"Traveller, Which Edition?" Topic

Which edition of Traveller do you prefer?

1977 (Classic) Traveller
1986 MegaTraveller
1992 Traveller: The New Era
1996 Marc Miller's Traveller
1998 GURPS Traveller
2006 Traveller D20
2006 Traveller Hero
2008 Mongoose Traveller
2013 Traveller 5
None of the Above

1977

77 for me.

77

CT/MT

Everyone on here is like a hundred years old, so it'll be all CT :-)

I tend to prefer megatraveller with a combat system taken from Striker.

If I was gonna do it all over, it'd be GURPS Traveller or the Mongoose version.

The 1977 edition. The original LBB's.

81. Because I don't have the 77 version of Book 2. LBBs, 1-3 only. Not 100 years old!

Or Mongoose 1e core.

Some of the GURPS stuff is good though.

77 for me.

It's worth noting that the GURPS books are valuable even if you don't play GURPS AND that all these editions are pretty interchangeble.

Classic, with Striker for ground combat and High Guard for all the space stuff.

Classic. I have Striker and High Guard, but I haven't used them much.

TNE for me,

Classic Traveller (the hardbound book is best). Plus bits scavenged from other editions.

Classic Traveller / CT / LBB

I've only ever owned classic and 2300.

Of the two, I prefer the former for a number of reasons: with the likes of MayDay and other supplements, I never found myself wanting for workable rules. I liked the abilty to concisely give a simple coding for a planet (which, of course, can always be elaborated on for planets players actually go to).

Oh, and I liked – and still do like – the minimalist, red and black, A5 aesthetic.

John T

2016 Mongoose 2e

77!

TNE for me

It's worth noting that the GURPS books are valuable even if you don't play GURPS AND that all these editions are pretty interchangeable

Imperial measurements! Cubic feet! Traces of GURPS Vehicles! (God, 4e's spaceship design system wasn't a Traveller system, but it was a hell of a lot better than GURPS 3e Vehicles/Mecha/etc)

But yeah, a lot of the sourcebooks. Especially free trader, the military books, and the full length book of modular cutter modules complete with deckplans. Got a frontier world that needs a star port in a hurry? Lay down a concrete pad and drop off a module with all the basic sensors and offices you need to act as one. Things get busier? Drop a workshop module, and put a self-contained space traffic control module in orbit.

If you want a frontier board and you have a lot of card cylinders to build with, it might be very useful.

Classic LBBs

I've owned three or four of them and I much prefer the LBBs (1977) although the others each have something unique to add to the system.

Been there, done that, sold/gave all the books away. No regrets playing it, designing worlds, ships, characters, and no regrets jettisoning it. Good system but not good enough to keep for decades. And the multiple versions – became like D&D in space, let's argue about which version to play…

There are better SFRPGs and better war games for SF.

That said, CT whetted my appetite for SF. Fond memories and a few nightmares – Trillion Credit Squadron was the booklet name I believe.

TNE for me as well.

LBBs. (CT '77)

77 classic little pamplet version

Mega and 2300.

the original!

Either Classic or MegaTraveller.

Classic

77 but I'm quite happy with Mongoose's version.

Mega Traveller

77. And get off my lawn.

JohnG

Classic Traveller for the most part, with the MegaTraveller task system and character generation system added. GURPS for some of the sourcebooks, although the rules system itself is meh. Mongoose I didn't like too much, but it was playable. I hear some good things about the latest incarnation of 5th edition.

TNE….ugh!

MT for the mechanisms but CT is just way cool.

Like Ivan, if I was to start again I think I would go Mongoose.

i have all 22 books of the traveller magazines. love referring to them for scenario's.

I bought the LBB's in '78 and i never "got" the game.

Everyone on here is like a hundred years old, so it'll be all CT :-)

I'm only half a hundred and did get my start with the LBB back in the early 80's. But if I had to do it now, I'd go with Mongoose, warts and all. Really enjoyed the character creation process in that one.

Mongoose.

Inching onto the half hundred myself. We use mongoose, skill wise etc fully compatible with the classic and mega traveller, so all the classic background material and scenarios are usable with no extra fuss.
All it really need a good editor who is also a player to reorganise the sections into a coherent set as with all of them, tons of flicking back and forth.

It is a flexible and adaptable system, we have used it for an historical viking raiding party game and a 17th century game playing customs and excise men.

T5

Seriously, I'd like it better if it was more like T4 in places, presentation / accessibility mostly. It's a bear to figure out where and what everything is and the errors and problems are still thick in 5.09 but the work is progressing it's just a monumental task. But I do love what it tries to achieve.

At times the vision's not clear enough: there's either too much or too little Third Imperium material in there but I'm holding out hopes for a complete 600 page 3i book before Marc dies. Crazy optimistic considering how long I've been involved with T5, I know. The nd6 mechanic is applied haphazardly and the over-use of modifiers in combat is a strong argument for dropping nd6 in favor of 2d6.

Even so, the scope of what Marc has created is astonishing. Even if the functionality of it is a bit of a work in progress.

2008 Mongoose or "The Traveller Book" edition of Classic Traveller.

Played the LBB's in college in the late 70's,and we were out there zooming through jump-space in our own interpretations of the Traveller Universe, with our own rolled-up planets and our own adventures, and our own quirky developments (ask me about Fermented Yak Milk from Deneb IV some time). We added stuff to our games as GDW provided it, but did a lot of scratchbuilding our own rules, etc until it showed up in an "official" document.

1977 Classic Traveller.

1977 – Don't fix what isn't broken.

I'm down with CT, have both 77 and 81 versions, but the new MongTrav is pretty darn good! (plus, the people I play with find much more accessible)

1977. Though it is about time to update it to a little harder Sci-fi, particularly how tech didn't pan out the way the book said.

The classic LBB's for me….though I used Striker for vehicles , The D20 version had some possibilities. Mongoose was not even on my radar at is was just LBB with a few extras. Also have a beta version of T5 and it still needed work at the point when I bought it. Still check into COI every now and then.

CT/MT

I like the Interstellar War period, too. And the Mileau 0 era. But I use Megatraveller for the mechanics.

1977