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Post by Finarvyn on Nov 23, 2017 7:19:11 GMT -6
place holder for when the list gets put together
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Post by Finarvyn on Nov 23, 2017 7:19:26 GMT -6
To me, science fiction mostly comes in two types: swashbuckler and fantastic, versus gritty and realistic. I see a lot of the classics such as the Lensman series, Star Wars, Star Trek, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and more, as belonging to the fantastic. They have big ships, big guns, big action. Traveller is an example of the second variety, where we’re looking at a future that might happen someday and it’s not so glamorous. When I look at my bookshelves, most of my books and DVDs are fantasy and a small percent is scifi. Of the scifi there I see mostly the fantastic and not so much of the realistic.
I wanted to start a thread where folks can suggest realistic scifi that might become an “Appendix N” for Traveller. Stuff that when you look at it you think “yeah, that’s Traveller!” I’ll start…
Books
Dorsai series (written by Gordon Dickson; particularly Dorsai and Tactics of Mistake) military scifi where each planet specializes in one thing like scientists or soldiers
The Expanse (novels by two guys writing as James S.A. Corey) some attempt at correct physics; ships take a loooong time to speed up or slow down or change direction
Falkenberg books (novels by Jerry Pournelle; particularly The Mercenary and West of Honor) military scifi with a commander moving troops around to win wars
Hellstar (by Steve Perry) a Babylon-5 style space station in the middle of nowhere
Not in our Stars (and others by Jefferson Swycaffer) I think that some of his novels are “official” Traveller books; I really liked NioS because of the paranoid conspiracy thing.
Other Media
Alien (movie) sort of a horror-style Traveller adventure
Battlestar Galactica (the new one, not the classic 1970’s version) the space combat scenes involving Galactica and nukes reminds me a lot of a Traveller battle. Not so much with the Vipers.
The Expanse (tv series) some attempt at correct physics; ships take a loooong time to speed up or slow down or change direction
Firefly (tv series) a little campy, but fundamentally a blend of Western and Traveller
Give me some more, and maybe tell me what about them “feels” like Traveller.
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Post by derv on Nov 23, 2017 9:32:11 GMT -6
I would create a list by author. Here's one that belongs on the list.
Vance, Jack. Demon Princes, Planet of Adventure.
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Post by Finarvyn on Nov 23, 2017 11:30:41 GMT -6
I would create a list by author. Here's one that belongs on the list. Vance, Jack. Demon Princes, Planet of Adventure. I've heard awesome things about this book. (Series?) Anyway, I guess I need to track it down now.  |
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EdOWar
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
Posts: 315
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Post by EdOWar on Nov 23, 2017 19:31:38 GMT -6
H. Beam Piper (Space Viking and related books)
David Drake (Hammer's Slammers, though maybe came after Traveller)
J.E. Pournelle (CoDominium stories)
There are others I'm sure. That's just what I could think of off the top of my head.
In my mind, the two styles of sci-fi are literary and visual (cinema/television). Literary sci-fi tends to be more "realistic," mainly because the medium lends itself better to it, while visual tends to be more "flashy" to keep viewers attention and the need to move the story along.
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Post by foxroe on Nov 23, 2017 20:06:10 GMT -6
Excellent list thus far.
I would like to add:
The Lensmen series by E.E. Smith (yes I know... more of a space opera, but clearly fodder for Traveller)
Niven & Pournelle - The Mote in God's Eye and The Gripping Hand
Frank Herbert's Dune series
David Drake's Hammer's Slammers series oops, already posted
Asimov's Foundation series, etc.
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Post by derv on Nov 23, 2017 20:07:59 GMT -6
I've heard awesome things about this book. (Series?) Anyway, I guess I need to track it down now. Two separate series actually, but both can be found as compendiums. I've gotten mixed reactions to Vance's scifi. Some like it, some don't. It might have something to do with comparing these to his Dying Earth series. Don't expect Cugel. They're different from that. |
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Post by foxroe on Nov 23, 2017 20:14:38 GMT -6
Random thoughts:
IMHO, It's difficult to quantify sci-fi as either "hard" or "fantastic". An "Appendix N" would contain influential fiction for the creator, regardless of classification. Certainly Star Trek was considered "far fetched" in its time, but now we have flip-phones, electronic medical devices, talking computers, etc...
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Post by hamurai on Nov 23, 2017 23:11:13 GMT -6
Off the top of my head:
Arthur C. Clarke - Rendezvous with Rama (the first book is enough); The Fountains of Paradise
James Blish - Cities in Flight (not pure hard sci-fi, space opera)
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Post by krusader74 on Nov 24, 2017 1:25:14 GMT -6
I wanted to start a thread where folks can suggest realistic scifi that might become an “Appendix N” for Traveller. Stuff that when you look at it you think “yeah, that’s Traveller!” There is a book-length treatment of this subject... The Science Fiction In Traveller: A Reader’s Guide to Traveller Role-Playing Fiction (2016) by Shannon Appelcline Availability:Print Length: 197 pages Publisher: Far Future Enterprises Publication Date: March 24, 2016 Opening words:Table of Contents:Blurb:Appelcline gives each book (or series of books) a summary and an explanation of how it relates to the Traveller RPG. |
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Post by Starbeard on Nov 24, 2017 1:26:18 GMT -6
A lot of Jack Vance could fit on a Traveller list. The Cadwal Chronicles (Araminta Station) and Ports of Call come to mind. Not typically everyone's favourite Vance, but very Traveller. Pan-solar societies with wildly different TLs and cultures from place to place.
Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles seems an ideal example of how to develop a single planet with background, encounters and adventure ideas.
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Post by Finarvyn on Nov 24, 2017 6:29:57 GMT -6
Just re-discovered A. Bertram Chandler's Rim World (John Grimes) series on my bookshelf. A friend recommended them to me years ago and I picked up the first few SFBC omnibus books and never read them. Around 70 pages in and am enjoying them as potential Traveller fiction. Not as flashy and fantastic as the Lensmen, but a similar "go out and explore" type of style to them.
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Post by foxroe on Nov 24, 2017 20:09:13 GMT -6
Quite a bit younger than classic Traveller (and I'm generally not a fan of most "modern" sci-fi literature), is James Alan Gardener's Expendable series. They're a fun read and I can easily see the parallels between the Explorer Corp and the Imperial Scout Service.
And this one's a stretch - a BIG stretch - but I can't help drawing parallels between Forester's Hornblower books and the Imperial Navy of Traveller. Ships of the line bristling with multiple batteries whittling away at each other, boarding actions, raids on shore installations, foiling privateers, etc. IMO, Book 2 combat is very 18th century ship-to-ship in style.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Nov 26, 2017 11:30:49 GMT -6
Andre Norton's Solar Queen series  |
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terje
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
Blasphemous accelerator
Posts: 206
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Post by terje on Dec 5, 2017 14:25:25 GMT -6
I think this essay would be a good start: www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10119So, basically, the foundation of a Traveller Appendix N would be the Dumarest series by EC Tubbs and Space Viking by H Beam Piper. |
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Post by Red Baron on Dec 27, 2017 22:27:47 GMT -6
A lot of Jack Vance could fit on a Traveller list. The Cadwal Chronicles (Araminta Station) and Ports of Call come to mind. Not typically everyone's favourite Vance, but very Traveller. I adore Araminta Station (the sequels not so much). Ports of Call is underwhelming, as are the Demon Princes* stories and Planet of Adventure books, but check out Dogtown Tourist Agency and The Moon Moth. The Magnus Ridolf stories are also very traveller, though unpolished. If you go through the anthologies of his early short pulps many of the stories run in that same vein. *except for "The Face" which is excellent |
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Post by coffee on Dec 28, 2017 7:13:44 GMT -6
There were 9 characters included in Supplement One without identification (and an accompanying contest in JTAS to identify them). They come from these series:
* Barsoom series, by Edgar Rice Burroughs
* Lensman Series, by E. E. "Doc" Smith
* Deathworld Trilogy, by Harry Harrison
* Dumarest Saga, by E. C. Tubb
* Tales of Known Space, by Larry Niven
* Starwell and The Thurb Revolution, by Alexei Panshin
* Flandry Series, by Poul Anderson
* Demon Prince series, by Jack Vance
* The Stars, My Destination, by Alfred Bester
Additionally there were Heroes and Villains in Supplement Four, from the following sources:
* Star Wars (mistakenly attributed to Gene Lucas)
* The Stainless Steel Rat series, by Harry Harrison
* The Sword and Sceptre/The Mercenary, by Jerry Pournelle
* Sector General series, by James White
* Retief series, by Keith Laumer
* Star Trek
* The Stars, Like Dust, by Isaac Asimov
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Post by dragondaddy on Feb 25, 2018 16:14:26 GMT -6
* Isaac Asimov * Foundation Series, Foundation, Foundation & Empire, Second Foundation.
This was immediately what came to mind for me back in 1977 as the default campaign setting for Traveller.
*Larry Niven * Tales of Known Space, Ringworld, & Ringworld Engineers.
Sci-Fi with an Epic scope! Totally stole ideas from these for my Traveller games.
* Poul Anderson * Psychotechnic League Series, Polesotechnic League Stories, Dominic Flandry / Terran Empire Series, Star Patrol, Tau Zero.
Simply the Grand Master...
Also like * Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle's * Jannissary series, Oath of Fealty.
* Joe Haldeman * Forever War
* Robert A. Heinlein * Starship Troopers, Have Spacesuit, Will Travel.
*Cyril M. Kornbluth * Gunner Cade, Outpost Mars, (with Frederik Pohl - The Space Merchants, ...Gladiator-at-law), The Rocket of 1955, Friend to Man, A Mile Beyond the Moon.
* Ray Bradbury * Martian Chronicles.
*John Scalzi * Old Man's War series. The Human Division.
* Anne McCaffrey * The Dragonriders of Pern series.
* Algis Budrys * Rogue Moon, Budrys Inferno, Blood & Burning, Hard Landing, The Edge of the Sea, Michaelmas, The Iron Throne, L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future.
* Alfred Bester * The Stars, My Destination.
* Phillip K. Dick * Valis, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Martian Timeslip.
* Frederick Pohl * The Space Merchants, Heechee Series: Gateway, Beyond the Blue Event Horizon, HeeChee Rendezvous, Slave Ship, The World at the End of Time.
* George R. Stewart * Earth Abides.
* J.G. Ballard * Passport to Eternity, Memories of the Space Age.
* Hal Clement * Mission of Gravity, Starlight, Ice World, Fossil.
* John Brunner * Stand in Zanzibar, The Jagged Orbit, From This Day Forward, To the End of Time.
*Samuel Delany * Nova, Triton.
* Ursula Le Guin * The Left Hand of Darkness, Edges, The Lathe of Heaven, Rocannon's World, Planet of Exile, The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia.
* Wilson Tucker * The Year of the Quiet Sun, To the Tombaugh Station.
* John Varley * Titan, Wizard, Demon.
* Phillip Jose Farmer * The Unreasoning Mask, Riders of the Purple Wage, Tongues of the Moon, The Cache from Outer Space.
* Michael Bishop * No Enemy But Time.
* Gregory Benford * Timescape, The Martian Race, Worlds Vast & Various, Beyond Infinity, Deeper than the Darkness, Shipstar (With larry Niven), The Galactic Center series.
* Michael Moorcock * The Rituals of Infinity, The Best Sci-Fi Stories From New Worlds, An Alien Heat, The Hollow Lands.
* M J. Harrison * The Centauri Device.
* Jack Williamson * The Reefs of Space, The Trial of Terra, Starbridge, Starchild Trilogy & Legion of Space series.
* Suzy McKee Charnas * Walk to the End of the World, Motherline.
* Gene Wolfe * The Book of the New Sun, Seven American Nights.
* Robert Silverberg * Roma Eterna, Hunt the Space Witch, Far Horizons, Starborne, Project Pendulum, Star of Gypsies, Epoch
* Clifford D. Simak * Cemetary World (the origins of SJG Games game, Ogre.), Enchanted Pilgrimage, A Heritage of Stars, Waystation.
* James van Pelt * Tom Corbitt, Space Cadet.
* Greg Bear * Blood Music, Multiverse, Eternity, The Forge of God, Foundation & Chaos.
* Jule Verne * Journey to the Center of the Earth, 20,000 Leagues under the Sea & From Earth to the Moon.
*Martin L. Shoemaker * Black Orbit.
* Vernor Vinge * A Fire Upon The Deep.
Analog Science Fiction & Fact Magazine
Galaxy Magazine
Science Fiction & Fantasy Magazine
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
Weird Tales Magazine.
Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine.
Fantastic Stories Magazine.
Amazing Worlds Magazine.
Clark's World Magazine.
..oh and Doc Savage by Phillip Jose Farmer
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Thorulfr
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
Posts: 264
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Post by Thorulfr on May 24, 2018 14:07:47 GMT -6
I think this essay would be a good start: www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10119So, basically, the foundation of a Traveller Appendix N would be the Dumarest series by EC Tubbs and Space Viking by H Beam Piper. Yes, I've been reading the Dumarest books (a bunch of them are available on Kindle), and I am amazed at how many ideas were ported into Traveller: The Low Berth, Slow and Fast drugs, the Air-Raft, the prevalence of knives and swords. It is a very different place than the Third Imperium, but you can see the fingerprints all over the game. |
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Post by chicagowiz on May 25, 2018 8:14:43 GMT -6
I know this might be a bit of heresy, but I would have to add video games to my list - although it's probably a bit of a circular expression, since probably many/most of these games were influenced by Traveller!
* M.U.L.E
* 1984 Elite
* Wing Commander: Privateer
* Trade Wars BBS
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Post by Starbeard on Nov 21, 2021 19:42:17 GMT -6
I wanted to start a thread where folks can suggest realistic scifi that might become an “Appendix N” for Traveller. Stuff that when you look at it you think “yeah, that’s Traveller!” There is a book-length treatment of this subject... The Science Fiction In Traveller: A Reader’s Guide to Traveller Role-Playing Fiction (2016) by Shannon Appelcline Availability:Print Length: 197 pages Publisher: Far Future Enterprises Publication Date: March 24, 2016 Opening words:Table of Contents:Blurb:Appelcline gives each book (or series of books) a summary and an explanation of how it relates to the Traveller RPG. Wait, I was about to buy this, but how can Applecline get away with not having a spot for Foundation? Seems like maybe his criteria isn't exactly the same as what I figured it would be. |
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Post by Vile Traveller on Nov 22, 2021 16:35:32 GMT -6
Wait, I was about to buy this, but how can Applecline get away with not having a spot for Foundation? Seems like maybe his criteria isn't exactly the same as what I figured it would be. I seem to remember quite a few complaints about his histories as being somewhat incomplete. Whether by deliberate or accidental omission, that doesn't engender confidence. |
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Post by angantyr on Nov 24, 2021 2:14:30 GMT -6
+1 to The Expanse - while not perfect, this series is hands down the best I've seen that actually considers physics to be a real "thing" and not some sort of techno-babble plot point. I also like the emphasis on physicality based on one's origins, where the Belters are by and large scrawny and weak because of their low gravity environment, Martians can be sensitive to the relatively intense sunlight on Earth, etc. All in all well worth watching for these details alone.
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