Quote from: -E.;688793This kind of perfect, economic balance is really impressive. As I look at my old traveler stuff, I'm more appreciative than ever of the kind of thought that went into the game.

In a real economy, of course, yesterday's status quo is often out of balance with today's demands. Real economics tends to rear its head sooner or later in a big multi-player campaign, the market creating new price relationships.

With a single-party game, changes in supply and demand instigated by the GM (playing the world) can still be causes of adventures.

One bearing it may be hard for some players to get is the game's default assumption that the characters are self-reliant adventurers. That they have mustered out (or even retired) from various services is notably different from games in which it is expected that characters will remain -- for the campaign's duration -- Star Fleet officers or agents of the Rebellion. Traveller characters are rather expected to find themselves in a variety of positions according to swings of fortune and shifting interests.

Characters (and players) should have a drive to explore, to take on challenges because they are challenges, to make their own place in the world. Those lacking that drive may be suitable for other kinds of campaign, but not for the kind of sandbox envisioned.

The "sandbox" is like its namesake rather a toy for improvised play. If players with enough imagination are at a loss to think of anything to do, then the material is not interesting enough.

Remember that, just as D&D was created as a game not of (e.g.) Middle Earth but of fantasy, so Traveller was created as a game of science fiction. Even if you use some "canon" such as the Third Imperium, the galaxy should be big enough to include almost any SF scenario.

Traveller:

Player: A Belter sound scool...I mine asteroids for a living.

Uh oh...I died on my second tour of duty...before I started playing.





Actually I enjoy traveller character creation a lot, just joking.


Traveller to me is all about the 'jump to the next system' and exploration with scouts in the frontier.

I never did much with the built up empire elements.