Freelance Traveller

The Prep Room

While there are exceptions, most referees can’t run a game “off the cuff”; they need to prepare things in advance. The Prep Room is all about that advance preparation—from creating or kitbashing miniatures and dioramas to designing floor plans and deck plans to recipes for snacks for during play, or for a mid-session break to … well, whatever it is that you decide you need to do before your group gathers and you start pulling out character sheets and dumping bags of dice onto the table.

• Modifying Miniatures for Traveller (Robert DeVoe) When you can't find the right miniature, sometimes you can 'fix' one.
• Scratchable Game Maps (Michael Barry) Low-tech solutions for concealing information.
• Getting Started with Miniatures (Robert DeVoe) Some sources of miniatures, and some tips for getting started on painting them.
• Encyclopaedia Galactica (William Johnson) Collecting and organizing background info into an explorable universe.
• Designing Basic Careers for Classic Traveller (Jeff Zeitlin) Not just a grab-bag of skills
• Building an Adventure (Jeff Zeitlin) Adventures are more than tasks and dice rolls.
• Props (Timothy Collinson) A sampler/overview of adding verisimilitude through props.
• System Generation/Adaptation From ACCRETE (Ken Pick) Adapting systems built by a "realistic" program to Traveller
• Low-Prep Traveller Campaigns for Beginners (Daniel Stevens) "Just-in-time" development of a campaign area, giving top-down context.
• Science Fiction and Monocultures (Ed Ortiz) Defining and describing a culture
• Building a Culture (Jeff Zeitlin) From one sentence to a whole sourcebook
• An Improvised Classic Traveller Convention Game (Christopher Kubasik) A few index cards and a bit of imagination leads to a great game at a convention.
• Building Your Own Road: Alternatives to the Third Imperium (Cian Witheren) Quick Empires, for later detailing
• Bullet Journalling and Traveller (Timothy Collinson) Keeping a campaign diary
• At the Bar - Places to Interact (Timothy Collinson) Where does a teetotal non-lawyer go for patron meets and rumors?
• Web Search and Translation as Chargen Aids (Jeff Zeitlin) When you're at a loss for names, the web is only a few clicks away.
• Out of the Wind: Sealed Habitats (Timothy Collinson) The next place you stop may be Different...
• Agents of Governance: Decoding Government from the Ground Up (Cian Witheren) Focussing on what the PCs have to deal with.
• The Prop Room: Crochet Instructions for Squeedles (Jane Polwin) Stuffed squeedle toys, approximately life-size
• The Great Traveller Make-Off (Timothy Collinson) Cooking up an activity for a Con
• Pacing an Adventure: Some Hints (Jeff Zeitlin) Your characters can only do so much in a day...
• Terrain Generation By Hand (Jeff Zeitlin, Andrew Morris) Terrain generation with a pencil and dice
• Which Careers Give Which Skills? (Timothy Collinson) A compilation by version and skill of which careers let a character earn a skill
• Designer's Notes: Virtual Traveller 2020 (Greg Caires) When real conventions aren't permitted, have virtual ones...
• Bankers’ Boxes: Cheap and Cheerful Storage for Digest-sized Traveller Books (Timothy Collinson) Making one's Traveller shelves a little more orderly
• Sources of Inspiration: The South Seas Island Adventures (Kevin Scrivner) Exotic locales, dangerous natives, unexplained phenomena...
• Cardboard Figures (Ewan Quibell) Modifications of Patrick Crusiau's carboard minis, for Snapshot
• What is Cepheus Störtebeker? (P-O Bergstedt) Seabornetrade and piracy in the 14th Century
• A Conflict of Styles (Jim Vassilakos) Plotting vs Improvisation
• Making Hell (Neil Lucock) An examples of what you can do with a "bad" UWP.
• Jump Theory (Joseph Jaquinta) Why and how what makes the ship go does so, and some adventure seeds
• Feeding the Crew (Frank Miskevich) For a space station to feed itself is harder than you think.
• Above the Crowd (Timothy Collinson) A set of thumbnailed characters developed from a Twitter challenge
• Beyond the Iris Valve (Joseph Jaquinta) Between Spaces
• Using AI for Your Cepheus Engine Setting (P-O Bergstedt) AI is becoming a creative tool
• Almost Alien (Jo Jaquinta) Uplifts are a different kind of alien... sorta
• Down and Out in Low Orbit (Jo Jaquinta) The poor are always with us - even in space
• Designing Aliens (Jim Vassilakos) A look into the thought process generated by some prompts
• Charged Encounters (Antonio Guarás) Having random encounters ready can give a universe more depth
• Beyond Our Ken: Describing Research Bases in Traveller (Timothy Collinson) A Research Base can potentially be an "NPC" in an adventure.
• Pan-Galactic Empires: Defining the Broad Strokes of the Setting (W.N.Vossbrink) Defining the grand sweep of history, a hundred sectors at a time.
• An AI Chat about NPC Motivations (Timothy Collinson) It isn’t only AI graphics generators that can be used for RPGs…
• Ostracism in RPGs (Jim Vassilakos) Are we as gamers doing our part to combat the public perception of our hobby and its practitioners?
• Writing Fiction Through Play-by-Email (Jim Vassilakos) It’s often said that “you can play Traveller in this universe”. This is about going in the other direction...
• SGGs, LGGs, and Fuel Skim Runs (Ken Pick) Not all gas giants are sources of free fuel...
• Finding Your Way Around the Starport (Benedikt Schwarz) Combining assumptions about starports with the needs of the adventure
  • Layout, Civilian Dock, and Bulk Cargo Dock
  • The Shuttle Berth
  • Search and Rescue
  • Traffic Control
  • The Scrapyard
  • The Military Dock
  • Bars and Brothels
  • Live Cargo Storage
  • Viceregal Palace
  • Tourist Services
• Jottings (Jeff Zeitlin) Somewhat random notes on various aspects of culture-building
  • #1: Naming Practices (Jeff Zeitlin) On the naming of names
  • #2: Inheritance (Jeff Zeitlin) When you buy the farm, who gets it?
  • #3: Kinship (Jeff Zeitlin) Beyond the family
  • #4: Education (Jeff Zeitlin) A little learning is a thing
  • #5: Sumptuary Laws and Customs (Jeff Zeitlin) What would they think if they saw you?
  • #6: Calendars (Jeff Zeitlin) Let me count the days...
  • #7: Writing Systems (Jeff Zeitlin) Even at low-tech, there are many ways to put pen to paper...
  • #8: Language (Jeff Zeitlin) Talking about talking
  • #9: Penalties for Transgression (Jeff Zeitlin) Doing the Time is only one way of paying for Doing the Crime
  • #10: Addresses (Jeff Zeitlin) Telling your characters where to go
  • #11: Facing the Law (Jeff Zeitlin) Answering for your actions
  • #12: Writing Systems II (Jeff Zeitlin) Moer on putting pen to paper
  • #13: Calendars II: Naming Dates (Jeff Zeitlin) Is it "Third day of Month Eight" or "Arbellatra's Day, Thirty-Second Year of Strephon's Reign"?
  • #14: Insults (Jeff Zeitlin) Making the point - or missing it - when social interaction goes anti-social