Whether it is a modifier for getting in the Navy, or a modifier for shooting a weapon, or making a roll involving electronics. In original Traveller Characteristics work in exactly the same manner that Attributes in early Dungeons & Dragons worked: They are never used in resolving rolls in and of themselves, but, depending on their value, generate positive and negative modifiers for resolving rolls independent of them.
But that technique is not found in the original Traveller rules.)Īnd we find this, specifically the last sentence… (In The Traveller Adventure and other adventures, the Referee is told to have the Players roll 2D6 against a PC’s Characteristic or less. In rules in Books 1-3, there are no rolls made directly against the the Characteristics. Notice, now, that the same holds true for Basic Traveller. But that value of 16 itself never is used in play except as that value might rise and fall through play (usually by magical means) which might then change the For example, if one has a Strength of 16 one gets a +2 to hit when attacking. Instead, Abilities provide positive or negative modifiers (see images above) for specific rolls depending on their value. Instead, in early D&D, Character Abilities (Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma) the Abilities themselves are never used in a roll. But in the early versions of the games, these rolls don’t exist yet. Yes, later editions of D&D introduced Characteristic rolls of d20 equal to or less than DEX and CHARISMA. In this spirit, let’s remember that in both original and B/X Dungeons and Dragons, there are no rolls made against Character Abilities. In my view, if you’re playing Basic Traveller (that is TravellerBooks 1-3, and not the materials that came later) then you’re playing in the tradition of play from the late 1970s and early ’80s, or the the revival of that style found in the contemporary Old School Renaissance.
And Victor Raymond posted a series of smart observations from his time playing Classic Traveller in the late ’70s, illustrating the many ways Classic Traveller took direct inspiration from OD&D. Marc Miller has been explicit about the connection. In my view, Classic Traveller is best seen as growing out of the tradition and logic of Original Dungeons & Dragons. The purpose of the Traveller: Out of the Box series is to explore what Traveller was designed to do, how it was meant to be used, and what kind of play it properly facilitated. The point of this post is to look at the rules of Classic Traveller in the context of the assumptions of the period the game was designed and played, and see what there is to find.ĬHARACTERISTICS AS A SOURCE OF DIE MODIFIERS We judge it for failing to work the way other games work, when in fact the game works very well to do what it was deigned to do, to play the way it was designed to be played. In doing so, I think we do the game a disservice. Sometimes we view the Classic Traveller rules through the lens of game design that came after it. When I think about how Classic Traveller I see it less as a “skill system” as we often use such systems these days (REFEREE: “Oh, you want to try something? Make this roll…”) than I see it as the equivalent of a Saving Throw from OD&D. I don’t really think of it as a skill system. Here’s how I think about the Traveller skill system: