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.

 

[collins355]

Saw this post on another platform today...

 

[Condottiere]

As I recall, twelve year olds want to recreate their power fantasies in a tangible manner, and tend to lose focus on game balance.

College age and early twenties want a distraction.

Grognards, I'm guessin', want to work within the given system.

 

[actionman]

Grognards, I'm guessin', want to work within the given system.

They've probably been gaming long enough to know what they like, and want to stay with that.

 

[Endie]

As I recall, twelve year olds want to recreate their power fantasies in a tangible manner, and tend to lose focus on game balance.

College age and early twenties want a distraction.

Grognards, I'm guessin', want to work within the given system.

Wait, you’ve been on this forum and the CotI forum for a great many years and you think us Grogs don’t tweak, alter, homebrew and retcon everything in sight?

 

[Condottiere]

If one doesn't care, why would one try to justify tweakification?

 

[swordtart]

If one doesn't care, why would one try to justify tweakification?

Oh Buck!

 

[rinku]

The ACTUAL grognards often have PTSD from 80's and 90's edition churning and may have perfectly good reasons to go back to Classic and not trust new ones. There would be a fair few people who gave up on MegaTraveller, or having persevered through that, hated TNE. West End Star Wars was waiting for them. Those are the ones that could possibly be recruited, with a pitch along the lines of "Mongoose did what GDW tried to do in 1986, but kept the best bits of Classic and some of the good career ideas from TNE".

It could even be worth selling the MGT combat system. Classic realised fairly early (Azhanti High Lightning) that the Book 1 combat system had issues, and that armour should stop damage, not just make it harder to be hit.

But people DO like to roll dice for damage too. AHL/Striker delivered the armour side of things, but was lacking on the damage roll side of things. It was designed for groups fighting groups, not personal fights.

Megatraveller combat system? Uh, yeah. Just keep walking.

TNE had a workable combat system, but d20 roll under was not popular.

Post-GDW? Great text from SJG. Useful sourcebooks for GDW editions. T4? Ehhh... d20? WTF? T5? Um.

So... Mongoose has:

2D6 to hit with DMs, like Classic? Sweet
Roll dice to generate damage? Nice. Oh, and effect is a thing, which adds to damage, so a lucky or skilled shot is dangerous. Awesome!
Apply armour value against the damage like AHL/Striker? Mind. Blown.