Traveller

I had started working on my own Traveller setting using the Cepheus Universal rules but I found myself more and more looking in my Traveller 5th edition (T5) rules for additional information on something¹. This is by no means a discredit of Cepheus Universal which is covering a lot of ground, but the fact remains that T5 covers a lot more.

I backed the “5.0” edition of Traveller in 2012. I was very excited when I received it (sometime in 2013) and I devoured it, but the 5.0 edition was not good. It was full of errata (the list was at least a hundred pages long when I lost interest in keeping up), there weren’t enough examples, and the organisation of the book was not great. After working hard to make sense of it, I gave up.

Some years later there was a new Kickstarter for an improved version (5.10) with a new format: instead of a single book, this edition mirrored the 3 Little Black Books (LBB) in organization, except that each book was now “big”, so these are sometimes called the 3 “Big Black Books” (BBB).

I skipped that kickstarter, as did about half of those who had backed the 5.0 version. “Fool me once…” and all that. And I never looked at Traveller since, looking instead at various other RPGs.

When I became interested again in a sci-fi RPG² recently, I first looked at Cepheus Universal and was very happy with it, until it missed some of the things that I wanted. I also had some reservations on the Skill Task resolution, which is the classic 8+ on 2D6³. So I found myself wondering about that 5.10 edition that I had skipped. I watched a great Youtube series on Traveller by Ian (the channel’s name is Willy Muffin), and in particular his review of Traveller 5th Edition. After some more research I decided to give T5 another chance. As a kickstarter of the 5.0 edition, I had received the 5.10 PDF for free (a version without bookmarks though), so I started to read it.

The new version is much better organized. It mimics the organisation of the original 3 Little Black Books:

• Book 1: Characters and Combat (280 pages);
• Book 2: Starships (304 pages);
• Book 3: Worlds and Adventures (303 pages).

So version 5.10 has a whooping 887 pages. In comparison, the 5.0 version was a single book with 656 pages.

It’s clear that T5 should probably not be your first experience with Traveller⁴. Even with prior experience, it’s not an easy read. It’s a bit like trying to learn someone else’s short hand, or a technical book. But it has its own “voice” and once you learn it you come to enjoy the conciseness. And for the sheer amount of material it contains, conciseness is a must.

T5 has rules for everything, and people are often missing the fact that most of the systems are there when you need them, but aren’t required. And since it’s Traveller, many of the systems are not meant to be used on game night, but instead are for the Referee’s preparations. As a Referee you might use the World Building rules, or the Vehicle Maker rules, before the game, if you need them. There is almost 50 years of Traveller material available that you can use, so maybe you don’t need these systems. You can certainly use the Official Traveller Universe (OTU), with its own wiki and the incredible Traveller Map instead of creating your own setting with the World Building rules in T5. The same argument goes for the rules for creating weapons, armour, races, etc. But in my case, since I do want to create My Own Traveller Universe (MOTU) and my own races, etc., then T5 offers all of that.

The rules that are actually used at the table, on game night, aren’t very complex. It’s a crunchy system of course, but very playable and easy to teach to players. The skill mechanic is very flexible and quite interesting. It is more complex than the regular 8+ on 2D6, but in my opinion, it adds a lot of depth to the game.

Character generation is probably the best of all the editions. You can still die in character creation of course, a staple of Traveller. There are 13 careers, and there are additional rules for generating background information.

Each of the careers are different and have their own special rules during character creation (for example, variant on the risk and reward mechanic).

I made a first draft of a character sheet for humans (I plan on doing one for each of the sophonts I make fir my own setting). I also have a character creation Term Worksheet.

That’s all for now, but I plan on doing a series on T5, much like I did for Suldokar’s Wake. I’ll probably start with the Task Resolution system. Stay tuned!