Marc Miller's Traveller (4th Ed.) (1996)

Date Reviewed: 1-9-03

Critical Kobold Rating:    (3 out of 5 Dice)

 

In Space, No One Can Hear You Game.

     Traveller has been a long-time rpg favorite among the veteran gamers of my generation, and the game has been around in various incarnations since 1977. This is the fourth edition, simply called Marc Miller's Traveller.

     The game is set against a sweeping timeline spanning thousands of years.  Mankind had long ago discovered space travel, and at one point humans ruled over a massive empire of 11,000 planets. However, this galaxy-spanning civilization has come and gone. Almost two millennia passed with mankind stagnating in "The Long Night"; a post-galactic war period in which humans lost much of the technology of their forefathers, and the thousands of human worlds scattered across the universe lost contact with each other. This left solar systems isolated and dying, and human cultures began to develop along innumerable divergent paths.

     In the year 4521, one planet managed to overcome the technological and social degeneracy of The Long Night, and began systematically trying to reassemble the humans' empire, initiating contact with thousands of worlds. Now, some 800 years later, the player characters are thrust into the vast scope of this milieu. The game's current setting is 5367 A.D., and adventurers take the roles of soldiers, scouts, nobles, merchants, entertainers, scholars, agents or simple rogues, traveling the universe in this new period of rebuilding humanity on a cosmic scale.

MAKE A TRAVELLER!

     PCs are, of course, begun with a collection of ability stats. Travellers have the "Primary Characteristics" of Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Intelligence, Education, and Social Standing. Honestly, these seem pretty self explanatory, so we won't dally over them. I will point out that PCs with higher Social Standing scores are eligible for titles of nobility, and of course whatever money, fame, and reputation goes along with this.

     Scores are generated using 2d6, so that all PCs will have Primary Characteristic scores of 2 -12. Simple, eh? Sure! So let's make it less so.

     One quirk of the system is that the designers, in what I can only surmise was a tequila-fueled haze, chose to use hexadecimal notation (that's a base of 16) to list ability scores. What this means is that while the numbers 0-9 are simply written as such, any double digit number is instead written as a corresponding letter of the alphabet, supposedly to avoid confusing it with two single-digit numbers.

     So, ok, lemme give you an example. A score of "nine" is written as '9'. A score of "ten" however, is written as 'A', and a score of "eleven" becomes 'B', up through a score of fifteen being "F".

     So if you roll your PC's stats as 7, 9, 12, 8, 10, and 11, you'd list them as '79C8AB' on your character sheet. This notation is called the Universal Personality Profile, or UPP, and is used as the standard stat write-up model for PCs as well as NPCs throughout the game.

     Once you've got your stats encoded, it's time to determine your background.

     You may wanna get comfortable for this…

     Traveller provides a staggeringly complete system for randomly creating your PC's background. Naturally, in a sci-fi game, you'll need to figure out which planet you're from, so tables are given to generate random planetary bodies. Since there are bajillions of planets out there in the game world, you can make up anything you'd like, really.

     Next, players roll to determine how far their PC advanced in school, from failed college admission to drop-out to Ph.D. with honors. The same system is used to see how PCs fared in military academies, merchant schools, and medical corps. This also determines how your post-educational career went, from exemplary military service over many years to dishonorable discharge, as well as determining any injuries from service, and your mustering-out benefits package. (Seriously. Retirement pay tables are included.) Your mustering-out table determines your starting money allowance as well. All this die-rolling and background material helps determine how many and what type of skills you receive (see following section).

     When all this is said and done, it's taken time for your PC to get to where she is in life. So, your background will also help determine your age.

     Last up on the PC generation process? Skills. You don't wanna be out there toolin' around the universe without a worthwhile talent to your name, do you, my little wookiee wanna-be? Hell, no! You'll get replaced by a droid that way.

     Each character receives 36 starting skills. (Yes, that's correct. Thirty-frickin'-six skills.) The skills list won't surprise anyone who's played a modern or sci-fi rpg before. Lots of choices, from Administration, Biology, Computer, Equestrian, Gunnery, even Jack-Of-All-Trades, down to such things as Perception, Streetwise, Vac Suit, Watercraft, and Fast Talk. Many skills are "cascade" skills, meaning there are several branches under them in which you need to choose a specialty. ("Technical" is a cascade skill, under which you may specialize in such technical things as Armory, Robotics, or Sensors.)

     Skill scores are based on associated Primary Characteristic scores, plus however many levels of that skill you have. (The First Aid skill score, for example, equals your Education or Intelligence score, whichever is higher, plus however many levels you have in First Aid.)

     Finally, buy some space stuff like tents, multi-scanners, tool kits, a robot, or a grav belt, strap on a  laser pistol, and hit the skyways!

MECHANICS

     For just about everything, a Difficulty rating is assigned by the GM. Difficulties are rated in "Dice"; this is the number of six-siders you need to roll when attempting that action. An Easy task doesn't even require a roll, an Average task will make you roll 2d6, a Formidable task requires 3d6, and something Impossible will have you chucking 4d6. Half dice can be rolled, meaning you roll a die, halve it, and round up.

     The object is to roll your Target Number or less to succeed in any task. Now, your Target number is determined by your skill or ability scores. Obviously, the higher your skill scores, the better chance you have of rolling under those scores to succeed at doing stuff.

     Example: Biff is a former Navy officer with the Astrogation skill. His Astrogation score, based on his Education characteristic, is "C", or 12, so that's also his Target number.  He's trying to plot an interstellar course for planet Delta Delta Delta in the Sorority Quadrant. The GM figures this is a difficulty level of "Difficult", since Biff got the directions to this planet from a drunk in a spaceport bar. "Difficult" tasks require a roll of 2.5 dice. What this means is that Biff has to roll 2.5d6, and get lower than his Astrogation Target number of 12 to succeed.

     Combat works the same, with different fight options having varying difficulties. Brawling, for example, has a higher difficulty for you if your opponent also has the Brawl skill. Ranged combat has a higher difficulty than hand to hand. Special jiu-jitsu maneuvers have a higher difficulty than a simple punch, that kind of thing.

     Damage affects your Primary Characteristics of Endurance, Strength, and Dexterity, which are used as hit points in Traveller. When someone gets punched, lasered, or run over by a hovercar, the dice are rolled for damage, and the points done are subtracted from the target's three characteristics mentioned above, as the target's player desires. Whenever one of your Endurance, Strength, or Dexterity scores is reduced to zero, you're unconscious. Two stats at zero will leave you seriously wounded, and all three scores reduced to zero leaves you a dead spacer.

     For examples of combat deadliness, a dagger does 1d6 damage, and a Laser pistol does 4d6. However, with few exceptions, no character actually takes more than 3d6 damage from any one injury; the extra dice that some weapons roll just compensate for damage dice removed from the roll due to armor, cover, etc.

     There are other goodies scattered throughout the book, including psionics (for those who like to use The Force), examples of vehicles from cars to speeder bikes to spaceships, and charts to indicate the "tech level" of various worlds.

The GOOD

     All in all, I like this game. This edition is very thorough, with sections for the Game Master on topics like interstellar economy, history timelines, complete spaceship design and combat rules, random charts and tables for planetary system design, info on aliens races (didn't think there'd be a sci-fi game without aliens, did you?) and lots of ideas for adventures in the limitless campaign worlds.

     There are wonderful sections detailing encounter tables, cargo tables, etc., that would be awesome to use in any other sci-fi game even if you don't care for this rpg. While I won't use Traveller as an rpg in and of itself, there's enough spacey goodness in this book to make it useful as a handy sourcebook for other game systems.

     Plus, the book is illustrated beautifully! The cover and many color interior full-page drawings are done by Chris Foss, who does spacey stuff very well, and the other artwork a-plenty inside is compliments of Larry Elmore, one of the gaming art-industry giants.

The NEUTRAL

     While being very complete as an rpg system, the tone of the game is very realistic. (This is called "hard science" in the parlance of geeks who know.)  This is science fiction with emphasis on the science, as opposed to the more light-hearted Flash Gordon type fantasy sci-fi. Getting shot hurts, flying spacecraft requires skill and training, and having the high score on Pac Man won't let you crack into computer systems. This isn't "space opera", but it is a solid game system nonetheless. Just be aware of what you're getting into when looking for a space romp rpg. If you want more action, less science, try West End Games' Star Wars.

The EVIL

     That UPP skill notation has to go. What's wrong with putting a space between your Primary Characteristic scores? Or better yet, labeling them instead of just having random numbers scrawled across your paper? A Dexterity score of "C"; what the hell?... Do that yourself if you like it, sure, but why bother writing it into the rules?

     And what is up with that crazy long character gen system?! The whole thing is a series of rolls and rolls, with the player's actual desires mostly ignored. I think if I'm playing a game, and I want a former space marine for a character, I should be able to make a former space marine. I don't wanna roll 20 times to see if he made it into the marine corps, then to see how far he got, roll to see if he was injured, to see if he was discharged, if it was honorable, if he saw combat… I mean, basically, everything about my PC is decided randomly by the chuck of a die. While there are a few meager choices on the player's behalf, I think I'd skip this entire char gen system and tell my players to roll up a dude they want, pick his background, and give him some skills. Leave the rolling for the game itself.

IS IT WARP SPEED AHEAD, THEN?

     I say, if you're looking for a decent sci-fi system, this will energize your warp coils nicely. Much like the Star Trek: Next Generation role playing game this kobold reviewed earlier, there's an awful lot of emphasis on skills in this game, but that's not a big drawback. Traveller definitely has the feel of space adventure on a grand scale, with a rich background and simple game mechanics. Heck, it wouldn't have been around for over a quarter century if it weren't good, eh?

      Addendum, January 2012:  Since this review was originally written many years ago, Mongoose Publishing has produced yet another version of the game, which is the most current incarnation of the Traveller title. This kobold had a chance to read the Mongoose edition of Traveller, although I did not review it, since the similarities between this version and the newer made another write-up not worth my incredibly valuable time. (Even now, I have raw fish heads in the den I could be smashing into a lovely dinner pâté. Ssshhhhlurp!) While there's nothing inherently wrong with the 4th Edition, I would recommend the Mongoose version over Marc Miller's. It's just a tad more streamlined and updated, and of course Mongoose has plans to support it with further books.

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