This is fucking cool.

I see what you did there

I wonder how the books are different. I tried a solo Traveller game with Zozer solo first edition, and I couldn’t get into it. It was too much like a journaling game with not enough crunchy forced randomness. I wonder if the other versions are significantly different. I will probably get the second edition to see what it’s like.

I will say though, I do like the random tables from Zozer solo. Obviously it’s all tailored to Traveller which is a bonus compared to other solo systems. I particularly liked how it handled the character relationships. I will likely sprinkle in some of the random table use here and there and maybe use some of the character creation guidelines.

Thanks, Ross. That is the cooperative style we are thinking. I think we’ll have one PC each as our main characters, which we can channel the decision making through when needed, and interpret the results together. I think it’s a good plan.

We’ll document our sessions for sure, and I’ll try to do the occasional update. For sure I can do a retrospect once we get into it. I’ll ask the guys about a blog or video capture of the sessions. That sounds like work to me but they may be into it.

I linked to an article on EN World that has links to other sites. There is no store or checking out to be done on EN World itself.

I recommend contacting the customer service people for whatever website you’re referring to.

Okay, I bought those 3 books and I’ll check them out. Thank you for the recommendation, kind internet stranger!

I agree with you that it’s removing a big part of the game, but I hope the replacement is still fun. I think it’ll just be different.

We recently played a game of World Wizard, which has a similar cooperative narrative style to it. None of us had played that kind of game before and we really enjoyed it. This approach to playing Traveller was an idea to build on the fun we had in that game.

Also, happy cake day!

Yup, that’s the book. There’s a lot more in there than just the Eight Steps but it’s worth it just for that in my opinion. Have fun!

I haven’t seen this before but it looks interesting. Is the Story Engine the ‘core’ book, with the Character Engine and World Engine being something like ad-ons? I don’t think there’s anything keeping us from using multiple sources. I would be willing to give it a read and try it.

Yeah, I should, but that’s the thing – it makes it an obligation. The three of us plus a few more play in a regular D&D 5e game every couple weeks, that I am currently running. This game will be outside of that and we agreed that we would all like to play together. I definitely agree with you that running for small groups is fun, but I want to play too.

In reference to playing without a GM, that’s what the Mythic Game Master Emulator is for. It’s an oracle system where you ask it questions like you would a GM, and it generates an answer. As a group, we would come up with those questions, test them against the system, and interpret the results together.

I will try to remember to occasionally report back.

For session prep, I use The Eight Steps of the Lazy DM by Mike Shea at Sly Flourish. Admittedly, the Eight Steps have turned me into a bit of a Mike Shea fanboy, but that’s because the system has had a big impact with making my game better. It is a system that focuses on prepping the most important things that will help you run the game at the table.

I wanted to suggest the Eight Steps because I think it circles very closely to your mad libs idea and also follows the prep situations not plots concept. Where mad libs is a system where the players fill in the sentence blanks with their own noun or verb, if we follow the metaphor, I would equate the Eight Steps with prepping a list of nouns, verbs, subjects, and adjectives, which you then use to help the players make their own sentence.

For example, in the Eight Steps you would prep likely locations the players would visit, secrets and clues they might learn, and potential monsters they could encounter. That’s all pretty standard fare, but a key concept is that all those things are decoupled from each other. There is nothing saying that this monster will be encountered in this location, or this secret will be learned from this object in this location. Instead, you plug the components you prepped into the adventure as the players unfold it.

I could gush further on how much it’s helped me, but I won’t do that. Instead I’ll encourage you to check it out because it sounds like it might work with your brain.

I appreciate your map posts and for taking the time to ask for input before making sci-fi. I feel like splitting Traveller off was unnecessary given the amount of traffic but I suppose to each their own.

I understand it’s a niche hobby on a niche platform (Lemmy in general) so it’s not a huge surprise there aren’t a lot of people posting. But I am surprised by the comparative volume of meme posts on TTRPG.network. It’s almost all meme posts and comments. Clearly people are happy to engage in that way, but not elsewhere. I don’t get it.

I have only played a very limited amount of Traveller but have done a lot of reading and really like the setting and system. I’m not sure exactly why though. It’s much crunchier than what I would normally like, but in a good way. I definitely like the math of rolling 2d6, as a change from all the d20 based games I’ve played. I suppose I just like the old school 80’s sci-fi vibe in general. I wish I had given this game more attention when I was a kid.

I do have a specific Traveller question I’ve been meaning to post but haven’t taken the time to articulate it yet. I am a reader and supporter though!

The D&D pornographic supplement tangent was a fun time.

Nom nom

The Ukrainian hospital bundle looks really good. Lots of stuff in there with a bunch of solo RPGs. The bundle is probably worth it for the Cairn and Mausritter stuff alone.

Our group had a shared GM game we ran for a while. Not exactly rotating GMs like in this post, but swapping out regularly. The lack of continuity and overarching storyline was one of the major reasons interest died out. It was a hodgepodge of stories and became kind of a mess.