Let's Read: Traveller, 1977 Edition

Okay, so I’m a newcomer to Traveller. I’ve been gaming for nearly 40 years now, but up until now I’ve given Traveller virtually no attention. I vaguely remember trying out the BASIC program in an old Dragon magazine for character creation, but that’s as far as I ever got with the game, as I was focused instead on D&D and Star Frontiers as my primary games. Now, with my son showing an interest in astronomy and science fiction, I’ve been looking for a game that will inspire him the way D&D inspired me with fantasy. So, I’ve acquired the original (1977) books 1-3, and I’m going to go through them page by page, learning the game myself and then passing it on to my son when he’s older.

I’m sure most people have read ‘Let’s Read’ threads before, and pretty much everyone reading this will already know the books very well. However, as I said, I’m pretty much totally new to Traveller, so while I’m aware of the Third Imperium, the OTU, and some of the other trappings, I don’t really know the game itself. I look at it the way I looked at my son’s Star Wars journey; unlike me (who saw the original movie in the theater in 1977), he started with Episode I and worked his way through the series chronologically. So, in my case, the prequels were (poorly) filling in backstory; for him, they WERE the story. Maybe my experience with Traveller will be the same sort of thing, a fresh perspective for people who haven’t thought about these things in a long time.

Anyway, I’ll stop meandering about and start with this project.

BOOK 1: CHARACTERS AND COMBAT

Alright, we start with the Table of Contents, which tells me that this book will, as the cover says, focus on Character Generation and Personal Combat. There’s the usual ‘defining an RPG’ section. Instead of a Dungeon Master, we have a Referee. Character generation will involve retirement, mustering out, aging, rank and service (sounds a lot like a military game; Star Trek influence, perhaps? Or Starship Troopers; that was an awesome book. They should make it into a movie). Personal combat topics include basic concept, surprise, range, escape and avoidance, then we get to movement and resolution, followed by characteristics, expertise, weight, morale, equipment, and antique equivalents, which suggests a less high-tech option (modern-day, or early star flight, perhaps).

Looks good so far; let’s dig in!

The first page introduces the concept: faster-than-light travel, but communication is limited to the speed of space travel; no Star Trek-style subspace radio here. I’m a big fan of the Honor Harrington series, so the concept is familiar. I like the idea; it gives an old-style Age of Exploration Age feel, where mail takes time to get from place to place. It also suggests pirates, which is always cool. Every RPG is made better with pirates.

We are also informed that the game isn’t limiting itself to ‘space opera’ sci-fi, but it can go in virtually any sci-fi direction. So, I guess a post-apocalyptic setting could work, maybe a sci-fi variation on the ‘fallen empires’ theme, where an ancient empire has collapsed in on itself, and suddenly there’s no central authority, sort of like a ‘Dark Ages in space.’ Or, you know, Isaac Asimov’s Foundation…That could be interesting, too. What other genres are there? Sword-and-planet, steampunk, cyberpunk, hard SF…lots of options, some of which will work better with the implied technology than others. I wonder if there will be different types of FTL travel available. There’s a big difference between Star Wars hyperspace and Star Trek warp drive. Well, there’s a difference, anyway. Babylon 5 handled things differently, too.

Solitaire play? Interesting. Sounds like a fun way to learn the game, or to just pass the time when there’s no one else to play with. These days, that seems like a common complaint; not enough people to game with around. Traveller was clearly forward-thinking. Six-sided dice only? Good; my wife is suspicious of dice with more (or less) than six sides. Everyone’s got a board game with six-siders in it, so they’re easy enough to find. I’m fine with cardboard counters; miniatures aren’t happening. I’m not made of money, after all.

40 PLAYERS MAXIMUM?! Good Lord. I shudder to think of how long it would take to get anything done in a group that large. ‘Roll for initiative. Okay, you got a ‘1’, you’re going to have to wait a while…’ Three to ten players is optimum; that sounds reasonable. So, you’ve got enough to crew a small ship, or captain and officers for a larger one (lots of red shirts handy). Was 40 players at a time a normal idea back then?

Required Materials: The usual; books, dice, pencils and paper, plus hex paper, minis, and calculator. How quaint. Spreadsheets are the name of the game now, or cell phones, depending on whether you’re the ref or a player. Nothing special here.

And that concludes page 1 of Traveller Book 1.