Introducing Traveller to kids

[adders]

Hi everyone,
As I mentioned in a previous post, I have 2 kids. One is 10 years old and one is 13 years old.
My question is:
Would introducing the rules of Traveller to them (especially my 10 year old) be worthwhile? What I mean is, would it be too advanced for them?
Has anyone got kids that play Traveller? I'd love to hear your experiences.
I have fond memories as a teenager playing D&D and Golden Heroes and would love my kids to get into Traveller with us.

Thanks

Matt

 

[rust]

What I mean is, would it be too advanced for them?

It could help to "streamline" some complexity from the rules and to play
more "by ear" than by system where necessary, perhaps also to avoid
some types of adventures the kids may not be interested in (trade could
be one), but otherwise I do not see a serious problem - kids sometimes
have problems with a system's mathematics, but if this is kept out of
sight and the plot is one they have fun with, they usually take easily to
roleplaying. As for the plot, you will certainly know what they love to
read or watch, and so it should not be difficult to come up with something
that fits their taste.

 

[adders]

Thanks rust.

 

[Charakan]

I understand that Mithras here on the boards plays Traveller with his kids so maybe you might like to PM him and get some ideas. He'll probably pop in and post a reply anyway

I don't think Travellers to complicated, I think I first played it around age 12 with some guys from school, and I would say that Mongoose Traveller is a far more coherent and easy to grasp ruleset than Classic Traveller was (not that CT was that complicated).

I've played Traveller with a guy who has Aspergers Syndrome and he really struggles with maths despite being very literate and exceptionally knowledgeable about history and the like and he didn't have any problems wiht the game mechanics.

Golden Heroes, now theres a blast from the past I think its still in print under the title Squadron UK.

 

[DFW]

I played with my boys at that age. As posted, I kept the math hidden and had them describe what the character was doing and just had them roll. I'd explain the outcome so they could concentrate on the action. They soon wanted to play RPGs over their computer games.

 

[adders]

Thanks Charakan
I feel more confident now and can't wait to get my kids into rpg gaming.
Yes Golden Heroes. I googled it recently and saw that it is now Squadron UK.
I bought Golden Heroes from Games Workshop in Manchester around 1987. That's when GW in Manchester were selling everything and not just Warhammer.
I remember going into the shop and trying to decide on either Golden Heroes or Marvel Superheroes.
My kids love Star Wars as do I and I toyed with the idea of getting the Star Wars rpg, but like Golden Heroes/Marvel SH, I don't want them to have any set images in their heads before they play the game, which is why I have settled on Traveller.
Many thanks for your advice.

 

[adders]

Hi DFW
Thanks, that was my concern also regarding computer games. I know I was distracted by my ZX Spectrum in the '80s but rpg gaming was always much more fun. I feel so much more confident getting the involved in it now and eagerly await the arrival of my core rulebook.

 

[rust]

I just remembered another thing, useful for all new players, but espeical-
ly for kids: Try to avoid "information overload".

Unless you are a very good storyteller (well, you are from Ireland ...), try
to give no more than two or three important pieces of information each ti-
me you tell something to the players, and with kids keep the number of
"red herrings" among those informations low - it is easy to confuse them
with too many unfamiliar stuff to remember and put together, and luckily
kids tend to ask if they need more informations.

But again, you know your kids best, and know what they can handle.

 

[BP]

Sounds like good ages to me - started when I was 11.

Chargen is usually a big hit - especially if the harshness of Traveller is tempered with house-ruled die rolling (re-roll ones, etc.) and using the connections and package skills so players can pick and choose.

With just two players, I'd probably go through chargen with them - letting them pick things and then making up the background, so they can understand both the mechanics and creative side from a non-abstract point of view.

 

[alex_greene]

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have 2 kids. One is 10 years old and one is 13 years old.

Here's an idea.

Kids like to read about characters in an older age bracket than them. Ten year olds like to read of fifteen year old protagonists; thirteen year olds like to read about young adults.

Characters like Heinlein's Johnny Rico, just graduating college and entering boot camp, make ideal role models for young kids. Sadly, 18-22 year olds don't get much in the way of pre-game experience during chargen.

Might I recommend, when introducing characters, that you fudge the skills a little? Give them comparatively young characters to start with, a spread of skills at level-1 and two skills each at level-2, which will be their specialities on board ship and on the job; for example, Engineering and Computers, Sensors and Drive, Pilot and Tactics, Steward and Stealth.

Make sure that no task difficulty ever goes below -4, at least for the first game, and occasionally throw them a positive DM or two. Tell them they earned it.

As long as you make their introductory game fun, let them immerse themselves into the game and make it feel like a collaborative shared video game being played in their own heads, they'll come back for seconds. And then you can start giving them the full experience of Traveller.

 

[mattman]

I run Traveller for a 6 year old, a 9 year old, 10 year old, and a 12 year old and have for the past year and a half. The big hook for them was the character generation. Over the past 18 odd months, we've made scavengers, drifters, street urchins, psionic warriors, bounty hunters, pirates, space marines, and tramp crew. Each set of characters were played with for at least five scenarios. They were raised on Firefly and the like so no dearth of food there

Use the background events, mishaps, contacts, enemies, rivals, allies collected by their characters heavily. This is great fuel.

For obvious reasons, you have to maintain the state of the entire game and their characters yourself in a notebook. This was painful to me. I'm to the point where the older ones are good at noting things themselves now.

I crave some way to make Traveller a better pick-up game. The Campaign Guide can't come fast enough.

For the long haul campaigns, I've tried a few approaches with them. At first, we started out with elaborate setups. It grew into something larger and a big pain to maintain and deal with. I've settled on something that seems to be a really nice balance: I stole some pages from Luke Crane's Mouse Guard RPG and it's been excellent.

I heavily structured the game in the sense that there is a very strong direction to it. For example, we're taking turns referee'ing the current game which involves an ex-Space Marine character escorting the last of a destroyed warship's crew back to their homeworld, 20 jumps distant, ala The Outlaw Josey Wales. They have no money and must work from world to world. The referee has only one simple duty: come up with "The Job" and "The Encounter". I feed him the "World Type" & "The Peculiarity" (of the world). We've played for hours and hours off just this.

Also, a few beers helps a lot with making it more fun and less work, heh.

 

[Nuclear Fridge Magnet]

Leaving aside the Trade number-crunching, there are a couple of adventures you could try (if you can get hold of them).

Shadows is a CT 'dungeon bash' in vacc suits. Lots of gunplay, physical action, thrills. The PCs don't even have to be a ship's crew -- when I ran it as a 'show & tell' at my games store for a group of 10 to 15-year olds, they had no trouble with it (even though they had a D&D compulsion to look for treasure...)

Across the Bright Face is another CT session. Pursuit in ATVs across an airless planet. Do a big blow-up or two of the planet's surface, and have your players sketch in their route to the starport and safety.

 

[adders]

Sounds like good ages to me - started when I was 11.

Chargen is usually a big hit - especially if the harshness of Traveller is tempered with house-ruled die rolling (re-roll ones, etc.) and using the connections and package skills so players can pick and choose.

With just two players, I'd probably go through chargen with them - letting them pick things and then making up the background, so they can understand both the mechanics and creative side from a non-abstract point of view.

Thanks for this BP. I'm actually itching to get my hands on the rulebook so I can start generating some sample characters of my own. From what I've been reading online, chargen in Traveller is so much fun and I think I read someone say it was like a game in it's own right.

 

[adders]

Leaving aside the Trade number-crunching, there are a couple of adventures you could try (if you can get hold of them).

Shadows is a CT 'dungeon bash' in vacc suits. Lots of gunplay, physical action, thrills. The PCs don't even have to be a ship's crew -- when I ran it as a 'show & tell' at my games store for a group of 10 to 15-year olds, they had no trouble with it (even though they had a D&D compulsion to look for treasure...)

Across the Bright Face is another CT session. Pursuit in ATVs across an airless planet. Do a big blow-up or two of the planet's surface, and have your players sketch in their route to the starport and safety.

I'm going to have a fish around for Shadows because that sounds like a perfect introduction. Thanks

 

[adders]

I run Traveller for a 6 year old, a 9 year old, 10 year old, and a 12 year old and have for the past year and a half.

Thanks mattman, and indeed thanks to everyone for your feedback on this. In the space of a few hours today I have gone from being a little unsure about getting my kids (well my 10 year old at least) involved, to very confident that it will work.

I also have a 7 year old girl who I think may be interested in jumping in so I definitely feel confident now.

I have to say, I didn't expect such a good response on this subject. It's great to be amongst such friendly, co-operative and knowledgeable people.

 

[Sevya]

As a point of reference, I started with Traveller (the classic variety) at age 14, and I was running the game. I agree on the adventures Shadows and Across the Bright Face. I've run both of these, and I think Shadows was the first game I ran. An idea for a game when you're not up to planning much would be to have them explore an abandoned ship of around 1000-ish tons with aggressive wildlife on board. It has a feel similar to Aliens. I've run this on a lab ship, and the ship from the adventure Annic Nova.

Sevya

 

[alex_greene]

I run Traveller for a 6 year old, a 9 year old, 10 year old, and a 12 year old and have for the past year and a half.

Thanks mattman, and indeed thanks to everyone for your feedback on this. In the space of a few hours today I have gone from being a little unsure about getting my kids (well my 10 year old at least) involved, to very confident that it will work.

I also have a 7 year old girl who I think may be interested in jumping in so I definitely feel confident now.

I have to say, I didn't expect such a good response on this subject. It's great to be amongst such friendly, co-operative and knowledgeable people.

It's just that you fortuitously happen to have picked one of the best games to start kids off roleplaying properly, creating involving scenarios and the exercise of the imagination, as compared to running purely mechanical hack 'n' slash dungeon crawls.

I mean CCP/White Wolf's World of Darkness games are a good intro, because the Storytelling system's a genius once you get the hang of it; but i n my experience of introducing people to RPGs, by far the easiest game to introduce, either to play for the first time or to Referee for the first time, is Traveller. The nature of the initial material outlay (pens, paper, square grid graph paper, six-sided ordinary dice) means that you can raid any local high street stationery store and toy store for the resources you need. No need to go trawling around for exotic ten-sided dice, etc.

 

[Galadrion]

I also have a 7 year old girl who I think may be interested in jumping in so I definitely feel confident now.

*Grin* Watch out for her -- she's the one that'll come up with something so oddball and screwy that you'll never see it coming, and the hell of it is, it'll be something that'll work. Protip: don't step on these plans. Let 'em work. Not only will the game be better for it, but seeing something like this in action will probably inspire the boys to loosen up and go for the more cinematic options too... and suddenly you'll have a crew of young Indiana Joneses looking to take on the galaxy. This is what you want. Corrupt 'em young -- their world (and yours) will be better for it.

 

[adders]

An idea for a game when you're not up to planning much would be to have them explore an abandoned ship of around 1000-ish tons with aggressive wildlife on board. It has a feel similar to Aliens.

I like this idea. All my kids are familiar with the Alien films and the game would have a great deal of tension. Thanks

 

[adders]

I also have a 7 year old girl who I think may be interested in jumping in so I definitely feel confident now.

*Grin* Watch out for her -- she's the one that'll come up with something so oddball and screwy that you'll never see it coming, and the hell of it is, it'll be something that'll work. Protip: don't step on these plans. Let 'em work. Not only will the game be better for it, but seeing something like this in action will probably inspire the boys to loosen up and go for the more cinematic options too... and suddenly you'll have a crew of young Indiana Joneses looking to take on the galaxy. This is what you want. Corrupt 'em young -- their world (and yours) will be better for it.

I think you could be 100 percent..That sounds like my daughter to a tee. Thanks.

I've got the kids quite excited about the game. The other day I went onto travellermap.com and printed of each subsector of the spinward marches. I sellotaped them together and the full sector map is now hanging on the bedroom wall. It's huge, and the kids are examining it regularly.