Travellers Needed! Traveller's 50th

[Tobias]

With the news about Mongoose acquiring the rights, it would be lovely to see a proper re-issue of the Imperium board game (which also came out in 1977) coupled with a setting book for Traveller about the Interstellar Wars era.

Or to be more precise, the exact early Interstellar Wars era that forms the backdrop for Imperium. Using the Imperium game map as the campaign setting's map and providing details for the 30 or so worlds in that setting. An era characterized by short, localized wars in a limited area. Plenty of things to do for frontier traders, pioneering settlers, spies, smugglers, mercenaries, diplomats.

 

[Micky]

There are discussions being had about travellermap.com and its longevity, starting with Mongoose possibly hosting it and so ensuring a degree of continuity should anything unfortunate happen. Beyond that, we are in wish list territory, but this is something that could very much bear looking at.

ahh.. see you already touched on that. Good to hear. Just thoughts from the cheap seats Matt but I would think that ensuring the longterm existence of that website might be a primary concern for the stewards of the game. No game, no setting has a resource like that. Even non Traveller players/fans have their jaws drop upon seeing it..

 

[Vormaerin]

But let's be 100% honest about 2300AD's Stellar Map, or for that matter any 3D astronomical map intended for gaming...
NOBODY actually uses them for their intended purpose.
What we do is look at them, get confused by them, be impressed with the artwork, and then go looking at the cross-reference table to find out just how long it'll take to get from System A to System B. Yes, some or perhaps many of us in the gaming public don't have a problem visualizing the spatial relationships. But most of us do, and I'm one of that majority. Way back when Invasion came out, I had a Hell of a time plotting the movements and stratagems and I'm a lifelong military historian who has been playing wargames since I was 12 years old.
And since we want to sell products to as many people as possible, I think it would be wise for us to consider my point here.

Not to mention, the majority of stars aren't actually extant in Traveller. There's 103 stars and 28 white or brown dwarfs within 6 parsecs of Earth that we know of. There's 32 systems within 6 jump of Terra in Traveller. Some of them are binary or trinary stars. So it's not quite as big a gap as that looks, but its probably still like half the stars accounted for.

 

[ottarrus]

Not to mention, the majority of stars aren't actually extant in Traveller. There's 103 stars and 28 white or brown dwarfs within 6 parsecs of Earth that we know of. There's 32 systems within 6 jump of Terra in Traveller. Some of them are binary or trinary stars. So it's not quite as big a gap as that looks, but its probably still like half the stars accounted for.

Well Traveller has never said that all stars were plotted on the map. All IMPORTANT star systems are plotted. 'Important' being defined as:
- does it have a settlement /colony
- does it have needed resources
- is it on a Jump route
And, of course, we're also talking about maps that were plotted in 1975... Astronomy has come a Hell of a long way since then. It's not so much that the astronomers didn't know the stars were there in '75, it's that they didn't know if said stars had planets around them. If you have a star with just gravel surrounding it [aka no fuel source] there isn't much point in plotting it for adventuring purposes. Since then, the Hubble and other orbital telescopes have greatly advanced our ability to identify exoplanets and get some idea of the conditions on them.

 

[Geir]

Not to mention, the majority of stars aren't actually extant in Traveller. There's 103 stars and 28 white or brown dwarfs within 6 parsecs of Earth that we know of. There's 32 systems within 6 jump of Terra in Traveller. Some of them are binary or trinary stars. So it's not quite as big a gap as that looks, but its probably still like half the stars accounted for.

Yeah, that's the thing with 2300AD... I like the setting, but it's based on two things from the mid/late '80s: Star maps as they existed back then, and a future history played out from Twilight:2000, which, unless I missed it, assumes WWIII happened about a quarter century ago. Plus French - nothing (much) against the French, but I can't figure out how to pronounced the words, so that's just awkward.

Hard to fix without creating an entirely new setting. The 'Arms' are heavily tied to Stutterwarp limitations, and if you move or add stars, the house of cards falls apart.

 

[Takei]

Yes. I already own The Travelle Book in dead tree and pdf on the CTCD.

What I mean is:

1. Take the format or style of The Traveller Book.
2. Use the modern rules for Mongoose Traveller v2 Update.
3. Get permission from the original artists.
4. Reproduce the artwork from The Traveller Book in real-life (people and animals), or miniatures (mostly starships but some of those people minis are detailed!), or CG artwork (Ian Stead and others). I would donate the pic Andrew Boulton made for me of a Scout/Courier in front of the Horsehead Nebula.
5. Or even ask the original artists to reproduce the art realistically, if they are interested.
6. But include everything that's in both The Traveller Book AND the Mongoose Traveller v2 Update.

Just an idea.

I was thinking along similar lines:
1. Keep The Traveller Book look and feel, art and layout.
2. Collect LBB1 and S4 careers into the book.
3. High Guard ship building but maybe limit the tonnage to reflect LBB2.
4. Azhanti High Lightning-style combat with armour reducing damage, AHL (or Striker?) penetration and armour value and LBB1 and LBB4 damage.

It did occur to me that that is pretty close to Mongoose Traveller 1e So, something like MgT 1e, but using CT rules.

 

[Vormaerin]

Well Traveller has never said that all stars were plotted on the map. All IMPORTANT star systems are plotted. 'Important' being defined as:
- does it have a settlement /colony
- does it have needed resources
- is it on a Jump route
And, of course, we're also talking about maps that were plotted in 1975... Astronomy has come a Hell of a long way since then. It's not so much that the astronomers didn't know the stars were there in '75, it's that they didn't know if said stars had planets around them. If you have a star with just gravel surrounding it [aka no fuel source] there isn't much point in plotting it for adventuring purposes. Since then, the Hubble and other orbital telescopes have greatly advanced our ability to identify exoplanets and get some idea of the conditions on them.

Right, but it makes the "empty hexes" concept pretty hash. There are known red and brown dwarfs in most or all of those empty hexes that should be pretty easily detected. The whole premise of rifts, stars not on the mains, inability to get places with low jump vessels... pretty whacked.

In one thread a while back, I flippantly commented that only stars you can jump to are listed and there were screams of horror about what a quagmire that would be

Also, don't ignore that the original comment was about mapping what we know of the Milky Way now into this 3D Traveller map. As Geir pointed out for 2300, this isn't just a matter of map or legibility of the maps. It's a suggestion that completely alters travel in the game universe.

 

[Studio Cat]

Convention and Demo support.

Free assets like banners, posters, flyers, quick adventures, and the like which can be printed out for use at conventions or smaller demos so that advocates of the Traveller game may better let others know about the games and attract both experienced and inexperienced gamers alike to try it out.

 

[Geir]

For an entirely new setting, I'm sort of fond of Alderston Points from Pournelle's universe. There's a point that allows instantaneous travel (I always like that for FTL - unless it's warp drive or similar, cheating lightspeed to me makes more sense if you completely negate the time element) to another point at another star. The map then becomes entirely representational with lines connecting systems in a web. There's still a 'splaying' problem if you are trying to correspond the 2D map to actual 3D physical locations, but if you completely divorce it from regular spacetime, it doesn't matter where the next star system is: it's just jump points or stargates or something similar and the map is never wrong and the 'star system' doesn't need to become obsolete because somebody found a planet in a different orbit at Alpha Centauri: it's just 'the Prometheus system' at the other end of that point out at Jupiter L5. Or something.

 

[Vormaerin]

Despite the horrified responses, that's pretty much how I treat jump drives. They are the paths that work through space magic dimensions and are only vaguely related to anything in RL. Obviously, that has its own issues if you try to look too closely

Still, I don't have to worry about why Alpha Centauri's 1.3 parsecs rounds to Jump 2, while Lalande 21185's 2.54 parsecs also rounds to Jump 2. (Apparently Jump 3 starts at 2.6 parsecs with Sirius ). You'd think Prometheus/Alpha Centauri would be Jump 1 or Peraspera/Lalande would be Jump 3.

Sorry, scientists. That jump space just isn't that rational. And you can have your shoals and reefs and whatever else for story purposes.

 

[coolAlias]

This isn't really a 50th anniversary-specific thing, but I would love to see more adventure bundles like The Marches Adventures 1-5.

 

[MarkAlexander]

This isn't really a 50th anniversary-specific thing, but I would love to see more adventure bundles like The Marches Adventures 1-5.

Yes. The shorter adventures are great for starting a group of new characters. You don't really want to dive straight in to The Ancients or Drinax. It would be like starting Call of Cthulhu with Masks of Nyarlathotep, or Delta Green with Impossible Landscapes.

 

[MasterGwydion]

Yes. The shorter adventures are great for starting a group of new characters. You don't really want to dive straight in to The Ancients or Drinax. It would be like starting Call of Cthulhu with Masks of Nyarlathotep, or Delta Green with Impossible Landscapes.

Every Drinax Campaign I ever ran was for new characters. Drinax is the only adventure I use. I don't like any of the other works. I have the Trojan Reach very developed. To the point where, I can run a new Drinax Campaign with almost zero prep work, regardless of the type of campaign they wish to play. To most of My players, PoD was their introduction to Traveller and 100% of them loved it. I hate short adventures unless they are add-ons to a big campaign. None of Us here player the "Adventure Game". We are all interested in an actual campaign. PoD is Our favorite because all it does is set the stage, everything else is up to the players. The PoD "adventures" are just suggested points to hit in the campaign, none of them are actually required, except for Finale, and even that is debatable. I love PoD because it gives enough information to run a good campaign without forcing the players down a particular path. So, My take on this would be a PoD-style Campaign written for every Sector of Charted Space. This gives huge money-making opportunities for Mongoose and a wonderfully detailed and connected Universe for players and Referees. It is a win-win. After that, they can sell add-ons like Secrets of Sindal or Makergod. It is an almost unlimited pool of money for Mongoose to draw from for the next 10 to 20 years. It is also an almost unlimited pool of goodness for the Community.

 

[phavoc]

For an entirely new setting, I'm sort of fond of Alderston Points from Pournelle's universe. There's a point that allows instantaneous travel (I always like that for FTL - unless it's warp drive or similar, cheating lightspeed to me makes more sense if you completely negate the time element) to another point at another star. The map then becomes entirely representational with lines connecting systems in a web. There's still a 'splaying' problem if you are trying to correspond the 2D map to actual 3D physical locations, but if you completely divorce it from regular spacetime, it doesn't matter where the next star system is: it's just jump points or stargates or something similar and the map is never wrong and the 'star system' doesn't need to become obsolete because somebody found a planet in a different orbit at Alpha Centauri: it's just 'the Prometheus system' at the other end of that point out at Jupiter L5. Or something.

Starfire works the same way - once warp points are discovered all other forms of movement are discarded as woefully slow. Everything expands along the warp lines (they also had tonnage-sized links, and some that were hidden from one direction unless you literally stumbled on top of it).

Starfire had a well-thought out system of weapons, and as they added additions they slotted in each new race and weapon system pretty well. The original ships and weapons got upgrades as well as new types of weapons (like lasers went to force beams, then primary beams, etc). The concept of different drives was interesting as well. The military used faster drives in tactical movement, but overall civilian drives were faster strategically. Made for some interesting issues.

 

[MongooseMatt]

My take on this would be a PoD-style Campaign written for every Sector of Charted Space.

Don't know about every sector, but I think you will like some of the projects we have in the works

 

[Studio Cat]

Three of these sessions are done, here are quick impressions.

1 - Teenage girls really like stealing cars. In the "very easy scenario" I am running (go to warehouse, buy gear, bring it to ship, take ship to another system) two of the three sessions started with the young ladies having their Traveller steal a vehicle instead of just going to the rental counter. Also quirky coincidence they both decided to 'unsteal' the vehicle by sneaking it back onto the lot when they were done with it.

2 - The quiet ones open up quickly when given the opportunity/requirement to make choices. Within 20 minutes of starting to play in earnest one young lady today took charge "because I have the most money so if I am going to buy these for everyone I pick what kind we get". This from the participant who barely looked up and across the table for the first 10 minutes of the program.

3 - Do not trust your kids. I had a young home schooled girl play with her mother. The young girl casually looked over at her mother's character sheet when they were looking to buy the passage for the ship. "Oh you have a lot more money than I do, you should buy the tickets" Mom - "why would I do that? You have your own money" Daughter - "But it says here on my sheet I have a knife."

I would be very interested in seeing this "very easy scenario" if you have it written up.

 

[Anstett]

I would be very interested in seeing this "very easy scenario" if you have it written up.

Travellers Needed! Traveller's 50th

A UK Traveller Convention I'd go to this.

forum.mongoosepublishing.com

Link to the post with the attachment.

It is a lot of fun, very flexible and introduces both the concepts of roleplaying and Traveller.

 

[MasterGwydion]

Don't know about every sector, but I think you will like some of the projects we have in the works

Every Sector would be incredibly ambitious, I agree. Although, over the next 20 or 30 years, I don't see why not.

I do very much look forward to seeing the future of Traveller in Mongoose's capable hands. Is Gareth still around? I do love his take on PoD even with all of its mistakes and flaws. The idea was brilliant. Just like I love Geir's take on mechanics and such.

 

[coolAlias]

Here is the Simplest Scenario from JPR on the Traveller Discord that I use. Depending on if any of the players are experienced this fits a 1 1/2 to 2 hour time frame leaving them with more story to tell after.

After reading the first part of the scenario, I'm surprised no one handled it with a few simple phone calls and credit transfers - presumably the starport has a cargo facility that handles loading cargo to and from ships, and presumably the factory can ship directly to that facility.

Then again, maybe 1dTon is small enough to fall into the "personal belongings" category, although even that could be shipped to e.g. a hotel or the Patron's office. Purchasing directly from a factory as an individual (as opposed to a business) is very rare in my experience, but it sounds like a fun scenerio nevertheless, and that's what counts!

I also do really like how it lets the players feel like part of the setting - the starport section is brilliant and definitely something I will use the first time my players make it to one.

 

[Studio Cat]

Travellers Needed! Traveller's 50th

A UK Traveller Convention I'd go to this.

forum.mongoosepublishing.com

Link to the post with the attachment.

It is a lot of fun, very flexible and introduces both the concepts of roleplaying and Traveller.

Thank you! I'm going to take it for a test drive this weekend!