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Intro to Traveller...in a nutshell

Greetings all


I'm currently writing up a little document for my new players introducing them into the Traveller Universe, and it's going well. Just thought I'd post it up and hear what you all have to say. Anything I'm missing or should edit, I'm open to all suggestions. The following is my way of condensing the timeline into a couple of short paragraphs, just to get the history across to my players:

================

Long ago, a race known only as The Ancients seeded mankind (and possibly all intelligent life) all over Charted Space. The only thing we know about them is they were seemingly wiped out in a cataclysmic war over 300 thousand years ago, and the only evidence comes up as ancient relics or ruins on distant planets. Among the varying races, 3 species of human beings would eventually rise to dominate most of Charted Space. Known collectively as Humani, they are known as the Zhodani, the Vilani and the Solomani (the humans from Earth are the Solomani, named after the Sol system they originated on). The first race to start colonizing the stars was the Vilani. By the time they developed the Jump Drive, the Solomani calendar on Terra was 4715 BC. By the time Terrans landed on the moon, the Vilani were already over 1700 years into the formation of the First Imperium, governing most of charted space. There were vast empires in other corners of Charted Space. By this time, however, expansion of the 1st Imperium ground down to a halt. No one knows why, but the Imperium started growing stagnant and took to isolating itself from the rest of the interstellar community. Solomani discovered their Jump Drive by 2089 AD, and discovered the aging Vilani Imperium only a decade later. In 2112 AD, the Solomani took advantage of the falling Imperium and so started the First Interstellar War. By 2316, the Solomani were triumphant and established themselves as the new rulers of the Second Imperium of Charted Space. The Vilani were integrated and soon the two races were a mixed culture, but strong Vilani and Solomani heritages remained intact.

However, the decay that befell the Vilani was too great for the Solomani to repair, and the 2nd Imperium collapsed into what was to be called, The Long Night. “Nightfall” began somewhere around 2745 AD and lasted about 1700 years. Throughout this time mini-empires rose and fell, interstellar travel was non-existent, and a “Dark Age” fell across all Charted Space. It wasn’t instantaneous, but eventually Humaniti rose again from the ashes and established the 3rd Imperium. The new Imperial Calendar started at Year 0 (4520 AD Solomani Time) and has so far lasted for almost a millennium (we are currently at Year 993 3rd Imperial Calendar).

NOTE on the Zhodani: As stated before, the Ancients seeded many human and non-human lifeforms all over the galaxy. The Zhodani are one such race of humans. The Zhodani’s empire is just as vast as the current Imperium, however the 2 races are at a state of conflict. Part of this reason is the Zhodani’s open use and acceptance of psionics. Although psionics is not unheard of, it is outlawed and banned within the Imperium and Solomani space. Because of the vast distances in space, both empires are virtually isolated from each other and no contact has been continued for quite some time, and therefore will be omitted from these pages.

========================

I'm covering lots of other topics for the game, but this is just the beginning. I'm using the T20 campaign starting year, but I might go with CT's start of 1107 instead. Need to work out which system I like more first. Peace :D
 
While the setting history is interesting in itself, I think that for Traveller newbies it would be more helpful to note the most important technological and sociological building blocks of the setting.

That would be the jump drive, that messages are always a week old, and the feudalism and it's effects.

T4 has a great introduction along thos lines, and manages to squeeze in a bit of history as well, unless my memory is playing tricks on me.
 
"What's the little bear's motivation?"
-Robin Williams (petending to be a pre-K aged Truman Capote)

I think that you need to put information about the role of character that will be played in the game. Without that, I thnk it becomes difficult for players to envision what they can do. Things like:

Is it a rowdy game where I can whip out an SMG and let my bullets solve problems without repercussions?

Am a cut above average members of my race due to my abilities (via character generation) or just in motivations?
 
Maybe...

(Narration by the Grand Princess Ciencia Iphegenia Alkhalikoi)

The beginning is a very delicate time. Know then, it is the year 1106. The known universe is ruled by the Emperor of the Third Imperium, Strephon Alkhalikoi, my father. In this time...

Okay, perhaps not. ;)

My own .02 of input:

As a rule, unless your playing group is a bunch of historians, nobody cares about dates and numbers.

The intro materials you should concentrate on are what's really changed between the year 2006 AD and whatever year it is in YTU and that's less about what happened 1,000 years ago but more about the stuff that's going to have an effect on the players on a day-to-day basis.

Sci-fi is often about technology and its implications for people. In that vein, the major changes in Traveller are Gravity and Intertia Control, Cheap Fusion Power, and Jump Drive. These three technologies have enormously far reaching consequences in Traveller. Your players should know about these technologies, the power of them, their limitations, and the implications.

In the same vein, Computer/Information technology, Cybertechnology, and Biotechnology are primitive and mostly ignored in Traveller. People are still using computers that we would laugh at today in 2006. Players are less likely to ask what happened in the year 576 and more about if anyone uses cellphones in Traveller.
 
Thank you all for your replies!


I had planned a section regarding most of what was mentioned, including jump drive & travel, astrogation, communications, technology levels, etc. The "timeline" intro was just to set the mood, as it were. I think it's important to give them a quikie overview of events that shaped the game universe, mostly because it involves playing a game where "we" as humans will be at some point in the future. Hell, my players may even have a tuff time dealing with the fact that Terrans took over a flailing 1700 year old "star empire" and then let it fall apart themselves. But, that's just my players.

Anyway, as stated, it's just the preamble. The following is a section explaining Jump drive and travel distances. It's a work in progress:

================

Now that we know how big the T20 setting is, let’s take a look at how it is getting around. Let’s start with the Jump Drive. This is the only way to cross the vast interstellar distances in a decent amount of time. A starship’s Jump Drive rating equals the amount of parsecs it can cross in ONE jump, taking about a week to do so. However, unless it has sufficient fuel, it must be able to end its journey at another system containing refueling facilities or a gas giant, so it can refuel and continue its journey. So as you can see, it would take a Jump-1 capable vessel about 8 weeks, or 2 months to cross just the top border of 8 parsecs on a SubSector map, provided there is a suitable star system on each and every hex. If not, the journey would longer as you’d have to go thru safe routes of passage. And if it takes that long to cross a Subsector, imagine a Sector or even trying to cross from one side of the Imperium to reach the Aslan Heirate, for example.

Jump Drives are rated 1 thru 6 (6 being the fastest). Most ships have ratings of 1 or 2, 3 or more being extremely expensive and restricted to military vessels and megacorps. Your ship would most likely have a 1 or 2 rating, but thru adventuring and modification, it’s possible to upgrade (more on that later). No matter what the rating, a Jump takes a week to complete. That is if a Jump-6 ship just needed to cross one parsec, it would still take a week. Mostly, a ship making some kinda run would spend about 2 weeks before heading back out. One week in Jump Space (or more if the journey is longer), and one week planetside unloading cargo, refueling, looking for another run, and then it’s back into space for another 2 or more weeks.

======================

I plan to add more to this section. Keep the comments flowing, gang, I really apreciate the input :D
 
Since I tried this a few times:

- Unless you have dedicated players anything longer than two pages (Times New Roman, 12pt) will not be read

- The best sucess I had with a two-pronged approach in 2300AD:

+ A short overview for everybody with a bit of history, current situation and very general technologie

+ A "what can my character do" element specific for each player's main profession

- I found that bullet lists/tables and LaTex description lists work best

- In Traveller I tend to put real (Earth) dates to the Imperial dates whenever possible.
 
Originally posted by Michael Brinkhues:
- Unless you have dedicated players anything longer than two pages (Times New Roman, 12pt) will not be read
I know what you mean! :D But these players are my bestest buds too, so we put up with ALOT of aggro and have patience when it comes to our games.
 
Originally posted by Michael Brinkhues:
- I found that bullet lists/tables and LaTex description lists work best
And, why do you need to describe latex to your players? Or, is this something I just shouldn't ask? :rolleyes:
 
This is the intro I use for new players:
Traveller is set in the sectors controlled by the Imperium, a remote central government possessed of great industrial and technological might.
Due to the sheer distances and travel times involved it is unable to exert total control at all levels everywhere within its star-spanning realm. As a result, the Imperium allows a great deal of autonomy to its subject worlds beyond the central Core systems.

Here on the frontier, in a sector called The Spinward Marches, extensive home rule provisions allow planetary populations to choose their own forms of government, raise and maintain armed forces for local security, pass and enforce laws governing local conduct, and regulate commerce (within limits). The Imperium asks for respect for its overall policies, and for a united front against outside pressures.

Defence of the frontier is mostly supplied by local indigenous forces, stiffened by scattered Imperial Naval bases manned by small but extremely sophisticated forces.
Conflicting local interests are often settled by force of arms, with Imperial forces quietly looking the other way, unable to intervene in any but the most wide-spread disputes, which threaten the security or the economy of the area.

The Imperium also maintains the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service, equal in stature to the Imperial Navy and Army, whose duties include exploration of and beyond the Imperial frontier, on-going mapping and surveying of Imperial territory, and the maintenance of interstellar communications through its express boat network.
The IISS maintains bases and waystations on many worlds in order to facilitate its mission.

Moving within the relative safety of the Imperium are the merchantmen. Whether free trader or megacorporation bulk transport, tramp liner or luxury cruiser, it is trade and commerce that is the life blood of the Imperium.
The history comes later, when the players ask about it.
 
Originally posted by Fritz88:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Michael Brinkhues:
- I found that bullet lists/tables and LaTex description lists work best
And, why do you need to describe latex to your players? Or, is this something I just shouldn't ask? :rolleyes: </font>[/QUOTE]Nope, I only play with persons who are fluent in LaTex
file_22.gif


Jokes aside: The Description-environment of LaTeX has no easy to use copy in WinWord and it makes IMHO a very good Look and Feel for listing distinct facts that are too long for a bullet list.
 
SOCOM,

I wrote an intro to my last Traveller campaign. It is a bit long, but you might find it useful.

Here it is.

===========================================


The year is 1105, by the calendar established at the dawn of humaniti's third attempt at an interstellar empire.

For over a thousand standard years, man has pushed out into the galactic arm, conqueror of all in his path, dominator of planets and solar systems alike, stretching his reach over 200 parsecs from Terra.

Aliens refer to this region of the galaxy as Humani Space.

Humans call it

The Third Imperium

Known space is but a fraction of the entire galaxy, but the Third Imperium is one of the largest empires in known space - the largest interstellar empire in existence. It is one of three human-dominated empires, and together, these three human dominated regions account for over a fourth of every solar system that has ever been explored.

Humans are the most numerous beings known to exist.

A blue planet, lying far out in one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way, is the birthworld of the Humani. Some refer to this world by its ancient name, Earth, but most beings today call it Terra.

Humans from this world are no longer referred to as Terrans or Earthlings. They are known as Solomani - meaning "Men of Sol" ("Sol" being the name of Earth's sun). And, if you count the current year by the ancient Solomani calendar, the year is 5623 AD - the 57th century, in ancient Earth terms.

For an age, the Solomani believed themselves to be the only intelligent life in existence. They experienced a rude change in their culture when they discovered otherwise. As they took to the stars, the Solomani, like so many species before them, began to colonize other worlds. At first, they settled their solar system, and then, as their technology developed, allowing them to push out into the void, they set foot on worlds in other star systems.

They discovered other intelligent life - alien life.

And, they discovered that some of the aliens were human!

The Solomani year was 2096 AD. Terran explorers - men from the small, fledgling grouping of Solomani planets - made contact with another race of humans, humans calling themselves Vilani.

But that shock - carrying with it ramifications in religion and eons of scientific theory that the Terran society and culture would barely overcome - was reflected as a simple Solomani facial tic when compared to the discovery that the Vilani already controlled an interstellar empire.

The Vilani called their empire the Ziru Sirka, meaning "Grand Empire of Stars", and it was so vast and awe-inspiring that it took years to travel across, even in the fastest jump-capable starships of the time.

The Ziru Sirka - what history refers to as the First Imperium - predated the Solomani jump out from Terra by some 1500 standard years.

"When the Solomani were just beginning to explore the use of iron, the Vilani were exploring the galaxy."

The Vilani empire had existed since 473 AD on the Solomani calendar, and the Grand Empire of Stars stood poised to swallow the pitiful number of systems the Solomani had settled as a river swallowing a few pebbles that fall in its path.

The Interstellar Wars

The Solomani and the Vilani became co-habitants in the space around Earth. The Vilani made initiatives to draw the Solomani into the Ziru Sirka, and the Solomani resisted.

War broke out. Fiercely independent, the Solomani defied efforts to have their culture swallowed by the humans-not-from-Earth. But, the Vilani leaders on Vland, the Ziru Sirka capital, looked at the Terrans with little more than mild curiosity. The pitiful number of Terran systems were but just one more client state of the great, star-spanning empire of the Vilani.

For close to two centuries, the relations between the Vilani and the Terran Confederation (as Solomani Space had come to be known), were typified by a number wars fought along the Ziru Sirka's rimward border.

Communication within the Grand Empire of Stars was slow, and Vilani culture emphasized decision by committee - a stark contrast to the culture of the Solomani, where individual initiative is lauded and communication distances within the much smaller Terran Confederation were extremely shorter.

The Solomani fought a guerilla war, on many different fronts, followed by peace, then war, then peace, then war again. The Vilani leaders regarded the Interstellar Wars as little more than a regional problem - where issues in other parts of the enormous empire drew priority.

And over this 189 year period, the people of the Solomani and the Vilani mingled. A great diaspora from Earth ensued, and Terrans, like the Chosen People, spread out from Earth, planting themselves on distant planets.

The Rule of Man

218 standard years after first contact between the Solomani and the Vilani, one of the most confounding hiccups in history occurred.

The Solomani had saturated the rimward systems of the Ziru Sirka. Many of them came to power on Vilani held worlds. The two cultures blended. Solomani influence soared, and the Vilani were hampered by the slow, meticulous decision process characteristic of their culture.

In a blink of an eye, just 15 years after the end of the last Interstellar War between the two peoples, the Solomani came to power. The Ziru Sirka fell.

A Solomani empire referred to the Rule of Man was born. It was the same empire - just under new leadership, even though Solomani rule is referred to, in history, as the Second Imperium.

The men of Earth, from the tiny collection of stars, had defeated the might of the Grand Empire of Stars.

David slew Goliath.

The Long Night

The Rule of Man was characterized by rebirth but little growth of the Second Imperium. Under Vilani rule, the First Imperium had floundered, stagnated, in both growth and technological development. The Solomani fought to change that characteristic of the empire, but it was a difficult battle. The Vilani system had been entrenched for close to 2000 years. The Solomani experience with governing an interstellar government was under 200 years - and never had the Terrans ruled an empire as vast as the Imperium.

It was a miracle the Solomani became governors of the largest star-empire in existence. And, it was inevitable they would loose it.

Nobody foresaw just how bad the new rulers would be for the Second Imperium. Where the Vilani were stagnant and rigid, the Solomani were inexperienced and naive.

The first indication of the inability of the Solomani came when it was apparent the new nobility would be unable to persuade their own brethren to accept membership within the Second Imperium. Solomani and Vilani people merged during the 428 year period known as the Rule of Man. Over the generations, Solomani/Vilani culture became one - to the point where a distinction between the two races of Humaniti was no longer made on some worlds of the Imperium.

The Solomani of the Terran region of space despised what some of their people had become - losing themselves in an alien culture, and the Terran Confederation remained independent (albeit sympathetic) of their cousins of the Second Imperium.

But the men of the Terran Confederation could not prevent what would befall all of Humaniti at the hands of the new inexperienced Imperial rulers.

Over the four centuries of Solomani rule, technology subsided. Regions of the Imperium gradually lost touch with the rest of the whole. Border wars were dealt with by persons inexperienced with interstellar government.

The Second Imperium fell apart.

The Rule of Man was over.

And, the Long Night had begun.

For over 2000 years, the Imperium existed. Created and guided by Vilani for 1600 years, the Solomani destroyed it in just over 400 years.

The following 2000 years, there was no Imperium. The Solomani government crumbled. Pirates fed on interstellar shipping like never before because of inept Solomani policy and enforcement. Interstellar trade eventually came to a standstill. The net growth of industrial output throughout the empire was negative. Factories closed faster than new ones could open.

This black time marked a pull-back from space by virtually all humans in Vilani-dominated space. The self-defeating nature of interstellar piracy eliminated itself as a major threat - eventually, there just were no cargo ships to prey upon.

What was left of Imperial interstellar trade was taken over by other star-faring races, although only on an intermittent basis. Aslan traders wandered through the rimward sectors of the former Rule of Man territory. Vargr traders visited - and sometimes raided - the coreward sectors.

Some small human governments retained their starship technology and served their own worlds, but other Imperial planets fell into dark ages. Some were plagued by wars brought on by massive inflation, scarce food, nil purchasing power, and non-communication outside their solar systems.

The Imperium was plunged back in time, 4000 years, to the conditions the Vilani endured when originally growing the empire.

Eventually, though, light dawned on the Long Night.

Over this multi-generational period, worlds did reach out to contact their neighbors. Federations, Republics, and other small interstellar unions emerged. Interstellar trade within one union of star systems merged with new markets in other interstellar unions.

Small human governments emerged, connected themselves, grew bigger.

Until one - the Sylean Federation - reached out its hand, provided by a man born of the union between a Solomani father and a Vilani mother, establishing the Third Imperium.

That was over 1000 years ago. By the Terran calendar, it was the year 4518 AD. Cleon I declared himself emperor, established a new dating system (the one we use today), and a campaign was begun to recapture all of the member worlds lost after the fall of the Rule of Man.

Some 500 years passes, but the former Imperium was restored - and it grew, larger than ever before, thanks to the establishment of the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service and the aggressive efforts made by a long line of strong handed emperors.

Today, after 1105 years of membership in the Third Imperium, Vilani and Solomani are indistinguishable. In the middle classes, traditionally both geographically and socially mobile, the Vilani/Solomani distinction has become meaningless. Extensive intermarriage has blended the two, and the tendency, during the Rule of Man, for wealthy Vilani to adopt Solomani surnames has further made fine distinctions of lineage difficult to define and trace.

Initially, the Third Imperium was dominated by the Solomani - a result of the Solomani dominated Sylean Federation, and, to a lesser extent, the influence of the Solomani during the Rule of Man. But, today, most citizens of the empire refer to themselves as Imperials, members of the species known as Humani.

Terra is now a member-world of the Third Imperium, but the Terran Confederation still exists, as an independent empire, now calling itself the Solomani Confederation. When the term Solomani is used today to describe a being, it is understood as a term describing a human from this independent state - not an Imperial citizen.

The Solomani have moved their homeworld to a planet called Home, and there is much friction between the Third Imperium and the Solomani Confederation over the ownership of Earth.

The Ancients & The Solomani Hypothesis.

Since first contact was made with the Vilani, the collective Solomani consciousness wondered at the impossibility of another human race developing on a planet other than Earth. There were many types of species within and beyond the Imperial borders, but the chance that an exact species had evolved on two different worlds was mind boggling. Scientists were stymied for over 2500 years.

About 100 years after the establishment of the Third Imperium, during the growth and recapture period, investigations were made on Vland, homeworld of the Vilani and the former capital of the Ziru Sirka. The Imperial scientists found that it was an impossibility that the Vilani had evolved on Vland. The planet's ecological system ensured that a human could not have come from the world.

In addition, Solomani archeologists discovered that pyramids, like the Egyptian structures on Earth, had been found on other planets in the Imperium. The Vilani had always known this, but it was not until the Solomani came to power that notice was taken of the galactic coincidence.

Similar constructions, like the stone "heads" of Easter Island and the strange circle of stones known as Stonehenge, were found as well, and it became clear that the ancient superstitions of aliens visiting Earth when Humaniti was in its infancy were true - however shocking that may be.

Until the Third Imperium was established, there existed no satisfactory explanation for the many interfertile human races found on different worlds (many races other than the Solomani and the Vilani). Numerous theories on man's origins had been proposed, but none had gained complete acceptance.

Evidence was gathered, and a startling revelation was unleashed upon all Humaniti, Solomani and Vilani alike: An ancient, star-faring race of lizard-like people did indeed visit Earth before humans recorded history. Earth was indeed the birthplace of Humaniti. And the Ancients, as the ancient lizard-aliens have come to be known, took some unknown interest in the species and seeded humans throughout this section of the galaxy - where humans have adapted, and thrived, and thought themselves evolved on the worlds on which they were planted.

This theory was unleashed on the galaxy in 114, by the Imperial calendar, and it has become known as the Solomani Hypothesis.

Not much more has been discovered about the Ancients since that revelation, over a thousand years ago, but evidence of the Ancients' existence has been found.

It is known that the Ancients wielded the power of extremely high technology - technology much higher than any attained by any species known to exist today. The Ancients are actually credited with genetically uplifting species - actually forcing evolution on a species artificially! It is even hypothesized that the alien, canine-descended Vargr are a product of Ancient genetic evolution. Vargr DNA measures, almost exactly, as DNA from various species of dogs on Terra (although a Vargr would never agree to that finding).

What little evidence of the Ancients that has been found indicates that the pre-historic aliens dominated this section of the galaxy - and that they destroyed themselves in a genocidal interstellar war. For what purpose, it is not known.

The alien species known as the Droyne - small, winged, lizard-like aliens incapable of flight, devoid of an interstellar empire of their own - are thought to be the descendants of the Ancients today. It is commonly accepted that the Droyne are a race that is in the eons-long process of rebuilding itself after the largest holocaust history has ever known.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is the time, the universe, the culture that the game is set in.

The year is 1105, and your characters are citizens of the Third Imperium.
 
So, LaTeX is a form of scripting or programming? Or a word processor? (That was just the first time I'd seen that, and it looked a little odd.)
 
LaTeX is a typesettting tool, or language.

It's a bit like HTML markup. You have tags in the text describing how it's to be interpreted, and you can describe an environment and macros which transforms a header, a note or a reference to the prefered type style and layout.

It's very powerful and the standard in scientific papers and other academic publications with a lot of mathematical forumlas or references.

The final output can be PostScript, HTML, pdf or whatever. Always looking exactly like you want it to. Great tool.

e.g.

</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;"> \subsection*{Mood}

Mood changes when there is a topic, as well as when
there is WH-movement. \emph{Irrealis} is the mood when
there is a non-subject topic or WH-phrase in Comp.
\emph{Realis} is the mood when there is a subject topic
or WH-phrase.

\end{document} </pre>[/QUOTE]
 
Originally posted by Fritz88:
So, LaTeX is a form of scripting or programming? Or a word processor? (That was just the first time I'd seen that, and it looked a little odd.)
Sorry, I am so used to everyone knowing what LaTeX is that I took your question for a joke.(1)

But as Cymew said, a scripting language to describe text. The benefit is that LaTeX exists for basically every box from an Atari ST up, the source can be written with any Text editor and the output is (almost)the same wether you print on a 300DPI DeskJet or a 1200DPI Laser.

Another benefit is, that the source is plain ASCII and it's easy to build a template based document generator around LaTeX.

There are some GUI's that help writing the source like TeXNiXCenter to make it easier to get into the language.

The whole beast is free and quite mature. It's at least ten years older than HTML (so actually HTML is similar to LaTeX). The similarity is due to the fact that both are borrowing ideas/syntax from the Structured Generalised Markup Language (SGML, IBM) that is even older.


(1) Wenn Heise (an IT news service) had a message about "Latex-Masken" (meaning rubber facemasks) my first reaction was: LaTeX can do forms?
 
Sigg & WJP, your intro treatments are beautiful! I especially like how you handled the Spinward Marches, Sigg.

I love a long, descriptive intro, but seeing as I'm the GM, I have to like it. It's the only way to immerse yourself into the game. I just didn't wanna say to my players, "Look, it's like [insert name of movie closely resembling Traveller], only it's got [insert Traveller specific items of note]."

I'm still gathering notes and polishing up starting ideas, and this community is definitely getting me ready. Thanks to you all
 
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