Traveller setting question

[Scoundrel]

I've recently gotten T20 and am impressed with how the D20 rules have been adopted for science fiction. I'm also a newbie to Traveller as a whole, and as a result, I'm rather confused. every Traveller fan I've talked to has talked about the great neo-roman hard SF setting, but in the T20 book, I get a smattering os species and vehicle descriptions, but no setting.

Some help, please?

 

[FlightCommanderSolitude]

Originally posted by Scoundrel:
Some help, please?

You should:
</font>

• Wait for the Gateway Domain sourcebook to come out</font>
• Buy the Classic Traveller Reprints (especially the Supplements and Adventures) from FarFuture.net</font>
• All of the above!</font>

The classic setting you're hearing about was developed in tantalizingly small increments throughout the classic Traveller rules books (especially Books 4 - 7), adventures (and short adventures to a lesser extent) and supplements, particularly the two Library Data volumes. All of these have been reprinted by Marc Miller, the original game designer, via farfuture.net. They're excellent!

Of course, there was also more material that built on this setting published for later versions of the game (MegaTraveller etc). A lot of this is out of print, but available if you look hard enough. You could also do worse than picking up the GURPS Traveller book, which I understand is quite nice and includes a historical overview.

 

[clementk]

Originally posted by Scoundrel:
I've recently gotten T20 and am impressed with how the D20 rules have been adopted for science fiction. I'm also a newbie to Traveller as a whole, and as a result, I'm rather confused. every Traveller fan I've talked to has talked about the great neo-roman hard SF setting, but in the T20 book, I get a smattering os species and vehicle descriptions, but no setting.

Some help, please?

Best bet is to do a websearch on Traveller RPG Library or replace Library with Imperium. Example Library date site but there are others.

There's a sample area of the Imperium to explore in using t20 here.

There's a big timeline here

In terms of printed products, the MegaTraveller Imperial Encyclopedia (part of the boxed set or available seperately) is probably the single best book for getting up to speed on the Imperium. No longer in print but shouldn't be too costly used.

Also the reprint of the Supplements from Far Future has most of the Classic Traveller material on the Imperium (or OTU Original Traveller Setting) and has the advantage of being currently in print . More $$ though and written for CT but still good.

Hope this helps for starters,

EDIT: Added link to Illustrated Bilbliography entry for MT: Imperial Encyclopedia.

Casey

 

[clementk]

Originally posted by FlightCommanderSolitude:
You could also do worse than picking up the GURPS Traveller book, which I understand is quite nice and includes a historical overview.

I agree. (and surprised I forgot to mention it) Very useful even if you don't use Gurps.

EDIT: Added link to GT main book.

Casey

 

[snrdg082102]

Hello Scroundrel,

Welcome to the boards and Traveller Universe. Yes the T20 Handbook, THB, is basically the first 8 books from the original, called Classic, Traveller (CT). CT has evolved over a 25-year period and has a large amount of material covering at least 3 different or alternate periods. Here is a quick list.

CT: 8 core books setting up the basics of character generation, starship construction - primarily merchant vessels, world/adventure creation, ground/planetary military characters, naval starship/naval & marine characters, stellar systems, trade, and robots. In the Original Traveller Universe (OTU) the Third Imperium (3I) has brought back interstellar commerce after the collapse of 2 previous Empires and the Long Night. Adventures and magazines developed the OTU. Most of these are available from various sources.


MegaTraveller (MT): An attempt to alter the course of the Original Traveller Universe (OTU). Here the Third Imperium (3I) has splintered into factions and is fighting a civil war.

Traveller The New Era (TNE): The MT timeline ended in a stalemate without any of the factions being able to get the upper hand. At some point between the piont where CT and MT diverged a starship crashed on a planet with silicon based life forms that ate the computer chips. These creatures absorbed the programming and when the planet was rediscovered were found to be useful in the construction of computer cores. Of course researchers figured out how to create a virus using these living chips. At some point in the MT Civil War someone released the Virus, which rapidly evolved and caused the collapse of the majority of the 3I causing another Long Night. TNE is the rebuilding of interstellar trade.

Traveller 2300 AD: This is an off shoot of Traveller and the game "Twilight 2300 AD" IIRC. Instead of an alien empire, Terrans have reached the stars. Of course we've encounter other starfaring beings. There are still the rivalries between various political groups from Terra and at least one of the alien groups. This may not be considered a part of Traveller, but there is a following.

Marc Miller's Traveller (T4) as far as I can tell is another attempt at changing the MT timeline.

GURPS:Traveller (GT) is an alternate timeline starting at the point of the assassination plot in MT. The assassin is killed instead of Emperor Strephon and family.

T20 condenses and converts the CT core books into the d20 system in one book. I think there are some adventure listed here in the elibrary. Here is a link to a site that may help you find out more about the Traveller background:
Open Directory


Hopefully the link keeps working and since this is my fourth attempt to post a reply I am going to quit and post now.

Originally posted by Scoundrel:
I've recently gotten T20 and am impressed with how the D20 rules have been adopted for science fiction. I'm also a newbie to Traveller as a whole, and as a result, I'm rather confused. every Traveller fan I've talked to has talked about the great neo-roman hard SF setting, but in the T20 book, I get a smattering os species and vehicle descriptions, but no setting.

Some help, please?

 

[sandman]

Originally posted by FlightCommanderSolitude:
You could also do worse than picking up the GURPS Traveller book, which I understand is quite nice and includes a historical overview.

I Agree. Bought it a week after buying T20...

Has the Library Data, background information and has only a small sheet count of rules...

About 2/3 to 3/4 of the book is background.

Almost every GURPS Traveller books can be used with any other Traveller ruleset. they're pretty heavy on background and lite on rules, not a bad thing

 

[hunter]

Originally posted by Thomas Rux:
Marc Miller's Traveller (T4) as far as I can tell is another attempt at changing the MT timeline.

T4 didn't attempt to change the timeline, it was set at the founding of the 3rd Imperium.

Hunter

 

[snrdg082102]

Thanks Hunter for the input and the correction. My comment was made after looking at pp. 8-9 of T4 Book 1 copyright 1996 by Imperium Games. Column 2 of p. 8 starts with a condensed History of the Universe. The second entry in column 1 on p. 9 is titled "The Third Imperium (4521 to 5637 AD)" the final entry is "The Rebellion (5367 AD)." My apologies for misleading Scoundrel, but it was at the T4 point that my system kept locking up. I guess my computer just doesn't like T4.

Again thanks for getting me straightened out on T4 and by the by have you had a chance to look over the material I sent you?

Originally posted by hunter:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Thomas Rux:
Marc Miller's Traveller (T4) as far as I can tell is another attempt at changing the MT timeline.

T4 didn't attempt to change the timeline, it was set at the founding of the 3rd Imperium.

Hunter </font>[/QUOTE]

 

[Ben W Bell]

Welcome to the boards Scoundrel. Congratulations you have hit upon the main problem with getting new players into Traveller. The background was built up very piecemeal over the years and there is no one place you can go to get the information, this makes it all hard to find and piece together, even for us fans who have most of the books published over the years.

I second the others above, get the Gateway Domain book and set your first games there. It may not cover the entire Imperium, but hopefully you'll get a feel for the style and atmosphere of the Third Imperium.

So who wants to write some Traveller books covering the history of the Imperium then?

 

[MJD]

Me.

But seriously, Gateway should tell you enough about the setting to be used alone.

 

[Scoundrel]

Thanks for all the help, folks! Seriously though, I'm curious: Can anyone sum up the "basics" of the Traveller universe (i.e. what it's like) in six sentences or less?

 

[tjoneslo]

ohh, a challenge.

Communication is at the speed of travel, creating a situation much like the 16th, 17th, and early 18th century with many far flung colonies, each ruled by the local representative of the far distant empire. The empire is old, very powerful, but very detached from the day-to-day affairs of the people. The PCs live and work as merchants, mercs, and freelance trouble-shooters attempting to make a living while avoiding Imperial entanglements.

The default Traveller Imperium are good guys, making the universe a better place, but hampered by the communication lags and lack of trained and motitvated people. It's not a far strech to make the Emperor and his nobles the bad guys. Or both at the same time.

 

[clementk]

Originally posted by Scoundrel:
Thanks for all the help, folks! Seriously though, I'm curious: Can anyone sum up the "basics" of the Traveller universe (i.e. what it's like) in six sentences or less?

EDIT: removed stuff that's covered already by THB and the above post

However this page , which is a short summary of the Imperium setting designed for new players, is not six sentences but it does a good job of an introduction.

HTH,
Casey

 

[FlightCommanderSolitude]

Originally posted by Scoundrel:
Thanks for all the help, folks! Seriously though, I'm curious: Can anyone sum up the "basics" of the Traveller universe (i.e. what it's like) in six sentences or less?

How about:

In Traveller, mankind has conquered the stars, and travels from one stellar system to another as easily as present day Terrans can travel from one continent to another. The tremendous distances involved, however, dictate that interstellar voyages can take weeks, months, and sometimes even years. A situation similar to earth in the eighteenth century is created, where communication is limited to the speed of travel, and the stage is set for adventure in a grand fashion, with all the trappings of the classic space opera: giant, star-spanning empires (good, evil, or both), huge starfleets, wily interstellar merchants (or pirates, depending upon your point of view), complex diplomatic maneuvers, larger than life heroes, heroines, and villains - the mind boggles.

I stole this from here.

 

[kafka47]

Well, here goes this is what I tell newbies...

Imagine an interstellar empire (the Imperium) composed of over 1100 worlds that has lasted for a millenium. There is conflict between the Imperium and its interstellar neighbours, also, within with numerous small wars engaged between planets or interplanetary corporations. But, there is also cooperation in the form of trade and exploring new frontiers, from the edges of the galatic spiral arm to the depths of unknown oceans or amongst the clouds of the large gas giants. Come explore this universe where imagination is the only limit to the possible.

 

[Falkayn]

Originally posted by Scoundrel:
Thanks for all the help, folks! Seriously though, I'm curious: Can anyone sum up the "basics" of the Traveller universe (i.e. what it's like) in six sentences or less?

Well, I've got an idea for a TA that will do it in about 42 pages ... but it might seem too frivolous an idea for Martin/Hunter to go with ... I just figured it would be useful to lay out the basics of the Traveller universe for people (mainly milieu and areas of charted space).

The Traveller intro above is very good for getting started, but it stops before several huge swathes of Traveller history - notably the Rebellion (introduced in MegaTraveller) and the Virus (introduced in Traveller: New Era).

 

[MJD]

A TA "Guide to the Travellers Setting"?

Thayt's not frivolous at all. INdeed, it'd be very useful.

 

[Shadowdancer]

I have the title: "The OTU for Dummies."

Or "The Complete Idiots Guide to the OTU."

 

[snrdg082102]

Wait a minute my post had a brief on both MT and TNE . Now I'm not saying that I got them 100%, like my miss on T4 (only defense have book 1 but not reviewed the material like the other versions).

Originally posted by Falkayn:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Scoundrel:
Thanks for all the help, folks! Seriously though, I'm curious: Can anyone sum up the "basics" of the Traveller universe (i.e. what it's like) in six sentences or less?

Well, I've got an idea for a TA that will do it in about 42 pages ... but it might seem too frivolous an idea for Martin/Hunter to go with ... I just figured it would be useful to lay out the basics of the Traveller universe for people (mainly milieu and areas of charted space).

The Traveller intro above is very good for getting started, but it stops before several huge swathes of Traveller history - notably the Rebellion (introduced in MegaTraveller) and the Virus (introduced in Traveller: New Era). </font>[/QUOTE]

 

[Falkayn]

Originally posted by MJD:
A TA "Guide to the Travellers Setting"?

Thayt's not frivolous at all. INdeed, it'd be very useful.

Glad you like it If you check your travsub email addie it's in there (along with 2 others).