Classic Traveller: Beginning a Journey

Classic Traveller Cover

I got a pdf copy of Classic Traveller from DriveThruRPG several months ago (as of writing, the pdf is available for free). I've been too busy with life to read through it, but the holidays are proving to be a good time to was it down, relax, and learn some new RPGs other than D&D 5e.

I've read about Traveller in passing from Grognardia and others, but not had the chance to try it out yet. I've also picked up the Cephus Engine, which is an OSR-type remake of Traveller available as a free SRD or paid core rulebook from DriveThruRPG. I will probably try to read through it once I've gone through Classic Traveller to determine which variation I would prefer running in, although my research seems to indicate that they are very similar 2d6-based games. 

In my initial reading I noticed several things that I appreciated about the presentation of Traveller. First, on page 28 of book one there is a diagetically provided character sheet. It is clean, simple, and looks an awful lot like many real government or military forms. It is much less intimidating to me than the D&D starter set sheets were. Next on page 29, there is a clear and concise step-by-step guide to creating a character. A handy reference. I feel like I could hand a player these pages as print outs and they could take care of most of character creation just asking me for the results of their character creation rolls. The chance of a character dying during creation also just intrigues me. Like the level-zero funnels of some OSR and OSR-inspired games, it means there is real risk and true randomness during character creation. It's very different from the carefully crafted with an extensive backstory type of characters that are some times seen (my first RPG character was one of those).

Hopefully I'll have time over the holidays to try to dig a little more into the rules--I find the idea of reinforcing different styles and types of play through different RPG system mechanics extremely compelling, and Traveller has longevity over almost 50 years of the hobby.