Traveller: the iconic science fiction roleplaying game

Not DnD is a weekly show discussing tabletop roleplaying games. In September we are looking at tabletop RPGs for a sci-fi setting!

Traveller is a long-beloved science fiction roleplaying game first published in 1977. The game has had several editions published over it's almost 50 year history, including GURPS and d20. It's difficult to discuss sci-fi ttrpgs without mentioning this iconic game.

The Traveller Core Rulebook Update 2022 by Mongoose publishing provided new careers, equipment, hazards, world creation, psionics and shipbuilding. Come learn more about Mongoose Traveller 2nd Edition with Matt and Chris from Mongoose Publishing on this weeks (29th September) episode of Not DnD.


Not DnD is a weekly show discussing tabletop roleplaying games. Each week EN Publishing’s @tabletopjess interviews the creators behind different tabletop roleplaying games that aren’t D&D!

You can watch the live recording every Monday at 5pm ET / 10pm BST on YouTube or Twitch, or listen on the podcast platform of your choice.

We've had many other sci-fi TTRPGs on Not DnD over the last three years such as Salvage Union, Terminal, Orbital Blues, You're In Space and Everything is F***ed, Day Trippers, Alien, Paranoia, Blade Runner, Star Trek Adventures, and Dune.

You can watch any of these previous interviews on youtube here. Or listen to the podcast episodes here.

 

[pemerton]

On trade, the Classic Traveller rules are more streamlined. If you're looking for a cargo, then you role d66 to determine what the best available trade good 'available for the purpose' is.

Yes, the speculative trade system is pretty efficient.

But there's also the rolls to determine available cargoes (from Book 2 (1977), p 7):

The referee should determine all worlds accessible to the starship (depending on jump number), and roll (for each such world) a number of dice equal to the population number of the destination. Each die represents one shipment, expressed in multiples of 5 tons. Thus, roll ten dice for the potential shipments to a population 10 world; should all dice show 6 (admittedly an unlikely event), there are 10 thirty ton (die roll 6 x 5 tons = 30) shipments awaiting transportation. A starship can carry as many shipments as will fit in the hold, but may not break-down the size of any specific shipment.​

In 1981 it is a bit different (Book 2, p 8):

The referee should determine all worlds accessible to the starship (depending on jump number), and roll for each such world on the cargo table. He should roll to determine the number of major, minor, and incidental cargos available on the world of origin; modifiers take into account the world of destination. After rolling for the number of cargos, roll one die for each cargo to determine its size. Multiply the die roll for major cargos by 10, minor cargos by 5, and incidental cargos by 1 to determine the number of tons in each​

The cargo table, on p 11, makes the population of the source world the principle determinant of the number of cargoes, although the population of the destination world is also a factor. The table will yield, on average, about 1 major and 1 minor cargo per population number, so this method will tend to yield more available cargoes than the 1977 method.

 

[pemerton]

The original edition is still available for free: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/355200/classic-traveller-facsimile-edition

I think that's the 1981 version, rather than the 1977 version.

 

[dragoner]

It is.

 

[Willie the Duck]

Regarding death during character creation: even as a kid, I recognized it as a press-your-luck mechanic and not that different from rolling up a D&D character with a 6 Constitution and 'having to' start over. It clearly grabbed a bunch of other people by the adrenal gland, though (and permanently turned off who knows how many people who won't bother posting here).

In terms of popularity, I think the biggest issue is that it represented a version of sci fi (/age of sail IN SPAAAACE!) that wasn't in ascendence at the time. Both the zeerust aspects and just the 'middle-aged ex-space naval officers trying to make ends meet as interplanetary merchants/mercenaries/big game hunters/etc.' motif. It's a little like why movie adaptations like Dick Tracey and The Phantom didn't do wonderfully. I missed the initial introduction, but from what I hear, huge numbers of people in my FLGS catchment area saw Traveller and used it to play Star Wars or Star Trek (or BGS, or their own off-brand version of the same concept). And once those games had their own TTRPGs or there were other sci fi RPGs out there, they had no brand loyalty to Traveller.

In terms of popularity, though, I think it is an issue that it doesn't offer a clear core play experience in the way that D&D does: there is no real analogue in Traveller to dungeon exploration, with its XP-for-gold level up; nor to the standard form that many D&D adventures have taken for a long time now, of a quest whose success is gated behind a series of combat encounters.
This aspect of Traveller was observed in White Dwarf magazine back in the late 70s and early 80s, when dungeon-crawling D&D was still a norm. And I think the advent by the mid-80s of a default approach to D&D that is more recognisably contemporary only exacerbated the issue.

I feel like this is a good explanation for why few games have done as well as D&D (including D&D, I'll get back to that in a second). D&D stumbled into a very solid answer to 'but what do you do?' -- start out in dungeons looking for treasure (/fights), and eventually (maybe) develop some long term campaign-driven goals like build a castle or defeat the evil sorcerer/rescue the princess/save the kingdom.

Most other games that I recall seeing a lot of actual play (vs. buying, rolling up characters, trying for a while but losing interest in), in my groups or around us, were some version of those motifs. Shadowrun was being hired to do a 'run' (effectively a dungeon, with a little more nuance). WEG Star Wars was 'do what you saw in the movies' (defeat the evil space-sorcerer/rescue the space-princess/etc). White Wolf was maybe a quasi exception in that it mostly provided a theme and let each group kinda figure out what to do themselves (and of the games I saw played--and WW WoD saw some play even if it saw more reading/purchase than actual play--it had the most variety in what playstyle actually ended up being done in each group).

Traveller is more like a bunch of other games -- including D&D: the West Marches/Sandbox version I think the devs expected us to play. It set up a basic incentive structure ('you need money for your ship loan' instead of 'you want money because it is xp'), gave you world-generating tools, and said have at it. Now obvious any number of groups absolutely took to that and figured out what adventures could be had with the hooks that were generated with that setup and had a great time. But other groups kinda meandered, re-read, tried to figure out if they were doing things right, and eventually just lost interest. In both cases, I think more rulebook space dedicated to explaining the central play loop, the why of it, how it facilitates game hook opportunities, examples, maybe even modules specific to doing that.

 

[payn]

Regarding death during character creation: even as a kid, I recognized it as a press-your-luck mechanic and not that different from rolling up a D&D character with a 6 Constitution and 'having to' start over. It clearly grabbed a bunch of other people by the adrenal gland, though (and permanently turned off who knows how many people who won't bother posting here).

In terms of popularity, I think the biggest issue is that it represented a version of sci fi (/age of sail IN SPAAAACE!) that wasn't in ascendence at the time. Both the zeerust aspects and just the 'middle-aged ex-space naval officers trying to make ends meet as interplanetary merchants/mercenaries/big game hunters/etc.' motif. It's a little like why movie adaptations like Dick Tracey and The Phantom didn't do wonderfully. I missed the initial introduction, but from what I hear, huge numbers of people in my FLGS catchment area saw Traveller and used it to play Star Wars or Star Trek (or BGS, or their own off-brand version of the same concept). And once those games had their own TTRPGs or there were other sci fi RPGs out there, they had no brand loyalty to Traveller.

I feel like this is a good explanation for why few games have done as well as D&D (including D&D, I'll get back to that in a second). D&D stumbled into a very solid answer to 'but what do you do?' -- start out in dungeons looking for treasure (/fights), and eventually (maybe) develop some long term campaign-driven goals like build a castle or defeat the evil sorcerer/rescue the princess/save the kingdom.

Most other games that I recall seeing a lot of actual play (vs. buying, rolling up characters, trying for a while but losing interest in), in my groups or around us, were some version of those motifs. Shadowrun was being hired to do a 'run' (effectively a dungeon, with a little more nuance). WEG Star Wars was 'do what you saw in the movies' (defeat the evil space-sorcerer/rescue the space-princess/etc). White Wolf was maybe a quasi exception in that it mostly provided a theme and let each group kinda figure out what to do themselves (and of the games I saw played--and WW WoD saw some play even if it saw more reading/purchase than actual play--it had the most variety in what playstyle actually ended up being done in each group).

Traveller is more like a bunch of other games -- including D&D: the West Marches/Sandbox version I think the devs expected us to play. It set up a basic incentive structure ('you need money for your ship loan' instead of 'you want money because it is xp'), gave you world-generating tools, and said have at it. Now obvious any number of groups absolutely took to that and figured out what adventures could be had with the hooks that were generated with that setup and had a great time. But other groups kinda meandered, re-read, tried to figure out if they were doing things right, and eventually just lost interest. In both cases, I think more rulebook space dedicated to explaining the central play loop, the why of it, how it facilitates game hook opportunities, examples, maybe even modules specific to doing that.

Yes, you nailed it. The beats Traveller and it’s setting go for wouldn’t be popular dramas until decades later. Empire in B5, rag tag crew keeping a ship flying in Cowboy Bebop and Firefly. Mysterious missing species in Mass Effect. Etc…

I was drawn to Traveller cause it left a lot of the particulars to it’s players but it’s quite common for folks to gravitate to a play loop.

Which is why the Pirates of Drinax sandbox campaign for Traveller is so great. It provides a meta goal so essentially everything the players do is towards that goal. The common pay your mortgage trope isn’t terribly interesting particularly for more reactive players.

 

[Jeffzilla]

Regarding death during character creation: even as a kid, I recognized it as a press-your-luck mechanic and not that different from rolling up a D&D character with a 6 Constitution and 'having to' start over.

This was kind of my take on the mechanic, as well, although in practice we generally just backed up to the last successful enlistment (the one before the character-to-be snuffed it) and ended character generation there.

In both cases, I think more rulebook space dedicated to explaining the central play loop, the why of it, how it facilitates game hook opportunities, examples, maybe even modules specific to doing that.

I was drawn to Traveller cause it left a lot of the particulars to it’s players but it’s quite common for folks to gravitate to a play loop.

I agree with both of you but also felt drawn to the game as a GM because it left a lot of those same blank spaces open for the GM to fill in. The amazingly open sandbox of the Traveller universe let me decide what the play loop for each campaign that I ran was going to be.

 

[Willie the Duck]

I agree with both of you but also felt drawn to the game as a GM because it left a lot of those same blank spaces open for the GM to fill in. The amazingly open sandbox of the Traveller universe let me decide what the play loop for each campaign that I ran was going to be.

It's an issue without a single correct answer, so I'm unsurprised both that people have liked either permutation and that games were developed both with and without clear play loops. However, I think people new to a game -- and especially younger gamers and people new to RPGs in general (but also, and let's be clear, plenty of highly experienced and competent gamers who just want these things) -- oftentimes this is a source of friction.

Maybe someone isn't imaginative. Or are super imaginative but needs a sense of scale to work off of (even if you color outside the lines, you want them there to keep you coloring on the page and not the wall/"am I piloting the Apollo moonshot or a Deathstar?"). Or a game session is boring and it isn't clear if it is because you got the trade rules wrong, or right and they just don't gel with you. Or the GM changed something (not realizing what purpose it served) and it turned the game on its head. Or people just notice something like the game has all sorts of extensive encumbrance rules but nothing like gp=xp or combat penalties explaining why we're supposed to be tracking it so closely.

Most importantly, those of us who do like the game/have no problem with this openness don't get a vote on whether it is an issue. People just don't stick with the game and players leave or someone proposes other-game#3695 next time a natural campaign transition happens. No one (well, not many folks) vehemently rejects a game, they just don't stick with it (often time in Traveller's case still fondly recalling the character creation part of the game).

 

[payn]

It's an issue without a single correct answer, so I'm unsurprised both that people have liked either permutation and that games were developed both with and without clear play loops. However, I think people new to a game -- and especially younger gamers and people new to RPGs in general (but also, and let's be clear, plenty of highly experienced and competent gamers who just want these things) -- oftentimes this is a source of friction.

Maybe someone isn't imaginative. Or are super imaginative but needs a sense of scale to work off of (even if you color outside the lines, you want them there to keep you coloring on the page and not the wall/"am I piloting the Apollo moonshot or a Deathstar?"). Or a game session is boring and it isn't clear if it is because you got the trade rules wrong, or right and they just don't gel with you. Or the GM changed something (not realizing what purpose it served) and it turned the game on its head. Or people just notice something like the game has all sorts of extensive encumbrance rules but nothing like gp=xp or combat penalties explaining why we're supposed to be tracking it so closely.

Most importantly, those of us who do like the game/have no problem with this openness don't get a vote on whether it is an issue. People just don't stick with the game and players leave or someone proposes other-game#3695 next time a natural campaign transition happens. No one (well, not many folks) vehemently rejects a game, they just don't stick with it (often time in Traveller's case still fondly recalling the character creation part of the game).

Yeah some folks just need an element to grab onto. They prefer to be reactive as opposed to proactive with the GM. Neither is right or wrong but you will struggle in a game that doesn’t cleave closely to a particular genre convention or has a power increase progression system.

I’ve also seen some folks married to the game piece of RPG. For example I was honestly asked once why a rogue/thief would ever pick a lock if they didnt directly receive experience points for it. They needed that much direction to be able to play the game.

 

[dragoner]

Death in chargen is only in the 77 version.

 

[overgeeked]

Death in chargen is only in the 77 version.

Not really. It carried forward for quite awhile. It's in 81, the Traveller Book, the Starter Set, etc. I'm not sure when it disappeared, but it lasted longer than just the original.