Marc Miller's copy of Traveller, original in shrink, sold for $5500

[MGibster]

"Skills and the Referee: It is impossible for any table of information to cover all aspects of every potential situation, and the above listing is by no means complete in its coverage of the effects of skills. This is where the referee becomes an important part of the game process. The above listing of skills and game effects must necessarily be taken as a guide, and followed, altered, or ignored as the actual situation dictates.

Delta Green takes a similar approach with some skills that really aren't likely to come up very often. They say these skills require special training, and if it makes sense for you to have it you just use whatever regular skill is applicable. For example, parachuting. If your character has a military background that supports this, then you get to use Athletics when you're parachuting while someone else is just screwed. And the similarity here is that they didn't try to overwhelm anyone with an overabundance of unnecessary skills. The GM just needs to make a decision.

 

[pemerton]

For me it's mostly the move from an open system to a closed system that makes the later editions less fun.

I like the stuff in 1977 that is less oriented towards GM-curated adventures - it can be found in the discussion of world generation, of Streetwise skill, and of the role of the referee. By the time of The Traveller Book, and I think even in the 1981 edition, that had changed.

 

[pemerton]

It's not perfect, but it's still better edited and put together in one core set (or book) than any subsequent edition, perhaps exempting Mongoose Traveller 2e. IMO, of course.

I don't know the Mongoose versions at all. My play over the past few years has been my modification of the 1977 edition, adding in some of the skills from the later Books and Supplement 4, adding a Special Duty line on the lifepath charts (a chance for an extra skill or two per term), and incorporating some ideas from Andy Slack in White Dwarf as well as a few things of my own.

It's an extremely playable system, in my view.

 

[aramis erak]

I have reason to believe Marc has a small assortment of backstock...

As to CT's skill levels... Skill 1 is employable in that field. A surgeon is Dex 8+ and Medical Skill 3+. This implies most professionals (as in fields where an advanced degree is required) would also be skill 3 at graduation. This is also reinforced in the advanced gen rules for Medical School.

As for Mongoose - it's a good bit different, but it keeps most of the same tropes. I just happen to not like the changes to the tropeset. Many Traveller fans do.
If one wants to take a look at Traveller, the Mongoose rulebook is more modernized mechanics.
If one wants Classic Traveller, hit DTRPG for the Classic Traveller Facsimile Edition.... as it's the 81 CT books 1-3 rules, plus all the errata, at a slightly larger print size.

 

[clearstream]

For me it's mostly the move from an open system to a closed system that makes the later editions less fun.

This section only appeared in the original 1977 edition and quickly vanished thereafter.

"Skills and the Referee: It is impossible for any table of information to cover all aspects of every potential situation, and the above listing is by no means complete in its coverage of the effects of skills. This is where the referee becomes an important part of the game process. The above listing of skills and game effects must necessarily be taken as a guide, and followed, altered, or ignored as the actual situation dictates.

In some game situations, actual die roll results must be concealed from the players, at times allowing them to misconstrue the reasons for their success or failure. In other situations, the referee may feel it necessary to create his own throws and DMs to govern action, and may or may not make such information generally available to the players.

In order to be consistent (and a consistent universe makes the game both fun and interesting), the referee has a responsibility to record the throws and DMs he creates, and to note (perhaps by penciling in) any throws he alters from those given in these books."

A small game with a few rules covering the absolute basics, then telling the referee to make up what they need to in order to cover the universe of shenanigans the PCs will get up to. That's the stuff right there.

For me the most interesting text in the 1977 edition is in the possible play configurations laid out under Playing the Game. Two GM-less options are described, such as where

Several players (supervised or not, as the situation dictates) embark on a journey or adventure together.