Saturday, January 10, 2009

The Luminous Nebula

One of the RPGs that I am a big fan but never get to play is Traveller. The latest edition, Mongoose Traveller, does a good job of presenting the original classic version and expanding it for the modern gamer. I am bit leery of buying the follow on supplement as they have the usual hit or miss quality that Mongoose has. This in combination with their high prices that always gives me a pause.

I will probably pick up High Guard and whatever supplement that has expanded world generation. I am looking forward to seeing how Babylon 5 works using the Traveller system.

We are getting a ton of snow up here in Northwest Pennsylvania so I decided to fool around with some ship design. The one I like best the Luminous Nebula 200 ton Jump-5 spaceship. A bit impractical but since when adventurers have practicality in mind?

Of course I couldn't stop there so I pulled out some CorelDRAW templates I used in the last Traveller game I GMed and finished it up formally. You can download it from here.

Have fun with it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

As an old Traveller grognard I've been fairly critical of Mongoose Traveller but overall it's turning out not bad once they've ironed out all the errata, piss poor art and bad editing. In fact I'm really enjoying it now. High Guard and Trader & Gunboats are good supplements but avoid Mercenary like the plague. It reeks.

Unknown said...

Rob,
I just wanted to take a moment and thank you for the wonderful ship you put together. Back in 2010 I set out to run a different kind of Traveller campaign than the standard, just barely scraping by fare. I was looking for something more epic, and your ship was perfect.
The very first adventure was the PCs attending a ship auction where (among many different ships) the Luminous Nebulae (Having greatly suffered from her previous Vargr masters, and only having a listed rating of Jump 2) was discovered for what she was by the players. That initial adventure kicked of many years (both in the game and real life) of fantastic role play. They renamed the ship the Stellar Winds, and throughout their time with her, they have had many adventures in the Marches:

*Discovered the body of poor Duke Aramis, still in his secret bolt hole aboard the ship, clutching his old Imperial Warrant.

*Traveled to Vanejen where they discovered a Zhodani plot to supply a secret rear staging base in the Rhylanor subsector

*Discovered an unauthorized attempt by Bevy to colonize Kegena

*Survived an encounter with Zhodani Special Ops and a downed Shiva class intelligence frigate

*Followed clues to rescue a crew from an Starship still fleeing from the ancient war (stuck in jump space for over 300,000 years)

*Battle elite consular guard (ultimately on board the ship) at Phlume as they struggled to rescue an Imperial Agent with critical information about the 5th frontier war

*Sling shot around Rhylanor almost ripping the ship apart to get to a secret asteroid base in time to shut down it's defenses, allowing the Imperial Navy to sway the tide of battle


* and much much more

The ship you designed has come to life in our gaming group. It's cramped but cozy spaces have been a home from which the adventurers have plotted, questioned, searched, fought, and celebrated, all the trials and tribulations they've encountered.

The players love the ship dearly, and it's basically become a quiet NPC.

Thanks again,


Noah