Playing Traveller Online (Help Me!)

[MGibster]

I've had a hankering to play some Traveller and I have some players who are interested in a science fiction game. But none of us have played Traveller before and since we're still playing online I've got some serious concerns as to how to run session zero where we all generate our characters. I was wondering if anyone here had any experience with Traveller character generation in an online environment. Any ideas or suggestions for making a character generation for 4-5 players in an online environment would be greatly appreciated.

I'm going to link them to Seth Skorkowsky's Traveller series on Youtube as I think it's the best most comprehensive overview of the game.

 

[Fenris-77]

I think @pemerton is your guy. I don't know about online experience, but he knows the game inside out.

 

[pemerton]

I did PC gen for our campaign at the table. We only had one copy of the charts, and so took turns. Then I rolled up a starting world.

Online, I reckon it could be done the same way: depending what platform you're using, you can email everyone a copy of the charts so you all have those open, and then screen share an oline dice roller so everyone can follow along.

 

[pemerton]

I should add: it's important to laugh and/or groan when someone fails a survival check!

 

[MGibster]

I should add: it's important to laugh and/or groan when someone fails a survival check!

I think that should go without saying! Well, it looks like I've got nothing to worry about. My group has elected to play some Cyberpunk having no doubt been bitten by the Cybrerpunk 2077 bug. I can't say I disapprove and it'll give me a chance to be a player.

 

[MGibster]

I did PC gen for our campaign at the table. We only had one copy of the charts, and so took turns. Then I rolled up a starting world.

I've been putting off Traveller until we could meet face-to-face. Just using the chart at the table while they roll was my plan but I wasn't sure if it'd be as effective over Discord.

 

[billd91]

I've been putting off Traveller until we could meet face-to-face. Just using the chart at the table while they roll was my plan but I wasn't sure if it'd be as effective over Discord.

Making sure players have access to the tables can be kind of important if you want them to have opportunities to maximize their chances to get certain skills when the choice comes up. So I can see waiting to be face to face.

 

[aramis erak]

I did PC gen for our campaign at the table. We only had one copy of the charts, and so took turns. Then I rolled up a starting world.

Online, I reckon it could be done the same way: depending what platform you're using, you can email everyone a copy of the charts so you all have those open, and then screen share an oline dice roller so everyone can follow along.

Note that, as long as you're not using Mongoose's version, Marc's Fair Use Provision allows for sharing a page or two so as to enable remote play.

Note also: if willing to run Classic (even if you bolt on a later ed's task mechanics), Starter Traveller is free. Add either [Spinward Marches Campaign] or [Book 4 Mercenary & Sup 4 Citizens of the Imperium] to add the other 12 careers.

 

[aramis erak]

I've been putting off Traveller until we could meet face-to-face. Just using the chart at the table while they roll was my plan but I wasn't sure if it'd be as effective over Discord.

It works just fine for MegaTraveller - 6 pages of career pages, and 2 of skill list (for resolving cascades)...

 

[practicalm]

We've been playing GURPS Traveller (just after 3rd Interstellar War online) GURPS has its own character generation challenges we did it with a session 0, we all went off to make characters and then edited them a bit after feedback from the GM.