One of the most aggravating things
about fantasy and science fiction, for me
anyway, is the knowledge that there are
few times when one will be able to confront
the other in role-playing games. I’m
a serious fan of both the AD&D™ game
and the Traveller™ system, and I’ve
sometimes wished that I could take the
characters from one universe and go
visit the lands of the other. . . . But even a
rudimentary knowledge of both games is
enough to tell that the basic differences
between them are too great to bridge
with a simple set of rules, the way the
AD&D system can be linked to the
GAMMA WORLD® game or the BOOT
HILL® game. However, there is no reason
why creatures and items from an AD&D world cannot exist in a Traveller
universe in their own right. The galaxy is
a big place (100,000 light-years across,
with literally millions of stars and planets)
and I suppose that if you look long
enough for anything, eventually you may
find it.
To begin with, though, I strongly suggest
that the Traveller referee not include
magical spells and items as part of the
universe that he/she creates. Gunpowder
and technological devices beyond medieval
advancement do not exist in the
world of the AD&D rules, and this preserves
the flavor of the game. This prohibition
also maintains game balance, as
DMs who’ve let players get hold of laser
rifles and force blades have discovered.

Any advantage that players get is sure to
be exploited fully (or perverted fully),
and their characters may become too
powerful to play comfortably.
Traveller works the same way. Try to
imagine the results of allowing Traveller
players to find a ring of wishes; a referee
who is confident that he or she could
handle the situation is probably overestimating
his or her abilities as a referee
and underestimating the players. The
orientation toward science and technology,
and away from magic, in the “new”
universe should be maintained — even
played up, especially when the players
hint that they’d love to see a few +5 flaming
cutlasses lying around on their
planet.
One area that would lend itself well to
the “conversion” of an AD&D game to a
Traveller adventure would be the introduction
of new weapons in the family of
blades and polearms. Granted, in a starroving
society there is not much call for
expertise with a glaive-guisarme, but
worlds with a tech level of 0 to 3 will likely
have many types of hand-to-hand combat
weapons. In particular, the character
class of the Barbarian (Traveller Supplement
4, Citizens of the Imperium)
would likely have access to a wide variety
of archaic combat weapons that
other classes would not. Statistics for
the various sorts of primitive weaponry
can be derived using the notes in the
AD&D Players Handbook, but careful
readers will discover some discrepancies
between Traveller weapons and their
AD&D equivalents. For example, a ”broadsword”
in Traveller is a two-handed affair,
yet is about the same size and
weight as an AD&D “broadsword,” which
is a one-handed weapon: it is smaller, in
fact, than the AD&D hand-and-a-half
sword. Further comparisons between
each game system’s version of daggers,
swords, spears, cutlasses (scimitars),
cudgels (clubs or morning stars), and so
forth reveal other differences, but with
some good guesswork a referee should
be able to generate the characteristics of
javelins, tridents, axes, and other items
as desired.
A second possibility, more complicated
than introducing new weapons into
the Traveller system, is the introduction
of some of the creatures common to fantasy
games. It is going to take the referee
quite a while to calculate the sizes,
weights, attack damage, speed, etc., of
the various denizens of the Monster
Manual in Traveller terms, but the results
can be very interesting indeed. Nonmagical
beasts like the anhkheg, purple
worm, shrieker, and yellow mold can be
developed as the fauna of several different
worlds; retaining the AD&D name for
such monsters often helps develop a
clearer picture of them for the players,
particularly if they are already familiar
with the AD&D versions. Referees may
want to modify the monsters to prevent

players from being too familiar with the
creatures.
Some monsters may need to be placed
in tailor-made environments; rocs, for
example, probably couldn’t fly unless
they were on low-gravity worlds. Giantsized
versions of common terrestrial animals
(badgers, rats, wolves) might be
natural mutations resulting from living in
a cold environment (the way mammals
became gigantic during the Ice Age on
Earth), or they might be the results of an
Imperial genetic engineering program.
Postulating that some creatures can develop
psionic powers allows the referee
to create beasts with some magic-like
effects, like blink dogs who use a form of
limited teleport ability. Traveller psionics,
although very different from AD&D
psionics, can still duplicate the attack
powers of su-monsters, gray oozes, and
brain moles. Even fire-breathing dragons
are possible (as they are in Heinlein’s
Glory Road and McCaffrey’s novels
of the Dragonriders of Pern). As
always, the referee should be the final
arbiter of what is reasonable and what is
not.
Creatures with strong ties to other
AD&D planes (that do not exist in Traveller)
such as aerial servants, liches,
efreeti, and ki-rin cannot be converted if
they have too many magical powers or
are not material beings. You could assume
these sorts of beings are energy
creatures or specimens of incredibly
advanced cultures, but use your own
best judgement.
Perhaps the most interesting, and most
difficult, fantasy addition to Traveller
would be the creation of new character
races for the players and/or for nonplayer
characters. At this point I want to
urge the reader to examine or re-examine
Gary Gygax’s column from issue #29 of
DRAGON™ Magazine. (Editor’s note:
This column was reprinted under the
title “Humans and hybrids” in Best of
DRAGON Vol. II.) He discusses balancing
the AD&D campaign in terms of the
available character races, and makes
many appropriate comments. The referee
should use his or her discretion,
remembering that the Imperium is a
human-dominated society and a humanoriented
one as well. Unless the referee
and players have created a sort of “United
Federation of Planets” universe as in
Star Trek, aliens will generally play second
fiddle to humanity. Care should be
used in creating new player races to
ensure that they are compatible with the
game. Storm giant player characters, for
example, are much too powerful for a
Traveller scenario, and sometimes would
be at a serious disadvantage (trying to
crew a missile battery without training,
trying to fit through a ship’s airlock, etc.).
New races, therefore, should not be
overly more powerful than humans.
(Otherwise, as Mr. Gygax put it, why
would anyone want to be a human?)

Skeptics should note that there is literary
precedent for introducing fantasy beings
into a science-fiction setting, not the
least (and perhaps one of the best) of
which is Ursula K. LeGuin’s Rocannon’s
World, a book I cannot recommend highly
enough to science-fiction or fantasy
fans.
As an example of such a fantasy race
in Traveller, and for the benefit of all
dwarfophiles everywhere, I present here
my version of Traveller dwarves. Rocannon’s
World had a dwarven race called
the Gdemiar, but my version is drawn
straight from the AD&D game, with minor
changes. For Traveller purposes, I assume
that Imperial humanity discovered
a world (code X9666C72, Non-Industrial,
of a K2 variable sun) inhabited by a race
of beings much like the dwarves of old
mythology. The variable nature of their
sun encouraged their construction of
underground cities, and the stronger
gravity of their homeworld produced
their shorter stature (1.2 m average) and
greater constitution and strength. Underground
living and the increased infrared
from their sun also produced a
form of infrared vision effective for up to
20 meters. Dwarves generally have expressed
a desire to avoid contact with
the Imperium, but a few individuals
would be willing to make a trek to the
stars if a ship were to land nearby. The
Traveller’s Aid Society has listed the
dwarven homeworld as a Red Zone, due
to Imperial restrictions, and special
permission to land there is required from
the Imperium (throw 12+ for permission,
DM’s applicable for Admin and Bribery
skills). No starport facilities of any kind
exist on-planet, though there are several
space stations in orbit.
Two-thirds of all dwarves are male,
and the rate of population increase is
very slow. Their low reproductive rate is
balanced by their longer lifespans (400
Imperial years or more). Dwarves also
take a longer time to learn their initially
generated skills. Some dwarves are assumed
to have had previous contact with
humans; the skills of Gun Combat, Mechanical,
and Jack-of-all-Trades reflect
this source of knowledge. They speak
their own language, as well as the standard
Imperial tongue. Because of their
non-intervention in the matters of human
politics, dwarves cannot exceed a Social
standing of 10 (A) in the Imperium,
though they may have higher positions
on their homeworld; let any scores over
10 become 10 when the dwarf is travelling
away from “home.”
For game purposes, dwarven physiology
is assumed to be much like human
physiology, so Medical skills are interchangeable.
Dwarves survive a low-passage
journey on a roll of 4+ on two dice,
with normal DM’s if someone with medical
expertise is nearby.
The characteristics of dwarven travellers
are generated as per the human

norm, and they may be male or female.
They must have initial minimum scores
of 6 for Strength and 9 for Endurance.
Dwarven travellers are generated at a
starting age of 60 years (dwarven years
being about the same as Imperial years),
and they enter the career table from this
point. Rank titles may be kept as part of
the dwarf’s name, if desired, when the
career ends (e.g., Myrmidon Gimli the
Wanderer). Psionic potential for dwarves
is optional.
Enlistment into a career is automatic
for a dwarf; no other option is open due
to cultural and Imperial restrictions on
letting non-humans into the armed forces
of the Imperium. Players who consider
this unfair should consider the
thought that I also wanted to preserve
the flavor of dwarven personality; Gimli
the Wanderer has more believability with
Battle Axe-3 than with Battle Dress-3.
As shown on the Aging Table, the
terms of career service are for twenty
years each, reflecting various cultural
and personal factors inhibiting their acquiring
of skills (and preventing them
from becoming too powerful, as well).
Survival, positions and promotions, skills
and training, and reenlistment are all as
per Traveller Book 1, p. 5-6. Reenlistment
is mandatory on a roll of 12.
Dwarves may serve up to ten terms
voluntarily, and may retire any time after
the fifth term of service. Mustering out is
conducted exactly as described on p. 7
of Book 1, with extra die rolls for higher
ranks and with restrictions on how many
times the cash benefits table may be
consulted. Except for the terms of service
being quite a bit longer than the
human norm, aging effects are applied in
the same way as for humans. See the
Dwarven Aging Table (given in this article)
and p. 7-8 of Book 1 for details.
Dwarves usually live to be about 520
years of age. Note that aging effects can
reduce strength and endurance below
the initially rolled minimums of 6 and 9,
respectively.
If a dwarven character uses any of the
drugs listed in Book 2, there is a chance
of this action having a harmful effect on
the dwarf due to biochemical differences
between them and humans. On a roll of
8+ (throw each time a dwarf uses a drug)
there will be serious side effects from the
medication. In these cases, the drug’s
effect will still occur as desired, but the
dwarf will take 1-3 dice of damage as well
(unless Medical drug is alone administered,
in which case there are no bad
side effects).
 

Dwarven Characteristics Table

Strength	6 - 15
Endurance	9 - 15
Dexterity	2 - 15
Intelligence	2 - 15
Education	2 - 15
Social Standing	2 - 10     (max. 15 on homeworld)

Dwarven Traveller Career Table

Enlistment:	(automatic)
Survival:	6+ (DM +2 if Endur 6+)
Position:	7+ (DM +1 if Stren 8+)
Promotion:	9+ (DM +1 if Stren 10+)
Re-enlistment	5+

Automatic Skills Table

Dwarf:	Blade Cbt-1, Prospecting -1
Dwarf Lord:	Leader-1

Acquired Skills Table

Personal Development Table

1	+1 Stren
2	+2 Endur
3	+1 Stren
4	+1 Dext
5	+1 Endur
6	Blade Cbt

Service Skills Table

1	Blade Cbt
2	Blade Cbt
3	Bow Cbt
4	Prospecting
5	Prospecting
6	Brawling

Advanced Education Table

1	Prospecting
2	Medical1
3	Leader
4	+1 Soc
5	Survival
6	Tactics

    ¹ Dwarven medicine, not human.

Advanced Education Table (for characters with Educ 8+)

1	Gun Cbt
2	Mechanical
3	Instruction
4	Prospecting
5	Leader
6	Jack-o-T

Table of Rank

Rank 1:	-
Rank 2:	Hero
Rank 3:	-
Rank 4:	Myrmidon
Rank 5:	Champion
Rank 6:	Lord

Benefits Tables

Material	-	Cash	-
1	Blade	1	-- -- --
2	Blade	2	-- -- --
3	Blade	3	-- -- --
4	+1 Endur	4	1k
5	+1 Stren	5	5k
6	Low Psg	6	10k
7	High Psg	7	20k
(+1 DM for Rank 5-6)	-	(+1 DM for retired characters)	-

Blades & Polearms Table

Dagger	Mace
Blade	Great Mace
Hand Axe	Sword
Battle Axe	Hammer
Great Axe	Sledgehammer
War Pick	Cudgel
Great Pick	Spear
Pike	-

Bow Weapons Table

Short bow

Military crossbow

Sporting crossbow

Repeating crossbow

NEW WEAPONS TABLES
 

-	-	-	-	-	Range matrix	-
Weapon	Base  weight	Length  overall	Base  price	Wound  inflicted	Close	Short
Hand Axe	1000	450	40	2d+1	+1	+1
Battle Axe	1500	1000	75	3d	-1	+1
Great Axe1	2250	1800	100	4d-3	-4	+2
War Pick	1250	900	50	2d+2	-1	+1
Great Pick1	1750	1300	100	3d+1	-3	+1
Hammer	1000	500	20	1d+3	0	0
Sledgehammer1	1750	1500	75	3d-3	-1	+1
Mace	2000	1000	70	2d+2	0	+1
Great Mace1	2500	1500	100	3d+2	2	+3

¹ -- Two handed weapon
All weights are in grams, lengths in milimeters, prices in credits.
 
 

-	Defender's Armor	-	-	-	-	-	-
Attacker's Weapon	None	Jack	Mesh	Cloth	Reflec	Ablat	Battle
Hand Axe	+2	+1	-3	-3	+2	-2	-6
Battle Axe	+3	+2	-3	-3	+3	-2	-6
Great Axe1	+4	+3	-2	-3	+4	-2	-5
War Pick	+2	+1	-2	-2	+1	-3	-6
Great Pick1	+4	+3	-2	-2	+3	-3	-6
Hammer	0	0	-2	-3	0	-2	-7
Sledgehammer1	+1	0	-2	-3	+1	-2	-7
Mace	0	0	-2	-3	0	-2	-7
Great Mace1	+2	+1	-1	-2	+2	-1	-6

 
 

Weapon	Required strength level	Required strength DM	Advantageous strength level	Advantageous strength DM	Weakened blow or swing DM
Hand Axe	5	-1	8	+2	-2
Battle Axe	6	-2	9	+2	-2
Great Axe1	6	-2	10	+2	-3
War Pick	5	-2	9	+2	-2
Great Pick1	6	-2	10	+2	-2
Hammer	5	-1	8	+2	-1
Sledgehammer1	7	-2	10	+2	-2
Mace	6	-1	9	+2	-1
Great Mace1	8	-2	10	+2	-2

CONDENSED COMBAT CHART

-	Armor Type and Range	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Weapon Type	None	-	Jack	-	Mesh	-	Cloth	-	Reflec	-	Ablat	-	Battle	-
-	C	S	C	S	C	S	C	S	C	S	C	S	C	S
Hand Axe	5	5	6	6	10	10	10	10	5	5	9	9	13	13
Battle Axe	6	4	7	5	12	10	12	10	6	4	11	9	15	13
Great Axe1	8	2	9	3	14	8	15	9	8	2	14	8	17	11
War Pick	7	5	8	6	11	9	11	9	8	6	12	10	15	13
Great Pick1	7	3	8	4	13	9	13	9	8	4	14	10	17	13
Hammer	8	8	8	8	10	10	11	11	8	8	10	10	15	15
Sledgehammer1	8	6	9	7	11	9	12	10	8	6	11	9	16	14
Mace	8	7	8	7	10	9	11	10	8	7	10	9	15	14
Great Mace1	8	3	9	4	11	6	12	7	8	3	11	6	16	11

Note: Number shown is the min. needed "to hit" rolled on 2d6.

DWARVEN AGING TABLE

Term of Service	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14+
Age:	180	200	220	240	260	280	300	320	340
Strength	1 7+	1 7+	1 7+	1 7+	1 7+	-1 8+	-1 8+	-1 8+	-1 8+
Dexterity	-1 8+	-1 8+	-1 8+	-1 8+	-1 8+	-1 9+	-1 9+	-1 9+	-1 9+
Endurance	-1 7+	-1 7+	-1 7+	-1 7+	-1 7+	-1 8+	-1 8+	-1 8+	-1 8+
Intelligence**	**	**	**	**	**	**	**	-1 8+	-1 8+
Education	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
Social Standing	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*

* unaffected by aging
** no effect before 400; then -1

“Term of service” refers to the end of that numbered term. “Age” refers
to the first day of the personal (physiological, not chronological) year.
The negative shown is the potential reduction in characteristic if the
saving throw (given in parentheses) is not made, using two dice.

<this image is here to check that the data in the above table has been correctly entered>

(SUMMARY NOTES)

The galaxy is a big place (100,000 light-years across, with literally millions of stars and planets) and I suppose that if you look long enough for anything, eventually you may find it.

Try to imagine the results of allowing Traveller players to find a ring of wishes: a referee who is confident that he or she could handle the situation is probably overstimating his or her abilities as a referee and underestimating the players.

The orientation towards science and technology, and away from magic, in the "new" universe should be maintained - even played up, especially when the players hint that they'd love to see a few +5 flaming cutlasses lying around their planet.

Granted, in a star-roving society there is not much call for expertise with a glaive-guisarme, but worlds with a tech level of 0 to 3 wil likely have many types of hand-to-hand combat weapons.
In particular, the character class of the Barbarian (Traveller Supplement 4, Citizens of the Imperium) would likely have access to a wide variety of archaic combat weapons that other classes would not.
For example, a "broadsword" in Traveller is a two-handed affair, yet is about the same size and weight as an AD&D "broadsword," which is a one-handed weapon; it is smaller, in fact, than the AD&D hand-and-a-half sword.

At this point I want to urge the reader to examine or re-examine Gary Gygax's column from issue #29 of DRAGON Magazine.

For Traveller purposes, I assume that Imperial humanity discovered a world (code X9666C72, Non-Industrial, of a K2 variable sun) inhabited by a race of beings much like the dwarves of old mythology.
The variable nature of their sun encouraged their construction of underground cities and their short stature (1.2 m average) and greater constitution and strength.
Underground living and the increased infrared from their sun  also produced a form of infrared vision effective up to 20 meters.
The Traveller's Aid Society has listed the dwarven homeworld as a Red Zone, due to Imperial restrictions, and special permission to land there is required from the Imperium (throw 12+ for permission, DM's applicable for Admin and Bribery skills).

Their low reproductive rate is balanced by their long lifespans (400 Imperial years or more).
Because of their non-intervention in the matters of human politics, dwarves cannot exceed a Social standing of 10 (A) in the Imperium, though they may have higher positions on their homeworld; let any scores over 10 become 10 when the dwarf is travelling away from "home".

Dwarves survive a low-passage journey on a roll of 4+ on two dice, with normal DM's if someone with medical expertise is nearby.

They must have initial scores of 6 for Strength and 9 for Endurance.
Dwarven travellers are generated at a starting age of 60 years (dwarven years being about the same as Imperial years), and they enter the career table from this point.

Players who consider this unfair should consider the thought that I also wanted to preserve the flavor of dwarven personality; Gimli the Wanderer has more believability with Battle Axe-3 than Battle Dress-3.

Survival, positions and promotions, skills and training, and reenlistment are all as per Traveller Book 1, p. 5-6. Reenlistment is mandatory on a roll of 12.
Mustering out is conducted exactly as described on p. 7 of Book 1, with extra die rolls for higher ranks and with restrictions on how many times the cash benefits table may be consulted.
See the Dwarven Aging Table (given in this article) and p. 7-8 of Book 1 for details.
Dwarves usually live to be about 520 years of age. Note that aging efects can reduce strength and endurance below the initially rolled minimums of 6 and 9, respectively.

If a dwarven character uses any of the drugs listed in Book 2, there is a chance of this action having a harmful effect on the dwarf due to biochemical differences between them and humans. On a roll of 8+ (throw each time a dwarf uses a drug) there will be serious side effects from the medication.
In these cases, the drug's effect will still occur as desired, but the dwarf will take 1-3 dice of damage as well (unles Medical drug is alone administered, in which case there are no bad side effects).