Post by
MongooseMatt » Thu Sep 03, 2015 12:09 pm
Tomorrow afternoon (September 4th, UK time) will see the first appearance of a new Traveller, the product of many years tweaking, adjusting and listening to the thousands of players who have travelled the universe of the Far Future.
So what can you expect?
You will be able to dive into the new Traveller with the Beta Rulebook PDF. It will be a mere $20 on DrivethruRPG and we’ll return that $20 to you in the form of a voucher when the final Core Rulebook is released in early 2016. You will also be getting a veritable host of goodies and a chance to influence other Traveller books including High Guard, the vehicle Handbook and the Central Supply Catalogue throughout the playtest period.
So, what can you expect to see in the new Traveller? These are just a few of the tweaks we have made;
* The last edition rested heavily on the minimalist approach of Classic Traveller – the new edition has all the bells and whistles you expect from a modern RPG. From isometric deck plans to flow charts that walk you throw character creation and ship design, from subsector maps to equipment pages that look as though they come straight from a space-based mail order catalogue, we have spent months striving to make the new Traveller not only look the best it can, but also to use these graphics to help it play better on the table top.
* A fully integrated combat system that seamlessly moves between Travellers, vehicles and ships. You can now fly your Corsair through a system, destroy the orbiting defence stations, then descend into the atmosphere to dogfight the aerospace fighters. A critical hit system for ships and vehicles allows you knock out vital systems in your opponent’s craft, while an expanded action system will give everyone on board something to do in battle.
* Power systems for ships - starship captains will now be worrying about the amount of Power available to them. In most situations, it will not be a factor (and this will not intrude on gameplay) but if you overload a trader with high-powered weaponry or take damage to your power plant, you’ll be screaming down the comms to your engineer to give you more power!
* We have made changes to the way animals are handled, making their creation a thing of simplicity for referees; come up with a concept for your creature, assign Hits and Attacks, then add Traits and you are done. The Traits for animals handle special abilities such as heightened senses or psionic capability and we will be adding to them in future supplements – especially useful as they are also used for alien species, forming another common bond within the mechanics of the game.
Strap yourselves in and start the countdown - the new Traveller makes its first appearance tomorrow!
Matthew Sprange
