What does Traveller have...

[newtraveller]

...that makes it a better rpg than other sci-fi rpgs, past and present?

 

[rust]

What first came to my mind when reading your question: More material
than any other science fiction rpg, from the various eras of the setting
over supplements dealing with almost everything you can imagine to
the JTAS articles and the huge treasure of fan material on the internet.
Once you have found out where and how to find such material (which is
not at all difficult - just ask on one of the boards, and people will tell you),
you will (almost) never be short of stuff: You name it, someone has it.

 

[GamerDude]

...that makes it a better rpg than other sci-fi rpgs, past and present?

- NO experiance reward system. You train to improve your skills. The rewards are only monetary (items and credits).
- It's NOT about who has the biggest weapon or coolest mix of items from the rules as you attempt to break them.
- Flexibility in the skills. There is your training and there are your physical/mental attributes, so when you perform a task it's more realistic without slowing down the game one second.
- Flexible 'time frames'... if you need to be "Mr. Scott" and make a 3 hr long repair to the Jump drive in the next three minutes, you can... with a standard negative DM and the knowledge that if you do make it there will be problems later. The same can be said for taking extra time on a task when you aren't being threatened (or at least can afford to take the extra time).
-Your character begins adventuring AFTER at least one term of service, meaning that you already have a history for your character's background, and you can even tie different characters in the party together during char gen.

That's just some of it, but it's very different from most games.

 

[-Daniel-]

For me, Traveller offered me a chance to do what ever I wanted in a space setting of sorts. You have to remember I started when all that existed was LBB1-3. And regardless of what was published after that, Traveller never felt like it lost that magic to me. When I pick up almost any other SciFi game, while they maybe fun, always feel linked to a particular setting. I can not imagine playing Shadowrun rules not in the Shadowrun world for example. Star Wars, Twilight 2000, Morrow Project, Robotech, Heavy GEar, etc. They all feel tied to the backgrounds they were created for. Traveller was created first and the setting developed later.

Just my opinion.

Daniel

 

[Jeff Hopper]

...that makes it a better rpg than other sci-fi rpgs, past and present?

It was one of the first toolkit style RPGs, and has kept close to that style.

I first started playing Traveller 26 years ago. Back then, and to a good extent now with Riki-Tiki-Traveller, the game didn't give you lists of things you could use or monsters you could fight. Traveller gives you an integrated toolkit of rules and design sequences which allows you to construct your own setting for your game, without relying upon someone else to create the setting for you and printing it.

The ability to do-it-yourself, and in such a way that it is compatible with other Traveller material that you didn't create, makes it the best Sci-Fi RPG for my tastes.

 

[EDG]

...that makes it a better rpg than other sci-fi rpgs, past and present?

(Assuming we're talking about the current Traveller and not the older versions of the game...)

I'll give it this, it's one of the few vanilla "zip around in space ships in a big space empire" kinda SF games that are around. That said, Lightspeed and Thousand Suns (which I've heard good things about. Heck, I've got, I just haven't had a chance to read it yet) also do that, but I can't tell you whether Traveller does it better or worse than they do. As for toolkits, GURPS Space and Star HERO are far better SF toolkits than Traveller is, largely because they don't come with any inbuilt setting assumptions (which admittedly are greatly reduced in the current edition of Traveller, but are still there to some extent). One could even argue that the Serenity RPG does a better job than Traveller for the "trader ekeing out a living" setup, and has a much more familiar (and smaller) setting to boot. I don't think Traveller is really any better than any of the above, it's just one of the crowd now - but the current version is a pretty good RPG and does a good job for what it focusses on.

But other than that I think it's largely down to personal taste. If you want a bit of mysticism and religiosity thrown in with your SF then you're better off with Fading Suns or Dark Heresy. If you like your future to be transhumanist then Transhuman Space is the one to go for. If you want giant robots then go for Heavy Gear or Jovian Chronicles or Mekton or Battletech. And so on...

 

[Gruffty the Hiver]

If you want giant robots

... # You dig giant robots, I dig giant robots, we dig giant robots, chicks dig giant robots # ...

 

[AKAramis]

EDG:

Unless Out In the Black added one, the "trade rules" in the Serenity RPG are essentially "GM makes up cargoes on the fly".

Traveller has, in every edition, a system of generating cargo lots available, and freight as well, other than "needs of the plot."

It's a different style of play, and both approaches are valid; the difference is that having a system doesn't mean you HAVE to use it, but not having a system does mean you need to improvise.

And given the number of trade systems: Bk2, Bk7(/MT/TNE/T4), T20, GT, GTFT, TH, and MGT...

... there are plenty of choices to pick from with different assumptions. Having the choice to ignore it IS better than having always to improvise.

 

[EDG]

Unless Out In the Black added one, the "trade rules" in the Serenity RPG are essentially "GM makes up cargoes on the fly".

Given how broken Traveller's economics and trade rules have been in the past (GT:Far Trader - written by someone who actually knew something about economics - being the sole exception, and we all know how much you love that one), I'd say "making up cargoes on the fly" produces results that are arguably just as good as what Traveller produced. Though I don't know if MGT's trade rules are any better than previous editions.

But that's the thing with Traveller - there's this strong influence of "you run with what the dice give you and don't screw with the results" in everything about it - be it chargen, misjumps, animal encounters, trade, or worldgen. Serenity's (and a lot of other modern games) approach says "go with what the plot needs" and feel free to override the dice.

The ideal (Classic) Traveller way seems to be for the GM to have as little influence or input as possible over anything (beyond enforcing GM fiat anyway), so he's reacting to the dice as much as the players are (funnily enough, some of the newer indie games tend to be like that too, where the GM isn't really anyone special and just another participant in the story). Other games allow the GM to ignore the dice and exercise a bit of control into where the plot's going. Whereas in Traveller a player might roll a misjump and then the GM has to roll up a system to arrive in (assuming the ship survives), another game might only have a misjump occur if the GM has worked it into the plot from the start.

Which approach you like better depends very much on your personal tastes.

 

[Golan2072]

I think it probably boils down to three main things.

First, Traveller allows the players to begin play with kick-ass professional characters with background rather than youngsters fresh off the farm. You want to play a grizzled Marine sniper? A doctor? A famous scientist? Traveller allows these to be played from session one, and, in many cases, they'll already be at the same level as professional NPCs.

Second, Traveller is steeped with common, well-known (1970's) sci-fi terms and concepts, such as speeders, gravitics, jump-drives, powered armor, gauss weaponry and so on. So, if you've read a few 1970's sci-fi books and watched a few sci-fi movies from that era (and from the 1980's to a second degree), you'll feel right at home at most Traveller settings. The OTU is steeped with them to an even greater degree, with things such as psychohistory and the Long Night.

Third, most Traveller universes limit communications to the speed of travel, and travel to six parsecs per week at most. At the PC end of things it means that PCs have quite an amount of freedom from their patrons/superiors and don't have to "phone home" for each important decision.

 

[tneva82]

I think it probably boils down to three main things.

First, Traveller allows the players to begin play with kick-ass professional characters with background rather than youngsters fresh off the farm. You want to play a grizzled Marine sniper? A doctor? A famous scientist? Traveller allows these to be played from session one, and, in many cases, they'll already be at the same level as professional NPCs.

Which has added benefit of removing XP hunting in order to gain new levels and become more powerful, something awfully common in other games and which, especially when coupled with low risk of death, can lead to PC's adopting shoot first, ask questions next policy as killing things is best way to get XP's.

 

[GamerDude]

It really burns me when someone tries to claim that Traveller is only about or all about eeking out a living trading. You can run diplomatic/intrigue campaigns, military campaigns, exploration, etc. Hell you could even run it as a "dungeon crawl" campaign, finding an unexplored planet filled with all kinds of abandoned dungeons and cities looking for lost treasures and fighting off any 'monsters' you come across.

That's the advantage of Traveller, a wide variety of campaigns in a sci-fi setting and great flexibility in doing it.

Recently I ran an updated version of "Divine Intervention" a CT adventure. It's one of those "mission impossible-leave no clues" adventures. The first group went in and focused on stealth. The second group felt that killing any witnesses instead of stunning them would be the better option.

Also, look at the GDW published adventures. Their being on a space-liner that gets attacked, there's one where you start out in prison and have to get out, "Signal GK" and "Divine Intervention" both of which are espionage and covert missions. I could go on but anyone who looks at all the adventures put out by GDW (regular, double, and short), quite a few of them are NOT the "trader eeking out a living".

 

[klingsor]

The authors knew their history and ripped it off wholesale to create a very rich and deep setting that feels real - offering a degree of depth and complexity that few other RPGs have and probably no other SF RPG, only those based on licensed properties would have a hope of coming close such as the long gone Ringworld and the vanishingly rare Dune games. I suppose there are others with settings derived from television shows of films but how many of those are still in print?
Very few television shows or film series seem able to offer a coherent background - and I will not name names for fear of starting a flame war.

 

[simonh]

It had first-mover advantage.

Realy that's it, but it counts for a lot in Roleplaying, in fact it's the deciding factor. In the RPG industry the first game to occupy a niche and fill it with even a basic range of supporting material owns that niche.

The reason for this is the same reson that Microsoft Windows dominates the Computer industry - roleplaying games are platforms. They are the operating systems on which roleplaying game sessions run. The user base naturaly converges on a single game system for the same reasons - compatibility, portability and familiarity.

I'm not dissing Traveller here at all, it's a fine game with some novel ideas and they got a lot right, but I'm just saying it like I see it.

Simon Hibbs

 

[Fulminata]

In addition to being a good vehicle for long campaigns, the nature of the character generation system makes it great for pick-up games. Get everyone together and while the players roll up their characters, the referee picks out an encounter from 760 Patrons (or comes up with a situation on his own) and you have an instant game.

 

[Infojunky]

...that makes it a better rpg than other sci-fi rpgs, past and present?

Nothing.... But like DnD it is an Icon of gaming.

Why I like it, now that is a different question.

I love the game because it matched the books I was reading when I found it. Piper, Heinlein, and the vast number of short novels of adventure fiction. It is real, most of the things presented as tools of the trade are easily imagined. The base simplicity of traveling from one place to another in search of fortune.

The base mechanics are simple and flexible, they allow for lots addition from ones own imagination, from weird inventions to entire star empires the possibilities are endless with just the base books.

As for the 30 years worth of fandom and fluff, it is just a deeper mine for bits that one can throw at their game.

 

[newtraveller]

Is Traveller as flexible as Alternity was?

 

[AKAramis]

Is Traveller as flexible as Alternity was?

moreso. Tho' it lacks the extreme end tech-wise (Alternity's peak tech is about Traveller TL24 or so), it is better able to handle much of the stuff, and further, MGT is far more flexible in character creation.