2 comments about GURPS Traveller: Nobles.

1. This supplement for GURPS Traveller covers the Imperial nobility, and the background for an interstellar fuedalistic govenment system. The book explains the historic basis for fuedalism, various systems of nobility that have existed in the Traveller timeline, and the current state of the Imperial system. The book is well written, adequately illustrated (SJG standard), and is a good overall description of what most players and GM's will need to incorporate nobles into their campaign worlds.
   
   Tantalisingly, some specific details of administration at the subsector level (some contraditcting previous Traveller material), missing bio's on the Empress Iolanthe and others, and more description of the Rule Of Man and Cleon's Campaign are not present. These are my only beefs with an otherwise good supplement.



2. The Imperium is composed of 11,000 worlds. Give or take client states, disputed borders and spheres of influence. There is no "subspace communication" and a message can only travel at the speed of the fastest ship.
   The Imperium is kept together by an "intersteller culture". The center of that culture is the nobility, a caste of great princes that exist to be the Imperium's nerves. The Emperor must know that the policy enacted at the farthest reaches of his domain will be roughly what he desires and that it wil be carried out competently. There is no time to give orders, it must be known that the man on the spot will do so.
   This is the theoretical justification for the Imperial Nobility. And it more or less works out that way. More or less. The Imperium is neither a good empire nor an evil empire. It is a reasonably efficient state that manages to work reliatively well-and the GM can make it suit his game. The Imperium is so large that whatever the GM wants will be somewhere.
   This book covers the life of the Imperial Nobility. How they play, how they work, how they compete for power. It shows the different classifications of the Nobles and the varying dynasties.
   But perhaps just as important it gives information about the Imperium as a state and how it is organized. It gives things I did not understand before and helped me to comprehend the system.
   Nobles is a good book and worthy of a Traveller fan's time.

No comments about GURPS Traveller: Planetary Survey 4 - Glisten - Jewel Of The Marches.

No comments about TRAVELLER Referees Screen.

No comments about GURPS Traveller: Heroes 1 - Bounty Hunters.

No comments about GURPS Traveller: Humaniti.

1 comments about GURPS Traveller: Sword Worlds.

1. The military writer William Dupay credited the German General Staff with what he called, "institutionalized genius"-with being able to institute a way of reliably producing command of an effectiveness that once was only viable for a legendary conqueror.
   What the German General Staff did for art, Traveler did for storytelling. It was able to create a world as complex sophisticated and detailed as only the greatest writers of speculative fiction could before. It did this by the same method, by the mundane method of using a team of writers to create it's world.
   Traveler is an RPG. RPG's are essentially a folk-art. In a way they are a revival of the traditional storytellers art in a new form. Or another way to describe it is as a play in which the actors choose their own actions and the director or "Gamemaster" must oversee and direct the plot knowing his actors have free will. Many, perhaps most of what I have given is fammiliar to my readers. But Traveller is different. It is a work of genius, a splendid science-fiction world of multifaceted complexity set in the far future. Games can involve political intrigue, exploration, trading and whatever ones heart desires. It is not a utopia, nor a dystopia like many Sci-fi's but a world that is believable. It is a world that is different yet similar to ours. But at the same time, "Vive La difference."
   Sword Worlds is my favorite of the Gurps Traveller series. It describes a cluster of nations and cultures in a group of planets sandwiched between the mighty Zhodani Consulate and the Vast Third Imperium. The Sword Worlders are clannish and traditionalist peoples who emphasize their Germanic and Scandinavian heritage. They are not pictured as perfect and they are forever quarreling with their neighbors and one another. Yet they are survivors and they have a "character" of their own, a contrarian way of thinking and a grim determination to be who they are.
   The Sword Worlds sourcebook is a boon for any who wish to play a campaign set among Swordworlders. And it is a blessing for those like me that do not play but read the book for itself. It gives the political relations between Swordworlder states, substates and alliances, the history of the Sworldworlds and the various and sundry customs of the Sworldworlder people. It gives splendid characters. And it gives a number of preset campaigns that are some of the best in the series. The best campaign of all is the epic "100 parsecs" campaign which could easily be made into a movie.
   Perhaps the best thing I can say about Sword Worlds is that it was not long enough. It is an attractive book and well worth the while of any Traveller fan new or old.

No comments about GURPS Traveller Modular Cutter: Workhorse of the Imperium.

1 comments about GURPS Traveller: Starports : Gateways to Adventure (GURPS Traveller).

1. Whether you play Traveller or Gurps-Traveller, this is an excellent supplement. The details and game ideas are at the level of excellence that we've come to expect from Steve Jackson Games. Players often spend a lot of time at a world's starport, and this helped me to bring them alive in ways I'd never thought of before. The first time your players goto an otherwise mediocre world specifically because they like its starport, you'll know you got your money's worth. Maps of several starports, buildings, and small craft are included. I didn't give it 5 stars only because the book should really be titled Imperial Starports, as it gives less than a page of data on ports outside the Imperium.

1 comments about GURPS Traveller Behind the Claw: The Spinward Marches Sourcebook (GURPS Traveller).

1. This module covers the spinward marches sector in detail. This is the region of traveller universe where most adventures were designed for along the almost 30y of the game existance. The sector has been covered twice before. First in a classic traveller module in the usual UWP (universal world profile) database without much detail. Second as an appendix of megatraveller Library data, also in a UWP database. Now SJ games covers them in detail giving a small text for each planet yet allowing many misteries for each game master to develop his own adventures. Also detailed are the major politics between the states and the corporations of the region. The versions differ from each other in world profle and even frontiers, but that is easy to be solved by the Game master. It's an excellent book lacking only a colored map in the old traveller style. This can be done by buying Megatraveller boxed set, which unfortunately is rather rare to find. Hopefully someone at SJ games will read this review and solve this...

3 comments about GURPS Traveller: First In (Gurps Traveller).

1. It's nice to finally see the world of traveller back in print, this time in the world of GURPS. 1st In is the sourcebook for the Scouts, one of the more interesting settings for PCs. This book gives the readers a look behind the scenes of the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service as well as an extensive background on its organization and functions of each branch. Several sections of the book also deals with world creation and equipment. It's well written and really gives the reader a feel for being a Scout. The world creation section is rather extensive and like in the original scout book(traveller game) can be pretty daunting for the casual gamer. There is also a culture section for those who wish to flesh out each planet, complete with population, type of government, etc., each with explanations on what it means. All in all, much better than the original Traveller scout book and one of the better supplements for GURPS to be published.



2. I bought this book mainly for the world creation tools. Lots of cool stuff on star and world creation, though it's spread out a bit. Would be nice if there were some pages in the back with all the tables you use for rolling up stuff in one place. The main information on the scout corp. is great! Already gave me a couple of scenario ideas. My only beef with the book is the lack of forms. I'm trying to put together a relational database of Traveller based space/planetary info and it's slow going, having to go through every page to find the type of info that needs to be stored. Working from a paper form with all the fields already defined is much easier. Oh well, I find futzing around with stuff like this more fun than actually playing the game. Go figure.



3. Though I am not a user of the GURPS system, First In is a valuable supplemental resource for the Original Traveller Universe. I use my copy in conjunction with Traveller: Science-Fiction Adventure in the Far Future (Book 1 Characters and Combat), Traveller: Science-Fiction Adventure in the Far Future (Book 3 Worlds and Adventures) and Traveller Book 6: Scouts. It is highly useful for providing the additional level of detail which has become a hallmark of the GURPS Traveller: Science Fiction Adventure in the Far Future (GURPS Traveller) series. Well worth the original $20.95 cover price, and perhaps even a bit more, as this book has now been out of print for many years.