Last week, I went to New York, to attend Smashing Conference. I’ll be honest and admit that I was very nervous because of recent cases of USA incarcerating British, Irish, German and Canadian tourists, and my passport shows I was born in what is now Yemen. (Aden was a British Crown Colony when I was […]| Bruce Lawson's personal site
How have I not posted here since October? I’ve been busy and am easily distracted and but part of the delay has been overthinking what it means to post a blog. I got some quality advice from the prolific Prismatic Wasteland to break out of the slump. Ah yeah. This isn’t a published book or […] The post New Year, New Slop appeared first on Silverarm.| Silverarm
Today's contribution to I Made It So I Might As Well Share It. Might be interesting or useful to someone else as well. A selection of some of the most iconic Star Wars ships at the same scale, with their respective volume in Traveller tons. (Traveller calls a volume of 14m³ a ton for interesting … Continue reading "More Star Wars/Traveller ship scale"| Spriggan's Den
Random Tables d72 Squires (Bastionland) D6 Social Media Services of the Near-Future (Archons March On) D6x6 Sanguine Sirens (Archons March On) d100 – Wilderness Woes & Hinterland Hazards (d4 Ca…| Stuffed Crocodile
It's been a while since I last updated the blog. I have been gaming, just not posting. Here is a brief note to hopefully get me back...| aftertheogre.blogspot.com
This table was inspired by a quote from Robin D. Laws’ saying When in doubt, blindfold yourself, take any two GURPS sourcebooks off the shelf at random, and combine the results. Ok, this is a bit pointless but also… not. I mean, who has a d140 anyway? Or in fact even so many GURPS books? […]| Stuffed Crocodile
The last few weeks I have been posting pretty often, daily even, which is interesting. I sometimes do get these posting spells for a bit with this blog, and that’s quite nice. Anyway, today I had business in Warsaw and wasn’t able to write anything before I was on the train back, so this post […]| Stuffed Crocodile
During my excursions into reaction rolls for Traveller lately I realized that the Traveller book has a template for how to create rumor tables (or just come up with rumors on the fly). Unlike other games (uhm… DnD) which never get into this deeper than having a rumor table in some of their scenarios. This […]| Stuffed Crocodile
You have seen his works before if you ever looked at anything regarding space colonization. Rick Guidice was an American illustrator who did some stellar work illustrating some of the things scientists at NASA were working on. Some of his most striking stuff was regarding various ideas for space colonies. And if you look up […]| Stuffed Crocodile
In 2003 The Lord Weird Slough Feg (they later shortened the name to just Slough Feg) released a concept album based on Traveller of all things. This was way after the star of Traveller as an RPG property had gone down and before it rose again. From what I remember the early 2000s were not […]| Stuffed Crocodile
I am preparing for a Traveller game, and so here are a few conceits that bear repeating for understanding the setting and the rules properly. In a lot of cases those are truisms or commonplaces, but I think it helps to keep them in mind. Space is vast “Space is big. You just won’t believe […]| Stuffed Crocodile
Reaction Rolls and Morale for MGT 2e I am prepping for a Pirates of Drinax campaign right now, and as the current version of that is for Mongoose Traveller we are going to use that edition. There is something to be said about the way the newer edition (now even with a refreshed look for […]| Stuffed Crocodile
So we talked about Drinax and what the UWP implies, but what does life there actually look like on the ground? Well, quite terrible really. There’s not too many people around. The population …| Stuffed Crocodile
Art by Richard Powers So as I mentioned I am preparing to run a Pirates of Drinax campaign and as I talked about in the article one should not see the UWPs of certain worlds as holy writ. Which is …| Stuffed Crocodile
Traveller is the original sci-fi tabletop RPG, released in 1977.| POCGamer
The Old School of Marc Miller| Nagora's Corner
Introduction| Nagora's Corner
Here is a 30 min BBC radio documentary about the British state ‘helping’ Scottish gypsy travellers to ‘settle’. Nothing problematic here at all folks… move along, get along. Go, move, shift… “The idea that the UK Government, working in partnership with Scottish local authorities and church groups, could take children from their families and put […]| Three Acres And A Cow
One of the principles of the FKR (Free Kriegspiel Renaissance/Rediscovery/Revival/Rambunctiousness) is the principle that we should “play worlds, not systems”. It’s a sentiment with some kinship to the OSR idea that the established logic and lore of the setting and simulated world should precede, inform and help consistently adjudicate the game as it is during […]| Augury Ignored
The character sheet that comes stock with the edition of Traveller I own (Mongoose Traveller1st edition, 2008) leaves a lot to be desired, although that almost doesn’t matter: I don’t own a scanner and can’t find it online, so I needed to make my own anyway. With no scan available, here’s a grainy photo so you know what I’m talking about: Here’s a few issues with the built-in sheet: 1. Traveller doesn’t use hit points. Instead (like Numenera, and other RPGs), damage reduces abil...| Sir Poley
When making the table in Part I, I realized that every planet has a semi-hidden characteristic that balances melee combat. This was pretty astonishing to me, as it’s buried pretty deep, but it’s also a huge improvement to the game if implemented in your campaign. The issue is as follows: Traveller ranged and melee combat is realistically balanced (which is to say, swords simply don’t compare to laser guns). Traveller also lacks “sci-fi remedies” such as lightning swords and laser w...| Sir Poley
I just ran Session Zero (character creation and so on) of Mongoose Traveller 1st edition (2008) with my quarantine pod. This is my second Traveller campaign that I’ve run (thoughts inspired by the first you can read about here), and the fourth that I’ve been a part of. Having learned a little from my last campaign, I’ve made a few improvements to the game’s interface (not really houserules) that speed up gameplay and reduce friction. What do I mean by interface? Imagine if Travellerwa...| Sir Poley
“Can I buy a magic sword?” This is a question that seems straightforward, but is actually fraught with follow-on implications that are not obvious. It is also one that’s asked at some point in any D&D campaign. You might be thinking, as GM, that you’re making a choice about the setting of your campaign (is this a high-magic or low-magic world, a desert island, a major trade city, etc). While you are making this decision, you’re also deciding (perhaps without knowing) what money is i...| Sir Poley
In part 1 of this series, I described how Mongoose Traveller’s spaceship mortgage rule becomes the drive for adventure and action in a spacefaring sandbox, and the ‘autonomous’ gameplay loop that follows. In part 2, I talked about how Traveller’s Patron system gives the DM a tool to pull the party out of the 'loop’ and into more traditional adventures. In part 3, I talked about Traveller’s unique character creation system, and how it supports the previous two systems, and how to a...| Sir Poley
In part 1 of this series, I described how Mongoose Traveller’s spaceship mortgage rule becomes the drive for adventure and action in a spacefaring sandbox, and the ‘autonomous’ gameplay loop that follows. In part 2, I talked about how Traveller’s Patron system gives the DM a tool to pull the party out of the 'loop’ and into more traditional adventures. In this part, I’ll talk about Traveller’s unique character creation system, and how it supports the previous two systems. Brief ...| Sir Poley
In part 1 of this series, I described how Mongoose Traveller’s spaceship mortgage rule becomes the drive for adventure and action in a spacefaring sandbox, and the ‘autonomous’ gameplay loop that follows. In this part, I’ll talk about the Patrons—questgivers—that are baked into Traveller’s gameplay loop and provide opportunities for more 'traditional’ (that is, pre-scripted) adventures. Patrons Patrons are, essentially, adventure hooks. The 'default’ premise is that an NPC o...| Sir Poley
Mongoose Traveller’s starship mortgage-payment-system is the most brilliant game mechanic I’ve ever encountered, as a DM. It’s also the first rule I’d ignore if I wasn’t consciously trying to play the game exactly how it’s described in the book. A Bit of Background I’ve been involved in two Traveller campaigns in the past as a player (both with the same DM), and am currently DMing a third. All of them are using Mongoose’s first edition. I’ve never played any other edition of...| Sir Poley
Mongoose Traveller's starship mortgage-payment-system is the most brilliant game mechanic I've ever encountered, as a DM. It's also the first rule I'd ignore if I wasn't consciously trying to play the...| Tumblr
