About 5 years ago I took the plunge back in the world of table top RPG’s. I spent years just not having the time and left them behind, so it seems like now having gotten back in since the late 90’s, I am making up for last time. I can’t always get the games I want to the table, but I’m obsessing over the books and the details of the games I do. One game I remember playing 1-2 times as a kid was the hard science fiction game Traveller, and I was excited to see not only has Mongoose Publishing kept the brand alive in the 21st century, but they’ve issued a new Core Rulebook for 2022, so a perfect time for me to take a dive in.
Traveller for those unaware is one of the first generation of tabletop RPG’s having come out in 1977 through Game Designers Workshop, before making the rounds through various publishers over the decades until finding a home with Mongoose, who it appears are doing a stellar job on the brand (although I will need to dive deeper on the core book at a later date). Traveller is a D6 based game, where most of your skill checks are made using 2D6 plus a modifier, coming from Call of Cthulhu, Rune Quest, and D&D, this is a bit of a fun change. The artwork on the cover is of a pulpy, fun science fiction kind that would not be out of place on an issue of Asimov’s or Analog Science Fiction from the 70’s.
Character creation in Traveller is sort of AMAZING. In it you can go to school, fail, start a career, start another career, basically live a life, before you even step foot out in the game as an adventurer. The recommendation, by the way, is to this character creation with your party at the table, that way your life path becomes connected with the life path of your party, so you have reasons to know each other. It reminds me a lot of the recent Cyberpunk Red Life Path system, but with significant more consequence and depth. There are 6 stats that make up your character during creation strength, dexterity, endurance, social standing, intellect, and education.
Combat is pretty straight-forward, you could use maps and minis, but I play most of my games online with voice over, and I could see no issues with skipping all that here. Melee combat usese a strength modifier, weapon type adds in to the damage. The list of weapons and equipment is pretty extensive, less so for armor. In Traveller you take damage to your physical stats endurance, strength, and dexterity. Your character is dead when all of those hit zero, and damage starts with endurance. Again it’s an interesting way to do this. It will take some getting used to, but overall the book is pretty clear about how it all works out.
The back-half of the book deal with space combat which gets extremely detailed with weapon types, angles, etc. Since I’m not running a game yet, I didn’t get overly deep in this section just a quick overview sufficed for my reading, but I am very excited about this, along with the chapters on spacecraft construction with details customization and creation of your parties own vehicles. I simply love that a game will go this deep on this. The remaining sections deal with things like universe and world building, trade, and psionic rules.
The Traveller Core Rulebook Update for 2022 is a fantastic read, and I honestly can’t wait to get deeper into this game, and get it to my table. Anyone who has been hesitant on Traveller should be adding this to their library and should definitely check this out. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!