What universe would you like to see with Traveller?

[AKAmra]

Sure I do, don't have either of those consoles.

{Putting on my asbestos suit after signing my will...}

In my opinion you do not miss much, Mass Effect is basically a shooter
with lots of combat and little plausible story.

AndrewW - Mass Effect is also available for a PC, and PC users argue that it is a better game in that form.

Mass Effect is a shooter with RPG elements. I look forward to computer gaming getting more sophisticated as we move along the tech levels and making Mass Effect look like some kind of high school project, but right now it is the best sci-fi shooter/rpg game out there.

If you don't like Mass Effect; what's a better sci-fi computer rpg in your opinion? I'm always in the market for a new game to play.

 

[apoc527]

+1 Mass Effect. Definitely a favorite of mine, but let's be clear, it's a space opera, with simply a harder candy shell. If Star Wars is a Twinkie, ME is like a peanut butter M&M.

 

[AndrewW]

AndrewW - Mass Effect is also available for a PC, and PC users argue that it is a better game in that form.

Still not going to meet the requirements for it.

 

[locarno24]

Hmm....

Pretty much any setting would need the tech re-visiting, and most would need an alternate FTL system, but then Traveller works perfectly well with the alternate FTL systems already bolted into it; you just have to change the political/economic structure to match (which you'd have to do anyway for a new universe conversion).

Always happy to see Dune - not sure if there currently is one, though.

Andromeda is one I've always thought had potential - a lot more AI and smart nanotech than classic traveller, but that's not inherently a problem.

Mass Effect - don't know. Never really played it. I suspect it's probably pretty good as bioware don't have a track record of releasing guff. If there isn't enough background to create a traveller-style RPG - it can always be added....


Stargate is a more awkward one - great as the series is, you're looking at a fundamental change in the nature of the game because whilst the aformentioned settings can have what is essentially the classic traveller 'tramp freighter trying to stay afloat', you don't get that sort of group wombling around the gate network. The default group will probably be an SGC team - go see what's on the other side of this gate and poke it with a stick - which isn't inherently bad, just different. Something somewhere between a Mercenary and Scout campaign, I guess.

 

[rust]

Ringworld might be interesting, but hard time picturing this in a Traveller framework (have to re-read those books sometime - didn't it have lots of aliens) other than dice and task mechanics, everything else would be different?

It would be a setting where starship hulls are impenetrable, desintegrators
are common tools (people do not even know what an axe is), and teleport
disks replace ground vehicles. The entire technology of Traveller would
have to be rewritten, and the consequences of the Known Space techno-
logy for all other elements of the setting would have to be introduced into
the Traveller framework - in the end you would get a completely different
game with a 2d6 mechanic.

It would be similar for Uplift, where stuff like probability weapons which
affect reality would cause the same problem.

 

[rust]

If you don't like Mass Effect; what's a better sci-fi computer rpg in your opinion? I'm always in the market for a new game to play.

Since I am far more interested in strategy than in tactics, I prefer games
like Galactic Civilizations or Space Empires.

 

[AndrewW]

Since I am far more interested in strategy than in tactics, I prefer games
like Galactic Civilizations or Space Empires.

I played the original Galactic Civilizations (along with 2 and Gold).

 

[zero]

Mass Effect is a bit of a shooty game, however there some missions you are sent on which rely more on conversations and such.

Why I like Mass Effect is that much like an rpg videogame, you can choose your Shephard's looks, gender (Shephard is a surname) and character class (stealth camo, hacker, rifleman - you decide!).

If that wasnt enough, you get to choose what your Shephard says in conversations - they'll follow the spirit of the line chosen but not the exact words - you can make some surprisingly awesome speechs or even very funny reactions - a certain mission in ME2 calls for you to act like a right jerk in a nightclub to gain someone's attention - probably the funniest things you can get your char to do are there - like staring down a Krogan (big hump-backed rhino like biped alien) and winning!

You can also make your char the most fugly, non-socially adept idiot in the galaxy and laugh as he still manages to get one of the female crew in the sack! :lol:

There is also many systems and planets you can visit, a few sub-sectors worth IMO, many are statted with semi-UWPs and given a background. Your ship also has a library that gets filled with info as you travel - there is loads of background material going for ME, going right back to first contact between humans and aliens and before that, humanity's first trip to Mars... good reading all in all.

Also, in ME2 your choices mean that not all of the team you've collected and bonded with over the game may make it through to the end. I myself lost someone and I actually regret theyre dead and miss them!

I'd like to see Traveller take up Mass Effect, because in my eyes, as I played through, it wasnt Shephard collecting a ragtag team of crewmates and going on suicide missions with them - it was me

 

[OddjobXL]

Hmm. Don't see my number one on the list: Fading Suns.

After that: Firefly, Eve Online and Mass Effect. In that order. Obviously, EO's a property of White Wolf/CCP so that's not going to happen but this is a wishlist so, there.

 

[lastbesthope]

Farscape, B5, Firefly, Stargate, Lost Fleet, Jason Wander series, or may others

Oooh and Definitely Armageddon 2089 as my top preference.

LBH

 

[Jame Rowe]

Farscape, B5, Firefly, Stargate, Lost Fleet, Jason Wander series, or may others
LBH

These as well as:
Asimov's Empire series, though see about stuff during early Trantor-Empire;
Alan Dean Foster's Flinx Commonwealth series;
Poul Anderson's Falkayn/Van Rijn series and Falkayn series;
L.E. Modesitt's Parafaith War duology
And there's a few I think I've forgotten.

 

[GamerDude]

Stargate is a more awkward one - great as the series is, you're looking at a fundamental change in the nature of the game because whilst the aformentioned settings can have what is essentially the classic traveller 'tramp freighter trying to stay afloat', you don't get that sort of group wombling around the gate network. The default group will probably be an SGC team - go see what's on the other side of this gate and poke it with a stick - which isn't inherently bad, just different. Something somewhere between a Mercenary and Scout campaign, I guess.

Why do so many people see Traveller as this "Tramp Freighter..." game. So many of the CT adventures had nothing to do with the PC's even having a ship the ride provided for them they just were in the right place at the right time for a job.

Divine Intervention
Signal SK
Prison Planet

Traveller for nearly three years has been separated mechanic from setting, meaning bringing any setting to be played under the Traveller mechanics isn't as game changing as some would claim. Heck yeah starship design/mechanics a bit different but what's the difference between a Jafa Staff Weapon and a Laser Rifle? ROF & Damage, oh and the staff weapon can be used as... well a staff.

 

[apoc527]

Stargate is a more awkward one - great as the series is, you're looking at a fundamental change in the nature of the game because whilst the aformentioned settings can have what is essentially the classic traveller 'tramp freighter trying to stay afloat', you don't get that sort of group wombling around the gate network. The default group will probably be an SGC team - go see what's on the other side of this gate and poke it with a stick - which isn't inherently bad, just different. Something somewhere between a Mercenary and Scout campaign, I guess.

Why do so many people see Traveller as this "Tramp Freighter..." game. So many of the CT adventures had nothing to do with the PC's even having a ship the ride provided for them they just were in the right place at the right time for a job.

Divine Intervention
Signal SK
Prison Planet

Traveller for nearly three years has been separated mechanic from setting, meaning bringing any setting to be played under the Traveller mechanics isn't as game changing as some would claim. Heck yeah starship design/mechanics a bit different but what's the difference between a Jafa Staff Weapon and a Laser Rifle? ROF & Damage, oh and the staff weapon can be used as... well a staff.

I highly, highly agree. "Traveller" means the Core Book, which doesn't even need to include the starship rules if the setting needs modifications. Just look at what they did with B5!

 

[Jeraa]

Master of Orion was my first real experience with computer gaming, and still remains my favorite. The game would be hard to capture with a PnP RPG, but the setting could be used. Who doesn't like hulking bear warriors, xenophobic rock monsters (though I do prefer the sentient crystal version of silicoids in MoO3), 4-armed Einstein greys (I prefer the original 4-armed psilons over the frail hover-chair using psilons in MoO3), and shape-shifting spies?

So I vote Master of Orion.

Edit: Oh, and blue-skinned psionic babes who can mind control an entire planet from orbit.

 

[AndrewW]

Master of Orion was my first real experience with computer gaming, and still remains my favorite. The game would be hard to capture with a PnP RPG, but the setting could be used. Who doesn't like hulking bear warriors, xenophobic rock monsters (though I do prefer the sentient crystal version of silicoids in MoO3), 4-armed Einstein greys (I prefer the original 4-armed psilons over the frail hover-chair using psilons in MoO3), and shape-shifting spies?

So I vote Master of Orion.

It's a good game anyways. I've played the first two.

 

[locarno24]

It's a good game anyways. I've played the first two.

Don't spoil the memory by playing the third. Trust me on this.

Traveller for nearly three years has been separated mechanic from setting, meaning bringing any setting to be played under the Traveller mechanics isn't as game changing as some would claim. Heck yeah starship design/mechanics a bit different but what's the difference between a Jafa Staff Weapon and a Laser Rifle? ROF & Damage, oh and the staff weapon can be used as... well a staff.

Fair point. The tramp freighter isn't quite what I meant, though - in fact I'm not entirely sure how to express what I meant; it's just that you don't get independent groups at all, ship-bourne or not. It almost becomes a bit of a dungeon-crawl system - dial up, go through, and see what's there.

On the other hand, I guess being a military/paramilitary team sent out on missions is not inherently different to judge dredd.

 

[AndrewW]

It's a good game anyways. I've played the first two.

Don't spoil the memory by playing the third. Trust me on this.

No problem, not an option.

 

[The Dan]

None of the above. Instead: Blakes 7.

Because how could "the Dirty Dozen in space" ever be a bad idea? Distinctive feel, distinctive darkness and moral ambiguity

Because watching the TV show's ragtag band thrown together by chance, clashing aims and personalities, sometimes winning, often getting in trouble, and sometimes failing (or being killed!) really reminds me of a group of player characters struggling to get by.

Because you could lavish attention on an 'evil empire' that's soooooo much more convincing and nasty than the one in Star Wars - Faceless 'stormtroopers' that scare me a little even now, brainwashed supersoldiers, drugged populaces, rigged trials, tyrannical space captains and femme fatale Supreme Commanders. Plenty to fight against...or be part of!

Characters packed with personality - especially the AIs (Zen, Orac, Slave), making them great NPCs.

Aside from a few gaffs (like using treating the terms 'galaxy' and 'solar system' as interchangeable) the universe fits that pulp meets hard science space opera approach that Traveller has always done so well: lasers need powerpacks, slugthrowers are the most common weapon, etc. A humancentric universe but with human mutants and offshoots, clones and psychic powers for variety. Also...

Classic pulp sci fi like mad computers, psychic mutants, acidic space goo, android gunslingers, etc. Neutral worlds to trade with and hide on, rebel colonies, prison planets. Unseen aliens lurking on the horizon.

Multiple time periods you could play in, from Blake's first rebellion to the tumultuous times of the TV series (alien invasions, contraction, expansion), to 30 years later as the possibly surviving Avon gathers a new group to fight against the Federation. Parties could work crushing the rebel scum, work for one of the Federation's many resistance cells, or skirt the area between of known space.

A recognisable brand name and existing fanbase, but no current TV series, audio plays, etc to compete with.

Best of all….It's British!

 

[Mithras]

Its got to be Dune. But Dune focussed on Arrakis. The earlier attempt was more of a broad stroke attempt that didn't feel like DUne.

I want sand dunes in my Dune. I want Dune in my Dune.

 

[hdan]

None of the above. Instead: Blakes 7.

You know, I've never seen Blakes 7, but it's been such an influence on so many shows that I *have* seen that I'd like to second this one.