Feel free to ask about specific bits...
More infodump....
The editions in release order
- CT 1E (GDW 1977)
- CT 1E (GW 1978 or '79)
- CT 2E (GDW 1981)
- MT (DGP/GDW 1987)
- TNE (GDW 1993) (based upon the T2K 2.2e rules)
- GT (SJG 1996)
- T4 (IG 1996)
- CT "Big FLoppy Books" (FFE, late 1990s) - was CT 2E in 5 or 6 landscape format books.
- CT GRIP edition {CT2E} (QLI 2001)
- T20 (QLI 2006)
- GTIW (SJG 2006)
- HT (Comstar/Avenger 2007)
- T5 FFE 2008 (draft on CD)
- MGT 1E (Mongoose 2008)
- MGT 2E (Mongoose 2016)
- t5.10 (FFE release 2017)
- MGT 2revE (Mongoose 2022)
That's also ignoring the PDF rereleases - QLI got licensed to rerelease CT in PDF in 2001; Marc put MT up on DTRPG around the same time, and now FFE has put most of CT, MT, TNE, and T4 up. But they're cheaper on CDs from FarFuture.net.
Also worth noting - Marc was releasing bits of T5 development in various preview bits from around 2000... I can't be certain when, because my memory doesn't work that way. I can see what printer I had, and where I was living, so I know it was between 1997 and 2004...
At least three other semi-editions exist: Liftoff was written by MJD for a german company, to produce a MGT starter set... but MJD couldn't help tinkering. The beta files were free downloads, and it is a very playable flavor. Died due to failure to successfully crowdfund.
Mongoose's 1E playtest was a somewhat different set of mechanics from the released game.
In 2006, Avenger was working on a proposal for a new CT 3rd. Commonly called "Avenger Classic Traveller", it was being worked on as a speculative project... but then Mongoose secured the Traveller license.
The companies:
- GDW: Game Designer's Workshop - Marc Miller, Frank Chadwick, Loren Wiseman, Tim Brown, Lester W. Smith, Dave Nilsen(sp?)
- GW: Games Workshop (UK) - Ian Livingston and Steve Jackson - before Warhammer. They had reprint rights for CT1E in the UK, so as to avoid shipping and tax issues. (They also had a similar deal for one edition of D&D and multiple editions of Tunnels and Trolls.)
- DGP: Digest Group Productions - Joe Fugate Sr, Gary L Thomas. MT was consolidated from CT sources by DGP as contractors to GDW, who published MT. They also released some supplements under their existing license and livery.
- SJG: Steve Jackson Games. Line editor was Loren Wiseman, GDW alumnus. The SJ in question is not the same Steve Jackson of early Games Workshop.
- IG: Imperium Games - funded by Courtney Soloman, run into the ground by Ken Whitman, publishing Marc Miller's Traveller. (T4)
- QLI: Hunter Gordon, with contracted assistance of Martin J. Daugherty(sp?) (AKA MJD) for T20
- Comstar/Avenger - MJD is Avenger. I'm not certain who Comstar was.
- FFE: Marc Miller
- Mongoose Publishing. Matt Sprange. MGT1E designed by Gareth Hanrahan; 2E by Matt Sprangue based upon 1e.
There are several related games by GDW...
- En Garde! (1975) - Marc notes its influence in several interviews. Note that Margam-Evans now owns En Garde!, and it's still in print.
- Twilight 2000 1E (1984) - the game is barely recognizable from a Traveller perspective, but it's Frank Chadwick's baby - Traveller was influential according to the interview I read. It's more important for later, tho'. Percentile skills...
- Traveller:2300 (1986) - this game is mechanically a blend of concepts from T2K 1E and CT, plus a bit of Striker...
the hype for this game and the hype for a new Traveller edition (MegaTraveller) got confused a lot. It's NOT the early history of the OTU, it's a separate game with 1-20 rated stats, using the DGP task system, variable length terms in character gen, and as T2K had, picking your skills
- Space 1889 (1988) - this is Frank Chadwick engaging in way too deep a steampunk alt-history game. It has careers, skills are similarly ranked to traveller. It has a number of conceptual similarities to 2300...
- 2300 AD (1988) Second edition of, 99% the same rules as, Traveller 2300. Name changed due to confusion.
- Twilight 2000 2E (1990) Change from d% to d10, traveller-like 4 year terms, revised timeline. Roll <= skill on 1d10, Easy tasks double skill, hard, half skill
- Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (1990) - Twilight 2000 2E mechanics. This is the official licensed game of the Cenozoic Tales comics. Char gen more closely resembles Space:1889.
- Dark Conspiracy 1991 Same game engine as T2K 2, kind of "Lester W Smith ports CoC to T2K's system" in tone.
- Twilight 2000 2.2e (1993) Revised mechanics, switching 1d20 <= Att+Skill. Revisions to the timeline, too, but pretty minor.
- Dark Conspiracy was also revised to the T2k 2.2 mechanics, but I don't know when.
Note that most of these got at least half a dozen additional books. Not C&D, tho'. That was a one-and-done. T2K 2 was 20 additional books, 1E had 27...
When one looks at the output... these guys were insanely high.
Dark Conspiracy was, last I checked, in print with a different publisher, 1889 is licensed to Ulissies Spiel. 2300 has been adapted to Mongoose Traveller rules, and T2K 4e was released in preview PDF in 2021 and dead tree in 2022... with the same premise as 1E and 2E, but now an alt-hist instead of future history game..
at me.
