Most Useful GURPS Traveller Books from a GURPS Point of View

[Blind Mapmaker]

With SJG not reviewing the Traveller licence , GURPS Traveller suddenly shifted from "nice to have" to "should get it soon" in my personal schedule.

I own the core book and I bought quite some of the race books for a friend over the years. They always struck me as well-made and imaginative products. I'm not ruling out running Traveller one day, but I'm mostly interested in books that contain rules easily cannibalised for other settings in GURPS 4th Edition. I heard Starports and First In have interesting rules, but what does the hivemind say. Also, how good/useful is Interstellar Wars?

[weby]

Overall I have enjoyed most of the Gurps Traveller line(The rules just kind of make mostly sense mostly, specially when compared to something like classic traveller)

Though the books are mustly useful if you do indeed run Traveller or something close to it also of note is that the actual rules bits are 3rd edition for most of the books.

Over the years I have found use for the books in other uses besides travller too as I have never actually run a GURPS traveller game(too many other genres to run to run everything)

Some notes where I have found them nice:
-Ground forces: The modular grav vehicle rules: though they are now bit obsolete because they are third edition so the end result needs to get 4th edition stats.
-Star Mercs: The simplified ground combat system is still used today by me.
-Starports: There is a lot of "how starports work" and "what all things are likely found on starports" material that I have used a lot in other scifi games.
-Planetary surveys: I have used several of them as places in other scifi campaigns.

As for running Traveller one day: Interstellar wars is the book to get, it is in many ways the "4th edition traveller core book" as it contains things like the 4th edition version of the modular ship building system found in the core book.

[trooper6]

I ran an ISW campaign and loved it...as did my players. I highly recommend that book!

[chandley]

Both of my physical copies of Gurps 3e Traveller - Far Trader fell apart from overuse. I treasure my PDF copy.

Interstellar Wars for 4e contains a stripped down and/or streamlined version of the 3E Far Trader system, if you are looking to keep number of books low.

[ULFGARD]

Back in '06, I ran a game that drew quite heavily from Traveller. I've gotten quite a bit of mileage out of Far Trader and First In myself. I'm also using the aliens books as a starting point for a game I'm about to start. The detailed write-ups are great and allow for easy conversion.

I also see that Starports was already mentioned. It's full of great ideas for starports in any sci-fi game.

[trooper6]

I just got pdf versions of all the G:T books I didn't have yet.

The last long campaign I ran was a very successful GT:ISW campaign. I didn't get all of the G:T books because they were a) a different time period and b) 3e. But if they are no longer going to be available, I'm going to want the resources. Because I'll probably want to run another Far Trader game in the future.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Blind Mapmaker

I heard Starports and First In have interesting rules, but what does the hivemind say. Also, how good/useful is Interstellar Wars?

Starports never interested me very much. First In is a good book but largely redundant with GURPS Space for 4th edition. I'd probably pick Far Trader for being both useful and lacking a ready alternative.

[trooper6]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Starports never interested me very much. First In is a good book but largely redundant with GURPS Space for 4th edition. I'd probably pick Far Trader for being both useful and lacking a ready alternative.

Wouldn't the alternatives for Far Trader be either a) The trade system in GT:ISW or b) the Trade system in Spaceships 2: Traders, Liners, and Transports?

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by trooper6

Wouldn't the alternatives for Far Trader be either a) The trade system in GT:ISW or b) the Trade system in Spaceships 2: Traders, Liners, and Transports?

The first is another GT product. The second is extremely minimalist.

[trooper6]

Originally Posted by Anthony

The first is another GT product. The second is extremely minimalist.

It seemed to me that Spaceships basically mirrored the content in GT:ISW pretty exactly. So, if GT:ISW's trade system was good enough for you, then you could get by with just Spaceships 2.

Of course, since all of the Traveller books are going away...get them all!