G:Traveller sourcebooks useful for other versions of Traveller?

[Merxiless]

The only thing about GURPS with me was that there was no way to get a UWP from G:Traveller, you need First In.

Other than that all of these are excellent, if/because of crunchy rules:

First In
Far Trader
Nobles
Starports
Interstellar Wars

I'll include Gurps Space (either 3e or 4e) in there as overall, Excellent.

 

[Britti_Lover]

I played a campaign with T:2300, I wonder how my players actually created characters if this was was true.

I'm talking about the very first printing. There were errors in the character creation process. Later printings included an errata sheet with the corrections required to play the game on it. Even later print runs incorporated the errata sheet into the T:2300 books.

SJG does a similar process - first they post the errata on the books website and later printings will have the errata incorporated.

To me, Gurps Traveller was a fairly clean RPG - some errata - but still pretty playable.

Sadly, Traveller:2300 and MegaTraveller both had reputations as having massive amounts of errata in their early print runs.

:rofl:

 

[aramis]

Most games of the era were worse, Britti...
... they didn't post errata!

TSR really didn't do much errata, and probably should have.
Palladium just put it in the next book.

AH had errata sheets for most games.

SFB had so much errata that one could hardly keep up.

 

[PFVA63]

I'm a little confused

Hi,

In my copy of Traveller: 2300, it lists the Copyright as 1986, and the Referee's Manual has a brief write up inside the front cover noting that the background history for the game was developed over the course of 1985-1986. As such, I always assumed it was an early/1st edition.

Looking at the character generation rules in it and those in my copy of 2300AD (which has a copyright of 1988), it doesn't look like there is a whole lot of difference.

Basically, the Homeworld Gravity and Location table, and the Secondary attributes Table are just a little different, and the Strength & Dexterity Gravity Effects Table is combined into a single table in the later game, though the numbers do not appear to have changed. As such, it doesn't really look like there was much change.

Was there an earlier version of Traveller: 2300 before the one with the 1986 copyright?

Regards

PF

 

[Britti_Lover]

:rofl:
No. T:2300 was published in 1986. What I am talking about is print runs. Game companies do not identify which print run it is on a game. They do, however make changes to a game between print runs. MegaTraveller was completely cleaned up and had most or even all of its errors fixed in print runs done in 1991.

SJG does this also - the longer you wait - the less errors you will get in the product you buy.

I bought 2 copies of Traveller:2300/2300AD. The Traveller:2300 had an errata sheet in it with LOTS of corrections on it. The 2300AD I bought had the free Kafer Dawn module in it so it was obviously a later print run.

I had a friend who bought T:2300 the day it came out and was VERY unhappy with it. He said "The errata is SO bad - you can't even create a character with it." There was no errata sheet in his copy. Another friend bought a copy of T:2300 in late 1987 and said it was very clean and did not have an errata sheet in it.

Anyway - we played T:2300 as Traveller in the year 2300 - then played 2300AD as a cyberpunk game of a gritty future. Yep - we had house rules to fix things that didn't work for us and I'm sure most people do.

So - here it is:

Traveller:2300 - 1st edition - first printed in 1986.

2300AD - 2nd edition - first printed in 1988.

2320AD - 3rd edition - pdf release only.

2320AD is quite clean and that one should see an actual print run in 2008.

Most of my GURPS Traveller books are pretty clean and playable.

 

[Brian Smaller]

The main difference between S3 Spinward Marches and GT: BtC is about $80 on the second hand market. BtC and First In seem, for some reason, to be really pricey.

 

[mmbutter]

No. T:2300 was published in 1986. What I am talking about is print runs. Game companies do not identify which print run it is on a game.

I don't know about the Traveller 2300 stuff, but all of SJG products do identify the print run. MGP does not seem to do so, however.

 

[anders lager]

I read (in issue 4 of MegaTraveller Journal if I recall it correctly) that there were three versions of MT. The last one were supposed to have all previous errata fixed. I have two sets of MT. One is in pristine shape, never played, and is riddled with errors. The other copy (very well used, almost falling to pieces) must obviously be a later version as most of the mistakes are corrected. But there are no clues as to which print run or version they are. So, when buying old games, for example on ebay, you never know what you'll get.

As for TNE there were actually errata corrected versions of the main rulebook, FF&S and Brilliant Lances. They are marked with: Mark 1, Mod 1 on the title page in the beginning of the book.