TTRPG Roll 24-20 ~ Softly taking in old Traveller roleplaying supplements

I made another pilgrimage to my local used book store, McKay’s Used Books in Manassas, VA this weekend. This time, instead of taking in some new “old” wargames, I browsed the roleplaying game shelves and walked out with (after purchasing, sheesh!) a few items.

Before I reveal the titles to you, I understand that there may be a few amongst you who will be horrified by my selections. That is very likely because I took in a few supplements from a less-than-favored edition of the Traveller Role-Playing Game.

I’ve talked about this before; there are several different types of Traveller RPG players. An aspect of the Traveller RPG I always enjoy is that I can play the game in so many different ways. Do you want a one-off adventure? Rules for that. Do you want an extended campaign? Bam! Can do! Do you want a systematic world-building experience. Got ya covered!

So, keeping that open mind in mind, my recent acquisitions included:

Gurps Traveller: Behind the Claw (Steve Jackson Games, 1998). I personally don’t like the GURPS Traveller game system mechanisms, but I do enjoy the world-building in the various sourcebooks and supplements. Steve Jackson took Classic Traveller and built an alternate timeline. Behind the Claw revisits the classic Spinward Marches sector in the year 1120…fifteen years after the setting first found in the classic Traveller RPG Supplement 3: The Spinward Marches (GDW, 1979) which is set on the eve of the Fifth Frontier War.

I get it, Marc Miller’s Traveller, aka T4 is not a popular game system. I too am not very fond of the whole half-dice and roll-under core game mechanism. However, as world-building goes the reset to Milieu 0 makes for interesting adventuring. I also will note that in a game that never really had many visuals (and the few it did were simple) the cover art used in T4 was a bit dissonant with my vision of the setting. The Chris Foss art (or Foss-like inspired) always screams Terran Trade Authority to me (which criminally has never had a good RPG game either).

Marc Miller’s Traveller: Psionic Institutes (Imperium Games, 1997). In the Classic Traveller RPG setting of 1105 psionics are very much frowned upon with the evil Zhodani being the primary users in that era. Milieu 0 was, however, a different time and Psionic Institutes allows one to explore psionic powers in a very non-Star Wars, non-“Use the Force” kind of way.

Marc Miller’s Traveller: Fire, Fusion & Steel (Imperium Games, 1997). Critics say you need an engineering degree to be able to design a starship in T4. It’s much more complicated, and perhaps much more detailed than is needed for a roleplaying game, but it is nonetheless an interesting adventure in itself.

Marc Miller’s Traveller: Imperial Squadrons (Imperium Games, 1997). The T4 version of Trillion Credit Squadron to build squadrons and fleets of warships. Like FF&S, Imperial Squadrons is more detailed than needed but there are so many good ideas for building a campaign background here it can’t be ignored.

Marc Miller’s Traveller: Pocket Empires (Imperium Games, 1997). The other government building part of the long-past Trillion Credit Squadron. This is a true world-builder sourcebook that can support many campaign ideas.

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Feature image taken from the cover of Marc Miller’s Traveller Role-Playing Game by Chris Foss.

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