Traveller: discuss

[Flame of Anor]

I just bought a 1st-edition of Traveller, and it seems very simple to me. (Admittedly, I'm used to 3.5e D&D, which could be called many things, but never simple.) Could you folks lend me some insight as to this and other aspects of the game? Keep in mind that I've never actually played it, I just have the core rulebooks #1-#3.

[EccentricOwl]

The good: Awesome character creation. Really, really, really fun, and a whole session in its own right. Worthy of being called the most fun I ever had making a character.

In general, the system is simple. Compared to D&D or White Wolf, there isn't much to know, and there isn't much to mess up.

The setting is generic and old-fashioned but it gets me every time. It's just 'there' - it's like playing in Greyhawk. In a way, it's nostalgic.


The bad: The system is too simple. There's no control over your character. Characters lack depth and progression. The system is preposterously deadly at times. Published adventures basically make the game feel like a series of one-shots. Aliens get shafted. Everything is generic. The game is still stuck in that time when RPGs were new and Tom Hanks told the world that D&D was the devil.

I could go on and on and on.

Have I mentioned how it feels like a dumbed-down version of 3.0?


The simplicity - in short, it doesn't -FEEL- simple. It -is- simple. It set the foundation for games like Alternity or Aeon or d20 Future, but that doesn't make it good by modern standards.




...I still love the published adventures, though.