why we love ct

[Elliot]

Traveller computers were like old when traveller came out - my ZX81 was better than a model 1bis. IMTU there are no computers in ships, just wire, pilots plug their palm pilots into the system and take the baby out for a spin. This is why virus never happened.

[Elliot]

Traveller computers were like old when traveller came out - my ZX81 was better than a model 1bis. IMTU there are no computers in ships, just wire, pilots plug their palm pilots into the system and take the baby out for a spin. This is why virus never happened.

[Jame]

'Cause CT is the first one I ever actually played. MT I've never seen, TNE I've never tried, and GURPS and T20 have too many complex rules. TNE is different than CT, and while GT and T20 really get the setting down pat, the rules are more complex than I am used to.

My one post for today, and maybe tomorrow, take it as it is.

[Jame]

'Cause CT is the first one I ever actually played. MT I've never seen, TNE I've never tried, and GURPS and T20 have too many complex rules. TNE is different than CT, and while GT and T20 really get the setting down pat, the rules are more complex than I am used to.

My one post for today, and maybe tomorrow, take it as it is.

[T. Foster]

Traveller to me (by which I mean Books 1-3, and maybe Starter Traveller) is a classic, a perennial along the lines of Monopoly and Diplomacy, if not chess and poker. The combination of simplicity and limitless potential in those original LBBs is astounding -- I was looking through them last night for the first time in ages (I normally use MT and/or The Traveller Book) and was newly amazed at how fresh and inspiring they remain even today. Sure some of the rules are inefficient and the technology is all dated and feels like the 1970s (or even the '60s or '50s) in space, but that's not really a problem -- most other sf of the period feels exactly the same way, and in a way it helps emphasize that Traveller is fundamentally supposed to be about people and interactions, not gadgets.

For actual play I still prefer MT because I like the advanced/improved rules and don't mind the extra complication, but there's something that's just so unassumingly appealing and primal about the simplicity of the original rules -- the entire Universe in 144 pages, no need to every buy anything else! -- that can't be beaten. Only the original (3 volume white-box) D&D even comes close (and is therefore, non-coincidentally, the only other rpg I'd grant Perennial status to). I think that GDW made a big mistake when they took Traveller out of print upon releasing MT (just like I think TSR made a mistake taking white-box D&D out of print when they released AD&D) and am glad that FFE has brought it back to take its rightful place in the pantheon of classic, perennial games.

Regarding which, FFE000 (Books 1-3 in a single 160pp perfectbound volume for $12) seems to only be available with GRiP or direct from QLI, which is a real shame. This book should be widely distributed to game, hobby, and comics stores (including those that don't normally sell rpgs), bookstores, newsagents, heck I'd like to see it at groceries alongside the dice and card-decks!

[T. Foster]

Traveller to me (by which I mean Books 1-3, and maybe Starter Traveller) is a classic, a perennial along the lines of Monopoly and Diplomacy, if not chess and poker. The combination of simplicity and limitless potential in those original LBBs is astounding -- I was looking through them last night for the first time in ages (I normally use MT and/or The Traveller Book) and was newly amazed at how fresh and inspiring they remain even today. Sure some of the rules are inefficient and the technology is all dated and feels like the 1970s (or even the '60s or '50s) in space, but that's not really a problem -- most other sf of the period feels exactly the same way, and in a way it helps emphasize that Traveller is fundamentally supposed to be about people and interactions, not gadgets.

For actual play I still prefer MT because I like the advanced/improved rules and don't mind the extra complication, but there's something that's just so unassumingly appealing and primal about the simplicity of the original rules -- the entire Universe in 144 pages, no need to every buy anything else! -- that can't be beaten. Only the original (3 volume white-box) D&D even comes close (and is therefore, non-coincidentally, the only other rpg I'd grant Perennial status to). I think that GDW made a big mistake when they took Traveller out of print upon releasing MT (just like I think TSR made a mistake taking white-box D&D out of print when they released AD&D) and am glad that FFE has brought it back to take its rightful place in the pantheon of classic, perennial games.

Regarding which, FFE000 (Books 1-3 in a single 160pp perfectbound volume for $12) seems to only be available with GRiP or direct from QLI, which is a real shame. This book should be widely distributed to game, hobby, and comics stores (including those that don't normally sell rpgs), bookstores, newsagents, heck I'd like to see it at groceries alongside the dice and card-decks!

[Keklas Rekobah]

For those who need a reason to "Love" Classic Traveller, here is one that take only three words to explain:

"Shotguns In Space."

[Keklas Rekobah]

For those who need a reason to "Love" Classic Traveller, here is one that take only three words to explain:

"Shotguns In Space."

[daryen]

Originally posted by Keklas Rekobah:
For those who need a reason to "Love" Classic Traveller, here is one that take only three words to explain:

"Shotguns In Space."

This makes me think of the great "77 Reasons Kirk is Better Than Picard". (The number changes. The list I saved had 77.)

For example, two of them were:
- "One word: miniskirts"
- "Kirk never lost a girlfriend to an intergalactic busybody named after a single letter of the alphabet."

Back on topic, maybe we need to make a "77 Reasons Classic Traveller is the Best Traveller" list.

We can make "Shotguns in Space" the first item.

[daryen]

Originally posted by Keklas Rekobah:
For those who need a reason to "Love" Classic Traveller, here is one that take only three words to explain:

"Shotguns In Space."

This makes me think of the great "77 Reasons Kirk is Better Than Picard". (The number changes. The list I saved had 77.)

For example, two of them were:
- "One word: miniskirts"
- "Kirk never lost a girlfriend to an intergalactic busybody named after a single letter of the alphabet."

Back on topic, maybe we need to make a "77 Reasons Classic Traveller is the Best Traveller" list.

We can make "Shotguns in Space" the first item.