Your homebrew Traveller setting

[RobertFisher]

Tell me about your homebrew Traveller setting.

What's it like? What's interesting about it? How's it different than the "canon" melieux?

Also, how was it developed? Were the worlds randomly generated or hand crafted? Did you build a whole sector or has it grown world by world? Was it built mainly by one person or is it a cooperative venture?

 

[Whipsnade]

RobertFisher wrote:

"Tell me about your homebrew Traveller setting."


Mr. Fisher,

What a superb idea for a thread! You should kick off quite a discussion with it.

Let's see, some of my homebrews included:

Rift Imperium - The old Library Data description of Capital 'controlling the only crossing in the Great Rift for thousands of parsecs' is the basis of this one. The Imperium is split in twain with three Domains on either side of a ~2 sector wide Rift. Capital sits in a subsector sized-cluster midway along a jump5 route. The Spinward Realm is smaller, older, more settled, and hemmed in on all sides. The Trailing Realm is larger, newer, sparesly settled in places, and has an open frontier to trailing.

The Spinward Realm contains Vland, Earth, and the Marches. Surrounding it are the Vargr; from 12 o'clock to 10 o'clock, the Zhos; 10 to 9 o'clock, a neutral zone between Imperium and Heirate; 9 to 8 o'clock, and the Sollies; from 8 to 6 o'clock. The Darrians and Swordies are near the Marches tucked between the Zhos and the Aslan neutral zone.

The Trailing Realm has the K'Kree to coreward and the Hivers to rimward, but over two sectors of space seperate them.

Technology is mostly OTU. History is slightly different; the 2nd Imperium collapsed in Spinward and the 3rd Imperium arose when the Trailing Realm 'reunited' the empire. Most of the worlds were randomly generated with a few handcrafted locales, like the Capital Cluster and jump5 route.


Starfire Traveller - Loved the old Starfire game; back when Taskforce games owned it and before it grew into a SFB-ish baroque monstrosity. Warp lines exist; tunnels that allow 'jumps' of tens of parsecs. These lines do not form a network however, many systems do not have them and must be reached by regular OTU jump drive.

In this setting I deliberately thinned out most of the habitable worlds CT's sysgen created. At most, 'shirtsleeve' worlds exist one per subsector equivalent. Settlement follows a 'clump' or 'cluster' pattern; scattered habitable worlds with outlying resource colonies. The only non-habitable systems that see large settlement are those with warplines.

Technology is mostly OTU and some of the aliens are borrowed too. History is utterly different; no Ancients and no HMRs for starters.

(Please note: this setting dates from the early 80s and resembles Mr. Weber's increasingly silly Honorverse only superficially)


Very Long Night - Earth is a distant memory, almost a myth. How, when, and why this region of space was settled is unknown. Various worlds clawed their way back into space after millennia of progress, some from stone age levels. Every where these worlds look, there are human settled worlds and ruins of human settled worlds.

The major powers include a previously expanding religous-political movement and a 'satisfied' polity that blocked that expansion. There are various 'minor' polities and allies on both sides. The major powers have come to an understanding while one of the larger minor powers has just experienced a civil war and fragmented into several smaller states. The PCs were working as a group of troubleshooters for economic and diplomatic interests.

Technology was mostly OTU. Jump was rather different. The duration of each jump was tied to the length. You could also trade time for accuracy; arriving with a tolerance of up to an AU in return for getting there faster. Also, there were no psionic powers.

The region in which the PCs operated was essentially handcrafted with system locations and details chosen instead rolled.


Like you, I hope to read about other folks' homebrewed settings too.


Sincerely,
Larsen

 

[themink]

MTU's that I have reffed:-

Normally I keep the computer sizes, Moore's Law tops out in about 2010 so people can carry the equivalent of a quad xeon in a mobile phone.

Normally I have the division between "Imperial" and "Local" very strict (That seems close to canon) with obvious territoriality lines and practically no intrusion from imperial into local (so slavery, bio-experimentation etc etc are all legal)

Normally I allow the local authority to make rules about where/when ships can land - the imperium won't impose these rules, but won't defend you if the customs fighters attack your free trader while it is trying to land. For a fee, the imperium will impose these rules (ie a low tech barbarian world might pay a yearly tribute to have their "no landings, no high tech" rule imposed.

Normally I have each imperial governer make rules about possession of weaponry so that:
If you are walking arround on an imperial starport then you have to abide by their weapons codes.

Normally I have the imperial governer not allow high tech imports into worlds (there is an imperial edict to that extent)

What the above three mean is that, if a world doesn't have/allow energy weapons then, when the players visit to interact with the people, they can't carry the BFG 9000 plasma gun. It forces the party to carry a range of weapons onboard as well as various concealables and martial arts if they want to be armed at all times.

The above allows worlds to be very varied - I have a world were all legal disputes are settled by sword duels - including such things as "you have an ugly face"

Where I normally stray further from canon -
- low berth are much more reliable, particularly if they are transfered to a major hosipital before awakening
- ships with mortgages aren't allowed to leave the local set of worlds (until either mortgage paid or they skip)
- slug thrower ammo is not interchangeable (ie if I bought a 7.94mm*39mm assault rifle at the last world, I should buy a lot of ammo because I am unlikely to find anyone producing the exact same cartridge (including ratio of charge/slug weight) any time soon.
- reflec is cheaper, common and included in most armour as standard. Ditto anti-laser aerosol
- plasma/fusion weapons have a very nasty cloud hot gas surrounding the firer - so they have to wear enclosed armour- but still they are easy to spot for counter battery fire.
- Fusion plants have a minimum size, so small craft and vehilces are battery powered (and have much shorter endurance)
- Often I use an entirely humano centric universe
- Often I use a humans+ gene modified human universe (with various legal issues)
- Often I mess with the citizenship/nobility for the imperium

Actual Rules changes -
Currently I am using t20 (mostly) however I have the classes from d20 modern with a couple of little changes (ie occupation makes certain skills class skills)
For combat, everyone rolls initiative as normal (ie d20+dex + mods) then moves in that sequence, they also move again on their initiative less 10 (and less 20 if they are really quick) - so if they roll a 21 then they act on 21, 11 and 1. It means that fast people do more continually rather than just act first at the start of the fight.
For combat, if they are flat footed, they have an effective dex mod of -5! so the firsat round of gunfire is really really deadly - practically nobody misses

 

[aramis]

My current project is adapting to a starfire type universe... no Jump Drives.

Instead, a consttant speed drive (limited to TL-10 PSL) and FF&S style thrusters... so no "grav thrusters". Gravitics will be he TNE style gravity bloicking. HEPlar, with reudced eficiencies from FF&S.

And there are warp points (Ala Starfire, the Honor Harrington Universe, or The Vorkosiverse). They will be outside the occupied orbits... so while transit takes seconds, arriving to transit takes a LONG time. (For Sol, that means out in orbit #11!)

More variety in turret types: 1, 3, 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 ton mounts. Probably by extrapolation from extant MT stats.

No meson guns.

Probably have some lensman/jedi-knight hybrid in one empire's government... Another will be an elected monarchy (The commoner's choose their lord. THe lords choose their baron. The barons choose their prince. The princes choose the king.)

All governments will be massaged to fit the empire that they are in.

I am planning on using either MT or T20 as the base ruleset.

 

[alanb]

My usual variation is: no interstellar government. Or rather, small pocket empires only.

On a bad day I will also reject any Traveller material published after 1980.

Alan B

 

[The Oz]

In my first TRAVELLER universe (in 1977) I used a hodgepodge of Trek, Star Wars, and Alan Dean Foster's Humanx Commonwealth. Lots of worlds, lots of aliens, lots of wierd tech.

For a long time I used Niven and Pournelle's "Mote in God's Eye" universe, replacing their Alderson Drive with regular Jump Drive and limiting to TL12. No gravity manipulation, no damper tech or meson guns. In this universe the habitable planets were really spread out. Voyages of a month were not uncommon between settled worlds.

I liked that so much (having to jump through 2, 3 or even more uninhabited systems to get from one place to another) that it's a main feature of my current universe, which is based on the same basic concept (recovery from the collapse of a prior empire) but there's no one successor state but rather a number of roughly equal states vying for control. I use the TRAVELLER aliens to run some of the successor states (the aliens were enslaved by humans under the Old Empire) and I'm using OTU tech without any major changes. Lots of ruins and Old Empire tech fragments (TL17-18) out there in the dark corners....

 

[plop101]

My first Traveller universe was based on a combination of the old Buck Rogers tv show, the Terran Trade Authority Starships book, and the SPI game After the Holocaust.

Basically, Earth had gone through World War Three *1, and thirty or so years later, some bits of the surviving areas managed to get their economy and technology back together and develop jump drive.

*1 World War Three started either in 1990 or 1980,IIRC, because the US was deploying anti-missile laser sats and the Soviets launched before the laser defense was fully operational. Background from SPI's After the Holocaust.

The newly formed Terran Federation [*2] had to deal with the Alphans, the Proximans, and continue its own rebuilding efforts at home. The PC's would start the game a few years after the First Proximan War was finished (Probably 32-35 years after World War Three).

*2 The Terran Federation evolved out of the Far West successor state of the United States. Basically, all the states on the Pacific coast, plus Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico.

As far as building worlds, at that time, I did it one world at a time, and none of them were by modern standards very detailed. This was when CT was just little three books, and I don't think that the first edition Book 3 had subsectors in it [I had a set of 1st edition Bk1-3 LBB's, but I gave them to a friend when I picked up the 2nd edition LBB's [[AARGH!]] ]. For mapping, I used the little sheet markers off of the Star Wars electronic space battle game, which was the hotest thing in electronics at the time, next to electronic Battleship, which shows you how freakin old I am.

Lets see, Ah! Most of the worlds were randomly generated, although a few like Alpha and Proxima Centauri were modified to fit what was in the TTA book. No committee, did it myself.

Had quite a few battles with the Proximans using just the first 3 LBB's and Mayday. Used this universe until I got Adventure 1, Kinunir. After that I was a slave to the canon universe until after MT desolved. Now I like to talk alot about having an alternate universe, but mostly I remain stuck in the time between 1100-1115.

 

[Morte]

Am I allowed one I've been thinking about but haven't run (yet)? I had it in mind to recreate the wild west of cowboy films (not reality, cowboy films). It needs an analagous spread of infrastructure, population, industry, civilisation, education, wealth, motives etc.

So, mapping out the key story elements:

- Ships of various sizes = horses, wagons and wagon trains.

- Mains stringing together desirable worlds and resources = rivers. Lots of traffic, big ships.

- Jump gates = the railroad. They're constructed at surreal cost between major/strategic destinations. Jump-related technology allows faster transit, provided there's a gate at each end.

- FTL comms like Vernor Vinge's "A Fire Upon The Deep" = the telegraph. Planet sized antennae at a few strategic locations allow instant comms with very limited data rates.

- Tech level is about 10 maximum "back east", at the frontier it's lower except where it needs to be high.

- A place to go = a place to go. People may head out for political reasons, religious reasons, to avoid jail or enemies, to make a name for themself, to do crimes where lawmen are rare, because it has to be better than their old life, to explore and to adventure.

- The unobtanium rush = the gold rush.

- Habitable planets = the big frontier towns, while rocks and wheels and ships and airtight mining colonies = the ranches, mines, and little houses on the prairie.

- The urge to grab the space before somebody else does = the urge to grab the land before somebody else does. Governments and business interests will fiance and encourage exploration, exploitation, and colonisation in space just as they did in the westerns.

- A stake = a stake. Once you've built or excavated something out there on the frontier, it's worth stealing and it's worth defending.


For stories, take the western of your choice (from "The Magnificent Seven" to "Unforgiven") and transplant it to space.

OTU (as I know it) does not seem too suitable for this game since it's mostly got old buffer zones rather than new frontiers. Perhaps it could be some early era, or perhaps it would have to be a new setting. I'd certainly like it to be smaller, maybe 50 to 100 parsecs from "coast to coast". I'd put in a huge rift for the Atlantic and scatter minor alien races of various power along the way. The system data would need to be tweaked to get the rifts, mains, unobtanium lodes etc where you want them.

This is meant to be a narrativist game, where the goal is to build a good story rather than to do the smartest or most realistic thing. I'd add a metagame mechanic ripped off from The Riddle of Steel to support that. You declare a couple of "passions" (strong PC motivations) and a "code of conduct". Whenever you stick your neck for these you earn bonus dice, which you can add to rolls when in pursuit of your passions/code. So you can get heroic about things that are close to your heart and stay alive. You advance your character when you spend those bonus dice. [Corollary: the way to powergame is to go all out for the things your character cares about and ignore the things they don't, i.e. to create a dramatic character and roleplay them. Cunning, huh?]

 

[Jame]

Hey! I did this already! I called it "Homegrown Campaigns!" HEY!

 

[mike wightman]

Hey! I did this already! I called it "Homegrown Campaigns!" HEY!

Don't worry Jame, just remember that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

I also believe there is an imposter who has stolen your name and goes by the name of Jame#1

 

[Hecateus]

*1 World War Three started either in 1990 or 1980,IIRC, because the US was deploying anti-missile laser sats and the Soviets launched before the laser defense was fully operational. Background from SPI's After the Holocaust.

*sigh* The year was 1987 and the craft was Ranger Three. I can't believe I remember that after some 10-15 years since seeing it last. *cries in geek pride/humility*

 

[aramis]

Originally posted by Hecateus:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr /> *1 World War Three started either in 1990 or 1980,IIRC, because the US was deploying anti-missile laser sats and the Soviets launched before the laser defense was fully operational. Background from SPI's After the Holocaust.

*sigh* The year was 1987 and the craft was Ranger Three. I can't believe I remember that after some 10-15 years since seeing it last. *cries in geek pride/humility* </font>[/QUOTE]Assuming, of course, that your source was the 1970's movie (also the pilot for the TV show), rather than the original novel or the early 20th C serial films

 

[Keklas Rekobah]

Tell me about your homebrew Traveller setting.

- What's it like?
Classic Traveller meets Cyberpunk. The worlds range from TL-3 to TL-A.

- What's interesting about it?
The mysteries waiting to be solved. F'rinstance; Where do the rich people on the high-tech worlds get all their replacement limbs and organs? Why are certain individuals on low-tech worlds enjoying such high-tech luxury? And why is it that so many young people from low-tech worlds stop communicating with their loved ones soon after emigrating to the high-tech worlds?

- How's it different than the "canon" melieux?
Faster character generation - much needed when the character mortality rate approaches 5% per session.

- How was it developed?
Evolution, mixed with a few 'mistakes' that have become permanent House Rules, with character development by real-life ex-miltary, a fundamentalist minister, an atheist leet hacker, and the assorted odd mutants one finds lurking about the local gaming stores.

- Were the worlds randomly generated or hand crafted?
Both. I keep a stock of pre-generated star systems in case of misjumps or other events where the characters would otherwise go 'off the map'.

- Did you build a whole sector or has it grown world by world?
I started with seven pre-generated sectors (based on hexagonal jump maps 13 parsecs across). Some worlds only have names and a minimal description, others have several cities with detailed maps (appr. 10 to 20% of the buildings are decribed).

- Was it built mainly by one person or is it a cooperative venture?
As the Ref, mine is the guiding force. If a player has a suggestion for a world or encounter, then I may incorporate it at a later date (or not). I also ask that the players themselves detail their characters' homeworlds - the more effort a player puts into detailing his or her character's homeworld, the more likely I am to incorporate it into "my" milieu (it's really "ours", but I ain't gonna tellum!).

 

[RobertFisher]

Thanks for all the replies.

And thanks, Jame, for pointing out the older thread. I'd searched for one before starting this one, but didn't find it. (Now that I'm reading it, I beginning to vaguely remember it...

)

My group--none of them have played Traveller before--is interested in giving Traveller a try sometime. Traveller games I've played in were always set in the 3rd Imperium, but I can't decide whether to use it or go homebrew.

 

[aramis]

Originally posted by RobertFisher:
Thanks for all the replies.

My group--none of them have played Traveller before--is interested in giving Traveller a try sometime. Traveller games I've played in were always set in the 3rd Imperium, but I can't decide whether to use it or go homebrew.

If using GT or T20, go OTU. (Otherwise, why bother with the verion in question? {yes, this is hyperbole})
If they are fans of "Foundation", or of Doc Smith, David Webber, or Lois McMaster Bujold, go OTU, but pointing out the similarities and differences from their fandom baseline.

Otherwise, do whichever you're more comfortable with.

 

[flykiller]

My group--none of them have played Traveller before--is interested in giving Traveller a try sometime. Traveller games I've played in were always set in the 3rd Imperium, but I can't decide whether to use it or go homebrew.

going "homebrew" involves a massive amount of work. if you go that route you may want to keep things limited and contained at first.

 

[R_Kane]

Originally posted by Morte:
Am I allowed one I've been thinking about but haven't run (yet)? I had it in mind to recreate the wild west of cowboy films (not reality, cowboy films). It needs an analagous spread of infrastructure, population, industry, civilisation, education, wealth, motives etc.

<snipped for brevity>

Now I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but on the off chance you havn't seen/heard about it...

This sounds extremely close to the world/universe Whedon was creating in the short-lived Firefly series. Due out on DVD Dec 9th.

Crazy mish-mash of genres for some, but loved by many,myself and my g/f included (and she isn't big into space sci-fi OR westerns).

 

[savage]

For me its the T20 rules and TNE timeline with significant differences.
The Commonwealth, a pocket empire in Corridor, is a small empire of 22 worlds surrounding the remants of a Depot. After being the first Depot to be upgraded in 1116, a Stephon effort to construct SuperDepots and expand the empire, it hosts a significantly improved defense grid including a battle avatar which the locals named First Citizen. Although partially destroyed, per canon, it is the Depot that refused to die and managed to save are refit part of the mothball fleet.
The Regency is now corrupt and getting worse.
The Vilani Empire (now 1/2 sector) sees itself as the future 4th Imperium and is wheeling and dealing its growth.
The Vargr extents have collapsed and only small pocket empires remain.
There is essentially a cold war between many govts.

The Tech:
- Jumpgates allow improved use of fuel in travel and have other interesting features. Ancient jumpgates reject and destroy Virus ships...
- TL16 power plants allow the use of the 1/2 fuel rule
- Ships with Mortgages are allowed to travel outside the Commonwealth border. Most interstellar govts will seize vessels reported missing in an effort to collect the reward. Except for a few like the Virus pockets...they just keep them.
- I've played with character generation in an effort to provide friends, improve certain skills and improved multi-service class moves.
- I've implemented multi-spinal mount carriages...and several other alterations.
- I've borrowed stargates to a small extent. The Imperium had 4 stargates that were in the hands of the Scout Service...
- I've borrowed from TV as well. Always liked the old Battlestars. They're fresh out of the Depot shipyards. Other vessels are also being rolled out.

But the real key is that everyone has fun.

Savage

 

[jwdh71]

I've run mostly homegrown campaigns, starting with my first, as it began before the OTU was known to me.

Kurgan Dominate: Very first campaign, a mishmash of a variety of SF universes, book, TV and movie included. Major polity was the above named Kurgan Dominate, think Star Wars Empire mixed with Cylons (yes I know, cheesy). The PC's were almost always from one of the smaller human polities at the edges of the empire. Lots of bizarre inventions and weapons, from a variety of sources. Rules set: Classic Traveller, with house rules (additional character types, combat rules, different jump fuel rules). Ran several campaigns in it, including a "Overthrow the Empire!" type campaign that had, at its height, about 15 people playing.

Terran Confederation (1st Ed.): Human only setting, based on extrapolated future at that current time (80's). Major Earth states kept competing out among the stars, until consolidated into Confederation. One polity, lots of frontier, no intelligent aliens. Kept pretty close to standard Traveller tech tree. Rules set: Classic Traveller heavily modified (new combat rules, new weapons, new Book 4 style character generation, new ship design rules, new ship combat system, etc.). Ran three campaigns, one active duty Nave/Marines, crewing a frontier patrol cruiser, one a troubleshooting team, and one a Mission:Impossible style group that ended up being called the "Never Happened Squad".

Terran Confederation (2nd Ed.) Same basic setup as above, but with additional human polities and aliens, including the Aslan, and a anarcho-libertarian human "state" called the Alliance of Free Worlds. Pretty much same tech as above, but with more of an emphasis on computer and commo tech, especially in the core systems. Rules set: GURPS Traveller, and T20. Ran one campaign, again an active duty frontier patrol cruiser crewed with Navy and Marines.

United Worlds: The closest any of my homebrew campaigns has come to the OTU, this campaign has all the races from the OTU and blends them into a different setting, due to different history. Ancients existed, but not Grandfather and his bunch. Vilani "empire" much less harsh, more of a mercantile league, and they amalgamated with the Terrans once they discovered each other. Aslan, and Hiver are part of the UW, and lend their support against enemies like the (more evil) Zhodani, and the K'Kree. Other baddies are the breakaway Terrans known as the Transhumans, or Transies for short. Radical experimenters with genetics, cybernetics, nanotech, and other forbidden sciences, they were thrown out of Terran space before the UW was founded. Tech is much more varied than normal Traveller, with more attention being paid to the biosciences and cyberware than normal Traveller. Rules set: T20, with pieces being taken from a variety of D20 sourcebooks.

As always, YMMV
John Hamill
jwdh71@yahoo.com

 

[Despasian]

One of the mose interesting home-grown campaigns I played in, was centered around discovering a Ringworld.
The referee populated it with the races from Julian May's 'Pleistocene Exile' Series (Many Colored Land, Golden Torque, etc).

For those who don't know it (a shame), they were

Tanu: Tall, beautiful, (elf-like) POWERFUL Psionic race who classified you according to your Psi potential.

Frivulag: Short, misshapen dwarves. Psionic-based ability to make elaborate illusions. More primitive than the Tanu.

The two (dying) races had an old fued, and the story involved their efforts to use humans as breeding stock.

This made for quite and interesting Traveller world to operate in to say the least.

Lots of fun though.