[TML] What is Traveller?

[Azalais Aranxta]

On Thu, 29 Nov 2007, Jerry W Barrington wrote:

> Well, as multiple people have answered, what Traveller is
> depends on who you ask.  Many of the answers are mutually
> incompatible.
>
> Perhaps a better question, in light of these differences, is
> why Traveller has remained so popular for 30 years?  What are
> the important things to capture in an SF RPG to make it
> popular, whether Traveller or not?  Are there lots of
> contradictory answers, depending who you ask, or can it be
> boiled down to some sort of Truth?

I think, possibly, that a lot of it is because CT was the first
SF-based RPG many people ever encountered, if not the first,
period.  I have always preferred SF over fantasy as reading
material, although my favourite is space opera, which tends to
mix them; this was even more true when I was a teenager than it
is today, because the urban fantasy genre and steampunk, the
flavours of fantasy that I like, did not exist.

D&D didn't really do it for me, and part of that was the people I
played with, but I was hooked on Traveller from the chargen
process onward and I still remember every detail about Julissa,
my first character.  (I couldn't tell you the *name* of my first
D&D character.)

I did start out in the Third Imperium setting and I loved it.  It
reminded me of Star Wars and my favourite James Schmitz novels (I
wanted to grow up to be Telzey--I was 15 the first time I
played) and the Foundation trilogy (which was still a trilogy
then, and um, I also wanted to be Arkady Darell).  It was my
first successful experience with RPG gaming.  I played with guys
in their 20s and 30s, made cookies for everyone, and instead of
reading about a fantastic future world, I got to participate in
it.  This experience really did shape my thinking and my future
in all sorts of ways.

At the time I liked the chargen.  I think having to figure out
why my character (who had such a high social status) was in the
Scouts gave me a better hook on who she was.  Later I played a
Vargr, and a playboy pilot, and a female naval officer...and I
could still tell you all their stories.

The brand "Traveller" evokes in me a feeling.  I haven't had the
opportunity to actually play a game in a good long while, but I
like hearing about it and looking at new products because it
brings that feeling back to me.  :)

~malfoy :)

****************************************************************
Azalais Aranxta (~malfoy)
ataniell93 on LiveJournal and Vox
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/malfoymadness

"I know the true world, and you know I do. But we needn't let it
think we all bow down." --Christopher Fry