Where does it stop being Traveller?

[Infojunky]

I have bunches of ideas, both for settings and Rules, but right now I am wondering where it translates from being Traveller to something else. I love the basic simplicity of the 2d6 resolution, but what if I decided to use 2d12 and 13+ as the task range does it fundamentally change the game?

Or move from careers to archetypes similar to what Liftoff was doing?

Or is Traveller embedded in its historical system irrevocably? And as soon as I don't use some form of the 3rd Imperium I have left the fold of Traveller.

One of the wonderful things about the Mongoose edition is that there have been so many offshooting rules and Ideas I don't really feel all that bad about tossing in all the bits I have over the years.

So where does it stop being Traveller for y'all?

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

There's plenty of non-3rd Imperium that's traveller.

 

[sideranautae]

I have bunches of ideas, both for settings and Rules, but right now I am wondering where it translates from being Traveller to something else.

T20 was still Traveller IMO. I think if you keep it skill based and the basic technology as expressed in Trav, then it's still Trav. 3I setting is irrelevant.

 

[TrippyHippy]

Considering the diversity of various rule-sets used to play the game, it stretches quite a long way!

For me, Traveller is:

- Generic, spacefaring science fiction….. (but with an implied setting).
- D6 based mechanics.
- System based upon notions of efficacy and conciseness.
- Career and Lifepath-based Character Generation. UPPs.
- Tabular based Starship and World Design. UWPs.
- Tabular based design for everything else, basically.
- Strategic combat and skill-based Task resolution.
- Tech levels, economics and trade.
- Iconic cover and graphic design for all supplements and rule books.
- Writing style and presentation also based upon notions of efficacy and conciseness.

 

[dragoner]

Never! Bar the day ... Traveller Forever. 8)

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

I have bunches of ideas, both for settings and Rules, but right now I am wondering where it translates from being Traveller to something else. I love the basic simplicity of the 2d6 resolution, but what if I decided to use 2d12 and 13+ as the task range does it fundamentally change the game?

Or move from careers to archetypes similar to what Liftoff was doing?

Or is Traveller embedded in its historical system irrevocably? And as soon as I don't use some form of the 3rd Imperium I have left the fold of Traveller.

One of the wonderful things about the Mongoose edition is that there have been so many offshooting rules and Ideas I don't really feel all that bad about tossing in all the bits I have over the years.

So where does it stop being Traveller for y'all?

Don't mix game system and setting. They're two different things.

 

[Anonymous]

yeah but...

IMNSHO, Traveller the setting (3rd Imperium) has too much influence on Traveller the rule set.

That and close on to 4 decades of the 3rd Imperium setting the bar for Traveller.

I would like to see the rules set divorce fully from the 3rd Imperium.

Makes sense to me to brand the rules as Traveller and create a new brand for the setting but I can see a whole heap of people (grognards) rioting in the streets over such a split.

Well, OK, not rioting, expressing their displeasure in grognardy ways...

 

[Sigtrygg]

It's actually the other way round.

The folks at GDW used the 3I as a sandbox to showcase their latest rules. As the rules were changed the setting was changed to accomodate the rule changes.

 

[Reynard]

8+ on 2d6 is 42% while 13+ on 2d12 is 53%. There is a difference in success rate.

 

[dragoner]

3I is just the house setting, not too tied into the rules, imo. It was talked about early on, some wanted it generic, others didn't; but it was also written that the system was specifically generic, able to be used to recreate sci-fi:

Traveller, in the hands of a good referee, can duplicate any science fiction you
have ever read or seen. Star Trek. Black Hole. Star Wars. Battle Star Galactica.
Dune. Alien. Tron. Foundation. E.T. The Demon Princes. Or any situation that the
players make up themselves.

 

[Infojunky]

8+ on 2d6 is 42% while 13+ on 2d12 is 53%. There is a difference in success rate.

That wasn't a particularly good one-off Idea, but it based on a number of single d6 resolutions systemes taken to a sideways extreme.

 

[Infojunky]

Mostly guys I was pondering one of my pet campaigns that removes starships and replaces them with Stargates, fixed Stargates as such the characters need to travel across a planets surface to get to the next gate. The main vehicles are Land Speeders but significant other sorts of vehicles exist as well, ahem-Cars with guns anyone.... Oh and all of this is after a large Apocalyptic war, such that the characters are wandering from world to world as each "adventure" dictates..

 

[Anonymous]

Ok, I retract my earlier statement, I think dragoner is right.

Reference to changing from 2d6 for 8+ the issue is you affect the percentages and how a characters skills and attributes influence the game. Depending on why you changed that might be good or bad...

 

[dragoner]

The strength of the published setting is the 35 years of published materials for it, both official and user generated content.

edit:

Ok, I retract my earlier statement, I think dragoner is right.

I don't think you are necessarily wrong, there are assumptions inherent in the rules.

 

[Anonymous]

And a stack of contradictions over the 35 years but still, the core of what you said is right, I just had my knee jerk hat on...

 

[IanBruntlett]

So where does it stop being Traveller for y'all?

When it stops being fun!

 

[CosmicGamer]

The strength of the published setting is the 35 years of published materials for it, both official and user generated content.

For me, that is a weakness. Let me explain.

I feel that a play group works better when everyone is "on the same page". So trying to get a group together that each has a different subset of the 35 years worth of material and their own and different house rules can result in all debating over the rules and setting details and a game never coalescing.

I find it better to just ask someone if they are familiar with the Mongoose core rules and your good to go rather than expect them to have bought and read up on all the vast material - even with the Mongoose material for which I don't own it all and have not read all of what I do own.

It also creates limits. The more published rules and setting details you adhere to, the more confined the game.

I know there are a lot of strengths to the long Traveller history, just giving the perspective of someone who generally plays in pick up games with people having varied backgrounds and not playing with a long established group of Travellers.

Anyways, from my perspective, for Mongoose Traveller, it is no longer Traveller if the core rules are thrown out the window or heavily modified with house rules. No issue with published or even house rules or settings that clarify or add to the core.

 

[dragoner]

I've never expected anyone to have read everything, and even being on the same page, is somewhat unrealistic. IRL people often just have knowledge of what is in their face at the moment, history is a joke. The 35 years of material means that one doesn't have to create entire new stuff to use in adventures. I have run and played in multi-year campaigns for the most part, I own most of mong's stuff, I didn't buy merc2, I didn't see any reason to buy it. I have also walked people through, bringing them into Traveller, either brand new, or not having the core rules and using the srd. My game I run is not a standard game though, it is set in he future, 1323 vs 1105; so that all canon is just history.

I'm playing DnD5 right now, it is definitely not Traveller, Traveller has sort of rugged simplicity that is nice; you really aren't having to worry about a bunch of meta-gamey stuff like xp or advantage/disadvantage or magic duration.

 

[Anonymous]

CG, how would you define the core rules? The whole book?

To me they're the chargen and task system, not so much the combat (as that's where I house rule more than anywhere)

 

[Reynard]

The Core Book is Traveller. The chargen, task(skill) system and combat system are the very core of the game and Mongoose Traveller. Each edition of Traveller was its own. There is nothing wrong with that. You could actually stop here and say this is the very basic game.

Next layer for me is the world generator, ship designer and all the equipment available and that describes Traveller as the iconic scifi game we know and takes it in a particular direction without ever using the word Imperium. Every supplement after this adds to the rules. You can easily ignore the rare references to Imperium and still have a settingless scifi game. Most people trat Traveller this way. The last layer that make Traveller unique is its in game setting tied in with the rules and giving gamers a ready made campaign setting while still allowing the game to be anything for anyone.

Mongoose made a big leap taking the core of the game and wrapping other settings around it both other scifi setting and non-scifi. Like many game companies have done, there is a universal core that can be tweaked and added to make many more games and that is the Traveller System. It's Traveller if you use the system and it's Traveller if you play the campaign setting.