Traveller, still popular

[Rusty_Unycorn]

I've played D&D 3.0/3.5 and 4e, and Traveller. I prefer Traveller, it is definitely rules light, I can easily whip up some housrules for it, make new careers, or hey, I can even play in a Darkover campaign (Admit it, Traveller is perfect for playing in MBZ's Darkover).
Meanwhile, in my old D&D group, our game world mas made of several different ones smashed together, there was the WH40K Imperium of Man there (And one guy was a Grey Knight...), our rogue was also a wraith (And we were all second level!), and oh yeah, I had a mecha. From D20 Future. Uhhuh. Traveller is less crazy. Or, rather, it is internally consistent in it's craziness.
Unless we're talking about Canon...

 

[jwpacker]

Well, I'm prepping a PbP game over at myth-weavers and offered to run Mongoose Traveller or Third Imperium with one of three generic systems, and Mongoose is running away with the voting thus far...

 

[nats]

Well supposedly Mongoose Traveller is the most popular version of Traveller so far. I assume that popularity is based on sales figures rather than numbers of people actually playing the game which would be very difficult to figure out. Although I suppose it could also be based on the popularity of the game at gaming conventions?

But when you consider inflation and Classic Traveller's proportion of all of the RPG games being sold in the 80s, compared to today's saturated market I would be very surprised if Mongoose Traveller is beating Classic Traveller on equal terms. But I have to admit the Core Rule Book improves on CT a massive amount and includes things that CT never did such as the effects of radiation and suffocation. Looking back makes you wonder how anyone ever ran a game of CT with all the thousands of rules and it still had obvious gaps. I love looking over that little black box and books from time to time but I sure can't play it any more.

One things for certain though when Prime Directive Traveller comes out, Traveller will be a hell of a lot more popular than it is even now. Won't be playing it myself but I think it will be very well received.