GURPS Traveller

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GURPS Traveller was a popular and professionally produced Traveller edition.

Description (Specifications)

How GURPS makes Traveller different: There are several differences to playing GT as opposed to the original Classic Traveller. However, note that Loren Wiseman and Jon Zeigler kept the information, equipment, characters, style, and atmosphere of GT close to the original Classic Traveller universe.

  • The point based system can help tune the characters in a group to be equal in overall experience.
  • The degree of control over character design means you can get exactly the player you want, without surprises. In original Traveller, a character could turn out quite different than expected (including dead). The original system could be a blessing and a curse.
  • GURPS rules used character advantages and disadvantages to fine-tune character details. A character could have above average hearing, motion sickness, color-blindness, or exceptional tolerance to variable gravity.
  • Characters could "level up".
  • Many books have such rich detail, with good images, useful deckplans, and meaningful setting details, that they are considered "golden canon" -- a high standard worth owning and referencing regardless of which Traveller ruleset you play.

Books and Canon Status

'Canonical' refers to Traveller material that is consistent with Traveller and the OTU. Canonical books transcend the source rules system, and are generally useful across all of Traveller.

Loren Wiseman had a deep foundational knowledge of Traveller, of course, and many of the GURPS:Traveller authors had a strong commitment to existing data about the OTU. As a result, many GURPS: Traveller books are generally or commonly considered 'canonical'.

Canon and the alternate timeline. The Lorenverse, also called the LTU, is an alternate timeline explained by the workings of Reality Manipulation. As such, LTU material can be considered canonical, even when its facts do not line up with the OTU.

Specific Issues.

  • The aliens added in the Alien books are a Canon concern as some of them are poor fits, repetitive, or straight up Setting Breakers.
  • Far Trader has its own presuppositions separate from Traveller. GT:FT presumes a high trade, low local reliance, model that is counter to MT Hard Times and to T4, and also CT's TTA. TTA shows a much lower number of freighters than should be in port by GT rules - by TWO orders of magnitude. Similarly, other portraits of starport traffic are one to two orders of magnitude lower than GTFT. GTFT - page 14 - uses the methodology (and I suspect, converted credits by TL) from Striker. Which Marc has said not to use for the OTU.
  • Behind the Claw, Starmercs and Ground Forces conflict with CT canon and MT canon. The entirety of GT:Behind the Claw was declared non-canon. BTC wasn't checked against extant canon - it redefines a lot of worlds features. GTGF erroneously states that regiments exist only on paper, and uses the british approach of Battalions directly in Brigades.... which is counter to SMC, 5FW, CT Bk4, MT IE, MT RC, MT RSB, and a handful of T4 sources.
  • Nobles pretty much simply needs to be scrapped. It's counter to several T4 sources, doesn't jive with CT/MT nobles articles, doesn't match the later T5 system (which may be Galaxiad, not 3I), introduces new levels of government counter to the CT & MT articles on government... Cluster Counts, for example - CT says flat out that in the imperium, there is no category between individual world governments and subsector governments. Further still, Canon says the Subsector Duke rules a Subsector, not a "duchy"; this is a niggle, but the term Duchy has connotations of control that a Subsector canonically explicitly does not have.
Publications
Title Year Author Canon Status
GURPS Traveller (core book) 1998 Loren Wiseman et al 2
Behind the Claw 1998 Martin Dougherty and Neil Frier 0
Alien Races 1 1998 David L. Pulver 1
Far Trader 1999 Chris Thrash, Jim MacLean, Steve Daniels 1
First In 1999 Jon F. Zeigler 1
Star Mercs 1999 Martin Dougherty and Neil Frier 0
Alien Races 2 1999 Andy Slack, David Thomas, David L. Pulver 1
Modular Cutter 2000 Andy Akins and Loren Wiseman 2
Ground Forces 2000 Douglas E. Berry 1
Rim of Fire: The Solomani Rim Sourcebook 2000 Jon F. Zeigler 2
Starports: Gateways to Adventure 2000 Jon M. Ford with James D. Maliszewski 1
Alien Races 3 2000 David Pulver, David Nilsen, Andy Slack, David Thomas 1
Alien Races 4 2001 Compiled by Steve Jackson and Loren Wiseman 2
Planetary Survey 1: Kamsii 2001 Steve Jackson and Loren Wiseman 3
Planetary Survey 2: Denuli 2001 Loren Wiseman and Shawn Havranek 3
Planetary Survey 3: Granicus 2001 Salvatore T. Falco 1
Planetary Survey 4: Glisten 2001 James Maliszewski 2
Planetary Survey 5: Tobibak 2001 Loren Wiseman and Scott Haring 2
Planetary Survey 6: Darkmoon 2001 David L. Pulver 1
Heroes I: Bounty Hunters 2002 Brian J. Underhill et al 1
Humaniti 2003 Compiled by Loren Wiseman and Jon F. Zeigler 2
Starships 2003 Thomas L. Bont, Robert Prior, Chris Thrash 1
Nobles 2004 Loren Wiseman and Jon F. Zeigler et al 0
Sword Worlds 2004 Paul Drye, Hans Rancke-Madsen, Robert Prior 3
Psionics Institutes 2005 Amanda Dickerson 1
Interstellar Wars 2006 Paul Drye, Loren Wiseman, Jon F. Zeigler et al 3

Canon Status key: 0 = no. 1 = provisionally. 2 = yes. 3 = "golden". - = unknown.

‎Popular Artists

External Links

EXTERNAL LINKS:

PLEASE ALSO SEE:

History & Background (Dossier)

GURPS Traveller (1998-2015) was "Created on a handshake with Steve Jackson of Steve Jackson Games." This quote from Marc Miller, the original author of Traveller, and the owner of the company which still publishes the Classic Traveller game system, Far Future Enterprises. The game uses the GURPS (Third Edition) system and takes place in an alternate timeline in which no Rebellion occurred and the Virus was never released. Steve Jackson Games has produced over 30 high-quality supplements for the line, including details for all of the major races, many of the minor races, interstellar trade, expanded world generation, the military forces of the Third Imperium, and starships. The game is often referred to as "GT". Loren Wiseman who worked with Game Designers' Workshop in the design and development of Traveller is still the GURPS Traveller line manager and editor of the online magazine Journal of the Travellers Aid Society.

Meta-history & Background

Newest Edition: While GURPS was updated to a streamlined version with the August 2004 release of its Fourth Edition, GURPS Traveller players have had to remain content with GURPS Third Edition.

This is about to change as Steve Jackson Games has released (February 2006) GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars. This newest book not only allows GT players to upgrade to the latest Fourth Edition GURPS ruleset, but it also changes the default setting.

Currently GT is set in the Third Imperium around the year 1120 (since the founding of the Imperium). GT: Interstellar Wars will be set almost 2500 years prior to the founding of the Third Imperium, around the year 2170 A.D. The men from Earth finally invent a Faster-than-light drive for their space ships. They soon make first contact with extra-terrestrial aliens (The Vilani), and those aliens are human. The Interstellar Wars presents a more fluid and dynamic campaign setting than the static background of the Third Imperium.

Bibliography-Ludography (Published Products)

This edition is best known for the following products:

36 publications for GURPS Traveller


References & Contributions (Sources)

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