My CT Library

[Amber Chancer]

My CT library consists of the LBBs I acquired back in the 80s when I first played treveller, and has remained static ever since.

It consists of the following:

* Original boxed set with the 1977 LBBs 1, 2 & 3 (although the box has long since gone the way of all cardboard, and I cannot currently locate book 3)

* Original (1978) book 4 Mercenary

* revised (1980) edition book 5 High Guard

* 1981 edition deluxe set with books 0, 1, 2 and 3, and the Introductory Adventure The Imperial Fringe

Supplements
#1 1001 Characters
#2 Animal Encounters
#3 The Spinward Marches
#4 Citizens of the Imperium

#6 76 Patrons
#7 Traders and Gunboats
#8 Library Data A-M (is this the original Wikipedia???)
#9 Fighting Ships
#10 The Solomani Rim

Special Supplement #1 Merchant Prince (I think this was a JTAS pull-out)

Adventures
#1 The Kinunir

#3 Twilight's Peak
#4 Leviathan

#7 Broadsword

Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society
Best of JTAS volume 2

JTAS # 12

JTAS # 14

Paranoia Press booklets approved for use with Traveller
Merchants & Merchandise
Scouts & Assassins
The Beyond
SORAG

Other Approved Products
IISS Ship Files - Games Workshop, 1981


Two questions, really -

1. Given that I am only interested in CT rather than investing a fortune in materials for all the other new variants on Traveller, what in your opinion are the gaps in my library which are most in need of filling? And

2. How and where does one go about acquiring old LBB materials these days?

 

[mike wightman]

Buy the CT cd from FFE, and the JTAS disc while you are at it.

http://www.farfuture.net/cdroms.html

You now have the complete library of official CT products.

As to dead tree versions there is always ebay, just be patient and don't pay ridiculous amounts, or buy the reprint books from FFE.



But the CDs are my best recommendation.

 

[DaveChase]

What Mike said.

Solid good suggestions.

Dave Chase

 

[Amber Chancer]

Unfortunately, I LIKE dead trees ... :rofl:

 

[BytePro]

FFE still sells dead tree versions - http://www.farfuture.net/hardcopy.html.

Sadly, they are not LBB size (and a few are out of print).

They also add up in cost.

For price and convenience - a modern ebook (or iPad mini) and the CD-ROMs is more bang for the buck (would probably cost near the same combined), and closer to the original form factor ... if you are not a collector you could sell your originals and come out ahead and with more game material.

 

[Amber Chancer]

Thanks for that link, BytePro.

I may stock up from there ... but the thing is, I HATE to part with my original materials. So I suspect I'll end up duplicating material, rather than funding my purchases from the collector's market.

I didn't realise Supplement 5 was never available separately. Well, I guess that accounts for that gap in my library!

So it looks as though once I've sourced TCS and Supplements 11, 12 and 13 I'll be pretty much complete on the supplements. Not sure how many of the adventures I want to track down ... I always thought it was the ref's job to come up with adventures himself!!

I probably need to source a replacement HG and Supplement 9, too - mine are falling apart from over-use :rofl:

What about books 6, 7 and 8 though? Are they worth the having?? If so, I shall probably settle for the FarFuture reprints, rather than trying to source original LBBs for this

 

[BytePro]

Understand - I still have a few of mine for sentimental reasons.

Some sources (googled/not tried):
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Classic-Tra..._Toys_RolePlaying_RL&var=&hash=item4609968d52
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Classic-Tra..._Toys_RolePlaying_RL&var=&hash=item4609969026
http://www.trollandtoad.com/Collectible-Miniatures-Games/2667-922-5209-2547p1n10.html

As to Books 6, 7, & 8 - really depends. Bk 6 System gen, while 'unrealistic', I found quite useful over the years for my roll your own approach. I'd made my own robots and merchant 'rules' and found no use for these when I got them with the reprints. Merchant Prince does cover some OTU stuff, IIRC, though its probably all in the Library supps.

Enjoy

 

[aramis]

Unfortunately, I LIKE dead trees ... :rofl:

The scans are good enough to print out the PDFs of the books you're missing.

 

[madmike]

I picked up Striker and Snapshot boxed sets on eBay last night for very good prices. With postage factored in, it came to around $28 per boxed set.

I also have most of the FFE CD's. That way I can print or view material as needed. A decision was mad to print a full set of the LLB's for the group to use during sessions, so my original (and treasured) LLB's do not get damaged.

It is great though to see an expanding CT collection in the bookcase.

 

[Baron]

There are so few (comparatively speaking) CT products that I prefer to have them all!

I got the reprints as needed, and the collector's market is for completeness' sake.

But I had to have them all...

 

[Carlobrand]

Unfortunately, I LIKE dead trees ... :rofl:

I'm still using my ancient organic versions too, but wouldn't a PFD version have the advantage of being able to use word-search to find needed bits?

 

[Baron]

PDF is difficult to use. Dead trees rule.

 

[aramis]

PDF is difficult to use. Dead trees rule.

Wrong. If you find PDF hard to use, then you simply lack the correct combination of knowledge, hardware, and software.

On my 10.1" tablets, it's rather simple to search, page, and zoom. Easier than with a physical book. And my annotations can be erased cleanly.

Further, PDF copies mean being able to print dead tree when one wishes. And, given Acrobat Reader has "booklet printing" as an available mode, one can print out the booklet either single sided and then run that through a photocopier, or double sided directly, and generate one's own copies at full size on standard home equipment.

Plus, as a few friends have done, you can instead opt to print it out oversized to make a large print edition.

 

[nats]

Two questions, really -

1. Given that I am only interested in CT rather than investing a fortune in materials for all the other new variants on Traveller, what in your opinion are the gaps in my library which are most in need of filling? And

2. How and where does one go about acquiring old LBB materials these days?

I would advise you get all the double adventures because they are superb. You can get most stuff on Ebay either in the UK or in America, far more available in America though. I wish I had more Classic Stuff I used to have it and sold it all. I am now getting to the point where I think I am going to sell all my MgT stuff and try to reclaim my old Classic stuff - I really need a good Classic Box set.

But as for actually using all of that the only stuff I have regularly used in play is Books 1-5, Animal Encounters, Spinward Marches, Citizens, Patrons, 1001 Characters and Traders & Gunboats.

 

[BytePro]

Still have some nostalgia for dead trees, but electronic media has made life immensely easier - I've ditched tons of organic debris.

Carry my entire traveller 'library' around in my pocket! (Retina iPod)

For Traveller, scanned what I wanted and can easily re-organize things, like moving/copying tables as desired and deleting unused pages, not to mention adding custom content.

 

[ian54]

I'd thoroughly recommend the CD-ROMS, using a tablet/PC is okay for PDFs (remember you can search) but my Kindle is useless, so I've converted some to eBook format.

I have quite a few of the LBBs, but beware that some are very rare and command high prices, e.g. Book 7 (Merchant Prince), Supplement 5, Adventures 5, 12 and 13, Traveller Adventure, Spinward Campaign, to name a few.

 

[tim_manley]

Buy the CT cd from FFE, and the JTAS disc while you are at it.

http://www.farfuture.net/cdroms.html

You now have the complete library of official CT products.

As to dead tree versions there is always ebay, just be patient and don't pay ridiculous amounts, or buy the reprint books from FFE.



But the CDs are my best recommendation.

I have all the books (between 3 and 4 copies each in some) and the CD ROM. The CD ROM gives me what I'm missing. I'd highly recommend it.