Traveller Starfinder Crossover


Homebrew


What would happen if the Third Imperium found a wormhole leading to the Starfinder Galaxy, specifically on the outskirts of the Pact Worlds system?


where does the Traveller end of the wormhole start? another idea would be for a Traveller ship to suffer a severe misjump and end up on the fringe of the pact worlds


So is this something that would happen if a group at one end of the table is playing Traveller and the other end is playing Starfinder?


Both would be in a world of suprises.

I suppose an intergalactic war would emerge soon.

The SF world with its quite powerful casters not being really a match for Psychers and the Imperium with its numbers and far far better organization would clash with no end. As one would learn from the other the Imperium would win since the SF world wont be able to outmatch the numbers.

EDIT:
OR... maybe Sf Androids and friends league would win in the end!


Shadowcat48 wrote:

where does the Traveller end of the wormhole start? another idea would be for a Traveller ship to suffer a severe misjump and end up on the fringe of the pact worlds

The Solomani Rim near Terra


couple of Traveller books talk about wierd things in jumpspace, especially the 1248 books from Com-Star that detail the re-taking of Core sector among other things... hmm... Vampire Fleets in Starfinder...


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Grandfather would take an interest.

You don't want Grandfather to take an interest.


The Imperium would probably be interested in trade first and foremost. Independent traders would probably move first since the megacorporations can be slow to change. They'd work out a way that bypasses anti-psi fanatics, though mystics and technomancers would be best not to show off their abilities if they visit.

@Enter: the Traveller Third Imperium really isn't the Warhammer 40K Imperium. Not even close.


The Imperium also has 11,000 worlds, their jump drives are somewhat limited to a maximum of 6 parsecs, the Drift Drive is much faster. The first task of the Imperium would be to get a hold of some drift drives. Lets put the wormhole in an inhabited system of the Starfinder Galaxy, so the Imperials colonize their first planet and overwhelm the locals and their defenses. They have some magic, and the Imperium takes horrific casualties, but in the end numbers win the day, and the Imperium has its beach head. They then send their scientists and engineers to study the captured enemy starships and try to reverse engineer the drift drives, since they are completely nonmagical, they are able to do this. Since they Drift does not exist in the Traveller Galaxy, the Drift Drives do not work when they Imperium brings them to their side of the Galaxy. Any creatures from the Starfinder Galaxy that travel through the wormhole also find there their is no drift, but their magic does work, they have to rely on the Traveller Jump Drives to get around.


Also I should mention that Starfinder has instantaneous communication while Traveller does not. Another thing is there are no magic items in Traveller, so the Imperium might classify magic as Psionics, but wouldn't know what to do with a bag of holding. Imagine them trying to reverse engineer an iron golem to see how it works!


Traveller big ships are a LOT bigger than the "big" ships of Starfinder. Many more heavy weapons per ship, and many more fighters carried on the ships that carry fighters.

Traveller ships do not need a beacon to go to a location.


Yes true, they also are quite safe once they enter jump space, the tradeoff is that the Jump Drive also has a much shorter range than the Drift Drive. The Drift Drive can go half way across the Galaxy so long as there is a beacon to guide it. Traveller jump drives come in six varieties, Jump-1, Jump-2, Jump-3, Jump-4, Jump-5, Jump-6, the jump number is the number of parsecs (3.26 light years per parsec) that a ship can travel in a single jump. Communications in Traveller is also limited to the speed of the fastest ship, it Starfinder its not. The Ships of Starfinder can communicate with each other in real time assuming they got the right kind of magic to accomplish this. Also Starfinder has interplanetary teleport, Traveller has apsionic ability called teleportation, it is much shorter range, and of course you need to keep track of the differences in kinetic and potential energy between the place teleported from and the place teleported to, a change in energy is applied as heat or cooling on the object teleported. Teleport up and you lose heat, teleport down and you gain it. Starfinder ships are going to have a magical advantage over their Traveller counterparts, so its just as well that the Traveller ships are going to be bigger and more numerous than the Starfinder ships. If we assume the wormhole the Imperium travels through is near one system, then the Imperium through the force of numbers and the size of their ships will be able to conquer that one system, and with their radios and meson communicators, the ships can keep in contact with each other in near real time.

So imagine a war between the Pact System and the Imperial forces as they emerge from a previously unknown wormhole, they take the local system by surprise overwhelm the forces their and the ships that aren't destroyed or captured make a hasty retreat to warn the Pact System of these invaders from another Galaxy. I think there are forces within the Starfinder Galaxy that will see all these Imperium Ships and their size and capacity, and will see an opportunity I they make themselves useful to the Imperium by offering their magical services. The Third Imperium isn't evil, but they like any empire, like to expand, they will see the Starfinder Galaxy as ripe for colonization and will want to set up governments there, and expand the opportunity for trade, and this will enrich the Imperium. One fact of the Imperium is that they are surrounded by other Interstellar polities, The Starfinder Galaxy will be seen as a new frontier and an opportunity to expand the Imperium's borders through the wormhole. Among the Imperial forces will be Solomani spies, they would perhaps be alarmed at what the Imperium is doing here, they will offer their services to the Pact Worlds at some point to help them fight off the Imperium. Another potential ally to the Pact World might be the Zhodani, the Imperium is suspicious of psionics, and the Zhodani is the reason why, as they are ruled by Psions.


I ask this question with only a basic idea of Starfinder and a solid grounding in the Traveller OTU. Would it be possible to port The Traveller OTU over for use with the Starfinder rules (e.g. substituting psionics for magic, the various Traveller races for Starfinder's fantasy races, etc.)? Would that involve too much work?

I ask because I like the Pathfinder rules for my fantasy game, and dislike the 5th edition Traveller (T5) rules. I am trying to warm up to the Mongoose Traveller rules, but if Starfinder is similar enough to Pathfinder, that will help my players to transition from one to the other.

Cheers,

Ovka


Sir George Anonymous wrote:

I ask this question with only a basic idea of Starfinder and a solid grounding in the Traveller OTU. Would it be possible to port The Traveller OTU over for use with the Starfinder rules (e.g. substituting psionics for magic, the various Traveller races for Starfinder's fantasy races, etc.)? Would that involve too much work?

I ask because I like the Pathfinder rules for my fantasy game, and dislike the 5th edition Traveller (T5) rules. I am trying to warm up to the Mongoose Traveller rules, but if Starfinder is similar enough to Pathfinder, that will help my players to transition from one to the other.

Cheers,

Ovka

A d20 version of the Traveller RPG exists that could be made Starfinder Compatible with a little effort. The wormhole could be made stable through the use of Ancient-built Stargates, which are powered by M8V stars dragged into their own Pocket Universes. The Stargate in the Imperium was the first one built, through which materials and construction personnel were sent through to the Starfinder Galaxy to provide a two-way link, powered by its own M8V.


Sir George Anonymous wrote:

I ask this question with only a basic idea of Starfinder and a solid grounding in the Traveller OTU. Would it be possible to port The Traveller OTU over for use with the Starfinder rules (e.g. substituting psionics for magic, the various Traveller races for Starfinder's fantasy races, etc.)? Would that involve too much work?

I ask because I like the Pathfinder rules for my fantasy game, and dislike the 5th edition Traveller (T5) rules. I am trying to warm up to the Mongoose Traveller rules, but if Starfinder is similar enough to Pathfinder, that will help my players to transition from one to the other.

Cheers,

Ovka

There is a d20 Version of Traveller, I still have the core rulebook, in it are classes for each one of the Traveller careers, there is a class called Scout, One called Navy, another called Army, and another called Marine, there is Merchant, and Mercenary, and Professional and Rogue, and Barbarian. All of the Traveller T20 classes are modeled after the 3rd Edition/Pathfinder Fighter. Basically the Fighter class is a bunch of skills and feats plus hit points, and bonuses for saving throws and Basic attack, all the other classes are modeled after the Fighter, it is just the particulars of what feat and class skills that are different. Another thing about T20 Traveller is it has eight Ability scores instead of six, those Ability scores are Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, Education, and Social Standing. Education is often used in place of intelligence for many skills that would normally use Intelligence, and Social Standing is used in situations that would often call upon Charisma in most other d20 games. I think each of those classes could be converted to Starfinder Classes, that would be the easiest conversion to make as opposed to trying to convert other versions of Traveller.

One thing about Traveller is that there is more science and less "magic". I got some charts I made up I'll post them a little later.


As I promised here are some charts for Traveller D20 classes. that I modified to be more compatible with D20:
Army A
Army B
Army C
Navy
Scout
Merchant
Marine

You can start with these, It was part of a project I was undertaking to make T20 more compatible with D&D 3rd edition.


Thanks, I do have the T20 rulebook. I actually pulled it out of the basement today and blew a layer of dust off of it. ;)

Maybe that's the route I'll go. My players do like the Pathfinder rules, which is why I was thinking of Starfinder. They may not notice much of a difference between the d20 rulesets because the setting is different.

I'll definitely check out your tables as part of my setup.

Cheers,

Ovka


The Third Imperium has mostly stopped territorial expansion. Its vast expanse of 11 000 worlds is already too large to govern effectively, though that would change with instantaneous communications. After the (victorious) Fifth Frontier War with the Zhodani they added one world only.

So their expansionism would depend on whether they could trade for those communications, or capture and reverse engineer them. Even then it might be aimed at their known borders rather than the Pact Worlds.


I actually made tables for all the Core T20 character classes, but these are good enough for a start. Mostly what I did was I got rid of Education and Social Standing and reassigned skilled based on those statistics to Intelligence and Charisma. One idea I've been kicking around my head was to add a third Armor Class Statistic, We have EAC and KAC, I would add to that LAC, (Low impact Armor Class) as you know the old Alternity ruleset had three Armor Classes Low Impact is anything that fires low velocity projectiles such as bows and arrows, slings, crossbows, and all hand held melee weapons. Typically LIC would be the highest score, KAC would be the medium score, and EAC would have the lowest score, this makes modern and futuristic weapons more deadly of course this would be the situation in Traveller. Futuristic Armor has the best EAC Anacrhonistic Armor has some good LAC, and KAC and EAC so low as to not make it worth while to wear such armor in modern combat

The D20 Modern Core Rulebook has some Armor which is better against projectiles than anything Pathfinder or D&D 3rd edition offers, but offers little protection against futuristic energy weapons Pretty much all the weapons in the Pathfinder handbook are Tier 1 Modern weapons as found in the D20 Modern Handbook are probably Tier 2 Automatic weapons which fire multiple rounds are maybe Tier 3 or 4 The equipment in the T20 Book has a tier level equal to its cost in credits divided by 1000 or something like that. Starships such as the Scout/Courier, Free Trader, or Far Trader are Tier 1, these run in the 100 to 200 ton range 300 to 400 ton starships are Tier 2, 500 to 600 ton starships are Tier 3, and 700 to 800 ton starships are Tier 4, that is my first stab at this, I might want to read just these numbers later on. One possibility is that at higher levels each player character owns his own starship and hires a crew of NPCs to operate it, maybe this is at 5th level. By 10th level each character might own multiple starships and be commander of his own private fleet. D&D typically had a power escalation like that at 1st and Second Edition I remember playing those games. in more recent version, PCs are more humble at higher levels, they have all sorts of powers, but usually act as individuals or superheroes.


Thomas, if you click this link, you can download Vilani fonts for use in your games.

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