Introducing Traveller to kids

[adders]

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.

Thanks alex, that's a really appealing aspect of Traveller for me. Because I live so far from the city where I could get hold of d20s etc. After a 20 year absence from rpgs I was debating which one to re-start my gaming life with, and Traveller caught my attention because of that fact.
Strangely, my brother owned Traveller in the 80s but (I suppose) back then in my teenage years I overlooked it because they were 'little black books' and AD&D was full of artwork. Now the minimalist layout really appeals to me and I have to say, well done to Mongoose for returning to this format. As I mentioned previously, my brother and I have each ordered a copy of the pocket edition rulebook and we can't wait to get our hands on them.

 

[Mithras]

Hi, yes I RP with my two sons, and have for a couple of years. They are currently 12 and 15. I waited until I was sure they'd absorbed enough SF through the media, and carefully sat them in front of various movies over the years to prep them! Once I thought they could 'visualise' everything, I started playing.

First we used Classic, Book 1 as a game in itself, just creating cool characters (we were on holiday at the time). THen I createda little story, and ran them through it. It was a good one too!

Back home, we started a regular game in the Vilis subsector with the same characters. I fleshed out the planets to make each one memorable and pulled visuals off the net. They typically played 2-3 adventures on each planet, before moving on. Later on they got a Scout Courier (uite a bit later).

Rules, well, it was CT, so pretty simple really. I see no problems with the rules in MGT and am switching to MGT when I start up the campaign again in a week or two.

I make the games action packed, but not too gun-reliant, lots of deadlines, failing equipment, wild animals etc. Not too many double-crosses and back-stabs either, I like the way they try to make friends, and the friendships later come in handy.

It helps that both boys have played a little bit of EVE online, too.

 

[Egil Skallagrimsson]

Strangely, my brother owned Traveller in the 80s but (I suppose) back then in my teenage years I overlooked it because they were 'little black books' and AD&D was full of artwork. Now the minimalist layout really appeals to me and I have to say, well done to Mongoose for returning to this format. As I mentioned previously, my brother and I have each ordered a copy of the pocket edition rulebook and we can't wait to get our hands on them.

Yeah, we had a similar experience with trav in the early 80s, me and my fellow spotty teenagers played a lot of AD&D, tried Trav briefly but never took to it.

Only became interested in trav 18months/2 years ago when saw the MonT core book, and was impressed. Perhaps now mature enough to understand it...

Egil

 

[Captain Jonah]

Every child old enough to pay boardgames will be ok with D6 and if you are like me you will have loads of them all over the place. Plus they don't hurt as much as a D4 when stepped on them if the kids leave them on the floor :shock:

Plus at the games clubs introducing the GW munchkins to an rpg its easier if it uses D6

As far as adventures go many youngsters will have seen the modern 3 starwars films but perhaps not the first three, these are fantastic for indroducing people to a new universe and rule set. Starting with some background on the world, a little bit of meeting the aliens, some trade, a bit of combat and then a story telling bit to cover some of the universe's history. Then a bar fight, a shootout at a starport and then on to starships, ship to fighter combat and jumps. A complete into to traveller in one package

 

[mattman]

Last night, the 10 year old was running our Traveller scenario. We'd been wandering this long settled desert world hunting a person for a bounty. After dodging a sudden bad dust storm with my partner by ducking into a ruined ancient city, we finally corner our quarry at a pathetic campfire deep in the ruins. The ref was also using the Mythic GM Emulator and we were asking it the yes/no questions for the scenario. When a sudden event was indicated, one of the players (a 9 year old) pipes up and says, "Oh I know! The mists of the haunted ruins stir up the dust and intentionally blow it into the eyes of your partner!". Wow!

Now my partner is down at the beginning of a combat after I failed to persuade our quarry to come peacefully. It was great!

 

[adders]

^^ That sounds brilliant mattman ^^
That's really encouraging for me to know that you have a 10 year old refereeing games.
I'm still waiting for my pocketbook to arrive and I suppose I should wait until I receive it before asking too many (silly?) questions, but browsing through the forums I've come across people's questions about chargen.
So, I suppose my question is, how straight forward is chargen, especially to teach to my kids?
When I get my copy of the rulebook (hopefully this week) I will probably laugh at this question. But just by reading some of the questions in other threads it seems that adults are having a few problems getting to grips with chargen.

 

[rust]

So, I suppose my question is, how straight forward is chargen, especially to teach to my kids?

There is a step by step checklist in the character generation chapter, and
there are not that many ways to get confused by it or to misunderstand it.
I would not expect any problems for your kids once you have learned the
ropes of the system and can explain it - if in doubt, just ask here on the
forum.

 

[adders]

Thanks rust, very much appreciated. Now I'm just going to sit tight and wait for my book before annoying everyone with questions.

 

[rust]

By the way, you can take a look at the character creation checklist here,
it is the Preview 1 of the Traveller Main Rulebook, down at the bottom of
the page:
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/home/series.php?qsSeries=51

 

[adders]

Thanks rust, I have been on that page but somehow I managed to overlook the preview .pdf for that page. That's a very straight-forward looking procedure for chargen. The checklist looks great, very helpful (especially to me).
Thanks again rust, and to everyone else for your input and advice.

 

[AndrewW]

Thanks rust, I have been on that page but somehow I managed to overlook the preview .pdf for that page. That's a very straight-forward looking procedure for chargen. The checklist looks great, very helpful (especially to me).
Thanks again rust, and to everyone else for your input and advice.

If you do have questions feel free to ask.

 

[GamerDude]

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

Matt,
Without me reading any of the replies let me give you this, based on experience with teaching RPG's to kids as young as 7.

My simple rule is: "Tell me what you want to do, and I'll tell you how it works."

This has been great for players of any experience level, with any game they may or may not know, of any age level. They just have to have some frame of reference you can work with and you are good to go.

Sci-Fi? SW, ST
Fantasy? LotR
Modern? Any spy movie
etc.

I do from five to seven cons a year running minimum 20 hrs of RPG sessions, with people of all ages-experience with RPGs in general-and varying levels of exposure to whatever games I'm running (last few years, MGT). I don't get bogged down in long explanations on mechanics and what happens in a 'round' etc until I need it. The game moves and everyone has a blast.

I hope this helps.

 

[adders]

Matt,
Without me reading any of the replies let me give you this, based on experience with teaching RPG's to kids as young as 7.

My simple rule is: "Tell me what you want to do, and I'll tell you how it works."

This has been great for players of any experience level, with any game they may or may not know, of any age level. They just have to have some frame of reference you can work with and you are good to go.

Sci-Fi? SW, ST
Fantasy? LotR
Modern? Any spy movie
etc.

I do from five to seven cons a year running minimum 20 hrs of RPG sessions, with people of all ages-experience with RPGs in general-and varying levels of exposure to whatever games I'm running (last few years, MGT). I don't get bogged down in long explanations on mechanics and what happens in a 'round' etc until I need it. The game moves and everyone has a blast.

I hope this helps.

Gamerdude:
Thanks very much, that explains it perfectly for me.