1. Traveller Rpg Blog

As with many games that have been revised and reissued regularly since the 1970s, Traveller is in the precarious position of having a rather startling number of different versions of it available. This is particularly the case if you consider that actually the term Traveller refers, in the minds of many, to two connected and distinct things: there’s Traveller in the sense of the game systems that have carried that name, and then there’s Traveller in the sense of the Third Imperium campaign setting which became the default setting of the game reasonably early on in the lifetime of its original incarnation (known today as Classic Traveller). As far as the setting goes Marc Miller, its creator and custodian of most of the old Game Designers’ Workshop RPG back catalogue, has been very generous with the licensing rights over the years, so if you want to play in the Third Imperium there are an embarrassment of choices available. There’s a Traveller for that. There’s a Traveller for that too. Why, some people swear that GURPS Traveller is their absolute favourite presentation of the Third Imperium!

I admit to losing track of which of all these variants are still in print, but I do remember getting the impression a while back that the answer was probably “too many” – although each licence probably gave Miller a nice injection of royalties, at the same time I do wonder whether they have been a double-edged sword: each successful adaptation can only have fragmented the fanbase further (with a big question mark as to whether it grew the fanbase sufficiently to compensate for that), whilst each unsuccessful one can’t have done much to build the fanbase further. If you just look at the system, though, that’s had a convoluted history of its own. Once upon a time there was just Classic Traveller – available in many forms (the original boxed set, the expanded Deluxe Traveller box, the Traveller Book which edited together all the stuff in the boxed set and sprinkled on some extra Third Imperium setting material and adventures, the Starter Traveller set which provided a basic version of the rules), but basically the same game in all its iterations.

Edition wars were unknown, the game sold extremely well – easily becoming the dominant science fiction RPG in the English-speaking world – all was golden. Then there was MegaTraveller, an ambitious revision of the rules which incorporated much more Third Imperium-focused material into the core set. Whereas the original Traveller box had presented a mostly generic set of rules (albeit one whose systems presented an implied setting which the Third Imperium ended up closely resembling, much like the original D&D rules presented an implied setting that the likes of Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms would closely follow), over time the product line had become more and more intertwined with the Imperium, so this change made sense. It also made sense to farm out a lot of the work to Digest Group Publications, a third party outfit who had been turning out exceptionally well-received support material for the game. Unfortunately, due to a basic incompatibility between the word processor software used by DGP and GDW, all the books had to be retyped by hand, and as a result a startling amount of errata creeped into the game. On top of that, it was decided to majorly shake up the setting by having the Emperor get assassinated, shattering it into warring factions.

Whilst a cool idea in principle that made the setting feel less static, it would be a change which would bring about the first, albeit minor fragmentation in the fanbase: some people didn’t like the idea of the civil war, whilst others who might have gone along with it soured on the execution, since DGP and GDW struggled over the course of the MegaTraveller product line to give a real sense of what was going on with the war and how PCs could pitch in. ( GURPS Traveller actually presents an alternate timeline where the Emperor’s assassin died in a shuttle accident on the way to do the dirty deed, preventing the civil war from kicking off in the first place – and there’s a substantial number of Traveller fans who embrace it for precisely that reason.) This was as nothing compared to the fan backlash faced by Traveller: the New Era, which made a series of decisions which well, let’s sit down and list them.

The game system that had originated in Classic Traveller and had been refined for MegaTraveller was tossed out of an airlock and replaced with the GDW house system that had been developed for the second edition of Twilight: 2000 after a long gestation period drawing from the original Twilight: 2000 and 2300AD. (The latter game was originally published as Traveller: 2300, confusing everyone since it had nothing to do with Traveller in terms of setting or system.).

The civil war in the Third Imperium ended with an anticlimactic stalemate. Nobody won, everybody lost to a varying extent, nothing anybody did during the civil war accomplished anything beyond making galactic society frighteningly vulnerable so that when a major crisis came along it collapsed completely. The collapse came about due to an AI computer virus inflicting a massive apocalypse on the galaxy by infecting everyone’s ships.

This felt a bit out-there in the context of the comparatively sober style of hard SF that Traveller had previously been known for. I’m in a somewhat similar boat.

I really liked MgT, but am significantly underwhelmed by MgT2 and don’t really see it as needed to make the game better. I’m one of those Traveller grognards who has a huge collection of materials, I love the game and the setting. But I have finally reached the burnout stage of not only not wanting or needing another edition I’m increasingly not sure of if I’d ever run it again simply because I can’t be sure that my players will be able to get ahold of a rules edition that I’d actually run – plus because I’d probably have to fudge the little bits here and there to make things work.

I was never able to get a copy of the Traveller RPG as a kid. The local hobby shop, long since departed, had the Traveller books, but I never knew where to start. I saw little black books - Books starting with 4, Supplements, etc. But I never knew where to get the first three books.

Plus, with T5 (and I was one of the Kickstarter Backers), I had finally reached the point of exasperation with Traveller (setting) vs. Traveller (rules). I love the setting, but it is seemingly inaccessible to new players in my experience – and the rules well, the BBB is a mess to say the least. Traveller is and has always been one of my RPG loves, but I’m not sure if we’d ever go out on another date. When I ran my short Traveller campaign for my Monday evening group a while back, I found that it’s more or less viable to run it from the core book without the players having their own copies of the rules.

It helps that MgT1 came out under an SRD, so whilst stuff like the full character generation rules aren’t available the basic principles are out there for free for people to pick up and read. Plus the advantage of running a space exploration game is that you can viably set it up so that discovering the setting in play is part of the experience. I have not read T5 and probably never will, but everything I have heard about it suggests that it’s an extremely self-indulgent sort of thing where Marc Miller allowed his love of fiddly little construction subsystems to absolutely run wild, so even a version which wasn’t a casualty of rushed editing probably wouldn’t be my thing. I understand that there is a determined fan effort to do the editing work Miller didn’t fancy doing and get a revised version completed so he can put that out, but it’s been hampered by the person spearheading it dying. Of course, I have my own Kickstarter woes in relation to Mongoose’s next edition of Paranoia. I’m excited for it and the creative logjam seems to have finally been solved, and the reissue seems to be a bit more well thought-out (especially since Paranoia isn’t really a game where people are very attached to the old systems), but the delays seem to have exposed some ways in which Mongoose’s business practices reflect the new reality that they are a small publisher with only two full-time employees these days. Their glory days are behind them, and new powers have risen to take their place – Chronicle City and Cubicle 7, in particular, both seem to be Brit-RPG companies that operate substantially more reliably and successfully in the new environment.

I fear that putting out unwanted new editions of old classics is, as we’ve seen in the past with other companies, a roll of the dice on the part of Mongoose to desperately try to rekindle their fortunes. I especially fear for the future of the company if the new edition doesn’t gain traction, but not to an extent where I’d actually buy the thing myself. Yeah, you pretty much have T5 pegged btw That’s good to know (or remember for that matter) about the SRD. I should probably save it all before it disappears in the wake of MgT2 The truth is my most successful “Traveller” games have been using the Cyberpunk 2020 rules system.

What had me excited about MgT was that it was a similarly simple and “not fiddly” rules system. I am actually kind of dreading the rise of Adv/Dis or Boon/Bane dice in games now, it seems to be turning into the “next big thing” and while I like it, I’m not sure it is quite the Fix that some people try to make it (as you note about Mgt2). But I think I am going to make a point of grabbing the couple of MgT1 books that I don’t have but still look interesting before they disappear. LOL, I just wandered back to this post for some reason and saw this. You are most welcome! Plus, with the Near Orbit and Deep Space supplements for CP2020 you actually have the extra couple rules you need for a space campaign.

Add a couple of skills and you’re golden! I ran the games using the Traveller skills for the most part, actually ran them through the Trav chargen (with Lifepath on top of it, very MgTish in that respect), and them gave them some points to buy skills in their Role, and then a couple more for their Pickup skills and it worked out pretty well balance wise. I guess by using CP2020 you’d also have fairly reasonable rules support for cybernetics (if you buy into the “a prosethetic arm makes you psychologically less human” axiom, which seems pretty dang citation needed to me), whereas so far as I can make out Traveller basically didn’t have cybernetics support at all until the Cybernetics supplement for MongTrav 1. Which, when you think about it, kind of illustrates why Traveller’s star faded: science fiction moved on and left it behind, and Traveller was stuck emulating an out of date version of the future. Thanks for an interesting article and analysis of the history of the various incarnations of Traveller. However, I feel compelled to point out that Traveller: TNE does not use the Traveller: 2300/2300AD rule system at all.

Rather, it uses the “GDW House System” that was used in Dark Conspiracy, Twilight: 2000 2nd ed and Cadillacs & Dinosaurs. 2300AD had its own system, with elements from both MegaTraveller and Twilight: 2000 1st ed.

I imagine that the system probably was a major inspiration when GDW decided to design their House System as it preceded it with many years, but I feel poor 2300AD is taking a lot of uncalled for flak here In fact, 2300AD is a pretty decent game and one with a very cool hard SF feel as well. And T:TNE isn’t that bad either if you don’t approach it with your grognard goggles on 😉 However, I do agree with you that MongTrav 1e is nicer than the new edition. Sadly, very hard to get hold of the books now. My understanding was that 2300 AD was an early prototype of the house system (hence both using 1D10 rather than 2D6 as the randomiser), so saying that it and the House System are different is like saying that early editions of D&D and Gamma World are different systems – sure, some of the attributes and whatnot are different, but the underlying principles are basically identical.

I’ve edited the article to reflect that, though I’m not sure it undermines my point that much since 2300 AD was still closer to the House System than Traveller was. Also what flak? I’m not slamming 2300 AD, I’m slamming the business decisions that GDW made surrounding it (and in particular the utterly needless confusion with Traveller). I was actually willing to “accept” the ship design decision and overlook it, even though I agree it should have been in the core and totally goes against the spirit of what Traveller fundamentally is. So I went ahead and bought MGT2e in hard cover. Went through it and thought all was ok given my expectations were tampered already, so I decided it was time to roll up a sector of my own.

So I go to the back of the book and promptly discover that there are no worksheets. No blank sector map. No character sheets. There are no tools with which to make your game.

Nor is there even an index. Ok, I said, I’ll get them from the Mongoose websitethey only make the character sheet available there. And so now I’m totally pissed. They charged $50 USD and can’t be bothered to include some.basic.

tools to aid players and a GM through putting a game together. I’ve been told that the PDF version does have these things, but its another $30 USD.

I simply won’t pay that much for a PDF when I shelled out for the printed book. The whole thing just smacks of being completely, unforgivably, lazy to me. So, yeah, count me among those who are now exploring Cepheus Engine for my sci fi gaming needs. Good on you for not falling for it like I did. No forms I could overlook if there are decent PDF forms available – after all, how many of us are actually using photocopiers to copy these things from books these days anyway?

When was the last time you were somewhere where you had access to a photocopier but not a printer and Internet access? No index is a very poor showing though, especially if there is an index in the PDF version. If anything, the hard copy needs the index even more because you can’t Ctrl-F a physical book. Classic Mongoose “professionalism” at work, folks. I kinda thought the same too.

No biggie if I can download all the forms you need from Mongoose’s website, but you can’t. You can get the character sheet, but you’ll have to look elsewhere for any of the other campaign planning tools. Its just sloppy. The nano-second they decide to skip putting forms in the books for all the reasons you state, which I’d be totally ok with, you’d best have your website content guy putting those links front and center where people can find em.

In the end, yeah, I can find.someone. who’s made them available.somewhere. online. So I’ll live and be fine. I just expect a whole lot more from the company who’s officially supposed to be supporting the game line. And that’s what hacks me off. A very interesting article.

For my mongoose traveller was my the first version I actually dove into and one of the few RPG’s I have a physical copy of, as I tend to stick to PDF’s for most games these days. What really interests me is that I had pretty much the same reaction to the 2nd edition, especially with the bane/boon system and lack of ship design, without having the classic traveller background. I think what really bothered me about MgTr are the supplements and expansions. Many of them are deeply disappointing and sometimes plain wrong in their examples, yet offer tantalising setting neutral plot idea’s, I’m curious to see if the quality of these books will improve in this new edition. Finally while on the subject, while I love what the MgTr system generator does, there are still many blanks left, any moons?

Are there any other planets in the system? Are they habited? If anybody could point me to another supplementary generator for these details I would be very grateful. The Classic Traveller supplement “Scouts” goes into making full planetary systems, working on the assumption that the world you generated using the core system just represents the main settled world in the star system in question.

It’s completely compatible with MgTr and I’ve used it for that purpose myself. I have noticed it tends to make your main world a moon orbiting a gas giant in the habitable zone of the star in question, but you can nudge the probabilities on the tables if you want to avoid that and it actually makes sense for Traveller (since you’d expect people to err towards settling planets with a convenient source of abundant hydrogen to use as fuel). If you can track down a copy of the third-party supplement World Builder’s Guidebook for MegaTraveller, that goes down into even more detail, especially for dealing with the local culture. But it’s not available legally anywhere save for second hand copies because the rights-holder for Digest Group Publications’ work has been an ass about making it available on PDF or licensing it out to others.

Interesting read.given that this was written in 2016, wondering how people feel now. I actually was quite frustrated with the many editing and presentation issues of MGT1E and switched to 2E (even with the starship rules being in High Guard), and don’t regret itMGT2E is a much cleaner ruleset and fixes many little issues I had while being more carefully edited and organized.

Once I got High Guard, The SSC and Vehicles Book I realized that Mongoose’s long game was to essentially provide a complete game.with pretty much everything I could ever need.over those four books. Only the Companion is missing at this point. Recent Posts. Recent Comments. on. on.

on. on. on My Campaigns. Log for my Ars Magica campaign.

Blog for my AD&D campaign. Session notes from Deathwatch adventures.

A blog for my Traveller campaign. A Call of Cthulhu campaign using World War Cthulhu: the Darkest Hour. Campaigns using Pendragon. Referees Worth Referring To. Dan H writes about game mechanics here.

Shimmin Beg’s blog includes some musings on GMly matters but is also devoted to chronicling a campaign of his. I have never gamed with Shannon but between the neat “game translations” idea, the real life anecdotes and the theory posts this is a real treasure trove.

Share this:. Jon Burton – founder of prolific studio and executive producer on the LEGO movie – has been working in the games industry for nearly three decades now. You pick up some interesting insights after that long, and now he’s sharing some of that knowledge with us. Over the past 6 weeks, he’s been detailing coding secrets, unveiling abandoned concepts and demoing unreleased builds of older games. Today he announced a project to polish up one of his most-maligned games through an unofficial ‘Director’s Cut’ mod. He’s going to fix 1996’s Sonic 3D Blast.

Share this:. Must travel quickly! That’s the infamous blue hedgehog’s catch phrase and it is doubly meaningful this afternoon, as the noted fugitive’s new two-dimensional adventure has been released on personal computers for all his troubled fans TODAY. sees an alledgedly solid return for the steel blue country animal with a disturbing past. You’ll be using his trademark guddies and retro style to traverse whole new levels, including but not limited to:. The Green Place. Consumption Zone.

Fermented Cactus Juice Bottling Grounds. Disco Wetlands.

Customs & Immigration. Mammal Hell. Share this:. In the same way that ageing rockers prove they’ve still got ‘it’ by collaborating with hip young pop musicmen, Sonic the Hedgehog is getting re-re-remixed. As part of his 25th birthday celebrations, Sega have announced Sonic Mania, a new 2D platformer with a 16-bit style and zones inspired by ye olde Sonic games from the Mega Drive. It looks pretty interesting! To prove that Sonic’s new material is still really good and powerful and as good as he ever was, okay, Sega also announced a yet-unnamed new 3D Sonic game.

Share this:. Sonic the Hedgehog turns 25 on Thursday, which is a good cause to pull out the interactive photo book and look at how we once were.

“Coo, remember when we hadta to fast?” you ask, jabbing at his cute pink belly in the picture. He frowns and tugs unconsciously at his neckerchief – give him a few years. “Ahh and remember when we wantedta go fast?” you ask, leafing through more pages. “Then then we shouldnta gone fast. I’m sorry, I” You take his gloved hand.

“How are you really doing?” All of which can only mean that in their latest pay what-you-want dealio. Some of them are quite good! Share this:. I didn’t mention on Monday that Sonic Lost World had just arrived on PC because, well, even enthusiastic impressions seem to boil the 2013 hedgehog ’em up down to being competent or good for a modern Sonic game – damning with faint praise, that. I know The Blue Blur (I do still laugh at Sega using that nickname seriously) means a lot to some folks and while I’m certain I’ll never again feel the joy of Sonic 2, don’t we live in hope? Don’t even bad Sonic games remind us of happy times?

Traveller Rpg Blog

The point is: Sonic Lost World has arrived on Windows, two years after its Wii U debut. Share this:. If you were a Mega Driver back in the day (or Genesis-er if you live Stateside) then you’ll know Sonic 2 was the best Sonic. The original introduced the concept and set the tone, whilst Sonic 3 tried too hard with its dodgy boss melodies and pain-in-the-arse bonus levels.

Anything after that was mince. Sonic 2 was the sweet spot in the series. Why is this relevant here at RPS’s House-O-PCs, I hear you ask? A ROM hacker has given Sonic something very cool from our home: an Aperture Science portal gun. Share this:.

The early/mid 90s was a confusing time to love Sega games. Sure, they were still pumping out classic software left, right and centre, but they couldn’t make their mind up about which piece of home console hardware they wanted you to own the most. The Mega CD was a CD based expansion for their trusty Mega Drive, which let you play many of the same games as you could play on cartridges, just with higher audio fidelity and price tags. There was also a few Mega CD exclusive games though, probably most noteworthy was their flagship platforming mascot’s imaginatively titled Sonic CD, which is now heading to PC (again). Share this:.

Is this allowed? Are shotgun-wielding Sega employees hauling a bound and gagged indie developer to a shed in the everglades even as we speak? Quick, before it’s too late: one Mr Sonic T.

Hedgehog is wearing his PC hat for the first time in years, in the form of a fan-made remake of his classic jewellery-thieving, animal-bothering outing. Given half the world’s frothing/complaining about having Sonic 4 on their eXecutableBoxes this week, it’s good to have a spot of blue spiky retro-fetishism on PC too. It’s a sort of 2.5D thing: modern visuals, olden DNA. But as it’s only hosted on RapidShare for the time being, you might want to stare at the below video while you wait.

Pretties, if on the manic side.