If you go with the Third Imperium setting, you can use the Traveller Map https://travellermap.com/. A resource pretty much unique to Traveller.

There is also the Traveller Wiki http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Main_Page

Quote from: Celestial;937747Eh, I checked out (and even subscribed to) the Citizens of the Imperium forum several months ago, but I perceived a really negative vibe to both Mongoose Traveller in general but in particular 2E from the staff and some of the regulars there, so I'm not sure how useful the forum would be from a rules standpoint.  Of course, I could be mistaken.  However, do check it out if you're interested in the official setting as it has oodles of information about it.

That's probably me.  Sorry...Mongoose really tends to go where I don't want them to.  I like lots of skills.  I don't tend to like modern / narrativist stuff.

Quote from: RunningLaser;937809There's a seller on Amazon, Sci Fi City that has it for $35.54 shipped.  That's where I got mine from.  Should be here in a week or so.

Sci Fi City is owned by the guys who own Studio 2 Publishing and print the books for Mongoose. No surprise there.

Quote from: estar;937824If you go with the Third Imperium setting, you can use the Traveller Map https://travellermap.com/. A resource pretty much unique to Traveller.

There is also the Traveller Wiki http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Main_Page

Damn.  Love that map.  Will have to take a closer look when I have some time.  Thanks!

I'd also vote for Mongoose Traveller. Though I think the one I've got and recently ran a kick-ass campaign with was the 1st edition. it's super-similar to the classic traveller rules, only with more material.

Quote from: David Johansen;937825That's probably me.  Sorry...Mongoose really tends to go where I don't want them to.  I like lots of skills.  I don't tend to like modern / narrativist stuff.

I dislike Mongoose because they claimed to OGL their Traveller and then removed from the licensed material all the stuff that would allow you to create characters or play the game.

ETA: But I try to be positive and point out the nice CDs from FFE with all the original Traveller stuff, instead of complaining about the above. Economically, you just can't beat it.

Quote from: Tod13;939028I dislike Mongoose because they claimed to OGL their Traveller and then removed from the licensed material all the stuff that would allow you to create characters or play the game.

Mongoose did, and it sucks. It does not reflect well on Mongoose at all.

However, you should take a look at Cepheus Engine. Remember how when WotC made 4E and the GSL pissed everyone off, so much so that Pathfinder came out? Well, Cepheus Engine is to Mongoose Traveller 1 what Pathfinder is to D&D 3.x. Did I mention that Cepheus Engine is OGL?

The final straw that enabled the Cepheus Engine was the disastrous replacement of the Traveller Logo program with the Traveller Aide Program on Onebookshelf. The result of the earlier SRD was a small group of 3rd party publishers focused on their own original settings. The TAS program is utterly hostile to retaining any rights to original settings (i.e. non Third Imperium) so it was a non-starter. Then Cepheus was released and pretty much all the third party guys switched over to using it.

The more they tighten their grip, the more IP will slip through their fingers.

Quote from: Vic99;937475What is the Traveller feel?  I haven't played it before, but it seems to be the standard (or one of them) for sci fi exploration and big empire control and all that.

I've never gotten to play Traveller, but during a recent spasm of SF RPG interest I read some MgT books and the LBB, aaaand:

To me, Traveller feels a little like Alien or Firefly: ragtag crew operates on thin profit margin in something a little like the (thanks poster up above) Age of Sail. Joss Whedon once described Firefly as 'the second act of Star Wars if, instead of picking up Luke and Ben, Han and Chewie just flew around picking up odd jobs, trying not to get arrested or murdered,' and he's always cited The Killer Angels as an inspiration. That slowness and vastness, the almost Greek-myth sense of humans trying to eke out a halfway decent life before some pitiless god accidentally steps on them or steals their child to be raised by goatherders.

I'm ambivalent about The Force Awakens in general, but the Tolkienesque irrupting-mythic-past setting of Jakoo -- those ruined Imperial ships! -- is perfect, and seems like a perfect Traveller setting.

Traveller grognards, do I have the right sense of it?

Seconding the endorsements of Stars Without Number, by the way -- the sandbox-generation tools are superb using even if you're not playing with the rules system. WotC should hire Kevin Crawford to lead a campaign-design book project for 5e.

Quote from: stuffis;939094I've never gotten to play Traveller, but during a recent spasm of SF RPG interest I read some MgT books and the LBB, aaaand:

To me, Traveller feels a little like Alien or Firefly: ragtag crew operates on thin profit margin in something a little like the (thanks poster up above) Age of Sail. Joss Whedon once described Firefly as 'the second act of Star Wars if, instead of picking up Luke and Ben, Han and Chewie just flew around picking up odd jobs, trying not to get arrested or murdered,' and he's always cited The Killer Angels as an inspiration. That slowness and vastness, the almost Greek-myth sense of humans trying to eke out a halfway decent life before some pitiless god accidentally steps on them or steals their child to be raised by goatherders.

I'm ambivalent about The Force Awakens in general, but the Tolkienesque irrupting-mythic-past setting of Jakoo -- those ruined Imperial ships! -- is perfect, and seems like a perfect Traveller setting.

Traveller grognards, do I have the right sense of it?

Seconding the endorsements of Stars Without Number, by the way -- the sandbox-generation tools are superb using even if you're not playing with the rules system. WotC should hire Kevin Crawford to lead a campaign-design book project for 5e.

Pretty much, but the common wisdom amongst fans is that Firefly was based on a Traveller campaign that Joss Whedon was in during college. Traveller is generic enough to stretch from the anime/manga Planetes to Niven and Pournelle's CoDominion stories to Babylon 5 to the more recent The Expanse. Allen Steele has played Traveller and mentions it in his Near Space stories. You can do Ghost in the Shell and The Martian with that system.

And Cepheus Engine makes it OGL.

Quote from: jeff37923;939051Mongoose did, and it sucks. It does not reflect well on Mongoose at all.

However, you should take a look at Cepheus Engine. Remember how when WotC made 4E and the GSL pissed everyone off, so much so that Pathfinder came out? Well, Cepheus Engine is to Mongoose Traveller 1 what Pathfinder is to D&D 3.x. Did I mention that Cepheus Engine is OGL?

Nice. Needs a bit of layout work, but I like what I see in it.

Ship Computers take no weight or space? Interesting update to, or bug in, the ship building rules. I work on HPCs (high performance clusters) with hundreds of computer nodes, that take up a room (or more). I have no problem with a ton or two of computer for a ship.

Quote from: Tod13;939108Ship Computers take no weight or space? Interesting update to, or bug in, the ship building rules. I work on HPCs (high performance clusters) with hundreds of computer nodes, that take up a room (or more). I have no problem with a ton or two of computer for a ship.

That was discussed and we just thought that the displacement was folded into the bridge tonnage.

Quote from: jeff37923;939110That was discussed and we just thought that the displacement was folded into the bridge tonnage.

Thanks. I did some googling and couldn't find anything offhand. It kind of makes sense as, within certain parameters of usage, there is very little size difference between a slow and fast computer.

Quote from: stuffis;939094Seconding the endorsements of Stars Without Number, by the way -- the sandbox-generation tools are superb using even if you're not playing with the rules system. WotC should hire Kevin Crawford to lead a campaign-design book project for 5e.

Yes, and that project should be titled "Star Frontiers".