IIRC the Space Viking series by H. Beam Piper had ships spending hundreds of hours incommunicado in jump space. When it first appeared in the first book the story made a point of telling what the bridge crew did with all that spare time.
How to make Traveller more popular with TTRPG players
- Thread starter MarcusIII
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Fluffy Bunny Feet
Emperor Mongoose
That hyperdrive was common to all his Terrohuman future history. But Space Viking is the first one that centred parts of the story in hyperspace. Hyperdrive ships could travel (hypothetically) from one side of the Federation (and later Empires) to the other non stop and out of communication the whole way. It would make an excellent TV show actually.
The real unique things with Jump drive is that it can't make real long trips without refuelling and the fuel takes up a significant part of the ship, especially for the higher J ratings. Earth would have started needing to do back to back J-1 jumps just to get anywhere outside the system.
The setting I'm working on for my own (very questionable) future use has a fallen Federation loosely modelled on his as the past. Even has its own (very different) version of the sword worlds with much different origin and cultures.
The real unique things with Jump drive is that it can't make real long trips without refuelling and the fuel takes up a significant part of the ship, especially for the higher J ratings. Earth would have started needing to do back to back J-1 jumps just to get anywhere outside the system.
The setting I'm working on for my own (very questionable) future use has a fallen Federation loosely modelled on his as the past. Even has its own (very different) version of the sword worlds with much different origin and cultures.
Sigtrygg
Emperor Mongoose
Check the Dumarest novels...
I thought trip time was long, but variable in Dumarest? "Weeks or months" range?
No communication during FTL is also fairly common too, for various reasons. Wormhole networks may or may not allow transmissions through wormholes, for example, and rely on stations near them to pass on communications to the next set of wormholes. The Vorkosigan books end up feeling rather Traveller like for that reason... days to weeks for messages to arrive rather than weeks to months, but otherwise you could consider them to be set in a Traveller subsector; dozens of settled worlds rather than hundreds or thousands. Instead of one week per jump from anywhere to anywhere, it may take many wormhole jumps - plus in-system travel between wormholes - through uninhabited systems to get from world to world. Communication is faster than travel, but only if there are communication stations operating. Blow one up and it's back to speed of travel, assuming you can fight through to the wormhole.
No communication during FTL is also fairly common too, for various reasons. Wormhole networks may or may not allow transmissions through wormholes, for example, and rely on stations near them to pass on communications to the next set of wormholes. The Vorkosigan books end up feeling rather Traveller like for that reason... days to weeks for messages to arrive rather than weeks to months, but otherwise you could consider them to be set in a Traveller subsector; dozens of settled worlds rather than hundreds or thousands. Instead of one week per jump from anywhere to anywhere, it may take many wormhole jumps - plus in-system travel between wormholes - through uninhabited systems to get from world to world. Communication is faster than travel, but only if there are communication stations operating. Blow one up and it's back to speed of travel, assuming you can fight through to the wormhole.
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Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Space Viking hyperspace time is based on actual length of jump.
Dumarest seemed rather vague, and was more about experienced time.
Star Wars has hyperlanes.
Dumarest seemed rather vague, and was more about experienced time.
Star Wars has hyperlanes.
The nearest to Traveller's fixed time idea that I can think of - aside from all jumps being instant - is there being a significant time in prepping for or recovering from a jump, in realspace. Even then, while I'm sure I've read it, I can't recall where. The vast majority of FTL in literature is either instant or proportional to distance travelled.
Larry Niven and Isaac Asimov both wrote short stories which included the notion that FTL travel could take variable time. Those weren't their major works, though. (At least, not explicitly. It isn't excluded in most of their other works, and is usually not mentioned.)
This has become a bit of a sidetrack to the actual topic, so maybe stop there. The rules of FTL aren't likely something that's going to affect new player attraction or not.
However, it does bring up one of the big differences between fantasy and science fiction - sword and gun genres if you like. Fantasy has as its bedrock historical settings, usually medieval or renaissance - occasionally classical. Authors don't have to reinvent the sword or the horse, or a castle or a peasant village. Or a sailing ship. Magic and monsters tend to be fairly well defined. Nonhumans tend to be pretty human. Genre conventions are pretty settled, especially in games.
Every science fictional setting has different technological assumptions. Very few share FTL types, except in the broadest terms. Are there robots? are there energy shields? Ray guns? Bionics? Psi powers? Nonhumans are commonly very alien. Hard SF or Space Opera? Genre conventions vary wildly.
So... given that the overwhelming majority of gamers are first exposed to Fantasy RPGs, new players generally have to not just make the switch to SF RPGs, but adjust from what they expect science fiction to be, to what Traveller is, in the first place.
However, it does bring up one of the big differences between fantasy and science fiction - sword and gun genres if you like. Fantasy has as its bedrock historical settings, usually medieval or renaissance - occasionally classical. Authors don't have to reinvent the sword or the horse, or a castle or a peasant village. Or a sailing ship. Magic and monsters tend to be fairly well defined. Nonhumans tend to be pretty human. Genre conventions are pretty settled, especially in games.
Every science fictional setting has different technological assumptions. Very few share FTL types, except in the broadest terms. Are there robots? are there energy shields? Ray guns? Bionics? Psi powers? Nonhumans are commonly very alien. Hard SF or Space Opera? Genre conventions vary wildly.
So... given that the overwhelming majority of gamers are first exposed to Fantasy RPGs, new players generally have to not just make the switch to SF RPGs, but adjust from what they expect science fiction to be, to what Traveller is, in the first place.
I was re-reading this thread and remembered that Mongoose did produce a boxed starter set back in 2017(?). I couldn't find it on their site but here is the DTRPG page. The campaign book ("The Fall of Tinath" also available seperately here) is set in a single subsector that is WAY off from the 3I (search for Tinath on Travellermap). I have no idea how well it sold, but the fact that Mongoose haven't updated it for MgT2e suggests not well enough to do it again.
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Anstett
Emperor Mongoose
Here are the existing 3 starting points.
Then add the free adventures to round out everything.
Then add the free adventures to round out everything.
I just watched a video that used the number of events at GenCon 2025 to get a rough ranking on what RPGs people are actually playing. He ran through the top 20 and Traveller was only mentioned in the context of Starfinder being the most popular science fiction system by far. The top ten and number of events:
10. Savage Worlds (85)
9. Pirate Borg (121)
8. Shadowrun (125)
7. Avatar Legends (129)
6. Cyberpunk (134)
5. Dungeon Crawl Classics (155)
4. Starfarer (219)
3. Call of Cthulhu (232)
2. Pathfinder (538)
1. D&D (1370)
10. Savage Worlds (85)
9. Pirate Borg (121)
8. Shadowrun (125)
7. Avatar Legends (129)
6. Cyberpunk (134)
5. Dungeon Crawl Classics (155)
4. Starfarer (219)
3. Call of Cthulhu (232)
2. Pathfinder (538)
1. D&D (1370)
