I have not been this invested in a game since my GURPS Fantasy campaign. Where GURPS Fantasy captures that gritty, down-to-earth, realistic fantasy that I crave, what Traveller does is "sci-fi with batteries included."
Many sci-fi games, even those in the OSR, promise a big game and fail at one point or another. Most of them can't do ship combat without heavy math and physics (GURPS Space), others get too goofy (stop copying Guardians of the Galaxy like some games copy Aliens), some have no trading game or economy (Starfinder), others have no way of creating star systems, some have no ship design (Frontier Space), and many others have no exciting universe to explore.
Traveller, the game that set the benchmark in 1977, continues to reign supreme. Its comprehensive approach to sci-fi gaming, which includes ship combat, trading, and universe exploration, has not only stood the test of time but also made a significant mark in the history of gaming. This game locked TSR and Wizards out of the sci-fi market and continues to be a beacon of excellence in the gaming world.
Traveller does it all in a relatively rules-light format. The 2d6 system scales exceptionally well, providing a sense of reassurance about its adaptability, and does an excellent job of 'keeping the numbers down' to a realistic level. It also effortlessly flows from turn-by-turn action to a macro-level of 'handle a few days in one skill roll.'
The only areas where the game falls short are planet types and adventure hooks, where Stars Without Number will always be the king of the generated content. The systems here work well enough with Traveller as a plug-in adventure hook system, so using SWN's planet and system creation systems is the best of both worlds and provides instant adventure hooks for any sci-fi game.
Why not just play the Cepheus system? This is an OpenQuest versus RuneQuest question. If you want to play with the Traveller world, the ships, the organization, and the history, play Traveller. The classic universe, ships, factions, and history are all here. If generic sci-fi is more your thing, or you want to use the 2d6 rules to play another IP, go Cepheus and DIY the universe without the official setting distractions.
Cepheus is also a vast and confusing collection of titles. This will continue until the OGL is purged forever from gaming as a stain. Lots of titles remain under OGL, and the community is working its way out from under that mess. The license is still viable, but with an uncertain asterisk. Still, some of the best 2d6 community content is still being made under this rules framework. An alternate way out is Mongoose putting the core 2d6 rules under ORC, and there were rumblings of that as well.
Cepheus is 100% compatible with Traveller, making using adventures between the systems easy. Cepheus also has a few exciting rules additions (talents). Also, it has many other very compelling settings (Sword of Cepheus, Wild West, noir, and cyberpunk settings) - which can all supply content for your Traveller games. Sword of Cepheus has 22 pages of monsters in 2d6 format, and Westlands has 28 pages). The Under Western Skies game has wild-west and horse-generation rules (you could do a Westworld game with this). New World is a cyberpunk game with excellent urban encounters and gang creation tables. The entire Cepheus 2d6 open-game community is a fantastic resource to draw upon.
The Sword of Cepheus 2nd Edition is also coming out very soon.
The entire 2d6 gaming universe outside Traveller is still excellent, and Cepheus Light also powers my Car Wars RPG. You can power an entire game universe with 2d6 mechanics, from fantasy to sci-fi. The 2d6 gaming hobby is as good as 5E but with fewer dice.
Back to Traveller. The pre-2022 game is more classic Traveller, while the 2022 version (and the books supporting it) aims for more generic sci-fi gaming. Traveller is to sci-fi what D&D is to fantasy. You can have a hundred 5E sci-fi games and still never match Traveller. The setting is evolving from a defined, classic setting with much "scaffolding and framework" lore to obey; the new presentation makes the setting your own to play with.
The old setting felt stuck in the 1950s. The new one still could be, but it feels more accessible to make it your own.
But this feels strange, and the game has captured my imagination, which has yet to happen in a long time. When you feel yourself "living in the universe," magic happens. With GURPS Fantasy, these characters feel real; I get that low-level gritty and bloody grid and fight for survival.
With Traveller, the characters are not as "gritty and real" as GURPS. What does feel real are all the possibilities—that sandbox, the hundreds of ships to encounter, the millions of planets to visit, the alien races to meet, and the ones I can create for my games. The types of campaigns are near-infinite: science, mercenary, trader, troubleshooter, navy, pirate, settler, miner, explorer, system developer, spy, bounty hunter, noble, rebel, law enforcement, survey team, and it goes on and on.
While other games have these professions as "classes," you can actually "do the thing" in this game; other games have the "just a name" problem: explorer as a class name, but just end up in combats on a battle-mat. You aren't "really" a spy, hacker, or explorer; you just fight like one (and have a skill for out-of-combat things). This is sort of the problem Starfinder has for me; you aren't a true star captain or merchant; what should be "the thing you do" is just flavor for combat abilities.
And if you can spend hundreds of millions of credits, stand losing hundreds on millions of credits, and find ways of making it all back again - this is your game. The first time we played Traveller as kids, our characters sold a ship for a few hundred million credits, and our game died. We had yet to learn what to do with 300 million credits except retire. We were too into the AD&D "win the game at a million gold pieces" sort of maturity level.
Oh, I know now.
Here? Buy an excellent trading ship, start a mining operation, claim a great planet as your own, start a mercenary company, build a pirate fleet, start a colony, buy a trading fleet, invest in land, develop a company, or earn more money to influence the royals and politicians to buy your way into high society. Hundreds of millions of credits are not the game's end; it is just the beginning.
The support for "doing the thing" is in the game, and it doesn't take that much to figure out how all the parts work. Starship combat can be done through the theater of the mind. Starship design is just a few numbers to add up. Setting up and managing a cargo haul is easy. Flying to another planet is a simple calculation, requiring a few skill and encounter rolls.
This sci-fi is easy, whereas other games make it hard.
The infinite possibilities and ease become the game's most engaging draw.
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