So a while back I wrote about the upcoming Traveller 5e - the “conversion” of Traveller to the game mechanics of D&D 5e (or 5.5, or whatever).
I’ve been thinking about it. In this post I’m sorta working out how I think about this. So just keep with me (or don’t…I don’t think anyone actually reads this blog but me).
The Kickstarter started a few days ago. Honestly, I’m shocked by the cost. I suppose I am not really a hardened Kickstarter person, but damn, people are pledging a lot of money for a game no one has seen a scrap of that I’m aware of. I try to keep up with the Traveller-sphere, and I’ve not seen so much as a sample character record sheet. Have I missed something?
The question of “What is Traveller?” is not really clear-cut to me. For me, it’s the 2d6 open-ended game published in 1977, with a slight revision in 1981, and editions based on 2d6, created by Marc Miller. To some people it’s the Third Imperium setting. To some it’s both. I’m inclined, as long as Marc is alive, to say it’s whatever Marc says it is (even if he doesn’t own the IP anymore).
I can list, however, a few things that if changed would make me say “errr….it’s not Traveller anymore…”
FTL Communication. The minute there is faster than light communication, that’s it. Not Traveller anymore.
Character Levels. This is the one I think they will lose me on. Having characters gain “levels” and adding a new abilities at each level, and perhaps making them harder to kill as they gain levels, seems to me antithetical to Traveller for a number of reasons. I think it would change the entire dynamic of the game.
Character classes. Again, this seems like a bad idea, and one antithetical to the way the came is played.
Bonus actions and a lot of the other combat complexity you see in D&D 5e.
So as you can probably tell, I predict I will not consider this game to really be Traveller, no matter how flashy the artwork or deep the bullshit.
And that of course matters to no one but me.
These are all just games, and if people like ‘em, well, good for them. I understand there are a lot of people who hate Classic Traveller for the same reasons I used to think it wasn’t very good. Thing is, I was wrong then, and they are wrong now.
It is nice for the players in our group to be able to look at a document and recall the essential happenings of each set of games. In a long-form campaign, a lot happens over the years and it is fun to look back and see all the crazy stuff that they’ve done.
I like to think our blog can be a simple example of how a Traveller game can be played. When I was younger I really didn’t understand the potential of Classic Traveller. I think a lot of people have trouble working with the science fiction genre unless they are doing Star Trek, Star Wars, or some other “property” they are already familiar with. Over and over I see people online trying to understand the Traveller canon, which is long, complex, and potentially overwhelming. I want to give them an example of playing the game as it was originally created to be played – without a published setting. For more on this, see the “Traveller: Out of the Box” series on the Tales to Astound blog.
I will likely think of ways to improve the Timeline, and do those things as I have time.
There’s so much you can do with those original three Little Black Books. Just add imagination.
On our Traveller/Cepheus Engine/2d6 SF podcast we are running a fun user participation event - Submit Your Alien Beast.
We’ve had a few submissions thus far, and I love ‘em all. I will be writing up a couple of mine for the upcoming Bestiary as well.
We’ve asked that people supply drawings but no AI Art if they wish. The thing is, we understand that people can submit a few lines of text and an AI can spit out a cool looking monster. That’s not the point. We want the Bestiary to look like an oldschool punk rock zine. That is what we’re going for.
I had an interesting conversation last night with a friend who is working on a Traveller project. Can’t divulge anything at this point. It is all in the beginning stages.
We did talk a bit about what exactly the Cepheus Engine is. He honestly didn’t know, and I suspect a lot people who are fully into some version(s) of Traveller don’t know either. So, while I was not really involved in the Traveller/2d6 world when the Cepheus Engine rose from the ashes of Mongoose Traveller 1st Edition, I have a pretty firm grasp of its history now and the many versions and permutations of it that are available.
A quick search of “what is the Cepheus Engine?” on DuckDuckGo will start unravelling that question for newcomers. I think the best explanation is on the Traveller Wiki, and it is the simplest too, but it fails to mention that the main open source for the CE is Mongoose Traveller 1e.
Stay with me while I think out loud here…
So there’s a lot of history about why the CE was created in the first place, which I’ll not get into here. The main thing to know is that the CE System Reference Document, created by Jason Kemp of Samardan Games, is the base document from which the other versions have sprung. The online version of the SRD has an intro page with links.
Cepheus Engine is essentially Open Source punk rock Traveller, with a lot of different versions and creators involved.
All of this complicates the world of 2d6 SF roleplaying quite a bit. I get questions about it pretty frequently, so I’m writing this post and I’ll refer future questions here. Now yes, it does complicate things, but it also creates a hell of a lot of diversity in the 2d6 world. You have standard SF, systems tailored to mimic horror SF like the Alien franchise, etc. So there’s a lot to choose from. The easy interoperability of all the systems is cool. I’m running Classic Traveller, but I can pull in rules from Mongoose Traveller 2e and all the Cepheus stuff very easily and it doesn’t break anything. It enriches the experience.
For the last few days my friend CyborgPrime has been running the yearly Mayday, Mayday! online celebration of the Traveller RPG. This is something I look forward to every year. He’s been kind enough to interview me a couple of times since I’m a Traveller/Cepheus Engine podcaster and I always have fun.
I posted Ref’s Notes to the campaign blog for our Classic Traveller campaign.
As I stated in that post, I’m exploring the idea of converting to the Cepheus Engine SRD. There would be a few advantages to it.
I saw yesterday that Mongoose has published their first new book for Classic Traveller, Book 9: Pirates. I have to admit that while I don’t have a bad relationship with Mongoose as a Traveller podcaster (I don’t really have any relationship at all with them), I have not found myself drawn to their products or even the Mongoose Traveller community. It seems somehow separate from the rest of the Traveller/Cepheus Engine world. There are reasons for that which I’ll not go into. I guess I just feel a much stronger connection to all the CE publishers and Classic Traveller. However, they now own the entire Traveller IP, so they own Classic as well.
Anyway, I watched this video from Page121 about the new Pirates book, and learned that longtime Traveller guy and actual local Traveller friend Rob Eaglestone is one of the writers. Now, Rob has done some really good work on his own. I was happy to see a full-on oldschool Traveller player involved in this, so I have pre-ordered the book, and I have the PDF now.
It’s really cool. What I really like is that Marc Miller wrote a forward to it. That is cool. Apparently the physical copy will be in a size very close to the original Traveller books, which I also like.
Anyway, I like that Mongoose isn’t just sitting on the Classic Traveller IP and doing nothing. As a Traveller/CE/2d6 podcaster I own a lot of their 2nd Edition stuff. I feel like I need to be familiar with it, even if I don’t use it. It’s all very nice. The books are all beautiful, the layout is great. Still, I prefer the concise and compact format of the Classic Traveller books. That’s why I LOVE the Traveller Facsimile Edition. No matter how nice a set of rulebooks is, I hate lugging them around. Yes, of course you can get them on your tablet or laptop, but I also like having the physical book at the table.
I’m rambling now. Summary – Pirate book is cool. Rob Eaglestone does great work. Marc Miller is cool. Small books are cool. Mongoose producing new stuff for Classic and having a true fan and expert on it like Rob as a writer is cool.
Tonight I watched the Boys from the Baltic Star actual play Traveller stream on Twitch while I fiddled around on my own campaign. I like these guys. They are the only actual play I can even watch. It was nice, and really helped keep me inspired after a day of work and house cleaning.
Honestly, I find most actual play streams overly performative. The Boys are just dudes playing a real campaign. They keep it real.
