Talk:Traveller (role-playing game)

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[edit] Vilvani The Vilani

Vilvani The Vilani developed on Vland. They were the first race of Humaniti to invent the jump drive, and created the First Imperium. Can someone check spelling here? The link goes to a city in Latvia.... -FZ 22:00, 18 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Vilani/Aslan

I fixed the references but I'm not entirely sure why these references go off page if the definitions are actually contained in page.

[edit] Virus

Should the link about Virus link to the wiki definition of a computer virus, since the aforementioned electronic superweapon spread via both hardware (the commando chips) and via software (via comm link, etc)?

In my opinion, no. While the TNE authors probably got the idea for Virus from computer viruses, its properties are so unlike that of a computer virus that it would be misleading to link the two. IMHO, if you must link it to anything, link it to Handwavium. Corvus
Well, I started the article on TNE's Virus and linked it - cyberia

[edit] Traveller in other media

Would it be worth mentioning the two video games, MegaTraveller 1: The Zhodani Conspiracy and MegaTraveller 2: Quest for the Ancients? Pseudo Intellectual 06:26, 3 November 2005 (UTC)

I was bold and decided: "yes", adding this section to the page. Resolution to this thread of the discussion achieved! Pseudo Intellectual 18:45, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Dying During Character Creation?

One of the tidbits about this game that I keep hearing from players of it (I've never played it myself) is that it was possible for your character to die during the creation process with the wrong dice rolls. To me, this sounds mildly hyperbolic, but I thought I'd ask after it. -Fuzzy 20:59, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Nope, quite true, and not exactly uncommon under the original rules. This does bring up the fact that the article really should have a section dealing with Traveller as an RPG, as opposed to an RPG setting. Rindis 22:15, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
It is almost certainly intended as a balancing factor. With the random and career-based character creation system, the player almost always has the choice of aborting the career so that the character can exit it and get started on adventuring, or continuing in the career for another period (of 4 years) so that he can gain more skills, and more "retirement bonuses" in the form of money, equipment and a pension. Thus there needs to be a deterrent against continuing in the career, and there are two (that I know of): Aging, which lowers physical and later also mental attributes (this can be mitigated with so-called "anagathic" drugs, but I don't know how difficult they are to get according to the character creation rules - obviously once you finish making characters and start playing, availability is up to the GM), and the possibility of dying (as far as I know, there is no possibility of being wounded or injured, e.g. so as to get a cybernetic implant, or starting the game with some part of you missing). --Peter Knutsen 15:01, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Merging Classic Traveller into appropriate section

I've put a merge suggestion here and in the Classic Traveller article proposing that the CT article be merged in to the appropriate section of this main article. Comments welcome here or on the Talk:Classic Traveller page. Georgewilliamherbert 02:04, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

I disagree. The Traveller (role-playing game) page has extensive info and an overview of all of the various game systems used to play in the Traveller universe. I think the Classic Traveller page needs to be expanded to show the difference between the Traveller as a whole and Classic Traveller. Seanr451 07:13, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Great job with the merge George. I just cleaned up the external links. Alphabetized them, and added a few more. Unfortunately I felt that I had to delete the link to the review of The Lord Weird Slough Feg's heavy metal album Traveller. The band's website is down, and the album appears to no longer be available. Seanr451 05:48, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Traveller Wiki

I have set up a wiki just for traveller at Wikicities. I don't see that wikipedia is a place for all the minutae of traveller. Also I am trying to set up a Ship's Library type search resourse. Please feel free to come on over and add content. Dcorrin 19:49, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Weapons and Anachronism

What often fascinated/frustrated me about Traveller was that in an age of jump drives and asteroid mining, so many of the combat skills in the game revolved around 19th and early 20th century weapons. Cutlasses, spears, leather armour, revolvers and SMGs. Typical sci-fi weapons like lasers were included, but almost masochistically limited in terms of their bulk and capability.

To be sure, Striker, Mercenary and so on redressed this, but I’d be interested in seeing others’ comments about the original game in this respect. Maybe this was just my take on things, so I wouldn’t want to amend the article without hearing from the rest of you. --Affentitten 03:26, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Classic Traveller was the original Generic System. Thanks to the rules that covered weapons from every tech level I (like many Traveller GM's before any of the Third Imperium stuff came out) ran Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica games with the Traveller rules. I've also run Old-West and Medieval era games. I've even run 50's pulp sci-fi type games (think Flash Gordon and The Shadow). You also have to remember that Traveller came out in 1977. So most of its ideas were from late 60's sci-fi. They stuck with that rather than update it. Also, it makes a whole different genre of gaming if instead of cutlasses and shotguns everyone has a 10 ounce auto-laser that never misses sitting on their shoulder. Tech has to have limits in a sci-fi game in order to have any kind of suspense or sense of adventure. Seanr451 17:06, 23 February 2006 (UTC)
I think there were two threads there... One, a lot of planets were pretty primitive (TLs below earth-today as "high common"... and even on earth, there are places where people fight each other with bows and arrows or spears). Two, the original game was focused on civilian type activities, with an adventure flair. The sorts of guns and equipment that people carry as survival gear on expeditions in Alaska or the Canadian Arctic are not what military forces carry today, nor do you see criminals armed with M-16 automatic rifles and bulletproof vests and grenade launchers and light machineguns as anything approaching normal. At least, in most areas (some areas of the middle east and africa are exceptions... Law level 0? 1? 2?)
I agree with the universality comment as well. Georgewilliamherbert 19:40, 23 February 2006 (UTC)
I ran a Classic Traveller campaign in the Thieves World setting once, where modern weapons were not available and the more roguish skills were paramount. Of course I agree that having everybody armed to the teeth makes for a different game. You need balance. But it always seemed to me that there was really an imbalance in the bias against modern weapons in Classic Traveller. When you did try, in context, to allow for more modern weaponry (even say, things that were of similar tech levels to existing weaponry, like grenades or assault rifles), they were difficult to implement because they were too powerful. I guess that’s realistic. If you get hit by a couple of rounds from an M16, you’re gone. But I like my universes to be consistent, and I could never see why in an age where lasers were available, my Navy guy would have been extensively trained in cutlass warfare. --Affentitten 21:41, 23 February 2006 (UTC)
It is also worth remembering that Traveller was influenced by the SF that Marc Miller had been reading. I don't know what that would be, really, but I'd say that H. Beam Piper influenced a lot of the initial set, and his universe doesn't have lasers at all. "Doc" Smith is also a posibility, and Lensman has a type of sheild that gets better the more energy you put into it, so boarding actions tend to be fought with hand weapons, as they can get through the personal energy shields, while guns and lasers bounce off.
Then again, it is apparent that MM has a few prejudices of his own. The first edition of Triplanetary apparently mentions that the ships are firing cannons/guns at each other as directed energy weapons "were found to be too impractical". That sort of thing explains why lasers had to be dragged into early Traveller kicking and screaming. --Rindis 17:45, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Spelling correction: "Roleplaying"

The standard spelling in most of the official gaming products appears to be "roleplaying", not "role-playing". The hyphenated word looks to be an informal variant spelling. Moved the page to correct the spelling, and am working on spell correcting the article. Dugwiki 19:35, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] More novels?

Although 'Gateway to the Stars' claims to be the first Traveller novel, I've seen several others mentioned including 'The Death of Wisdom', 'To Dream of Chaos' and 'Diaspora Phoenix'. Does anyone know if these really exist?

Gateway to the Stars wasn't the first novel. The Death of Wisdom was published before. "Death of Wisdom" and "To Dream of Chaos" were the first two parts of a trilogy set in the New Era. "Disapora Phoenix" is the first part in a series written by Martin J Dougherty and was published last year. Ben W Bell talk 11:42, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Time to Give a Few Game Details?

While I agree with a later writer that Wikipedia is not the place to give all the details of the game mechanics, it also seems very odd to see such a long article on the game setting with no mention of the game mechanics whatsoever. It seems that a section on the mechanics would be in order, specifically mentioning what's unique about it--The intricate career-based character creation system, the equally detailed ship combat system, and a mention of the skill/ability score system. If there are no serious objections, I will add this at some point. Gilbertine goldmark (talk) 21:24, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

(I moved your comment to the bottom of the talk page as this is the usual way to add new messages.)

I suppose this would be okay to some extent as long as it's not overly detailed. More importantly, as with anything on Wikipedia, if you can find third party references that talk about these aspects of the game (i.e. what's unique about them, what makes Traveller "trend-setting" or different from other games, if this game was the first that did this-that-or-the other) this would be even better. In particular, it shouldn't really be *you* that's "deciding" what's unique about the game as that would be classified as original research. Hope this helps. --Craw-daddy | T | 21:40, 13 February 2008 (UTC)