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Traveller: The Third Imperium
 Game Forum: Traveller: The Third Imperium Game System: Traveller MgT2 (Mongoose 2nd Edition) Skill Level: Experienced gamers preferred but open to any Max # Players: 6-8 Current Status (Game CLOSED for 1, possibly 2 positions[ Post Frequency: Fast Paced - 1/3+ One post every three days or better. Recruiting Period: Two weeks or until the team is filled out. CURRENT JOB POSTING Next to DnD, Traveller is one of the great grand-daddies in the RPG pantheon having set its roots in the hearts of Science Fiction fans in 1977. The Traveller Universe is a massive setting and is considered by most to be a harder-Space Opera. Its classic setting is the Third Imperium. Those of you who might not be familiar with the Original Traveller Universe (OTU) can think The Expanse-Alien-Dune-Firefly-Dark Matter and the like. Space is disease and danger, darkness and silence… and it's out to get you. * Game Theme * Exploration and Trade will be the major themes starting out. Though we will likely have military types on the team, the game won’t be “Military” centered. In a way, this makes it a “classic” Traveller setup being a combination of all three themes. Also know that in Traveller, there is a Referee (not a GM, DM, etc.) in that spirit, I’ll act more of a guide in the OTU so the players will set the tone and theme as much as the “ref”! ** Game Summary ** The Character Creation Mini-Game (Solo Play) Selected Players will start with the Character Creation Process. Unlike most games you see posted on RPGcrosing", you will not create a character until selected for the game. This will be explained in the application section below. For those new to Traveller, Character Creation can be thought of as a “mini-game” that also has a shared ‘group skills’ component. We’ll do this together - so that is where our story and game, will begin! When the game opens, each player will have their own char. creation thread and if they are using the 'paper rules' route (that I will provide), they will state what they are doing in that part of their life, make the check, state the outcome AND THEN tell us the story. If they are using the virtual character creator I'll give them (no books perhaps), they'll do the same thing... state the resulting outcome and the part of the story that goes with it. Either route you choose, at the end they'll have their sheet started... and have a cool story to go with it. I'll answer questions and make ref. calls when needed... after all that is why I get the big bucks! Then the group phase will start... in that thread we'll mix up storylines and make the group skill selections along with the stories/narrative that goes a long with it. Selecting a Species Starting characters will be Human, Vargr, and Aslan. Second characters (did I mention that the TU is dangerous) can come from any of the playable races. Races in Traveller are VERY different than humans and I think that is a good thing. The Ship Of course, in this theme of Traveller, the ship is your home. We'll need to look at this once we see what the story is behind your characters. I'm excited to find out about that too! Currently, out ship is The Spirit of Hope - a T Type Patrol Ship. *** Universe Information *** The game world we are playing in exists in the far future, approximately 3600 years from now. Your characters were born, grew up and now live and work on the frontier of what is called the Third Imperium. It is the third star-spanning empire of mankind. The word Mankind (Humaniti) has a new meaning in this far future world. Around 300,000 BC a mysterious race known only as “The Ancients” ruled this part of the galaxy. It is believed that they had a technology level well beyond anything that the Third Imperium currently has. For reasons unknown, the Ancients took population and genetic samples from Earth and spread them to many different worlds. The first human empire was founded by humans from a planet called Vland. This Vilani branch of humanity created a star empire that lasted 1500 years before the humans of Earth discovered space travel and the Jump drive. The Jump drive is the technology that allows ships to travel quickly between stars. It operates by the manipulation of gravity to create a singularity that is then used warp into another dimension. The singularity can only last so long and the first Jump drives could only travel about 3.26 light years. As Jump technology matured Jump drives were created that could travel up to 6 times as far. However, no matter how far a ship Jumps it always takes the same amount of time, between 150 and 184 hours, or about 1 week. So whether you’re travelling 4 light years or 19 light years it will only take a week’s time. When humans from Earth started to spread out to the stars they encountered the first human empire, often referred to as the Vilani or Old Empire. The Vilani Empire was 1500 years old by then and was in the midst of a long, slow decline. It was still huge and very powerful and was completely uninterested in the people from Earth and considered them barbarians that needed to be stepped on. The people from Earth, who came to be called the Solomani, quickly learned and adapted and soon had a fleet of starships that could challenge the old empire. They attacked and took the head off of the giant empire by attacking the capital system and then claimed it as their own. So began the Second Imperium or as it was called then “The Empire of Man”. The people of the Third Imperium refer to it as the Ramshackle Empire because it did not last long. The Solomani took over governing the old empire but it was already on its way to collapse and the war had made things even worse. Within a few hundred years the empire collapsed catastrophically into what is called “The Long Night”; over a thousand years of dark ages. Technology was lost, trade disappeared and entire planetary populations were wiped out. A small group of planets called the Sylean Federation were the first to rediscover the Jump Drive technology and began to expand quickly. A few hundred years later they crowned the first emperor of the Third Imperium and declared Year Zero of the new empire. The year is now 1105 and there have been many challenges and triumphs for the new empire. The borders of the Third Imperium have expanded further than all the previous empires and many new branches of humanity have been discovered. There are currently three human star empires; the Third Imperium (a mix of Vilani and Solomani humans and several alien races, the largest and most powerful of the human empires), the Solomani Sphere (a small empire of humans still loyal to the memory of old Earth) and the mysterious Zhodani Consulate. **** Ref and Player Expectations **** Shared Universe I (Savoylen) am the Referee - not the author and creator of all this. Traveller at its heart is a shared experience. This will work best when we share the load. For example, if our ship ends up in an unexpected and uncharted system. the ref and the players work together to discover what is there. I’ll only jump behind the screen when it's time to get cinematic. Our game will be split up into Acts & Scenes that are stories about the adventures - places, faces, drama and conflict; and Interludes - periods of longer travel, trade exchanges, group work in filling in the universe that we’ll discover together. Shared StoryTelling There are going to be Interludes where we will be telling the story together and interactively. There will be periods of time that we will be telling the story of what we are discovering in the systems we discover and the life, death, and struggles we uncover. AND there will be times that crew/team will decide to ‘zoom in’ to the story of our characters and ask the Referee to fill in the details of the adventure so they can live it out in story, song and glory. I get it, I’ll do the heavy lifting when it comes time but the real fun of a Traveller campaign is the teamwork at the gaming table as players work it out together in collaboration. The Foundational Principle - read it here and if you can’t live by it, please don’t apply. Crunch vs. Feeling - I hear this a lot in reference to Traveller. There is no more or no less “crunch” in Traveller as there is say in “5e”. Just because there is a data table doesn’t mean we ‘have’ to use it. Yes, we are going to be playing Traveller but in the same spirit, I follow simple maxim of Gold, Silver and Bronze Rules in all my games. Please read them and again, if you can’t live with these, don’t apply to my games. ***** Application Info and Selection ***** 1. Commit to a long-term game - Let's start off with a few sentences about what has you interested in this game and your experience with Traveller (Traveller experience is not required). 2. Select a Starting Race - What is your preference on the Traveller Universe the starting race? 3. Suggest a Staging Point - I plan on starting in one of three of the traditional kick-off spots: The Solomani Rim - The human space where intrigue and politics, the major races and hundreds of years of alliances, allies and enemies. Corporations, Empires, World governments and colonies vie for control and self direction; The Spinward Marches - The frontier behind the claw, rich in trade and interesting friction and mixes of alien frontier worlds and amazing technologies. The Spinward Marches is the popular staging area for a Traveller camp. and therefore, well-developed; The Trailing Frontier - Hivers and the vastness unexplored space and the vast unknown with a threat of piracy abounds. Which of these staging areas is the most attractive to you and why? 3. Starting in Act 5, you'll be leaving on an Backwater Asteroid Mining Planetoid named Oberon-Tribon. Suggest a reason that your character ended up there! The Interactive Map Your character should be available for immediate hire from the mining asteroid complex Tribon-Oberon in the Rakurram System, Voskhod Subsector, Vland 0610. 4. Example of narrative style - give us a link to something you have written that is an example of what you can do and if you’re new, let's hear a story of from your childhood (Include your character’s name/race/home-world or home-station or home-ship). Once the game has started, in future selections the current crew will be asked for their feedback on applicants.We will select the applications that make the best impression overall looking especially great creative storytellers. Having a history on the site is a plus and in the lack of experience here, at least take the oath. 5. Character Name / Race-Sex / and Home-world (or station, home-ship, etc.) - Character Creation starts at age 18. Please add a few lines telling us about this "growing-up" part. It may help form some of your choices during the creation process - believe me. You're not married to this at this point as you are welcome to change your mind before you start rolling the character but it will give us a good idea of where your 'head is' before we start. I know! This is one of the most intersted parts of Traveller so I get it but please hold off for now.DO NOT CREATE a full character yet. You'll do this with the crew in out game thread once you've been selected for the crew. That’s it - I’m looking forward to seeing where this journey takes us!
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GM of: Dark*Matter: The Hoffmann Institute (2007 HOF),
Traveller: The Third Imperium The 2024 Iron DM Season 18 Is Live! New here? Try a New Player Solo Game for 13th age, CoC, DnD, FATE, Pathfinder, Traveller. Last edited by savoylen; Oct 9th, 2024 at 01:03 AM. |
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GM of: Dark*Matter: The Hoffmann Institute (2007 HOF),
Traveller: The Third Imperium The 2024 Iron DM Season 18 Is Live! New here? Try a New Player Solo Game for 13th age, CoC, DnD, FATE, Pathfinder, Traveller. Last edited by savoylen; Nov 25th, 2021 at 12:53 PM. |
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Last edited by Jon; May 10th, 2020 at 10:42 AM. |
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As I said in the interest thread I'd really love to get a good game of traveller going, so let's dig into this:
1. I've tried it a few times before, but groups fell apart or were slightly mismanaged. It was always a sad tale, because I could tell that wasn't much wrong with the system and definitely not with the setting. I've been meaning to give it another try for a while now. 2. Human. 3. Even though I can't exactly the position of these frontiers my preference is trailing frontiers first, spinward marches second, solomani rim third. 4. I don't get the chance to play in hard sci fi too much, but I recently joined an eclipse phase game that might serve as a writing sample. For example I liked my intro post in it quite a lot, where my character wakes up and finds he has been stuck into a robotic dragonfly after having been killed and restored from a much earlier backup. Has a bit of body horror and some conversations with his digital assistant. 5. I have two pre-18 scenarios playing around in my head: Version one is somebody from a nonindustrial agricultural world (If I had to pick a random planet for this I would say Lamguumaash for now), Version two is somebody from a very high tech world with either severe pollution, or maybe a no gravity artificial world (as an example for the latter I'll pick Raguegh). Seeing as there are two females in the mix I would tentatively say I'd be a human male. From the planet names I'm getting a vague ancient middle eastern vibe (Babylonian, sumerian, whatever), so going on that a random name I came up would be Ebamesh "Mesh" Arrouk or Nezzara "Nasty" Arrouk - will depend on the characters vibe. As for what sort of character options I am toying with: If I have a high attribute value I might shoot for the stars - University or Navy Academy followed by Navy Pilot or Support (more looking towards astrogation). Possibly Noble Diplomat, Agent, Intelligence or even straight up Scholar of some variety. If I roll low to begin with that might change. In that case I'd possibly try to just go for Army/infantry, Agent/Law Enforcement, any Rogue or Merchant. Careers I haven't mentioned I'm not particularly interested in, but drifter could always be thrown in the mix. Possibly good to mention that I will probably stay in chargen until 30s or a phase or two beyond - so 4-5 phases. I believe that's a lot of options for me to chose from without too much intentional overlap if we do the generation simultaneously. The rest is obviously riding the rolls and staying flexible. Last edited by Phettberg; May 10th, 2020 at 11:56 AM. |
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1. Hadn't heard of Traveller until a recent Seth Skorkowsky YouTube video series. Once my interest was piqued I did a bit of reading in a (totally legally acquired) core rulebook and I fell in love with the ruleset from the moment I saw that the game can start with going to college! My big influences are sci-fi novels (Orson Scott Card, Isaac Asimov, H. G. Wells, C. S. Lewis, ...) and I admit I'm a born Trekkie (my grandparents own physical copies of all the movies and shows). I'm already involved with a few games on RPGx, so I can Not an absolute limit, and I know this depends on the individuals involved - my interest is high in this gameonly hard commit to 2/wk quality post game (with much more activity OOC, since it seems like Traveller has a lot of collaboration).
2. Prefer Human starting race. 3. Trailing Frontier. I'm unfamiliar with the Traveller world, so I feel like this gives more opportunities for myself and the group to have more dynamic exploration and better potential for Trek style exploration which is where I lean toward. 4. Here's a link to the narrative sample from an application and from the actual game (since applications and actual day-to-day gameplay can differ greatly). These sample posts are of the punchy, one-panel System is Mutants and Masterminds, and GM has us all in solo threads to begin. Posting rate is 3+/day at the moment (no waiting for 5 players before a GM post), so short posts keep the momentum highcomic book type; my own expectations for a high quality post in this game are the plot advancing of about 2 of these posts, with about 3-4 times the overall length to allow for a nice seasoning of sensory detail (as opposed to chewing the scenery). EDIT: 1/3+ days is fine for me! Last edited by Mythrandil; May 9th, 2020 at 09:56 AM. |
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Let me start by saying...DAMN YOUR EYES SAVOYLEN!!!
I know better. Really, some part of me is well aware that there's always a chance that a game will jerk at my attention when I look at the recruitment thread. But I do it anyway, even when I know I should spend more time on something else. And then along come two different games to snag my interest! 1. Commit to a long-term game - I fell in love with Traveller when it came in little 6x9 paperback pamphlets that looked like they were done in a garage. I've played Twilight 2000 and then the merger between Traveller and T2K. AND on top of that, I have started a Space Opera-esque novel with new characters to play with. The only question is, have a couple of hiatuses in my posting rate last year blackballed me? 2. Select a Starting Race - Humaniti 3. Suggest a Staging Point - I'm inclined to start with the Spinward Marches to keep things adventurous and fronteirsy while still having potential impact from Imperium big wigs and corporate muscle. And while it's not AS common, we still have some potential pirates/slaver/raiders activity. 4. Name: Rafe Solup Age 42 Homeworld Ruie??
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Cattle die.Kindred Die. All men are mortal.But the good name lasts forever. Last edited by ogamodyna; May 12th, 2020 at 01:47 AM. |
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Sorry about that folks, I've updated the OP with that all important "game data" block. In my sleepy head last night, I got too much in a rush to make the post look nice, and copy/paste magicked right over that block.
Game System: Traveller MgT2 (Mongoose 2nd Edition) Skill Level: Experienced gamers preferred but open to any Max # Players: 4-6 Current Status (Game Open for 6 positions) Post Frequency: Fast Paced - 1/3+ One post every three days or better. Recruiting Period: Two weeks or until the team is filled out. (May 20th or sooner) In my games, I try to do a major GM update at the end of the third day. This is a bit different as I hope that there will be enough collaboration to get some 'back and forth' going. So as a "referee" I'll just update as I need too. I guess as to what I'm saying here, there may be times I'm posting a bit more often to reply to "ref" questions, and there may be some time someone else may do the same thing if they are 'leading' or 'championing' something as well. I don't expect anyone to do major updates/posts any faster than the end of the third day which works out to 2 post a week, and sometimes 3. Sorry for such a 'squishy' answer but I don't think I'll always be 'out front' on this game. I think we can all agree that expecting someone to update their side of things after three days is probably an OK rate. I also believe in RL things, so taking a break, vacation, etc. from the game is OK - just let the rest of the table know and we'll take care of things for each other. I hope that answer that question. I'll be working of the actual game thread over this week and start player selection once its set up. Thanks for the interest everyone - those apps so far look great!! This is going to be an AWESOME team. - Savoy
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GM of: Dark*Matter: The Hoffmann Institute (2007 HOF),
Traveller: The Third Imperium The 2024 Iron DM Season 18 Is Live! New here? Try a New Player Solo Game for 13th age, CoC, DnD, FATE, Pathfinder, Traveller. Last edited by savoylen; May 9th, 2020 at 10:14 AM. |
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What edition of Traveller are you planning on running? I'm mostly familiar with Mongoose Traveller myself.
1) I'm always interested in Traveller. I haven't had the chance to play it as much as I'd like. I played in a couple of GURPS Traveller campaigns that never really got off the ground, and I've tried running Mongoose Traveler a couple of times. The longest running campaign I've ever run (not that that's saying much) was the Pirates of Drinax campaign which only ended because half the players had to move to another city. 2) I'd prefer to play Humaniti, but not Solomani or Vilani. A Zhodani exile would be fun, or one of the Humaniti members of the Hierate. Or just one of the minor races. 3) Definitely the Spinward Marches. It's on the frontier of three of the major powers, so there's plenty of stuff to explore, ancient ruins to find and potential conflict to try and avoid. 4) I've only recently gotten back into forum roleplaying after about 15 years break, so I'm still fairly rusty, but here is my first post from one of the game's I've applied for. 5) Name: Orazaiym Race: Zhodani Sex: Female Homeworld: Chronor Fled the Zhodani Consulate to avoid being dragged off by the Thought Police for Re-education. Last edited by Jenny Greenteeth; May 10th, 2020 at 11:06 AM. |
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I just woke up, so - placeholder
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Agenda in a time of fear: Be not afraid.
When things go wrong, do right. |
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Quote:
Nice to meet you!
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GM of: Dark*Matter: The Hoffmann Institute (2007 HOF),
Traveller: The Third Imperium The 2024 Iron DM Season 18 Is Live! New here? Try a New Player Solo Game for 13th age, CoC, DnD, FATE, Pathfinder, Traveller. |
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Throwing my hat into the ring as a possible Asian. Not familiar with the Traveler system at all though so i will start boning up on it.
1. Commit to a long-term game - I love a good long term game where we can build our characters and relationships. Not just with other player characters but NPC's as well. I feel that telling the story of the character partly true if there relationships only revolve around PC's. I have been in quite a few long term games in my 38 years of Role Playing, and the most rewarding are the ones where you have a chance to develop your character as a whole. 2. Select a Starting Race - Leaning towards Asian currently may switch to human after reading more about the system. 3. Suggest a Staging Point - The Solomani Rim - The human space where intrigue and politics, the major races and hundreds of years of alliances, allies and enemies. Corporations, Empires, World governments and colonies vie for control and self direction. I feel this region makes the most sense for my character to start out in since it is neighbor to the Aslan Hierate. Being that he is starting out it makes sense to me not having gone from from his or her homeworld. Of course if I decide to go Human this will most likely change. 4. Example of narrative style - Here is a link to one of my other stories for reading. Thanks for taking the time to consider my application and if you need anything further please do not hesitate to ask. Well I tried the Character generator and below is what I got. I think it is pretty god LOL. Name: Carric Species: Aslan Age: 18 Strength: 13 Dexterity: 9 Endurance: 10 Intellect: 8 Education: 9 Social: 5 Psi: 0 Skills Flyer-0 Streetwise-0 Survival-0 Carouse-1 Tactics Heavy Weapons Gun Combat Events You've gained entry to the Marine Academy. Marine Academy Event: Taking advantage of youth, you party as much as you study. Gain Carouse 1. Marine Academy Event: You have graduated and are welcome in the Marines Last edited by JaredSyn; May 11th, 2020 at 10:03 AM. |
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I ran through online character generators for the system a few time, always to hilarious effect: My last one I made dumb but strong (I imagined the guy to be from some low-tech agrarian world), decided to stick him in the army, though first phase a war breaks out and he is drafted, but for some reason he's then put into the navy. Since that was the only thing his attributes worked for I put him in support, though he failed survival and due to some personal failing he caused a mission to go wrong or something along those lines. While he avoided personal injuries he's obviously discharged and I just have him go through another phase of being a rogueish enforcer before calling it quits. That was about the most succesful character I made in three runs by the way and I love it.
Moral of the story is don't go on putting grunts in charge of maintaining your ships. |
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LOL, nice! Words to live by!
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GM of: Dark*Matter: The Hoffmann Institute (2007 HOF),
Traveller: The Third Imperium The 2024 Iron DM Season 18 Is Live! New here? Try a New Player Solo Game for 13th age, CoC, DnD, FATE, Pathfinder, Traveller. |
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I thought I would do one more guy and now I've wasted all my good rolls: I got into university doing astrogation and science, graduated with honours. Entered the navy (voluntarily this time), did not gain commission on the first phase but then was involved in a heroic action the next and got automatic com. , did not abuse my powers once and prevented some crime on board another phase, jumping the promotional queue some more and ending up with a rank 4 officer and extremely good navitagor and leader with INT and EDU at 12 and no other attribute below 8...
NEVER going to get rolls as good ever again. I'm looking forward to my trainwreck of an actual character, it'll be so much more interesting. |
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1. Commit to a long-term game - Im a massive fan of anything Sci fi, and there just aren't enough games of it...Though I have no current experience with Traveller as of yet,
2. Select a Starting Race - Aslan preference...(But happy with Humanati 3. Suggest a Staging Point - Preference is this one. The Spinward Marches - The frontier behind the claw, rich in trade and interesting friction and mixes of alien frontier worlds and amazing technologies; Mostly because it looks like there'll be much more chance of exploration. 4. Example of narrative style -A small in game post...
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Woppity things happen here.
Last edited by Herb; May 10th, 2020 at 11:13 AM. |
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