I'd always pictured the #TravellerRPG XBoat stations as on the fringes of a system. XBoats arrive, make their way to the tender or station, the pilot disembarks from the one XBoat and immediately board another (that had been overhauled and prepared at the station), and continue on, pony-express style. The life of an XBoat pilot must be lonely, tedious, and mentally exhausting, spending years on end in jump space, with brief respites in real space at the tenders.
And another #TravellerRPG#Traveller CT Comet tourism to scale: I also plotted the orbit of C/1680 V1 (“Great Comet of 1680"), as I'm getting a kick out of trying to imagine the classic traveller to-scale play area to handle objects like C/1680 V1. Side comment personal view: C/1680 V1 is a solar system object, Voyager 1 is nowhere near c1680 aphelion, yet voyager 1 has "left the solar system"? 🤷
#Traveller#TravellerRPG (CT) comet tourism to scale. I added New Horizons, Arrokoth and Pluto (along with Eris, which was already there), and the rest of the planets. There's something kind of interesting about the outer solar system in Traveller. it is sort of a no-sophants-land, the vast majority of Travellers are using their jump drives to get to other stars. Even if the outer planets are reachable by jump, why waste the space on the drive - it can be reached in normal space - but not fast
Science and #TravellerRPG master @rob_attirag has a new article about how obsessive-compulsive scientific accuracy should take a back seat to game play and plot hooks.
#Traveller / #TravellerRPG land warfare and language: one part of the old running game was what ended up being a several year conflict involving land combat (as we have no artificial gravity, on an invasion most forces will set up surface bases), but the military org structures of my 3I are different than real-world militaries and the canonical 3I. e.g, The unit of one of the characters is the 97th separate special forces regiment, but all of those terms have real-world meanings that the same.
#Traveller#TravellerRPG comet tourism side note (turn 368), more to do with frames of reference than anything this time: one nice thing about the equatorial and ecliptic frames is you can tell which season it is on Earth just by Earth's position. Quadrant 1 (+x, +y) is northern hemisphere autumn, -x +y is winter, and so on. I expanded the view to plot the Tesla Roadster as well.
@rob_attirag latest essay on tweaking one's #TravellerRPG universe for more fun. This one is on the topic of facilitating massive fleets for planetary invasion.
In preparation of a podcasting episode about #Traveller space combat, boarding and all that, I spent some time trying to figure out how a subsidized merchant with two triple turrets of lasers would intercept a free trader. Figuring out how detection and vectors work, sandcasters, what computer programs are running, all of that took brains. I wonder how entertaining this is at the table in a continuum between free role-play and Advanced Squad Leader. Somewhere in the middle, I guess. Would it be more entertaining with more ships? How big would the table have to be? Questions, questions.
Many #TravellerRPG players have marveled at how much fun it is to design starships or even how exciting it is to roll up a new character (and have it survive). The non-game parts are in reality mini-games in themselves.
we are house-sitting for the in-laws, and they have amazon prime logged in on their TV. finally trying out #TheExpanse! watched ep1 last night and excited to get through more of it this weekend.
i might be able to get the account password from mother-in-law, but i really don’t want to get my own subscription or support amazon in general… is there another way to watch without uh, sailing the seven seas?
As a side note, I will observe that The Shattered Stars by Richard S. McEnroe is one of the best Traveller novels that is not (officially) a Traveller novel. It even has the Psionic Institute.
Another useful essay by Ron Garrita for Traveller TTRPG game masters who want to make their players characters lives more interesting.
Player characters who own a starship may notice that catering to High-Passage customers is very lucrative, and have the bright idea to get on that gravy train.
The essay is loaded with all the ways such a trip can go horribly wrong.
About the only thing I know about Mesons is that they are used for the giant death rays in the #TravellerRPG that space battleships use to penetrate armor. Apparently real Mesons cannot actually penetrate armor though.
Anyway, on short notice, the movie people are making a giant Meson death ray to fight the evil chicken.
Not going to buy every piece of equipment for my crew, I can retcon basic gear as needed. But I am figuring out what’s in their ship’s locker.
It helps that the Baronet is on the board for Faliero Arsenal Group, so I’m giving them a 10% discount on guns. Too bad that while their guns are easy to use, they are low quality and prone to dangerous mishaps.
I ordered some Traveller CDs from Far Future Enterprises to flush out my PDF collection. I was highly amused by the packaging. Almost a shame I have to open it up.
All of these can be purchased on DriveThru, but you get a lot of bang for your buck buying the CD bundles.