The Inside Scoop on Gaming

I remember the old Traveller game. It wasn't the first science fiction RPG I ever bought, or even one of the first. I think I'd already picked up Space Opera, Other Suns, and Star Frontiers by that point. Some of the aspects of Traveller really appealed to me. I liked a galactic empire based on the Roman Empire, the hexadecimal method of character (and planet) notation, and the aliens.

Traveller has gone through many incarnations over the years. After the assassination of Emperor Strephon, it became MegaTraveller, then was converted to the fairly awful GDW house system for Traveller: the New Era. Then it was taken back to its roots for Marc Miller's Traveller, aka T4, which was either the subject of much adulation (for those who were happy to see a new edition of Traveller) or scorn (for those who didn't like its outdated systems or incomplete rules).

Now it has one more incarnation, written by GDW old-timer Loren Wiseman. I had gone into the hobby store just to see what had come out this week, and I saw GURPS Traveller sitting on the shelf. Out of nostalgia, I bought it, even knowing that I probably wouldn't have time to run it.

In the GURPS Traveller universe, Emperor Strephon was never assassinated, the Third Imperium never fell, and the events in TNE never happened. The universe is pretty much the Traveller universe I remember from when I was younger.

I really wish I could say this will revolutionize science fiction gaming. But it won't. In reality, there's not much in here that old-time Traveller fans couldn't have done on their own with the GURPS rulebook and their old Traveller rulebooks.

Out of the 176 pages in GURPS Traveller, 60 are just a glossary of terms. 4 1/2 are a timeline. Almost 70 pages cover equipment and starship combat, but GMs are still urged to buy the Ultra-tech books if they want to get a full list of available equipment! Pages 82-106 cover character creation, but it's mostly just a listing of templates for different professions.

The recent trend in GURPS worldbooks to include profession templates seems counterproductive to me. In a game system which prides itself on people being able to create any character type they want, providing nearly complete character templates covering every profession the authors could think of (Is it really necessary to include professional templates in a middling hard-SF game for farmers or martial artists? Must we have different templates for enlisted Army types and Army officers?) undercuts that philosophy and encourages something I've come to dread in RPGs: Orthodoxy. Orthodoxy is that habit of players to assume that anything writ in a game book is law. "Diplomats have to have 20 points in occupation-related disadvantages!" "Belters are rude and crude! It says so in the book!" "It costs 60 points to be a computer technician!" Whatever happened to just spending your points according to your own vision?

One of the more interesting parts of the Traveller universe has always been the aliens. There are three major branches of humanity (or humaniti), two of which were taken from earth far in prehistory by the Ancients. There's also the Vargr, who are descended from canine stock taken by the Ancients. And there are four other major starfaring races (so called because they independently acheived FTL travel), some based on terrestral analogues (despite assurances that they are not related to the terrestrial creatures), some not. The six major races and a couple of minor ones are mentioned in GURPS Traveller, and it's pointed out that sentient aliens are part of life. With just GURPS, GURPS Compendium I, GURPS Space, and this book (what's required, according to the back cover copy), you can't have most of them in your games. Chapter 3, character creation, explains that professional templates are different from the racial templates of Chapters 3 and 4. Chapter 3 contains exactly one alien template: the Vargr. Chapter 4 is equipment and contains no templates. Want to play (or fight) an Aslan, K'kree, Hiver, or Droyne? Too bad, there's no rules for them.

Were the aliens left out because there wasn't enough space? Perhaps. But with a 60-page glossary and 20 pages of character templates, surely something else could have been left out. The Vargr template only took a single sidebar--not even a full page. Why were sidebars like Alternate FTL Drives (for people who don't like Traveller's jump drives), Good Guys and Bad Guys (explaining why old Traveller adventures focussed so much on smuggling, piracy, and other criminal acts), Square Pegs? (detailing two past emperors of the Imperium, one insane, the other abdicating in favor of someone more competent), and Is The Truth Really Out There? (explaining how the Vilani or Vegans probably didn't have anything to do with UFO sightings in the 20th century) deemed more important than a major part of Imperium life (especially major for those citizens who belong to the four omitted races)?

In short, GURPS Traveller doesn't offer much in the way of new information for long-time Traveller fans, neglects to offer game rules for most of the major races, and devotes too much space to things that didn't need to be explained in that great of detail. (The 60-page glossary explains pretty much every detail of life, including things that didn't really need explaining (like three paragraphs on the history of the Imperial sunburst symbol) in the Imperium, but alphabetically rather than by subject. I'd wager that had this been presented in normal GURPS fashion, as paragraphs of prose going from the general to the specific, at least a third of that could have been cut.)

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 2 (Sparse)

GURPS Traveller
Author: Loren K. Wiseman Category: game Company/Publisher: Steve Jackson Games Cost: $22.95 US Page count: 176 ISBN: 1-55634-349-3 Capsule Review by Kevin Mowery on 09/28/98. Genre tags: Science_fiction	I remember the old Traveller game. It wasn't the first science fiction RPG I ever bought, or even one of the first. I think I'd already picked up Space Opera, Other Suns, and Star Frontiers by that point. Some of the aspects of Traveller really appealed to me. I liked a galactic empire based on the Roman Empire, the hexadecimal method of character (and planet) notation, and the aliens. Traveller has gone through many incarnations over the years. After the assassination of Emperor Strephon, it became MegaTraveller, then was converted to the fairly awful GDW house system for Traveller: the New Era. Then it was taken back to its roots for Marc Miller's Traveller, aka T4, which was either the subject of much adulation (for those who were happy to see a new edition of Traveller) or scorn (for those who didn't like its outdated systems or incomplete rules). Now it has one more incarnation, written by GDW old-timer Loren Wiseman. I had gone into the hobby store just to see what had come out this week, and I saw GURPS Traveller sitting on the shelf. Out of nostalgia, I bought it, even knowing that I probably wouldn't have time to run it. In the GURPS Traveller universe, Emperor Strephon was never assassinated, the Third Imperium never fell, and the events in TNE never happened. The universe is pretty much the Traveller universe I remember from when I was younger. I really wish I could say this will revolutionize science fiction gaming. But it won't. In reality, there's not much in here that old-time Traveller fans couldn't have done on their own with the GURPS rulebook and their old Traveller rulebooks. Out of the 176 pages in GURPS Traveller, 60 are just a glossary of terms. 4 1/2 are a timeline. Almost 70 pages cover equipment and starship combat, but GMs are still urged to buy the Ultra-tech books if they want to get a full list of available equipment! Pages 82-106 cover character creation, but it's mostly just a listing of templates for different professions. The recent trend in GURPS worldbooks to include profession templates seems counterproductive to me. In a game system which prides itself on people being able to create any character type they want, providing nearly complete character templates covering every profession the authors could think of (Is it really necessary to include professional templates in a middling hard-SF game for farmers or martial artists? Must we have different templates for enlisted Army types and Army officers?) undercuts that philosophy and encourages something I've come to dread in RPGs: Orthodoxy. Orthodoxy is that habit of players to assume that anything writ in a game book is law. "Diplomats have to have 20 points in occupation-related disadvantages!" "Belters are rude and crude! It says so in the book!" "It costs 60 points to be a computer technician!" Whatever happened to just spending your points according to your own vision? One of the more interesting parts of the Traveller universe has always been the aliens. There are three major branches of humanity (or humaniti), two of which were taken from earth far in prehistory by the Ancients. There's also the Vargr, who are descended from canine stock taken by the Ancients. And there are four other major starfaring races (so called because they independently acheived FTL travel), some based on terrestral analogues (despite assurances that they are not related to the terrestrial creatures), some not. The six major races and a couple of minor ones are mentioned in GURPS Traveller, and it's pointed out that sentient aliens are part of life. With just GURPS, GURPS Compendium I, GURPS Space, and this book (what's required, according to the back cover copy), you can't have most of them in your games. Chapter 3, character creation, explains that professional templates are different from the racial templates of Chapters 3 and 4. Chapter 3 contains exactly one alien template: the Vargr. Chapter 4 is equipment and contains no templates. Want to play (or fight) an Aslan, K'kree, Hiver, or Droyne? Too bad, there's no rules for them. Were the aliens left out because there wasn't enough space? Perhaps. But with a 60-page glossary and 20 pages of character templates, surely something else could have been left out. The Vargr template only took a single sidebar--not even a full page. Why were sidebars like Alternate FTL Drives (for people who don't like Traveller's jump drives), Good Guys and Bad Guys (explaining why old Traveller adventures focussed so much on smuggling, piracy, and other criminal acts), Square Pegs? (detailing two past emperors of the Imperium, one insane, the other abdicating in favor of someone more competent), and Is The Truth Really Out There? (explaining how the Vilani or Vegans probably didn't have anything to do with UFO sightings in the 20th century) deemed more important than a major part of Imperium life (especially major for those citizens who belong to the four omitted races)? In short, GURPS Traveller doesn't offer much in the way of new information for long-time Traveller fans, neglects to offer game rules for most of the major races, and devotes too much space to things that didn't need to be explained in that great of detail. (The 60-page glossary explains pretty much every detail of life, including things that didn't really need explaining (like three paragraphs on the history of the Imperial sunburst symbol) in the Imperium, but alphabetically rather than by subject. I'd wager that had this been presented in normal GURPS fashion, as paragraphs of prose going from the general to the specific, at least a third of that could have been cut.) Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 2 (Sparse)