The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Every now and then a product comes along which is so bad, that you wonder why in God's name you ever picked it up in the first place. This is one of them. The latest version of the Traveller rules is a Travesty. It is poorly laid out, poorly thought out, and a general mess. Traveller is one of the classic games of the science fiction role-playing genre. Throughout the years it has been redone time and again-- Traveller begat MegaTraveller which begat Traveller the New Era which begat diddly squat-- each new edition becomes just a little bit weaker and weaker.

Kind of like hillbilly incest or cloning-- sooner or later all of those genetic imperfections will come to rest in some idiot bastard child-- this is that idiot bastard child. The book starts off well enough, with a commendable set of goals for T4, which included, returning to the simpler mechanics of Classic Traveller, and returning to standards that reject gratuitous sex and violence. It goes downhill from there.

All of the rules which you will need for play are included, but the various charts are scattered willy-nilly within the chapters and are ranged in no discernable order. There is a chapter on character generation, but unlike in previous versions of Traveller where you could end up with useless characters after a bout of creation frenzy-- these guys are skilled to the teeth! The game system appears to be unbalanced, with one problem being it is all to easy to succeed at "impossible" tasks.

Combat rules, world creation rules, starship creation rules are included, which is commendable considering so many games will try to swamp you with 10 million supplements-- but these rules are also unorganized messes. The starship creation rules even lack an essential table for the creation of starships. Errata can be found on the Imperium Games site, but its a doozy! You get a few corrections, and a back breaking load of "suggested" changes. This game gets a solid "F."

My advice is don't waste your money. Pick! up a copy of the Classic Traveller rules, and you won't be disappointed-- pick this up, and if you remember the past, you will be disappointed by what you read in the present.

Style: 1 (Unintelligible)
Substance: 1 (I Wasted My Money)

Marc Miller's Traveller
Author: Marc Miller Category: game Company/Publisher: Imperium Games Cost: 25 Page count: 192 ISBN: 1-57828-000-1 Capsule Review by Scott Shafer on 03/29/98. Genre tags: none	Every now and then a product comes along which is so bad, that you wonder why in God's name you ever picked it up in the first place. This is one of them. The latest version of the Traveller rules is a Travesty. It is poorly laid out, poorly thought out, and a general mess. Traveller is one of the classic games of the science fiction role-playing genre. Throughout the years it has been redone time and again-- Traveller begat MegaTraveller which begat Traveller the New Era which begat diddly squat-- each new edition becomes just a little bit weaker and weaker. Kind of like hillbilly incest or cloning-- sooner or later all of those genetic imperfections will come to rest in some idiot bastard child-- this is that idiot bastard child. The book starts off well enough, with a commendable set of goals for T4, which included, returning to the simpler mechanics of Classic Traveller, and returning to standards that reject gratuitous sex and violence. It goes downhill from there. All of the rules which you will need for play are included, but the various charts are scattered willy-nilly within the chapters and are ranged in no discernable order. There is a chapter on character generation, but unlike in previous versions of Traveller where you could end up with useless characters after a bout of creation frenzy-- these guys are skilled to the teeth! The game system appears to be unbalanced, with one problem being it is all to easy to succeed at "impossible" tasks. Combat rules, world creation rules, starship creation rules are included, which is commendable considering so many games will try to swamp you with 10 million supplements-- but these rules are also unorganized messes. The starship creation rules even lack an essential table for the creation of starships. Errata can be found on the Imperium Games site, but its a doozy! You get a few corrections, and a back breaking load of "suggested" changes. This game gets a solid "F." My advice is don't waste your money. Pick! up a copy of the Classic Traveller rules, and you won't be disappointed-- pick this up, and if you remember the past, you will be disappointed by what you read in the present. Style: 1 (Unintelligible) Substance: 1 (I Wasted My Money)

Marc Miller's Traveller