Traveller: Where to Start

[Flynn]

Good Morning, All,

I'd like to point out that there's a free fanzine for Classic Traveller and Traveller T20. It's called Stellar Reaches, and can be found here at:
http://stellarreaches.nwgamers.org/

I hope this helps,
Jason "Flynn" Kemp

 

[Garnfellow]

For those lurkers who might find their appetite whetted by this thread, this is what I've found for available products:

Classic Traveller Materials

As plugged several times upthread, Marc Miller's Far Future Enterprises (FFE) produces CD-ROMs that collect older, out-of-print materials as PDFs. In addition to the Classic Traveller CD, there's also one that collects early issues of the Journal of the Traveller's Aid Society, and it looks like one is forthcoming that collects CT material produced by third parties such as FASA and GameLords. There are also CD-ROMs available for MegaTraveller and other GDW games.

FFE also produced a series of hard-copy reprints of CT materials. These are available through many vendors, but here's e23's selection: http://www.warehouse23.com/search.cgi?comp=Far+Future+Enterprises

T20 Materials

It appears the core d20 Traveller book is out of print, though copies are available through several online vendors such as Amazon. Note that there were evidently two printings -- I assume the second one included errata. The most common price is $55. but keep in mind this is a 464 page monster. The cheapest price I found was at Books-A-Million ($31), but I'm not sure if this is the first or second printing, and it's not clear if BAM will be able to fulfill the order.

The T20 book is also available as three separate PDFs, which are based on the second printing of the core book. Here's RPGNow's page for QLI/RPGRealms, the publisher of T20: http://enworld.rpgnow.com/default.php?manufacturers_id=325

 

[Shades of Green]

T20 is out of print? I'm sad to hear that; I was thinking about purchasing it in hardcopy in the near future. I guess I'll have to live with my CT reprints...

Oh, on a lighter note, Flynn, it's nice to meet you here as well - it's me, Employee #2-4601

 

[jeff37923]

I knew that was you, Shade of Green!

jeff37923 = Jeff Hopper

 

[Garnfellow]

I'd like to point out that there's a free fanzine for Classic Traveller and Traveller T20. It's called Stellar Reaches, and can be found here at:
http://stellarreaches.nwgamers.org/

I've finally had a chance to check out a couple of issues -- very tasty. The level of quality found in Traveller fanzines is pretty darned high.

 

[Garnfellow]

I've cruised through much of the Classic Traveller CD-ROM, and obviously it's a lot to asborb.

But I also have the Dragon Magazine CD-ROM, a pretty nearly complete collection of early White Dwarfs and Polyhedrons, and several issues of Space Gamer. Are there any really excellent Traveller articles in those mags that are worth checking out? I did look over a Traveller adventure in Dragon that looked pretty good.

 

[SWBaxter]

But I also have the Dragon Magazine CD-ROM, a pretty nearly complete collection of early White Dwarfs and Polyhedrons, and several issues of Space Gamer. Are there any really excellent Traveller articles in those mags that are worth checking out? I did look over a Traveller adventure in Dragon that looked pretty good.

Was that the Exonidas adventure? Planet recovering from a limited nuclear exchange? It is indeed pretty cool, I believe the author was actually a novelist who published a couple of books based on his Traveller campaign. That one issue has most of the Dragon Traveller stuff I can remember (that adventure, dwarves in space, and rules for a short story in the same issue), there were a few mentions in the Ares section later in its run but nothing really stands out.

White Dwarf had tons of Traveller stuff - lots of adventures, a fair number of deck plans, and other rules stuff; I have a photocopy of a hit location system kicking around that was kinda fun. Dunno about Space Gamer, I never really read that magazine.

Of course, the best source for Traveller articles was the Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society, which I believe is one of the FFE reprints. I think Steve Jackson Games has a similar electronic product nowadays.

 

[jeff37923]

Dragon Magazine issues #51 and #59 were especially good for Traveller. Any Dragon with an ARES section has some Traveller stuff in it, I think, I'm not entirely sure (I've slept since then).

There were some good early articles in White Dwarf, in particular I remember one about starports and one entitled "Backdrop of Stars" that was excellent.

 

[qstor]

I'm (Qstor2) CotI

I think the main T20 book is available in .pdf format now.

Mike

 

[Garnfellow]

Interesting addendum . . . late last week I saw a copy of T20 on eBay, which I bid on and won. Turns out the seller was none other than Marc Miller, and he kindly autographed the book for me. Very, very cool.