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| Designers | Loren Wiseman |
|---|---|
| Publishers | Steve Jackson Games |
| Publication | 1998 |
| Genres | Science fiction |
| Systems | GURPS |
GURPS Traveller is a set of table-top role-playing game books by Steve Jackson Games, designed to allow game play in the Third Imperium science-fiction setting from the original Traveller using the GURPS rule system. Loren Wiseman (formerly of Game Designers' Workshop) wrote the core book for GURPS Traveller and served as line editor.
Steve Jackson had long been a fan of Traveller, and had previously talked to Digest Group Publications about publishing a GURPS Traveller as far back as the late 1980s. [1] : 111 Following the 1996 dissolution of Game Designers' Workshop, Jackson was able to obtain the Traveller license from Marc Miller, [1] : 111 while Miller simultaneously licensed Traveller to Imperium Games. [1] : 63 Jackson had Loren Wiseman produce GURPS Traveller, set in an alternate history timeline since the classic Traveller setting was then licensed to Imperium Games. [1] : 111 Following its publication, Steve Jackson Games supported GURPS Traveller by publishing numerous supplemental background books continuing through 2003, and the Journal of the Travellers Aid Society was brought back as an online magazine similar to Pyramid in 2000. [1] : 111
The game uses the GURPS (Third Edition) system and takes place in an alternate timeline in which no Rebellion occurred and the Virus was never released. Steve Jackson Games has produced over 30 high-quality supplements for the line, including details for all of the major races, many of the minor races, interstellar trade, expanded world generation, the military forces of the Third Imperium, and starships. The game is often referred to as "GT". Loren Wiseman who worked with Game Designers' Workshop in the design and development of Traveller was the GURPS Traveller line manager and editor of the online magazine Journal of the Travellers Aid Society.
In August 2007, Mongoose Publishing announced changes in Traveller license and a strongly supported reintroduction of the Traveller system: Steve Jackson Games licence for the Journal of the Travellers Aid Society runs until the end of 2011. [2] The distribution of GURPS Traveller products by Steve Jackson Games finally ceased at the end of 2015.[ citation needed ]
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Loren Wiseman and Jon Zeigler have attempted to keep the information, equipment, characters, style, and atmosphere of GURPS Traveller as close as possible to the original Classic Traveller universe. However, the use of the GURPS rules means there are several differences between playing GURPS Traveller as opposed to the original Classic Traveller.
The core GURPS ruleset was updated to a streamlined version with the August 2004 release of its fourth edition. [3] In February, 2006, Steve Jackson Games released GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars . This book includes updated versions of the most essential mechanics found in the third edition books, including system generation, starship construction, starship combat, and interstellar trade.
The book also presents a new setting. Prior books in the GURPS Traveller line were set in an alternate timeline of the Third Imperium where the Rebellion did not take place - around the year 1120 (since the founding of the Imperium). GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars is set almost 2500 years prior to the founding of the Third Imperium, with a default year of A.D. 2170. The humans from Earth finally invent a faster-than-light drive for their space ships. They soon make first-contact with extraterrestrial aliens, and those aliens are human. The Interstellar Wars was intended as a much more dynamic campaign setting than the essentially static background of the Third Imperium offered in previous GURPS Traveller publications.
Steve Jackson Games also published the Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society, the official magazine of Traveller. [4]
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Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society is a role-playing game magazine devoted to Traveller, commonly abbreviated JTAS.
Steve Jackson Games (SJGames) is a game company, founded in 1980 by Steve Jackson, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games, and the gaming magazine Pyramid.
Traveller is a science fiction role-playing game first published in 1977 by Game Designers' Workshop. Marc Miller designed Traveller with help from Frank Chadwick, John Harshman, and Loren Wiseman. Editions were published for GURPS, d20, and other role-playing game systems. From its origin and in the currently published systems, the game relied upon six-sided dice for random elements. Traveller has been featured in a few novels and at least two video games.
A generic or universalrole-playing game system is a role-playing game system designed to be independent of setting and genre. Its rules should, in theory, work the same way for any setting, world, environment or genre in which one would want to play.
Marc William Miller is a wargame and role-playing game designer and author.
GURPS Basic Set is a role playing game publication written by Steve Jackson, Sean M. Punch, and David L. Pulver. The first edition GURPS Basic Set box was published in 1986, a standalone third edition book in 1988, and a hardcover, two-volume fourth edition in 2004.
In many works of modern fantasy, elves are depicted as a race or species of pointy-eared humanoid beings. These depictions arise from the álfar of Norse mythology influencing elves in fantasy as being semi-divine and of human stature, whose key traits are being friendly with nature and animals. However, this differs from Norse and the traditional elves found in Middle Ages folklore and Victorian era literature.
Loren Keith Wiseman was an American wargame and role-playing game designer, game developer and editor.
GURPS Space is a sourcebook published by Steve Jackson Games (SJG) for use with GURPS, published in four editions from 1988 to 2006.
Character creation is the process of defining a player character in a role-playing game. The result of character creation is a direct characterization that is recorded on a character sheet. This may include a representation of the character's physical, mental, psychological, and social attributes and skills in terms of the specific game's mechanics. It may also include informal descriptions of the character's physical appearance, personality, personal back-story ("background"), and possessions. Games with a fantasy setting may include traits such as race, class, or species. Character creation is the first step taken by the players in preparation for a game.
GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars is the first fourth edition book in the GURPS Traveller role-playing game series, by Steve Jackson Games, set early in the history of the Traveller universe.
GURPS Discworld and the related supplements are role-playing game sourcebooks set in Terry Pratchett's Discworld fantasy universe using the GURPS role-playing game system. GURPS Discworld was designed by Phil Masters and first published in 1998.
David L. Pulver is a Canadian freelance writer and game designer, author of more than fifty role-playing game rulebooks and supplements, including the award-winning Transhuman Space.
MegaTraveller 1: The Zhodani Conspiracy is a 1990 space science fiction role-playing video game based on the Traveller series and was produced by Game Designers' Workshop licensee Paragon Software for Amiga, Atari ST, and MS-DOS. The game is set within the Official Traveller Universe and features character creation and other aspects of game mechanics compatible with prior Traveller products. The player controls up to five ex-military adventurers whose objective is to save their civilization, the Imperium, from a conspiracy instigated by the Zhodani, a rival spacefaring race, and aided by the actions of a traitor named Konrad Kiefer. Gameplay features real-time planetary and space exploration, combat, trading, and interaction with various non-player characters in eight solar systems containing twenty-eight visitable planets.
GURPS Aliens is a sourcebook for GURPS published in 1990.
GURPS Steampunk is a role-playing game sourcebook written by William H. Stoddard and published by Steve Jackson Games in 2000. The supplement facilitates play in the steampunk genre using the GURPS system. Upon publication, the book won the Origins Award for "Best Roleplaying Supplement". As the most detailed definition of the genre at the time, it was also credited with reifying the attributes of steampunk. GURPS Steampunk was accompanied by licensed publications in the world of Castle Falkenstein and followed by supplements by Jo Ramsay and Phil Masters. Since 2016, SJG has published additional releases in the genre, compatible with GURPS Fourth Edition.
Traveller Supplement 11: Library Data (N-Z) is a tabletop role-playing game supplement, published by Game Designers' Workshop.
Traveller Alien Module 7: Hivers is a supplement published by Game Designers' Workshop (GDW) in 1986 for the science fiction role-playing game Traveller.