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TNE-0300 Traveller: The New Era
 
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Average Rating:3.3 / 5
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TNE-0300 Traveller: The New Era
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TNE-0300 Traveller: The New Era
Publisher: Far Future Enterprises - Traveller
by Timothy B. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 05/18/2022 12:49:20

Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/05/review-traveller-new-era-1993.html

"Don't stop thinking about tomorrow Don't stop, it'll soon be here It'll be better than before Yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone."

Fleetwood Mac's 1977 hit "Don't Stop" came out the same year as Classic Traveller. It was also, more or less, the theme that covered the intro the 1990s. Newly elected Bill Clinton had used it as his campaign theme song and even Fleetwood Mac got back together long enough to play it at his inaugural ball in 1993. Think about the start of the 90s for a second. Everything seemed possible then. I was in Grad School, working part-time (only 60 hours a week) for the Navy writing code. I was taking classes, and teaching. I had broken up with my long-time girlfriend and soon started dating someone who would in just a few more years be my wife! So yeah the future was full of endless possibilities in 1993.

Traveller: The New Era feels like the most "1993" game ever. Tomorrow was here and Yesterday (Classic Traveller if you will) was gone.

For this review, I am only considering the PDF I just downloaded from DriveThruRPG. My original one was corrupted and I was wondering if I was even going to get to do this one today. I saw the PDF in DT was updated back 2014, so I grabbed a new one. Glad I did. I remember my first one was very hard to read and the text was blurry. This new one is much clearer. I also recall that some of the pages had a green background, this one does not.

Traveller: The New Era (1993)

PDF. 386 pages, color covers, black & white interior art. Oddly there are no PDF bookmarks in this file. The book is also available as a softcover PoD. I have no idea which printing this is. I understand the first printing had a few errors.

This book is a beast. I think (not 100% sure) that this was a boxed set of different books.

One of the first things I noticed about this edition is that Frank Chadwick and Dave Nilsen are listed for Game Design and Marc Millar is only listed for Design of the previous version of Traveller. I remember some of this back in the day, but for now, I am going to focus on just what is in the book.

The book is divided up into various large sections. The table of contents seems to deny my guess that this pdf was separate books at one point. Ok, no problem.

Introduction (and History)

This is our introduction to the Traveller Universe. The History section is the most important for this edition since it sets up how this is different than the previous editions. For starters, the Imperium has completely collapsed. Classic Traveller was taking place roughly around 1110 of the Imperial Calendar. MegaTraveller dealt with the aftermath of the Emperor's assassination in 1116. This Traveller jumps ahead by 85 or so years to the 1201 "The New Era." Honestly from a design/edition perspective, this makes a lot of sense.

It is a neat background and welcome (in a manner of speaking) to older players but new players likely won't care about this. The "world" of TNE is very different than that of MegaTraveller of Classic Traveller. Even at just a few pages it is still more background than we got in the LBB of Classic.

Characters

Character creation in TNE feels similar and different at the same time. You are still rolling 2d6, though now it is a 2d6-1. This changed the average from 7 to 6. There are still six attributes that are roughly the same. TNE has Strength, Agility, Constitution, Intelligence, Education, and Charisma. Classic Traveller had Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Intelligence, Education, and Social. So similar. TNE also offers a point spread of 36 to distribute if you prefer. We are still using the UPP, only now a 666666 denotes an average character instead of 777777. Abilities are determined, then the background generation begins. Like previous versions of Traveller, you decide on a homeworld (which can affect some abilities) and work out your starting careers.

This version seems to have more careers than previous versions, but keep in mind I am only looking at core books for now. Character generation covers about 43 pages total. So quite a lot really. NPCs cover about 8 pages, with a nice playing card system to determine motivations.

The character creation rules now make no assumption of species or gender, so that is left to the player. Thre are 5 pages of alien templates to add to characters at the end of this section. There are Hivers, Vargr, Aslan, Zhodani, and Droyne.

The New Era

This covers what is, well, new for this version of Traveller's universe. These are the AI Virus, the Star Vikings, and The Wilds. I don't need to know much about Traveller or TNE to know these elements were not well received. The Virus reads like how we looked at computer viruses in the 90s. The flowchart looks like something you would find on a Mac Quadra 900 (btw I consider that a Feature, not a Bug).

I can see a smart AI virus attacking all sorts of computers, but even today we have good anti-virus software and still a couple of dozen operating systems (I count 7 or 8 different ones in my house alone) that do not transmit viruses to each other even when networked.

The Star Vikings seem like an inevitable addition to the game. The Wilds, likewise.

All of this seems like an attempt to provide a little more chaos around the "edges" of the star systems. That is, give the PCs more to do and ways to make it through or hinder them in some ways.

Referees

A little more than a quarter of the way through we hit the Referee's section. The system seems closer to that of Traveller 2300 than it does of Classic Traveller or MegaTraveller. There are now d20 rolls added to the rules. Reading through in detail now there are a lot of d20 rolls. More details are given on how to make the rolls than I recall in MT or CT.

Skills are discussed in terms of what they can do. And the Referee gets some adventure ideas. This section is only about 70 pages. I was expecting a bit more.

Worlds & Travel

Now, this is a meaty section of about 100 pages. The world generation system feels similar-ish to other Traveller games, no point reinventing everything I guess. Though there is a lot more detail here. It does look like it can create worlds much the same way as MegaTraveller.

This section also includes the Encounters and Animals sections from previous versions with some modifications. Same with space travel.

Interestingly enough the Psionics section, usually stuck into the back of the book, is now here. I still think it should be with Character creation, but ok. It is also expanded. In the realm of purely new-to-a-core-rules material, there is a sections robots. Even if it tells us there are nearly no production facilities for robots still operational outside of the Spinward Marches in the New Era.

Combat

The next nearly 100 pages deal with all forms of combat. From personal to space combat. The rules are updated and seem to cover most situations. Hard to tell without doing it. I am still thinking I need to run simulated combat for each version to see how they are. Do something silly like a Borg Cube vs the Death Star or a Colonial Viper vs an X-Wing vs. a Buck Rogers Thunderfighter.

Combat is different than other versions of Traveller.

There is some advice here too on using minis in a game. Their recommendation is to paint them all white to make them easier to see. "Step 5 Admire your Work" is something I do naturally!

Equipment & Technology

The section covers roughly 40 pages. I can't help but notice the effect that Star Trek: The Next Generation has seem to have had here. Med bays and medical scanners look like they were taken from a Federation garage sale. Ok...it's not that bad. Excuse a little levity on my part here. We still have a section on drugs.

We are keeping the same assumptions (and rules) about Technology Levels which is still hanging out at TL 16.

Computers have fared a little better in this edition. At least the batteries of the future are closer to what we have right now. I hate to harp on this, but my phone today can do nearly everything on pages 340 to 343. I am being unduly harsh here I know.

The section of Starships though once again fills my heart with longing for the stars. Many of these I am familiar with. You may not have been on the internet talking about Star Trek or starships, but I certainly was.

The last few pages are worksheets for Characters, Combat charts, and the Index.

--

So. My feeling on Traveller TNE is that it was an attempt to keep Traveller moving forward.

I have gone through the TNE book more and compared them to my "Gold Standard" the Traveller Book and I am now seeing a lot more differences in terms of rules than I did on my first couple of read-throughs. This is the issue with reading a gamebook vs. playing the game. Further research outside of this book lets me know that other GDW games of the time were using the same rules. This is expected really. Game companies began to discover that using one system in-house was much cheaper in the long run. Not only did it mean you could hire fewer people to write, but you could also lift large sections of text from one game to fill in for another. This does create an issue though. There are two different writing "tones" here. I have no evidence but I am going to say the older-ish material was Frank Chadwick and the newer stuff was Dave Nilsen.

Rereading the rules prior to this post it dawned on my why I felt so much of it was familiar. It was Traveller-speak, but the rules were an old favorite of mine Dark Conspiracy. I rather liked that game back in the later 90s when I first encountered it and was looking for a new horror game to be my "home game" (spoiler, it was CJ Carrella's WitchCraft that won that battle!)

This an interesting idea though. Dark Conspiracy + Traveller The New Era would make for an interesting BlackStar-like game. I am sure I am not the only one who did that. Given the post-apoc feel of TNE I am not sure that hoards of undead would not feel so out of place, to be honest.

So we have a system that the older players don't like and newer players can't get into in a setting that the older players hate and the newer players have no investment in. Sound about right?

Still. There are some ideas here that I might mine. I am glad I have the PDF but I am not picking up the PoD anytime soon.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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TNE-0300 Traveller: The New Era
Publisher: Far Future Enterprises - Traveller
by Dan S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/25/2019 19:49:29

this is NOT the most up-to-date version. this is a first printing copy and requires TONS of errata to function. Now I have to track an actual updated copy.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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TNE-0300 Traveller: The New Era
Publisher: Far Future Enterprises - Traveller
by Paxton K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/30/2015 01:13:02

Ok, scan pretty crappy. Reading glasses helped.

Ok, why bother with something that that is that difficult to read? Because this is like the ultimate GDW game.

Not the rules. Not even exactly the setting.

I still have my first Traveller books from the boxed set. Almost 30 years ago exactly (it was a Christmas present), I started Traveller. The rules have never been its strongest point. Well and even the setting. To me what made Traveller "Traveler" was it was limitless worlds and cultures to explore. Each planet held such a vast realm of possibility. I have tried Mega, Advanced and T20.

Still I went back to basic. Overhauled the skill list. Modified the combat system. Tweeked the Power Plant fuel on starship design. Why no cell phones? Of course they have cell phones! But a Traveller communicator is Solid State, it works under all conditions. Same reason Marines use cutlasses and they use guns and not ray beams.

Twilight 2000, the original, was another love affair and I accepted her through all her awkwardness.

Finally, they have met.

Its been 16 years since Strephon's assassination and the whole Imperium gets nuked! Traveller made your character generation the end of gaining anything for the most part. Changing a number for the positive practically impossible. With this in mind, those characters make the perfect "survivors". Don't wait generations. What do you want mutations? Traveller TNE has done what Traveller did in the first place. Their are almost an infinite number of worlds to explore. just this time they are destroyed.

This may be the greatest version of Twilight ever made. Lose that APC in Poland. now that Tramp Free Trader may be the only one left in the ruins of a sector and the drives need an overhaul.

Traveller was never Star Wars or Star Trek. It was limited; but that to me made it limitless. The strange aliens were what Man could become if left alone for 500 years or simply chose to diverge that way. Star Wars was all flash and Star Trek was alien of the week and how really we are all the same deep down.

Traveller was about how everyone deep down was different and imperfect. Mankind finds a race that lives harmoniously by reading each other's thoughts. We declare war!

Do I recommend you buy it? Only if you love Traveller or the idea of Traveller. This rule system may work for you, if not, find one of Traveller's rule sets that do. This will sound messed up; but...

Marc Miller created a timeless game and setting. And the best thing that ever happened to it, is destroying it!

This will take Traveller my game for probably the rest of my life. 30 years of experiencing it and another 30 surviving it. I can't wait to figure out how to make a planet full of zombies! And every other way to destroy the Imperium!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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TNE-0300 Traveller: The New Era
Publisher: Far Future Enterprises - Traveller
by Toby D. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/27/2014 01:00:02

This is a scan of the earliest print run of this book. They should really be selling the mark 1 mod 1 version.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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TNE-0300 Traveller: The New Era
Publisher: Far Future Enterprises - Traveller
by Mark O. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/25/2013 18:19:32

I remembered playing Traveller in the early 80's with great affection and was so excited to get this and the several other TNE PDFs I bought at the same time, but now I very much regret the purchase.

This has to be one of the worst scans I have ever seen. There are no bookmarks, which is only a minor annoyance, and the text is so blurry it is hardly legible. I gave up trying to read it three pages in because my eyes were watering from the strain of making out the letters.

Unless you already own a physical copy are just looking for a PDF for quick reference do not waste your money on this.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
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TNE-0300 Traveller: The New Era
Publisher: Far Future Enterprises - Traveller
by Richard C. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/08/2008 15:26:09

Asa a great fan of both Megatraveller and classic Traveller, I was happy to see that this product continued in the spirit of both. As a new, larger, gaming supplement (over 300 pages) it has the dificulty of balancing sheer longwindedness over actual substance. In my opinion, the narrative sections of the book really add to the rules portions. Unlike, T4 and the Megatraveller, the referee will not find pages and pages of numbers, "flow charts," tables and deckplans. Instead, The book provided well-written narrative to support its rules portions. As a large, clumsy book, it is a bit hard to navigate from a rules standpoint, but the narratives allow referees plenty of material for the creation of new adventures. Unlike many other Traveller versions, TNE includes information on all species of aliens in charted space. In order to get this level of quality in CT, GURPS or MegaTraveller, one must buy many alien supplents. Combine this fact with the ever changing technology in modern versions of the game like T20, T4 and/or Traveller 5, and you will find that a complete Traveller system (with aliens, supplements and starship designs) does not exist except in the original game.

That was a tragedy for MegaTraveller and GURPS, but TNE doesn't have that problem. All the rules are here. The PDF quality is outstanding and the gaming engine is as approachable to newcomers as it is to fans of all of the other incarnations of the game. Whether or not Virus was a good idea is irrelelevant here. reviewers who don't like the product should not buy it. I felt that TNE was a game that was the natural progression of Twighlight 2000, 2300 A.D. and StarMercs 2000. TNE is a refreshing new bent on the old GDW tradition of uniting games under a common gaming system. I recommend this alongside of Classic Traveller and I challenge the new player to unite the two in a way that fans of both games will enjoy it. I think its greatest weakness is its length and amount of narrative between actual gaming stats.

One thing about the games and documents available here at "DriveThru" is the fact that errata and extra material is actually written on the PDF.There is no need to cycle back and forth between numerous errata shteets. That makes these PDF's much more valuable than even some of the books.

One thing that really irritated me was



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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