"Tell me about your Traveller campaigns" Topic

I managed to pick up one of the old Traveller rulebooks on eBay last week (New Era), for the grand total of £3.00 GBP I was just curious more than anything, since I've never played it before and a lot of people seem to speak very highly of the whole Traveller series.

So, is New Era any better or worse than the other versions? Would I need any other supplements to run a game? What've been some of your favourite Traveller campaigns in the past?

I always like the LBB version. I never boght into the suden collapse of the Imperium. Fifth Frontier War was/is a great backdrop.

Same here. The assassination of Stephron and Dulinor's attempted coup plus the civil war was compelling, I thought, but it should not have encompassed the collapse of the Imperium. I never really bought into the whole computer virus business either-that is where I lost interest in the official development of the Traveller universe.

A great deal of the skirmish gaming that I do which is set in the Traveller universe (using SG2, by the way) deals with an alternate timeline where the rebels are defeated and the Imperium recovers.

And Twilght's Peak is worth the journey

The New Era rulebook is only really missing the ship building stuff, for which you want either the Brilliant Lances box or the book "Fire, Fusion & Steel" (get the TNE version, because they used the same name for another edition and that one is a mess). You may not need a lot of ship building, though, since the main book does have a number of ships pre-built.

TNE as a ruleset isn't bad, though the book itself is a bit dense. As a setting, the New Era is good for small scale adventure where the PC's actions are potentially *very* significant. Ruined Worlds, mysterious and unbalanced AIs, and the tensions of rebuilding in a highly dangerous, resistant, and competitive environment.

The overall setting of Traveller, known at the Third Imperium, encompasses most of the standard backdrops for SF over its 3000 years of useful timeline, from wars of various sizes, peaceful golden ages, the re-awakening of empires after long interregnum, exploration of the unknown, contact with known and unknown intelligences, etc.

Campaigns I've had fun playing and running include civilians in a warzone, shipwrecked & stranded, spies for the crown, and just "wandering around making money". The game and setting can be as serial or as episodic as you like.

I always felt there was enough stuff going to without the need for a civil war, or the Virus (let alone teh Empress Wave, which never was able to be further developed than a "back of the mind' worry). However, both of those developements have their own fine points. I found the book "Hard Times" for the MegaTraveller (Rebellion/Civil War) line to be extremely compelling, watching worlds suffer over a campaign.

TNE has some good points, if you're into rebuilding civilizations and colonization.

I too prefer the "Classic" time period. There is lots to do.

You don't really need other supplements if you don't want them, as long as you have a good imagination and don't mind a lot of paper work. It all depends if you want to stick to "canon" or not.

I've run quite a few short campaigns in my time, but only 1 "grand" campaign. We played it for 2 years, encompasing about 6 months of game time. It took place out in Gateway, and had to do with the players being the "new Imperial Mission" to an unimportant world far outside of the Imperium. They were basically sent there to block the efforts of the K'Kree and Solomani (who were staking odd alliances very far from home).

It started with them having to escort the new High Prince to his homeworld from college after his father passed, and some adventures along the way (including a hijacked space liner, 4 armed renegades, and a kidnapped insane K'Kree Ambassador).

At other points in the adventure:
-They find a "lost" Vargr colony that had taken up residence on the "Darkling Ship" (from the CT adventure of teh same name) which was lead by an Ursa merchant (wierd, but it worked!)
-They "liberated" a domed colony moon which was the home of an Edenistic commune that had been taken over "peacefully" by the K'Kree.
-Discovered that some strange lights that occur ever X years at the conjunction of several planets of the system actually DID cause all sorts of misjumps all over the sector.
-Found out the the planet (well, garden moon, actually) had a doomsday weapon at its core designed to destroy the planet if someone from the High Princes' family (usually the ruler of the planet) did impress their DNA every few years. Of course the previous High Prince had passed a very short time before this was due… and oh, by the way, the dude thought to be the son of the former High Prince is actually an imposter who assumed his life. But it all ended up ok with no one in the general population the wiser.

During the adventure they were hounded by a Solomani Commerce Raider who slowly turned mad, making killing the players and all who helped them his sole objective (rather than sticking to just causing general trouble).

The campaign culminated with a large space battle of the PCs and their friends (the Ursa/Vargr in armed merchant ships, a pair of Imperail Destroyers, and some "secret help" from a rebel movement) against a 3 ship solomani force lead by the insane Commerce Raider captain.

Lots of fun, and they saved a civilization (even if it wasn't one that they liked and would rather have wiped out themselves!)

TNE version was not my favorite by a longshot (though I did pick up the Fire, Fusion and Steel supplement which is well worth getting).

The last Traveller campaign I ran was in T:2300, consisting of the players making some of the initial recons back into the space overrun by the Kafers, learning a bit about them.

Having bought into the Mongoose Traveller, and liking it, I'm going to be starting a short campaign over the rest of the summer for our group. I won't fully decide on the focus until everyone's characters are rolled, but so far a typical ex-Marine with lots of firepower and a Scout with a secret (un-explored Ancients site) bring some suggestions to mind.

Hey were in Canada do you live? Can I play?

I've only ever played Trav in the setting from the original LBBs, and I only cherry pick parts of that that I think would interest my players. I've run everything from Twilight's Peak to an almost completely randomly generated series of adventures involving a merchant ship's crew. So really, I'm happiest with the "merchants in trouble" setting. If I had more wargaming focused players, I'd go for "mercenary company in trouble".

At the moment, I'm gearing up to run two very small campaigns using the Mongoose rules along with bits swiped from my old Traveller Book.

The first one is for my kids and wife, where they'll be in the service of the Scouts out doing explory-things on the fringe of the Imperium. I'm using Mongoose's "Type-S" adventure to get them their ship and set the tone for the campaign – not much fighting and no money concerns, just "mission of the week". I may then send them on a ported T20 adventure which is essentially a courier mission to pick up some official records in an isolated corner of a subsector. Along the way they'll have to brave some harsh elements, fend off a competing band, and ultimately rescue (or at least recover data from ) a lost ship. If the kids are still interested after all that, I'll come up with some other "high adventure" type situations.

The other campaign I want to run with some adult friends who are new to Trav is based on the old "Sky Raiders" series, which you can find on RPGNow! for a few bucks. The first episode is an "Indiana Jones" style expedition into the Wilderness looking for evidence of a Lost Civilization. The second part is a mystery with some James Bond elements masquerading as a Free Trade opportunity. I don't have the final book yet, but I suspect it will be a different style yet again. In all cases, there is call for gunplay and some "pulp" level of violence, but (at least so far) there is not a proper Mercenary Ticket type adventure.

In all cases, I'm probably going to direct the character generation a little to get a decent match for the game. Since MongTrav lets you add some skills after the party is formed, it's not so critical that everyone "fit" perfectly.

The Broadsword book is wonderful for mercenary adventure and I used that after the Twilight's Peak book which is still one of the best adventures ever written for RPGs.

lugal hdan, some great ideas there!

"Twilght's Peak is worth the journey"

I second that!! If it's not done in a hurry.

I've liked the original little black books the best. Traveler 5ed might be worth a look, but I haven't checked it out myself.

5th edition (so-called 'T5') is currently a big pile of tools, not a game. While I support this particular way of going about it (Traveller doesn't need *another* edition) what I've seen is still a bit too idiosyncratic and esoteric for general use.

I rather like the character generation additions seen in Mongoose's edition.

Twilight's Peak was definitely my favorite campaign from my old High School RPG days. I wish I still had the book for that one, but I haven't worked up enough enthusiasm to go buy a copy. (Maybe some day I'll grab the FFE reprints of all the old adventures?)

"Secret of the Ancients", which was a follow-on, was a bit of a letdown IMHO. It's more fun to read than play, since the "big reveal" at the end is more or less a Trick-or-Treat visit combined with a really long monologue.

I've always liked the TNE system (its also compatible with Version 2.2 Edition Twilight 2000, and 2nd Ed Dark Conspiracy) if you like to mix things up a bit.

Plenty of websites still out there supporting all sorts of Traveller Rulesets (including mine at skaran.net) so you may never have to use Fire Fusion and Steel, there is a lot of player designed stuff out there as well.

Not everyone likes the premise in the TNE rules but you don't have to use that background, variant universes can be a lot of fun.

"Twilight's Peak was definitely my favorite campaign from my old High School RPG days." – Telling your age a little?

"I wish I still had the book for that one" – Drop me an email at warrenss2(AT)yahoo(DOT)com.

LOL Warrenss2 – what can I say? I wrote my first Traveller gaming utility on an Apple//c. :)

Thank god I still have all the original books except for Striker. The Spinward Marches was were I ran all the campaigns. Of course everyone tended to die during a mission except for one person. But it was so easy to make a new character no one cared. As long as a couple of people made it to the next one to carry on the quest. Have to say it was the best system I ever used.

My first PC was a Commodore 64.

They came out right after the abacus.

Traveller (I only know the LBB edition) is a great system. First in my book for sci-fi RPGs.

"The Twilight's Peak book which is still one of the best adventures ever written for RPGs."

25 years on, I still remember the campaign with great fondness.

Cheers
Mark

My first pc was a C64 also, but I didn't write any trav software for it.

I always liked Trav and its approach to RPGs more than D&D, but my friends were more into D&D so I didn't get to play as much as I wanted too. Still, there were enough "metagaming" tasks in Trav (like world, ship and character creation) that I was still able to enjoy myself.

I was fondly recalling the years my group of buddies played Traveller. We now live all dispersed all over the world, but we all recall the hours of fun. The campaign (I was the referree) took them across the galaxy over and over again. The party mostly played as free traders, with some mercenary actions thown in.
Go here for other info on Traveller;
link

You will be surprised to find out that Traveller is a world-wide phenonoman!

"Traveller is … world-wide"

Most of the currently producing Traveller licensees are British, for a start.

The game is originally American, and you'll find people who know/play/remember Traveller in every state.

One of the most prolific producers for GURPS Traveller is German, and I know of several other Germans, Dutch, and Scandinavians in the producing fanbase, as well as Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians, one guy from Mexico City, and at least one Brazilian. I think the TML even had a South African or two at one point, and a guy I used to play with in college has since spent time in Antarctica.

There is a very nice site, complete with shiny 3D renders and some very attractive reworks of classic ships, out of Japan. Sadly, the Japanese licensees for MegaTraveller seem to have taken their site down finally, but while it was up it had some amazing artwork.

"the Empress Wave, which never was able to be further developed than a "back of the mind' worry"

In one of the oddities of Traveller licensing, the extension of the timeline another 50 years was written with input from Dave Nilsen (the architect of TNE) and full approval from Marc Miller, released on PDF and (some) print, then killed after the Mongoose license started up. The Empress Wave has been explained, the 4th Imperium has been formed and is starting to grow, and the integration of true AI lifeforms (the 'evolutionary' result of Virus, and the meta-reason for Virus in the first place) is well under way.

You may still be able to find some of the '1248' books in distribution. Three of the four made it to paper editions.

In the old '3 book' days, my fellow gamers did so good on trade that they "had their portfolios" to think about and shunned all deadly adventure. If it was dangerous, they would hire NPCs to do the heavy lifting. Proof that wargamers make terrible role players.

I currently run two alternating campaigns both using TNE rules. Instead of overwhelming the forum I'll just give the address;

skaran.net

Basic Traveller, my best memories were of the Safari Ship "Artemis".

To make a long story short the GM tricked us all during character creation; which was all done one on one.

We were to make characters with hidden pasts. We would all make characters normally and then pretend to be another person to blend in…presumed that "I" was to be a spy or other type of information gatherer…what we didn't know was that we all were "spies" for the same organization.

So my former scout veteran played the roll of a merchant dealing with alien artifacts; paying off a debt for a family member to an organized crime boss/family, I was seeking out a particular item.

All of our characters had related missions that overlapped in case of an individual failure…well we found out after two characters had to have the same "treasure".

Then we tried to reverse the con…it went badly (I was in high school and not as sneaky and experienced as I am now) but it was a blast.

We ended up being stranded on a fringe planet, completely off the grid…but we had the items that the boss wanted, so sooner or later they would come to us.

Got "rescued" by faking our reason for being there, changed IDs, went back to the crime boss, and acted as spies for the police…most of us died due space station damage…but it was fun.

We then played family members getting revenge on the crime syndicate.

Good times.

An update in the 1248 material. It will be compiled onto a CD and sold by Far Future Enterprises (Marc Miller). Specific date and price hadn't been announced last I looked, but "soon" and "reasonable for the pagecount" are expected.