Hi, i am new to traveller! I have skimmed through the rules already, i have created a couple of characters to familiarize myself with the character generation rules and i am planning to run the game as a referee for another player (1 vs 1).

Are there any combat and space-combat examples somewhere? I found these sections on the rulebook the most difficult to comprehend.

Any suggestions or ideas for games with a referee and a single player? Any adventures that should be easy to run with just a single player available?

Thank you!

The two combat systems are the hardest to wrap your head around, even for people who have played older versions of Traveller.

I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to give you any help on that one.

A good mission for a single ex-military player might be to run a GM-ed version of the free "Into the Star" adventure from Terra/Sol games. Terra/Sol is a different setting than the standard Traveller one, but the game rules remain unchanged, so "Into the Star" can serve as inspiration. If you don't feel like tracking that one down, here's a very similar idea you could work up yourself:

You just got out of [whatever service] and are looking for some work. A friend in-system puts you in contact with a Patron who wants you to infiltrate a small base on an asteroid and retrieve some data for him. The base can be whatever you want; a rival corporation's secret lab, a criminal organization's terror cell armory, whatever works best for the "mood" you and your players like. The Patron should lend you any special equipment you will need, but you must pay for damage or loss out of your reward money.

The base itself should probably have electronic locks to hack with Computer skill, guards to defeat (either robotic or human - robots are nice because a smart player can sometimes find the control room and shut them all down), a few scientists to question/kill/kidnap, and possibly a "boss", though if this is a short adventure, the "robotic security system" itself can be the boss.

One thing to keep in mind is that Traveller combat can be pretty deadly, so make sure your player has some armor and cover to hide behind. Also make sure the enemies aren't too good - usually Weapon+1 is sufficient for standard guards.

Use Recon and Stealth checks. (It's ok not to have the skills - remember the unskilled penalty though). Especially against robots, it's probably easiest to just pick a threshold to avoid detection. Use Recon to spot security cameras (Average, Recon+Int). Sneaking past guards: Difficult, Stealth+Dex+[Effect of Recon roll]. If the player has a map of the security cameras, then I'd just give him a +2 instead of making him roll for Recon to find them. (A side note - security robots probably have all-around vision, so "sneaking up behind them" isn't really an option.)

If your player is more interested in mercantile pursuits, you could have him or her trying to either pick up or deliver a less-than-legal package, rolling against the Law Level and using Admin, Carousing, Deception and similar skills to try to avoid "Imperial Entanglements".

And Exploration minded characters might find themselves tasked with visiting a colony that hasn't reported in recently. Any old Star Trek or Forbidden Planet type scenarios could be used here.

With those suggestions out of the way, I would be remiss not to mention the Freelance Traveller site, which is chock-full of ideas.

http://www.freelancetraveller.com/featu ... index.html will get you started.

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/hdan

When reading the example of combat in the book, its probably best to ignore them totally. Some seem to have nothing to do with the actual rules at all.

There have been various discussions about space combat on here before, you might want to try doing a search in this section of the forum.

So creating a simple mission with some skill challenges and one or two battles is the way to go? Obviously i must also take into consideration what happens if/when the player fails some skill challenge or a battle. With just one player is it really feasible to have him own his own spaceship? Or is it too much bookkeeping?

I would like to run a more open merchant campaign with a goal behind it to drive the player (for example he must go to a planet 2 parsecs away but his ship is only jump-1) and several quests that the player can choose from but i am not sure if i can handle all that detail and if it is worth it for just one player.

Finally if anyone has combat/space combat examples in mind, i would greatly appreciate it!

There are various places on the web for Traveller stuff - see http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/MGT-Aids/ and http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/signsnportentsarchive

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I agree - Combat and Space Combat are the two areas that Traveller has never addressed well despite it being at the heart of many games.

Classic Traveler did personal combat far better than MgT does - I cannot get my head around MgT combat at all. Too complex.

As far as space combat goes neither Classic nor MgT do it well enough to play it in a role playing group. Problem is, if done in detail at all, it is not a good role playing activity. The referee practically spends his whole time rule reading/dice throwing and the characters get left out of it all. Best way would be just wing the role play and use the Classic Traveller simple space combat rules system for damage resolution.

I certainly hope T5 does both types of combat better.

As far as adventures the old Classic Traveller adventures such as Marooned, Mission to Mithril and Across the Bright Face etc etc are all well suited to solo play with possibly a little bit of modification to some of them.

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I disagree, i found the personal combat system easy and straight forward to learn and use, and space combat just takes a few games to understand and get right, though space combat in most sci fi rpgs is always the hardest part to get right and understand.
I can write up some examples if it will help you

As as side note, wasn't the classic traveller combat the awful system in which armour made you harder to hit ( ), not absorbed damaged, if so then that is not a 'better' way of doing things, it is a really old and silly way of doing things, just my IMHO.

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It's using some High Guard stuff and they're pretty big ships by normal standards, but the rules are there.

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Understand that I'm not advocating violence.
I'm just saying that it's highly effective and I strongly recommend using it.

Minbari Protectorate Fleet:
http://www.mediafire.com/?cmymg13nzmd

For me, it was the complete opposite.

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High Dynasty Traveller Blog
http://www.youtube.com/user/shawndriscollcg