What do you LOVE about CT?

[magnusfalkirk]

All you needed was Books 1-3 to create characters, worlds, starships and adventures. You could add to it with the other books and supplements or keep as simple as you wanted. You could play in GDW's "official" Traveller universe or in one of your own making.

And, yes, character generation was a game unto itself. Even that you could play one of two ways. Either play it as it was designed, where your character could die before he/she was ready to begin adventuring, or play it so that if your character failed a survival roll he/she was automatically discharged and began their adventuring career.

CT was/is as good a game as you wanted to make it.

Dean

 

[aramis]

Let's see...

• The 3I setting, despite some elements of it I dislike (Ships of 10KTd+)
• Character Gen as minigame
• Damage to Attributes
• Playable with just books 1-3+Supp 4.
• As written, needs ~8th grade reading level - very accessible rules text.
• Step by step instructions for worldbuilding and character generation.
• OTU optional (Tho, really, I've only run 3 campaigns not set in the OTU out of some 20 campaigns since 1983)
• Second Best Alien Modules in the history of Gaming. (Beat only by MT's S&A, and V&V.)
• (Until 1984) very friendly to 3rd party developers. Esp. DGP, JG, and the Bros Keith.
• Bk2 combat system for ships
• Mayday movement rules

I love

 

[Traveller]

Playable with just books 1-3+Supp 4.

This is not wholly true. Several of the Supplement 4 careers require skills from Books 4 and 5 (e.g. Recruiting, Liaison, and Instruction) and thus are not described in Supplement 4. Those careers are essentially unplayable without the appropriate Books that have the skills in question. The game IS playable as you describe if you do not utilize the careers that have those skills.

I love that the game is playable without requiring anything other than Books 1-3, The Traveller Book, or Starter Traveller.

 

[Knightsky]

Each piece is a little game, enjoyable on its own, that create things which can be plugged right into the game.

Book 2 is accessible and fast, while still having interesting constraints.

Chargen doesn't take long to do, and gives just enough playable detail to work with.

The setting is detailed enough to draw people in.

Shotguns and cutlasses, pirates and merchantmen. Age of Sail in space.

Get out of my head!

The simplicity and openness of the system.

 

[Vargas]

Some of it is nostalgia and some of it is ease of use, the admission that the rules don't cover everything and the encouragement to do it yourself. It really came home to me back during MT when I was around a lot of people who wanted to define every aspect of the setting and have rules to match. They went to all kinds of lengths to shoehorn in every bit of minutia they could while seeking to exclude other people’s work that didn’t fit their vision. I went back and read CT and was struck at just how open and relatively simple it was by comparison. That openness and the “permission” given to make the game your own is what stuck with me about Classic Traveller.

 

[Prometheus]

Some of it is nostalgia and some of it is ease of use, the admission that the rules don't cover everything and the encouragement to do it yourself. It really came home to me back during MT when I was around a lot of people who wanted to define every aspect of the setting and have rules to match. They went to all kinds of lengths to shoehorn in every bit of minutia they could while seeking to exclude other people’s work that didn’t fit their vision. I went back and read CT and was struck at just how open and relatively simple it was by comparison. That openness and the “permission” given to make the game your own is what stuck with me about Classic Traveller.

Well put! I think that is an accurate description of how I feel.

 

[Meteoric Assault]

Love it all

 

[nats]

I find some of it nostagia but mainly ease of use as well, not loads of rules to remember. Each area is split quite well into small books so that you can remember quickly where to look if you want anything. And the sketches generally improved the whole feeling of the game. I also loved the use of traditional earth weapons such as submachine guns and swords along with lasers.

Mongoose Traveller adds far more to the game but IMO destroys much of the games original feel as well. Whenever I get into Traveller, on occassion, to gen a character or whatever I feel I should be using Mongoose stuff as its more complete but when I start looking at it I just go cold and lose interest.

Mostly I just love the small black books.

But thinking back to when I got Traveller the best thing I liked and still do is that it just encourages you to use your imagination. The books give you the building blocks for you to imagine real worlds, weapons, situations, space encounters etc. It doesnt spell everything out for you, just enough to get you imagining and creating. Thats what I loved about it the most and still do. Still gets me every time a reread the first three books especially. Whereas in MGT eveything is spelt out for you pretty much, in CT you have to think for yourself, thats what I like about it. I never liked the Official Universe though, that just ruined the whole thing for me. I still prefer to create my own little worlds with my own rules. But then CT never ties you down. Whereas a lot of the official adventures are quite tame (well compared to Star Wars and the like) there nothing stopping you from altering them to spice things up, in fact you are encouraged to think outside the box with Traveller. Whereas most RPGs provide a strightjacket, Traveller provide you with an open door to your creativity.

 

[Dragoner]

Look what can be done with CT, being creative:

(the first part is CT canon from 76 patrons, notes are mine)

A shipment of arms is being carried from the manufacturer
to a client state on the Imperial frontier on board an M class merchantman.
Due to the delicate nature of relations between the empire and the client states
neighbors, the vessel will proceed without escort amd with the utmost secrecy to its
destination. Information (gained at the expense of several lives) has been obtained
which reveals the sailing time and course of this vessel. To maintain cover, such
vessels usually take on small amounts of cargo and passengers along the way. The
Ine Givar wishes to divert the arms shipment for its own uses, but has no agents in
the region which would not be recognized.

5. The information obtained by the rebels is partially wrong. The vessel does not
contain arms, but does contain a full squad of lmperial marines and a 60 ton load
of drugs and other pleasure devices intended for one of the lmperial pleasure planets
notes:

The original crew has supposedly come down with Denebian Ringworm, needs new crew and company agents to

keep the drugs secure (esp from the marines).

Marclor Wismüller patron/benefactor from Spmaco Entertainment (might get itchy from Denebian Ringworm and

will need to be quarantined in cabin).

Security needed to keep Marines out of cargo, Marines get into cargo.
-Event: Halucinating Marine in main passage wearing nothing but two chrome ceremonial assault rifles,

needs to be subdued.

Some Mendinesian HighLeaf is infested with Gygaxian Hypnotoads or Rigelian Brainslugs - chaos and

hilarity ensues..(slugs/toads may be delicacy for Vegan staff).

final scene, 100 fresh cherry 2000 carry the cargo on stage for ethusiastic crowd of troops, riot ensues,

the mission is a success.

crux of mission: nobody dies.

and here a small update on my entropic darrians from my "entropic corrosion" adventure, without the arguing, they would have been much more one dimensional:

http://www.TravellerRPG.com/CotI/Gallery/index.php?n=811

I love CT.

-Robert

(rescued this post from a dead thread)