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Traveller renaissance

I was able to snag a copy through Waynes Books on Amazon back in February 2016, I've been slowly trying to grok it and I think play will be the final step to that, for about 57 dollars.

It was in rather good condition and was very happy with it.
Front of box.
Back of box.
Contents

I have been very pleased with the condition, though I have since had to reinforce my box a bit due to it getting beaten up a bit in my bag to and from work. The booklets themselves are holding up fine with no sign of giving out yet. Though the staples are looking rusty they remain tight.
 
First off, thanks for the warm welcomes.

I can only push forth the renaissance if I can get players on board, other wise I'm just a lone nut. Thankfully I have at least managed to create two new GM's which is good for the hobby over all.

What I have played/run outside of the listed are Call of Cthulhu 5th, Dark Heresy 1st, Dragon Age, Fiasco, Exalted 2nd, Abney Park Airship Pirates, Iron Kingdom 2nd.

So not a very diverse history as D&D has always been king in these parts.

D&D is king in most parts. Always has been. Probably always will be.

Even in my hippy-dippy indie RPG circles in my area (lots of Apocalypse World and derivatives, Burning Wheel, Mouse Guard, Torchbearer, Fate, Sorcerer, Primetime Adventures and other off-the-beaten path games that get lots of play, as well as older games like King Arthur Pendragon) there is a lot of D&D going on... especially with 5th edition. It is scratching an itch for lots of my friends.

I'm the oddball who has gone back to old school games. (Though a couple of us have picked up the RuneQuest 2nd Edition reprint from Chaosium and are really interested in it.)

Sounds like you have some variety already in your group. Good luck and I hope it goes well!
 
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Just to compare what I'm involved with at present...
1 weekly Star Wars game using FFG's system
1 weekly Star Trek game using Modiphius' system.
1 every-other-week Traveller game, homebrew rewrite of MT. Via Skype
1 every-other-week Dresden Files game using Fate.

The Traveller system has been requested by multiple players...
None of the players asking are over 30. None of those playing are past 26. And only a couple permutations of any two players' ages sum to more than my age.
 
Just to compare what I'm involved with at present...
1 weekly Star Wars game using FFG's system
1 weekly Star Trek game using Modiphius' system.
1 every-other-week Traveller game, homebrew rewrite of MT. Via Skype
1 every-other-week Dresden Files game using Fate.

The Traveller system has been requested by multiple players...
None of the players asking are over 30. None of those playing are past 26. And only a couple permutations of any two players' ages sum to more than my age.

First, I'm envious of how much gaming you get to do!

Second, I believe the death of Traveller is greatly exaggerated in the eyes of some people. And I believe Aramis' example makes it clear it is a perfectly viable game for people who want to play an RPG today, of any ages.

I've seen it here, I've seen it on other sites: "RPGs are dying," "No one plays RPGs anymore," "No one plays RPG[X] anymore," and so on.

But it isn't true. Invariably a swarm of people show up to point out they are playing RPGs regularly, or they are playing RPG[X].

I was on another site and read that in Illinois there are several DragonQuest campaigns running. DragonQuest! Several of them! A game that hasn't been in print for three decades!

I have no idea for the rhyme or reason for how something like that happens. But it does happen.

I can say, and have said, to people like Blue Ghost or another bemoaning lack of play, start it yourself. Don't wait. It you want to do something start doing it. Set up your own Meetup and gather people.

Too often people look at a small slice of the world from their point of view and assume all the rest of the world is like that. So if someone isn't playing RPGs or isn't playing a particular game they want to play, they assume no one is playing RPGs or no one is playing that game. But it is never the case. Someone is doing those things somewhere. And you can too. But you have decide if you are willing to take the initiative, and work at to make happen what you want to happen.
 
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Well, see my earlier posts. Not sure I would call my worry bemoaning it so much as expressing concern over something I grew up with.
 
( this got long. Oooops )

As to whether Traveller is being played a lot lately... tough to know, yea? Some traditional ways of knowing - seeing it on the shelf of a local game store, seeing it listed on offer at gaming conventions, seeing non-Traveller press mention it - might give the impression it's not exactly on the upswing, and nothing like the "glory days." I think only the Mongoose people ( or those with access to their numbers ) are really in a good position to know, though maybe Marc and the FFE peeps can track to some degree how well the CDs ( ack ) are doing over time.

I feel like any of us ( maybe just on this main Traveller board ) looking around at games we know of, or games we run, and thinking it's representative of how much Traveller is "out there" is like me looking out my window, seeing sun every single day here on Kauai, and feeling like the weather's awesome everywhere.

Analyzing Google and FB mentions is maybe a decent way of approximating prevalence, compared to other games. But then again, what are we really trying to see? If more people are actually playing more Traveller now than before, absolute numbers? If more people are spending more money ( in constant dollars ) than before? Also, when is "before" in all this?

When speaking about a Traveller renaissance, I feel like there are some solid ways of measuring out there. People under 30 playing and adopting the game, making Traveller purchases would be a solid indicator for me. Or not the amount these young people are mentioning on social media, but the breadth of different individuals who are mentioning.

Mongoose is live, now. If you look at the Mongoose boards, every age survey breaks down there the way it breaks down here, not heartening at first glance but maybe also not really representative of what's going on. Maybe younger people just don't like responding, or aren't on the forum. Maybe Mongoose only tracks money coming in over time / money going out to produce and maintain, but this wouldn't be an awesome way to get a sense for renaissance. Are more young people buying?

You could ask the same of FFE, but I feel like that's still tough to know over there. I also feel ( my strong opinion ) that the look on FFE, the flow of actually buying ( those Paypal buttons ) and the fact CD-ROMs are the default ( you have to ask for thumb drives; no download option ) are all things that keep young people who might otherwise buy from doing so. Money left on the table, so to speak. Maybe lots of it. Again my opinion, but my day job has an awful lot to do with stuff like this, so I feel like I'm not just guessing wildly.

You may feel Traveller is undergoing a renaissance, or that the very idea is silly and who cares, why would we even care? But I kinda care, because I'd like to see it survive and evolve. I feel like encouraging a Traveller Renaissance could be done with some fairly straightforward things:

- Someone keep doing what Mongoose is doing. I don't like the pricing, hate the community/IP thing, but overall, go Mongoose.

- Make T5 more approachable. Not dumbed down, not less complex, just more usable. This has also been discussed lots, here.

- Make the FFE content available in a form, manner, and place more accessible to young people. What they expect, and what they feel comfortable with.

- Put some shiny on a few choice pieces of classic stuff, as a few have suggested here. A sweet leather-bound 40th Anniversary edition ( maybe a year late? : ) ?

- Make an effort to attract, court, and develop younger fans. My pet idea here is through an offering aimed at finding the groups in high schools and making Traveller the easy choice for them by supporting the faculty that organize, but easier ways are probably through more novels ( aimed at, in addition to other groups, young adults ), FB, and Instagram.

- Develop an environment of nurturing and reward for people who want to put their own stuff out there for free. or maybe for a few pennies. But there seems to be ( here and on the other boards I follow ) no shortage of people who want to contribute. Most of these people won't actually produce, I feel some would if there was a place more accessible, usable, and didn't swipe IP.

- an effort by current fans everywhere to be less negative in online social spaces about flavors or executions of Traveller that don't exactly line up with our favorites.

And so on. /Ramble
 
Watched the video...

...and it seemed out of touch.

The definition of renaissance presented is the place where Traveller never left. Groups form, campaigns ensure, years go by. <shrug>

'Renaissance' means re-birth - implying some form of death. Traveller is still alive and has been pretty (100%?) continuously in publication in one form or another since its release.

While Traveller isn't mainstream today - it never was in the past, either. Look at the numbers in the big floppy reprints (I no longer have them). The numbers span many years and were never anywhere near mass market penetration levels. Sure it had greater market share when the competition - and the market - where tiny back in the initial days. But the numbers were never really all that high. Most people my age never heard of Traveller - even the roleplayers.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of CT - and even that version still gets some new players today...
 
( this got long. Oooops )

As to whether Traveller is being played a lot lately... tough to know, yea?

I believe sorting out the metrics of play are even more complicated than your thoughtful post suggests.

There is, of course, no correlation that we can be certain of between purchase and play. Plenty of people buy RPG materials that they never play. And there are plenty of people who have been playing consistent RPG campaigns that have been going for decades based on nothing more than some rulebooks the bought 25 to 35 to 40 years ago. Again, I point to the example of several active DragonQuest campaigns in Illinois I just read about. There hasn't been a new DragonQuest product for 30 years.

The fact is certain RPGs were designed to run for years without the need to purchase anything but the core rule book. Some of these games are old. Some are more recent. The original Dungeons & Dragons rules were designed this way. As were the original rules for Traveller. And the rules for Sorcerer, Burning Wheel, Primetime Adventures, Apocalypse World, and more.

So, if the desire is for more play for a particular RPG that is one thing. And if the goal is for more sales for a particular RPG that is another thing. But there without clear correlation between the two.

Further, posting online about a particular RPG is not a necessarily a metric for determining if play is occurring. Posting online can be done in lieu of actually playing... though it is not a given that posting means one is not playing.

I can guarantee you there are plenty of RPG players (probably the majority) who never bother to post anything online. They are playing their game or games and are content with that. It is a hobby activity, taking up a few hours on the side and that's that.

Going back to sales, sales of what? New editions in print? Or older editions? When it comes to D&D lots of folks are using the rules of original D&D or B/X D&D after having never touched them or years. Some people using these rules today have never played them before. And they are using PDFs that would never be found at a game store, or using older copies they pick up from used bookstores or Amazon or eBay.

Mongoose is not Traveller but only a piece of Traveller. On my blog I have received kind comments of people saying, "I always wanted to play Traveller but I fell away from it. But because of your blog I'm playing again with the original Traveller rules and having a blast. Thanks!"

I am not making grandiose claims on the number of comments like this. It is only about half-a-dozen, maybe a few more. The point is, how to measure these people? I'll probably never interact with them again. They might have owned a copy of the Classic Traveller CD-ROM for years and done nothing with it until now. Or they might have gone to DriveThruRPG and picked up the PDF of LBBs 1-3. Or they might have bought the original boxed set a few decades ago and its been sitting on the shelf unused for many years.

So, how do we measure this? Even if we were tracking all the sales, if someone is picking up a game they haven't played for years because of new insights, is that part of a Traveller Renaissance or not?

Finally, I want to ask:

Is this really a concern about playing or knowing wha the sales are? Or is it really about wanting to know other people share the same interests we do? If it is the second, I get that. We like to know that we are not alone and that we are a part of something. But these are ultimately separate issues.

The fact is, as I've stated, playing Traveller is a matter of playing Traveller. If you set up a game and are playing then you are playing Traveller and the game is being played. Worrying about or being concerned with whether or not other people are playing.

I personally don't understand the need or worry for whether or not people are playing a game I want to play. I understand it happens. I simply don't get it.

But I think it's worth stating clearly that it isn't an issue if playing the game is the concern. To play the game you set up a game. That isn't issue of sales or internet chatter. What matters then is the gathering of folks to share an imaginative and social activity. And for me (and perhaps only me!) that is enough.
 
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Watched the video...

...and it seemed out of touch.

The definition of renaissance presented is the place where Traveller never left. Groups form, campaigns ensure, years go by. <shrug>

'Renaissance' means re-birth - implying some form of death. Traveller is still alive and has been pretty (100%?) continuously in publication in one form or another since its release.

While Traveller isn't mainstream today - it never was in the past, either. Look at the numbers in the big floppy reprints (I no longer have them). The numbers span many years and were never anywhere near mass market penetration levels. Sure it had greater market share when the competition - and the market - where tiny back in the initial days. But the numbers were never really all that high. Most people my age never heard of Traveller - even the roleplayers.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of CT - and even that version still gets some new players today...

+1
 
WHHOOP-WHHOOP!

[M;]CITIZENS![/m;]

[m;]This is an OFFICIAL WARNING!

Y'all cool your jets and be civil or this party is over and you all go home or the cubes.

Your choice![/m;]​

:rant:

Now to explain, this thread really is about two seconds away from me coming in with the day stick because I forgot how to code the Mod Tape and that really cheeses me off because I don't like having to string up the tape.

Thing is up in the Tower to balance the awesome "Hey Marc, check this post" entries, I keep seeing one that is someone toeing the line of being a full-on jerk face.

[m;]So, shape up or ship out. Port Authority Orders.[/m;]​

Sorry I had to yell, but it was getting a bit toxic in here.

I'm going back Upstairs and if another bad apple comes up on my Watch, I mean it you best hope Admin counters me.

*stomps off to squad and blows the lights and wailer for a block till he hits sky*

EDIT: It looks like I wasn't entirely clear. There have been a few reported cases of things that are bordering on being Infraction worthy, but are carefully worded enough not to trip.

So, less talking smack to folks on the personal level. Discussing how we can attract more players and stuff fine. Just keep it from being a bloody holy war or it gets shut down and that would suck for the civil people with good things to suggest or say.

Less personal borderline attacks and more constructive critisism..or else closed thread.

Clear?

Now, I'm gonna see a movie which I ain't done in like a half a Term it seems so, play nice.


Please, I'll probably be happy and reports of jerk faces is gonna bum my trip.

Laterness,
Craig, your Moderator. Enhance your calm, John Spartan. :p
 
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I for one welcome our new Ant overlords.... (said in jest :) )

BytePro; possibly. But it's one of the reasons I started this thread (and one of the reasons I attended DundraCon the last couple of years) was to see if the game was still alive. It did not appear to be.

I'm thinking I'm wrong on that.
 
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I for one welcome our new Ant overlords.... (said in jest :) )

BytePro; possibly. But it's one of the reasons I started this thread (and one of the reasons I attended DundraCon the last couple of years) was to see if the game was still alive. It did not appear to be.

I'm thinking I'm wrong on that.

It depends on what "the game" is defined as, and "still alive": Traveller has been alive in many versions since 1977, but maybe there are simply *more* people buying and playing it now than in the last...10 years? 15 years? I'm no historiographer of Traveller, but my guess is that post TNE and then even moreso with T4 Traveller fell out of common play. And now there appear to be more folks buying and playing Traveller (MgT, mostly) than in that recent past, and this is the sense of "renaissance": a resurgence, not a resurrection from actual death.
 
I also think that in the last 30ish years there is an interesting line of thought regarding what it means to play any particular game. Does it have to be slavishly followed by number edition? Does it count if it is the setting but not the engine? How about the engine but not the setting?

I've run far more "CyberTraveller" in the last 25 years (Cyberpunk 2020 engine plus vaguely-OTU setting) than any bog-standard Traveller edition - and I know that I'm not the only person who actually combined these two games in some way.

The OSR seems to have simultaneously embraced and rejected this idea. It's devoted to the purity of particular editions while at the same time being devoted to heartbreaker projects based on those without actually being them.

Here on COTI there is a fair amount of simultaneous acceptance of either the setting or the engine as defining a game as "Traveller" - but even that signal gets lost in the noise at times. In such I suspect that yes, there's lots of stands of Traveller DNA out there in various games that people are playing - the interesting question is where you draw the line at calling it Traveller...

D.
 
Marc at some point in the 90's posted the total corebook/corebox units sold. At that point, IIRC, CT was some 175K units sold, MT was around 70K, TNE some 40K, and T4 was too young to count. T5 moved some 2000 units before being printed, and 3000 more after. And is still selling. Mongoose has Implied somewhere close to 40K units sold of MGT 1E... Something about 4 print runs, each around 10K IIRC. I've never seen figures for GT, GTIW, not HT. But note HT also didn't sell for long.

D&D 5E, in its first year, outsold any other D&D edition's whole lifespan. And is still selling. This puts it probably at half a million PHB's sold - which is the key metric.
 
The OSR seems to have simultaneously embraced and rejected this idea. It's devoted to the purity of particular editions while at the same time being devoted to heartbreaker projects based on those without actually being them.

A quick comment, after having dug a little bit to vast variety of the OSR:

Some groups (forums/players/publishers) are very devoted to particular editions of D&D and hewing as closely to the rules of that edition as possible. Thus (for example), there are people who play OD&D and they will play with the classes and races found in OD&D at that's it.

Other people or groups (on forums/players/publishers) often have no such self-imposed constraints. For example Yoon-Suin, a setting built for B/X D&D but can be used in a variety of D&D rules sets or retro-clones, is unrecognizable as anything to do with a OD&D purist play, but embraced by many, many proponents of OSR play and publishing.

That both these groups claim the mantle of OSR but view what the OSR is to different ends is a notion I can hold in my head without confusion. Other people get more wound up about this contradiction.
 
This has been an interesting thread, though I'm not sure what it's actually accomplishing...

It seems to me that things break down to:

Some folks are interested in playing the original games. They vary from rabid fans for whom any other game is some kind of abomination to folks who will play OD&D one day, D&D 3.x the next, and 5e yet another day.

Some folks like to play the latest game. They vary from rabid fans for whom any other game is some kind of abomination to folks who will play D&D 5e one day, D&D 3.x the next, and OD&D yet another day.

Other folks have settled on a game or games from different time periods.

In the end, creativehum makes a good point, what matters to any given individual is the games THEY want to play, and collecting players for that game. With the power of the internet today, given the player looking for a game has some flexibility about when and how to play, one should be able to satisfy almost any desire of what to play. And given that, who cares how well the game sells, or who is rabidly for or against the game.

The nice thing about the internet is that it actually makes it easier for those of us who want to play something other than the current hit or runners up to find people to play the game we want to play. We can also look at what other folks are playing or at least talking about for inspiration for our own games.

And because of that, I see that yes, there is some kind of renaissance or revival because what folks are doing on the internet is inspiring folks to dust off those old games and play them. I'm having fun in gaming because of that interest. Back when I gathered folks together in my home to play games (at least aided by e-mail - it was at the beginnings of blogging), I decided to get into D&D 3.0 (though via the then recently published Arcana Unearthed by Monte Cook) because it seemed like the only way I was going to get players was to play the latest hit. It was fun, but I missed aspects of older D&D play. I tried to get those players interested in OD&D, and we did play for a bit, but they chafed at not being able to design their PC. And the interest in Traveller was close to zero.

Frank
 
It depends on what "the game" is defined as, and "still alive": Traveller has been alive in many versions since 1977, but maybe there are simply *more* people buying and playing it now than in the last...10 years? 15 years? I'm no historiographer of Traveller, but my guess is that post TNE and then even moreso with T4 Traveller fell out of common play. And now there appear to be more folks buying and playing Traveller (MgT, mostly) than in that recent past, and this is the sense of "renaissance": a resurgence, not a resurrection from actual death.
This made me think about current Traveller player groups around the globe, each with 3 or 4 players around a table. If those Traveller groups (playing every other weekend for the next 6 months) don't mention at all on the Internet that they are currently playing Traveller, is Traveller still dead in everyone else's eyes?
 
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