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As mentioned The Traveller Book is an A4 hardback; this compares positively to the dinky B4 booklets of basic and deluxe Traveller. Although the later were highly portable, and with excellent page balance (this is a production issue), they did suffer after prolonged use and rough play, whereas The Traveller Book was a pretty sturdy creature, even if mine is one of the most battered I have ever seen. Whilst the binding of the pages to the spine was pretty average, the use of stitched perfect binding did mean the pages stayed together and it would lie flat without being forced. The 160pp tome, printed on some fairly heavy duty paper, consisted of some 29 major chapters and numerous subchapters. Tables are usually combined within each chapter when relevant along with 'spot rules'. Whilst there was no index, there is a detailed table of contents which spans three complete pages. The sans-serif text is fortunately of a reasonable font-size, and the two-column justified text is provided with just the right amount of white-space throughout. Page numbers are marked clearly in the vertical centre of the far margins with each major chapter title marked clearly on each and every page. The writing style is dense and formal, which does give a bit of a feel of being 'scientific' which is a nice touch (whether by accident or design) but occassionally can be a little obtuse as a result, especially with only a modest number of examples throughout the text. Most of the artwork is quite competent, with the majority being provided by William Keith Jnr and with fair amount by David Deitrick, Liz Danforth and Kevin Siembieda. Keith's sketches of the common ships of the Traveller setting, Dietrick's character portrait and Richard Hentz's animals are particularly memorable. Again this compares nicely with the B4 versions which were almost entirely an art-free zone.
The first chapter gives players an idea of what Traveller is like and how it differs from other roleplaying games, in which the relative experience of starting characters is most notable along with the emphasis on economic issues. This chapter also includes a helpful Definition of Terms and advice for Referees, with the emphasis evident in the title as opposed to "Gamemaster" or "Dungeon Master". The second chapter is character generation, taking up a modest 15 pages including character sheet. Six characteristics (Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Intelligence, Education and Social Standing) are determined by rolling 2d6 and allocating in order (grumble), generating an optional UPP or University Personality Profile. Characteristics can rise and fall from 1 to 15 and in the intrests of brevity (and also for a scientific touch) the UPP is expressed in hexadecimal notation. This is also the point where the game setting first intervenes with the announcement of noble and hereditary titles. After generating characteristics the player may attempt to choose one of six primarily miltary professions for their character; Navy, Marines, Army, Scouts, Merchants and Other. If this enlistment fails, the character must submit to the Draft where their service is determined randomly, regardless of characteristic suitability.
Upon joining a service at 18, the character engaes in a number of terms, each lasting four years. During this time, the character may acquire new skills, receive commissions, promotions and make a survival roll which, if failed, the character dies (or optionally is seriously wounded and discharged). After a number of terms, the player may decide their character wishes to finish their pre-game experience and muster out - but even that can be failed as well. With three or more four-year terms not uncommon in character generation, it is also probably the character will have to make aging checks as well, starting at age 34 (end of the fourth term). Characters receive two skills for their first term, one for each additional term after that and one for each commission received or promotion received. Acquired skills may be taken of one of four tables, personal development, services, advanced education and an even more advanced education table for those with an EDU of 8+. There are 26 skills, not including those which 'cascade' into further specialisations, which are basically weapons, guns and vehicles. A raised eyebrow can certainly be raised at the lack of science-related skills (surely important in science fiction), a very strange emphasis on archiac weapons (e.g., cascade skills for bayonet, spear, halberd and pike?!) and a systematic bias against Scouts, who will lose just under 50% of their number per term. The 'one skill level per four years' means that roughly each skill level should be the equivalent of a degree or technical trade certificate, which means that even highly experienced characters are quite easy to record (indeed, a few lines is the norm), but is lacking in precision, representing a significant 'graduated equilibrium'.
As was the fashion in the early days of roleplaying games with their direct lineage from single-unit wargames, personal combat follows character generation. The 15 second combat rounds begin with checks for surprise, movement and attacks. There is no initiative as such, with all movement and attacks occurring simultaneously, with movement declarations made before the round. Attacks are made on a basic throw of 8+ with various positive and negative die modifiers, including skill, a weapon vs armour matrix (making it effectively an 'armour class' rather than 'damage reduction' system), range and so forth. Damage is meted out in numbers of dice, in which each die must be applied to one of the three physical characteristics chosen by the receiver, except for the first hit which is applied in total against one, randomly determined. When one physical characteristic is reduced to zero, the character is unconscious, if two reach zero the character is seriously wounded, and if three reach zero the character is dead. More negatively, the bell-curve of the roll-over task resolution method wrecks havoc with modifiers, a perpetual issue with such systems. Automatic weapons, which are few, and the only one's who can fire multiple attacks in a round (2, from a four-round burst) and along with shotguns, they may spread against group targets. Despite the range of archiac melee weapons, there are no archiac missile weapons. Finally, taking into account likely ranges, weapon damages and modifications versus various forms of armour, the most deadly weapon in the game is probably the broadsword - even more than the laser rifle, which one must admit is pretty odd for an sf game; in general firearms seem to be comparatively underpowered. This said, a single hit from most weapons is sufficient to cause unconsciousness, although none, not even the mighty laser rifle, will do enough damage on average to actually kill with a single shot.
The next five chapters are Travel (3 p), Starship Economics (4 p), Starship Design and Construction (14p), Computers (2 pages!), and Space Combat (8 p). The first of this group discusses interstellar and interplanetary travel modes, of which five are described: high passage, middle passage, working passage, low passage and stowaways. Passage is very expensive; a single trip on high or medium passage can wipe out the annual pension of character's experienced enough to actually have one. Low passage is dangerous, with some 17% never reviving. As for stowaways, 92% are discovered per day and 28% of those discovered will find themselves pushed out of an airlock without a vacc-suit! This is aside from the usual problems of piracy, misjumps, drive failures etc. The starship economics chapter is about mortgages, normal running costs, including crew salaries, and revenue generation, along with typical journey times, primarily for interplanetary, as all interstellar journeys take one week due to the jump drives technology. The ship design and construction chapter is pretty meaty, apart from the delightful standard ship descriptions and images, with step-by-step construction, starting from the hull, to include drives, bridge and computers, fuel tankage, accommodations, armament and additional vehicles (like lifeboats etc). Ships are quite expensive - the standard ten-person Free Trader comes in at 37 MCr, whereas a standard crewman received between 12KCr-72KCr per month. The requirement of tons of fuel for Maneuver Drives comes across as a little odd (seeming that Traveller has fusion technology drives), and the computers? Well, they're measured in tons, cost from 2 to 80 MCr, with software costing between 500KMCr to 10MCr per program. Space combat is conducted in terms of 1000 seconds on a playing surface with a model scale of 1mm to 100 km. The two-dimensional vector movement system is nicely presented in its simplicity, although gravity has a fair bit of crunch involved. The fire-return fire-launch missiles turn structure is simple, however there is a strange lack of description for pulse/beam laser differentiation even though the difference was noted in the design section. Lasers, from pure guesswork, do a single point of damage per hit to a random location, whereas missiles do 1D hits. Overall, the starship combat systems is a weird and frustrating combination of elegance and complexity, simplicity and incompleteness.
Following this are the chapters for Worlds (10p), Animal Encounters (8p) and Encounters (5p), and Experience (rather oddly thrown in here, 1p). Worlds are mapped on one parsec per hex two-dimesional (there is no 'up' or 'down' in Traveller space) subsector maps. Worlds refer to a solar system, rather than individual planets, although these are randomly determined with average results indicating a class C starport and scout base on a 8K km planet, with thin atmosphere, 50% water, population in the hundreds of thousands, ruled by a feudal technocracy (more people = more dictatorial systems, apparently), a law level that prohibits concealable weapons (liberty is a function of the right to carry weapons), with a technology level of roughly the time Traveller was published. To say the least, it's pretty wonky, although the technology level tables are a nice birds-eye view of historical development. In comparison, the Animal Encounter tables is surprisingly sensible, describing beasties primarily in terms of their diet and eating habits (e.g., herbivore/grazer) with reactions (flee/attack), size, weapons and armour, terrain etc supplementing. One slightly annoying feature is that there is no modifiers between eating habit and size. NPC encounters on the other hand are differentiated by routine encounters, rumours, legal encounters, patrons and adventures of varying frequency. It is more of a set of random tables than anything else. Experience is derives from education (a four year sabbatical for a non-weapon skill of 2), weapons training, or improvements in either other skills and training; essentially it equates with the character generation terms of service skill acquisition rates.
The next four chapters are Trade and Commerce (2p), Drugs (1p), Equipment (4p), Vehicles (5p) and Psionics (which must be a type of equipment, 7p). Trade goods and quantity are determined randomly, with purchase and resale prices randomly varied from a base price and modified by world trade classification. The best trade deal seems to be purchasing computers from a rich or industralised world and selling them to a non-industrialised world. Several types of generic drugs are provided; those that speed up or slow metabolism (medicinal and combat), combat drugs (increase Strength and Endurance), a generic medical panacea, anagathics, truth drugs and antidotes. The equipment chapter is divided into descriptions of personal equipment, personal devices, senory aids, tools, shelters, communication devices, food and overhead. The vehicles chapter differentiates between aircraft, grav vehicles, wheeled vehicles, tracked vehicles, watercraft and interplanetary vehicles. Each is provided with price, a description and technology level. There are no glaring "game-killers" or even technological howlers in these chapters, which is quite a feat in its own right. The Psionics chapter outlines the five talents (Telepathy, Clairvoyance, Telekinesis, Awareness, Teleportation), and a description of the level-based individual skills. Psionics seem to be prevalent among everyone, albeit something that declines with age - it's more of a matter of finding an Institute to conduct the tests. A character's Psionic strength, after examination is 2D, -1 per four years over 18. With the exception of the incredibly implausible potential prevalence of the ability and the difficulty of finding an examiner, it's very well-presented.
The final set of chapters are more or less a Referees and campaign supplement. Basic Traveller Activities (1p) is a suggestion for getting into the game. The Referee's Guide to Adventuring (4p) provides some sensible advice on narrative development. Into the Subsector (4p) is some patron encounters and adventure synopses of good quality. Shadows (11p) and Exit Visa (6p) are two fully-fledged adventures; the former representing a sci-fi dungeon crawl complete with odd monsters. The latter is an even worse sort of monster; dealing with a byzantine bureaucracy on a totalitarian world whilst trying to get an exit visa. Both adventures are pretty average at best; the sense of exploration is fairly limited in the first one and the sense of amused frustration can only be maintained for so long in the second. Following these is the Traveller's Guide to the Universe (4p), the Regina Subsector (2p, maps and world data), and Library Data (6p). Here the default Traveller setting is presented in all it's sci-fi human-centric feudal-capitalist glory thousands of years in the future. It's less than plausible, but of course very common in low-brow scifi. The book concludes with a page of Pre-Generated Characters, Animal Encounter Tables and a Traveller product summary.
Overall, it is quite easy to see why Traveller became a classic in science fiction roleplaying. The solid presentation is coupled with a pretty good game system. The profession plus skills system has became the standard, although a greater range of professions would have been appreciated. The consistent "roll over" skill system is undoubtably popular and has stood the test of time, although there are some scaling issues. The scope of the game is quite impressive and especially so in the space dedicated. The combat system is a little out-of-order, especially with the time-scale and relative weapon damage, which is pretty damn important in such situations, and similar comments could also be made about the ship combat system. There is of course no small delight in designing one's own spaceship, a sense of wonder which has not been lost over the years and, if it was implemented much better, the same could be said about world generation (frankly, GURPS Space does a much better job in that regard). The various items of equipment - and Psionics - were certainly sufficient in their range and utility, although the prevalence and restriction on the mindpowers was quite implausible. Trade and commerce, surprisingly, received rather short-shrift especially given that it receives special mention in the Introduction. The Referee's advice is excellent, the short adventures were good, the developed adventures not so good and the setting well below average.
There is little doubt that Traveller set the standard by which all other science fiction roleplaying games are judged; most are found somewhat wanting in comparison. For something that was published 25 to 30 years ago, it still remains a workable product today.
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