Over the past year the group I GM has been playing Traveller using the Star Wars rules. I've created a few documents to explain how we are doing this. Please take a look and let me know if you have any comments or questions. These documents are located at my store's website ( www.knightscomicsandgames.com ) under the TravSW page. Note: some of it may not make sense without a grounding in the Mongoose Traveller rules. Thanks.

I've no background with the Mongoose rules, but the I like the mechanics of this game line regardless of background. The basic rules can be used in a number of genre quite easily and the only real effort someone has to exert, maybe, is the story and fluff. The narrative rules I think would be great for a superhero RPG, but these rules would work for any scifi setting. I bought Guardians of the Galaxy just a couple days ago and I was thinking what a great setting that could be for a game, scifi and superheroes, win win.

Unfortunately the best thing about traveller doesn't seem to be converted - the character creation.

Unfortunately the best thing about traveller doesn't seem to be converted - the character creation.

Really? I'm curious why you like it. I admit the career terms of service are an interesting concept (though I prefered the Mechwarrior RPG for that), but you have no control over character development at all. In the original game there were even numerous ways to die before playing...which might be amusing to do once, but seems like a waste of time.

What was the appeal?

Actually it is. You make up a character just like normal in Traveller then use the rules I created to convert it over. Generally you begin with characters around 300 to 400 xp depending on the number o terms served.

Unfortunately the best thing about traveller doesn't seem to be converted - the character creation.

Really? I'm curious why you like it. I admit the career terms of service are an interesting concept (though I prefered the Mechwarrior RPG for that), but you have no control over character development at all. In the original game there were even numerous ways to die before playing...which might be amusing to do once, but seems like a waste of time.

What was the appeal?

Yes. The original game you could die. Mongoose Traveller, not so much.

As to control over character development, that is exactly why I like it.

Here's a few advantages:

Every character is on an even playing field - why some will be luckier than others, no one can powergame the system directly. The terms are mostly random. No feat trees or best eay to make a character.

The way the character creation goes it also builds up a backstory.

Now some are loathe to relinquish control for whatever reason. It can be like watching a play: We know what will happen to Hamlet or Macbeth but how the actors potray the characters is the important part.

I like they system of character creation for making a fully fleshed out character, which the rolls can be interpreted by a player to give the personal touches.

Also, people don't have complete control over their lives. For the most part we don't choose who we meet, or what the universe throws at us. We react to it.

For whatever reason, Traveller character generation has always been very fun for me. Generation is somewhat of a game in itself. It's by far the most fun system of CG I've ever used in any RPG.

Depending on the system of Traveller and which optional rules you used, there ARE many decisions to be made, it's not completely random. You get to pick the general type of skills you may learn each term (Educational vs Career vs Personal Development, etc), but not the exact skill or bonus. Kind of like life. You have influence on the road you travel, but often random events steer you into something you had never planned for.

Example of fun: Rolling up a character with very high intelligence and education. Awesome. He's going to be a high ranking officer in the (space) Navy! You send him off to the Naval Academy. You roll badly and he fails. He ends up having to enlist in the Merchants instead. He gets through several terms successfully due to his intelligence and education, ending up a retired, grizzled, tough, space merchant, but not at all what you had first imagined. With a little thought, you already have his personality set - disillusioned, a chip on his shoulder towards Navy types, etc.

Unfortunately the best thing about traveller doesn't seem to be converted - the character creation.

Really? I'm curious why you like it. I admit the career terms of service are an interesting concept (though I prefered the Mechwarrior RPG for that), but you have no control over character development at all. In the original game there were even numerous ways to die before playing...which might be amusing to do once, but seems like a waste of time.

When I was playing the original boxed set years, … no …, decades ago, we ruled that if you "died" during character creation, what that really meant was that you were "shot out of service". You were severely wounded while in service (although it could be repaired), you "mustered out", and that was the end of your character creation. But you still had to do the roll at the end where you were forced to stay in service, which actually happened to one of my characters that was supposedly shot out of service. That was weird.

Frankly, character creation was one of the things I liked least about Traveller. What I liked most was the fact that it was a reasonable facsimile for Larry Niven’s "Known Space" Universe, and that’s essentially how we played it — Kzinti and all. I had one character that was known as "Speaker to Food".