First Post, Traveller Neophyte...

[Merovex]

First off, this is my maiden post here, so howdy.

I actively RPG'd from 1982 through 1995, and have since been on the wagon. I first encountered a Traveller book in the early 90s. Since then, I occasionally picked up a Traveler book at various game stores but always put it back on the shelf. I did play Twilight 2K when it first came out, which is probably my only exposure to the mechanics. I've always been the sort to create his own milieu, so I think the aversion came from the developed setting. And, I also tended to play fantasy RPGs...

All this is odd because I find myself curious to delve into the setting. I've picked up the first nine Books and decided to pre-order T5. Beyond that, I'd like to hear your opinions on how to best familiarize myself with the setting. I'm sort of looking for the "best bang for the buck" approach.

Thanks in advance.

 

[jfetters]

Welcome, Dashua! The nice thing about Traveller is that it is one of the best systems in which to build your own setting. Have fun and don't be afraid to ask questions! You'll usually get plenty of answers!

 

[BlackBat242]

Actually, Traveller has several systems... depending on version.

While most material is fairly close, there are some real differences between versions, and some are the "sneak up and jump out in the middle of something important" type... so read thoroughly, and you should be able to adapt most things to whatever version you pick for your base system.


Of course, I don't like having to do all that in addition to all the other stuff I have in progress, so I just stick with "Classic" Traveller (the LBBs... "little black books"), and only occasionally import something from outside.

 

[Icosahedron]

I've been a Traveller since it first came out. I developed my own Universe before the official one was published, and I, too, was put off by the increasing amount of 'background' material I was paying for in the later books, hence I stuck with the Classic, and only got the others when I picked them up second-hand at shows. You can create your own universe with Traveller, but it's a lot more effort than simply buying supplements.
Travel whichever route you prefer.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Reading through the LBBs (Little Black Books - the original, Classic Traveller (CT)) is probably the best first approach to the Original Traveller Universe (OTU). Unfortunately, the information is fragmented over those 9 books (LBBs0-8). Then, you will need to pick up at least the Imperial Encyclopedia from the Mega-Traveller (MT) edition. It really has some good data in it on the history, politics, races, etc. of the OTU.

 

[Arthur Denger]

Welcome, Dausha! I hope you find CotI as enjoyable a place as do we.

Fritz is right -- Books 1-8 are indispensable, but the MT Imperial Encyclopedia is probably one of your first 'go to' resources. It combines Library Data, basic starship data and a host of other background information pertinent to the Third Imperium. Great internal illustrations, too...

 

[Valarian]

All this is odd because I find myself curious to delve into the setting.

I was new to Traveller a few years ago, coming in with the release of T20. I found that the MegaTraveller range of books gives a lot of background information to the setting, without too many stats that are irrelevant to the other systems.

I'll agree with the MT Imperial Encyclopedia as a good source of the Third Imperium setting and historical information (especially the timeline in the front of the book). To this I'll add the Rebellion sourcebook and the Hard Times book. These advance the timeline in to the Rebellion era, when the Third Imperium finally crumbles under it's own weight.

For an earlier view of the setting, QLI's Gateway to Destiny is a good source describing the Gateway domain (Ley, Gateway, Crucis Margin and Glimmerdrift Reaches). The book is relatively system-agnostic, though I think there are some T20 stats in the book. It describes the politics and worlds of this area.

To go even earlier, there is the GURPS book: Interstellar Wars. This describes the first contact of the Terrans and the Vilani and the Interstellar Wars era - leading up to the Long Night. The first few chapters give a lot of information on this era. The later chapters are a bit GURPS stat heavy, and some of the ship designs are not possible using T20 / Book 5 designs. It's a very good Traveller book though. I can recommend it.

 

[robject]

For rolling your own universe, I found the first three "little black books" plus a couple of other books will take you a long way.

MegaTraveller's Imperial Encyclopedia provides a handy and portable catalog of equipment, weapons, vehicles, and spacecraft, plus anything you'd need to know about the official setting to understand it in general) There are copies on Amazon.com's used section for under $3.

Next, if you want to be familiar with starship operations, technology differences, and have a scad of helpful charts and blank map templates, MegaTraveller's Referee's Companion is my next pick. This supplement also tells you enough about the official universe's most common alien races to understand them just fine, and provides good examples of how to write up an alien in six to nine pages. There are copies on Amazon.com's used section for under $9.

Or you can get the entire Classic Traveller collection on CD-ROM from farfuture.net for $35.

 

[Merovex]

Based on what I've heard so far, I've picked up the two MT reference books ala Amazon. Thanks.

I'm not sure if my T5 pre-purchase was well thought out. I've been looking at the various system building documents online and in the LBB 3 & 6 and trying to make sense of it. When it comes to SciFi, I'm a stickler for accuracy in the oddest places. I figured T5 would have improved on the process of system building (i.e., making it more "real-world" accurate).

What's sort of odd about all this is that a couple guys I know online and I worked for a good while on a SciFi setting via wiki (http://espacesociety.org) and hammered out a period of human history (an Imperium). We originally thought about building a setting for Fudge, then decided to just build a general fiction setting when we couldn't agree on the rules (gotta love Fudge for that). What's interesting is I led the discussion on some of the mechanics. Having recently actually read the Traveller books, I noticed some similarities in superluminal travel (but a significant difference in real-space distance in ES is irrelevant to hyperspace distance).

Having read through the various discussions on this thread on the different editions, I would say I'm probably more CT in my approach to gaming, especially with the Rule 68A (which took me a while to catch the "pun" A = 10). I played AD&D 2e when I stopped playing, and don't like D20 enough to try anything in that strain. Besides, the ramifications of OGL is enough for me almost to avoid D20 as a matter of principle. I actually coded (Python) the T5 task process and came away thinking that it was over-plumbed.

I'd picked up the LBB 0-8 reprint at a local game store (Arlington, VA). As somebody said, the rules are scattered about. Was there never a condensation effort to put the rules in one volume without changing the rules? Is that what Mongoose is attempting?

 

[aramis]

All indications (especially Marc refusing to even talk to a particular Astrophysicist who offered to help) are that world and system building are unlikely to be adjusted.

I hope I'm wrong. But don't expect it to have changed much, if at all. Bk6 was wrong when it was released, and aside from as Giants now known to be possible in the inner zone, is still flawed. It's good enough for many, but it has some major major flaws.

 

[Supplement Four]

I'd picked up the LBB 0-8 reprint at a local game store (Arlington, VA). As somebody said, the rules are scattered about. Was there never a condensation effort to put the rules in one volume without changing the rules?

Not for CT, no. The rules just tend to be scattered all over the place, and you'll find them in the oddest places. Aramis has pointed me to some vehicle rules I never knew existed in the adventure Across the Bright Face (and I've been playing Traveller since the 80's). There are some "official" rules in the JTAS issues (and many "non-official" rules too). Beltstrike has rules in it that are located no where else in CT.

Now, for the most part, there was a consolidation attempt made when MT was put together, but MT has its own distinct flavor. Much (most) of MT is just a reprint of CT, but there's enough of a difference to where they really are two different games.

But, MT is the closest version of the game to CT, and MT material can be mined for a CT game (especially since 70-90% of MT was originally CT anyway).

After MT, T4 would be your next closest animal (though not as close to CT as MT is.). The jury is still out on MGT and T5. Time will tell how compatible those two editions of the game will be to CT.

Your widely different (we're talking about mechanics, not background) versions that aren't very compatible with CT are: T20, GT, TNE, and THero. Of those, TNE is probably the closest to CT.

 

[aramis]

It should be noted, tho, that T20 vehicle, ship, world, and system design sequences are strongly rooted in CT, and are result-compatible.

Heck, I've run T20 ships in MT... and vice versa... by simply using the USP codes and tonnages. And all the data needed for Bk5 combat is in MT or T20 USP's.

Porting the T20 T&C rules is a little harder... you need to convert DC's to Difficulties on finding trade goods.

 

[BigBadRon]

As somebody said, the rules are scattered about. Was there never a condensation effort to put the rules in one volume without changing the rules? Is that what Mongoose is attempting?

Nope... afraid Mongoose are creating their own new set of rules.

For CT, the Traveller Book is the nearest thing to a single volume with all the rules, and that only covers the basic rules. The FFE reprint of books 0-8 is the nearest thing to a single volume compilation of ALL the rules (and even that misses some of them).

The CD-ROM version makes things much easier.

 

[Jeff M. Hopper]

Welcome Aboard, Dausha!