Making Traveller Personal - Keeping Stories On A Human Scale

alex_greene

alex_greene

Guest
For me, Traveller is not about the ships, or the fancy weapons, or the deadly guns.
The solo game I've started playing is about people.
I've had to set aside the TPOD stories about Intensity and her pet telepathic chamax hunter Pixie for the time being, so I'm going to roll up a solo player character and crew and tell you their story, more or less.
This'll be a dry run of a solo game using one of these Oracle things. Oh, and the Narrative Task Resolution system from page 47 of Traveller Companion 2024 Update.
 
One of the features I really liked about a lot of the TNE material were the details about the people and personalities of the setting.
 
I know that a lot of players like mercenary and fleet combat stuff, but my games are always about the characters. Sometimes the ship is a character too, but often times my groups don't have a ship.

I run my campaign in the Islands subsectors because that makes it pretty easy to keep things at a reasonable scale and have recurring characters and locales, while still having a wide variety of places to have adventures.
 
The best Traveller games that I have been in have always been about the characters. Role playing is, ultimately, about collaborative storytelling, and the stories aren't going to be about space battles or shiny mcguffins; they're going to be about characters in situations and how they deal with those situations.
 
Sounds cool to me! I describe the most active part of my current campaign as "Gilmore Girls meet Anthony Bourdain in spaaace."
 
So I decided to create a Truther character, Ahrain Windspeaker, and make then a Psion Wild Talent. They grew up a psion, took early PSI training, graduated with honours, acquired the title of Witch, and became a Truther. They now pursue the Truth along with a loyal crew of Believers.
They have Cr 116,000 in cash, a Major Following, and a strong Patronage which gives them Cr 20,000 a year.
Also, they have left behind two charmless people who hate their guts. One of them insists on deadnaming and misgendering them.
 
A character that seeks the truth - let me help
XX or XY :)
Note before I get cancelled that in my Culture game it is perfectly possible to have genetic engineering to swap XX with XY, so I wonder if such a thing is possible with Third Imperium TL13+ medical science.

Also note that since CT 77 the rules have stated you can be of any gender or race.
 
Sigtrygg said:
A character that seeks the truth - let me help
XX or XY :)
Note before I get cancelled that in my Culture game it is perfectly possible to have genetic engineering to swap XX with XY, so I wonder if such a thing is possible with Third Imperium TL13+ medical science.

Also note that since CT 77 the rules have stated you can be of any gender or race.
Click to expand...
Out of curiosity, have you looked at the Mindjammer Traveller edition? It's basically a Culture game setting. I steal some ideas from it when my players want a more transhumanist game than is usual in Traveller.

As far as TI tech goes, I can't recall anywhere that explicitly says so, but I would think that it is not more difficult than the other genetic manipulation therapies that are in the game already.
 
I specifically snuck genetic alteration into the Altered Appearance augment at TL12. It doesn't mention X and Y directly, but that's what it means.
 
So Ahrain's first mission for a Patron sees them travelling on a subbie from Lunion/Wardn to Lunion/Spirelle, wearing a broad-rimmed hat with a distinctive brooch in the hatband. They have been given an address on Spirelle, and a small package to deliver.
Her name is Lucy, and she is a huge fan of Ahrain, The Witch of The Marches, downloading every podcast they make, religiously.
This seems easy enough. Shouldn't be any trouble.
 
Geir said:
I specifically snuck genetic alteration into the Altered Appearance augment at TL12. It doesn't mention X and Y directly, but that's what it means.
Click to expand...
Ah. I have so many different editions and adjacent rules that I couldn't remember if it was in the Mgt2e one. :p
 
Traveller is just screaming for a hardcopy "passport" with pages designed to accept stamps which could be printed out onto sticky labels and applied to the booklet. Maybe a TAS "passport" or one with an Imperial logo on the front (or a Sword Worlds, Zhodani or other polity's flag).

A TAS Membership card would also not go amiss.
 
Vormaerin said:
Out of curiosity, have you looked at the Mindjammer Traveller edition? It's basically a Culture game setting. I steal some ideas from it when my players want a more transhumanist game than is usual in Traveller.

As far as TI tech goes, I can't recall anywhere that explicitly says so, but I would think that it is not more difficult than the other genetic manipulation therapies that are in the game already.
Click to expand...
Yes, I have the fate version and the Traveller version. I mine both for ideas - the Fate version is much more useful when I use Genesys or 2d20 versions of the Culture.
 
alex_greene said:
Traveller is just screaming for a hardcopy "passport" with pages designed to accept stamps which could be printed out onto sticky labels and applied to the booklet. Maybe a TAS "passport" or one with an Imperial logo on the front (or a Sword Worlds, Zhodani or other polity's flag).

A TAS Membership card would also not go amiss.
Click to expand...
I second this - have you put it in the future of Traveller wish list?
 
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