I was EXTREMLY displeased to hear that they went out of business. End of an era, as us old folk are wont to say.
Imagine my surprise when the death of GDW resulted in the rebirth of the venerable Traveller. Better, faster, stronger, etc...
Imperium Games did a competent job with their reprint and rerelease. Admittedly, the stuff was overpriced, but solid. If that had been the extent of Traveller's renaisance, then I would have been satisfied.
Fortunately for us Traveller Grognards, Steve Jackson must be the biggest Traveller fan on the planet. He has licensed Traveller from Marc Miller, and Loren Wiseman has given us GURPS Traveller.
It rocks. I have every version of Traveller, and I tell you- this is the game it should have been.
The book has an in-depth ship's encyclopedia, that takes up about a third of the text. For those of you who never played the original game, the encyclopedia was kind of like the player handouts in AD&D, all the information you "needed". Man, is it thorough. Some of the entries deserve to be called articles, they are so long. The entire history of the Third Imperium is covered, up to the modern day. In GURPS Traveller, Emperor Strephon is never assasinated, and so the Beloved Empire remains unchanged from my childhood.
There is a section on Character Generation. Surprisingly, there are few new advantages/skills etc. The book uses a nice template system that should speed generation substantially.
The section on technology gives clear definitions to the tech of the day, allowing you to integrate devices and weapons from other GURPS books without unbalancing the setting.
The section on Starships & Starship Combat are brilliant. Finally, a cut down version of GURPS Vehicles that the math-impaired can make sense out of.
The combat rules are tactical, but look very streamlined and easy. I can't wait to try it.
My favorite bits of the book, however, are the sidebars when Loren explains how certain decisions about Traveller were made, whose idea this or that was. I found these very entertaining, and enlightening.
In summation: buy it. Play it. Keep Traveller Alive!
Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)
