The implementation of vector-based spaceship combat in Traveller is easy.  It’s the strategy that results from the process that’s hard.  Like chess, the rules are simple, but lead to a wealth of complex puzzles and potential pitfalls for the unwary. Marc Miller gives Traveller (1977) players two options: Just...

NOT 3D PRINT FILES! Sheesh. A Billion Suns has been on my shelf for far too long.  That’s Mike Hutchinson’s space shoot-em-up wargame built from the bottom up with an objective system that gives it more of an economics and shoot-n-scoot flavor than a line-em-up one.  It’s been languishing...

This isn’t Captain Doose ‘s first trip to the misjump rodeo, and recent events have taught Chad Solo a thing or two about why the Doose is always loose. In the last post, we talked about how fuel-poor the Penfold sector of Traveller space is.  Of the now 25...

Who knew rolling a 6 or less on 2d6 would be so hard? In proto-Traveller, your chances of rolling up a starport that sells the good jump juice are are about 40%, and somebody really needs to explain that to my dice.  Of the 17 systems I’ve rolled only...

Ten billion people can’t all be wrong. Tobor is no paradise planet, but it’s got something going for it that keeps people there and keeps them growing the population.  Sure, it’s got no surface water and only a trace atmosphere.  It also has the most effective government in the...

The planet Herndon is an odd one, which makes it normal for the Traveller world generation system.  Check it out: 9,000 miles across Dense, tainted atmo 30% water coverage 50,000 population No government, but grenades are outlawed The last one is pretty easy.  There is a cultural proscription against...

It turns out there was more to last session’s street fight than we realized. Recall that our lone hero, Chad Solo, fell in with a group of water polo hooligans, fans of the Whalin-Soonami Limpets, and spent a weekend in Innsmouth Station crawling the pubs and watching their team...

We pick up the action with Chad Solo, laying low while waiting for his ship to come in.  He has to survive seven days on the mean streets of Innsmouth Station, and on any one of the latter half his potential employer will contact him.  This means seven random...

Our scout, Jeremy Powell, started the session on Blaine’s World working as an unwitting spy.  After his successful hunting exploits caught the eye of the local figurehead of a monarch, the lovely Queen Tiadime, he found himself in possession of a lovely little Scout class starship.  She put in...

This video on the origins of tabletop RPGs made the rounds last week because Jason Tondro, in the white beard, took a few minutes to beat his breast and put on a hair shirt and self-flagellate that the hobby grew out of a normal guy scene in the late...