I get the fact that the Mercenary book has traditionally been the extended book for these careers but I feel that they could be explored further with books dedicated to them individually. I would like to see something along the lines of High Guard with more detailed career paths and options within those services. Besides, Mercenary could be considered its own subcareer.
Army and Marine Books for Traveler
- Thread starter HumAnnoyd
- Start date
Fair enough. I don't think the current book was all that useful outside of a very specific Mercenary game and would like to see the vagaries of an interstellar army and marine corp explored a bit.
Despite your obvious disdain for it I see a lot of good story opportunities in a military style campaign and would appreciate a more in depth exploration of those possibilities. That being said I do enjoy the Free Trader and Exploration aspects as well.
Despite your obvious disdain for it I see a lot of good story opportunities in a military style campaign and would appreciate a more in depth exploration of those possibilities. That being said I do enjoy the Free Trader and Exploration aspects as well.
Rikki Tikki Traveller
Cosmic Mongoose
I just said that some of the careers in Mercenary were actually sub-careers within the Army or Marines (ala HG) and let players use them that way if desired (and approved). It has worked very well.
serene_muse
Mongoose
I'd suggest looking at the rather good GURPS Traveller Ground Forces.
serene_muse said:
I actually have that but was looking for more careers options and GURPS Ground Forces doesn't easily translate. I suppose I could just come up with my own careers and tables but that is a fair amount of work. But I do find it useful for some things.
I have been re-reading the old Legion of the Damned books (Foreign Legion in an Imperialist Space setting) and was thinking along those lines. The Merc book doesn't really help there although some of my old 2300 stuff comes in handy.
Techno-Guru
Mongoose
Hmmm, I'm with Somebody on this. It's a nice idea but like Highguard it won't be finding a space on my shelf unless I go on a completionist fit and buy up everything related to MGT.
I like READING military sci-fi (real military sci-fi written by actual soldiers or at least not written by anyone having a love affair with the WH40k "Spess Mahrines!" concept mind you) but playing it? Most of the groups I've had in college probably could have handled such a game and made it fun, but my current group consists of newbies and a powergamer with... well, do you really need to describe a powergamer?
Also, there would have to be a section on keeping a military campaign from turning into a simple dungeon crawl. Most of us read military fiction for the mix of drama and action the protagonists get themselves into but, and this may mostly be my group, we play military games for one reason only; to get military-grade weapons for our characters to use indiscriminantly.
I like READING military sci-fi (real military sci-fi written by actual soldiers or at least not written by anyone having a love affair with the WH40k "Spess Mahrines!" concept mind you) but playing it? Most of the groups I've had in college probably could have handled such a game and made it fun, but my current group consists of newbies and a powergamer with... well, do you really need to describe a powergamer?
Also, there would have to be a section on keeping a military campaign from turning into a simple dungeon crawl. Most of us read military fiction for the mix of drama and action the protagonists get themselves into but, and this may mostly be my group, we play military games for one reason only; to get military-grade weapons for our characters to use indiscriminantly.
serene_muse
Mongoose
nats said:
T20 and 1248 had a range of that (and MJD/BITS stuff for T4). You may want to check out MJD's non-equipment writings. Most of it's either systemless or nearly so.
Techno-Guru
Mongoose
nats said:
May the Emperor watch over you. :roll:
So I was rolling up several characters with my group yesterday evening and they kept gravitating to the High Guard expanded Naval Career stuff. I asked them why and they responded that they loved how they could make interesting and varied characters while staying in a Naval career. One player was delighted to make it into Naval College, work his way up through the ranks and become the Chief Engineer of a small Cruiser.
Another player asked if there was a similar book for the Marines or Army and I gave him the Merc book. He was just as dissatisfied with it as I was and wanted a full book for those careers. I feel like Merc serves its purpose covering that particular niche but the Army and Marines aren't really fully served by it.
I really do believe there would be enough interest in this to make it work. Military campaigns do NOT have to be just dungeon crawls as has been suggested. My recent experience with Godlike and past experience playing a WW2 campaign using Cyberpunk 2020 as well as a 3 year game of Twilight 2000 have proven this to me without doubt. A book that had the career expansions of High Guard for the Army and Marines would be welcome as well as a Sector Fleet like treatment of those branches.
Please note that I too would welcome some more monsters, huge space battles and death stars, creepy spaceships to explore, zombies and space vampires, reavers and jumpspace phenomenon as well. I just don't think the two are mutually exclusive.
Another player asked if there was a similar book for the Marines or Army and I gave him the Merc book. He was just as dissatisfied with it as I was and wanted a full book for those careers. I feel like Merc serves its purpose covering that particular niche but the Army and Marines aren't really fully served by it.
I really do believe there would be enough interest in this to make it work. Military campaigns do NOT have to be just dungeon crawls as has been suggested. My recent experience with Godlike and past experience playing a WW2 campaign using Cyberpunk 2020 as well as a 3 year game of Twilight 2000 have proven this to me without doubt. A book that had the career expansions of High Guard for the Army and Marines would be welcome as well as a Sector Fleet like treatment of those branches.
Please note that I too would welcome some more monsters, huge space battles and death stars, creepy spaceships to explore, zombies and space vampires, reavers and jumpspace phenomenon as well. I just don't think the two are mutually exclusive.
Techno-Guru
Mongoose
HumAnnoyd said:
It's been awhile since we had this conversation so I guess I'll just explain why I said I would like a section on how to make a military game more then a dungeon crawl. I made that comment speaking from the experience of being the only vet in a group of 4th Edition noobs. Granted, we (the group) have made noticable improvement since I wrote that, but still... a few players are still having trouble thinking outside of the dungeon (and adventurers aren't soldiers so much as glorified grave robbers really.)
And I'm sure I'm not the only one who would find notes on the military mindset and how to get the players to think like soldiers and NOT like a bunch of thugs (unless of course that's what they want to roleplay) on the helpful side of things. Can't really speak for the other naysayers here but I know for me that sort of information can spell the difference between a possible "get" and me just waiting for Career Book: Professional.
To be honest, the best way you could probably do this is to turf up Mongoose's old Starship Troopers property.
Judge Dredd et all proved they've no problem with adapting it to other universes, and Starship Troopers Traveller could prove quite interesting..
Don't know if the license is still extent, of course.
Judge Dredd et all proved they've no problem with adapting it to other universes, and Starship Troopers Traveller could prove quite interesting..
Don't know if the license is still extent, of course.
I would love to see a osprey type book (with full coloured plates) with typical traveller military uniforms, medals and other gear. Coloured alien military uniforms and alien gear too. And this for ground pounders and also naval personnel. So in short I would like know the uniforms and ranking of the different Aslan, K´kree or Vargr naval officers. As far as I know such a project never has been done for Traveller. 
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