Why Traveller Leads the pack of Sci-Fi RPGs?

[@The_CGA]

I have learned that the Images used herein are the work of Ian Stead, a render artist in the Traveller RPG community. He has his own KZbin Channel here: kzbin.info/door/tlgj9484n_B0zZd3raBXmw

[@blix17]

traveller waves hands in are left to right sorry just something me and my dad do when we are playing traveller and he mentions traveling

[@blix17]

do you like the droyn major race

[@yourseatatthetable]

For me it was economics. As a very young man with limited means I would look at everything on the shelves with abject longing but had to settle for sometime so I choose one system. I choose Space Opera while my best friend bought Traveller. I invested in early D&D while he chose Champions, and so on. A few years later (mid 80s) when I bought my first car and found a job I would spend upwards of 25% of my weekly income on game books, miniatures, etc. Even then, I couldn't afford, well, everything. I kept up with AD&D but Star Wars from WEG came out in 87' and became my must have SciFi system. I had a bit more means, and, of course, FASA introduced Battletech, which grabbed another slice of my limited budget. That said, I played Traveller while my friend GM'd it and I am grateful for that these many years later.

[@manfredconnor3194]

Nice. We have been playing Traveller for about 40 years now. The only thing that I found a little bit annoying about the IP was that often Marc Miller's same old spelling errors were taken over into the next iteration. I never bought all that stuff. I bought all the original Classic Traveller Books + Striker. That was more than enough. I never bought into all the iterations after that from Traveller 2300 to T5 or even GURPS Traveller and I am glad for that. That having been said, Mongoose seems to have done a good job reviving the IP of late and they even got rid of Marc's spelling errors from what I hear

[@GrayNeko]

Amen to the 'space western' remark in Traveller. First time I ever saw the film 'Serenity', I said 'Ah-ha! That's where our crew ended up!' And we did about as well as expected, half-dead, and the ship's beat to snot.

[@KM-hw6tw]

Not just you - Frank Chadwick and Marc Miller both said as much. As did Joss Whedon, after enough pressure was mounted for him to "come clean".

[@manfredconnor3194]

The thing that I like about Traveller, is that it is a giant sandbox with a skeleton. You can do all the things that you said, Traveller does AND YOU CAN DO ALL THE THINGS THAT YOU SAID THAT YOU CANNOT DO IN TRAVELLER. You can very well do military adventures in Traveller if you want to. You can also create a compulsion that your players have. The 5th Frontier War or the Solomani Rim war provides a perfect backdrop for such military campaigns or adventures. That is just the thing about Traveller. Damned near every Sci-Fi film you have ever seen or nearly every Sci-Fi book you have ever read could be found in some spiral arm of the Traveller universe. Outland, Enemy Mine, Pitch Black, Alien, Aliens, Star Wars, Battle Star Galactica, Logan's Run, The Expanses, Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Rim World, Hellburner, Down Below Station, Dawson's Christian . . . you name it except Star Trek, because let's face it, Star Trek is just a bit too "clean". There are or could be transhuman themes. I am sure that many planets have networks. There are cyborgs, Chimeras, Androids and Robots in Traveller. I do not mean to disagree with you. I am just saying that you can do what you said and even all the things that you said you didn't like in Traveller and that is one of the many things that I like about Traveller.

[@locarno24]

The speed of information effect also justifies the very "feudal" feel - the delay in consulting higher authority means you have to have local 'lords' (or CEOs, or Admirals) who are allowed to make adventure-generating decisions, like starting petty wars or imprisoning someone "because I say so".

[@grahamcharters1638]

I agree that the Traveller setting is built for adventures. And the idea of the tramp freighter which just happens to be in the right place at the right time has worked (works?) admirably. But - just like when D&D moved out of the dungeon and into the worldbook - something magical and transformative happens to Traveller when the larger setting is brought into play. Every colony, every ship crew, every starport - all of them have a history, within the context of the system they're in, and within the context of the other systems, polities, corporations etc, etc which they interact with. All current situations are the result of past events - history and astrography are key to the way the TU is today. If you have larger players at work than the PCs, and the machinations of meta plots going on, stories begin to write themselves. With a historical and political context, I can still run an adventure where my Empress Marava rescues some refugees. But not it's not a random event. My players can predict where and when the refugees will be, what their needs are, what they're escaping FROM, where they need to go, who they are. Suddenly, it's not just a rescue-and-transportation mission, it's helping real people with real stories and real problems. And yes, Traveller characters did become more military in later incarnations of the game - but these military types need Nobles and Officers to lead them, reasons to fight, and foes with understandable strategies and objectives of their own. The way I see it, the players are a tight focus storyline. Pull the focus out a bit, and you start to see stories that they're not yet involved in - but could be....

[@The_CGA]

+Graham Charters I think we are actually eye to eye here-- I think that gears moving behind the scenes is key to any play experience that stays fun and believable over the long run. When the inertia and gravity of those gears--and the outcomes that the camera of play sees--are titans compared to the player's (low) power--well, then its just a thrill ride. I am a devotee of The fantasy setting of Harn, which is as devoted to geography and detail and providing a 'big picture'as the Third Imperium. I have heard a lot of people confuse giant conflicts and extinction events from TV and film into the workings pf their RPG life... which ends up zooming out the focus. It's fine for thst stuff to inspire what we're brewing up behind the screen, but when the focus is overtly on it--then there can be problems. I hope I didn't come across as hostile to the attention to detail and scale in Traveller--I usually write the outbreak of the fifth frontier war into my Marches games--but to me even that big bang of an event is still--a frontier war--one in which there is a role for the players. And the players, ostensibly, don't see the war coming...and it's definitely not addvertised on the back of the books, prejudicing how the game will unfold.

[@grahamcharters1638]

CGA - Agreed on every point! In fact, I've really enjoyed your Harn videos. It's not a setting I've ever played (yet!), but your videos inspired me to go back over my own non-Harn campaign settings and work on building in exactly the kinds of mechanics and machinations which you discuss in those videos.Keep 'em coming!

[@timbuktu8069]

I have found that Traveler *REQUIRES* a personalized FAQ sheet. The game setting is incredibly broad. If you play Star Wars or Star Trek then you have your background. But Traveler is all on you. What do gravsleds look like? Why does a tech 4 planet have space travel? The referee needs to figure this out and share with the players.

[@Samwise7RPG]

You do an awesome job of selling Traveller to the viewer. It is in my bucket list now, and on my book shelf too.

[@BryonLape]

I just found the KZbin area for Traveller today. Used to play in the early 80's and still have my original books...well, except Book #2, for some reason.

[@martinbowman1993]

Marc Miller was drafted and did his military service then went to university. In Traveller there is one class/archetype - Traveller. So like Marc and his buddies that developed the game the backstory is what gave characters distinction with differentiation.

[@Qoltar]

I LOVE that deck plan map of the Empress Marava freighter. In my campaign we trimmed and mounted that on a huge piece of foam board - the kind school kids use for their science fair displays... - The Music Loving Klingon

[@lpseem3770]

If someone mentions Outlaw and Enemy Mine, I sense a good taste. :) I'm all in a "hard-ish" SF, so I may check Traveler in the next year.

[@SHONNER]

I use the beginning scene from Pitch Dark as a quick-start session to teach new players how to tabletop role-play. Everyone knows how to role-play after that first scene.

[@TeapotSpouts]

Shawn! Long-time, no see!

[@SHONNER]

Hey, Scott!

[@SHONNER]

@pilanceboil Pitch Black, I mean.

[@SHONNER]

@pilanceboil The beginning scene is on KZbin.

[@SHONNER]

@pilanceboil It's the five-minute clip of the girl bringing the burning ship down while the guy is in the back of the ship hanging on. Look for beginning scene.

[@JohnStrain-eu6eu]

Traveller lives, and livez, and lives. 1980s ref here:) now its my relax playing choice...

[@Odexian]

Great video, I enjoy your straightforward delivery. Sounds like an interesting game that'd be fun to play.

[@Thisworldistoobig]

A "complex games apologist" LoL. That made my Sunday morning...

[@vancass1326]

One thing that I had to do (never satisfied with how character generation, actions etc.used D6's) was to transpose percentages over to D100s. With this modification, structuring generation, action etc. allows a much simpler design

[@newtronix]

Traveller inspired Elite.

[@The_CGA]

Amen. 🙏

[@Maxyshadow]

This was such an enjoyable video and very inspiring. Hope I can find your video on the space ship.

[@norcalonline1]

I own every LBB printed, about half of the collection originally purchased by me in the late '70s and early '80s. I filled in the gaps through eBay as recently as this summer. I also own all the PDFs thanks to an affordable Bundle Of Holding. Over the years, I have kept circling back to Traveller as a wonderful sci-fi RPG. I currently own and play other settings such as Starfinder and my favorite Eclipse Phase 2e, and those are incredible. But Traveller is still very relevant, and I ran an original Traveller game on Roll20 recently as a one-shot between my other games. Traveller was new to the players, but all of them appreciated the game for its timelessness and retro-future tropes. As I think about it, Traveller is very fluid and maleable. A GM could run it in a number of ways: like the Alien franchise, like the Expanse books and shows, and even like Star Wars with some homebrewing. This flexibility has allowed Traveller to stay relevant at gaming tables across the world and for decades now in the RPG universe. Long live Traveller. Cheers, --Bo

[@nicholaswallen8147]

I've played A LOT of ttrpg's in my life so far and traveller, which was kinda hard for me to learn after years of d&d lol, became one of my favorite games to play. I played a merchant Prince (though ibwas a female character because I rolled a 50/50 just for absolute random), who became the love of a pirate king, who was then granted a ship (via benefit roll). The first several months of piloting a semi-junk free trader, I ended up a multimillionaire thru buying and selling cargo, and I also tactically acquired (with money) capital ship weapons and nukes. Which I sold. To a TL6 planet. I love this game

[@SSNewberry]

That one Traveller option, but not the only ones. Big ships and big problems are another, and they all fit in the same system.

[@Dracopol]

Lawyers, guns, and money, but the greatest of these is lawyers!

[@RandolphCthulhu]

A big enough gun sometime can make the difference - and plenty of money to pay off the law or give a donation to a Nobles favorite charity.

[@KM-hw6tw]

We have an annual convention sole dedicated to all forms TRAVELLER - TRAVELLERcon/USA. In Britain, there is also TRAVcon, produced by BITS. Check them out.

[@abstractbybrian]

why not GURPS with space addons? The only thing I would miss and love about traveller is the trading game within the game...

[@The_CGA]

"it's all Traveller if there's a jump drive" To me, Traveller is less a system, more a mode of play, like Dungeon delving, monster hunting, or Emo Vampire Nonsense ™. (But in this case, Traveller (ing) ) I ran a fair amount of GURPS Traveller (when they had an official license back in 3rd Ed.) GURPS is okay.

[@abstractbybrian]

well I decided for now to stick and build onto my traveller mongoose v2 rules I bought the great Rift addon. Lots of great stuff in there especially book 4 with the expanded star system. Lots of good reading to do.

[@spectrekarasu128]

I don't know if you guys have seen, but Garblag Games are running a Traveller series on KZbin! kzbin.info/www/bejne/iojQpYadmtWNrLs

[@AdligerKrieger]

Love that show!

[@spectrekarasu128]

Ditto!

[@FantasticDimensions]

So what is your favourite version/edition and why? I have only recently played my first session (1977 LBB version) and I was very impressed!

[@The_CGA]

I don't make much secret of being more fond of the setting and the core principles of actual play more than the system itself, though it does play fast and easy. I love the random chargen most. Of all the versions I think the '81 Classic Traveller and its attendant setting is my favorite. Mongoose 2, the most recent Edition, is fine, but it's so expensive and really doesn't bring much new to the table...and the art is nowhere near as striking. Taken for the setting material on its own, GURPS Traveller is the best presentation of the third imperium, but the magic of the game is lost in translation and I don't care for GURPS much. TLDR if you want to dive in, seek out '81 Traveller, read a spot of the GURPS aliens books. It is a wild ride.

[@timbuktu8069]

The worst part of Traveler is their scenario design. They have a tendency to present an absolute bare bone scenario and "let the referee determine further events" On the other hand the general background is excellent. I can easily be drawn into the Spinward Marches as a real place. Finally the best example of a Traveler crew on TV is Firefly. A small group of diverse characters on a rust bucket of a ship trying to get by.

[@The_CGA]

There seems to me to be a meme with them of making really dull adventures with no sense of pacing. This is probably the same thing as what you’re talking about...suffice it to say I can’t recommend “High and Dry” for mongoose second edition

[@timbuktu8069]

I could understand if they wanted to keep adventures generic on behalf of the wide variety of sci-fi backgrounds but other people have made the same observations. Check out Seth Skorkowskys review of Bt-SHT 365.

[@locarno24]

I'll give Mongoose it's due. Whilst Pirates Of Drinax is very much a sandbox, there is so much stuff pregenerated for it that you never feel at a loss for some seed material to reach for. Plus the 'harrier' is a darn cool ship.

[@timbuktu8069]

I haven't seen Whilst Pirates Of Drinax, but I give Traveler full props for its background and support information (deck plans etc.) . My complaint is largely toward how they present scenarios. Take a look at Seth Skorkowskys review of BT-SHT 365 and listen to how often he needs to fill in details.

[@darthsonic4135]

Tim Buktu ... Dude, that’s a fan made campaign.

[@colonelkilling2425]

Cool, interesting video. The best line in the whole thing; "There are women you want to go on dates with that live light years away". Hahaha! Isn't that why we play RPG's the first place? Hahaha! Because we're nerds.

[@The_CGA]

In the rush to include trans/posthumanism in sci-fi, I think we have underestimated the incentives to maintaining a continuum of interfertility. If humanity is as strong as it is with 7 billion interfertile people and that broad of a gene pool, that means adapatability. that means *variety*. And I think a lot of people, especially once people have longer lifespans or can tale long naps...might actually be keen to experience and take part in procreating that variety when the concerns over the carrying capacity of a single world are lifted.

[@colonelkilling2425]

@@The_CGA I am a proponent of long naps! The rest of your statement makes sense. We should not overpopulate the planet. It was still a funny line.

[@spearPYN]

The original Traveller is still the best sci-fi RPG game ever.

[@Maxyshadow]

I very much enjoyed your video! Subbed.

[@hamstersteven753]

Thanks for the great video.

[@yourseatatthetable]

Hmmm. loved playing Traveller but I'll always cheer on Space Opera, and, of course, Steller Frontiers, patent pending...

[@yourseatatthetable]

@pilanceboil When I was a kid my best friend bought Traveller while I bought Space Opera. Considering that Space Opera is one of the first Sci-Fi RPG based systems it did well to cover many possibilities. Later systems are more refined, in my opinion. SO is very chunky by many peoples tastes today, but within that chunkiness is its value. It also has a true science based bend to it, meaning that character development can be quite extensive and focus. Want to play a botanist, the rules support it, etc. It's world building system is a bit bland but that too, is to be expected as, in my opinion, the creators were creating something new to the genre. It's no star wars, etc., but it tries. It even has a section on using 'mental powers'. The 'world system' that they built around the core rules does well to flush out the game, giving history, backstory, and examples of galactic powers. There's still a sizable fan base as well, even today. There's a number of FB channels and even a fellow who's writing 'missing' Star Altas's that are cannon.

[@pryzmgaming]

I have always been interested in plating Traveller, however the animal based Aliens really put me off, like lion people etc- but i guess you could remove all that

[@The_CGA]

You may enjoy the (more recent) video where I treat with that matter, “Is Traveller a ‘furry universe?’”

[@Drudenfusz]

I guess that setting is just not for me, since I fail to see the appeal.I probabl just want different things out of the hobby.

[@The_CGA]

+Drudenfusz you've mentioned pn other occasions that the "get money" nexus of motivations and ideas has never been a center of gravity for your tastes, and with your early days in l5r the duty motivations probably aren't as esoteric as they can be for some of us. All that said, my dream campaigns of Traveller would be affairs of humanity and intercharacter drama--cowboy bebop, firefly, and...bsg are mot far from my mind as I imagine this. But whenever I cknskder what I want from the hobby, my mind quickly turns to how to get it--included in that statement is how to get the ball rolling with the sort if player groups that I can reliably muster. Hence, a veneer of, call it even---a shellac--of "get money." We are both thoughtful people at the end of the day, and I know I'd enjoy playing at your table. Often, I tske a tone that's aimed at the Vox Populi more than anyone in particular--which may be why this one missed the mark for you.

[@TeapotSpouts]

Do you like Firefly? This is from where Whedon pulled influence for that setting.

[@Drudenfusz]

I like Firefly, at least the episodes that deal with cultural issues. The wild west aspect is okay, but since exploration simply is nothing that appeals to me, those aspects of the show left me rather cold. But the more culture clash stuff was great... but in the end last year WestWorld replaced that for me, with in my opinion a far more appealing mix of science fiction and wild west, which had throughout the focus on the social things.

[@PlanetNiles]

The 3rd Imperium is a thousand parsecs across. I forget how many planets. Pick any world in any sector and there will be cultural issues to explore. A single Traveller campaign set in the 3rd Imperium, given enough scope, can range from a lowly jump 1 free trader plying a main route for enough credits to pay for running costs through to sector wide political and diplomatic maneuvering. And on the way you can hit anything from tense survival against an implacable alien foe, piracy and privateering, haunted house horror, Stainless Steel Rat style heists and anything else you want. Heck. I've even run a dungeon delve, where the biggest threat was the environment itself. It's the perfect backdrop for any science fiction game you want to run, short of transhumanism and cyberpunk. And if you still don't like it there's many more settings for the same systems. There are communities on G+ where people are creating their own settings for Traveller.

[@grahamcharters1638]

PlanetNiles - I couldn't agree more! I can honestly say that I've run every single one of the above, plus many more, within the same campaign, with the same characters (mostly!) on board. I have to admit that I prefer the fringes just beyond the Imperium (big Reavers Deep fan) since it lends itself to more flexibility - but yeah, you're absolutely right!!!

[@darthsonic4135]

>Your bit on Transhumanism. I wanna upload my brain into a Starships computer. Checkmate!

[@mistercomment1622]

I prefer Alternity to Traveller.

[@The_CGA]

Okay 👌 good for you

[@flavortownclassof6919]

bong t shirt

[@The_CGA]

Lol this is 'get ye flask' a joke on text-based adventure games like Zork, as parodized by the Brothers Chapp in the fictional game 'Thy Dungeonman,' seen in Strong Bad Email.... about 1:43 in this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/opzJonhnm9Cgo6s

[@dmjamesplaysosr]

Traveller aliens are some of the worst most unbelievable in the hobby.

[@The_CGA]

Thank you for your troll comment, if you are aware of an RPG that actually goes to the same degree of effort developing a background for aliens, I would entertain it's argument. However, no game, to my knowledge, has even sought to answer the question of the origination of sentience and technology among its aliens. You may not find Traveller aliens believable, but Traveller at least went to the trouble of giving you something to believe

[@dmjamesplaysosr]

@@The_CGA Disagreement or differing opinions do not mean troll. The fact that you went there speaks volumes about your fragile ego. 2300ad aliens, StarFrontier aliens and Fading Sun aliens are all more believable than travellers Aslan, centaurs, and hivers which is why I do not allow sentient aliens IMTU.

[@locarno24]

I'd not call them 'worst' - they strike me as no more or less 'human with facial prosthetics' than most star wars/star trek analogue settings. However they do have the advantage of age - Aslan, as a good example, may have started out as "non-copyright knock-off kzinti/kilrathi" but the sheer amount of stuff written for them over the years means they do have a pretty well fleshed out culture in the current incarnation.

[@darthsonic4135]

Dm James It was called a Troll comment cause it was. You made a hyperbolic statement designed to elicit an emotional response and didn’t justify it, just left it hanging there. That you may believe it does not change it’s design.

[@nicholaswallen8147]

A little late on this, but I don't have aliens in my games. Humans from tech level 10 or higher worlds have underground genesplicing facilities. They altered their genetics and became something else they believed would make them better. I also created groups within these "races" which would be their political and religious views. After all, a human who becomes a bipedal lion man, with altered genes, will eventually become a lion-man. He'll begin to act more animal while maintaining human aspects. Which leads to religions, lifestyles, etc. People may not like the aliens in traveller but as a referee, we can say whether or not they exist. Or that they are alien.