Buck Rogers XXVc.  Not such a fan of THAC0, but the setting simply can't be beat IMO.  Of course, it's hard to get new players for the game with it being out of print for 25 years.

There are certainly elements of that Space Viking book.  Throw in some Jack Vance and E.C. Tubb and you're nearly there. But Traveller, like D&D, draws from enough sources that it can't be pinned down to any one setting and can be used right out of the box to make your own setting that will differ from any other referee's setting if only because of the results of your random rolls and interpretations thereof.

Quote from: Dumarest;972601There are certainly elements of that Space Viking book.  Throw in some Jack Vance and E.C. Tubb and you're nearly there. But Traveller, like D&D, draws from enough sources that it can't be pinned down to any one setting and can be used right out of the box to make your own setting that will differ from any other referee's setting if only because of the results of your random rolls and interpretations thereof.

Yep.

Star Frontiers is probably still my favorite space game, especially because it had Knight Hawks for ship combat and a lot of cool articles in Dragon.  Plus, Dralasites FTW.  Spacemaster and FASA Trek were pretty cool for the same reason, I like games with a ship combat system that interfaces with the RPG rules.

The Classic Traveller system never made much sense to me when I first read it due to the "4 years of training/working and I got better in one thing, when really I'd be learning all these skills."  It only really made sense to me after reading Kubasik's site.  CT's a game with neither a class system or a skill system in the traditional sense.  I still like MgT1 better I think, with all the content and expansions it really gives you a bigass toolbox.  I'll probaly revisit CT at some point doing a Solar System campaign.

CRKrueger, I saw a solar system setting called something like Orbit or Orbital, but I seem to recall it was for Mongoose's version of Traveller. You might want to check it out anyway. I think I saw it on "Drive- Thru RPG." It looked pretty cool if you're into a "hard sci fi" near-future setting.

Quote from: Dumarest;972732CRKrueger, I saw a solar system setting called something like Orbit or Orbital, but I seem to recall it was for Mongoose's version of Traveller. You might want to check it out anyway. I think I saw it on "Drive- Thru RPG." It looked pretty cool if you're into a "hard sci fi" near-future setting.

Yeah, I've heard good things about it from the Traveller people here.

I'd say Mg-Traveller 1e that inspired a lot of my own designs. But thanks to Christopher Kubasik here I looked into Classic Traveller and managed to grab a copy of the 1977 edition of the game. Living in France the game didn't really made it here at the time (as far as I knew anyway).

I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised. It really is a great design. It can be used to do so many things, even beyond the SF genre (that "Wanderer" mock-up cover made me dream...).

So many thanks to Christopher Kubasik and the RPGSite.

Wanderer was pretty neat.  Someone made it sort of real as Mercator Traveller.

Stars Without Number (SWN)for me.  I tried Star Frontiers and Traveller back in the day, but neither one grabbed me, and I never really revisited sci-fi RPGs again until about 7 years ago.   SWN was really easy to get into and provided a remarkable amount of resources and inspiration for a free product.  The new Revised Edition is coming to Kickstarter in a few weeks!  I actually discuss that and compare it to the original game in the video link below.

https://youtu.be/WfAuztPKlUI

Thanks for the link, gwb79.

I like Stars without Number a lot. I also revisited Star Frontiers (everything is up for downloading on a fan site) and it stands up well I think.

Quote from: gwb79;972864Stars Without Number (SWN)for me.  I tried Star Frontiers and Traveller back in the day, but neither one grabbed me, and I never really revisited sci-fi RPGs again until about 7 years ago.   SWN was really easy to get into and provided a remarkable amount of resources and inspiration for a free product.  The new Revised Edition is coming to Kickstarter in a few weeks!  I actually discuss that and compare it to the original game in the video link below.

https://youtu.be/WfAuztPKlUI

I really like Crawford's work. He has a lovely OSR sensibility (as I define it anyway!): Solid tools and random tables that help a Referee create content on the fly. While I'll probably never run Stars Without Numbers (I have Classic Traveller) there is content that I do use from SWN. I've never backed an RPG Kickstarter before. But I might back this one -- only because I've been so impressed with Crawford's work.

Quote from: ChristopherKubasik;972937I really like Crawford's work. He has a lovely OSR sensibility (as I define it anyway!): Solid tools and random tables that help a Referee create content on the fly. While I'll probably never run Stars Without Numbers (I have Classic Traveller) there is content that I do use from SWN. I've never backed an RPG Kickstarter before. But I might back this one -- only because I've been so impressed with Crawford's work.

What in Stars w/o Number do you use? Is it worth getting just as an add-on to Traveller '77? I have no interest in changing games but am always open to material i can incorporate into the games I like.

Quote from: Dumarest;972938What in Stars w/o Number do you use? Is it worth getting just as an add-on to Traveller '77? I have no interest in changing games but am always open to material i can incorporate into the games I like.

The world tags are easily usable. I've made some use of them, though if you roll randomly, you might find yourself re-rolling some (some of them may conflict with the UWP depending on how you interpret the tags and the UWP). The stuff on setting up factions could easily port in.

It's available free or pay what you want.

Frank

Quote from: ffilz;972945The world tags are easily usable. I've made some use of them, though if you roll randomly, you might find yourself re-rolling some (some of them may conflict with the UWP depending on how you interpret the tags and the UWP). The stuff on setting up factions could easily port in.

It's available free or pay what you want.

Frank

Frank said basically what I would say.

Here, for example, is a portion of the Tag table:



The value of the SWN added to the Classic Traveller World Generation system is this:

The weakness of the CT Main World Generation system , if it is one, is that it might suggest to people, "Roll up these numbers, slap on some obvious high-tech explanation for any obvious inconsistencies, and you're done."

The system, focused on the raw numbers of facts suggests that this is the focus of world building. And later material in the CT line (and later editions of Traveller) would drill down into more astronomic information.... But I don't think that's what the purpose of the Main World Generation system was for... at all.

 Marc Miller was not only an Army Captain but also got a B.A. in Sociology. Combined with the compelling conceits about countless societies found in the books by Tubb, Piper, Vance, Bester, Norton, Anderson, Pournelle, and all the other SF authors that inspired Miller's work on Classic Traveller, a case can be made that the focus of the game was not actually Hard SF and gear, but all the interesting cultures, societies, and characters the Player Characters get to encounter, puzzle out, and interact with.

The advantage of the SWN Tags and Factions is that they get the Referee focused on People, Society, Culture, Groups. Now not every Referee needs to be nudged in that direction. But I find that if you overlay Tags on top of worlds you make sure not to get stuck thinking an interesting Traveller world is all about it's diameter and government type. That stuff matters... but it was supposed to be the starting point for creating a cool, exotic, and unique culture. The stuff from SWN (which Frank notes is FREE) helps nudge a Referee into making sure that his worlds are grabby in terms of the stuff of society for Player Character to encounter, explore, and deal with... which I would argue was the assumed position of play for the original Traveller rules.