Other Technologies

[deadlock]

Greetings and salutations,

Have any of you used technologies from any sci-fi show or movie in your Traveller games? I was curious about this due to a player having a hissy fit when I told him there was no Force in Traveller. I let the Force in but he has to work hard to be as powerful as the Jedi/Sith in the movies. At least the Star Trek player accepted that the holograms were not as sophisticated as they are in the Star Trek shows and movies.

 

[Kyle Aaron]

No.

I am the GM. I wear the Viking Hat.

 

[Bishop Odo]

What can I say? If you or he wants to play Star Wars then play Star Wars, sounds like he’s a kid that wants power but no responsibility? The entire everyone wants to a Jedi killed the RPG and MMORPG, IMHO, and I played both. Not as a Jedi, I might add. As a Game Master if you give in on a central tenet of the game, what happens when he is behind the eight ball, or things don’t go his way. It’s a slippery slope.

 

[deadlock]

Too bad there will be Hell to pay for his character. The other players are starting to distance their characters from his. I would feel sorry for him, but I do not. Wait until we play 2300AD and/or Mutants and Masterminds. His characters will learn the lessons of pain very well.

 

[MacTrom]

I've done a number of scifi technologies in my earlier Traveller Universe. Since I deliberately placed my Known Space on the next spiral arm spinward, there was some 25,000 LY away from CTU.

Some items included: time regressive/jump drive from Rim Runner series; one planet that was taken from an Ace Double titled "Space Chantey" and blended with Vaughn Bode' Deadbone cartoon series where the indiginous life consisted of voluptuous babes and short lizard males; and various planets from Asimov's Foundation series and others. Of course, I allowed blasters as my favorite side arm (treat as laser with explosive ammo).

MacTrom

 

[Icosahedron]

I tend to 'Travellerize' the tech.
For example, I had a player who wanted a light sabre. I could have simply said 'no', but I wanted to educate him into why Traveller is the way it is.

So, using the (CT) rules I demonstrated clearly to him that the Star Wars light sabre was, in Traveller terms, a TL22 device and that it simply wasn't available. However, he could have an archaic TL15 predecessor if he wished.

The TL15 device was a hideously expensive, state of the art curiosity that would draw attention from both sides of the law. It weighed about 4kg and had a battery life (by the Striker construction rules) of about 30 seconds. Which meant he could use it for two consecutive melee phases before having to replace the battery, a precision activity that couldn't be performed whilst evading.
Furthermore, I made it clear to him that parrying incoming ranged shots was a high level skill using the arcane psionic talent of Precognition, and that such use would be obvious to the anti-psi thought police. If he wanted to be psionically tested he would have to find a branch of the Psionics Institute and go by the Psionics rules - which could mean that he might not get the talent, or that he might not have the strength to make effective use of it.

A long-winded explanation, sure, but he decided not to bother with the device, and he tended to think in terms of Traveller logic and tech thereafter, so I reckon it was time well spent.

 

[sabredog]

Under threats of violence, and because I was tired of the whining I eventually added "blasters". This was before Mercenary came out so they were the only energy weapon handguns I had for a couple of years.

I adopted the rational for "powerguns" from the David Drake Hammer's Slammers series so they'd be reasonably canon in thier hard sci-fi ness...not just magic guns from Star Wars. They use magazine fed actions and are not over common in ammo supply. That way, while the players might lust for the things, they are not always the best thing to have when out in the boonies far from Uncle Jabba's Guns n' Ammo.

I eventually came out with handgun, rifle, and tri-barrel cannon versions like the books have and decided to use them as originally (though adapted by manufacturers to human space tech) alien weapons for my evil alien empire. That way the humans get to develop fusion and plasma weapons and the other side gets a different tech tree for variety.

 

[sabredog]

PS...

Because the ungrateful whiners also wanted light sabers (shiver) I inflicted variable blades on them from the Known Space stories of Larry Niven. They are again, alien tech (18) and rarer than unicorns unless one is willing to venture far into uncharted space. Of course legends and damaged ancient examples of such are useful to get players to venture into uncharted space, too, bless thier greedy hearts.

I use Striker rules so the variable blade has a penetration value of 2x the character's strength. That translates to an average PEN of 14+2D6. That is often enough to cut most characters in half in one blow and go through battle dress like a hot knife through butter. Be careful what you wish for.

 

[mike wightman]

I've found it pretty easy to use SW or ST type equipment in Traveller - all it requires is to look at the rules as they exist and think about how to model the tech using them.

Want the force - fine, just adapt the existing psionic rules.

Need a light sabre - adapt the broadsword

Want a transporter - use a machine that uses the psionice teleportation rules.

I found that for my war of the Ancients campaign I needed a lot of very high level tech - the Traveller rules could be adapted to provide it all.

 

[Greg]

I tend to 'Travellerize' the tech.

The TL15 device was a hideously expensive, state of the art curiosity that would draw attention from both sides of the law.

Nitpicking time: why would either side of the law spare a moment's thought for this thing? It sounds like it's just not useful. If I were a criminal in search of a weapon, I wouldn't have time for a gizmo like that.

 

[Jame]

Nitpicking time: why would either side of the law spare a moment's thought for this thing? It sounds like it's just not useful. If I were a criminal in search of a weapon, I wouldn't have time for a gizmo like that.

That's simple, Mr. Blessed-and-Not-Cursed Heretic : the criminals want to develop it for crime and the police want to not only keep it away from the criminals, but also develop it for anti-crime use. That and the cops have to calm down panicking civilians.

 

[DaveChase]

Yup, It was quite common to find items from

Several Graphic Magazines like Heavy Metal, Epic and some futuristic graphic novels. These might be tech, alien or creatures.

I always found it easier to stat an item/living thing if I had a picture to show.

I would always decide if such an item was
1. Common tech
2. Unusal tech/design (limited to certain areas or illegal)
3. Alien Tech
4. Ancient Tech (either Ancients or some other old race)
5. A copy/imitation of some movie/graphic novel/concept that was just different body on a common tech item
6. Future tech (ie a dream, R&D, just a dream not yet invented.)

On living things
1. Alien creature
2. Alien race (intelligent, culture, etc)
3. Genetically designed
4. Mutantion
5. Biomodifed animal
6. Just a dream

It was some work but it always added some unknow element to the game. And Pictures are very inspiring to players to interact with.

Dave Chase

 

[Gadrin]

Greetings and salutations,

Have any of you used technologies from any sci-fi show or movie in your Traveller games? I was curious about this due to a player having a hissy fit when I told him there was no Force in Traveller. I let the Force in but he has to work hard to be as powerful as the Jedi/Sith in the movies. At least the Star Trek player accepted that the holograms were not as sophisticated as they are in the Star Trek shows and movies.

Flynn had RNA memory capsules in one of his articles, which I rather liked.

In the back of GURPS Traveller's First In book it lists the various technologies available to the 3i by TL (GURPS 3e tech levels) and by TL 11 (say TTL 13 or 14) it offers that memories can be implanted or erased or modified (p116) so I'd go with the "FLashy Thing" from MIB (GURPS Ultra Tech offers a pen-sized Hypnagogic Wiper at TL12) for maybe an advanced Imperial agent or something.

Oh and don't forget the shades (once again GURPS Traveller offers Nightshades no less, which are IR/Nightvision/anti-glare sunglasses.

GURPS Ultra Tech is a great source for popular sci-fi gadgets in game terms.

 

[Gadrin]

Almost missed your last part about Holograms...

I used a gimmick in a Traveller fiction I wrote where the Merchant Princes of Skull (Lanth subsector, mentioned in GURPS Behind the Claw) had stolen some technology from my version of the B5 Technomages.

One such item was a quantum entanglement isomorphic projector, but nowhere as nice as the Trek ones (monochrome and no forcefields). It requires a somewhat large emitter and vehicular power, but the projector can allow the image to fly around and observe things within a few hundred meters. In the story Damian Grumm used it to enter a prison cell and contact a soon to be released prisoner to come see him when he got out for a job. There's more backstory to it than that, but...

As for the B5 Technomages they've always intrigued me and I used things like a fine grav-belt to emulate flying, and a sensor-studded "staff" with a laser in it, etc. I had a great discussion on the old Pyramid boards with a GURPS fan who had taken many items of technology in Ultra Tech and made them into magic contraptions for simulating a technomage.

 

[Icosahedron]

Nitpicking time: why would either side of the law spare a moment's thought for this thing? It sounds like it's just not useful. If I were a criminal in search of a weapon, I wouldn't have time for a gizmo like that.

That's what the player was supposed to think.
I'm not going to outline it's potential uses now, either, but as Jame suggested, it could be used for things other than munchkin combat.
The law would be interested in this thing anywhere with a Law Level above 1!

 

[BlackBat242]

it could be used for things other than munchkin combat.

Like cutting through the steel wall of the bank vault?

 

[Icosahedron]

Like cutting through the steel wall of the bank vault?

Shh! I have players lurking here.

 

[Jame]

... I like cybersuits.

 

[G. Fieendish]

Greetings and salutations,

Have any of you used technologies from any sci-fi show or movie in your Traveller games? I was curious about this due to a player having a hissy fit when I told him there was no Force in Traveller. I let the Force in but he has to work hard to be as powerful as the Jedi/Sith in the movies. At least the Star Trek player accepted that the holograms were not as sophisticated as they are in the Star Trek shows and movies.

Wait until he lands on a world, uses his powers & then finds out
(after he's survived the Lynch Mob that results), that he's committed a crime, i.e being a Psi, that's punishible on this world, by involantry lobotomy...
Incedentally, where did he get trained, as Psionic Institutes are illegal on most, if not all Imperium worlds...?
(There's 1 exception to this, on Mora, but it's a research institute run by the Imperial Navy, & it's existence is covered under Imperial Secrecy laws, i.e your character would to be a high ranking Naval officer, & have a very high level security clearence, to even know that it exists.).

 

[BlackBat242]

Or have been identified during routine psych testing in basic training, then re-assigned as a "test subject".

"No, recruit Pstlypp, you can't transfer out... the Imperial Navy has already listed you as "killed in a training accident", and your records have been "adjusted", so their DNA/bio-print data no longer match you. If you do somehow escape, you will be identityless, and be treated as a criminal or spy. Accept it, you are here for life.

The best thing for you to do is to work toward being accepted into NavInt's "Psy-combat" unit."