The only thing I'd add is that there are a few typos and a little ambiguity in the first printing, but nothing compared to Mongoose's reputation or what is seen in many other games. Considering how quickly this went from writing to publication, it's not too bad. Thus, hopefully by the third printing (the first printing was sold out within one week of release!), it will see a corrected 2nd edtion.
Yeah, the problem with every single edition of Traveller is that it's not a good introduction to Traveller.
To get any sort of a coherent sense of "what's the Traveller universe like" you always - Gurps Traveller, T20, classic - have to buy an antire suite of books and even then there's pretty fundamental questions about "No really so as a normal citizen, what's it like to... " that go unanswered. It's the achilles heel of Traveller and why it tends to only appeal to the same group of grognards and converts in incarnation after incarnation.
Yeah, the problem with every single edition of Traveller is that it's not a good introduction to Traveller.
To get any sort of a coherent sense of "what's the Traveller universe like" you always - Gurps Traveller, T20, classic - have to buy an antire suite of books and even then there's pretty fundamental questions about "No really so as a normal citizen, what's it like to... " that go unanswered. It's the achilles heel of Traveller and why it tends to only appeal to the same group of grognards and converts in incarnation after incarnation.
I think you're right, although in the case of Mongoose they're looking at using Traveller as the base rulebook for a number of settings. 3I citizen info would be irrelevant in a Judge Dredd game for example. It'll be interesting to see if the Spinward Marches book covers life within the 3I.
I think this is because Traveller attracts those interested in "hard sci fi", which in its old school is very hard indeed.
Things like flesh and blood, heart and warmth tend to fall by the wayside when people go bananas designing their own fusion reactor or grav tank.
That's at least my impression. I recall one adventure compilation for GDW's Traveller called "Smash & Grab". It was an utterly uninspiring laundry list of different military maneuvers, basically using high tech to best one Evil Overlord after another.
That might be the ner'ds dream, to finally be able to defeat the jocks using science, but it didn't leave much room for characterization of PCs and NPCs, no intrigue, no drama.
[QUOTE=capnzapp;8866316]I think this is because Traveller attracts those interested in "hard sci fi", which in its old school is very hard indeed.
Traveller attracts a lot of people with a lot of different interests. When I was 12 and I ordered the Starter edition from Sears catalogue for Christmas (no, really! 1983!), I just wanted something space opera. I was a Star Wars nut, the first SW RPG was still five years in the future, and Gamma World and Tunnels and Trolls just weren't getting me there. (And AD&D was what my older brother played...)
Things like flesh and blood, heart and warmth tend to fall by the wayside when people go bananas designing their own fusion reactor or grav tank.
There are gearheads in Traveller fandom--but I don't think they're qualitatively different from, say, the folks who spend a LOT of time figuring out optimum power builds in HERO or M&M, or the folks who look for the best synergistic bangs from their feats in d20, etc. I'd say it's pretty easy for "heart and warmth" to disappear in those deliberations, too. I don't like playing like that, but some do, and I'm not gonna say they're wrong. And since all RPGs are imaginary, I'm not sure what to do with "flesh and blood" there, except to say that Traveller's damage system always made my players VERY aware of their human frailty...
That's at least my impression. I recall one adventure compilation for GDW's Traveller called "Smash & Grab". It was an utterly uninspiring laundry list of different military maneuvers, basically using high tech to best one Evil Overlord after another.
I recall another GDW adventure (a boxed set) called "Tarsus: World Beyond the Frontier" which was about a group of characters who return to one of the PCs' homeworld to help save the family farm from various threats. And I ran most of "The Traveller Adventure" (a LONG campaign), which required all sorts of action, including a lot of interpersonal, in-character play. You could play Traveller any number of ways, and a lot of different options were supported.
That might be the ner'ds dream, to finally be able to defeat the jocks using science, but it didn't leave much room for characterization of PCs and NPCs, no intrigue, no drama.
When I watched the first episode of Firefly, my first thought was, "O my god, this is JUST like Traveller!"--and the characterization, intrigue, and drama were part of that impression. Clearly our experiences differ.
I'm very happy with the new Mongoose version. It feels to me like the return of an old friend--kind of like some of the D&D edition 1.5 stuff I've seen produced under the OGL. In fact, that's how I'd characterize the new version of Traveller: it includes some of the better innovations of later versions (esp. MegaTraveller), but it pulls the game back toward the wide-open feel of the original, mostly setting-less rules. This, in my view, is no bad thing, so long as you know what you're buying.
I think a 2 for style is harsh. The style is deliberately minimalist and 1950s black and white SF. On that basis it meets the Traveller design remit very well.
I have to take issue with Capnzapp's conclusion as well.
No, it's not hard sci fi and no, it's not a game that values technology and vehicle design above character development. It's what you make of it just like any other RPG out there. As far as RPG's go, though, it's pretty abstract. This abstractness gives the GM a lot of latitude to build plot on the fly, but also requires the GM to be pretty creative.
What value you get from this game has a lot to do with what is put into it and I don't think the rules can be faulted if Capnzapp's experience was less than stellar.
" That might be the ner'ds dream, to finally be able to defeat the jocks using science, but it didn't leave much room for characterization of PCs and NPCs, no intrigue, no drama."
I find this statement ridiculous and demeaning. I suggest capnzapp try playing Traveller with a real GM. :-)
Last edited by sturmkraehe; 05-17-2008 at 03:35 AM..
Reason: removed hard language
...and even then there's pretty fundamental questions about "No really so as a normal citizen, what's it like to... " that go unanswered.
There is no "normal citizen" in an empire composed of thousands of relatively autonomous and worlds with wildly divergent technologies, ecologies, and politics. *That* is what's daunting to newcomers to Traveller. It's a thousand settings in one.
That's a great point, Halfjack. (I like your handle, BTW--so who's the other half?)
Not only do I like your point, but I'll amplify it. How many RPG settings go to any lengths to explain what "normal citizens" (whatever that means) do, esp in the main rulebook? Other than Harn, fantasy settings generally gloss it over--peasants is peasants, right? But even SF settings are generally pretty focused on big sociopolitical stuff, not people's daily lives.
The best SF game I ever played in was Blue Planet, and my GM, Jeff, kept having to remind us to change our assumptions. All of us had very small, very powerful computers with highly independent AI on us all the time--standard issue stuff in that setting--and we had to get in the habit of having that sort of processing power and search capability on CONSTANTLY.
And BP is a pretty unified setting next to Traveller. You can fit pretty much any society you can imagine into the Traveller framework. You have to bring your (sociological) imagination along when you run it.
Linear Mode
