What are /r/traveller's favorite Products & Services?

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All my Traveller has been online, but for tabletop games I'll often make handouts. If there are letters, then I'll print them out, using different 'handwriting' fonts if there are different people writing (fonts.google.com is good for that) and use parchment image backgrounds if applicable. Google Translate can also be useful if I want something in a foreign language. If possible, I do two versions - one in a stylised font and a second in a plain (English) font printed on the back, to make it easy to read. I'll also print out maps and things. I've used wax (not proper sealing wax unfortunately) to seal letters before as well.

I once built a Lego model of a derelict spacecraft for an Eclipse Phase adventure. I now tend to use Blender, since it's easier to knock together a quick digital model.

For online games, I try to provide world maps or simple rendered images. Even if players are just visiting a world to pick up a bit of cargo, showing an image of what the world looks like from space can give them a better feel of the place. Handouts will be text messages in Roll20. If it's heavily stylised, then I do an image version (with fonts, blood stains, anything else that is needed) plus a plain text version so it's easy to read.

Now that I've discovered ArtBreeder, I try to provide character portraits for all the NPCs with a bit of descriptive text, and dump that to the chat in Roll20 so players have something to visualise and link to the name.

I have done codes before, but try to make it a real code so the players have a chance to decode it.

For Traveller, if there are information dumps (mission briefings, data readouts, news articles), then I make sure there's a digital version for the players to go back to and read, rather than just giving it verbally. In Roll20, it's easy to keep such handouts hidden then present them to the players at the right time. I might do a company or news agency logo to go along with the text.

Thanks will check it out!

I used bootstrap https://getbootstrap.com/ as a layout tool to make it mobile friendly if you're interested in that design method. The button toggles are some simple javascript and css which I can rip out and send you if you want.

It is available in PDF right here. They used to have a Print-On-Demand version, but I don't see that anymore.

You can get the hardcover from Amazon here and it should be a little cheaper than direct from Mongoose.

And if you pre-order the hard cover of High Guard direct from Mongoose and send Matt Sprange an email (check the Mongoose forums for details) they will give you a free copy of the High Guard PDF (which should be available soon), the hard cover won't be out until September.

My main inspiration there was the <em>Torchship Trilogy</em> by Gallagher. Previous AI wars are part of the plot, and they're also a way to get the crew using things like slide rules and sextants. Scifi stuff is often treated like magic, it's a way to handwave away problems. If we dumb down the tech then things rely more on the player's wits and character's skills.

Others pointed out an in setting history. I found this to be a wonderful book about the game itself.

The Science Fiction In Traveller

There are books (like Space Viking, already mentioned here) on which the original Traveller is based.

You might also like the Dumarest series. From the very first story, you can tell it's where Traveller got its bones.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/CRHAYSM-Shielding-Anti-Tracking-Interceptor-Installation/dp/B0B74558KJ/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?adgrpid=1153388463094863&amp;hvadid=72086888053728&amp;hvbmt=be&amp;hvdev=m&amp;hvlocphy=133607&amp;hvnetw=s&amp;hvqmt=e&amp;hvtargid=kw...

Not to denigrate your fine work here, but my character sheets are 'just' 3x5 index cards. I can put play money cash, character sheets, similar 3x5 rules cards, planets and all in a handy tote like this, entire campaign in a very little box.

https://www.amazon.com/Emraw-Business-Dividers-Sticker-Assorted/dp/B07NDMJL1L/ref=pd\_lpo\_1?pd\_rd\_i=B07NDMJL1L&amp;psc=1

S.M. Sterling wrote a 2 book series on modern life with an inhabitable Venus and Mars (each book focuses on each of the two planets.) They are on my reading list and I haven't gotten around to them yet! The Lords of Creation

If I'm doing smuggling with conventional ships, it's got to be the A2 Far Trader. More Gs to get on and off worlds, innocuous looking, jump flexibility.

Another key tool for the smuggling trade is any of the faster small craft. Get on and off planet, frees up the 'mother ship' to not be particularly fast or streamlined, plausible deniability if the small craft is not tracked back.

As to plot points, I would recommend reading this book, about a real life recovery specialist that got ships repoed through guile rather then shooting.

https://www.amazon.com/Seized-Captains-Adventures-Scoundrels-Recovering-ebook/dp/B00CO92QAM/

I do actually have a sci-fi adventure seeds book (can't remember the publisher) that was a bit underwhelming. Most of the seeds were a bit naff. Likewise, 760 patrons has a fairly low signal-noise ratio. The original CT 76 patrons book was somewhat better, though.

Something that I did see a few of (waaay back in the late Jurassic era of CT) were a series of short adventures published on a single folded sheet of card - e.g. Fleetwatch

This format - or something a little longer in a PDF - was quite good in the days of print where it could be produced much more cheaply than a little black book.

In practice, you could do a standard (say 4-page, 8-page, 12-page) mini-adventure format. It might be a good format for an adventure competition for this forum, for example.

Did it!

I use python 3.9.7, but macos always has a system install of 2.7 so one has to explicitly call python3

Some bits were a bit different, so I use github desktop and cloned it.

The I subbed out the .pyd for .py as you did with curl

the cat command doesn't seem to work quite the same so i pip3 install for each package but it fell over on the PyQt5, and that's cos on Mac it's bundled as a brew.sh cask and can be installed using

brew install pyg@5

then it ruddy well worked!

Or you can just get one from the ~~Amazon~~ ruined Ancients Distribution centre (Youtube) :>

My brain immediate went back to the old Palm Pilot days... and now the new Android days:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.corytrese.games.startraders

I thought you were talking about this! Now I will be looking at that link to see what your Star Trader is all about ;)

Cheers!

As far as I can tell its the same resolution as your screen, so 1920X1080 in my case, but I'm running it on a laptop.

Also you don't have to use real stars. Some slightly more technical things you can do with it if you want to come up with your own setting is making custom planets and star systems http://spaceengine.org/manual/making-addons/creating-a-planet/. Though if you just want a random patch of stars you can zoom out far enough that procedural stars take over and find a spot somewhere that looks interesting.

No, relativity is totally glossed over. And the designers also assumed that there is one definitive reference point of time. That’s probably because they didn’t understand relativity, but it has the benefit of giving us a simplified universe to play in.

I always assumed there was one single reference for time, like on Earth. What blew my mind was reading “The Order of Time” by Carlos Rovelli a couple years ago, which is how I learned that in reality not only is there not a single reference frame for time, but there CANNOT BE such a thing. I didn’t change my Traveller universe, though. The time reference simplification is no worse than a half dozen others needed to make the game workable.

If you have the inclination, I recommend this book:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/073521610X

Your local gaming shop should be able to get the core book at the very least from their distributors at a reasonable price.

Amazon Canada has the following the Mongoose 2nd Edition Core Rulebook - CDN$77.47 and a whole bunch more listed right here. The prices are high though, as the core rulebook is $41.39 on Amazon in the US which should be about CDN$55. So it might be worthwhile to have someone in the US buy it and ship it to you.

Finally, if you want to purchase directly from Mongoose simply send them an email and I am sure that they will work with you to get Canadian pricing and shipping.

Just finished Shadow of the Storm from MJ Dougherty, set in the Traveller universe in the Solomani Confederation. A good scifi novel, great for Traveller fans looking to get some feel for the Solomani side of things.

Not too long ago I read Slices of Life, also by Dougherty; a seriesof short stories, vignettes, and flash pieces set in the Third Imperium.

I've read Agent of the Imperium a couple times, also a very solid novel set in the Third Imperium.