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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TrippyHippy" data-source="post: 8251185" data-attributes="member: 27252">Correct.It is worth noting that the original Classic Traveller release in 1977 didn’t have a setting. It had an implied setting like D&D had. The Third Imperium was built on later, like Forgotten Realms for D&D. Along with the original release of Classic Traveller there were included suggested stats for diverse characters from sci-fi media - Luke Skywalker, Captain Kirk included.The point is that Traveller captured the default setting of science fiction, in it’s space travelling format, and showed it could be a viable setting in the roleplaying game format, in the same way how D&D showed how it could be done for fantasy. Other roleplaying games followed on from the design precepts of these pioneer games.And just to reiterate, Traveller was hugely successful as a commercial and critical hit in its first 10 years. It appealed to Star Wars and Star Trek fans, as well as other works of science fiction. It was primarily the release of WEGs Star Wars in 1987, along with Cyberpunk to a degree, that saw Traveller’s status diminish as a market leader in the sci-fi genre. The Star Wars game was easier to reference, and arguably to play than Traveller (and much easier in terms of the ‘science’ to understand), while GDW also made some marketing errors in its release of MegaTraveller which never sold as well as the simpler design of the original game. Yet, the Traveller game and fanbase still endures with successful new editions and released (just not to the market leader status of Star Wars anymore). The situation is not dissimilar to how Champions’ position as market leader for the Supers genre has largely been supplanted by Mutants & Masterminds in recent decades, yet Champions still sells today also.When people make comparisons of Traveller to D&D and the 'default fantasy setting’ in terms of the comparative size of their market, what they forget is that 'D&D’ was the first RPG as a sales point, and is largely synonymous with RPGs to many people still. D&D nearly lost it’s market leader status a couple of times too (in the 1990s when TSR got sold off and also the whole 4E/Pathfinder split) so its position is not invulnerable. It also has a much looser relationship to Tolkien - as a ‘default setting’ than people keep suggesting here. The reason why various Middle Earth-based RPGs have not eaten away at their sales in the same manner Star Wars did to Traveller was because it is actually a narrower setting than what is on offer with D&D. While Star Wars is an easier game than Traveller for a casual fan, The One Ring is a more complex one to get into than D&D.</blockquote>

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