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Traveller RPG Core Rulebook | 
 enlarge | Author: Gareth Hanrahan
Publisher: Mongoose Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $39.95
Buy New: $20.61
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Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 71741
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 192
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 11.1 x 8.5 x 0.7
ISBN: 190610333X
Dewey Decimal Number: 793
EAN: 9781906103330
ASIN: 190610333X
Publication Date: June 4, 2008
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Traveller is back, and it is better than ever! Based on the Classic Traveller rules set, this book has been streamlined for modern roleplaying, and yet still retains that unmistakable Traveller aura. With complete rules for character and world creation, spaceships, encounters and trading, it is your gateway into new universes. The Traveller Main Rulebook is the cornerstone of all your Traveller games, to be expanded upon with core supplements such as Mercenary and High Guard, or used with different settings like Starship Troopers, Judge Dredd and, of course, the Original Traveller Universe. Written by Gareth Hanrahan, the Traveller Main Rulebook contains many things fans of the classic game will find familiar, but always with a new twist Traveller has come back. Discover what is out there.
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| Customer Reviews:
 It's ok... December 11, 2008
Michael C. Anderson (Merryville, LA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
OK, I haven't been playing Traveller for decades like these other geeks, but I don't see where they are coming from. This book isn't that good. It isn't very well written and could have been so much better. I started playing this version of Traveller and have since read other versions. I am looking forward to checking out even more of the older versions. I doubt any of the other ones can be as poorly done as this one is. This basically falls into the category of better than nothing. It's a fun game, but this version doesn't make it so. The book is thin. Not just in pages for the money, but also in information.
 The Classic Returns... October 21, 2008
Thomas A. Damrath (Woodstock, NY)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Sure, I started out on D&D like everyone else, but the Original Traveller (note capitalization) was my first true love. The day that little black box appeared in my life (supplied by my mom, who is an even bigger SF devotee than me) was a life changing moment. Yeah, my D&D players refused to convert (half their players died in character generation, the other half fell to The Charmax Plague) and went on strike until I relented to DMing D&D again. What do you do if your friends hate your girlfriend? Get new friends!
Which I did not do, by the way. But I have carried that little black box from move to move, it's corners getting fuzzy with love...
Much credit is due to Mongoose Publications for doing such an excellent job of taking us back to those halcyon days of free traders and d6 fun. My only complaint (and it's small but pertinent) is the change on the character sheet from hexidecimal values... it made things simpler, not harder, when your basic traits were a simple line of six figures. (It looks way cooler, too.) Still, the decision to maintain the appeal of the iconic black cover with the red stripe makes this old gamer feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Buy it. Buy it. Buy it.
 A grognard's view September 14, 2008
Douglas Berry (San Jose, CA USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I began playing Traveller way back in 1977, and have played, run, and written for various editions of the game ever since. I'll admit that I ordered the book with some reservations, as I saw it as a step backwards.
Happily, I was wrong. Mongoose Traveller is an excellent repackaging of the feel of the Traveller early days with updated rule concepts that bring everything into the 21st century. Character generation is smooth, the dice mechanics are simple to remember and use, and the rules in general are easily grasped.
My only complaints are with the artwork. Traveller has a feel, one developed over the last 31 years, and the artwork in this book had more of a WH40K look to it. Also, the equipment selection was very limited.
This is a good buy for fans of Traveller from the old days, or anyone looking for a simple SF-RPG.
Nice! July 25, 2008
A. D. Pierre
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
A worthy upgrade for fans of classic 2d6 Traveller, although the book tends to be much more focused on rules and random generation than on providing information about the Traveller universe, especially compared to previous Traveller releases. This lack of setting shouldn't be a problem to those who are already familiar with the Traveller Imperium, and the openness invites those who are unfamiliar to create their own futuristic setting in the vein of Starship Troopers, Judge Dredd, Firefly, or Star Trek (the rules even include notes on alternate rules for different universe settings, including different types of FTL travel and variations on world generation). And though it may be lacking in the area of story material, the book includes all sorts of supplementary material that other, more financially focused publishers might withhold for further publication. The book contains everything you could possibly need to run your own campaign, from world creation and interstellar trade, to aliens and thorough random encounter tables (it really is possible to play a campaign with no premade material, and just randomly create settings and encounters). That said, Mongoose is releasing plenty of supplementary material in further books, which ought to provide the details about the Traveller setting that the core rule book lacks, as well as expanding player options (such as more detailed rules for playing aliens, as well as alternative career paths) and Referee tools (760 Patrons, for example).
As exemplified by its cover, and true to Traveller tradition, the book isn't flashy. It has simple, retro, grayscale illustrations, in addition to straightforward deckplans and an example sector map (I actually prefer the illustrative simplicity, although I've heard others complain). The focus is really on the rules, on their clarity and playability. A comprehensive index to the book gives it an on-the-fly advantage over "Thousand Suns" and "Serenity" (or at least over the version of "Serenity" that I have).
The randomness of character creation in Traveller has always been both a blessing and a curse. Players want to be able to create and play compelling characters, and the Traveller rules aren't always so friendly; a player may find his bright-eyed naval pilot wannabe, after failing to pass the Navy's entrance exams, quickly degrades to an aged drifter plagued with multiple enemies and a limited skill set. The new rules seem to be tackling the sense of uncontrollability in character generation, and the changes to the generation process are very compelling. Each term spent in a career will yield--in addition to somewhat random skills or characteristic improvements--events which are interesting but loosely defined, allowing the player to fashion the background and "feel" of the character, even if he or she can't control the nature of the events. Furthermore, a Connections Rule has been added which encourages (through the reward of precious skill points) PCs to know each other through the events in their backstories. And for added insurance, each character in a Traveller campaign gets to select a number of skills from a skill set related to the campaign's general theme, thus ensuring that a pilot or medic will be available despite a lack of such skills in their backstories, or, at worst, some redundancy of skills among the characters. The rules also accomodate a couple point based character generation systems, but they're not as fun.
The book's list price is somewhat expensive, but I was able to get it for about $25 after taking discounts and memberships into account at my local bookstore.
True to the classic, but much improved. July 16, 2008
Traveller Fan (Australia)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
The flavour has returned to 'classic traveller'. Mongoose rules seem to take all the good stuff from the latest generation of games (d20, White Wolf etc) and elegantly blend them into the original traveller setting. The basic task system uses 2D6 and you make checks against a target number and add your skill and ability bonuses, so players from d20 and d6 etc will have no problem getting into this system. The skills system has been updated to include 'modern' concepts such as opposed checks, degrees of success, timeframes, chained/sequenced and teamwork checks.
Character creation allows for a broader range of backgrounds than CT and optional rules are also given for point based creation, instead of traveller career based creation. At first parse, all the original elements of the game are included in this book - including much material (eg. deckplans) that used to be in supplementary material.
The text is well layed out and the black and white artwork is first class. I can remember when GURPS traveller came out, I was generally pretty disappointed because it was basically just a conversion tool to bring your Traveller campaign over to GURPS Space rules, and the artwork let it down. However I still have the GURPS stuff because the library data (background fluff) by Loren K. Wiseman was excellent. Mongoose have left the Imperial fluff stuff to a minimum much like the original traveller book. To address this they have released a separate book for the Spinward Marches sector (the default traveller setting).
If you liked the classic hardcover Traveller Book, then you'll LOVE this because it is magnitudes better. As a generic SF rpg, I think its much better than GURPS Space, as well. It certainly got me thinking about starting up a 'hard-SF' campaign.
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