So a while back I wrote about the upcoming Traveller 5e - the “conversion” of Traveller to the game mechanics of D&D 5e (or 5.5, or whatever).

I’ve been thinking about it. In this post I’m sorta working out how I think about this. So just keep with me (or don’t…I don’t think anyone actually reads this blog but me).

The Kickstarter started a few days ago. Honestly, I’m shocked by the cost. I suppose I am not really a hardened Kickstarter person, but damn, people are pledging a lot of money for a game no one has seen a scrap of that I’m aware of. I try to keep up with the Traveller-sphere, and I’ve not seen so much as a sample character record sheet. Have I missed something?

The question of “What is Traveller?” is not really clear-cut to me. For me, it’s the 2d6 open-ended game published in 1977, with a slight revision in 1981, and editions based on 2d6, created by Marc Miller. To some people it’s the Third Imperium setting. To some it’s both. I’m inclined, as long as Marc is alive, to say it’s whatever Marc says it is (even if he doesn’t own the IP anymore).

I can list, however, a few things that if changed would make me say “errr….it’s not Traveller anymore…”

• FTL Communication. The minute there is faster than light communication, that’s it. Not Traveller anymore.
• Character Levels. This is the one I think they will lose me on. Having characters gain “levels” and adding a new abilities at each level, and perhaps making them harder to kill as they gain levels, seems to me antithetical to Traveller for a number of reasons. I think it would change the entire dynamic of the game.
• Character classes. Again, this seems like a bad idea, and one antithetical to the way the came is played.
• Bonus actions and a lot of the other combat complexity you see in D&D 5e.

So as you can probably tell, I predict I will not consider this game to really be Traveller, no matter how flashy the artwork or deep the bullshit.

And that of course matters to no one but me.

These are all just games, and if people like ‘em, well, good for them. I understand there are a lot of people who hate Classic Traveller for the same reasons I used to think it wasn’t very good. Thing is, I was wrong then, and they are wrong now.