BASILISK STATION - A TRAVELLER BLOG

After mustering out of the Imperial Navy, Etert decided to pursue a life amongst the stars and visiting new cultures and worlds by financing his way with mining. Using a couple of ship's shares and taking a large loan, he purchased a used Type-J Seeker mining starship, that he dubbed Category One . He fitted out the computer software with Intellect software for Astrogation, Engineering (both maneuver and jump drives), and Gunnery. That way, he can cruise the stars along, without taking on a crew. Some risk, of course, remains--software can't do physical repairs. However, Etert is confident and determined to go it alone. Perhaps more radically, he has opted to leave Imperial space by taking in the Foreven Sector, seeking mining and money-making opportunities. From a gaming perspective, I will be using random encounter rolls when entering the system, using High Guard 's mining rules, etc. I will also use online generators for NPCs and the ALONe system for determining rand...

I've rolled up Etert Riffost. Here's a screenshot of his character sheet. Etert's UPP is: 556A73 Born and raised on Trin (A894A96-F) in the Trin's Veil subsection of the Spinward Marches sector. Etert grew up amongst the massive middle class on the planet. His father, Cor, rose to be a director in the Ling-Standard Products consumer products division, specializing in project management. His mother, Betz, served as an advisor to the mayor of Lancaster, the city the Riffost family lived. Betz eventually was elected as the attorney general for the city and was known as a tough prosecutor. Etert grew up in a nurturing home. However, he tended to be a bit lazy in his studies, dreaming instead of heading to the stars. Gazing past the reflective debris ring of the moon that millennia ago was torn apart by gravitational forces, Etert dreamed of reaching beyond the system, beyond the Spinward Marches and, perhaps beyond the Imperium itself. His laziness, however, m...

I have rolled up my first system, which I will reveal soon. As I was doing it, I also found a way to conduct a solo  campaign. Hence, I will be generating a character and have them embark on this campaign, revealing the Foreven sector through his eyes. One of the fun things I've always enjoyed about Traveller is the character generation system. From the beginning, Traveller character creation has been based on die rolls and decisions around careers--you have no starting pool of experience points to spend as you want. Instead, you start with your character at age 18--ready for college, a military academy, or jumping into his or her career. You roll to see if you get entrance, if you graduate, if you're promoted, if you avoid serious injury, etc. When I create my character, I'll provide his career background. In Classic Traveller and MegaTraveller, your character could die during creation. This has been softened (even in Classic Traveller, optional rules were stat...

As a side note, I was asked to join the fine folks at High Shelf Gaming podcast to talk about Traveller. It was great fun, so give it a listen if you get a chance! TRAVELLER: A SPACE OPERA RPG

Hello and welcome! I've started this blog to share the creation of my own Foreven sector in Traveller.  Of course, you may be asking yourself, what the heck are those?! First off, Traveller is a tabletop RPG first released in 1977. It has gone through many iterations: Classic Traveller (the 1977 version) MegaTraveller Traveller: The New Era Traveller 4 Traveller GURPS Traveller D20 Traveller HERO Mongoose Traveller Traveller5 Mongoose Traveller, 2nd Edition I started playing Classic Traveller in the early 1980s, and it has been my longtime RPG (despite a hiatus of playing for a number of years--you know, like work and stuff getting in the way). I do play others ( Star Wars, Genesys , and Cyberpunk 2020 )--but Traveller is the one I keep returning to. Traveller, simply put, is a science fiction RPG taking place in the far future (nearly 5,000 years). It is centered around the Third Imperium, an empire spanning 11,000 worlds, but other polities exist. The Solomani...