In the Lands of Kings and Robber Barons

31 Mar, 2026

I've run two sessions of Classic Traveller in the past week, one in the gay beholder server and another at my home table. Instead of doing a big AAR for both I have the time to give the rough strokes of each session and some further takeaways from running CT.

The Party Who Would Be King

• They started out crash landed on a planet with their ship cracked in half and an air-raft.
• They go into the woods to find an animal to bring to the nearest village as a trophy of some sort.
• They find massive elephant sized creature and kill it, taking its bladed tentacles.
• On the way to their village their air-raft falls apart.
• The locals say those who hold the tentacles of the great beast are made king. So the Baron PC goes off to galavant.
• The crew sees a parked, unattended noble ship and investigate. The pilot is the only soul onboard and he's high AF.
• They try to get him to betray his master, he refuses.
• The king whips the growing crowd into a mob as another PC rigs the air raft to be a car bomb as a distraction.
• A clutch computer hack gets them in control of the ship and they take off towards civilization.

Breaking Rocks and the Bank

• The party are given a misison to infiltrate a planet and sabotage its only water source, a great underground reservoir.
• They pose as a travelling businessman and his entourage.
• On the ground they meet the head honcho who is really keen to listen to their plans to screw the government out of more taxes.
• They scrutinize the map of the mining town and find an old silo connected to the water recycling pipeline.
• They go to check it out and return the next day alone.
• A bomb is planted but an earthquake happens so they rush down another exit.
• They bump into a repair crew who they smooth talk into letting them go back to the main hub.
• Another earthquake and a piece of rubble hits one of the miners in the head, pulping it.
• It's not a series of earthquakes, it's the government come to collect what's due!
• They steal a helicopter and fly out of the city, narrowly avoiding being shot down by a ship.

Takeaways

Trust the game, trust its structure, trust yourself. Traveller isn't hard sci-fi, unless you want it to be. It isn't a combat sim, unless you want it to be. It isn't anything other than what you want to make of it! I haven't had a system that appealed to my needs as a referee as perfectly as Traveller does.

As an exercise in how true this is:

1. Download this free edition of the 1981 Rules.
2. Roll up a planet, write a few paragraphs about it.
3. Roll up a character until you get one you like.
4. Play the game by yourself!
5. Spend each week living your life until you get a Patron encounter that appeals to you. Use your own instinct and the bit of prep you did to guide that solo game.
6. Write down the places you go, the people you meet.
7. Use that solo play as prep for a session on the same planet for your friends. You will feel how electric it can be. Don't get caught up in rules you don't understand/like, don't feel like you have to use everything; focus on what would make that place exciting to you.