We played a good bit of MegaTraveller back in the day, but a lot of folks didn't like it.  Most of that I think had to do with the Rebellion being the major event.  As to troubles with the game itself, not many, once we had the errata.  The first printings of MT were full of errors, especially the ship design rules, they were completely broken.  I could be up for a game.

So if there is to be a game, what era does anyone want it set in?

I prefer something in between MegaTraveller and TNE.


What rules would you want to use?

Besides the problems with MegaTraveller, I think the Classic and Mongoose rules are fairly compatible.

I'm okay with Classic/LBBs, but sort of prefer Mongoose, mostly cause I have it. And there's a lot of material for it.


Does anyone have a preference for where in the Traveller Universe the game is set?

There's a lot of good material out there for the various sectors: Glimmerdrift Reaches, Crucis Margin, Gateway and Ley Sector are a good area.

Or Corridor, Reft Sector, and Verge.

Or Foreven, Far Frontiers, Vanguard Reaches, and Beyond.

Or Spinward Marches and Deneb.

Or beyond the frontier...

I can't say I have any preference one way or the other, though it could be fun to develop a whole new sector/subsector.


What type of game/campaign/adventure is anyone interested in?

Mercenaries? Far Traders? Spies? General adventurers/trouble-shooters? Vargr? Zhodani? Scouts/explorers? Thieves/rogues/pirates? Anyone have any other ideas?

Adventurers always seems like the most versatile to me. But I could also get into Scouts.

I like Gateway and doing stuff outside the borders of the imperium.

Also prefer Mongoose as I hate it.

Would all the players be on a single team or can there be multiple teams?

Sandbox or structured?

So you are thinking about post Rebellion/Virus?  As to rule set, I don't have Mongoose, but do have CT and MT.  Not too hard to do character creation with either of those and translate it to Mongoose from what I understand.  Location, don't really care.

As far as rules go I'll probably stick with classic as I don't have Mongoose.

Open as far as when, where, and why.

There could be multiple teams although I don't want to spread myself too thin.

Probably a mix of sandbox and structure but that could change.

Ah, so you are planning on GMing a game? Wasn't really sure from your first post.


I doubt if more than 2 teams would be necessary.

Even if you keep a large group in one team, the only trick is to make sure that all the characters have something to do.

I'd rather avoid TNE, but I'm good for any other version.

For setting, I always prefer a non-official "Pocket Empires" setting (ass opposed to OTU), and free traders/troubleshooters/adventurers is always appealing.

If we run with Mongoose (and a non-official setting), we should seriously consider one of the alternative FTL systems.

Yeah, I wasn't thrilled with TNE, either.

I like the idea of a Pocket Empire setting. There was even a supplement at one point called Pocket Empires, I believe.

An alternate FTL system could be cool. It really gets down to what you/me/we/the GM want travel times to be. Classic Trav was oriented to an 'age of sail' approach... a strung out empire that took a long time to get from one place to another.

The question becomes: do we want travel to be part of the adventure, or do we just want to be able to get from one adventure location to the next?

If we go with the troubleshooter campaign, then it should be adventure to adventure, with travel being incidental.

I'd prefer the Teleport Drive, though call it something else. Maybe there's a gate or portal system, either powered by some ancient technology or some natural phenomenon in that region that makes this 'transition' drive possible. Jump Drive could still be a back-up... or a good hiding place for a week.

There could also be a limitation that requires a number of hours or days to recharge.

That's my 2 credits.

For me personally, changing to any other kind of FTL system makes it "Not Traveller."  It could still be a fun game using much of the Traveller system, but it's not Traveller.

Another thing to add on the edition consideration/comments, MT had the best version of character creation.  Partially because all of it from all of the different books, supplements, etc., was in one location.  They also had some rather good expansion on some of the background for character creation.

I have megatraveller.

Just an opinion:  I think that travel should an adventure in itself, like a mini adventure waiting to happen.  The journey is the adventure.  This can expand and turn into a mini scenario on the way to the main event, or it can contract if the group has is dealing with established routes and facilities.  The characters should have to think about what they're doing, put effort into maintaining their vessel and gear, and dealing with exit ports of call should be memorable.

I don't mean getting implausible problems thrown in our way to make the characters lives difficult. That's not what I mean at all.  I mean make the journey part of the challenge.  Think about how Han solo and chewie had to deal with maintenance. What reasonable travel issues would the characters have to consider and then deal with?

ucat has a good point about travel.  It is very easy and appropriate to have the time to a jump point and the time back in system have things happen.  The same can be done for the time in jump space.  Or, it can all be done as just a few rolls the time on planet is what the players are interested in.

Should have something up during the next week.

In reply to brockthesmall (msg # 24):

Good luck to you, then.  It might be late to mention it, but the Traveller Plus rules for character creation were designed specifically for online play.  (The included Caliber Combat System is a bit much for me, though.)

Jet out to the Crucible Highport and check it out. Free, fan supported, and made for use with Classic Traveller. (Link from Heaven - last one at the bottom.)

In reply to Bornite (msg # 23):

Time spent just travelling to the jump point or during jump is a great time for character development and interaction.  Take star wars for example, how Han and obi wan argued about force and luck and r2d2 played space chess with chewbacca. These scenes are an important balance to the action scenes.  It's when the characters plan their moves and debate how to get out of their latest conundrum.  Travel time doesn't have to go unused!

I have MT too - found them on a shelf.  Can check out the other set too.  Jump time, travel to and from jump depends on whether stuff needs to be done then or not.  GM can hand wave it - those who want to train/practice can announce it.

I get what you mean, but I've always seen Traveller as the D&D of space games. Sure, they have the OTU, but the system isn't tied to it like a purpose-built Star Trek or Star Wars system.

If we fiddle with FTL, it would be more like going with spell points vs. standard spell slots in D&D -- yeah, it's not going to look like the OTU to everyone, but it's still "Traveller" in every other meaningful way.

*~*~*~*~*

On the larger question, did I detect a desire to go with MT? Or, are we still at the contemplative stage of choosing an edition?

reply to Davy Jones msg #28

Depends on what you mean by edition (lol).  Are you thinking about the setting part of the different editions (LBB/MT/TNE/Mong/GT/T20) or the rules set?

At first, I thought he merely meant the rules set. I'm not familiar with all of them to say how they differ from each other, but the ones I am familiar with are all compatible with each other.

On second reading, though, maybe he did mean the campaign setting/era.

I think that'll be up to the GM... when and where he wants to set it. Frankly, I don't much care. While I have my own preference, and won't know a whole lot about some eras, that's what the GM is for... to tell us that.

I'm familiar with Classic and Mongoose; anything else, I'd be mostly ignorant.

I meant physical edition...Classic, MT, TNE, T4, Mongoose, T5. :)

I'm most familiar with Classic, T4 (my favorite, with the aforementioned "Pocket Empires" supplement), Mongoose, and T5.

I'm entirely flexible about setting.

I plan on using Classic Traveller for the rules and setting although I'm thinking about doing something far away from the Imperium "Pocket Empires" and the like.

There's always the new Traveller edition of the Mindjammer setting...

I just downloaded the free Mindjammer guides, no time to read thru them yet.  Never played MT, but classic is fine.

With this many posts in the thread, it should b clear by now whether or not there is sufficient interest in this idea to warrant setting up a game.

Please leave all further discussion for that game, created by brockthesmall, and linked to in the post immediately following this one.

Thank you.

Here it is.

link to another game