New to Traveller, New DM

[metlk]

I've tried searching the forum, but I couldn't think of a good way to word it to get any useful results. I'm fairly new to Traveller. We've run the Last Train out of RakenGal story, and my son is an experienced DM with D&D and Pathfinder, but he is in college and of course doesn't have time to play over the internet with dear old dad (LOL) so we only have a few hours every few months to play. I enjoy it enough that I want to learn how to play solo, and also be able to Ref when he is here so he can just enjoy playing. I found the Campaign Guide pdf, which has some useful information in it about automatic campaigns, but I'm hung up on some pretty basics issues and completely lost. Making rolls to see what events happen is easy enough, but it's the details holding me up.

For example, I finished character creation and have a pinnace. I ran a couple of trade runs to another in-system planet (thankfully world creation and trading seems pretty straightforward.) But I really need a breakdown of what rolls/ checks I should be making along the way. For example:

Once I found a patron and have a mission, what is the proper steps to take to leave the planet? Just saying "I leave the planet" to myself seems a bit... uneventful? Are there piloting checks or other types of rolls I should be doing? What about finding equipment? I know the TL affects what can be purchased to an extent, but is there a system like Pathfinder where you make a roll to determine if you even find a shop or what's actually for sale?

What about once I am in space and travelling to the other planet (or jump distance once I get a jump drive.) According to what I've found, it should take about 4 days to travel between planets. What do I do when approaching the new planet? Landing? Once on the ground? Using the campaign guide, every day I rolled a space encounter and on one day I encountered an alien ship. I didn't have a clue about what to do with it, so I just travelled on. I know I missed a good opportunity to generate a story, but I didn't know what rolls I needed to even try to communicate with it, or to see if it morphed into something more thrilling. I know, some of this is probably horribly basic for anyone that's ever run a game session, but I'm as green as they come. I've found some dice roll oracle systems to help generate the content, but again the procedures is where I get hung up.

I found in the World Creation section a table for when first approaching a planet regarding law level and being challenged, so I know I should be using it during certain parts. I've sat down every night for a week now and just can't seem to make anything work out. Rolling on the random events tables just inevitably leads me to a situation where I don't know what more to do. I guess what I'm looking for is basically some kind of step-by-step guide on what order rolls and checks should be done when doing the more routine tasks such as taking off, landing, exploring, etc. If I knew what rolls should be done when, then I could put together a reference sheet so I can avoid constantly flipping around in the book trying to find tables, such as the one in World Creation. My most recent attempt generated a mission to track down a criminal in a stolen ship. I took off into space verbally (cause I didn't know what else I should be doing) and quickly realized I had no idea how to proceed to search the system for a ship! That's when I decided I needed some serious help from someone!

 

[Anstett]

Welcome to Traveller.

Lots of questions there so I will only tackle the short and easy to get you started.

Yes to your idea of traveling between planets in system. That works well as a small enclosed campaign start. The hours/days between planets in a system is all governed by the drives in your ship (Pinnace in this case). Lots of math details you can get into if you want, or just hand wave it and say "in 47 hours you arrive at the distant mining colony".

For the idea of traveling from system to system the answer is not in your Pinnace as it does not have a Jump Drive and is not large enough to add that to it. 100 tons for a jump capable ship. Each Jump takes 1 week of time.

So it is a nice goal to acquire (in what ever fashion you see fit) a new ship or book passage on a ship to leave the system you are in and head out into adventure.

 

[Vormaerin]

As far as the mechanics procedure of leaving a planet... the general rule for Traveller (and RPGs in general) is only roll if there is something interesting at stake. It is reasonable to assume that, absent damage to the ship or adverse weather or some such factor, lifting off planet into orbit is routine, like an aircraft taking off. It happens properly thousands of times for every mishap, which means that it is statistically insignificant compared to the values resulting from a die roll. You can certainly narrate it more interestingly than "I leave the planet" if that appeals to you. If you do have adverse circumstances where you think being forced to land or even crash is a possibility, then it would be a Piloting check.

For shopping, it is pretty much like the real world. Everything legal is likely to be available on decently populated world (low pop worlds not so much) The question is just time and price. So that's normally the GM's decision. If the players are not pressed for time and have the money, they should be able to just buy it. If they need it on short notice, can't afford a mark up, or it is illegal, then you might make a skill check to see if they find one that meets the parameters involved. Streetwise or Admin are the usual skills I use for that for individual items, broker for larger scale purchases.

I don't have any personal experience with solo play for games not designed for that purpose, so I don't have any good insight into how to turn the alien ship into something. That's normally what the GM does. Might consider looking at some solo gaming youtube content? Ed May (https://www.youtube.com/@MrBunraku) has a dozen or so videos of him playing Traveller solo. I've seen mention of others.

Traveller doesn't have a solo game play book that I am aware of, but there are some in the Cepheus community. Hostile does, for example. That setting is lower tech and darker than Charted Space, but it's ultimately the same mechanics. Might be worth looking that over for ideas about how to run your own version. https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/406815/hostile-solo.

Hope some of this helps.

 

[metlk]

I don't have any personal experience with solo play for games not designed for that purpose, so I don't have any good insight into how to turn the alien ship into something. That's normally what the GM does. Might consider looking at some solo gaming youtube content? Ed May has a dozen or so videos of him playing Traveller solo. I've seen mention of others.

Traveller doesn't have a solo game play book that I am aware of, but there are some in the Cepheus community. Hostile does, for example. That setting is lower tech and darker than Charted Space, but it's ultimately the same mechanics. Might be worth looking that over for ideas about how to run your own version.

Hope some of this helps.

Thanks for the links. I had already been eyeballing Mythic GME so his videos have been super helpful on how it actually works.

It seems like I'm on the right track, I just need to get more familiar with the rules in general so I know how things such as sensors, distances and other types of checks could influence what I encounter.

Thanks for all the help.

 

[ottarrus]

To the OP:
Assuming the character has at least Skill Level 0 in the skill, you don't need to check for routine uses of the skill. Obviously, certain skills are almost always used in extraordinary circumstances [Gun, Melee, etc.], but someone with Computer-0 shouldn't have to make a check to find unclassified commonly available information.
In your example, your pilot shouldn't need to make a check on a port-to-port flight with Skill-0.
You'll find skill checks littered throughout the Core Rules... piloting checks in Ship Combat, etc... and always check the skill definitions as they will have the most common instances to call for a check.

 

[alex_greene]

For example, I finished character creation and have a pinnace. I ran a couple of trade runs to another in-system planet (thankfully world creation and trading seems pretty straightforward.) But I really need a breakdown of what rolls/ checks I should be making along the way.

Some situations are plot hooks, and don't require lots of skill checks.

Example: Your pinnace Pilot could enjoy a near-autonomous life as Master of your own boat. Your character can hit the spacer bars, and make some general rolls for Rumours and Patrons.

One possible plot hook could be that your character overhears a conversation going on in a spacer bar. There's a ship Captain, who runs a large ship like a Liner or some such. They lost their ship's pinnace a few Jumps back. Your pinnace will happily fit in their ship's cradle.
So your character can jump in, and offer your services, and the hire of your pinnace. That would give you a ship over which you have total control as the Ref, a crew which runs the ship and leaves your boat alone, and all your character has to do is a couple of routine runs each fortnight, shuttling passengers and cargos to and from the Spaceport, while on occasion using your Broker, Carouse, Steward, and Streetwise skills to make some side trade of your own. And once in a while, you get to take the crew of the main ship off on some in system adventure, and claim a share of any treasures found.

Your character can enjoy a life of adventure, and hardly make any rolls except for the trade game; and once in a while, there are adventures, many of which can be run and played narratively.

 

[alex_greene]

Just a side note: there was a TV show, Firefly, which featured a character who lived with a ship's crew, but whose quarters were in her own shuttle (which she'd bought outright from the Captain, Malcolm Reynolds). Inara Serra turned that shuttle into her own independent little private kingdom, attached to the main ship, Serenity.
Now I'm not recommending that your character become a Companion, but ... well, business is business ...

 

[Condottiere]

If you're psionic or a cyberdecker, the experience becomes virtual.

 

[Subzero001]

Just a side note: there was a TV show, Firefly, which featured a character who lived with a ship's crew, but whose quarters were in her own shuttle (which she'd bought outright from the Captain, Malcolm Reynolds). Inara Serra turned that shuttle into her own independent little private kingdom, attached to the main ship, Serenity.
Now I'm not recommending that your character become a Companion, but ... well, business is business ...

Wasn't she an "X" assassin as well...

 

[Saladman]

I didn't know about Hostile Solo, so I can't speak to it directly, but I like and recommend the earlier Solo by the same publisher. Ignore the fact it says it's for "Cepheus," it works for Mongoose Traveller fine out of the box. That will give you some more prompts, especially if you're using the trading game as a base.

If you haven't already, it sounds like you could benefit from working up the system your pinnace is in. Roll up a main world as per core, then assign some less habitable worlds, an asteroid belt, probably a gas giant. Weirdly the core book doesn't have rules for generating every planet in a system, but you can wing it pretty reasonably, or just roll several planets and assign the most habitable one to the habitable zone, and place the others in less friendly orbits. Then assume there are belters in the belt, a station in orbit around a gas giant and so on, and you have other ports of call.

I also like having some animals and NPCs rolled ahead of time and ready to go, rather than generating them on demand. Say you roll a character and designate them as a Rival, another designated as a Patron, a third as a Contact, and its easier for me to slot those in on demand than to be catching up as I go. And the same with animals, though the core book does give you some examples, I actually like doing my own, it sometimes gives me ideas for encounters with them.

Now a tangent: when I'm GMing for a group, even if I've set out to run a sandbox campaign (i.e. emphasizing player choice over GM-driven railroads), I still start the campaign with a pretty straightforward adventure or mission of my own choosing. That gives the players time to get their feet under them, meet a few NPCs, and get a feel for the world so that they can make meaningful choices rather than choosing a direction blind. Separate from your very valid mechanical questions, it sounds like you could benefit from that yourself.

So I was racking my brain for solo adventures for Traveller, and I couldn't quite think of any, but from memory Beltstrike might be the most easily adapted. Though you'd still face the problem of how much to read ahead, so you might still check out Hostile Solo as Vormaerin suggests.

 

[metlk]

I'm loving these ideas! Firefly is one of my all-time favorite shows and why I got hooked on Traveller when one section in the book compared it to Firefly. I've been reading the Mythic GME and it talks a lot about hooks and various tables for generating npc reactions and things. Combined with some other books I snagged from the Humble solo ttrpg bundle they just had, and the videos shared earlier, I think I'm getting a good understanding of ways to make an adventure work.

I have made an entire subsector, but I don't quite understand how to create trade routes. As I get out into the stars more, I will probably go over all of that again, so I'm not too worried about that part for now. I also can't find anything on what is considered the "habitable zone." The core rulebook doesn't mention anything about the star types, and using an online generator at DonJon gives me really bizarre temperatures (almost every planet is below -200C even when supposedly fully habitable.) I finally just chose to ignore that part and roll it myself, but still used the generated system mostly because the book didn't have any info on how to do that, or how to determine how far apart they are.

When it comes to animals and enemies, since there is no combat level, I'm struggling to understand how difficult they should be. For instance, if I end up trying to capture the criminal in the stolen ship, once I board the ship, how many enemies would be a good amount for a solo traveller (and possibly a hired gun?) My gut says to basically roll a D3 per each encounter, and add +1 or +2 for harder areas such as the actual boss fight, where the boss would also be a tougher opponent and instead of 777 he would be at 999. As I play, I'm sure I'll get more comfortable with this part, I'm just curious what the go-to solution for setting up an encounter is for most people. With combat being so lethal, I could be over-thinking this. Lol.

I feel like I'm asking some really dumb questions, but I can't express how grateful I am for the help. With Traveller being as old as it is, I've read so many different versions and variations on rules and such that I think I got myself more confused than need-be and was seriously over-thinking some things.

 

[Vormaerin]

The quick and dirty way to do trade routes is find your high pop (8+) space faring planets and see if you can connect them with Jump 1 or Jump 2 paths. There's fancier calculations if you really want to do so, but they only provide value if that's something that's really important to your gameplay style.

Most of the generators out there tend to do a terrible job on temperature for planets. I think it was because the first version of the rules set had an error in it, but that's not my area of expertise so I could be misremembering. Anyway, I've always found it easier to look at the numbers and just imagine something that would fit that and be fun to play on.

Traveller combat is, generally, pretty dangerous. And recovery from injury is slow. So you aren't going to want to go up against well armed opponents, especially if outnumbered. Trickery and unfair advantages are the key.

 

[alex_greene]

I feel like I'm asking some really dumb questions, but I can't express how grateful I am for the help. With Traveller being as old as it is, I've read so many different versions and variations on rules and such that I think I got myself more confused than need-be and was seriously over-thinking some things.

The folks here count as some of the smartest Traveller experts in the field. We also love to help out.
Mongoose is one of the brightest stars in this game (not to mention all the others they have extended tendrils into). They, too, live to help out, especially the newcomers.
No question is dumb. You're welcome.

 

[alex_greene]

I've been reading the Mythic GME

Good start. There are a bunch of solo GM emulators and oracles going around. Infinium Games just released a Solo Image Oracle Omnibus on DTRPG with thousands of entries, ideas, suggestions, and plot hooks (so many hooks, it's Velcro).

I'm recommending looking up Lightspress Media, and checking out their action adventure game series DoubleZero. Berin Kinsman of Lightspress is heavily into character and GM journaling, and you can check out his books on bullet journaling (just look up the System Neutral series - he's been updating that for its fourth revision). Keep a ship's log, create a few standard forms to insert into your log journal, and keep it handy as a sort of souvenir of your continued play.

Jeansenvaars, also on DriveThru, has three titles specifically for solo play: Game Unfolding Machine, Plot Unfolding Machine, and Scene Unfolding Machine. It's genre neutral, so you can use the three titles for fantasy, horror, SF, romance, any genre you like.

Maybe not erotica. Try and explain that to the neighbours. Bad enough when they hear you're into TTRPGs, full stop.

One thing about Jeansenvaars is that the publisher, poor darling, is suffering from updateitis. His titles keep going through updates. But they do come free on DTRPG when he makes an update, so you don't have to suffer from New Soccer Kit Syndrome.

 

[ColinD]

I'm loving these ideas! Firefly is one of my all-time favorite shows and why I got hooked on Traveller when one section in the book compared it to Firefly. I've been reading the Mythic GME and it talks a lot about hooks and various tables for generating npc reactions and things. Combined with some other books I snagged from the Humble solo ttrpg bundle they just had, and the videos shared earlier, I think I'm getting a good understanding of ways to make an adventure work.

I have made an entire subsector, but I don't quite understand how to create trade routes. As I get out into the stars more, I will probably go over all of that again, so I'm not too worried about that part for now. I also can't find anything on what is considered the "habitable zone." The core rulebook doesn't mention anything about the star types, and using an online generator at DonJon gives me really bizarre temperatures (almost every planet is below -200C even when supposedly fully habitable.) I finally just chose to ignore that part and roll it myself, but still used the generated system mostly because the book didn't have any info on how to do that, or how to determine how far apart they are.

When it comes to animals and enemies, since there is no combat level, I'm struggling to understand how difficult they should be. For instance, if I end up trying to capture the criminal in the stolen ship, once I board the ship, how many enemies would be a good amount for a solo traveller (and possibly a hired gun?) My gut says to basically roll a D3 per each encounter, and add +1 or +2 for harder areas such as the actual boss fight, where the boss would also be a tougher opponent and instead of 777 he would be at 999. As I play, I'm sure I'll get more comfortable with this part, I'm just curious what the go-to solution for setting up an encounter is for most people. With combat being so lethal, I could be over-thinking this. Lol.

I feel like I'm asking some really dumb questions, but I can't express how grateful I am for the help. With Traveller being as old as it is, I've read so many different versions and variations on rules and such that I think I got myself more confused than need-be and was seriously over-thinking some things.

If you've made an entire subsector than you have started on one of the most enjoyable parts of being a Traveller Referee, connecting the planets with Trade Routes, political connections and X-Boat (mail) routes. If you made one planet with a Government Code of 6 (captive government/colony) https://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Government
than you can link the next one over as a new colony that needs settlers or supplies. You can also call it a captive government wanting help to break free. Let your imagination run free! If you don't want to use the 3rd Imperium setting you can even get more creative, it will just require some more work. The new World Builder's Handbook https://www.mongoosepublishing.com/products/world-builders-handbook can help if you want to get in the weeds of planets.
If you want to try and figure out how dangerous an encounter should be just set up your encounters with enemies that want to capture rather than kill. These enemies would be armed with stunners and be set on "getting one over" on you rather than ending your life.
If you ever want to run a session on Roll20 I'm available.

 

[DCauthon75]

Glad I found this post.
New to Traveller as well (have played TTRPGs) and will (most likely) play solo too. Have the Mystic GME that I plan to use.
I will check out the YouTube channel of Ed May.

Love the character creation of Traveller.
My character rolled a "Live event - Ally love interest". . So I got creative and made an actual character for my Ally. Fun fact, he had a "Life event - Ally love interest" roll as well. During the creation I had a number of moments in which my character "met" him before the fateful moment they felt there was something more .

So I am curious how @metlk picks the solo play options.

-May your travels be filled with adventure.

 

[metlk]

So far, I managed to roll a mission to deliver an item to a religious zealot that is convincing people that they are all being oppressed by the opposing religious prophet ruling the sector. When I arrived at the planet and tried to ask for help to find this guy, Mythic generated keywords which basically provided a scene straight out of Moon Knight. Dude was telling me about the temple when an acolyte interrupted, said he (the talker) had been judged guilty. Suddenly the dude fell over dead, the acolyte turned hostile towards me, drew a dagger, and nearly ended my life before I was able to knock him out with a stunner. My simple mission has suddenly taken a massive twist into the serious, with what I suspect will be a very powerful scion at the end.

It's a little rough in places, but I'm still learning how both Traveller and Mythic work. Conceptually, it is working though. Combat is going to be a major setback. I purposely gave the guy a dagger thinking it made the most sense story-wise, as well as being fairly weak, and we were on a law level 9 planet (hence why I only had my stunner, and much to my terror a complete lack of armor for what was supposed to be a simple mission.) I wasn't prepared for just how much damage could be put on me from just a simple dagger. Bad rolls for me and good rolls for him didn't help the situation. I'm going to have to figure out a way to make combat a bit less lethal, and if I am misunderstanding how I should interpret the effect of the law level on my character, please let me know. Not having any armor at all sucks!

 

[NOLATrav]

Get yourself a Diplo Vest!
Can be worn and concealed under clothing, TL10, Protection+3, Cr250.

 

[Vormaerin]

Worlds on which armor is illegal are usually talking about obvious armor. A heavy leather jacket isn't armor, but can give a small amount of Protection rating.

If you get a John Wick suit or the aforementioned Diplo Vest, you aren't going to get hassled by the police unless they are already angry at you and want to pile on more charges. Might have to use Streetwise to find a black market dealer for your John Wick suit if you don't have one, but you might also by an array of high tech clothes of materials that give 3 or sometimes even 5 protection but aren't "armor" on a higher tech world where it is legal.

 

[metlk]

Worlds on which armor is illegal are usually talking about obvious armor. A heavy leather jacket isn't armor, but can give a small amount of Protection rating.

If you get a John Wick suit or the aforementioned Diplo Vest, you aren't going to get hassled by the police unless they are already angry at you and want to pile on more charges. Might have to use Streetwise to find a black market dealer for your John Wick suit if you don't have one, but you might also by an array of high tech clothes of materials that give 3 or sometimes even 5 protection but aren't "armor" on a higher tech world where it is legal.

I think I've just set myself up for some hard times, unintentionally. As I said earlier, I don't have a jump drive, so I created an entire system. The highest tech level in the entire system also happens to just be 9. If I understand the rules, I shouldn't be able to acquire anything over TL9. This is where my frustration is coming from. I have two habitable worlds, and BOTH rolled out as a Law 9 and TL 9. I finally made the ref decision to let myself use my pinnace as a 25% down payment on a bigger ship with a jump drive. I created a 100-ton freighter (again, limiting it to TL9 to play within my established backstory and current location.) First hop, nearest system with better tech! I was dumbfounded that my two planets ended up being so similar. The only key difference is one is a religious dictator, the other is a representative democracy.