms Other (in CT) or Drifter/Wanderer (in MGT)

 

[Easterner9504]

(Path of Tears. Honestly, can you put more adventure ideas in one book?)

I don't know, I never heard of it.

(I once ran a pulp campaign set during the 1930s Chaco War with CT.)

Eh Chocolate War you say..hmpph sounds like something that they'd do in Bolivia or Paraguay or Peru or something. Why that's as silly as using Striker for Falkland's War...oops.




(and most of you people make me feel young!)

You are young silly whippersnapper!!! Age 52 here.

 

[Jame]

"You Old Fart."

 

[Whipsnade]

I'd've thought Mr. Cameron to be older for some reason... Oh well; live and learn.

Jame,

A grumpy disposition adds two decades.

Why that's as silly as using Striker for Falkland's War...oops.

It seems old and twisted minds think alike!

Over the last few months I've been slowly shuffling through my personal slush pile, lots of notebooks and printouts dating back 20 years or more. There should be some stuff about that Chaco campaign in the mess. I'll grab a shovel and do some excavating to see.

Maybe I can whip up a little campaign file for people to peruse. Something for the File Library here.


Regards,
Bill

 

[BlackBat242]

(I once ran a pulp campaign set during the 1930s Chaco War with CT.)

Eh Chocolate War you say..hmpph sounds like something that they'd do in Bolivia or Paraguay or Peru or something. Why that's as silly as using Striker for Falkland's War...oops.

Riiight!!

The Chaco War (1932–1935) was fought between Bolivia and Paraguay over control of a great part of the Gran Chaco region of South America, which was incorrectly thought to be rich in oil.

Though the region was sparsely populated, control of the Paraguay River running through it would have given one of the two landlocked countries access to the Atlantic Ocean. This was especially important to Bolivia, which had lost its Pacific Ocean coast to Chile in the War of the Pacific (1883).

Furthermore, the discovery of oil in the Andean foothills sparked speculation that the Chaco itself might be a rich source of petroleum. Foreign oil companies were involved in the exploration: companies mainly descended from Standard Oil, backed Bolivia, while Shell Oil supported Paraguay. Standard was already producing oil from wells in the high hills of eastern Bolivia, around Villa Montes.

By the time a ceasefire was negotiated on June 10, 1935, Paraguay controlled most of the region. This was recognised in a 1938 truce, signed in Buenos Aires, Argentina, by which Paraguay was awarded three-quarters of the Chaco Boreal. Bolivia did get the remaining territory, that bordered the Paraguay's River Puerto Busch. Some years later it was found that there were no oil resources in the Chaco Boreal kept by Paraguay, yet the territories kept by Bolivia were, in fact, rich in natural gas and petroleum, these being at the present time, the country's largest exports and source of wealth.

 

[Publius]

Riiight!!

The Chaco War (1932–1935) was fought between Bolivia and Paraguay over control of a great part of the Gran Chaco region of South America, which was incorrectly thought to be rich in oil.
<snip>

Excellent summary. It also gave rise to the supreme court case on Executive Power, U.S. v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corporation (1936), based on FDR's Executive Order banning US companies from supplying arms. I think it was some machine guns sold to one of the combatants in this case but I may not be recalling the facts of the situation entirely.

 

[Publius]

Oh yeah... Introductions...

Name: Publius
Age: 40
Country: USA
Favorite version of Traveller: Classic, Loved 2300, rarely got a chance to play
Favorite Supplement: Classic Scout Book, loved the detail on world creation.
Favorite Sector: Generally don't use the established material
Favorite Race: Human
Favorite Empire: Third Imperium
Favorite World: Generally don't use the established material

I am a published RPG Cartographer (not good with real world maps in any way). I am looking into the prospect of doing something with the Mongoose material; so this is part nostalgia for me (I played Traveller many many years ago) and part research for the potential of putting together some new game material.

 

[BlackBat242]

Well, Curtiss-Wright was one of the largest US aircraft manufacturers at that time, with extensive experience (and current product-line) in combat aircraft... so those machine-guns were likely to have been shipped installed in aircraft for military service.


I have been studying the history of the "central Andean region" for a couple of years now... one of my interests is in "real-world" alternate histories.

I've been looking at how the South American nations in general (and Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia in detail) gained their independence from Spain, and in how it would be possible for a Federacíon de los Andes Centrál (Central Andean Federation) to have been formed following a defeat of Chile in 1883*.

After all, Peru, and Bolivia had tried unification twice before (they had gained independence as one nation then broke apart later, only to try and fail again some decades later).

This would lead to an eventual annexation of Ecuador in the early 1900s (around WW1), and a much larger military (especially navy).



* this is actually a pretty good write-up of the historical form of that conflict http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Pacific

 

[Publius]

I've been looking at how the South American nations in general (and Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia in detail) gained their independence from Spain, and in how it would be possible for a Federacíon de los Andes Centrál (Central Andean Federation) to have been formed following a defeat of Chile in 1883*.

Funny how things turn up like this, I'm working on an Alternate History at the moment and used the name Federacíon for a Pan-(South)American government as well, although it developed much later (and was Communist).

 

[saundby]

Funny again...I ran a short Traveller adventure of the Baltimore Incident year before last. The USN fared rather poorly, I'm afraid.

That adventure was spurred by research I was doing for a book idea that puts the U.S. in a war with Chile about the time of the cruiser scares in ~1890.

 

[Whipsnade]

Funny again...I ran a short Traveller adventure of the Baltimore Incident year before last. The USN fared rather poorly, I'm afraid.

Saundby,

Now that's just downright scary. I've used the USS Baltimore Incident and the IN crew involved got pounded too.

Mine was set on Forine. I routinely used that system IMTU whenever I needed a hi-pop "banana republic" just as I used Mora for crazy "looking glass" social quirks. You can read about another historical incident I repeated on Forine in a thread entitled "The Fixers - A Highlight Reel".

That adventure was spurred by research I was doing for a book idea that puts the U.S. in a war with Chile about the time of the cruiser scares in ~1890.

There was something in the water during that decade. We had "South American" cruiser scares and "Spanish" cruiser scares long both coasts and all sorts of airship sightings over the interior. I know the yellow papers had a lot to do with it, but I wonder if anyone has every examined those various scares from a psychological standpoint. There's a very interesting paper or book in that topic I'm thinking.


Regards,
Bill