Man, Traveller is its own different game. Our Traveller session last night ended up being only about 2 hours long, all they effectively did was sell some merchandise, read up on the news, and decide where they were going next, and yet everyone came out agreeing it had been a very good session.
 
I could imagine a Port Blacksand or Roman campaign session where "Nothing happened" like that (or where the adventure was that short), and everyone would be pissed.  But traveller is its own game, like I said, and has different rules that apply to it.
 
I'll mention againt that its nine months in, and we've had precisely one combat worth mentioning (two if you count a random creature encounter).  That's playing weekly games, every week, for nine months.  And the average adventure length was quite a bit more than 2 hours, I tell you!

So what have the PCs done?
Well, they've smuggled merchandise from planet to planet, transported the occasional wierdo who doesn't want to go on a regular corporate liner, rescued some heavily-armed nuns on a world that was being invaded, had a terrifying alien encounter (in a setting that isn't supposed to have any aliens) and ended up going to the military about it (as well as making a TV movie as a cover up for it); got stuck on Al-Amarja (yes, the setting for Over the Edge, ported over as an asteroid-planet in this campaign), met all kinds of wierd personalities, got hyperspace dementia, spent time stuck on a communist planet and negotiated a trade deal with them, explored and prospected new worlds, rescued the family of a planetary governor, and have now just negotiated the sale of twenty million in uranium interests and have in their possesion a wierd black crystal that may or may not be an alien artifact.
 
Along the way they've met a certain drug-obsessed dr. of journalism, a giant Scottish barbarian from one of the culture reservations, a crotchety old genetically-modified hound dog ship's doctor who regularly prefaces his statements with "I'm a doctor, not an (insert item here)", and a really wierd english guy who seems to travel around in a disappearing blue box.
 
Not to mention communist revolutionaries Bruno Panz Jones and Francesca Fiore; the terrible genetically-replicating Mr.Le Thuys; the generally noble but war-crimes comitting General Ali; the dreaded Canadian mafia, a certain playboy senator from "west bismoll"; the mercenary lawyers at Keefer, Keefer, Keefer and Malkowsky; and french-canadian "jedi master" Roger Robichaud.

RPGPundit September 23 2005

Sounds like a blast of a Traveller campaign.

Quote from: RPGPunditMan, Traveller is its own different game. Our Traveller session last night ended up being only about 2 hours long, all they effectively did was sell some merchandise, read up on the news, and decide where they were going next, and yet everyone came out agreeing it had been a very good session.

(nods) Some of the best Traveller sessions I’ve been in were at bars (Brubecks!), on shopping trips, or onboard a ship during jump.

QuoteI'll mention againt that its nine months in, and we've had precisely one combat worth mentioning (two if you count a random creature encounter).

Combat is usually rare from my Traveller experience* and always fast and deadly. Regardless of character profession or experience.

QuoteSo what have the PCs done?
got hyperspace dementia

Along the way they've met (snip personalities)

Exposure to j-space is Traveller’s version of a massive SAN check. And great fun to roleplay.

Traveller’s flexibility makes porting in bits from elsewhere easy enough (though the farther you get from its assumptions the more difficult that becomes) and GDW had at least two sets of writeups of genre characters back in the day. Not sticking to canon helps a lot. And Traveller is designed for play.

note: Artwork by Bryan Gibson, used with permission.
* some CT, MT, and a good bit of T20; familiar with the rest

Were starting up a new space opera campaign, I've decided to use true20 for character generation and such and traveller for ship and world building stuff.

Sounds like a good combination.  But make sure that you figure out a way to incorporate the "Prior History" mechanics from Traveller T20; that's the real jewel of that game!

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPunditSounds like a good combination.  But make sure that you figure out a way to incorporate the "Prior History" mechanics from Traveller T20; that's the real jewel of that game!

RPGPundit

Yeah,I probabaly should buy a copy of that. In a way, though, I'm tempted to drop True20 d20 all together and just going with CT. either way I've got to buy some junk, as I can't find my copy of the traveller book.

Quote from: AosIn a way, though, I'm tempted to drop True20 d20 all together and just going with CT.

CT's motto, "The Referee Shall Determine The Subsequent Flow Of Events", is highly inspirational and liberating, I find.

Quote from: AosYeah,I probabaly should buy a copy of that. In a way, though, I'm tempted to drop True20 d20 all together and just going with CT. either way I've got to buy some junk, as I can't find my copy of the traveller book.

Might want to see if Avenger's playtest for The Game Formerly Known as Avenger Classic Traveller is still open. From what I understand it works with CT material (& by extension most Traveller stuff) aside from breaking something in  High Guard, the ship code thing IIRC. Check here.

Do like how Traveller d20 does Prior History, tracking all the skills and feats at the same time added a good bit of time to chargen. I've experimented with folding C&C's Siege Engine in. Sped up chargen and playing . Kept the skill names as example actions under attributes. Not familiar enough with True20 to compare.

Quote from: Casey777Might want to see if Avenger's playtest for The Game Formerly Known as Avenger Classic Traveller is still open. From what I understand it works with CT material (& by extension most Traveller stuff) aside from breaking something in  High Guard, the ship code thing IIRC. Check here.

Do like how Traveller d20 does Prior History, tracking all the skills and feats at the same time added a good bit of time to chargen. I've experimented with folding C&C's Siege Engine in. Sped up chargen and playing . Kept the skill names as example actions under attributes. Not familiar enough with True20 to compare.

Sadly, the playtest ended at the end of September.

If it's The Game Formerly Known as Avenger Classic Traveller, what is it called nowadays?

Quote from: jrientsIf it's The Game Formerly Known as Avenger Classic Traveller, what is it called nowadays?

Traveller: WTF edition, Traveller Lite, Traveller: WTHIIGTBC, likely some others I missed, and at the moment "A Traveller Classic Update by Avenger Enterprises". :idunno: