GURPS races

[Blue Ghost]

Hi all. I have a question. How official are the GURPS Traveller races for the Official Traveller Universe?

 

[Morte]

What do you mean by "official"?

You should be fine using them with other versions of the setting.

 

[Blue Ghost]

It's my understanding that GURPS Traveller diverges from "The Official Traveller Universe" in that the Imperium didn't break up. So I'm wondering if the races created for GURPS Traveller are essentially all the same races that appear in non GURPS Traveller.

 

[Psion]

So I'm wondering if the races created for GURPS Traveller are essentially all the same races that appear in non GURPS Traveller.

Er... some are, some aren't.

Take GURPS Alien Races 3, for example: Hivers and Droyne are, of course, part of classic Traveller. Likewise, Hiver federation members like Ithklur previously appeared in the Hiver book. But as far as I know, Lithkind and Inheritors have only ever appeared in GT. David Pulver relates that some of his races were originally developed for Spacemaster...

Whether that makes them "unofficial", I don't know. They seem "official", but I don't know if that becomes part of a body of work other traveller works are free to plunder. For the purposes of individual GMs, it's probably irrelevant. GURPS creations are as official as FASA or judges guild to me...

 

[Blue Ghost]

Thanks Psion and Morte. I was thinking of including a Virushi medic in my merc group (and one or two other races in the ranks), but was wondering how official the GURPS stuff was.

That, and I was thinking that if I ever wanted to write up an article for JTAS for one version of Traveller, then how doable is it to put in racial flavor from one version to another? That's all

 

[Psion]

Virushi predate GT material. They were in JTAS and in the old reaver's deep material by one of the third parties that published Keith brothers stuff. And they are also in T20.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Thanks, I vaugely remember that.

 

[aramis]

THe OTU Races list (1st page ro two) has a pretty good list of what's been published for the non-GT races...

 

[etherflyer]

Originally posted by Blue Ghost:
That, and I was thinking that if I ever wanted to write up an article for JTAS for one version of Traveller, then how doable is it to put in racial flavor from one version to another? That's all

It's doable.

I usually include both GT and CT/MT stats for my characters in JTAS. I've got positive feedback for it, so I keep doing it.

 

[GypsyComet]

Unfortunately (or fortunately, in some cases), "recent" additions to the Traveller races list tend to stay with the edition they appeared in. The Ithklur and Schialli are the only TNE or later additions to have jumped editions of the game. The oddities from the T4 aliens book have not reappeared (and for one or two of these, that's a shame), and I'm hoping that most of the new races from the G:T series don't carry forward. A lot of them just don't feel right, and that includes the published take on the Addaxur (who, aside from the name, are another Spacemaster transplant).

We'll have to wait to see about the Ursa and the Sydites...

 

[Malenfant]

Aren't the Ithklur pre-TNE?

 

[mike wightman]

Yep, they are mentioned in the CT Alien Module.

 

[GypsyComet]

Ah, yes, but only mentioned. They were not pictured or given any attention until TNE.