Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Now for a word about Traveller

Traveller has always been one of my favorite science fiction RPGs. One of the hallmarks of Traveller is its dedicated fanbase and the fact they have supported the game continuously since its publication. First with Fanzines, then with mailing list, finally through a succession of websites. There may have times when there was nobody publishing Traveller material but there never been a time when the fans were not doing something with Traveller or its quintessential setting the Third Imperium.

There are some useful Traveller Links

Far Future Enterprise
Mongoose Traveller
GURPS Traveller
The Traveller Wiki
The Traveller Map
The Traveller Forum

Comments
The most cost effective method of owning older Traveller material are the Far Future CD-ROMS

Of all the subsequent editions The Mongoose Traveller Core Book is the most worthy successor to Classic Traveller. However their supplement quality has been spotty (but improved in later printing). At all cost avoid the 1st edition/printing of Mongoose Mercernary.

If you want a printed copy of Classic Traveller, Far Future has you covered on RPGNow with the Traveller Book for $20 plus shipping.

GURPS Traveller has the best supplements, like their historical books they are useful even if you don't use the rules. GURPS Traveller:Nobles, GURPS Traveller:Far Trader, and GURPS Traveller: Solomani Rim are particularly good. The only real dud in their line is their version of the Spinward Marches.

The Traveller Map is an incredible resource. Probably the best one ever made for any RPG. It even allows you to pick any of the its sectors and download it in a booklet form that is similar to the original Classic Spinward Marches. Some of the utilities can be used with custom data that you created for your own Traveller setting.

Now go and answer that mayday!

8 comments:

Alex Schroeder said...

When I ran a Traveller campaign, I wrote an subsector UWP and map generator for it. I think many people have done this over the years. Somehow those system generating tables just encouraged it.
SVG Mapper

jvines said...

Traveller has received a lot of attention on the Bundle of Holding site to. The starter Traveller, Mongoose Traveller 2300 AD, and classic Traveller, are a fantastic buy for 16-21$. You have to wait for them to revisit the sale but its definitely worth it.

Stan Shinn said...

Rob, did you ever get The Traveller Book from RPG Drive Thru? I was wondering what you thought of the quality of that product if so. I've been thinking of buying it.

Anonymous said...

Rob, when are you going to run this for the Monday night group?

Scott Anderson said...

Huh! Just two nights ago I went and read up on Traveller. My one and only experience with it was almost joining a campaign in about 1992. We decided to play Dragonlance instead. But the books looked so cool.

JDsivraj said...

I've always enjoyed the rules but never really cared much for the Third Imperium as more than an abstarc fuzzy background. It's mor fun to me if a referee has room to decide the Third Imperium is more like The Empire from Star Wars, an early Trek U.N. sorta federation with widespread but local feudalsim, an Overculture that lets the locals do what they want most of the time or sonething else. Despite a certain fraction of nerdism in me that loves big maps a fully realized setting is unnecassary as the game has a bulit in campaign generation method that is "offical" so an official setting beyond that isn't really necessary to me.

Doc Savage said...

Never cared for the whole Imperium thing; having an official setting bores me to tears and is antithetical to what I like in games. It worked okay when it was just dribs and drabs and an example of one possible setting but I could not give a squirt of piss about the "history" of someone else's setting.

PaMar said...

Hi, I understand that this post is from past years but... maybe you could consider updating it and mention the Cepheus line?

https://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Cepheus_Engine

They have a quite serviceable set of rules (which have also been used for totally different games) and some alternate universes, too.