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Legitimate Salvage(?) A Traveller campaign
Make a Traveller, join a crew, and plot course for adventure. (Learn to) play the classic sci-fi RPG with updated rules from Mongoose Publishing.
TYPE
SYSTEM
LANGUAGE
EXPERIENCE
AGE
$20.00
/ Session
Details
Weekly / Tuesday - 2:00 PM UTC
Feb 17 / Session 3
Session Duration / 3–4 hours
Campaign Length / 5+ Sessions
3 / 6 Seats Filled
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Schedule
Meet your party members
3/6
About the adventure
The Universe is vast, and there's lots of room to carve out a little bit of Space for yourself and a brave and ambitious crew of Far Trader, Scout or Lab Ship. I'm looking for a group of players for an ongoing, open-ended Traveller campaign, that's self-directed by the players. I have lots of published adventures to string together and a few published campaigns too, if that is the course the crew decides to set. Otherwise we'll home brew a story of galactic proportions with a combination of published and original parts. Perhaps the best part of Traveller is character creation, where the randomness of dice gives a lot of narrative potential to drive the story the group will tell. (See more below!) Once you have a (rust bucket?) ship and a crew (of scoundrels?) to fly it, you still have the cost of maintenance, fuel, water, docking fees and regular ship payments, as well as some ammo to buy if sailing through danger zones, before you unclamp for your next trip into The Black. Oh, and you may want to set aside a bit to make sure you eat too, or maybe for retirement one day. Money still doesn't grow on trees... but let's face it, if you had trees, out here, you'd be rich. Fans of The Expanse and Firefly may know the rumours of their connection with Traveller. True or not, there are endless floating hulks to salvage, worlds to discover, plots to uncover and money to be made shuttling cargo and people all across Charted Space. Will you achieve fame, riches or even more lofty goals? Or will you end up floating and lifeless in the cold void of space?
Game style
Hexcrawl / Exploration
Realm Building
Roleplay Heavy
Rule of Cool (RoC)
Sandbox / Open World
Theater of the Mind
Game themes
Meet the Game Master
5.0
(20)
Less than a year on StartPlaying
6 games hosted
Highly rated for: Creativity, Teacher, Knows the Rules
Average response time: Under 1 hour
Response rate: 100%
About me
Greetings fellow gamers, I'm new to StartPlaying, but have been running games for more than 25 years, mostly d20 fantasy. For the last 15 years, I’ve mainly run Pathfinder 1e Adventure Paths for a stable of 20 regular players. I run a mix of monthly and weekly games, as well as limited-run games. Through the support of a kind and dedicated community, I was able to make this a small business during COVID, when I left my career in journalism. I currently run a variety of ongoing games including Pathfinder (1e and 2e), Delta Green, and Call of Cthulhu, and have just kicked off a World of Darkness game (Werewolf). I have run Blades in the Dark, Runequest and Traveller before and would like to play more of these games if interest exists. For the past four years I've supplemented my business with a 5e kids program (Summer camps and afterschool), but no longer have a venue for this. I'm currently looking for adult players for shorter games (1-5 sessions) to work toward forming groups for weekly, bi-weekly or monthly games starting in the New Year (2026) if not sooner. I'm a flexible and responsive GM, adapting to different styles and tones of play as needed. I love when story is king and lean toward narrative over mechanics. I try to be a benevolent GM and say yes to players whenever possible. I want to challenge my players, without punishing them.
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
Creating a Traveller and a crew as a group is a mini game within the game, and so much emergent story telling comes from this process of rolling on random tables. In the original version of the game you could even die in character creation! We'll make Travellers and form a starting crew during a FREE Session 0. You choose where you are from and a handful of basic skills, but everything else involves a roll of the dice (2d6, usually). And while you can hope to be, say, a Space Marine or a Robotics Engineer, or a Great Pilot, maybe those dreams haven't quite work out for you. Maybe they have and it's time for something new. In some ways, Traveller creation is the best part of the game. You get bonus skills for drawing story connections between the player characters' past. And in the end, the crew gets a package of skills to spread around amongst them to make sure you have what you need to at least stay moving. But ultimately, this session will set the tone for a completely unique RPG in our universe in the far future.
What to expect
Preparing for the session
Bring your own ideas, an open mind to let chance have a greater say in who you are so far, and the willingness to work with other players to compromise on a general theme and direction for your crew to take, at least as you begin your time together. And prepare for lots of role play, as crews cooped up together for a long time either become feathered friends fast... or else peck each others eyes out. Ultimately, let's tell a great story together and have a lot of fun! Also great ship names!
What Dave B brings to the table
I'll be your guide through character creation, and I have lots of resources (source books and adventures) to bring any style of game to life within the system... exploration, pick up and delivery, space piracy, mercenary work or a combination of all of the above and more. My role then, is both the 'onboard computer' — to aid the crew with information as they look for jobs and form their short and long term plans — and be the unpredictable universe and the people ... and aliens... in it, as the crew move through and ever changing and unpredictable void, facing challenges as they present themselves. Sometimes taking jobs just to keep the ship moving and its crew eating and breathing. I also have sound effects/music either through Foundry (or Syrinescape if we go the Roll20 route)
Homebrew rules
Rules as written, unless something comes up that the group feels doesn't work for us all.
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Microphone
Platforms used
Safety
How Dave B creates a safe table
We'll talk about lines and veils and all expectations and limits during the free Session 0, as well as discuss tone and theme to make sure players know what to expect, and adjust as play goes on as needed.
Content warnings
Safety tools used