Traveller

Tesrin · Dec 11, 2015

Hey, everyone.

I think anyone who's heard of the tabletop RPG Traveller knows of its disputed links to Elite but I was wondering who here has played Traveller. I've tried getting a few games running in the past but they always fall apart (as most RPG campaigns are wont to do) and ideally I'll eventually find a local RPG group to try it out again. In the mean time, there's always online play.

Personally, I grabbed the Traveller T20 version when it came out, because my gaming group at the time was all about the d20 system.

Louella · Dec 11, 2015

I've not played the table top Traveller. I have the old DOS videogames "Megatraveller 1 - The Zhodani Conspiracy" and "Megatraveller 2". I don't think I own a computer capable of running them anymore though. They were pretty enjoyable. You have to be amused at the idea of dying during character creation. What game in the modern era has that ?

PaleoGamer · Dec 12, 2015

As the resident old fart, I started playing Traveller in 1977. In college. (Yes, I'm old. Get off my LAN.

)

I *still* have the group I started back in the 1980's. We only get to play once or twice a year these days, but the starship "Whatever III" is still wandering the Third Imperium and getting into trouble where ever it goes.

And Louella, Far Future Enterprises (Mark Miller's current company) was selling T-Shirts that say "I died during character creation".

Lobstris · Dec 12, 2015

Still got the '77 editions of The first 4 rulebooks. I'm *that* old though - picked them up from a friend at high school 10 years later.

Surly_Badger · Dec 12, 2015

I did, back in '77.

If someone is saying Elite is drawn on Traveller, somehow, that's like saying that Witcher is drawn on the 1st edition D&D. Well, yeah: there are some concepts that underly the whole thing, but it'd be more fair to say that it's drawn on interim evolutionary points. I think I could make a better argument that Elite was drawn from Asteroids than Traveller.

Or that Witcher is drawn on Skyrim which is drawn on Baldur's Gate which is drawn on Dungeonmaster which is drawn on AD&D which is drawn on 1st ed. D&D. which is drawn on Chainmail which is drawn on putting your toy soldiers on the table and shooting rubber bands at eachother's (which is where I started in tabletop gaming)... There's a huge seething pool of great ideas that combine, bubble, and occasionally spit out something wonderful.

FWIW my experience in computer space gaming goes back to before when I first started playing D&D (1st ed!) if you count playing hours of "space war" on a PDP-1 and later Star Trek on an Apple II ...

Tesrin · Dec 13, 2015

Surly_Badger said:
If someone is saying Elite is drawn on Traveller, somehow, that's like saying that Witcher is drawn on the 1st edition D&D. Well, yeah: there are some concepts that underly the whole thing, but it'd be more fair to say that it's drawn on interim evolutionary points.

Except that Ian Bell said it himself:

"I used to play Traveller. David played Space Opera. So the Elite Trade Goods at least are more Space Opera than Traveller. Maybe the Planet Govt types too. Jameson is definitely a nod to Traveller though, I changed the i to e to make it a little less blatant, and also reference the whisky. We got a legally letter from Traveller when they were doing their first computer game, vaguely threatening and accusing us of ripping of Space Trading and Space Combat from them. I replied saying we were ripping of Space Opera more than Traveller..."

Surly_Badger said:
Or that Witcher is drawn on Skyrim which is drawn on Baldur's Gate...

Baldur's Gate is a Dungeons and Dragons game; specificially an AD&D 2nd Edition Forgotten Realms game.

Hellhawk666 · Dec 14, 2015

PaleoGamer said:
As the resident old fart, I started playing Traveller in 1977. In college. (Yes, I'm old. Get off my LAN. )

I *still* have the group I started back in the 1980's. We only get to play once or twice a year these days, but the starship "Whatever III" is still wandering the Third Imperium and getting into trouble where ever it goes.

Ha - same here. I started playing it (and D&D) in the late 70s at university. Great days, but sadly I don't see much of my mates from back then anymore. No idea what happened to my old manuals.

deMangler · Dec 19, 2015

Played lots of different pen and paper RPG's over the years, everything from D&D to Paranoia, but for some reason missed out on Traveller. Loved the DOS games though.

Chevy66 · Dec 19, 2015

Louella said:
I've not played the table top Traveller. I have the old DOS videogames "Megatraveller 1 - The Zhodani Conspiracy" and "Megatraveller 2". I don't think I own a computer capable of running them anymore though. They were pretty enjoyable. You have to be amused at the idea of dying during character creation. What game in the modern era has that ?

I had that, I think it was on Atari ST. It was a good game (or at least in my memory it was

)

Zieman · Dec 20, 2015

Louella said:
I've not played the table top Traveller. I have the old DOS videogames "Megatraveller 1 - The Zhodani Conspiracy" and "Megatraveller 2". I don't think I own a computer capable of running them anymore though.

DOSbox is the solution. If you still have access to a floppy drive to read the game disks...

Lobstris · Dec 20, 2015

Zieman said:
DOSbox is the solution. If you still have access to a floppy drive to read the game disks...

I picked up both Traveller CRPGs on a CD-ROM a few years ago.

Zieman · Dec 20, 2015

Lobstris said:
I picked up both Traveller CRPGs on a CD-ROM a few years ago.

No probs then, you can run 'em in DOSbox, and depending on how they're setup, you may not need the CD at all after installing the games.

Jason S · Dec 20, 2015

I played a lot of table top RPG's and I also played traveller. The rules at the time relied on skills and equipment mainly. It seemed good but for some reason we ended up playing D&D most of the time instead.

Yaffle · Dec 20, 2015

Played it a bit, but preferred RuneQuest and Paranoia. The latter was very silly.

Louella · Dec 21, 2015

Zieman said:
No probs then, you can run 'em in DOSbox, and depending on how they're setup, you may not need the CD at all after installing the games.

oh, you need the CD... cos it has the inlay card with the distances in light years between various star systems, which the copy-protection asks for. e.g. how far is it between Efate and Rhylanor ?

And a pdf of the manuals, which i'm not sure if it'll ask for stuff from there as well.

Zieman · Dec 21, 2015

Louella said:
oh, you need the CD... cos it has the inlay card with the distances in light years between various star systems, which the copy-protection asks for. e.g. how far is it between Efate and Rhylanor ?

And a pdf of the manuals, which i'm not sure if it'll ask for stuff from there as well.

I stand corrected.

But you don't need the CD in the drive for copy protection, right?
And the manuals can be copied to one's hard drive too...

Googol · Jan 27, 2016

Louella said:
oh, you need the CD... cos it has the inlay card with the distances in light years between various star systems, which the copy-protection asks for. e.g. how far is it between Efate and Rhylanor ?

And a pdf of the manuals, which i'm not sure if it'll ask for stuff from there as well.

Megatraveller 1 and 2 seem to be available on Abandonia together with handbooks/manuals, patches and box shots. I haven't downloaded them to try so don't shoot me if they don't work

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Mods please note: Abandonia is not a wares site. As far as I can establish they are scrupulous about only offering games that are genuinely abandoned or released as freeware and will (and have) taken down things at IP owners' request. It's worth noting that both Elite and Elite Plus are available there.