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Traveller (role-playing game)

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Traveller

Designer	Marc Miller
Publisher	Game Designers' Workshop Imperium Games (Marc Miller's Traveller) Steve Jackson Games (GURPS Traveller) QLI/RPGRealms Publishing (Traveller 20) Mongoose Publishing Far Future Enterprises
Publication date	1977 (Classic Traveller) 1987 (MegaTraveller) 1993 (Traveller: The New Era) 1996 (Marc Miller's Traveller) 1998,2006 (GURPS Traveller) 2002 (Traveller 20) 2007 (Traveller Hero) 2008 (Mongoose Traveller) 2009 (Traveller5)
Genre(s)	Science fiction space opera
System	Custom, GURPS, d20 System

Traveller is a series of related science fiction role-playing games, the first published in 1977 by Game Designers' Workshop and subsequent editions by various companies remaining in print to this day. The game was inspired from such classic science fiction stories as the Dumarest saga series by E.C. Tubb, the Foundation stories of Isaac Asimov, H. Beam Piper's Space Viking, Larry Niven's Known Space, Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium, Poul Anderson's Polesotechnic League and several other works of science fiction literature.

Characters typically journey between various star systems and engage in activities such as exploration, ground and space battles, and interstellar trading. Traveller characters are defined less by the need to increase native skill and ability and more by achievements, discoveries, or obtaining wealth, gadgets, titles and political power.

Originally Traveller was intended to be a system for playing generic space opera-themed science fiction adventures in much the same sense that Dungeons & Dragons was a system intended for generic fantasy adventures.

Most published supplements for Traveller deal in some way with the "Third Imperium", (sometimes referred to as the Official Traveller Universe (OTU), but the main rules are generic enough so that a campaign can be played in any setting the referee (as the game master is referred to) chooses.

Official Traveller Universe

Several key features OTU were derived from the literary sources described above. From these features grew the detailed specific background of the stellar governments and alien races of the Traveller Universe.

Human-centric

Though there are many non-human races in the OTU, the core rules primarily represent a human-dominated universe.

Interstellar travel

Interstellar travel is facilitated, and limited, by the use of a technology called the jump drive. These drives are capable of propelling a spacecraft between one to six parsecs depending on the individual drive's specifications. Regardless of the distance of a jump, the duration required for the trip is approximately one week, thereby recreating an "age of sail" feel to the game.

Limited communication

Communications are limited to the speed of travel – there is no "sub-space" or other form of FTL information transfer.

This leads to a central principle of Traveller's original setting:

The new feudalism

The restraint on the speed of information leads to decentralization and the vestment of significant power in the hands of local officials. This isolation causes entire wars to be fought, won, or lost on the frontiers before a message gets to any remote administrative capitals to let them know the war has even begun. This means that all kinds of agents, from merchants to generals, must show initiative and be reasonably independent from their corporate or political overlords.

Since local rulers cannot be directly controlled by central authority, the OTU rules assume that affairs are managed by a class of independent nobility, who even make use of classic titles such as Baron, Duke and Archduke. This decentralization of authority is one means of coping with the difficulties imposed by size and limits of speed of transportation technology.

Non-utopian future

In the OTU, the human race never evolves into a a superior state. People remain people and continue to steal, lie, cheat and fight wars. Pre-setting support material is fully aware of these baser human tendencies and suggests that they must be vented regularly in small outbursts before they have a chance to reach galaxy-shattering proportions. Thus, planets are allowed to fight out internal conflicts and capitalism is the major driving force of civilization.

No prime directive

There is no prohibition on contact or interference with other races protecting them from advanced technology. Economics and other factors that applied to exploration and colonization on Earth are the same factors that shape the Traveller Universe. However, governments may interdict planets with native primitive intelligent species. These interdicted worlds are commonly known as "Red Zones" based on the Imperial designation for such a world. 'Red' (or the less restrictive 'Amber') zones are often to protect the interest of an interstellar government, not the native population.

Overview of game mechanics

Character creation

Classic Traveller introduced a unique character generation system which helped it to stand out from other role-playing games of the time. Whereas most characters start their adventuring career as inexperienced youngsters who acquire skills and abilities as the game progresses, Traveller characters get all their skills and experience up front, before play begins. This represents a character who is starting life anew and now seeks adventure wherever the stars take them. Commonly, a group of characters may be a mix of wet-behind-the-ear cadets and tried-and-true veterans, each with their strengths and weaknesses who have to work together as a team.

To accomplish this, players take their characters through a career development (typically military) where the player rolled randomly on various tables that provided different assignments and life events from which new skills, ranks and benefits are gained. There was also a risk that a character suffered possible injury (or even death) during the course of their career. Leaving a character in service for longer before the game would lead to more skills and beginning cash but could also mean that basic attributes (such as strength and dexterity) would begin to degrade with old age.

Characteristics and skills

In versions of Traveller, based on the Classic rules, characters have six primary characteristics which range in level from 0 to 15. The higher the number, the better the ability. The characteristics are:

• Strength (STR) - the character's raw muscle power
• Dexterity (DEX) - the character's physical coordination and agility
• Endurance (END) - the character's resistance to physical stress and damage
• Intelligence (INT) - the character's mental prowess and intuition
• Education (EDU) - the character's experience and knowledge
• Social Standing (SOC) - the character's ability to influence others and their place in society (high scores indicate nobility)

Players roll randomly for these characteristics on 2d6 during character creation. The scores can be raised or lowered by choosing a particular race (if playing non-humans) and through events during the course of their careers. When rolling for a task check, the player may be able to add a die modifier (DM) provided by a particular characteristic (in tandem with one provided by a relevant skill) to their die roll which may increase their chance at success. Particularly low scores may provide a penalty DM to the roll.

Skills are also a vital part of the game and can provide modifiers to dice rolls. Skills are rated by number; if a skill is untrained it has no number at all. Familiar skills begin at "0" (providing no bonus nor penalty). From there they can be increased in level, usually 1 or 2 at the most (which indicates advanced training), but technically there is no upper limit. When rolling for a task check, the player may be able to add a DM from a particular skill (in tandem with one provided by a relevant characteristic) to their die roll which may increase their chance at success. Using untrained skills may provide a penalty DM to the roll (usually at -3).

Universal Personality Profile (UPP)

Another original of Traveller is the "Universal Personality Profile" code (or UPP) which was a series of hexadecimal numbers used as a shorthand way of gauging a character's primary characteristics at a glance. The characteristics range from 0 to 15, with numbers 0 to 9, and the letters A thru F used for 10 and above (A=10, B=11, C=12 and so on). The numbers are arranged in the order of Strength (STR), Dexterity (DEX), Endurance (END), Intelligence (INT), Education (EDU) and Social Standing (SOC). Thus, a person with the UPP code 675AB6 would have STR 6, DEX 7, END 5, INT 10, EDU 11 and SOC 6. This would indicate a person who is smart and educated, but lacking in physical conditioning and has a below average place in society. The "average" is considered 777777.

Task systems

The various incarnations of Traveller each have a task system which was used whenever a character encountered a task that needed to be resolved randomly (to determine whether they succeeded or failed).

• Classic Traveller, MegaTraveller, Traveller: The New Era, and Mongoose Traveller

In the original, or Classic Traveller (CT), two six-sided dice (2d6) are rolled against a target number set by the referee. Target Numbers vary by situation and some skills had a default Target Number when being used. If a number is followed by a plus (such as 8+) the roll on 2d6 must be equal to or greater than 8 to succeed. If it is followed by a minus (such as 6–) then the roll must be equal to or less than 6. A stand alone number means it must be rolled exactly. Dice Modifiers (DMs) either provide a bonus or penalty to a roll (the + and – sign precede the number in such cases (+2 means add 2 to the roll, –4 means subtract 4 from the roll). DMs are determined by situation and vary per skill and attribute score. There is no standardized table of DMs. For instance a character might get a +2 bonus on an Acrobatic skill check if their Dexterity was 10 or more.

MegaTraveller (MT) expanded upon the original Classic Traveller and introduced the UTP (Universal Task Profile) which allowed the referee to codify tasks into a shorthand formula for how hard the task was, what skill and characteristic were crucial to the task, how long the task took to perform, and what the risks of failure were. 2d6 are rolled for all checks vs. a Target Number which were standardized by difficulty; Simple tasks were 3+, Routine tasks were 7+, Difficult tasks were 11+ and Formidable tasks were 15+ (success only possible with DMs). The relevant skill levels are added directly as a DM. Characteristic levels are divided by 5 (dropping fractions) and the result added as a DM also. A roll of 2 is a fumble.

Traveller: The New Era (TNE) used a modified version of the Twilight 2000 rules. The six characteristics (now called abilities) were changed to Strength, Agility, Constitution, Intelligence, Education, Charisma. Social Standing was a separate ability that only indicated the character's place in society and wasn't used for social skill checks. 2d6-1 are rolled to randomly generate characteristic scores (range is from 1 to 11). Average characteristic score is considered 6. Target Numbers were determined by adding Ability level + Skill level and multiplying or dividing that number by a factor determined by the task's difficulty; if the task is Easy multiply Target Number result by 4, Average multiply by 2, Difficult use the number as normal, Formidable halves the number (drop fractions), and Impossible quarters the number (drop fractions). The player then rolled a twenty-sided die (d20) (or ten-sided die (d10) and a d6 [with 4,5,6 meaning add 10 to the d10 result] to simulate a d20 roll) to equal to or less than the target number to succeed.

Mongoose Traveller (MGT) standardized the DMs provided by the characteristics and skills being used for the task. 2d6 is rolled vs. a Target Number (usually 8+) with the rolls modified by conditional DMs set by the referee. Ability scores also provide DMs with low scores penalizing with negative DMs (0 = –3, 1-2 = –2 etc.) while high scores provide bonuses (9-11 = +1, 12-14 = +2 etc). The relevant skill level is also counted directly as a DM.

• Traveller⁴ and Traveller⁵

Traveller, version 4 (T4), published by Imperium Games, used multiple six-sided dice to achieve a result equal to or lower than target number. Characteristic level + Skill level = Target Number and DMs either provide a bonus or penalty to a roll. The more difficult the task, the more six-sided dice the player has to roll to achieve success; for instance, "Average" is 2 dice, "Formidable" is 3 dice, and so fourth. Game play is (theoretically) sped up by representing difficulty by the number of dice to roll. However, some intermediate levels of difficulty call for "half-dice" to be used; for example "Difficult" is 2.5 dice and one die result (rolled as a different color die from the rest) must be halved when counted. Critical rolls were also added to the game; Spectacular Success: roll the minimum possible on the dice (i.e. 2 on 2d6, 3 on 3d6, 4 on 4d6). Spectacular Failure: roll at least two 6's on any combination of two dice or more.

Traveller, version 5 (T5), retains the multiple six-sided dice system to represent difficulty, (Easy is 1 die, Average is 2 dice, Difficult 3 dice, etc), but gets rid of half-dies. The scores of the relevant Characteristic + Skill make up the Target Number. For example if the task was Difficult, and characteristic being tested was 9 with the relevant skill being 2, the player needs to roll 11 or less on three dice to succeed.

• GURPS Traveller

GURPS Traveller (GT) uses the GURPS character creation and task resolution system developed by Steve Jackson Games. GURPS utilizes three six-sided dice (3d6) which are rolled equal to, or below a target number. The target numbers are usually set by the character's relevant skill they are using (+/- any conditional modifiers); (for instance if the skill the character was using was rated at "10", then they have to roll a 10 or less on 3d6 to succeed). GURPS characters are built with a point system and can follow a career template. With GURPS being a multi-genre role-playing game, Traveller is considered a campaign universe that can be played as part of GURPS Space.

• Traveller HERO

Traveller HERO (TH) uses the HERO System developed by HERO Games for character creation and task resolution. The conversion rules were published in two books developed by ComStar Games. For tasks, three six-sided dice (3d6) are rolled equal to or below a target number, (which is similar to GURPS). HERO characters are built using character points and careers can be taken as part of a character template, (once referred to in past editions of the game as "package deals"). HERO is a multi-genre role-playing game and Traveller can be played as a campaign universe for Star HERO.

• Traveller²⁰

Traveller²⁰ (or T20) is the d20 System-version of Traveller, developed by Quicklink Interactive. The d20 System was developed by Wizards of the Coast originally for the 3rd Edition of Dungeons & Dragons and allowed royalty-free publishing of the basic system mechanics for other games under the Open Gaming License (OGL). In T20, characters are built using a class and level system (like most other d20 games). The established classes are based on popular career paths in other versions of Traveller. Characteristics (called Abilities) are the usual six from most other d20 games; Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma, plus Education and Social Standing are added as extra attributes. Education is used for Knowledge-based skill checks (instead of Intelligence), and Social Standing simply indicates a character's place in society. A twenty-sided die (d20) is rolled for task checks, such as attack rolls, saving throws, ability and skill checks. Modifiers may be added or subtracted from the roll to achieve a result equal to or greater than a target number (referred to in d20 games as a "Difficulty Class" or DC). T20 games use a standard difficulty class table.

Starships

Traveller's rules for starship design and combat are like games unto themselves, with a complex balance of ship components fitting within certain hull volumes, technology levels, and modifiers based upon characters skills. It is complex enough that computer programs have been created to more effectively model and predict starship combat, with one such program named Eurisko winning Traveller TCS national championship in 1981 and 1982, the program's maker retiring it from the game only after the officials threatened to abolish the competition.

Setting

Originally, Traveller had no established setting, and was promoted as a rules system for running general science fiction role-playing games. It was published at a time when role-playing games did not typically feature a well-defined fictional universe, but instead offered rules appropriate to the conventions of a particular genre. Each role-playing group used and altered published rules to suit their setting and play style.

Within a short time, however, a default setting was crafted to take advantage of all aspects of those rules, which has come to be known as the Official Traveller Universe (OTU), also known by the primary political entity in the setting, The Third Imperium. The starting point for this appears to be the board game "Imperium".

Prehistory: The Legacy of the Ancients

About 300,000 years ago the galaxy was dominated by the Ancients, who wielded fantastic technology. The Ancients destroyed themselves in a 2,000-year period of massive internecine warfare. Though long gone, the effects of the Ancients' reign are still evident, from the seeding of humanity (and creatures genetically engineered from Terran animals) across scores of worlds to the incomprehensible ruins and artifacts which are occasionally discovered.

Interim millennia show indications of occasional interstellar activity, but nothing on the scale of the Ancients or any vast empires.

Human history

Due to the Ancient race that scattered humanity across the stars, there are many worlds on which Human civilizations developed other than Earth. Two major space-faring races, the Vilani and the Zhodani, arose from such transplants. Solomani (humans of Earth) also eventually rose into interstellar dominance. Humans are the most populous species in known space and thus rule or heavily influence most worlds. The result of 300,000 years of individual evolution on such widely divergent worlds (or, in some cases, deliberate genetic engineering by the Ancients) has resulted in broad speciation within the human genotype, however.

Between the time of the Ancients and that of the default Third Imperium setting, Interstellar society had risen, fallen and risen again in a cycle comparable to the history of the Roman Empire, but more directly inspired by the Foundation Trilogy of Isaac Asimov.

The first human interstellar empire, called The First Imperium or the Ziru Sirka, was established from -4045 (Imperial reckoning) to -2204. It was administered by a major human race called the Vilani, who militarily dominated 15,000 star systems. Their empire was incapable of managing so many worlds, and became brittle long before being conquered by the Terran-born "Solomani" humans.

The Second Imperium, also called the "Rule of Man" or the "Ramshackle Empire", lasted from -2204 to -1776. It was the Solomani-controlled, crumbling remains of the First Imperium. Its demise inevitably leads into the Long Night where interstellar travel largely ceases, and individual worlds are left to fend for themselves.

The years from -1776 to 0 were a period of interstellar decline and anarchy, called The Long Night. Worlds were cut off from one another, technology was lost and the population on many worlds simply failed to survive.

Despite the dominance of the human race, the Traveller universe is cosmopolitan, having several major races and dozens of detailed minor races.

Year 0-1115: The Third Imperium

The primary galactic society is the Third Imperium, a monolithic, human-dominated feudalistic union of over eleven thousand worlds currently (as described in GURPS Traveller) ruled by its 43rd emperor, Strephon Aella Alkhalikoi. The Imperium is the most powerful interstellar polity, but it is surrounded on all sides by potentially hostile neighbors. Local nobility operate largely free from oversight, restricted by convention, feudal obligations, and the fear of being caught.

The Third Imperium is conservative, and prefers what is traditional and established to what is new and different. Technology and social institutions are not much different from those of twentieth century Earth. Psionics, though known, are feared by most and have been outlawed and brutally repressed. Artificial Intelligence is extremely rare and is not trusted when it exists. The writers of the setting have admitted that this implied conservatism is a direct result of a desire to maintain Traveller's feel as a classic Space Opera. Previous editions of Traveller have clearly stated that the Third Imperium has both Solomani and Vilani cultural roots. The implication is that much of the Third Imperium's social and technological conservatism stems from those roots.

Mongoose Traveller supports the 1105 setting, to a point where many key events in the classic Traveller timeline have yet to unfold.

Year 1116:The Rebellion

Characters could work within "the system" in the Third Imperium, but were considered too insignificant to affect matters on a galactic scale. However, the publication of MegaTraveller shook up the status-quo by introducing the great Rebellion, begun when Archduke Dulinor assassinated Emperor Strephon in a bid for the Imperial throne. The death of Strephon touched off a terrible conflict involving imperial dynastic struggle, violent secession of large regions of the Imperium and the advance of foreign powers into the empire's territory. In other words, the sort of "interesting times" that gave characters a better chance at being involved in dramatic, important events.

Year 1120-1130:Hard Times/Virus

The Rebellion was finally ended, at the conclusion of the MegaTraveller game line, by the inadvertent release of Virus, an electronic superweapon that invested any computerized hardware it infected with intelligence and a malevolence toward biological lifeforms. Unfortunately, this also reduced great numbers of worlds to a pre-technological state.

Year 1200:The New Era

The following game, Traveller: The New Era, presented the period seventy years after Virus during which the first attempts at reestablishing Interstellar commerce are made.

GURPS Traveller held to an alternate timeline in which the assassination and subsequent apocalypse never happened, while the established canon line has recently enjoyed additional development with two sourcebooks published by Avenger Enterprises/Comstar Games.

Year 1248:The New Era, continued

Comstar/Avenger published material in the 1248 New Era setting, where the 4th Imperium, a polity far smaller than its predecessors, has been created in 1248. This setting is published by Comstar Games and Avenger Enterprises. Other small polities have sprung up in this setting, including the Terran Commonwealth, Solomani Imperium, New Ziru Sirka, the League of Spinward States, The K'kree Dominate, Vargr Splinters, Zhodani Concord and many others.

The Far Far Future

A future timeframe in which there is more stability than the New Era period, yet not the perceived statism or conservatism marked by the Third Imperium.

Intelligent species

Major races

A major race is defined as one that developed jump technology independently, and thus got an early start on establishing itself in interstellar society. In the setting it is generally agreed there are 6 major races, but how they are defined varies a little. The standard list includes:

• Aslan are a bipedal species of vaguely feline appearance, slightly larger than human. Aslan society is organized into competitive clans, has a strict code of honor and very strict gender roles. During the Rebellion period it was alleged that the Aslan are not technically a Major Race, in that they reverse-engineered their FTL technology from a salvaged Terran ship. Even accounting for such a distinction, however, Aslan-dominated space is certainly vast enough for them to qualify as major by any other measurement. (The word "aslan" is Turkish for "lion," and is a possible reference to the works of C. S. Lewis.)

• Droyne are a short-statured, winged bipedal race of reptilian appearance. Droyne by nature are a highly conservative and group-oriented race, with a caste-based system dependent upon a combination of ritual and biology. Though by far the oldest of the jump capable races, the Droyne were the last to be recognized as such because they do not control any interstellar regions, much less an empire. Instead they are scattered as independent communities on worlds throughout known space, their homeworld unknown even to them. Droyne completely control some worlds but generally share them with other races. A semi-intelligent sub-class, known as Chirpers, consist of Droyne colonies which have lost the ability to caste, and with it all knowledge of technological society or interstellar travel. It is conjectured that the Droyne were either a servant race of the Ancients, or are direct descendants of them. In the original (GDW) setting it was specifically stated that the Droyne were servitors of the Ancients, and that the Ancients were in fact a form of mutant Droyne.

• Hivers are a race based on sixfold symmetry. Of all the major races they are the most "alien" to humans in both appearance and thought patterns. Despite their name Hivers actually have a highly individualistic society. They avoid where possible direct violence and war, preferring instead to work behind the scenes via covert manipulation and psychohistory.

• Humaniti is the spelling used for human beings in the Third Imperium. When the humans of Terra first reached out to travel to the stars most were very surprised to find that they were not alone: other humans were already there (due to the machinations of the Ancients). As three separate sub-races of humans independently developed jump drive technology, they are often classified as Major Races in their own right. The first two (the Solomani and Vilani) make up the majority of the human population of known space (and are thus increasingly culturally and biologically similar); the third (the Zhodani) display greater cultural and biologic differences as a result of their original seeding (by the Ancients) in a more astrographically distant location.

• • The Solomani of Earth (called Terra in Traveller). After discovering jump-drive technology, the Solomani conquered the stagnant First Imperium of the Vilani, and subsequently founded the Second Imperium, or "Rule of Man."
  • The Vilani of Vland. The Vilani were the first humans to invent the jump drive, and created the Ziru Sirka ("The Grand Empire [of Stars]"), or First Imperium. Traditional Vilani society is highly caste-based, prizes cooperation over individuality, and is extremely conservative. As the ecosystem of their homeworld is indigestible to humans in its raw state, Vilani cuisine (and much of its culture) is based on fermentation techniques.
  • The Zhodani of Zhdant (occasionally referred to as Zhodane). The Zhodani are known for their high level of psychic ability, as well the formal integration of psychic powers (primarily telepathy) into their polity, the Zhodani Consulate. Originally the Zhodani were presented as uncomplicated, vaguely-oriental mind-controlling "bad guys" for the setting; over time the Zhodani have evolved (especially in the New Era setting) into a more merit-based, transparently "honest" society (in comparison to psionically-averse humans, whom the Zhodani regard as duplicitous, thieving crooks).

• K'kree are a race of massive individuals having 2 arms and 4 legs, reminding humans somewhat of Centaurs. Their homeworld is Kirur, far to trailing of human-dominated space, from which they rule a large interstellar polity known as "The 2,000 Worlds." K'kree psychology is evolved from herding instincts, thus they are rarely found alone and fear enclosed places. So gregarious are the K'kree, in fact, that forcing a member into isolation can be regarded as a form of torture, and a willingly solitary K'kree should be regarded as a dangerously insane individual. Early in their pre-starfairing history, the K'kree were traumatized by a "close encounter" with an intelligent species of exceptionally cruel carnivore, and as a result they have evolved into a society of hierarchical, reactionary, militant and often aggressive herbivores with a disdain (often carried to genocidal extremes) for meat eating of any kind.

• Vargr are a bi-pedal canine species, slightly smaller than humans. This species resembles the Terran conception of a wolf-man because that is essentially what they are; canine stock taken from Terra that were genetically manipulated by the Ancients to an intelligent bipedal form in an attempt to create suitable servants. (The name Vargr comes from the Old Norse for "wolves").

Minor races

Any species which was contacted before it could independently develop Jump Drive is considered minor. Such species wield much less power than the Major Races, and most are subject to the whims of the established interstellar powers. Numerous minor races exist, some have been fully developed, some only briefly mentioned in the Traveller background material. Listed here are only a few of the minor races.

Minor human races

As well as the three human races that are considered Major, there are at least 22 additional ones that are classified as minor races. Most human races are interbreedable and thus physically increasingly indistinguishable from each other, though a few have unique physiologies due to development in a harsh environment, a period that restricted the available gene pool or other uncommon factors.

Notable minor human races include:

• Answerin: Tough and stoic beyond all extremes. A core Answerin belief is that fear in any form is merely a curable disease. This, coupled with a unique racial ability to produce adrenalin at will, makes them excellent warriors, and thus widely prized as soldiers. As the animal life on their homeworld is indigestible to humans, the Answerin have evolved into strict vegetarians.
• Darrians: A technologically precocious people, Darrians are tall, thinly-built humans with characteristically pointed ears. They evolved an elf-like appearance after 300,000 years of adaptation on a world with half the gravity of Terra. Unfortunately, they nearly destroyed themselves over a millennia earlier in a stellar physics experiment gone wrong which induced sub-nova solar flares in their system's star. Their society has since recovered somewhat, but the mishap's resulting technology has been pursued as a super-weapons project, (dubbed the "Star Trigger"), rumors of which have been used as a deterrent against interference by their much-bigger neighbors, the Imperium, and the Zhodani Consulate.
• Geonee: A stocky, task-oriented race. The Geonee achieved FTL capabilities - and even a minor interstellar society of their own - prior to contact with the much more powerful Vilani. They are not held to be Major, however, due to the fact that their technology was based on recovered Ancient artifacts. The Geonee dispute this claim, and in fact further assert that they, in fact, are the Ancients, a view which is not shared by any non-Geonee.
• Loeskalth: The fierce, aggressive Loeskalth were early beneficiaries of pre-First Imperium Vilani contact, and used their acquired technology to build a formidable interstellar empire of their own. They ultimately proved no match for the Vilani, however, and the race is considered long extinct. A contingent of ancient Loeskalth may have crossed the Great Rift (a region of extremely low stellar density lying to spinward of most Imperial space) to escape Vilani absorption, however, and as such may be the source of the "Sky Raiders" legend among a number of Spinward cultures.
• Rye-Ben: At first glance, Rye-Ben look inhuman, appearing as squat humanoids with thick muscular limbs, a hunched back and low-hanging head. They are in fact descended from stock humans who adapted to life on a heavy-gravity world over hundreds of generations. Rye-Ben can function on low-gravity worlds, however their stubby physique sometimes hinders them when walking and they find it hard to keep up with their taller kin. They can also suffer blood-pressure problems on low-G worlds as they tend to bleed profusely even from a minor wound.
• Syleans: Another early conquest by the Vilani, the proud Syleans managed to maintain their culture and language throughout the First Imperium era. They flourished under the Solomani-dominated Second Imperium, and survived the Long Night better than most others. In fact, the Sylean Federation of the Long Night era eventually formed the core of the Third Imperium, with the Sylean homeworld as its capital.
• Suerrat: Like the Geonee, the Suerrat had built up a small interstellar polity prior to contact with the Vilani. This was based solely on sublight generation ships, however, as the Suerrat had never achieved Jump Drive on their own.

Other minor races

Some of the minor races with a significant amount of background material include:

• Ael Yael: One of the few known sentient species capable of winged flight, the Ael Yael appear to resemble humanoid pterodactyls with a pair of leathery wings on their backs. They have yellow and orange patterned skin and long faces with wide nostrils and large deep set eyes. A fin-like crest tops of their heads and they have a line of scaly fins that run down their backs to the end of their tails. They are native to Jaeyela, a world whose dying oceans make it a trove of easily accessible mineral wealth. The resulting exploitation of their planet (and with it their species) by amoral corporate interests has left them with a deep seated animosity for all forms of private industry. Ael Yael work well with government agencies, however, and are in particular renown as Imperial Scouts.
• Asym: Asymmetrical beings (as their name implies) that are native to the dry, rocky world of Artoria. Asym are bipeds, with heads that sit protectively between rigid shoulders but can be extended upward on flexible necks making them 1.3 to 1.5 meters tall. They have two arms which are different sizes; one broad and muscular for lifting, and the other long and slender adapted for reaching underneath mats of vegetation to extract sources of nourishment on their world. They also have two tails, one at the base of their spines and another growing from the middle of their backs.
• Bwaps (Newts): The Bawapakerwa-a-a-awapawab, as they call themselves, are a slightly built, fastidious, conservative, bureaucratically-inclined race of bipedal amphibians native to Marhaban. These characteristics helped them to thrive during the First Imperium era. As such "Bwaps" are the most widespread of the Minor Races, and can be found throughout much of human space (although more so in the coreward regions). Nevertheless, most non-Bwaps find them tiresome to deal with.
• Denaar: A species of six-limbed quadrupeds that resemble a Terran rhinoceros with a beetle-like carapace on their back. Denaar are notable for their unusual life-death cycle. They are asexual, but require genetic material from another Denaar to produce offspring which are effectively non-intelligent and herded like animals. Whenever a Denaar is about to die, it downloads its personality to a "shell" body by connecting together special cerebral organs. This personality transference effectively makes them immortal. There are about 1.7 million known Denaar personalities on their homeworld.
• Graytch: A race of tree-dwelling spider-taur beings, native to the planet Borrun. They have a humanoid upper body and arms connected at the torso to a bulbous spider-like abdomen supported by three pairs of legs. They have three sexes; male, female and non-reproductive neutrals. Graytch are well-suited for movement in a 3-D environment and traverse walls and ceilings as comfortably as humans use the ground. Graytch technicians are widely sought after for work in precarious starship engine rooms and zero-G environments.
• Hresh: A race of sentient, mobile photosynthesizers, Hresh are more plant than animal and can be mistaken for a bush or small tree. They can stand 3 meters tall, with branches and leaves extending out for 2 meters. A Hresh can use their branches as arms and they reproduce by dropping seeds that grow into saplings that eventually un-root themselves when they mature to adults.
• Ithklur: An aggressive race of warm-blooded, humanoid, reptilians that exist in Hiver-space, and one that the Hivers have had a long difficult time trying to maintain control over. An average Ithklur weighs 400lbs (181kg). They have two sexes - male and female - but there is no outward difference in appearance between the two. They have fine, scaly hides that range in patterns of blue and green and these patterns signify which members of their species are considered more or less attractive, but otherwise they provide no other difference in their society. The Ithklur are carnivorous and possess deadly claws and needle-sharp teeth. They have a heat-sensing organ in the middle of their head that works in tandem with their visual cortex, allowing them to see in both the visual-light and infrared spectrum.
• Mahkahraik: A race of humanoid reptilians native to planet Ma, where the land is locked into one super-continent. In their language, their name means "People of This World". The Mahkahraik lived a peaceful life as primitive hunter/gatherers until their world was colonized by humans during the Long Night who subjugated them into a lower working class and took away their land. Despite the human influence upon their society, many Mahkahraik remain deeply rooted in their tribal customs and beliefs. As a result, many of them are intolerant of human greed and laziness. They also find interstellar travel disheartening and believe space to be a foreboding void that lacks the totem spirits that are prevalent on their homeworld.
• Schalli: A race of amphibians native to the planet Vras where the origins of the native life seem to have evolved differently than on Terra – life appeared first on the land then migrated to the sea. The Schalli resemble a cross between a Terran dolphin and a squid, with a fish-like body containing gill slits that appear more as ears on the sides of their heads. Their eyes extend from their heads on short stalks and they have four appendages that function as both fins and arms for manipulating things. Schalli were discovered later in the Traveller time line making them one of the latest sentient species to be documented.
• Shriekers: A race of bilaterally-symmetrical omnivores native to the planet Denuli, a dying world located on the fringes of known space. Their name is derived from the sound of their speech. Shriekers resemble furry spiders with six eyes atop their heads and eight limbs that end in multi-toed feet. Their mouths contain teeth much like a human, but their jaws sit vertical in their skulls and work much like the mandibles of an insect. Their spines run along what would be the belly on a Terran creature, and their bodies hang under the legs instead of being supported above it. Interstellar interest in their kind centers around the manufacturing of precious jewelry that can be made from the gemstone-like eggs of their unborn young.
• Sydite: A race of four-armed humanoids native to the planet Khuur. They are believed to have been stock humans genetically modified by the Ancients for physical labour. Although viewed as slow-minded brutes, the Sydites managed to carve out a small interstellar empire which fell before the Third Imperium during the Sydymic War.
• Vegans: A minor race closest to Terra astrographically of any starfaring species. The Vegans are named after the bright star Vega, which is within a few light years of their home system. Vegans are humanoid in shape, but appear to be made up of ropey muscular tendrils that twist together forming flexible legs and arms. Lacking a head, the "face" of a Vegan appears as a single eye at the end of a serpentine neck. Vegans are organized into philosophically based communities, and are the dominant local power in the Solomani Rim sector. They were oppressed during the Solomani Confederation's rule of the region of space, and now have been granted their own Autonomous Region by the Imperium, centered on their homeworld.
• Virushi: A race of large centauroids from a heavy-gravity world, Virushi are about 3 meters long and 1.8 meters tall at the shoulder. They have four pairs of limbs giving them four legs and four arms; the upper pair of arms are slender while the lower pair are thick and muscular. Their bodies and heads resemble that of a Terran rhinoceros complete with a large horn protruding from the top of their snouts. Despite their hulking demeanor, Virushi are well known for their gentle nature and pacifistic beliefs.

Publishing history

Box, rule books and supplemental books.

Overview

The original Traveller gamebooks were distinctive half-size black pamphlets (the so-called "Little Black Books" or "LBBs") produced by Game Designers Workshop (GDW). The main rules were detailed in three such booklets, sold as a boxed set while the same format was used for early support material, such as the Adventures, Supplements and further Books. Currently these LBBs are available in collected reprints from Far Future Enterprises. Later supplements and updated versions of the main game system introduced full sized booklets, complete re-writes of the game system and significant changes to the Third Imperium. The second edition of the game, titled MegaTraveller, was published in 1986 and attempted to collect and collate the various rules of the system and offer new political twists in the Third Imperium, such as the assassination of the emperor and the rebellion which followed. The last GDW produced version of Traveller was the third, Traveller: The New Era, which broke completely with the previous rules system and presented a setting in which interstellar civilization had been completely destroyed by the rebellion. GDW went out of business before this iteration was completed.

Subsequently, in 1997 Imperium Games published Marc Miller's Traveller, often referred to as T4, which returned to the classic setting and game system, though not without some major alterations. For instance the default setting was "Milieu 0", set about 1200 years previous to the time period laid out in the original Traveller. It was intended that other "Milieux" would be described in following supplements, but T4 proved to be a failure both critically and financially before this could happen. The game was left briefly idle until the publication of GURPS Traveller. Once again the system was replaced, this time with the GURPS system from Steve Jackson Games, but the setting was returned to the present laid out in the original Traveller, albeit as an alternate history in which the assassination and subsequent fall of the Third Imperium never happened. To confuse matters further there is another version of the game being published simultaneously with the GURPS edition, Traveller 20 or T20, which uses the same setting but integrates into the popular D20 roleplaying system and is set a century earlier than Classic Traveller or GURPS Traveller.

Editions

Traveller or Classic Traveller

(1977-1986) Published by GDW. The first rulebooks and supplements were printed in the distinctive "Little Black Book" format of 8 1/2" by 5 1/2" booklets. Rather than cover art each rule book, supplement, and adventure had a black cover with the title Book X, Supplement Y or Adventure Z each in a distinct color, numbered in the order in which they were produced. The system is often referred to as CT.

The core rules were available as three booklets in a boxed set (cf the original Dungeons & Dragons format). Subsequent rulebooks added "advanced" character generation for Army and Marine characters (Mercenary), Navy characters (High Guard), Scouts (Scouts), and Merchants (Merchant Prince). Mercenary also added rules for fleshing out ground battles; High Guard introduced rules for large starships and big naval battles; Scouts added rules for detailing star systems; and Merchant Prince added a new set of trade & commerce rules.

Eight separate boxed games were released as tie-in products: Striker, a game of tabletop miniature warfare, added very complex rules for vehicle design & combat, "Mayday" concentrated on small ship vs ship space combat, Snapshot and Azhanti High Lightning featured small-unit battles on board spacecraft, while Fifth Frontier War, Invasion Earth and Dark Nebula were wargames based on selected interstellar conflicts from the Classic Traveller (though in the case of the later this was not the case on its publication, but they were used as the basis of parts of the 'imperial' background) future history.

Most of the Classic Traveller books are available in compendium volumes from Far Future Enterprises, which is the current copyright and trademark holder of all forms of the Traveller game. Far Future Enterprises also sells a CD-ROM containing scans of all the canonical Classic Traveller material in PDF format, including the rules, counters and maps from the boxed games.

Traveller was inducted into the Origins Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame in 1997.

MegaTraveller

MegaTraveller (1987-1992) was published by GDW but designed by Digest Group Publications which published the popular Traveller's Digest (later the MegaTraveller Journal) Traveller support magazine. The game system used revised versions of the Classic Traveller mechanics with ideas first developed in the Traveller's Digest (and later also adapted to Traveller: 2300). The system is often referred to as "MT".

The game was set during the Rebellion era which shattered the Imperium. Supplements and magazines produced during this era detailed the progression of the Rebellion from the initial assassination of the Emperor in 1116 to the collapse of large-scale interstellar trade in roughly 1124 (the beginning of the supplement Hard Times).

Digest Group Publications also produced a number of top-quality MegaTraveller supplements, including alien modules detailing the Aslan, Vargr, Vilani and Solomani for MegaTraveller and the World Builder's Handbook, which expanded greatly on the world-building system found in the main rulebooks.

Traveller: The New Era

Traveller: The New Era (1993-1995) was published by GDW. The game mechanics were changed to GDW's house rules system, derived from Twilight: 2000, 2nd ed. It introduced the Virus and described the former area of the Third Imperium after interstellar society had completely collapsed. The game is often referred to as "TNE".

Where MegaTraveller left the Third Imperium in its death throes, The New Era let the Imperium die, effectively "rebooting" the setting. The TNE setting is one in which players make the difference between the survival and destruction of their worlds. And for those who wish to keep a vestige of the old setting, a pocket of the original Third Imperium was partially preserved. The rest of the galaxy is essentially a wild frontier, with dead or regressed worlds, worlds run by dictators controlling caches of high technology, self-aware but insane spacecraft and computers, unanswered engimas, etc.

TNE used a more realism-centered approach to science fiction, doing away with reactionless thrusters, shortening laser ranges to a reasonable distance, etc. This changed the "feel" of the game to some degree. The starship combat resolution system was fairly well detailed, supported by two published modules: Brilliant Lances for small battles and Battle Rider for large battles. Additionally, Striker made a comeback as Striker 2 for miniatures. With the addition of Fire, Fusion, and Steel, it became possible to design not just ships and vehicles, but also weapons themselves.

Several supplements were published for TNE covering most if not all of what the year 1201 was like, but before any of the meta-events could start to advance the timeline, GDW fell on a string of bad luck and finally was forced to close its doors, after publishing a new product an average of every 22 days, for 22 years (not counting magazines).

In 1994, Traveller: The New Era won the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Rules of 1993.

Marc Miller's Traveller

Marc Miller's Traveller (1996-1998) was published by Imperium Games after GDW dissolved and the rights to Traveller reverted to Marc Miller, the creator of the original game. It returned to a heavily modified version of the original rules and was set in the early days of the Third Imperium (Milieu 0). It is often referred to as T4. This edition is currently available on Marc Miller's website.

GURPS Traveller

GURPS Traveller (1998–present) was "Created on a handshake with Steve Jackson of Steve Jackson Games." The game uses the GURPS (Third Edition) system and takes place in an alternate timeline in which no Rebellion occurred and the Virus was never released. Steve Jackson Games produced numerous high-quality supplements for the line, including details for all of the major races, many of the minor races, interstellar trade, expanded world generation, the military forces of the Third Imperium, and starships. The game is often referred to as "GT".

• GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars

GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars is the second GURPS-driven version of Traveller. It concentrates on the 22nd and 23rd centuries, much earlier than the usual Traveller setting, at the time when Earth first started to send out interstellar ships and had just encountered the Vilani Imperium. This setting book uses the 4th Edition of the GURPS rules, and hence is referred to by some as "G4T" or "GTIW." The Interstellar Wars book features extensive notes on period Earth society, Vilani culture and values, and updated spaceship construction and combat rules.

Traveller 20

Traveller 20 (2002–present) was published by QLI/RPGRealms Publishing. The D20 system version is set at the time of the Solomani Rim War around year Imperial year 990, about a century before the era depicted in the original game. The preferred setting is the Gateway Domain region of the Imperium.

Traveller Hero

Traveller Hero is a port of the Traveller setting to the Hero System, produced under license by Comstar Games.

Mongoose Traveller

Mongoose Publishing produced a major revision of the original Traveller game, offering it both in a traditional format and as an open-source SRD around which other games may be built. The core rule book was released in April 2008, with a regular series of supplements following, including setting-related resources for the classic Third Imperium, Babylon 5, Hammer's Slammers, Judge Dredd, and others. Mongoose Publishing holds the license for ten years. .

Traveller⁵

Traveller⁵ or "T5" is the fifth edition of Traveller. The playtest release was made available in February 2009, and revisions incorporating playtested errata are made available to playtesters on a chapter by chapter basis. T5 is intended by designer Marc Miller to achieve advances in both playability and consistency. The system consists of a Core Rules Set, with chapters arranged in sections reminiscent of the original three Traveller rules booklets (Characters and Combat, Starships, Worlds and Adventures), and separate, supporting materials.

Support for the system centers on Sourcebooks (each on a specific topic – a world, a milieu, an important thread in history) with integrated adventures. Sourcebooks are rule-independent so they can be used with any edition of Traveller

Traveller 5 contributed some core material to Mongoose Traveller's development; however, the two rules systems are independent of each other.

Traveller: 2300

This GDW roleplaying game is a clear rules-descendent of Twilight: 2000 and Striker, using ten-sided dice. It was a hard science fiction alternative to the looser space opera of Classic Traveller. Presented as a future extrapolation of the speculative World War III of GDW's popular military role-playing game Twilight: 2000, in which the various nations of Earth were only just beginning to explore and colonize the 50 light year sphere of surrounding space. Some buyers mistakenly thought the game was intended to depict the year 2300 in the standard Traveller universe using Traveller rules; to disambiguate it from Traveller, the 2nd edition of the game was retitled to 2300 AD and this second edition introduced some cyberpunk rules and adventures. Recently a third version of the setting, 2320 AD was released as a supplement to the Traveller T20 ruleset.

Traveller in other media

GDW licensee Paragon produced two computer games based on the Traveller universe: MegaTraveller 1: The Zhodani Conspiracy (1990) for Amiga, Atari ST and MS-DOS operating environments, and MegaTraveller 2: Quest for the Ancients (1991) for Amiga and MS-DOS.

Several novels have been specifically set in the various Traveller universes:

1. Death of Wisdom Book 1 of 3 by Paul Brunette.
2. To Dream of Chaos Book 2 of 3 by Paul Brunette.
3. Marc Miller's Traveller: Gateway to the Stars by Pierce Askegren. ISBN 0-671-01188-X
4. The Force of Destiny by Dale Kemper
5. Diaspora Phoenix by Martin J. Dougherty [1]
6. Tales of the New Era 1: Yesterday’s Hero by Martin J. Dougherty [2]
7. The Road Less Travelled by Marc Miller

In addition, Jefferson Swycaffer has written several novels set in the "Concordat" fictional universe he originally developed for his Traveller campaign.

Heavy metal band The Lord Weird Slough Feg issued a Traveller based concept album, appropriately titled Traveller in 2003.

Gaming magazine White Dwarf ran a comic strip called The Travellers by Mark Harrison from 1983 to 1986. The strip blatantly spoofed Traveller and other space opera settings.

Copyright infringement lawsuit

In 1982 Game Designers Workshop sued software publisher Edu-Ware Services for infringing upon Traveller's copyright. Edu-Ware admitted to using Traveller as the basis of its computer role-playing game Space, and in an out-of-court settlement, removed the computer game from the market.

References

• Chadwick, Frank (1978). Traveller Book 4: Mercenary. Game Designers' Workshop. 
• Fugate, Joe D. Sr; Timothy B. Brown (1986). Traveller Book 8: Robots. Game Designers' Workshop. ISBN 0-943580-10-2. 
• Masters, Phil (February 1983). "Open Box: The Traveller Book". White Dwarf (Games Workshop) (Issue 38): 12. ISSN 0265-8712. 
• Miller, Marc William (1980). Traveller Book 5: High Guard. revised by Marc William Miller, Frank Chadwick and John Harshman. Game Designers' Workshop. 
• Miller, Marc W (1983). Traveller Book 6: Scouts. Game Designers' Workshop. 
• Miller, Marc W; John Harshman, Loren Wiseman, John Astell and Frank Chadwick (1984). Traveller Adventure 12: Secret of the Ancients. Game Designers' Workshop. 
• Miller, Marc W; J. Andrew Keith (1985). Traveller Book 7: Merchant Prince. Game Designers' Workshop. 
• Miller, Marc W (1988). Rebellion Sourcebook. Game Designers' Workshop. ISBN 0-943580-63-3. 
• Slack, Andy (February 1983). "An Introduction to Traveller Part III: Scenarios". White Dwarf (Games Workshop) (Issue 38): 10–11. ISSN 0265-8712. 
• Slack, Andy (March 1983). "An Introduction to Traveller Part IV: Scenarios". White Dwarf (Games Workshop) (Issue 39): 18–19. ISSN 0265-8712. 
• Slack, Andy (December 1983). "Open Box: Traveller Starter Edition". White Dwarf (Games Workshop) (Issue 48): 10. ISSN 0265-8712. 
• Smith, Lester (1996). Milieu 0. Imperium Games. ISBN 0-57828-336-1. 
• Wiseman, Loren K. (1981). Traveller Book 0: An Introduction To. Game Designers' Workshop. 
• Traveller Book 1: Characters and Combat. Game Designers' Workshop. 1977a. 
• Traveller Book 2: Starships. Game Designers' Workshop. 1977b. 
• Traveller Book 3: Worlds and Adventures. Game Designers' Workshop. 1977c. 

External links

• BITS (British Isle Traveller Support) produces supplements & adventures including the 101 Series
• GURPS Traveller by Steve Jackson Games
• Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society official magazine of Traveller (all versions) for over 20 years
• Marc Miller's Far Future Enterprises reprints Classic Traveller books, also developing new Traveller⁵ game
• Citizens of the Imperium The home of Traveller20.
• Traveller Hero by Comstar Games under license from Hero Games and Far Future Enterprises.
• Travellers Aid Society Forum Discussion forum for the 1248 setting as well as all other settings and rule systems.
• Comstar Games/Avenger Enterprises publishes all new Traveller adventures and supplements, supporting the Classic Traveller rules, and soon the HERO system. Sourcebooks are systemless.
• Traveller, an external wiki - has Traveller Library Data and Source material.
• Traveller Webring ring of fansites.
• Traveller Bibliography
• The Traveller Mailing List Email discussion group of long standing (c.1987) for all forms of Traveller, theoretical and technical discussions, adventure ideas, ship designs, conversation among Traveller players.
• Stellar Reaches A fanzine for Classic and D20 Traveller, set in the Empty Quarter. A wide range of articles are available, with a sourcebook also planned.
• Spica Publishing Third party OGL publisher of Traveller supplements for use with Traveller from Mongoose Publishing.