Traveller 5E

[rinku]

While other sub systems are at play in CT, the core mechanic is roll 2D6 against a target, with modifiers, trying to equal or exceed the target number.

Keep in mind, CT did not have an integrated task system. There are lots of extras added here and there in adventures often only relevant to the adventure.

So will you answer mu final question, if I use TNE rules and FF&S to make a bespoke setting am I playing Traveller?
2d6 system? Nope
Third Imperium Setting? Nope
Using a set of Traveller rules as they are intended to be used? Yup.

No, I would say not. The rules you're using there are GDW house system; you could as well have used Twilight 2000 as the basis.

JUST using FF&S as a tech builder, while putting aside all the Traveller technology isn't Traveller. You could use FF&S to build Car Wars vehicles. Not really Traveller. You could use FF&S to build Star Wars ships. Not really Traveller. You could use FF&S to build Vietnam War era equipment for a historical game. Not really Traveller.

However, if you're still substantially using the Traveller tech suite (maybe a different FTL, or maybe dropping anti-grav), sure.

 

[Sigtrygg]

So I am using TNE rules but not playing Traveller...

Using a Traveller supplement, FF&S, as it is intended to be used, but I am not using Traveller

no more discussion to be had really.

Only the Traveller community could argue that using the Traveller rules as written is not playing Traveller.

 

[Sigtrygg]

As to CT not being Traveller by your defintion:

uses only 2d6 - nope:

"DIE ROLLING CONVENTIONS
Routinely in the course of Traveller, dice must be thrown to determine an effectively random result or unpredictable course of action. These dice throws may bemade by players for their characters, or by the referee forthe effects of nature, non-players, or unseen forces. Rollsby the referee may be kept secret or partially concealed depending on their effects. In situations where the players would not actually know the results of the roll or would not know the exact roll made, the referee should make the roll in secret. Generally, a dice throw involves two dice; exceptions requiring one die or three or more dice areclearly stated. The number of dice is either stated directly (one die, four dice) or abbreviated to save space (ID, 40)." The Traveller Book

Then there are the rolls of "d66"

uses charted space - nope
the original rules lacked a setting, it wasn't until The Traveller Book that the setting was included in the core rules. Referee's were meant to design their own settings.

sticks to the tropes of charted space -
nope, the original rules had different technology rules to the setting (jump torpedoes, jump fuel usage) it is even stated that the gaps in the LBB:3 TL table is for the referee to make stuff up... but if I make stuff up I am not playing Traveller but I am playing classic Traveller.

 

[WHULorigan]

As to CT not being Traveller by your defintion:

uses only 2d6 - nope:

"DIE ROLLING CONVENTIONS
Routinely in the course of Traveller, dice must be thrown to determine an effectively random result or unpredictable course of action. . . .Generally, a dice throw involves two dice; exceptions requiring one die or three or more dice areclearly stated. The number of dice is either stated directly (one die, four dice) or abbreviated to save space (ID, 40)." The Traveller Book

Thank you. I knew I wasn't imagining it.

 

[Sigtrygg]

The same text is in 77 and 81 LBB:1. There is further guidance in A:1 and in The Traveller Adventure.

 

[Vormaerin]

Only the Traveller community could argue that using the Traveller rules as written is not playing Traveller.

Obviously, it's a silly semantics argument with no meaning.

But it is interesting that just saying "Let's play Traveller" does not actually tell you anything about the game except that it's Sci Fi. D&D varies quite a bit between it's 7+ editions, but they all use the basic D20, character classes, and levels concept.

Not so with Traveller.

I do think that the marketing brand "Traveller" is really Charted Space. You pretty much have to be in the fandom already to have any reason to think they are not the same thing. It is the one thing all the various games have in common as the default. To the best of my knowledge, Mindjammer's Traveller edition is the only time someone licensed the name Traveller for the mechanics, not for Charted Space.

 

[WHULorigan]

I do think that the marketing brand "Traveller" is really Charted Space.

I think you could make a case that it is the tropes that underlie the original Charted Space setting, though. So Traveller will give you a particular flavor that has the feel of the Charted Space setting, whether "Proto-Traveller" home-brew, "Proto-Charted Space" or the early evolved Charted Space setting of the early/mid 1980s (or Dumarest, Firefly/Serenity, etc.).

That is just my leaning, however. I think when the modern RPG audience thinks Traveller, you may be right in your assessment above.

 

[Anstett]

From a potential new player who found me through a science forum and asked about the game.

"But I look forward to getting to know your game!
From what I understand, Traveller is a mythical-themed game where you progress by telling stories, which sounds like a pretty fantastic game by the way."

That is what she found from her search of Traveller Roleplaying with zero prior knowledge.

I would say that the wider audience out there of younger (college aged) people is not going to be playing the same game that others here think that Traveller is.

 

[Condottiere]

SPACE
THE FINAL FRONTIER

 

[nats]

I am not a fan. I think another system based on D&D is not going to be Traveller. Its just a money grab I think the same way as the Mongoose version 2 books are money grabs and that atrocious Traveller 5 was a money grab. The only real Traveller for me is classic Traveller in the little black books. And that will be the only Traveller ever worth anything to me. It might be old but it is MY TRAVELLER.

Mongoose can extract money from their license all they want as long as people pay for their new and reinvented products, but I wont be buying any more of them. I didn't mind the idea of Mongoose updating the old rules but they made such a hash of it in the process I've lost all faith. I've sold most of my Mongoose Traveller books, and the rest have never been read. That is how much I like the new rules. I fell for the Mongoose rules for a few years due to nostalgia and hope, like probably most people, but I've wised up since.

 

[Sigtrygg]

3,373 people are following the pre-launch now.

 

[actionman]

and that atrocious Traveller 5 was a money grab.

I don't know, it was way too weird to be a money grab. To me it seemed like mathematician game designers going down whichever rabbit holes interested them. Maybe a better comparison would be they were like the magician's nephew surrounded by pools in the Wood Between the Worlds and plunging into whichever pool they found interesting, without returning to home pool. I think that's why we got abstractions like weapons carrying however many combat turns of ammunition instead however many rounds/cartridges of ammunition, and we a lot of technical explanations, design sequences, and creation tools, but not a cohesive game.

 

[shirgall]

To me T5 was less of a money grab and more of a "philosophy of customizing Traveller for your table". It gave a wealth of information that you could hone into something that worked for you and your table.

 

[Vormaerin]

Calling something a moneygrab implies that it was a bad job done solely for money without any actual care for quality, with a general implication that the sale is a scam. Or that something disingenuous like intentionally leaving out important elements so you could sell them separately happened.

Just because I don't need or like something doesn't make it a money grab. It just means people are making a product for someone else. And most of the stuff made in this world are not particularly designed for me, so I don't find that surprising.

 

[rinku]

I think T5 was Marc's Thesis and statement of his own vision of Traveller. But he's far too much of a gentleman to impose it as holy writ. I also cannot see it as any kind of cash grab, and I seriously doubt he made much money from it.

FFE was almost certainly funded from licensing out Traveller IP and reprint rights of GDW Traveller products, or its own direct sales of those. If anything was a cash grab it was selling legit pdfs of out-of-date games to folks that mostly had physical copies of most of it.

 

[WHULorigan]

I think T5 was Marc's Thesis and statement of his own vision of Traveller. But he's far too much of a gentleman to impose it as holy writ. I also cannot see it as any kind of cash grab, and I seriously doubt he made much money from it.

This is most certainly true.

FFE was almost certainly funded from licensing out Traveller IP and reprint rights of GDW Traveller products, or its own direct sales of those. If anything was a cash grab it was selling legit pdfs of out-of-date games to folks that mostly had physical copies of most of it.

And I wouldn't call that a cash grab, but a recognition of a market for electronic copies of the older editions of everyone's particular favourite flavor, and making a true value deal for what you got with those CDs.

 

[Condottiere]

If I had the time and patience, it's the sort of the thing I'd do, to place my definitive imprint on the game.

Especially, if it's likely the last time.

 

[actionman]

I wouldn't call that a cash grab

reprints and pdfs, especially the cd roms were so important. it was like archiving Traveller, dispersing it throughout the world. it made available long out of print Traveller books and materials, which I was very happy to finally have.

 

[rinku]

Yep. I didn't feel the need to make use of it for the small amount of legacy stuff I didn't own, but I'm glad it exists.

 

[Vormaerin]

Honestly, the envelope it came it was practically worth the cost of the goods. (This isn't a picture of mine, which has a different image of the free trader on it. But I don't have it immediately to hand to take a pic so I grabbed this one off the internet)