Rider

The games just keep on coming. Want to play a 2d6 Western game based on the Cepheus Engine rules? We have a massive game for that, the excellent Rider by Independence Games. Given that Firefly and Serenity are basically "Old West in space" settings a game like this is a perfect fit for a 2d6 set of rules, and, yes, it is all Traveller compatible.

The number of careers in this game floors me, and they are all perfect for the setting. We get twenty-three careers! They are all Wild West themed, too, with railroad workers, con men, outlaws, homesteaders, cowboys, con men, buffalo hunters, soldiers, and many other classic character types represented. We even get tables to create NPCs for each career.

All the Western tropes are here, train robberies, stampedes, towns, rumors, the law, encounters, animals, cattle drives, bank robberies, social interactions, trains, stagecoaches, drinking, gambling, reputation, chases, and many more of the classic plots and activities. If you watched any classic Western, or even HBO's Westworld, you know what you are in for.

Also, any of this information and system support directly translates into Traveller. If you want a strange "Wild West" style world with cowboys and aliens, then this book is the perfect place to start. Add a few laser guns, robot horses, and animal races and you get a fun Bravestarr style of science-western game.

It is cool and fun! I love this stuff and these campy cartoons.

For a game that is supposed to be simple, a 2d6 system can get a good number of players in, connected to their characters through career rolls, and created quickly. The system is lightweight, and it does not require a book to be passed around and slowly read through for character options. You could print out the four pages for each career and hand those out, and have everyone do it together.

There is no huge buy-in to get started, and the game starts almost immediately.

You could even generate the PCs with the NPC tables and have quick Western gunfights at the OK Corral. Say lines from famous cowboy movies! Play shootouts between random lawmen and bandit gangs in a bank robbery gone bad, and just use the system as a "shootout game" before you commit to a full campaign. This is how the classic Boot Hill game worked, and that was more a miniatures game than it was a role-playing game.

Have everyone pick a famous cowboy, fictional figure, or Wild West movie actor, and play those with random NPC stats. I'm Clint Eastwood! I'm Lee Van Cleef! I'm Wild Bill Hickok! I'm Buffalo Bill! I'm Annie Oakley! I'm The Lone Ranger! I'm Kid Rock! I'm the bad guy in the black top hat, cape, and handlebar mustache with the TNT! I play the horse-guy from Bravestarr! I'm Will Smith from Wild Wild West! This should be something fun people can laugh and play together quickly.

A 2d6 system that goes this fast, with NPCs for gunfights, is a guaranteed win and not a huge commitment of time, money, or mind space that will make people shy away from playing a fun little Wild West shootout game.

And then say, oh, by the way, this can also be played as a full role-playing game...

You try to buy into a heavyweight 5E Wild West Game, and then everyone has to buy a copy, find a character creation website that supports those books, buy the book in a digital format if it exists, pray for VTT support, get everyone to read a few hundred pages of rules, and then argue with them why the group should be wasting their time with this and not just give up and play D&D.

You will have a few players who will inevitably sabotage the game so they can run back in the cave and play D&D. The game will last a few weeks and die, like most 5E variants.

I have not had good experiences in D&D. Most games never get off the ground. There are moments I just give up trying to play niche 5E games, or even other heavyweight games that are impossible to sell to people. It is never worth it, and very few want to play them.

A 2d6 game? That works for me. I can create character sheets quickly and hand them out. We can play in a few minutes of setup and prep. Everyone gets two dice. Roll initiative and play. These games work so well just like Shadowdark does. They require so little effort to get into that everyone can play.

Let's play a Wild West shoot 'em up? I can sell that.

Rider is an amazing, often overlooked, massive, yet simple 2d6 Old West game that adds to an already amazing library of 2d6 gaming goodness. It is Traveller compatible too, if you ever want a strange, back-country world that seems a little rough and tumble.

Rider has that "it" factor, and it also doubles as an amazing 2d6 cowboy gunfight game.

It is a win-win, pardner.

Traveller: Explorer's Edition

A one-dollar PDF gets your foot in the door.

I love the Explorer's Edition, while I have the full game, I am still a huge fan of starter sets, and this one is a very nice one. it is focused on exploration adventures, and we get character creation for two careers: scouts and scholars, a ship, ship combat rules, and a complete subset of the rules in the game needed to play small-scale planetary exploration scenarios.

I like that the PDFs are not free, and they cost a dollar. This puts a "cost" on the purchase, and ensures that new players have that important "obligation to play" the game instead of collect it. 

There is also the same book, but focused on merchant campaigns, called the Merchant's Edition. The ship is different, this only has a merchant career, you get cargo and trading rules, it has new art, and it is still only a dollar for the rule book in PDF. This is also a great idea, and it focuses on a different aspect of the game and campaign type, while still being a very inexpensive introduction to the hobby.

You don't need either of these books if you have the full game, but I would choose them over the full game for new players. It is nice seeing a "focused taste" of what is to come, without too many options to confuse new players and lose them in infinite options. 

I love that these are focused around popular careers, and I could see one of these created for mercenary, pirate, diplomatic, or naval campaigns. Traveller is better when you focus your game on one narrow activity and area of interest, something the players are excited about adventuring in and cooperating to have adventures with each other.

When we started playing with the little black books, this was the game's biggest weakness for us. We liked the classic Star Frontiers a lot, since that was more focused on a classic series of adventures, but Star Frontiers' problem is that the game runs out of steam after that first massive adventure series on Volturnus. Traveller had the expansiveness and content to keep going on forever, and that is also what we discovered.

Star Frontiers was a good 1d100 system, but it broke down when skills got over 100% and the system was not designed with "long legs." Traveller can go on for years, and even the experience system in the Traveller Companion does not break the game since it is a slower progression path that can have limits applied. Star Frontiers also tried to "do what Traveller did" with trading campaigns, exploration, navy campaigns, but it did not have system generation or infinite universe generation.

It is also insanely easy to play the original Volturnus adventures with the Traveller rules, and you would likely have a better experience with complete rules coverage for survival, research, first contact, land travel, diplomacy, hazards, encounters, and exploration. All the monster and alien stats can be created using Traveller, and the gear lists would also be Traveller.

This may sound like heresy, but 2d6 systems are toolboxes that can do anything easily.

Also, Traveller is a game that is still being supported today, and can go "beyond" these classic adventures easily. With the legacy Star Frontiers it is a good game, but ultimately a dead-ended system that is no longer supported unless you move to a close system like the excellent Frontier Space, but even that game is far smaller in scope compared to Traveller.

This approach to the Volturnus modules would be an excellent way to start a Traveller campaign. Just put this system somewhere out in a remote system, four to six parsecs away from anything, and when those adventures are complete, you have the full Traveller game and Imperium universe to fall back on. This solves the problem the original Star Frontiers game had with "what happens next?" This also gives you nearly infinite adventures, ships, expansion content, careers, planets to visit, aliens, and a vast expanse of expansion content.

So having two editions, focused on specific campaign types and "creating fans" of those styles of play, is a genius idea for introducing a game where anything can happen, and new players can get lost in the stars with no hope of figuring out what to do with the system in the core rule book. This also happened to us decades ago, and it is nice to see this being addressed.

I love these starter sets, and they are worth playing "as is" to have that focused introduction to the game. Even if you are a long-time player, experiencing the game as a new player would is inspiring and gets your mind working on campaigns and adventures.

Sword of Cehpeus 2

One of the most amazing things about the 2d6 gaming market is the diversity of games we have, everything from Traveller, Open 2d6, and we also have one of the best fantasy systems out there with Sword of Cepheus 2. We don't have to grab a d20 for fantasy around here, our trusty six-siders do fantasy just fine.

And yes, while this is a "space" blog, we sometimes find ourselves in fantasy worlds and dealing with the locals without our laser carbines and revolvers. Also, your group may want a change of pace, and not want to bring the white elephant of D&D 5E into the gaming group, and just stick with the 2d6 system you all love. Once you start playing 5E, it can get to be a huge commitment, and take over your group with tons of sunk costs and time needed to play the game.

I just want to play fantasy, or have fantasy elements in my Traveller games, without having to bring in a massive library of 5E books. Let's just use 2d6 and play a traditional fantasy game!

Sword of Cepheus 2 does it all for me. We even get "non-human careers" for the traditional "race as class" sorts of character, or you can just use the racial modifiers and pick a human career, it is your choice.

We have all the OSR classic sections, classes, magic, gear, ships, mounts, transport, and a full spell list. We get a giant fantasy bestiary, which is also a great resource for Traveller games. Need giant beetles for that alien world? Want a "space demon" who raises undead minions to haunt a starship? A nest of giant ants to attack a landing party? A grey ooze as an acid slime that devours the unwary on a starship wreck? Want dinosaurs? Space vampires? This game has you covered.

I still like the Westlands magic item system, since it has more tables and is more than just "arcane wondrous items." Both games play well together, and the tables are interchangeable. Westlands gives you tables to generate magic weapons and armor with special properties, for more of that Diablo sort of magic-item generation that I love. Westlands also has monster templates so you can take an existing monster, like a giant any, and turn it into a fungal creature with special abilities. Westlands is also a worthy fantasy game by itself, and both games work seamlessly together, and with Traveller as well.

2d6 does fantasy, and it does it extremely well. 

Cepheus Universal

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/469431/cepheus-universal

Cepheus Universal is not a Traveller replacement, it is more of a universal 2d6 science fiction game. This does not "do" the Traveller genre that well, since it is specifically designed to simulate over other science fiction IP and setting and emulate anything.

 We have capital ships, high tech weapons, genre support for teleportation devices and other gear, support for almost any tech level you want, vehicles, a full assortment of vehicle weapons, spaceships, augments, cloning, computers, AI, space combat, planet and system generation, mega-structures, alien creation, encounters, planetary travel, time travel, referee advice, sample NPCs, robots, and advice for creating settings.

This is the most complete and comprehensive space opera RPG since the classic Space Opera. This is this generation's version of that classic game, a game that does it  all, can simulate any IP out there, does anything from TL 0 cave-people to TL 15 star federation explorers with teleport pads, the game does it all.

The game is so expansive and complete it makes an excellent expansion for Mongoose Traveller, and can introduce a lot of fun things into those games. If you want a special bit of tech or gear, you will find it here. You need to be careful making sure it fits into the setting, but you have all sorts of everything here.

The only this this game doesn't do well is a Traveller like experience. It goes hard on simplifying and making so many system work in a generic context, that the Traveller style flavor and quirks of the Cepheus SRD are lost. You are better off using the Cepheus Engine RPG for that, or Cepheus Deluxe. Or play in the Imperium using Traveller.

For any generic 2d6 science fiction gaming, or you are trying to simulate an existing IP with a 2d6 set of rules, this is your game. 

Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition)

Mongoose Traveller, 2nd Edition (2022 revision) is the best version of the game we have ever had. Sure, nothing touches the original, but the vast amount of sector, adventure, ship, and supplement support we have gotten so far is mind blowing, and we are still getting new releases.

The game is in great hands, and there is even a partner publishing program with DriveThruRPG. While I miss the Open license of 1E that crated Cepheus Engine, I get why they want to be careful around the system and only allow high-quality community content in.

There are decades of books to enjoy here, and an amazing wealth of material that expands and details the universe in ways the original game could have only dreamed of. this is one of the best "non-movie" science fiction IPs in existence, and it eclipses Star Trek and Star Wars in so many ways, like the detail and history of the universe is amazing and consistent. This is the best "D&D in space" setting ever built. The universe was built to game in, and it feels it.

This is not really a generic game like Cepheus engine is, and why you play Traveller is for the setting. This is the Skyrim of science fiction gaming, a classic setting with so much to offer, iconic places and factions, and aliens better defined and cultured than either Star Trek or Star Wars. If the creators of today's "movie science fiction" had 10% of the devotion to lore and canon of a setting like Traveller had, they would have no problem butting butts in theater seats and getting the fans onboard.

The care the publisher has for the setting's history and lore is the reason so many play and love this game.

Wizards of the Coast, announcing they are trying to "earn the trust of players" would do well to study Mongoose and what they do with Traveller. The trust runs deep here, and it pays off with happy players and sales that are still solid.

Cepheus Engine RPG

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/237247/cepheus-engine-rpg

 The Cepheus Engine Science Fiction RPG is still one of the best versions of the game to get, and you can get a very inexpensive print-on-demand version. This has no art, bookmarks, or hyperlinks, but it is still a great, bare-bones, just-the-rules reference with as few changes as possible.

While other editions and later versions introduced changes and additions to the system, this one keeps everything as clean and to-the-point as possible. The ship sizes are limited to 5,000 tons, with no capital ships, so this is a pure small-ship game, which fits the original little black books of the original Traveller game.

There are times I like a small-ship only universe, where technology limits the size of ships to a certain limit, and the largest ships can only go so far. This puts a premium on adventure and scout ships, and makes the game a bit more fun for those adventure-class vessels.

You do not get a universe! Where Traveller is the best for Imperium based gaming, this book does generic 2d6 universe gaming just about perfectly. There are times when I just want a familiar core system to explore an idea, and I don't need a lot of premade ships, worlds, weapons, gear, or any of the Traveller set-dressing.

All I want is a fast, generic, 2d6 science fiction system to quickly explore an idea or scenario. The Cepheus Engine RPG is the game's SRD, and the simple presentation makes this a very fast and easy resource to reach for. And this SRD-based version is perfect for using as a base to build other 2d6-based games from.

If all you want is a quick rules-reference for Open 2d6 science-fiction gaming, you don't need a ton of expanded content or bells-and-whistles, and you don't want a complete setting and history, this is your game.

Traveller

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/80192/ct-ttb-the-traveller-book

The three little black books are where it all begins. Traveller was a part of my childhood, our first science fiction game, and it even went to the hospital with me during a few extended stays. This was the game that I grew up with.

You can still get the original Traveller Book in POD! It is not that expensive, and it is a great source of memories to hold and flip through.

It was not Star Wars or Star Trek, it was something different. A window into another universe. With 1950s computers, a hard science fiction mentality, math formulas to calculate travel time, and space exploration that took weeks of travel time to get where you were going. This was better than Star Wars or Star Trek, since those stores were mostly wrapping up and over with, in Traveller, the universe kept going on, the stories never ended, and there was always one more star to visit and explore.

The counter games like Snapshot, Asteroid, and Azhanti High Lightning were classics, and gave us another small window into this world. The ships were massive like World War II battleships, the counters of soldiers in power armor and marines in armored space suits with Gauss rifles, fighting the psionic Zhodani with their gravitic floating war-bots armed with plasma guns - that was thrilling stuff. The female naval officers in skirts? Those were some fun counters, reflecting a retro-future that we fell in love with.

The game hasn't changed all that much today. The looks have been updated slightly, but the heart is still there. The game hasn't sold out to the modern audience, and it remains a wonderful, rich, amazingly designed and historical universe full of places to explore, and stories to learn about.

Mongoose has been an excellent shepherd to the system, and the books can fill a library and are amazing. The community games, all based on the first-edition Mongoose OGL license, are also amazing and each one is a treasure.

Even the original game still holds up amazingly well to this day. You can have a lifetime of adventures with just one book.

Hello!

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