Help for Referees

[Maxijohndoe]

Before I start this is my POV and not a demand.

Ok.

There is a thread in the Traveller forum where people are debating how to get more people interested in playing Traveller.

I gave it some thought and realised that attracting new players is useless without getting more people interested in being a Referee.

The figure is a guess but I suspect that there are at least four players for every Ref, and probably more than that.

In my case I had eight players across two campaigns before RL forced a pause on things.

And it is the Referee who is Mongoose's bread and butter. None of my players bought a hard cover and only one bought the pdfs. I have spent around $800 AUD on Mongoose stuff.

So what do you need to be a Referee?

Firstly a desire to be one.

Secondly the free time to invest in setting up and running a Traveller game.

Thirdly the financial resources to buy the books if you are starting from scratch.

Fourthly finding players.

Where Mongoose can help is by reducing the time a Referee needs to invest, particularly newer Referees.

What I am suggesting is a free download intended for new Referees. It could take the format of a mini-adventure where all the main rules are explained by examples, along with page references to those rules in the books.

So an example layout:

An introduction to Traveller briefly explaining the setting and pointing out Referee resources like the Wiki and Traveller Map.

Character creation. This seems to confuse both Referees and Players when they first try to make Traveller characters.

Skills and the types of skill checks, including group rolls and task chains.

Basic gun and melee combat.

Basic Starship rules.

Starship combat.

That covers the basics.

Note that the aim isn't to replace the books: creating a single character or using one weapon or starship won't enable people to play without the books.

But the idea is to stop what we used to call folder shock: that is the feeling you can get looking at a huge pile of books that it is too hard to understand or get the hang of.

Note that great people have put such guides on YouTube and other places, but an official handout from Mongoose would definitely help.

Again this is just my opinion.

 

[mavikfelna]

Walkthroughs for everything is needed, from character creation to ship building to building your own adventure. A pinned post with links to those and other resources would be good. And of course put the links on the Traveller Resource page on the Mongoose store page.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Thank you for highlighting this. Quick question though - what do you feel is missing from this: https://www.mongoosepublishing.com/products/starterpack

 

[Maxijohndoe]

Thank you for highlighting this. Quick question though - what do you feel is missing from this: https://www.mongoosepublishing.com/products/starterpack

What I am suggesting is a worked example of each of the main parts of traveller so a Referee and therefore a player can easily follow the steps.

The explorers pdf is just pieces taken from the books.

In homework terms what I am suggesting is going through things step by step. Show your workings.

Example.

Let's create a Traveller called Joe Blow.

Go through each step in making a Traveller character term by term, die roll by die roll, as though you were creating an actual character.

Character creation really threw several of my players and one had errors that gimped his Traveller that wasn't detected until well into the campaign even though we had all rolled up characters together.

Basically you have a flowchart - pages 14 & 15 of the core rules - with arrows going all over the place. This flow chart doesn't even make it into the Explorers Addition.

So for Joe Blow

Roll die for the six attributes

Explain the Characteristic Modifiers

Explain Background Skills and how you get them

Pre-Career education. Have Joe roll to get into Military Academy. Explain Service Skills.

This was a point of confusion for many - explain where the Event and Mishap rolls occur in a term and how to apply the effects.

Explain the Graduation Roll.

Basically making a Traveller Character is complicated with rules covering thirty five pages and then other bits elsewhere.

Once you understand how it works it is fine. Maybe try getting a friend who hasn't played traveller to read the rules and see if they can roll up a character without going to external sources or you helping them.

Do the same for other core mechanics. Have Joe Blow make different skill checks complete with die rolls and how you apply the results.

Have Joe Blow get in a gun fight again with rolls and how to interpret the results. People on Reddit still ask questions about the combat rules all the time.

Same with Starship operations and combat.

I used to make manuals for using accounting software and the easiest mistake to make is assume knowledge that you possess but a new user doesn't.

I hope this doesn't come across as hostile, but the rules in some areas like starship construction are so complicated your own book writers don't get it correct sometimes. So what hope does a newbie have?

 

[CordwainerFish]

Also: next Big Revision, haul an old school programmer out of retirement to do the chargen flowchart. Really old school, one who used one of those plastic templates. What's in the 2016 and 2022 books is not what a flowchart looks like.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Ah, I am with you.

Funnily enough, related to this, our future core books are going to have a double page spread where, at a glance, you can see every core rule in the game. Dark Conspiracy is likely the first to feature that,

 

[Anstett]

Rather than start another thread about this I am going with the tradition of forking a conversation.

How many people have run an "Introduction to Traveller" type of game at a FLGS/Online or Convention? Expressly running an example game to bring new players into the fold?
From one of the other threads about this:

M

Post in thread 'How to make Traveller more popular with TTRPG players'

Yesterday at 11:26 AM

I have two groups: one of four players old enough to have played Traveller back in the 1980s, a another four completely new that I brought across from 5e.

All enjoyed different aspects of the game. Some were really into trading and watching the credits roll in. Some like being spies and agents. A couple just like shooting stuff and seeing big explosions.

The setting never came into it because I did all the work so when they arrived at a planet I give them a rundown of what they knew given their characters or what they need to know if they bother to look up the information.

I have never...

• Maxijohndoe

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There is my own sub thread about the "Adventures in Space" series of introductions I ran in summer of 2024 as part of the 50th Travellers Needed thread.

Have you run an "Introduction to Traveller" for new players?
Where on the planet did you do this?

 

[Maxijohndoe]

Here I am trying to address the need to get more Referees willing to run Traveller games. Both attracting Referees and players is needed.

 

[Anstett]

Here I am trying to address the need to get more Referees willing to run Traveller games. Both attracting Referees and players is needed.

I think hearing from existing GMs who are actually running/teaching the sessions will be helpful to target what resources they/we use and some best practices we have discovered.