"Old School" Traveller: Best Books?

[Knightfall]

I discovered three MegaTraveller books today at a local used book store...

• 101 Vehicles
• Fighting Ships of the Shattered Imperium
• The Flaming Eye

I bought a fourth book, called "Brilliant Lances: Technical Booklet" thinking it was a MegaTraveller book. Now I know it's for a starship combat boardgame. Oh well...

I spent CAN $23.38 for all four books.

There was also copies of Referee's Companion and COACC: Close Orbit and Airspace Control Command, but I decided against those for now. (I'm sure those two books will still be there in a few days.) In addition, there were also two of the deck plan references (by Seeker Gaming Systems) but they didn't look complete.

Anyway, my purchase makes wonder if I should consider hunting for other old Traveller books. I know MegaTraveller is contraversial, but I'm not to concerned about Traveller universe canon since I only own two other Traveller-based books: Mongoose Publishing's Traveller Core Rulebook and Darrin Drader's Reign of Discordia.

Before those two books, my exposure to Traveller was almost non-existent. Therefore...

Which "old school" Traveller books are best?

Cheers!

Knightfall

 

[darjr]

The older adventures will work with Mongoose Traveller. I've run both of the double adventure 'The Argon Gambit' and 'Death Station' with Mongoose with only minor tweaks.

 

[Knightfall]

The older adventures will work with Mongoose Traveller. I've run both of the double adventure 'The Argon Gambit' and 'Death Station' with Mongoose with only minor tweaks.

Good to know.

BTW...

I've been looking at the Traveller page on Mongoose's web site. Is Mongoose's Third Imperium equivalent to one of the classic Traveller settings?

"Third Imperium" seems to imply that it is set during the time of the "Traveller: The New Era" setting.

If so, then which New Era books should I look at getting as "essential" for that Traveller time period?

 

[darjr]

I think they go back to the old traveller setting. For instance the spinward marches book is set in 1105.

 

[Korgoth]

The Third Imperium is the classic Traveller setting. The First Imperium was the Vilani empire which was conquered by the fledgling Terrans (Solomani); the Second Imperium was the Terran empire that attempted unsuccessfully to maintain the system and boundaries of the first; the Third Imperium was established over a thousand years ago when Cleon I (Zhunastu) began to forge an empire among the core worlds and bring an end to the Long Night.

Really, to me the best books are the Classic Traveller reprints (or the CD rom) sold by Far Future Enterprises (i.e. Marc Miller). I'd get the first and second (Books and Supplements) reprints at least.

FFE- HardCopy

If you want to use Mongoose's rules (not my pref but hey, you already have the book) then probably the most useful single thing to buy is the second reprint: "The Supplements 1 - 13". For $35 you'll be getting:

1001 Characters
Animal Encounters
The Spinward Marches
Citizens of the Imperium
Lightning Class Cruisers
76 Patrons
Traders & Gunboats
Library Data (A - M)
Fighting Ships
The Solomani Rim
Library Data (N - Z)
Forms and Charts
Veterans

So there you're looking at a bunch of adventure seeds, a bunch of deck plans and ship info, a collection of the basic setting info, two sectors and a ton of other stuff.

 

[Treebore]

I also like the magazine compendiums they have. Tons of tons of small adventures, odd ball equipment, etc... to use. Very sand box kind of material.

Plus Mega Traveller itself works a whole lot better now that getting the errata for it is so much easier. I never got bent out of shape about the Emperor being assassinated. I could have ignored it, but I wanted to play with some of the disruptive elements it resulted in, so I just had it be a body double that was assassinated, and it took a while to prove the real Emperor was indeed still alive.

Mechanically I much prefer MegaTraveller to Classic. Once you have the errata. Even so I am happier with Mongoose for two reasons. The primary reason is the information is largely better grouped together. The Core book has the basics of what you need to run Traveller. The supplements compile material from books and various other products, such as magazine articles into each book Mongoose does. So rather than having to go through a number of books and magazine articles, the similar material is largely grouped together in a specific book. Ships are still spread out a bit, equipment to a lesser extent, but it is still grouped far more than I used to have to deal with. So this is the biggest reason I like the Mongoose version best.

Next I do like the rules set for Mongoose best, over all. The few things I do have a problem with have been easy to modify to be perfect, as far as I am concerned.

So if you do think you would like to get into running some serious Traveller games I think you cannot go wrong investing into the Mongoose version, and it certainly does not hurt to have the older material to look at as well.

You already have the Core and Discordia books, beyond that the only books you may want to have is the C. Supply Catalogue, and maybe their Vehicles book, and maybe even their ships book. Beyond that, only buy the career books if it looks like your game is going to heavily involve those careers.

For example, I have started a game where they are Naval pilots just starting their third term. They wanted to be Fighter Pilots, so I used the High Guard careers to allow them to roll up their first two terms as Fighter Pilots and will continue to use that career path for as long as they stay in service.

I am also using the Multi Purpose fighter in there, and I am also using the Light Carrier, I called it the "Buccaneer" as the command ship they are attached to. So I am finding the book very useful.

If you are to run a Merchant heavy game you will very likely find Merchant Prince worth having, and etc...

A lot of people slam the Mercenaries book, but that was largely due to having SERIOUS errata issues, but now that the 6 page PDF is available for download, I think it is great to have if you ever use Mercenaries as a important part of your campaign idea.

If you like Judge Dredd, you will like to pick up those books too. Just make sure they are the new ones done for the Traveller rules set.

If you like Cthulthu flavoring in your sci fi, make sure to pick up Cthonian Stars whenever it gets released. Its done by the same guys who do Cthulthu Tech. I played this at Neon Con earlier this month and really enjoyed it, and I am typically not a fan of Lovecraft.

So that is the third reason to go with Mongoose Traveller. If you like Judge Dredd, Discordia, Hammers Slammers, Cthonian Stars, or any of the other Traveller based supplements/rules sets done or being done, you can use the Mongoose Traveller line as a supplement to all of them. Plus the Core book is the Core rulebook needed for all of them, so your already set in that regard.

 

[Knightfall]

I think what I'm looking for right now is the best classic books that detail the setting. I want to get a good overview of the history of the Traveller setting, for any of the Imperium eras. Yes, I want to know the story before I delve into the rules.

FYI... my only experience with Judge Dread is the movie, which I liekd for its campiness. I have this feeling that the original source material (comics, right?) is more serious in nature, correct?

Cthonian Stars sounds interesting... I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for it.

Are there any other, more obscure, settings that were released for the Classic Traveller ruleset?

I've been looking at the other Digest Group Publications books since buying "101 Vehicles" and "The Flaming Eye." I'm assuming these books are set in the Imperium, however.

At some point, once I have a better understnding of the games rules, I'll likely create my own setting. (I like building my own settings. ) Or I'll see how Traveller meshes with Gamma World or Star*Drive or another classic sci-fi universe I like. Hmm... Star Frontiers?

I once had a campaign idea I called Twilight Galaxy (once called Star Quest), but parts of it got incorporated into my Arcanum of the Stars campaign idea for Dragonstar. Therefore, I'll hae to come up with something new.

Anyway, keep the suggestions coming!

KF

 

[Treebore]

This should help you keep track of things:

Illustrated Traveller Bibliography - Table of Contents

 

[Korgoth]

Anyway, keep the suggestions coming!

KF

The Third Imperium is a ton of fun as a setting, since it strikes a nice balance between having the Big Picture background filled out for you (to be gleaned from reading the Library Data entries and the like), and giving you plenty of room for whatever you want to do with the details (since the Imperium rules not the individual planets but the space between them... so you can have a Totalitarian Dictatorship planet, a Hippie Planet and a Balkanized Eternal Warfare planet... the only thing the Imperium cares about is whether they pay their taxes, allow reservists to be called up, and don't break any Imperial property at the starport). You have plenty of room for virtually any story.

And since the Imperium is based on an Age of Sail information model (there's no FTL communication, only FTL travel via Jump drives... so the mail moves only at the speed of the fastest ship, and no faster), whole conflicts and wars can take place without the Emperor ever knowing (at least until after the fact). Thus the Sector Dukes and so on. Plus, since it is so enormous and outlying worlds so inefficient to patrol, you can even have exploration missions... "The Scout Service wants you to re-survey the Tricana system and see if anything has changed in the last 400 years. Also, please deliver to the mainworld, Tricana IV, this bill for back taxes. That is, if any habitation persists. Hail the Emperor!"

That being said, I also played around with making my own setting. The Terran Combine is a "small ship" setting, using only up to 5kton displacement hulls (i.e., only the rules in the original LBBs). No spinal weaponry, meson guns, etc. Just lasers and nukular missels. It is one mostly randomly-generated subsector, with Terra at the center. No aliens, no super tech, nothing like that. The Combine is a totalitarian but fairly benevolent polity that exists in the wake of a military coup against an ineffective Republic. There are a couple of independent clusters, but mostly the Terran Combine rules with an iron fist.

A recent one-shot in that setting had an amusing ending. After attempting to recover a contraband cargo from an asteroid field (the cargo being left over from the civil war), the PCs were bushwacked by space pirates, whom they defeated (one of the characters, a former Combine Marine, had a Cutlass skill of 4 (!) and was basically Duncan Idaho in melee). In time the Combine Navy showed up in a fast patrol ship that would easily catch their freighter. They were in a state of panic until they realized that they had not yet harvested the cargo... in fact, they had only broken a few minor laws, but had actually killed a bunch of pirates! So they played on the bloodthirsty attitude of the Combine Navy and got off easy.

It was funny seeing them have the epiphany that if you just killed half a dozen outlaws, you don't necessarily have to run from the fascist cops. If you can convince them that you're just harmless salvage scroungers, they might actually clap you on the shoulder and give you an "attaboy!"

 

[darjr]

If your interested in a one stop shop for the 'ancient' history of the imperium then you should get the GURPS 4th 'Interstellar Wars' book. It is set at the end of the 1st Empire and the start of the 2nd.