DM Greg here with an article on how to get started playing Mongoose Traveller 2e on Fantasy Grounds.
The first thing you may be asking yourself is what is Traveller 2e? Traveller is a tabletop science fiction RPG released in 1977 by Game Designer’s Workshop. The setting takes place in the Milky Way Galaxy during humanities Third Imperium. Faster than light travel has allowed the human race to travel among the stars colonizing, empire building, trading etc. There are alien species and playable races but for the most part the setting is pretty human centric.
Since its release Traveller has had a couple of different publishers. Marc Miller, the creator of Traveller holds the license under Far Future Enterprises and as it stands there are at least two licensed publisher that I am aware of; Steve Jackson Games’ GURPS Traveller and Mongoose Publishing’s Mongoose Traveller 2nd Edition (MGT2). For this introduction I will be speaking directly to MGT2 as it the system that I play and is licensed on Fantasy Grounds.
To start playing on Fantasy Grounds you will need a game master, called the Referee, and a couple of players. I’d say 3 players minimum if operating a spacecraft and comfortably up to 6 to form a full crew. I play with a great group of online players at Triple J Gaming. If you don’t have a crew I’d recommend checking the Fantasy Grounds looking for group sub forum.
In the campaign that I am Refereeing we run a Trader style campaign where my players fly arounds with their ship trying to make money from trading system to system. I sprinkle in the published adventure content and weave in a story with their trade ambitions to form a story arc for my players to hopefully enjoy.
What to Start With
So what do I need to start play MGT2 on Fantasy Grounds? To start you will need:
- A Fantasy Grounds Classic or Fantasy Grounds Unity license. Everyone will need a Standard license or the Referee will need an Ultimate license and host everyone else that is on a demo license.
- Mongoose Traveller 2E Ruleset
- An adventure; I recommend starting with Marches Adventure 1: High and Dry or Reach Adventure 1: Marooned in Marduk
Although not required the Central Supply Catalogue adds a TON of gear for your Travellers to use in game.
Additional Resources
Outside of the core rulebook and an adventure a Referee should have these web sources handy:
- Traveller Map – This is a fan curated website that is a 2D map of the known galaxy. It is super useful for plotting jump routes.
- Traveller Worlds – Another fan created website that does planet building for you.
- Traveller Tools – A fan created website that generates trade, npc’s, and misc. planet information for your Travellers as they arrive in system.
Character Creation
If you haven’t heard character creation is absolutely legendary in Traveller. Our zero day character creation session was a little slow as it was all pretty new to us but the experience lived up to the hype. Here is the 5 hour session below if you are interested in watching:
Final Thoughts
Fantasy Grounds is a great virtual tabletop with a lot of functionality/automation. When playing with their software along with the licensed Traveller products from their web store the game sessions are so much easier as you will require a lot less prep-time. If you are interested in learning the software I HIGHLY recommend taking a free class or two from the volunteers at the Fantasy Grounds College.
Feel free to leave any questions you may have down in the comments.
Cheers,
DM Greg