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For our #WednesdayWisdom let's look back at a landmark #RPG that let you jump from star to star across the Imperium, trading and battling with various sophonts along the way.
It's a game of the far future that's lasted over 40 years: Traveller!
It's a game of the far future that's lasted over 40 years: Traveller!
Traveller is a #ScienceFiction fiction role-playing game, first published in 1977 by Game Designers' Workshop. Launched a year before TSRs rival Gamma World it's probably* the superior SF RPG - its certainly stood the test of time.
(*Don't @ me!)
(*Don't @ me!)
Traveller features various descendants of humanity with different skills and abilities. Your ship can jump faster than light to reach other planets but you can't communicate FTL, so you have to deal with whatever world you jump to before moving somewhere else.
And in Traveller you're not alone in the galaxy: six other intelligent races hem you in, each with their own cultures, ambition and technologies. It's a complicated cosmos!
What really set Traveller apart though was the character generation. Characters get their skills and experience in a mini-game, where player makes career choices that determine the character's life right up to the point before adventuring begins.
Traveller has been through many iterations and expansions over the years, but the core story (and ruleset) has remained pretty consistent. It's attracted legions of fans...
...as well as fan-supported magazines and game modules. Before the internet we had to do this with desk top publishing, latraset and mail-order you know!
However Traveller isn't a role-playing system in itself. In fact you can play it using the Generic Universal RolePlaying System (GURPS), courtesy of @SJGames
Why play Traveller? Well first off it's fun! Plus it has a strong element of hard sci-fi to it. The games are complex enough to feel immersive, but not so complex that you spend half the night pouting over the rules.
Society as much as technology plays a role in Traveller: interstellar society is highly socially stratified, and the sophonts you encounter have their own cultures and beliefs. It's all the right side of complex.
If you're interested in giving it a go you can download the Classic Traveller RPG for free here: geeknative.com/63855/download…
