Book 10 Ideas for Classic Traveller

[Longboat]

Let's throw out some serious ideas for what we'd like to see in Book 10.

Other Career: I'd love to see a creative book on the Other career from Book 1.

MegaCorps: The same goes with MegaCorps. I envision a book with a few or several (maybe six) careers that focus MegaCorporation roles.

I think that all careers in Classic Traveller should have both Basic and Advanced character generation, so a book like MegaCorps should contain both because the Basic career is not listed anywhere else. I see a book like that being standard length, like Pirates, with a few added pages for the Basic Character Generation section.

Citizens: The remaining careers in Supplement 4 could become Book 10, either singly, like Pirates, or maybe a book that groups the rest or two or three together into a single book.

Starports/Starport Authority: A book that focuses on starports and those careers. Maybe six careers. Both Basic and Advanced character generation plus other stuff about classic Traveller starports.

Nobles: This would be interesting. A closer look at the feudal system used in the Third Imperium has always been lacking in classic Traveller. I'd mine ideas from the classic science fiction that inspired the feudal system in Traveller--Dune, Dumarest, Flandary, etc.

Vilani: They were not touched on in the classic Traveller Alien Modules. Would it be appropriate to have a LBB for them? Or, should the larger format Alien Module design be used for this topic?

Marshalls: I like the idea of creating a career inspired by Sean Connery's role in the movie Outland. That seems to fit Traveller well. It would be adapted to the Third Imperium and Traveller's universe, of course. Maybe it covers generic/typical types of police forces used in Traveller.

 

[ross]

Other Career: I'd love to see a creative book on the Other career.

Nobles: This would be interesting. A closer look at the feudal system used in the Third Imperium has always been lacking in classic Traveller. I'd mine ideas from the classic science fiction that inspired the feudal system in Traveller--Dune, Dumarest, Flandary, etc.

Vilani: They were not touched on in the classic Traveller Alien Modules.

The Other career would be interesting but difficult. I think the Noble’s book would be the most logical. I think the added bonus is that could really discuss governance and merit nobility.

The Vilani should definitely get the full Alien Module treatment. This is also an area of space that is generally not been discussed.

 

[CordwainerFish]

Agent: A polity eventually finds a need for well-skilled, well-equipped sophonts who uphold its rules by breaking them. You did not see them and they were not here.

 

[Longboat]

The Other career would be interesting but difficult.

Yes, but if done well, it could be a homerun. The difficulty is that there is no one "Other" career. By design, it was meant as a catch-all career, something other than a military career, Merchant, or Scout.

Still, the Advanced character generation part shouldn't be that hard, based what's already available with the Basic career in Book 1.

I think the Noble’s book would be the most logical. I think the added bonus is that could really discuss governance and merit nobility.

I agree. I'd rather see this book sooner rather than later. I've always wondered how a world that has a representative democracy (or insert other govt type) operates under the umbrella of the feudal system.

 

[MasterGwydion]

Agent: A polity eventually finds a need for well-skilled, well-equipped sophonts who uphold its rules by breaking them. You did not see them and they were not here.

This would work good for Cyberpunk-style corporate espionage game too.

 

[Condottiere]

 

[FreeTrav]

Let's throw out some serious ideas for what we'd like to see in Book 10.

Other Career: I'd love to see a creative book on the Other career from Book 1.

The problem with this is that the Classic Other career was a bit of a "leftover" - essentially, anything that wasn't one of the other five careers (Army, Navy, Marines, Scouts, Merchants). Supplement 4 offered some Basic careers for specific roles, and later unofficial development generated both Basic (Book 1) and Extended careers other specific instances of Other, but I think that the only "reasonable" Book 10 based on Other would actually be Expanded Supplement 4.

MegaCorps: The same goes with MegaCorps. I envision a book with a few or several (maybe six) careers that focus MegaCorporation roles.

I think that all careers in Classic Traveller should have both Basic and Advanced character generation, so a book like MegaCorps should contain both because the Basic career is not listed anywhere else. I see a book like that being standard length, like Pirates, with a few added pages for the Basic Character Generation section.

The thing about MegaCorps is that they're (a) too big, and (b) vertically integrated, so could be expected to have people in any role within the corp structure - including mercs, covered by Book 4. I think this has the same problem as Other, above, only more so.

Citizens: The remaining careers in Supplement 4 could become Book 10, either singly, like Pirates, or maybe a book that groups the rest or two or three together into a single book.

See above regarding Other and MegaCorp.

Starports/Starport Authority: A book that focuses on starports and those careers. Maybe six careers. Both Basic and Advanced character generation plus other stuff about classic Traveller starports.

This maybe has some potential - I don't see Starport Security as being like Army/Marines, so that's one good career (although it could be subsumed into a "Police" career); I'm not, however, quite seeing other roles within the port - or the SPA - as necessarily being good PC candidates. I'm willing to listen to others' suggestions about it, though; I'm certainly not all-knowing when it comes to playing Traveller...

Nobles: This would be interesting. A closer look at the feudal system used in the Third Imperium has always been lacking in classic Traveller. I'd mine ideas from the classic science fiction that inspired the feudal system in Traveller--Dune, Dumarest, Flandary, etc.

This may need to go beyond feudal nobility into the "nobility of stratospheric wealth" (or maybe mesospheric, thermospheric, or exospheric, rather than merely stratospheric). While it definitely should have information on Imperial feudalism, it might also be appropriate to delve into corporate feudalism as well. And maybe the kind of "nobility" (of wealth) that we see today that gives wealth and privilege a bad name.

Vilani: They were not touched on in the classic Traveller Alien Modules. Would it be appropriate to have a LBB for them? Or, should the larger format Alien Module design be used for this topic?

Definitely the full Alien Module. But if we're going to start going there, where do we stop? There are, after all, other sophont species and subspecies within the Imperium. I liked the Mongoose Minor Alien Module on the Luriani, and always wished that Mongoose would contract with Andrea to write a second, expanded edition, but you still have the line question - do you then do Geonee, Tekundu, Azhanti, Vegans, et multae ceterae?

The point to doing the Zhodani and Solomani Alien Modules was that "yes, they're human - but not Imperial; they have their own Empires with their own interstellar cultures". Although we generally don't play that way, the Vilani are more-or-less the Third Imperium, and thus "not aliens".

Marshalls: I like the idea of creating a career inspired by Sean Connery's role in the movie Outland. That seems to fit Traveller well. It would be adapted to the Third Imperium and Traveller's universe, of course. Maybe it covers generic/typical types of police forces used in Traveller.

I've not seen the movie in question so I can't speak to this idea.

 

[harunmushod]

Any of the Citizens of the Imperium that don't yet have an advanced character generation system:
Belters, diplomats & bureaucrats, doctors, barbarians, rogues (although pirates should have been a subclass of rogues), and nobles.

(Sailors, Hunters and flyers likely to be of limited interest to players).

 

[Longboat]

There's an article in JTAS, IIRC, that serves as instructions for creating your own Basic 4-Year classic Traveller generation system for a career of your choice. I think reproducing that, or writing something like it, would be good in a LBB about Other careers.

The Other LBB would also be a good place to put the Advanced chargen for the remaining Supplement 4 careers.

 

[Condottiere]

We tend to be optimized to operate in a specific environment, and character generation lets us find out what that would be.

In most cases, we would be fish out of water, until we can get back there.

 

[AndrewW]

This maybe has some potential - I don't see Starport Security as being like Army/Marines, so that's one good career (although it could be subsumed into a "Police" career); I'm not, however, quite seeing other roles within the port - or the SPA - as necessarily being good PC candidates. I'm willing to listen to others' suggestions about it, though; I'm certainly not all-knowing when it comes to playing Traveller...

Starport careers could cover a whole range of areas. Besides the mentioned starport security there could be: Administration, ship maitnenance, shipyards, warehousing just to start things off. Then there are the various vendors (restaurants, hospitals, retail for example).

 

[TrippyHippy]

Psion?

 

[Longboat]

We tend to be optimized to operate in a specific environment, and character generation lets us find out what that would be.

In most cases, we would be fish out of water, until we can get back there.

I see what you're saying, but character generation is the character's attributes in a standard 1G field.

 

[Sigtrygg]

LBB:4->9 contain a lot more than an expanded character generation system.
Mercenary had mercenary tickets, a combat resolution system, ironmongery
High Guard has ship construction and ship combat
Scouts had extensive rules for the IISS organisation (it was the first rule book tied completely to the Third Imperium setting) and extended system generation
Merchant had details about Third Imperium merchant organisations and a new trade system
Robots was... well, robots. Their place in the setting and construction rules
Pirates...

So any Book 10 should have extensive rules not just an extended character generation.

So Nobles - include bureaucrats and diplomats - additional rules for government types, laws and law levels...

Starport Authority - rules for the facilities found at the different startports, more detailed rules for jump lanes and trade routes...

Lawfare - rules for law levels, crime and punishment, law enforcement, and that most evil of villains, the lawyer.

 

[FreeTrav]

Starport careers could cover a whole range of areas. Besides the mentioned starport security there could be: Administration, ship maitnenance, shipyards, warehousing just to start things off. Then there are the various vendors (restaurants, hospitals, retail for example).

Yes, there's no question of that - but one has to consider whether those possible starport careers would make for good player-characters. That's what I'm not really seeing.

 

[Condottiere]

The everyman is a stock character of fiction. An ordinary and humble character,[3][4] the everyman is generally a protagonist whose benign conduct fosters the audience's identification with them.

 

[AndrewW]

Yes, there's no question of that - but one has to consider whether those possible starport careers would make for good player-characters. That's what I'm not really seeing.

Who said careers would be just for player characters? NPC's can use careers as well. And never know what might interest a potential player. Someone working for the SPA might have contacts that would be useful to the characters, got them while working for them. Can certainly pickup useful skills in such a career.

 

[CordwainerFish]

NPC's can use careers as well.

Book 10: NPC

 

[Condottiere]

(Planet of) Hats and (Red) Shirts

 

[AndrewW]

(Planet of) Hats and (Red) Shirts

Or should that be sacrifices?