Meme-Free Zone

Apologies this is a little late - I went out this evening, forgot to post before I left, then ran into huge transport problems so that I was very late getting home.

Two more Traveller Bundles - Mongoose Traveller 2E, featuring the second edition published by Mongoose, who now own the Traveller system, and Pirates of Drinax, a huge campaign using the Mongoose incarnation of the system.

Mongoose Traveller 2E (last offered May 2021)

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/2025MongTrav




Traveller Pirates of Drinax (Last offered May 2021)

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Drinax2025




In 2021 I said "This feels like a return to the roots of Traveller; without a lot of the grimdark elements that predominated in later editions, and with rules that are much closer to the versions that the game began with. There are a lot of new careers and options, but it ought to be possible to get up and running fast if you're familiar with the original game. This isn't to say that it's perfect - I found the explanation of character generation a little confusing, even though I actually know pretty much how it works. There's a flow chart that helps considerably but more of a simplified "these are the things you need to do in this order" explanation might help. Presentation is very good, and avoids some of the pitfalls by minimizing illustrations where they aren't really needed - for example, there is only one illustration of a player character, a spotty nerd just entering college, in the first fifty pages, and sexual balance seems fairly even in later pictures, with zero gratuitous nakedness, at least for pictures of humans.

The campaign returns to the classic roots too, the Trojan Reach has been in the game since 1980 and looks open-ended enough to satisfy the sort of player who listens to all of the options presented by the GM then does something entirely different. I won't say much about it because spoilers, the description.. ..should give a reasonable idea.

Definitely recommended, but as usual I'm not paying for this stuff, if you do you may have other ideas!"

I don't see any need to change any of that.

This is the second of several Traveller offers this week, a revival of the 2021 offer of classic Traveller material from GDW

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Imperium2025



In 2021 I said

I already own a lot of this in dead tree format, but this offer will fill in a few gaps. If you don't know Traveller you really ought to - it's pretty much where all SF RPGs have come from, and handles the epic scale of a BIG galaxy better than most of its successors. There are weaknesses, of course, given its age, but it holds up better than most of the other vintage RPGs, and still packs a lot of entertainment value.

I don't see any reason to change that.

This is the Mongoose Traveller 2024 Update bundle, featuring recent rules expansions and ship sourcebooks for Mongoose Traveller 2E, plus a supplement on robots. Since Mongoose now owns the Traveller system this is good news, showing their commitment to supporting the system.

 https://bundleofholding.com/presents/2024TravUpdate




There's more Traveller coming in another bundle in the next few days.

This is a bundle of material for the Mongoose Games continuation of the venerable Journal of the Traveller's Aid Society; their first 12 collections of articles and adventures for Mongoose Traveller.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/JTASMongoose

So far I've only checked out one volume, which ran to 130 pages and had some fun stuff on organized crime, some interesting ships, and so forth. Presentation is good and art is adequate although you have to wonder why the cover of volume 10 (below), showing characters in combat, has one character (possibly male, you can't really tell) wearing full body armour while a woman who appears to be part of the same team is wearing some belts of equipment but otherwise has her upper torso and head unarmoured and exposed. Not quite a brass bikini but close...

I think it's a reasonable deal at about $25 if you want lots of relatively unrelated material for the system - but something more structured may be a better idea for someone who isn't spending a LOT of time playing the game.

 This is a new bundle of fairly old material published by FASA for the original Traveller RPG, but fairly easy to convert to later versions. It's a mixture that includes an adventure campaign, spaceship deck plans and stats, shorter adventures, modular plans for a spaceport hotel, and stats for lots of equipment, ships, etc.



( FASA Traveller )

I remember this stuff as being pretty good for its day; while that was a long time ago, I think they've held up as well as similar material from GDW. It's a little annoying that the sector where the adventures are set aren't included in the offer, but I think it may belong to GDW rather than FASA - the maps etc. are in the Traveller wiki anyway. Depending on how much of this material you already own it may be worth a look, especially if you like lots of new ships etc.

The HUGE 5th edition of one of the first RPGs, Traveller, the rules alone running to an impressive 888 pages in print. Given the original game was published as three small pamphlets which I think were 32 pages each there has been a certain amount of inflation, but the intention seems to be to have systems for anything the players and referee may want to do, cover all of the eras the game has previously dealt with, and streamline the more clunky bits. This is only on offer for a week, and if you're a Traveller fan it's well worth a look (starting in about half an hour):

( Traveller 5th Edition )


As a long-time Traveller player and GM I'm definitely interested in this, though I have to wonder how much of it I'll ever use. If you don't already have the game this may not be the easiest way to get into it, since it's mostly a huge rules set rather than a rules set plus adventures etc., but there's a HUGE amount of material out there for anyone who wants to give it a try.

Later - several people have pointed out that the indexes are inaccurate in the printed version, and in these PDFs. Fortunately PDFs can be searched!

This is a repeat of a fairly large offer of material for the Traveller universe using the D20 system, first available two years ago. It's set a hundred years before the main Traveller timeline, and in different sectors of the Imperium.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/2019Trav20

"This offer revives our popular March 2017 Traveller20 Bundle. For decades Traveller designer Marc W. Miller has licensed many publishers to create new material and even new rules systems for Traveller. From 2002 to 2009, licensee QuikLink Interactive adapted Traveller to the d20 System as Traveller20 (T20), supporting it with extensive source material usable with both T20 and Classic Traveller. Most of these supplements describe the official T20 setting, the Gateway Domain (four sectors at the Trailing edge of the Third Imperium galactic empire) in the "Golden Age" circa Imperial year 993, about a century before Classic Traveller. This revived collection gathers much of the T20 line: the core rulebook (and the d20 System Reference Document SRD-3), player's handbook, vehicle and equipment guides, starship deck plans, and lots of setting material. It's everything you need for a complete campaign in the Gateway Domain using the Traveller20 or Classic Traveller rules.

We provide each ebook complete in .PDF (Portable Document Format). Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these books have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their ereaders.

Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to this offer's designated charity, Human Rights Watch.

The total retail value of the titles in this revived offer at launch is US$173. Customers who pay just US$12.95 get all fourteen titles in this offer's Player Collection (retail value $73) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks:

• Traveller's Guidebook: The player's handbook for Traveller20, with character creation and combat rules. Includes the complete d20 System Reference Document SRD-3.
• Four Traveller's Aide guides: TA1 Personal Weapons of Charted Space and three vehicle guides: TA3 On the Ground, TA6 Against Gravity, TA8 Through the Waves. These compendia of weaponry and vehicles include game statistics for both Traveller20 and Classic Traveller.
• Revelation Station: A small orbital waystation that serves as an ideal base for player characters travelling the jump routes.
• Eight sets of starship deck plans: Scout/Courier (Type S) and Golden Age Ships 1-7 -- a comprehensive collection of game maps for many kinds of civilian spacecraft travelling the Imperium.

Those who pay more than this offer's threshold (average) price, which is set at $27.95 to start, also get this offer's entire Referee Collection with twelve more titles worth an additional $100:

• Traveller's Handbook: The complete three-volume Traveller20 d20-based core rules set, with all the Guidebook content plus worldbuilding rules, campaign advice, and lots more. Includes many useful forms and sector maps.
• Gateway to Destiny: A large campaign supplement set in the official Traveller20 setting, the Domain of Gateway, four sectors on the Trailing edge of the Imperium.
• Linkworlds Cluster and Traveller20 Referee Screen: A 48-page mini-campaign in the Gateway Domain, plus useful reference charts.
• The Sydymic Outworlds Cluster: A deeper look at six worlds in the Gateway Domain. Includes "The Mahkahraik," an expanded description of one of the cluster's minor races.
• Two Traveller's Aide ship guides: TA7 Fighting Ships and TA9 Fighting Ships of the Solomani describe the military vessels travellers meet in the Gateway and beyond.
• Epic Adventures 1-3: EPIC-1 Stoner Express, EPIC-2 Into the Glimmer Drift, and EPIC-3 Chimera -- a trio of missions in the Glimmerdrift Reaches for the hapless crew of the scout ship Broadside of a Barn.
• TA4 76 Gunmen: Ready-to-run pregenerated characters for every referee in a hurry.
• EPIC-7 Merc Heaven: Six mercenary tickets (missions) on a wartorn world in the Outworld subsector.

At least one more title will be added later. "When a title is added after launch, ALL customers who previously purchased the bundle -- including purchasers of the original March 2017 run -- automatically receive the newly added title, REGARDLESS of whether or not they paid more than average. This is their reward for buying early -- even way early."

Traveller web resources

There are more Traveller pages on the web than worlds in the Gateway Sector. A few starting points:

• Far Future Enterprises, where Traveller designer Marc W. Miller sells the entire product line
• Traveller Downport -- meet us back here in an hour
• Traveller Map: Joshua Bell's amazing, meticulously researched and documented interactive map of Charted Space
• Freelance Traveller
• Dedzone
• The SFRPG and Citizens of the Imperium discussion forums
• An interesting article from 2005: "Deciphering the Text Foundations of Traveller," by Michael Andre-Driussi (Internet Review of Science Fiction)

This is interesting, but given how much Traveller material I already own I didn't make any use of it last time around, and I'm afraid this will probably be true this time too. But if you already use the D20 system this is an excellent way to get into the Traveller universe, at a pretty good price.

Traveller has to be the iconic SF system. The GURPS version keeps the original setting and adds the level of detail we've come to expect from GURPS supplements, lots of nice twiddly bits that enhance the setting and can easily be adapted to the original rules. There are two offers, one with the basic setting and essential supplements, the other some of the more obscure worldbuilding stuff. For both of them you do need the GURPS rules, of course, and the Lite version is included in one of the bundles:


GURPS Traveller Essentials [core rulebook & major supplements]

http://bundleofholding.com/presents/GURPSTrav1

"This is the first of two separate offers, running in parallel, that present many titles from the licensed GURPS Traveller line originally published by Steve Jackson Games based on the classic SFRPG Traveller. This first offer, GURPS Traveller Essentials, presents the core GURPS Traveller rulebook and all the major supplements you need for a complete campaign in this alternate Third Imperium. If you're new to Traveller, start here. The companion offer, GURPS Traveller Imperial Survey, presents the Alien Guides, Planetary Survey supplements, and more. Both these offers include starship Deck Plans in .PDF versions that are available here for the first time anywhere.

In 1998 Traveller designer Marc Miller licensed the Traveller setting to SJG for use with its Generic Universal RolePlaying System. GURPS Traveller (1998-2015) uses the Third Edition GURPS system. The game takes place in Year 1120 of an alternate Third Imperium timeline (20 years after Classic Traveller) in which no Rebellion occurred (as in MegaTraveller) and the Virus was never released (as in Traveller: The New Era). Loren Wiseman, who worked with Game Designers' Workshop on the design and development of the original Traveller, was the GURPS Traveller line manager and editor of the online magazine Journal of the Travellers Aid Society. SJG produced over 30 supplements for the line, covering all of the major alien races, many minor races, interstellar trade, expanded world generation, the military forces of the Third Imperium, and starships.

SJG's Traveller license lapsed earlier this year, and rights to the line reverted to Marc Miller. He proposed these two Bundle of Holding offers.

We provide each ebook complete in .PDF (Portable Document Format). Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these books have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their ereaders.

Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to this offer's designated charity, Heifer International."

The total retail value of the titles in this offer at launch is US$92. Customers who pay just US$11.95 get all four titles in this offer's Starter Collection (retail value $38) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks:

• GURPS Traveller 2E (retail price $12): The complete 179-page Second Edition corebook (2002). Includes the free GURPS LITE rules and the free introductory adventure "Flare Star."
• Starships (retail $8): Three dozen complete spacecraft designs plus rules for creating your own.
• First In (retail $8): The Imperium Interstellar Scout Service and a complete system for building the worlds its Scouts discover.
• Deck Plan 5: Sulieman-Class Scout/Courier (retail $10): Are you a scout in a First In campaign? This is your ship. GURPS Traveller Deck Plans are available in .PDF in these offers for the first time anywhere.

Those who pay more than the threshold (average) price, which is set at $24.95 to start, also get this offer's entire Bonus Collection with six more titles (retail value $54):

• Behind the Claw (retail $8): The GURPS guide to the canonical Traveller space sector, the Spinward Marches -- one of the most detailed treatments of the Marches in the setting's history.
• Humaniti (retail $10): The societies and cultures of 16 different human races -- Darrians, Azhanti, Syleans, Kargol, and many more.
• Starports (retail $8): The anchors of the Imperium. Written by novelist John M. Ford.
• Modular Cutter (retail $8): A sourcebook for the workhorse Ship of a Thousand Uses, a favorite of Traveller groups for decades.
• Deck Plan 2: Modular Cutter and Deck Plan 1: Beowulf-Class Trader (retail $10 each): Ship layouts printed with both hexes (for GURPS) and squares (Classic Traveller).

There will be at least one additional item added after launch; When a title is added to an offer after launch, ALL customers who previously purchased that offer automatically receive the newly added title, REGARDLESS of whether or not they paid more than average. This is their reward for buying early.

---

GURPS Traveller Imperial Survey [alien books, planetary guides]

http://bundleofholding.com/presents/GURPSTrav2

This companion offer, GURPS Traveller Imperial Survey, presents the Alien Races guides, Planetary Survey supplements, and the Far Trader supplement about mercantile campaigns. Both these offers include starship Deck Plans in .PDF versions that are available here for the first time anywhere.

The total retail value of the titles in this offer at launch is US$72. Customers who pay just US$7.95 get all four titles in this offer's Starter Collection (retail value $33) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks:

• Far Trader (retail price $10): Independent merchants and the economics of interstellar trade.
• Alien Races 1 (Zhodani/Vargr) (retail $10): The Zhodani, Vargr, and three minor races, all presented in thorough detail never before seen in Traveller by star GURPS writer David L. Pulver.
• Planetary Survey 3: Granicus (retail $3): A pirate stronghold that threatens from Imperial space to the frontier.
• Deck Plan 3: Empress Marava-Class Far Trader (retail $10): The ideal starship for a small commercial enterprise. GURPS Traveller Deck Plans are available in .PDF in these offers for the first time anywhere.

Those who pay more than the threshold (average) price, which is set at $18.95 to start, also get this offer's entire Bonus Collection with six more titles (retail value $39):

• Alien Races 2 (Aslan/K'kree), Alien Races 3 (Hivers/Droyne), and Alien Races 4 (retail $10 each): Detailed guides to the rest of the major nonhuman races in the Traveller universe.
• Planetary Survey 1: Kamsii, Survey 2: Denuli, and Survey 4: Glisten (retail $3 each): Three more guides to worlds and systems full of adventure.

Again, at least one more title will be added after launch.

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I think this is a good offer, especially if you're new to the Traveller universe; I'm not, and already have a lot of it in dead tree format. Even so I think it's worth considering, but as usual I have to point out I'm not paying for this stuff, if you are your mileage may vary.