Traveller - Not in space

[Balfuset790]

This may sound like an odd question, and I apologise if it's a dumb one for that reason!

I was just wondering if there are/have been/will be any conversion rules, be they official or not, for using Traveller in non science fiction settings.

I ask this mostly from the perspective of someone new to the game who rather likes the character creation system and simple mechanics who feels that there might be something to be said for 17th Century high seas Traveller. Given the similarities between the idea of a space-borne crew of miscreants and ne'er-do-wells and the same thing on the High Seas. Most games of that style focus, not unreasonably, on swashbuckling adventures and piracy. Which of course seems entirely doable within the OTU or any iteration of MTU or YTU with interstellar sci-fi as the backdrop.

Mainly I suspect that the areas that would need looking at would be character creation and ship rules, to an extent. Any thoughts? Is this permissable within the licence and usage policy of the game as a homebrew? Not that I have any time for such thigns with a full time job!

 

[locarno24]

Obviously, the bulk of your effort falls onto the careers table. I've looked at Traveller as a mechanic for dark age shenanigans with Saxons and Danes hitting one another with axes, and it works perfectly well.

I'm not sure how well the vehicle manual would support age-of-sail ships, especially with combat and seamanship in a sailing vessel in mind, though.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Just create careers and skills for your setting. Throw in some equipment. Done.

 

[MongooseMatt]

I was just wondering if there are/have been/will be any conversion rules, be they official or not, for using Traveller in non science fiction settings.

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/102761/Traveller-Cowboys-vs-Xenomorphs

We have been toying with this ourselves

Right now we have in design a full Wild West setting, a Steampunk/Bioshock/Mech setting, and I am looking around for someone to do Caribbean Pirates...

So, yes, they are coming!

 

[Balfuset790]

I was just wondering if there are/have been/will be any conversion rules, be they official or not, for using Traveller in non science fiction settings.

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/102761/Traveller-Cowboys-vs-Xenomorphs

We have been toying with this ourselves

Right now we have in design a full Wild West setting, a Steampunk/Bioshock/Mech setting, and I am looking around for someone to do Caribbean Pirates...

So, yes, they are coming!

Ooh, from the man himself! Plenty to look forward to then... I read Steampunk/Bioshock/MEch and just starting grinning like an idiot.

Though plans for High Seas piracy also makes me happy!

 

[Marechal]

Paul Eliott of Zoser Games did a roman merchant trading game called Mercator which used Classic Traveller as its rule system.

It is available free online from his website
http://zozer.weebly.com/

 

[jed]

A number of bloggers have done fantasy conversions of Traveller, as summarized at http://wanderinggamist.blogspot.com/2012/02/fantasy-traveller-review-of-literature.html , though they're mostly rather half-baked.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

I was just wondering if there are/have been/will be any conversion rules, be they official or not, for using Traveller in non science fiction settings.

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/102761/Traveller-Cowboys-vs-Xenomorphs

We have been toying with this ourselves

Right now we have in design a full Wild West setting, a Steampunk/Bioshock/Mech setting, and I am looking around for someone to do Caribbean Pirates...

So, yes, they are coming!

Dungeons & Dragons does pirates very well, so does Pathfinder, what's wrong with that?

 

[MongooseMatt]

Dungeons & Dragons does pirates very well, so does Pathfinder, what's wrong with that?

Traveller will do them better, and I will tell you why

Think of Traveller, with the Spinward Marches (say), all those system stats telling you exactly what is in each one, the trading rules, patrons, etc - with all that, you can have a good crack at a complete campaign and never touch a 'proper' adventure. Traveller gives you a toolkit not to just create your own adventures, but run a complete campaign.

Now, transfer all of that to the Caribbean...

You have all the ports detailed, with which power currently rules them, who is governor, and what their main trading is in. You have the trading rules that you can use to ferry goods around (however you acquired them). You have patrons in every port to give jump off points to the players.

Add to that wars between the empires, dealing with natives, exploring for cities of gold...

This is going to be a cracker!

 

[Prime_Evil]

Keep in mind that you can file off the serial numbers for character creation variants covering different historical periods and use them to populate low TL worlds. Plus I've got to admit that the mental image of Aslan pirates and steampunk Vargr has some entertainment value...

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Dungeons & Dragons does pirates very well, so does Pathfinder, what's wrong with that?

They don't use the Mongoose Traveller game system?

 

[Condottiere]

Presumably, the upcoming Civilians & Scholars may be able to cater to this.

 

[locarno24]

So does Legend for that matter, but that's not the point.
Different rules sets do different things well. Traveller is very good for trading and 'rules-light' improvisation.

Combat is fast and deadly, but less well suited for the "I do manouvre X/You do manouvre Y" style of legend, which puts a lot more detail into melee combat than traveller's "pointy bit goes in enemy".

By comparison, there are Sci-Fi versions of Legend being cooked up. I'd rather use them for a Star Wars game which will be mostly jedi and sith swinging lightsabers at each other, but I'd rather use Traveller for a Star Wars game which will be mostly the players commanding a battalion of clones....

As I said, should be awesome, and I can see easily how most things transfer - just pull the TL1-3 weapons and armour out of the sourcebooks, generate a few careers, and put a false nose and mustache over the trading rules (dTons become Tonnes) and you're halfway there.

Rules for sailing - either between ports or in combat - and running ship combat - or managing your crew generally (unlike a Type S you're gonna need a shedload of NPCs to operate even an armed sloop*) are the main things which'll need cooking up, aside from patron tables, maps, and ideally some famous pirates and ships as NPCs.

Would really love to see it.

*Hanrahan's "ship morale" stuff from Pirates of Drinax is a good source

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Keep in mind that you can file off the serial numbers for character creation variants covering different historical periods and use them to populate low TL worlds. Plus I've got to admit that the mental image of Aslan pirates and steampunk Vargr has some entertainment value...

One of the old fanzines for Classic Traveller had Aslan Pirates. The adventure was sent on Ea in the Reaver's Deep. Even had deck plans for a sailing ship!

 

[FraNe91]

You should check out Words Apart, a total conversion of the mongoose Traveller OGL rules.
You can find it on rpgnow for free (without art) or for 12$ with art, and it's totally open content.

I must tell you that I never played it though, so I don't know how good is it.
Try it and tell us because I was interested too in it :mrgreen:

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

I must tell you that I never played it though, so I don't know how good is it.
Try it and tell us because I was interested too in it :mrgreen:

It's free. So don't expect too much from it.

 

[Balfuset790]

You should check out Words Apart, a total conversion of the mongoose Traveller OGL rules.
You can find it on rpgnow for free (without art) or for 12$ with art, and it's totally open content.

I must tell you that I never played it though, so I don't know how good is it.
Try it and tell us because I was interested too in it :mrgreen:

Downloaded and gave a skim out of curiosity.

Not impressed.

It's a horrific mish-mash of Traveller and D&D tropes while lifting a lot of Traveller rules wholesale from the core book, just changing a few terms (unles they licenced it, isn't that slightly dodgy even with the OGL?)

No firearms, despite their own internal TL counter going up to the Rennaissance (WTF? ) and despite making no mention of any need for it, ships had M- and J- (or V- in their parlance, for 'Voyager') drives even though earlier in the chapter it mentions ships don't need drives as they can rely on wind and rowing... now they do seem to indicate that regular ships do exist and that the ships players (and other large powers) will have, so-called 'Voyager ships', are special because they're built with magic and the bidning of elemental creatures to the hull... but there's no indication tht I could see as to why an Air elemental needs to provide life support or breathable air. I suspect the design intent is for these ships to be submersible, but honestly? That's just the nail in the coffin of ridiculousness that I can't put up with.

I'm cool with fantasy Age of Sail, I'm a HUGE fan of 7th Sea for just that reason... but this? Poorly executed and 99% copy-pasta from core Traveller. Do not get, even the free version, in my opinion.

 

[Jame Rowe]

Paul Eliott of Zoser Games did a roman merchant trading game called Mercator which used Classic Traveller as its rule system.

It is available free online from his website
http://zozer.weebly.com/

This is one of the things that inspired me to make my own Fantasy Careers for MgT. Don't see as they'll ever get used but I'm satisfied.

 

[Jame Rowe]

You should check out Words Apart, a total conversion of the mongoose Traveller OGL rules.
You can find it on rpgnow for free (without art) or for 12$ with art, and it's totally open content.

I must tell you that I never played it though, so I don't know how good is it.
Try it and tell us because I was interested too in it :mrgreen:

I downloaded and skimmed it. It's not bad but I'm not too impressed; I was hoping for something a bit more original.

The shipbuilding section isn't bad but it's more than a bit far from the "quote-realistic-unquote" ships that I'm interested - I'd be more interested in something that mirrors history or at least Harn.

 

[nats]

I was just wondering if there are/have been/will be any conversion rules, be they official or not, for using Traveller in non science fiction settings.

The main reason I love Traveller is the way it can be perfectly applied to low tech worlds, I have always found the low tech weapons like swords and cutlasses to be the best! You could easily design a low tech campaign on one or two worlds using the basic rules and some film guidance for inspiration (like Firefly/original Star Wars' Tatooine/Westworld/Waterworld etc mixed with the Scoundrels book for pirates, Equipment Catalogue for old weapons, and the Vehicle design book for old sea craft.