Traveller OTU - Loves and Hates

[domingojs23]

Love:

1. Third Imperium
2. Zhodani
3. Imperial Armed Forces
4. Aslan
5. Sword Worlds
6. Vilani
7. Ancients
8. Nobility
9. UPP

Hate:

1. Minimal progress of Jump Drives as Tech Levels rise
2. Droyne
3. Sandcasters
4. 2-dimensional nature of star maps
5. TNE / Virus Setting

Ambivalent

1. Vargr
2. K'Kree
3. Communication Speed equals Travel Speed
4. No Blasters
5. Hivers
6. Solomani

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

I like sandcasters.

 

[Mithras]

I hate grav tech being so ubiquitous! It makes planetary travel boring (but after reading some of Traveller's precursor novels, it's all quite common in the 1960s and 70s SF genre).

 

[spinwardpirate]

I love the feel, that "Age of Sail" in Space feel, that the game evokes. I also love Traveller character creation. I could sit and make characters all day.

I don't really like the fact that it feels like most of the map has been filled in. I also don't like 2d space.

 

[Vile]

I think the OP's list is a bit long - I'll just stick to my top Best and Worst:

The Best: The general technological assumptions. A lot of it is contradictory, poorly explained, and outdated by modern SF standards. But I like the level of retro-SF feel and the opportunity for adventure it still presents, which a lot of even modern-day security measures and spyware makes very hard. It also had slug throwers in SF long before the fictional media caught on.

The Worst: Unfortunately this would be a far longer list, but to pick my personal worst - rubber suit aliens. When I look at how I've refereed Traveller over the years, they are the first thing I've always dumped. I can live with Hivers, but just about everything else really turns me off. I much prefer aliens to be either unfathomable, or alien Human cultures (the Aslan and Vargr work well like that).

 

[Vargr]

I feel I must spring in defense of OTU's aliens. Please take this tongue-in-cheek.


Aliens in Traveller are not "rubber suits" in any way, shape or form. I'll admit the setting is lacking "floating silicon lifeform speaking in radio waves" types but...

Wait a minute...no it isn't even lacking that. We have naturally-occurring sentient silicon chips and intelligent computer virus.


But back to the Major Races:

Vargr - not aliens per se, they are uplifted canines. Their psychological make up is definitely not human. Rubber suit argument does not apply.

Hivers - as weird as you can get without venturing into "silicon lifeform" territory. Rubber suit? Hardly.

Aslan - Yeah, they are humanoid. They are also so inscrutable Humanity has to define them as "sort of like lions" when they aren't even feline and apply wrong terms like "prides" to describe their society. Heck, after 30+ years of existence artists can't even agree on how they look like...even to to the number of fingers. Rubber? Yes...if you are dumb enough to downplay them as *choke* Klingons.

Droyne - Reptilian-like (but not reptiles) little guys no one understands. Use psionics, have wings, change morphology and size because they toss coins around.

Humaniti - For once, varied and quite so.

From all the non-human races, Vargr are the only ones I have a clear idea how to play. All the others are quite a challenge because they are so different mentally, regardless of whether they have tentacles or not.

Hmmm...actually even some of the human races are beyond me. How the hell do you play a Zhodani noble properly? All the latex in the world wouldn't help, though a turban might.

 

[Matian]

List Form!

Love
1) Character creation
2) UPP/WPP
3) Vargr
4) Aslan
5) TNE/Virus *ducks*
6) Communication speed = Travel speed
7) Gigantic computers (It has that perfect low-tech high-tech feel for me.)

Hate
1) Ancients
2) Droyne
3) Ancients
4) Grandfather
5) Ancients
6) Lasers being defeated by mirrors. WTF? (I can handle most of the older sci-fi ideas, but this one BUGS me.)
7) Players who learned to play via a house-ruled edition and keep arguing with you. ARGH. /rant

Ambivalent
1) Psionics
2) Zhodani
3) K'kree
4) Skill training system
5) Engineer split into a skill tree
6) Jack of All Trades

 

[Jame Rowe]

List Form!

Love
5) TNE/Virus *ducks*

I actually love this as well. Mongoose should do a conversion of this too.

 

[rust]

The Traveller OTU, hmm ?

Well, this will not take much time and space ... :lol:

Like
Droyne
Hivers

Dislike
Everything Else

 

[BP]

What he said!

 

[AndrewW]

The basic setting. Spinward/1105 is boring IMHO. I'd rather prefer the more aggressive settings like Rebellion/Hard Times, Gateway Domain/SolRimWar or the TNE period

Could try playing in one of the other areas, the Vargr have a lot of infighting in the Vargr Extents. There's the Aslan ihatei always looking for new conquests. Coming up with Reft Sector (due for release in March, 2010) there's the Island areas, plenty of opportunity for fun there (outside Imperial space, isolated area, book covers the politics of the area, military, etc. 1105 isn't just the Spinward Marches.

Even in the default area though lots of adventure possibilities. Even without the Fifth Frontier War (yet) can still have border clashes with the Zhodani, could wander outside Imperial borders as well. Not that things are free of conflict within Imperial borders.

 

[Golan2072]

Likes
1) Hivers
2) Aslan
3) Hard Times/TNE/1248
4) Hivers
5) Communication speed = Travel speed
6) Slugthrowers in space
7) ATVs
8) Hivers
9) The skill, task and chargen systems of CT and MGT

Dislikes
1) Ancients
2) Grandfather
3) Pre-Hard Times Rebellion
4) The Imperium is WAY too large
5) The Imperium lacks a real frontier
6) The Imperium is WAY too old
7) Ancients
8) The Spinward Marches (not much of a real frontier)
9) Tiny worldlets with thick, breathable atmospheres in the habitable zone

Ambivalent
1) Psionics
2) Gravitics
3) Outer Rim Void/Trojan Reach
4) Vargr
5) Solomani
6) Droyne
7) Darrians
8) Zhodani, Vilani and the minor Human races
9) PGMPs, FGMPs and Battledresses

 

[AndrewW]

The other areas and the inner-imperial stuff has little to no material (Even Islands is barely detailed) and as a casual gamer/GM I don't do houserules, don't build sectors and prefer a pre-created background. Roleplaying is the stuff I do if there is nothing better around, not my prime choice of spending time.

The Trojan Reach is covered in Alien Module 1: Aslan.
Vargr Extents are covered in Alien Module 2: Vargr.
The Islands are covered in Reft Sector (upcoming).

 

[mcathro]

The biggest thing that bugs me...

No reals sense of mystery or exploration. As others have said "The map has been filled in". Part of Traveller is..um..Travelling! Travelling to unknown worlds, finding new alien species and exploring. At least that's what I think it should be. We need a bit more of this IMO.

 

[aspqrz]

The biggest thing that bugs me...

No reals sense of mystery or exploration. As others have said "The map has been filled in". Part of Traveller is..um..Travelling! Travelling to unknown worlds, finding new alien species and exploring. At least that's what I think it should be. We need a bit more of this IMO.

Yeah, that plus the age of the Imperium that means that everything in "known space" is not only explored, but must have been known of and, likely, settled, for hundreds of years, minimum ... there is, really, little or know believable explanation for "frontier worlds" in any meaningful sense.

YMMV of course.

Technology generally doesn't make believable sense, either, again, YMMV.

The Aliens and the rest, they're OK, Psionics is too weedy ... I'd rather see something more like MZ Bradley's version from her Darkover novels (which are of the right era, the earlier ones).

Rebellion: Fine. Hard Times: Undecided, but bordering on unbelievable. Virus: What were they shooting up :shock: ?

Phil

 

[PrinceYyrkoon]

Love most of it.

Dislike Vargr as being exactly like wolves. After all that time, couldnt they look a bit, I dunno, more believable?

Dislike Aslan as being similar to ninja lions. Silly.

Droyne in battle dress!

KKree having a ridiculous bigotry against meat eaters.

The Zhodani looking like exotic stage magicians.

Er, yeah, I think its the aliens I have problem with.

Oh yes, dolphins in battle dress.

Any aquatic aliens that look like blue or green guys with gills.

Take it or leave it...

Yeah, tech levels that are hugely different in a small area of space. I think there would be polarising (which is the way I prefer), whereby theres high-ish tech worlds, and backwaters.

 

[Garuda]

The biggest thing that bugs me...

No reals sense of mystery or exploration. As others have said "The map has been filled in". Part of Traveller is..um..Travelling! Travelling to unknown worlds, finding new alien species and exploring. At least that's what I think it should be. We need a bit more of this IMO.

But an official setting requires a map and some background history - the travelling to unknown destinations occurs off the edge of the map or at least to backwater sectors.

If the OTU was just a travel to places unknown game then the map of the offical universe would be just one single planet labelled 'start here'.

 

[AndrewW]

+ A sourcebook on something else than Spinward but with the quality of MGT's Spinward Marches (or Gateway Domain - IIRC the same author was involved in both). Maybe the Antares/Julian border

Will you settle for one? Reft Sector is being done by the same author that did Spinward Marches (and one of the two authors on Central Supply Catalogue).

 

[kafka]

Like

Major Races and a fragmented Humaniti
Gritty Future side-by-side with shining future
Interesting backstories
Expansive canvas of worlds and history
Limitations on Travel (1-6 Parsecs per week)
Universal toolbox to adapt many Golden Age Science Fiction Stories

Dislike

Not a detailed understanding of Interstellar Politics (borders shift and change, as do allegencies without resorting to War!)
Overall low tech feel to the future
Golden Age feel
Lack of wonder conveyed through the products
Military emphasis/predominance

 

[Travellingdave]

Like:
*The "Imperial" culture has a nice, Golden Age charm. I like the old, possibly ossified, aristocracy. Power is also centered in people, not just bureaucracies. Not always logical, but more fun.
*Message speed=Travel speed. Makes most power local power and players can stay ahead of their reps.
*Technology is kept simple enough to be easily accessible to most players: A gun is still a gun, not a cloud of nanobits, etc. Contradicted a bit by some of my dislikes below.
*Big enough to handle almost anything you want to add without breaking the structure.
*Varied human cultures.
*Hivers
*Droyne/Ancients (when played right, i.e. mysterious and truly alien)

Dislike:
*Week-long jumps mean a lot of dead game time for players.
*Aslan are samurai lions (details vary, but still). Kkree are horse people (ditto). I can at least rationalize the Vargr as Terran genetic uplifts.
*Tech levels are too low most of the time. Technology choices don't always make sense and some serious rationalization is needed to argue for the choices made. It's Golden Age but without some of the internal consistency and logic.
*Very little transhumanist/extreme human tech (upgraded in the MGT version and now optional)
*Very little A.I.
*Space is pretty crowded. Unless you create your own Foreven sector, there are polities surrounding the Imperium everywhere.
*Grandfather (as compared to the Ancients themselves).

Overall:
I like the structure of the Imperium but chafe at some of the choices made. The good news is that many are easily ignored, changed or re-interpreted without totally breaking it.