Editing Traveller (role-playing game) (section)

== Design ==

Traveller is a tabletop role-playing game. Characters journey between star systems, engaging in exploration, ground and space battles, and interstellar trading. One player, the game master or referee, oversees task attempts and guides events as the players explore the setting.

Characters are defined not by the need to increase native skill and ability but by achievements, discoveries, wealth, and so on.

===Influences and inspiration===
Marc Miller lists a number of books that influenced ''Traveller'' and provided its key features:<ref name="appelcline2016">{{Cite book |last=Appelcline |first=Shannon |title=The Science Fiction in Traveller |date=2016 |publisher=Far Future Enterprises |isbn=978-1-55878-049-1 |location=USA }}</ref>{{rp|}}

* ''[[Dorsai]]'', [[Gordon R. Dickson]], 1960
* ''[[Dumarest of Terra]]'' saga, [[Edwin Charles Tubb]], 1967-2008
* ''Envoy to New Worlds'', [[Keith Laumer]], 1963
* ''[[Hammer's Slammers]]'', [[David Drake]], 1979
* ''Retief's Peace'', [[Keith Laumer]], [[William H. Keith]], 2005
* ''[[Space Viking]]'', [[H. Beam Piper]], 1963
* ''The Cosmic Computer'', [[H. Beam Piper]], 1963

===Key features===
Some of these key features include:

* ''Commerce:'' Commerce is the major driving force of civilization.
* ''Human-centric but cosmopolitan:'' The core rules focus on human characters, but there is support for using and playing aliens.
* ''Limited communication:'' There is no [[Faster-than-light communication]] – meaning no [[ansible]], [[Subspace (Star Trek)|subspace radio]], or similar. Communication is limited to the speed of travel. Decisions are made on the local level rather than by a remote authority.
* ''Morals and mortality:'' People remain people and continue to show courage, wisdom, honesty and justice, along with cowardice, deceit, and criminal behavior.
* ''Sociological:'' Interstellar society is socially stratified (high, mid, and low passage; SOC (Social Status) is a primary character attribute). Affairs are often managed by independent nobility, who make use of classic titles such as Baron, Duke and Archduke.

=== Characters ===
''Traveller'' uses a lifepath-style system for [[Character creation|character generation]]. Characters get skills and experience in a mini-game where the player makes career choices determining the character's life up to the point before adventuring begins.

A character can be human, robot, alien, or of a genetically engineered species. A character can be civilian, military, or noble, a young cadet, or a tried-and-true veteran, each with strengths and weaknesses. Death during character generation is possible in some editions, a mechanic that became infamous.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}

Characters have six primary characteristics, generated by a roll of two six-sided dice. Other characteristics also exist to add nuance to alien characters.

Some characters have extra-sensory perception, telekinesis, telepathy, and other psychic abilities, which are organized and standardized into "psionics".

=== Equipment ===

Equipment emphasizes wilderness exploration, hazardous environments, and combat. As a result, equipment lists are heavy on vehicles, sensor equipment, communicators, rations, [[personal armor]], and weapons.

; Low-technology: Since primitive worlds exist near technological worlds, primitive weapons such as swords, shields, pikes, and bows are included. Characters often have some sort of blade skill for close combat.
; High-technology: Cybernetics and non-sentient robots also show up in equipment lists, as do artifacts from ancient civilizations.
; Hard Sci-fi Flavor: Along with energy weapons, there is also a strong presence of slug-throwing weapons such as rifles and pistols. The prevailing theory is that (usually) the most efficient way to stop someone is with kinetic energy (e.g. bullets).

=== Starships ===
Starships range from small one-person scouts, to giant planetoid colony ships. Design rules balance power, life support, and defenses for consistent ships. GDW published several board games allowing ''Traveller'' space battles to be played out as games in their own right - ''[[Mayday (game)|Mayday]]'', ''Brilliant Lances'' and ''Battle Rider'' for example.

=== Worlds ===
Worlds range from barren planetoid moons to large gas giant worlds, from uncolonized territories to planets with billions of people. The world generation rules produce a random mix of worlds.