The tabletop roleplaying game Traveller, just like Star Wars, is approaching its 50th Anniversary in 2027. Both have a universe filled with empires and unchartered exotic planets, and there’s also smugglers, nobles, mercenaries, merchants, bounty hunters and hardscrabble heroes that journey between them. This year’s TravellerCon/USA convention in Lancaster, Pennsylvania embraced and celebrated the upcoming 50th anniversary with about 100 people in attendance and focused on the tabletop roleplaying game and its dedicated fandom. It ran from Friday, October 24th through the weekend.
The year 2027 will also be the twentieth anniversary for the TravellerCon/USA itself, and the convention’s theme this year was Traveller’s favorite and friendly bureaucratic aliens the Bwap, who bear some resemblance to a human sized Geico gecko. I played two games and acted as a referee (Traveller’s name for the game master) for two others during the convention.
The two games I played in used the Bwap theme in different ways. The first one had some elaborate clues that you used to navigate a bureaucracy in space and deal with the dangers playing as Bwap characters. This was Paperwork, Permits and Promises made by referee Greg Haben.
The second game, Trillion Credit Cargo, run by Greg Caires, gave players a chance to make their own character that they could then play in other games or even at other conventions or campaigns, much like Dungeons and Dragons does with its Living Greyhawk Campaign. Based on the Perpetual Traveller concept, the adventure had some high comedic elements that even borrowed from the Mike Meyer’s movie Austin Powers while making a planet wide scavenger hunt for permits, permissions and licenses. It rewarded those who knew their Bwap lore along with other Traveller aliens that included the Hiver, Aslan and Vargr.
One other referee, Casey O’Donovan, is using a Traveller: Encounters game, where you can have a living Traveller character that you can use from one adventure to another. The author, Charles Gannon, was there to sell his great science fiction books and answer questions. I’ve really enjoyed some of his panel discussions he’s done in the past. This year’s discussions were hosted by Bob Hranek. He talked about real life warfare that is encroaching on how science fiction had envisioned future wars. These two discussions were Post-Human Soldiers and Current Lasers to Future Phasers.
Next year the theme of the convention will be the Fifth Frontier War, an altercation between the Third Imperium and the telepathic Zhodani Consulate. Mongoose is currently putting out a range of books that cover this conflict. It will be a far more combat heavy convention next year than the comedic one of this year!
Mongoose Publishing, who recently grew from being a second party publisher of Traveller to owning it, supported the convention’s Ping and Starburst awards with books and materials. The Starburst award is for gameplay that shows self-sacrificing heroism while the Ping is for those actions that are…other than that. It makes for lots of fun and matches the gameplay of a TTRPG with mechanics that make characters that are not invincible or ageless.
These Traveller characters come with struggles that sound familiar to those who have watched the show Firefly, seen Han Solo and Princess Leia’s character arcs or watched the Alien franchise and its Colonial Marines fighting xenomorphs. To me, it’s the game you come to for challenging futuristic adventures, after playing the epic fantasy past of Dungeons and Dragons.
In Dungeons and Dragons, a long rest of eight hours resets all your wounds and magical powers, so your epic character can continue their legendary medieval journey. In Traveller, you avoid getting shot because it’s deadly, and you don’t heal up from your wounds overnight. Age will give you more skills and sometimes wealth, but it will cost you physically. Now, you do get spaceships! However, they come with mortgages, docking fees and fuel costs, so you chase those credits. On the plus side, if you can’t pay for fuel, you can skim the local gas giant for hydrogen but just remember to refine it…and watch for pirates.
Megan Frye, who runs this convention, gave Game Industry News an interview where she looked at the convention’s past and its bright future. “We are a boutique convention,” she said. “It really grew from Keith’s vision.” Keith Frye founded the first TravellerCon in the US as a way for his wife Megan to get to play the game. Keith has passed, but Megan continues the convention, adding to it and is always looking for ways to make it better.
Megan points out that some conventions can get too big, try to be all things to everyone and then fail. TravellerCon instead offers great gameplay and fellowship. It even offers up a pizza lunch for all the players on Saturday.
She has much praise for those who support her convention like Mongoose Publishing, Joshua Bell-the creator of the interactive Traveller map and the vendors at the convention like Burnt City Games.
This year TravellerCon was presented with a piece of art showing Keith Frye flanked by his longtime friends and TravellerCon volunteers Bob McAndrews and Ken Patterson. The painting shows the diverse aliens and people of Traveller, but it doesn’t show Megan! When I asked her why, she says it’s because she enjoys organizing, supporting and planning so that she can watch people enjoy the result of her and her volunteers’ labor.
She particularly loves the style of the artist, Jeff Porter. “He really hears the people he works with,” she stated.
Les Hendrix, who ran the game Find the Parcel at the convention, has this to say: “There are no nerds better than Traveller nerds! They will educate you about the speed of light and gravity. You can learn the size and statistics of stars.” Hendrix has also written for Mongoose’s Journal of the Traveller’s Aid Society and has some deep knowledge of Traveller’s history. Hendrix really enjoys the convention and will be back again next year. Hopefully, GiN will be as well, as this convention brings together people who enjoy sci-fi get-togethers, adventure and the friendships it fosters.