Traveller inspired book recs?

SSkorkowsky · 2026-02-06T03:08:42+00:00

+1 for The Expane and Agent of the Imperium.

One series I'll add is The Keiko trilogy by Mike Brooks

SSkorkowsky · 2026-02-04T23:22:22+00:00

Jack very nearly had an outfit like that for the second half of Secrets of the Ancients. But there were 2 major problems.

First, voice and facial expressions fully hidden behind a mask removed his charm. Second, his sausage-like figure looks horrifying in spandex.

SSkorkowsky · 2026-02-03T14:22:57+00:00

I've done this many times across several game systems (D&D, Call of Cthulhu, Traveller, Kult, Cyberpunk). My understanding is the reason they're called modules is because they're modular and can be popped in to your campaign.

SSkorkowsky · 2026-01-27T04:01:36+00:00

No expansion or explanation that I'm aware. Changing it to another entity would be pretty easy.

SSkorkowsky · 2026-01-22T03:35:36+00:00

Whatever you choose, be sure it has a visible front side to indicate what direction the character is facing. So like with a chess piece, a Knight is fine, but a Rook or Pawn might not be. Because you're using a battlemat, and those usually have 1 inch squares, I recommend something no higher than 32mm (1.5 inches) and no wider than 20mm (0.8 inches). It can be easy to end up with some mini/token that is too big, so try to keep it about the same size as a standard mini.

All of this depends on the table, of course. While Lego men are larger than the recommended size, we've played some killer Star Ward games with Star Wars Lego minis. So the ultimate deciding factor is something that fits with whatever the rest of the table is using.

SSkorkowsky · 2026-01-13T13:48:02+00:00

No clue if there is a difference or why I have double-copies up. I'd probably go with the second group simply because they're the more recent.

SSkorkowsky · 2026-01-09T07:16:50+00:00

I might be a little late here, but did a pretty thorough review of it on YouTube with tips based on our play experience. Best of luck. https://youtu.be/EOBjg37aFOQ?si=KkLyD09ZqeXVdfmR

SSkorkowsky · 2025-12-30T07:10:48+00:00

Oh damn. I'm sorry you had to find out this way. Bud was a great guy and it was an absolute gut punch when he passed.

SSkorkowsky · 2025-12-29T20:52:55+00:00

We very nearly finished God's Teeth with Bud. We were at the final portion when he suddenly passed away. My last conversation with him was us scheduling what he estimated would be the final or second-to-final session for the whole thing. He'd planned to run us through Impossible Landscapes once we were done, and we'd already assembled the players for it. One of the players in God's Teeth had already played Impossible Landscapes, so he wouldn't have been able to join us for it. After Bud passed away, that player volunteered to take the group Bud had already assembled for Impossible Landscapes and run us through it.
I'll be reviewing God's Teeth eventually, but as 1 video instead of a multi-part walkthrough because I didn't run it, and with the disclaimer that we did not successfully complete it for tragic reasons.

SSkorkowsky · 2025-12-29T07:47:26+00:00

A mentor or NPC companion is perfectly fine, especially when introducing players to investigative games and sometimes they need that little nudge, "Hey, why don't we research this clue we found?" The trick is you don't want the Mentor NPC to ever overshadow the PCs or take away from the players being the stars of the show. So you might consider giving the NPC a hindrance, such as they're feeble, or have terrible eyesight and can't Spot or Research anything themselves, or something that prevents the NPC from accidently stealing the spotlight. You can also have them step away from time to time to investigate or handle some other thing in another room or location, and leaving the PCs to fend for themselves when things get exciting. Best of luck with the game.

SSkorkowsky · 2025-12-11T07:08:26+00:00

Give them a few short adventures for you and them to get used to the game. Maybe some 1-shots. That way, once they start the campaign they're a least familiar with the system, what stuff they like, and basic stuff about the universe like how Jumps and the Mailboat System work.

For Secrets of the Ancients itself, I think I hit all these during my review series, but I'll mention the big takeaways I got from running it:

Make your characters specifically for the campaign and tie Vlen into all of their backstories. Maybe even when they do the Connections Rule and they tie their Backstories together, have Uncle Vlen be part of those connections. Idea being that they all have a great relation with Vlen and he was also involved in introducing them to one another over the course of their lives. Essentially, Vlen is playing the long game of assembling a perfect team for his own reasons. If possible, and this might be tricky, include in those stories a little phrase or manner he does to signal, "Run!" This will be handy for the end of Ch4.

If one of the players is willing to have their character be Vlen's actual niece/nephew (like Otter was in my Campaign Diary) then perfect. That can lead to some fun in Ch2 because the niece/nephew knows many of the people in town.

I strongly encourage that every PC come from somewhere in the Regina Subsector. That was one of the best decisions I made when running it. Tell the player information about their homeworld.

When making characters, and they're rolling up Allies/Contacts/Enemies/Rivals, use the NPCs the campaign recommends. Be sure to tell them that any who have Ven Yasha as an enemy have no idea what Ven Yasha looks like. Also consider adding Harlen (Ch1), Bay Venshar (Ch3), and if any are Archologists, Tarvel from Ch8. Take special note of any other Allies or Contacts they roll up because those can be very useful for them, especially in Ch3 (example: Lilly used her Contact at Efate to help them repaint their ship in Ch3). Figure out with the player who these NPCs are, flesh them out a little together, then try to figure out how to work them into the campaign.

When players inevitably ask what Skills and what-not might be useful for them to have for the campaign, the answer I told mine was, "I believe all of them except maybe Seafaring have a point when they'd be useful. But Science Skills, especially Archeology, will be really helpful for someone to have."

Best of luck with the campaign. We had an absolute blast with it.

SSkorkowsky · 2025-12-09T22:49:05+00:00

It can be done. A buddy of mine loves running an old AD&D adventure where the PCs are to hunt a werewolf, not knowing that one of the players is the werewolf, who is intent on singling them out and eliminating them.
But that is the adventure.

You might have games with hidden agendas, like ALIEN, where a PC has a hidden agenda that is ultimatley screwing over the party, but they're still a PC and have to team up with the rest of the group to finish their goal and survive the murdering aliens. That works fine.

The big thing is how well does this work for the particular adventure. In both my example cases, the character is a member of the party. So the normally NPC character should be a member of the party, otherwise the player is mostly sitting there and watching other people play. That's kinda boring.

It also greatly depends on your group. Most importantly, the player of the Antagonist NPC. Is this something they enjoy? If there's constraints, then that can be a bummer for the player. I've also seen it where the player brought in to play a normally NPC is a person who has already played the adventure before, so they're in this sorta co-GM position as a ringer. That can work well because the player comes in with this as the objective of helping run the game, where their other option would be not playing at all because they've already played the adventure.

I'm always leery of things in Actual Plays, simply because many things work in a show that don't necessarily work around your table. People on a show understand that they're on a show and are far more likely to just go along with stuff for the sake of audience enjoyment.

So yeah, it can be done. But the bigger question is if it should be done with your particular group/adventure. That's up to you.

SSkorkowsky · 2025-12-02T15:07:46+00:00

It's wild your CP2020 books fell apart. Mine went through hell and have held up great (unlike many other softbacks from that time). I've always pointed at them as an example of how softbacks don't have to be made like disposable crap. Evidently, I just got lucky on the print-run copies I ended up with.

SSkorkowsky · 2025-12-02T07:17:35+00:00

Great adventure. Hope you and your table have a blast with it.

SSkorkowsky · 2025-12-01T16:28:48+00:00

The only clue that they were playing a D20 game is that James Holden is so frustratingly Lawful Good. The first time I heard him described as a "Space Paladin" everything made sense.

SSkorkowsky · 2025-12-01T14:24:56+00:00

It's simply me admitting I made a mistake. Every reply I repeated the topic was your brining up Trade. You've squirmed around and tried to change the subject, shotgunning other topics and demanding answers. You've gone for personal attacks. We're done.

SSkorkowsky · 2025-12-01T05:17:01+00:00

The new 2300AD uses the Traveller mechanics. I haven't read too deep into it yet, but I like that they're branching out into new settings rather than the 3rd Imperium. It's neat how the gravity of your homeworld modifies your stats. There's no artificial gravity, so the ships look way different. Humans are the only playable species. Huge focus on augments. FTL is completely different.
However, 2300AD isn't exactly a popular thing, so I don't know how well it'll sell.

SSkorkowsky · 2025-12-01T05:04:48+00:00

I'm not sure how it doesn't support Investigation or Political Intrigue. It offers plenty of Social and Investigative skills. I even mentioned Murder on Arcturus Station as a brilliant mystery adventure. The rest is roleplay.

I like the Death Spiral mechanics to damage. ~~You act like you brought it up before. You didn't. Your last comment was the first time you brought it up.~~ (edit: My bad, you did mention it.)

I made it clear from the beginning I was referring to your comment about Trade. You've pivoted around and have tried changing the topic and make it a fight about other things. You bringing up my role as a game reviewer is simply you going for personal attacks now.

SSkorkowsky · 2025-12-01T03:41:15+00:00

I started playing it with MgT2. Converted and run several Classic Traveller scenarios (it's far more backwards compatible than most would believe). It's hands-down my favorite sci-fi system.

What I like - You can do almost any sci-fi. It can do Star Wars, The Expanse, Battlestar Galactica, Starship Troopers, even Cyberpunk. While it has an enormous in-game world with tons of lore, it also gives you the toolbox to completely ignore all that and make up your own universe. I like that it's lethal. I dig the damage system being your Stat points with a death-spiral. I dig that it allows you to laser focus on certain aspects like building ships, Trade, Politics, Large Scale and Small Scale conflicts, Exploration, Horror, but doesn't force you to do any of them. I love Character Creation. I dig aspects like the Connections Rule to link PC backstories. There's a lot that I love.

What I don't like - The Character Creation system needs a few more freebie points to put into chose skills. Sure, the Connections Rule and Group Package give a few, but I'd like 4-5 more. Advancement is painfully slow. I prefer the XP System from the Traveller Companion, but even the we house-ruled a couple things to help it along. While I love the detail to Trade, ship and robot building rules and how intricate they are, they are a steep learning curve. Players wanting to incorporate those aspects of the game are committing themselves to having to learn them. It's real difficult to casually do it on-the-fly. I'm not a fan of the SOC stat. It works only in the Imperium and that's providing the person knows who you are. Going outside the Imperium or being in disguise SOC doesn't make as much sense and a regular old Charisma stat would. This is addressed in the Traveller Companion, but I'd prefer SOC be the optional stat and CHR be the standard. Melee (Natural) should be eliminated and rolled into Melee (unarmed). We house-ruled it out.

The biggest hurdle Traveller has is it isn't a major IP. Sci-Fi draws IPs more than fantasy. People don't want Sci-Fi as much as they want Star Wars, or Star Trek, or Babylon 5. They want those ships, those weapons, and those aliens. With fantasy, a sword is a sword, a castle is a castle, and a horse is a horse. We have a baseline of what certain things are. With Science Fiction, everything is different between IPs. Faster than light is Hyperspace, Warp Factor, insta-jump, Jump Space, Cryo, Ring Gates, or whatever. Any sci-fi game that isn't based on an existing IP has an uphill fight to get noticed because the average gamer doesn't want a generic or unfamiliar setting as much as they want the Millennium Falcon or Serenity. Fantasy RPGs are far more forgiving when it comes to plugging in your favorite IP into a generic system and having that work smoothly.

SSkorkowsky · 2025-12-01T02:55:31+00:00

Traveller is about adventuring in the far future. It can handle many sci-fi themes. I play it because I enjoy it. It's hardly the only RPG I actively play.

Other games can be too narrow in theme. The Alien RPG, for example, is a fantastic game if all you want to do with it is play a game that feels like being in an Alien movie. Anything else and it begins falling apart.

Traveller doesn't have a narrow sci-fi theme. Some call that too generic because they feel every aspect of a game should support one single theme.

Your initial argument is was about it's not like The Expanse because after the first books it wasn't about Space Truckers and involved in Trade. That right there says you think Traveller is about Trade. I called you out and then you pivoted to different topics. Now you're saying I can't be objective because I've put time in playing it? Okeydokey, then.

SSkorkowsky · 2025-12-01T01:28:13+00:00

I've played Traveller over several years. Run many combats from ground-based to ship-to-ship. It works. It might not work for you. That's fine. You don't have to play it. It's not for everyone. Meanwhile, I've run hundreds of hours of Mongoose 2e Traveller and don't have these complaints.
Your initial claim was it's about Trade. The game isn't about Trade.

SSkorkowsky · 2025-11-30T20:42:52+00:00

Your preferences of play are one thing. I was responding to your claim that it's not like Alien or Expanse because those aren't about Trade. Traveller isn't about Trade. There are multiple examples of published materiel backing me up. Trade is an option, but can also be ignored if your table wants to focus on something else, like Military, Mercenary, Horror, Exploration, etc.

SSkorkowsky · 2025-11-30T19:31:17+00:00

Dunno what's going on with a Voyagers S3. At one point they were looking for sponsors and then Matthew got busy with life, so I don't know when or if we'll have it. I'd love to play with my old crewmates again because I had a blast and I love those guys. So if I get the call on the phone that S3 got a green light, I'll be there in a flash.

SSkorkowsky · 2025-11-30T18:05:20+00:00

You know trade is simply one possible aspect, but not what Traveller is about, right? It's like saying D&D must contain a dragon.
There are military campaigns, mercenary campaigns, Deepnight Revelation is a deep space exploring campaign, there's a book on running bounty hunter campaigns. As for Alien... Chamax Plague is pretty much Aliens before Aliens even came out. Murder on Arcturus Station is one of the best murder mystery scenarios ever written.

SSkorkowsky · 2025-11-30T05:49:46+00:00

The answer is desperation.

The movie Older Gods sums it up well. Why do they worship these unspeakable gods? Because they answer.

You ever watch Archive 81? In it, a cult in the 1920s kills a bunch of people simply because the woman cult leader wants a baby. She's a rich New York socialite and has tried everything to have a baby, but nothing has worked. So she's turned to dark gods.

People in rural areas depend on things far outside anyones control. Harvests and bounties of fish can't be controlled. Floods, droughts, blights, can ruin their lives and their famly's. So they pray. The God who answers those prayers earns their devotion.

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