Far Future Enterprises

Starter Edition Traveller: Free PDF

Marc Miller has made Classic Traveller’s Starter Edition available as a free download at DriveThruRPG.

The initial download is the main book only; check your account at DriveThruRPG or the receipt email for links to the Charts & Data book and the Adventures.

This is an ideal launchpad for a Traveller newbie to get a taster...
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Mongoose to Publish Traveller [Updated]

BREAKING NEWS
The UK's Mongoose Publishing are going to be the new publishers of Traveller.

Mongoose Press Release in full:

Traveller Returns!
After a near 10-year gap in which only reprints of the Traveller game system have been available, Mongoose Publishing becomes the centralised resource for Traveller titles with the publication of their core rule book Traveller: Science-Fiction Adventures in the Far Future, in February 2008. On this foundation, Mongoose will produce a supporting line of supplements, adventures, and sourcebooks detailing the official and original Traveller universe of the far future.

The materials published by Mongoose will be placed in and part of the canonical Traveller universe.

It is our aim to halt the fragmentation of the Traveller game, and reintroduce one solid system (based on Classic Traveller), with one source for the official Traveller universe.

But that is not all. . .

Mongoose Publishing Science Fiction RPGs
Mongoose will also be using Traveller in its licensed science-fiction properties (each featuring a Traveller logo).

We have pioneered this concept already with Runequest, publishing a rules set and supporting adventures and sourcebooks, then using the Runequest rules as the basis for other alternative fantasy role-playing settings, such as Hawkmoon, Elric and Lankhmar.

The first licensed setting to be produced using the Traveller rules set (and available in early 2008) will be Starship Troopers, a welcome return to bug-blasting action across the galaxy! Hot on its heels will be Strontium Dogs, based on the hit 2000AD comic strip. After that, who knows. . ?

To the greatest extent possible, we intend that there be a transportability of characters, concepts, and even equipment between the various systems. So, it will be perfectly possible for your Strontium Dog Bounty Hunter to land on a planet in his Scout/Courier, only to find him battling for his life against waves of Warrior Bugs – with no conversion needed between the games!

All games and settings will therefore be able to utilise the core supplements, such as High Guard, Mercenary, and 760 Patrons, while retaining their own character.

Open Gaming License
Once the rules for Traveller appear, we plan to make them available under the Open Gaming License (OGL). At the same time, we will issue a Traveller Logo License (TLL) which makes the Traveller logo and titling available to licensees.

Far Future will Publish T5
Far Future is proceeding with plans to produce the long-heralded Traveller5, initially as an extensive CD ROM package (estimated at 1000 pages) by the end of 2007, and a distilled 350-page Traveller5 Core Rules book in the first half of 2008.

T5 will be a superset of the Mongoose Traveller rules, providing detailed coverage of rules, concepts and history not available elsewhere. There will be cross-compatibility between Traveller and Traveller5, allowing you to use rules and supplements from each.

Traveller will be faithful to Classic Traveller, with an upgraded task and combat system. Traveller5 will be a superset of those rules, providing greater detail and more insight into resolving situations in Traveller.


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Classic Traveller CD ROM arrives in UK

Just in case anyone was doubting it existed, I can confirm that the Classic Traveller CD ROM exists and my copy arrived here in the UK yesterday. The content looks good, and is not just a re-scan of the reprints. The Little Black Books are presented as individual pages and the colour is all there. There are a few examples where the scan isn't perfect (some light grey lost on the hex map for Twilight's Peak, for an example) but this is an awesome resource.

The text if fully searchable, and the index page is better than then MegaTraveller one if you prefer using that to navigate. There are three editions of Traveller on the CD ROM - Starter Edition, the 1981 Little Black Books and The Traveller Book. Everything else that GDW published is here as well.

For its cost, I cannot do anything but recommend it. I'll try and get a short review done for the next BITS newsletter.

Dom (BITS Webmaster)
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Classic Traveller CD ROM Now Shipping

An update from Marc Miller, received today:

Classic Traveller CD Case

We are shipping (by mail in the US; by air letter post to destinations outside the US) the Classic Traveller CDROM today (Jan 3) and tomorrow (Jan 4). I want to thank you for your patience on this; we’re proud of the content and we think you will like it.
 
The JTAS CDROM (if you ordered that one) will ship by Jan 31. More CDROMs are in the works…
 
Marc Miller
Far Future Enterprises

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FarFuture.net Website is Temporarily Down [Updated]

Marc Miller has confirmed in email that Far Future Enterprise's website, http://www.farfuture.net/ is temporarily down, but should be back up after the weekend.

[UPDATE 25 November 2006] - The site is now back up.
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Slight Delay for Classic Traveller CD ROM

Marc Miller has sent out an email apologising for a slight delay to the shipping date of the Classic Traveller CD ROM. Apparently there have been a number of issues, the main one being the printed wrap for the CD ROM case. The CD is now expected to ship by mid-December 2006. A picture of the offending wrap can be seen below!

Classic Traveller CD Case

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