"A "stutter warp" seems like a good choice—the ship travels by a very rapid sequence of short micro-jumps tunneling through normal space many times a second to achieve faster than light speeds. A break-down would leave you stranded between stars in normal space."

Funny you should mention that, as it's a big part of my next step of this 'thought experiment'.

"So yes, I think it's a great idea, though I have to say that the d20 system has possibly made it unnecessary to go back to classic systems like Traveller.

You might look over the Neverwinter Nights post I've been on, since that's going to end up as a d20 game (albeit computer-based), if we do it."

Thanks for the feedback. I'm probably hopelessly out of step with modern RPGing, but I just love the elegance of 2 die 6 to run a game.

As to d20, you should check out T20, it is the offical d20 version of Traveller, blessed by Marc W. Miller (the original creator of Traveller) and designed to capture (as much as possible) the old Traveller feel in d20.

Been meaning to put Firefly in Traveler, so I can play it at home. Very cool, though.

I was really reminded of Traveller, too, when I saw Firefly for the first time. Given that Joss and/or his writers have quite a bit of familiarity with D&D and roleplaying games, I've often wondered whether or not they were inspired by Traveller.

Let's see: many of the Firefly characters are ex-military, psionics has a secretive, mostly minor role, tech levels mingle in a fascinating combination, and the main characters on the show mostly make a living by flying from world to world shipping cargo! Really seems like Traveller to me.

So yes, I think it's a great idea, though I have to say that the d20 system has possibly made it unnecessary to go back to classic systems like Traveller.

You might look over the Neverwinter Nights post I've been on, since that's going to end up as a d20 game (albeit computer-based), if we do it.