Traveller, the Game
Wow, this brings back memories…
On an e-mail list I’m part of, someone brought up the game Traveller. This was one of the first non-TSR role-playing games I ever played. In fact, I think I still have the rules I used somewhere in the house. And that book I recently read called The World Without Us has really had me thinking about the future and science-fiction and related topics, so the off-hand mention really caught my attention more than it would have normally. Anyway, the mention of the game brought back a rush of memories and led me to do a bit of searchng.
There were several editions printed after the one I used. And, you can still get them all from Far Future Enterprises. There is also an active, fan-run website filled with information called TravellerRPG.com. And, Steve Jackson Games, who makes their own version of Traveller, has the Journal of the Traveller’s Aid Society. (The Traveller’s Aid Society was something in the game you could belong to that would help your characters out if they got in a financial jam in almost any star system in the civilized universe, but that help often led to other, more problematic, adventures.) Oh, and there’s another site that’s setup like a ship’s encyclopedic database, for more adventure support and fun.
Anyway, what with Gary Gygax passing away earlier this week and all, the fact that there are still guys out there playing this game I played back in High School just really made me smile. Of course, it’s probably the same guys…