And so we come to Day Seven of this whistle-stop tour of one of the best (if not THE best) science fiction role-playing games ever made. We have looked at character generation, ship building, world creation and presented Hell Station, a mini-campaign setting ready for you to dive right in and play. I could easily fill another RPG Week with stuff we haven’t covered including Combat, Trade, Animal Encounters, Ship Economics, Psionics and more.

And that’s just from the core Classic Traveller Starker Kit books. Add in the multitude of (consistently excellent) Books & Supplements and we’d be able to to turn this into a whole RPG Year dedicated to Classic Traveller. The Books greatly expanded character generation details for Mercenaries, the Navy (High Guard), Scouts, Merchant Princes and Robots, while each Supplement brought more goodness to Traveller, either expanding and documenting the Imperium (Supplement 8 & 11, Library Data (A-M) and (N-Z)), expanding character generation (Supplement 4, Citizens of the Imperium) or giving cool new ships to fly and encounter (such as Supplement 7, Traders and Gunboats).

My favourite Supplements are the ones which packed a stunning amount of content in (by today’s glossy high page count standards) a miniscule amount of space. I’m taking about Supplement 1 and 6. The first one contains 1,001 Characters in just 44 pages and covered all of the services as well as entire hordes of Troopers, Policemen and Thugs. Any of these can be used as PCs or NPCs at the drop of a hat meaning this booklet serves double duty as both a Monster Manual and PC Roster. Supplement 1 ends on a high point with 9 full write-ups of characters from classic science fiction novels. Can you guess them all?

Supplement 6 gives us 76 Patrons. In Classic Traveller terms, a Patron Encounter is a brief outline of a job offer from a (hopefully wealthy) NPC along with a handful of potential plot twists the adventurers might confront along the way. In other words, each one is a scenario that any half-competent GM should be able to run with on the fly. Supplement 6 gives us a whopping 76 of the things ranging from the relatively simple (escort a married couple to a planet safe from their parents’ meddling) to the wonderfully over the top (prevent multiple elite assassination attempts against the leader of a failed military coup – good luck!). The Patron Encounters in 76 Patrons are organized by number of players – 2-6, 5-12, 9 or more, single player and Mercenary Companies. This should give you an idea of the sheer flexibility of the Traveller rules; it plays just as well whether you have one player, or a multitude.

Patron Encounters generally follow the same format – a single line detailing who the Patron is (Noble, Terrorist, Merchant, etc), and any Required Skills or Equipment needed to complete the task. That is followed by the Players’ Information which can be read out loud if you want to jump right into the scenario, or role-played out. After that we have the Referee’s Information which provides multiple possible plot twists that generally range from “All is as presented” to “OMG the Patron is a serial killer!" Run away!”. Pick one, or roll d6.

Here’s a quick example.

Marine Officer   Required Skills: none  Required Equipment: starship

Players’ Information:
Just before lifting off-planet the players are approached by a Marine in full dress uniform. He explains he has been dumped on this planet by his “friends” as a prank and is getting married in ten days time at the players’ destination. He will pay Cr3000 (all he has) if he can hitch a ride.

Referee’s Information:
1. All is as it seems. The Marine is a model passenger and keeps to himself throughout the trip. If they make the journey in time, they are invited to the wedding.
2. As above, except the Marine neglected to mention that he was not granted leave by his hard-ass Commanding Officer and the players’ ship will be ordered to hand him over on arrival.
3. He is a terrible passenger. He suffers Jump Sickness, trigger-happy, has severe pre-wedding nerves and demands constant care and attention. If that’s not bad enough, he considers himself something of an expert engineer and keeps “fiddling” with the ship’s systems. Note: spacing a passenger is severely frowned upon.
4. The Marine was dumped off-planet by his Best Man and rival love interest for his bride. He will do all he can to ensure he doesn’t get to the church on time.
5. He was dumped off-planet on orders from his bride-to-be who was trying to prevent an arranged marriage. She will do all she can to prevent him from getting to the church on time – including claiming it was the Best Man doing all along.
6. The “Marine” is really a wanted killer playing on the Traveller’s heartstrings in a bid to get off planet as quickly as possible.

What’s fun about Patron Encounters is that it’s easy to jot down any stupid idea that comes to you in this format for later use. If you want to note down possible plot twists, all the better. I suggest a minimum of three (on a d6 roll of 1-2, 3-4, 5-6) and that gives you three (or more) chances to re-run the same scenario with different outcomes.

Don’t under-estimate the “all is as presented” option. Most adventuring parties can get into quite enough trouble all on their own without further complications! After all, 90% of all D&D adventures lack plot twists – go in, kill stuff, take treasure and there’s nothing wrong with that.

I’ll end this week with a handful of Patron Encounters for adventurer’s based on and around Hell Station. They all assume the heroes are working at the station and either on their tour of duty or heading off-planet at its end. Expand or improvise the plot options as required.

1. Miner   Required Skills: none  Required Equipment: none

Players’ Information:

One of the Gas Miners who has befriended the adventurers approaches them and asks if they can find his brother. He was last seen working Deep Pocket Nine, a Restricted Access drop shaft attached to Hell Station.  If the party can find him and bring him back safely the Gas Miner will give them Cr2,500.

Referee’s Information:
1-2. The brother is trapped and has a broken leg but is otherwise safe and well. Rescuing him should be simple and earn a couple of firm friends on-base.
3-4. The brother is seriously injured and being held captive by strange demon-like creatures (UPP A88621, Brawling-2) who are working to turn Deep Pocket Nine into some kind of hellish portal.
5-6. There is no brother. The “Gas Miner” who has befriended them is really a Scientist who wants to dupe the adventurers into entering a Restricted Zone and trigger or disable the alarms for his own nefarious purposes.

2. Administrator   Required Skills: Admin-1 Required Equipment: none

Players’ Information:

The adventurers are heading to Caina on board the Minneapolis when when they are approached by a mask-wearing Cainite. He formally introduces himself as Tertiary Adjunct to the Manifest Replication Consumables Procurement Division – an essential role in the governmental process (he’s in charge of the man who is in charge of buying photocopier toner). He has been at Hell Station on the request of his government to examine work process there and wishes to employ the party as his advisors when they reach planetside. He offers Cr15,000 and excellent accommodation, all at the government’s expense.

Referee’s Information:
1. The Tertiary Adjunct is a little out of his depth, but otherwise all is as it seems. The heroes are wined and dined lavishly and all goes to plan (provided they don’t do anything stupid, of course).
2-3. The Tertiary Adjunct has a rival who will do anything to ensure his mission is seen as a failure by his superiors. This includes planting illicit weapons on his advisors (the party), inventing charges against them (but with Caina’s tortuously convoluted laws, who can tell?) and spreading rumours that they are spies for the Imperium. The food is good though.
4-5. The Secondary Adjunct (Tert’s boss) is keen to promote the boy – to a different division safely away from his own job. He appears excessively pleased with his report and suggests him for “promotion” to the Extra-Cainan Communication, Education and Dissemination Division (ie, talking to foreigners). This stirs up a hornet’s nest of ripples through the Administrative network resulting in the Tertiary Adjunct and his new friends being hunted by masked assassins wielding clipboards with deadly precision.
6. The Tertiary Adjunct is not the Tertiary Adjunct but merely the lowly Quarternary Adjunct (ie, the one who buys the photocopier toner) who killed his boss, faked his identity then jumped off planet under pretence of being on a diplomatic mission. He hopes to return with his new found friends and expertise to secure his position higher up the chain of command. Unfortunately, the real Tertiary Adjunct’s body has been found but not yet been identified. It’s just a matter of time…

3. Station Commander Required Skills: none  Required Equipment: Minneapolis, heavy weaponry

Players’ Information:
One of the Scientists has absconded with a valuable vial of Strontium-9000 and escaped to Judecca. The adventurers are asked by the Head of Hell Station to retrieve the vial as soon as possible. They are given full use of the Minneapolis, Cr30,000 for “expenses” and a one month deadline. After that time, the Head will have no choice but to notify the Imperial Navy of the theft, and that is guaranteed to be unpleasant for everyone (especially the adventurers).

Referee’s Information:
1. When they finally track him down, the Scientist is a coward who will hand over the vial if threatened or otherwise coerced. 
2-3. As above, but the Scientist is hiding with a local petty Warlord who isn’t such a pushover. The adventurers will likely need a large posse and larger weapons (or an excellent plan) to retrieve the vial safely.
4-6. The adventurers find the Scientist but the vial breaks, warping the surrounding area to a massive degree, immediately turning several square miles of land into something more appropriate for a Gamma World scenario, most likely including the adventurers themselves. Good luck.

Finally, I have to give another shout-out to The Dump Stat and Tower of the Archmage for enthusing and posting yet more greatness about Classic Traveller. You guys rock!

The Classic Traveller Starter Kit is currently available for free from RPGNow. It contains all you need to play Traveller including rules for character, world, sector, starship and encounter generation as well as two  complete classic adventures to kick start your own exploration among the stars. Go get it!

Hell Station floats amid the noxious clouds of the Gas Giant Malebolge, fifth planet in the Ptolomaea System. It acts as home base for a fledgling group of Traveller adventurers, but where do they go when they want to fly the nest?

Here’s an overview of the stellar systems within Jump-2 range of Ptolomaea system. Each one can be the potential location for many adventures, and that will be the topic for Day Seven where we look at Patron Encounters.

In each system I’ll give an overview of the main world though some systems may well have secondary or tertiary planets of interest. That leaves room for even this tiny little patch of space to expand as needed. Which is handy.

Caina (D34499A-7)

Caina is ruled by a faceless bureaucracy – literally faceless as all administrators wear masks that denote their rank according to a strictly documented code. No bureaucrat knows the identity of their superior or co-workers. This has inevitably led to intense competition, intrigue and counter-espionage as state employees continually blackmail and assassinate their way through the ranks. Pity the poor innocent Traveller who gets caught in a war between rivals from the Stationary and Sundries Division (J Group).

Thankfully, the Extreme Law Level keeps the worst of the violence to the shadows  – possession of even so much as a pocket knife can result in the mandatory completion of 145 forms, all in triplicate. A fate, some would say, worse that imprisonment.

Antenora (BAC6133-C)

Antenora (pronounced antinora, not Auntie Nora. Getting it wrong is a guaranteed way to annoy the natives) is permanent home to just 20 people, all of whom claim to be descendants of a mythical line of kings. The well-maintained Orbital Starport is manned by students and historians who come from across the known worlds to examine the many historically unique documents stored on planet. Every year a single lottery is held, the winner of which is granted 3 months’ unlimited access to the planet-wide library. The price of the tickets bring much-needed wealth into the planet that is used to keep the ravages of Antenora’s insidious atmosphere away from the ancient tomes. The idea of moving the library to somewhere less damaging to the books is viewed as heresy.

The system is also home to a Scout Base, though rumours persist that this is merely a front for an Imperium Spy Base which continually monitors the information discovered by historians in the library.

Antenora possesses this cluster of system’s only X-Boat Waystation. All news to and from the rest of Known Space passes through this system. Another reason, some would say, for the presence of the Spy…. I mean, Scout Base.

Judecca (D8D2452-5)

Judecca is a lawless dustbowl frontier world where petty warlords vie to carve out their own patch of dirt before they end up under it. The only laws worth a damn in Judecca are shoot first and if the gun ain’t pointing at you, look the other way.

The low Tech Level reflects the fact precious few people know how to repair stuff, let alone build it. When the dense atmosphere put a ‘droid out of action its left to rot where it stands. Many end up riddled with bullet holes soon enough, anyhow.

It’s wise to avoid Judecca unless you’re a bounty hunter, tough frontiersman or need place to lay low for a while. Judecca folks don’t ask no questions ‘bout nothin’.

Ptolomaea (C667677-A)

The planet Ptolomaea is, compared to those in its neighbouring stellar systems, surprisingly normal. If you consider a planet that’s home to 5 million intelligent winged serpents normal. The continents posses a diversity that could almost be called Earth-like with swamps, tundras, polar ice caps and a wide jungle belt surrounding the equator. Each different terrain type is home to a unique species of winged serpent that generally keep to themselves.

The Type C Down Starport sits on a hard-fought patch of land. When the Imperium reached Ptolomaea they fought an intense battle with the natives of this region that resulted in the extinction of an entire species of winged serpents.

Centuries later, there are still muttered rumours as to what would happen if the other races of winged serpents united to drive out the invaders…..

Phlegyas (B9A7665-7)

The key thing to remember about coming to Phlegyas is: don’t. If the almost 80% pure arsenic atmosphere doesn’t kill you, the natives will.  These naturally arsenic breathing humanoids are extremely xenophobic, and with good reason. The Imperium is purposefully holding back their Tech Level planet-wide to keep them from reaching the stars. In effect, Phlegyans are imprisoned on their own planet. The original reason for this interdiction is lost to time (though perhaps it is recorded in the library at Antenora), but their xenophobic attitudes keep them there. Despite the interdiction, some few Phlegyans do  manage to make it off-world and are occasionally blamed for terrorism throughout the Imperium. Whether there are any truths to these links is, of course, a different matter.

There is a small but growing Cult of the Imperial Overlords growing among the younger Phlegyans that worship the Imperium as gods and claim that the restrictions placed on them is for their own good. They point to the damage done to other planets by high-technology, and sing praises that this will never happen to them.

The closest most Imperials get to Phlegyas is the Orbital Starport – a very well maintained facility which keeps a distrustful watch over goings-on planetside.

Phlegethon (EAC9304-A)

The good thing about Phlegethon is that it is almost entirely a water world. The bad thing is the 2,200mph winds that continually encircle the planet. The only “safe” zone is at the poles where small Down Starport landing strips play host to a regular Extreme Surfing event. Surfers come from all over the Imperium to try their hand at the event. The courses are graded by wind speed from the trainee “mild” 120mph at the poles themselves upwards. Most surfers end up with the flesh stripped from their bones within seconds of (trying to) stand up. It makes for great TV, and is syndicated Imperium wide.

Rivalry between the poles of Phlegethon intensifies every four years where each pole tries to attract the best surfers in a bid to reclaim The Bones, a golden trophy which contains the remains of the first (and only) surfer to successfully circumnavigate the equator. He did it in just over 7 hours.

Next: Patron Encounters

The Classic Traveller Starter Kit is currently available for free from RPGNow. It contains all you need to play Traveller including rules for character, world, sector, starship and encounter generation as well as two  complete classic adventures to kick start your own exploration among the stars. Go get it!

Strontium-9000. It is as unique as it is valuable; constantly unstable, it exist in an eternal state of flux. It appears completely impervious to changes in temperature, gravity, pressure or any other outside influence. And it is only available from one place in the whole universe.

Hell Station.

A typical Hell Station mining platform at work

This rugged gas mining station hovers on the outer rim of Malebolge, a Gas Giant (UPP D9C0215-B) and sole source of Strontium-9000. This is the fifth planet in the Ptolomaea System, itself named after the third planet (UPP C667677-A) and home to a race of intelligent winged serpents.

This is Rig 5. Come in Hell Station. This is Rig 5. Something is trying to get inside. Repeat, something is…….

Hell Station itself is nominally classified as a D quality Orbital Starport though entry is difficult due to the Hellstorms (as they’re nicknamed) and highly corrosive & insidious atmosphere. Only those with the Pilot-2 skill or better are permitted entry. All others are directed to Ptolomaea’s type C Starport instead – no exceptions.

Just because you live in a universe populated by aliens and power-hungry mega-corporations doesn’t mean there are no more conspiracy theories.

Hell Station is home to around 300 staff on a rolling 6 month tour of duty. Almost half of these are gas miners who control the multitude of pipes, pulleys and rigs that surround the Station itself. The rest are made up of hardy engineers, a small contingent of corporate scientists & administrators and a surprising number of ex-Army & ex-Marine personnel who operate as police and security for the Station’s inhabitants.

It goes without saying that the work is dangerous, but the pay and perks attract folks from all walks of life and race. Pay is three times standard rates and includes free Middle Passage on the Minneapolis transporter to any destination within Jump-2 distance at the end of every tour of duty. All staff must take a minimum of 3 months’ unpaid leave after each tour with pickup schedule and return date agreed in advance if they wish to take another tour. Despite the risks, many staffers return – after all, where else can you get 18 months’ pay for 6 months’ work?

You remember what happened to the last guy who asked what they use Strontium-9000 for? No, neither do I…

The risks on-board station come in many forms. The station itself, like many rigging platforms, is home to far too much testosterone and that brings its own troubles. Add to that the persistent risk of sudden and catastrophic engineering failure, corporate spying and sabotage, invasion by pirates (or worse) and all kinds of weirdness caused by handling unstable isotopes in the wild and rarely a day goes by where something doesn’t happen. In Hell Station, a good day is one where there’s no blood to clean off the walls. A bad day is one where there are no walls left to clean.

Next: The surrounding planets.

The Classic Traveller Starter Kit is currently available for free from RPGNow. It contains all you need to play Traveller including rules for character, world, sector, starship and encounter generation as well as two  complete classic adventures to kick start your own exploration among the stars. Go get it!

Worlds. Big round (usually) things bobbing on a sea of black. Each one unique, and every one the potential destination for a bunch of trigger-happy Traveller adventurers. Classic Traveller includes complete rules for creating everything from an asteroid belt to a high-population uber-tech Capital World, but y’know what? Let’s start bigger than that. Much bigger.

The Universe is divided into Subsectors. These are whole chunks of space 8 parsecs across by 10 parsecs down. For those of you that don’t know, one parsec is about 3.26 light years meaning an entire subsector covers an area about 26×33 light years in size. Put together a four-by-four grid of subsectors together, and you’ve got a sector.

Traveller Known Space looks like this:

(Maps from the utterly wonderful http://www.travellermap.com/)

Each one of those rectangles is a sector. Let’s zoom in a touch.

Wow. Each one of those dots is a stellar system and the green lines are X-Boat routes that act as essential communication lines between the thousands of worlds which make up the Imperium.

Zooming in again.

Welcome to Capital Subsector. Blue systems have water present; white ones don’t. The letters A-E and X denote the quality of the best (but not necessarily only) Starport in the system with A being an excellent facility and E being a marked patch of ground. A Starport rating of X means there isn’t one present – find somewhere flattish and hope for the best.

The other symbols show whether the system has Naval Bases (a star), Scout Bases (a triangle) or Gas Giants (small dot in the top right) present.

Got all that? Cool. now let’s zoom out.

See that little red splotch at the bottom of the galaxy? That’s Known Space. The rest is yours, all yours. And this is just one galaxy.

That is a LOT of space. Time to fill it, and it all begins with an enticingly blank subsector grid like this one.

(Source: The Zhodani Base, an excellent place for Traveller gamers to be)

There’s a 50/50 chance of any given hex in a subsector containing a system. That’s a roll of 4,5,6 on a d6. Parts of space where planetary systems are more dense (the Core Worlds, for example) get a +1 on the roll meaning it’s a 3,4,5,6 on a d6, while the less densely packed (relatively speaking) parts of the universe  get a -1 on the roll so just a 5 or 6 on a d6 will merit a planetary system.

That’s not to say that the empty parsecs are necessarily empty as such – they might just be uninteresting, unexplored, be stars lacking planetary bodies or (best of all) have been wiped off the Galactic Charts for Unexplained Reasons. Or, of course, they might just be empty.

Once you’ve got your dots all over your subsector map and recorded the presence of Starports, Bases and Gas Giants, it’s time to generate them planets. It’s worth starting somewhere interesting and working your way outward as the need arises.

The usual process is to generate only the Universal Planetary Profile for the main world in each System, though if you have a system that’s going to play an important part in the campaign (the Travellers’ homebase, for example), it might be worthwhile creating three or more planets in the system. Either way, the steps are the same and detailed on page 15 of the Charts booklet in the Classic Traveller Starter Kit. Check the Starport Type (either already rolled, or pick a lesser (or equal) quality Starport for a subsidiary planet) then roll in turn for planetary Size, Atmosphere, Hydrographics, Population, Government, Law Level and Tech Level. Finally, note down any Trade Classifications that apply, and you’re done.

One of the reasons I favour Classic Traveller’s World Generation system over later editions is that it sometimes throws up wonderfully odd results, and it is these from which awesome adventures are made. You can have a planet with a Starport C yet a tech level equal to Earth’s in the 1700’s, or a very high-tech world with no Starport at all. You can have a Naval Base orbiting a Zero Population world ruled by a Charismatic Dictator (an insane but friendly Computer, perhaps) or an Asteroid Belt populated by billions of inhabitants. It’s the crazy worlds that make the universe what it is, don’t you think?

Just like character generation (and the rest of the rules, for that matter) world generation is damned addictive and it’s not unknown for Traveller gamers to spend hours creating entire universes of systems just for their own amusement. Most folks either don’t have the time, need or desire to spend hours doing all this manually and this is one area where it’s worth letting a computer do all the heavy lifting (though I do recommend trying it at least once by hand!). Traveller Character Generation, imho, should always be done with pencil and paper so you have time to consider each twist and turn of your PC’s career, while Starship Generation is easiest when using a spreadsheet (and a stiff whiskey, if you’re ship building in MegaTraveller). Sector Generation – that’s best done with a computer.

Thankfully there’s no shortage of world-creating applications for Traveller. Our own Alex Schroeder has created a rather spiffy Subsector Mapper which also created beautiful random subsectors for you to kick-start your own campaign.

Arguably the best Traveller Sector, Subsector and World Mapper/Generator is still Galactic (direct link to gal24.zip, mailing list here), even after all these years. This is a DOS program meaning you’re likely to need DOSBOX to run it. Install DOSBOX and unzip gal24.zip someplace then fire up DOSBOX. At the command prompt type mount c: c:\ (it’ll warn you that this is not a clever thing to do – ignore it) then cd into your gal24 directory. For example, I type c: to change to drive C, then cd user\robin\docume~1\rpg\travel~1\classi~1\gal24 – thankfully DOXBOS has auto-complete so it’s just a matter of typing the first few letters of any folder name then hitting tab.

Finally, type gal, and you’re in! Hitting Alt-Enter makes it full screen.

When was the last time you used software written in 1998?

I could go on for hours about just how wonderful Galactic is – from the included Starmaps to the multitude of options, but instead I encourage you to explore it yourself. Press ? for help and keyboard shortcuts, and you’ll soon be creating worlds, sectors and entire universes with the rest of us.

Next: Welcome to HELL STATION.

The Classic Traveller Starter Kit is currently available for free from RPGNow. It contains all you need to play Traveller including rules for character, world, sector, starship and encounter generation as well as two  complete classic adventures to kick start your own exploration among the stars. Go get it!

One of the most awesome things about Classic Traveller (and derivatives) is that the in-game values and role-playing data is present in the game itself. Your character’s stats – his Universal Personality Profile or UPP – can be looked up by your character in the game on any convenient info-terminal. If your crew is looking for a new Engineer (the last one having been accidentally flushed out of the airlock) they can stipulate they want one with a UPP of at least 779878 and have Vacc Suit-1. Picture your character looking at his own character sheet, then watch out for flying brain-matter as your head explodes.

Traveller is one of the few games where the in-game stats break through the Fourth Wall and enter the game itself. Paranoia is the only other one that comes to mind, and that doesn’t come close to the depth of Traveller’s commitment to the concept. Traveller takes that metaphysical breakthrough and runs with it – pretty much everything that needs stats in the game has them in ways that your character can use in-game. Worlds, animals, subsectors and spaceships are all expressed in terms that feel sufficiently science-fiction and in keeping with the tone of the game and traditional “role-playing” language is kept to a minimum.

I can’t stress it enough – this makes a huge difference to how Traveller plays compared to any other game. In D&D, for example, there’s the constant shuffle between being In Character and saying what your Armour Class, Hit Points and to-hit modifier is. In Traveller, you can do all the role-playing stuff and still be in character, all the time.

On to starships.

A Traveller without access to a starship isn’t a Traveller but a Passenger, and that’s not the name of the game. A range of standard starships are provided in the game with the Type S Scout/Courier and  Type A Free Trader potentially available to the characters as a benefit during character generation. Starships are horrendously expensive and the monthly expenses alone are reason enough for the party to take high-risk jobs just to keep up with the payments. The alternative is for them to be assigned a vessel owned by a third party – a mega-corporation, shadowy benefactor or other interested party – or gain one as a reward for completing a mission.

This is where the GM can have a lot of fun. The heroes could have all signed up to work as crew on a deep space exploratory vessel that just happens to have served as a Zombie Plague Ship, or their recently acquired Subsidized Merchant once belonged to a smuggler who wants to retrieve some illicit cargo from its secret storage hold. Maybe the ship is an experimental prototype that just requires the correctly spoken keyphrase to unlock its advanced systems. In short: Starships make for great plot hooks.

If you’re used to playing D&D, think of it like this. Starships in Traveller are like Dungeons that the PCs own and take with them, but you can restock whenever you want. Every trip into Jumpspace takes a week to complete, and that’s seven days’ worth of Adventure Potential In Total Isolation you could fill.

Here’s 1d6 ideas:

1. Jumpspace Ghost Pirates!
2. Psion Storm. Everyone gains a random psionic ability for the duration of the storm. Watch out for the pyrokinetic teenage girl passenger. She has issues.
3. Classic murder mystery. A dead body, a small group of passengers. Who is the killer, and why?
4. The cargo comes to life. That’s what you get for transporting Alien eggs/Dracula’s coffin/Jason’s body/Frozen Supersoldiers/Killer Klowns. Rinse and repeat. Adventurers never learn.
5. The Misjump. Jump-3 becomes Jump-30000 due to a faulty Pentium chip. Sorry about that. Time to explore the unexplored and (perhaps) find a way home, only without Captain Janeway’s annoyingly squeaky voice
6. Ship Malfunction. Being stranded is no fun, especially as it increases the chance of Very Bad things happening. Roll 1d6 twice and apply both results.

Ouch.

But first, your heroes are going to need a ship. While it’s easy enough to give them a standard vessel, the Classic Traveller Starter Kit comes complete with Ship Creation Rules so let’s use them and create the Minneapolis, a 200 ton Jump-2 Transport Ship used by the residents of Hell Station (which we will be creating later this week!) as a shuttle to nearby systems. This isn’t a standard design so the 200 ton hull costs 20 million Credits before we even start. Ouch! A Standard design (200 tons of which 15 tons is allocated for Drives) would be just MCr8, in comparison. This ship was expensive – when it was new.

Checking the Drive Potential table we need Jump Drive B to give it Jump-2, and let’s give it the same for Maneuver Drive and Power Plant as well. That’s 25 tons of capacity accounted for out of our 200 tons.

Maneuver & Power Fuel tanks take up another 20 tons for four weeks operation between refills. That is enough for general use with some to spare in event of emergencies, but this isn’t designed for long-time use in-system. Add another 40 tons for enough fuel for a single Jump-2 (or 2xJump-1s) and we have 105 tons left for the fun stuff.

We allocate 20 tons for the Bridge plus another 1 for the clunky (and doubtless unreliable) Model/1bis Computer. That’s good enough to keep it pointing in the right direction and navigate Jumpspace, but that’s about it.

As a 200 ton ship the Minneapolis requires a crew of 4 – Pilot, Navigator, Engineer and Medic. As this is designed to act as a shuttle between Hell Station and other planets let’s give it 12 Staterooms – 4 for crew (though they could double-up) and 8 for passengers to travel in comfort. While we’re at it, we make the ship Streamlined so it is able to land planet-side should the need arise. Streamlining also includes Fuel Scoops as a part of the package – handy as it’s parked at a gas giant most of the time.

Finally, we give it armaments. The space around Hell Station isn’t exactly well policed, so the Minneapolis needs some form of defence. Two Single Turrets (one either side) mounted with Pulse Lasers should send the right message.

This leaves us with 44 tons of space for cargo, optional air/raft, etc. Perfect.

A bargain at 57.61 million Credits, don’t you think?

Minneapolis, 200 tons, MCr57.61
Jump-2, 2G, 80 tons fuel, Model/1bis, 12 Staterooms, 2 hardpoints (single turret pulse lasers), 44 tons cargo. Streamlined. 4 crew (pilot, navigator,engineer,medic)

See what I mean about everything being described in terms you can use in game. Awesome, yes?

Next: Worlds!

The Classic Traveller Starter Kit is currently available for free from RPGNow. It contains all you need to play Traveller including rules for character, world, sector, starship and encounter generation as well as two  complete classic adventures to kick start your own exploration among the stars. Go get it!

It’s hard to believe that Classic Traveller is over thirty years old. As a rules system it was so far ahead of its time that it is still ahead of its time, now. Fitting for a science-fiction role-playing game, I guess. The ahead-of-its-timedness begins with Character Generation, which is the topic of today’s post. But you already knew that, right?

We are looking at Traveller chargen as presented in the Classic Traveller Starter Kit so that you can download the rules (for free!) and follow along. Other versions of Traveller that evolved from Classic Traveller (such as MegaTraveller and Mongoose Traveller) slightly expanded and increased the complexity, most notably by beginning the process by generating your character’s Homeworld. That’s right, Traveller Character Generation began by creating an entire feckin’ planet! You don’t get any more epic than that.

Over in Classic Traveller as presented in the Starter Kit you don’t, but it’s worth thinking a little about where your fledgling Traveller came from. A human from a high-tech high-population core world would be very different to a purple-skinned humanoid reptilian from the ice planet D’hote, for example. Traveller makes no real assumptions about your species other than saying “most folks are human”. Your character doesn’t have to be “most folks”. Make a race up (with GM’s permission, of course), and run with it.

We begin by rolling the stats in order – 2d6 each for Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Intelligence, Education and Social Standing. These numbers may suggest a race if you haven’t picked one already – a high-Dexterity, low-Strength Tech-Elf from a low gravity world maybe. If nothing suggests, stick with Human. Boring, but at least you’ll fit in just fine.

We begin by rolling the bones and get Str 8, Dex 4, End 5, Int 9, Edu 9, Soc 8. Just for the heck of it, let’s say he is a Woodform creature composed of a dried bark-like substance. He hearkens from a Jungle planet where plantlife has entirely replaced animals in the food chain. He is frail, flammable but unfailingly polite and surprisingly strong. Let’s call him Bramble, or Bram for short. Picture a skinny wookiee made of wood, and you’re there.

The next step is to select your Prior Service. This is roughly analogous to your Character Class, except it describes what your character has been doing up to the start of the campaign. There are six services – Navy, Marines, Army, Scout, Merchant and the catch-all Other – with a differing chance of being Enlisted into each, modified by stats. If you fail the Enlistment you’re Drafted into one of the services at random – possibly into the service you failed to enter in the first place!

Decent Intelligence and Education makes Bram a prime candidate for a job in the Navy. Enlistment is 8 or more with a +3 total modifier for his stats. He rolls a total of 11 – his enlistment is a mere formality. In his first Term he survives, fails to get a commission and reenlists easily. The Navy is eager to enlist Xenoforms but less keen to promote them, it seems.

Imagine playing D&D and wanting your character to be a Cleric but failing the Temple Entrance Exam and being press-ganged into the Thieves’ Guild instead. Traveller is like that. Character Generation is a mini-game unto itself where you walk your character through his (or her) life in four-year chunks until you reach a point you are happy to begin play. Every four years of service offers the opportunity of promotion and new skills, but with the increasing risk of old age taking its toll.

In the second Term, Bram is in the right place at the right time, and gains his Commission. He’s now Ensign Bramble, and looks like he has made the fast track – he is Promoted in his Third Term to the rank of Lieutenant. Three terms puts him at 30 years old and he is beginning to feel the wanderlust. Time to quit the Navy and enter civilian life.

There is also the very real risk of death. Traveller is legendary for being the only rules system where it is possible for your character to die during character generation though most GMs allow the character to survive and be mustered out with a rakish limp or some other heroic wound.

Lieutenant Bram has left the Naval Service with a total of 6 skills and 4 mustering out benefits. We’ll take one roll from each of the skill tables, plus another one from table 1 and 2. Bram gains +1 Int, +1 Soc, Gunnery-1, Mechanical-1, Medical-1, Vacc Suit-1 – Bram has been shunted around different Naval Departments by commanders unsure what to do with an alien made of wood. He also leaves the Service with a ceremonial Cutlass, membership in the Travellers’ Aid Society and Cr55,000. Not bad, all told.

It’s worth looking closely at three of the Services in particular. The Marines, Army and Scouts train their members in a skill as soon as they enter the service (Cutlass-1, Rifle-1 and Pilot-1 respectively) meaning just a single term in one of these these services can provide a perfectly usable fresh-faced 22 year old character right from the start, and a very lucky Scout can gain a Scout Ship of his very own whilst still barely old enough to pilot it to the nearest mall.

Navy Lieutenant Bramble, age 30, male Woodform UPP 845A99
Str 8, Dex 4, End 5, Int A, Edu 9, Soc 9
Gunnery-1, Mechanical-1, Medical-1, Vacc Suit-1
Cutlass, TAS, Cr55,000

Bram would make a great crew member on-board a small spaceship. He’s a veritably jack-of-all-trades able to serve multiple duties as the fixer-upper for both the ship and its crew. As a Woodform, perhaps he sees little distinction between the two. Both have moving parts, right?

What you don’t want is a Traveller party entirely composed of Scouts, each with their own Scout Ship. The ideal Traveller Party has access to one ship large enough to accommodate them all and a broad range of skills and prior experience. It is entirely possible to run a Traveller campaign where the characters lack a ship and rely entirely on Low, Middle and High Passages  to traverse the space lanes, but we all know they’re going end up stealing a ship of their own eventually.

Trust me. They always do.

Next: Talking of starships: Ship Generation!

UPDATE: Shinobicow at The Dump Stat and Tower of the Archmage are both trying out Traveller Character Generation for the first time! Don’t forget to drop by and say hi!

The Classic Traveller Starter Kit is currently available for free from RPGNow. It contains all you need to play Traveller including rules for character, world, sector, starship and encounter generation as well as two  complete classic adventures to kick start your own exploration among the stars. Go get it!

Traveller and I go way back. It was the first role-playing game I ever played (back in the early ’80s), and that first time spawned my love of the hobby that has lasted a lifetime.

I have vague memories of that first scenario. We had docked at a spaceport and managed to annoy the station overseer during entry (something about “not waiting in line”, whatever that is)  so were greeted by station guards and (for no apparent reason) a jeep with a mounted HMG.

We died quickly and ingloriously in a hail of bullets.

We started again using the same characters, rewound time and decided to behave this time around, but it was too late. I was hooked already. I learned much of my rpg skills from those first Traveller sessions, and they shaped me into the player & GM I became. Thanks to that very first session of Traveller I learned that combat is Deadly And Best Avoided – something which stood me in good stead while later playing Call of Cthulhu, but not so much when I was introduced to D&D and my character fled from every creepy noise.

Traveller also taught me the value of teamwork. This was a game where everyone knew their crew position and role, where no man (or woman) gets left behind. It didn’t matter whether you were a lowly Ensign or a dubious Spy from a rival mega-corporation masquerading as the Ship’s Steward, your first loyalty was to the crew and the ship. And if it wasn’t, the rest of the crew would turn on you in seconds. Oh yes, we knew our place.

I am going to devote this week to showing you the ins and outs of Traveller. Today we kick off by looking at what Traveller is. From there we’re going to be looking at the frankly brilliant character generation system and from thence (good word, thence) on to Traveller’s subsystems for generating worlds, sectors, animals, encounters and starships. Once we have finished with the whistle-stop tour we are going to create an entire mini-campaign centred around HELL STATION, a volatile and dangerous gas mining operation floating in the noxious clouds of a Strontium-9000 rich gas giant. We will look at the worlds within Jump-2 range, map the trade routes and create a handful of Patron Encounters to get you started.

Hold on tight, this one is travelling at light speed. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

What is Traveller?

The short answer is that Traveller is a science fiction role-playing game create by Mark Miller in 1977.

The long answer (as is typical with long answers) is rather more complex and involved than that.

The “Traveller role-playing game” isn’t just one rules system that has evolved over time. There are many different systems out there that carry the Traveller badge. Alongside Classic Traveller stands Traveller:The New Era, versions for GURPS, d20 System and HERO as well as numerous updates and revisions (some minor, some major) from various companies and countless fans, the most notable of which are MegaTraveller and the latest release of Mongoose Traveller.

Traveller isn’t one system that has evolved over time, but multiple different systems that each carry the Traveller name and identity. That is a Good Thing at it means there is bound to be a version of Traveller that appeals to you. Some gamers swear by GURPS/Mongoose/Mega Traveller while others (myself included) favour the purity of Classic Traveller. I have known 3e D&D gamers who have enjoyed a session or two of d20 Traveller but wouldn’t touch any other edition, while a few of my wargame buddies are playing a long running gritty Traveller:The New Era campaign.

Unlike the divisive silliness of D&D gamers, Traveller players in the main thrive on the fact there’s multiple different versions of the game they love. It’s all Traveller, so it’s all good, right?

If Traveller isn’t one rule system, maybe it’s one common campaign setting. Well…. yes, and no. The core Classic Traveller system contains no campaign setting at all, though much is implied in the science-fiction assumptions it makes. This is the far future where the speed of communication is limited by the speed of travel. Starships are capable of jumping from one to six parsecs (depending on the engines and ship size) and each jump takes about a week of time regardless of distance travelled. This means the setting has much in common with the 17th Century Age of Sail where mighty ships crossed the oceans sending messages and news between distant colonies.

Supplements and later editions of the game created the Imperium, a vast stretch of space with a history and backstory as complex and detailed as that of our own world. It’s entirely up to you whether you use or ignore it (or use a different universe altogether such as Star Wars, Star Trek or the one from the Elite computer game). I have found the game plays best if you find an unmapped backwater sector of the published Imperium and site your own campaign there. This puts the Imperium “out there” without significantly impacting your own worlds. It also means your adventurers can eventually visit classic Traveller Imperium locations such as the worlds of the Spinward Marches, which is a plus.

So Traveller isn’t one rules system, and isn’t necessarily the Imperium campaign setting. What is it?

Traveller is a state of mind.

Traveller is looking up, and wanting to be there. Traveller is exploring the stars, trading with natives and knowing that a cutlass is the best weapon to use on-board a starship. Traveller is being in Jump Space with an intelligent bomb on countdown timer. Traveller is finding ruins of the Ancients that contain a message just for you. Traveller is a blank hex grid of possibilities where each hex might contain a planet of untold promised dangers or fabulous wealth.

Traveller is all of that, and so much more.

Come with me to the stars!

Next: Character generation

UPDATE: RPGNow is having a huge blowout Traveller sale right now!

The Classic Traveller Starter Kit is currently available for free from RPGNow. It contains all you need to play Traveller including rules for character, world, sector, starship and encounter generation as well as two  complete classic adventures to kick start your own exploration among the stars. Go get it!

COMING SOON!

It’s been a while since we had a fully fledged RPG Week here at Greywulf Towers, and Traveller is next on the list, folks! The Classic Traveller Starter Kit (misnamed – it’s feature complete) is free once again until the end of the year so there is no better time to take a look at arguably the greatest science-fiction role-playing game of all time.

We’re going to begin with an overview of Traveller itself, look at  the brilliant Character Generation and all of the other Generation subsystems (subsectors, worlds, animals, encounters and spaceships, oh my)  then create a complete mini-campaign centred around Hell Station and its nearest (within Jump-2) planets.

Can it be done in just one week? Hell yes!

Heh.

And they call you crazy.

Watch this space!

(space. geddit?)