Monthly news in the Subsector

President Trengsk has been re-elected to the Office of President of the Federation following a swift reversal of fortunes in ending the Space Viking threat in Vinfall. The infamous rebel and criminal Thors Rayson has been brought to justice and Vinfall is back in Federal hands!

A large number of religious zealots have shown up dead, going by low passage into Zarahemla. Starport Authorities are beginning to express concerns to the Federation Council on the state of these religious petitioners clogging starports and making safety concerns for others.

The Mercotechnic League continues to drift further from the graces of Federal Law and has even issued open policies declaring they will no longer provide assistance along major Federal shipping routes. Instead they’ve focused entirely on off route shipping and indie tramp cargo, which seems to be a profitable move in a Federation whose economy is teetering on the edge of depression.

Rudcard Logistics secures multiple key contracts in the Vinfall solar system to assist in rebuilding. It’s common knowledge among spacers in the system that there is no love lost between Rudcard spacers and Manadyne Inc. “Big Three” Federals.

That’s it for this month, be safe out there Travellers!

Situation

As stakeholders of Manadyne Inc. face the dissolution of their ancient company, an alliance of Federal Corporations sends a last ditch force to end the infamous Space Viking Thors Rayson while he is weakened, and retake the solar system. Meanwhile one Traveller tries to accomplish a job in the chaos while another one seeks escape.

Dramatis Personae

Thors Rayson - Space Viking

Count Tyr “The Space Wolf” - Lieutenant to Thors Rayson

Admiral Tet Jorgessen IX

Emberson (Traveller with a huge sword)

Lara (Traveller with unreasonable gun skills)

Kossori (Ex military freedom fighter on the run)

Seraphina (The Princess Star Knight)

Jones (Young kid hunted for psionic potential)

Space Forces List

Federal 2nd CruRON

9 x Federal Cruisers (default)

2 x Carriers (Patrol Cruiser but ship’s boats as armament)

40 x Ship’s boats (single pulse laser mounted)

5 x medical and supply, 400t transport (default)

200 x Federal Marines

House Rayons Viking Fleet

4 x Viking Cruisers

2 x Federal Cruisers (retrofitted)

20 x 200 ton Traders (twin sandcaster + pulse laser)

20 x Ship’s boats (1 x pulse laser mounted)

30 x Pinnaces

10 x 400 ton Merchant traders

Archeotech Orbital Defense Laser (auto-kills each round)

100 x Viking Zealot Fighters

Summary

This would be a session that combined scenario play of two Travellers in the middle of a Braunstein arrangement AND a giant space battle. Quite challenging but the men involved were up to the task. Unfortunately, the whole situation was utterly crippled with tech issues from playing online with Discord. We got it fixed by the end, but it led to a “free kreigspeil” type of resolution for what was a very intersting space battle otherwise.

I began with the Federal Admiral who chose to try and bait the Space Viking orbital laser into firing and attempt to stay on the dark side of the moon, approaching in order to soon use the opposite side of the moon for cover. The Space Viking fleet launched a screen of missiles and sand, also vaporizing the screening ship’s boats.

Meanwhile Emberson and Lara steal a air raft in the chaos of the streets of Thorstown and barrel toward the postal office out of town where secure data is loaded to X-boats, on behalf of their patron who seeks critical information making it out of Thorstown safely.

Seraphina uses her psionic powers to read the minds of both the Sergeant-at-arms about to inspect the craft they are hiding on, and the hanger boss for the Federal Carrier they have been brought into for inspection. They make it to the hangar and Kossori attempts to rig a false launch of the boats, but fails and they careen into the hangar creating havoc and bringing one of the carriers out of commission.

The Federal Admiral meanwhile drives the ships into this sliding maneuvering, dumping their missiles at zero G to detonate as they close on the moon, likewise launching sand, and identifies the location of the laser. The Vikings fight and die valiantly, but they are grossly outmatched by the speed and number of beam lasers available to the federal fleet. The nuclear missiles detonate on the surface of the moon or float in space, and while the laser takes out several expensive Federal cruisers, the Federals annihalate the indies who have sworn to House Rayson, and Thors himself dies aboard his flagship in battle. The Feds secure the skies about what is once again the moon of Karth.

Emberson reaches the postal office guarded by a cantankerous old woman, and Lara is not having this waste of time and quick draws from her hip shooting the gun from the woman’s hands and forcing her to surrender. They steal the x-boat data and make off into the wilderness until they can sneak off planet.

Seraphina uses her Admin skills to tell the approaching Marines guards they are needed in another part of the ship, pretending to be an official, and Kossori’s crew steals a working Ship’s boat and drifts it out of the bay with auxiliary power as if it were one of the damaged vessels. They drift for days, nearly starving, the hard burn interplanetary to their destination in system.

After Action Report

• A tremendous problem with online play is the potential for technical issues. Though the Referee was utterly plagued with them during this session, two other participants also had various tech issues. The best that can be done for this type of gaming is to try to test all your tech out in advance, and for the participants to be ready to take the reigns and finish adventures when they arise.

• It was noted (though in an unrelated way) that the tracking of so many fine details often seems to not matter so much in such an open ended, cinematic and heroic game as 1977 Traveller. Really, the space battle came down to really big strokes, not small, tactical competencies. Likewise this often seems the case for Travellers who must make tons of random person encounters monthly, and might struggle to find useful passage to their target system for a job, or might go weeks without finding a Patron. I noted that it does seem to simulate the life of Dumarest in fact, but we discussed at length ways that we might be able to make such book keeping easier and less tedious while focusing on the narrative and cinematic qualities implied by the 1977 game and it’s fiction. We continued to speak about it after the session.

Some of the things that have happened for the month of July so far

• The infamous traitor Orvek Jarn was brought to Justice by the Federal Investigation Security Service

• The Baroness Bronywn Penrose has been elected to the Federation ruling Council. She is from the family owners of Valiant Security

• Several patrons dissolved

• Anti-Federals leaked incriminating evidence about lots of top ranking Federal politicians

• Even more terrorism!

• The Omaha Insurance Company did a hostile takeover of the Manadyne homeworld of Mani.

• Manadyne Inc. is now poised with their pro-Trengsk allies of Valiant and several smaller corporations to take back Vinfall from the notorious Space Viking Thors Rayson. (This battle is docketed to occur on August 20th next month as a session Braunstein event.)

Other News for the month of July

A remote desert world of little significance known as Kolob has garnered greater notoriety recently with the establishment of a new starport and even a major, federally approved jump route to Zarahemla! The world is known for it’s strange, water worshipping religious messianic cult. Strangest of all are rumors that the ex-President Trengsk has been sighted conducting some of the religious rituals with the tribesmen!

The MercoTechnic League has distanced itself from the Federation and this has majorly crippled the Federal economy!

Further sabotage of critical Federal Infrastructure has wracked the already poor economies of the outer worlds of the Rim such as Mosiah and Vinfall. Locals claim corruption and bribery is rampant.

Given the ongoing state of Vinfall, the potential war with the Collective and rising crime and terrorism President Trengsk has succeeded in establishing a vote of no confidence for President Bidorum and it seems certain he will win.

For both the campaign and for his presidency if elected, the Trengsk has hired Valiant Security.

Switching from a Type 2 to a Type 4 Braunstein

It turns out most of the stuff Bdubs said in UMBROS is true. Things like diffusion sucking up energy, convergence being the goal, and how not using the game to resolve things is not as fun.

Traveller produces too much adventure. More than Classic D&D does. We only have one Referee (for now.) Our player base consists of people in many time zones not aligning, and one group who already play Traveller together in another game who can’t do lots of session gameplay weekly.

For this reason, we attempted to make the game a “Type 2 Braunstein” like a Tony Bath Wargame.

I just wasn’t having fun. I just don’t like Play-by-post gaming.

The Travellers especially weren’t having fun. Patrons can be kinda fun play-by-post, but the Travellers found they needed to conduct a grinding, linear gameplay loop of chucking a monstrous number of random daily person encounter checks, a huge percentage of which in the 1977 game are hostile. Playing this out without the context of what was going on around it in Solitaire wasn’t fun for many people.

I was set to shut the Voidstein down when several new people showed up, eager to play in sessions.

So the new plan is to have gameplay center on the Braunstein in live session play, with campaign play and book keeping occuring outside of it.

On a technical side, we can say we did it. We may be the only people ever to run 1977 Traveller the way Book 1 describes. We had close to 40 players at start, all playing in the same subsector. It does indeed work, when the technology of a Braunstein is applied.

But without more Ref’s to run the resulting docketed adventures, the massive online player count didn’t pay off and filtered down into lots of diffuse play-by-post.

I’m eager to return to face-to-face session play being the center, and the payoff, of the game, despite the cool tech to run the campaign aspects around it.

That’s all for this month Travellers!

This marks the first month of gameplay for Voidstein 3 since Outlaw Void became a dedicated club of it’s own.

Major updates so far

• The club has evolved almost immediately from a traditional Braunstein club of regular sessions to a Tony Bath style sci fi wargame, or a “Type 2 Braunstein.”

• Several participants have done a great job of staying invested, submitting orders on time and driving interesting events for others. We’ve got a great group of patron players.

Events for this month

• Several buildings blown up from Traveller acts of terrorism on behalf of shadowy patrons, crippling several corporations

• A Traveller was slain by enforcement after helping foreign enemies kill Federal troops

• Ex President of the Federation Trengsk gathers his allies to retake Vinfall

• Vinfall is blockaded

• House Rayson Space Vikings fail in several attacks and face a new Federal fleet

• Traveller attempts to steal the power armor and star sword from another Traveller

• Traveller becomes embroiled in a secret world of mind powers and hidden cults

• Traveller leads a group of Space Vikings to face a powerful alien beast in a desolate planetary wilderness for sport and glory

• A prophet rises from a desert world

In progress review

• Having Traveller adventures be abstract in their resolution rather than depending on consistent scheduled “scenario” gameplay has freed things up a lot and enabled more people to join and play.

• For the Traveller players it’s taken a bit more work to get used to the gameplay procedures solitaire from Book 3, primarily those seeking patrons have to roll daily person encounters on planets. Traveller players have really seen the grimy, desperate aspect of survival of Dumarest in the game, sometimes desperate to try to find working passage or ways off of remote worlds between harrowing encounters.

• There has been no problems with the friction proposed so far in space travel between worlds or jobs, the use of 1:1 time and having jumps take 1 week has worked great, using the subsector rules precisely by the book. 1977 Traveller really seems custom made for this kind of game.

• Travellers have become an odd, rare commodity. There are fewer Traveller players than Patron ones and Travellers offer the boon of “total plausible deniability” as I don’t make a GOSS check on a patron but rather the Traveller, if they take a job. We need more Travellers! They’ve become quite valuable and essential for gameplay.

Greetings Travellers it’s Ross at the Outlaw Void clubhouse!

This post is primarily for the members of the Outlaw Void clubhouse but I’m hoping that it also can serve as something useful to those considering a Science Fiction Braunstein Wargaming Club or for anyone interested in 1977 Traveller, or anyone considering joining the Outlaw Void club.

We are coming up on our first month soon and the submission of your second round of orders.

So far we’ve seen chases down alleyways from robed men, joining space vikings, criminal dealings and a whole lot of terrorism.

The game has still served, from the perspective of the host that gets to see all of the gameplay, as a superior form of science fiction pencil and paper gaming.

For the participants though things have varied. For some, they’ve gotten to see a lot of action in a short period of time. Some have submitted simple orders and immediately gotten the satisfaction of subsector spanning results whether success or failure.

For other participants things have been confusing. I’ve spoken to each of you personally and I promised you that the shift from conventional gaming to this requires a very open mind and a huge paradigm shift. Some of you have experienced that. One member was kicked out for crashing out. Several members felt overwhelmed and confused or weren’t sure where to start. In some form or another many people still thought this would be a conventional tabletop game despite my promises and exposition on how it would. Not. Meet. Those expectations.

But for most, they have adhered to the stated experiment and the experiment has gone well.

What is the Outlaw Void clubhouse?

Outlaw Void is a science fiction adventure, wargame and simulations clubhouse dedicated to pulp science fiction. For us, that mostly means 1977 Traveller. Not Traveller, not 1981 Traveller, but 1977 Traveller according to the text.

What is Voidstein 3?

Voidstein 3 is the third in a series of experimental game campaigns.

Voidstein 1 was a solar system wide 1981 Classic Traveller Braunstein that wanted to test the constraints around time, distance and space travel in a competitive Braunstein environment. It was a huge success and yes you can have a Braunstein campaign where jumps take 1 week and the distances of space matters!

Voidstein 2 was a Chris Engle’s Matrix game which took the faction of the solar system and pitted them against each other in weekly orders. The experiment was designed to test the social technology of the Braunstein and see how minimal the rules could be, supported entirely by fog of war and competition. The experiment was also a huge success and demonstrated much could be resolved in the open system IF a fog of war was institutes with participants operating in opposition.

Voidstein 3 is the current experiment and was intended to further stress the rules of 1977 Traveller. Page 1 of 1977 Traveller says the game is for “up to 40 players” and page 2 says that no Referee is required! For that reason, the entire subsector map is employed and the game is conducted strictly by the book. Patrons operate in a layer similar to Voidstein 2 while Traveller do pencil and paper adventure gameply, negotiating with encounters on planets while seeking a patron.

The intention of Voidstein 3 was to simply test this gameplay loop of Travelling, on a subsector map, with a large number of participants simultaneously.

So far, it’s worked great!

However.

As the experiment has unfolded, and as we’ve revisited Pulp Sci Fi texts in our book club, I’ve begun to gain a sense of what 1977 Traveller could actually be.

If Traveller were divorced from the nit-noid assumptions of soon to be released GDW and Judge’s Guild products, you’d have something very cinematic, very space opera, and more concerned with the drama and competition between participants.

When we began Voidstein 3 we established 3 modes of play just like page 2 of Book 1 says:

There’s the campaign, which is the total experience with dozens of participants on the subsector map all at once.

There’s solitaire play, which Travellers conduct as they survive planet-to-planet seeking a patron.

Then there’s scenario play, or basically that mode which we commonly understand as tabletop sessions today.

For scenarios, when they arise, I offer several means of resolving them. Ideally, this is done through adventure session play scheduled weekly. But of course, I’ve got lots of other projects and work a lot during the week and have an unpredictable schedule. For that reason, players may either have someone else Referee the adventure scenario, or they may resolve it play-by-post. Often I can establish the parameters of the scenario and then they can finish it in solitaire play. The least desirable outcome is an abstraction such as a simple dice roll, but the campaign comes first.

Now, in conventional table play this campaign would have ended the way 99% of all RPG campaigns end: The Gamesmaster is burnt out and too busy.

Fortunately, this is a clubhouse game, and the GM is not really the point at all! It’s up to the participants to decide their fun among themselves. It helps to have a Referee who makes themselves available regularly during the week, but it’s not required. The participants are here because of what THEY want, not what someone else can provide for them.

What the game could be

That being said what has happened with Travelling is there’s basically too much adventure. Yup, that is the problem! People encounter weird groups, get in trouble and screw up the plans of patrons across the sub sector. It would provide endless, endless scenario play if we wanted. Of course, that’s impossible for a conventional group, it would be hard for a clubhouse that had multiple Referees. We don’t have multiple referees.

Where OD&D has worked as a wargame with occasional high octane adventure gameplay, Traveller is just nonstop adventure, adventure, adventure.

Here the Type IV Braunstein described by Bdubs shows itself the hero. The Referee scheduled a day in the week and anyone can come. All over the subsector map he resolves everything in a Braunstein right then and there. Total non-stop Braunstein.

The problem? I don’t have one day a week. I had initially though this would work like OD&D and I would simply allow myself two dockets a month with my busy schedule, similar to what I’ve seen some other Bros do. Then other participants in the club would offer to Referee and help others too.

This game has been different. It really seems to emphasize lots of adventure. Two nights a month scheduled ad hoc with members in 4 different time zones will not work to resolve things.

If I did have one night a week this game would make a superb Type IV Braunstein with participants permitted to come once a week at scheduled and consistent times to conduct simultaneous actions across the subsector then we resolve them. Scenario gameplay could still be rich, again, this isn’t conventional play that’s not always the “GM”’s job.

What the game is by necessity

Since we have a club membership spanning the planet from Eastern Europe, to New Zealand to Belgium and since the host of the Braunstein isn’t available once per week, we by necessity need to take a different approach. The club will still be great, we will still get lots of experimentation done but up front I have to warn you:

• It will require a love of 1977 Traveller

• It will require low time preference

What we can do is a Tony Bath Wargame in Space!

A Tony Bath Style Wargame in space

Ton Bath’s Hyboria campaign is one of the most significant parts of the history of gaming that would become D&D and adventure wargaming. It’s also a fascinating living world. Hyboria launched in 1959 and Bath would process hundreds of orders, publishing the results in a “Hyborian Newspaper” monthly for decades, the game lasted until around 1984! 26 years.

Hyboria was a play-by-mail game, similar to play-by-post today but participants had to wait for results in the published hyborian newspaper based on their orders.

Tony Bath today inspires Braunstein School Renaissance campaign play perhaps even more than the designers of D&D.

Play-by-mail, but with scheduled orders and Free Kreigspeil style resolution

Bath used a wargame technique called the Free Kriegspiel, where the adjudication was primarily up to the Referee.

The advantage of this style is most anyone can play, and you can make decisions mostly on a conceptual basis.

So for the foreseeable future Voidstein 3 will become a Tony Bath Style Sci Fi Wargame!

• Orders become bi-weekly for Travellers and Patrons. If needed you can make a monthly order, but keep in mind your opponent get’s a second turn! Let’s flex around people’s lives, just communicate if you need a 1.5 month standing order.

• I will begin recruiting for new members on this basis

• Scenario play will need to be driven by participants. Otherwise I will use a simple abstraction for the results.

• Scheduled scenario play with me hosting will become rare, anyone in the club may referee others though

• For Travellers, you’ll still need to track your consumption of food and ammo in accordance with Book 3 and other items. You’ll have to keep up with your money, posting it in each of your bi-weekly orders your current money and where it’s being spent. You’ll need to apply the rules for encounters, travelling etc. just like you’ve already done

• On this basis, the campaign itself and your decisions are more important than resolutions in combat or in scenarios. You have total freedom now! Try and do anything whatsoever, this is now a free kriegspeil wargame

I’m excited to continue to referee this club in a Tony Bath style way! I’ll see you all out there in the Void.

(Here is a video version for those that prefer that)

Situation

A Patron in Voidstein 3 makes contact with a Traveller and her henchmen to set charges to a Manadyne Inc. Corporate office on the world of Zarahemla.

(You can watch us play it here.)

Dramatis Personae

Mika Tork 984654 Pilot-1 (Lucas - Player Character)

Neil 777442 SMG-1, Autopistol-1

Alanna 677772 SMG-1, Autopistol-1

Xander 887573 SMG-1, Autopistol-1

Summary

Shortly after getting into some trouble on Omaha Mika’s crew gains the attention of a Patron. They bring them before one of their main offices and the handler offers 40,000 credits for some “unscheduled demolition” on a pesky rival; Manadyne Inc. on Zarahemla.

Mika and crew are given high passage to Zarahemla and a cache of explosives, detonators and weapons are placed near the target.

On Day 1 they decide to create a distraction while they rush to set the charges, but encounter a private security firm. One of the guards, Jeff, knows Alanna from Free City. They play it cool and agree to meet Jeff that evening at a bar.

They then decide to stash their stuff and perform a light recon, finding a love motel they keep Neil at their stash while they investigate on foot. While doing so they encounter one of Mika’s old bosses from the FISS Mr. Richard who is now the manager of this failing corporate location. He admits things are going badly and they lie and say they are FISS agents here to stop of a bombing. He agrees to help as long as they get him out alive and they get total access to the facility.

They rush back to get their gear and Neil and unfortunately are delayed enroute. A VIP shows up to visit the site and it’s swarming with guards. They decide to steal and ambulance and attempt a ruse for a fake medical emergency but this fails.

That night they meet Jeff at the bar and he happens to know a lot about local security. They use their lie again about being FISS agents and ask Jeff to carefully ask the security to not be there the next day so they don’t get caught in the crossfire “with the terrorists.” He agrees.

The next day is easy. They set the charges and drive off in the stolen ambulance, then set charges to the ambulance to destroy all evidence. They plant misleading information at the site and get away without anyone knowing who truly did the deed.

After Action Report

• Simply creating the scenario and leaving it open ended for how a Traveller accomplishes a goal worked really well and was done in 1.5 hours of play. It’s how book 1 describes the process also. You don’t have to worry about plot, story, pacing, entertainment etc. Simply create the scenario, it’s local ecosystem and allow the Traveller to approach it how they wish. The Braunstein Campaign provides all of the background context to give weight and meaning to the scenario.

• It would have been better to have more participants, even if it took longer to Docket. Having other club members who play either henchmen or totally new Travellers would give everyone lots of chances at scenario (formerly “session”) gameplay and would give everyone lots of perspectives into the campaign. Next time, we will try to get more people on board to play.

Dual Chargen and Scenario Play Reports

This month we prepared two rounds of live session Chargen + Scenario play for players coming into the clubhouse to play Travellers in the upcoming Voidstein 3 beginning next month.

Chargen 1 + Scenario: Behind enemy lines

The Chargen went really well with one participant dying twice in creation but ultimately making a successful military officer, one was out in the first term.

The Scenario involved being in the recent Voidstein 2 red zone crisis and cut off from friendly Federal Military Forces on Free City.

The 3 Travellers had a small group of Federal Army Riflemen under their command and needed to hoof it to friendly lines in a hostile urban combat zone.

Along the way they needed to identify passage across a toxic river, eventually took an enemy vehicle and drove it to an enemy checkpoint using bribery for passage across.

After Action Report

• The Referee (me) was getting 1981 rules mixed up in several places with 1977 ones! This happens for me when I switch systems sometimes and requires careful reading and re-visiting the rules. For example, there is no “Cover” mechanic specifically in the 1977 rules.

• Several other rules I made mistakes on. The Bribery check should have actually failed requiring a slightly higher roll, but my book control with the new books is still being worked on and I couldn’t identify it in time. As one player pointed out, combat is simultaneous without surprise in the 1977 rules, unlike in Space Combat for 1981 where the agressor goes first (I had the attack go first in this ground combat scenario.)

• We got the aging rules incorrect and the player did them after the session, they begin at 34 and are thrown every year thereafter.

• It is useful to continually revisit the text, especially since later Classic Traveller rules are so much different than the 1977 ones.

Chargen 2 + Scenario: James’ Heroes

The Chargen also went well and was fun with two participants, except that Jame’s character had absymal stats and was devastated by aging rolls. (But hey, no one died this time in chargen!)

The scenario was intended to be a Braunstein event but we did not have enough participants for the evening so I had the players work together instead. There was a general layout of a facility I had drawn in advance with several personas and a number of events occurring, which took only about 15 minutes of pencil and paper work and putting some images into the VTT quickly. I used BROZER Battle Braunstein format for this, except much simplified.

The scenario was a Marine Commander requiring a joint force to hold a position. In truth, he was guarding a large cache of Solomon’s drugs found on Free City and intended all along to betray those not in his close inner ring, sort of like “Kelly’s Heroes.”

The Travellers never found this out until the end, and made several attempts to repair a vehicle during the combat, ultimately forced to drive the vehicle at gunpoint and abandoned by the Marine COL with one Traveller permanently scarred.

After Action Report

• Book control had already improved by this session and rules directly from the book became applicable such as being able to repair a vehicle with Mechanic-1 or the application of special combat rules and remembering to go back to the procedure.

• I came to the conclusion that book 3 encounter rules should precede and be applied to book 1 encounter rules. What do you think? (For example, a reaction roll for all random encounters)

• Even in the absence of a Braunstein, a Battle Braunstein framework can serve to enable scenario play with dynamic options. I simply used the framework for a braunstein shown in “BROZER” with various personas and factions all facing a Maggufinstone. This only took about 15 minutes of work (for most of the 3 modes of play, of course no prep should be done imo). I think this can even be used for solo scenarios if necessary.

• I don’t intend to keep track of the Travellers vendettas and so on from the Chargen Braunsteins and Scenarios. I expect players to take the subsector map, UWP list and jump routes in Solitaire play and reasonably apply the scenario briefing, what they know so far and use abductive reasoning informed by the two key novels (Space Viking and Winds of Gath). I will simply watch and quality control and look for convergences only.

“Men are cheap,” pointed out the tourist. “Tell me, Brother, is it just that the weak should live at the expense of the strong?”

“No, brother, it is not,” agreed Benedict. His eyes were sharp as they examined the man. Smooth, rosily fat, dressed in luxurious fabrics. A glint of bright metal shone from a finger. A ring, curiously engraved, flashed in the sun.

Benedict recognized the symbol. “You play, brother?”

“Gamble?” The tourist looked startled. Many had so looked before Benedict’s direct gaze. They didn’t realize how they betrayed themselves. “How did you—? Yes, I gamble.”

“And therefore you believe in luck.” The monk nodded.

“Life is a lottery, my friend. We are born—in circumstances over which we have no control. Some inherit wealth, others poverty. Some have the gift of intelligence and the power of command. Others have nothing and die with what they were born. In the game of life not all can win.”

“True.” The tourist looked thoughtful. His expression deepened as Benedict continued.

“At the tables, when you win, do you not toss a chip to the croupier? Do you not spend a little so as to assuage the lady you worship? The Lady Luck.”

“You know gamblers, Brother.” Responded the gambler.

“Then, in this game of life in which you have been so fortunate, why not toss a little to those who have nothing?” Benedict extended his bowl.

“To the losers, brother, to those who are born to fail.” He felt no pride as the tourist threw money into the bowl. The man had been generous but pride was a sin. And a beggar had no cause to be proud.

The Winds of Gath – Chapter 3 – E.C Tubb

In 77’ Traveller, the basic assumption for a character is not even that of Han Solo, not even of Malcolm Reynold, it’s that of the desperate space beggar who is hungry, cannot afford a ration of Basic, who will likely not survive his next 5+ throw for low passage to get away from his previous troubles.

The Traveller hero of the dead, dumb, blind-alley worlds of E.C Tubb’s novels is the American train hobo. Someone waiting for the right chance at passage, just trying to get another job and get by.

Simultaneously, said Traveller may very well begin as a Baron entitled to whole worlds, whose journeys saw him or her flush with cash, experiences and skills, innately talented in their genetic code with a series of alphanumeric codes describing their essential potential as a human being.

The important thing to note is there is no fictional assumption which guarantees one side of this extreme or the other. You roll the dice and find out.

It was never meant to be fair, because the world of 77’ Traveller is not fair.

And yet just such desperate hobos are the ones who will upset the balance of the mighty and the powerful.

What will you make of the cards your dealt, Traveller?

myrpgelite@gmail.com, or here Substack!

- Thrilling pulp 1970's sci fi adventures

- Play the game by the 1977 text

- Always-on, open Braunstein gameplay

- Total Player autonomy

- Long term gameplay.

The Outlaw Void 77 Traveller / Pulp Sci Fi Clubhouse is about actually playing 1977 Traveller by the text, like no one has before.

Sections like this:

and this:

are no longer curiosities of something meant to be edited out of RPG editions, but major elements of a kind of game that has not been seen since the inception of Traveller.

In this game, you are handed the rulebooks and have complete autonomy in a sci fi sandbox among other competing Travellers.

It’s hard to explain, because modern RPGs simply don’t work in the same way, but if you like things like “Star Citizen”, “Elite: Dangerous”, “Stellaris” and “Rimworld” for their sense of freedom, this “Braunstein” style of gameplay provides more freedom, long term investment and meaning that any RPG gameplay we’ve ever seen.

If you are interested, feel free to begin the discussion here in the comments and I’ll answer any questions I can, message me here or email me at myrpgelite@gmail.com