I've been playing Traveller, the science fiction role playing game, since it was released as a little black box in the 1980's:







I found it to be a superb game to play either on your own, where you can design systems and ships, or you can get a few friends together and play the game around a table, where one takes the role of referee (or games master) and administers the game for the others who act as players in his story.



In terms of what the essence of the game is you can look at it as Dungeons and Dragons in space, but that doesn't really do Traveller justice because Traveller is far more open and flexible than D&D. Traveller is more about exploring, problem solving, living out your characters lives rather than just carrying out medieval combat in a dungeon.



You all design a character each by playing through their early careers in the army, marines, merchants, scouts etc to create your character's past history, characteristics and skills and you can even die in this character generation. Then you equip your characters and go out adventuring in a fantastic sci-fi universe ruled by an Imperium, but surrounded by various alien races most of whom are bent on eradicating the Imperium. The Imperium is generally a reasonably high technology level race that has space travel but communication cannot travel faster than a spaceship can jump between systems (which take a week per jump) so systems far out from the Imperial centre are practically self governing and news takes a long time to filter around the galaxy. Add to this that there are hundreds of other systems that are more highly developed or still in the renaissance (or worse) using swords or antique guns, and your characters have a heck of a lot to explore and experience.



The game provides rules for close combat, ship combat and designing ships, travelling and exploring the galaxy, discovering planets/solar system design, trading, psionics, etc. The referee uses these rules to design an adventure for the players to take part in, or uses a pre-written adventure. Either way he presents problems, opportunities and threats for the players to take advantage of or avoid, beat etc. Anything that you can imagine can be played in Traveller.



Mongoose Publishing have updated the old 'Classic Traveller' with a new set of rules that combine all the old ones so its a great time to get into it, also Traveller 5, the first new version from the original author for years, is due out in December this year. And you can still pick up the classic Traveller books on Ebay.



Its a great game to get into if you like science fiction, and perhaps are wanting something to enjoy playing/spending time on away from your computer, especially if you have a few like minded friends with good imaginations.

Im a fan or was anyway. I even coded some of the charachter/career books to old Vic20(Commodere20) Was very exciting just going thrue the carrier. Got flashing borders for hits and success in the dierolls. hehe.

Was Rolemaster for awhile and last adventure I run was with the traveller strategy board game as a backdrop. Succesion war it called if I remember right. Ive been surveying the net ever since then to find someone else who made those books to code for character build or/and for solitair enjoyment. I my self cant code anymore as burnt my self out coding non inspirering buissnies and admin codes 7-8 years ago. But still find energy to play so thats a blessing. I have no books left, was donating them to my old rpg/wargames club. Collecting dust Im afraid.



Its still a good game to capture new players fantasy and absolutly worth to be revived in bigger circles.

Cheers

swedewolf wrote:
Im a fan or was anyway. I even coded some of the charachter/career books to old Vic20(Commodere20) Was very exciting just going thrue the carrier. Got flashing borders for hits and success in the dierolls. hehe.

Was Rolemaster for awhile and last adventure I run was with the traveller strategy board game as a backdrop. Succesion war it called if I remember right. Ive been surveying the net ever since then to find someone else who made those books to code for character build or/and for solitair enjoyment. I my self cant code anymore as burnt my self out coding non inspirering buissnies and admin codes 7-8 years ago. But still find energy to play so thats a blessing. I have no books left, was donating them to my old rpg/wargames club. Collecting dust Im afraid.



Its still a good game to capture new players fantasy and absolutly worth to be revived in bigger circles.

Cheers

It has seen quite a resurgence since Mongoose started doing their version. You can play Traveller in quite a few conventions here in the UK these days and we have a BITS Traveller Gaming Day where you can do nothing but play Traveller for a day. Mongoose also hold their odd gaming days as well.



It is difficult finding players for Traveller though - I have one that lives a few miles from me but we have never played a game as you really need 3-5 people to play a decent game. You can find players via Mongoose's website forum - they have a player finder. I started a game with my kids but they are a bit young yet ... in a couple more years maybe!

Maybee a trial session by skype or something to connect with traveler fans not so close. I will check the Mobgoose site. Good intiative with this thread. We should talk more. cheers

I know a couple of groups that play Traveller regularly around here (UK midlands). I haven’t played it extensively but I do have 3rd Edition (I think) and I did play it for about a year a long time ago. It’s a great game and as long as your GM is more interested in a spinning a good yarn rather than being picky about the numbers it can be a rewarding experience.



We're lucky, we have a large community of RPers around these parts and we all stay in contact via various forums and what have you; we even field teams for the Student Nationals every year under the banner of DMU (one of which we hosted – a great experience). We all met at Uni via the Games Society and kept in touch, bringing in new blood each year through the society. Things aren’t quite as fluid as they used to be, we’re all older and have kids now, but usually when someone is keen to run something it doesn’t take much effort to cobble together five or so interested players.



I’ve never played something as complicated as Traveller via Skype or IRC tho. Not sure if it lends itself well to that sort of medium.

+1 fan here. But haven't played in years. I can also recommend the old Amiga Mega-Traveller CRPG. They were very good and a shame they haven't been redone for modern PCs and audiences.



Traveller 5 ehh? Checking now!

Wow, this sounds like loads of fun.

Executus wrote:
Wow, this sounds like loads of fun.

It is - even messing around with the game on your own. But if you have a few friends who are interested in sci-fi definitely try it. Get the original classic Traveller Black Box or Traveller Starter Set cheap on Ebay or alternatively, if you want to be up to date, get the Mongoose version Traveller Core Rules book here:



http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/rpgs/traveller.html



But don't get the Mongoose Pocket Book version - it's so small you cant read it very easily. Once you have the core rules from somewhere you can easily find loads of classic adventures on Ebay by searching for Traveller in Role Playing Games, the double adventures are a very good place to start.

My group did Traveller once. I ended up not having the time to play, but I did gen a character and be involved in the ship design.



One of the other players wrote a program to determine what trade goods to buy, given current location and desired destination, and what the profit margin was.

Many people, I think, when they play Traveller get carried away with getting a space ship and trading/smuggling etc - ie trying to recreate a Han Solo type career. But the best way IMO to play Traveller is to have the characters do odd jobs like rescues, hostage protection, investigations, and spying. Or making them just have to survive on a harsh world. But it's certainly a really flexible game - if you want to own your own planet you can.



I especially love the whole premise of Traveller the way communication tend to cut off the individual systems from the eye of the Imperium, and the way the game marries blade weapons with lasers and fusion guns. You will more often find yourselves fighting a battle with a sword or pistol than a laser carbine due to the law levels on the planets.



It's very realistically done, great fun and I like it far more than D&D. When I recently played a game of both Traveller and D&D with my family they liked the Traveller game more as well.

Oh, they were doing the interstellar trade on top of the odd-jobs. It's how they paid for their travel expenses (and then some).