Traveller5

On the one hand, I am sick and tired of learning to play someone else's game. On the other hand, there are some cool games that I have long wanted to learn to play. Traveller5 is one of those games.

Reasons to Play

For one thing, I was involved in the playtest of the system. Bits of this game got tested... but never quite the whole thing.

When I was testing, the biggest missing piece was the combat section of the rules. This came very late and, frankly, I didn't get time to give it as much attention as was needed. 

That's probably one reason why, on first reading of the final book, I couldn't understand how to run a melee.

But that's not answering the question: why play T5?

On dipping my toe back into the waters of T5 over the past 24 hours, here's why I want to play:

1. I like the d6-based Task Resolution system and use of d6 only for damage - it's simple.
2. I really like building characters using the Career system and the 4-year Term process.
3. The system is comprehensive - everything I can imagine needing is in there.
4. There's a process to allow me to make my own stuff up; you name it, you can probably make it.
5. It's simple to play - the basic rules are very easy to grasp.

Reasons to Be Put Off

I'm not blind to the flaws of this product. For one, it is a book that initially just made me wince due to layout and the super-dense amount of text. My top five reasons to be put off include:

1. It's really badly organised - 50 pages in and I'm reading what should be an appendix.
2. It's really badly written - not just the typos and omissions, but also the style is really poor.
3. There's too much system and not enough setting - where's the "easy to grasp" equipment list, for example?
4. It needs a lot of house-rulings to clarify stuff... like, how to run a melee with a weapon in hand.
5. It's not at all aimed at the beginner. Defo not an RPG beginner. Probably not a Traveller beginner.

In short, it needs a very dedicated Referee (GM) to run a game. You will want to hide the book from the players, ignore just about everything inside the book until you actually need it, and you'll need to dedicate time to prepping the stuff you need. 

Thankfully, there are other Traveller5 Referees out there producing handy resources. Phew! But please share yours too.

So... Why Do You Want To Play?

Because it's Traveller, I have a deep-seated affection for the game and consequent desire to play. I have a deep love of the setting too. 

It's actually a rather simple game at heart. There's just lots of stuff piled on top to hide the fact from the casual reader. Actually, it's so completely piled on you can't really be a casual reader with T5. But it's worth the time to dig in.

Players will pick it up in no time. Referees will be dedicating much time to making games happen... but I get the impression that the effort will be worth it.

I wonder if I'll get to play.

Traveller5: Anyone for Awesomesauce?

Arriving home last night, having dashed through the traffic to be back in time to greet my inlaws who are visiting this weekend, I was excited to find that the Postman had delivered something... large.

Upon opening the beautifully wrapped package I was confronted with the reality of something that I have waited a very long time to get my hands on: Traveller5 had arrived.

In the box were the items shown to the right: T5 Core Rules (656 pages), Core Rules CD-ROM, Jump Drive (Core Rules on USB stick), Traveller Dice set (10x Black, 1 Yellow, 1 Red, 1 White), extra Traveller Dice, 2x Cr25 Imperial coins, Membership card for Traveller's Aid Society, Patent of Nobility as a Knight (in my name, customed to my own world).

Beta Playtester

I don't remember the exact day that I received my Traveller5 Beta CD-ROM. But it was a very exciting day.

This was the original draft rules for the game I now hold in my hands, ready for playtest. On that day I signed into the Beta Playtest Group online and the rest, as they say, is history. Admittedly, it was was long, slow and sometimes frustrating wait... 

Last night I told friends that I'd been playtesting this thing for something like 8 years... and, thinking about it, that wasn't far off.

What amazes me most - and highlights the genius of Marc Miller - is that things haven't changed all that much... at least, in terms of the big things. It has just been a long period of tweaks and edits. The slow, long aggregation of small, incremental improvements. Today Marc refers to T5 as the "Ultimate Edition" of his long-loved SF RPG.

What's so special?

First of all, this is the most complete edition of Traveller ever written and put into one tome. It's massive. Actually, in truth, it's too big.

Here's the contents page:

Thankfully, following the massively successful Kickstarter campaign last year, Traveller5 is expecting the "Player's Edition" of the book: a shorter selection from the Core Rules designed to deliver just what the player needs, leaving the main book as a tool for the Referee. Nonetheless... this is an impressive tome.

It's beautifully simple in layout and design. Black two-column text which evokes the feel of Classic Traveller. Yet this is no "Little Black Book". It's one of the thickest books of any kind on my shelf.

Oddly, it's a book that I'll not need most of for the majority of the time. Design some characters for your group, learn the very easy to grasp Task rules and Combat rules... and you'll only use the rest if you are building something for your game.

In some ways the sheer size of the book belies the simplicity of the system.

Not just the Official Traveller Universe

I'd like to point out that this game is not just for the OTU. 

Certainly, T5 is optimised for the Traveller setting. Yet it's is written to be the "ultimate SF game", not just another edition of itself. Marc has designed the game completely ready to be used in Your Traveller Universe. 

I've been using this ruleset to prep my group to play in the Serene Dawn setting. We did characters some months back... and then got side-tracked into a fantasy campaign. Last night, when the T5 book arrived, the question was asked by one of the guys: "When are we going to play Traveller, then?" 

Soon, I hope. It's just too cool to leave on the shelf.

Final thoughts...

Yeah, I know. This is an exciting book to receive and yet, given my chaotic approach to gaming, it's also not necessarily going to get used as much as it should. 

Traveller5 is something of a dream come true. As a long-term fan of the game, having collected every book from every edition and having played since I was a pre-teen school boy, this is pant-wettingly cool. Geekdom come home, so to speak. But it is a flawed dream. It is a game that is ultimately Marc Miller's creation... and Marc doesn't, in my opinion, always get it right.

I'll be hacking my own Psi system, for example. I'll also be adding a Magick system to suit my own game (unsurprising as this is not a fantasy game: ultimate SF system, remember). And I'll not be using most of the design rules very much because, for a lot of my gaming, eye-balling and winging it is my style.

But the core of the game is sound. I love the d6-based game engine. I love the background building nature of character creation. 

You'll hack it and you'll mod it. But you'll play it... when it's finally on general release, at least.

If you like Traveller then you owe it to yourself to add this book to your collection. It'll be coming on both electronic and hard formats... and the electronic files are not only the whole book in one .PDF but also broken down by chapter and sub-section. There is so much to enjoy...

Just make sure you get past the first 50-odd pages and delve into playing it.

Game on!

Rules Crunch: Dr Jekyll or Mr Hyde?

So here's the problem that keeps gnawing at me like a Targ: while I love the idea of rules-lite, highly narrative gaming I am also a big fan of the crunchy-detailed rules set too. 

My players mostly come from the crunchy style of play too, meaning that rules-lite is not as well-practised in my circles as I might have hoped. The added complication comes from two elements of game rules that, frankly, I like to see crunched up: magic and tech.

Yesterday I was the Mr Jekyll of rules-lite narrative play but today I am the Mr Hyde of crunchy rules. 

What's a poor, maddened GM to do?

Fate versus Traveller5... and other stuff...

Yes, I am prepping a campaign for our new SF universe and proposing to use the new Fate Core rules. 

Great, you say. So what's the problem?

Well... I'm also awaiting delivery of the Traveller5 rulebook. This tome of almost 700 pages contains rules for almost every conceivable detail that an SF GM might need... and quite a few that I am almost certain he won't. It's as much a trip of nostalgia and hubris to welcome this new edition of my favourite SF system into my home... but I also really rather fancy trying it out.

And then there is also the fact that Rick Priestley is proposing using a d10 based system for his forthcoming Gates of Antares tabletop wargame... and mentioned the decimalisation needed for his hoped-for RPG in the same setting. This got me thinking about the limitations of the humble d6 again, a matter that has haunted my love of Traveller for years! Frankly... he talks sense!

Ultimately, I am being torn apart by the temptations of multiple game systems... my mind wanders endlessly betwixt Fate, Traveller, HARP-SF, Hero, GURPS and myriad other games I own... and all the time the question in my mind is, "How can I make this SF campaign feel really cool?"

Do rules matter?

Some will accuse me of madness for asking this question... but, do they? 

What is really needed to model a really cool SF setting? 

Depends on what you want, I guess. 

Fate models literary and movie/TV reality... it's a system where what matters is what makes the story move. You don't need "stats" for anything until it becomes important to the plot. Then it's turned into an aspect. Simple.

Traveller5 seeks to model a kind of future realism. Over the past N-years of development time that I've been involved with the game I've witnessed countless discussions about the relative "realism" of a given sub-system of the game. Frankly, a lot of the time, I've not cared. 

And yet... sometimes, I do care. 

Many things in Traveller work for me. Character creation using a story-creating game engine is attractive to me; you know, the old Term of Service in a career to gain skills and rack up the mustering out benefits. The fact that everything is scaled. The fact that I can just roll up almost anything using some tables... if I really need to.

But what is it that prevents me from really letting go and embracing this new, narrative style? 

I really am not sure.

Perhaps it's the worries I have about magic over-powering the game. Or just that I really like to have a stat line for my Laser Carbine. 

What's a poor, crazed GM to do? 

Any suggestions?

Collaboration 101

This week has seen some positive and clear progress on the SF setting that I've been posting about on and off over the last month or so. The setting is now under collaborative production with the first pair of players and, frankly, we're pretty excited about the basics we've thrashed out already. If you're new to this thread, check out the previous articles starting with Recurring Themes in SF.

Planning a new campaign, to be played online with friends all across the world, has thrown up a number of new challenges and exciting opportunities. 

This post is a way to help me organise my thoughts and propose a number of cool possibilities. So... here goes with the madness...

Collaboration

First of all, there is serious power in collaboration. 

This idea began to really surface a couple of years ago for me as a pushed-for-time GM running the regular home-based Friday Night Roleplay group. In short, I was hopeful that my players would be willing to join me in co-creating a setting and running games in it. 

There have been serious barriers to this aim, not least of which has been my reluctance to let go of the traditional GM control role. I always wants things to fit my own vision of things, even when players suggest cool innovations, and end up cherry-picking things rather than really listening to player wants.

That said, the other major barriers are two-fold: the players aren't used to collaboration and the systems don't always accommodate it either.

Players don't usually expect to be creatively involved, at least not my players. They are ok with thinking up a hero and, perhaps, tacking on a background slug. They just want to get on with playing, however, and don't want to spend precious session time chatting about setting design... and the rest of the time they are busy with work and life. This is a barrier to the collaborative idea.

Systems assume GM control. At least, the systems we prefer do... you know, the simulationist style games we prefer. In fact, even the narrative style games tend to assume a strong Narrator. I realised this fact only this week as I began to read the FATE Core .PDF (available from the Kickstarter campaign page). 

Why do systems place barriers to collaborative setting design? Well, imagine you want to build the setting I'm proposing using Traveller or GURPS or a similar system; you will be writing crunchy conversion rules for equipment pretty quickly, as well as adapting character traits for the players to choose from. Using Traveller I might need to adapt the Career tables; for GURPS I need to tell them which Advantages are available. Sure, they can help with this... except, who wants to spend games night working through lists of game traits?

No, collaboration has to be built into the game experience from the word go. That's why HeroQuest and FATE have been appealing strongly to me for this project.

Collaborative Approaches

The first step is to take a narrative approach. Ditch the system choice and start by engaging the players in the project. In this case, two guys have shown interest; one is seriously excited about collaborating on the setting, the other is (so far) wanting to show up and play.

Step One for me was to get email chatter bounced to a forum, so we could talk online and keep the thread clear and open. This has, in just a week, generated the basic assumptions and background for the setting - raw, rough and ready to use.

Step Two has been to find a wiki space so that we can record the "canon" of the setting as we create it. Wiki implies collaboration from the word go. It's private, so that we can mess around and not feel that we have an audience yet, but can be made open if we feel we have something to share.

Step Three has been to realise that we can use any system we choose... and that this depends on the style of game we want to play.

Trans-System Setting?

Some settings are hard-wired into the rules that support them. Or, put another way, game designers build a system to play in a particular setting. Examples are games like World of Darkness or Star Wars. With time and popularity these systems can be stripped out of the setting and made multi-genre, but they always taste the flavour of their original form.

Other settings are looser and fit the form. Mykenaea, for instance, has been built for use with Rolemaster. It is flavoured by the system now, most notably in the way that magic works. If I wanted to run Mykenaea with another system I'd need to either model the same magic system or accept a major shift in the setting. D&D does this to settings too. 

This new setting, however, can be trans-system in nature. In other words, it will demand that the system be adapted to suit the setting. Depending on the style of game I want to play then I will use a different style of system.

For loose and high-octane adventure I am tempted to play with FATE or HeroQuest. These model cinematic / narrative styles and suit heroes who are dealing with televisable stories. For more serious and simulationist tales, however, I might choose Traveller5. All of these systems, however, will need to be adapted to fit the setting... not the other way around.

What's My Point?

Well... my point is that the creative fun of the setting is the heart of the collaboration. It's vital to get the setting roughed-out and into play quickly. Thus, the players can be engaged in quick sketching of the setting and then moved towards active play, filling in details as we play, to maintain interest. 

The setting will evolve and grow in play. I'm not going to spend weeks writing alone and hoping that my players will like the outcome. That was how I worked on Mykovnia... and that way is hard work and might lead to a living campaign. Without ongoing interest, however, it is prone to running out of steam if I ever run out of steam.

This setting will evolve and grow to meet player needs. They know that they have a stake in everything the setting offers from Day 1. They will be encouraged to add details and suggestions to the setting as play progresses... and we'll simply record and organise the notes. 

If a player wants to take off on a side-track and detail something they are interested in, who am I to stop them? No, as Narrator, I'll just read and digest the ideas into the campaign as it evolves.

Overall, the setting is a group property. It exists for the entertainment of the group. It is created and maintained by the group for the duration of play. If play continues, it will grow and evolve. 

No matter what, however, the setting cannot become a slave to a system. It's the other way around: the system must deliver on the type of game the setting demands.

Game on!

Travelling Again

Inspired by the launch of the Traveller5 Kickstarter project last weekend, I found myself rather impetuously rocking up to the after-school gaming club clutching my copy of Mongoose Traveller and starting to run a game. In short, the guys loved it and there are a couple of really interesting reasons why...

Massive Setting

The players in the group are all between 12 and 14 years of age. They have grown up in a world in which ""Sci-Fi" (yes, I know... I had to tell them that it's "SF", but ho hum) means a combination of Games Workshop's 40K, Japanese anime, games like Halo, and recent SF movies. All of these provide rich settings with cool imagery which appeals to their creativity. 

Read more »

Travelling Further...

Probably the most annoyingly wonderful thing about Traveller5 (the currently in-playtest fifth edition of Marc Miller's Traveller SF RPG) is that it appears to be really good.

In my last article I was frustrated with the system for Psi and had decided to return to my positive decision in running all my campaigns using GURPS. I'm still reluctant to shift from that view... but... Traveller5 is really comprehensive.

So... here's what I plan on doing...

Read more »

Teasing Your Mind

"Asperance regarded the young woman in front of him coolly, his brown shiny eyes trying to penetrate the layer of colourful cosmetics that she had applied to her pale human flesh. Was she really legally old enough to hire onto his crew? She looked very young to his eyes, but then he wasn't really an expert on female human growth patterns. If her skills were as she claimed on her resume then he would certainly find her useful on board the 'Astral Tease'. And what was this about an 'Institute for Higher Learning'?"

Yesterday, as I began to imagine the crew that would accompany Asperance upon his adventures in the Traveller setting, I decided that I'd like to look over the Psi rules and see how they might fit into my campaign. As those of you who know me probably realise, I have a great interest in esoteric knowledge and beliefs and, so naturally, I like to draw such elements into my gaming.

Guess what I found? Yes, the new Traveller rules have Psi BUT... it's a Psi chapter written by a person who clearly does not believe in the possibility of such powers and who, with the best will in the world, has codified and structured the rules for such things in an almost completely "scientific" and over-organised manner. In seconds I was turned off from the rules and turned back to the reality that my own vision for Traveller can be more readily realised using GURPS.

Read more »

Out On The Rim...

It's been a rough week at work but an exciting one in my head. I've been dreaming of the Far Future again... in a world of sleak and speeding starships, long-snouted Bruxx adventurers, and the Solomani dream.

Rimward Bound
My favourite and largely unexplored part of the Traveller universe is the Solomani Rim. For those who are new to the setting, the Solomani are those humans descended from Terran stock and who, by and large, view themselves as the purest and highest breed of Humaniti in the Known Universe.

Read more »

Travelling Again...

"Asperance T. Hood swaggered into The Golden Nut and took a look around at his old stomping ground. It seemed like a lifetime ago since he had last set foot in here, celebrating his graduation with Honours from the University of Halo. Three weeks later he had been in training with the IISS and now, some 12 years further on, he was a renowned local hero responsible for three major discoveries on worlds across the Alderamin and Albadawi subsectors. He was the first of his kind in several generations to have access to a starship, even it was on detached duty from the service, and one of the very few Bruxx inhabitants of Halo to be known across the system. Basically, as he walked into the bar and looked around, Asperance was famous. He raised a finger and ordered a pot of sweet-juice."

When I was very young, cusping into my teens from childhood, some friends of mine introduced me to a neat little game called Traveller. This was a cool set of small A5-ish books with plain black covers gathered in a little black box and containing rules for SF roleplaying. It was very exciting and very addictive to read and play. I got hooked.

30 years ish later I have just spent the better part of my weekend tinkering around the edges of the latest drafts from Marc Miller (the designer of Traveller) for T5. Not being able to say anything about the content of the work, what I wanted to say is that his latest drafts are as intriguing, engaging and addictive as ever they were. For fun, I've been delving into the past background of the Solomani Rim to find a home for my new sophont species, the Bruxx, creating them as a usable race in the game, and then creating a character from the species to play with. While the rules have a lot of raw edges the outcome has been nothing short of inspiring.

Read more »