Other RPGs That You Use In Your Traveller Games

[RogerN]

I find in my own home games I draw inspiration and ideas from other RPGs that I port across into my home games. eg NPCs, maps, sometimes simple mechanics, ship designs etc.

Does anyone else do that same and if so which games ?

 

[StellarVenture]

There are some things from the 40k universe and their rpgs I've drawn on occasionally. There are two that stand out for me. The first the "Gellar field", basically an energy field instead of a hydrogen bubble to keep jump space out, used as a prototype tech but not changing the galaxy at large. The second one being an "astropathic relay" being tech boosting the ability to send messages to a receiver through jump space and as it uses jump space it still isn't an Ansible. This I've used to lean into zhodani studying the science of psionics openly.

Otherwise while not a rpg farscape and their bioship has definitely helped inspire some of my more alien sophants. I've been able to cobble together some in universe sources to even explain some of the bigger aspects with leviathan and alo'he.

I've found myself leaning on Shadowrun occasionally for worlds that embrace cybernetics beyond just replacing lost limbs as many races of charted space seem to look down on augmentation.

 

[Enaknomolos]

Stars Without Number has a whole bunch of useful resources, especially if you're running a sandbox game. Is adventure creation tools are particularly handy, but even things as simple as its random name generators are helpful.

I've also used the collaborative system in Diaspora (a FATE game massively influenced by Traveller) to create a setting with my players which we could then play in Traveller. We used Classic, but Mongoose would work too. It's a neat way of doing things. You get a cluster of a few worlds that have pretty well-defined relationships to one another and a whole bunch of conflicts and troubles brewing.

 

[nats]

I've just got Mythic to try out a solo Traveller game after seeing some of Ed May's vids on YouTube. I also use Bold occasionally.

 

[Endie]

Stars Without Number has a whole bunch of useful resources, especially if you're running a sandbox game. Is adventure creation tools are particularly handy, but even things as simple as its random name generators are helpful.

I'd second the use of SWN: the modular nature of the game (quite like Traveller) makes it easy to steal mechanics. I find the faction system handy in running Drinax campaigns in particular.

Something I borrow from Blades in the Dark is the idea of a focus on the party base (a building, a ship etc) with abstracted abilities to improve it as adventure arcs are completed so that it develops with the (and demonstrates) the progress of the ship. I do it within the story so as to make it less gamey than BitD ("You completed the Borderland Run and saved Hteilotorl; the Iuwoi-ko offers to make an appropriate upgrade to your ship.") but it still boils down to "you did a thing now your base levels up: choose an upgrade of up to 5 million credits".

 

[Grognardia]

I've nicked quite a few bits from Fading Suns

 

[Takei]

I re-skinned an Alternity scenario for Traveller about 20 years ago.

Elements of 40k crept into the last Traveller campaign I ran.

I'm going to use a version of the FATE skills pyramid in the next Traveller game I run if the players are up for it. Failing that I'll play some solo using characters bult that way.

 

[Condottiere]

More inspiration, rather than nicking stuff.

 

[bartlebyfosco]

Mothership works nicely.

 

[swordtart]

All of them