How Would You Explain Traveller To A Newbie?

[Jeff M. Hopper]

You're in the friendly local game store or online, someone comes up and says, "Hey, I've heard a lot about Traveller and I'd like to learn more. Could you explain Traveller to me?"

What do you say? How do you answer the question?

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Isn't there already a thread on this somewhere here? Of course, I can't find it.... :nonono:

 

[Ganidirsii O'Flynn]

Strangely enough, I've had to do this.

"Traveller is a sci-fi rpg, and to my knowledge, it's the first one. It's about 30 years old, but has had about as many rewrites and revisions as DnD has. The difference is that the story behind Traveller's Official Traveller Universe has continued to develop throughout all that time. Another difference is that the game is so loved by it's fan base that there is an active collector market out there for older game editions/adventures/whatever. There is a saying that every good sci-fi author in the last 20 years has played Traveller at least once...

"Unlike alot of games out there, especially anime games, Traveller is based in hard science. Yes, there are fusion power plants, spaceborne weaponry that can do incredible damage, power assisted armors and so on, but all capabilities are based on the logical progression of the physics. Laser weapons, for example, are not 'blasters' that can blow a hole through walls. Lasers do energy damage that might light the flamables in wall on fire, however. That means you don't really have any transporters, light sabers, or bipedal robots with aircraft carriers for arms and so on. But all the classic elements of good sci-fi are there: political and corporate intrigue, exploring the unknown, (really) scary lifeforms, interstellar wars on a vast scale, making a fast credit as a merchant of the space-lanes and so on.

"One great thing about Traveller is that it does not have a specific 'roles' for characters. Their actions and options are defined by their skills, their cleverness, and their luck. Any given campaign could include a down on their luck crew of free traders, a mercenary company armed and armored for bear (or Zhodani mind-rippers), political intrigue involving entire worlds, or criminal activity over a city block.

"So (chuckle) you probably guessed that I love this game. Can I answer any more questions?"

 

[Rover]

I would tell them to watch Firefly. It is as close to Traveller as you can find in popular media.

 

[Jeff M. Hopper]

Isn't there already a thread on this somewhere here? Of course, I can't find it.... :nonono:

That's because I originally got the idea from this thread on theRPGsite. It seems appropriate to ask the same question here.

 

[Gadrin]

You're in the friendly local game store or online, someone comes up and says, "Hey, I've heard a lot about Traveller and I'd like to learn more. Could you explain Traveller to me?"

What do you say? How do you answer the question?

space-based game, lots of versions with a specific idea on the setting and the technology.

the core ideas remain pretty much the same no matter which version you get into, you'll find people loyal to the original, or those that find a particular, subsequent version superior ITHO.

So, do you want meet people and aliens in far off locations, distant future worlds and kill them and take their stuff ?

 

[Merxiless]

I've actually said this in stores to young 3.5 ed guys, who saw me toting LBBs to the cash register, and asked:

This game was made in the old days, 1977. Simple to play, all you need is 2 six sided dice. With those and pwncil and paper, you can make a character in a half hour. There are no levels, you get a lot of skills, and can start out as a new guy, a soldier straight out of boot camp, or a ship captain, or a general, or admiral, depending on the power level your referee wants. With a little work, as a referee, you can design alien creatures, planets, and your own starships, ranging from a small scout craft to a huge battleship with nuclear missiles and screens. A Subsector of space averages about 40 worlds, which you can roll out in a week or less, a few hours a day, and add as much detail as you want or need, with a bit more time.

No other books needed, just these three, or the one book, the Traveller Book.

The Setting is 10,000 worlds. Feels like a huge empire, with the good guys in small ships, usually merchants, sometimes fighting against the empire, sometimes against corporations, sometimes against criminals and pirates.

If you don't want to use the game setting you can use Aliens, Dune, Pitch Black, Farscape, Red Dwarf, or Star Trek (with some work, and other games do it better).

You can fly through asteroids, crash land on a water world, blow a 10 tentacled monster to hell, board a ship in vacuum by storming the airlocks, and save the princess all in one scenario.

Sometimes I get a player out of that, who is sick of...orc bash, from an uninspired referee who gets his ideas by cracking open the monster manual, and was not trained up in "The Old-School Ways."