Your Traveller Vector
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grendelttroll
SOC-12
Well, it started for me in 1982....
A friend, who picked up this BBG (Big Blue Book) called "The Traveller Book," wanted to try to run a game. He said he had this little black box that contained the same rules, but didn't have any campaign material (he was not the most creative person..). Since he didn't feel he had any use for the box, he gave it to me.
He ran one game, then got too overwhelmed. A couple of us (me included) wanted to continue. The words that came next, were to remain with me to this day:
"Ok, Bill, if you think you can run a game, do it."
3 years later, we graduated from high school and my campaign - which, nowadays, would be classified as an ATU campaign - came to an end. By this time, I had all of the core rulebooks that were available. I joined the U.S. Army 18 months later.
During my stint, I decided to pick up GDW's new game, MegaTraveller. I got it before any of the game stores around me had copies. Even with its bugs, I, with that certain OTHER game company-that-shall-not-be-named, made it work. I ran a 2-year MT campaign and bought as many of the sourcebooks I could find. I then left my duty station (in Hawai'i) for Louisiana.....
After a year into my new MT campaign, I picked up TNE. Once again, before the game stores got it. Ran a game for a year, then my Army gig was over.
After GDW went down, I was depressed. I was even MORE depressed when I saw T4.
*/NOTE: This was unfortunate. The first T4 book I picked up and looked at was the first starship book IG published. You know, the ones that had deck plans that looked like a 10-year-old drew them with a pencil and protractor. If you could see the look on my face after I almost slammed the book onto the game store's floor. I didn't because I didn't pay for it (and I didn't ever WANT to). Maybe, if I saw the core rule book for T4, things would have been different. Maybe../*
In the late '90's, I found the TML. I still bear the scars. That experience thoroughly disgustipated me about Traveller( and other Traveller "GM's") in general. I got away from it.
I got back to it when T20 came out. I was playing other D20 games, and decided to give it a shot. I even signed up for these forums then.
This sparked new hope and inspiration for me, as this place is a FAR CRY from the experiences I had with TML.
A prolific Traveller artist, Bryan Gibson, hosted a Traveller game online. This was the first time I actually PLAYED Traveller (as opposed to GM'ing) since that one game in 1982. I got acquainted with Hunter and MJD. I really got interested in MJD's 1248 ideas..............
Well, here we are. I have playtested 1248 Book 1, 1248 Book 3, and now T5. I am also getting ready, once I have the full rules, to do an online T5 1248 Spinward States campaign. Maybe I will find another game that I will actually play as well........
A friend, who picked up this BBG (Big Blue Book) called "The Traveller Book," wanted to try to run a game. He said he had this little black box that contained the same rules, but didn't have any campaign material (he was not the most creative person..). Since he didn't feel he had any use for the box, he gave it to me.
He ran one game, then got too overwhelmed. A couple of us (me included) wanted to continue. The words that came next, were to remain with me to this day:
"Ok, Bill, if you think you can run a game, do it."
3 years later, we graduated from high school and my campaign - which, nowadays, would be classified as an ATU campaign - came to an end. By this time, I had all of the core rulebooks that were available. I joined the U.S. Army 18 months later.
During my stint, I decided to pick up GDW's new game, MegaTraveller. I got it before any of the game stores around me had copies. Even with its bugs, I, with that certain OTHER game company-that-shall-not-be-named, made it work. I ran a 2-year MT campaign and bought as many of the sourcebooks I could find. I then left my duty station (in Hawai'i) for Louisiana.....
After a year into my new MT campaign, I picked up TNE. Once again, before the game stores got it. Ran a game for a year, then my Army gig was over.
After GDW went down, I was depressed. I was even MORE depressed when I saw T4.
*/NOTE: This was unfortunate. The first T4 book I picked up and looked at was the first starship book IG published. You know, the ones that had deck plans that looked like a 10-year-old drew them with a pencil and protractor. If you could see the look on my face after I almost slammed the book onto the game store's floor. I didn't because I didn't pay for it (and I didn't ever WANT to). Maybe, if I saw the core rule book for T4, things would have been different. Maybe../*
In the late '90's, I found the TML. I still bear the scars. That experience thoroughly disgustipated me about Traveller( and other Traveller "GM's") in general. I got away from it.
I got back to it when T20 came out. I was playing other D20 games, and decided to give it a shot. I even signed up for these forums then.
This sparked new hope and inspiration for me, as this place is a FAR CRY from the experiences I had with TML.A prolific Traveller artist, Bryan Gibson, hosted a Traveller game online. This was the first time I actually PLAYED Traveller (as opposed to GM'ing) since that one game in 1982. I got acquainted with Hunter and MJD. I really got interested in MJD's 1248 ideas..............
Well, here we are. I have playtested 1248 Book 1, 1248 Book 3, and now T5. I am also getting ready, once I have the full rules, to do an online T5 1248 Spinward States campaign. Maybe I will find another game that I will actually play as well........
Gallowglacht
SOC-12
I'm running my third TNE setting game. The first 2 used the TNE system, current one started with a mix of Starship Troopers and T20 and has soaked up some SW SAGA aswell.
Have played in another TNE campaign aswell as a MT campaign and a game or two of GURPS Traveller, playtest of Mongoose and a short, confused shot at T4 before becoming lost.
Also played a T2K game and ran a TNE-rules homemade universe and TNE-rules Aliens campaign (each game was pretty much a squad sent to find out what happened the last one. Daft but fun. Players lost every game in a 7-8 game mini-campaign.).
TNE is clearly my favourite Traveller setting. The gearhead,treadhead in me loved the TNE rules. These days I'm putting together a SAGA inspired batch of rules to run Traveller, Aliens and Starship Troopers and other sci-fi.
Have played in another TNE campaign aswell as a MT campaign and a game or two of GURPS Traveller, playtest of Mongoose and a short, confused shot at T4 before becoming lost.
Also played a T2K game and ran a TNE-rules homemade universe and TNE-rules Aliens campaign (each game was pretty much a squad sent to find out what happened the last one. Daft but fun. Players lost every game in a 7-8 game mini-campaign.).
TNE is clearly my favourite Traveller setting. The gearhead,treadhead in me loved the TNE rules. These days I'm putting together a SAGA inspired batch of rules to run Traveller, Aliens and Starship Troopers and other sci-fi.
In 1986, a friend of mine introduced me to Traveller. I had yet to actually play a roleplaying game, but I'd heard about D&D and Champions. Then Jason Collette brought up Traveller, because he knew I loved Sci-Fi. I read my first one, and fell in love. After that, I voraciously collected the CT booklets as I could, but I never found a game to play in, as I lacked transportation, so I lived vicariously through Jason's tales, at least until he passed away the next year from a condition known as Athlete's Heart.
I was in college when MT came out, and I fell in love all over again. MT became my system of choice, mostly because of the DGP works. I tried running a few sessions, but they never came together. Still, like most Traveller collectors, I started buying DGP and GDW Traveller supplements, and generated tons of characters and starships I would never use. Yeah, I loved the solo play aspects of the game. By now, I was into AD&D, both 1st and 2nd Edition, and like most Traveller fans, found myself in a place where I felt like I was the only one in the neighborhood that enjoyed the game.
TNE came out and the Virus destroyed the setting and the game for me. The original D20 System, the old GDW house system, was a radical departure from the elegance of MT's UTP approach, and I left Traveller for a time. A friend did try to get a group together, and I joined in for a few sessions, but the system and the TNE background just didn't do it for me.
Time passed, and I matured in my gaming tastes. T4 came and went, and I found myself investing in some of the titles, and even trying an Interstellar War game with some friends, but it didn't click. I was a great fantasy GM, and could run a mean modern horror Storyteller game, but I hadn't learned yet to transfer my knowledge of GMing into the science fiction genre with any degree of success.
By now, though, I was back in the fold, and I was staying there. I joined Steve Jackson Games' JTAS for a few years, contributed to the TML and Freelance Traveller, and rallied around the introduction of Traveller T20. T20 was what allowed me to make that mental jump, and I started a T20 campaign. The campaign, set in an ATU of my own construction, was a huge success, and led to the Fourth Imperium campaign I ran for three years afterwards. I published a few things through QLI and Avenger, did NPCs and UWP stats for a while, and started a fanzine. I started running Traveller games at Gen Con Indy and other Cons, and many years, my Traveller games were the only Traveller scenarios in the catalogue. I've converted numerous players to Traveller through those experiences, and still continue to do so. I finally grew to love TNE through my work on the TNE 1248 playtest. It was a good time for me and Traveller, and still is.
When the T20 game folded due to other Real Life commitments on my part, I felt a little emptiness inside, but I still remain active with the occasional One Shots and Con games. Stellar Reaches continues, and I'm going to start publishing Traveller OGL products this summer.
I like MGT. In many ways, it reminds me of CT and MT. Sadly, I'm not a fan of the direction that T20 is taking with the transformation to SciFi20, although I understand why it is happening and support it for that very reason. Most likely, my future Traveller vector will lay in MGT and any variants that are created under the OGL, at least for the foreseeable future. I will run the Stellar Reaches fanzine as long as people want to submit material for it, and I'll create Traveller OGL material under Samardan Press as the Muses inspire me to do so. And hopefully, I'll find time someday to get in some great Traveller gaming, under whatever system proves to be the most useful to my purposes at the time.
With Regards,
Flynn
I was in college when MT came out, and I fell in love all over again. MT became my system of choice, mostly because of the DGP works. I tried running a few sessions, but they never came together. Still, like most Traveller collectors, I started buying DGP and GDW Traveller supplements, and generated tons of characters and starships I would never use. Yeah, I loved the solo play aspects of the game. By now, I was into AD&D, both 1st and 2nd Edition, and like most Traveller fans, found myself in a place where I felt like I was the only one in the neighborhood that enjoyed the game.
TNE came out and the Virus destroyed the setting and the game for me. The original D20 System, the old GDW house system, was a radical departure from the elegance of MT's UTP approach, and I left Traveller for a time. A friend did try to get a group together, and I joined in for a few sessions, but the system and the TNE background just didn't do it for me.
Time passed, and I matured in my gaming tastes. T4 came and went, and I found myself investing in some of the titles, and even trying an Interstellar War game with some friends, but it didn't click. I was a great fantasy GM, and could run a mean modern horror Storyteller game, but I hadn't learned yet to transfer my knowledge of GMing into the science fiction genre with any degree of success.
By now, though, I was back in the fold, and I was staying there. I joined Steve Jackson Games' JTAS for a few years, contributed to the TML and Freelance Traveller, and rallied around the introduction of Traveller T20. T20 was what allowed me to make that mental jump, and I started a T20 campaign. The campaign, set in an ATU of my own construction, was a huge success, and led to the Fourth Imperium campaign I ran for three years afterwards. I published a few things through QLI and Avenger, did NPCs and UWP stats for a while, and started a fanzine. I started running Traveller games at Gen Con Indy and other Cons, and many years, my Traveller games were the only Traveller scenarios in the catalogue. I've converted numerous players to Traveller through those experiences, and still continue to do so. I finally grew to love TNE through my work on the TNE 1248 playtest. It was a good time for me and Traveller, and still is.
When the T20 game folded due to other Real Life commitments on my part, I felt a little emptiness inside, but I still remain active with the occasional One Shots and Con games. Stellar Reaches continues, and I'm going to start publishing Traveller OGL products this summer.
I like MGT. In many ways, it reminds me of CT and MT. Sadly, I'm not a fan of the direction that T20 is taking with the transformation to SciFi20, although I understand why it is happening and support it for that very reason. Most likely, my future Traveller vector will lay in MGT and any variants that are created under the OGL, at least for the foreseeable future. I will run the Stellar Reaches fanzine as long as people want to submit material for it, and I'll create Traveller OGL material under Samardan Press as the Muses inspire me to do so. And hopefully, I'll find time someday to get in some great Traveller gaming, under whatever system proves to be the most useful to my purposes at the time.
With Regards,
Flynn
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I bought Traveller with the change left over from buying AirWar (SPI).
I had to struggle with having few players ( everyone played D&D but nothing else ), so I rolled up worlds and characters. When I ran games, I gave players only 15 seconds to decide actions which made for tense combat sessions and even a few players getting shot by friendly fire. I began to collect everything I could find that was related to Trav... I had most everything for CT.
Partway in the Navy, I got MT and loved it as it seemed to have all the good bits from CT ( some partially mangled ) and a fast simple task system. After I got out of the Navy, I shrug my game library ( even my boardgames ) down to almost nothing and only kept those materials that I used. I had already deviated significantly from canon.
Even since then, I only bought material that I could use and enjoy... FFS1 and Pocket Empires for the most part. I tinker with experimental rules mostly now. Although I have tried many different variants of the 'web. I always find myself returning to MT as the best overall.
I am now a total heretic and my ideas bear little resemblance to official Traveller. My tu looks more like 2300 than the Imperium.
I have no payers to play with, so I keep in touch with Traveller through the internet. I post my ideas and comments in hopes that people may find one or two useful...if not, I still had fun playing the game ( in my own way ).
My tu is based ( very loosely ) on the Islands Campaign, and I'll play with that, aka 'sandbox Traveller'
I had to struggle with having few players ( everyone played D&D but nothing else ), so I rolled up worlds and characters. When I ran games, I gave players only 15 seconds to decide actions which made for tense combat sessions and even a few players getting shot by friendly fire. I began to collect everything I could find that was related to Trav... I had most everything for CT.
Partway in the Navy, I got MT and loved it as it seemed to have all the good bits from CT ( some partially mangled ) and a fast simple task system. After I got out of the Navy, I shrug my game library ( even my boardgames ) down to almost nothing and only kept those materials that I used. I had already deviated significantly from canon.
Even since then, I only bought material that I could use and enjoy... FFS1 and Pocket Empires for the most part. I tinker with experimental rules mostly now. Although I have tried many different variants of the 'web. I always find myself returning to MT as the best overall.
I am now a total heretic and my ideas bear little resemblance to official Traveller. My tu looks more like 2300 than the Imperium.
I have no payers to play with, so I keep in touch with Traveller through the internet. I post my ideas and comments in hopes that people may find one or two useful...if not, I still had fun playing the game ( in my own way ).
My tu is based ( very loosely ) on the Islands Campaign, and I'll play with that, aka 'sandbox Traveller'
My vector is a bit meandering along a straightline with long periods of drift..but still in a straightline.
I began collecting Traveller 'way back in 1977 and have continued since then, playing at least a few one-off adventures in every version printed. Even built my own rules set from all sorts of houserules and favorites rules I've collected over the decades (wow! I feel old...)
Picked up MongTrav just last week and am already getting excited enough about it to seriously consider GMing a campaign. And THAT hasn't happened in years.
I began collecting Traveller 'way back in 1977 and have continued since then, playing at least a few one-off adventures in every version printed. Even built my own rules set from all sorts of houserules and favorites rules I've collected over the decades (wow! I feel old...)
Picked up MongTrav just last week and am already getting excited enough about it to seriously consider GMing a campaign. And THAT hasn't happened in years.
I started with Gurps Traveller, because it was a Gurps space setting. I really liked it, and then picked up MegaTraveller and TNE. I liked MT system, and absolutely loved TNE. I then got CT, and it was pretty cool. Just recently got MGT and I really like it. I plan on using MGT and the TNE setting for my next game.
When I first started to play it was about 30 years ago and I was on active duty in the Marines. I played Marine Mercenary characters mostly and was heavily into that aspect of the game, as were my companions who were also Marines. No surprise.
After I got out I considered Merchants for a time, but the similarity to daily life in dealing with bills and such kept me away from it; I never could shake that aspect of it.
Later it was the Scout Service that attracted me, and indeed to this day I still favor this character type above all others. The exploration bug has never really left me; I still need to see what's over the next hill, or around the next star as it were.
I prefer Classic Traveller over all others, although I have all versions of the game, naturally enough. I like T20 well enough; it is easy for folk to pick up and these days is the most commonly known mechanic. But I love my CT...Shiara Ulanti lives still, piloting her Scout 'Star's End' around the edges of the Marches.
Shiara
After I got out I considered Merchants for a time, but the similarity to daily life in dealing with bills and such kept me away from it; I never could shake that aspect of it.
Later it was the Scout Service that attracted me, and indeed to this day I still favor this character type above all others. The exploration bug has never really left me; I still need to see what's over the next hill, or around the next star as it were.
I prefer Classic Traveller over all others, although I have all versions of the game, naturally enough. I like T20 well enough; it is easy for folk to pick up and these days is the most commonly known mechanic. But I love my CT...Shiara Ulanti lives still, piloting her Scout 'Star's End' around the edges of the Marches.
Shiara
My vector; the short version.
A good friend bought the LBBs in 1980. We played many classic traveller adventures that year in high school.
Our group stayed with D&D and assorted TSR products with the occasional Traveller crossover/conversion.
Once in college, all 10 years of it, I found no time or opportunity to actually play traveller.
In 1992, I began to replace all my old CT books my old friends had lost. Thus began my collection phase. If it had the word “TRAVELLER:” on it I bought it.
In 2002, I accidentally found the COTI website, T20 and the TML. I knew D20 so the rules were second nature. I managed to play the entire Stoner arc during TDY assignments.
In 2005, I joined a Traveller PBEM and have been posting in character ever since.
A good friend bought the LBBs in 1980. We played many classic traveller adventures that year in high school.
Our group stayed with D&D and assorted TSR products with the occasional Traveller crossover/conversion.
Once in college, all 10 years of it, I found no time or opportunity to actually play traveller.
In 1992, I began to replace all my old CT books my old friends had lost. Thus began my collection phase. If it had the word “TRAVELLER:” on it I bought it.
In 2002, I accidentally found the COTI website, T20 and the TML. I knew D20 so the rules were second nature. I managed to play the entire Stoner arc during TDY assignments.
In 2005, I joined a Traveller PBEM and have been posting in character ever since.
I'm not involved in any games right now, but I love the ramifications of science-fiction, and Traveller is an interactive form of a speculative future. Hence, the reason I keep coming here. Also, I keep trying to wrap my creative juices around Traveller, but have only been marginally successful.
Part of the reason is the restriction of writing fiction that has to fit into a set of rules, and letting the fiction form organically out of pure immagination while at the same time seemlessly fitting with whatever limitations are induced by the ruleset; i.e. psionics and starship jumps work a certain way in the rules, therefore their description needs to be limited to those functional descriptions.
I tried getting a campaign going, but, unfortunately, the players I was with had another agenda ("Christian" gamers trying to "de-program" my enthusiasm for science fiction ... but that's another story).
I've been working on a series of stories focusing on a group of adventurers who travel the Imperium and its fringes. From Aslan Hierate, to Zho and Vargr space, and everyplace else. I've gotten some good stuff down, but some incomplete stuff as well. Most recently I asked about Scout ships verse fighters in the Fleet section. That question ties into the fiction I've been working on.
I've also contemplated doing a MOD for one of the more popular FPS game engines, but have been a little too busy with other things to really delve into that. It's a project that's going to require a lot of dedication, and I'm not the young 20-something with lots of spare time and finances to thow at such a project. It may or may not happen. It'll be a fan project, and I'll post a link here (probably under the software section, if and wen it ever happens).
I'd love to be part of an ongoing campaign with a local group. But after my last experience with a local gaming group I'm a little hesitant.
If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, send my a PM.
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