Classic Traveller Facsimile Edition pod at drivethru.
- Thread starter mike wightman
- Start date
pesco
SOC-7
Haah, but only if you're not paying attention (just like me when I printed these)!
The original "digest size" LBBs are 5.5 x 8.5 inches, going from this statement on the DriveThruRPG description of the Facsimile Edition:
Margins are upgraded to 6x9 (from 5-1/2 x 8-1/2) for better margins.
And indeed, the PDF is formatted for 6x9 inches, so you could just cut the margins back off to arrive at the original layout, I suppose. And as it turns out, US Letter is 8.5 x 11 inches, exactly twice the original "digest size"! So if you take care to cut the 6x9 PDF's margins and print that as a booklet on Letter, you should have a perfect reproduction.
Now none of the above applies to my case, because I forgot to mention that I printed these on A4. And I just let the printer scale them, because for some reason I thought A5 (half of A4) would be a bit bigger than 6x9, which is not the case. But, it is worth noting, A5 is close enough to the original size: 5.8 x 8.3 - you would only lose one tenth of an inch from top and bottom, but also gain a bit left and right.
I actually did it properly like that when I made my character sheets:
Oh, and BTW, back to the booklets: It only took me one false start to get the arrangement of pages right for printing.
I was also happy to find that I could make the stapling with my regular household stapler and not one of the fancy longer ones that are actually designed for such a purpose. I carefully folded the back part of the book-to-be in on itself to fit it under the stapler and carefully flattened it back out afterwards without much of a trace!
Mycenius
SOC-6
FWIW a good trick, if you don't have a 'long-arm stapler' is to fold the pages initially to create the spine then lay the book out flat on something like your carpet (or another firm but soft surface that won't mind begin stapled into) - then just open the stapler out so it's completed flat rather than it's normal 'v' configuration and staple the spine into the carpet. Then you just carefully lift the booklet free of the carpet, turn it over and place on a hard surface (table) and carefully bend over the staples to close them... All done, and no crease mark in half the pages where you folded them to fit the normal sized stapler...
Mycenius
SOC-6
Incidentally, are the S4 Careers what's in the 'Spinward Marches Campaign' book? Or are they different ones again?
The same (although there might be slight modifications, IIRC).
Mycenius
SOC-6
Spinward Flow
SOC-14 5K
Same careers as LBB S4, but the skill tables do not match LBB S4.
Belters do not have a Prospecting skill result.
Nobles do not have Carousing or Hunting as skill results.
So same careers, different skill tables.
Mycenius
SOC-6
Thanks - any thoughts on why these odd changes/differences? Intentional or Errata/Copy & Paste Typos? (Sorry probably getting a bit OT...)
Spinward Flow
SOC-14 5K
LBB S4 © 1979
Spinward Marches Campaign is © 1985
A surmise for the discrepancy in the skill tables would be to "simplify" the contents of the skill tables to be more in line with LBB1, although even that "fails" on the merits of the argument (Hunters get Hunter-1 skill automatically, which is a LBB S4 skill, but their skill tables in the Spinward Marches Campaign completely omits Hunting skill from the results of all 4 skill tables). In other words, it's probably a bit scuffed to try an use the Spinward Marches Campaign chargen in lieu of the "better version" presented in LBB S4.
Spinward Marches Campaign is © 1985
A surmise for the discrepancy in the skill tables would be to "simplify" the contents of the skill tables to be more in line with LBB1, although even that "fails" on the merits of the argument (Hunters get Hunter-1 skill automatically, which is a LBB S4 skill, but their skill tables in the Spinward Marches Campaign completely omits Hunting skill from the results of all 4 skill tables). In other words, it's probably a bit scuffed to try an use the Spinward Marches Campaign chargen in lieu of the "better version" presented in LBB S4.
daryen
SOC-14 1K
Easy: it is a cut-n-paste error.
The skills tables in SMC are an exact duplicate of the "base six" careers (twice). It is pretty obvious that they copied over the charts from The Traveller Book, then intended to change them to what is shown in S4. But ... then forgot to do that part of the update. BTW, this is not my opinion. This is explicitly called out in the Consolidated Errata file.
The interesting thing is that the other information outside the skills tables *were* updated in a good and useful way. Careers with rank names get names for all six ranks, not just one or two. It explicitly notes that careers with no advancement get two skills per term (like Scouts). There are a couple other things in there, too.
So, to get a completely "proper" set of "Citizens of the Imperium" careers, you would need to do the following four things:
1) Take the section from SMC as the base.
2) Fix the name of the Noble rank 5 to be "F Duke" like it is supposed to be.
3) Replace the skill tables, in their entirety with the skill tables from S4. But take nothing else from S4; just the skill tables.
4) Change the skill in slot 6 in the Education Table for the Rogue career to Tactics (instead of Ship's Tactics).
This together gives you what the Citizens of the Imperium careers were meant to be.
As an aside, I created a PDF that does exactly this. So, I have my very own version of that section of the SMC that puts all of these fixes in. No house rules, no conjecture, just what has already been stated as known and acknowledged errata. But I don't think I am allowed to share it, unfortunately. If the mods want it, I can send it to them in a PM and they can do whatever they want with it. I make no claims and take no credit for it. It is just what was supposed to have been presented. If allowed, I would gladly post it here for everyone to use.
Last edited:
Mycenius
SOC-6
Thanks. That's great to know!
Mycenius
SOC-6
P.S. As an aside oddly enough I was already thinking of doing something similar for my own use - to bring together all the Book 1, 4, 5, 6, 7 and Sup 4 and similar character generation into my own private 'quick-reference' booklet... with Errata and updated skills, etc.
Actually is there a summary of any general skills that got changed, and the weapon skills (e.g. in Book 1 you choose specific weapons, in Book 4 you choose a 'class' like Lasers or Plasma or such...) - I'm still catching up on the errata and such but assuming this won't be in the consolidated doc as it's not technically 'errata'...? Nor in the Facsimile edition for a similar reason...
Mycenius
SOC-6
Similar threads
