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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
Even more than Dungeons & Dragons, Traveller was my jam back in the heady days of junior high and high school. I hadn't looked at any Traveller-related material in years, and this collected volume of The Classic Books was a wonderful nostalgic ride.
Traveller is often derided for the somewhat complex character creation process, but I always thought (and still do) that it encourages players to work through a back story for their characters, and think about how they came to acquire their initial skills and possessions. It doesn't make much sense to create characters at the gaming table, but creating those characters in advance gives players a chance to flesh things out before gameplay begins.
As others have noted, the collective rules presented in The Classic Books are complex, but they are also well-designed to allow for a graduated level of complexity. For example, the first three core books present a collection of character skills that is enough to play the game. Subsequent books introduce additional skills that can be used (or not) as appropriate for a particular gaming group. The complexity is there for those who want it, but it's not required.
So many years after it was first written, Traveller holds up well, and some of its anachronistic quirks (room-sized computers!) end up adding flavor, since the game system is more rooted in science fiction that in science fact (although it has touches of the latter to be sure). It's a thoughtfully designed system, and still every bit as playable as it was back in the day.
Traveller is often derided for the somewhat complex character creation process, but I always thought (and still do) that it encourages players to work through a back story for their characters, and think about how they came to acquire their initial skills and possessions. It doesn't make much sense to create characters at the gaming table, but creating those characters in advance gives players a chance to flesh things out before gameplay begins.
As others have noted, the collective rules presented in The Classic Books are complex, but they are also well-designed to allow for a graduated level of complexity. For example, the first three core books present a collection of character skills that is enough to play the game. Subsequent books introduce additional skills that can be used (or not) as appropriate for a particular gaming group. The complexity is there for those who want it, but it's not required.
So many years after it was first written, Traveller holds up well, and some of its anachronistic quirks (room-sized computers!) end up adding flavor, since the game system is more rooted in science fiction that in science fact (although it has touches of the latter to be sure). It's a thoughtfully designed system, and still every bit as playable as it was back in the day.