Hey Othin. Welcome to TravellerGrogNet...
As you can see, there are as many opinions about Traveller as there are players. But don't let that get you down cuz this many loyal fanatics says *something* good about a game... Except
Vampire.
Vampire sucks
OK, first off, a warning about getting into SciFi gaming... It's WAY different than fantasy. In our WoW (et.al.) driven hobby, most players expect some sort of 'uber' payoff at the end of an adventure. The problem is that SciFi games don't really deliver a "Deathslayer Vorpal Broadsword of the Monkey". In Traveller terms, that would be Battle Dress (powered combat armor a'la
Starship Troopers) with a Fusion Rifle, and you would be cracked up out of your mind to give a PC that kind of gear (because PC's are
eeeeviiilll). Traveller rewards usually come in the form of training possibilities, contacts, influence with the powerful, bank payments on a ship, and so forth. That can be hard for some players to relate to.
So here are my somewhat heretical suggestions on how to get started as a SciFi gamer:
The be-all, end-all book for a new group of players and a referee is the (sadly) out of print
Star Wars the Roleplaying Game 2nd ed {Revised and Expanded} by West End Games. Here's why I think so:
a) it's full color with lots of flash (art illustrating what the text is talking about, etc.),
b) character generation is ridiculously easy (and clearly explained)
c) it contains rules for Combat (on any scale), Ships, Beasts, and Aliens and,
d) it includes BOTH a solo adventure (to teach all hands how to play by themselves) and a group adventure for your starting PC's.
Sadly, Traveller material is often written with the grognards (like my humble self) in mind, and you have seen how difficult it is to start up as a newbie with no real help. That is something I really hope Marc addresses with the mythological Traveller 5th edition, but for now, that's how it is. And to make things even murkier, almost every version of Traveller out there has different game mechanics...
So, the next thing to do is pick a Traveller system and master it's basic mechanics (Character Generation, Basic Task System, Personal Combat, and Vehicle (or Ship) Combat). In order of MY preference, easiest to hardest to learn are: Traveller d20, Traveller 4th ed, Classic (1st ed.)Traveller (the Little Black Books), GURPS: Traveller and MegaTraveller. Your milage may vary. Note that EVERY version listed has great source material, so don't completely ignore them.
Then work out what part of the universe you're going to set your game and do a meta-plot (sort of a story-arc). The guys here at T20 have a great one in the Linkworlds Cluster, available as a pdf.
A little side reading is always good too. Stick with solid, non-liscenced sci-fi (skip the StarWars/Star Trek/Shadowrun/BattleTech, etc, novels), and try to keep an open mind about what you want to borrow for YOUR Traveller Game. Here's my top ten books for Traveller Refs (in no particular order):
*Honor Harrington series, Dave Weber
*Hammers Slammers series, Dave Drake
*Downbelow Station, CJ Cheryyah
*Starcruiser Shennandoah seris, Roland Green
*Starship Troopers, Robert Heinlein
*The Fuzzy Papers, H. Beam Piper
*Startide Rising, David Brin
*Neuromancer, William Gibson
*Marching Through Georgia, SM Stirling
*Hardwired, Walter Jon Williams
Lastly, when the available material overwhelms you, remember the following phrase: IMTU (In MY Traveller Universe).
Hope that helps some, and welcome to the Grogs!