Wanted to play traveller, but Havent got it it yet. I have used barbarians of lemuria and its genre neutal everywhen expansion to do some sci fi stuff and it seems like a paired down version of traveller but with a simpler career system instead of a list of possible skills.

Thinking about using it with Cephius faster than light to do a longer solo sci fi campaign at some point.

There is also Thousand Suns, which is like a Traveller Heartbreaker.

File: b0c74896ebbcdeb8e1aa1159e6f1dc29.jpg (42.2 KB)

42.2 KB JPG

no guns! [/spoilers]

Has anyone had 4 characters start with a free trader and let them pool their resources to all start jointly owning a fat trader instead of a fully-paid-off free trader? I like the fat trader but I worry that them starting with one would force them to stick to interior systems even moreso than normal.

sell it to me

>>97890651
Easy core system with lots of optional modules to interact with if desired. Fun character creation mini-game that generates background and hooks for players and does some work introducing the setting. Lots of tools online to support sandbox play.
If like me you hate narrative mechanics and metacurrencies it also has none of those. If you are hungover you can hand players the trade rules and a subsector map and they will practically make their own fun until you sober up.

>>97890566
how common is it to have players start with a fully paid off ship? I've found the huge ship mortgage to be the primary motivator to get players to do fun/stupid shit

>>97890566
If you are worried about their movement being limited to interior systems, why not move from a free trader to a far trader?
Alternatively, 200 tons of cargo space allows lots of travel and speculative trading, especially if they are trying to make a mortgage payment. If you like the fat trader, go with that and have a plan to fall back on if the players don't like it.

>>97891608
Closest I've done is a party that had two ships, a fully paid off Type S and a mortgaged free trader. They started a small shipping company after some lucrative speculative mining and gun-running.

I picked up traveler recently and had a couple questions. For parrying and dodging, does the penalty also add the relevant stat? It seems to mention only the skill giving a penalty, but I assume the stat might also affect the hit chance.

I also wanted to know what are the recommended expansions.

I'm currently using Traveller M2e for a Star Wars game and man, it's a whole different ball game.
It's a campaign where it finally feels like Jedi & non-Jedi can co-exist without it being the adventures of Jedi Jimmy & sidekicks/cock-polishers.

>>97892275
anyone have a light saber? how do you handle deflecting blaster shots? parry vs. ranged with some force modifier and a attack roll to deflect it back at another target?

>>97892356
Two of the characters. I'm using some of the rules from a homemade Star Wars Traveller book I found online but decided to treat the Lightsabres as Arc blades instead (5d6 rather than 4d6)
Deflect is Melee (Blade) 8+ or Force power Move Object 8+ to nix off certain weapons.
Main thing is to make it clear to players early on that there are weapons that can't be deflected (Sonic, Disruptor, Slug, ect) but then don't screw them out of chances to use the ability either.

>>97892252
Which edition are you using?
In Mongoose, dodging applies a malus of the Dex DM or Athletics, whichever is higher, to the Attack roll as a Reaction. Parrying is a malus of your Melee DM to the attack roll.
As for expansions, what do you want? Adventures? More ships? Mercs? Aliens? Equipment? I suggest you look at everything but only add sparingly. No one can run the entire 3rd Imperium at once.

>>97891777
>why not move from a free trader to a far trader?
Because they're the same general price.
But a fat trader lets them make more money and get them to Merchant Prince status faster.
But it's only J1 and not only that but it costs more so you need to be making the most of that 200(?) ton hold to keep yourself in business.

>>97890651
Your stats are written in Hexidecimal.

Running a homebrew system in a frontier subsector (j-drive ships extremely rare or $$$$) with two separate groups and its going well. One's exploring the overarching mythos I set up and the other group is setting up an elaborate drug trade. I'm putting the effects of one campaign into the other and its been really rewarding so far.

I've folded in some one-shots (Mothership, converted to Mg2e) into the game to change the pace and add some tense moments and it's worked out really well. Big fan of the system.

>>97892793
It is the mongoose 2e edition. For expansions ,I guess I mean stuff that adds interesting or worthwhile mechanics.

File: traveller adventure akerut and oberlinde ships.jpg (923.4 KB)

923.4 KB JPG

>>97890566
Yes. They either ended up being shareholders and each recieving profits depending on how many shares they contributed, or pooled their shares with a world government to get a subsidised contract tying them to a semi fixed route. Also, I tend to give them a choice of ships to choose from, Seeker, Far Trader, Free Trader, Fat trader, Liner, Merc Cruiser, as well as many of the multi kton merchants from the classic FASA books, or even custom ships they had designed themselves. They soon learned that bigger and higher performance ships had bigger costs though and also needed NPC crew (opening up options for recruiting, NPC baggage and side quests).

Is there a list somewhere of statted Classic ships? And with "stats" as from book 2 '77 if possible, or high guard v1 from '79.
Not interested in super detailed stats or deck plan, just the CT type paragraphs like this one below, really.
> "Free Trader (Type A): Using the type 200 hull, the free trader is equipped with ten staterooms (four for the crew: pilot, engineer, medic and steward; six for high and middle passengers) and twenty low passage berths. Jump drive-A, maneuver drive-A and power plant-A are all installed in the engineering section, giving the starship capability for acceleration of 1 G and jump-1. Fuel tankage for 30 tons and cargo hold for 82 tons is provided in the hull. Two hardpoints are specified in the hull, but do not have turrets or weaponry attached. Two tons of potential fire control space is held in reserve for later armament installation. Computer Model/1 with basic software package is installed. The hull is streamlined for atmospheric landings. Base price for the free trader is CR 37,080,000."

>>97890651
Alright, give me $20 and you can have it.

I've always been curious about it. How are the mechanics besides memes about dying in chargen? Is it a super crunchy crusty old-school game?

>>97902757
>>97892275 here - I've got a high tolerance for clunky mechanics but honestly? I've found it quite smooth.
It's got quite a lot of subsystems and options, allowing for a wide range of possibilities beyond the obvious ones. One of my party has his own megacorp and there's actual mechanics to back that up for example.

Some of the areas can be very mechanically crunchy, but they're the ones where it kind of has to be.
Trading, equipment, ships, ect, these areas are pretty heavy but I, personally, wouldn't want them to be lighter than they are because all that crunch is options.

Sure it's a pain in the ass statting out an interstellar pop idol megacorp, but the fact I can do so is great.

>>97902757
Very modular. Classic and Mongoose editions are very similar - core mechanic is 2D6 + Stat Bonus + Skill Bonus, success on 8 for average difficulty. No HP, damage goes to stats if it gets past armour. Most everything else is optional, there are crunchy spaceship building rules, trade rules, books with gear, and random aninal/world/sector generation rules that are fun if you like that sort of thing. People have made online tools to do most of them automatically, I tend to use those.
The character creation is genuinely a fun minigame, and I find it hilarious when players go in planning to be a hotshot pilot and end up as a frustrated late middle-aged administrator with a robot leg and a grudge against every military branch and several megacorps.

>>97892275
>It's a campaign where it finally feels like Jedi & non-Jedi can co-exist without it being the adventures of Jedi Jimmy & sidekicks/cock-polishers.
This comes up in the d6 and Saga SW games, but I have yet to see it in FFG's run, if only because it takes a lot of xp for force users to get carried away.

>>97902757
Classic has some old school crunch, like weapons having hit modifiers for each armour type and each range. It also features and encourages non-systematic modifiers depending on the task, rather than a general +1 to the roll for each 3 stat points that Mong effectively has.

What are some Referee tools that people actually use for prep or during games? I'm aware of Traveller Map and Traveller Worlds, the ship builder, and the starship geomorphs. Will probably be running a game for some new players on May Day, which might kick off a campaign if it goes well.