The Quintessential Traveller Scene

[Zob10701]

In other threads there has been talk about what does and doesn't make a good visual representation of Traveller.

Art sites have been linked to... Keith, Deitrick, Foss and other names have been mentioned.

Movies like Alien and Outland have been cited as visual references.

What I want to try to do is to illustrate the quintessential Traveller scene... with you guys' help!

My plan is to take your suggestions and create an illo suitable to be a desktop wallpaper or such. So, in the end, I'll be full color and about 1040x768 pixels (or thereabouts).

Keep your suggestions specific... maybe you want a scene from one of the classic adventures illustrated, maybe a quintessential group shot... whatever. Just think to yourself... would it be appropriate to put "Traveller... Science Fiction Adventure in the Far Future" on the bottom of it?

I'll finally decide what the scene will be based on the consensus (I hope there is one!) and give you guys first a sketch, then a color comp so you can make further suggestions before I do the final.

Consider this a gift to everyone here who loves Traveller!

(Scheiße, I hope this works!)

 

[Zob10701]

P.S. You may ask yourself "Why would this guy want to do this?"

Two reasons:

1. It's a HUGE challenge.

2. I'm going vacation for two weeks starting on the 18th and I've gotta have something more to do at home than eat, sleep and play video games!

 

[ravells]

It has to be a scene of a Starport bar with the player characters meeting the patron! Aslan and Vargr present in the scene of course, with perhaps the bar staff being Droyne. In my mind's eye the window of the bar would look out onto the starport where you could see ships parked, arriving and leaving and a huge moon/planet (cliched but what the hey)in the sky and a futuristic city in the middle distance.

But if you've got time on your hands then have a go at the deckplan challenge too

Ravs

 

[Golan2072]

A good visual repreentation of the CT era would probably be the Quintessential Free Trader Crew Group Shot - a very heterogenous group of haphazard adventurers and tag-alongs, probably posing for the shot with their ship's landing gear or cargo-ramp as a background. Cothing styles would probably clash; a shotgun or two might be displayed; the typical racial mix would include a Human majority with an alien or two thrown in for the mix (most likely Aslan or Vargr). in terms of ship design, think Alien/Aliens; in terms of personal clothing/atmosphere style, think Firefly.

Dealing with governments in the OTU might draw inspiration from Babylon 5 - the Earth Alliance is a great source of inspiration for the Solomani, and the Centauri are a good source of inspiration for the Imperium (just change the haircuts and the ehm... erhm... reproductive system). Very few people in B5 resemble Traveller PCs, but Katherine Sakay (independent survey pilot and later Sinclair's girlfriend) comes to mind.

 

[Pickles]

Almost word-for-word, I was going to say the same as Ravs:

Originally posted by ravs:
It has to be a scene of a Starport bar with the player characters meeting the patron! Aslan and Vargr present in the scene of course, with perhaps the bar staff being Droyne. In my mind's eye the window of the bar would look out onto the starport where you could see ships parked, arriving and leaving and a huge moon/planet (cliched but what the hey)in the sky and a futuristic city in the middle distance.

Except there would be Hivers instead of Vargr or Aslan (the Droyne can stay).

 

[Andrew Boulton]

A Scout/Courier refuelling in a lake, although it's almost been done to death now.

 

[Golan2072]

A few Traveller Iconics (not nescerily combinable in one scene, but they are staples of the CT setting):

- Shotguns, Cutlasses and Revolvers in Space
- The Type-S "Wedgie"
- Tramp Traders (usually Type-A or A2 and semi-wedgie in shape)
- Battledresses, FGMP's and... Cutlasses (it ain't Imperial Marines without them!)
- Vargr and Aslan - and, to a lesser degree, Hivers and Droyne
- Lasers with Energy Backpacks
- The Ubiquitous Air/Raft and ATV
- Startown Baazars/Bars

A few scene suggestions:
- An official group shot of a Kinunir's command crew, with the ship's holo-model in the foreground or background.
- An Imperial (or better yet, Solomani) propaganda poster; if you have time, you could do a series of recruirment posters, once for each service.
- A laser-intensive gunbattle between the PCs and the revolutionaries on Dinom, as in DA2: Across the Bright Face; an ATV or two thrown in with its laser blazing.
- A group of PCs in standard vacc-suits entering a derelict ship (Annic Nova? the disabled Kinunir in that anti-matter belt?). Alternatively, PCs investigating the Shadows pyramid.
- A group of PC traders haggling with a Hiver merchant in a busy startown baazar. Aliens and strange goods (critters?) abound around.

 

[Jame]

Originally posted by Employee 2-4601:
- A group of PC traders haggling with a Hiver merchant in a busy startown baazar. Aliens and strange goods (critters?) abound around.

One or two of those PCs should be non-human, maybe Vargr or Aslan.

 

[Liam Devlin]

Originally posted by Employee 2-4601:
A good visual repreentation of the CT era would probably be the Quintessential Free Trader Crew Group Shot - a very heterogenous group of haphazard adventurers and tag-alongs, probably posing for the shot with their ship's landing gear or cargo-ramp as a background. Cothing styles would probably clash; a shotgun or two might be displayed; the typical racial mix would include a Human majority with an alien or two thrown in for the mix (most likely Aslan or Vargr). in terms of ship design, think Alien/Aliens; in terms of personal clothing/atmosphere style, think Firefly.

I second this one. The "Classic Traveller" scene has always been the small tramp freighter and her motley crew (Not *Crue*-thankyouverymuch!).
Plenty of good addons with cargo pods & containers.

I've seen the individual crewperson sitting about on the CG pods with a weapon done already--what I haven't seen is the whole crew, prolley bored to tears, waiting and looking for their buyer or mysterious patron that brought them with the promise of a hard cred payoff to some benighted berg...

THAT, and each of the crew's expressions, would be worth 4-6K words..

 

[kafka47]

In a low, muted tone, the patron gives an account the tale of how his ship got lost somewhere between here & Regina. One moment it was on the screen, in full communications, then it suddenly disappeared without a trace. It wasn't jump capable, nor, were any other ships in the area according to SPA logs.

"Why not go file to the insurance company?" the newbie asked.

“It was carrying cargo, umm, shall we say of a sensitive nature, uh, and I wish to avoid Imperial entanglements,” the patron responded in a whisper.

It was at that split second, that I observed the Vargr assassin prowling in the shadows. All of a sudden, a laser bolt streaked across the dark room and in the chaos the assassin fled into the crowded concourse. There is momentary ruckus in the bar. Then it dies down again. I looked down at the patron, he was hurt but not significantly. I nod, and accept the patron's data crystal indicating my team's consent.

The paramedics push their way through the crowd and the din as the patron is hoisted upon a stretcher and carryed away. I look down at the data crystal.

Looking at, my companions' faces, "WHAT???...” I exclaim, “We need the money. Otherwise, we will be running from the Repomen ourselves..."

If the picture tells a thousand words...

Hope the above scene fires up the creative juices. What I have issues with the Challenge artwork is that it was selling itself to the buyer in that everyone is looking forward rather than focusing on the patron. But, I think you get the ideal. Hope the narrative helps.

 

[kafka47]

Hendrich checked his pistol one last time, Someone is going to go to meet their maker today. The station was a treacherous place but it would provide no sanctuary for a wanted war criminal that had single handed used nuclear weapons during the last frontier war against innocent Zho civilians will have to pay the piper. Commodore or no commodore. The MoJ always get their man.

"Docking in T minus 2 minutes." the computer tweeps.

Henrich dons the uniform of a Navy serviceman and heads to the exit. As the sound of the shuttle and airlock coupling echoes throughout the smallcraft.

Some more inspiration

 

[Zob10701]

Wow!

Lots and lots of great suggestions—although, Employee 2-4601, I've only got two weeks vacation, lol!

I like ravs suggestion for its all-inclusiveliness (heh, new word!). But seeing kafka47's Challenge magazine cover, I think I might set the illo in some Startown at night. Maybe even Regi Down Starport's Startown. Isn't Regina a moon orbiting a gas giant? A gas giant would look awesome in the night sky!

Plus, I could draw a tramp freighter crew "bored to tears, waiting and looking for their buyer or mysterious patron" in the middle of it all.

Zhodani, Solomani, Vilani, Vargr, Aslan, Dryone, Sword Worlders, Hiver... maybe even K'Kree could all be in the pic. It's Startown after all!

Well, I still have week left before I begin...

 

[Andrew Boulton]

Oh dear, the German cover for Research Station Gamma is a little...erm...

http://www.travellerbibliography.org/german/Abenteuer-1.html

 

[flykiller]

Oh dear, the German cover for Research Station Gamma is a little...erm...

(smile) german u-boat dominance continues. perhaps in the future they specialize in SDB's capable of deep gas giant diving.

 

[Maladominus]

I hate to sound like a fanboy, but....

I probably know, more than most of you guys in COTI, that TheVamp is more than capable of delivering a fantastic piece of Traveller artwork.

In the past year, I had hired him to commission some RPG portraits for my Traveller campaign. I was amazed at his talent, and I still am. I will show an example below.

The first Traveller NPC portrait commission I asked him to do was to draw my ultimate SOLOMANI MANDARIN VILLAIN for my Terra Incognita (Classic Traveller) campaign, the scheming Commodore Tiberius Feng. My campaign setting takes place in Solomani space during the Golden Age of Strephon. This is a time when there is a cold war between the Solomani and the Imperium. The intrigue, espionage, and cross-border adventures is the typical backdrop for our campaign.

Earlier, I had shown my players what Commodore Feng would look like: he was basically featured as the real-world star Shih Kien, an old Chinese actor of Enter the Dragon fame (he was the villain to Bruce Lee's protagonist).

I showed TheVamp that the actor's face is what I had intended my villain to resemble. And he then set out to work on a drawn portrait of the Traveller counterpart, Solomani Commodore Tiberius Feng. The illustrated image below is a small low-resolution example, albeit I watermarked it due to copyright issues (the character concept for Commodore Feng is my personal design, the image is TheVamp's), and since these characters are still in active use in my Traveller campaign.

I am from the Old School of classic Traveller gaming. I still use the concept of "character cards", where the GM can keep track of campaign characters and major NPCs/Patrons through the use of index cards (i.e. character dossiers).

As you all can see, the bottom portrait of Admiral Feng is an example of Vamp's work. So you guys should look forward to him offering to create a full-sized desktop-resolution image of a 'Traveller Scene'. -Mal

 

[Rover]

Originally posted by flykiller:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Oh dear, the German cover for Research Station Gamma is a little...erm...

(smile) german u-boat dominance continues. perhaps in the future they specialize in SDB's capable of deep gas giant diving. </font>[/QUOTE]Ve have vays ov making you Roleplay.

 

[Whipsnade]

Originally posted by Andrew Boulton:
Oh dear, the German cover for Research Station Gamma is a little...erm...

Andrew,

Good. Sweet. Christ.

That isn't a salute is it? Please tell me he is only swimming?

Hell of a submarine too for a culture that only just re-invented them and is using them only as cargo vessels.


Have fun,
Bill

 

[Whipsnade]

TheVamp,

I must ditto the other fine suggestions made already.

Open your Mental Mixmaster, put in one scruffy starship, one scruffier crew, one obviously aline sophont, one obviously alien world, and several firearms, hit the puree switch, then pour out the result and see what happened.

I already know it will be great.


Good luck,
Bill

 

[flykiller]

Hell of a submarine too for a culture that only just re-invented them and is using them only as cargo vessels.

natural talent can't be denied.

Ve have vays ov making you Roleplay

I'm willing.

 

[Liam Devlin]

Uh Huh. Thanks Andrew..

Das Boot meets space?

Looks to me as a possibly lifted and morphed over a German WW2 recruiting poster.

Posed as is, yeah.. "Er Schwimmenst sind."