So, I'm finished with my first read of Traveller, and I loved it. Having been "raised" as a gamer on the D&D RC, I find the "here are a bunch of rules, now go make up some adventures in which you can use them" approach very attractive.

I'm still undecided on setting. The Third Imperium, as presented in Mongoose Traveller, feels like very much like an "organically grown" setting, i.e. one that was created and developed out of actual play (like, say, the original 1e "gray box" Forgotten Realms) rather than a developer trying to tell a story, or a company trying to sell novels (like Dragonlance, or 2e, post-Time of Troubles FR).

As an aside, I'm only vaguely familiar with the setting upheaval presented in Traveller: The New Era. To further stretch the FR analogy, I think of it as Traveller's Time of Troubles, only they apparently had the decency to retcon it out of existence.

While I generally like the gritty, hard-to-medium SF elements of the game (jump is technically complicated, space travel takes a long time, flying a spaceship is expensive and radiation will FUCK YOU UP), I am generally wary of the soft SF elements (furry aliens, psionics). Then again, much like the "tension" between Tolkienesque high fantasy and sword-and-sorcery in the vein of Howard, Leiber and Vance is a huge feature of D&D, maybe the contrast between hard and soft SF is also a key to Traveller's success.

So, much like my D&D games are set in mostly human worlds, with relatively small demihuman populations, my Traveller game will be set in human space, with aliens probably showing up very rarely, if at all, and shrouded in mystery and hearsay. If I can have Elves and Knights Templar in my Hyborian Age, I can certainly afford to spice up my Firefly rip-off with a handful of Kzin mercenaries or Jedi knights.

I intend to play to the game's strengths, so this is supposed to be as close to a "stereotypical" Traveller game as possible. Remember, we're all new to it.

With all of the above in mind, I ask:

1. Setting. Should I go with the Third Imperium setting? The alternative here would be picking up a different setting (like Reign of Discordia, of which I know nothing), or building my own setting on a "need-to-know", make-it-up-as-we-go-along basis.

2. Supplements. Any which I should consider picking up?

3. Tips, tricks, ideas, suggestions. I know this forum has its share of experienced Traveller GMs. Your input is appreciated.

Quote from: The Butcher;396491So, I'm finished with my first read of Traveller, and I loved it. Having been "raised" as a gamer on the D&D RC, I find the "here are a bunch of rules, now go make up some adventures in which you can use them" approach very attractive.

I'm still undecided on setting. The Third Imperium, as presented in Mongoose Traveller, feels like very much like an "organically grown" setting, i.e. one that was created and developed out of actual play (like, say, the original 1e "gray box" Forgotten Realms) rather than a developer trying to tell a story, or a company trying to sell novels (like Dragonlance, or 2e, post-Time of Troubles FR).

As an aside, I'm only vaguely familiar with the setting upheaval presented in Traveller: The New Era. To further stretch the FR analogy, I think of it as Traveller's Time of Troubles, only they apparently had the decency to retcon it out of existence.

While I generally like the gritty, hard-to-medium SF elements of the game (jump is technically complicated, space travel takes a long time, flying a spaceship is expensive and radiation will FUCK YOU UP), I am generally wary of the soft SF elements (furry aliens, psionics). Then again, much like the "tension" between Tolkienesque high fantasy and sword-and-sorcery in the vein of Howard, Leiber and Vance is a huge feature of D&D, maybe the contrast between hard and soft SF is also a key to Traveller's success.

So, much like my D&D games are set in mostly human worlds, with relatively small demihuman populations, my Traveller game will be set in human space, with aliens probably showing up very rarely, if at all, and shrouded in mystery and hearsay. If I can have Elves and Knights Templar in my Hyborian Age, I can certainly afford to spice up my Firefly rip-off with a handful of Kzin mercenaries or Jedi knights.

I intend to play to the game's strengths, so this is supposed to be as close to a "stereotypical" Traveller game as possible. Remember, we're all new to it.

With all of the above in mind, I ask:

1. Setting. Should I go with the Third Imperium setting? The alternative here would be picking up a different setting (like Reign of Discordia, of which I know nothing), or building my own setting on a "need-to-know", make-it-up-as-we-go-along basis.

2. Supplements. Any which I should consider picking up?

3. Tips, tricks, ideas, suggestions. I know this forum has its share of experienced Traveller GMs. Your input is appreciated.

Not sure what bits you have but I would design my own star-system using  the original book 6 Scouts, just cos it is excellent fun. Then I would pinch a larger scale backdrop from a known film/TV/novel which the players would all be vaguely familair with but I would leave the details of that vague and colour it in later. Your idea of running something akin to Firefly is probably exactly what I would do. Get rid of Aliens from the outset (maybe bring them in later) have a benign empire but one that 'knows best' and I agree on the Psi hide it then have it leaked back into the plot carefully... two by two with hands of blue?

Quote from: The Butcher;3964911. Setting. Should I go with the Third Imperium setting? The alternative here would be picking up a different setting (like Reign of Discordia, of which I know nothing), or building my own setting on a "need-to-know", make-it-up-as-we-go-along basis.

I would go with the Spinward Marches of the Third Imperium. Despite the thousands of words written on it is wide open for a referee to custom and make their own.

Quote from: The Butcher;3964912. Supplements. Any which I should consider picking up?

Mongoose? Whatever strikes your fancy. But what you should pick is the oneand only Classic Traveller CD-ROM from Far Futures. It is a good price and very compatible with the basic book of Mongoose Traveller.

http://www.farfuture.net/cdroms.html

Quote from: The Butcher;3964913. Tips, tricks, ideas, suggestions. I know this forum has its share of experienced Traveller GMs. Your input is appreciated.

I have a post on how to make traveller sandbox. Should help with setting up a campaign. You can skip some of the beginning steps if you use the Spinward Marches.

http://batintheattic.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-to-make-traveller-sandbox.html

Quote from: jibbajibba;396494Not sure what bits you have but I would design my own star-system using  the original book 6 Scouts, just cos it is excellent fun.

I'd really like to generate my own sector or subsector, if that's not too daunting a task. Alas, all I have is a borrowed copy of the Mongoose Traveller core. I wonder whether the new Book 6: Scout still has rules (or at least guidelines) for that.

Quote from: jibbajibba;396494Then I would pinch a larger scale backdrop from a known film/TV/novel which the players would all be vaguely familair with but I would leave the details of that vague and colour it in later. Your idea of running something akin to Firefly is probably exactly what I would do.

My group, for the most part, isn't too big on SF. Most have little SF "education" beyond Star Trek and Star Wars; only a couple have watched Firefly; and only one has any decent grounding in the old school SF that inspired Traveller. Hell, I'm no huge SF buff myself, but I'm the only one at that gaming table who's actually read even one Dune or Foundation novel.

Quote from: jibbajibba;396494Get rid of Aliens from the outset (maybe bring them in later) have a benign empire but one that 'knows best' and I agree on the Psi hide it then have it leaked back into the plot carefully... two by two with hands of blue?

I like my rip-offs a bit less blatant but I see what you mean. That's pretty much what I had in mind; I'll think of something interesting to do with aliens and psi, and meanwhile I'll focus on human conflict.

Quote from: estar;396495Mongoose? Whatever strikes your fancy. But what you should pick is the on eand only Classic Traveller CD-ROM from Far Futures. It is a good price and very compatible with the basic book of Mongoose Traveller.

While my fascination with old school gaming will inevitably make me order, I must ask. What's in it that Mongoose Traveller doesn't cover?

As for the Mongoose supplements, so far nothing quite strikes my fancy so far (except maybe Book 6: Scout for the sector generation rules, see above); but I'd like to know which supplements work best for a typical Traveller campaign.

Quote from: estar;396495I have a post on how to make traveller sandbox. Should help with setting up a campaign. You can skip some of the beginning steps if you use the Spinward Marches.

http://batintheattic.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-to-make-traveller-sandbox.html

I might pick up the Spinward Marches book for inspiration, but I'd really like to make my own sandbox here. And your post is incredibly helpful and enlightening. Thanks!

Great advice, people! Keep it coming, God knows I need it

Quote from: The Butcher;396491snip

1. Setting. Should I go with the Third Imperium setting? The alternative here would be picking up a different setting (like Reign of Discordia, of which I know nothing), or building my own setting on a "need-to-know", make-it-up-as-we-go-along basis.

2. Supplements. Any which I should consider picking up?

3. Tips, tricks, ideas, suggestions. I know this forum has its share of experienced Traveller GMs. Your input is appreciated.

All I can really say is, it is uncanny how similar my thoughts are on this matter.  I could have made this exact post organized in about the same way with similar questions.  Even our gaming background and gaming groups sound similar.  I picked up Mongoose Trav not long ago as well; mostly because of the positive attention it gets here and because my friends are on this Firefly kick right now.  While they were visiting last weekend I was shilling Traveller and showing them the cargo charts and things.  It isn't slated to be our very next game, but I did begin to ask myself the very same questions you posed.  These are my thoughts on the matters:

Setting: I'd probably use the "implied setting", but only loosely and through the lens that I think my group would enjoy.  The same way I didn't plunge into Mystara setting boxed sets when I started a RC campaign, I don't want to be overwhelmed by the setting when starting a new game.  The vibe is way more important than dogma at the beginning.  Like I said before, they'll want some Firefly (I need to watch it) and I'll want to add Cowboy Bebop.

Supplements: Same philosophy as the setting.  I won't mess with the formula until I am comfortable with the basic game.  There are a lot of attractive Traveller supplements out there, but the sheer volume is overwhelming in my opinion.  Walk before running and all that.

Tips, etc.: Even the core book has given me a bit of pause.  The little subsystems are a lot to remember for someone that isn't as young as they once were and I'm sure I'll make mistakes.  I keep reminding myself that D&D wasn't learned in a day.  Traveller strikes me as one of those games you really grow into.  So, when I do set out to start my Traveller game I'm not going to punish myself into creating THE Traveller campaign...sounds like a lot of pressure.  The game can do too much to be squeezed into one campaign.  I'm going to prep for A Traveller campaign.  And if it is a success, we'll have another, and so forth.

When I played Trav, I designed my own setting.

First, I picked how big I wanted the sector / sub-sector to be. In my case, it was 10 parsecs by 10 parsecs. Then I rolled percentile dice to figure out what percentage of that would have planetary bodies (in my case, it was 36%, or 36 systems). I built a spreadsheet that would let me track the details of each planet, and used the MongTrav world generator (hidden in the back of the book somewhere around the trading rules IIRC) to create the 36 planets totally randomly. Then I assigned them coordinates based on a 2d10 roll, with duplicate rolls being rerolled. This might sound like a lot of work, but it was actually quite easy  because it just involved typing numbers in that Invisible Castle generated.

After that, I took a 100 pk of index cards, numbered them from 1-10:1-10 for coordinates, and wrote the system info down on them. At that point my setting was pretty much done. I had zero info about the grand scale beyond the sector, but in actual practice no one really cared whether I did or not. I rolled 2d10 for the coordinates the PCs started in, and came up with a few hooks based on what I knew about that system, and we went to it.

Another setting option is to use Mongoose's Babylon 5 campaign book. I wasn't a big B5 fan back when it was d20, and I think it fits the Traveller rules set a lot better.

I always had fun just randomly rolling up worlds and seeing where that took me. Probably 95% of the Traveller I played was in the 3rd Imperium, of course, but even at that, if you wanted to just roll up a subsector or two, look the numbers over, and see what it suggests to you, you might be surprised at what kind of stuff you could come up with for your own setting.

If you want, there's a program still out there for download called "Heaven and Earth" that you might like to play with. It generates planets, subsectors, and entire sectors in either Original Traveller, 2300, or GURPS 3rd Edition rules, and actually goes into a lot of detail in the world descriptions (including cargo and potential passengers). It'll even do a little hex-map of the planet. Its one of the programs I keep on every computer I use over the years, just to play with if nothing else. It doesn't have MongTrav stats of course, but I gather the original rules are close enough.

Quote from: The Butcher;396498I'd really like to generate my own sector or subsector, if that's not too daunting a task. Alas, all I have is a borrowed copy of the Mongoose Traveller core. I wonder whether the new Book 6: Scout still has rules (or at least guidelines) for that.

WTF? Mongoose Traveller core doesn't have subsector generation?

If that's the case, it's a total Mongoose fail.

I was interested in it.

Looks like I'll have to do with my LBB's and the GURPS books I already have.

Quote from: GameDaddy;396602WTF? Mongoose Traveller core doesn't have subsector generation?

If that's the case, it's a total Mongoose fail.

I was interested in it.

Looks like I'll have to do with my LBB's and the GURPS books I already have.

It's pg. 167 onwards.

Quote from: The Butcher;396498While my fascination with old school gaming will inevitably make me order, I must ask. What's in it that Mongoose Traveller doesn't cover?

If you click on the CD-ROM graphic you get what it covers. I would have to say that unlike some older editions original Traveller has a timeless design both ruleswise and presentation.  Again the way Mongoose Traveller is design the originals work with it pretty much as is.

Quote from: The Butcher;396498but I'd like to know which supplements work best for a typical Traveller campaign.

All the original Traveller Supplements work well. Of particular use are the Supplement 3 Spinward Marches, Supplement 8 and 11 the Library Data that details the Third Imperium Setting. The Alien Books.

Look at this way. You can drop $35 and get ONE Mongoose Book. Or you can spend that $35 and get nearly everything that GDW released for Original Traveller including the wargames.

And if you want to drop another $35 you get the Gamelords/FASA CD-ROM which has several timeless supplements as well.

When you start getting into MegaTraveller and TNE stuff it gets a bit uneven. What Mongoose will give you over original Traveller is more detail. And pretty well designed detail at that. The only complaints I have is that their prices seem $5 to $10 more than it should be and that their editing is often shoddy. Aside from the initial Traveller Rules, I try to wait until the Pocket book version comes out.

You could say I own a couple of editions.

Here.

http://www.downport.com/wbd/HEAVEN_&_EARTH.htm

Give it a shot, it is fun if nothing else.

SETTING
If you want the most "stereotypical" Trav experience, then set your campaign in the Spinward Marches of the Imperium.  

Rolling up your own planets and subsectors is lots of fun though.  It's an interstellar hexcrawl!  

SUPPLEMENTS
I use the LLBs and Spinward Marches and Citizens of the Imperium.   I don't know how much of the LLBs is in the MongCore books.

TIPS
Decide on tone and discuss with your players.  Combat in Trav is pretty dangerous.  Shotguns and automatic weapons often kill.  If your players want to play Firefly, that's cool.  Just add in some Luck mechanic.

Trav is very flexibile like Classic D&D.  Don't be afraid of doing whatever you want to make the game work how you and friends enjoy.  

Ask your players what they want to do in Trav.   The setting is sooo open that many players just get confused.  Do they want to explore?  Fight?  Do merchant stuff?  Go super high tech?  Knowing in advance will help you prepare for where they will poke and prod through the galaxy.

Quote from: estar;396630

Thats an impressive Trav collection you have there but I can bet that Ive got some things that your missing

Rog.