The Traveller science fiction RPG was first published on 22nd July 1977, so my continuing forever game is soon to reach the important milestone of a 50th anniversary. I anticipate something of a formal celebration from the current publisher, Mongoose, and broadly across the Traveller playing community. I’m delighted to discover that an old University friend, who I have kept in touch with, and who used to run Traveller for me when it was taking its very early developmental steps in the early 1980s, is planning a celebratory anniversary weekend game for us, using the classic Traveller rules. I’m looking forward to it already! This has prompted me to return to the orignal text to remind me of the few minor differences between the original game and the iterations that I play today: the modern 2d6 system of Mongoose Traveller and Cepheus Engine.
I had one of those heart sinking moments when I realised that I could neither locate my original Starter
set or MegaTraveller books. After a plaintive search into the surface regions of my store cupboard, I had to accept that they have, at least for now, become lost in jumpspace. So, without batting an eyelid, I went onto DrivethruRPG and grabbed a copy of the Traveller Book, both in PDF and physical. This is the 1982 rendition of the game, which is drawn from the 1981 refresh of the original 1977 three little black book release. I think that will prove to be ‘classic enough’, and it will be great to have a physical copy on the table when we play. If I need to get down with 1977, with starship ranges in miles ratjher than kilometers, then electronic copies are available here. If you want to play along for free then there is the Facsimile Edition, which is a tidied up ‘1981 version’ of the three black books. A vast trove of Ancients artefacts are available at Far Future Enterprises. I may yet delve into the treasures, but for now I have what I need.
In the chasms of gaming time, I have allowed myself to forget how different ‘Classic Traveller’ is from the versions I play today. On reading the Traveller Book text, several key aspects immediately struck me, resonating with my resurging memories of the game I played back in the day. Here are my immediate reflections.
Classic Traveller doesn’t have a standardised task system. Different modifiers and target numbers apply to each skill area. Jack of Trades provides an actual skill level in certain Referee controlled situations. As there is no unified task system, the effect of a character’s skill, or lack thereof, needs to be checked with the skill text. Attributes have different effects, or none at all, for each of the skill areas. I have played with unified systems for so long, I had forgotten that Classic played as it did.
In the basic game, characters would muster out of their services with very few skills, taken from a much smaller skill list. The ‘Gun Combat’ skill is per weapon, though everyone gets the skill at zero. I remember the hilarity of starting an epic adventure with a character that had Admin-2 and Liaison-1 (and Gun Combat-0).
Skill training is over a four year block, which provides a temporary level, only to be cemented over a further four year programme. Crikey.
Armour provided a minus modifier for a hit, with each type cross referenced with the weapon list to get the effect. In our early Traveller game we used elements of the seperate boxed Snapshot game for our personal combat. This seemed like a sophisicated upgrade even then. Although mechanically, the game plays out differently, the recognisable core delivers a deadly combat system that encourages other solutions to problems, or a swift return to the quickly generate a new character.
Having skimmed the original core game, I then poured through books 4 to 7, each of which significantly increase the skill totals for characters, and introduces additional skills, all of which are now standard in the later versions of the game. Instinctively we moved our games forward with the incremental releases of these books. We moved with Traveller as it developed. It remains a quetion to someone Refereeing a game of Classic Traveller, to check if they are using Mercenary, High Guard, Scouts and Merchant Prince.
For me, this return to the original text reinforces the seminal importance of the release of Digest Group Publications’ ‘Universal Task Profile’ in 1985. I remember looking at this new standardised process for resolving tasks and immediately saw the profound benefit it would bring to the way the game plays. All subsequent versions of the 2d6 line of Traveller games use the principles of the UTP, helping to modernise the game, whilst keeping close to the core of the original text.
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| The UTP as adopted into MegaTraveller |
Of course, the core of the beautiful game is all there in Classic Traveller, but I was surprised how different it felt, how early and formative, which of course it had to be. Classic is often touted as the simpler start to the game, and I found nothing in the original text that supported this notion. Not that the game is complex to play, it just lacks the honed norms of more modern game design. Some will prefer Classic to the modern expressions, it is just a matter of taste. Whether you are playing Classic, MegaTraveller, T4 and 5, Cepheus or Mongoose Traveller, you are always recognisably playing Traveller, such is the strength of the core design and the clever adaptation over the years.
I’m currently enjoying Dom’s Mongoose Traveller Jägermeister Adventure, and will return to play the Drinax adventures in September. My forever game continues, whichever dice modifier or task profile used. The game ages better than a character on the ageing table, it has such good genes. As I commence my eleventh four year term around the sun, I reflect that I’m lucky to have found my forever game.