Traveller?

[Jmarso]

Just out of curiosity, anyone familiar with the Terran Trade Authority handbooks published back in the late 70's / early 80's, and tried adapting that milieu to Traveler or some other gaming system?

Those books were the foundation of the first attempts by myself and my friends to homebrew some sort of 'space D&D.' I think the very first version of Traveler may have been published by then, but we never tried it.

 

[Bluenose]

Just out of curiosity, anyone familiar with the Terran Trade Authority handbooks published back in the late 70's / early 80's, and tried adapting that milieu to Traveler or some other gaming system?

Those books were the foundation of the first attempts by myself and my friends to homebrew some sort of 'space D&D.' I think the very first version of Traveler may have been published by then, but we never tried it.

There's a Savage Worlds version (This) and a few people have done ship conversions from that for Traveller without converting more of the setting (some I believe can be found on Freelance Traveller and others have been on various mailing lists and forums).

 

[pemerton]

Bundle of Holding has classic Traveller.

Bundle of Holding - Back from the tour

bundleofholding.com

Thanks for this heads-up! I have the Traveller Book in hard copy, and already had PDFs of the 1981 version (though as I already posted, I prefer 1977); but I got this to get the Alien modules which I've always been a little bit curious about. Especially the Zhodani.

 

[dragoner]

Just out of curiosity, anyone familiar with the Terran Trade Authority handbooks published back in the late 70's / early 80's, and tried adapting that milieu to Traveler or some other gaming system?

Those books were the foundation of the first attempts by myself and my friends to homebrew some sort of 'space D&D.' I think the very first version of Traveler may have been published by then, but we never tried it.

Yes, TTA is definitely an influence on my Traveller/Cepheus Engine setting, though there was an RPG for it a few years back.

 

[uzirath]

I tend to be a big fan of GURPS Traveller. I enjoyed the original black books but haven't really been able to get into the new versions.

I’m curious how this compares to other implementations. I played classic traveler and some MT long before I tried GURPS. Now I’m a GURPS fan and was considering hunting down some of the GT books.

 

[darjr]

If you like GURPS then you’ll like GURPS Traveller. It’s almost a perfect fit. Note it’s full on GURPS with rules for Traveller tech and pc species.

and it’s in its own era.

my memory is foggy but when I was playing a lot of GURPS I loved it. I even have a signed leather bound edition of the core book. Signed by Steve and Marc

 

[Bluenose]

I’m curious how this compares to other implementations. I played classic traveler and some MT long before I tried GURPS. Now I’m a GURPS fan and was considering hunting down some of the GT books.

I've never been a big GURPS fan but I loved the sourcebooks they put out for Traveller (especially Interstellar Wars for Gurps 4e). They're excellent source material for any game set in the CT or even MT eras, and some are very adaptable for other time frames. If you like GURPS and want to play Traveller then I'd regard them as some of the best things to buy. It's a shame that, as far as I know, the SJG-published magazines and TNS entries aren't available as they made a very decent alt-history timeline and their were a lot of ood articles published.

 

[aramis erak]

If you are going to go with the Mongoose version, you may as well go with the newest update of that version:

Traveller Core Rulebook Update 2022 - eBook & Pre-Order

The fully revised, updated and reformatted Traveller Core Rulebook Update 2022 is here! This is your gateway to the best Traveller campaigns, with an all new look! You can snatch your own copy right here: Mongoose Publishing While North American Travellers can find theirs here: Mongoose...

www.enworld.org

But I cannot say anything about the modern versions of the game, as all my Traveller playing was back in the early 90's with the original box and the little black books. I once owned and read through the original Traveller 2300 and Megatraveller, but never played them.

I have also spent time talking with John Watts at local conventions, but I never had the chance to sit down and play his version of Traveller:

John Watts - Traveller

wiki.travellerrpg.com

John is one of the most prolific Third Party Publishers for Cepheus Engine and Traveller.
He has a lot of fans, and I've not heard anything negative about his products...

 

[practicalm]

I’m curious how this compares to other implementations. I played classic traveler and some MT long before I tried GURPS. Now I’m a GURPS fan and was considering hunting down some of the GT books.

The one concern I have about GURPS Traveller is that the sheer number of skills might be a bit out of hand. You can pare down the skills but the need to get high numbers for piloting, navigating, Jump Drive engineering, and gunnery within the GURPS system throws things a bit out of whack.

I like GURPS Traveller over the original, but I also haven't really looked at the Mongoose version so it's hard for me to say which is better.
I have had fun generating a character in the original system and then building that character in GURPS. It's amusing to do if you are stuck for character ideas.