Traveller, 1977 Edition, Characters & Combat, Review

Okay, as promised I'm going to do a review of the whole boxed set, one book at a time. This is more of an overview, since I already did the page-by-page read-through of all three books. So, I'm going to post my overall thoughts on each book and how I see a classic Traveller setting and game.

First of all, it's the Characters & Combat book, which could provide a lot of gaming all on its own. The whole idea of character generation possibly causing death is, I think, unique in gaming, or at least in old-school gaming. And, unlike Dungeons & Dragons, your characters aren't raw rookies who might get smoked by an orc patrol; you're experienced soldiers and scouts, ready for action with a decent chance of good skills and equipment to start.

I've seen that character creation can be a mini-game all on its own; spend a session creating characters, rolling them randomly and seeing how many survive, and how experienced they get. You'd need some ridiculous rolls to get an Admiral or a high-level Merchant with his own ship already paid for, but it could happen. Alternatively, your character could muster out after a single term, stuck with one or two low-level skills but with lots of years ahead of him.

Combat is pretty abstract, as befits an old-school game. It's fast-paced, with a good mix of weapons and tactics to spice things up. It's also friggin' deadly; there will be a goodly number of one-shot kills in Traveller combat.

Full disclosure: I've never seen a full episode of Firefly, just the first half of the pilot. I've heard rumors that it was actually based on a Traveller game run by Joss Whedon, but I have no idea if that's true or not. Still, what I did see of the show gives me a good idea of how a Traveller game should be run. It's dark, it's gritty, it's adventurous...and it can be a lot of fun. I get the sense that this game can handle Star Wars and Star Trek style better than Golden Age sci-fi like Asimov and Clarke. Which is good, since I frankly find those writers to be a little less than exciting when it comes to the action.

I think that good prep for running a Traveller game might include some of the classic pulp science fiction from the 1920s and 1930s: Skylark of Space, The Legion of Space, Flash Gordon, and other classics. Later stuff like H. Beam Piper, Poul Anderson, and the current king of space opera, David Weber, would also be great inspirations. Certainly, this is a pulpy sort of game, not a 'men with screwdrivers' setup. And I think that's for the better.

Next time, I'll do a quick overview of the second book, Starships. In the meantime, check out my first science fiction book, Bard Conley's Adventures Across the Solar System, which might provide some inspiration for Traveller games as well.