I really like Classic Traveller!
I have my own version of the rules, which takes 1977 as the starting point (the first-ever RPG I owned or read), but adds a few things from 1981, incorporates some of the skills from the Books 4 to 6 and Supplement 4, adds a "special duty" line to the PC gen tables (I took this from MegaTraveller), and incorporates various subsystems from Andy Slack's articles in White Dwarf c 1980 plus various books, modules and my own brain.
I GMed a 20-session campaign from September 2017 to March 2021. Here are links to the first and last actual play reports - from the latter one, you should be able to work back to the intermediate reports if you're interested:
Recently I've been re-reading my Classic Traveller books, and yesterday I GMed a session. It's the first time I've played Traveller for at least a couple of decades.
One of the distinctive things about Traveller is its use of random generation to deliver content and flavour. For PC generation, I had written up some tables that were pretty close to the original ones (from Book 1 and Citizens of the Imperium), but with a few of the newer skills overlaid.
My collection is Books 1 to 8, Supp 2 and 4, a few adventure, The Traveller Book (an early-80s single volume re-release of Books 1 to 3...
We played a session of Traveller today, which is our second for the year and the second since
I last posted Traveller actual play.
*************************************
The PCs were in two main groups: one in the Novus system, on the research vessel St Christopher; the other on the ice world Zinion that orbits a gas giant in its system, with the alien vessel Annic Nova in orbit about Zinion.
In the previous session, the St Christopher had survived an Alien attack while in jump space (the attack being the result of the experimentation of Leila Lo,
a space captain and surgeon and...
The only feature of the system that I found frustrating was the lack of satisfactory rules to resolve on-world travel and exploration - the game seems to assume that movement will be tracked on a detailed map prepared in advance, but (i) doesn't say so, and (ii) doesn't grapple with the fact that this is a hopeless approach for a game based around travelling from world to world.
The space combat system works, but is a bit boring. We didn't have many starship combats.
And the money system - counting every credit - is a bit tedious, especially when managing a starship (with mortgage, fuel and crew expenses). Something like Burning Wheel Resources would work better, I think.
The rest of the system - PC gen, encounter rules, dealing with bureaucracy, flying spacecraft, interpersonal combat, engaging in trade, etc - worked well. The general theme/tone of our game combined modern military conspiracy with psionics and ancient alien secrets. I don't know if this is a
default for Traveller, but I think it is at least what Traveller supports. (So a feel closer to Total Recall or even 2001, than to Star Wars or Star Trek, at least for me.)
Around that same time, I also ran some sessions for my kids:
I ran a one-on-one session for my teenage daughter this afternoon. It was fairly slow, as it was her first real time playing (she's joined in once or twice before in low-grade AD&D one-shots), and so she doesn't have well-developed creative instincts. The slow pace did give me a chance to reflect a bit on the decision-making process.
She generated a PC, a 34 year old noble with UPP 96568B and seven skills all at rank 1: Admin, Bribery, Gambling, Engineering, Jack-o-T, Ship's Boat and Cutlass. She started with CR 150,000, a cutlass and a couple of high passages. He name was Dame T_____.
I...
Around the same time as
this session, I ran a brief session of Traveller for my other daughter. This weekend (so after a gap of almost 3 years), we played a little bit more of it.
From three years ago, I had three bits of paper. One was a PC sheet:
Bob Airrunner B29497, a 30-year old, 3 term drifter, with nearly 50,000 credits (given to him when he was abandoned on Hobson), and six skills all at rank 1 (Light blades, Shotgun, Forgery, Mechanical, Streetwise, Bribery).
Equipment: jack (leather coat), dagger, watch, electric torch, long range communicator, mechanical...
My younger daughter did complain about a "far future" where people still drive cars and use walkie-talkies!
