Who PLAYED IT but doesn't like it. (GURPS Traveller)

[CosmicGamer]

I'm curious. Who has PLAYED GURPS Traveller, not people who have only read about it in forums, play tested it but never played the released version, not people who saw a friends copy, or got a copy someone was going to throw away and gave it a cursory glance, but who has PLAYED GURPS Traveller with a group of people in person or on-line and what are the things you don't like?

Has the experience caused you to
A) stop playing Traveller all together
B) play a different version of Traveller you own
C) go out and buy a different version of Traveller
D) keep playing - possibly making house rules and not use things you don't like

 

[robject]

I played GURPS Traveller back when it was relatively new, but didn't like it.

Has the experience caused you to
A) stop playing Traveller all together?

Of course not.

B) play a different version of Traveller you own

Yes.

C) go out and buy a different version of Traveller

Not as such, no.

D) keep playing - possibly making house rules and not use things you don't like

No, I pretty much don't play GURPS Traveller.

 

[aramis]

ALso in the B camp. It's not suitable for the style of games I run. And I've grown to hate the GURPS rules mechanics.

 

[mbrinkhues]

Depends on the concept. It would be B if GT = (Setting + rules) and D if it's only the rules since I don't use the "Strephon's taking a shower" setting

 

[Gallowglacht]

B. Don't like the "(Isn't it Strephons son?) in the shower" background. Find the system a little too fiddly, especially combat. And get thrown by the similar but different tech levels and the Imperial measurements.

Not a bad system, just not my favourite. I do like sourcebooks from it and the basic history in the core book. Would probably houserule damage.

 

[cdward]

Still Playing

I still refereeing a GURPS Traveller games using 4e rules and the Interstellar Wars setting.

 

[DoctorRomulus]

It's actually my favorite set of rules for Traveller even before GURPS Traveller was released. As for the whole "Strephon" was not assassinated/shower thing, the cool thing about GURPS is that you can run the Rebellion in it.

 

[rancke]

B. Don't like the "(Isn't it Strephons son?) in the shower" background.

What, you don't like the CT background?!? :devil:


Hans

 

[Britti_Lover]

I've been playing Gurps Traveller since 1996, its the Traveller setting with the GURPS rules - and it worls quite well too.

I've ran the alternate campaign in GT:IW where the Imperium won the Interstellar wars for two years straight - in the year 5700 AD.

One thing I like about GT:IW is that it is a stand-alone book. It is a self-contained setting for GURPS. It has adventures, backgrounds and campaign material - all in one volume.

I've ran several of the adventures in the book and they played perfectly - very fun.

In a nutshell, my favorite Traveller book of all time and usable for a Traveller game set in any time period.

The GT:IW time period is good to game in also - kinda like Traveller:2300 should have been done. We did that over 20 years ago with Traveller:2300 because we didn't know any better when that game came out.

I myself would design 4e Space characters and play them in the Traveller Third Imperium. I'd use Ultra-Tech for guns and equipment too.

You can always convert 3e to 4e and even do CT to 3e to 4e but just generating characters with SPACE WOULD WORK TOO.

All the GT books for GURPS 3e are the best Traveller material ever published and are well worth the small cost of 4.95 - 9.95 a book and converting 3e to 4e is a snap with the free 3e to 4e conversion handout.

Gurps Traveller in it's heyday (around 2001 or so) was easily my most popular Gurps game at conventions. It would draw up to 10 players for a session and easily 4 sessions at any given con.

I do LOVE the quality of GT:IW, it is a work of art. I just got back from a con where I played out one of the adventures contained in the book adapted to Starwars! The bottom line is: A good adsventure - like the great ones in the back of GT:IW play well in any system with a little work.

Both GT for 3e and GT for 4e are great games, but I do LOVE the GT:IW book - a true quality job.

 

[Gallowglacht]

What, you don't like the CT background?!? :devil:


Hans

Honestly?

I do like the GT sourcebooks generaly though. Especialy interstellar wars.

 

[spinwardpirate]

Played OTU version with 3e rules.
Played ISW version with 4e rules.
That game got converted to a Serenity game.
Which in turn got converted to GURPS Firefly.

Has the experience caused you to
A) stop playing Traveller all together

I didn't care for GT3e. I'm not sure what the problem was. I think it might be that the level of complexity went way too deep for what I wanted to do. I dunno. For a long time, that was the last Traveller game I had run.

B) play a different version of Traveller you own

Actually... that 3e game ended and I began a 3e game of 2300AD. Not sure what happened to that. We may have just needed change.

C) go out and buy a different version of Traveller

That's a trick question, right. we always go out and buy a different version of Traveller.

Heh... thinking about it, I was dead-set against T20. Wouldn't touch it with a 10m pole. And that was the other option at the time. So, no. I didn't.

D) keep playing - possibly making house rules and not use things you don't like

That's sort of what became of our 4e game. I wasn't happy with the way ISW was going, and Serenity looked like fun (it was Firefly, how could it not be fun?!?!). However, to me the Serenity system was sheer junk. (Ymmv.) So we went back to playing GURPS.

Soooo... in a way, you could say the house rules were we changed the Traveller setting, but kept the GURPS rules!

 

[mike wightman]

GURPS rules - don't like them.

GURPS supplements are excellent though.

Nobles is the best, followed by Sword Worlds (well done Hans et al).

The very best though is GT ISW - I almost ran it using the G4e rules but couldn't bring myself to do it. Best ship design rules in Traveller IMHO.

I also like the G4e generic supplements - BioTech, Ultra Tech, Space. Very good for mining for ideas.

 

[Erai]

I played it. Still do. Don't really like the system, although I dó love its versatility.
But anyway, it's just a system, to be used as a rough guideline.

 

[rust]

D) keep playing - possibly making house rules and not use things you don't like

We played it for the best part of ten years, although we reduced much of its
complexity through our house rules and converted the actual roleplaying part
to BRP's percentile dice.

Last year we moved on to Mongoose Traveller when the German version was
published (not all of the players like to use English ...), but we still use some
material from GURPS Traveller for those parts of our settings that are not yet
covered by Mongoose Traveller material, for example world building and some
technology.

 

[Princedarkstorm]

I am not a fan of the GURPS system but I do in fact enjoy their sourcebooks . I find them very well written and the fact that they had several of the original TRAVELLER writers on staff is a great boon as well !

 

[Ronnke]

I've played with the GURPS system for a long time, its become my one system to rule all genres. When GT came along I was thrilled. The sourcebooks are the best written for Traveller, and I really think they set the bar when it comes to quality and content.

GT: ISW is my favourite book, the setting is brilliant and the material in that book is of the same high standard I have come to expect from SJG.

I still buy MGT books for ideas and info, but any playing happens in GURPS.

 

[aramis]

I have GT. I read it. I got as far as generating characters, realized that Loren had codified in things that were rejected for T20, and decided the one player it would bring to the table wasn't worth it.

I tried using GTFT, but the detail is at the wrong ends for utility for me, and the trade flows SEVERAL orders of magnitude greater than my read of prior canon says they should be. (Wypoc/Lanth should be seeing a daily trip of several thousand Tons displacement... for example... and it's a nastily hostile hell world.)

And BTC, well, it's contradictory in a number of places to CT's TTA... It's retconned liberally and without notice, so I can't even trust it for my MT games.

In short, the whole line has turned me off in a big way

 

[Morte]

who has PLAYED GURPS Traveller with a group of people in person or on-line

I played in a campaign in Reaver's Deep, where we ended up finding the original human ship that misjumped there. I was a phlegmatic hardcase called Terry (from Terra), who amongst other things took a gauss rifle to a swordfight against an imperial sector ?duke?

and what are the things you don't like?

Non-metric units. The sloppy rush job they did on the 3e Traveller book.

A) stop playing Traveller all together

Hardly.

B) play a different version of Traveller you own

If I like the look of the GM/time/location I'll generally run whatever rules he wants. My only sticking point is that I get a character that interests me, which random ones can fail to. GURPS suits me quite well in that respect.

C) go out and buy a different version of Traveller

No.

D) keep playing - possibly making house rules and not use things you don't like

I'm always houseruling, all five of the published editions I've used and my two homebrews.

 

[andromalius]

I played GURPS for about 15 years when I was first introduced to Traveller early last year. I was never one for pre-made game world, but quite frankly I was blown away by the quality of the GURPS source materials. The game background, of course, was absolutely stellar (pun intended). That game has finished and I am now trying to learn the rules well enough to GM my own game. I feel like I got to the game late, but I am trying to make up for lost time.

 

[SpaceBadger]

We played a couple of adventures of GURPS Traveller using GURPS rules. We got tired of constantly having to look things up or do calculations while playing. We now use GURPS Traveller as our primary crunch (designing ships, vehicles, etc) and background (all those awesome detail books on the day-to-day of how starports work, various organizations, etc), but use FUDGE for actual gameplay. It works for us, and we usually make all situational modifier decisions on the fly and never have to refer to any rulebooks while playing.