Merchant's Edition - Out Now on PDF! ✨

Where the passenger and freight rules left out on purpose? All that is included is speculative trade.
Yeah... that's an odd choice. Plus it leaves you with just 4 pages on trade in a merchants book (and an index that goes one page in if you click on it from page 2... time to start an errata chain)...
 
Why? Why should a player be required to play a brand-new Traveller,
Where am I saying the character has had no prior service?
when the whole method of character construction in Traveller is prior history based? Why can't they have been a Traveller for 4 years before the Campaign Start? Or 12 years?
Yes, you go through a career, or can choose not to do so and start the game as an 18 year old (or 14).
Traveller was originally used as a descriptive of a player character, not a prior career.

During prior history you are generating your back story, once play begins your character is now an adventurer... a Traveller.

81 edition says this:

"Characters are the central focus of Traveller; they are the alter-egos of the players, and all activity is centered on them. Each character has abilities and characteristics which define his or her actions and reactions. The character is the Traveller personality; the player is the person engaged in playing the game."
 
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Where am I saying the character has had no prior service?
As a Traveller, you said exactly that. (Prior experience as a Traveller.)
Yes, you go through a career, or can choose not to do so and start the game as an 18 year old (or 14).
Traveller was originally used as a descriptive of a player character, not a prior career.

During prior history you are generating your back story, once play begins your character is now an adventurer... a Traveller.
Why could the character not be an adventurer, a Traveller, before play begins?
81 edition says this:

"Characters are the central focus of Traveller; they are the alter-egos of the players, and all activity is centered on them. Each character has abilities and characteristics which define his or her actions and reactions. The character is the Traveller personality; the player is the person engaged in playing the game."
In 1981, there wasn't much in the way of definitions such as Player Character and Non-player Characters yet. That is definitely something that has evolved over time. We play in 2024, not 1981, although, some of Us, like Myself, did play back in 81. I also played on a playground where most of the equipment would be deemed unsafe for kids today. Things change.
 
My big question is: Is there anything in the Merchant's Edition that is NOT in the core rules? Also are their any upgraded/updated changes in these rules that are different than Core22?
 
As a Traveller, you said exactly that. (Prior experience as a Traveller.)
I don't think what I wrote means what you appear to think it means.
Why could the character not be an adventurer, a Traveller, before play begins?
I have already posted the reason for that - Traveller "The character is the Traveller personality; the player is the person engaged in playing the game."
They could be an Adventurer (which is a type of NPC that can be encountered) by selecting the Other career and labeling themselves as an Adventurer.
In 1981, there wasn't much in the way of definitions such as Player Character and Non-player Characters yet. That is definitely something that has evolved over time. We play in 2024, not 1981, although, some of Us, like Myself, did play back in 81. I also played on a playground where most of the equipment would be deemed unsafe for kids today. Things change.
I think you may need to go back and read the books again, there is a great deal written about PCs and NPCs. I began quoting it but there is too much to claim "fair use" so I would recommend you take a look back at LBB:1-3 and LBB:0.
Wasn't there a JTAS article about the Care and feeding of NPCs?
 
Wasn't there a JTAS article about the Care and feeding of NPCs?
Yes, the title of that JTAS article has always stuck with me. I use the term "care and feeding of..." as an expression of many things because of that article title. Also, as a player since the 70's, I can't NOT remember using the term PC and NPC.

Personally, I find the term "Traveller" as go-to term for a PC a bit cringe. I only noticed it in Mongoose canon but since they make great stuff otherwise, I suck up and ignore it when I read "A 'Traveller' can do this and a 'Traveller' can do that".
Honestly, I think "TRAVELLER..." should just be the name of the game placed on the cover of the books and that's it. Subtle, just like the LBB's were.

Otherwise it's a bit like being in a camp and someone running around saying "Hey there, fellow campers!" blech.

If I am in a game, and I have a PC or NPC running around using that term for other characters or themselves, I think I might have to try to kill that character. Whether I kill them as a referee or a player, that effing "t-R-a-V-e-L-l-E-r" is going down. Either they get hit by a meteor strike (as referee) or if as a PC I have to save up credits for a fusion gun upon which is inscribed "death to travellers", I will do it. Rads be damned.
 
I certainly remember using Player Character and Non-Player Character as terms, during the early 80's, with respect to Traveller and other RPGs.

I like the idea of the Merchant's edition, I just hope the rule balance is favourable, in light of the standard CRB. I also like the idea of Merchant's turned Travellers. Even if their day job was boring, I think many would-be hero-Travellers can have a dream they wish to fulfil, which is greater than their mundane job. The important thing, is that their lifepath gives them relevant skills for adventuring.
 
To be fair, speculative trade is more lucrative than passengers or freight, and most merchant characters start with enough seed money to make it work, so it is probably the most important subsystem of the "merchant rules".

To answer Yenaldlooshi's question, I don't think there is anything new in the Merchant's edition, other than the art. It is nice art, though.

Personally, I like referring to Traveller PCs as "Travellers" or "the Travellers". It's in line with how Call of Cthulhu PCs are always called "Investigators", regardless of what their actual occupation is, because investigating is what they do. The majority of Traveller PCs do travel.
 
To be fair, speculative trade is more lucrative than passengers or freight, and most merchant characters start with enough seed money to make it work, so it is probably the most important subsystem of the "merchant rules".
Most start with enough money, yes, but a few bad choices or one bad combat encounter can leave the PCs broke and unable to buy enough goods to make a trip profitable. Freight and Passengers are how they can restart having money again.
To answer Yenaldlooshi's question, I don't think there is anything new in the Merchant's edition, other than the art. It is nice art, though.

Personally, I like referring to Traveller PCs as "Travellers" or "the Travellers". It's in line with how Call of Cthulhu PCs are always called "Investigators", regardless of what their actual occupation is, because investigating is what they do. The majority of Traveller PCs do travel.
Travelling isn't all that PCs do though. You can run an entire Traveller campaign and never leave a single city. Are they still "Travellers"? Really? Where do they "Travel" to? I just call them PCs. It is an out-of-game term, so has no effect on anything in game. Homeless/Wandering Criminal might be a more accurate description of the majority of "Travellers" lol
 
To be fair, speculative trade is more lucrative than passengers or freight, and most merchant characters start with enough seed money to make it work, so it is probably the most important subsystem of the "merchant rules".
But don't give us a ship with passenger cabins and low berths and no mechanism to use them. It's incomplete for a merchant adventuring group without passenger, freight, mail and maybe (something new?) charter rules.
To answer Yenaldlooshi's question, I don't think there is anything new in the Merchant's edition, other than the art. It is nice art, though.

Personally, I like referring to Traveller PCs as "Travellers" or "the Travellers". It's in line with how Call of Cthulhu PCs are always called "Investigators", regardless of what their actual occupation is, because investigating is what they do. The majority of Traveller PCs do travel.
 
Travelling isn't all that PCs do though. You can run an entire Traveller campaign and never leave a single city.
True. And some very satisfying gaming can be found that way. Although, in a RPG setting, I would use the term "Traveller" to mean Time-Traveller also - like, (virtually) always in a backdrop of a sci-fi setting. Also metaphorically/euphemistically players "Travel" with ideas about how to solve challenges, perhaps? It is about getting one brand name to be associated with several game concepts, I suppose. Not my job, but as a game purchaser, I'll happily live with these few suggestions.
 
I use the term Traveller for the PCs in our game. I want to differentiate to players that this is Traveller, not D&D, not X game system. There are different expectations in this type of game. Similar to what @Bense said about Investigators.

For the rest of the characters I do struggle more.
Contacts? Sophonts? Inhabitants? NPCs?
I tend to default to NPC or Contact when talking about them. But the language is more unsettled in my mind.
 
I use the term Traveller for the PCs in our game. I want to differentiate to players that this is Traveller, not D&D, not X game system. There are different expectations in this type of game. Similar to what @Bense said about Investigators.

For the rest of the characters I do struggle more.
Contacts? Sophonts? Inhabitants? NPCs?
I tend to default to NPC or Contact when talking about them. But the language is more unsettled in my mind.
Also add Patrons, Living Being, Living Humanoid, Living Organism and Animals to your list of possibilities :)

Note: D&D uses "creatures" to mean either playable race or non-playable monster. And Tunnels & Trolls refused "monsters" as a term, because that violated their rights. So they settled for "the Illkin" to mean "for good or for ill".
 
I get it for brand recognition, but if My group of PCs consists of a bunch of young barely adult street kids cleaning up their neighborhood, it is still Traveller, but I have trouble actually calling them "Travellers" as they do not really fit that definition even within the in-game universe.

Edit- I expect something called a "Baker" to actually bake things and a "Painter" to actually paint things, but maybe I am old-fashioned. lol
 
I don't think it matters what term the player characters are collectively referred to, if that's what either the dungeon master or dungeoneers are happy with.

To be fair, I don't think there's a super hero group that has been labelled that.
 
Travelling isn't all that PCs do though. You can run an entire Traveller campaign and never leave a single city. Are they still "Travellers"? Really? Where do they "Travel" to? I just call them PCs. It is an out-of-game term, so has no effect on anything in game. Homeless/Wandering Criminal might be a more accurate description of the majority of "Travellers" lol
Sure, you can run an entire Traveller campaign in a single city, but then you're not using large parts of the rules, so I would expect that to be a more unusual campaign.

You can run a whole Dungeons & Dragons campaign without the players ever entering a dungeon or meeting a dragon, but it won't be what the majority of players end up doing.
 
Mistake, page 4 (PDF page 5), Skills And Training, last sentence of first paragraph:

"You may only roll on the Advanced Education table if you have the listed requirement (EDU 8 in the Scouts and EDU 10 in the Scholar career).

Sadly, this is the Merchants edition, not the Explorers edition.

Could we get the correct requirements, please?
 
Mistake, page 4 (PDF page 5), Skills And Training, last sentence of first paragraph:

"You may only roll on the Advanced Education table if you have the listed requirement (EDU 8 in the Scouts and EDU 10 in the Scholar career).

Sadly, this is the Merchants edition, not the Explorers edition.

Could we get the correct requirements, please?
You might want to post this into the thread for the book's errata.

 
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