Travellers Needed! Traveller's 50th

My final wrap up report for the games I ran over the summer.

We had one group of mixed teenagers and an adult with two young kids. When they got through the first part and we talked about impressions and how things were I mentioned they were the first group to not try to steal a car instead of just renting. The teens were like "we can do that?!?"

The same group fought off the hijackers, got to the system to deliver the respirators. The teens were ambivalent about how much they should sell them for, the adult was "wait is this a moral question now?"

One of the groups decided that during the hijacking attempt to switch sides and join in. They ended up taking over the ship from the crew.

In another session a 6 year old girl, playing with teens along with her sister and brother, decided she would join in with the hijackers. When she grabbed a dinner knife from the buffet and threatened one of the Stewards she looked at me and said, "It says here on my sheet that I make bad decisions and get in trouble". I could not control myself laughing so hard. Six years old!

With her being our youngest the age range from all the groups ended up being a an over 50 year spread across a wide demographic.

One thing that made me proud was a young man at the end of a session saying, "this is boring". He felt safe at the table to express his feelings, was not disruptive to others who were enjoying themselves, and still said thank you in the end. That and having several people email me saying thank you for the Explorer ruleset made this a great experience for the summer of Adventures in Space.

If you are interested, you can do this at your library too. Or game store, or just with friends. Hangout and play.

We do not stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.
 
You start as soon as possible by writing your own technical booklet.
You get your team to design everything in the core rules using those systems.
You would likely get a dozen volunteers to provide unpaid help in updating FF&S 1 and 2 etc. and then building the stuff you would need for the core game.

If Marc now owns all the IP to GT, TNE and T4 then you could start with what is already there. Ask him. T5 should not be left out either, nor the various MgT construction systems.

Find someone on the staff willing to coordinate it. Ask for volunteers. Give them the guidelines for what you want and let them get to it.

Real world units or spaces, slots EPs etc. If the latter define how they scale from microscopic constructs to death stars.
How many slots in a space, how many spaces in a displacement ton. mEP, EP, kEP
have a discussion, decide the parameters and then set them to it.

Google docs etc allow for multiple people to be working on the same projects, looking over each others work.

It would be ready by 2026 at the latest. You then write a new edition of MgT for 2027 using the architecture, which you can release alongside the core rules.
Book 1 core rules - for any setting
Book 2 technical architecture - for any setting
Book 3 the Third Imperium - setting plus adventures

Kickstart it - have a deluxe slipcase set available.

Traveller 50 - 7727AD new setting announced Imperial Year 3209 - Two thousand years after the events of the Fifth Frontier War, new technologies have opened up the whole galaxy.
 
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Hey everyone,

2027 marks Traveller's 50th birthday, and we have been knocking around some possible ideas on how to celebrate the event.

So... what would you all like to see?
Matt,

I'll echo what others have said here: support Traveller (and other Mongoose games) at GENCON and Origins (and maybe DRAGONCON). But don't wait for the 50th anniversary year. Up the visibility at the conventions starting in 2025 and that'll help set the stage for a 50th anniversary tournament(s) at the various cons.

71000 people attended GENCON 24. There were 7 Traveller events handling with 42 total seats available. As a comparison, there were 49 game sessions for Free League's Alien RPG, and Free League ran/sponsored 36 of those sessions. They ran a further 24 events to support their Blade Runner RPG. Polyhedral Knights, a two-person (husband & wife) game company, ran eight game sessions to support their games. Now, none of this is to say you aren't working your tail off. I've played Traveller since shortly after GDW published it and am very grateful for Mongoose keeping the game alive and improving it. What I am saying is that I'd like to see the game grow and getting to the big U.S. conventions is a way to do that--and expand your market. Ok, now relating this back to the 50th anniversary:

-- First, would any of the previous developers of Traveller (Marc M., Steve J, Frank C.) want to do a panel, or series of panels con with you about the origins, evolution, and future of Traveller and SciFi gaming generally? All of the people I listed in parens are multiple Charles Roberts and Origins award winning designers. They're gaming royalty for lack of a better term. You'd draw attendees beyond the existing Traveller player base.

-- Run a special set of 50th anniversary adventure sessions. This could be a single special adventure developed for the 50th run a single session or a set of linked gaming sessions 9e.g. chapters) run over a convention "weekend." Off the top of my head, I'd recommend rerunning some Hammer's Slammers events--that title series has a ton of name recognition, as you know.

-- See what other anniversary activities other game systems have done. Running a special anniversary adventure at the con is something I've seen done before.

Backing out a bit to greater participation at the conventions :

-- FASA does a good job supporting your products. Traveller products are prominently displayed and they had a salesperson pretty serving in a fairly dedicated role for the Traveller section. BTW, FASA ran 42 events to promote their games at GENCON. I think you're fairly solid there as long as the salesperson knows the system, universe, etc. I saw them have a little difficulty with one gentleman's questions and I offered some information--I think he ended up purchasing the Core rules, CSC, and he had Drinax on his scope.

-- In addition to running adventures, seminar sessions to help interested people develop characters are another idea. I know Catalyst does this for Shadowrun. Similarly, seminars/sessions on ship design, world-building, etc. are all potential event options.

-- The key to events is that event blocks are typically four hours (minimum), so whatever is running needs to finish the whole adventure or chapter in 4-6 hours. Consider sessions designed for players unfamiliar with the game and those that have experience.

-- Consider offering some "show specials" for some products (knock some percentage off products. It incentivizes purchases on-the-spot rather than look through the book and perhaps purchasing it from another source once you arrive home (and are reviewing the bill for lodging, food, and travel for the convention). Another marketing option is to provide "discount" coupons to players who attend Traveller sessions. That entices new players who enjoyed the game to purchase products at the Con (and hopefully keep purchasing at home for use with their local group).

Alright, that's enough. :) I am more than willing to run sessions at GENCON to help the cause--and simply for the enjoyment (in fact, as I right this, I think I'll start working on offering Slammers scenarios at GENCON 25). The convention handles GM compensation--if any--separately. So that's not something you have to necessarily concern yourself with.

R, JCL
 
You start as soon as possible by writing your own technical booklet.
You get your team to design everything in the core rules using those systems.
You would likely get a dozen volunteers to provide unpaid help in updating FF&S 1 and 2 etc. and then building the stuff you would need for the core game.

If Marc now owns all the IP to GT, TNE and T4 then you could start with what is already there. Ask him. T5 should not be left out either, nor the various MgT construction systems.

Find someone on the staff willing to coordinate it. Ask for volunteers. Give them the guidelines for what you want and let them get to it.

Real world units or spaces, slots EPs etc. If the latter define how they scale from microscopic constructs to death stars.
How many slots in a space, how many spaces in a displacement ton. mEP, EP, kEP
have a discussion, decide the parameters and then set them to it.

Google docs etc allow for multiple people to be working on the same projects, looking over each others work.

It would be ready by 2026 at the latest. You then write a new edition of MgT for 2027 using the architecture, which you can release alongside the core rules.
Book 1 core rules - for any setting
Book 2 technical architecture - for any setting
Book 3 the Third Imperium - setting plus adventures

Kickstart it - have a deluxe slipcase set available.

Traveller 50 - 7727 new setting announced Imperial Year 3209 - Two thousand years after the events of the Fifth Frontier War, new technologies have opened up the whole galaxy.
I'm semi-retired and more than willing to assist....
 
Hey everyone,

2027 marks Traveller's 50th birthday, and we have been knocking around some possible ideas on how to celebrate the event.

So... what would you all like to see?
Here is my impromptu Top 10 suggestions. (Warning: some are a bit silly, but ideas might lead onto greater things.):

  1. Hold a FTL "Grand Prix" Racing challenge - could take weeks to reach the finish line.
  2. Hold a 50 x 52 Parsecs challenge - In 50 years, a simple Jump-1 ship can travel 50 x 52 = 2600 Parsecs. So map out 2,600 parsecs worth of new sectors (and adjust for the time it takes to refuel.)
  3. Hold a "Pimp your Yatch" competition, with all yatchs entered into the competition being displayed to the public in orbit around some Duke's homeworld.
  4. TAS Bingo. Hold a lottery where first five lottery tickets pulled out of a hat win free TAS membership. Offer anagathics and metabolic accelerators as runner up prizes.
  5. Release an adventure set in a Steampunk World with a Victorian 19th Century TL. Devise rules for Steampunk tech and world. (Idea inspired by Azukail's "100 Things to Find in a Steampunk Workshop.")
  6. Release an "Explorer's Edition" of the Aliens of Chartered Space volumes, especially suited for beginners who want to explore the possibility of being an Alien character but know next-to-nothing about alien races in Traveller's futuristic 'mythology'.
  7. Time Lords and other Time Travellers - devise optional rules for Time Travel within the Mongoose rule system.
  8. Release a foil covered limited-edition of the 1977 LBBs.
  9. Release an online electronic index covering content for all Mongoose Traveller publications.
  10. Aim to cut back on the number of errata being produced per publication release.
 
Hey everyone,

2027 marks Traveller's 50th birthday, and we have been knocking around some possible ideas on how to celebrate the event.

So... what would you all like to see?
1/ A complete Classic Traveller little black box set reprint - exactly like 1977. Maybe done with a Kickstarter with any bells and whistles (dice, maps, etc) included as add-ons. Also to springboard the entire line of Class Traveller books and supplements as POD.

2/ A Deluxe 50th Anniversary Box Set of the Traveller Core Rules - created a bit like the Traveller Starter Set from a few years ago but updated. The core rules divided into three books, with maps, dice, pre-gens, art book (?) and a starting adventure included (and space for more).

3/ A Traveller war-game/boardgame for spaceships and ground combat. With a line of miniatures to follow.

4/ A fully licensed version of Traveller: Star Wars sharing the 50th Anniversary of both.
 
I'd probably buy some miniatures. I am no artist, however, so printed card figures would 1) look better and 2) be much easier to transport.
If they were available both pre-painted and unpainted. My eyesight isn't good enough to paint My own miniatures, nor are My hands steady enough.
 
Redo The Traveller Book with Mongoose rules and updated, full-color artwork.

The same visual concept of the artwork, if you can get permission from the artists.

And use real-life people as the characters in the artwork, plus CG ships and space backgrounds like Ian Stead and others do.

And real ship miniatures, if possible.
 
Redo The Traveller Book with Mongoose rules and updated, full-color artwork.

The same visual concept of the artwork, if you can get permission from the artists.

And use real-life people as the characters in the artwork, plus CG ships and space backgrounds like Ian Stead and others do.

And real ship miniatures, if possible.
The Traveller Book (TTB) is now available from Mongoose as The Traveller eBook.

Mongoose have updated rules as Core Rulebook 2e 2022. The specific adventures included in TTB appear un-updated, however the adventure plot should remain the same, just one or two skills might need remapping to new rule style, which you could do yourself (still 2d6 system, so thresholds remain the same). If a particular skill is not needed, then it does not need to be remapped, even if it has changed.

If you add colour artwork, then you change the concept, IMO. Plus, if you want Mongoose to update it, you should allow them to use their house style, otherwise there is nothing about it that really makes it their product.

If you do it like Ian Stead, then you are celebrating Ian Stead and not really celebrating 50 years of Marc Miller's creation.
 
Hmm, are we talking about The Traveller Book here chaps, or actually are we talking about The Traveller Adventure?

Because they're two different things.
 
Because they're two different things.
Indeed:


I was previously referring to the Traveller Book and the Traveller eBook :).
 
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