_____ and _____ is to TRAVELLER, as Lord of the Rings and Conan is to D&D

The Shaman · June 25, 2010, 12:42:17 AM

Quote from: Koltar;389959What about more recent Science Fiction authors or novels that evoke the same mood or feel of TRAVELLER?

The Vatta's War books by Elizabeth Moon are very Traveller-esque, featuring merchants, mercs, pirates and privateers in space.

crkrueger · June 25, 2010, 12:45:03 AM

Quote from: Koltar;389959Okay - so we've established that for modern Tv mindset, the show "Firefly" is a good visual handle for newbies or people we might want to recruiot to it.

What about more recent Science Fiction authors or novels that evoke the same mood or feel of TRAVELLER?

For example - if my friend Samantha reveals to me that she really LOVES the Honor Harrington books or Anne McCaffrey's Non-dragonrider books - does that make her a good recruit for a TRAVELLER game?

- Ed C.

Honor Harrington series, yes.
Dinosaur Planet series, yes.
Planet Pirates Series, yes.
Crystal Singer Series, kinda.
Brainship, not so much.

StormBringer · June 25, 2010, 12:53:18 AM

Quote from: Koltar;389970Recent BSG does have one big similarity with the TRAVELLER Tone or mindset - spaceships and interstellar starship travel mixed with slugthrower projectile weapons for most of the personal and vehicular weaponry.
Hell the Vipers were shown to be firing bullets of a kind (big ones) and missiles for the most part.

For that matter both the Battlestars and the BaseStars were firing long range missiles and torpedoes at each other.

That kind of thing is VERY TRAVELLER-esque.

- Ed C.

Sure, it isn't a total wash. I mean, Mongoose Traveller's High Guard has capital ships in the 200,000 ton range. That might be something like the size of Galactica, but it would be exceedingly rare. High Guard puts the price as 138,236 MCr. The new series seems to say there were 120 or more of those, and that would probably strain even the Imperium's considerable purse strings.

So, I meant literally the size of the ships when I referred to the scale. Tech level, I have numerous other issues with, and not only in Traveller.

jeff37923 · June 25, 2010, 01:17:30 AM

Quote from: Koltar;389959Okay - so we've established that for modern Tv mindset, the show "Firefly" is a good visual handle for newbies or people we might want to recruiot to it.

What about more recent Science Fiction authors or novels that evoke the same mood or feel of TRAVELLER?

For example - if my friend Samantha reveals to me that she really LOVES the Honor Harrington books or Anne McCaffrey's Non-dragonrider books - does that make her a good recruit for a TRAVELLER game?

- Ed C.

Well, you cowboy up and ask people whom you would like in your Traveller game if they would like to try it. That should be obvious.

Otherwise, you are approaching this ass-backwards. Instead of trying to find what particular bits of media evoke the mood or feel of Traveller, you should be working to the strength of the game system and see what bits of media can Traveller evoke the proper mood or feel in gameplay. Can Mongoose Traveller be used to run a game of Ghost in the Shell or of New Battlestar Galactica, for instance.

(And the answer to both is "Yes!")

Greentongue · June 25, 2010, 08:06:01 AM

Quote from: Koltar;389959What about more recent Science Fiction authors or novels that evoke the same mood or feel of TRAVELLER?

- Ed C.

Well, you couldn't get much more "recent" than the Trader's Diary series by Nathan Lowell. It was just released in print.
It does "A Day in the Life" of a normal merchant to a 'T'. Some might think of it more on the order of the merchant character generation subsystem than typical game play, but still.
=

Imperator · June 25, 2010, 08:52:32 AM

Quote from: Benoist;389408I think I'm going to talk for many around here when telling you: fuck you on that one, Sett.

Yep. The stupidity of the comment is staggering.

I'm no Traveller expert, bt I own the LBBs and have played some games, and the premise of Firefly is as Traveller as you can get. Small crew, run-down ship, trying to make ends meet. Traveller distilled.

Quote from: Koltar;389464So, Whedon may not have the TRAVELLER books himself, his friend does -and he may have played in a game or two for fun and the hobbies/interests of his friends could have very likely influenced his writing.

I didn't know about this, but is very cool. Thanks for bringing it in.

For me, the main influences I see ae Asimov, Niven and Heinlein. For modern references, Farscape is the most relevant to me, and maybe a bit of BSG.

flyingmice · June 25, 2010, 09:42:41 AM

Quote from: The Shaman;389973The Vatta's War books by Elizabeth Moon are very Traveller-esque, featuring merchants, mercs, pirates and privateers in space.

yeah - Vatta's War is superb! Very Trav-esque - except for those pesky ansibles, which is what its all about...

-clash

thedungeondelver · June 25, 2010, 02:22:50 PM

Quote from: StormBringer;389967I totally forgot about Farscape. I found a script for one of the episodes at a local library book sale once. It was pretty cool. I think I would disagree on the BSG, though, only due to the scale of the ships. If you drill down to the level of human interaction stuff, I would be more inclined to agree.

See I sorta think of Farscape as "D&D in space" (NOT SPELLJAMMER! SPELLJAMMER SUCKS!); Traveller seems to lend itself more to "hard" SF.

But that's just my perception.

Ian Absentia · June 25, 2010, 03:24:49 PM

Quote from: Imperator;390020I'm no Traveller expert, bt I own the LBBs and have played some games, and the premise of Firefly is as Traveller as you can get. Small crew, run-down ship, trying to make ends meet. Traveller distilled.

I've mentioned this a number of times on this site, but if one is a fan of the Third Imperium setting, Firefly has an almost perfect cross-over setting -- the antebellum Fifth Frontier War Sword Worlds. Sure, instead of cowboys your characters are Franco-Nordic Space Germans, but all the right elements are there:

Wounded political/national identity at having lost the conflict
War-torn economy ripe for mercantile exploitation
Intrusive oversight by an uncaring and disdainful administrative authority (the Imperium)
Erstwhile and slightly creepy allies who might be trying to manipulate them behind the scenes (the Zhodani)

After seeing Firefly, the Sword Worlds is the default setting I'd use.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;390076See I sorta think of Farscape as "D&D in space"

Quoted for truth. That's actually a really fun way of thinking of that show.

!i!

StormBringer · June 25, 2010, 04:08:25 PM

Quote from: thedungeondelver;390076See I sorta think of Farscape as "D&D in space" (NOT SPELLJAMMER! SPELLJAMMER SUCKS!); Traveller seems to lend itself more to "hard" SF.

But that's just my perception.

Hmmmm... My impression: You are so wrong about Spelljammer it hurts my head. One of the Monstrous Compendiums has the Guyver in it! I can't believe how wrong you are on this one.

I can see where you are coming from, though. I think there was a bit too much ship-board stuff to really call it 'D&D in space', but there was a strong whiff of that in most episodes.

jeff37923 · June 25, 2010, 06:53:10 PM

You could stretch the system and do Farscape with Traveller, but Traveller default setting is not emulated in Farscape. Farscape was more of a well-produced "monster of the week" kind of show for a lot of it.

The less said about Spelljammer, the better.

crkrueger · June 26, 2010, 12:21:44 AM

Spelljammer kicked more ass then Chuck Norris. :cool:

flyingmice · June 26, 2010, 12:22:50 AM

Quote from: CRKrueger;390182Spelljammer kicked more ass then Chuck Norris. :cool:

Most likely true. Norris tended to kick faces IIRC.

-clash

Zachary The First · June 26, 2010, 01:17:22 AM

For me, H. Beam Piper, with a healthy dose of Niven thrown in.

If you haven't read Piper, his works are public domain, and can easily be found. It's a fun read, and you'll pick up on a lot of Traveller concepts.

Koltar · June 26, 2010, 01:25:49 AM

Quote from: Zachary The First;390188For me, H. Beam Piper, with a healthy dose of Niven thrown in.

If you haven't read Piper, his works are public domain, and can easily be found. It's a fun read, and you'll pick up on a lot of Traveller concepts.

I worked the Fuzzies into several past STAR TREK campaign, even one GURPS: SPACE campaign. Never tried to smoosh them intothe TRAVELLER universe tho.

Usually the Little Fuzzies in my campaigns are much more educated than in the inbitial books about them. I postulate that its around 47 to 74 years later and Fuzzies have gone to Starfleet Academy, serve as opfficers on starships, and become full voting citrizens of the Federation etc.

Third Imperium Era Fuzzies? - I'll have to think about that one.

- Ed C.