See You, Space Cowboy... vs Traveller
Compare See You, Space Cowboy... and Traveller side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| See You, Space Cowboy... | Traveller | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Scifi | Scifi |
| Play Style | Rules-Light, Anime, Noir, Player-Only Rolls, One-Shot Friendly, Mission-Based, Character-Driven | Sandbox, Simulation, Exploration, Deadly, Character Building, Faction Play |
| Core Mechanic | When attempting a Break (a discrete action like a fistfight, hack, persuasion, or repair), the player rolls a single Trait die (a d6, d8, d10, or d12 assigned to that Trait at character creation) against fixed thresholds: 4 or below fails, 5–9 partially succeeds, 10 or above fully succeeds. If the player has a relevant Talent (an open-ended specialty written by the player, like 'Picking Pockets' or 'Plays Drums'), they add a d4 to the roll. Failing a Break grants Juice, a token that can be spent to reroll all dice on a future Break (partial successes become failures on rerolls); rolling the maximum on the unmodified Trait die also grants Juice. The Bandleader (GM) never rolls dice: they choose the stat and thresholds, then narrate outcomes. | Roll 2d6 + skill + modifier ≥ 8 to succeed. Character generation is a mini-game. |
| Dice | d4–d12 | 2d6 |
| Complexity | Very Low | Medium |
| Accessibility | Medium | High |
| Runnability | Medium | Very High |
| License | Proprietary | Traveller Fair Use Policy |
| Cost | $ | $$ |
| Publisher | Tidal Wave Games | Mongoose Publishing |
| Year | 2022 | 2022 |
| Best For | Groups who want a fast, cinematic bounty-hunter game in the vein of Cowboy Bebop or Outlaw Star, tuned for one-shots and short 'season-length' campaigns. Best for tables that enjoy improvising scenes and sharing director-style narrative authority with the GM. | Hard sci-fi sandbox campaigns with trading, exploration, and realistic space travel. |
| Highlights | The Bandleader (GM) never rolls dice: players' Trait rolls resolve every contested moment while the GM chooses the stat, sets thresholds, and narrates outcomes. Talents are open-ended specialties players invent at character creation (e.g., 'Yeet', 'Picking Pockets', 'Plays Drums'), each adding a d4 to relevant Breaks for one of the four Traits. Required Bonds, Debts, and Regrets at character creation give every Outlaw a personal arc: clearing a Debt permanently upgrades the Talent die from d4 to d6, and resolving a Regret grants a once-per-session auto-success on a chosen Break. Procedural bounty generation pulls from tables for Threat Level, Charges, Demeanour, Modus Operandi, Specialized Gear, Appearance, Hideout, and Complications, supporting pickup play and improvised scenarios. | Comprehensive sci-fi toolkit, lifepath character creation, detailed trade/travel systems |
| Considerations | Mechanically minimal: no character classes, no skill list, no advancement track beyond clearing a Debt or resolving a Regret. Pacing assumes one-shots or short season-length campaigns; long-term progression is not structured by the rules. The Bandleader-rolls-nothing approach puts improvisational load on the GM to interpret narrative outcomes for every Break, since opposed-roll resolution does not apply. Setting is anchored to a specific 23rd-century solar system with 1990s-era consumer technology and no alien species; using a different backdrop requires reskinning the planet writeups, bounty charges table, and name tables. | Lifepath character creation rolls for aging and career mishaps, so a Traveller can leave chargen weakened or pushed onto an unwanted path. Subsystem rules are spread across multiple supplements, so the core book leaves several procedures without full depth. Characteristics are recorded as a hexadecimal Universal Personality Profile string, an unusual notation newcomers must learn before they can read a stat block. |