IMTU... Outside Influences

[Michael Schulz]

Howdy. I am relatively new to this whole 'Traveller' thing. At least in terms of learning about how big a deal its been for the last thirty years. Long story short: after a painful ebay raid I am preparing to put together a TNE campaign for my players and I was reflecting on my influences.

Now I've noticed that there is a lot of IMTU shorthand out there for things like technological devices and whatnot but I like my sci-fi like I like my ice cream: soft. Further I am very curious what novels, films, tv series, etc, have colored your own Traveller campaigns in terms of mood, themes or even plots.

In my case my current influences for this tentative stage in campaign planning are as follows:

The new Battlestar Galactica series- a good series to give my players a sense of what the collapse could have been like and I love their whole illogical machine life thing. It will color my uses of Virus.

Blake 7- Mostly plot. I think I'm going to steal the first three episodes to set my players up on a relatively benevolent, or at least not hostile, Virus ship. Possibly a componant of someone's jump start cache.

To a lesser extent Farscape will also influence me as I think I want a largely episodic campaign (haven't had one since jr. high school) and want create a fun atmosphere while stressing the importance of the PC's keeping their heads down.


Anyways, these are my current influences, I was wondering what Influenced your traveller universe?

 

[Thelor]

Firefly (The setting is just TNE!) and Babylon 5 (The intrigues and interesting characters).
Also Deep Space 9 has some elements I nicked. Such as some cultures encountered.

Gotta take a look at the new Battlestar series if I ever get the chance. Hard to get hold of in Scandinavia.

 

[RainOfSteel]

The anime Cowbody Bebop and Outlaw Star are very Travellerish . . . but they don't fit in so well with TNE, as they're set in thriving civilizations.

Hmm, must get more on-target.

Maybe Pitch Black, but without the rest of the star-spanning civilizations that it was set in, as the movie itself did not connect to for them because of the isolation of the castaways (and that isolation is a part of why I feel it's TNE-like; explorers from the RC are very much "on their own", and "beyond the range" of any likely help).

Several post-apocalyptic movies come to mind, but you have to add in limited numbers of starships and intestellar travel, and the idea that there are lots of post-apocalyptic worlds in various states, and a tiny number of worlds that are "high-tech".

For games, I'd say Fading Suns, only projected further along its own timeline, after things have really run down some more.

For books, H. Beam Piper's empire stuff, during one of collapses.

Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, the general feel and descriptions of the galaxy as a whole as it was nearing the end of running down and/or had hit bottom. The relationship between Terminus and the rest of the galaxy is the same as the relationship between the RC and the Wilds.

Brian Daley's Terran Inheritance books. Requiem for a Ruler of Worlds, Jinx on a Terran Inheritance, and Fall of the White Ship Avatar, are not only an incredibly good SF series (if you like that type), but the setting is quintessentially Traveller, though it's setting is "after" an apocolyptic collaspse, where things are starting to get back underway in what the books call, the "Second Breath".

 

[TJP]

Originally posted by Thelor:
Gotta take a look at the new Battlestar series if I ever get the chance. Hard to get hold of in Scandinavia.

Well the pilot movie was easy to find. I bought it from a local DVD movie store here in Helsinki, Finland. It's also available from European netstores (like e.g. play.com), but you'll need a credit card.

Pros: It doesn't cost much, is available in R2 and is quite good (and about three hours long).
Cons: No camp humor value (like the original show has)...

-Finska djävulen