Why do you like your version of Traveller?

[kafka47]

Let us leave aside mechanics...but why do you like your version of Traveller.

For me I cut my teeth on MT and found the wealth of detail of CT just merely added to my campaigns. I also love the Rebellion as a backdrop for action and loved the dark & grit of Hard Times.

I am inclined to say my favorite version will have to be MGT as it is simplying some of the rules but still creating a feeling of generic universe with loads of space for adventure. Could be said for any version of Traveller but I always felt hemmed in by the Virus in TNE. 1248 is certainly an improvement but still has a collapsed feel in areas outside the 4th Imperium (which I would have preferred to be more corrupt). T4 was simply not what I expected in M:0 and references to pirate hunting fleets & cold fusion plus - just left me cold. T20, Gateway to Destiny is a great resource but I am left with more questions than answers and some of the innovations seemed more for the Munckin crowd than the hard space opera crowd (that I count myself in).

 

[atpollard]

Let us leave aside mechanics...but why do you like your version of Traveller.

I am a little confused by this statement, mechanics are the primary area in which the versions of Traveller differ.

From an Era feel perspective, I prefer non-OTUs as a referee. I just find the maps too large to be useful. Thousands of systems just get in the way. I am most familiar with the Classic era of the Imperium – I just wanted it to be a little smaller.

I must also admit an absolute fascination with MT Hard Times. Only I prefer to run it backwards to model a pre-stellar world clawing its way to the stars. The actual Rebellion feels too defeatist for my taste. Where is the Hero with a white hat to save the day? The Imperial Pretenders feel too much like Real World Politics – I don’t want to live with the lesser of the evils in a game.

The Virus era is TOO dark for my taste – like most cyberpunk literature.


With respect to Mechanics, I like CT-lite - Roll 8+ to hit and don’t talk to me about range or armor modifiers. Your character wants to fly through the canyon, roll d6, 1 = you screw up, 6 = the force is strong in this one – narrate it for me based on that. I want depth of character and narration of the story. Save the charts and tables and formula for Starship Design.

 

[kafka47]

I am a little confused by this statement, mechanics are the primary area in which the versions of Traveller differ.

True. But, we have already far too many discussions on which mechanic works better. But each of the editions also gave a feeling that was not all together the same. Traveller may have been modelled on a generic SF universe but with all the supplements that have come out to support a particular set of mechanic rules it bequeathed a feeling.

 

[Icosahedron]

Simply, I started with CT and found nothing to improve on it - apart from houserules. I liked the fact that CT was designed as a stand-alone rule set in the days before supplements were 'de rigueur', and anything else was down to my own imagination.

Ok, so CT sprouted more supplements than any other system eventually, but at least you could buy each one for less than the beer on the game table.
And if you didn't want the OTU, you didn't buy the OTU modules. Later, you were paying for pages of OTU stuff amongst the rules you actually wanted.

I always felt hemmed in by the over-specification of later tomes. If I want to figure how far a lesser spotted Rigellian Humprake can jump with a broken leg whilst carrying a table, I don't want to turn to page 3456 of volume 26 and look up the Rigellian Humprake Physical Performance Table and then cross refer Number of Limbs with Carried Load!

I'm the Referee; I decide.

Six A5 books, a spiral houserule jotter, a box of lead figures and a pair of dice - all in a non-disintegrating plastic carrier bag. Those were the days...

 

[mike wightman]

My choice of favourite setting is split between proto-Traveller and MT Hard Times. I definintely prefer the freedom to make stuff up of the proto-Traveller setting, before the Imperium morphed into the good guys.
Hard Times on the otherhand is just such a great setting, there are countless opportunities for PCs to make a difference.

Rules wise I have tried them all and keep coming back to my CT + house rules

 

[VT1099ace]

'classic' was the second RPG I ever owned (the 'white box' D&D was first) and it filled the itch I have for scifi. Mega just seemed to muddy things up, hated the whole idea of virus :nonono: I like the 'classic feel' of MGT...now use MGT after more than 15 year lapse from traveller. (still reference my old CT stuff and inject some into the latest :smirk.

 

[robject]

I like CT because it was the first rules I saw, plus it was easy to grok in a short time, and I didn't need anything beyond the 3 LBBs and some imagination to set up a game.

And part of the draw for me to T5 is that its resources are CT-compatible.

 

[Vargas]

You always remember your first love . . .

For me it's Classic Traveller because it was simple, encouraged you to go out and tinker with it, had fantastic "games within games" (starship and world building), offered all sorts of nifty extras (deckplans, library data, equipment) that went beyond the title on the cover of the supporting product, was affordable, sketched out a setting which was interesting both for what it said and what it implied and featured the writing of the Keith Brothers and Marc Miller at their best.

 

[Ishmael]

I like my own tu because it is big enough to require travel and allow for an interstellar war if I like, but not too big so that it hasn't become the humongous juggernaut that the otu has become. It is based on the 'islands campaign' but has nothing to do with printed works except for the 2-subsectors in isolation...The Imperium is something way over there in the hazy distance ( I can reasonably grab anything I like from the otu and explain how it got there so long as I don't do that very often ).
I made it 3d (10 by 10 by 10 parsecs with a world at each point on 2d6=12, which gives about the same number of worlds as a standard CT subsector ).

I have no group to play with, so I 'play' by experimenting with rules. Chargen task system is MT. Vehicles/ships are FFS1 ( but thats changing as I make my own system. ) Personal combat is my own work in progress. UWP is a modified book 6. I can and do change anything on a whim. Sometimes I even make artwork for it.

most people would barely call it traveller anymore.

 

[whartung]

Hard to argue against Classic Traveller. To me, Traveller is Book 4, specifically it's the lone scout pictured in the front. That's my favorite Traveller picture, and it captures the "hi tech old west" feel of it, to me. Yea, the guy is a military scout, but he could easily be a well equipped guide or explorer in a new world.

Lots of folks like Big Traveller, sub sector politics, etc. But I like the grunt on the ground, doing the work, prepared but sticking his neck out. For honor, for others, or even the ever popular greenback.

But I do also like the Soup to Nuts of FF&S1, and detailed world generation of the later systems.

 

[VT1099ace]

mispost, lost my train of thought....

 

[aramis]

I like the 1107-1115 Marches... after the 5FW, lots of guys with issues about, the Ein Givar running rampant, Paranoia at an all time high, and a clear "Us vs Them" mindset, which the high muckity-mucks are trying to fight...

And His Grace Norris and his love-Zho Branj... (IMTU, yes, they are a discrete couple.)

And the use of the Warrant. It's known that He's The Emperor's Man. He's not yet Archduke, but he's the most powerful subsector duke in the DD. Further, he's Strephon's cousin, and both his Dad and older brother died in shuttle accidents... and he's a navy officer.

I love the combination cold-war and stalinesque rise to power by Norris.

I occasionally dip back a couple years, and run during the war....

All this is best served by MT, which really sets the rules to the right levels to play this, and gives me the combat mechanics to handle everything from the bar fight to the Battleship duel, with one set of mechanics. (Ships MAY use MT HG, but everything may use personal combat/large scale combat.)

 

[rancke]

Further, [Norris is] Strephon's cousin, and both his Dad and older brother died in shuttle accidents... and he's a navy officer.

Norris mother and Strephon's mother are cousins (or was it half cousins?). And an early reference (in Leviathan) mentions that Strephon has lots of cousins (must be on his mother's side -- they sure don't show up on any of the family trees we've seen).

Willem Aledon didn't die in a shuttle accident. He just died of natural causes (as far as anyone know, anyway).

I wonder if the mother is still alive? AFAICR it has never been established one way or the other.


Hans

 

[Hemdian]

I started playing Traveller pretty early on, during the classic era. I remember the start of the 5FW and hungily awaiting news of its progress in each issue of the original JTAS. Simple put I fell in love with the Imperium setting and the Spinward Marches.

But there was a problem. The CT rules seemed either too simplistic or didn't make sense. So I only played High Guard, Scouts, or Mercenary, never Basic. When MT came out I found it a vast improvement. (I distinguish between design and production issues ... MT was a great design but had major production flaws. Although, the other game I played a lot was FASA's Star Trek and I remember you always had to proof read their stuff before use ... so MT's printing errors didn't grate too much in comparison.)

I liked the Imperium ... so I didn't like the Rebellion setting too much. Plus it also seemed a bit same-y after Battletech. And Hard Times was like watching your house burn down: pretty but sickening at the same time.

The answer was to play with MT rules but in the CT era. And FASA's Star Trek influenced me to focus on characters still in service rather than retired. Thus my campaigns have featured PCs as NI and JSB investigators, the crew of a Gazelle CE, the odd-job squad of an Imperial fleet, or the frozen watch of an AHL cruiser. CT era, MT rules, PCs in service ... "Sorted!"

 

[aramis]

I, too, started with CT. Immediately I dropped Bk2 for Bk5... but I never really liked Bk4-7 Character Gen.

I felt much the same way as Hemidan about Rebellion and Hard Times, however, I saw it as a great setting to cast reunification tales and to build a new, better, Imperium...

I, too, occasionally did the FASA-Trek inspired in service game. I, too, used MT in the CT era. Or, occasionally, playing nobles who are stricing to eradicate His Imperial Insanity, Lucan Alkhalikoi.

After all this time, I find myself still leaning on MT for in-service games.

 

[Vile]

CT and Striker represents the sort of Tech Level range which appeals to me most. It's also not too detailed to restrict the referee in making things up on the fly. I am not interested in the TL15+ of MT, I find Milieu Zero too low-tech, and TNE just never 'clicked' for me, so i never got as far as.

Nowadays the technology is the only part of Traveller which remains to me. I have lost interest in the OTU, and I've never actually used any of the official rules more than once or twice. Everything I play / run uses BRP as a base.

 

[Imperial Planetologist]

Golden Age Imperium was my starting point.

Like many Travellers, I played in the Spinward Marches, weathered the Fifth Frontier War, and originally accepted, grudgingly, the Rebellion. However, I realized there was nothing that I liked about the Rebellion, so I abandoned the official timeline and continued forward on my own. Later I reset the timeline once, to 1108, when I moved the campaign from the Marches to the Hinterworlds and we've continued from there. It's now 1176 in our game, the Third Imperium still exists with the former general manager of LSP on the Iridium Throne, the Hivers are slowly but relentlessly absorbing the Solomani Sphere while the K'kree, devastated by a star-spanning plague and pressed hard by Vargr and G'naak raiders, are fighting for their existence. (And the Zhos eventually took the Marches, but we're gaming to trailing, so it was just background noise when it happened.)

 

[sfchbryan]

Like a lot of folks around here, I started with Classic Traveller & Paranoia Press. Moved to MT, which is just CT with a task system bolted on. I never cared for the Rebellion, so it never happened with my group. GDW & I parted ways with TNE (Sorry, but if I wanted to play with the Twilight 2k system, I would have.). I don't think my departure was what killed GDW, but you never know...

Nowadays, it is MT (4th Ed) with the GT time line.

I am looking to build a campaign in the Verge sector (I think it was the only sector that wasn't developed by somebody). What actually lurks in the emptiness between the Third Imperium & the Aslan Hierate? Perhaps a few things that August Derleth wrote about crossed with a few things from the "Forbidden Science" thread here at COTI. Who knows?

 

[Gadrin]

I think I liked GURPS Traveller because of just GURPS itself. It makes sense to me, although I can see why others aren't giant fans of it. It works for me, that's all I need. The other great supplements only add to it. It also tries to be faithful to CT.

I recently bought the MT cd-rom, but it wasn't quite what I was hoping for. It's not bad, especially Hard Times. Still it is Traveller goodness.

I think the most fond memories are the CT books and the FASA books I own. I didn't have all the books and saw the game more as a generic space gaming system. I liked the way the FASA books brought things to life.

T4 isn't bad, particularly the artwork. I like the adventure seeds and really don't see it being that low-tech, since I rarely went with everything on the cutting edge of technology for Traveller anyway. The Milieu-Zero book is rather nice IMHO, I'd love to game a Milieu-Zero campaign someday. It's a bit weird in spots (the Gateway adventure seems pretty Trek-ish) but overall well within the Traveller framework.

I'll be happy when the FASA and T4 cd-roms come out.


Edit: What I think I liked most about GURPS was that you can build a character you want, rather than hoping something playable comes out of the
process. It's more like being a GM, being able to pick and choose.



>

 

[Merxiless]

Traveller was my first RPG at age 11, in 1977.

I had just seen Star Wars, so with a little work i ran a star warsie type game.

Then I just went back to my Heinlein and Asimov novels and ran a patched up kind of patois of CT setting and my own stuff, in this kind of foundation-like setting.

I like Traveller because it can be dirt simple or as complex as you like.

Rolling UPP was a genius move, because it inspires me to do worlds I never would have thought of.

Decades later, I'm generating yet another campaign for the mongoose rules, and will be looking for players in a few months.