As enthralled as I am by the Fantasy D20 thing, I have gaming space for other things, and North Star has got me back into space via Traveller, a foundational RPG that I reminisced about last year on the Podcast. I’m running a session of Mongoose 2nd Edition Traveller out in the Far Frontiers Sector, a number of Jumps away from the Imperium and Consulate. It’s good to be back, but I have found that I have over prepared around the edges of the game, launching in to asset creation, maps and tokens. Running the game within Foundry VTT, with built in Jitsi video conferencing is a stretch of newness, with a chance that the tech will overwhelm me.
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| The crew of the Frontier Horizon courier |
Still, it is getting me to look at new things, and adds some complexity into running a game that I haven’t run for a very very long time. It’s been a long gap, a rift almost, in time. Traveller itself is, of course, the same simple system it always has been, so not much trouble there. The plot of the tale, well, I’m keeping that under wraps, as it is still to be run, and given all the effort i might just see if I can run it a number of times to payback for the sunk investment. A warm up before firig up the fusion drive of a full campaign out here? Well, maybe. I shall Podcast soon about the the F20 enthrallment that locks me to various D&D offshoot games.
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| A Gas Giant System at the heart of the scenario |
It’s been fun to do some arty stuff and get my creative juices back to the stars. There have alwasy been great tools out there to support the Traveller Universe Designer, and as I return I find that they are readily available, and browser online. One game I have been playing is quick creation of star systems found in the area of space that I am interested in…
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| Centring on Freedonia – travellermap.com |
The Traveller Map site has somehow managed to be come even more phenomenal since the last tiem I was there. In particular, being able to zoom in to any system, and then generate the full star system on the fly has proved much fun. Back to my Book 6 – Scouts days of generating star systems, but this time by click and bodge.
Getting the temperature right for a temperate world has involved me moving planets from orbits and getting them just right. Oh the power, Ancient like. Here’s a manipulated Freedonia Garden World in amongst a reseeded star system. Note the average temperature column.
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| A balmy 18 degrees C |
To achieve this I had to move the whole orbit closer to the hot F3 V yellow white star. As seeded to me, the main world was further out and running at an average temperature of -102C. That will never do. There may be a ‘Star Trek’ option, where you can just say ‘make this a class m planet’ and it forces the orbit as best as possible to get you a place where you might wish to go camping.
After some fiddling I have a revised orbit sequence.
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| Freedonia put in its place… |