By Ashton Data Publishing, LLC — where chaos meets charts and dice rolls
Greetings, space voyagers!
Welcome to Dev Blog #4! This week we’re shaking things up.
We’ve been building our galaxy full of crazy aliens, rogue NPCs, and flaming space stations… but now it’s time to bring some rules into the mix.
Yes, we’re finally talking about the Traveller SRD inspired mechanics that will shape AD Galaxy Traveler’s RPG side.
And yes… dice are involved.
Why Traveller Rules?
Traveller has been a gold standard for decades, giving players freedom, unpredictability, and enough complexity to make planning your next interstellar heist both terrifying and exhilarating.
We loved the core ideas and wanted to blend them into our FPS/RPG hybrid:
- Skills that actually matter in gameplay
- Careers and life paths that shape your backstory
- Risk, reward, and yes… the occasional life-or-death dice roll
So, this week, the team started adapting Traveller rules to our universe.
Character Creation – More Than Just Stats
Players will start by creating a character through careers and life events:
- Choose Your Career Path
Examples in AD Galaxy Traveler include:- Military Officer
- Asteroid Miner
- Scout/Courier
- Agent/Spy
- Merchant or Trader
Each path gives skills, bonuses, and potential mishaps that shape your journey.
- Roll for Attributes
Traveller-inspired attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Intelligence, Social, and Education) are assigned via dice rolls.
These will affect combat, crafting, and even dialogue outcomes.
- Events & Mishaps
Each career path comes with a 2D6 event table.
You might:
- Get stranded on a frozen asteroid
- Make a dangerous enemy
- Discover a rare alien artifact
Some are hilarious, some deadly — all of them make your story unique.
Skills & Combat Integration
Skills now matter in both RPG and FPS contexts. For example:
- Gun Combat: Increases accuracy and unlocks special weapon techniques
- Piloting: Helps navigate spacecraft and avoid catastrophic crashes
- Engineering: Repair ships, hack doors, or jury-rig alien tech
- Bribery: Persuade NPCs, lower prices, or manipulate factions
Combat rolls will be influenced by dice-based skill checks, blending FPS reflexes with RPG strategy.
Life Paths: More Than a Backstory
One of the coolest Traveller mechanics is the “Life Path” system:
- Characters gain unique background stories, contacts, and benefits depending on career history
- Example: A former Scout/Courier might have hidden smuggling routes, while a Merchant has secret trade connections
- Random events during character creation can drastically change stats or relationships
It ensures every player starts with a story, not just a gun.
Next Steps
This week, the team will:
- Finish balancing skill check mechanics with FPS gameplay
- Roll up the first sample characters and run playtest scenarios
- Integrate the mishap/event tables into the tutorial missions
- Begin designing UI elements for career choices and skill rolls
Basically, the galaxy is about to get more interactive, dangerous, and hilarious.
Final Thoughts for Blog #4
This week marks the point where AD Galaxy Traveler stops being just a shooter and starts feeling like a living, breathing RPG universe.
Traveller-inspired rules will add unpredictability, player choice, and moments that will make you laugh, cry, or rage-quit your first spaceship flight.
Stay tuned for Dev Blog #5:
“Welcome to the Station: Rooms, Pods, and Peculiar Fellow Travelers”
Until then, roll your dice wisely, space adventurers. The universe isn’t waiting… and neither should you.