Long-lost Traveller sheep wanders back...

[Maladominus]

Hello all!

I'm new to the forums and been lurking here for a few days, and had a couple questions. As for myself, I was one of you long ago.... back in the 1980s I remembered the original Traveller, even before it became MegaTraveller. At that time, Traveller had been the 2nd RPG I ever knew, second only to D&D. Our gaming group also tried other games like Gamma World, but we all know what a disappointment Gamma World turned out to be. So with Gamma World never taken seriously, TRAVELLER was essentially THE ONLY decent and viable SciFi rpg during "the early days".

And I do miss those little black booklets!

My problem is that I've always loved Traveller, but I simply could not (even back then) ever find players to play with

So these days, I deem it impossible to do any more rpg gaming via "face to face" or tabletop. I have now purely converted to playing all games via PC gaming or internet MMORPGs.

My problem?

All these current PC and online RPGs are still pure garbage. EverQuest, Star Wars Galaxies, World of Warcraft. Tried 'em all. Played 'em for some years. Entertaining at first. Then you realize that they have shallow storylines, shallow histories, and they are really shallow environments for roleplaying!

I realize that good ole Traveller still had the best fiction, the best game lore, the best game design, and the most extensive "content" out of any RPG I've ever seen.

I've been thinking to myself.... "If I had $10 million dollars to throw away", I'd give it to some developers so they could make a Traveller-based MMORPG! And then we could all enjoy playing once again in a virtual world of the Third Imperium..... wouldn't it be great to be able to choose a Vargr pirate character? Or wouldnt roleplaying be at its finest if you could imagine being a militant K'Kree adventurer with the crusade of exterminating all those filthy carnivores in known space? So many carnivores in the Galaxy to eradicate, so little time! Or imagine a Traveller graphical online rpg where starships like the Azanti High Lightning come to life with you at the helm... where you can pilot such ships much in the same way like in games like EVE or Star Wars Galaxies. Of course, that's just a pipe dream.

And so there is my problem! How do I get my Traveller fix now? Is there any MUD or decent PC simulation of Traveller out in the market today? Are there any in the works?

 

[Malenfant]

CT had fiction? I never noticed any in the black books...

You tried play by mail? It's more like tabletop roleplaying than MMORPGs are (you might want to try EVE online, it's a space tradey game though that's kinda boring after a while, but the setting is very cool. Possibly better off going to the website and just reading the background).

Or you could pick up GURPS Traveller or T20, you might actually be able to find players for those...

 

[Maladominus]

thanks for the suggestions,

Im not sure if the little black books had fiction, but I sure do remember that JTAS had them all the time. Most of the neat fiction stories were preludes to the adventure/scenarios.

I am considering trying EVE online, actually.... tho I realize it is purely a starship only game. From what I've seen, EVE does the starship-exploration thing rather well. But still, there is no avatar beyond the starship.

And again... time, work and family constraints means that I will not be going back to tabletop even if I could find gamers. About 20 years ago I could do the tabletop thing... that was when I was a young teenager, had no jobs to worry about, had no bills to pay, few responsibilities, and no one nagging me why I played games with miniatures etc. Those days are over.

These days, my "gaming time" means I drive home after 10 hours of work. Tired. I turn on the PC late at night when everyone's asleep.... that's pretty much my gametime right there. Somehow I just wish that I could be playing Traveller on my PC.

 

[Malenfant]

then play by email may be your best bet...

EVE's OK. It's extremely pretty, but gameplay is a bit dull unfortunately. You pretty much just run agent missions (which are limited in variety and get boring very quickly), the 'loot' dropped by the ships is rarely interesting, and all the cool stuff is in the lawless PvP zones. But then I play EVE as a PvE game rather than a PvP, and it's really more designed for the latter. It's more about longterm goals - corp building, station building, strip mining etc - than shortterm ones.

 

[Berg]

There is also GRiP

Which has a Free Trial
If your the player it's always free

Come join the GripList and find some games

Tom

 

[Maladominus]

Oooooh. GriP sounds like a neat idea! thanks

I know that the player client is free.... but can you point me to any more info about the GM software itself? Any screenshots of the GriP software in action? I'd love to know how it works exactly! From the description... it seems kinda like a client-server type of setup, which facilitates gaming between an online GM and the various players.

I take it they would be communicating via some form of real-time "chat room". But I'm interested to know more about what GriP does! For example.... how does it handle the viewing of game maps, ship plans, etc.

 

[Berg]

Here is a shot of the iGM on the map function screen

Here is the iPC on the interactive character sheet tab

It has an adventure editor, dice roller etc. What makes it better than others out there IMHO is the programmable character sheets. You can design them with all the diceroll, lookup stuff right in to the sheet

Download the software and join the Griplist and ask away. There are some links on my website in my signature

Tom

 

[Maladominus]

Thank you Berg!! that's exactly what I wanted to know and see.

It does look like a well-designed setup...a nice map component, dice-roller, chat console, character sheets, GM's editing windows, etc. Perfect.

Now I just gotta figure out if this is something that can work for me and my small group of online friends. And yeah I signed up for the Griplist, maybe I can join an existing campaign to get a feel of it. thanks

 

[Maladominus]

Oops! I have ONE last question about GriP that is not covered in the product description:

does it work over standard TCP/IP?

It says that it works over "local/personal networks".... I'm hoping it's not limited to a LAN. bleh

 

[Berg]

Nope, It works over da net

The last game I played in there was some one in the states, one in australia, and 2 of us in canada on either ends

You can move icons on the map screen and send images and other files via a file transfer feature

David S. runs a beginner pickup game, plus he's a guru on the list

Tom

 

[Jeff M. Hopper]

Welcome back to the fold, Maladominus. You mentioned fiction, do you remember the "Skitterbugging" story that was in Dragon magazine?

(Plus the comment about a lost sheep has got me playing the opening theme and credits to "Black Sheep Squadron" in my head now. Damnit.)

 

[kafka47]

And don't you forget, we an adventure going on right now on the boards located here. It will loosely base itself on CT rules, although it focus more on the storytelling element rather than the rules.

You would be a welcome addition should you wish to join in. There is even roles for NPCs, should you feel that you don't want to commit wholeheartedly at first, but once you do, it is addictive, I assure you.

 

[Maladominus]

Originally posted by Jeff M. Hopper:
Welcome back to the fold, Maladominus. You mentioned fiction, do you remember the "Skitterbugging" story that was in Dragon magazine?

(Plus the comment about a lost sheep has got me playing the opening theme and credits to "Black Sheep Squadron" in my head now. Damnit.)

Yes I do!!! I admit I barely remember that story now, but I remember the term "skitterbugging" and of course used to subscribe to The Dragon magazine during my geeky D&D and Traveller days. Heck, I even remember a couple of my original Dragon issues... where some author whose name was suspiciously "Roger Moore" (sounded like the Bond guy) wrote articles on both D&D as well as Traveller.

Hell.... I even have faded memories of an OLD JTAS article, but one that impressed me immensely.... the JTAS article on the intelligent galactic dolphins of Traveller, the tursiops galactis if I recall their name. Anyone else remember that one? It was brilliant articles like these that made Traveller memorable, and I knew back then (almost 16-18 years ago) that Traveller and all its lore and science fiction was way ahead of its time.

But yes... for the past 10+ years, I literally had nothing to do with Traveller, literally forgot that the game even existed since GDW disappeared from the radar in the 90s. Didnt even know until earlier this year that Traveller still had a large following on the net. Only now am I wandering back and re-discovering Traveller again.

 

[daryen]

If you want to try Play-By-eMail, head over to the Recruiting Office portion of the BBS. There are infrequent calls for players there. (I'm in two right now and, while they can be a bit slow at times, they are still quite fun.) The biggest plus to PBeM is that there is no scheduling. Just respond when you get the email and away you go!

As for the old products, you do know about the Classic Traveller Reprints, right? Just go to this webpage and order all of the Classic Traveller Reprint volumes you want. While not all CT material has made it into a Reprint (e.g. Spinward Marches Campaign, The Traveller Adventure), most of it has, including the LBBs themselves and all of the old JTAS.

And for post-CT volumes, you can go to DriveThruRPG and order PDF versions of the old GDW products.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Though I wouldn't want to undercut MWM and FFE, Stiggybaby's has all the CT reprints for a slightly better price. Shop around.

Also, besides the PDFs you can buy at DriveThruRPG.com, they have had several Traveller pieces for free in the past (TNE was the most recent, though there were problems with the size of that download).

 

[aramis]

Moreover, some games are being run by people using internet voice channels, IRC, and other methods.

Plus, both here, kenzerco.com, and rpg.net formus all have players seeking games and GM's seeking players.

 

[Maladominus]

Thanks for the input and answers everyone. I am deciding to do my return to traveller by learning the Grip setup. Seems like the best way I can actually play games over the net. And of course, the Classic era is the one Im most comfy with.

But I do have ONE small question.... I found out this phrase in the description for Combat Environment Suits:

The combat environment suit is treated as
Cloth-1. It is available at tech level 10,
and costs Cr1000.

Ummm can someone clarify what Cloth Minus One means? Does it mean a -1 on Attacker die roll versus the CES? Or does it mean that the CES is "just like Cloth but inferior, with a penalty of -1". I am rusty with the game and not sure how to interpret this.

 

[mike wightman]

The CES is superior to cloth armour in Striker and MegaTraveller, so it should be better than cloth in CT too

I think cloth -1 means the attacker suffers a further DM of -1, thus making it harder to hit someone in a CES.

 

[Sifu Blackirish]

Greetings, Maladominius, and welcome!

Ummm, I don't know if I just missed it, but you didn't mention if you had experience playing any other RPGs or military type boardgames. If you have a background in that, or you have just read extensively, you should also look into the old Judges Guild and Group One adventures.

Sure, most of them were crap, but if you are setting up a campaign, you can snip as necessary for background or for a one-off adventure that won't disturb your long-range plans.

And of course, read these threads. Plenty of VERY talented people here (modesty forces me to exclude myself...)

 

[Maladominus]

Originally posted by Dominion Loyalty Officer:
Greetings, Maladominius, and welcome!

Ummm, I don't know if I just missed it, but you didn't mention if you had experience playing any other RPGs or military type boardgames.

I might have mentioned it a bit in my first post. I first delved into Traveller long ago, along with D&D and a few other classics in the past (Boot Hill, Gamma World, Car Wars, and that Spy game made by TSR). Also played several wargames LOL. In particular, correct me if I'm wrong... but GDW itself started as a wargaming company, and I clearly remember them making wargames like Drang Nacht Osten.

Oh right! I do remember playing a nice simple wargame that made GDW popular back then.... it was called "A House Divided".

Of course I was never much interested in GDW's wargames, as they paled in comparison to the brilliant wargames of Avalon Hill.