The Traveller aliens are inherent to the background.
It would be a ripoff to have to buy two books just to get the basic alien character generation rules.
This needs to be stated again, really.
The core rules for Traveller should be for
generic sci-fi use, wherever possible, just as they were in the original lbbs. When talking about aliens
specific to the Traveller (Imperium) Universe (TM), then this data should be withheld for the later campaign supplement. It is reasonable to have some sort of alien design system in the corerules, probably in the Encounters section, but they must be suitably neutral in design, and are unlikely to be particularly detailed. Personally, I'd rather have rules for artificial intelligences in the core-rules, but I doubt it will happen till a supplement comes along to give this aspect a full-blown treatment. It won't, for me, detract from the functional use of the core rules, however.
Anyway....
I'm not sure I like all the
Assignment breakdowns of all the careers, as they stand:
Questionable Assignment names, for me, would be:
Navy - All good.
Marines - Support,
Space Marines and Ground Assault.
Army - Support, Infantry,
Armoury.
Scout -
Courier, Survey, Exploration
Merchant - I'm not sure at the moment, but 'Merchant Marine' sounds rubbish. I guess:
Corporate,
Star (Rogue?) Trader, and
Planetary-based Trader would be better for me...but they still need some work.
Agents - All good.
Nobles -
Politician (
whether they rule or not!), Diplomat, Dilettante.
Scholar -
Academic (humanities), Scientist,
Medical.
Every scholar is a student(!) already, and
Physician is very archaic.
Entertainer - All good.
Rogue - All good.
Drifter - I prefer: Barbarian,
Traveller and
Belter, myself, but I'm not overly fussed.
Also, where are the
Citizens tables, or have I missed something?
I would hope that, when the final draft comes through, each profession would actually be
introduced fully, with an explanation about what the career choice entails, and what they would tend to be good at, etc. Previous editions of Traveller have neglected giving full explanations, and it only leads to confusion for newbies.
Anyway, more to come as I look through.