Tuesday, September 8, 2020

The Perfect RPG Book

In the more than four decades since the publication of original Dungeons & Dragons, there has been no shortage of other roleplaying games. Indeed, the number only increases with each year, owing in no small part to technological advances that make it possible for individuals or small groups of people to produce and distribute new games with relative ease. There are now games for every interest, taste, and budget, some of them so extraordinarily well made, at least from a physical standpoint, that they put to shame the best products of the past. While on one level it's definitely hyperbolic to claim that this is a new Golden Age of roleplaying, in terms of choice, there's a great deal of truth to that claim.

Even so, if I were forced to choose a single roleplaying game book to hold up as perfect, by which I mean complete, self-contained, straightforward, and requiring nothing more (save dice, paper, and pencil), I would not nominate a product of the present day or indeed any game book published this century. I would instead submit a book just shy of forty years old – GDW's The Traveller Book

What makes The Traveller Book so special that I deem it perfect? Its virtues are numerous but, for the sake of this post, I will narrow them down to just one: it's complete in only 160 8.5" × 11" pages. This single hardback book contains literally everything a player or referee could possibly ever need in the course of many campaigns. Character generation, combat, starships, equipment, world creation, alien life forms, psionics, sample adventures – they're all here, along with almost anything else that might require rules. Just as important, they're all well explained and presented. This fact puts it way ahead of most other RPG books, before or since. 

Allow me to elaborate. The Traveller Book consists of the entirety of the revised 1981 rules for Traveller under a single cover. Those rules were substantially similar to the original 1977 rules but incorporating a few alterations and additions deemed necessary for clarity and completeness. One can quibble – and I do – about the relative excellence of '77 versus '81, but the larger point, I would argue, is that this is a proven ruleset that does its job well. Likewise, by the time The Traveller Book was released in 1982, Traveller had had five years of development. By that time, GDW had a solid handle on what was needed to run and play in a Traveller campaign and The Traveller Book reflects that.

The rules sections of this volume take up only 120 pages of its length. The remaining 40 pages consist of sample patron encounters, fully-fleshed out non-player characters, scenario outlines, two complete adventures, a detailed subsector, pregenerated characters, and an overview of the Third Imperium setting.That's a lot of material both to be used as-is and to provide models and guidance on how to run Traveller. Many RPG books have claimed that they teach you how to play and referee roleplaying games, often employing bizarre methods to make their points. The Traveller Book will have none of that, opting instead for teaching by example.

There's one other reason why I recommend The Traveller Book so highly and it's actually a recent aspect of it. The book is now available in a print on demand version that beautifully reproduces the 1982 printing (aside from the dust jacket). Best of all, it's only $20.

Like I said: perfect.

18 comments:

  1. I just wish it had rules for vehicles. Short of this, it's indeed excellent.

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    1. for CT most of the vehicle rules were covered in the Striker boxed set

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    2. I used the animal rules for vehicles. A four ton air-raft was just a 4000 kg flyer. Give it mesh armor, and you're good to go!

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  2. I have been looking for the original CT volumes (in print) for YEARS now. Based on your post, I went ahead and bit the bullet for a print copy of this one. Here's hoping!
    ; )

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  3. I liked it so much, I have three copies (2 hardback, one paperback). The first hardback one was well used.

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  4. I have always loved this rules set although I have some rules criticisms. Almost all my issues were addressed in the First Edition Mongoose Traveller, but it did fall short of this book on the sample sector and adventures.

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  5. TTB has been my favorite RPG book since I got it back in the 80's. Thanks for this "love letter" to that classic book.

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  6. While I agree entirely, I would miss some of the features of Mongoose Traveller 1st ed, a similar book that suffers from a lack of technical editing. And Champions Complete fills the niche of Desert Island RPG for me.

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  7. I had been wondering which Traveler ruleset to get. Thanks. Ordered.

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  8. This book provides everything you need for 400 years of games. Now let's run The Traveller Adventure on Roll20.

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  9. I agree. I haven't played Traveller in years, but I've kept my copy of The Traveller Book as an example of a good RPG book. I've lost the dustcover though, but I don't mind that as I always liked the classic black book look.

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  10. The basic rules, along with a smattering of basic background on the game setting, had everything you needed to play and nothing you didn't. An excellent balance. Add other stuff as desired. Or not.

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  11. Very true, when I was in the Navy at that time this game was one we played, it was perfect as it was very portable and complete.

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  12. Excellent review. I also think Traveller is the perfect system for introducing new people to RPGs - sleek, simple, complete, and a whole lot of fun. Plus, who doesn't have 2d6 laying around in a boardgame box somewhere? Easy entry!

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  13. For science-fiction, I absolutely agree. But, for fantasy, I'd suggest that DragonQuest, originally by SPI before being bought by TSR, would be a close second.

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    1. I assume you're talking about the one-volume paperback version published through Bantam in 1982?

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