Traveller is an homage to classic science fiction.  Asimov, Niven, Clarke, Herbert, Tubbs, Norton, Piper and many others.  It is also heavily influenced by Star Wars which was also an homage to classic science fiction.  I always say that the great thing about Traveller's Third Imperium setting is that you can fit almost any sf story into it somewhere.  It's very open that way.  The Imperium isn't evil but an emperor or arch duke might well be. If Dulinor had held Capitol he might not have proven to be any better than Lucan.  Even so, the Third Imperium is more like Cthulhu than the devil.  Cthulhu doesn't care if you exist, doesn't harbor any more sentiment towards you than he would to a single bacterium.

Imagine if Starwars was more about interstellar politics and trade and more consistent in its approach to technology and science.  Instead of the force there are psionics which are not morally guided in any way. And that goes for all of Traveller.  Starwars is a morality play, Traveller is agnostic at best and down right rationalist at times.

So, giant space ships, strange worlds, weird aliens, humans that make the aliens seem normal, but with no overarching hero's journey.  No chosen one.  And somewhere outside of existence a funny little old alien is watching and waiting for something.

Quote from: Vic99;937475Thanks for all the interest in the thread.

So Mongoose Traveller is essentially after GDW went away?

What is the Traveller feel?  I haven't played it before, but it seems to be the standard (or one of them) for sci fi exploration and big empire control and all that.

You can play almost any type of classic science fiction and even the newer styles if you Mongoose Traveller. MongTrav1 has supplements covering newer styles like cyberpunk. But the thing is even classic Traveller is very flexible due to its lite mechanics.

With that being said the two most popular types of Traveller campaign have historically been either merchants or mercernaries. With a lot of the published adventures being set in the grey area of the law.

Quote from: Vic99;937475Thanks for all the interest in the thread.

So Mongoose Traveller is essentially after GDW went away?

It's been licensed to other companies. There have been GURPS Traveller books, D20 Traveller, Traveller hero, etc.

Mongoose's Traveller is close to the original mechanically, but being a bit more cleaned up and easier to collect. You can run most classic traveller adventures with Mongoose Traveller with relatively little adaptation.

QuoteWhat is the Traveller feel?  I haven't played it before, but it seems to be the standard (or one of them) for sci fi exploration and big empire control and all that.

Most campaigns involve a small group of interstellar wanderers in a space empire composed of a tapestry of widely differing worlds.

In most campaigns, the characters are merchants, mercenaries, or explorers, with a measure of troubleshooting/investigation possible as a sub-theme of many of those.

Quote from: Willie the Duck;937449Classic Traveler (pretty much the whole shebang, but the LBBs are in there) is available as CD (and I'm guessing .pdf) from Far Future Enterprises (http://www.farfuture.net/FFE-CDROMs.html).

This. You get _all_ the Classic Traveller stuff on CD for less than the cost of basic books for some systems.

Quote from: Vic99;937475What is the Traveller feel?  I haven't played it before, but it seems to be the standard (or one of them) for sci fi exploration and big empire control and all that.

If Star Wars is a cowboy western or samurai flick set in space, then Traveller is the age of sail. Distance is vast. Communication is slow (the only way to get a message back home is to send a ship with the message on board). Vessels have months of supplies, not lifetimes worth, and a vessel going on a 2 parsec voyage is going to have fuel for one two parsec voyage if it is a commercial run (since bringing fuel along means less room for salable cargo) or two two parsec voyages (if an exploration ship).
There is a big empire (in some places, depending on whether you use the assumed setting), but it is a big empire. The local government is mostly on its own but also mostly not bothered so long as there is little unrest and general taxes are paid on time (whether the emperium is benevolent, malevolent, or just bloated and ineffectual seems to change between books a bit, and of course you can easily change it on the fly). If the Imperium only has three corvettes in orbit, they only have 3 corvettes (plus the threat that they could come with more) to use to fight _____.
Piracy is stated to be common (although if you look at the actual game rules on upkeep and resource use it shouldn't be possible, but that's one of those "is D&D broken because the a common laborer couldn't survive on their listed wage?" kind of things. Pirates exist because we say they do).
Players are expected to be low-level traders, adventurers, or general "fixers." Most have a military, merchant, or similar background. It does feel a lot like many early age-of-sail adventure books (such as Robinson Crusoe before he gets shipwrecked) in that semi-knowledgeable and experienced individual go out into the wild frontier of a barely connected civilization and generally uncaring world and try to make their fortune (in a setting that really doesn't make it easy).

Mongoose Traveller 1st Edition and Classic Traveller are my go-to versions with all of the rest of the Traveller versions used for additional bits and bobs. Cepheus Engine allows for some very very good Traveller settings that are not part of the Official Traveller Universe.


And since I believe in try before you buy......


This is a link to a free download of Mongoose Traveller Book 0: An Introduction to Traveller.



This is a link to a free download of a sample setting for Traveller using Cepheus Engine, the Clement Sector.

My go-to Traveller are Classic Traveller, Mongoose Traveller 1e and 2e, Traveller 5, the Cepheus Engine and Worlds Apart;). Been thinking of buying the T4 and TNE from the Far Future Enterpise site, too, but I'm putting it off for now.
Yes, I want to get the deal they offer, why do you ask:D?

Quote from: Vic99;937394-rules light to low end of rules moderate
- inspirational and good atmosphere (when you read the rules, you are drawn in - 1st edition Shadowrun and Symbaroum did this.)
- lots of good ideas in core rules
- system makes sense
- rules are a fun read or at least not tedious to get through

I re-read the OP and I realized that FADING SUNS would probably be an interesting option (and its easily converted to Traveller).

Fading Suns is (Traveller + 40k)/2 + WoD sprinkles. It's rules medium, and heavy on the inspiration and atmosphere. What I like best is there is super juicy stuff in the splats, but they are unnecessary since the Core Book (1e and 2e) did an A+ job packing in the flavor. Even after running multiple campaigns over the years, I don't feel constrained in the least by using the core book only, and the chargen is flexible enough so players create both distinctive PCs drilled into the setting AND with enough bits to make their special snowflakes.

Here's the wiki page for basic info
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fading_Suns

Here's Fading Suns core book (all you really need) for $11 with free shipping
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fading-Suns-Science-Fiction-Roleplaying-RPG-Core-Rulebook-Paperback-Book-/201732930413?hash=item2ef8383b6d:g:q-8AAOSw44BYFjmh

Here's info about the upcoming new edition
http://www.holistic-design.com/

Fading Suns looks good for source material.

I called around to 18-20 game/comic/rpg stores in my area.  No one has Traveller.  I was surprised.  A few of the 20ish employees never heard of it.  Didn't surprise me, but still.

Ended up ordering Mongoose 2nd ed core rules on amazon for $37.  I really wanted to buy from the local guys too.  However, didn't want to wait for them to order it for me either.

Thanks for all the input.

Good choice.  If you like the Mongoose Traveller 2E core rules, make sure to pick up the High Guard supplement.  Starships galore.

Well good. I've been waiting for a review of MgT 2e (as I'm sure the guys at Citizens of the Imperium call it).

That's other advice, both the main traveller forum (//www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/) and Mongoose (forum.mongoosepublishing.com) have active communities. The CotI one in particular was very active as of 1-2 years ago when I last checked. There are lots of resources available if you are looking for premade star maps or ship layouts or what-have-yous.

Eh, I checked out (and even subscribed to) the Citizens of the Imperium forum several months ago, but I perceived a really negative vibe to both Mongoose Traveller in general but in particular 2E from the staff and some of the regulars there, so I'm not sure how useful the forum would be from a rules standpoint.  Of course, I could be mistaken.  However, do check it out if you're interested in the official setting as it has oodles of information about it.

That's too bad.

Quote from: Vic99;937739Ended up ordering Mongoose 2nd ed core rules on amazon for $37.  I really wanted to buy from the local guys too.  However, didn't want to wait for them to order it for me either.

Thanks for all the input.

That's a good price. I didn't know Amazon sold the book. I paid retail. The Traveller RPG Google+ pages seem to be friendly than the old BBS forums and Facebook groups out there.

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;937770That's a good price. I didn't know Amazon sold the book. I paid retail. The Traveller RPG Google+ pages seem to be friendly than the old BBS forums and Facebook groups out there.

There's a seller on Amazon, Sci Fi City that has it for $35.54 shipped.  That's where I got mine from.  Should be here in a week or so.