I’ve got this sudden desire to run some Traveller. This desire is particularly odd since the last time I played Traveller was back when I was about 13, and that was only for one session in any case. Then I’ve occasionally looked at the rulebooks, but the last time was over a decade ago. In fact, it’s getting closer to two decades.
So, why Traveller, and why now?
I’m sure one reason is to investigate a game I never got the chance to play “back then” – much like why I’m about to run a Call of Cthulhu game and why I’ve played so much BattleTech recently. However, there’s also the fact that I’m just about to finish running a Serenity campaign and playing in a Star Wars campaign, and I’m ready for another Science Fiction RPG.
I had reservations about both the Star Wars and Serenity systems – much more about the latter, which is one of the few systems I hope never to use again – but, as of yet, I don’t have those reservations about Traveller. The basic system – as I understand it – is roll 2d6 and score 8 to succeed. Skills and stats add modifiers, as do other conditions. That seems simple enough to use, and I’m rather fond of systems that I don’t have to think too much to run at present.
It should be noted that the Traveller version that I’d run – assuming I get to run it – would be the latest one from Mongoose Publishing, which can currently be purchased for a very reasonable aus$25 from MilSims. The way Traveller handles character generation is a feature I really like about it, although I note you can’t actually die during chargen in this edition, at least as far as I know.
One review of Traveller notes that it has pretty engaging starship combat rules, by which I mean this: all the players get something to do. I like that and consider it important. Of course, I don’t know how they run, but at least everyone is rolling dice. There’s also apparently comprehensive trading rules, which I would have loved during my Serenity campaign, and I’m sure Derek will very much enjoy.
So, can anyone tell me any more about Traveller? And would any of my friends want to play?
As well as owning MongTraveller and a few supplements (Mercenary, High Guard, Scout, + The Universe/Ships of Babylon 5 and Judge Dredd books) and also played a shortish campaign of it last year. Here follows a rough collection of my thoughts thereof.
It is indeed a simple system, and the numbers involved are small enought o be easy to manage – if you have a +4 or more in a dice roll, then you’re really good. You need a 12 or 13 on your starting stats to get a +2 mod from them, for example, and getting a skill to level 3 is possible but you’ll probably only have one.
Note that 8+ on 2d6 is the standard difficulty, and assumes a challenging-ish role – i.e. something which take focus even for someone who has been doing it for years. By contrast, you drop down to 6 if it’s something which a career-trained person can do without really thinking.
Character generation is pretty cool, and while it doesn’t appeal to everyone (the focus on random-ness was a bit of a turn-off for one member of our group) I do find it produces rounded, “real” characters. There are various optional rules provided for point-buy purchase, “iron man” generation where you can die mid-generation, etc: but as written it makes interesting PCs with a clear reason to adventure. (And while bad things can happen in character gen, it more generated plot hooks than seriously borks your character.) I enjoy it so much that I am known to randomly roll up Traveller characters when I’m bored just for something to do. (Oh, in fairness, I should note that we generated our Traveller characters by rolling 2d6 eight times and taking the top six to assign, but when I’ve generated them myself I’ve stuck with a striaght six rolls and it’s usually worked out OK)
We had an alien PC and a psychic PC in our group, and neither of them had any serious game balance issues. (Though the GM did nerf psionics a bit in our game world, making psi-drugs and psi-amplifying kits more essential rather than additionals) I personally would run Traveller without them but that’s a flavour thing, not a crunch one.
We never actually played a proper space combat in all our game – and we only had two very brief fights, one PC punch-up and one short shooting bout with natives. Combat is pretty clearly dangerous, no matter how experienced you are, and you need to be clear about that before anyone throws themselves into the fray – if you get hurt then it’s a fair bit of work to patch you up to normal.
George Q