The following is a practical guide to the original Traveller product line, intended for use by those who would like to run the original game. For anyone who is wondering why one would rather play the original game from the 70s rather than the latest edition by Mongoose publishing, (which is an excellent game, to be fair) the answer is content. The original edition ran for much longer than the later editions, and so had much more material released for it. While it is possible to update content to new editions, this is a tremendous amount of work, and since there's very little new content in any given newer edition, it is much easier to actually downgrade those bells and whistles to be original-edition compatible instead. The following covers all of the main officially published materials that I can get my hands on and explains their relevance to the game and who/how/when to use them.
Now, this all only matters if you care about using published material. If you're the kind of DM who just strips the system from the game and then makes all their own content and setting whole-cloth, then by all means stick to Mongoose Traveller, it absolutely has the better system. It is important to note though, that most editions of Traveller are actually pretty similar, (except for T20) the major difference being in how well-executed the rule books are. The original edition books are just as much of a mess as the OD&D books, making it an overwhelming and impenetrably complex game for beginners to learn or play, it has a steep learning curb, and an unfriendly user experience. In other words: It's for grognards.
The Books
Understanding Traveller: A marketing pamphlet disguised as an information guide packaged with the original books. Encourages players to buy additional modules and expansions. Neither necessary or useful.B00: Garbage. Its basically just an RPGs101 intro to gaming. It contains absolutely no game information whatsoever. Not necessary, as the rules were cleaned up and improved, as well as being collected and streamlined in a single work, The Traveller Book.
B01: Mandatory. This is the corebook. Not necessary in its own right, as the rules were cleaned up and improved, as well as being collected and streamlined in a single work, The Traveller Book.
B02: Mandatory. Without this, the DM must make up all starship information, and players cannot participate in starship operation or ownership. Not necessary in its own right, as the rules were cleaned up and improved, as well as being collected and streamlined in a single work, The Traveller Book.
B03: Mandatory. Without this, the DM has no material to work with when building campaigns, adventures, or encounters. Not necessary in its own right, as the rules were cleaned up and improved, as well as being collected and streamlined in a single work, The Traveller Book.
Starter Edition: Combines 00 and 01 into a chargen book, and combines 02 and 03 into a play rules book, and delivers the two in a boxed set. Illustrated. Does not include the 04-07 chargen expansion.
The Traveller Book: Combines the starter edition boxed set into a single book. New illustrations. Does not include the 04-07 chargen expansion.
B05: Part of the 04, 05, 06, 07 chargen expansion.
B06: Part of the 04, 05, 06, 07 chargen expansion.
B07: Part of the 04, 05, 06, 07 chargen expansion.
B08: A nice bonus, but totally unnecessary. Allows the creation of robotic personas, but is most useful in creating NPCs. Nice to play with, but totally an extra.
S01: DM utility. Heap of playable pregens.
S02: DM utility. Expansion to B03. Provides encounter charts.
S03: Spinward Marches campaign setting.
S04: Preferred. Chargen expansion for the other category. Should be used in tandem with the 04-07 chargen expansion.
S05: Crap. Its an expansion for a specific adventure that was published as a standalone supplement to try and encourage sales for that adventure.
S06: DM utility. Provides a heap of pregen questgivers.
S07: DM utility. Pregen starships.
S08: Campaign setting expansion for S03.
S09: DM utility. Pregen starships.
S10: Solomani Rim Campaign Setting.
S11: Campaign setting expansion for S03.
S12: Utility. Premade charsheets.
S13: DM utility. Pergen mercenary type characters.
Striker: Miniatures combat rules expansion.
Snapshot: Close quarters grid combat rules expansion.
Beltstrike Belter's Handbook: A rules expansion that came with the Beltstrike adventure module. It contains rule systems for mining in asteroid belts.
AM1-9: All chargen expansions applying alien races to the chargen system.
Book Groupings
B00-03: Corebook. Interchangeable with Starter Set and Traveller Book. Traveller Book is preferred.Striker + Snapshot + Beltstrike: Rules expansion
B04-07 + S04: Career Path Expansion
B08 + AM01-09: Race Expansion
S01, S02, S06, S07, S09, S12, S13: DM Resources
S03, S08, S10, S11 + Spinward Marches Campaign + AM01-09: Campaign Setting and AP kit.
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