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Traveller Core Rulebook Update 2022
This is Free Trader Beowulf, calling anyone… Mayday, Mayday… We are under attack… Main drive is gone… Turret number one not responding… Mayday… Losing cabin pressure fast, calling anyone… Please help… This is Free Trader Beowulf… …Mayday… Fully Updated and Revised. Traveller is a science fiction roleplaying game of bold explorers and brave adventurers. The Traveller Core Rulebook contains everything you need to create one of these adventures and begin exploring the galaxy. Spaceports, ancient civilisations, air/rafts, cold steel blades, laser carbines, far distant worlds, and exotic alien beasts – this is the futuristic universe of Traveller, the original and classic science fiction roleplaying game. Come visit the far future.
264 pages, Hardcover
Published February 7, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
February 17, 2025
Oh Traveller, how I love thee so. You freed me from the tyranny of fantasy RPGs at a young age and let me know that there were, indeed, nerds like me that longed for a crunchy scifi game that wasn't just reskinned D+D.
This latest version of the ruleset is presented in a nice clear and concise fashion that's easy to read and, more importantly, easy to find stuff when you're at the table.
This latest version of the ruleset is presented in a nice clear and concise fashion that's easy to read and, more importantly, easy to find stuff when you're at the table.
March 11, 2024
A well put together rules book. If you're interested in running Traveller I would highly recommend to anyone on the fence!
December 9, 2024
My friends keep threatening to run a Traveller game which would be fine, but unfortunately the reliability of my friends means I’m not holding my breath waiting for it.
But it did get me interested in the latest version of Traveller rules.
Mongoose has produced some absolutely amazing Traveller material and I have great affection for Traveller and an absolutely insane collection of it of the older material.
I wish I was rich enough to collect the Mongoose stuff in hardcopy. It deserves it.
So I look forward to reading this version as they have kept the spirit of it very much alive and made it all the better.
The more I look at this cover illustration however the more I wish they’d gone with the original Traveller basic black (ie, “The Best RPG Cover of all Time”).
Character Creation in Traveller started very simply and very soon got nutso complicated with the original release of Mercenary and High Guard.
Mongoose Traveller 2nd Edition (mt2E) has greatly simplified characters and at the same time added a little more choices and a lot of more interesting ‘Events’ that make the arduous random rolling give you much more background and character information.
It also DEMANDS that you form some sort of connection between your past history and other players histories, meaning you all know each other and probably trust each other before you begin play.
They have replaced the infamous Death in Character Generation with Injury in Character Generation which means you survive, but you are diminished in some way.
Character generation is much the same though they add a little twist at the end by giving ‘skill packages’ to the entire group. It was a set of 8 skills at 1 each and this is to be divided amongst the players in the party. To make sure that everyone has useful skills because the Traveller character generation system is notorious for creating useless characters. I tried it out myself and generated a 3 term Force Commander that had NO combat skills!
But if they’re going to guarantee you have useful skills then why not just create a build-point system in the first place!? I know there are people that love the character classes but they’ve always seemed archaic to me.
Aliens consists of Vargr and Aslan which is plenty of good choices for a core rulebook.
They even have a Prisoner career for those unfortunate times you land in jail for long stretches!
Skills and Tasks also offer no surprises but nothing bad either. Task Chains are a little weird and I honestly don’t see the necessary for them unless you want the option of abstracting (hand-waving) an entire operation to simple dice rolls. I don’t really see the necessity of a formal procedure.
Combat also has no surprises but is honestly cleaned up and simplified a-lot. Still pretty dangerous, but much easier to run than most other versions. Handling damage through characteristics still seems like a kludgy design decisions, especially when you have different types of damage, but that’s been around forever.
Encounters and Dangers cover a wide variety of circumstances and cover them well. FINALLY animals statistics have been cleaned up to make sense and work more like characters work, giving them a single Hits score. Of course, it begs the question why characters can’t be done that way as well, even as an optional rule.
It also provides several example animals with illustrations. Very good stuff.
The Augments section is a two page treatment of both cybernetics and biological enhancement which they basically say is a matter of definition rather than mechanics. It is surprisingly generous allowing characters to simply buy increased characteristics and skill increases. Since Traveler characters often have more money than time this is rather surprising but I guess it was bound to happen one way or another, so they might as well make it official. Personally I always thought the whole ‘transhuman’ thing was pretty unlikely.
It looks like they fixed one of the big problems with previous versions of Traveller, which was the way computers were handled. So now the computer you buy still matters, but it’s not the ‘mainframe’ that it once was.
I’m especially impressed with the weapon section which manages to be both thorough in that it covers everything anyone could want in personal weapons but also in how simply they are detailed. This goes up and down all of Traveller history. Only unique weapons would be needed with this set of weapons.
The Vehicle section is next and is equally impressive. It includes vehicle combat and weapons. The sample vehicles they include are a little weird but I’m sure we’re all aware that there is a separate vehicle book.
Spacecraft Operations is next and has all the rules needed for normal spacecraft operations. How to jump, what the security on the ships is like, etc. Very nicely done.
Starship combat is very similar to vehicle combat, but nicely logically laid out. This book can be played immediately and have detailed enough results that no hand-waving is needed. Pretty admirable considering the mess of space combat systems for Traveller that have been spewed out over the years.
I gotta say as much as I admire this book in just about every other way I hate the graphic designs of the spaceships. They look like Chris Foss paintings. There have been plenty of good ‘takes’ on these standardized ships but instead of making them believable, they just made them colorful.
The Psionics chapter has no surprises and is much like it’s classic original. How you’ll feel about that is probably related to how you originally felt about it when you came across it. I’m mixed myself. It’s far too powerful to just slip into a normal group of adventures but in truth it was a big part of classic sci-fi. They have a special Psionic class which is new, but I don’t quite understand the point of it.
I’ve been a Traveller fan for a long time - since the beginning actually. I’ve read a lot of different versions of it. Every one of them in fact, including the d20 and Hero System based.
At the end of the day this is the best version of Traveller that has ever been produced.
A lot of little fixes have made the game smoother, more logical and easier to run than ever.
It’s still “Traveller” and whatever problems you have with “Traveller” are still going to be there. But if you love Traveller just as it was in 1977, you’ll be very comfortable with this version. It’s not exactly the same — it’s much better.
5 stars because it’s been a looong time since I’ve enjoyed reading a set of Traveller rules.
But it did get me interested in the latest version of Traveller rules.
Mongoose has produced some absolutely amazing Traveller material and I have great affection for Traveller and an absolutely insane collection of it of the older material.
I wish I was rich enough to collect the Mongoose stuff in hardcopy. It deserves it.
So I look forward to reading this version as they have kept the spirit of it very much alive and made it all the better.
The more I look at this cover illustration however the more I wish they’d gone with the original Traveller basic black (ie, “The Best RPG Cover of all Time”).
Character Creation in Traveller started very simply and very soon got nutso complicated with the original release of Mercenary and High Guard.
Mongoose Traveller 2nd Edition (mt2E) has greatly simplified characters and at the same time added a little more choices and a lot of more interesting ‘Events’ that make the arduous random rolling give you much more background and character information.
It also DEMANDS that you form some sort of connection between your past history and other players histories, meaning you all know each other and probably trust each other before you begin play.
They have replaced the infamous Death in Character Generation with Injury in Character Generation which means you survive, but you are diminished in some way.
Character generation is much the same though they add a little twist at the end by giving ‘skill packages’ to the entire group. It was a set of 8 skills at 1 each and this is to be divided amongst the players in the party. To make sure that everyone has useful skills because the Traveller character generation system is notorious for creating useless characters. I tried it out myself and generated a 3 term Force Commander that had NO combat skills!
But if they’re going to guarantee you have useful skills then why not just create a build-point system in the first place!? I know there are people that love the character classes but they’ve always seemed archaic to me.
Aliens consists of Vargr and Aslan which is plenty of good choices for a core rulebook.
They even have a Prisoner career for those unfortunate times you land in jail for long stretches!
Skills and Tasks also offer no surprises but nothing bad either. Task Chains are a little weird and I honestly don’t see the necessary for them unless you want the option of abstracting (hand-waving) an entire operation to simple dice rolls. I don’t really see the necessity of a formal procedure.
Combat also has no surprises but is honestly cleaned up and simplified a-lot. Still pretty dangerous, but much easier to run than most other versions. Handling damage through characteristics still seems like a kludgy design decisions, especially when you have different types of damage, but that’s been around forever.
Encounters and Dangers cover a wide variety of circumstances and cover them well. FINALLY animals statistics have been cleaned up to make sense and work more like characters work, giving them a single Hits score. Of course, it begs the question why characters can’t be done that way as well, even as an optional rule.
It also provides several example animals with illustrations. Very good stuff.
The Augments section is a two page treatment of both cybernetics and biological enhancement which they basically say is a matter of definition rather than mechanics. It is surprisingly generous allowing characters to simply buy increased characteristics and skill increases. Since Traveler characters often have more money than time this is rather surprising but I guess it was bound to happen one way or another, so they might as well make it official. Personally I always thought the whole ‘transhuman’ thing was pretty unlikely.
It looks like they fixed one of the big problems with previous versions of Traveller, which was the way computers were handled. So now the computer you buy still matters, but it’s not the ‘mainframe’ that it once was.
I’m especially impressed with the weapon section which manages to be both thorough in that it covers everything anyone could want in personal weapons but also in how simply they are detailed. This goes up and down all of Traveller history. Only unique weapons would be needed with this set of weapons.
The Vehicle section is next and is equally impressive. It includes vehicle combat and weapons. The sample vehicles they include are a little weird but I’m sure we’re all aware that there is a separate vehicle book.
Spacecraft Operations is next and has all the rules needed for normal spacecraft operations. How to jump, what the security on the ships is like, etc. Very nicely done.
Starship combat is very similar to vehicle combat, but nicely logically laid out. This book can be played immediately and have detailed enough results that no hand-waving is needed. Pretty admirable considering the mess of space combat systems for Traveller that have been spewed out over the years.
I gotta say as much as I admire this book in just about every other way I hate the graphic designs of the spaceships. They look like Chris Foss paintings. There have been plenty of good ‘takes’ on these standardized ships but instead of making them believable, they just made them colorful.
The Psionics chapter has no surprises and is much like it’s classic original. How you’ll feel about that is probably related to how you originally felt about it when you came across it. I’m mixed myself. It’s far too powerful to just slip into a normal group of adventures but in truth it was a big part of classic sci-fi. They have a special Psionic class which is new, but I don’t quite understand the point of it.
I’ve been a Traveller fan for a long time - since the beginning actually. I’ve read a lot of different versions of it. Every one of them in fact, including the d20 and Hero System based.
At the end of the day this is the best version of Traveller that has ever been produced.
A lot of little fixes have made the game smoother, more logical and easier to run than ever.
It’s still “Traveller” and whatever problems you have with “Traveller” are still going to be there. But if you love Traveller just as it was in 1977, you’ll be very comfortable with this version. It’s not exactly the same — it’s much better.
5 stars because it’s been a looong time since I’ve enjoyed reading a set of Traveller rules.
December 28, 2022
The Sci-Fi game i always wanted to play while growing up, yet just about all of my friends were fantasy nerds instead. But now at the young age of none-of your buisniss, i have finally gotten this book for myself and have even started pestering people to play it.
As for the book it self, it is very beautifully made, a bit leafing back and forth at times to check things, but nothing more than what you expect from most RP books.
The system itself uses 2D6. Where you roll against a set TN according to the Diff. But you also add your Skill and also Characteristic to the mix. So to give an example: You have a social standing of 8 which gives +1, and a diplomacy of 1 as well. Which means you roll 2D6+2 and if the task is to convince you to look into this game is difficult, which means diff 10. I would need to roll 8 total on the 2D6 to succeed.
And i could say a lot of things about what a joy it is to just make a character for this game and play it. As the Character generation is rather unique, i would rather recommend one Seth Skorkowsky on Youtube instead, he covers the game in great detail and it was because of his videos i decided to pick up this specific book.
Link to Seth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdCq9...
As for the book it self, it is very beautifully made, a bit leafing back and forth at times to check things, but nothing more than what you expect from most RP books.
The system itself uses 2D6. Where you roll against a set TN according to the Diff. But you also add your Skill and also Characteristic to the mix. So to give an example: You have a social standing of 8 which gives +1, and a diplomacy of 1 as well. Which means you roll 2D6+2 and if the task is to convince you to look into this game is difficult, which means diff 10. I would need to roll 8 total on the 2D6 to succeed.
And i could say a lot of things about what a joy it is to just make a character for this game and play it. As the Character generation is rather unique, i would rather recommend one Seth Skorkowsky on Youtube instead, he covers the game in great detail and it was because of his videos i decided to pick up this specific book.
Link to Seth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdCq9...
January 11, 2022
***This is not a review of the Traveller game, just this rulebook***
That being said, this book is written well: clear and concise, and there are a couple of jokes spread about. The tables and charts are easy to read and the art is very well done, especially for equipment. However, I wasn't truly *inspired* by this art the way I am with most D&D books.
The book is organized well, including a proper index. The rules tend to reference themselves a lot, but the book references page numbers when it does come up.
The physical printing of the book is also high quality. I ordered directly from Mingoose and the book was protected in 3 layers of proper bubble wrap. The pages are attached so that they lay relatively flat when open, which is an amazing quality boost to what I'm used to from WotC.
All in all, a very good rpg book.
That being said, this book is written well: clear and concise, and there are a couple of jokes spread about. The tables and charts are easy to read and the art is very well done, especially for equipment. However, I wasn't truly *inspired* by this art the way I am with most D&D books.
The book is organized well, including a proper index. The rules tend to reference themselves a lot, but the book references page numbers when it does come up.
The physical printing of the book is also high quality. I ordered directly from Mingoose and the book was protected in 3 layers of proper bubble wrap. The pages are attached so that they lay relatively flat when open, which is an amazing quality boost to what I'm used to from WotC.
All in all, a very good rpg book.
February 26, 2022
Fantastic rules system for the best sci-fi RPG out there.
February 11, 2024
much needed update for the Traveller RPG system that is easier to use than the 2008 Mongoose version.
January 23, 2025
I've of course heard about Traveller but never dug too far into it. This current Mongoose edition is getting plenty of support and when I got a bunch of the PDFs from Bundle of Holding I figured it was about time I actually read it. And yeah, I can see why people like this. This feels like a good set of rules for space sci-fi that allow a fair bit of flexibility without being such a toolkit that you need to design half the system yourself.
This core rulebook does sometimes feel like it's a little thin on some things, but that's because it's designed to give you the basics of all you need and then you can drill down further with specific supplements. So for example it's light on statted out antagonists, but there are some animals and advice for how you can make enemies. Fortunately while everybody uses basically the same rules, you don't need to be like 3.5 D&D and make pirates using the full character generation system. Plus even if you want to, chargen is a pretty fun minigame all on its own. I do feel like I'd want to watch somebody do it or read through it to fully grasp it, but it seems like a nice time even if characters can no longer die before being actually played.
The book walks through the character creation minigame, then covers skills, combat, vehicles, a whole lot of detail on spaceships, and little bits of psychic powers, trade, and universe creation. Pretty much everything is working off the same roll 2d6 and add mods system, so it's all pretty easy to follow. Characters come down to stats, skills, and all their stuff, which is relatively easy to keep track of. Plus it's quite possible to start a campaign off "owning" a starship. I put quotes around owning because one of the things I think is smart about Traveller is how PCs generally start with a ship with a mortgage on it. Instant incentive to get out there and make money so they don't get the ship repossessed. There's a nice if somewhat simple selection of gear and starships here, with supplemental books if you want more. And the book does make note of some of the details of how the rules interact with the default Third Imperium setting, while making it clear that you can use the system for whatever setting you want.
On the one hand, I could wish this book had more stuff such as more aliens to play as, more details on some of the rules modules, and at least a little overview of the Third Imperium. But then again it's clear Traveller is designed to cater to a wide variety of tastes, allowing you to run things from Firefly style free traders to Starship Troopers big military campaigns. And rather than give you too much info for one playstyle you don't need if you prefer something else, the system offloads that into separate books. So if I want to know about being a capital ship bridge crew, there's a book for that so anybody who doesn't care can skip that book.
I do feel like personally I will want to dive into more detail with some of the supplemental books, but I do think there's enough here to get a game going. Especially with the short but pretty nice chapter on generating planets and sectors of space that's enough to randomly roll up a whole chunk of the galaxy to run around in.
So overall I can see why Traveller has been a consistently popular game and I'm definitely curious to start exploring more of the rules and the setting in greater depth with some of the supplements.
This core rulebook does sometimes feel like it's a little thin on some things, but that's because it's designed to give you the basics of all you need and then you can drill down further with specific supplements. So for example it's light on statted out antagonists, but there are some animals and advice for how you can make enemies. Fortunately while everybody uses basically the same rules, you don't need to be like 3.5 D&D and make pirates using the full character generation system. Plus even if you want to, chargen is a pretty fun minigame all on its own. I do feel like I'd want to watch somebody do it or read through it to fully grasp it, but it seems like a nice time even if characters can no longer die before being actually played.
The book walks through the character creation minigame, then covers skills, combat, vehicles, a whole lot of detail on spaceships, and little bits of psychic powers, trade, and universe creation. Pretty much everything is working off the same roll 2d6 and add mods system, so it's all pretty easy to follow. Characters come down to stats, skills, and all their stuff, which is relatively easy to keep track of. Plus it's quite possible to start a campaign off "owning" a starship. I put quotes around owning because one of the things I think is smart about Traveller is how PCs generally start with a ship with a mortgage on it. Instant incentive to get out there and make money so they don't get the ship repossessed. There's a nice if somewhat simple selection of gear and starships here, with supplemental books if you want more. And the book does make note of some of the details of how the rules interact with the default Third Imperium setting, while making it clear that you can use the system for whatever setting you want.
On the one hand, I could wish this book had more stuff such as more aliens to play as, more details on some of the rules modules, and at least a little overview of the Third Imperium. But then again it's clear Traveller is designed to cater to a wide variety of tastes, allowing you to run things from Firefly style free traders to Starship Troopers big military campaigns. And rather than give you too much info for one playstyle you don't need if you prefer something else, the system offloads that into separate books. So if I want to know about being a capital ship bridge crew, there's a book for that so anybody who doesn't care can skip that book.
I do feel like personally I will want to dive into more detail with some of the supplemental books, but I do think there's enough here to get a game going. Especially with the short but pretty nice chapter on generating planets and sectors of space that's enough to randomly roll up a whole chunk of the galaxy to run around in.
So overall I can see why Traveller has been a consistently popular game and I'm definitely curious to start exploring more of the rules and the setting in greater depth with some of the supplements.
September 18, 2024
At least in its 2022 update, a very solid aesthetic update and tidying-up of Mongoose Traveller. Full review: https://refereeingandreflection.wordp...
March 28, 2025
Looks like a lot of fun, although I had to watch a few videos to get a grasp on character creation and, even though this is an updated book, there are lots of typos.
April 20, 2025
A great update to a great, old game.
This positions the game for lots of success in upcoming years.
This positions the game for lots of success in upcoming years.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews