#MEGATRAVELLER

[retrocgads]

USA 1990

[vintagerpg]

For a lot of folks, Traveller went off the rails when the classic game transitioned to MegaTraveller and even more so at the advent of New Era. Though both these games are mechanically heavier than the original Traveller, the problem was more one of setting. Developments to the Classic Traveller galaxy rolled out so slowly, it was essentially static, were as Mega and New Era introduced metaplots that made sweeping changes to the galactic status quo. Some folks hated that!

Steve Jackson Game (and long-time Traveller scribe Loren Wiseman) came to the rescue of those fans in 1998, with GURPS Traveller (the canon time line, meanwhile, progressed as T4, published by Imperium Games). At the time, it was probably the most ambitious GURPS conversion. The move is both a fundamental change for Traveller, but also not as radical as you might suspect, thanks to clear guidelines on what GURPS sourcebooks are appropriate for the setting (and what the inappropriate ones do to it, which is kind of fun). The point-buy skill system generates more obviously balanced characters and provides abilities and a path to progression that the original Traveller mostly lacks. Does that make it feel less like Traveller? Kind of? Does it matter, though?

The real draw for GURPS Traveller isn’t the system, its the setting sourcebooks. They present a galaxy where the Emperor was never assassinated, the rebellion never took place and the Virus was never released. The game world has progressed slightly, but retains that static feeling. It’s the same old dog-eared Imperium. Thank goodness.

[arconinternet]

MegaTraveller 1: The Zhodani Conspiracy (DOS, Paragon Software, 1990)

The game of the tabletop RPG. You can play it in your browser here, and download the map and two versions of the hint book (the one with the colored cover may be a pre-release version) here.

[gamesthatwerent]

MegaTraveller 3: The Unknown Worlds

MegaTraveller 3: The Unknown Worlds is a cancelled #PC + #Amiga space #RPG title due for release around 1992/93 from MicroProse + Empire. Although shown at CES 1991, the game would disappear without a trace. How far did it get and can anything be found? https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/2024/01/megatraveller-3-the-unknown-worlds/

[oldschoolfrp]

Manhunt, a brand new/old adventure for MegaTraveller, by Philip Athans with Ian Stead cover art, released this week on DriveThruRPG:

Manhunt was projected for publication in 1990, but its publisher DGP closed their doors before Manhunt saw print. Now, the original manuscript, recovered from a 3.5 inch floppy, has been rehabilitated and polished for publication.

[amberzonedcomix]

More Zdetl for you

[rpgcovers]

Challenge #57 ~ GDW (1992)

[thegaminggang]

Score Big Savings on Two Classic Traveller RPG Bundles of Holding

Bundle of Holding has revealed two new money saving offers for classic GDW Traveller roleplaying adventure, MegaTraveler and Traveller: The New Era.

[grumpyoldgrizzly]

Stopped into my local used book store on a short trip out of the house.  Sometimes, these trips come up with nothing, but not today; today was a good day for old-school, vintage gaming stuff.  A damned-near pristine copy of "The World of Synnibar" (which I lost close to 20 years ago) for $8.25?  yes please, those show up on eBay for $40 to $100!  And is that a complete and also amazing quality MegaTraveller box set and GM's Reference I found for $20?  You bet it is.

[rodprojects]

Need always find some time for traveling. What do you think? #funtravel #traveltime #funnytraveling #funvisit #funvisitor #funnyvisitor #sillytime #besttimeever #justtravel #travelingtime #simplytravel #travelaround #onlytravel #fortravel #megatravel #hipertravel #cooltravel #cooltrip #awesimetrip #greattrip #besttrip #amazingtrip #amazingtravel #incrqdibletravel #awesomediacovering #discovertheworld #worldtravel #smallworld #goworld #123go (at Thailand ประเทศไทย) https://www.instagram.com/p/CYEsknrJJjv/?utm_medium=tumblr

[bryanharryrombough]

Birth of a New Game

From The MegaTraveller Journal #4 Digest Group Publications, 1993

Back cover ad & teaser article for DPG’s A.I. Technofantasy roleplaying game.  I was having another look at the teaser article and was struck by the amount of “transhumanist” elements in DPG’s “technofantasy” rpg concept from 1993.  A.I. has genetically engineered humans, uplifted animals, AI robots, and mental backups that can be downloaded into a new body.

A.I. Technofantasy roleplaying was going to be DPG’s ‘next big thing’ (after loosing the license to publish Traveller material) until all their files were wiped out in a computer crash.  Apparently there were no backups or hardcopies of the files.

[retrocgads]

USA 1990

[vintagerpg]

H. Beam Piper’s Space Viking — this is the 1977 Ace edition, fronted by a typically fantastic Michael Whelan painting.

Gotta admit, when I first picked this up, it was as a joke because the title struck me as fairly hilarious. However, it is actually extremely good! The title sets expectations — the novel is a sprawling interplanetary science fiction yarn concerning war, politics, murder and revenge that maps broadly to the action of Viking saga. It is a very different sort of book, really, but I think it kind of rhymes with Poul Anderson’s Broken Sword in a funny kind of way?

I also didn’t know it at the time, but the novel is also a huge, direct influence on Traveller. It takes place among the Sword Worlds, each named for a famous sword from Earth’s legends. There is a ship named Beowulf. There’s a strangely feudal empire, though it is rapidly decaying and falling into disarray (anticipating the Imperium’s shattering in MegaTraveller and its ruin in New Era, and the emergence of…Star Vikings).

[hglog]

PBTA Spelljammer GLOG Thing?

Recently, my father dug up his old Traveller and MegaTraveller books for me, and after having a lot of fun reading through them, I can definitively say I don’t ever want to GM the system. But it got me in a space-gaming mood and my mind turned to two things. First, the Uncharted Worlds game I was once a player in, which seems to have borrowed a lot of the good aspects of Traveller and put them into a PBTA system, which I love very much. Second, the AD&D setting Spelljammer which is an amazing science-fantasy fever dream that I’ve unfortunately never gotten to experience firsthand. Naturally, I decided I’d make an RPG. And, ever since I discovered it, GLOG has basically consumed a large part of my mindspace whenever I think about RPGs.

Now it’s about a month later, and I have a lot written, but even more still to write. My biggest issue is getting my thoughts organized. I’m always a lot neater when I know other people are going to see my work. So, in a hope to make things more coherent for myself, I’m going to let you in on what I have to far.

What I like about Spelljammer

Science fiction minus the science

Practically any science fiction trope you can think of fits into the setting, but when it comes to the actual science, it’s this weird-ass mix of a classical Greek and medieval alchemist understanding of the cosmos.

You don’t have to worry about players “um, actually”-ing you about what happens in the vacuum of space, because it’s actually not even a vacuum!

Magic = FTL

Despite the previous point, its science is actually still relatively “hard” when it comes to internal consistency and logical consequences to its different laws of reality than our own. The magic, on the other hand, is magic. My headcanon is that the speed of light imposes a hard limit, but magic is the one thing able to ignore it.

While people could theoretically pull off a no-magic spacecraft launch (if they had a few thousand more years of technological development), for the most part, if something is in space, it’s probably because a wizard decided they wanted it to be in space.

Weird-ass spaceships

Since a spaceship is “anything you can put a spelljamming throne in,” you get a delightful mix of regular boats, classic pulp sci-fi or space opera spaceships, weird organic tentacled things, and whatever else strikes your fancy.

What if a dragon died and all the kobolds that worshipped it somehow got enough spell slots to just pilot its corpse into space and start fucking shit up?

Sadly, Spelljammer doesn’t offer a lot of customization, instead just relying on a wide catalogue of weird ships used by different aliens.

Wizards

What I like about PBTA

Adaptable to basically any setting

There is a great wealth of hacks I can draw from

These two points go hand in hand. I haven’t, however, been able to find a specifically spelljammer-inspired PBTA hack, so that’s why I’m doing this.

The PBTA games I’ve read through in creating this (so far) are  Uncharted Worlds, Dungeon World, and the original Apocalypse World.

Encourages little preparation

My biggest challenge in running a game that’s interstellar in scope is my instinct to pre-prepare everything, which is already problem if I think I need to make an entire country, let alone an entire planet. But now we’re talking not only a planet but every planet.

While you can do worldbuilding as the GM for a PBTA game, you can also not do any, and let the players do all the work for you upon character creation. Dungeon World is especially good at this.

It’s fun

I’ve enjoyed every PBTA game I’ve been a player or a GM for, no exceptions (so far).

It’s extremely easy to teach people

Most of my friends are not as into learning new systems as I am. But most of them have already played at least one PBTA system, and if they haven’t, it wouldn’t be as much of a hassle as say, AD&D or Traveller.

What I like about GLOG

The four-template class blueprint

If PBTA character sheets are streamlined, I don’t even know what I’d call GLOG character sheets.

I don’t know if I’d shave my classes down quite as much, but I’m definitely taking notes from GLOG’s designs.

GLOG spellcasting

This is one of the things I like most about GLOG.

Spell dice to power FTL? Maybe 1 die per 30 light years or whatever, and the sum determines how fast the trip can be made? Doubles and triples can be malfunctions or space pirate attacks or something.

A shit ton of classes

I think I’d like to limit it to 10 or so classes, but I’m definitely going to get inspiration from some of the weirder GLOG classes along with the classes fighters/wizards/rogues.

An emphasis on interesting problem-solving

I think this is more just good game design than GLOG itself.

Encourages taking a weirder spin on fantasy lore that’s often taken for granted

Again, this seems like it’s just good worldbuilding, but a lot of GLOGgish writings do this, and I’d like to follow in their footsteps.

What I like (and dislike) about Traveller

I don’t like how obtuse it is

Reading the book sort of overwhelms me. It’s like they didn’t even try to make it accessible. It’s just endless black text on a white background, tables and diagrams strewn about haphazardly, and no art, not even just at the beginnings and ends of sections. The cover is a black void to symbolize the state of my mind after reading three pages.

When it comes to spaceships, I like a lot of crunch and granularity in their design

Something I found myself wishing for when playing Uncharted Worlds was a more involved ship design process. While they did clearly take notes from Traveller, it’s nothing like the original.

I don’t know what it is about spaceships. Characters I like simple and streamlined, but I guess reading through power plant matrices and choosing software and balancing it all on a budget gets me into the headspace I actually believe a spaceship creator would be in, whereas I don’t think the creation of a person usually involves that sort of design process.

I'm neutral on the crunch for everything else, but I think it's at odds with PBTA sensibilities

Plus, as I sort of mentioned in the PBTA section, I want my mostly 5e-playing friends to be willing to test this with me.

I like the psionics

I really like psionics, and I think Traveller properly captures the feel that I like for them.

However, I’m not a fan of “anyone can test their psionic abilities and then roll to maybe get powers.” I’m going to have a psionic class, which a character can start in if they want to have psionic powers, or they can multiclass into later if they want to discover their psionic potential later on. If they don’t want their character to have latent potential, they can just never take any levels in the class.

I dislike the highly-defined setting

I know it’s supposed to be adaptable to most sci-fi settings, but the books reference their own universe and history so much that it doesn’t really feel that way.

How do I synthesize this all into one game?

Setting-wise, I’m mostly drawing from Spelljammer, as well as Star Wars, Numenera, and my own imagination. I don’t want to define many specific planets or empires or sectors or whatever since I prefer most of the worldbuilding work be done by players during character creation. Also, if you know of any very low-science space fantasy fiction that I should read, please send it my way.

I do have very specific ideas about how I want spaceships and space travel to work, which I think need their own post later. You might get a pretty good sense of what I’m going for from the Spelljammer and Traveller sections, though. My plan is to take advantage of something like Traveller’s very granular and in-depth ship creation to let players make their own completely batshit Spelljammer-style spaceships. I think a ship needs its own character sheet.

I’m doing the PBTA thing where each class has a character sheet. I haven’t decided whether I’m doing the standard 6 stats or making up some weird ones. The former is definitely easier to sell to people but I think the latter is cooler.  Also, since you need a spellcasting class to have FTL what do you do if nobody picks one? I don’t want to get in a situation where I have to tell them “one of you needs to switch classes,” that just feels bad and could create animosity. A solution I’m slightly leaning towards is having only one of each character sheet, then making sure there’s always one fewer non-spellcasting class option than there are players, so by pure mathematics someone will end up able to power the ship, and I don’t need to force anyone to change on my own. The issue there is then I can’t have more than 3-5 non-spellcasting class options depending on party size, and I’d prefer a larger and more varied class pool. Another option would be to have magic hirelings available, but I want spellcasters with the ability to do FTL to feel like these big, weird, and powerful personalities, so having them just available as hirelings sort of it cheapens that in my opinion.  Maybe it’s not actually important that the party always have access to their own interstellar travel? I could see the PCs being like a bunch of interstellar hitchhikers. Very Douglas Adams. 

That’s just about everything that I don’t think needs a separate post. I hope you enjoyed it, and if you have any thoughts about this potential horrible chimera of a system I’d love to hear them! You can reach me here through Tumblr or at Robot_Face#7919 on the OSR discord server.

[ancient-furries]

RT @CoolBoxArt: MegaTraveller 2: Quest for the Ancients / PC / Paragon Software / 1991 https://t.co/nZeZUfXR6k

[oldschoolfrp]

Playing a game within a game (Liz Danforth, Traveller: 2300 Player’s Manual, GDW, 1986)  Despite the name Traveller: 2300 was not set in Traveller’s universe.  It did share some mechanics with MegaTraveller but the setting can seen as a continuation of the world of Twilight 2000.  The second edition in 1988 was renamed simply 2300 AD.