How good is Traveller as a generic SF game?

[rabindranath72]

Hi all,
I am on the fence about buying the Traveller core book. I want an easy game system which is flexible enough to handle "hard" SF themes/characters, and which can be easily house ruled. Does it have rules for vehicles/ships? (spaceships/fighters/tanks/mecha etc.) What about computers?
Note I am not interested in the setting at all, so if the game is too deeply rooted (in terms of jargon and actual rules) in the setting, it's not good for my purposes. I also won't buy other supplements, so ideally all the basics should be in the core book.

Thanks,
Antonio

 

[sergeant_x]

In terms of flexibility, I'd say Traveller is a great choice. It does have a well-developed setting, but even that is very flexible, in that it's very large and lends itself to idiosyncrasies.

 

[rust]

While the Traveller system in my view is generic enough to model almost
all semi-hard and hard science fiction settings, you would most probably
need at least some of the suppplements to make full use of it, for exam-
ple High Guard for advanced starship design or the upcoming vehicle sup-
plement for vehicle design.

 

[dmccoy1693]

The majority of setting in the Traveller Core Book is limited to snippits at the bottom of the page, using OTU aliens as examples, and similar. There is no chapter that details the Third Imperium setting (that's in a seperate book), the faster than light travel section is easy enough to swap out with some other system, want more ray guns (without backpacks), easy enough to add them. [shameless plug] And my company is releasing a series of tech PDFs that includes mechs. The first of which launches on July 20. [/shameless plug]

The system itself is simple and easy to learn. I highly recommend it.

 

[rabindranath72]

Thanks for the feedback, all!
The campaign I am about to run is set in the solar system, in the near future. There is no interstellar travel, and the only ships who travel far into space go up to Jupiter to "mine" it for gas.
There are plenty of colonies around Earth. I expect players to choose anything from military operatives to corporate managers to policemen.
Action will include covert operations and some vehicle battles, but I do not much care for detailed tactical combats with vehicles.
There are spaceships for war and I want to add mecha (@dmccoy: that pdf supplement would be handy!) as the main unit types, both on land and in space. I may add some psionics (I heard Traveller also handles this), though I am not sure. There are no alien races (or at least, not sentient species to choose as characters).
Long story short: if Traveller supports this kind of setting, I am sold

EDIT: just read the home page of Jon Brazier Enterprises, and I am thrilled at the mech entry!!! That's exactly the level of detail I want in my games, not the huge stat blocks and sheets of Battletech, for example.
Will this supplement require the High Guard book?

Cheers,
Antonio

 

[dmccoy1693]

Oh Traveller definitely handles that. All you have to do is simply ignore sections of the core book. No aliens, no need to read the part on how to make aliens. No faster than light travel, simply ignore that section of the ship design section. The core book does have psionics.

The first Mech of mine to appear is a common construction mech and is capable of wielding a mech size weapon. Future issues will present military grade mechs.

Edit

EDIT: just read the home page of Jon Brazier Enterprises, and I am thrilled at the mech entry!!! That's exactly the level of detail I want in my games, not the huge stat blocks and sheets of Battletech, for example.
Will this supplement require the High Guard book?

Good, I'm glad you like the shorter stat block format. Large stat blocks have their place, but I don't feel that mechs are that place (unless its a mech game like robotech). I design my products to only require the main Traveller book. While High Guard (and Merc, depending on the product) are sometimes used, I try to make sure there is enough information present that only the core book is required to get full use out of it.

 

[EDG]

Thanks for the feedback, all!
The campaign I am about to run is set in the solar system, in the near future. There is no interstellar travel, and the only ships who travel far into space go up to Jupiter to "mine" it for gas.
There are plenty of colonies around Earth. I expect players to choose anything from military operatives to corporate managers to policemen.
Action will include covert operations and some vehicle battles, but I do not much care for detailed tactical combats with vehicles.
There are spaceships for war and I want to add mecha (@dmccoy: that pdf supplement would be handy!) as the main unit types, both on land and in space. I may add some psionics (I heard Traveller also handles this), though I am not sure. There are no alien races (or at least, not sentient species to choose as characters).

Um... I think that actually you'll be better off getting Dream Pod 9's "Jovian Chronicles" RPG ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jovian_Chronicles ), because that's very close to what you've described. Or possibly SJG's "Transhuman Space" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhuman_Space ). I think you'd have to do a lot of work to get this out of Traveller, because you'd have to strip out a lot of existing technologies and add a lot of your own.

 

[dmccoy1693]

Um... I think that actually you'll be better off getting Dream Pod 9's "Jovian Chronicles" RPG ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jovian_Chronicles ), because that's very close to what you've described. Or possibly SJG's "Transhuman Space" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhuman_Space ). I think you'd have to do a lot of work to get this out of Traveller, because you'd have to strip out a lot of existing technologies and add a lot of your own.

To each their own, but I think it would be rather easy. You decide the tech level you'd like (i.e. I don't think that laser weaponry should be developed yet, so don't look at anything above TL11). No faster than light means additional cargo space where the jump drive use to be. YMMV.

 

[Strangelove]

Um... I think that actually you'll be better off getting Dream Pod 9's "Jovian Chronicles" RPG ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jovian_Chronicles ), because that's very close to what you've described. Or possibly SJG's "Transhuman Space" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhuman_Space ). I think you'd have to do a lot of work to get this out of Traveller, because you'd have to strip out a lot of existing technologies and add a lot of your own.

I would second this statement. I have all three game systems mentioned Jovian Chronicles, Transhuman Space and Mongoose Traveller. Transhuman Space is the crunchiest of the three but it provides a spaceship(not starship) building system that is compatible with the GURPS Vehicles Book which lets you design weapons, vehicles etc. The setting and technology assumptions would match up well for you except there is not mecha per say but rather robots that can be tele-operated by people or using AI.

Jovian Chronicles also has a design system but it is more "big-picture" than crunchy like THS. It focuses around mecha so it matches well for you in that regard.

The primary differences are that Jovian Chronicles is more of a anime-ish positive outlook on the future and THS is decidedly alien and negative.

Traveller is really suited for Interstellar type settings and you'd spend a ton of time trying to make it fit. I'd not go that way unless you want to design a lot of your own material.

The THS main rulebook has the GURPS lite rules included in it if you find the hardcover version. If not you can always download them for free and just expand with your own homebrew rules instead of getting deep into GURPS 3rd edition books. Even if you don't end up using THS the setting's books like Deep Beyond, In the Well and High Frontier are excellent source books for a solar system based game since they completely cover aspects of play in the three areas (Past Mars, Mercury to Mars, and Earth Orbit respectively).

 

[EDG]

The primary differences are that Jovian Chronicles is more of a anime-ish positive outlook on the future and THS is decidedly alien and negative.

THS is generally positive too (if anything it's too optimistic in terms of technological and social development). It's just varied - like the real world, not everyone has it good there. The artwork (completely the wrong style for the game, even its creator thought it was inappropriate) doesn't help though since it's given a lot of people the idea that it's a dystopian setting.

 

[Strangelove]

The primary differences are that Jovian Chronicles is more of a anime-ish positive outlook on the future and THS is decidedly alien and negative.

THS is generally positive too (if anything it's too optimistic in terms of technological and social development). It's just varied - like the real world, not everyone has it good there. The artwork (completely the wrong style for the game, even its creator thought it was inappropriate) doesn't help though since it's given a lot of people the idea that it's a dystopian setting.

I guess I view it as negative/dystopian from reading the Broken Dreams source book for it. The SJG description of it reads:

On Earth in 2100, some are reaching for the stars . . . but others struggle just to survive. Much of the home world remains mired in war and intrigue, as powerful corporations and high-tech armies fight over resources, markets, and ideas. Cities on the edge of chaos are battlegrounds for covert operations and high-stakes diplomacy, and the developing nations see themselves falling farther and farther behind.

Nations trapped in poverty, environmental disaster areas, and hellholes run by insane dictators . . . high-tech terrorism, rebellion, and crime, and rules for creating biological and chemical weapons . . . dangerous genetic designs, obsolete cybertechnology, and police state software . . . all part of daily life in Broken Dreams.

The core book and other source books are not so dreary, just transhuman "strange". So while space in the setting is a place of freedom to explore the edge of humanity, the Earth, at least the non-fifth wave parts, seems nightmarish.

 

[EDG]

Well, Broken Dreams is the book that specifically covers the darker side of the setting . But as I said, it's really a mix. Some places are nice, some are nasty.

 

[zanwot]

I'll more or less second EDG and Strangelove, but to be specific I think the criteria is what flavour you want your SF to have :

TranshumanSpace goes into cyber/bio/info-technology big time, but is nearly unplayable (because of the weird universe and some might say because of the rules if some don't like gurps). But it does present a solar system setting all made (the date is supposed to be 2100, but I'dd say an optimistic 2200 is more likely). A default for you may be, if you want to use the setting, that the setting is very supplement dependant.

Traveller has a very 80s feel to it, with only minimal amount of cyber/bio/info-technology, but is very easy to handle (from the simple rules to the simple technology). The official setting can very easily be ignored, that is the point of it, but it is supposed to be a space opera, so things like artificial gravity tend to be taken for granted, and if you want cybernetics ans such you'll mostly need to do it yourself (but maybe the Agent book will help there).

I can't coment on Jovian Chronicles.

Other (mini) space opera SF you may want to check out: Blue Planet (ecology orientated, dunno how it gives in practice), and the upcoming Eclipse Phase (which should manage the feat of making THS obsolete, it is the one I am waiting for).

 

[AndrewW]

Hi all,
I am on the fence about buying the Traveller core book. I want an easy game system which is flexible enough to handle "hard" SF themes/characters, and which can be easily house ruled. Does it have rules for vehicles/ships? (spaceships/fighters/tanks/mecha etc.) What about computers?
Note I am not interested in the setting at all, so if the game is too deeply rooted (in terms of jargon and actual rules) in the setting, it's not good for my purposes. I also won't buy other supplements, so ideally all the basics should be in the core book.

Thanks,
Antonio

Traveller has all this though for some you'll want supplements. The core book should work fine for the spaceships, though High Guard covers Small Craft and Capital Ships (2,001+ military vessels) but doesn't seems like you'll be using the larger ships. And there are some small craft in the core book (though modified some in High Guard not really required unless you want to design your own). The vehicle design system is covered in Civilian Vehicles and Military vehicles (not yet released) including mechs. The Core Book + Military Vehicles should cover most of what you want. Computers aren't highly detailed (rating and some software) but are there. While there is a seperate Psionics supplement there is coverage of this in the Core Book as well. Vehicle combat is covered in the Core Book. Most of the prebuilt ships have jump drives but can use just the Core Book to design your own without jump drives as you wont be using interstellar travel.

 

[BP]

...I am on the fence about buying the Traveller core book. ...

Check out this -its free and basically the rules minus the setting...

Then you might be interested in Hammer's Slammers - I believe it would cover the tanks part :wink:

I love Traveller - but it is geared more to Interstellar rather than a hard SF single solar system setting your post implies. If you like making house rules from a good framework - you can definitely make it work, but investigate the other settings mentioned...

 

[rabindranath72]

Thanks for the feedback, all!
The campaign I am about to run is set in the solar system, in the near future. There is no interstellar travel, and the only ships who travel far into space go up to Jupiter to "mine" it for gas.
There are plenty of colonies around Earth. I expect players to choose anything from military operatives to corporate managers to policemen.
Action will include covert operations and some vehicle battles, but I do not much care for detailed tactical combats with vehicles.
There are spaceships for war and I want to add mecha (@dmccoy: that pdf supplement would be handy!) as the main unit types, both on land and in space. I may add some psionics (I heard Traveller also handles this), though I am not sure. There are no alien races (or at least, not sentient species to choose as characters).

Um... I think that actually you'll be better off getting Dream Pod 9's "Jovian Chronicles" RPG ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jovian_Chronicles ), because that's very close to what you've described. Or possibly SJG's "Transhuman Space" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhuman_Space ). I think you'd have to do a lot of work to get this out of Traveller, because you'd have to strip out a lot of existing technologies and add a lot of your own.

Actually, my current campaign IS a Jovian Chronicles one I love that game! But I was also looking for something else, possibly a bit more rules light, especially w.r.t. tactical combat.

 

[lastbesthope]

Over the months I've owned Mongoose Traveller I keep thinking of SF RPGs that I want to run and of all the systems I own, often Mong Trav is the one that seems best suited, sometimes more suited than some of the systems developed for a specific SF RPG.

I am also hopeful that Armageddon 2089, a previous Mongoose d20 RPG will be resurrected via Traveller.

LBH

 

[Rex]

The Rules work for everything Sci Fi actually. I've already converted a Home Rules setting to the Traveller Rules, and that has everything from Hard Core Science (Foundation Series), to Mecha, to Magic.

Works BEAUTIFULLY.

Also, planning on doing "The Forever War" as a demo game for Gencon, as well as the "real" Traveller universe, and a few other Options, JUST to showcase the versatility. Babylon 5 Traveller was incredibly fun to run and run it did this Origins Game Fair with multiple packed tables and returning players.

Right now in that mix for Gencon though, I have Haldeman's Forever War, some Dorsai stuff possibly, certainly some Bio of a Space Tyrant, and top it off with a Bit of Chalkers Well World. Could be interesting to do some Honorverse stuff or Mutineers Moon.

So if you want to see the versatility of the game, swing into Gencon.

Should be a good time because Traveller is Always a good time.

~Rex

The Black Hand, Mongoose Infantry.

 

[rabindranath72]

...I am on the fence about buying the Traveller core book. ...

Check out this -its free and basically the rules minus the setting...

Then you might be interested in Hammer's Slammers - I believe it would cover the tanks part :wink:

I love Traveller - but it is geared more to Interstellar rather than a hard SF single solar system setting your post implies. If you like making house rules from a good framework - you can definitely make it work, but investigate the other settings mentioned...

Thanks! Completely missed the free documents!