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As someone who only ever read the first Traveller boxed set (probably close to 20 years ago), has no clue about the editions or changes over the years, and has never heard of the Cepheus system, does anyone want to brush me up on what its deal is? It is a Traveller retroclone? A new system that's similiar in theme?
 
Cepheus Engine is an amalgamation of Classic Traveller, Traveller d20, and Mongoose Traveller 1E. So, yes, it's a retroclone of Traveller using the d20 OGL and the Mongoose Traveller 1E OGL. Its goal is to essentially use this amalgamation of Traveller rules to support various third-party science-fiction settings. More of which come out regularly.

So, if you want to check out the Traveller rules without being tied down to The Third Imperium or Mindjammer settings, it's the way to go IMO.
 
TheophilusCarter said:
Why might I want to use this rather than another version of Traveller.
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For myself, my interest is in ditching some of the 'baggage' of Traveller... mostly carried by Traveller Players, not the game itself.
I never much cared for or about the OTU, but every Traveller game I get in on seems to want to play there... even when they claim they aren't, they seem to keep most of it.
So maybe a name change will help free things up... similar to how I'd rather play in a Prime Directive game than a straight up Star Trek game.

Also, like certain others, I've long had a bone to pick with Mongoose... so new materials from other sources are an easier pill to swallow.

I wish they'd change this cover image to something more dynamic, with human characters in addition to tech... but I doubt that's in the cards. A lame cover won't keep me from buying it (see After The Vampire Wars).
 
Simlasa said:
For myself, my interest is in ditching some of the 'baggage' of Traveller... mostly carried by Traveller Players, not the game itself.
I never much cared for or about the OTU, but every Traveller game I get in on seems to want to play there... even when they claim they aren't, they seem to keep most of it.
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If you're ever in my neck of the woods or I run a game online, I can guarantee there will be absolutely no Third Imperium in it. Never used it, never will.

Simlasa said:
A lame cover won't keep me from buying it (see After The Vampire Wars).
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No...god knows I own plenty of games with lousy artwork and layout and editing.
 
Seems like a good fit for the Justifiers conversion I asked about in another thread.
 
Okay, so.

For someone who's never read any edition of Traveler in any detail, what's so great about this?
 
Jetstream said:
Okay, so.

For someone who's never read any edition of Traveler in any detail, what's so great about this?
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See my post six above yours.

Apparition said:
Cepheus Engine is an amalgamation of Classic Traveller, Traveller d20, and Mongoose Traveller 1E. So, yes, it's a retroclone of Traveller using the d20 OGL and the Mongoose Traveller 1E OGL. Its goal is to essentially use this amalgamation of Traveller rules to support various third-party science-fiction settings. More of which come out regularly.

So, if you want to check out the Traveller rules without being tied down to The Third Imperium or Mindjammer settings, it's the way to go IMO.
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It's newbie-friendly Traveller for people who don't care about The Third Imperium or Mindjammer, and want to use their own settings or even publish their own settings.
 
Apparition said:
See my post six above yours.

It's newbie-friendly Traveller for people who don't care about The Third Imperium or Mindjammer, and want to use their own settings or even publish their own settings.
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Sure, but that just puts in the context of three games I haven't read. It means pretty much nothing to me.
 
Jetstream said:
Sure, but that just puts in the context of three games I haven't read. It means pretty much nothing to me.
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It's a traditional hard science-fiction RPG which uses a lifepath character generation system and 2D6 rolls for everything. Character advancement is through money and equipment. You can use it for military campaigns, merchants, just about any relatively hard science-fiction setting. Cepheus Engine in particular has a few active publishers putting out various settings at the moment.
 
Dumarest said:
Take those adjectives with a grain of salt as its primary sources that it emulates are all pretty "soft," i.e., E.C. Tubb and such.
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How about not Star Wars/Trek sci fi. Does that help?
 
Dumarest said:
Take those adjectives with a grain of salt as its primary sources that it emulates are all pretty "soft," i.e., E.C. Tubb and such.
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That's why I said "relatively hard." It's harder than Star Frontiers/FrontierSpace/Star Trek/Star Wars/Guardians of the Galaxy/just about everything else most people associate with the term "science-fiction" these days.
 
Baulderstone said:
Maybe we should use the term "firm". RPG sci-fi games generally range between firm and soft, like tofu. Gamma World is silken.
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Here's one scale.

1.6 to 2.5 is Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Farscape.

2.6 to 3.5 is the Lensmen series, Star Trek, and StarCraft. That's where you'll find Star Frontiers and FrontierSpace.

3.6 to 4.5 is Dune, Firefly, and Babylon 5. That's where you'll find Cepheus Engine/Traveller and Stars Without Number.

4.6 to 5.5 is Starship Troopers, Honor Harrington, and Battlestar Galactica (2003).
 
In Cepheus is the default that the referee rolls up worlds in a subsector and then the players make characters and a ship and head into the subsector? 2d6 roll over an 8 to succeed at using a skill? Moon Toad Publishing has the main rulebook, several starship PDFs, and a couple of other PDFs.

I see a lot of other options for Cepheus as well. Over a dozen other publishers are making books and PDFs (189 so far) and settings. Clement Sector, Hostile, Orbital 2100, and These Star are Ours! all appear to be settings using CE.

Out of all of this I like Hostile the best. However, the write up says the setting has no deckplans (and no starship combat). Can anyone who has this supplement confirm that there are no deckplans? Because those seem really important (Alien is all about crawling around your mining ship while an alien eats your crew).

Anyone recommend any of the other settings? Did I miss any settings for CE? Any recommended books beyond the core rules? Are there any more supplments for Hostile beyond Pioneer Class Station (which does have deck plans)?
 
Charlie D said:
Out of all of this I like Hostile the best. However, the write up says the setting has no deckplans (and no starship combat). Can anyone who has this supplement confirm that there are no deckplans? Because those seem really important (Alien is all about crawling around your mining ship while an alien eats your crew).
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I agree that deck plans are important in that kind of setting, but I don't think the book needs to give them to you. The Internet is overflowing with deck plans to steal. I know you have been following this thread based on your likes there. And I am sure that googling can turn up a lot more. Leaving it open allows you to put a wider variety in your game than the book could contain, and if crawling around ships is important, it is good if you can have a wide range of ships to crawl around in.
 
Arise, Traveller edition warring Cepheus Engine thread!

Stellagama Publishing (an independent publisher that publishes Cepheus Engine settings and supplements), released their own version of Cepheus Engine yesterday, titled Cepheus Light.


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I asked one of the co-authors what the differences are between Cepheus Engine and Cepheus Light, and I'll copy & paste his answer.

Omer Golan-Joel said:
Cepheus Light is, as it name suggests, a simpler, lighter, streamlined version of the Cepheus Engine rules. We geared it towards new players an those looking for fast-paced play.

Cepheus Light is compatible with the System Reference Document released by Samardan Press and the Core rules published by Moon Toad Publishing and so are all supplements.

The only thing it lacks are personal encounter tables and animal rules (ship encounter rules are included). Everything else is there, though streamlined.
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The PDF is currently PWYW and available here. There may be a PoD version down the line, depending on how well the PDF sells.

I've skimmed through the PDF. It looks clean, your typical two-column layout, and it is well bookmarked. Also, unlike regular ol' Cepheus Engine (SRD or the core rulebook), it has many actual explanations and examples in it so those who have never played Traveller before can grok it much more easily.

I also like that like D&D's Appendix N, Cepheus Light has an Appendix B that lists inspirational science-fiction sources, including movies, television programs, novels, and video games.

I'm just curious to know how well Cepheus Light and the various Cepheus Engine supplements will work together, and if the addition of another Cepheus Engine based book will fracture the Traveller base any further.
 
Dumarest said:
What's in Appendix B?
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Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers, Larry Niven's Ringworld, Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy, Dan Simmon's Hyperion Cantos, the Alien films, Outland, Serenity, Andromeda, Babylon 5, Firefly are among the books, movies, and television shows. Among the video games are Elite: Dangerous, FTL: Faster Than Light, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Star Control 2, Starflight, and the Wing Commander series.
 
Apparition said:
Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers, Larry Niven's Ringworld, Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy, Dan Simmon's Hyperion Cantos, the Alien films, Outland, Serenity, Andromeda, Babylon 5, Firefly are among the books, movies, and television shows. Among the video games are Elite: Dangerous, FTL: Faster Than Light, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Star Control 2, Starflight, and the Wing Commander series.
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I don't see the answer that I expect Dumarest is looking for in there.
 
Baulderstone said:
E.C. Tubb.
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Not particularly, although the absence is striking (to me) for a Traveller game (or facsimile thereof), but then again the list provided is probably 90% stuff I haven't read or seen (and I don't play any video games) and seems to veer toward more recent material. I was mainly curious as I'm not in the market for another Traveller edition anyway.
 
Apparition said:
Here's one scale.

1.6 to 2.5 is Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Farscape.

2.6 to 3.5 is the Lensmen series, Star Trek, and StarCraft. That's where you'll find Star Frontiers and FrontierSpace.

3.6 to 4.5 is Dune, Firefly, and Babylon 5. That's where you'll find Cepheus Engine/Traveller and Stars Without Number.

4.6 to 5.5 is Starship Troopers, Honor Harrington, and Battlestar Galactica (2003).
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And with some effort from the referee and players, Cepheus can scale up to 1,5 points up or down:smile:.
Also, I'm glad to see that Lunar Ronin Apparition (and Dumarest Dumarest ) are doing what me and Raleel Raleel tend to do in Mythras threads:grin:!
 
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I've been following Cepheus for awhile. I wasn't big into traveller, but I did play it a few times. There's a very active community (both on FB and the dead next year G+). Lots of material coming out from publishers. I've mostly gotten pdf's, but I did get Zaibatsu, which is a CE offshoot by the author of Hostile. It's technically the same universe, but revolves around cyberpunk corporate wars in Tokyo. Hostile uses full CE from what I understand, while Zaibatsu uses it's own stripped down version.

Paul Elliot (the author of both) has done pdf releases tied to Hostile which I think might have plans (since most of them involve a ship or space station). He also did some releases that would allow you to use CE for fantasy stuff (a magic book, low tech weapons, archaic firearms). I've also heard good things about the These Stars are Ours! setting
 
Apparition said:
I also like that like D&D's Appendix N, Cepheus Light has an Appendix B that lists inspirational science-fiction sources, including movies, television programs, novels, and video games.
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Oooh, now that's something you see surprisingly rarely.
 
urbwar said:
I've been following Cepheus for awhile. I wasn't big into traveller, but I did play it a few times. There's a very active community (both on FB and the dead next year G+). Lots of material coming out from publishers. I've mostly gotten pdf's, but I did get Zaibatsu, which is a CE offshoot by the author of Hostile. It's technically the same universe, but revolves around cyberpunk corporate wars in Tokyo. Hostile uses full CE from what I understand, while Zaibatsu uses it's own stripped down version.

Paul Elliot (the author of both) has done pdf releases tied to Hostile which I think might have plans (since most of them involve a ship or space station). He also did some releases that would allow you to use CE for fantasy stuff (a magic book, low tech weapons, archaic firearms). I've also heard good things about the These Stars are Ours! setting
Click to expand...

i was not aware of Hostile. I'll have to check that out. I think I did get Zaibatsu. been on a cyberpunk streak for a while now and needed material to reach and benchmark myself.
 
Ladybird said:
Oooh, now that's something you see surprisingly rarely.
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Actually, the influence is more the other way around. The video games industry is full of Traveller-isms, starting with Elite in 1984 (Commander Jameson anyone?)[1]

[1] The I was clipped to fit into the BBC Micro's 1.7 character file name limit.
 
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There's a growing body of Cepheus Engine material and I wonder has anyone deviated much in terms of FTL or is everything sticking with the classic Traveller jumpdrive model?
 
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