Traveller 5E

[Vormaerin]

They like western fantasy, but D&D fumbled the ball hard in Japan and their localization and sales are substandard. I don't have figures, but Sandy Petersen, the developer, has said that CoC sells extremely well there and is especially popular amongst the women players for some reason.

D&D Can't Compete With Call Of Cthulhu In Japan

Call of Cthulhu is more popular than D&D in Japan.

screenrant.com

 

[Sigtrygg]

Play Traveller 5E, the TTRPG descendant of the game that launched The Expanse...

to all those who say d20 can't do sci fi, it can do it well enough to get the Expanse from it.

The existence of the CotI boards are evidence that T20 attracted people to other versions of Traveller. It was a forum set up to promote discussion of T20 first, Traveller versions second, the setting third.

Go back to the early posts and you had people new to any kind of Traveller who had picked up T20, several of who are still playing Traveller to this day, usually using a different edition.

Question, which version of Traveller is Traveller?

Is it the original GDW game of '77, the revised version in '81 or the complete revision that was MegaTraveller in '87. Was TNE Travelkler with its different rules? Is T4 Traveller with its different rules, or T5?

Or is only Mongoose 2ed updated, revised updated now Traveller? With its advantage/disadvantage rule borrowed from 5E (how many of you ignore this rule I wonder?)

Is Traveller only a game set in the Third Imperium? If I have '77 rules on the table, use them to generate characters, but set a game in ancient Rome am I playing Traveller?

Traveller started life as a set of rules for you to make up your own setting, and it had the TL and equipment to set it in any historical era - perfect for running old school Dr. Who with its historical episodes, or Star Trek with a planet full of an ancient earth culture.

Life path mini game (many want a points based system, are they playing Traveller?), a PC level trading game, a ship construction system, a planet generation mini game, animal encounter charts based on ecology, equipment, combat

Is Traveller only Traveller if it has each of those? Is it only Traveller if it uses 2d6 (bye bye TNE, T4, T5).

 

[Vormaerin]

Is Traveller only Traveller if it has each of those? Is it only Traveller if it uses 2d6 (bye bye TNE, T4, T5).

Well, the only thing that links those games (and GURPS/HERO/T20) is Charted Space.

So maybe we are wrong and Traveller is "The Charted Space RPG".

 

[Takei]

I've not been following the whole SRD thing for a number of years so I'm wondering how much WLRPGs can deviate from the current SRD when it comes to T5e? Could they decide HP = Con and don't increase with level? I'm very interested in seeing how they approach it.

 

[Sigtrygg]

I would bring back the d20 Modern massive damage rule, it is there in the d20M SRD so still fair game... the d20F SRD is still available to borrow from too, not to mention every 2d6/CE/Mongoose OGL that can all be mined.

 

[J. L. Brown]

Play Traveller 5E, the TTRPG descendant of the game that launched The Expanse...

to all those who say d20 can't do sci fi, it can do it well enough to get the Expanse from it.

The existence of the CotI boards are evidence that T20 attracted people to other versions of Traveller. It was a forum set up to promote discussion of T20 first, Traveller versions second, the setting third.

Go back to the early posts and you had people new to any kind of Traveller who had picked up T20, several of who are still playing Traveller to this day, usually using a different edition.

Question, which version of Traveller is Traveller?

Is it the original GDW game of '77, the revised version in '81 or the complete revision that was MegaTraveller in '87. Was TNE Travelkler with its different rules? Is T4 Traveller with its different rules, or T5?

Or is only Mongoose 2ed updated, revised updated now Traveller? With its advantage/disadvantage rule borrowed from 5E (how many of you ignore this rule I wonder?)

Is Traveller only a game set in the Third Imperium? If I have '77 rules on the table, use them to generate characters, but set a game in ancient Rome am I playing Traveller?

Traveller started life as a set of rules for you to make up your own setting, and it had the TL and equipment to set it in any historical era - perfect for running old school Dr. Who with its historical episodes, or Star Trek with a planet full of an ancient earth culture.

Life path mini game (many want a points based system, are they playing Traveller?), a PC level trading game, a ship construction system, a planet generation mini game, animal encounter charts based on ecology, equipment, combat

Is Traveller only Traveller if it has each of those? Is it only Traveller if it uses 2d6 (bye bye TNE, T4, T5).

I could define Traveller as 'Published by Marc Miller and GDW', but that seems unhelpful. I will point out that, despite wildly different die-rolling conventions, CT, MT, TNE, and T4 were all skill-centered -- none used class & level. But the folks at GDW knew about 'Chainmail' and BECMI; and when they built Traveller they did NOT choose the same route. Traveller PCs do not get ever increasing hit points, nor are beginner Traveller PCs forbidden from having high skills. So maybe there is the hard line: No class / level system (T20 notwithstanding).

And GDW was almost as much a war-gaming company as a TTRPG company -- there was Imperium, and Striker, and a whole host of other games that overlapped with Traveller. Far more importantly, they overlapped with what else the Traveller authors were doing; there was a commonality of thought-process between the RPG and wargaming. Heck, BECMI is renowned for getting its' start in wargaming as well; so wargamer-thinking might be an essential ingredient.

Teaming up with Games Workshop to use the WarHammer Fantasy Role-Play mechanics might be more approachable; and has the benefit of tapping the 800 pound gorilla in Sci-Fi wargaming.

 

[Condottiere]

If I recall correctly, Aftermath also utilizes the midlife crisis character generation concept.

Leveraging the characters' very particular set of skills, skills acquired over a very long career, and accumulated equities.

 

[Endie]

But if you are looking to snag a few percent of a new market, why go for the 800lb gorilla (Games Workshop's total annual revenue for the 52 weeks ending June 1, 2025, was £617.5 million (approximately $780 million USD)) when you can go for the 2,000lb bison (for the first nine months of 2025, Wizards of the Coast and their digital gaming segment reported $1.56 billion in net revenue)?

If you are trying to open a new market, similarity of gaming systems - to the extent that it matters (which is not much) - is a negative, not a positive!

Added to which that GW are the Larry Ellison's Oracle of gaming, and will chop your fingers off at some point.

 

[actionman]

Aftermath

Game of Games. Game of Kings.

 

[Sigtrygg]

One of my all time favourites.

 

[MarcusIII]

I would bring back the d20 Modern massive damage rule, it is there in the d20M SRD so still fair game... the d20F SRD is still available to borrow from too, not to mention every 2d6/CE/Mongoose OGL that can all be mined.

Rules aren't copyright anyway. That's how D&D like games such as Castles & Crusades can publish without using a license. One can use a rule from any game. No OGL or SRD needed.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Then why the collective apoplexy among the TTRPG community when they thought WotC were coming for them? Mongoose took a lot of flack from the C.E. crowd and there are some of them that will have nothing to do with Mongoose ever again.

All a misunderstanding?

 

[Endie]

It is true that game rules cannot be copyrighted. But the flavour text and setting around them absolutely can be and a company like WotC is so much bigger than every other player in the market that they have enough money to bully anyone else in the TTRPG market into avoiding the risk of prolonged legal costs (just as TSR did before them, under Gary and then under Lorraine Williams, who gave Gygax a taste of his own medicine).

 

[Sigtrygg]

That doesn't explain why Mongoose took so much flak.

 

[MarcusIII]

Then why the collective apoplexy among the TTRPG community when they thought WotC were coming for them? Mongoose took a lot of flack from the C.E. crowd and there are some of them that will have nothing to do with Mongoose ever again.

All a misunderstanding?

No, it was about thinking they would have to fight a legal battle and the majority were not up on Game IP law. Also WotC trying to cram a NEW Game license down their throat that would cost 3rd party producers a ton of money and they would lose control of THEIR IP to Hasbro.

 

[MarcusIII]

That doesn't explain why Mongoose took so much flak.

I have no idea why Mongoose got ANY flak. I don't know of any gamers or 3rd party producers who were mad at Mongoose.

 

[Sigtrygg]

No, it was about thinking they would have to fight a legal battle and the majority were not up on Game IP law. Also WotC trying to cram a NEW Game license down their throat that would cost 3rd party producers a ton of money and they would lose control of THEIR IP to Hasbro.

If only they had access to experts who could have steered them right, all that bad feeling could have been avoided. Why the bad feeling toward Mongoose then?

 

[MarcusIII]

For DriveThru RPG digital PDF specs. https://help.drivethrupartners.com/...or-Digital-PDF-s#h_01GYJG8MN48G6X0NP9YH36VC4M

 

[Sigtrygg]

I have no idea why Mongoose got ANY flak. I don't know of any gamers or 3rd party producers who were mad at Mongoose.

I take it you were not visiting these forums during the histrionics then. There are CE authors to this day that have removed all traces to Mongoose and refuse to have products reviewed by those that still support Mongoose.

 

[MarcusIII]

If only they had access to experts who could have steered them right, all that bad feeling could have been avoided. Why the bad feeling toward Mongoose then?

I don't know anyone who was bad at Mongoose. I only knew about game IP laws because my company had a large IP law firm out of San Francisco on retainer as we produced a couple of games outside our main s/w offerings.