The last game I ran was a Classic Traveller campaign set in a sector of my own creation.  I had gotten ahold of the first two reprint books about a year before that and had been enthusiastically reading them and planning a few scenarios while my RoleMaster campaign played out.

Part of planning those scenarios involved me rolling up a sector using the stuff from LBB3 and the Scouts book where needed, then making sense of what came up (which was so much fun I ended up going through the process several times for a few subsectors).  I eventually found the Galactic program and used that to generate and store the final version of my campaign data.

Now, it was quite a while before I started looking for Traveller-specific sites and information.  A couple months before starting the game, however, I started looking around and found sites like Downport and travellerrpg.com where I could bounce (and/or steal) ideas off of the game's long-time fans and get confidence that I was on the right track with my own game plans.

What really surprised me was how few people use the tools in LBB3 to generate their own settings.  It never occurred to me to do otherwise (I'm a random table addict); I don't care much for the Imperium as presented and would rather build my own universe using CT's default setting assumptions rather than re-build an established setting.  But it seems like random subsector generation is not something that's done much at all these days.

So...just wondering...does anyone else out there use Traveller's systems to create their own settings?

There are folks on Citizens of the Imperium who run non-Imperium campaigns and I've certainly seen websites devoted to noncanonical campaigns.  I've generated a subsector or two but never fleshed them out enough for play.

Well, I'd like to say, "Yes, I do", but that wouldn't be quite accurate.

However, if I were to say, "HELL yes!", and then do this:


...yes, that's appropriate.

I use the Imperium very sparingly, as I mentioned in Koltar's "Revolution" thread.  I just roll up planets and subsectors for fun, and play with that.  No one seems to mind.

Quote from: KenHRSo...just wondering...does anyone else out there use Traveller's systems to create their own settings?

 YES!!  - I used to.

 When I was a teenager and in my early '20s.

If I had a nickname for it - it would have been called the MORNINGSTAR Universe or timeline.  It was heavily influenced by BOTH Ayn Rand novels and Alan Dean Foster Humanx Commonwealth books.
The place on the map was about 40 to 47 parsecs trailing and a little rimward of the Sol/Terran star system. Thats where most of the subsector existed where the group's adventures took place.

The fictional years were around 2810 to 2814 A.D.

I even created a new race , called the Rulikani. Imagine a cross between the Adult ALIENS from the Alien movies and the Vulcans - except these guys lived on a desert world and were very gung-ho capitalists with a wicked sense of dry humor.

 Thing is, I'm much older now and have less time to write things up in obsessive detail like I did back then.
PLUS I discovered the fun of women way back when and that pursuit and funtimes became a much more interesting obsession at times.

 So , now I use something close to the "canon" universe, or at LEAST the SJG G:T version of it. Makes it easier for my players to look things up in books and on the web if they want to.


- Ed C.

Thanks for the responses.  Glad to hear I'm not alone.

Koltar, I'm happily living with my girlfriend of seven years, so I guess I don't obsess about chasing skirts too much any more.  

I don't detail every star system and planet when I create my settings.  I approach it like I would any RPG setting: detail the starting area and expand from there.  If the players go off in an unexpected direction, I have the UPPs and random notes in my trusty Mead (not to mention my trusty mug of IPA) to fall back on for improv.

The Imperium material, for me, is a big collection of ideas I can use or not use at my pleasure.  I was just surprised at how many folks are obsessed with the game's canon.  Shouldn't have been surprising, really, considering the history the game has built up over the years, but I'd never really gotten deeply involved in a game that had that sort of thing before (never played WoD, FR, Shadowrun, etc. though I'd read plenty of it).

To me, Trav canon is something to shoot with when your own laser is getting recharged.

Or...whatever.

Doc, you rock.

i generated my fair share of subsectors back in the mid- to late 80's with CT.  alas, i'm another chart junkie, so they rarely got fleshed out.  when time came for me to run traveller for my group, it was easier to use the 3I, and that way those interested in the background could research stuff on their own.  no one got crazy about "canon" so if i tweaked something here or there it was fine.  

been gettin' that LBB bug rather frequently these days.  maybe throwing together some subsectors would be just the thing.

weird--scouts is/was my favorite book, but i think i only used the world gen stuff in it a handful of times.  guess i liked the subsector level of detail best, and figuring out how it may all work.  xboat routes?  :what:  :keke:

Quote from: KenHRDoc, you rock.

If I was to turn Doc Rotwang into an NPC in my campaign - he'd have to be some kind Rock Star for the Spoinward Marches that my players find confusing at times...but also good comic relief.

- Ed C.

Quote from: KoltarIf I was to turn Doc Rotwang into an NPC in my campaign - he'd have to be some kind Rock Star for the Spoinward Marches that my players find confusing at times...but also good comic relief.

- Ed C.

And he'd have a fusion-powered keytar in addition to the natty pink tie!! :cool:

Quote from: KenHRAnd he'd have a fusion-powered keytar in addition to the natty pink tie!! :cool:

i sense a traveller-version of josie & the pussycats coming on. . . .

I did back in the seventies. It eventually became the StarCluster setting through many transmogrifications and vast eons of time.

-clash

Quote from: beeberi sense a traveller-version of josie & the pussycats coming on. . . .

Hmmm...that's going down into the Mead Book of Random Ideas.  :hehe:

Quote from: flyingmiceI did back in the seventies. It eventually became the StarCluster setting through many transmogrifications and vast eons of time.

-clash

That explains why it was so useful in my last campaign.

My next game is (hopefully) going to be a Moldvay-era D&D dungeoncrawl (or FtA), but I've been getting the Trav bug again.  I barely got a chance to scratch the surface of your game in the last game; I'll surely be taking a deeper look at it this time around!

Quote from: beeberi sense a traveller-version of josie & the pussycats coming on. . . .

!i!