I imagine I'm in a minority here, in that when picking up a new release I get more from the worldbuilding and the setting information than from the mechanics - I'm driven more by fluff than crunch, basically - so other, more hardened players would need to add in ideas for making these fully appealing for everyone. The encounters in that book are mini-adventures in themselves (therefore too long) and are not illustrative of the environment the players find themselves in. The Referee Briefing 5 book is exactly NOT what I am suggesting. Without serious attempts at such color encounters all the systems the players stop at start to feel the same, and without these type of RP hooks they end up feeling lost from a RP perspective unless on an actual adventure. Take a boon to one social interaction of your choice while on planet. They are natives and invite the Traveller inside for a quick meal, bringing them up to speed on local etiquette. A Mechanic (10) check and 15 minutes will help them get things running again. Poisonous Atmosphere World: While planetside the PCs notice two citizens working frantically on the atmosphere scrubber for their house. Turns out she works in cargo handling at the port and knows a little about the current cargo's available (boon to all broker checks sourcing cargo on this trip). A successful Persuade check will convince the police of the citizen's innocence.
It's clear from the players perspective the light is faulty and malfunctioned while the citizen was crossing. High Law Level World: PCs witness a citizen getting questioned by law officers after "crossing the street against the light".
#How to play traveller rpg how to#
This addresses one of the core issues that we have at our table, how to breathe to life so many disparate worlds and locales. Not adventures or missions but simple, short encounter of no more than a paragraph that illustrate some aspect of life on the planet and have the opportunity to afford a small boon or bane to the travellers' activities (broker check for sourcing goods, negotiating docking fees, rumor checks, hiring etc). encounters for high law level, low law level, high population, poison atmosphere etc). These would be short, role-play focussed encounters with local people/ fauna/ etc and organized by most relevant world UWP designator (i.e. Solution: A book focussed on planetary color encounters. Problem: The Traveller universe is vast, and without local detail and flavor players can quickly become lost, without any hooks to hang their RP on. A book focussed on planetary color encounters.