Solo Traveller - What do You Want?

[Linwood]

I have mixed feelings about this, mostly because I don’t generally find solo play very engaging. But if the adventures bring in settings or other resources I can mine for my campaign I’d find value in it.

One suggestion - you may want to make at least one solo adventure an “intro to Traveller” module, something my FLGS could circulate on RPG Day to draw in new players. Pair it with a short (15 - 60 min) adventure a local GM could run in the store as a demo and it might be a good way to build a larger Traveller community.

 

[MonkeyX]

It has to be table lead to make it worthwhile, but each adventure could be linked to a specific career or genre. I pick up thet trader book and it has random mission types at first, then random encounters that can happen en route etc. I roll that I need to take a few tons of goods to jumps away, rolling on the encounters table I get no encounter as I enter the system (although a star port encounter table could be used then too). Jumping to the 2nd system I roll again on the table, pirates!! I play out the combat and the encounter reps me that the pirates will leave if defeated or steal the cargo. I decide to drop the cargo and the pirates scoop it up taking it back to their base. Then maybe a roll would determine which hideout map is used as I attempt to steal the cargo back with the rooms contents determined randomly.
I could use this book several times over and not get the exact same result. Do this with a navy captain on, n agent ornefcanary book and you have countless options.

 

[Yatima]

I think this defines why I think designing a solo game for Traveller would be extremely difficult. Traveller isn't D&D where the options are at least a little bit more limited. Traveller is extremely varied, you can do practically anything. Trying to come up with a set of rules that would allow for all or even most of the possibilities would be extremely difficult. The core rule book provides a framework for a referee to develop a game. This can just as easily be used by a single player acting as a referee and then played by him as a player. You don't need a solo book to do this and I doubt any solo rules could even start to cover all the possibilities anyway.

There are already many solo game systems that overcome these limitations with a good deal of success. Many people have mentioned the Mythic GM emulator already, and the elephant in the room here has to be Zozer Games SOLO, which is for running Cepheus Engine (MgT 1st ed) games solo. Check out Traveller luminary Andy Slack's excellent Arionad campaign, run during the Aslan Border Wars for background and the Zozer Games SOLO Supplement:

https://hws3.wordpress.com/category/campaigns/the-arioniad/

So, this isn't difficult, in fact it has been done quite well already. I am intrigued to see what a Mongoose version of such a supplement would be like, and as a Referee whose players have long since moved away, I'd be in the market for a product like this.

What would I like to see in the product:

• A faction system, similar to the one in Stars Without Number, so that I could generate an interesting setting background populated with factions in motion, creating news and stuff that lives even if the action is off stage.
• The ability to run a wide variety of types of traveller campaign types - trading is obvious and already a viable solo mini-game. But what about mercenary companies, troubleshooting campaigns, naval campaigns and other interesting options.
• This should work with 2300ad too, I'm already running a campaign in that setting using a Rebco Sar troubleshooting team, using the Zozer solo rules and a lot of tweaking.
• A system that works by assisting the player craft a narrative - a bunch of events tables and the standard rules system are a poor substitute for a real solo RPG system.

Looking forward to seeing where this goes.

J