My favourite Traveller rulesets
Mar 2, 2019 15:57:06 GMT -5
bravewolf, Hexenritter Verlag, and 2 more like this
Post by Stibbons on Mar 2, 2019 15:57:06 GMT -5
I originally put this up on the Murkhill MeWe site, but I was asked if I could put it on here as well. So here we go.
I love Traveller, it was one of the first RPGs I really got into in my youth, first at school and later at University. I owned AD&D, but I played Traveller. Practically grew up in the Spinward Marches, running trade from Rhylanor to Mora, dodging Zhodani on the border, trawling the bars the length of the Spinward Main for jobs and keeping our beat up old Far Trader flying.
Wish I'd collected the Little Black Books when they were around but never did. I did get all the FFE collected reprints when they first appeared and I pick up the odd LBB as and when I see one in a secondhand store. I acquired the Starter set, together with Tarsus, Beltstrike and a few other books, but that was long after. The first actual ruleset I owned was GURPS Traveller actually (which I still have), seeing it in my friendly local game shop made me all nostalgic for the game I'd played in my youth. My favourite classic set is The Traveller Book and The Traveller Adventure which I'd long wanted and eventually acquired from a friend with a bit of horse trading. Just these two books would keep me going for a long time, but it's nice to have the other stuff as well.
I did get Megatraveller, but the Shattered Imperium never really captured my attention like the classic era did (although the Starship Operators Manual is one of my all-time favourite Traveller supplements). I didn't get any of the subsequent editions, didn't like the look of the Mongoose version and life and work just made me too busy to pay attention to the newer editions.
However, one ruleset that DID catch my attention was the Cepheus Engine version. I'd been hearing a lot of good things about it, how it combined the best qualities of the Classic ruleset and the Mongoose one. Then I found you could pick it up on DrivethruRPG for whatever you wanted to pay.
So I got it, and was rather impressed, clear concise and very much capturing the feel of the original. I was so impressed that when the core rulebook was made available in printed format I immediately got it. There's a lot of support for Cepheus, since it's open source people have been producing their own content and settings.
Then I found Hostile. This setting by Paul Elliott draws it's inspiration from the gritty, grungy sci-fi movies of the 70s and 80s. So you can try to kill Xenomorphs (Alien) by putting Polydichloric Euthimal (Outland) laced meat out for them with the aid of your trusty little two-legged repair-bot (Silent Running). There's a good number of supplements that flesh out more detail; planetary surfaces, Marine and Xenomorph sourcebooks, couple of adventures and the Technical Manual, which does an excellent job of explaining why futuristic technology looks like it was made three decades ago. Paul has told me he's producing a book about Clones too, how they're created, used (and abused).
I really like the setting, being a huge fan of grungy 70s/80s sci-fi. With a few tweaks you could even use Cepheus and the Hostile setting to run a Red Dwarf game. A sister game, Zaibatsu, is a Cyberpunk homage to William Gibson's "Neuromancer", and takes place in the same universe as Hostile. The pdfs are available on DrivethruRPG, but the printed books can be bought at Lulu and Paul generally gives you a link to a free pdf version if you buy a printed copy.
Anyway, here's his website, take a look- www.paulelliottbooks.com/zozergames.html
I love Traveller, it was one of the first RPGs I really got into in my youth, first at school and later at University. I owned AD&D, but I played Traveller. Practically grew up in the Spinward Marches, running trade from Rhylanor to Mora, dodging Zhodani on the border, trawling the bars the length of the Spinward Main for jobs and keeping our beat up old Far Trader flying.
Wish I'd collected the Little Black Books when they were around but never did. I did get all the FFE collected reprints when they first appeared and I pick up the odd LBB as and when I see one in a secondhand store. I acquired the Starter set, together with Tarsus, Beltstrike and a few other books, but that was long after. The first actual ruleset I owned was GURPS Traveller actually (which I still have), seeing it in my friendly local game shop made me all nostalgic for the game I'd played in my youth. My favourite classic set is The Traveller Book and The Traveller Adventure which I'd long wanted and eventually acquired from a friend with a bit of horse trading. Just these two books would keep me going for a long time, but it's nice to have the other stuff as well.
I did get Megatraveller, but the Shattered Imperium never really captured my attention like the classic era did (although the Starship Operators Manual is one of my all-time favourite Traveller supplements). I didn't get any of the subsequent editions, didn't like the look of the Mongoose version and life and work just made me too busy to pay attention to the newer editions.
However, one ruleset that DID catch my attention was the Cepheus Engine version. I'd been hearing a lot of good things about it, how it combined the best qualities of the Classic ruleset and the Mongoose one. Then I found you could pick it up on DrivethruRPG for whatever you wanted to pay.
So I got it, and was rather impressed, clear concise and very much capturing the feel of the original. I was so impressed that when the core rulebook was made available in printed format I immediately got it. There's a lot of support for Cepheus, since it's open source people have been producing their own content and settings.
Then I found Hostile. This setting by Paul Elliott draws it's inspiration from the gritty, grungy sci-fi movies of the 70s and 80s. So you can try to kill Xenomorphs (Alien) by putting Polydichloric Euthimal (Outland) laced meat out for them with the aid of your trusty little two-legged repair-bot (Silent Running). There's a good number of supplements that flesh out more detail; planetary surfaces, Marine and Xenomorph sourcebooks, couple of adventures and the Technical Manual, which does an excellent job of explaining why futuristic technology looks like it was made three decades ago. Paul has told me he's producing a book about Clones too, how they're created, used (and abused).
I really like the setting, being a huge fan of grungy 70s/80s sci-fi. With a few tweaks you could even use Cepheus and the Hostile setting to run a Red Dwarf game. A sister game, Zaibatsu, is a Cyberpunk homage to William Gibson's "Neuromancer", and takes place in the same universe as Hostile. The pdfs are available on DrivethruRPG, but the printed books can be bought at Lulu and Paul generally gives you a link to a free pdf version if you buy a printed copy.
Anyway, here's his website, take a look- www.paulelliottbooks.com/zozergames.html
