My narrative inspiration is on holiday this week, so you just get some fairly mechanical results.
Arion’s Log, 087-3011
No encounters on arrival insystem.
We arrived in the Erriin system, which proved to be as advertised in the data pack we picked up on Betiqu. There were no other ships in orbit, and we landed without incident.
088-3011
Legal encounter rolled, group reaction 5 – hostile.
Today was spent in refuelling, renewing life support, and the dozens of other tasks which need to be handled at each new planetfall. A group of surly local law enforcers dropped by, looking for trouble, but Coriander managed to persuade them otherwise. I suspect she continues to use her psionic powers on our behalf in these situations, to modify the reactions of the natives; I wonder if she is doing that to me, too? Possibly her influence on Dmitri and I has an older, and more pheromonal, source.
089-3011
Rolled a 5 for selling the gems, +1 for Coriander, +8 for this being a Rich world; 300%, so we sell the two tons we have for a cool Cr 6 million. Yummy. Another legal encounter, group reaction 7, followed by a random person encounter – more police, but with a reaction of 10.
Coriander has developed a real knack for trading, or at least a way of influencing buyers. She sold the gemstone cargo for six million Credits, so we’re financially secure for a while. A second, and later a third, group of police came by to check us out; judging by their accents, they are not locals – probably the Republic of Inlaarin is flushing the local enforcement agencies with its own people, at least in the senior roles. The second group were neutral, and the third, positively friendly.
090-3011
Rolled more gems as speculative cargo, which will be expensive to buy and won’t sell well anywhere close by. We’re rich enough at the moment not to need them. Another legal encounter, more police with a reaction of 5. I also roll a patron encounter, Governor, and decide he wants us to deliver a message wherever we’re going next.
Coriander came back from the traders’ godowns laughing; someone tried to sell our gems back to us. We declined, politely. Another group of police came by, with the same surly attitude as the first lot, and marched me off to the Starport Authority. I was trying to work out what we’d done wrong, when the Inlaarinese Governor himself turned up, and asked me to deliver a message when I left. He gave me a sealed data cartridge.
“Who is this for?” I asked. “And how do you know where I’m going next? I haven’t worked that out yet myself.”
“They will find you,” he replied. “Wherever you go.”
None of us like the sound of that, but not agreeing probably means an all-expenses-paid indefinite vacation in Aquatraz, a local underwater prison I would rather not find out any more about than I already know.
092-3011
Legal encounter, reaction 10.
Another visit by the police. Now that they know I’m doing a job for the governor, they’re pleasant enough, but I still have a bad feeling about this.
093-3011
Type C pirate cruiser encountered, but the captain’s reaction was 8. I decide the most logical explanation is that this is a representative of the Government-in-Exile of Free Erriin, and that the Governor is sending them a message for some reason. That would explain why he can’t do it through normal channels.
Thankfully, today it was time to shake the dust of Erriin from our boots and lift off.
Heading for the 100-diameter safe jump distance, we were hailed by another vessel, a cruiser. I was worried when they started painting us with fire control radar, but once we established radio contact we quickly learned they had come to pick up our message from the Governor. I don’t know what’s going on here, and Dmitri says it’s safer not to find out, but once we had transmitted the data cartridge on tight beam they let us go.
I’d already decided to jump to Ustianan next to get some weapons fitted, and this encounter just reinforces that decision. It’s dangerous out here, and we need to be able to defend ourselves.
While the Dolphin is safe in jumpspace, I’ll think about Ustianan.
Halfway Station 
Great stuff!I created a thread on the rpg.net forums about random generation and solo play in Traveller. Someone pointed me in the direction of your blog for inspiration and I am grateful that they did!
I am interested in a solo Traveller game with a lot of random generation options, especially for sector,system and encounter options.
Can you recommend any particular versions and specific books of Traveller for this?
Best regards,
Ian B
Thanks Ian – glad you like it. 🙂
My view is that the simpler the better as far as rules go, because I usually play on a laptop in odd moments and strange places. Partly for that reason, and partly for nostalgia, I favour Classic Traveller.
The basics of system generation and encounters were the same in most versions, although character generation and combat grew steadily more complex over time – system generation did too, but the extra complexity was always optional. If I remember correctly, MegaTraveller had a patron commission table for deciding what the patron wants of your group – I normally assume that the patron is interested in the starship (if my group has one) or the skills in which the group have the highest expertise levels.
After a lot of experimentation, I use the Starter Edition of Classic Traveller. This has range band versions of both personal and starship combat, which means I don’t need anything more than dice, lined paper and a pen to resolve fights. It’s also convenient to have all the charts and tables in one PDF file – I rarely need to look up the full rules. I prefer the 1977 version of the starship encounter table, but that can be scribbled on a 3 x 5 index card or in a simple text file and carried with me. As you’ve seen, I use Savage Worlds to replace Book 1: Characters & Combat, but that is a matter of personal taste.
If you opt for CT, other books you might want to consider are:
Supplement 2, Animal Encounters. I don’t usually bother with animal encounters, but if I did, I wouldn’t want to spend time dicing them up.
Book 4, Mercenary. This has some good abstract rules for larger-scale combat, and a lot more types of guns.
If you opt for a later edition of Traveller, any of the GDW ones or the Mongoose version should work solo, but the ones ported to other game systems (e.g. GURPS) lack the random encounters so useful for solo play. I did seriously consider using the Mongoose rules myself, and I may do that yet, someday.
Good luck! Let me know how you get on, yes?
Hi Andy,
Thanks for the recommendations!
I’m considering incorporating elements of Traveller to a Starblazer game. I’m particularly interested in the random gen so many thanks for steering me away from the GURPS versions!
I’ll check out the two Classic compilations and the Mongoose campaign supplement when it’s available.
The blog is chock full of interesting things and I’ll follow your online adventures with much interest!
Best regards,
Ian B
I’d recommend you also check out the random sector generation in Stars Without Number as well – it’s free to download. It looks easy enough to incorporate into any other system, but it would certainly fit well with CT.
…so we sell the two tons we have for a cool Cr 6 million.
Time to replace that Scout Service Air/Raft you sold!
Time to put a couple of lasers in the empty turret more like!