As a gamer of “a certain age,” I grew up as several now-iconic games were just coming on the scene, following the trail mostly blazed by TSR and D&D. Games like Tunnels & Trolls, Runequest, Call of Cthulhu, and Traveller. Mind you, this isn’t necessarily chronologically or historically 100% accurate. Theses are just the non-TSR games that I first started becoming aware of and interested in.
As I mentioned in the previous post, I’m currently running a Traveller campaign using the most recent edition of the game: Mongoose Publishing’s 2nd edition (“MgT2e”). There have been many versions of the game over the decades, published by various companies. Starting WAY back in 1977 with Game Designers’ Workshop’s “Little Black Books.”
My group of friends, being deep in the throes of the original trilogy Star Wars films and reruns of classic Star Trek, were ripe fodder for a game of spaceships and laser guns. I estimate we got a hold of a set of the books circa 1982. Sadly, we never really succeeded in getting a Traveller game off the ground. Oh sure, we ran through wild and wacky (at the time) character generation system, rolling up character after character. But we never managed to sustain a campaign or even play through a full adventure. For whatever reason -a lack of clarity in the text, our youth, or a lack of information on gameplay in a pre-internet age- it just never fully clicked with us. After a time, we abandoned it and returned to fantasy and 1st edition AD&D and a smattering of Runequest.
Fast forward to the Year That Shall Not Be Named. Virtual gaming (in my case, Roll20) had taken the front seat. After a B/X Keep on the Borderlands game that I hastily launched because we were all going out of our collective tree from a lack of gaming, we shifted to another member of the group running some Savage Worlds, giving me a break from the GM chair.
As I mentioned in the previous post, it was around this time that I acquired the latest versions of several games in an effort to A) occupy myself with the reading of them and B) take a look at where some classic titles were at today vs. when they first came on the market. One of these was Traveller.
“Science fiction” is one of those terms that can cover a LOT of different things. Whether it’s pulp, gritty, grimdark, space opera, hard sci-fi or alternate history (to name a few). The best way I can describe Traveller’s brand of sci-fi is “Space Opera with a Hard Sci-Fi Vibe.” This definition is not always received well by some Traveller fans, who relish in all the fiddly rules and stats which make the game feel more realistic than it is. Yet, despite all the different types of ships, drives, technological equipment, star maps, and so forth, the game has the characters flying around in ships at faster-than-light speeds, equipped with artificial gravity and inertial dampers. Alien races and futuristic gear abound, and humanity covers a significant portion of the known part of the galaxy in its third version of an interstellar empire. I don’t say this as a dig against the game, but I wanted to clarify that many of the game’s conceits venture into “Clarketech” territory and it’s good to keep that in mind. Whereas in a fantasy game, one might explain some phenomena through “lost magic” or “the gods”, Traveller often just declares “FTL travel is a standard thing. Don’t worry too much about how it works.” And I’m fine with that. There are always those folks online who love to pick at things trying to devise the best technobabble so as to explain it, but I find that largely unnecessary. Still, it can be hard to steer 100% clear of THE LORE.
Traveller is right up there with the big boys like Star Wars or 40K for extensive lore in a science fiction universe. Decades of books, adventures, articles, and maps provide a wide array of races, ships, locations, historical events, and technology. It’s a massive library, and one that can easily trap you in a rabbit hole of chasing down sources for your game if you let it. For myself, I tend to use game lore as more suggestion than canon and that philosophy has helped me avoid getting stuck in several GM-ing situations over the years. But enough about the history, now on to some actual observations of gameplay.
I’m not going to break down every single section of the rules. This isn’t a comprehensive review. But here are a few highlights. Traveller uses a d6 based system where the core mechanic is simply 2d6+modifiers vs. a default success threshold of 8. All rolls are d6 or the occasional d3. This is a simple system but it works well. Rolling two dice helps reduce the extremes of a single die’s results and the “bell curve” makes most rolls fairly likely to succeed. The chance of failure might be increased (or decreased) through higher thresholds due to things like complexity or haste. Likewise, MgT2e utilizing “Boon” and “Bane” dice (advantage and disadvantage) to represent difficult circumstances or a lucky break.
Character creation is done by starting your character at 18 and rolling on various educational and career path tables. You may attend university or enter a military academy. Or maybe you just enlist in one of the military branches. Perhaps instead you wish to remain a civilian and be a merchant or a scholar. There are many choices. Each “term” of four years calls for a couple different rolls. Gone are the days where characters can die during generation (technically it’s possible, just highly unlikely), but you can still suffer hardships and injuries. Most characters will probably hold multiple careers before “mustering out.” Many PCs are in the late 30s or 40s before beginning actual play. Unlike a leveled game like D&D, your PC has most of his skills at the start of play. While you can train during downtime (often travel), you are already largely who and what you’re going to be by the time the campaign proper begins.
Combat in Traveller is dangerous. There’s no ever-growing pool of hit points that represents some abstract level of durability. Damage is removed directly from your physical scores (Strength, Endurance, and Dexterity). Drop to zero in two scores? KO. All three? Dead. In play, combat goes fairly quickly.
Spaceship combat is more like the submarine duel in the movie The Hunt for Red October than a Star Wars X-Wing/Tie Fighter battle. Each crew member has a job and a time within the combat round to perform their role. Rounds last six minutes to reflect the immense distances two ships can be at and still fight each other. There are rules for dogfights, generally between smaller craft, but I haven’t had the opportunity to run those (yet).
While styles of play can take nearly any shape, one of the default campaign styles in Traveller is the “Tramp Freighter.” This is the small ship a la Firefly, taking jobs and hauling small cargoes in order to pay their expenses and keep flying. Often a party’s ship comes with a mortgage, and paying that monthly note is a major motivation. The book provides extensive rules for ship operations, trade goods, and taking on passengers.
Another common campaign style is more “Travellers for hire.” Often, one of the PCs may have received a Scout ship (somewhat smaller than the typical “Free Trader” merchant vessel) and the party uses this to hop around the stars, looking for adventure. The scout ships have the advantage of being given to retiring scout character on sort of a long-term loan. There’s no monthly payments, other than maintenance, but the Scout Service may give you an errand to run now and then (Adventure Hook, anyone?).
Okay, that whole discussion got a lot longer than I’d planned. Moving on.
I think it’s pretty obvious from all I’ve rambled here that I’ve been enjoying the game. That’s not to say the game is perfect, however. Most of my criticisms of Traveller aren’t actually about the system. One issue is that so much material is spread over so many source, that players and GMs can feel like they are always one book away from having the information they need. While it’s perfectly possible to play with only the core book, there is SO MUCH addition material published that I suspect few groups do.
Another issue, which has mostly to do with Mongoose the company, is that their proofing/editorial process is, well, frankly terrible. The books are often riddled with typos, botched formatting, and unclear wording. They have been making some strides in this area lately, but be sure to check online for errata when you pick up a book or module from them.
(Time to start wrapping this long ramble up.)
Speaking of online, I can heartily recommend a couple of internet resources for the game that any new player or GM can benefit from. One is the Traveller Discord. It’s a great place to discuss the game, get advice, and ask questions about the game. Another is Seth Skorkowsky’s YouTube channel. He has posted many reviews of Traveller products and has a video series with terrific overview of the current rules set.
Currently, my group is in the middle(ish) of a large published campaign called The Pirates of Drinax. Whether we finish the entire story or not is never certain in gaming. What I do feel confident about is that one way or another, Traveller has earned a spot in our group’s game systems rotation for the foreseeable future.
