Why Do You Like Traveller?

[Jeff M. Hopper]

Exactly what it says on the tin. Why do you like Traveller? What attracts you to this game?

For me, I like it because it is hard science fiction. Not solid hard, also not so soft that it becomes ridiculously handwavy, but just hard enough to be very playable and seem realistic without tearing my disbelief suspenders.

I like how the characters are usually experienced. You do not start out as a novice and go on a zero to hero path typically.

I really like how lethal combat is. No nigh indestructable characters who can take hundreds of hits before being incapacitated. It really makes Players think about how to avoid fights and find other solutions to in-game problems.

 

[lspitz]

Exactly what it says on the tin. Why do you like Traveller? What attracts you to this game?

For me, I like it because it is hard science fiction. Not solid hard, also not so soft that it becomes ridiculously handwavy, but just hard enough to be very playable and seem realistic without tearing my disbelief suspenders.

I like how the characters are usually experienced. You do not start out as a novice and go on a zero to hero path typically.

I really like how lethal combat is. No nigh indestructable characters who can take hundreds of hits before being incapacitated. It really makes Players think about how to avoid fights and find other solutions to in-game problems.

I can agree with that list. Traveller is not completely without handwavium, but it doesn't dominate.

I like the fast character generation of Classic Traveller LBB1 and Supplement 4. It's not perfect, but it works and it gets people right into the game.

I appreciate having the expanded options for chargen in LBBs 4-7.

Similarly, I like the starship construction rules in LBB2. Enough detail to work with, not so much as to bog you down. For those with more gearhead tastes, there's High Guard. Pick your preferred level of detail.

I like the ability that CT gave you to build your own universe. Here's this awesome toolkit, now go and have fun with it! Later versions of the rules became too entangled with the Third Imperium setting for my tastes- not that it's impossible to roll your own TU using them if you want to. But the progression from version to version has clearly been from "Here's a toolkit to support whatever you want to do" to "Here are the current rules for the 3I setting".

I guess I just like rules that are really cool toolkits. I'm much less into official settings, whatever the game.

 

[Midgardsormr]

I like the relative simplicity and modularity of the rules during play (I'm playing T5 and substituting CT where needed). The crunchy complex parts are (mostly) on the prep side, where I can enjoy tinkering with them, but at the table it's lean and efficient. And if I need something from another edition, it's usually pretty easy to adapt it.

The lack of expectations from players is a huge asset to me, also. With certain other games, players have preconceived notions of how the game and the universe work, and that creates additional pressure to either disabuse those notions or cater to them, neither of which is terribly appealing to me.

 

[mike wightman]

Traveller is not hard sci fi - but it can be.

Traveller is not sci-fantasy - but it can be.

Traveller is not the OTU - but it can be.

Traveller is not home-brew settings - but it can be.

Traveller is not about adapting just about any work of sic fi literature, computer game, TV or cinema - but it can be

Traveller is a set of rules that can be use to do all of the above. What's more I can cherry pick from all the versions to make what I think is the ideal core rules set for any rpg, not just sci fi.

I have a room full of rpgs, boardgames and war-games collected over the last 35+years, and Traveller remains my go to game.

 

[aramis]

Exactly what it says on the tin. Why do you like Traveller? What attracts you to this game?

It's been the setting since about 1985....

The rules have ever been disappointing to me since about 1992...

 

[atpollard]

It's been the setting since about 1985....

Just out of curiosity, which setting?
The vast infinite Imperium of the classic era or the unfolding drama across the peak, death and slow rebirth of the Imperium?

 

[aramis]

Just out of curiosity, which setting?
The vast infinite Imperium of the classic era or the unfolding drama across the peak, death and slow rebirth of the Imperium?

I like Classic and Mega, Including Hard Times.

Didn't care for the Frank & Dave show (TNE), setting nor rules.

T4 was sufficiently bad as a ruleset as to make it hard to play the CT/MT setting (only covered to TL12 in the core), and was character incompatible, mechanically unpleasant, and a munchkin's delight. Get your needed skills to 1, then all your atts to 12+, and you're golden to 3D difficulty... at 15's, you're good to most 4d tasks.

GT started off changing the setting from prior art, and diverged steadily. Plus, by the time it had come out, I'd grown to detest the GURPS fans in my local community...

MGT is a passable game, not so good as a core ruleset for the OTU. Many pointless changes (The Law level table, the reference to hydrogen in the jump bubble, the bad pricing structure, the changes to pricing, the basing it of the explicitly deprecated CT 1E... I could go on, but won't), the bad artwork, the extremely inconsistent quality of the splatbooks (content, layout, and physical construction)... And then the changes in their presentation of the OTU.

T5 is devoid of significant setting elements other than those encoded in the rules. And it's got most of the mechanical issues of T4.

 

[Burocrate]

...begin 'Fan Boy' mode....now.

As stated so well by the above postings, Traveller can accommodate any play style; it remains playable while we mature (most of us anyway) (well okay, maybe not myself as much as could be expected…anyway moving on!)

I know ,at first, my group acted as if we were still playing DnD; much to our glee when the lethality of combat surprised our resident door smasher. You can play a hyper combat game with adrenaline fueled teens (who really need to stay in their Battledress and avoid snipers with Crump Rifles) to detail rich 'list every item down to the toothbrush at the bottom of the kitbag' Merc campaigns. Besides combat there are strong Merchant storylines, Exploration, or simply Travelling the universe and taking money from Parton “X” to visit location “Y” and determine condition “Z”.

On top of all that, I get the pleasure of playing this Grand Old Game (via PBEMs) with other Travellers like myself.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Exactly what it says on the tin. Why do you like Traveller? What attracts you to this game?

For me, I like it because it is hard science fiction. Not solid hard, also not so soft that it becomes ridiculously handwavy, but just hard enough to be very playable and seem realistic without tearing my disbelief suspenders.

I like how the characters are usually experienced. You do not start out as a novice and go on a zero to hero path typically.

I really like how lethal combat is. No nigh indestructable characters who can take hundreds of hits before being incapacitated. It really makes Players think about how to avoid fights and find other solutions to in-game problems.

The simple explanatio is that I grew up with it, and that it is a free form sci-fi structure that can incorporate other settings. Like I mentioned elsewhere, you can do D&D with Traveller, but not the otherway around (or not without more recent rules, and not easily before then).