The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Full Disclosure: I was a “lead play-tester” for this product and some material I wrote appears in as appendix #1sections A, B and C.

Description: The Travellers' Handbook contains 446 pages of rules for running a Traveller game using the d20 game system. Included are sections on character races, classes, skills, feats and equipment of the sort that are standard for all d20 games. What is added are sections for building vehicles, starships, worlds and computers, a rules for vehicle and starship combat, a new method for dealing with hit points and damage, the Prior History section, which gives d20 character generation that old time Traveller feel, a Psionics system which is closer to the original Traveller system than to any of the d20 versions, and sections on trade, commerce and travel to the stars.

The Big Points:

1) Prior History: without Prior History, it really wouldn’t be Traveller. Each character goes through a number of Prior History “terms” of four years each. In each term he has a chance of getting experience points, promotions, decorations and material benefits (cash, guns starships). As a result, characters start out in their 20’s, 30’s or 40’s and at experience levels 3-10 (for the most part). This will be a bit new to D&D players, but is standard Traveller fare. You might quibble with a rule here or there, but they have done a first rate job with Prior History. It really captures the Traveller experience. No you cannot die in character generation, but you can suffer some setbacks. The system produces a character with a past, which is its best feature. Characters in most stories are not all 18 year-old kids just getting their start. You can end up starting play with an Admiral in the space navy or a full professor with the Zhunastu prize.

2) Design Sequences: the starship design sequence is based on High Guard, an early Traveller supplement. The ships are roughly compatible with High Guard ships, and the design is relatively fast and painless. The vehicle system is a scaled-down version of the ship system and was created anew for T20. It is a big plus to the system, Classic Traveller was notorious for not having a good vehicle system. You can build steamships, jeeps, giant robots, grav tanks or anything else you’d want. The computer system is brand new too. I have some reservations about it though. The computer system seems like a lot of work for little pay-off, something faster and simpler might have been better, but since there are sample computers provided, you can do quite all right without designing your own computers for ships and vehicles.

3) Combat: there are two ratings for hit points: Stamina and Lifeblood. Every hit a character takes does full damage to Stamina and when one runs out of Stamina, one falls unconscious. Stamina is figured just like D20 hit points: 1 die plus CON bonus per level. A character’s Lifeblood is equal to his CON stat. Every time he is hit in combat he takes Lifeblood damage in addition to Stamina damage. The amount of Lifeblood damage, however, is reduced by the armor worn by the character. The actual procedure takes some explaining and a little practice to get right, but judging from our play-test campaign, once you are used to it, it works fine. The practical result of the Lifeblood/Stamina system is that unarmored characters shot by guns or lasers die. Characters hit by heavy weapons die. Armored characters that are low level will probably be battered into unconsciousness by small arms fire before they are killed, but high-level armored characters will be killed by lifeblood loss before they are battered into submission by small arms. I think these are good results and the system does what is necessary to produce them. The best part of the system is that since lifeblood is not level dependent, all characters have an equal chance of dying when someone shoots at them. Low level guys in armor might not stand up to pounding when the rounds don’t penetrate armor, but a good solid shot to one guy is the same as to anyone else.

Play Test Campaign Impressions: I ran a 7-session long play-test campaign last winter. The players formed a mercenary company, got a starship and some ground vehicles and did some high paying dirty work across charted space. I was very happy with how things turned out. The scaling between personal, vehicle and starship weaponry is the best for Traveller yet. We had no problem calling orbital fire down from a starship against ground targets or firing rocket grenades against landing shuttles. This is a big advance over some other versions of Traveller. The fact that it was d20 made the learning curve for my players, who were mostly D&D guys, pretty short. The only major step was Lifeblood/Stamina, which they got pretty quickly. I was also happy with the amount of old Traveller material that was still useful in T20. The campaign indeed “felt” much more like a Traveller game than like a D&D game.

D20 Traveller vs. d20 Star Wars I’ve also looked over d20 Star Wars and though I’d add a few points of comparison. The starship combat seems to flow roughly the same way in both games. If anything the basic T20 system might be a little more “cinematic” than the Star Wars version, although the advanced T20 system is about the same in feel as Star Wars. In Traveller, though fighters are pretty useless, it’s big ships that win battles. In T20, players aren’t quite so heroic in scale as Star Wars characters. NPC’s in Traveller d20 have exactly the same classes, levels, feats and skills as PC’s, the only difference being that most average NPC’s have average ability scores. There are no “expert” or “commoner” classes in T20, everybody has Lifeblood and Stamina. PC’s are meant to be ‘just like everybody else” in the main points. So guards at the star port in Traveller are likely to be 6th level Army characters with roughly the same hit points and skills as the players, not “thugs” or “mooks” whom you might bowl over. Who should buy d20 Star Wars: someone who wants to play in the Star Wars universe (obviously) and someone who wants to play Jedi Knights. Who should buy Traveller d20: someone who wants to play in the well-established Traveller universe (obviously), or someone who wants to create his own sci-fi universe. The Travellers’ Handbook has more tools in it than Star Wars. In Star Wars you’re stuck with the vehicles and starships from the movies, while Traveller—in the main book-- allows you to build anything you can imagine: worlds, ships or vehicles.

Final Thoughts The Traveller’s Handbook is expensive. It is $45. But, it is also 446 pages. It is the equivalent of 2 Monster Manuals in length for less per page. I will warn you that it is light on setting, heavy on tools. If you want a meaty book that lets you do a wide variety of things without having to depend on supplements, this is your book. That’s probably my final judgment: this is a complete game in one book (less the 2-3 secret d20 paragraphs that no one may include), you do not need supplements to create your own sci-fi universe in is a wondrous and complete toolbox.

The Traveller's Handbook
The Traveller's Handbook Playtest Review by David L. Nelson on 10/11/02 Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 5 (Excellent!) A meaty tool box for creating your science fiction universe. Product: The Traveller's Handbook Author: Martin J. Dougherty and Hunter Gordon Category: self-review of RPG Company/Publisher: Quicklink Line: T20 Cost: $44.95 Page count: 446 Year published: 2002 ISBN: 1-55878-217-6 SKU: QLI-T200001 Comp copy?: yes Playtest Review by David L. Nelson on 10/11/02 Genre tags: Science Fiction Far Future Space	Full Disclosure: I was a “lead play-tester” for this product and some material I wrote appears in as appendix #1sections A, B and C. Description: The Travellers' Handbook contains 446 pages of rules for running a Traveller game using the d20 game system. Included are sections on character races, classes, skills, feats and equipment of the sort that are standard for all d20 games. What is added are sections for building vehicles, starships, worlds and computers, a rules for vehicle and starship combat, a new method for dealing with hit points and damage, the Prior History section, which gives d20 character generation that old time Traveller feel, a Psionics system which is closer to the original Traveller system than to any of the d20 versions, and sections on trade, commerce and travel to the stars. The Big Points: 1) Prior History: without Prior History, it really wouldn’t be Traveller. Each character goes through a number of Prior History “terms” of four years each. In each term he has a chance of getting experience points, promotions, decorations and material benefits (cash, guns starships). As a result, characters start out in their 20’s, 30’s or 40’s and at experience levels 3-10 (for the most part). This will be a bit new to D&D players, but is standard Traveller fare. You might quibble with a rule here or there, but they have done a first rate job with Prior History. It really captures the Traveller experience. No you cannot die in character generation, but you can suffer some setbacks. The system produces a character with a past, which is its best feature. Characters in most stories are not all 18 year-old kids just getting their start. You can end up starting play with an Admiral in the space navy or a full professor with the Zhunastu prize. 2) Design Sequences: the starship design sequence is based on High Guard, an early Traveller supplement. The ships are roughly compatible with High Guard ships, and the design is relatively fast and painless. The vehicle system is a scaled-down version of the ship system and was created anew for T20. It is a big plus to the system, Classic Traveller was notorious for not having a good vehicle system. You can build steamships, jeeps, giant robots, grav tanks or anything else you’d want. The computer system is brand new too. I have some reservations about it though. The computer system seems like a lot of work for little pay-off, something faster and simpler might have been better, but since there are sample computers provided, you can do quite all right without designing your own computers for ships and vehicles. 3) Combat: there are two ratings for hit points: Stamina and Lifeblood. Every hit a character takes does full damage to Stamina and when one runs out of Stamina, one falls unconscious. Stamina is figured just like D20 hit points: 1 die plus CON bonus per level. A character’s Lifeblood is equal to his CON stat. Every time he is hit in combat he takes Lifeblood damage in addition to Stamina damage. The amount of Lifeblood damage, however, is reduced by the armor worn by the character. The actual procedure takes some explaining and a little practice to get right, but judging from our play-test campaign, once you are used to it, it works fine. The practical result of the Lifeblood/Stamina system is that unarmored characters shot by guns or lasers die. Characters hit by heavy weapons die. Armored characters that are low level will probably be battered into unconsciousness by small arms fire before they are killed, but high-level armored characters will be killed by lifeblood loss before they are battered into submission by small arms. I think these are good results and the system does what is necessary to produce them. The best part of the system is that since lifeblood is not level dependent, all characters have an equal chance of dying when someone shoots at them. Low level guys in armor might not stand up to pounding when the rounds don’t penetrate armor, but a good solid shot to one guy is the same as to anyone else. Play Test Campaign Impressions: I ran a 7-session long play-test campaign last winter. The players formed a mercenary company, got a starship and some ground vehicles and did some high paying dirty work across charted space. I was very happy with how things turned out. The scaling between personal, vehicle and starship weaponry is the best for Traveller yet. We had no problem calling orbital fire down from a starship against ground targets or firing rocket grenades against landing shuttles. This is a big advance over some other versions of Traveller. The fact that it was d20 made the learning curve for my players, who were mostly D&D guys, pretty short. The only major step was Lifeblood/Stamina, which they got pretty quickly. I was also happy with the amount of old Traveller material that was still useful in T20. The campaign indeed “felt” much more like a Traveller game than like a D&D game. D20 Traveller vs. d20 Star Wars I’ve also looked over d20 Star Wars and though I’d add a few points of comparison. The starship combat seems to flow roughly the same way in both games. If anything the basic T20 system might be a little more “cinematic” than the Star Wars version, although the advanced T20 system is about the same in feel as Star Wars. In Traveller, though fighters are pretty useless, it’s big ships that win battles. In T20, players aren’t quite so heroic in scale as Star Wars characters. NPC’s in Traveller d20 have exactly the same classes, levels, feats and skills as PC’s, the only difference being that most average NPC’s have average ability scores. There are no “expert” or “commoner” classes in T20, everybody has Lifeblood and Stamina. PC’s are meant to be ‘just like everybody else” in the main points. So guards at the star port in Traveller are likely to be 6th level Army characters with roughly the same hit points and skills as the players, not “thugs” or “mooks” whom you might bowl over. Who should buy d20 Star Wars: someone who wants to play in the Star Wars universe (obviously) and someone who wants to play Jedi Knights. Who should buy Traveller d20: someone who wants to play in the well-established Traveller universe (obviously), or someone who wants to create his own sci-fi universe. The Travellers’ Handbook has more tools in it than Star Wars. In Star Wars you’re stuck with the vehicles and starships from the movies, while Traveller—in the main book-- allows you to build anything you can imagine: worlds, ships or vehicles. Final Thoughts The Traveller’s Handbook is expensive. It is $45. But, it is also 446 pages. It is the equivalent of 2 Monster Manuals in length for less per page. I will warn you that it is light on setting, heavy on tools. If you want a meaty book that lets you do a wide variety of things without having to depend on supplements, this is your book. That’s probably my final judgment: this is a complete game in one book (less the 2-3 secret d20 paragraphs that no one may include), you do not need supplements to create your own sci-fi universe in is a wondrous and complete toolbox.

The Traveller's Handbook