Getting Started in the T20 Universe

[dafyddmacdonald]

Greetings all

I'm new here and looking for some help. I am also new to the T20 system and am hoping to find some answers here.

I have been asked to referee a T20 campaign by my group of gamers and so am reading up on the T20 core rule book. This is the only real experience I have with the "Traveller Mythos" and have a couple of basic questions regarding the book.

1. When refering to the "Imperium" exactly what kind of territory are we generally referring to, i.e. is the entire galactic disk colonized ala Foundation? Is the Imerperium only several joined sectors of the disk ala United Fereration of Planets owning only the Alpha and Bata sectors?

2. What and where is the "gateway" sector?

3.Likewise, the "core"worlds. Are we referring to the founding worlds or those located near the galactic center?

I know that I could simply answer these questions in my own fashion and set up my own senerio but I would like to at least try and referance the general "Traveller Mythos" as some of my players have played the eariler eitions of the game.

Any help would be appreciated!

Lord Dafydd

 

[Shadowdancer]

Welcome aboard, Your Lordship. Welcome to Traveller, and to T20.

As to answering your questions:

1. Only several joined sectors of the disk. In fact, IIRC, the entire Traveller universe is on only one small portion of one spiral arm of the galactic disk.

2. Gateway Sector is along the trailing edge of Imperium.

3. The Imperial core worlds are the founding systems near the center of the Imperium. IIRC, no one has reached the galactic core yet, although the Zhodani (who are the closest of the major races) have mounted several expeditions.

Hope that helps.

 

[smilinggm]

As to how big chartered space is and where everything is here is a link to one of my favorite Traveller sites
The Interactive Map of The Imperillum:
http://www.utzig.com/traveller/iai.shtml

If you are looking for Earth It is called Terra in Traveller. As to where Gateway sector is that All depends as to where you are starting from.

If you look around the various Traveller Web rings and this site you will find out just how detailed and rich this universe is. Enjoy!!!

 

[sturn386]

Never noticed before but it seems most Traveller "galaxy" maps that came with TNE, MT, etc don't list Gateway Sector, it's just off the edge.

If you use the link above to www.utzig.com you can find Ley Sector on the far right of the screen when you look at the main map. Gateway Sector is the next sector to the right of Ley Sector just off most Traveller maps. You also may need to know that Gateway Domain doesn't mean Gateway Sector, but includes it and 3 other sectors.

 

[Flynn]

I hope that the following links can help you gain some insight into the Traveller milieu. Most are set in a time period 120 years after the Gateway Era supported in QLI products, but at least you'll get an idea of the official Traveller universe and its rich diversity.

Background - An Introduction To Traveller:
http://www.freelancetraveller.com/features/advents/ttaintro/travintro.html

AB's Astrography Introduction Page (a great reference to astrography terms in Traveller):
http://www.rossmack.com/ab/rpg/traveller/AstroIntro.asp

Maps of Charted Space:
http://maps.travellercentral.com/map.html

Home of a great Traveller timeline:
http://winterwar.prairienet.org/dmckinne/trav.html

Library Data from the Traveller Universe:
http://www.tip.net.au/~davidjw/libdata/libframe.htm

I hope you find these links to be helpful.

Enjoy,
Flynn

 

[Morte]

Following on from the links Flynn provided, I'll add some T20/Gateway specific information...

As you'll have seen, the Traveller setting has had a variety of "milieu" which are basically points in time along the ~1250 year history of the same patch of space. Usually, each of the many rule systems published over the years came with a new milieu. Sometimes the milieu was tightly woven into the rules.

"Charted Space" is a huge setting -- tens of thousands of worlds -- but a tiny part of the galaxy. Most attention has focussed on the human "third imperium" (11,000 systems) in the middle of it, and how it deals with its neighbours.

The T20 rulebook is relatively "setting agnostic", i.e. it's a set of game rules which could (just about) be used with any of the milieux (with some adapting). However, there is a de facto "default milieu" for T20, set around the year 1000 and mostly in the Gateway Domain. This is the milieu QLI use for the examples in the T20 rule book (probably because they publuish both).

The Domain of Gateway is the 3I's administrative term for four sectors (Ley, Gateway, Glimmerdrift Reaches, Crucis Margin) towards the top right of Charted Space. It contains the outer edge of the imperium, but mostly it's made up of independent worlds and small "pocket empires" in the buffer zone between 3I and the alien empires of the K'Kree and the Hivers. Gateway sector, as it happens, is entirely outside the empire -- maybe some imperial bureaucrat suffered wishful thinking when they named the Gateway domain.

If you want to know more about the Gateway Domain and the T20 default setting, the short answer is "snap up the pre-release PDF version of the Gateway to Destiny sourcebook for ten bucks before it goes to print". This will answer all your questions in depth, plus a few hundred you didn't ask. Click the "Traveller Store" link at the top of the page, hit "Traveller 20" on the left, and it's the second product. You'll get a PDF of the final version of the book once it goes to print.

Traveller is a very grognard game, mostly written by people who've been playing 25 years for people who've been playing 25 years. Authors tend to assume that the reader knows things about the big picture that a newcomer wouldn't. This is usually subconscious/unintentional, but it's a bleedin' nuisance.