It’s Back! Traveller 5th Edition on Kickstarter

Jun 18, 2012

Traveller, the original space RPG has resurfaced again. This time it is getting the Kickstarter treatment where the man who designed the game way back in 1977, Marc Miller, is promising to provide a fully revised comprehensive version of the game. Additionally, as the game is funded (and it has already reached $148,000), Marc wants his backers to give additional direction and input in order to provide everything that players of Traveller have wished for over the years. It has been many years since I have played Traveller, it would be nice to see the version that the players have always wanted.

There is currently twelve days left to support the project and choose your rewards. If interested, the time to check it out is now.

Marc Miller’s Far Future Enterprises is raising funds for the legendary Fifth Edition of Traveller on Kickstarter! Traveller was born July 22, 1977 as a now-iconic Little Black Box with three Little Black Books. No one knew it was coming when the first copies showed up at the Origins Game Convention in Staten Island. In fact, D&D was itself just getting off the ground; there were no [significant] science-fiction role-playing games to speak of. And Traveller (it’s now called Classic Traveller to distinguish it from the various editions that followed) had its own quirks: for example, your character could die during character generation, for example.

This is Traveller’s 35th year, and Marc has worked for several years on what he calls the Ultimate Edition: Traveller5. It includes so many things that players have asked for, or that have been imperfectly handled previously. In fact, Marc recently said there are now systems and chapters that he didn’t know how to design way back then. But he does now, and they are included. T5 has technology beyond TL 15, clones, robots, computers, artificial intelligence, QREBS (!), alien senses, Flux. It has a whole series of easy-to-use Makers: GunMaker, VehicleMaker, ArmorMaker, RobotMaker, SophontMaker, ThingMaker. It includes mapping of star systems and worlds; there’s ever the MOARN caveat: Map Only As Really Necessary, or referees would spend all their time just making maps of worlds and systems. There’s a rationalized section on Psionics, and more, much more.

Kickstarter helps us reach a lot of people… including many of the Traveller players from over the past 35 years that have lost touch. Plus, their system lets us create an efficient pre-order system (much better than the notebook I would be using otherwise). Plus, Kickstarter is interactive: we have all these accessories we have dreamed up over the years (the Cr100 coin, Traveller dice, Patents of Nobility and Land Grants) that the system lets us include as Swag, or Bonuses, or Options.

Finally, Kickstarter’s stretch goals let us refine and improve the features we want (and you want) in the game. As we progress, we want your feedback on how to enhance the Core Rules content and features… more color, more content, or more?

Our actual funding goal was low – only $24,000 (met in just over 24 hours!)! That will assure we go to press. IF we exceed that, things get even better.

We have a series of support levels that fully engage players and characters in the system: nobility and land grants; characters or personal ships in examples in the text, even illustrations.