Wednesday, August 3, 2011

The Entire Traveller RPG on One CD

Traveller is a science fiction RPG that appeared in 1977. Supplements and add-ons for this game appeared for another 6 years or so until a new version, MegaTraveller, appeared. Other versions have followed, with the most recent being Traveller from Mongoose Publishing.

The original game (PDF of contents) is now available from Far Future Enterprises, the company of Marc Miller, the original author of the game. It has several different editions of the core game rules, all the supplements, add-ons, and tie-in board games from the original publisher.

I originally bought the game in print form shortly after its appearance in 1977. I bought the first version of the Classic Traveller CD about 3 years ago. It was a tremendous resource, but it had some flaws. Now a new version of the CD has been released.

It's a huge improvement over the original CD. It contains additional versions of the rules that were not included on the first CD. Errors and poor scans have been corrected. For example, the book Scouts was poorly scanned on the old CT CD:

The New Traveller CD Has Cleaner Scans. New CD Above, Old Below. New scan is sharper and has higher resolution.


New Traveller CD Character Recognition:
CHARACTER GENERATION
A character is initially generated by rolling 2D for each of the six personal
characteristics: strength, dexterity, endurance, intelligence, education, and social
standing. This initial step is identical to that for standard character generation.
College: Any individual has the opportunity to attempt to obtain a college education.
In the Scout Service, a college education is generally necessary for an individual
to secure assignment to the Bureaucracy.
Any character may apply for admission to a college. The admission throw determines
if the character is admitted and actually starts attending college; if the throw
is not achieved, the character remains age 18 and may then directly attempt to
enlist in the Scouts. Once admitted to college, the individual determines his or her
success in college for the full four years; if the success throw is not achieved, the
individual has aged one year (to age 19)


Old Traveller CD Character Recognition:
CHARACTER GENERATION
A character is initially generated by rolling 20 for each of the six personal
characteri~t8cs: strength, dexterity, endurance, intelligence, education, and social
standrng Tnos notla step s dsntical to that for sranasrd character genera! on.
C0I.g.: Any lnaivlobal has Ine op~ortunry la attempt to obra n s col sgs ed-eation
n tna Scnn Servlcs. a col eoe sa~cation:o "oeners l.v neceo osrv for an me v d ~ a l
to secure assignment to the Bureaucracy.
Any character may apply for admission to a college. The admission throw determine8
if the character is admitted and actually starts anendlng college; 8f the throw
is not achieved, the character remains age 18 and may then directly attempt to
enlist ~n the Scouts. Once admitted to college, tha individual determines hieor her
SUCCBSD ~n cdlege for the full four years; if the success throw is not achieved, the
indlvldual has aged one year Ito age 191


Missing pages and other problems have been fixed.

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