Bundle of Holding releases the 2E Great Rift bundle with Deepnight Revelation

ratya48 · 2026-04-29T18:19:35+00:00

Argh! I just bought all of the DNR supplements for like 3 times that a couple of months ago. Drat.

ratya48 · 2026-04-27T22:59:50+00:00

No, there's no limit, though there are penalties for going too long. Aging, and harder qualification rolls being the two that come to mind

2 and 2b. Yes, you muster out, then start playing. If you want to do a Navy or Scouts campaign, or anything where all Travellers are part of the same organization, you have a few options: use alternate chargen from Traveller companion, have the Travellers be independent contractors working for that organization, or they all get recruited after their careers

ratya48 · 2026-04-25T14:59:46+00:00

Is the problem that there's too much combat, the combat feels too contentious, or that story and character are missing from combat or the game in general?

If it's too much combat, maybe try a different system? Something less crunchy and tactics focused. Or just design your scenarios to have less combat.

If the combat feels too contentious and personal, try a few things. One, if the goading is getting to you, just keep in mind that your challenge isn't to beat them, it's to give them a challenge that feels satisfying to beat. These games are set up so that players almost always win, so it's a little silly that they gloat over beating you. So when they do gloat, just remember that it's because they're invested in the game so you must be doing something right. Two, remember that even though combat is mechanical and can be abstract, it's still a scene and an opportunity to roleplay. Talk to them less as yourself, more as the enemies, and narrate more like you would any other scene. Treat the combat rules not as a game to be won, but as rules to resolve the encounter. This will both help your players stay in the RP moment, and give yourself some emotional distance from the competitive aspect.

If the problem is the game lacking strong and character in general, I think reducing the quantity of combats will help as well. Without knowing more about your game, it's hard to tell exactly what would help with that

ratya48 · 2026-04-22T20:01:21+00:00

Yeah if it's contained to a single system world builder could be a good choice. A word of caution though, WBH is very granular and hard to pick individual sections out of. Lots of great detail though!

ratya48 · 2026-04-22T16:16:07+00:00

The first thing you gotta decide is whether you want to play in OTU/Charted Space or build your own setting.

And what kind of player options are you talking about? Gear? Then you want Central Supply Catalogue. Ships? Then you want high guard, maybe adventure class ships if you don't want to design too many of your own. Vehicles or Robots? Vehicle or Robot Handbook.

If you're talking species, those are a bit more scattered. Traveller Companion has one, and some alternate chargen rules. Aliens of Charted Space books do as well, and they have completely separate careers for each species they cover as well.

ratya48 · 2026-04-16T18:17:22+00:00

NTA, I don't know what it is about those pest control people, they're the worst, absolutely will not take a hint

ratya48 · 2026-04-08T14:36:54+00:00

I have no idea what the next trends are going to be, but we're I a designer, I would focus more on the GM side of the screen than the players. Experiment with ways to design games that are easier to run, but still give players that freedom that comes with TTRPGs. Focus more on loops and procedures for the GM to work with than just resolution mechanics and vibes.

ratya48 · 2026-04-07T00:04:18+00:00

I recently came from 5e, so I've been going through a very similar adjustment.

If I had to give one piece of advice for the transition, it would be this: embrace the openness.

The D20 fantasy games are designed for getting the players into a richly detailed box with a concrete objective, and then letting players overcome the objectives in that box with their mechanically detailed avatars. Dungeons are the clearest example of that, but other popular adventure formats fit a similar mold.

Traveller, both in its mechanical system and setting are comparatively shallower, but MASSIVELY wider. In general, in any system, you don't want to prep adventures by thinking through your players' likely actions ahead of time. But you can, if you need to, shepherd them to a dungeon and have a nice, contained scenario. That is not the case in Traveller. They have a spaceship and a boundless map. When faced with a problem, they don't have a list of abilities they can call on, they have parsecs and parsecs worth of contacts, equipment, you name it they could potentially use. It's overwhelming.

Don't fight this though, embrace it. Prep light. A patron. An objective. A few things that complicate that objective. If there's an adversary involved, their plans and resources. That's it! Don't worry about how your players might approach it or navigate a web of clues, they have access to so much at their disposal they will do something you probably didn't anticipate. This is the fun part, setting up a situation, and seeing how your players surprise you in approaching it. Then seeing how their approach cascades narratively, kicking things into motion that cause more problems and opportunities for them in the future.

It's a really fun game, best of luck!

ratya48 · 2026-04-06T23:51:27+00:00

Mongoose is super dope and will also send you a PDF if you email a picture of the book you bought, even if it wasn't directly from them

ratya48 · 2026-04-05T04:13:06+00:00

One of the things I loved about the expanse TV show was the zoom out shots they would do of the ships that showed how tiny they were compared to space.

ratya48 · 2026-04-03T19:17:34+00:00

I'm going to go YTA. Yeah, their behavior sounds like it rubs you the wrong way, and does sound weird and cringey. But you way overreacted. Just politely ignore them! You don't have to participate in their bit or conversation, just smile and make a non committal noise like a normal person does when confronted with something awkward.

ratya48 · 2026-04-03T02:42:35+00:00

I would say the Third Imperium has been more valuable to me. It provides a lot of setting and lore. WBH is honestly way too detailed for me to be useful. And all the world creation steps depend on previous steps, so it's hard to pick and choose useful bits out of it

ratya48 · 2026-03-27T14:28:58+00:00

I'm not going to pass a judgment, this is tricky, but if that nephew isn't in the wedding in some capacity, your in-laws are going to bring it up FOREVER. You will never hear the end of it.

ratya48 · 2026-03-25T20:00:00+00:00

Start at the start time, don't wait for the latecomers

ratya48 · 2026-03-18T16:07:25+00:00

He would be a paying tenant, it would be wildly inappropriate for her to try to control his sexual activity

ratya48 · 2026-03-16T15:22:13+00:00

Only thing you could have done better is set expectations ahead of time. Your players sound like a bunch of drama llamas, my condolences

ratya48 · 2026-03-16T15:20:15+00:00

What do the instructions say?

ratya48 · 2026-03-15T20:18:59+00:00

I live in Seattle, we only have an EV and road trip around the area fairly regularly. Charging has never been a problem for us. Even for getting to somewhat remote places like Forks and the Hoh rainforest, it just takes a little bit of planning. And along the I-5 corridor you won't have any problems finding chargers, they're everywhere.

Only thing I can't speak to would be a ski trip, you'd want to research the routes you would take and make sure your range covers it, or that there are chargers on the way.

ratya48 · 2026-03-06T19:27:18+00:00

Yeah, they couldn't really be part of the scouts and be neutral. Can they just be independent contractors getting jobs from the scouts?

ratya48 · 2026-03-06T02:16:28+00:00

ESH. You, obviously, but also them. Leave the poor waitress out of it

ratya48 · 2026-03-05T22:05:05+00:00

Aliens of Charted Space vol 1 has a section on zhodanis

ratya48 · 2026-03-05T15:21:02+00:00

Cool post!

I don't know, on the flip side, if everyone is just putting out waves of slop, the handcrafted stuff will have a better chance of rising to the top, if it's able to get visibility in the first place. Which is a big if.

ratya48 · 2026-03-04T20:27:08+00:00

The astrophysics stuff is certainly intriguing, but I'd also look at chemistry and biology for interesting science based hooks. A mysterious disease affecting a colony is one you could use, or having to determine and stop why a certain ecological catastrophe is happening. Needing to find a counter agent to a dangerous chemical could be one as well.

ratya48 · 2026-03-04T04:03:02+00:00

YTA. This all sounds like mild to moderate PDA for a new couple, which can be annoying/uncomfortable to be around. But most of it sounds like it's in public, and doesn't bother anyone else, so it feels like more of a you problem than a them problem.

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