Norton GloverQuick con report for last weekend's Travellercon/USA convention, the gaming convention dedicated entirely to the #Traveller RPG.
https://polyhedralnonsense.com/2025/10/31/con-report-travellercon-usa-2025/
Polyhedral NonsenseCon Report – TravellerCon USA 2025
The convention book is always in Traveller LBB formLast weekend I attended TravellerCon/USA, the yearly RPG convention dedicated to the sci-fi RPG Traveller and its many Cepheus Engine variations. This year’s theme was Bwaps, the newt-like species from the official Traveller setting. Many of the sessions included Bwaps as part of the setting.
You can see the list of events at the TravellerCon USA page at tabletop.events
The Hotel
It’s held at the Hilton DoubleTree Resort in Lancaster, PA. It’s a pleasant little hotel in Pennsylvania Dutch country. I signed up late, so I had to stay at a different hotel, but I remember the rooms being reasonably nice when I stayed there in previous years.
Vendors
TravellerCon/USA is usually fairly light on vendors, and it was particularly thin this year. There were only three vendor tables:
- A sci-fi author selling his works.
- A seller of 3D printed objects – including a lot of Traveller ship models.
- Burnt City Games – a small game company that is working on an RPG based on the old Dumarest books. They did have one playtest version of the rules for sale.
I’d love to see some of the Cepheus Engine companies show up, but as
Friday
There was another, larger event using most of the hotel’s event rooms, so the few games were run out of some of the smaller rooms. It was a little cramped, but it seems most attendees don’t arrive until Saturday.
Here’s what I played in:
Traveller 1700: Something’s Stirring in Newport
Traveller: 1700 is a free setting using Classic Traveller rules to run adventures in colonial America. We played sailors recently arrived in Newport, Rhode Island, who started investigating a local troublemaker who had mysteriously gained power over the city.
It was an interesting little mystery/action adventure.
Avast ye dirtwalkers
In this Traveller adventure we played a band of space pirates who followed a treasure map from a long-dead legendary pirate. Fun and pulpy.
Saturday
We had access to the full ballrooms starting on Saturday. Most of the attendees showed up this day.
TOY: Experience the Adventure
This was the playtest version of the Dumarest RPG from Burnt City Games that I mentioned above. The Dumarest books were a series of sci-fi novels from E.C. Tubb that were apparently a big influence on Traveller.
I was the only player who signed up for this one, but the GM was kind enough to run this for me anyway. I played a shanghaied slave forced to play in high-tech gladiatorial games on the planet Toy. Supposedly this is based one of the novels. A lot of the adventure was planning and preparation for a gladiatorial contest. This provided the opportunity to explore the various regions of the planet, before the big action scene.
I liked this enough to buy the playtest version.
Traveller ‘77 — The Kinunir
Unfortunately, the GM had to cancel this one at the last minute. One of the players was kind enough to run an adventure from memory.
One of the nice things about a convention as focused as TravellerCon, is that all the attendees are generally well prepared for this sort of thing. Many of us had copies of the rules, and one person even had a few blank character sheets, so were able to improvise a fun little adventure.
The Apocalypse Squad
This is the adventure I ran using the Hostile system from Zozer games. Hostile is designed to run retro-80s style sci-fi adventures similar to Aliens or Outland.
My adventure was an Apocalypse Now inspired adventure on a dinosaur ridden jungle planet. I wrote up this adventure in a previous post.
After a great deal of gunplay (the team almost ran out of ammo), the mission was mostly successful. One player escaped, and one was arrested.
Sunday
On Sunday there was only one morning session.
Traveller: Encounters – 23-0 A Prelude to Adventure
This was part of a Living Traveller campaign, in which players can attend different events using the same character. I’d never played in one, so a pregen was provided.
We played the crew of a merchant ship investigating a distress signal in a red zoned system.
Conclusion
I had a good time at TravellerCon as I usually do. My game went well, and everything I played in was fun.
I would have liked to see more attendees and vendors, but I imagine the economy had an effect on turnout. A con based on a single game system is always going to be a little self-limiting, but I think it might be possible to get more people, both players and referees.
Next year, I’m going to try running a few more games, possibly something a bit more elaborate. I’d encourage everyone to spread the word, and give Travellercon/USA a try.
My table setup for the Hostile game I ran at last weekend's Travellercon-USA.
It went well - a lot of ammo was expended, one guy was betrayed, and there was a big explosion.
#TravellerCon #Hostile #CepheusEngine #TTRPG
Just starting my second day of TravellerCon-USA in Lancaster, PA
Just signed up for the TravellerCon-USA 2025 convention, in Lancaster, PA on Oct 24-26.
I'm planning on running at least one session of Hostile, the retro-80s Cepheus Engine game.
Just booked my hotel room for TravellerCon USA, the RPG convention just for #Traveller
It's October 24-26 in Lancaster, PA
I'll definitely be running something. Not sure what yet.
https://tabletop.events/conventions/travellercon-usa-2025
Already started thinking about what I might run for next year's TravellerCon. Initial ideas:
Chamax in the Old West
Thieves' World
Zhodani Psionic Cops
Another Judge Dredd adventure
A Strontium Dog adventure
Kosmos 68 (soviet sci-fi)
Cthonian Stars (sci-fi horror)
Finished up my first day at TravellerCon-USA.
Ran a session of Hostile: the 80s retrofuture RPG. It was sort of a Dirty Dozen/Apocalypse Now mashup, with dinosaurs.
Played in a game of Megatraveller.
Both were fun, and they served free pizza - which is the kind of thing you can do at a smaller convention.
I've signed up to attend the TravellerCon-USA convention later this month. I have a day to decide if I'm going to run anything.
I'm considering two options:
A spaghetti-western themed adventure called Shoot First, Laugh Last.
A game in the Hostile setting which will be a mashup of the Dirty Dozen and Apocalypse Now.
Not sure if I'll have time to prepare both.
Book of Holding@allisonchains We're always excited to see what you're up to! It's too bad we couldn't make it to #TravellerCon this year, because we would've loved to tl demo this! 🎲🎲