Let's Read: Traveller, 1977 Edition, Worlds & Adventures Review

Finally wrapping this up, and then I've got the Hub to finish off as my graduate thesis for original Traveller. I found this book to be pretty interesting, as there was some stuff that I felt should have come up in a different book, and the world generation stuff was quite short compared to the animal generation section.

The world generation was pretty comprehensive, despite only being a dozen or so pages. There is a lot of information on a world even with just a short string of numbers. It's an efficient way to present enough information to start the creative juices flowing, while at the same time leaving plenty of openings for originality and unique environments. The same set of rolls for a world could produce a variety of differences just in how they're presented. The generation system works well, and the connections between the different modifiers are logical.

The government types cover the most common ones that we've seen on Earth in the past or the present, but there really isn't anything new. The system's main flaw, in my opinion, is the population numbers. The majority of worlds are going to be colonies with smaller populations; there's no modifier for population based on world size, or anything else. You could have a barren rock, 2000 miles in diameter, with a low tech level and no water, with a population of 10 billion. Now, it's possible that those 10 billion live underground, or they're aliens of some sort that are fine with those living conditions; rock people, for example.

And that's the game's other primary flaw: No mention is made of intelligent alien life. No Vulcans, no Wookies, no Daleks...the rules just assume an entirely human population. I mean, of course that's possible, especially if we're the only intelligent life in the galaxy, but this is science fiction; I expect to see aliens. True, there wasn't much room in the box for them; all three books are stuffed pretty well, but even a single page with ideas on how to create and integrate alien life into the game would have been nice to see.

Now, there are aliens of the animal variety, but not intelligent ones. And the animal generation system is, I think, one of the game's strongest aspects. Instead of focusing on what something looks like, the focus is on what kind of animal it is and what it can do. You can have an alien lizard that has the characteristics and personality of a lion, for example, a solitary hunter that lives in a pride-like social structure. Or a bird that has the abilities of a chameleon. There are an insane number of possibilities for animals in this game. It reminds me of the way the Champions game structures its powers; the focus is on the effect, not the cosmetics.

Then there are the psionics. I'm still a bit torn on these; psionics have never really been an interest of mine, even though I know they are cool powers and psionicists have a whole raft of options available to them. But there are some abilities that can be extremely dangerous to a character, like that brutal Assault power from a telepath, which can take out anyone who doesn't have a very strong mental defense themselves. The other powers are pretty well-balanced, although teleporters will prove to be a pain if they get to a high enough level.

All in all, Traveller looks like a very interesting and fun game to play; I'm hoping to get the chance to do so at some point. There aren't many gamers around here out in the country. Still, it's worth a try, and I can always set up something online. I'm looking forward to learning more about the game and how it actually plays.

I won't be going through more of the Traveller stuff, since I'm aware that it goes heavily into the Third Imperium setting. When I do play, it will be based on these three rule books. I might add some more weapons and equipment to fill out the lists, but otherwise, there's enough here to keep a game going for quite a while in the old-school style.

So, that does it for this read-through of the original Traveller boxed set. I hope that those of you who followed the whole series got something out of it; I certainly enjoyed the journey myself. And it's provided me with some inspiration for my own science fiction writing, which you can see in Bard Conley's Adventures Across the Solar System, available now in paperback or ebook formats from an Amazon website near you. Check it out, and support indie publishing, because that's where the best new writing is to be found.