How universal the new Traveller is going to be?

[SnowDog]

Hi,

Since Traveller's default setting is ... well Traveller's Imperium (as is proper and right) I am wondering how universal the game system and source books will be?

The questions arose when I began to think about MRQ. Sure, you can run non-Gloranthan games with it especially if you get Elric or Hawkmoon versions but still Monster book has mostly Gloranthacentric monster and to my knowledge Legendary Heroes is geared towards Glorantha setting.

I am not too worried but since MRQ will be fantasy engine and Traveller the scifi engine for Mongoose's games in near future it is quite relevant information for me.

Thank you for any and all information.

 

[pasuuli]

Well, I think the chunk of science fiction that Traveller serves will be happy with MGT. Now, thinking of pragmatics: MGT will be the foundation for Judge Dredd and Starship Troopers. I don't know about the former, but Starship Troopers is closely similar to Traveller's Mercenary rules, at least partly because they both took concepts from Heinlein's book. I think it's an obvious and productive choice.

It would probably require more work, on the other hand, to fit Babylon 5 onto Traveller.

 

[SnowDog]

You are probably right about SST. I think that JD might be a bit hard to make because Traveller leans so heavily on careers and terms in character creation. I see only two actual careers for basic JD campaigns, street judge and PSI judge. Obviously there are cadet and rookie career before getting full eagle but the point is that you can't much diversify during char gen.

SST might work because you can create older characters that have already got specialist training apart from basic MI training.

On the other hand if you consider only char gen I don't see the problems in B5. What kind of problems you mean?

 

[ned-kogar]

I think that JD might be a bit hard to make because Traveller leans so heavily on careers and terms in character creation. I see only two actual careers for basic JD campaigns, street judge and PSI judge. ?

For MC-1 citizens I think Traveller character generation will work really well, given the craze-based shiftlessness of the general population and the nice detail that the mishap and event tables can suggest. It would be a question of having a good range of potential 'professions'.

eg. A citizen begins as a juve, fails to get a rare part-time job as a shop dummy, turns to batting for a term, then makes the very tough roll vs End required to make it as a fatty, fails his survival role, has terrible medical debt to a backstreet belly doctor and must turn to crime to pay it.

Even for judges, it will be the standard Traveller trade-off between experience vs encroaching age. After an intensive basic training extensive event and mishap tables could add so much to character development that I think you could end up with nicely distinctive (but still orthodox enough for The Law..) judges.

 

[SnowDog]

Now that you said it there is no reason why Judges should start fresh from the academy. Still I think that how you handle academy years should be different from basic Traveller version. Academy is after all inhumanely tough school and even rookies should be able to handle hardened criminals.

Citizen "careers" if you can use that term in a city where most of the people are unemployed can be really varied, that is true and very outlandish.

 

[ned-kogar]

Very true - they need to be very tough.

Of course, if you're playing an all-judge campaign, you won't want your potential characters flunking out and becoming unusable.. so you could start with a basic training that ensures they're all up to scratch - and, as it's primarily a skill-based system, have them 'specialise' from then on.

That said, it would still be nice to have a chance for flunked judges to form part of a cast of supplementary of NPCs, contacts, etc.

I have no doubt that JD Traveller can work brilliantly, given the attention to Dredd-setting detail Mongoose have shown previously.

 

[Golan2072]

On the other hand if you consider only char gen I don't see the problems in B5. What kind of problems you mean?

Career-wise Babylon 5 would work very well with Traveller, with the core-book careers working for EA characters with very little modifications, and alien careers requiring only minor tweaks in most cases. The big differences would be starship design (far larger ships, different drive technology, not all ships have gravitics unlike Traveller), starship combat (B5 is more cinematic in this aspect than usual Traveller, and you'd want far more detailed fighter rules), psionics (you'd want teeps to be able to surface-scan much more frequently than in Traveller) and some technology (PPGs replacing most guns).

 

[rje]

On the other hand if you consider only char gen I don't see the problems in B5. What kind of problems you mean?

Career-wise Babylon 5 would work very well with Traveller, with the core-book careers working for EA characters with very little modifications, and alien careers requiring only minor tweaks in most cases. The big differences would be starship design (far larger ships, different drive technology, not all ships have gravitics unlike Traveller), starship combat (B5 is more cinematic in this aspect than usual Traveller, and you'd want far more detailed fighter rules), psionics (you'd want teeps to be able to surface-scan much more frequently than in Traveller) and some technology (PPGs replacing most guns).

Shaa, you're right! B5 starships get HUGE.

Maybe, just maybe, drive differences can be setting-set. The FTL drive acts like a B5 drive in B5, but a jumpdrive in Trav.

 

[Golan2072]

Shaa, you're right! B5 starships get HUGE.

Maybe, just maybe, drive differences can be setting-set. The FTL drive acts like a B5 drive in B5, but a jumpdrive in Trav.

B5 should have no jump-drive fuel usage, which is the major part of any Traveller ship's fuel tankage. Also, in B5 most ship systems are down-powered for some time after a jump in some cases (see what has happened to that Narn cruiser trying to investigate Za'ha'dum and being caught unprepared by a Shadows warship); and jump-drives could be used as weapons (like that Minbari cruiser did to Sheridan's destroyer in In The Beginning).

 

[TrippyHippy]

It'd be nice to think that a new Judge Dredd game would allow to choose between playing a Judge or a Perp.

 

[AKAramis]

It'd be nice to think that a new Judge Dredd game would allow to choose between playing a Judge or a Perp.

given that Mongoose's d20 version does, I'd say it's likely to.

 

[rje]

Shaa, you're right! B5 starships get HUGE.

Maybe, just maybe, drive differences can be setting-set. The FTL drive acts like a B5 drive in B5, but a jumpdrive in Trav.

B5 should have no jump-drive fuel usage, which is the major part of any Traveller ship's fuel tankage. Also, in B5 most ship systems are down-powered for some time after a jump in some cases (see what has happened to that Narn cruiser trying to investigate Za'ha'dum and being caught unprepared by a Shadows warship); and jump-drives could be used as weapons (like that Minbari cruiser did to Sheridan's destroyer in In The Beginning).

All that means is that the fuel tankage would be "something else" in B5. Perhaps in B5 that's part of the jump assembly (jump capacitors in B5!). Or the power system. And, using their jump drives as weapons is just behavior.

 

[Golan2072]

And, using their jump drives as weapons is just behavior.

Yep, but it requires its own rules.