The Traveller Canon

GAME SETS SUPPLEMENTS

Basic Traveller (1st edition) S1 1001 Characters
Basic Traveller (revised) S2 Animal Encounters
Starter Traveller S3 The Spinward Marches
Deluxe Traveller S4 Citizens of the Imperium
The Traveller Book S5 Lightning Class Cruisers
The Traveller Adventure S6 76 Patrons
S7 Traders & Gunboats
BOOKS S8 Library Data (A-M)
B0 Introduction To Traveller S9 Fighting Ships
B1 Characters and Combat S10 The Solomani Rim
B2 Starships S11 Library Data (N-Z)
B3 Worlds and Adventures S12 Forms & Charts
B4 Mercenary S13 Veterans
B5 High Guard
B6 Scouts ADVENTURES
B7 Merchant Prince A0 The Imperial Fringe
B8 Robots A1 The Kinunir
A2 Research Station Gamma
ALIENS A3 Twilight's Peak
AM1 Aslan A4 Leviathan
AM2 K'kree A5 Trillion Credit Squadron
AM3 Vargr A6 Expedition to Zhodane
AM4 Zhodani A7 Broadsword
AM5 Droyne A8 Prison Planet
AM6 Solomani A9 Nomads of the World Ocean
AM7 Hivers A10 Safari Ship
AM8 Damans A11 Murder on Arcturus Station
A12 Secret of the Ancients
SHORT ADVENTURES A13 Signal GK
D1 Shadows/Annic Nova
D2 Mithril/Bright Face MODULES
D3 Argon Gambit/Death Station M1 Tarsus (boxed)
D4 Marooned/Marooned Alone M2 Beltstrike (boxed)
D5 Chamax Plague/Horde M3 Spinward Marches Campaign
D6 Night/Divine Intervention M4 Atlas of the Imperium
D7 Perruques/Stranded M5 Alien Realms
S8 Memory Alpha

The Traveller Canon is the body of work which defines the Traveller universe.
Individual game masters and players continue to define their particular universes
through their adventures, designs, and world generation procedures. The
common set of facts that all base their activities on is the Traveller Canon.
The Traveller Canon is defined as the set of Traveller materials published by
GDW as Classic Traveller materials. This list details the titles that are properly
included in the Traveller Canon.
 The Traveller Canon
THE JOURNAL GAMES
J01 Annic Nova G1 Mayday
J02 Victoria G2 Snapshot
J03 Asteroids G3 Azhanti High Lightning
J04 Gazelle G4 Fifth Frontier War
J05 Imperium G5 Invasion: Earth
J06 Imperial interstellar Scouts G6 Striker
J07 Champa Starport Imperium
J08 Broadsword Dark Nebula
J09 War
J10 Planet-Building CHALLENGE MAGAZINE
J11 Striker C25 Fleet Escort Lisiani
J12 Merchant Prince C26 Contact: The Prt'
J13 Hivers C27 Grandfather's Worlds
J14 Laws and Lawbreakers C28 Contact: The Sabmiqys
J15 Azun C29 Scientists
J16 Susag C30 imperium
J17 Atmospheres C31 Hazardous Cargoes
J18 Travelling without Jumping C32 A World On Its Own
J19 Skyport Authority C33 Iris
J20 Ways of Kuzu C34 Traveller News Service
J21 Vargr
J22 Port to Port Jumping POSTERS
J23 Zhodani Philosophies Beowulf Traveller Poster
J24 Religion of the 2000 Worlds Vargr Poster
Imperium Map Poster
BEST OF THE JOURNAL
BJ1 Best of the Journal 1 PROMOTIONAL
BJ2 Best of the Journal 2 Understanding Traveller
BJ3 Best of the Journal 3 Traveller Galaxy Sticker
BJ4 Best of the Journal 4 Alien Hand-Out

Books present additional rules on specific subjects, expanding on Traveller's

basic concepts. Books run 48 to 56 pages and may be used independently or
together, but all require the basic rules sets.
Supplements provide different types of data, including starships, star
systems, characters, and animals in pre-generated form.
Adventures provide exciting scenarios for sessions of Traveller play. Double
Adventures are shorter adventures packaged two to a book.
Boardgames translate important parts of the Traveller universe to a more
traditional game with boards and pieces. When referees are not available, these
games for two or more players allow the adventures to continue.
Modules package more information than supplements, at times combining
them with scenarios or adventures to make them more immediately usable.
Alien Modules use the module format to define and explain specific alien
races for Traveller.
BOOK 1. Characters and Combat
BOOK 2. Starships
BOOK 3. Worlds and Adventures
The three original books in the Traveller package were first released
at the Origins Wargame Convention in Staten Island, NY in 1977. A
revised second edition was produced in 1981; the revised edition is the
one in this compilation.
Books 1, 2, and 3 were not marketed separately; they came bundled
as Basic Traveller (three books in a 6 x 9 inch box) or Deluxe Traveller
(three books, plus Book 0 and Adventure 0 in a larger 9x12 box).

BOOK 4. Mercenary
Mercenary was the first of the supplementary rules systems to
appear for Classic Traveller. It appeared in 1978.
Mercenary set the stage for Traveller's continuing emphasis on the
military. It was a natural expansion of two character types: Army and
Marines, and led ultimately to the Traveller miniatures rules set: Striker.

BOOK 5. High Guard

High Guard did for naval characters what Mercenary did for the
army and marines. The first edition in 1979 suffered from a flawed
starship design system, and it was replaced by a revised edition in 1980.
The revised pages 17 to 52 also appeared in the Journal of the
Travellers' Aid Society (to reduce the need for owners of the first edition
to buy the second edition).

BOOK 6. Scouts
Scouts (1983) addressed in detail the Imperial Interstellar Scout
Service: its organization, duties, and operations. The central feature of
Scouts was its expanded star system generation sequence which
allowed determination of the specifics of a system's stars (by size and
spectral type) and creation of the many additional planets and satellites
in a system.

BOOK 7. Merchant Prince

Merchant Prince character generation originally appeared as a
Special Supplement bound into the Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society
No. 12. Merchant Prince (1985) expanded on this character generation
system with a detailed trade and commerce system and with details on
how merchant organizations are organized.

BOOK 8. Robots
Robots (1986) addressed an aspect of the future which Traveller
had previously acknowledged, but rarely covered. Based on material in
the first three issues of Travellers' Digest, it expanded and elaborated on
the concepts to produce Book 8.
 The Traveller Books (0-8)
Title Print Runs Production First Published
Basic Traveller 12 64,320 1977
Basic Traveller revised 8 72,410 1981
Book 4 Mercenary 23 103,849 1978
Book 5 High Guard 17 100.638 1979
Book 6 Scouts 6 25.584 1983
Book 7 Merchant Prince 3 12.156 1985
Book 8 Robots 2 11.785 1986
Book 0 Introduction 7 48.707 1981
The Traveller Book 3 39,932 1982
Deluxe Traveller 6 37,882 1981
Starter Traveller 9 34,041 1983

Basic Traveller included Books 1, 2, and 3 in a box.

Deluxe Traveller included Books 0, 1, 2, and 3, Adventure 0, a map
of the Spinward Marches, and additional materials in a box.
The Traveller Book included the text of Books 1, 2, and 3, plus some
material from Book 0 and other new material. The Traveller Book was
produced in hardcover (with a dust jacket) and in softcover.
Starter Traveller included its own re-formatted version of the text of
Books 1, 2, and 3 in a box (the game box design with art by David
Deitrick won a packaging award from the Hobby Industry of America the
year it was introduced).

SELLING GOLD
Steve Jackson has proposed a criteria for a Gold or Best Seller
standard in the adventure game field: 100,000 copies sold. By this
criteria, Basic Traveller, Book 4, and Book 5 sold Gold.

AN AWARD-WINNING GAME SYSTEM

Traveller was inducted into the Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame in
1997 on the 20th anniversary of its publication.
Traveller was featured as part of Games Magazine's Games 100 for
1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, and 1991.

CLASSIC TRAVELLER
During the life of the first edition, Traveller was simply called
Traveller; various formats were called Basic, Deluxe, and Starter. The
term Classic Traveller (which refers to the first edition) arose to
distinguish it from later editions (MegaTraveller, Traveller: The New
Era, T4, GURPS Traveller, and Traveller5).
Yet More About The Traveller Universe
The short adventures for Traveller were created with the specific
intent of providing easy-to-play situations that players could game out
over the course of an evening. Because a short adventure took up only
20 pages or so, the immediate problem was creating a structure or
template suitable for short scenarios; one answer was the sometimes
confusing Double Adventure format. Another was the Short Adventure,
included in other products, as a magazine article, or as a tournament
adventure.

PRODUCTION INFORMATION
The production information given here was compiled from the original
production records in the archives of Game Designers' Workshop,
Signed Designer Copies. GDW had the general practice (not
always observed) of segregating the first ten copies of each new product
and affixing a sticker with the initial publication date and the signature of
the designer. A few signed designer copies were handed out to designers
and developers. The remainder were kept in GDW's archives. From time
to time, when a writer or collector needed a specific Adventure (and no
others were available) signed designer copies were sent out instead (so a
few are out in circulation or in Traveller collections).
Print Run Number. The publication data page of each of the Little
Black Books contains a string of numbers (1 2 3 4 5). The lowest
number in the string indicates the printing for the book. If the lowest
number is 3, the book in hand was the third printing. In some cases, the
printing numbers for books in the Traveller series reached as high as 23
(Book 4- Mercenary).
Price Points. The original price structure for the Little Black Books
reflected GDW's evaluation of the work involved and the general utility of
each type of product. Books (because they reflected basic rules which
were used over and over) were priced at $6.00; Adventures and Double
Adventures sold for $5.00; Supplements sold for $4.00.

THE DOUBLE ADVENTURES

GDW produced six Double Adventures between 1980 and 1982.
Through the 1940's, the 1950's, and even into the 1960's, Ace (a
science-fiction publisher) produced a series of double novels, some of
them pulp and some of them now classics. Each was too short to be
published on its own, but by lumping two together, they were closer to the
standard pulp novel size. Each Ace Double printed two short novels back
to back; each had its own color cover; when the reader finished
 The Traveller Short Adventures (1-6+)
Print Year
No. Title Runs Total Published
DA 1 Shadows / Annic Nova 7 26,414 1980
DA 2 Mithril / Bright Face 6 21,150 1980
DA 3 Argon Gambit / Death Station 4 21,320 1981
DA 4 Marooned / Marooned Alone 2 14,352 1981
DA 5 Chamax Plague / Horde 2 12,683 1982
DA 6 Divine Intervention / Night 2 14,567 1982
DA 7 A Plague of Perruques (tournament) 1 10 1985
DA 7 Stranded On Arden (magazine) 2 6,000 1981
SA 8 Memory Alpha (tournament) 1 20 1984
SS 1 Merchant Prince 1 8,611 1984
SS 2 Exotic Atmospheres 1 8,520 1983
SS 3 Missiles 1 7,370 1984
A 0 Imperial Fringe 1 5,100 1985

one novel, he (most SF readers of the era were mate) turned it over with
a flick of the wrist and began the second novel,
Traveller Double Adventures imitated this format and combined two
short adventures back to back. The format suffered for two reasons. For
many referees and players, the obscure reference to Ace Doubles was
too opaque. In game stores, clerks were confused and sometimes
displayed the same Double Adventure side by side with itself. There were
reports of players buying the same adventure twice,

Double Adventure 1- Annic Nova

Double Adventure 1- Shadows
Annic Nova detailed a Marie Celeste-type ship encountered randomly
in space (the material originally appeared in the initial issue of the Journal
of the Travellers' Aid Society). By the way, ANNIC NOVA is the ship's
registration number in archaic Vilani numerals (somewhat like Roman
numerals are used in English): It reads: 4000019 00024.
Shadows detailed an alien complex with a self-defense system still
operating. This short adventure was also included in The Traveller
Book. These two adventures experimented with basic concepts that
players wanted to see... ships and places for them to explore.

Double Adventure 2- Mission On Mithril

Double Adventure 2- Across the Bright Face
Mission on Mithril sets a group of adventurers on a survey of a world.
It provides a glimpse of Ancient artifacts to the players.
 Across the Bright Face forces the group to escape from a workers'
revolution. It provides a new vehicle (with a drawing by Paul Jaquays).
Both adventures make use of the geodesic world hex maps,

Double Adventure 3- Death Station

Double Adventure 3- The Argon Gambit
Death Station is an adventure on a haunted space station (and was
strongly influenced by Alien). The Argon Gambit introduced Traveller
players to the Solomani (and to an FGMP-15)

Double Adventure 4- Marooned

Double Adventure 4- Marooned Alone
In a continuing effort to provide new adventure ideas, Loren
Wiseman created this Double Adventure addressing castaways on a
world: as a group and individually.

Double Adventure 5- Chamax Plague

Double Adventure 5- Horde
A preliminary scenario (Rescue) sets the stage and introduces the
participants to the situation, and thereafter they encounter the Chamax.

Double Adventure 6- Divine Intervention

Double Adventure 6- Night of Conquest
Divine Intervention is a mission to change the policies of a religious
dictator. Night of Conquest involves the group in a conflict on a newly
discovered world.

Double Adventure 7- A Plague of Perruques

Double Adventure 7- Stranded On Arden
GDW created two short adventures late in the Double Adventure series
but they never reached the publication stage. They were instead used for
other purposes.
A Plague of Perruques was published as a tournament adventure. It
takes the group to a world and presents them with a puzzle they must
solve. The adventure was used at several game conventions in the mid-
1980's.
Stranded On Arden originally appeared in Adventure Gaming
magazine. It was later rewritten (dropping some features, changing the
date, world, and setting) and included in The Traveller Book as a short
introductory adventure entitled Exit Visa.

Short Adventure 8- Memory Alpha

Memory Alpha requires the adventurers to explore parts of the Corridor
sector. It was used as a tournament adventure, and distributed in limited
numbers in the later 1980's.
THE SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS
Three Special Supplements were published in the Journal of the
Travellers' Aid Society. These Supplements were also printed separately
in limited quantity for distribution at game conventions.

Special Supplement 1- Merchant Prince

The first of the Special Supplements adapted the Mercenary character
generation system to the merchant character class. This system was
later adapted to Book 7- Merchant Prince, It also appears in Journal of
the Travellers' Aid Society No. 11.

Special Supplement 2- Exotic Atmospheres

This Special Supplement discussed a variety of scientifically based
explanations for the Exotic Atmosphere category of the Universal World
Profile. It also appears in Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society No. 17.

Special Supplement 3- Missiles

The third Special Supplement dealt with space combat missiles for the
basic Traveller system. It originally appeared in the Journal of the
Travellers' Aid Society No. 17.

The Imperial Fringe

Deluxe Traveller included The Imperial Fringe as an introductory
adventure,., when used in conjunction with the map of the Spinward
Marches, the players found reasons to visit many of its worlds.
The Imperial Sunburst
In the course of creating a graphic symbol for Traveller's interstellar
empire, several graphic devices were considered and discarded.
Ultimately, Marc Miller settled on the blazing sun symbol... the Imperial
Sunburst, The symbol was originally created as die cut counter art for
inclusion in Conflict Games' Iliad board game. The symbol above is
taken from the authoritative original counter art drawing.

The Map of the Imperium, 1105

Traveller was envisioned as a generic science-fiction system which
could be used to recreate any science-fiction story or situation. In the
design process, Miller created a vast generic interstellar empire as a
background against which adventures could be played.
Once this Imperium was created, it took on a life of its own. The map
to the left is the original draft map of the Third Imperium (circa 1105)
which served as a continuing reference for designers, referees, and
players.
 The Universe of Traveller
Welcome to the exciting universe of the far future!
Who knows what the future holds? With Traveller, you
can find out as you personally journey far into the depths
of interstellar space and to the surface of alien worlds.
With Traveller, you can choose your own destiny and
attempt to fulfill it in a life of adventure, power, and
fortune. With Traveller, the universe of the future is
yours.

So begins the box back for Basic Traveller, leading the player to the
three books (Books 1, 2, and 3) that were the basis for the Traveller
science-fiction role-playing game.
The original Traveller game rules were known as the Little Black
Books (the LBBs): so named for their format as 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 digest-
sized booklets with stark black covers. These easy-to-carry and easy-to-
consult game books established a feel for the Traveller system that
players and game masters remember even today. Individual books sold
for varying prices (Supplements were $4; Adventures were $5; Books
were $6) with several appearing through the course of a year. Ultimately,
there were nine Books and more than 30 other LBBs (depending on
which titles are specifically counted).
The relative scarcity of the various books in the Classic Traveller
series is not (as might be expected) inversely proportional to the size of
their print runs. Although small print runs have made some books and
materials in the desirable collector's items, many books are hard to find
because their current owners will not give them up. The production
information given here was compiled from the original production
records in the archives of Game Designers' Workshop.
Signed Designer Copies. GDW had the general practice (not
always observed) of segregating the first ten copies of each new product
and affixing a sticker with the initial publication date and the signature of
the designer. Some very few players are lucky to have their particular
copy enhanced by a signed and numbered sticker.
Print Run Number. The publication data page (counting from the
front of the book, the publication data page is page 2: the page after the
title page) of each of the Little Black Books contains a string of numbers
(1 2 3 4 5 etc). The lowest number in the string indicates the printing
for the book. If the lowest number is 3, the book in hand was the third
printing. In some cases, the printing numbers for books in the Traveller
series reached as high as 23 (Book 4- Mercenary).