D20 Traveller Bundle

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 21, 2017

Okay, this is kinda cool. I liked the D20 version of Traveller (called Traveller20 or T20), though we only played once. I’ve been a fan of several versions of the game. The “Bundle of Trouble” has a bunch of PDFs of the T20 game available now for pretty cheap… cheaper than the original hardback core rules cost me several years ago.

Traveller20 Bundle Offer

For those unaware, Traveller is one of the earliest and most successful space opera science fiction RPGs. Now, it’s rooted in the science fiction scene as it existed in the late 1970s, which isn’t a bad thing… but it’s way more inspired by literature like H. Beam Piper’s Space Viking , E.C. Tubbs’ Dumerest Saga, and Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series than by Star Trek or Star Wars. Although as one person noted to me back in the 1990s, even by those standards some of the rules for starship construction were pretty dated. Like the tremendous amount of space that had to be devoted to control panels. I’d haven’t checked to see if that’s been modernized in this (relatively) newer version (nor am I familiar with the even newer Mongoose rules).

The biggest advantage and limitation of this version is, of course, the adaptation of the D20 rules system. Their version is a pretty substantial modification of the open gaming standard, so it’s not quite a slam-dunk as far as being familiar to players of other D20-based games. The adaptation helps retain the Traveller feel to things, and it allows pretty decent character progression… something that was kind of missing from the earliest version of the Traveller rules. I personally think its better balanced than the original D6-based system, but I can’t remember how it would compare with Megatraveller. But it comes with some of D20s baggage. It’s been a long time, but I don’t remember it feeling too shoehorned in, so at least the rules were modular enough to allow the character system to change with little impact overall.

Also available – for a few more days – is a Space: 1889 bundle. Sort of a proto-Steampunk / early pulp SF RPG with strong roots in Jules Verne, Edgar Rice Burroughs, etc.  I was curious about it, but I have never played it. This is revised edition using a different rules system as a basis. I snagged it (because!) but I can’t comment on it.

Space: 1889 Bundle Offer

More fun stuff for your dice & paper enjoyment. All I need now is… TIME!

Filed Under: Deals, Dice & Paper - Comments: 2 Comments to Read



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