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Author Topic: What do you find appealling about the Traveller setting?  (Read 4680 times)

Koltar

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Re: What do you find appealling about the Traveller setting?
« Reply #45 on: August 29, 2022, 06:04:42 PM »
For Everyone's enjoyment - Here it is again:

The Traveller Universe?

What is appealing about it all?

The emphasis on high spirited Free Trade and swashbuckling in a world with spaceships and starships.

Its the joy of unfettered capitalism whilst traveling the stars.

- Ed C.
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jeff37923

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Re: What do you find appealling about the Traveller setting?
« Reply #46 on: August 29, 2022, 06:22:01 PM »
For Everyone's enjoyment - Here it is again:

The Traveller Universe?

What is appealing about it all?

The emphasis on high spirited Free Trade and swashbuckling in a world with spaceships and starships.

Its the joy of unfettered capitalism whilst traveling the stars.

- Ed C.

And Mr. Ed sidesteps the question.

"Meh."

Shrieking Banshee

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Re: What do you find appealling about the Traveller setting?
« Reply #47 on: August 29, 2022, 06:35:47 PM »
Before this turns into a clusterfuck about the nature of free trade, Id like to know what Happydaze likes in their Sci-Fi.

Just from curiosities sake.

HappyDaze

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Re: What do you find appealling about the Traveller setting?
« Reply #48 on: August 29, 2022, 08:07:59 PM »
Before this turns into a clusterfuck about the nature of free trade, Id like to know what Happydaze likes in their Sci-Fi.

Just from curiosities sake.
That's a good question. It actually varies quite a bit. Looking at my shelf, most of it is fantasy, but I do have Cold & Dark (sci-fi horror), Coriolis, Eclips Phase, Polaris, Cyberpunk Red (I count cyberpunk in with sci-fi), along with Savage Rifts (sci-fi plus fantasy plus a bit of everything), Torg Eternity (sci-fi is just one part of it), and Star Trek. I like all of them for their own reasons, but no one of them is perfect for everything. What I don't like is a sci-fi setting where the sci-fi just feels like a skin over another type of game--for example, my own view of Traveller is that most of it could just as easily be done with island-hopping on a 17th century sailing ship.

David Johansen

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Re: What do you find appealling about the Traveller setting?
« Reply #49 on: August 29, 2022, 08:09:43 PM »
But the islands wouldn't be so odd.
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jeff37923

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Re: What do you find appealling about the Traveller setting?
« Reply #50 on: August 29, 2022, 08:37:17 PM »
But the islands wouldn't be so odd.

You also couldn't do maneuvers like a Sanger skip re-entry or jumping outsystem from a LaGrange point.
"Meh."

Aglondir

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Re: What do you find appealling about the Traveller setting?
« Reply #51 on: August 29, 2022, 08:48:33 PM »
That's a very nice list - makes me want to grab my LBB books and run a few games.  I think it could be summarized as "grounded sf,"  which is what I usually want in such a game.
Thanks. "Grounded sci-fi" is a perfect description.

David Johansen

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Re: What do you find appealling about the Traveller setting?
« Reply #52 on: August 29, 2022, 08:49:50 PM »
I did run ICE's Run Out the Guns for a couple months once.  I'm afraid there's a few too many system holes to make a good campaign.  Oh base prices for trade goods where are you?  It was fun but not much like Traveller.  The players took great delight in hunting down slavers and freeing their cargo but it didn't endear them to the port authorities anywhere they went so they did wind up constantly on the run one step ahead of the West India Trading Co.
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Aglondir

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Re: What do you find appealling about the Traveller setting?
« Reply #53 on: August 29, 2022, 09:02:41 PM »
This is actually VERY helpful. Thank you.

Unfortunately, the points mentioned are largely things I don't want in a sci-fi game. In particular, points 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7 along with the whole "retro sci-fi feel" are what I'm not looking for in a sci-fi game. Your post has helped me to organize/itemize my objections to the setting that I'll be discussing with the GM next week (he can't make it tomorrow, so one of the other players and I will be blowing up some ships in a game of Federation Commander).

EDIT: Added 3 to the above list of points that indicate Traveller's setting is not for me.

Glad it helped clarify things. I found this list from Wikipedia, after I wrote mine. I doubt it will change your mind...

Quote from: Wikipedia
Key features

Commerce: Commerce is the major driving force of civilization.

Human-centric but cosmopolitan: The core rules focus on human characters, but there is support for using and playing aliens.

Limited communication: There is no faster-than-light information transfer – meaning no ansible, subspace radio or hyper-wave. Communication is limited to the speed of travel. Decisions are made on the local level rather than by a remote authority.

Morals and mortality: People remain people and continue to show courage, wisdom, honesty and justice, along with cowardice, deceit, and criminal behavior.

Sociological: Interstellar society is socially stratified (high, mid, and low passage; SOC (Social Status) is a primary character attribute). Affairs are often managed by independent nobility, who make use of classic titles such as Baron, Duke and Archduke.


Votan

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Re: What do you find appealling about the Traveller setting?
« Reply #54 on: August 29, 2022, 10:45:54 PM »
So no game can emulate an entire genre and Traveller is no exception. I would not expect Lord of the Rings, Conan, and Norse deities to all be run in the same game system.

What was nice to me about Traveller is that it shifted the emphasis from character strength to exploration. Rewards were the ability to keep your ship flying despite all of the insane costs. Character generation meant you got a lot of hooks as to character background with no very little focus on character improvement. The stuff there was, early one, was stuff like trying to stick to an exercise program. It was really neat. You didn't level up your character, but instead explored a strange world. Now we know all of the secrets but, at the time, the alien races were really alien (not elves/dwarves but very different social organizations). The ancients were a much nicer feature before we knew their secrets.

It was like the old west and exploring a strange and different set of worlds. As a teenager I loved it. As an adult it was ok. If I did it again it would be in the context of a totally new and strange universe, with secrets still to discover.

Shrieking Banshee

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Re: What do you find appealling about the Traveller setting?
« Reply #55 on: August 29, 2022, 10:54:11 PM »
Traveller is that most of it could just as easily be done with island-hopping on a 17th century sailing ship.

Im not sure what form of sci-fi/fantasy isn't just something based on the real world with a skin over it. Outside of pure speculative games like Eclipse Phase that are so beyond mundane experience that they implode under scrutiny.

While I haven't played traveller, it does sound it takes its world building seriously. As opposed to say Star Wars where you really could just replace the starships with regular ships or even cut them out completly, Traveller feels like its got more to its premise.

This isn't me trying to pick a fight mind you, I just like debate.

Tod13

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Re: What do you find appealling about the Traveller setting?
« Reply #56 on: September 02, 2022, 05:29:06 PM »
The GM loves the character creation mini-game it has, and that part is a hard fail for me. I simply don't find it interesting or necessarily, and I worry that the "coolest" part of the game will be over before play begins.
Hah... That's quite interesting. I always found the character creation part of the game the most boring. I found it tedious to roll to see if you 'could' enter or stay in a particular career role. The characters all felt quite generic. So once I get that out of the way I'm good to go.

My wife has never played Traveller -- but she's generated lots and lots of Traveller characters -- it's a whole game for her. It helps if you use later systems or classic supplements that add "special encounters" etc to the character generation that add more unique factors to the PC history, other than rank and titles and skill levels.

I find the system as a whole kind of clunky/slow, but fun.

I like that the setting is so flexible -- you can do law abiding or wild west or whatever without leaving "the setting".
« Last Edit: September 02, 2022, 08:25:44 PM by Tod13 »

zircher

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Re: What do you find appealling about the Traveller setting?
« Reply #57 on: September 02, 2022, 07:23:15 PM »
Ditto, it's not just skill generation, but backstory and world building as well.  I get a kick out of imagining how that character's story evolves.
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Omega

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Re: What do you find appealling about the Traveller setting?
« Reply #58 on: September 02, 2022, 08:02:15 PM »
I think one of the main draws of Traveller, Star Frontiers and Universe is that each captured the feel of space opera, exploration, travel, mercanteering, intrigue, etc, and does it right. They are all very flexible systems and settings allowing for any number of playstyles.

Were something like Star Wars fails as space opera but succeeds at space fantasy while Star Trek started off well but was more focused. Then started the slide into fantasy with TNG era.

The first three feel grounded. While Star Wars and Star Trek increasingly feel anything but.
« Last Edit: September 02, 2022, 08:04:18 PM by Omega »

Aglondir

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Re: What do you find appealling about the Traveller setting?
« Reply #59 on: September 03, 2022, 01:21:23 AM »
I think one of the main draws of Traveller, Star Frontiers and Universe is that each captured the feel of space opera, exploration, travel, mercanteering, intrigue, etc, and does it right. They are all very flexible systems and settings allowing for any number of playstyles.

Were something like Star Wars fails as space opera but succeeds at space fantasy while Star Trek started off well but was more focused. Then started the slide into fantasy with TNG era.

The first three feel grounded. While Star Wars and Star Trek increasingly feel anything but.

Omega,

Universe! That was SPI, right? Never got a chance to see it. Do you remember the game called Space Opera? We made characters and ditched it for Star Frontiers.