Tuesday, June 14, 2011

The Ads of Dragon: The Traveller Book

Issue #69 (January 1983) brings us to an ad for which I have particularly fond memories:
For me, Traveller was the only serious competitor to D&D for my affections and The Traveller Book is one of my favorite iterations of it. This terrific rulebook had all the rules needed to play under a single 160-page hardcover, along with some sample adventures and basic details of the official Third Imperium setting. I can't shake the feeling that The Traveller Book was marketed to AD&D fanatics like myself, who instinctively associated RPGs with hardcover volumes. True or not, I loved this book and still consider it a great way to introduce oneself to Traveller.

16 comments:

  1. This ad got me into Traveller and I bought the Traveller book because of it. I never could get anyone around me to play, but my memories of the book are inordinately fond.
    I lost this book, along with most of all my 1st ed books, in one of the moves back and forth from college, but I recently picked up a new copy.

    Still just as fond of it.

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  2. Whilst, it did introduce the Imperial Campaign via the Library Data, any good Referee would know to take this with a grain of salt...although, I started with the real sandbox game - Starter Traveller which took the game back to the LBBs but added most of that fantastic art of The Traveller Book.

    For hours, I pondered about the Emperor of Earth and/or was Earth a backwater of this thing called an Imperium. Then I started acquiring all the CT canon but I can fondly remember when the universe was mine to make.

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  3. I recently found my old boxed set of the original three, circa whenever. We never got past 'Sector Z' as an adventure zone with them, but loved it. I had Traveler, and that eventually led us to AD&D, which led us to D&D. What can I say?

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  4. They did make the Traveller Adventure (which was awesome!) but not the Traveller Alien or Encyclopedia.

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  5. I always loved the "better hobby shops" line. For a long time, my "better hobby shop" was literally a hobby shop that also sold bicycles.

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  6. @Anthony Emmel: The Traveller Alien was published as a set of "modules", each about a different race. You can buy them collected from FFE now.

    REF: http://www.amazon.com/Aslan-Traveller-Alien-Module-1/dp/B000CIKBOU

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  7. I love the Traveller Book. It was such a wonderful introduction to Traveller; it made a lot more sense to me than the LBBs. Partly, it's a testament to how much art matters, IMO.

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  8. I never came across the Traveller Book until I had already been into traveller for 5 years. I have since acquired 2 copies (1 soft and 1 hardcover) I read it for nostalgia.

    Long live Traveller.

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  9. @By The Sword: There were softcover copies? Wow, I had no idea!

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  10. My (softcover) Traveller Book is right there alongside the Call of Cthulhu 4e and Warhammer FRP as the trinity of single-volume rpg classics. (RQ2 narrowly misses the cut on account of its brevity.)

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  11. Oh, yeah, the softcover (which I owned first) had the pic with the guy with the moustache that's in the ad. The Hardcover (that I only bought a few years ago) was black with a red stripe like the LBBs.

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  12. i haven't read this one, gonna have to track down a copy. also +1 for the ads of dragon, i love this series.

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  13. "The Hardcover (that I only bought a few years ago) was black with a red stripe like the LBBs."

    The hardcovers when new had a paper jacket printed with the image from the ad. Presumably few of the jackets have survived. I know I ditched mine, in favor of the sleek black cover.

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  14. Nice to know. See, these ad retros are good for that reason. Knowledgeable people chime in with their knowledge. :)

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  15. FYI, I sold my copy of TTB a while back, and then acquired another (unfortunately, more worn) copy a few years ago. Both have the dust cover with the art featured in the ad.

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