Aliens as player characters?

Thlaylie

Mongoose
I'm thinking of buying this latest Traveller RPG. Can you play Aliens as player characters yet or do I have to wait for further supplements? By Aliens I mean the non human ones: Hiver, Kkree etc.

Thanks for any help.
 
They will be if I recall right publishing various alien suppliments, but they do have enough information to at least "wing it" on all of the major race aliens, especially if you already have an idea about what each alien race is like.
 
The main book has sketchy details about the aliens - traits, characteristic changes and short descriptions, but not careers. So you could definitely jury-rig alien characters with the main book alone (just write alternative event tables for the relevant careers), but the alien sourcebooks would give you more options.
 
I'd say the currently available relevant books (core rulebook and spinward marches) are not really detailed enough (even for the humanoid aliens).

However if you order the FFE CD of classic traveller (35 $), it will contain all the initital alien modules (and everything else from classic traveller, including adventures, etc), in PDF. So allthough not exactly the same rules as Mongoose Traveller you will have all the possible and necessary descriptions, and the rules elements are quite similar so not too hard to transfer.

The amount of stuff in the CD can be too much for a newcomer to handle, but in a case like yours you know what you want so you should be able to make rapid good use of it.
 
I actually have both the old Traveller books and the recently released "Classic Traveller" set. I figure this would be D20 or something new rules that would be hard to convert.
 
There is a specific d20 Traveller called T20 or something, but Mongoose Traveller is much closer to Classic Traveller than anything D20. You could say both are just versions of the same thing really.

Basically transfering from CT to mongoose will be quite simple allthough not immediate (differences include non lethal char gen, less skills, etc, but the char gen notably keeps the same structure as good ol'Traveller)

So if you allready have CT, you have the fluff elements for Alien (which should not change), and for appropriate rules (char gen) you will need to adapt a bit the CT char gen, giving skills in same way as mongoose (basically less skills), adding maybe events, etc, while you wait for Mongoose version of Alien books (but by then you may decide not necessary for you).
 
There's enough basic rules and descriptions to play aliens from the corebook. More that there was in the original Classic rules anyway. I'm sure more details will be expanded upon in supplements - but there's still enough to play them currently.
 
Thank you all for the comments. I will give it a try. I've liked all the Traveller incarnations there have been so far.
 
BenGunn said:
Sadly you CAN play the Traveller Aliens. The result is typically a watered down "Imperial" version that get's all the benefits while avoiding most of the problems. This has in the past been especially true for the two "Furry" races (Aslan, Vagr) who both have official "Imperial" variants that lack many of the (mostly social/upbring based) problems of the races.

Considering how often the native Aslan culture has been butchered in play AND in print, an Imperialized Aslan is not necesssarily a bad thing. As long as the male urge to own land is carried over (being genetic), watering down the rest is not a terribly big concern.
 
GypsyComet said:
Considering how often the native Aslan culture has been butchered in play AND in print, an Imperialized Aslan is not necesssarily a bad thing. As long as the male urge to own land is carried over (being genetic), watering down the rest is not a terribly big concern.
Amen!!

While some races have been nicely layered and developed over the editions and versions of Traveller, the Aslan have been nothing but butchered.
 
So is it a definite that the major races will be getting their own book(s)?

There's nothing on the release schedule on the main site that looks like it…

/me looks at his classic Alien Modules. It wouldn't be *that* difficult to cull the info from them, but I'd be concerned about making conflicts with "official" stuff released later.
 
vertigo25 said:
So is it a definite that the major races will be getting their own book(s)?

There's nothing on the release schedule on the main site that looks like it…

/me looks at his classic Alien Modules. It wouldn't be *that* difficult to cull the info from them, but I'd be concerned about making conflicts with "official" stuff released later.

Mongoose has said several times that their license is a decade in duration. With that much time there WILL be aliens books. The question is really "when", not "if".
 
Thus far I get the impression that the Core rulebook rules are 'Here are the basics, there is more coming'.

So yes Aliens are possible, the framework is in place in the core of the game. However it IS skimpy and the more sources you have to improve play the better until the formal books arrive.
 
vertigo25 said:
So is it a definite that the major races will be getting their own book(s)?
It is definite that there will be major alien books. How they are grouped, and how many aliens are included in such books is an open question.

At one point I thought Mongoose Matt was asking for suggestions as to which alien(s) to do first. (Maybe I am hallucinating ...)
 
If you have the CT rules, and you want to run alien characters, I would advise making up your own careers based on the CT ones while waiting for the official Mongoose release. Aliens are probably some way down the line on their release schedule, I would imagine.

Spica Publishing has a free PDF on DriveThruRPG.com which helps you generate new careers for Mongoose Traveller.
 
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