Traveller:Ethos

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The Traveller:Ethos was perhaps best stated back in 1980 by Loren Wiseman in JTAS No. 6:

I would like to take some space here to deal with a question we are often asked… How much can I, as a referee, modify the rules, and how closely must I stick to the published Traveller Imperium?
First of all… [the OTU] is to help the referee… Referees who do not wish to use our materials or who wish to use only parts of it are free to do so, adapting anything to fit as is necessary…. Referees are free to make any changes to the rules they may with, but with a few caveats:

First: Bear in mind that the rules are interlinked to a great degree….

Second: Be careful not to destroy the balance of play….

Third: Do not modify the basic tenet of Traveller—that the speed of communication is limited to the speed of travel….

A second useful quote, specifically regarding setting primacy, was written by Don McKinney:

…the moral is, don't throw rocks at other Traveller settings. We're all in the same tent, even if we imagine we're not.

Description[edit]

Wiki Mission Statement[edit]

Part of the mission of the Traveller RPG Wiki is:

To navigate Traveller's definitions.
To clearly differentiate canonical, ATU, and non-canonical material.
To build out Library Data articles, and aggregate over 40 years and nearly 2,000 publications’ worth of materials with the highest level of quality possible.

Wiki Copyright Policy Goals[edit]

GET PERMISSION: The goal of the Traveller RPG Wiki is to never outright or wholesale copy from any published Traveller materials but to use illustrative and clever images, excerpts, and quotes from published Traveller canon, with permission, to build a system reference here at the wiki as well as a setting reference for the Official Traveller Universe. So, go out and buy the original publications from Far Future Enterprises, Mongoose Publishing, or an officially licensed Traveller publisher.

There is no rigid standard for quantity, which might range from a few paragraphs to a few pages. The most crucial factor is to have the permission of the author/publisher/owner and to keep good communication. Do NOT proceed if you do NOT have consent. Ask. Ask again. When in doubt, hold out and do NOT proceed.

Wiki Setting Goals[edit]

STORY OVER GAME MECHANICS: The goals of the Traveller RPG Wiki is:

promote Traveller and help people learn the game,
to support gameplay,
to tell a story,
link together a multi-decade tradition of Traveller gaming,
be an electronic aide to referees,
organize research for Marc Miller and FFE,
organize research for writers & publishers,
to avoid game mechanics specific to any one edition or version of Traveller,
not dictate rules, or tell any referee how to play their game.

It's there to support, assist, and inspire the community, help the publisher understand the boundaries of the OTU, and provide guidelines for what has come before.

If game mechanic material is included on an article page, please place it on a Metadata subpage. There is a subjective line between what is setting game story content and game mechanics. The general principle is to leave game statistics in the sourcebooks.

Library Data Referral Tree[edit]

Please refer to the following AAB Library Data for more information:
Wiki Mechanics: Wiki Mechanics:

Sources[edit]

This article has metadata.

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Mongoose Publishing or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

Traveller Wiki Editorial Team
Author & Contributor: Robert Eaglestone