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Post by putraack on Mar 27, 2010 22:15:22 GMT -5
It struck me today that I've not seen anything around here about one of the oldest (if not the oldest) generic science-fiction RPGs out there: Traveller.
I remember it as pretty generic, one could very easily set up a Star Trek game with its rules. I say generic, because I've not played much of it, and never in the default Third Imperium setting.
I currently have reprints of the original Little Black Books (LBBs), and a few books from the Mongoose edition. I'm somewhat tempted to smash them together with all the background stuff I've collected from Star Fleet Battles, and have at it. (If only I had time, and players....)
Comments, questions?
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Post by aramis on Mar 27, 2010 22:50:40 GMT -5
The enterprise should be 19,000. Td
She mounts 6 or more 50Td PA Bays, and 2x 50 Td Torpedo bays. (400 Td)
I'd say she mounts a single 50Td Tractor/Repulsor bay.
She's got 400 staterooms (1600Td), and 40 double-sized staterooms (320 Td)
3 bridges at 380Td each (1140Td).
She carries 4 20 ton launches internally (160Td)
Each pair of transporters sounds like a 50Td Teleporter bay... 4 pairs, plus 2 cargo and 3 emer is 9 bays is 450Td.
Model 9 computer (15Td)
About 4135 tons so far.
She needs about a dozen labs at 4 Td each (48Td)
She needs a sickbay with beds for 20 (Another 80 tons?)
Add a factor 5 or so white globe
Remainder is drives, cargo, fuel, and luxuries...
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Post by Falconer on Mar 27, 2010 22:52:25 GMT -5
It struck me today that I've not seen anything around here about one of the oldest (if not the oldest) generic science-fiction RPGs out there: Traveller. I’m not interested in the system, since I prefer class-based over skill-based. If I understand correctly, they developed a universe setting for Traveller, but that is not present in the earliest editions, so that’s presumably not a problem. The thing that most intrigues me about Traveller is the modules, of which several are supposed to be quite good. I wonder if they are so tied to the rules and/or setting that they would be unusable in a Star Trek game. |
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Post by aramis on Mar 28, 2010 6:52:12 GMT -5
Falconer They're not tied to Traveller Rules so much as to skills; most are definitive of the setting.
The setting tropes of the 3I setting, however, are present from the very first printing of the core rules; the setting grows from the tropes encoded in the rules. Those tropes are strongly part of many of the adventures, including no FTL Commo other than "send a craft", every jump takes a week, and news travels slowly. Plus six-guns in outer space, nobles in charge, and military service backgrounds.
Stripping those elements is probably more work than it's worth, since about all you get left with for most adventures is the maps and ships. In fact, most of the setting is developed within the Adventures.
A1: Kinunir - tied to the early version of the setting, strongly. It's all about the hardware and trade mechanics. And has pages of NPCs in Traveller shorthand.
A2: Research Station Gamma - relatively portable, but involves races specific to the setting history. The key problem, however, is counter to the Trek setting: it's a psionics research station hiding as a native life pharmacology research station. In the imperium, that's kill-em-all time. In trek, that's Vulcan Monastery, so what?
A3: Twilight's peak. Tied again closely to traveller history; this is probably the most trek adaptable, except that it sprawls across 1/4th of a sector.... and being the government agents would make it take a near total rewrite.
A4: Leviathon - a detailed study of a particular ship class. Like A1, forget it. Design paradigms are different enough to make it probably worthless.
A5: TCS - system mechanics extension. misnumbered by GDW. Should have been Book5.5 not Adventure 5.
A6: Expedition to Zhodane - tied directly to the history of the OTU, and the OTU races.
A7: Broadsword - yet another ship example. Presumes the PC's are the mercs or crew of a Broadsword Merc Cruiser. Strongly tied to setting. Lots of boarding actions. Very mechanical.
A8: Prison Planet - Due to Treknology, the defenses are inadequate for a Trek universe. Otherwise portable.
A9: nomads of the World Ocean - not familiar enough for a call.
A10: Safari SHip - yet another ship + Related adventure. Big Game Hunting and Ship Crews meet.
A11: Murder on Arcturus Station. Moderately portable. Not very good, tho.
A12: Secret of the Ancients - AKA, Twilight's Peak, Part II. Even more strongly tied to the OTU.
A13: Signal GK - portable, not very good, sets lots of setting details in place which become important with the release of Traveler: The New Era
Most of these will SCREAM "NOT TREK" unless you've rewritten so much that you may as well have just written a new adventure from scratch. RSG can be ported, but you'll need to change what they research, and that makes half the adventure break.
Further, they are damned schematic, even by Old School standards.
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Post by allensh on Mar 28, 2010 21:15:42 GMT -5
I very successfully converted "The Chamax Plague" and "Horde" to the FASA Star Trek game back in the 80's. Required some changes to the back story of course but the basic plot worked just fine.
Allen
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Post by aramis on Mar 29, 2010 3:19:30 GMT -5
Ah, yes, the Double-adventures... all of those I'm familiar with are far more convertible.
Chamax Plague and Horde are "help the locals with a with a natives problem" adventures... which readily can be dropped on a starship crew with only changes to the backstory.
Marooned and Marooned alone can be easily ported (and several episodes have identical plots... they are pretty basic). Survive the world.
Shadows is a dungeon crawl. Go turn off the tractor beam that grounded you. A ship in orbit with a photon torpedo and/or a transporter can solve the issue near instantly.
Annic Nova is another ship retrospective, of an alien high-tech ship... but would be below the TL of Trek...
Exit Visa can easily be used on crews on shore-leave instead of aboard.
Across the Bright face is a Guard this local bigwig as he gets assassinated adventure... you'll need to take away the ships and contrive a reason for them to be doing it, but otherwise readily ported.
Mission on Mithril involves a planetary survey. VERY easily adaptable. Just set it in a border zone.
I don't have enough knowledge of the other DA series to comment usefully, but in general, being shorter and being less well detailed in writing, having just as many
The DA series is just very much LESS OTU tied; they were essentially written as convention adventures, and later released as DAs.
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Post by finarvyn on Mar 31, 2010 19:40:23 GMT -5
The feel of Traveller never reminded me much of Star Trek. Maybe Star Wars or Firefly, but not ST.
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Post by aramis on Apr 1, 2010 3:24:48 GMT -5
The feel of Traveller never reminded me much of Star Trek. Maybe Star Wars or Firefly, but not ST. Me, either. The mechanics, however... can be twisted far enough to do trek, IF you know how. Given the current edition, we can cobble up a real Trek-style career set. Warp Drives are in the core rules (as an option), but we need a better warp drive. I've done trek before using MegaTraveller (MT). Mongoose Traveller (MGT) is probably a bit easier to do, and courtesy of the OGL, I can release it... but I strongly dislike the MGT version of big ships. Note that, at 19KTd, the Enterprise is, by CT/MT ship sizes, a small destroyer or large escort. It is easier to give it an S&S kind of feel... Trek-like-but-not-Trek. |
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Post by putraack on Apr 7, 2010 15:18:12 GMT -5
I was thinking to use the rules (careers, skills, etc.) and ignore the setting parts. As I said, I'd rather use the SFU for ships than work through the calculations for designing the Enterprise.
@falconer: I'm more of a skills-fan when it comes to science fiction.
I hadn't really thought about the 3rd Imperium adventures, since I don't have them.
Hmm, Empire, nobles, predilection for edged weapons... sounds like the Klingons or Romulans to me.
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Post by slortar on Apr 7, 2010 21:44:45 GMT -5
Coincidentally, I noticed that the core Classic Traveller books are available free on RPGNow right now. Fun reading, even though I kinda agree it'd take some whacking to get it to feel like Trek.
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Post by Drohem on Apr 21, 2010 13:45:46 GMT -5
The feel of Traveller never reminded me much of Star Trek. Yes, I agree as well. |
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