Mr. Welch's Mad Musings: Traveller 

I need to correct something. A parsec is 3.26 light years, so a jump-6 ship can transit over 18 light years.

Actually, most of the GURPS Traveller line was set at about the same time as Megatraveller but with no assassination or civil war. Only the last book (for a newer edition of GURPS) was set during the Solomani-Vilani conflict.

Ever since Tex told me about your channel I have been addicted. Thanks for the awsome content

Actually I just checked, and Tunnels and Trolls predates Traveller (1975, Traveller was 1977), and is (technically) still in print (mostly as the creator's hobby). So Traveller's only the third oldest still around.

Classic Traveller is still my favorite and I own almost all the books across multiple editions. :)

A game I remember fondly. The folks in my small town preferred D&D and Champions so we never had anything resembling a campaign. We did however make plenty of characters over the years. A game in itself really. Great video. Thanks for sharing!

Traveller: Play like the dice are trying to kill you!

The first Traveller I bought was the GURPS lineup, and I really enjoyed it. I thought the supplements were excellent, but never was able to snag Interstellar War. Very nice video. Warm regards, Rick

Thanks for the outstanding video. I've enjoyed *_Traveller_* for 40+ years. Even during the years when I didn't play, I followed it. Still purchasing the odd book, while filling in my _classic Traveller_ little black book collection. I'm looking forward to what the newest revision of _Traveller 5_ has in store. I also cratch-built a Scout Type S, which I'm quite proud of. This game holds a place in my heart, and you did an outstanding job covering it and its history.

As someone who played the old boxed 3-book set in my long-ago teens, thanks for the stroll up and down memory lane. I ran campaigns that make me wince to remember... and a few that still make me smile in satisfaction. Many thanks for your take on a TTRPG that's almost as old as I am!

We spent entire weekends playing Mega-Traverller, we ran mostly outlaws and mercs man when we worked our way up to PGMPs we lost our minds did sooooo much collateral damage. LOL

1:16 Mad props for the Alien Legion reference.

The three little black books in a box back in '77 after Star Wars had come out is the edition burned forever in my memory. Those booklets, MegaTraveller, and Mongoose are my favorites, though I have New Era and d20 and some Gurps. 10:22 Stated explicitly - and implicitly in the various editions - in the Starship Operator's Manual vol. 1 supplement for MegaTraveller put out by Digest Group Publishing, ships facing interplanetary journeys of longer than a week could instead perform a microjump, spending a week travel time in jump space and thus cover the distance in a shorter time period. Jump drive rating indicated the maximum distance the drive could cross in one jump - nothing says a drive couldn't jump a shorter distance (it just wasn't efficient with fuel, using the same fuel as jump-1 for distances less than a parsec).

Best sci-fi tabletop game ever. Bar none.

Want to collect Traveller? Physical: It doesn't matter how much paper you bring into one place, you aren't going to resurrect all those trees... PDF: I recommend camping out Humble Bundle or Bundle of Holding, they seem to pop up there now and again, that's where I got most of my Traveller stuff.

Nicely done.

I just started collecting the GURPS Traveller PDFs, but also want the Mongoose 2e.

I played Mega Traveller, kept my brain active.

6 Parsecs is not 2 LY. It is closer to 20.

Traveller looks like good fun

Now to build the Beagle again

10:09 you've got it backwards. Six parsecs is not two light years, more like two parsecs is six light years (~3.26 ly per parsec). So Jump-6 is nearly 20 light years.

The d20 plague. Apt name.

Came here because of Tex kinda in a round about way. First he said that he wanted to play a Traveller game a few weeks back in one of his Friday live streams. So I took a look and fell into the perverbial black hole of this game. I am still looking to buy the books for a couple of editions because I am still not convinced which one I would enjoy. Also, a joke among my old group of Rifts is that it's barely defined but had a lot of story. While it seems like a contradiction it's not. Look how much Seimbeda has written then copy pasted the information in the setting while not giving any specifics to make it easier for the GM to work on. The thing is almost like a premix of dry baked goods and just add water. Or it's the Fiesta Pail of the RPG world. (A BPL running joke for anyone who doesn't know yet.)

I stumbled on to your channel looking for Twilight 2000 videos. I love your reviews!

Greatness

im just here for all the winona rider references.

I love traveller, my mini-life is dedicated to it soooo...

I like how somehow, every edition of this game(Besides mongoose 2e) Has a completely different system. Making everything different. TNE has almost the same rules as twilight 2000(So yes, you can run a wartorn twilight 2000 scifi game). I would say stick to an edition. Most people like mongoose, gurps or classic. Anything else is bound to get you weird looks. It is one of the few games along with dnd, shadowrun and cyberpunk where i have seen people use older editions of the game.

Did you mean that ships could travel 2 parsecs (which is about 6.5 light years)? Or was one of the numbers you gave (be it 2 light years or 6 parsecs) actually right and the other wrong?

All I know about Traveller is that it is the game where you can die during character generation, or survive to be an incredibly badass old fart.

Other SF RPGs I'd recommend: FGU's Space Opera & Chaosium's Ringworld. TSR's SF classic Metamorphosis Alpha, published in 1976, is a venerable SF RPG still available in PDF format.

5:30 you could a vid on some of the best d20 settings and supplements? I remeber thinking Dragonstar was pretty cool...

You have a definite Winona issue, which I totally understand

Sadly never got to play much of trader - the one campaign i got into fell apart after .3 weeks due to the GM and one of the players ( a couple) kept falling out. Would still love to have a go sometime.

Oh, and Traveller has only one major drawback as a GM...trying to find a group that wants to play. Trust me, I speak experience. ;)

1:25 Alien Legion 😃👍

1:41 ... RU-vid's captions translated K'kree as "decree", which made me think your joke about "Don't take the stuttering disasvantage if you're playing GURPS Traveller" was because if you stutter "decree" it sounds like "dick-dick-dick-dick-" Then I googled "Traveller Centaur Race" and my inner 12-year-old was so disappointed.

Gurps Traveller was set in the Third Imperium but the civil war never happened. Gurps Insterstellar wars for Gurps 4e was set during the rise of the Solomani.

Pity, no talk on Traveller 2300/2300AD and its four editions.

I have a friend who is trying to get me to try this and I would like to play it, but I also tend to like some magic with my Sci-Fi. I believe they have the mongoose edition.

I'm hoping I can run a traveller game someday.

~10:10 six parsecs is NOT a bit less than two light years; it's a bit over TWENTY light years. 3.26 light years to the parsec, Mr. Welch. Either you misplaced the decimal point or you are confusing Traveller with Traveller2300 which had about a seven light-year limit on how far you could run a stutterwarp ship--about two parsecs.

Oh hey, you mentioned alternity. Nice.

The second 'L' is there because that is the correct spelling everywhere that isn't the USA. I'm not sure why the original traveller publishers chose to use two, perhaps the US had not yet changed the official spelling when it was first published.

This has nothing to do with the game but... That pic at 8:20 is from a show called Space 1999! It's the one thing I remember from the TV series way back in the 70's! I don't remember much about the show but it must have been awful. I don't think anyone has ever streamed it and SYF*FY won't even touch it. Correct me if I'm wrong because I've been curious about this show for a long while now. I had some of the toys when I was a kid and always thought the ship designs were pretty cool.

There's also Traveller Hero, the version that used the Hero System. That was a fully licensed release and had a modest range of supplements. Not strictly Traveller but I think it's also worth mentioning Cepheus Engine, which is a free retro-clone of 1st edition Mongoose Traveller, but without Mongoose's legendarily poor quality control. It obviously doesn't include anything explicit about the Traveller universe, but then neither did the original Classic Traveller. It's a pretty good way in to the game system and has spawned several alternate setting lines.

No mention of Interstellar Wars for GURPS 4ed? I feel besmirched. Lol Seriously, Traveller and GURPS together could only be dwarfed by a GURPS:Rifts alliance. Thank goodness for PDFs.

02:27 I was just having problems with the issue of limiting the size of ships of at least 100 tons to be able to J-Drive, I did not understand the reason for the limitation and I was looking for arguments about why it could not be done when it is a warp bubble that is generated, because if it is smaller it costs less to maintain. So this is the real reason for that? Torpedoes with J-Drive? May I ask where you base your saying that from? So I can use it to debate with other players and GMs.

In the original Traveller it was an adventure in it's self to roll up Characters. The imsgine using Geriactric Grand Admirals and Grnerals to rob a Bank.

Did you ever get a chance to look over the 3 book 5 e version?

The big issue with Traveller is the millstone of the Third Imperium setting around the neck. Though thankfully, Cepheus Engine is there to provide a Traveller that has other settings than the default Traveller universe.

And there are also tons of fan made supplements, rules, etc. There is a Google maps styled online map site called simply the Travellermap and there is an fantastically detailed and realistic space combat system, with ship design system, sensors, stealth, gravity, aerobraking etc etc available for free, called Intercept: vectormovement.com

I think Stars Without Number is an unofficial sequel. In its backstory a psychic storm crashed FTL travel via psychic gates, and humanity is rebuilding using jump drives, after technology crashed due to a lack of trade.

I love your channel but a parsec is 3.3 light-years, so a jump 6 ship actually travels about 19.8 ly.

Why are you using the Alien Legion for examples of aliens in Traveller? Ha. I liked the setting for the New Era because it gave characters something to do other than to be merchants which I don't like, but the GDW rules were bad, imo. I love the rules of Marc Miller's Traveller (T4) because I really like dice mechanic (and I don't mind capable characters), though the book did need some major editing. Also, because it was earlier in the Third Imperium timeline, there was more reason/possibility for exploration type adventures, including exploring bombed out worlds ala Gamma World. (OK, that is more possible in the New Era, another reason I like that setting.) Why do I find it totally normal that my favorite version of a game is the one mostly thought of as a "curiosity." A few years back I gave my brother (who introduced me to gaming with the little/original D&D books) a t-shirt with, "Traveller: the only game where you can die in character generation" printed on it. He loved it. Uuuddd, one Parsec is 3.26 LY, the distance from here to the Centari Stars. Right?

1:26 Uplifted wolves, not dogs.

Was looking up Traveller lore and found this. Are you the Mr. Welch whom was not allowed to begin an RPG as the Pope? :P

Are their any computer games based upon Traveller?

Will you be doing the Aliens: Adventure Game?

2:55 looks so familiar, is that from master of Orion or something?

I would say Traveller is the second most expensive game to collect. Warhammer 40k would be the first. Hundreds of novels and White Dwarf magazines and it's on it's 8th (?) edition. Not to mention that Warhammer 30k, Adeptus Titanicus, Space Hulk, Necromuda, Battlefleet Gothic and at least 2 other games all share lore in one way or another. And that is before you start talking limited edition novels and the miniatures.

vector based starships?

The second "L" probably comes from Robert E. Lee's famous horse: Traveller.

LOL, I have 95% of it all and didn't go broke getting it.

Waiting for you to muse about Star Frontiers.

6 parsecs = c. 20 light years...

Yeah, the years around _The New Era_ was the death knell for GDW, not just for _Trav,_ but for most of its lines -- I think someone read a little too much Fukuyama, and tried to shoehorn _Mad Max_ and _Cyberworld_ into the _Marava's_ cargo bay.....Not a good end.

The open d20 system is dead?

Hard sci-fi just means a space helmet is required. Nothing more.

I dropped the Third Imperium entirely. I just don't have the patience to learn the lore for somebody else's setting.

Is there a list of books that are compatible with 5e?

You know No Man's Sky got better.

The Mongoose Traveller 2. Edition is actually not clean at all. Most of the rules are good in concept, but the game is chock-full of errors and ambiguity. It's downright shameful and a disservice to the IP. Yet, we play it currently because i'm afraid it may still be the best version.