While Mike Metlay would urge me not to do this, I started a weekly Traveller
game at my local game shop two weeks ago, to get more of a Traveller fix.
Being somewhat afraid of the sort of people that might show up, I prepared
a number of handouts for people unfamiliar with the game, including several
xeroxed "New Player" articles from TD and the following summary handout of
my own. Any comments from the gang? For all of the time I've spent with
this game since it was first released, I've not ref'ed it very often and I'm
still feeling my way through some parts.
As a side note--I've neglected the PBEM mercenary company game for a while
now. Any players in that who are still interested will be be happy to hear
that much of the missing background material on Overnale has just been written
by me in the last week as a side effect of the store game. As a result, we
could be getting started again, running the intelligence ops and the (brief?)
combat exercise concurrently, as long as my keyboard holds up. (Slight
hardware difficulties here.)
- - ------------------------------------------------------------------------
FROM THE GAMEMASTER:
A few more notes on Traveller:
1. The game aims to be realistic, and any referee's calls will
take this into account. The idea is to try to have fun, so
please remember, it's only a game and the ref has to have the
final call.
2. The main scientific breakthroughs assumed in the game are
the invention of usable anti-gravity generators (at tech level 9)
and the invention of the Jump drive for star travel (also at
TL9). There are no all purpose force fields. Until TL13 or so,
the all around favorite personal weapons will be slug throwers of
one sort or another. Laser and high energy weapons tend to be
bulky and finicky.
3. Anti-gravity can be used for spaceship propulsion, allowing
continuous boost at up to 6 gravities for a month or more in the
typical spacecraft. However, the basic rules of physics are
still in effect. At 1G (a typical drive value for a merchant
ship), a trip between Mars and Earth at closest approach would
take about two days. A 1G constant acceleration trip between
Earth and Jupiter (average separation) would take 6 1/2 days. If
a ship in space powers down its engines, it continues on its
course at its current speed, as modified by any gravitational
effects. It doesn't stop. Even with beam weapons with ranges of
500,000km, space combat is slow. Two ships which had been head-
ing in opposite directions at high speed could require many hours
to match courses.
4. Communication comes in two flavors: radio and other electro-
magnetic radiation which travels at the speed of light, and
messages sent by ship, which travel at the speed of Jump (a
maximum of about 19 light years per week--Jump-6 ). Large scale
government tends to be decentralized because of the communica-
tions lag. A message sent by the Imperial Express Boat route
from Capital to Glisten would be in transit for almost a year.
Thus, it would take two years to send a message and get a re-
sponse. In a typical star system communication between the
innermost and outermost planets at the speed of light might still
be subject to a time lag of tens of hours in each direction.
5. Combat is fairly dangerous, and in almost all cases, dead is
dead. There is no memory recording technology, nor any clone
replacement bodies. There is suspended animation technology, so
a critically wounded character *might* last until a high-tech
hospital can be reached.
6. The Imperium is big. Their Navy is big. Their ships are
bigger than anything else you will see moving in space. If one
shoots at any ship a group of players is ever likely to be in
control of, they will be dead. Don't give them any reason to
shoot. Don't break the law. Fortunately, the laws of the Impe-
rium itself are minimal. Rule#1: No nukes. Rule#2: No psionics.
Rule#3: Don't disrupt trade. Rule#4: Leave other people's pla-
nets alone. Most governing is done by local governments, due to
the slow speed of communications.
7. Computers: Traveller is not a computer heavy game. Don't ask
me why, but we'll play along. No cyberware. Some computer
background is assumed for most characters from high tech worlds,
because the game does include things like "dynamically configured
controls" on most vehicles of TL10 and above. Plug in your
favorite set of control parameters and any vehicle's controls
look much like any other's--to you. Trying to use someone else's
default controls could get interesting. (But it's all in Japa-
nese!?? What does this blinking green light mean?)
8. Aliens: There are a number of them. Aslan and Vargr would
be the most common major races seen in this area. Droyne would
be possible. Darrian (home of a minor human race) is not far
away, and you would probably recognize a Darrian if you saw one.
The Sword Worlds, a rather backward and clannish group of planets
are also fairly close. You'd probably recognize a Sword Worlder
if you saw one, too, but it would be less likely. The Darrian
Federation is friendly toward the Imperium, the Sword Worlds are
not.
9. Monsters: Lots of planets have native life forms. It is
possible that there might be some commercial value in hunting
them for anything from their fur to their unusual body chemistry,
but they don't usually store treasure in their lairs. The game
is not usually about interactions between players and monsters,
but about interactions between players and non-player characters.