Traveller Hero: The Flight of a Thousand Years

[AlHazred]

The pitch that apparently sold it to my players:

 

System: Classic Traveller, GURPS Traveller, or Traveller Hero

Summary: It seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime -- see strange new worlds, meet interesting people, and trade with them. After a career in the military, a hitch among the Scouts, or grueling years as a wage-slave in the corporate sector, it seemed like a golden opportunity. Things haven't worked out that way, though. Who knew fuel would be so expensive? And then there's all these fees: berthing fees, license fees, payments for innoculation, and so on, and so on. And the risks... Still, it's more interesting than what you did before, and you take your rewards where you can get them -- like those exotic liqueurs they mentioned one planet farther on...

Importance of the PCs: It's up to them. They're starting out unknown, though.

 

CAMPAIGN TONE

Morality: Some crossover between Good vs. Evil. (3)

Realism: Realistic. (4)

Outlook: Successes balanced by failures. (3)

Seriousness: More serious than lighthearted. (4)

Continuity: Mostly episodic, with some continuing stories. (4)

 

CHARACTER BUILDING GUIDELINES

Characters are competent normals (150 points/100+50 points) with a background in the military, the merchants, the scouts, or some other well-travelled career - i.e., they must have some reason to adventure.

 

WORLD DESCRIPTION

The Spinward Marches are the Imperium's furthest frontier. When the Third Imperium first began its reconquest of space, much effort was spent on recontacting worlds originally part of the First Imperium or its successor, the Rule of Man. In all directions, Scouts found settled worlds or established interstellar communities, except here. In the Marches they found rich empty worlds on the Imperium's only real frontier. The frontier. The fringe of civilization. This is where things happen.

[tytalan]

Re: Traveller Hero: The Flight of a Thousand Years

 

try this for a more interesting setting TNE. fourth Imperial buy both source books you will not be disappointed.

[AlHazred]

Re: Traveller Hero: The Flight of a Thousand Years

 

My sources for inspiration:

 

• Jack Vance: specifically Ports of Call/Lurulu (which deals with four members of what is essentially a Free Trader); I will probably adapt cultures and worlds from a number of other Gaean Reach/Oikumene books, possibly including as The Blue World, the Demon Princes series, the Cadwal Chronicles, the Alastor series, Big Planet/Showboat World, Emphyrio, the Magnus Ripolph stories, Galactic Effectuator, The Gray Prince, and Night Lamp.
  
• Poul Anderson: specifically The Trouble Twisters (three stories about space merchant David Falkayn and the pioneer trade ship he works on). I'd like to import some of the feel of the Polesotechnic League/Psychotechnic League stuff.
  
• Keith Laumer: some of the technology from the Bolos series, and some of the situations and attitudes of the Retief series. I think the attitudes and methods of the diplomats in Retief are perfect for Vilani bureaucrats.

More as I think of them.

[shadowcat1313]

Re: Traveller Hero: The Flight of a Thousand Years

 

just on a trivia note: one of the authors who took over writing the Bolo stories after laumer's death was William H Keith, who got his start writng traveller books for GDW and FASA, along with a lot of traveller art.

 

in the Bolo Book "The Old Guard" the last story was about a pair of Bolos that had been stationed together and fought together, and after one was destroyed the other went into almost a berserker rage. the book is dedicated to his brother Andrew J Keith who had died of natural causes. its a great story called "Brothers"

[alexraccoon]

Re: Traveller Hero: The Flight of a Thousand Years

 

http://www.freelancetraveller.com/jakeith/jakeith.html

[shadowcat1313]

Re: Traveller Hero: The Flight of a Thousand Years

 

Thanks for posting that link Alex, I was a bit braindead last night,. the Keith brothers were such an important part of early traveller, and helped evolve early battletech too for that matter. at one point I talked to William about getting permission to do some RPG conversion stuff for Andrews 5th Foreign Legion books, but it kept getting back burnered on my end.

[AlHazred]

Re: Traveller Hero: The Flight of a Thousand Years

 

just on a trivia note: one of the authors who took over writing the Bolo stories after laumer's death was William H Keith' date=' who got his start writng traveller books for GDW and FASA, along with a lot of traveller art.[/quote']You might be interested to know that he's also continuing the Retief series with a book called Retief's Peace. There're sample chapters available.

 

I don't intend to make Bolos a part of the campaign to any great extent (or possibly at all). One of the modifications/clarifications I plan to implement is a ban or something on Artificially Intelligent systems.

[AlHazred]

Tech Levels

 

I think I'll be using a slightly altered tech level table, since I think the low end of the Traveller table is too compressed, and the high level of the GURPS table is undifferentiated.

 

TL General Historical Comparison

0 Stone Age (Prehistory and later): Counting; oral tradition

1 Bronze Age (3500 B.C.+): Arithmetic; writing

2 Iron Age (1200 B.C.+): Geometry; scrolls

3 Medieval (600 A.D.+): Algebra; books

4 Age of Sail (1450+): Calculus; movable type

5 Industrial Revolution (1730+): Mechanical calculators; telegraph

6 Mechanized Age (1880+): Electrical calculators; telephone and radio

7 Nuclear Age (1940+): Mainframe computers; television

8 Digital Age (1980+): Personal computers; global networks

9 Microtech Age (2025+?): Artificial intelligence; real-time virtuality

10 Interstellar Community (2070+?): Compact laser and heavy particle-beam weapons; Gauss guns; antimatter bombs

11 Average Imperial

12 Average Imperial

13 Above Average Imperial

14 Above Average Imperial

15 Technical Maximum Imperial

16 Beyond

[AlHazred]

Re: Traveller Hero: The Flight of a Thousand Years

 

I think I'll start an Actual Play thread for this.