How to make Traveller more popular with TTRPG players

[FreeTrav]

Make a starter set that has the most basic elements to get people playing and enjoying without overwhelming amounts of data.

While I'd agree that they're not quite enough, I think the Explorer's Edition and the Merchant's Edition are steps in this right direction.

 

[FreeTrav]

1. I created it with LibreOffice, as an .odt file (compatible with MS Word I believe), using the "Courgette" font from here. I can't attach the .odt file because of this Forum's restrictions

Not exactly "compatible" with MS-Word, although the current version claims to read and create them - but be warned that it does not perfectly preserve formatting across implementations: Your Word-generated ODT won't look quite the same in any of the OpenFork* Writer implementations as it does in Word, and vice-versa - Word won't perfectly read the formatting that OpenFork writes.

* OpenFork: Any of the products that started out as "forks" or descendants of StarOffice, such as OpenOffice.org, LibreOffice, the last version of IBM Lotus Symphony, Go-OO, NeoOffice, and so on; the best information I have is that the only versions currently under active development are Apache OpenOffice and LibreOffice.

 

[IanBruntlett]

While I'd agree that they're not quite enough, I think the Explorer's Edition and the Merchant's Edition are steps in this right direction.

I went into Travelling Man (Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK) this afternoon and they had the Merchant's Edition and the new "The Great Rift" box set.

 

[FreeTrav]

I went into Travelling Man (Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK) this afternoon and they had the Merchant's Edition and the new "The Great Rift" box set.

I'd be curious as to the price of the Merchant's Edition in print; this is not listed as having a print edition on DTRPG, and the PDF is only US$1. I can't see a shop selling a print edition at comparable price point (even assuming that they're doing so with Mongoose's blessing).

 

[MarcusIII]

Should just make a stripped down starter pack with a familiar space adventure. Something like, Smuggler gets busted and now owes his boss big time and has to scramble and get money any way possible before the crime boss offs the party. All while dodging gov't customs inspectors.

 

[actionman]

Just found this Traveller FAQ

Reviewed it, waste of time.

That FAQ is once again grognards talking to grognards about arguments between grognards. It's worthless to new players.

Most of the sections don't answer the questions they pose. They say, "These are the different contradictory opinions people have".

 

[actionman]

Break it down into baser elements. There's a big Empire, there are xenophobic rebels, there are psychic humans, etc.

And this still requires a massive infodump.

 

[actionman]

with a familiar space adventure.

I always start with lasering the crap out of Utoland.

 

[IanBruntlett]

I'd be curious as to the price of the Merchant's Edition in print; this is not listed as having a print edition on DTRPG, and the PDF is only US$1. I can't see a shop selling a print edition at comparable price point (even assuming that they're doing so with Mongoose's blessing).

Sorry. I didn't look at the price...

 

[collins355]

Yeah that page has always been a mixture of obscurantism, CT advocacy and bitter vets proclaiming victory over other bitter vets in the Great TML Wars of the 90s on questions like "is piracy economically feasible in the Third Imperium?" or "Are naval budgets large or small?". Not to mention the classed "Relativistic Weapons" tar pit.

A useful FAQ page that helped beginners would not deliberately order the "which version should I buy?" question so as to put the largest, most popular current version last, and CT first. And neither Stranded nor Twilight's Peak are good starting adventures for the beginner GM fresh to the game.

I've been tempted to rewrite it to be a genuine guide for newcomers to Traveller, and answering the questions that we repeatedly see newbies to these forums actually asking, but I know that getting rid of the obscure, much-beloved-of-Grognards controversies, ceasing recommending 1970s-era rulesets and expanding the first section to actually sell the idea of running the game would get reverted in minutes, and I have been much happier since I learned to avoid wiki edit wars.

Agree that page isn't useful as a FAQ. But I think you'll find many of those questions/controversies come up sooner or later with new players asking the same questions - we've had here for example newer players innocently asking about relativistic weapons and reactionless drives. Same here with big ship/small ship universe questions, or size of naval budget. I've seen the piracy question innocently raised elsewhere on the web recently.