Wednesday, January 29, 2025

Deluxe Traveller

From issue #52 of Dragon (August 1981):

18 comments:

  1. That is the Traveller set that one of my friends purchased in middle school. Good stuff!

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  2. These adds remind me of how slow (in a nice way) the world once was. I bought my first Traveller boxed set about six months after this add ran and it was the original with books 1-3 only, in the smaller box. Our local retailer had not yet stocked this new deluxe edition, but was still selling versions that were by then almost five years old. The good old days when we used to communicate with the outside world via the local hobby shop (Craft Corner) which was always behind the times.

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  3. Pretty sure this is the set I had. I remember the map, but I don't remember The Imperial Fringe... Was it a good adventure? I think I would have gotten this around 82' or so? Is that possible?

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    1. This was in stores in summer, 1982, and no, "Imperial Fringe" was not a good adventure. It was just a brief introduction to the world of Traveller, either the Solomani Rim or Spinward Marches, with an emphasis on Scout travel if I remember. The scenario itself was very thin gruel as I remember it, with no real adventure attached, just a concept of how a campaign might take place.

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    2. Your exactly right Bill. The starter set did a much better job of presenting a more fleshed out adventure.

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    3. Bill, are you related to a Brett Slocum?

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  4. Yup, this one was mine as well. Made a billion characters. Played none of them. Some day that should be remedied.

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  5. Birthday gift from a clueless relative. I already had Books 1-3, but the big map was nice and having spares didn't actually hurt any. My LBB Traveller stuff saw a lot of hard usage over the years and weren't as innately durable as the AD&D hardcovers.

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  6. About that time we bought the "non-Delux" boxed set, with just Books 1-2-3. But I remember it being the 81 rules (not the 77 rules).

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  7. Deluxe Traveller had two different box sizes. The set I toted around with me in 10th grade (circa 1983) was a 2" deep box. Another (later?) version was shallower 1" box.

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  8. My first Traveller product was a copy of Deluxe Traveller.
    I'd asked for a copy of Traveller for Christmas. I'd no idea this product even existed at the time. So when I went to open my presents Christmas morning I was sad not to see an LBB sized box under the tree.
    When I opened what I assumed to be a box containing clothes of some kind (wrapped it struck me as the size of gift box department stores gave away upon request back in the day...) I was blown away by seeing the Traveller logo & trade dress etc.
    Even more so when I opened the box up and saw that beautiful Spinward Marches map in glorious color!

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  9. I just got a copy on the secondary market. I am a collector so I have every classic Traveller box set with the exception of the '81 edition. Traveller Deluxe is my favorite. The map of the Spinward Marches is gorgeous. What a beautiful piece of work.

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  10. I hope a more in depth review of DT is forthcoming. I'd like to hear more about Book 0, the map, and it's intro adventure. How did this set add to the game thus far? If the adventure was as poor as others have shared/suggested, what was it's purpose in this set? Further, and more generally, how is DT that different from other CT products released up to this point in the Traveller timeline?I

    Please and thank you.

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    1. Apparently there may be differences in the rule set included in Deluxe Traveller. The first version from what I can tell should be '81 rules with the extra books. The later version apparently switched to Starter Traveller with a booklet of extra rules to fill out the missing stuff (this extra rules book does not appear to be on the Classic Traveller CD-ROM).

      The purpose of the set may have mostly been to get a different form factor on the shelf, and to justify the bigger box, tossed in a map, and a couple extra booklets. The intention of adding an adventure is good if wrongly executed in this case.

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    2. Having some difficulty following you, Frank. Where, are you suggesting this extra book came from, DT or the starter set?

      If I'm following correctly, DT came with books 1-3, book 0, and an intro adventure. Are you suggesting new/different rules were introduced in book 0 or the intro adventure? Or are you suggesting books 1-3 where updated/modified somehow (besides from 77' rules, of course)?

      The starter set also had 3 books: the rules, the tables, and an intro adventure. Are you calling book 2 ( charts and tables) the extra material? I thought book 2 was just a compilation of all charts and tables from the core rules (very thoughtful, I might add).

      Is both DT and the starter set based on the updated 81' rules? If so, aren't their core rules identical? Did the different depictions of the 81' rules differ vastly from one another (DT vs Starter vs TTB)?

      And where is this extra book to which you refer, please? I'm very confused...being new to classic traveller and all.

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    3. Waynes Books has more details http://www.waynesbooks.com/traveller.html#ct

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    4. Yea, should have pulled that first... Wayne's site is great for descriptions of many games. My response was based on RPGGeek which shares the similar details:

      https://rpggeek.com/rpgitem/52814/traveller-deluxe-edition

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