vintagerpg:This is the Starter Edition of Traveller (1983). It is the same basic rules as the black
vintagerpg:This is the Starter Edition of Traveller (1983). It is the same basic rules as the black box, but repackaged in a larger format with lots of art. You can only do without illustrations in RPGs for so long! In addition to the rules, there’s also a couple of introductory scenarios, which is nice.I didn’t have space yesterday, but I gotta say, the mechanics are extremely simple for the time. There is complexity, no doubt – space travel calculations require figuring out square roots and seeing that check mark symbol in an RPG rulebook evokes flashbacks to traumatic summer school sessions of algebra. But the core is an easy roll-to-beat system – roll two six-sided dice, add or subtract the appropriate modifiers and hope the result beats an eight. This feels featherlight and straightforward compared to Dungeons & Dragons.Helping all of this along is the fact that Traveller was the first RPG that lines up with the popular conception of science fiction as laid out in Star Trek, 2001: A Space Odyssey and the just-released blockbuster Star Wars: there are spaceships to fly, planets to explore and adventures to experience, with plenty of mechanical tools to facilitate their creation. That’s a lot easier to get a handle on than a nightmarish mutant-filled spaceship flying to its doom. Fueled in part by Star Wars mania, Traveller captured those sci-fi vibes so well that it dominated the genre for about a decade until it was dethroned, ironically, by West End Games’ Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game.Traveller still stands as the most important traditional sci-fi game, thanks to both its scope and the crisp simplicity of its systems. Any game since that involves exploring the stars or interacting with complex technology – Stars Without Number, Coriolis, MechWarrior, Rifts and more – builds on the foundation established by Traveller. -- source link