Starter Traveller (Classic circa 1980's) is free at DTRPG

Classic "Starter Traveller" is currently free at DriveThruRPG. This is an introductory version of the original "die in chargen" Traveller. Tech is as noted "1970's" style -- creator Marc Miller mentioned in conversation that imagining future technology was one of the harder things to do. Traveller is fairly gritty sci-fi like from the movies Alien or Outland.

This product becomes free periodically, so grab it now, as it may not be free later.

The download contains a core rulebook, a set of charts, and a book of adventures, making three separate PDFs.

You can see character generation here with this character generatorI prefer to do character creation by hand, because it's a fun mini-game, but the above generator is also neat to see what characters pop up.

There is also a Consolidated CT Errata PDF by Don McKinney floating around that is good to have.

 

[Morrus]

Classic "Starter Traveller" is currently free at DriveThruRPG. This is an introductory version of the original "die in chargen" Traveller. Tech is as noted "1970's" style -- creator Marc Miller mentioned in conversation that imagining future technology was one of the harder things to do. Traveller is fairly gritty sci-fi like from the movies Alien or Outland.

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This product becomes free periodically, so grab it now, as it may not be free later.

The download contains a core rulebook, a set of charts, and a book of adventures, making three separate PDFs.

You can see character generation here with this character generatorI prefer to do character creation by hand, because it's a fun mini-game, but the above generator is also neat to see what characters pop up.

There is also a Consolidated CT Errata PDF by Don McKinney floating around that is good to have.

 

[trancejeremy]

Even then though, it was essentially optional. You can just choose to have it be a career ending injury forcing an early exit after only 2 years of the term.

Anyway, one of the most puzzling things in gaming is why Marc Miller keeps putting out versions of Traveller that almost no one actually wants, when Classic Traveller is still beloved to this day. And it's not like he has modernized it

 

[dragoner]

I promoted it to an article, as it was a cool bit of news. Unfortunately, somehow all the comments disappeared... sorry about that!

No problem.

 

[Dave Goff]

Haha! I've been thinking about looking up Traveler recently. The main thing I remember about playing back in my ill-spent youth is that my first character died during character creation. After that I decided not to name my characters until after they were finished.

I'm off to get my copy!

 

[timbannock]

Even then though, it was essentially optional. You can just choose to have it be a career ending injury forcing an early exit after only 2 years of the term.

Anyway, one of the most puzzling things in gaming is why Marc Miller keeps putting out versions of Traveller that almost no one actually wants, when Classic Traveller is still beloved to this day. And it's not like he has modernized it

How compatible are the different versions?

My guess would be that new editions are generally a great way to drum up interest for a game in general, and in this day and age with access to digital copies of every edition of everything (just about), that helps even the older editions. If the editions are compatible to any degree, that's also a plus; maybe new content can be ported back for all the folks not interested in fully buying into a new edition's changes, but who might be interested in a single add-on ruleset (mechs!) or some new adventures or something.

/spitballing

 

[Dave Goff]

My group at the time thought the die in chargen aspect was hilarious, so we went with it.
I think it also gets player a bit more used to the idea that character death is part of the game and can actually happen.

 

[dragoner]

How compatible are the different versions?

My guess would be that new editions are generally a great way to drum up interest for a game in general, and in this day and age with access to digital copies of every edition of everything (just about), that helps even the older editions. If the editions are compatible to any degree, that's also a plus; maybe new content can be ported back for all the folks not interested in fully buying into a new edition's changes, but who might be interested in a single add-on ruleset (mechs!) or some new adventures or something.

/spitballing

The versions are compatible enough that having this rules set will tell you most of what you need to know about Traveller, different sets add or subtract mechanics or other greebles like for starships, the basic framework of the game is laid out here.

Per mechs, Traveller isn't a mech setting, there are some, usually called walkers, detailed in the other rules sets. I have a feeling that dedicated mech games would probably do mechs better. Traveller at it's heart is a narrative, character driven game.

 

[timbannock]

The versions are compatible enough that having this rules set will tell you most of what you need to know about Traveller, different sets add or subtract mechanics or other greebles like for starships, the basic framework of the game is laid out here.

Per mechs, Traveller isn't a mech setting, there are some, usually called walkers, detailed in the other rules sets. I have a feeling that dedicated mech games would probably do mechs better. Traveller at it's heart is a narrative, character driven game.

Gotcha. I wasn't really campaigning for some mech stuff, just thought of it as an example that probably *wasn't* in earlier editions but showed up later, RE: compatibility.

But good to know. I honestly have no experience with Traveller, so I wasn't sure how much or how little the actual system changed over its many editions.

 

[dragoner]

Gotcha. I wasn't really campaigning for some mech stuff, just thought of it as an example that probably *wasn't* in earlier editions but showed up later, RE: compatibility.

But good to know. I honestly have no experience with Traveller, so I wasn't sure how much or how little the actual system changed over its many editions.

Cool. The biggest changes are in how personal combat is done, but for the most part the format for characters stays the same. I guess the flavor of sci-fi can change, where early Traveller like this set supports a more gritty "average person on the grift" style, and the later versions are more heroic "laser sword and cape" style.