Traveller Tutorial

[GregRex]

Hi guys veteran FG player here. A couple of my friends and I are interested in playing Traveller M2 and I was wondering if there was a video tutorial series on creating characters and playing in general on FG out there?

Thanks,

Greg

[sallerin]

Check Seth Skorkowsky (youtube)

[GregRex]

Awesome thanks!

[paddyb2019]

I'm in the same boat (ish). I can create characters outside FG and add them to the PC or NPC sections. I've noticed a world tab. How do I add subsectors or even sectors to that section? I liked Seth's youtube videos, but I thought they would be more about playing the game within the confines of FG. Or perhaps I misunderstood. Are there any tutorials about playing Traveller in FG that are about or is there someone who is really good at explaining? I'm new to FG, but I've been playing Traveller in its various guises since 1978.

[shadowspleen]

I'm actually looking at making some tutorial videos for Traveller using FG, but I'm super busy with the day job at the moment. (We're a freight company specializing in flowers, so this is our busiest week of the year) I hope to have some test footage done sometime next week, and putting up some example vids not too long after. I'll share some links when I have something. In the meantime, if anyone has any other examples of FG tutorials regarding Traveller, I'd also be interested, if only as sources of insipiration. :)

[alfarobl]

I am sorry that they are not in english but you could watch our gameplay videos to see how the MGT2E works in action with a real game within Reach 2 module (spoilers if you want to play it).

There are spanish subtitles available... and if you enable them you can choose to autotranslate to english during playback, it won't be perfect but it will help.

We have 3 Parts of our adventure uploaded here:

P1 First 21 minutes are intro to the Trojan Reach you can skip (https://youtu.be/7XIYLtqtY-I)

P2 Good Combat example (https://youtu.be/AQ5uPOoo6Qk)

P3 Dramatic Task example (https://youtu.be/Mvlp44bESQA)

[savoylen]

If you need help figuring this out, give me a yell. I'm dusting off the Traveller Books and would be happy to work with you to figure this out. We can even put some videos up ourselves when we work out the kinks.
I know FG well and am just coming back to Traveller.
- Savoy

[JohnQPublic]

Seth is easily the best, but he's only got a few videos out for Mongoose Traveller 2e so far. He's doing more and they will be awesome. In the meantime Complex Games Apologist has a pretty good series on Traveller too.

[esmdev]

It is for MGT1 in Fantasy Ground (which is the ruleset that MGT2 was built on top of) but there are a bunch of videos of their game sessions starting with generation and moving to a number of play sessions. MGT2 is much more robust than MGT1 but they make the set work really well.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrEy3kvjMfUOwco5dv6brZm8dfGhGyS_T

[GregRex]

I’ll check it out, thanks!

[greyseasunder]

I am sorry that they are not in english but you could watch our gameplay videos to see how the MGT2E works in action with a real game within Reach 2 module (spoilers if you want to play it).

There are spanish subtitles available... and if you enable them you can choose to autotranslate to english during playback, it won't be perfect but it will help.

We have 3 Parts of our adventure uploaded here:

P1 First 21 minutes are intro to the Trojan Reach you can skip (https://youtu.be/7XIYLtqtY-I)

P2 Good Combat example (https://youtu.be/AQ5uPOoo6Qk)

P3 Dramatic Task example (https://youtu.be/Mvlp44bESQA)

Thank you for sharing these alfarobl- I wish I could speak your language! Great visual examples. I'm in the same boat as the guys above- brand new to FGU and Traveller 2e, so I'm pretty lost trying to figure this all out. I've the hardcover books, and have a pretty solid handle on the ruleset (no actual play time as yet), and have FGU- trying to figure this puppy out.

[alfarobl]

Thank you for sharing these alfarobl- I wish I could speak your language! Great visual examples. I'm in the same boat as the guys above- brand new to FGU and Traveller 2e, so I'm pretty lost trying to figure this all out. I've the hardcover books, and have a pretty solid handle on the ruleset (no actual play time as yet), and have FGU- trying to figure this puppy out.

I think MBM Ruleset works pretty good. Just start with one of the premade adventures to learn how it works. Use manual rolls if needed and you can add more functionality as you go... most used functions are down the chatbox, Boom/Bane (throws 3 dice), +1 -1 mods, use different Attribute with Skill rolls and Difficulty levels. Remember to tell users to modify Options before combat and select order in which the Damage is applied END STR DEX or any other choice.

[backwardoracle]

With Traveller its even more important to discuss with players what style of play they want, as this will make character career decisions easier to manage. these almost no use for 5 characters with Pilot (spacecraft), for example. Take a look at the ships in the core rulebook see what roles are needed to crew the ship, as a start to see what skills are needed. most essential skills can be obtained from different careers. The connections skills provide you with a story hook as to how the characters know each other.

[esmdev]

I also find it easier, at least in the early campaign stages, to keep the game centered on a handful of nearby systems. You have the opportunity to develop the systems, use the contacts/allies/enemies, build relations with patrons and expand on the locations. When the players go system, to system, to system, to system, (on and on and on), it seems to lead to a disconnect where you never have time to adequately build on anything that has come before. If they return to the same systems more frequently then you have a chance to expand on what has come before.

High & Dry (a module) in the Bowman Arm (setting book) is a great one for starting referees and players. There's not much in the way of combat but a whole lot of stuff to do, especially in the back-half of the module. While I did some minor tweaks to the module, my player's found it epic despite there being no combat at all. I did tweak it a bit and add some extra search/rescue options towards the end in addition to what was in the module and provide a vehicle option to bypass the mountain climb which just seemed to be a little to laggy.

[MadBeardMan]

High and Dry is a great one, gets new players used to the fact it's sci-fi but the planet is not very advanced and it also gifts them their first ship.

Mission to Mithril is another great one, I've just finished running that for my group.

I also like to keep things focused around a small area, allows myself and the player to know more and more as the game progresses and then take them out of their comfort zone and move them a few subsectors or even a full sector. I'm hoping to have the ruleset ready to test Ship Combat by the time they get to the Trojan Reach and over to Drinax. The Borderland run is good to pull them towards Drinax, and yes I've used a misjump to move them from place to place, as all astrogation rolls are secret in my game.

Even though the adventures are converted to match the book, I modify them to make them flow better with my GMing style and the play style of my players, makes for a better game.

Right, back to coding.

Cheers,
MBM

[Sylvesr]

I am learning to build a story:
I opened my library and in the list of Adventures on the left I noticed that the MGT2 Adventure Template differs from the Reach Adventure Theories of Everything in that the TOE adventure has fewer links/topics. Missing are: Items Spacecraft and Worlds. Which leads me to my first question:
1) As I build my own story, do I need to be able to adjust the links/topics list?
2) Regarding links: Is the Notes page of the Story template linked to the Notes pad (on the button list to the right side of the main page)? In my first attempt to build a Story I built it while using the notes on the right. I dragged them into the Story build thinking they were copying, vice just linking, and deleted the notes to clean up after myself when the Story was complete thus losing all my information in the story. I’d like to avoid doing that again :)
3) What is the Notes pad on the right used for if not for constructing adventures? Assuming I make a few adventures, the notes pad will be filled up and become confusing, and more frustrating, if I delete items out of it they will also evaporate from my “completed” story as I discovered to my chagrin.
4) On the same topic: Are the other Right side buttons (battles, parcels, tables, etc) linked to the same name links found in the Library’s of the contents of an adventure template? How are the buttons used?
Thank you for your time.
Lee

[MadBeardMan]

I am learning to build a story:
I opened my library and in the list of Adventures on the left I noticed that the MGT2 Adventure Template differs from the Reach Adventure Theories of Everything in that the TOE adventure has fewer links/topics. Missing are: Items Spacecraft and Worlds. Which leads me to my first question:
1) As I build my own story, do I need to be able to adjust the links/topics list?
2) Regarding links: Is the Notes page of the Story template linked to the Notes pad (on the button list to the right side of the main page)? In my first attempt to build a Story I built it while using the notes on the right. I dragged them into the Story build thinking they were copying, vice just linking, and deleted the notes to clean up after myself when the Story was complete thus losing all my information in the story. I’d like to avoid doing that again :)
3) What is the Notes pad on the right used for if not for constructing adventures? Assuming I make a few adventures, the notes pad will be filled up and become confusing, and more frustrating, if I delete items out of it they will also evaporate from my “completed” story as I discovered to my chagrin.
4) On the same topic: Are the other Right side buttons (battles, parcels, tables, etc) linked to the same name links found in the Library’s of the contents of an adventure template? How are the buttons used?
Thank you for your time.
Lee

Hi Lee,

There's a lot of help creating adventures and understanding what right hand side buttons link to what kind of information. This isn't the right space to detail it all, but you should find what you want on the forums as help is already posted. Some other advice I would say is it connect up with 'Fantasy Ground College' and they might have a course detailing on how to build your own adventures.

I do believe this coming Friday (18th) Jen is going to create a module (Call of Cthulhu - but the basics are the same) during the 'Fantasy Grounds Friday Twitch stream'.

Cheers,
MBM

[Sylvesr]

Does anyone know what the name of that right hand box 39349with all the buttons (PC, Notes, Story etc) is called? (Knowing might help me make key word searches more profitable as I search the Forum and FGU site for answers). Thanks.

[MadBeardMan]

Hi.

graphics/sidebar/button_blank.png
graphics/sidebar/button_blank_down.png

Cheers,
MBM

[Sylvesr]

Smashing. Thank you much.

[Sylvesr]

I am learning to build a story:
4) On the same topic: Are the other Right side buttons (battles, parcels, tables, etc) linked to the same name links found in the Library’s of the contents of an adventure template? How are the buttons used?
Thank you for your time.
Lee
I had a little time this weekend to return to building a campaign. Regarding #4, where do I find parcels? I need to build a few cargo crates and stuff them with items but how do I do that? I don't see parcels.

[esmdev]

I had a little time this weekend to return to building a campaign. Regarding #4, where do I find parcels? I need to build a few cargo crates and stuff them with items but how do I do that? I don't see parcels.

If you click the library tab on the bottom right, in the top section of the library window are a bunch of options, one of them is parcels. If you click the check box to the right of parcels it will be added to the normally displayed options.

You can use this same method with all of the options to turn on or off whatever you want to normally see.

[Sylvesr]

This worked like a charm. Thanks

[fantomas]

Found this youtube vid for 2e char creation in FG when looking for info. Did not see it mentioned in the thread -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSLc-EvhJto