Few things excite me more than the chance to play a game of the classic RPG, “Traveller“.
This weekend, in a stunning moment of surprise (because I didn’t know it was coming), Mongoose Publishing announced a new edition of their version of the Traveller game. You can get involved in the Beta Playtest and, as a fan, I’ve done just that.
The question is now simple: How do I get a game going?
Travelling At School?
Do I offer a game to the students who attend the current D&D club at school? Honestly, I am not sure if they’d want to play but with the possibility of one of them Dungeon Mastering D&D (meaning I have a separate game) it’s a possibility.
Of course, I’d need to smooth the edges of the process and present the game with minimal fuss and bother. No room for radical experimentation here – easiest to just run the free adventure provided in with the playtest materials.
Create characters? Maybe… but probably best to start with pre-gens.
That’s one option.
Travelling At Home?
Do I run a game with the home group? I have some interest – certainly two of the five players have expressed interest already – but I also have the dilemma of interrupting the newly stabilized D&D game.
Here, again, the best option might be to run a game with pre-gens and dive straight into some action. Would that playtest adventure be a suitable starting place? Probably.
Third Imperium action is the easiest route to play.
Travelling in to Serene Dawn?
For some months now I’ve been considering running our newly developed SF setting, “Serene Dawn”, with Mongoose Traveller. Is this the moment to revitalize that idea?
Working with my good friend, Scott Templeman, we’ve got a lot of work to do to realise our aspiration of providing an RPG setting for others to enjoy. That said, the playtest offers a chance to begin to customise a version of Traveller to fit our vision of the future. Mongoose Publishing has a great attitude to third-party publishing, so we could easily put our stuff “out there” over the next year or so… and play some cool games along the way.
This is, by far, the most attractive approach to our playtest: developing scenarios and characters for Serene Dawn and playing them with Traveller.
One thing is for sure…
…I want to play this game!
It’s been too long without SF, my friends. The far future is calling.
Game on!
