A long hiatus comes to an end.
In the intervening seven months since my last post, I've had many ideas to blog about. I've written some and then deleted them because the event I was writing about had passed by some significant time ago, or, I had great ideas to write about but never made the time to do so. I often find that I have much to say about many things, but then think, "Who is going to read this? Probably no one."
Of course, I should just write for myself and for my own enjoyment rather than some narcissistic ego massage. In the end, if you, dear reader, are entertained or learn something new in the course of my musings then that is a great day for us both.
So, to Traveller.
I started running Traveller in December 2025. I really wanted to run a Sci-Fi game that wasn't D&D in space. There were a number of options before me, such as Starfinder, Death in Space, and Mothership, but occluding them all was the mighty and venerable Traveller, a game almost as old as D&D itself.
I'd had a brush with Traveller's life path system in 1990 when I bought the second edition of GDW's Twilight 2000 game. I really enjoyed that game and I whiled away many evenings of my teenage years in my bedroom creating new characters and adventure ideas. Being a child of the Cold War the game deeply resonated with me.
Fast Forward to 2024/25 and I found myself quite undecided about whether to invest in Traveller, and if so, which version of it to sink my money and time. I bought Cepheus and read through that and really enjoyed what it was promising. And yet, Cepheus was just a stripped down Traveller wasn't it?
I took advice from players and GMs on the various forums I subscribe to and eventually I decided to go with Mongoose 2e as the system I would actually play. Looking back at that decision, I think I made the right one, although my bank account might differ.
In my opinion, Traveller is an excellent game. The roll 2d6 and get 8 or higher is a simple enough mechanic for anyone to grasp. I'm used to Old School Essential's numerous differing mechanics and so running Traveller is refreshing in that respect.
I love the ships available. Looking at the stats and illustrations and imagining captaining such a vessel really scratches a specific itch.
I like resource management games, and Traveller is very much that. If you follow the core concept faithfully there is a lot of book keeping for the players to do with respects to running a ship in space. Is there enough fuel on board to get us to our destination? When we get there, can we refuel? How long will it take for us to travel to our target system? Can we afford the maintenance, mortgage and running costs for this coming month, and does this next job pay the bills?
I love that.
The background lore is HUGE! The interactive Traveller map available on the Mongoose website is awe inspiring in its scope - tens of thousands of star systems and worlds to visit and explore, and all linked to an informative wiki.
My greatest difficulty was choosing where to start play. There were so many options. So many cultures. So many regions. Do I want to go Coreward, Spinward, Rimward or Trailing? Do I want massive star empire opera, or small fringe system survival?
I chose what appears to be a favourite for many GMs, District 268 in the Spinward Marches sector bordering the Imperium. There are a lot of cultural options in that 8x10 parsec subsector for my players and myself to get to grips with - Third Imperium, Darrian Confederation, Sword Worlds Confederation, Aslan, Pirates, Belters and the various minor proto-star empires such as Collace, Trexalon, Dallia and Forine. Throw in some mega-corporations trying to exploit everyone and you have a hotbed of competing interests, skullduggery and proxy wars to navigate around.
None of my players had tried Traveller before and so the system, the lore, and the style of gameplay was quite new to us. I ran three session zeroes to guide the group through character creation and choosing a group style of play. Each session was two hours long, and overall we spent six hours learning the system, the characters, the cultures and creating links and a reason for coming together as a crew.
Ryan plays Stefan Drukher, an elderly Zhodani Psion/Noble who has fled the Zhodani Consulate to escape re-education.
Murray plays Frank Cochrane, a Solomani retired Imperial Navy Chief Engineer.
Tim plays Jimmy Scrambles, a Solomani retired Imperial Navy Commander and IISS Scout.
Ian plays Caspar D'Angelou, a Solomani retired Lieutenant Colonel of Imperial Star Marines.
Andy plays Corelle Barbelith, a Darrian ex-Envoy and merchant marine.
Frank and Stefan both had ship shares (Stefan had eighteen! Yes, really) and they agreed to club together to buy a ship. With that in mind we started Session 1:
The Travellers met together for the first time at the LSP High Orbital, Flammarion, Sword World's subsector, and took possession of their new ship, the IPV Maeander, a luxury Yacht. It is about a century old and has seen better days. It is clean and well presented, but obviously worn, and its hull is scarred with battle damage from a recent pirate attack that ultimately killed its previous owner. The ship was sold off by the insurance company.
They check the ship over and find a number of faults. Frank Cochrane repairs the astrogator’s station on the bridge. A steward is hired, a 22-year-old Vilani female by the name of Vandia Karise. The ship takes on seven high passengers and the mail, and sets off towards Asteltine in District 268.
We've had a lot of fun creating the Travellers and learning the new mechanics and systems. We've yet to get into the nitty gritty of ship to ship fighting or personal combat, and I'm looking forward to those events as the mechanics are slightly different in each case.
I'm glad I picked up Traveller. It's been a lot of fun and currently my group are about to go into session 10. I'll share snippets of their adventures as we go along.
I foresee this game filling my free Monday evenings for the next year or two. If you've not played Traveller before, I highly recommend it.
Oh, did I ever share that I also love Lego?
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