Solo Traveller 0: Campaign Intro

[@caleb-hines]

My first Traveller character, Tobias, had a 2 intelligence and was accepted into the army. I basically played him as Forrest Gump in space. It became a running joke that his life's dream was to become a renowned finger painter. He was a fun comic relief while he lasted (and not without some combat skills), but the low IQ made it difficult for him to meaningfully participate in any kind of party decision making. When our crackpot academic PC, Jack Danielson, retired from the party to become our NPC patron, I had Tobias follow him, so I could roll up a new PC.

[@Order_of_Chaos]

Jump takes a week. To to get to the jump point can vary from less than an hour to a day and depends on the system's jump shadow that covers the mainworld (star size and distance and mainworld size and whether it's a world or a moon of a gas giant.

[@TheJoyofWargaming]

Right, but how closely do I need to track fuel use. In places it reads as though you should track to the nearest 0.1 tons. In others it reads like you should just pay for a full tank of fuel after each jump. Am confusion.

[@Vegas7.62]

I played traveler just one time when I was younger. I'm very excited to see how this is going to go.

[@Cyarrick1]

Beat me to the punch. Been playing CT (LBB and Starter Traveller 83) plus Mong 2nd since HS. What an incredible game. Easily my favorite. Can't believe I missed it live.

[@dartmart9263]

I kept getting interrupted by the missus and the doggos, so I’m watching the video now

[@parazatico9030]

I had a knack of rolling up characters with utterly useless skill sets, usually some variation of Forward Observer-4 and Electronics-2, sometimes with Cutlass-1 for variety. A good tip is to arm your character with the awful Body Pistol for extra hilarity, or have them flick bits of wet newspaper at their opponents, the effect will be much the same.

[@ChrisWar-rm3uk]

what is this? youre pronouncing ad and d wrong!!!

[@dartmart9263]

For the last 42 years, I’ve been wanting to see how this game plays! Awesome treat

[@luca77289]

In my case , I've been waiting for 37 years tò see It in action !

[@dartmart9263]

@@luca77289 LOL

[@TheBasicExpert]

You are picking up where I need to get back to.

[@steveyoungwork]

Brilliant, a unexpected blessing, GB!

[@timchapman3484]

Jon, at the risk of being considered 'a day late and a dollar short' here -- I'm catching up on your videos and am a little behind -- may I humbly suggest you take a look at Issue #13 of the original Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society magazine, published by GDW during the heyday of original GDW Traveller; specifically, an article on pages 29 and 30 of that issue, titled "ref's notes: Real Time Traveller". It's about real-time play and how it's especially applicable to solo play. It's available for two bucks as a PDF from DriveThruRPG, and it may contain some ideas you might find interesting and relevant. Since the JotTAS back then was a GDW publication, I submit that it could be considered as canon for someone wanting to stay true to the the original Traveller -- and anyway this article doesn't contain any rules variations or deviations. (I played original Traveller back in the day, and this new series you've begun caused me to remember, belatedly, reading that article in JotTAS #13 when in first came out...)

[@TheJoyofWargaming]

I've been perusing old articles to get a feel for that early 80s vibe, and this is great advice. Will check it out for sure.

[@TheFirstIcon]

Love this game and I'm thrilled you're trying it out. I ran a short campaign with the 77 rules last year and thought I'd share what I find useful: Around 1:05:00 you discuss whether rifles or shotguns are "assault weapons". Since this game was written by a bunch of Army veterans, you can expect they use that term in its most specific: a weapon designed to provide close fire support during the final stages of assaulting or storming an enemy position, i.e. the doctrinal definition of an assault. Of the Traveller weapons, pretty much only the SMG matches with this historical role. The non-automatic rifle is legal up through LL 5. If you're looking at the 77 rules specifically, vehicle prices are high by a factor of 10. I can't remember whether this was errata'd in The Traveller Book or the '81 LBBs, but it's somewhere in there. Departing from RAW (I know, bear with me), it's my opinion that the shotgun in '77 Traveller is a bit of a glitch. The weight isn't bad, the range is good enough for many situations, the damage is great, it plays nice with low Dex, it's often legal, the ammo capacity is great (10 rounds is ridiculous), the cost is low, etc, etc. I split the weapon into an assault shotgun with a 10 round tube (banned at LL 4) and a 2-round double barrel hunting shotgun (banned at LL 7). That's how I justify the excessive legality of a weapon which, in my experience, is just as- or more lethal than the rifle, autorifle, and SMG.

[@TheJoyofWargaming]

That all makes perfect sense to me. I do think long rifles are a non-starter in pressurized environments like those that dominate this world. Small caliber handguns probably use scattershot rounds generally to avoid turning any handgun into a WMD via punctured bulkheads.

[@TheJoyofWargaming]

When you say vehicles, do you mean planetary vehicles or does that include starships?

[@TheFirstIcon]

@@TheJoyofWargaming I heard someone make the case that starship depressurization is the reason Marines get Cutlass-1 instead of a Gun Combat skill like the Army

[@TheFirstIcon]

@TheJoyofWargaming Planetary specifically. It's in the 1981 edition.

[@lukefarrell6769]

What a great start to a Friday! Wish I could time it to watch live...maybe one day? I'm loving your campaigns, so in-depth and detailed! Take care my friend, I'll pray for you as ever.... Thank you for your entertainment

[@nneisler]

Chad Solo - birth name was Chadwick Solonon

[@demitrisioannou7730]

Yes traveler!🎉

[@vicmarriott4849]

Great Intro, good start. Looking forward to this, I like building the sub-sector as you go, no need to have destinations out there that you do not need until someone wants you to go there or you decide its time to move on because things get a bit hot.

[@btrenninger1]

I'd roll the rest of the subsector offscreen. But it could be a good video discussing what came up.

[@bueroman]

"You need to put a little bit of yourself into the things you do. It comes out. It shows."

[@tolemykus4805]

Enjoyable and interesting. :)

[@mightyeroc7284]

Very cool, looking forward to more of this.

[@MrGeneralPB]

man, i love this so much i am rewatching this for the third time while rolling up my own campaign ^^,

[@TheJoyofWargaming]

You just signed on as the Pilot of the Money Crater, as Mister Hands Peterson.

[@MrGeneralPB]

@@TheJoyofWargamingawesome - i shall try to be the best pilot ever ^^,

[@MrGeneralPB]

@@TheJoyofWargamingand i shall be galavanting around in the jolly molley best little free trader this side of ice mosley ^^,

[@WinterDomeFly]

Could Classic Traveller be used as a base for a post apocalyptic game? I know that you can use Gammaworld, Aftermath! etc. but the mutations in some of those seem a bit too gonzo for myself.

[@TheJoyofWargaming]

Definitely. The Tech Level stuff allows you to do anything, including black powder, sword and board, and gonzo elite mutants. It would have a decidedly brutal feel tho. Combat goes hard in this game.

[@MrGeneralPB]

oh, looking forward to this next one, going to be awesome!

[@mikeelliott2736]

Well this is really weird! I have just this last week dug out my Classic Traveller Little Black Books (LBBs) with a view to doing exactly this! Haven't done anything with them for ooh it must be at least 20 years. Great minds must think alike Jon ...

[@TheJoyofWargaming]

Been seeing the same thing. It might be observer bias, but I prefer to think there is something in the zeitgeist calling people to this game and we are all tapping into it.

[@TheRyujinLP]

Ha! Says you good sir. GURPS player here. GURPS is only "hard" if you try to run it with every option in one game (which game tells you out right, not to do). Another issue is new GMS trying to run games with crazy power levels before they have the basics under their belt. A Traveller style game in GURPS would actually run smoother and be easier to play then it is in Traveller. It only gets crazy when you want a character who is a pyromancer with laser eyes and is also a cyborg. And that's only really crazy before you learn how the game works.

[@unpaintedleadsyndrome]

Urge to dig up my Little Black Books intensifies...

[@thomaswilliams5005]

Fun as always. Going to start using this for some Stargrave adventure

[@turbonerd6552]

Love the start of a new adventure. Can't wait to see were this goes 🎉

[@Lee_Adamson_OCF]

Man I love that game. Great solo game too. I think I almost have everything ever published for CT. Gearing up to start a youtube channel where I try to do an in depth look at every one of them lol. -- Anyway, I hope you decide to run with the later books and snapshot and mayday and merchant prince and all that!!! The tactical combat and economic rules really add a lot to the game.

[@Lee_Adamson_OCF]

I spend HOURS just generating ships and planets and stuff that I never use lol.

[@Lee_Adamson_OCF]

Not sure which edition you are using, but if you wanna play BTB I think you ought to use the later (uhhh 1983 I think?) revised edition of books 1-3. I mean sure it's not OG 1977, but revised clarifies a lot of stuff that was missing in 1977 1st print.

[@jprebozzi3257]

So stoked for this!!!!!

[@TheJoyofWargaming]

You and me both. Can'wait to find out what Joan Alice wants with Chad.