Trav Sandbox: what would you like to see in a game setting?

[Hopeless]

Been wondering about this.

Lets say you're using the core rules what options would you like to see included in a game?

Would you prefer a Star Wars style background or a Star Trek type where you're in a largely peaceful environment rather than the upheaval of an Empire in the throes of rebellion?

Do you want alien races or a human only setting?

How much psionics do you want involved whether a monastic style background ala Jedi or something less benevolent like the Psi Corps?

Do you want a storyline or a series of one shots?

Would you be willing to provide a background for your character like for example designing your character's home system and throw in subplots or prefer to keep things as minimal as possible rather than run the risk your gm will make use of your supplied details?

More importantly how set are you with the Traveller rules?

If say Jump Drives don't use as much fuel as previously stated or you'd rather use the alternate systems of warp drives or hyperspace gates what would you view on all of this be?

Whats your opinion on a Traveller Sandbox?

 

[rust]

Would you prefer a Star Wars style background or a Star Trek type where you're in a largely peaceful environment rather than the upheaval of an Empire in the throes of rebellion?

Both options would be fine, although I prefer a peaceful
environment.

Do you want alien races or a human only setting?

No aliens, it is too difficult to make them truly alien.

How much psionics do you want involved whether a monastic style background ala Jedi or something less benevolent like the Psi Corps?

Very little or no psionics.

Do you want a storyline or a series of one shots?

A sandbox with options and hooks for different storylines.

Would you be willing to provide a background for your character like for example designing your character's home system and throw in subplots ...

Yep.

More importantly how set are you with the Traveller rules?

I prefer to adapt them to the setting in question.

If say Jump Drives don't use as much fuel as previously stated or you'd rather use the alternate systems of warp drives or hyperspace gates what would you view on all of this be?

I prefer the hyperdrive.

Whats your opinion on a Traveller Sandbox?

I play sandbox campaigns only. :wink:

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

I've used the Mongoose Traveller core rulebook, along with Supplement 9 to run generic sci-fi games in an open world setting. I haven't changed the way jump drive works though.

 

[locarno24]

Usually use it as a generic rule-set - at least half of the games have nothing to do with the 3I setting. Many don't really involve ships at all.

I've used them for Stargate SG-1, for example; certainly the ship rules were fairly fast and loose - it was set in the early Pre-Anubis, Pre-Prometheus era the rules for the starships were "holy &!!!@! that's a starship, let us run away..."

A friend is looking at Mass Effect - the Mass Relay rules will probably be teleport drive with a couple of twists.

Generally, I think Traveller works well in a universe with some conflict in it - even Star Trek has its moments - The trick is to have peaceful and dangerous bits, which both Star Trek and Star Wars has. Interesting RPGs mix and match violence, charm and deviousness in equal proportions.

I like doing campaigns but we generally only get half a dozen sessions at most on a given story before either people want to do something else or there's a big break and they want to do something else on their return.

 

[Captain Jonah]

Been wondering about this.
Would you prefer a Star Wars style background or a Star Trek type where you're in a largely peaceful environment rather than the upheaval of an Empire in the throes of rebellion?

Yes :wink:

All types of campaigns can be fun. With mostly peaceful empires its pirates and plots and megacorps. With civil wars its the enemies at the edges and raiders and trade and plots and spies in the safe areas. Personally I like campaigns with action and an over arcing plot. Things happening around you shaping history and you can get involved or run and hide.

Do you want alien races or a human only setting?

Aliens should be something that are weird and, well, alien. Humans in rubber suits are not the same. A very well thought out alien race with motivations and a culture that is frankly totally alien is fine, otherwise much more human centric. Lets face it, with transhumanist games, Traveller tech levels with DNA mutation or manipulation etc aliens can remain the myths and stories of grizzled old spacers who saw something odd once. You will have more than enough odd races and species of humans wandering around.

More X-Files than Traveller. The government may know, they may be covering it up. Corrupt or evil mega corps may know, they may be covering it up or under alien control. Keep the mystery. Alien of the week takes away a lot of the magic of the game.

How much psionics do you want involved whether a monastic style background ala Jedi or something less benevolent like the Psi Corps?

Same as with Aliens. Are there Psions out there. Yes. Are you one, have you ever met one, very unlikely. Is there a secret government/corporate research project that kidnaps psions. Are they actively feared, are they children’s bogymen or some Orwellian enemy within used to justify the police state.

Do you want a storyline or a series of one shots?

Storylines, campaigns. Long term games. Multi year (game time or real time) plot lines. One off adventures are fine for conventions or the like but if you have a regular or even semi regular group one offs should still take place within the overall campaign. I am happy to run a side adventure to bring in new players or the sort of thing that happens to break up those extra long journeys but it takes place within the overall campaign.

Would you be willing to provide a background for your character like for example designing your character's home system and throw in subplots or prefer to keep things as minimal as possible rather than run the risk your gm will make use of your supplied details?

Yep. A good ref can pull loads of ideas out of a characters background and it adds depth to a campaign. Create two backgrounds. One a public background that is known to the other players and which can link to one or more other players to help bring everyone together. One for the ref with the real history and details.

An example. A marine, decorated in action for singlehandedly storming the engine room of an enemy ship and crippling its power plant with AP grenades. Saved the entire convoy of supplies which saved the fleet etc. A naval character and merchant character both linked to this event. However the ref only background says that he is secretly afraid of combat, panicked when he came under fire on boarding the raider and randomly fled. He ended up in engineering and when he saw the armed engineers aiming at him fired his grenade launcher which was loaded with breaching charges.

If say Jump Drives don't use as much fuel as previously stated or you'd rather use the alternate systems of warp drives or hyperspace gates what would you view on all of this be?

Mostly I don’t use traditional jump drives unless in another refs game who does use them. Most people I know these days use an alternative of some form. Either Terra/Sols SLD which functions like a CT jump but does parsecs per week and a single jump can be several weeks long. Or Outer veil with its fuel less jump drives. Or 2300 with its Stutterwarp. Or even Bridge drives which open wormholes allowing for jumps system to system very fast but they only work close to very deep gravity wells so to jump to a nearby system you need to go out to the closest gas giant to jump, a non FTL game where ships are limited to a fraction of Light speed in real space.

The Traveller rules are a frame work. Bend, twist and reshape to your hearts content. The 3rd Imperium is a good backdrop for a campaign but so is the Outer Veil or Terra/Sol or 2300. Take what you like, change the bits you think need improving and away you go.

 

[F33D]

Would you prefer a Star Wars style background or a Star Trek type where you're in a largely peaceful environment rather than the upheaval of an Empire in the throes of rebellion?

Neither. Both are old & moldy.

Do you want alien races or a human only setting?

Mixed for realism/believability reasons.

How much psionics do you want involved whether a monastic style background ala Jedi or something less benevolent like the Psi Corps?

I don't use psionics. I reserve magic for my FRPG campaign.

Do you want a storyline or a series of one shots?

I play campaign style.

Would you be willing to provide a background for your character like for example designing your character's home system and throw in subplots or prefer to keep things as minimal as possible rather than run the risk your gm will make use of your supplied details?

I don't play in games where the GM is so immature as to have to worry about such things.

More importantly how set are you with the Traveller rules?

I use a variant rules. Stopped using the 3I setting ~1980 too.

If say Jump Drives don't use as much fuel as previously stated or you'd rather use the alternate systems of warp drives or hyperspace gates what would you view on all of this be?

I use a hyper drive/jump drive crossbreed system.

Whats your opinion on a Traveller Sandbox?

For campaign it's the only thing I play/GM.

 

[mattman]

No shining Californian Star Treks or cartoon-gritty Star Warses, no offense.

And yet, I want it set in a galaxy far far far away from this one, with no mention of Earth whatsoever. As far as humans are concerned, they've always been there and they have no memory of their origin. They might even have these wacky theories about their origins that everyone accepts as self-evident fact.

I want it set in a galaxy with a massive, galactic-arm-spanning cacophony of blessedly disunited humanity.

If there are aliens, they are utterly creepy, psychopathic, and inscrutable like the ones in the Class-K entities rap sheet in Robin Laws' Ashen Stars. I do agree that it takes real genius to invent and portray aliens though.

I'm sooooo tired of timelines of who was at war with whom, "the great war that's coming", tensions between states, the long histories of clashing states, who researched this or that gun, who discovered the star drive, what state made a treaty with what state, when the Revolution occurred or when the Emperor was overthrown, etc.

Instead, I want tomb robbers, migrations, celestial events, the price of coffee in the Third Wisp Of The Twelfth Spur, odd mysteries, regressions, renaissances, and why some of those people cover their elbows and knees in public with gauzy elbow and knee-wear. More folksy and way less domesticated, you know?

Also, I avoid anything that feels like D&D-In-Spaaaaaace. And yes I know that someone said that Traveller is "D&D in space". Shaddup

No magic. Maybe a hint of psionics.

I know I am all over the place here, but I hope some of it is coherent.

Warp travel is preferred. Don't like jump much. Sandbox is very much preferred.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

More importantly how set are you with the Traveller rules?....Whats your opinion on a Traveller Sandbox?

Except for the errors, an excellent set of rules. I would say it already is a sandbox. Enough so, that I use it as a Rosetta Stone to translate concepts, skills, items, etc. between game systems. (well that and the d20Modern SRD).

Would you be willing to provide a background for your character like for example designing your character's home system and throw in subplots or prefer to keep things as minimal as possible rather than run the risk your gm will make use of your supplied details?

Both as a GM and a player have no problem with fleshed out backgrounds to fit the campaign. As a GM, I will take a player's input to give them their moment, but of course it will fit my game and I will tell a player what parts will have to be rethought or simply "No. Not in this game."

If say Jump Drives don't use as much fuel as previously stated or you'd rather use the alternate systems of warp drives or hyperspace gates what would you view on all of this be?

This question cannot be adequately answered without addressing communication between systems. Is there FTL communication (Imperial Network, Subspace Communications, ansible, etc.)? Personally as a player and GM, I like the lack of FTL communication. Allows players to escape for another adventure. I like the idea of "dropping out of (Warp/Jump Space/whatever)" any time, like 2300 Stutterwarp.

Would you prefer a Star Wars style background or a Star Trek type where you're in a largely peaceful environment rather than the upheaval of an Empire in the throes of rebellion?
Do you want alien races or a human only setting?
How much psionics do you want involved whether a monastic style background ala Jedi or something less benevolent like the Psi Corps?
Do you want a storyline or a series of one shots?

Prefer not to have super peaceful environments like the Federation core. Semi-stable like Babylon 5, the Third Imperium at the edges, or heck Deep Space Nine.
Don't mind alien races as long as they fit into the setting and are not just "funny suits" with powers. If you have "funny suits" give them only ONE power, feature, that makes them cool, but not cooler than just a human.
Psionics: Easier and faster to use than standard rules, but NOT more powerful. And NOT MYSTERIOUS. I am not big on exploring. As a player and GM, I like things blowing up once in a while.

 

[Hopeless]

So the game I'm still trying to continue involves the spinward marches but following the destruction of an extra stellar gate network that was used as the primary means of travel, communication and trade such that jump drives were only used for contact, trade and so forth with those systems not on the network (See the Lost Fleet by Jack Campbell for the inspiration for this).

Their destruction allowed the Sword Worlds to successfully wage a civil war until the Aryan Alliance forces them to ally with the Theocratic Consulate and the Solomani Empire to force an uneasy truce thats been kept for at least five years.

The current year is 1256 with the gates exploding fourteen years earlier, the Empire is struggling to reasssert control and a previously obsolete naval depot now serves as the Imperial Navy Base with the nearby system of Fulacin now well on the way in becoming the new capital of the Solomani Empire.

The Theocrats have the best trained military of the Marches but lack the numbers especially in warships to take advantage, the Sword Worlds are technologically backwards compared to the rest of the Marches but have superior numbers even if obsolete warships.
The Aryan Alliance are technologically superior and make use of drone warships, but their small size even after they threatened to conquer the entire Marches is their primary weakness but the Solomani Empire remains the major power of the Marches but has problems of their own due in no part to the fact that this being a Traveller sandbox campaign nothing is written in stone.

So far the players in this game has discovered the database for Fulacin doesn't even recognise the fact it has any gas giants even though it has at least two, Kinorb has an inhabitable ice world holding a literall metropolis hidden beneath the ice and there's an active conspiracy between the Empire and a Pirate band known as the Children of Orion (inspired by a game for another Traveller setting in case you're wondering) who are actively threatening the PCs who have discovered the Empire has plenty of secrets for them to discover and try to solve... although whether they want to is another question entirely!

 

[Captain Jonah]

Well to start with your players need to kill any Children of Orion they meet in the darkness of space and nuke the remains to remove evidence. They are a pack of psychotic murdering scum with delusions of statehood.

After we refused to pay Tax for crossing space oe surrender our cargo and after exchanging a few insults on a station these crazies tried to blow the clamps holding our ship to a jump tender. WHILE IN JUMP :shock:

We met exactly “one” sane Child of Orion (well he came to talk to me while I was alone, not sure if the others believe me :roll: ) and are more or less at the point where unless there is Law around we just open fire on them.

Just kill them all. Its the only way to be sure.

But make sure there are no witnesses. The scum have a battalion of space lawyers and will take you to court for defending yourself after they edit the ships logs to make it look like you fired first and probably bribe the judge as well.

 

[AndrewW]

We met exactly “one” sane Child of Orion (well he came to talk to me while I was alone, not sure if the others believe me :roll: ) and are more or less at the point where unless there is Law around we just open fire on them.

Well, that trait usually doesn't apply to the Children of Orion and any encounter with such a mythological creature is bound to bring up doubts...

 

[dragoner]

Would you prefer a Star Wars style background or a Star Trek type where you're in a largely peaceful environment rather than the upheaval of an Empire in the throes of rebellion?

Neither, my campaign is the wild frontier - screaming through the electric darkness towards the unknown from whence one precipitates jump, you will only really know what is there by being there.

Do you want alien races or a human only setting?

Er not "races" but Aliens as people or species - life is chemical chaos vs the geologic order of death.

How much psionics do you want involved whether a monastic style background ala Jedi or something less benevolent like the Psi Corps?

My Zhodani, who dominate in the sphere of psionics, have a Sufi-istic attitude: Psionics is "a science through which one can know how to travel into the presence of the Divine, purify one's inner self from filth, and beautify it with a variety of praiseworthy traits".

Do you want a storyline or a series of one shots?

Both and neither, in my campaign I have a general outline, but if the characters deviate from it, so be it. Sometimes balance is achieved by rushing from one extreme to another.

Would you be willing to provide a background for your character like for example designing your character's home system and throw in subplots or prefer to keep things as minimal as possible rather than run the risk your gm will make use of your supplied details?

I can only say....muahahaha. :twisted:

More importantly how set are you with the Traveller rules?

Quite. Players are generally less freaked out if you don't have a huge amount of houserules, I have one currently, correcting the ranges on gauss weapons in the CSC. Usually they arise from discussion and agreement in game.

If say Jump Drives don't use as much fuel as previously stated or you'd rather use the alternate systems of warp drives or hyperspace gates what would you view on all of this be?

RAW jump, generally.

Whats your opinion on a Traveller Sandbox?

Been playing in it since '81. 8)

 

[Hopeless]

What about something like lifting off from Earth or leaving spacedock and jumping to the asteroid belt, refuelling before continuing on on a course to avoid running through the asteroid belt until able to jump to say the orbit of pluto and refuelling again before making the jump to another system before refuelling again if they have to jump towards the inner system rather than spend days travelling through space at high speed avoiding that excessive g acceleration problem?

 

[Golan2072]

Been wondering about this.

Lets say you're using the core rules what options would you like to see included in a game?

I'll answer this with my published setting, Outer Veil, in mind.

Would you prefer a Star Wars style background or a Star Trek type where you're in a largely peaceful environment rather than the upheaval of an Empire in the throes of rebellion?

Neither Star Wars nor Star Trek (or Mass Effect, for that matter, but Firefly and Alien(s). Large, all-out interstellar wars are difficult to ignore and tend to dominate the setting and its narrative, and thus are more fitting to a story-driven game than to a sandbox (Outer Veil was designed with the sandbox in mind). Large wars also favour big armies with big 'toys' (battleships, deathstars, carriers, large troop formations) and sometimes there is much less focus on the 'little guy'. I prefer brushfire wars, pirates, terrorism and counter-terrorism, corruption, corporate intrigue... There could be multiples in the same setting and they could be ignored or focused on as the Referee and players wish.

While Outer Veil has only one official government, the Federated Nations of Humanity, the fact that communications are limited to the speed of travel and that travel is 2 parsecs per week at best (with a brand-new TL11 ship) prevents it from having too much centralized control over the periphery. Space is just too big to be dominated in such a monolithic manner with such slow communications. Even the megacorporations are forced to rely on trusted agents and local managers with a lot of agency (that is, freedom of action and choice) rather than just have their board command everybody directly from Earth. Law on the fringes of explored space is virtually non-existant except for what the local authorities manage to enforce - with limited resources. This also makes corruption relatively easy to conceal and laws relatively easy to re-intrepret in a local manner, so the far colonies are highly varied in government style, culture and law despite the best efforts of the central government.

This also makes PCs matter. Big starships are expensive and you can't put a 1,000-dton cruiser in each and every star system. So the captain of a 300-dton Frigate - who might be a PC - might very easily find herself the ultimate governmental authority in several parsecs' radious with help several weeks away at best. A few PCs in a small trader might find themselves facing choices that could save or doom an entire colony.

Do you want alien races or a human only setting?

No living sentient aliens found so far, at least two dead alien civilizations known. Live aliens take too much focus from the game and did not fit the Outer Veil concept and state of mind, which is about the Human struggle to colonize the final frontier. Dead aliens are great plot-hooks for archeology, tomb-raiding and mysteries, but there are no inter-species politics in this setting.

Yet.

How much psionics do you want involved whether a monastic style background ala Jedi or something less benevolent like the Psi Corps?

Psionics are very new to the Outer Veil setting and can be easily ignored if the Referee and players so desire. There is a Psi Corps equivalent of sorts, but it is very young and not necessarily malevolent.

Also, psions are very difficult to regulate in the far frontiers where government authority is almost nonexistant.

Do you want a storyline or a series of one shots?

Both are possible in the Outer Veil setting.

Would you be willing to provide a background for your character like for example designing your character's home system and throw in subplots or prefer to keep things as minimal as possible rather than run the risk your gm will make use of your supplied details?

Most star systems and worlds in the Outer Veil universe are only sketched out in very general details. This allows for the Referee and players to flesh out details as they see fit, as long as they are in accord with the general theme of things.

More importantly how set are you with the Traveller rules?

Outer Veil uses most of the Mongoose Traveller rules as written, with a few exceptions, such as higher survival rates in cold sleep and a maximum productible tech level of 11. Other than that, it's Traveller.

If say Jump Drives don't use as much fuel as previously stated or you'd rather use the alternate systems of warp drives or hyperspace gates what would you view on all of this be?

I prefer to use Jump Drives as written. Anything faster and/or easier to use, not to mention FTL comms, changes the setting much. In fact, the Outer Veil setting was built around the comm lag, and faster communications might unravel some of its main themes.

Whats your opinion on a Traveller Sandbox?

I think that Traveller is a sandbox game at its heart. The rules are about generating a detailed universe and letting the players play in it, rather than building a core story and letting play revolve around it.

 

[Jak Nazryth]

I run an on-going campaign with a background “big plot” that the players are not always aware of. If they follow the hints and clues they can choose to engage or not engage in “the main plot” going on in the background. I then have 3 or 4 plot hooks at the beginning of each new game session. The players are free to chase any plot hook they want, or “make their own adventure” simply by doing the random chart/exploration thing. So call my campaign a sandbox with a plot. I have more than enough stock material (30 years of traveller adventures) to throw into any possible situation, plus the 10 or so active plot hooks I’ve got in the bag. I have enough of each plot hook in basic note form to keep the players busy for at least one game night. So once I know which direction they decided to go I’m able to completely fill out the rest of the plot hook encounters, dangers, risks, rewards, etc…
MTU is pretty close to cannon with the exception of Psionics. In the book “Psion” I have chosen “Babylon 5” on the chart as far as where psionics fall within the 3I. Basically everything is the same except the Imperium does have a psi-crop. The Imperial Psi-corp is a “necessary evil” within the imperium. Any citizen that “show signs” is tested. If someone does have the ability to use psionics they are suppressed, imprisoned (for their own safety) or brought into the psi-corp. Being a psi-cop is the only “legitimate” way for a 3I character to have psionics. The Psi-corp’s primary purpose is to identify and hunt down rogue psions, and to keep a check on the Zhodani. There are checks and balances that keep a short leash on the psi-corp, they are on a very short leash. One of my players is a former psi-cop.
So MTU is very 3I with a little bit of B5 flavoring.

 

[AndrewW]

One of my players is a former psi-cop.

How does that work? Illegal if you aren't a psi-cop, that doesn't really allow for a retirement plan. Or on suppression now?

 

[Hopeless]

One of my players is a former psi-cop.

How does that work? Illegal if you aren't a psi-cop, that doesn't really allow for a retirement plan. Or on suppression now?

There's two ways of handling, three if he's imaginative the first is that he's only assumed to have left the psi-corp, the second is that he's one step ahead of his former comrades and for the heck of it he's spent the last few years in alien space being trained to their level of abilities and now works for them so the psi-corp can't touch him until they're sure his new allies won't do something permanent to the human race... well them but who's counting?! :twisted:

 

[Jak Nazryth]

One of my players is a former psi-cop.

How does that work? Illegal if you aren't a psi-cop, that doesn't really allow for a retirement plan. Or on suppression now?

Technically IMTU you are never really retired from the service, simply "inactive". He is kind of like a scout ship that can be recalled at any time. If I roll a 12 at the beginning of each new adventure, the corps has a mission for him. There are implanted fail-safe devices that the corp can "set off" at anytime deep inside the players brain, which will kill him instantly. He has to check in and report his movement everywhere he goes. Most down ports are suppressed and suppressors are relatively easy to come by. Kind of like metal detectors today in airport and government facilities. If any psionic activity is reported, the corp brings in any inactive members for questioning. If you watched B5 you'll get the some of the flavoring in my almost cannon TU. My goal as a GM is to let my players play what they want within the rules of Psion without putting so many shackles on them to make their character useless. I treat this as a sci-fi/fantasy game so I don't worry to much about micro managing every aspect of make-believe futuristic laws and rules. I just make something up on the spot with dire consequences if he steps over the line (and is caught!). Most solutions as far as the corp is concerned is "boom".
His character has been useful at times but many times his powers are suppressed, so it's a balancing act. Anyway, he's having a lot of fun playing a "Bester" type. He does have many other skills besides his psionics that he can rely on. In fact, he was a doctor initially who rolled "psionics" on a random roll, so he created the idea that he was working for the corp testing out psi-suppression drugs on some of their "volunteers" when he accidentally got injected. The drug had the opposite affect on him which "woke up" his powers. The corp decided to bring him into the fold so he used the book "Psion" for the remainder of his character creation.

 

[Epicenter]

Would you prefer a Star Wars style background or a Star Trek type where you're in a largely peaceful environment rather than the upheaval of an Empire in the throes of rebellion?

I tend to like universes where there may have been a large scale war in the recent past or perhaps things are tense, but the stars are not necessarily aflame in war at the moment.

Conflicts tend to dominate the campaign universe. For instance, using the Kafer War in 2300, around the time the Kafers take Beta Canum Ventacorum, players, who tend to be mobile, well-armed, and claim to be socially responsible start running out of good reasons not to be involved in the war. This tends to limit the kind of games and characters. You either have people who have some ideals who have no real good excuse not to be involved in the fighting. Otherwise, players tend to get kind of dark and make very cutthroat mercenary types with no morals at all avoiding the war. I don't think this kind of polarization in good in a campaign sandbox situation.

Do you want alien races or a human only setting?

It really depends on how well aliens integrate into the setting and how fantastic the setting is. If I'm playing a future fantasy game, I'm fine with aliens as long as they avoid my most hated trope: aliens are a few facets of human nature and they're far superior to any human at these facets. There's a variety of alien races, all of whom monopolize some facets of human nature so humans end up supposedly the most "flexible" but really end up being mediocre and no good at any given thing: "jacksh*t at all trades, master of nothing" as I call it.

How much psionics do you want involved whether a monastic style background ala Jedi or something less benevolent like the Psi Corps?

Psionics are basically superhero superpowers in my opinion. If a game universe is about psions and all the players are psions, that's fine. I find game universes psions are a character class and there's some artificial restriction on them to somehow "balance" them with the "blunts" to be pretty silly.

Do you want a storyline or a series of one shots?

Would you be willing to provide a background for your character like for example designing your character's home system and throw in subplots or prefer to keep things as minimal as possible rather than run the risk your gm will make use of your supplied details?

It is my opinion that a RPG is a partnership or marriage between players and the GM: everyone has to come together to tell a story. If one side or the other can't do this, they might be playing a game, but it's nothing I'm interested in. If there's such mistrust or antagonism between players and a GM that you fear your GM using background materials, you shouldn't even be bothering to play a game. Dial back the paranoia and try going with the flow for once, or don't play with that GM.

If my background isn't used by the GM, I've wasted my time writing it. I don't write stuff for ... "self-pleasure" as you will. If I write up a background, it's because I want and expect the GM to use the materials to enrich the game. I've had games where the GM has stated they won't be using bg materials and have enjoyed those games - it's pretty liberating to just roll up some stats, get a basic read on the kind of character that'd produce and then never deal with it again and I very much appreciated the GM being upfront and honest to save me unneeded work.

On the other hand, if someone is so afraid of someone else utilizing what they wrote and "messing it up" they obviously have a high opinion of their own writing. They're also not a roleplaying game player. They're what we call an "author" at that point. They should stop playing RPGs and go write books. They'll enjoy it a lot more, and might even make it into a career.

More importantly how set are you with the Traveller rules?

Which Traveller rules? :wink:

I personally find CT and MT rules to be simplistic and antiquated so I never use them. MongTrav is a lot better: I play in some games with MongTrav rules but I don't run anything using it myself.

If say Jump Drives don't use as much fuel as previously stated or you'd rather use the alternate systems of warp drives or hyperspace gates what would you view on all of this be?

I'm all for changing FTL travel methods, but changes should always have their implications thought out instead of just "I think Traveler fusion uses too much hydrogen."

Whats your opinion on a Traveller Sandbox?

That's all I ever play, but I don't think anyone who plays a Traveller game, no matter how "canon" they claim is ever really playing true canon. Almost everyone tweaks and adapts something or has their interpretation of something or another that varies from another "canon" player.

 

[Hopeless]

I often wonder if Psions are better handled as emergencies only so when they get used its because its necessary not just as overpowered as every jedi or sith comes across.

Been thinking of throwing in a few wild cards such as having a variant Vargr race who are really human but can shift into a hybrid form purely for cosmetic purposes than going lycanthrope with a blue skinned human race (Darian) as another option.

Expect those who play Vargr's to be upset about that but can't help wondering where all those legends came from I mean vampires, werewolves, etc unless there's a practical explanation and like in an episode of Babylon V its blamed on an alien visitation! :shock: