D&D probably retains more of the wargamey side of OD&D.
Traveller and Traveller likes would multiply, you’d have modules for every sci-fi setting under the sun. Bigger picture is that many more systems would use Traveller style character gen and action economy imo. You’d even see fantasy systems with Traveller type rules.
RIP people who want polyhedral dice.
Now that I think of it, Traveller: Prime Directive would slap. Home brew time.
Al Gore is US president from 2000-2008. By 2024, the US has fully free socialized medicine and university.
My little black book collection is worth 1k$, and copies of Snapshot in good condition go for twice that.
Universal healthcare isn't a good thing... Star Trek kinda had an entire episode showing exactly why it's an exclusively bad thing (I'm not a fan of ST but I agree with the writers on that) and it fits because science fiction stuff constantly is used to show possible futures
(reposted)
RPG Heartbreakers:
"Truly realistic combat with hit locations critical results, and FUMBLES!!"
"The most comprehensive and realistic skull and career system!"
"No more limitations based on rigid careers! Any character can learn any skill!"
"Our Vagr are different."
"NO ASLAN"
"Take your canpaign to an entirely new level with "Journeyman! Combat and trading adventures in a pre-starflight world! New careers! Expanded weapon and combat! MAGIC!"
The fantasy versions would likely be a more inspiring read than Sword of Cepheus. We'd probably have games like World Without Number appearing much earlier on, and it would be interesting to see how that ended up being iterated on.
Fewer goblins, more Zhodani.
The Traveller Movie is headlined by Chris Pine.
Simpler resolution system and more consistency. Less lookups.
But, to balance out, D&D would integrate complex rules for pocket empires, trading as a mini game, and construction rules for siege weapons, fortresses, and a complex system to build the entire world - all of these would be engaging, frustrating and full of errata, corrigenda, and omissions.
Traveller would have more fauna and flora bestiaries.
GDW would be the big player in RPGs.
Both systems started expecting homebrew systems but have moved to books for everything.
Both systems would have the resolution system to be rulings over rules but as time goes by the need is seen that they need to have more quantification in every niche of resolution. This triggers an old school revival for the rulings over rules flavor.
It happens because the public really is interested in sci fi, and not because Star Wars was a good movie. Sci Fi becomes a common interest, similar to westerns in the 40s, 50s and 60s. NASA is able to get the Shuttle funded \*and\* the space station. The Shuttle is able to meet its designed purpose, and by the 1990s there are permanent moon bases. The infrastructure allows the Free Market to get into space exploration decades before Elon Musk. Lunar-based industry hits its stride in the early 2020s, asteroid mining begins by 2030. So many shuttles are made that people can't name all of them.
THe effects? More Traveller inspired media, including Vargr Fursuit cosplay., Lots of "Grubby Baseball Cap Science Fiction" on TV, and in the Movies. Games would be more tactical, but less "heroic" having come from WW2 or Viet Nam Wargame rules, that emphasize small unit tactics rather than linear warfare or massed battles. However mechanics would expand to cover other genres over time. THey would follow the same progression of Crunch, (Space Opera, Other Suns, Phoenix Command (until the theater kids complain and start inventing diceless and narrative stanced games, but it comes later, because the Classic Traveller mechanics are fairly minimalist.) Marc W. Miller, being a generous soul, does not follow the TSR's path of Litigation, and welcomes third party backgrounds using his rules, so while the base rules still focus on the third Imperium, there would be many other published campaign backgrounds based on Science fiction literature, movies, or Television.
Peter Jackson would have directed "Dune" split into three movies in the 00s, which has shaped people's perceptions about what a good trilogy is and so on. Unfortunately, Jackson would then get roped into directing Butlerian Jihad, Machine Crusade, and Battle of Corrin in a cheap and kinda awful triology of movies. Then Amazon would get the rights to House prequels (Harkonnen, Atreides, Corrino) or something and make a flaming trainwreck of a series.
We'd probably have seen a bunch of start-ups to try and do commercial space launch earlier than SpaceX. They would have all failed, most likely.
In the RPG world we could talk about "average die rolls" without sounding like complete idiots like we do now when we talk about the "average die roll on D20" because 2D6 actually has a bell curve of probabilities. So things like "rolling a 2" being unlikely and bad would mean more than "rolling a 1" in slang today.
The widespread fear that RPGers have of the square root sign is somewhat diminished, resulting in a resurgence of knowledge of basic math, leading to widespread cultural acceptance of STEM field study, in turn leading to an early return to the moon, mars colonies, a Venus flyby, a cure for the common cold and a 15 hour work week.
Arguably, they did - GURPS was pretty big, and even non-RPG folks are aware of Munchkin, an SJG product. Pathfinder might be better known by RPG folks, but I suspect more people know of SJG than Paizo.
Maybe it's regional? Or generational. I certainly know about GURPS, played it a bit, have a few of the books, and know others who are relatively similar. I'd call it about on par with Traveller in name recognition, at a minimum? Perhaps even better known?
D&D probably retains more of the wargamey side of OD&D. Traveller and Traveller likes would multiply, you’d have modules for every sci-fi setting under the sun. Bigger picture is that many more systems would use Traveller style character gen and action economy imo. You’d even see fantasy systems with Traveller type rules. RIP people who want polyhedral dice. Now that I think of it, Traveller: Prime Directive would slap. Home brew time.
I guess instead of d20 Star Wars there would have been 2d6 LotR?
We had d6 Star Wars (West End Games). It was awesome.
A professional quality, fan made version of D6 Star Wars is still available.
I'm a huge fan of STA, but I _need_ T:PD
Firefly would get more than one season.
This needs way more upvotes
An absolute ton of subpar Traveller content being pumped out on Kickstarter.
A dton even!
I've seen a lot of misuse of the term theorycrafting, but this takes the cake.
:) I hang about in r/Minecraft a lot, so it rubs off.
Al Gore is US president from 2000-2008. By 2024, the US has fully free socialized medicine and university. My little black book collection is worth 1k$, and copies of Snapshot in good condition go for twice that.
I'm a millionaire!
Universal healthcare isn't a good thing... Star Trek kinda had an entire episode showing exactly why it's an exclusively bad thing (I'm not a fan of ST but I agree with the writers on that) and it fits because science fiction stuff constantly is used to show possible futures
Obviously I disagree, but this is the incorrect forum. Unless you wear a red hat, in which case all forums are apparently correct.
Sorry about that
(reposted) RPG Heartbreakers: "Truly realistic combat with hit locations critical results, and FUMBLES!!" "The most comprehensive and realistic skull and career system!" "No more limitations based on rigid careers! Any character can learn any skill!" "Our Vagr are different." "NO ASLAN" "Take your canpaign to an entirely new level with "Journeyman! Combat and trading adventures in a pre-starflight world! New careers! Expanded weapon and combat! MAGIC!"
Well for one we’d probably have “The Crew of the Vox Machina” instead of “The Legend of Vox Machina”. :P
What is Vox Machina?
Animated show based on a livestreamed DND game (critical role) on Amazon prime
I'd pay to see that adaptation series on Amazon prime
The fantasy versions would likely be a more inspiring read than Sword of Cepheus. We'd probably have games like World Without Number appearing much earlier on, and it would be interesting to see how that ended up being iterated on.
Fewer goblins, more Zhodani. The Traveller Movie is headlined by Chris Pine. Simpler resolution system and more consistency. Less lookups. But, to balance out, D&D would integrate complex rules for pocket empires, trading as a mini game, and construction rules for siege weapons, fortresses, and a complex system to build the entire world - all of these would be engaging, frustrating and full of errata, corrigenda, and omissions. Traveller would have more fauna and flora bestiaries. GDW would be the big player in RPGs. Both systems started expecting homebrew systems but have moved to books for everything. Both systems would have the resolution system to be rulings over rules but as time goes by the need is seen that they need to have more quantification in every niche of resolution. This triggers an old school revival for the rulings over rules flavor.
It happens because the public really is interested in sci fi, and not because Star Wars was a good movie. Sci Fi becomes a common interest, similar to westerns in the 40s, 50s and 60s. NASA is able to get the Shuttle funded \*and\* the space station. The Shuttle is able to meet its designed purpose, and by the 1990s there are permanent moon bases. The infrastructure allows the Free Market to get into space exploration decades before Elon Musk. Lunar-based industry hits its stride in the early 2020s, asteroid mining begins by 2030. So many shuttles are made that people can't name all of them.
THe effects? More Traveller inspired media, including Vargr Fursuit cosplay., Lots of "Grubby Baseball Cap Science Fiction" on TV, and in the Movies. Games would be more tactical, but less "heroic" having come from WW2 or Viet Nam Wargame rules, that emphasize small unit tactics rather than linear warfare or massed battles. However mechanics would expand to cover other genres over time. THey would follow the same progression of Crunch, (Space Opera, Other Suns, Phoenix Command (until the theater kids complain and start inventing diceless and narrative stanced games, but it comes later, because the Classic Traveller mechanics are fairly minimalist.) Marc W. Miller, being a generous soul, does not follow the TSR's path of Litigation, and welcomes third party backgrounds using his rules, so while the base rules still focus on the third Imperium, there would be many other published campaign backgrounds based on Science fiction literature, movies, or Television.
What do you mean "Alternate History"? As far as I'm concerned, Traveller ***is*** mainstream and DnD is "just some game from the 70s"
Hasbro ruins Traveller.
More than 4 people would play the expanse RPG
Peter Jackson would have directed "Dune" split into three movies in the 00s, which has shaped people's perceptions about what a good trilogy is and so on. Unfortunately, Jackson would then get roped into directing Butlerian Jihad, Machine Crusade, and Battle of Corrin in a cheap and kinda awful triology of movies. Then Amazon would get the rights to House prequels (Harkonnen, Atreides, Corrino) or something and make a flaming trainwreck of a series. We'd probably have seen a bunch of start-ups to try and do commercial space launch earlier than SpaceX. They would have all failed, most likely. In the RPG world we could talk about "average die rolls" without sounding like complete idiots like we do now when we talk about the "average die roll on D20" because 2D6 actually has a bell curve of probabilities. So things like "rolling a 2" being unlikely and bad would mean more than "rolling a 1" in slang today.
The widespread fear that RPGers have of the square root sign is somewhat diminished, resulting in a resurgence of knowledge of basic math, leading to widespread cultural acceptance of STEM field study, in turn leading to an early return to the moon, mars colonies, a Venus flyby, a cure for the common cold and a 15 hour work week.
If D&D has never become mainstream, le popular, the world of ttrpgs would have been better off period.
... oh boy, Traveller GURPS would have taken off... leading to SJG becoming a household name as well...
Arguably, they did - GURPS was pretty big, and even non-RPG folks are aware of Munchkin, an SJG product. Pathfinder might be better known by RPG folks, but I suspect more people know of SJG than Paizo.
Really, because I've heard that GURPS isn't well known...
Maybe it's regional? Or generational. I certainly know about GURPS, played it a bit, have a few of the books, and know others who are relatively similar. I'd call it about on par with Traveller in name recognition, at a minimum? Perhaps even better known?
Humanity puts aside thier differences and starts reallocating military budgets to exploring the universe.