Traveller D20

[Zenon]

Hah, if you don't like the new cover, you should have seen the B&W original cover they were going to use! It raised such an outcry they commisioned a new cover (By David Mattingly, who is known for the covers of sci-fi books like Crusade, Insurrection, In Death Ground, The Shiva Option, the entire Honor Harrington series, etc).

Here's the link to part of the outcry about it:

http://www.farfuture.net/ixs/Forum3/HTML/000086.html

It's a shame the link on the topic doesn't work anymore, they must have taken the image off their site.

Trust me, the original looked like old Champions art. A large bald "brick" looking guy in skintight suit, next to a preying mantis type. <shudder>.

Be glad it changed.

I'm a fan of the old "black with a red stripe" covers too, but the new cover is good (and IMO it's much better than Star Frontiers old cover. I know, I have an old copy of SF).

 

[Wolfspider]

Considering the responses to the cover, I sure would love to see a copy of it!

 

[Thorvald Kviksverd]

Star Frontiers is a pretty good description, but you know what first popped into my head when I saw it...Other Suns.

I agree that the old black covers are the most timeless and asthetically pleasing; but the other poster is right, the new artwork will probably attract more new gamers--and we old timers will pick it up no matter what it looks like .

Yes, you heard right, d20 hater that I am, I'll definitely be getting this one (though I still have my doubts about how d20 will handle hard sf, mhensley has more than piqued my interest).

As long as I'm on the topic, another d20 product that I would snatch up in a heartbeat (what, am I on the verge of a conversion or something?!) is a wild and wahoo Gamma World.

Anywho, thanks for the heads up--I'll be bookmarking their website

 

[Holy Bovine]

[As long as I'm on the topic, another d20 product that I would snatch up in a heartbeat (what, am I on the verge of a conversion or something?!) is a wild and wahoo Gamma World.

I saw something on the ENWorld main page that Gamma World was going to be done as a 'mini' game in a future issue of Dungeon/Polyhedron. That would be worth a look for only $6!

 

[Thorvald Kviksverd]

Aaaack!

You're right about the cover resembling Star Frontiers.

I just went back to their site and saw what you were talking about. I originally thought it was the picture from their basic set reprint that appears in the upper left corner of their homepage.

I too would like to see what the original concept was--considering that this was deemed good by comparison...

 

[V-2]

Don't like the new cover too much, either. It's not a disaster, but I still think that the initial design strategy of the black books would still work great today--why use flashy covers to distinguish your product when that is exactly what the competition does? Go for understated elegance instead.

But... I'm very impressed that they actually put the old cover up for a vote with the fans at the concept stage--and then commissioned the new one when they didn't like it. That's very decent. Traveller seems to have preserved the proverbial community spirit that so many other games fail to generate.

 

[Kichwas]

I'm not to sure about this.

I will look into it though.

But from my opinion the perfect system for the Traveller universe is GURPS. For me it seems to fit the way they described the universe better than Traveller's own mechanics (which always seemd a poor fit to the universe).

(preface everything below with 'As arcady sees it')

It's not a cinematic universe. It's a very big, cold and political place. Very Foundation and classic hard-Sci Fi like.

GURPS has the right level of utter lethality and 'slow character development' for Traveller.

d20 is a system where characters grow in ability by leaps and bounds. Where combat is not all that lethal (even in the low levels) compared to GURPS and how I see the Traveller universe.

To me it makes as much sense using D20 for Traveller as it would to use GURPS for Star Wars. Or the rules from Metamorphasis Alpha to do Paranoia.

They're genre opposites.

Besides; my Traveller characters, who all have sideburns and bell bottoms, would look funny in leather straps and mullets.


But we'll see when it comes out. I will look at it after all; I just don't think it's the right system choice.

 

[Kichwas]

Please, listen to us Far Future Enterprises! Ditch the cover art, focus on the superb interior art you've got, and the product will be a better thing.

I agree. A selling point for Traveller has always been the plain black covers with the red and white writing.

It's simply the 'Traveller Look'.

I was overjoyed when they used it for GURPS Traveller and it motivated me to buy a hardcover copy over the soft even though I've never gotten to DM the darned thing.

(If anyone in San Francisco or nearbout's is looking into a Traveller game I'm here for recruitment.

There are two things that would cause me to drop my current DnD game:

A Traveller Game using GURPS or possibly d20 if I like it once I see it.
A Kalamar game.)


A note on the Solomani / Villani thing: If I recall right most of the Imperium still not recognize Terra as the actual birthplace of humanity. Is that accurate?


It's too bad the K'kree are the likely bad guys; I always thought one would make an interesting PC. Of it still could under the right parameters.


As far as 'hard-sci-fi' is concerned. Traveller is 'classic-hard'. Like Asimov's Foundation series. To today's thinking it has a number of 'silly ideas' but it's based around what was considered a hard possibility to the sci fi writers of the 50's I suppose.

And FTL is not nessessarily soft. There's some debate at present on ways that might circumvent Enstien or even weather or not his theories still hold. Time will tell if the debate leads to anything new in physics thinking or if it just leads to a bunch of people being called crackpots while somebody runs off with their research to an underground government facility somewhere ...

 

[JeffB]

I'm looking forward to it very much as well...20 years ago I ran a very fun Traveller campaign..I never liked the rules that much (except for character creation...OH...$%^&..I mustered out..hee hee)..but the feel of that game/setting is unique.

I'm in the camp of the black cover folks, though my personal favorite set of rules for Traveller,Starter Edition, had a really cool cover/box art.

I sold all my stuff 17 years ago, then about a year or two ago found an original boxed set on Ebay, and then I bought the reprint books..I really wanted to run agame or two, but my players were not interested, so I sold them to a collector...now w/ d20 rules my group might be interested..I just hope the designers can keep the "feel" of Traveller intact.

I think I'll go try and find a Starter Edition just for nostalgia's sake

 

[Thorvald Kviksverd]

Why oh why couldn't they have decided on this...

http://www.lucas-digital.com/T5/index_files/LLB_artist_impression2.jpg

I'd clear off the mantlepiece to display that