Mmmmmaybeee.

One question: My own experiences with Traveller way back when involved sitting around while the number-crunchers played with profit margins and ship maintenance, very mundane stuff, with only infrequent bright spots of action to relieve the boredom.

How opera would this game be? Will we need to keep an accountant on staff to keep track of the money? Will most of the roleplaying involve the PCs in tense negotiations with port officals over docking fees?

I'm sorry, do I sound bitter? ;)

Also, which time period of the Traveller universe are you looking to use?

Bitter? Yes. Yes, you do sound bitter.

Not that I blame you. I remember well the "thrill" of doing math to figure out how much money we'd made (or lost) and whether we could afford to refuel our ship, or upgrade it. Eventually we said "screw it!" and began to make our living trolling for pirates. We'd arm our ship to the teeth and fly the unfriendly skies waiting to be attacked. If all went as planned, we'd defeat the pirates* and take their ship as a prize, either selling it for cash or transferring our flag and selling our, depending on which ship was in better shape.

Of course, that Traveller game was Traveller in name only. It included elements of Star Trek, Star Wars, Larry Niven's Known Space, Gamma World, Metamorphosis Alpha, old SF serials and movies, pulp novels, modern (at the time) SF novels and films, comic books, everything but the kitchen sink. Traditional "Firefly" style adventures were few and far between.

It was insane, completely nonsensical, preposterous--and probably the most pure fun I've ever had role-playing then or since.

But back to the subject of THIS game. I've long thought that the game should use extremely simple economics--maybe as simple as "you can make some very low percentage return on your investment with pretty much whatever cargo you want to carry UNLESS it's an actual adventure."

Why? Because simple economics says that if there are any really lucrative markets to be controlled, the big corporate freight lines will have them all sewn up. Alternatively, competition has driven the price down to the point where big lines can make a profit, but not the little guys on most lines. Most freelance ships are going to be living pretty much hand to mouth (again, I reference "Firefly") save for when they take a big risk (i.e., go through an actual adventure and either win big or lose big).

So why bother with lots of complicated die rolls? If I were the GM I'd handwave it all and let the players squeak by with low risk deals until and unless they decide to go for the big score. In which case, you can be pretty sure it won't go as planned. And you won't be able to repeat it once word gets out--see the previous paragraph.

*and by "defeat" I mean mercilessly exterminate...

Raises hand.... 

(See... dude, i can so follow simple direction! Pick Me! Pick Me!!!!)

Evil Grin

...Maneuver Drive, baybee!!!!

(Um, that's a definite maybe)

So more like Traveller than FGU's Space Opera. Okay as long as we aren't using SO or Space Law, I'm in!

I should wait for Thrak to actually respond but I felt I had to answer sinanju's comments.

The problem in the game I was in was that while the two math geeks pored over the figures, the rest of us spent our time stacking dice or doodling on our character sheets. Fun. Admittedly, that's not as much of an issue in this medium, where multiple storylines can be explored simultaneously.

sinanju's game description does sound like it was a lot of fun. It sort of expresses the other end of the spectrum from mine. Where would this campaign lie on that spectrum?

I guess my question boils down to: Thrak has given us a basic description of what the game universe and the PCs' place in it. I'd like to know what Thrak expects the PCs to do in this universe.

Mind you, I'm not saying that running a campaign involving micro-economics is a "bad" thing. It's just not my cup of java.

Good questions, all.

The time period is the late Third Imperium.  The shooting war is over.  A cold war style peace has taken hold.  I have a nice, long, detailed account of the current state of things...somewhere. 

Accounting is not fun for me.  I have no intention, if the players decide to engage in trade, to turn this into a microeconomic simulation.  Sure, the really profitable trade routes are sewn up by the large corps, but in an intersdtellar empire there are all manner of small irregular cargoes needing to be taken from point a to point b.  Speculation for profit is certainly an option.  Without an intended buyer, however it is exactly that: speculation.  Trade at your own profit risk. 

And yes, maintenence and fuel cost money, so there will be a small financial aspect to the game.  But it won't be more than a minor thing...unless you run out of money, of course. 

I'm still figuring out an exact premise for the crew.  Maybe I'll know that early, but maybe I'll see what I get for submissions (Iif I get that far) and see where that takes me.  I'm not sure, but this thread should help.  What would you like to see?  A totally independent crew winding their way through space and fate?  An imperial scout crew?  How about a combination?  The party could be a group of independent spacers of varied background who serve on occasion as an Imperial "mission impossibloe" type team or simply take contracts from anybody, including the government (or maybe from everyone except the government). 

I like both the scout crew and mission impossible idears.

Could also be: 

1. A mixed crew of scientists/archeologists and their protectors, sent out to investigate oddities and ancient civs
2. A clean-up crew for the Imperium. We take care of 'little problems'. 
3. We could have had a hideous Jump Drive malfunction that's sent us far beyond the rim, and we have to find a way home.

Just some thoughts.

I find everyone of those ideas very interesting.

...I love a space opera...  but I hate detailed descriptions of technology as much as I hate coin counting.  I'm assuming there will be no formulas involved to figure out how much gas we need to get to a certain planet or which warp drive we need to engage to get there in a certain number of days.  

I'm interested to know how much technology specific writing would be expected.

You know, when I watched the old Star Trek, and Scotty or someone would refer to the hypernuclear whoseamagadget, I would think, "I bet he just made that up."

Your character should play as if she knows as much tech as is true to her background.  That being said, I don't expect you to be a physicist just because your'e playing a techie.  As long as it sounds good, we'll take each situation as they come and make it up as we go. 

So no, you don't have to be steeped in Traveller technology in order to work out.

 I'm definitely interested.  I love space Operas.  I even played traveller a few times myself, though not enough to know the history.  

But there's another factor in play for me.  You said "set in the Traveller Universe," but you didn't say "run in the Traveller system."  Now, I know that some might consider this a negative character trait, but I'm something of a system snob.  

So before I could answer your call for interest, I would need to ask:  What system would you run this game in?

I like the HERO system.  I'm using that.

Unless my players want to run Classic Traveller, of course.

Some links for fun:

Introduction To The Traveller Adventure (sets up the game universe):  http://www.freelancetraveller.com/features/advents/ttaintro/travintro.html

Traveller Universe Map:  http://www.utzig.com/cgi-bin/iai/map_top.pl

Gateway University Library:  http://gateway.pocketempires.com/

Walt Smith's Traveller Page (great space piracy analysies): http://users.hartwick.edu/smithw/traveller.htm

You had me at Hero.

Oh yes, regarding the question of crew premise, I think I'd prefer less authority structure than might be found in a military crew, but I'm  not averse to structure.  Even pirate crews have structure.  I just wouldn't be interested in playing a character who could be court martialed for speaking his mind or have to jump and snap-too whenever an officer comes into the room. 

You still thinking about this Thrak?

Just curious, would you consider a half-Zhodani?

I'm thinking about it, sure.  I'm thinking if I have the time.  I'm thinking if the site is oversaturated with games right now.  I'm thinking if my FTF gaming friend is going to come here and run a game, a game in which I'd play.  I'm thinking all the time. 

And no, no half-Zhodani.  Sorry.

Thrakazog wrote:

I'm thinking about it, sure.  I'm thinking if I have the time.  I'm thinking if the site is oversaturated with games right now.  I'm thinking if my FTF gaming friend is going to come here and run a game, a game in which I'd play.  I'm thinking all the time. 

I'm a big fan of all this thinking. 

I think it's really great to consider all of these things before committing.  Yay on you!

As far as the site being oversaturated with games, yes and no.  I think many of the players are reaching the saturation point (or are already there), but that only about 1/3 of the members (if that) are in more than one game.

Interestingly enough though, most of the games that have gone live...have been getting new members.  TORG only has one person that was in a game here previously.  SM got 2 from recruiting and 2 from the site.  ProjE, were all new except for 2, I believe.  My numbers might be off a bit, but I'm just saying that new members can be found, but even then...they could be oversaturated and we just wouldn't know it.  *grin*

*shrugs*  No problem.  Just had a fun backstory to go with it.  Didn't even know if it was possible.