Traveller_5th_Edition_-_Core_Rulebook.pdf

T RAVELLER

Core Rulebook

C REDITS

C ONTENTS

Classic Traveller

Marc Miller

C HARACTER C REATION

S KILLS AND T ASKS

Loren Wiseman, John Harshman, Frank Chadwick, Darryl Hany,

Winston Hamilton, Tony Svajlenka, Scott Renner, Doug Poe,

David MacDonald, Wayne Roth, Paul R. Banner.

E NCOUNTERS AND D ANGERS

E QUIPMENT

Mongoose Traveller

A UTHOR

Gareth Hanrahan

S PACECRAFT D ESIGN

105

C OMMON S PACECRAFT

114

S PACECRAFT O PERATIONS

137

S PACE C OMBAT

146

E DITOR

Chris Longhurst

P SIONICS

160

I NTERIOR I LLUSTRATIONS

Leonardo Borazio, McLean Kendree, Rich Longmore, Carlos Nunez de

Castro Torres, Robin Everett-McGuirl, Travis Leichssenring

W ORLD C REATION

167

I NDEX

182

S PECIAL T HANKS

Marc Miller, Tom O’Neill, Brian Caball, Aidan Rafferty, Robert

Eaglestone, Loren Wiseman, James Maliszewski, Donald McKinley,

Constantine Thomas, William Hostman, Martin Costa

Exploration

Kris Crofts, Claire Mooney, Denis Ryan, Stephen Harte, Tom O’Neill, Padraig O’Sullivan, James Maher, Geoff Russell, Brian Mulcahy, Rob Feeney, Mike O’Brien, Jp Corkery

Survey

Jim Adams, Steve Alban, William Allen, Tim Bancroft, Michael Barger, Roger Barr, Ty Beard, Al Beddow, Michael R. Blair, Mark Bloss, Chris Bluﬂ odt, Chris Boote, Colm Brophy, Wyatt

Bruce, Brad Burklow, Jeff Burklow, Mark Burr, Timothy Calesa, Greg Chalik, Adam Coker, Ross Compton, Martin Costa, Nathan Cowan, Bradley Crooks, Tim Davis, Alexis Dempsey,

Paul Dempsey, Jason deYoung, Steve Dycus, Rob Eaglestone, Phil Eaton, Dave Elrick, Alexander Fennell, Ronaldo Fernandes, Neil Ford, Chris Garland, Chris Gauvin, Jim Geldmacher,

Omer Golan-Joel, Amaryllis Graybill, Caroline Graybill, Mark Graybill, Toni Graybill, Stefab Green, Sean Guttman, Sharis Guttman, Aragorn Hansard, David Hazlewood, Kevin

Hazlewood, Richard Hazlewood, Andrew Head, Phillip Hightower, Sean Hitchings, Andreas Hoetzel, William F. Hostman, Stephanie A. Hostman, Tammalyn Hostman, Rory Hughes,

Anthony C. Hunter, Dave Insel, Julia Iskett, Stephen Jarvis, Steven W. Jennings, Hilary Jones, Mark Jones, Jeremy Kelley, Jason Kemp, David Kilfoyle, Chris Kollias, Dan LaBarge, Lev

Lafayette, Andy Lilly, Kevin Livingstone, Tony Love, Stuart Machin, Christine Manz, Cornelia Manz, Andy Martone, Dale C. McCoy, Jr., Neil McGurk, Donald McKinney, Christopher

Morrell, Pete Mujica, Tina Mujica, Joseph Osborne, Warren Okuma, Erik E. Pikey, David Pulver, Tim Pulver, Eric Rathbun, James Record, Warren Ricker, Tom Roberts, John Robertson,

Robert Rosenthal, Christopher Rule, Fotis Sagonas, Ben Sennitt, Allen Shock, Lane Shutt, Luke Silburn, David Silverman, Alex Smith, Benjamin W. Smith, Jerry J. Stephens, Logan

Stowers, Edward Sturges, Dimitris Stylos-Sagonas, Larry Taylor, Constantine Thomas, Lloyd Thomas, Christopher B. Thrash, Larissa Tonkin, Lee Torres, Nick Townsend, Thomas

Tucholski, Joseph Ulrich, Joni Virolainen, Daniel Wall, Troy Wells, Alex Whittaker, Ian Young

signiﬁ cant characters, names, places,items, art and text herein are copyrighted by Mongoose Publishing.

This game product contains no Open Game Content. No portion of this work may be reproduced in any form without written permission. To learn more about the Open Game

License, please go to www.mongoosepublishing.com.

This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United Kingdom and of the United States. This product is a work of ﬁ ction. Any similarity to actual people, organisations,

places or events is purely coincidental.

Traveller is a trademark of Far Future Enterprises and is used under licence.

Printed in the USA.

T RAVELLER

C OMBAT

T RADE

152

P LAYTESTERS

Exploration

Survey

T RAVELLER

Traveller is a science ﬁ ction roleplaying game of the far future.

Humanity has gone to the stars and found them crowded with other

forms of life and other sentient races, and science and technology

have advanced vastly over the present day – but the essential

nature of humanity is unchanged. Life continues as it does today,

only spread out over the sea of stars. A mighty Imperium unites

thousands of star systems under a single rule, but it is beset by

enemies both internal and external.

A scenario can be a one-off game, using characters written by the

Referee speciﬁ cally for that game and discarded afterwards, or it

can be part of a campaign. A scenario takes one or more game

sessions to complete.

A campaign is a series of scenarios, charting the continuing

adventures of a group of player characters. A campaign can be

continuous or episodic. In a continuous campaign, each scenario

follows on almost immediately from the end of the last one and the

fuel, resources and money available to the characters is carefully

tracked. In an episodic game, there are longer gaps between

scenarios, and the game focuses only on the exciting and conﬂ ict-

ﬁ lled parts of the characters’ lives.

The Imperium commands the space between the stars, ensuring

that civilisation endures and trade continues. Megacorporations

and feudal lords conduct the bulk of this trade, but there will always

be a place for the free trader – hardy travellers and adventurers on

the fringes of known space, dealing in strange goods and smuggled

cargoes, doing whatever they can to make a credit.

A campaign can also be refereed or shared. In a refereed campaign,

there is a single Referee for the whole game, who sets up the

whole universe that the player characters adventure in. Refereed

campaigns can have long story arcs and ongoing plotlines, taking

multiple scenarios to resolve. In a shared campaign, the position

of Referee rotates from player to player – for example, when the

characters’ ship Jumps to a new star system, a different player takes

over as Referee and presents the dangers and opportunities in

this new system.

While the Traveller rules can be used to model almost any science

ﬁ ction novel, movie or setting, the traditional setting for games is

the Third Imperium of Mankind, the third great empire to stretch

across the stars. In the Third Imperium setting, the players take

on the roles of tramp merchants and mercenaries, wandering the

galaxy in search of proﬁ t and adventure.

Players

Most of the participants in a Traveller game will be players

players. Usually,

each player generates a character using the Character Creation

rules; that character becomes the player’s avatar in the game world.

These player characters are the central protagonists of the game

and scenarios revolve around their adventures and actions.

Campaign Ideas

A few suggestions to get the ball rolling:

The Trader Campaign: The player characters form the crew of a

free trader merchant vessel, taking whatever cargos they can get

to keep their spacecraft aloft and in one piece. Inspiration for

games like this could be the TV series Fireﬂ y or the computer

games Elite, Privateer, or X.

Referee, who describes the world

around the characters, presents them with challenges and dangers,

and takes on the role of the supporting cast and the antagonists.

The Referee creates the basic outline of the scenarios that the player

characters encounter and resolves the results of their actions using

the rules in this book as a guideline.

The Military Campaign: The player characters are all members of

a military unit, usually veterans of the same career (see page 8

for more on careers). They participate in campaigns, skirmishes

and other military activity. Inspiration could come from the

Honor Harrington novels, the ﬁ lm Aliens, or Starship Troopers

– the book, the animated series or the ﬁ lm.

Games

Traveller may be played in any of three basic conﬁ gurations –

scenario, refereed campaign, or shared campaign.

The Explorer Campaign: In a game of this type the player

characters go beyond the borders of known space, looking

for objects, planets and civilisations of value or curiosity. The

characters will have to be highly self-sufﬁ cient to survive away

from known space for long stretches. For inspiration look no

further than the original series of Star Trek.

In a scenario, the players embark on a journey or adventure overseen

by a Referee. The Referee determines what dangers the characters

will face, from hostile aliens or criminals to solar ﬂ ares or automated

defence systems, or even political intrigue and deception. The

players choose how their characters will react and overcome these

obstacles. For example, the characters may be hired to bring a cargo

from one world to another, but a rival merchant is trying to stop

them and has hired a band of mercenaries to attack the characters’

ship en route. The characters have to get the cargo through safely.

The Traveller Campaign: The traditional Traveller campaign

features a little of everything. The characters will go from

exploring abandoned alien ziggurats to rescuing missing pets

to taking on the local crime lord in a protracted gang war.

Inspiration could come from anywhere.

The Trader Campaign:

The Referee

One of the participants is the Referee

The Military Campaign:

The Explorer Campaign:

The Traveller Campaign:

T RAVELLER

Die Roll Conventions

The Traveller system uses two six-sided dice to resolve most

actions. Some situations involve fewer or more dice. Accordingly,

a quick discussion of various terminology and conventions is

needed before proceeding.

we should be.

Claire (Kathya): The longer it takes us to get to the starport, the

longer it is before you get us into trouble.

Referee: Ahem. As I was saying, you’re about two million k out, and

you’re picking up a distress call.

Tom: My character will put the distress call on the screen.

Referee: It’s audio only. ‘This is Free Trader Beowulf, calling anyone...

mayday, mayday, we are under attack... main drive is gone...turret

number one not responding ... mayday...’

Claire: How close is the Beowulf?

Referee: No navigational transponder showing... give me a Sensors

check, please.

Claire: I rolled a 9, plus Dice Modiﬁ ers gives me a 12.

Referee: You’re picking up one ship about 80,000k away. Minimal

heat, no power, looks dead in space.

Tom: No power? Then where’s the transmission coming from?

Referee: Er, minimal power then. Power plant’s down. The distress

call continues ‘Mayday... losing cabin pressure fast...calling anyone...

please help...’, then starts repeating itself.

Claire: Life signs?

Referee: Not at this range.

Claire: But I rolled a 12...

Tom: Any sign of the attackers?

Referee: Nope.

Tom (Erik): Something isn’t right here. Either the Beowulf was hit

a long time ago, in which case someone else should have checked

out the call before us, ‘cos we’re not that far from the planet... or

she was only hit a short time ago, and the attacker’s still nearby.

Nothing on the scope at all?

Referee: You’re in open space. Unless they’re hiding behind a speck

of space dust...

Claire (Kathya): Nothing. They could have really good stealth

technology.

Chris: Or be hiding on the wreck of the Beowulf...

Tom: If it was an internal problem like hijackers, he wouldn’t have

mentioned the turret being hit.

Tom (Erik): We’ve still got to investigate. There could be survivors.

Morn, get to the turret and power up the guns. Kathya, bring us in.

I’ll get my vacc suit on and get ready to board.

Referee: As you approach the ship, you see the unmistakable scars

of laser hits, er, scarring the hull. One of the airlocks has been blown

open.

Tom (Erik): Looks like she’s been boarded. I’ll jump across. Don’t

dock – if there are bad guys still over there, then the last thing we

want is them walking on board our ship.

Claire: Life signs?

Referee: Faint traces of three. Could be three people in low berth

freezer-tubes, or three people in hibernation...or three recently-

deceased corpses that’re still cooling. Tom, you go through the front

airlock and push off, drifting for several seconds before bouncing

off the hull of the other ship. Your magnetic boots catch on, and

you can walk over the skin of the ship towards the airlock, gingerly

stepping over the areas melted by the lasers.

Tom: Do I need a Vacc Suit check or a Zero-G check or anything?

Referee: Er...do you have both skills?

1d6/2d6: To avoid writing ‘roll two six-sided dice and add them

together’ over and over again, Traveller uses the abbreviation ‘roll

2d6’. Where you see ‘roll 2d6’ read ‘roll two six-sided dice and add

them together’. Sometimes you may also see ‘1d6’, ‘3d6’ or other

numbers of ‘d6’. This simply means roll one six-sided die, three six-

sided dice, or however many six-sided dice are indicated, and add

them together to gain the ﬁ nal result.

d66: This is shorthand for a special way of rolling two six-sided

dice. Before rolling nominate one die as the ‘tens’ die and one as

the ‘units’ die, to give you a two-digit number between 11 and 66.

Some numbers cannot be rolled on a d66, giving you a total of

36 possible outcomes.

Check (or Throw): To determine if a character succeeds or fails at a

particular task, the player must make a check. To make a check, the

player rolls 2d6 and adds any appropriate Dice Modiﬁ ers (such as a

skill his character possesses, or a bonus from a piece of equipment).

If the total is equal to or greater than the target number for that

check, he succeeds. A check will usually have a skill or characteristic

associated with it. For example, a check of ‘Dex 8+’ means ‘roll 2d6,

add your Dexterity Characteristic Modiﬁ er, and you succeed if you

have a total result of 8 or more’.

Target Numbers: In many checks, the player needs to roll equal to

or above a speciﬁ c number (usually, eight or more). This is denoted

by a number followed by a plus, such as 8+ or 10+.

Natural 2/Natural 12: Some rolls refer to a ‘natural’ number – this is

the actual number rolled on the dice before any modiﬁ ers are applied.

Dice Modiﬁ er (abbreviated to DM): A number to be applied to a die

roll before it is used. Dice Modiﬁ ers are preceded by a sign, which

indicates if the number is to be added to or subtracted from the

roll. For example, a Dice Modiﬁ er of –2 indicates that two is to be

subtracted from the roll; a Die Modiﬁ er of +4 indicates that four is

to be added to the roll.

E XAMPLE OF P LAY

Three players (Chris, Tom, and Claire) are playing Traveller. Their

characters are, respectively: Morn, a thuggish ex-barbarian; Erik, a

spy and agent, and Kathya, a pilot and technician. They’re currently

aboard their ship, a Free Trader. In-character speech is denoted by

(parentheses).

Referee: Anyway, you’ve just jumped to the Cogri system. You’re

about two million kilometres out –

Chris (Morn): ‘Accurate’ as usual, Kathya! Only twice as far away as

1d6/2d6:

d66:

Check (or Throw):

Target Numbers:

Natural 2/Natural 12:

Dice Modiﬁ er (abbreviated to DM):

T RAVELLER

Tom: Well, Zero-G level zero, so technically yes.

Referee: Nah, you don’t need a check. You make it across ﬁ ne.

Tom: We’ll keep communications channels open, and I’ll feed my

suit’s cameras back to the others so they can see what I see.

Referee: Sure. Are you going into the airlock?

Chris (Morn): *bzzt* I’ll cover you with the laser turret.

Tom: Where ‘cover’ is a synonym for ‘burn me to a crisp if you ﬁ re

that thing anywhere near me when I’m only wearing a vacc suit. It’s

like covering me with a nuclear missile.

Chris: I’d call that pretty damn covered.

Referee: You step through the airlock, into the darkened corridors

of the Beowulf. Air’s gone...no artiﬁ cial gravity... The beam from

your suit’s torch cuts through the air, illuminating droplets of blood

ﬂ oating like little worlds. Give me a Recon roll, please.

Tom: Rolled a...6. Failed, unless it’s an unusually easy one.

Referee: It’s not. The cargo bay’s splattered with blood, but all the

cargo appears to still be intact, although it’s hard to tell with all the

crates drifting around. It looks like the upper deck might still have

pressure – the stairwells automatically iris shut if this lower deck is

breached.

Tom: I’ll go up and knock, I guess.

Referee: You tap your gauntlet against the metal... and there’s

an answering knock from above. You catch a glimpse of some

movement behind you... and suddenly, the sensor feed from Erik’s

suit goes out!

Claire (Kathya): Erik! Can you read me? Erik! Erik? Erik?

TL 3: (Primitive) The advances of TL 2 are now applied, bringing the

germ of industrial revolution and steam power. Primitive ﬁ rearms

now dominate the battleﬁ eld. This is roughly comparable to the

early 19 th century.

TL 4: (Industrial)

TL 4: (Industrial) The transition to industrial revolution is complete,

bringing plastics, radio and other such inventions. Roughly

comparable to the late 19 th /early 20 th century.

TL 5: (Industrial)

TL 5: (Industrial) TL 5 brings widespread electriﬁ cation, tele-

communications and internal combustion. At the high end of the

TL, atomics and primitive computing appear. Roughly on a par with

the mid–20 th century.

TL 6: (Industrial)

TL 6: (Industrial) TL 6 brings the development of ﬁ ssion power and

more advanced computing. Advances in materials technology and

rocketry bring about the dawn of the space age.

TL 7: (Pre-Stellar)

TL 7: (Pre-Stellar) A pre-stellar society can reach orbit reliably and

has telecommunications satellites. Computers become common.

At the time of writing, humanity is currently somewhere between

TL 7 and TL 8.

TL 8: (Pre-Stellar)

TL 8: (Pre-Stellar) At TL 8, it is possible to reach other worlds in

the same system, although terraforming or full colonisation are not

within the culture’s capacity. Permanent space habitats become

possible. Fusion power becomes commercially viable.

TL 9: (Pre-Stellar)

TL 9: (Pre-Stellar) The deﬁ ning element of TL 9 is the development

of gravity manipulation, which makes space travel vastly safer

and faster. This research leads to development of the Jump drive,

which occurs near the end of this Tech Level. TL 9 cultures can

colonise other worlds, although going to a colony is generally

a one-way trip.

TL 10: (Early Stellar)

T ECHNOLOGY L EVELS

The concept of Technology Levels (TLs) runs through Traveller.

Technology Levels measure the scientiﬁ c capacity of a world and

the complexity and effectiveness of a piece of equipment. The

Technology Level scale starts at 0; the Imperium’s most advanced

scientists are probing the upper boundaries of TL 15, but most core

worlds range between 10 and 13. Out on the fringes of the Imperium

in sectors like the Spinward Marches, Technology Levels vary wildly.

Isolated systems that are visited only once or twice a generation

might have slipped back into the darkness, losing technology to

war or disaster. On other worlds, secret research bases, isolationist

colonies or Ancient relics hold scientiﬁ c secrets of vast worth.

TL 10: (Early Stellar) With the advent of Jump, nearby systems

are opened up. Orbital habitats and factories become common.

Interstellar travel and trade lead to an economic boom. Colonies

become much more viable.

TL 11: (Early Stellar)

TL 11: (Early Stellar) The ﬁ rst true artiﬁ cial intelligences become

possible, as computers are able to model synaptic networks. Grav-

supported structures reach to the heavens. Jump–2 travel becomes

possible, allowing easier travel beyond the one-Jump stellar mains.

TL 12: (Average Stellar)

TL 12: (Average Stellar) Weather control revolutionises terraforming

and agriculture. Man-portable plasma weapons and carrier-mounted

fusion guns make the battleﬁ eld untenable for unarmoured

combatants. Jump–3 travel is developed.

TL 13: (Average Stellar)

Even on a low-technology world, there might be examples of higher

technology. A warlord on a primitive planet might enforce his rule

with advanced weapons imported from offworld; colony worlds

are often dependant on their sponsor civilisation for supplies

and support. Some low-technology worlds are aware of the larger

universe, and have consciously decided to reject higher technology.

TL 13: (Average Stellar) The battle dress appears on the battleﬁ eld

in response to the new weapons. Cloning of body parts becomes

easy. Advances in hull design and thruster plates means that

spacecraft can easily enter atmosphere and even go underwater.

Jump–4 travel.

TL 14: (Average Stellar)

TL 14: (Average Stellar) Fusion weapons become man-portable.

Flying cities appear. Jump–5 travel.

TL 15: (High Stellar)

TL 0: (Primitive) No technology. TL 0 species have only discovered

the simplest tools and principles, and are on a par with Earth’s

Stone Age.

TL 1: (Primitive)

TL 15: (High Stellar) Black globe generators suggest a new direction

for defensive technologies, while the development of synthetic

anagathics means that the human lifespan is now vastly increased.

Jump–6 travel.

TL 1: (Primitive) Roughly on a par with Bronze or Iron age technology.

TL 1 science is mostly superstition, but they can manufacture

weapons and work metals.

TL 2: (Primitive)

TL 2: (Primitive) Renaissance technology. TL 2 brings with it a

greater understanding of chemistry, physics, biology and astronomy

as well as the scientiﬁ c method.

Higher Technology Levels exist (indeed, there is no theoretical

upper limit) and may appear in other settings or be discovered by

pioneering scientists in the Third Imperium.

Galactic Directions

North, south, east, and west are insufﬁ cient terms for referring to directions within the galaxy. Instead, the following conventions have achieved widespread acceptance

when referring to direction: Coreward – toward the galactic core; Rimward – toward the rim of the galaxy; Spinward – towards the direction the galaxy is rotating (or

spinning); Trailing – opposite the spin of the galaxy.

TL 3: (Primitive)

TL 0: (Primitive)

Galactic Directions

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