Traveller
Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2025 1:10 pm
This is a classic! Created in the 1970s, along the same time frame of Dungeons & Dragons, Traveller is recognized as the first Science Fiction role playing game, and over the fifty years of it's existence, it's gotten quite a number of revisions to it. There's like five versions of Classic Traveller, then there's the current Mongoose version (which is closely similar to Classic), there's a GURPS and I believe a HERO version, and a new 5e compatible version is in the works.
Besides having an in-depth cannon lore, and a few fictional novels written describing the setting, Traveller is known for its Character Creation mini-game, a process that could mean your character actually dies during character creation while pursuing it's unique Life Path system. There's a motto in Traveller: "There's a table for that". Character creation is done by rolling against random tables. However, don't be discouraged by this, because Traveller isn't limited to only the tables. There are mechanics for creating new and interesting species, you can even quickly generate new planets if need be-- Like the Travller Map Project doesn't already have enough to choose from with its over one-thousand entries. Anyway, there's a simple flowchart to process rolling up your character, which each iteration ages your character four years-- you begin at age 18, and unlike games like D&D, not as Level Zero, but rather, somebody whom could be competent. Of the number of Actual Plays that I've watched, and even performing a few character creations attempts, I've had quite a bit of fun with this process. One thing to keep in mind though, is to do yourself a favor, and go in to the process with a blank slate. Let the character's Life Path generate WHO your character IS. Trust me (and others), you'll have a lot more fun with Traveller going in with no preconceived character concepts. I should also point out that in the Mongoose variant of Traveller, the likelihood of dying at character creation is like 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 in a hundred-billion-trillion, meaning that I believe that result was edited out of the Second Edition release, although I haven't looked at each table in-depth to say with absolute certainty that this is the case. But hey, it's fun to be able to create a character who is the brother, sister, cousin, uncle, long lost friend of [dead] character... or a string of like five dead characters, right? Great backstory potential there!
One benefit of this game is that you have a setting, so if you struggle with creativity, and just want to play the damn game, there's books for that. But if you're a Master at Creativity, and prefer to do your own setting, you can totally do that. You could run Traveller in a Star Wars setting, if you'd like, or any science fiction space opera. In fact, Mongoose has just release a setting for Long Haul Trucking (that I still have to look at)-- many people are thinking it has Smokey and the Bandit or Convoy vibes. Anyway, there's just so much stuff available for this game you should be in no danger of coming up empty for things to run in this system. There's also a pretty big forum and Discord that's fairly active, should you mean to find some people to play with.
Speaking of playing, I should brief you on the mechanics! You'll want at least two six-sided dice, but I'd recommend just stealing the dice from your Yahtzee game. Trust me. Anyway, Traveller is a Skills-Based game, meaning that every task in Traveller involves a Skill Check with a Normal Success rating a roll of eight (8) or more. To determine your success, you'll roll your 2d6, then add your Stat Modifier. Sometimes you may have a Boon, which is an additional dice that you can roll, but you still only use the best two dice of all the dice you roll. The math in this game shouldn't be too intense. The minimum is a -3, and the maximum is a +4 to any roll (I believe), and because the dice only range from 2 to 12, task resolution should be fairly quick. No calculators or spreadsheets needed! (You can also put that slide rule away, if you're old, like me.)
Traveller also doesn't work like many other games that have a dedicated Health Stat. Instead, you deduct any damage taken from your Physical Stats (Endurance, Dexterity, and Strength) If two of these Stats reach zero, you're dead. Of the Actual Plays that I've seen, combat rarely comes up, however, one cool thing about Traveller is that it also has a special set of mechanics for Starship Combat. Although, I've only seen one Ship Combat, it seemed pretty in-depth. Anyway, I'll have to do some more reading on the combat system. And I haven't even gotten into all the equipment goodies that are available, Psionics are a thing too, so yes, there are Special Abilities in this game as well.
Besides having an in-depth cannon lore, and a few fictional novels written describing the setting, Traveller is known for its Character Creation mini-game, a process that could mean your character actually dies during character creation while pursuing it's unique Life Path system. There's a motto in Traveller: "There's a table for that". Character creation is done by rolling against random tables. However, don't be discouraged by this, because Traveller isn't limited to only the tables. There are mechanics for creating new and interesting species, you can even quickly generate new planets if need be-- Like the Travller Map Project doesn't already have enough to choose from with its over one-thousand entries. Anyway, there's a simple flowchart to process rolling up your character, which each iteration ages your character four years-- you begin at age 18, and unlike games like D&D, not as Level Zero, but rather, somebody whom could be competent. Of the number of Actual Plays that I've watched, and even performing a few character creations attempts, I've had quite a bit of fun with this process. One thing to keep in mind though, is to do yourself a favor, and go in to the process with a blank slate. Let the character's Life Path generate WHO your character IS. Trust me (and others), you'll have a lot more fun with Traveller going in with no preconceived character concepts. I should also point out that in the Mongoose variant of Traveller, the likelihood of dying at character creation is like 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 in a hundred-billion-trillion, meaning that I believe that result was edited out of the Second Edition release, although I haven't looked at each table in-depth to say with absolute certainty that this is the case. But hey, it's fun to be able to create a character who is the brother, sister, cousin, uncle, long lost friend of [dead] character... or a string of like five dead characters, right? Great backstory potential there!
One benefit of this game is that you have a setting, so if you struggle with creativity, and just want to play the damn game, there's books for that. But if you're a Master at Creativity, and prefer to do your own setting, you can totally do that. You could run Traveller in a Star Wars setting, if you'd like, or any science fiction space opera. In fact, Mongoose has just release a setting for Long Haul Trucking (that I still have to look at)-- many people are thinking it has Smokey and the Bandit or Convoy vibes. Anyway, there's just so much stuff available for this game you should be in no danger of coming up empty for things to run in this system. There's also a pretty big forum and Discord that's fairly active, should you mean to find some people to play with.
Speaking of playing, I should brief you on the mechanics! You'll want at least two six-sided dice, but I'd recommend just stealing the dice from your Yahtzee game. Trust me. Anyway, Traveller is a Skills-Based game, meaning that every task in Traveller involves a Skill Check with a Normal Success rating a roll of eight (8) or more. To determine your success, you'll roll your 2d6, then add your Stat Modifier. Sometimes you may have a Boon, which is an additional dice that you can roll, but you still only use the best two dice of all the dice you roll. The math in this game shouldn't be too intense. The minimum is a -3, and the maximum is a +4 to any roll (I believe), and because the dice only range from 2 to 12, task resolution should be fairly quick. No calculators or spreadsheets needed! (You can also put that slide rule away, if you're old, like me.)
Traveller also doesn't work like many other games that have a dedicated Health Stat. Instead, you deduct any damage taken from your Physical Stats (Endurance, Dexterity, and Strength) If two of these Stats reach zero, you're dead. Of the Actual Plays that I've seen, combat rarely comes up, however, one cool thing about Traveller is that it also has a special set of mechanics for Starship Combat. Although, I've only seen one Ship Combat, it seemed pretty in-depth. Anyway, I'll have to do some more reading on the combat system. And I haven't even gotten into all the equipment goodies that are available, Psionics are a thing too, so yes, there are Special Abilities in this game as well.