How did you get started in Traveller?
- Thread starter sabredog
- Start date
Midgardsormr
SOC-10
I've been a gamer since the mid 80's, but I'm not sure exactly when I became aware of Traveller. Probably sometime around when I joined the Christian Gamers' Guild and was exposed to the notion of gamer advocacy (CGG has seen it as a duty to combat the anti-roleplaying bias that continues to occasionally crop up among certain socially conservative Christian groups). Anyway, since I was getting involved in a group that attempts to set the record straight concerning what roleplaying is and is not, I learned a lot about the history of the hobby.
At some point I stumbled across two of the CT long books in a secondhand bin at my FLGS. Opportunities to play have been unfortunately somewhat limited, but I've spent more time than I'm comfortable admitting in solo adventuring. I'm sure I'm not alone in that regard.
Since my interest was largely historical, I did not bother with any of the editions between CT and T5, but I did donate to the Kickstarter campaign largely to thank MM for the enjoyment I've had thus far and give him some of the profit he did not get since I bought my books on the secondary market.
Right now I am running my longest Traveller campaign to date. It began in CT and is starting to adopt some of the T5 rules.
At some point I stumbled across two of the CT long books in a secondhand bin at my FLGS. Opportunities to play have been unfortunately somewhat limited, but I've spent more time than I'm comfortable admitting in solo adventuring. I'm sure I'm not alone in that regard.
Since my interest was largely historical, I did not bother with any of the editions between CT and T5, but I did donate to the Kickstarter campaign largely to thank MM for the enjoyment I've had thus far and give him some of the profit he did not get since I bought my books on the secondary market.
Right now I am running my longest Traveller campaign to date. It began in CT and is starting to adopt some of the T5 rules.
The mother of all combat charts; the dual folding white card stock weapons matrix that had weapons that weren't even listed in the basic books. Yup, still have it somewhere.
Getting nostalgic for those times when Traveller was new. Great times. I may expand in my blog. Remember the first time you did anything, and the sense of exploration and discovery you got when shown something brand new. Or, maybe I should clean house
WarriorKnight
SOC-12
1981 with "The Darthon Queen". The GM ran the monster,hijacking,& mutitany all at once.I was the navagator of the SS Novahawk & managed to survive the mess. 
At that point I was hooked on the game.
At that point I was hooked on the game.Hi My name is Chuck and I am addicted to Traveller
I started Playing RPG’s when I got my first boxed D&D set in 1975
I found a Group in the Military when I joined in 1976.
We played AD&D when we got the Players handbook in 1978.
I joined the US Army (Military Intelligence) in 1980 and found a group playing Traveller (CT)
Mostly we played either trader runs or scout missions depending on which GM was running the game.
When GDW came out with Mega Traveller in 1987 we jumped on it so we could get involved with the galactic power play.
Some of us started our own Mercenary Corps and hired ourselves out to whichever faction offered the most money or the most hope for success.
Others started Megacorps to sell weapons to all factions while trying to keep the competition hindered or trying to keep our deliveries on time (during wartimes it become increasingly hard to maintain a steady flow of raw materials for making everything).
I left the service in 1988 and started college in 1991. There I found another group of MT players and I helped them by GMing some games and bringing in my experiences from the Military.
In 1993 when TNE came out our group split on whether to keep going with our MT storyline or invest in the latest and greatest which would let us rebuild the entire universe in the image we desired.
Half the group remained in the MT gameworld and half of us moved on to TNE.
I truly saw greater advantage for TNE because the slate was clear for the rebuilding of all civilization.
Taking the Star Vikings (Pirates as I enjoyed calling them) and reigning in their enthusiasm while directing their energies towards the goal of the greater good for all was a great challenge.
After I graduated I moved to a mountain community in southern California.
The only game I have found being played on the mountain is Warhammer.
Now, I am creating a step by step plan for a group to rebuild the power society needs for security in reaching out for the stars and reuniting the Empire under a new Ruler who may just be one of the players if they play their cards right.
I started Playing RPG’s when I got my first boxed D&D set in 1975
I found a Group in the Military when I joined in 1976.
We played AD&D when we got the Players handbook in 1978.
I joined the US Army (Military Intelligence) in 1980 and found a group playing Traveller (CT)
Mostly we played either trader runs or scout missions depending on which GM was running the game.
When GDW came out with Mega Traveller in 1987 we jumped on it so we could get involved with the galactic power play.
Some of us started our own Mercenary Corps and hired ourselves out to whichever faction offered the most money or the most hope for success.
Others started Megacorps to sell weapons to all factions while trying to keep the competition hindered or trying to keep our deliveries on time (during wartimes it become increasingly hard to maintain a steady flow of raw materials for making everything).
I left the service in 1988 and started college in 1991. There I found another group of MT players and I helped them by GMing some games and bringing in my experiences from the Military.
In 1993 when TNE came out our group split on whether to keep going with our MT storyline or invest in the latest and greatest which would let us rebuild the entire universe in the image we desired.
Half the group remained in the MT gameworld and half of us moved on to TNE.
I truly saw greater advantage for TNE because the slate was clear for the rebuilding of all civilization.
Taking the Star Vikings (Pirates as I enjoyed calling them) and reigning in their enthusiasm while directing their energies towards the goal of the greater good for all was a great challenge.
After I graduated I moved to a mountain community in southern California.
The only game I have found being played on the mountain is Warhammer.
Now, I am creating a step by step plan for a group to rebuild the power society needs for security in reaching out for the stars and reuniting the Empire under a new Ruler who may just be one of the players if they play their cards right.
Jeff M. Hopper
SOC-14 1K
Back in 1982 I had been playing AD&D, Basic D&D, and Gamma World but was getting bored because none of those had spaceships in them. Tried a friend's copy of Space Opera and absolutely hated it because it was a confusing mess. I was a big Heinlein and Niven fan already then, so I went to the local FLGS called the Yankee Peddler in Knoxville, TN and asked them for a recommendation. The guy at the counter pointed my eye towards the Traveller LBB Boxed Set and I saved my allowance and bought it. I haven't looked back since.
Ullarsskald1957
SOC-12
Little brown Books, Little Black Books...
Started playing DnD in the fall of 1975 through the Tactics Club at Norwich University. It was a change of pace from the Avalon Hill and STI military and historical table top games.
Have long been an SFnF reader, my dad taught me using his Science Fiction Book Club selections. Also love most any SF flick or TV, good, bad or indifferent.
Saw Traveller in the summer of 77 in my local gaming shop...figure I have almost 300# of gaming materials in total, not counting minifigs.
Started playing DnD in the fall of 1975 through the Tactics Club at Norwich University. It was a change of pace from the Avalon Hill and STI military and historical table top games.
Have long been an SFnF reader, my dad taught me using his Science Fiction Book Club selections. Also love most any SF flick or TV, good, bad or indifferent.
Saw Traveller in the summer of 77 in my local gaming shop...figure I have almost 300# of gaming materials in total, not counting minifigs.
arbitrary.remora
SOC-8
Once more into the breach
(I think I replied last time a thread like this was up...but we all need a chance to tell story, possibly a couple times.)
My Dad bought me the Black Box back in 1981 on a trip. It was confusing, austere, and totally enticing.
I hooked a friend into it and we got rolling. Our first tries were pretty much like the D&D games we had played:
GM: 'You encounter (rolls) 5 Nobles and Retainers. They have foils. They are (rolls) not happy to see you'.
Player 1: 'I shoot them with my SMG and take their stuff'.
--Needless to say it took us time to build a 'richer' sci-fi world.
But we did have fun with starships. We didn't have any other supplements and JTAS's so we'd hack in pictures of starships from Omni, Starlog and other sources and stat them (who else did this?). When we saw the official designs later we were a little underwhelmed. We had been cruising the cosmos in Chris Foss style.
I've collected and played all versions of Traveller. Sold them all but my CT collection. When my son pulled them out a few years back we've had a blast. His 'millennial' generation brain has interpreted the game freshly and inspired me.
-arb
(I think I replied last time a thread like this was up...but we all need a chance to tell story, possibly a couple times.)
My Dad bought me the Black Box back in 1981 on a trip. It was confusing, austere, and totally enticing.
I hooked a friend into it and we got rolling. Our first tries were pretty much like the D&D games we had played:
GM: 'You encounter (rolls) 5 Nobles and Retainers. They have foils. They are (rolls) not happy to see you'.
Player 1: 'I shoot them with my SMG and take their stuff'.
--Needless to say it took us time to build a 'richer' sci-fi world.
But we did have fun with starships. We didn't have any other supplements and JTAS's so we'd hack in pictures of starships from Omni, Starlog and other sources and stat them (who else did this?). When we saw the official designs later we were a little underwhelmed. We had been cruising the cosmos in Chris Foss style.
I've collected and played all versions of Traveller. Sold them all but my CT collection. When my son pulled them out a few years back we've had a blast. His 'millennial' generation brain has interpreted the game freshly and inspired me.
-arb
First Game, 1980
Classic Traveller.
Strategic Gaming Club, Stuyvesant HS NYC, West Caff.
After class, 1st meeting.
Character Gen, an hour or so, result a 2 term Scout.
After 1 hour of play, the main ship pilot blew it, bad.
We bailed the entire Party out, while the 100T S-Class was spiraling in.
Probably shouldn't have even attempted it with 1 rank in Air/Raft, but I was the only one who had a rating.
Failed. Ballistic trajectory, straight out of the sky.
Total Party Kill.
Went to the Compleat Strat. on 33rd the next day and bought the Black Box.
The rest is History.
Classic Traveller.
Strategic Gaming Club, Stuyvesant HS NYC, West Caff.
After class, 1st meeting.
Character Gen, an hour or so, result a 2 term Scout.
After 1 hour of play, the main ship pilot blew it, bad.
We bailed the entire Party out, while the 100T S-Class was spiraling in.
Probably shouldn't have even attempted it with 1 rank in Air/Raft, but I was the only one who had a rating.
Failed. Ballistic trajectory, straight out of the sky.
Total Party Kill.
Went to the Compleat Strat. on 33rd the next day and bought the Black Box.
The rest is History.
Flying Dutchman
SOC-5
How I got started in Traveller
I'm one of those weirdos who actually purchased the boxed set of LBB's from a game store in Davenport, Iowa around 1980. I had been playing D&D for a couple of years before that, and while it was fun, I wasn't that enthralled by traditional swords and sorcery at the time. Needless to say, when I finally found a science-fiction role-playing game on the market, I bought it.
It took a couple of years after that to find a few people in my part of the world who embraced the game as much as I did, and even then, most of our games were one-shots where characters would be generated and played the same day and then forgotten (since most of them would wind up dying anyway - combat in CT has always been a cruel mistress, after all).
I wound up refereeing the game more than playing it. In the army, I ran two campaigns in the same universe that eventually had both groups run into each other (resulting in 14 players at the same table for one session, of which six managed to survive to the end of the adventure). That was also where one of the greatest concepts for group was born - a group of surfers who adventured to finance their quest to surf on every world in the Imperium and beyond.
I have run many other campaigns since, when I found the right group of players. My best on longest-lived campaign ran for over a year of weekly games in 2006-7, when the characters were running a slightly modified version of the GURPS Traveller concept where time-travelers managed to kill Dulinor before he had a chance to assassinate Strephon.
In that campaign, the characters happen across a journal written by a scout who attempted to do the same after VIRUS had been unleashed (by activating his ship's jump drive in the gravity well of a black hole) and wound up going back some 50 years before the assassination and dying nearly 20 years before the actual event could take place. The characters, all good Imperial citizens in the Spinward Marches on the tail end of the Fifth Frontier War, realize that the journal's timeline of events are actually coming to pass now and begin their epic quest to save the Imperium.
Anyway, yeah, I bought the my first set and played it. Bought MegaTraveller when it came out. Bought Mongoose Traveller when it came out. But honestly, I have always come back to my LBB's and the system that started it all.
I'm one of those weirdos who actually purchased the boxed set of LBB's from a game store in Davenport, Iowa around 1980. I had been playing D&D for a couple of years before that, and while it was fun, I wasn't that enthralled by traditional swords and sorcery at the time. Needless to say, when I finally found a science-fiction role-playing game on the market, I bought it.
It took a couple of years after that to find a few people in my part of the world who embraced the game as much as I did, and even then, most of our games were one-shots where characters would be generated and played the same day and then forgotten (since most of them would wind up dying anyway - combat in CT has always been a cruel mistress, after all).
I wound up refereeing the game more than playing it. In the army, I ran two campaigns in the same universe that eventually had both groups run into each other (resulting in 14 players at the same table for one session, of which six managed to survive to the end of the adventure). That was also where one of the greatest concepts for group was born - a group of surfers who adventured to finance their quest to surf on every world in the Imperium and beyond.
I have run many other campaigns since, when I found the right group of players. My best on longest-lived campaign ran for over a year of weekly games in 2006-7, when the characters were running a slightly modified version of the GURPS Traveller concept where time-travelers managed to kill Dulinor before he had a chance to assassinate Strephon.
In that campaign, the characters happen across a journal written by a scout who attempted to do the same after VIRUS had been unleashed (by activating his ship's jump drive in the gravity well of a black hole) and wound up going back some 50 years before the assassination and dying nearly 20 years before the actual event could take place. The characters, all good Imperial citizens in the Spinward Marches on the tail end of the Fifth Frontier War, realize that the journal's timeline of events are actually coming to pass now and begin their epic quest to save the Imperium.
Anyway, yeah, I bought the my first set and played it. Bought MegaTraveller when it came out. Bought Mongoose Traveller when it came out. But honestly, I have always come back to my LBB's and the system that started it all.
We had just started playing Moldvay D&D at the time, and one of us (an unlikely candidate for a GM) bought Deluxe Traveller from The Stamp Corner, a stamp collection store. Since me and my mate David Jackson were mad SF fans we badgered him to borrow it and he said he was reading it, so he lent us Book 0 and we devoured that and went half mad trying to work out how to resolve tasks using the dice probability chart at the back! A week or two later I offered him money and bought it off him. And it changed my life!
Changed the Course of My Life, I am Sure.
In the summer of 1977, still in grade school, I was sent to my uncle's home in Vermont while my parents made a road trip to Arizona from New Hampshire, where my father was seeking to get out of the snowy NE and to somewhere warmer. At that time my Uncle Bob introduced me to the wonders of Avalon Hill boardgames. I was hooked.
We moved to Arizona that summer, just before school started in NH. In AZ it started three weeks earlier
We moved again from an apartment to our new house in NW Phoenix where in December of that year my older brother brought home AD&D first edition materials a friend had given him. He didn't fancy it and it passed to me. I introduced some new friends I had made to the game and they loved it. Not being a huge Fantasy fan myself, but still interested in strategy games, I wound up in the "Game Keeper" store in the MetroCenter mall maybe March '78, perusing the selection when my eye fell on the Little Black Box. I read the cover and bought it on the spot. I probably bought 7/8ths of my Traveller materials at that store!
My RPGing friends and I played D&D one weekend, and Traveller the next, all through high school. Introduced it to a lot of other gamers at the HS game club. I still know and talk to most of those guys. The Power of Gaming!
In the summer of 1977, still in grade school, I was sent to my uncle's home in Vermont while my parents made a road trip to Arizona from New Hampshire, where my father was seeking to get out of the snowy NE and to somewhere warmer. At that time my Uncle Bob introduced me to the wonders of Avalon Hill boardgames. I was hooked.
We moved to Arizona that summer, just before school started in NH. In AZ it started three weeks earlier
We moved again from an apartment to our new house in NW Phoenix where in December of that year my older brother brought home AD&D first edition materials a friend had given him. He didn't fancy it and it passed to me. I introduced some new friends I had made to the game and they loved it. Not being a huge Fantasy fan myself, but still interested in strategy games, I wound up in the "Game Keeper" store in the MetroCenter mall maybe March '78, perusing the selection when my eye fell on the Little Black Box. I read the cover and bought it on the spot. I probably bought 7/8ths of my Traveller materials at that store!My RPGing friends and I played D&D one weekend, and Traveller the next, all through high school. Introduced it to a lot of other gamers at the HS game club. I still know and talk to most of those guys. The Power of Gaming!
Relative Newcomer
I came into Traveller very late indeed—I think it was 2012 or maybe early 2013 when I first grew interested in MGT, at the time. I think I'd just become a Firefly devotee, and so the idea that Traveller could replicate the show's ethos fascinated me. I have yet to actually play the game in any group setting, alas.
I've since discovered that I like the classic books, despite the odd gaps and omissions. There's something about the terse style which appeals to me, it's a far cry from AD&D 2E where I got my start in RPGs.
I came into Traveller very late indeed—I think it was 2012 or maybe early 2013 when I first grew interested in MGT, at the time. I think I'd just become a Firefly devotee, and so the idea that Traveller could replicate the show's ethos fascinated me. I have yet to actually play the game in any group setting, alas.
I've since discovered that I like the classic books, despite the odd gaps and omissions. There's something about the terse style which appeals to me, it's a far cry from AD&D 2E where I got my start in RPGs.
I'd been running D&D and then AD&D for a few years when a classmate invited me over to his house for a game of Traveller. I'd seen the little black books in the game store, but didn't really know much about it.
He ran a one-shot adventure and I had a lot of fun temporarily playing in his group. Actually, he ran a double-feature for us that day: a short Traveller adventure, followed by a short Gamma World adventure. I thought both were great fun.
I talked about how fun the SF adventures were with my gaming group, and one guy there decided he wanted to run Traveller. I decided I wanted to run Gamma World. So we went out and bought them, read 'em, and each ran a session in our chosen games.
Both sessions stunk.
Then we decided to trade, and what followed were two of the best campaigns I've ever experienced. Turns out I had a knack for the Traveller style, and he had a knack for Gamma World. Or maybe it was just happenstance. Either way, that was the start of many decades of running Traveller, so I'm glad it worked out that way.
He ran a one-shot adventure and I had a lot of fun temporarily playing in his group. Actually, he ran a double-feature for us that day: a short Traveller adventure, followed by a short Gamma World adventure. I thought both were great fun.
I talked about how fun the SF adventures were with my gaming group, and one guy there decided he wanted to run Traveller. I decided I wanted to run Gamma World. So we went out and bought them, read 'em, and each ran a session in our chosen games.
Both sessions stunk.
Then we decided to trade, and what followed were two of the best campaigns I've ever experienced. Turns out I had a knack for the Traveller style, and he had a knack for Gamma World. Or maybe it was just happenstance. Either way, that was the start of many decades of running Traveller, so I'm glad it worked out that way.
Ullarsskald1957
SOC-12
I went to college at Norwich University in Vermont from 75 - 79. Started with D&D as a member of the Tactics Club. We added Traveller in the fall of 1978, got my first set of rules soon thereafter.
Supplement Four
SOC-14 5K
I was attracted to the look of the books!
I'd seen the LBB box first and read that epic message, "This is the Beowulf calling..."
I didn't buy it though. I'd become addicted to AD&D.
About a year later (It's the summer between by Sophomore and Junior years in high school.), my family moved. I didn't know anyone, but I was starting to meet some people--even a few that played D&D. I went to the mall to look for D&D stuff at the book store and I saw that boxed set: Starter Traveller.
The box art really pulled me in. I love Dietrick's Traveller stuff to this day.
I took the plunge and never looked back.
I just read the rules. Figured it out on my own. It wasn't until a few years later, during and after college, that I jumped into Traveller. I played a few Classic Traveller games as a player. I Refereed a few games, too. I was still mostly playing AD&D.
I fell in love with Traveller, but my gaming group always preferred AD&D. They rarely wanted to change.
Then, MegaTraveller came out, and I lost my mind. I LOVED every page of that game.
That's when I insisted that we all play Traveller, and I had several long term campaigns in my 20's.
After that, I rediscovered Classic Traveller and abandoned MegaTrav. CT became my true Traveller love.
Traveller The New Era came out, and although I bought a lot of the game, I never liked it. I was disappointed in it. By itself, it seemed like a cool game, but it wasn't "Traveller" to me.
I never played those rules. Looking at them today, having dropped the prejudice, I think I'd like to learn the system. It looks like the game did a lot of cool things.
But, for me, when we played Traveller, it was CT.
But...Marc Miller's Traveller came out, and it had a modernized CT feel to it. I jumped in with both feet. I started my longest Traveller campaign using those rules.
And, as we played, I saw the flaws with T4. Some do not know this, but it was one of my players (a mathematician now working for IBM) that discovered a major flaw with the task system. I started what ended up being a major Flame War on the old Traveller Mailing List (that wasn't my intention, but that's what happened) that Marc participated in. That's where a TML member--I forget who--came up with the It's Harder Than I Thought Rule that Marc adopted (and has incorporated a version of it in the T5 task system).
I started messing around with task systems around this time and invented several. KB 2.0 became a popular alternative to the standard T4 task system.
Then, I turned my sights away from T4, going back, again, to Classic Traveller. I finished my multi-year campaign using CT rules (switching from T4, then back to MT, and finally ending up with CT).
It was here that I decided that CT was my game. I didn't need another. I always found myself going back to CT.
I played around with CT mods. I wrote several CT task systems. The UGM became the most popular (Universal Game Mechanic).
But, personally, I went back to CT RAW. I liked the implied, Ref-makes-it-up (or, as I like to say, Ref-customizes-to-the-situation) system of the game.
And, I've never really looked back.
No other Traveller game has given me a reason to look farther than beyond the pages of CT.
Traveller 20 looked to be an excellent use of the d20 system, but I had no reason to try it. I had CT.
I've never been attracted to GURPS, so I never used GT rules.
BRP certainly didn't draw me away from CT.
MGT looks interesting, but it doesn't look stronger than CT to me.
And T5....yeah, I looked hard at it...but that game is a real mess.
So, it's Classic Traveller, for me, baby.
I'll probably be a CT guy until the day I die.
(But, I'd love to see a Traveller game that proves me wrong.)
