Travellers Needed - The Future of Traveller

[paltrysum]

I've been going with "subspecies," but I can imagine being say, an Answerin, a Geonee, or a Cassildan and not appreciating that "sub" appellation. However, the Solomani Hypothesis proved that the Solomani were the trunk from which the other branches grew, so sub is technically accurate.

 

[agentwigggles]

I've been going with "subspecies," but I can imagine being say, an Answerin, a Geonee, or a Cassildan and not appreciating that "sub" appellation. However, the Solomani Hypothesis proved that the Solomani were the trunk from which the other branches grew, so sub is technically accurate.

I was just reading the wikia on this, and it said that the Solomani Hypothesis is contested! Which is strikes me as funny.

 

[paltrysum]

That might be accurate. You’ll forgive my chauvinism, me being Solomani and all.

 

[TrippyHippy]

This is a game that looks squarely based on White Wolf’s Mage: The Ascension, but based on the Traveller system OGL. It is the sort of thing that plays out a bit like a Matrix style game.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/370624/Opus-Magi?src=hottest_filtered&filters=10134_0_0_0_0

However, it could be the sort of thing that could be spruced up and made an ‘official’ Traveller product. I think a number of Cepheus games could be given a look at this way possibly, if they are really compelling titles.

 

[TrippyHippy]

Just trying to think of licenses that could be good for Traveller rules. Trouble is, science fiction tends to be the genre that attracts most high profile media IPs I think, I think, so a lot are taken. However:

Asimov’s Foundation?
Planet of the Apes?
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century?
Starship Troopers?
Red Dwarf?
Blake’s 7?
Journey to the Centre of the Earth?
The Matrix?
The Martian?
Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy?
The Time Machine
Children of Time (Adrian Tchaikovsky)?

Obviously all of these would be complicated due to licenses, and to be sure, I’m not calling for Traveller to go completely ‘open’ again. However, one of these could be an inspiration, I guess. I would also stress that Prime Directive, if and when it happens, is an excellent setting to add to Traveller fold, and there is an excellent but unofficial Traveller supplement for Star Wars that exists but can probably never get published....

Also, is there any upcoming book for Mecha (giant robots)?

 

[MartinP]

Whilst I'd love to be able to buy a full suite of tools on Roll20 or similar, I'd be completely happy with just a complete character/npc/ship/vehicle sheet. Both Roll20 and Foundry are already most of the way there. Roll20 has a sheet that's mostly complete, and Foundry has a "twodsix" sheet that's most of the way there, too.

3. An official support in Roll20 VTT. At the very least a new, professionally made character sheet would be great. Foundry already has a great fan-made character sheet and system support, but Roll20 is lagging far behind (and it is the VTT of choice of my group).

I seem to be the current maintainer of the MgT2e character sheet for Roll20. I admit, it's pretty clunky and needs a complete re-write, but until recently there hasn't been much point, so instead I've tried to focus on adding extra features. With the new engine changes that Roll20 have made in the last 6 months (some still in development), it's about the right time to be thinking about a whole new character sheet.

What sort of features do people want in VTT support?

For Roll20, a lot of the useful stuff (character generation, equipment and vehicle lists) can only be supported by a compendium or charactermancer, which are restricted to publishers only. Character sheet automation is OK, and the "character" can be a PC, NPC, ship, vehicle or whatever, anything that hold data or generate dice rolls. You just have to fill it all in manually.

The Roll20 API can do a lot of scripting of actions, working out ranges, applying damage, all sorts of things, but it needs a subscription to access it, so I'm opposed to putting any features on the character sheet that need the API.

 

[TrippyHippy]

Definitely think we should have a Traveller Roll20 support.

 

[paltrysum]

Asimov’s Foundation?
Planet of the Apes?
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century?
Starship Troopers?
Red Dwarf?
Blake’s 7?
Journey to the Centre of the Earth?
The Matrix?
The Martian?
Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy?
The Time Machine
Children of Time (Adrian Tchaikovsky)

Intriguing suggestions. Foundation, definitely applicable to Traveller. Planet of the Apes? Not enough actual travelling. Probably better suited for Savage Worlds. Starship Troopers? I don’t know; kind of a small audience for that these days. Hitchhikers’ Guide? Now that’s an interesting idea. Children of Time? Loved the books and definitely can imagine some great role playing scenarios based on what Tchaikovsky has written so far.

 

[agentwigggles]

Asimov’s Foundation?
Planet of the Apes?
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century?
Starship Troopers?
Red Dwarf?
Blake’s 7?
Journey to the Centre of the Earth?
The Matrix?
The Martian?
Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy?
The Time Machine
Children of Time (Adrian Tchaikovsky)

Intriguing suggestions. Foundation, definitely applicable to Traveller. Planet of the Apes? Not enough actual travelling. Probably better suited for Savage Worlds. Starship Troopers? I don’t know; kind of a small audience for that these days. Hitchhikers’ Guide? Now that’s an interesting idea. Children of Time? Loved the books and definitely can imagine some great role playing scenarios based on what Tchaikovsky has written so far.

Starship Trooper would be a great setting with a focus use of the Merc Books.

 

[cunningrat]

Just trying to think of licenses that could be good for Traveller rules. Trouble is, science fiction tends to be the genre that attracts most high profile media IPs I think, I think, so a lot are taken.

Killjoys
Liaden universe
Joshua Dalzelle's Black Fleet books
Rachel Aukes' "Fringe"
Nathan Lowell's books, although that might be ironic since I'm pretty sure Traveller was one of his main inspirations.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Would the Dumarest series even need a licence lol.

How about something challenging - Iain M Banks Culture, Peter F Hamilton's Night Dawn Trilogy or his Commonwealth series, or how about Stephen Baxter's Xeelee cycle...

 

[Condottiere]

Tubb died Twenty Ten Anno Domini.

I'm not a legal expert, but it's about seventy years after the death of the author, and ninety five years after the date of publication, which is why the Tolkien estate sold out to Amazon, while they still could (and I'm pretty sure they came to the same conclusion as I, that the money will dry up after streaming consolidation).

 

[Sigtrygg]

Wow did you really miss the point

Traveller already is the Dumarest series with the numbers filed off...

jump drive, air/raft, mesh armour, fast/slow drug, psionics, cold berth lethality, Travellers, planet of the week (ok, novel) adventure...

not to mention the numerous MWM interviews where Dumarest is given as the major inspiration.

 

[Condottiere]

Classic Traveller pre Mercenary would be basically Dumarest and some of scout/trading based novels.

Mercenary added the then existing military science fiction literature, such as Pournelle's CoDominium.

High Guard would be Flandry, and somewhat Star Warsesque. Might have elements of Japanese anime.

You could base a franchise directly off Dumarest, but I don't think it will gain a critical mass of sales; doing a television series probably is the better take off point, and then try to capitalize on that, though since it would be transformational you would need a license to copy those aesthetics, and their take on the cast of characters, which I suspect would take the Witcher as the template.

 

[NOLATrav]

Perhaps in the meantime, a slim volume with notes and advice and some mechanics, suggesting ways a Ref could adapt the core rules to any universe. Kind of like how the CT-era Citizens of the Imperium had that guessing game of famous sci-if characters in the back.

Strip out all that old creaky canon and Third Imperium fluff and offer guidelines on developing a universe with certain inspirations.

 

[paltrysum]

How about something challenging - Iain M Banks Culture.

THIS! A thousand times this. I’ve planted the seed with Matt about this, but admittedly have no idea what’s involved in obtaining the license. The Banks estate had a deal with Amazon to produce a “Consider Phlebas” TV show but backed out of it. Could be that they are very careful about licensing out their IP or it could be they just didn’t wanna work with Jeff Bezos.

 

[IanBruntlett]

How about something challenging - Iain M Banks Culture.

THIS! A thousand times this. I’ve planted the seed with Matt about this, but admittedly have no idea what’s involved in obtaining the license. The Banks estate had a deal with Amazon to produce a “Consider Phlebas” TV show but backed out of it. Could be that they are very careful about licensing out their IP or it could be they just didn’t wanna work with Jeff Bezos.

I'd like a Culture setting for Mongoose Traveller. Are there any Special Circumstances involved in obtaining the license?

 

[TrippyHippy]

While I ought to let Matt speak for himself on the matter, I DO remember some time way back that he had some communications with Iain Banks, who lives in Scotland.

So a licensed game on the Culture series is not an impossibility.

I would say that there is Mindjammer for Traveller, which is not the same exactly, but seems quite influenced by it.

 

[Ursus Maior]

While I ought to let Matt speak for himself on the matter, I DO remember some time way back that he had some communications with Iain Banks, who lives in Scotland.

Lived. Mr Banks died in 2013. I'm not sure, though, if we can ascertain the Culture series to have a background concise enough for an RPG. It seems to be very amorphous in many of its aspect. I did like a several of the novels, however.

 

[TrippyHippy]

Lived. Mr Banks died in 2013. I'm not sure, though, if we can ascertain the Culture series to have a background concise enough for an RPG. It seems to be very amorphous in many of its aspect. I did like a several of the novels, however.

Aw, I didn’t know that. It’s a shame.