CT Only: Traveller 40th Anniversary Set!

[Supplement Four]

Mike brought this up in another thread.

I thought it would be FANTASTIC idea.

Marc--are you reading this?

I still think MWM could make a shedload of cash with a CT 40th anniversary edition.

I think you are right.

A cleaned up version of CT, with errata, hardback, beautifully bound. Maybe a set, with a book of rules (Traveller Book + LBBs 4-8), and a book of adventures (Traveller Adventure + all GDW Adventures and Double Adventures), and a book of supplements (all GDW Supplements). Plus a two or three volume set of JTAS, issues 1-24. Should we include Mayday, Snapshot, AHL, and Striker?

MegaSet for Traveller.

Books fit in a nice, stiff-board case.

Black leather cover--but maybe not solid black this time. Put small white dots on it so that it looks like a starfield from a long distance. Then, the traditional White Lettering with Red Stripe. Silver edged paper. Red ribbon book mark attached. WITH A GOOD INDEX!

I'd pay $150 bucks for the set. Maybe more, if it were really high quality.

Traveller's dream.

 

[mike wightman]

We can but dream...

personally I would like a deluxe version: a blackened aluminium box with LBB:0-3 - re-edited to incorporate the bits from 77 edition missing from 81 edition (plus the errata/exemplars from TTB/ST) and careers from S:4.

A booklet of charts and tables, a couple of adventures plus maps, and deckplans for a couple of ships.

Finally a booklet with the besy Traveller art from the past four decades.

 

[GM Joe]

An errata-free TTB printed in a high-quality hardcover version would be great. I'd buy it in a heartbeat, just like I did with Chaosium's Runequest 2 errata-free hardcover reprint.

It would be even better if the major rules variations that occurred in the various CT core rules publications (range bands, not range bands...that sort of thing) could be included.

 

[jcrocker]

It would be a great set, but one third of the year is already gone, would there really be enough time to get something like that out the door?

And would $150 cover all that? I've seen simpler sets that had fewer books and no leather for more than that.

 

[Axe]

Realistically, I think the absolute best thing is for FFE to team up with Goodman Games to get this done. Goodman Games has extensive experience on how to run a successful Kickstarter for RPGs, including: raising funds, tracking pledges, upgrading pledges, delivery, keeping a schedule, letting backers know what's going on, proper deliver, great stretch goals, good prices, adding freebees above and beyond the pledges, and GETTING IT DONE!

They come with a gaming/backer base that is hungry for old school gaming. They have released box sets (for DCC RPG) and awesome releases for their DCC RPG 4th printing (book sleeves, gold/silver edged pages, finger tabs, ribbon page marker, leather bound, dice, pencils, GM screens, adventures, pdfs for all, ....) as well as all of that for Metamorphosis Alpha.

Search "Goodman Games Kickstarter" and any of the following:
Metamorphosis Alpha (Deluxe Hardcover Edition)
DCC RPG 4th printing
Peril on the Purple Planet (this is a box set)
Judges Guild

I bet a time-line would be running the Kickstarter in the summer/fall and the goods will be delivered a year (or a little more) later.

I don't work for them. I've benefited by getting great products from them.

My only concern is I don't think 1 or 2 of their main artists would be a good fit for Traveller. They do have access to a ton of great new and old school artists (including actual artists from back in the day).

 

[Takei]

I think I'd like to see a two book set in a slipcase:
Book 1 collecting the best Traveller art.
Book 2 collecting all of the official deckplans.

Edit: Thinking about it, perhaps an updated edition of TTB incorporating LBB4 gear (per Snapshot)and LBB5 ship design.

 

[ian54]

I'd definitely be up for this, especially if the errata was applied, and even if it was pure PDF.

For a bit of extra effort, it might be an idea to group things together rather than republish the books.

* Supplements #4 and #12 as an appendix to Books 0-3
* Supplements #1, #2, #6 and #13
* Supplements #3, #8, #10, #11
* Supplements #5, #7 and #8
* Supplement #5 rules combined with Snapshot, Mayday and Striker
* All adventures in one book, including the Traveller Adventure, Tarsus, Beltstrike and the Spinward Marches Campaign
* Alien Modules (revert to A5)

P.S. Wizards of the Coast did this with AD&D 1st Edition and it was quite popular.

 

[mike wightman]

A proto-Traveller set perhaps...

 

[whartung]

Realistically, I think the absolute best thing is for FFE to team up with Goodman Games to get this done. Goodman Games has extensive experience on how to run a successful Kickstarter for RPGs, including: raising funds, tracking pledges, upgrading pledges, delivery, keeping a schedule, letting backers know what's going on, proper deliver, great stretch goals, good prices, adding freebees above and beyond the pledges, and GETTING IT DONE!

Not sure I want to wait 3 years for a 40 year anniversary edition.

 

[ThornPlutonius]

I like the idea of a 40th anniversary set, but would rather the time and energy be devoted to finishing the Traveller 5 project.

 

[rhialto]

Yeah, it's a pipe dream anyway, and doesn't seem to be in Marc's pipeline.

 

[Condottiere]

Which ruleset?

 

[Axe]

Not sure I want to wait 3 years for a 40 year anniversary edition.

I hear what you saying.

Only took less than 14 months from pledge to product in hand. Great product(s) and high quality. Better than nothing and infinitly better than bound photocopies. Most likely will get FAR SUPERIOR scans for the pdfs, too.

It's kind of fun to track the progress.

 

[vargr1]

What would be different with this 40th Anniversary Edition? What would be in it that you couldn't get from the FFE CT cd?

If it's just another pretty repackaging, it's useless. The market for it would be minuscule. Kickstarter would be the only economical model for it, and only barely.

Like stated above, I'd rather get a better version of T5.

 

[Spinward Scout]

We can but dream...

A scene fades in to a sunrise over Jupiter

Also Sprach Zarathustra starts playing
(link to YouTube to help you visualize)

A black rectangle slowly spinning end over end towards the viewer

As Also Sprach Zarathustra gets to the crescendo (or whatever, you know, the good part)

The rectangle rolls over to...


The Traveller Book
................Updated


And moves towards the viewer until you see nothing but the book.

The music ends. The scene fades out.

 

[atpollard]

Just my thoughts, but an easy to play version of T5 with corrected rules modeled on TTB (for scale and content) would be a good 40th Anniversary present.

... then someone could start a game on COTI and I could actually try playing it and form my own opinions. (But I am not wading through 700 pages, PDF errata and several YouTube videos to maybe figure out how to play.)

 

[mike wightman]

What would be different with this 40th Anniversary Edition? What would be in it that you couldn't get from the FFE CT cd?

Real books.

Ever see the D&D anniversary edition? I would have bought two if they hadn't been so hard to get hold of...

I would do a collectors edition and a more available general edition.

If it's just another pretty repackaging, it's useless. The market for it would be minuscule. Kickstarter would be the only economical model for it, and only barely.

I disagree, the interest in OSR is pretty strong and thre is always interest in Traveller when it is asked about on other rpg sites.

Like stated above, I'd rather get a better version of T5.

Fair enough , but this is a thread for people who want a CT anniversary edition - why can't we get both?

 

[mike wightman]

Just my thoughts, but an easy to play version of T5 with corrected rules modeled on TTB (for scale and content) would be a good 40th Anniversary present.

Yes it would.
But it wouldn't be a CT anniversary edition...

 

[jcrocker]

A scene fades in to a sunrise over Jupiter

Also Sprach Zarathustra starts playing
(link to YouTube to help you visualize)

A black rectangle slowly spinning end over end towards the viewer

As Also Sprach Zarathustra gets to the crescendo (or whatever, you know, the good part)

The rectangle rolls over to...


The Traveller Book
................Updated


And moves towards the viewer until you see nothing but the book.

The music ends. The scene fades out.

Brilliant!

But...

The gravity from the massive tome has you pinned against the glossy black cover. Roll to see if you can pull free.

If you fail, you spend the rest of your days in a hotel room with a well-lit floor.

 

[rhialto]

Just my thoughts, but an easy to play version of T5 with corrected rules modeled on TTB (for scale and content) would be a good 40th Anniversary present.

... then someone could start a game on COTI and I could actually try playing it and form my own opinions. (But I am not wading through 700 pages, PDF errata and several YouTube videos to maybe figure out how to play.)

Well, since you can currently get an in-print, sold-by-FFE version of CT that is a mere 160 pp...take that, then spruce it up for the 40th anniversary (e.g., by bringing back the trade routes in the 1977 LBB's in place of 1981's communication routes, etc.). For heaven's sake, no T5, please: it is antithetical to CT.