The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Here as promised is my review of the second book in the Traveller reprints series Supplements 1-13: The Classic Supplements. In my review of the previous volume I gushed. It was actually somewhat embarrasing how much I fawned over that book. I promise to be harsher with this volume.

Don't get me wrong I love this one too and it exactly delivers on its promise to reprint all of the original 13 supplements. The problem is that, in retrospect, not all of the supplements are that good. I'll stick with more or less the same format as the previous review discussing the high and low points of each book seperately. On to the evisceration.

Like the last volume this one begins with some historical publication information. After a few pages of this interesting peek into the back room workings of game publishing we move on to...

Supplement 1: 1001 characters. This unfortunately is one of the books that doesn't stand the test of time very well. All we have for these characters are characteristics, age, rank, skill lists, and mustering out benefits. No personality. No helpful hints on playing character type "X." The characters are broken up by the career path used to generate them and they can be usefull to flesh out skills for an otherwise not very important NPC but that's about it.

Moving on to Supplement 2: Animal Encounters. This is a little more useful in that it gives a welter of pregenerated encounter tables for worlds of varying statistics. It's probably preferable to have customized encounter tables made for all of the areas you expect your players to wind up in a session but players can be capricious and having a few canned encounter possibilities helps. Of course actual description of the beasties is still up to the individual ref which means thinking on the fly is a must. There are only so many times you can get away with describing creatures as bearoid or wolfish before players start to suspect you aren't really trying.

Next up is Sup.3: The Spinward Marches. This is a map. Locations of worlds and planetary data are given for the default adventure area in the Imperium. On it's own it's usefull for solo merchant campaigns. Taken with the rest of the materials it forms the basis of a campaign on the wild frontier of the 3rd Imperium.

Which brings us to Sup.4: Citizens of the Imperium. This absolutely essential little book gives character generation sequences for 12 new careers: Pirate, Belter, Sailor, Diplomat, Doctor, Flyer, Barbarian, Bureaucrat, Rogue, Noble, Scientist, and Hunter. Use of these characters can help to dilute the propensity for combat monsters to emerge in the PC group. Suppliment 4 also includes rules for bow combat and listings of sample characters a la sup.1.

Sup.5: Lightning Class Cruisers is an example of a mid-sized naval vessel with High Guard statistics and deck plans. Mostly an aid to and originally published with the board game Azhanti High Lightning. It can still serve as inspiration for the interior of a large military ship.

Sup.6: 76 Patrons is another absolutely essential book. It contains adventure ideas. Lots of them. Use them as is if your players don't have access. File off the edges and round down the corners if they do and any pickup game can be as rewarding as those intricately thought out campaign furthering adventures.

Sup.7: Traders and Gunboats has deck plans for small (and therefore likely controlled by PC's) ships. Most of these ships are representatives of the standard starships from Book 2 and all of them have Book 5 (High Guard) statistics.

Sup.8: Library Data (A-M) has a lot of background material. This material is necesary for a campaign set in the Imperium and much of it can be adapted for use in homegrown settings.

Sup.9: Fighting Ships contains statistics for vessels of the Imperial navy. While this information may be of limited use outside of a naval warfare campaign it makes wonderfull background information. Or maybe you want your group in charge of a Dreadnaught or two. With this book that is definitely possible.

Sup.10: The Solomani Rim does for the imediate neighborhood of Sol (An obscure star with a dirty little ball of a planet known as Terra in orbit arround it.) what Sup. 3 did for the spinward marches. Mapped it. This supplement contains some background data on the evil Solomani as well as the alien species known as the Vegans.

Sup.11: Library Data (N-Z) finishes up the summary of background information begun in sup.8.

Sup. 12: Forms and Charts has a number of...well...forms and charts. Some are more usefull than others but all in all a helpful addition.

Sup. 13: Veterans is a listing of charecters designed using the sequences in Book 4: Mercenary. As such it shares the faults of its brethren Sup.1: 1001 charecters. A weak end to what is, all in all, a usefull volume.

Overall impresion: As reprints this book scores an A+. As a game suplement I'd have to take it down a notch and give it a B because of the (in retrospect) spottiness of the source material.

And once again we come to the question. Who should buy this book? I'd love to be able to say everybody should but that would in fact not be the case. If you've purchased the first volume in this series and liked it by all means purchase this volume as well. You will not be disapointed. Gurps Traveller refs may find it usefull for clarification of ambiguities in the GT books (or they may not.) Others probably won't get much out of this book.

I remain,

David Shayne Traveller Fan

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Traveller: Supplements 1-13 The Classic Supplements
Author: Marc Miller, et al Category: game Company/Publisher: Far Future Enterprises Line: Classic Traveller Reprints Cost: $35.00 ISBN: 1-55878201-x SKU: FFE002 Capsule Review by David Shayne on 07/20/00. Genre tags: Science fiction Far Future Space	Here as promised is my review of the second book in the Traveller reprints series Supplements 1-13: The Classic Supplements. In my review of the previous volume I gushed. It was actually somewhat embarrasing how much I fawned over that book. I promise to be harsher with this volume. Don't get me wrong I love this one too and it exactly delivers on its promise to reprint all of the original 13 supplements. The problem is that, in retrospect, not all of the supplements are that good. I'll stick with more or less the same format as the previous review discussing the high and low points of each book seperately. On to the evisceration. Like the last volume this one begins with some historical publication information. After a few pages of this interesting peek into the back room workings of game publishing we move on to... Supplement 1: 1001 characters. This unfortunately is one of the books that doesn't stand the test of time very well. All we have for these characters are characteristics, age, rank, skill lists, and mustering out benefits. No personality. No helpful hints on playing character type "X." The characters are broken up by the career path used to generate them and they can be usefull to flesh out skills for an otherwise not very important NPC but that's about it. Moving on to Supplement 2: Animal Encounters. This is a little more useful in that it gives a welter of pregenerated encounter tables for worlds of varying statistics. It's probably preferable to have customized encounter tables made for all of the areas you expect your players to wind up in a session but players can be capricious and having a few canned encounter possibilities helps. Of course actual description of the beasties is still up to the individual ref which means thinking on the fly is a must. There are only so many times you can get away with describing creatures as bearoid or wolfish before players start to suspect you aren't really trying. Next up is Sup.3: The Spinward Marches. This is a map. Locations of worlds and planetary data are given for the default adventure area in the Imperium. On it's own it's usefull for solo merchant campaigns. Taken with the rest of the materials it forms the basis of a campaign on the wild frontier of the 3rd Imperium. Which brings us to Sup.4: Citizens of the Imperium. This absolutely essential little book gives character generation sequences for 12 new careers: Pirate, Belter, Sailor, Diplomat, Doctor, Flyer, Barbarian, Bureaucrat, Rogue, Noble, Scientist, and Hunter. Use of these characters can help to dilute the propensity for combat monsters to emerge in the PC group. Suppliment 4 also includes rules for bow combat and listings of sample characters a la sup.1. Sup.5: Lightning Class Cruisers is an example of a mid-sized naval vessel with High Guard statistics and deck plans. Mostly an aid to and originally published with the board game Azhanti High Lightning. It can still serve as inspiration for the interior of a large military ship. Sup.6: 76 Patrons is another absolutely essential book. It contains adventure ideas. Lots of them. Use them as is if your players don't have access. File off the edges and round down the corners if they do and any pickup game can be as rewarding as those intricately thought out campaign furthering adventures. Sup.7: Traders and Gunboats has deck plans for small (and therefore likely controlled by PC's) ships. Most of these ships are representatives of the standard starships from Book 2 and all of them have Book 5 (High Guard) statistics. Sup.8: Library Data (A-M) has a lot of background material. This material is necesary for a campaign set in the Imperium and much of it can be adapted for use in homegrown settings. Sup.9: Fighting Ships contains statistics for vessels of the Imperial navy. While this information may be of limited use outside of a naval warfare campaign it makes wonderfull background information. Or maybe you want your group in charge of a Dreadnaught or two. With this book that is definitely possible. Sup.10: The Solomani Rim does for the imediate neighborhood of Sol (An obscure star with a dirty little ball of a planet known as Terra in orbit arround it.) what Sup. 3 did for the spinward marches. Mapped it. This supplement contains some background data on the evil Solomani as well as the alien species known as the Vegans. Sup.11: Library Data (N-Z) finishes up the summary of background information begun in sup.8. Sup. 12: Forms and Charts has a number of...well...forms and charts. Some are more usefull than others but all in all a helpful addition. Sup. 13: Veterans is a listing of charecters designed using the sequences in Book 4: Mercenary. As such it shares the faults of its brethren Sup.1: 1001 charecters. A weak end to what is, all in all, a usefull volume. Overall impresion: As reprints this book scores an A+. As a game suplement I'd have to take it down a notch and give it a B because of the (in retrospect) spottiness of the source material. And once again we come to the question. Who should buy this book? I'd love to be able to say everybody should but that would in fact not be the case. If you've purchased the first volume in this series and liked it by all means purchase this volume as well. You will not be disapointed. Gurps Traveller refs may find it usefull for clarification of ambiguities in the GT books (or they may not.) Others probably won't get much out of this book. I remain, David Shayne Traveller Fan Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Traveller: Supplements 1-13 The Classic Supplements