Traveller throughout the Ages...

GDW's Traveller game has gone through multiple revisions.


Classic Traveller:
Marc Miller produced the trilogy of Traveller. Three small black books, or one big one, depending on when in the 70's or 80's you bought it. The rules were simple, the action fast. The Imperium was big and intact. The Zhodani were the bad guys, the Vargr were chaotic, and computers were big.
Of course it wasn't that really that simple. Serious Traveller players used Book 4, Book 5, and Book 6, at least. They also used JTAS articles, and the nifty stuff from Paranoia Press.

Classic Traveller is available in Big Floppy Book format or as searchable PDF files..


MegaTraveller:
In the mid 80's came a new version of Traveller. Several 8.5x11" books with brightly colored covers. The rules were deemed good, once you had all the errata. The design rules were complex, but allowed construction of fusion powered roller skates to star ships. That is, once you knew were the bugs were.
MT also brought the death of the Emperor and the start of the Rebellion. Many embraced the change. Others clung to the days of a stable Imperium.
Some fled the Errata beast of MT. Many fled their Traveller, others invoked the rules of GURPS to maintain their Campaigns.
Traveller:The New Era:
Traveller under GDW's House Rules. Major changes to mechanics and the setting. The Imperium collapsed (but a Flame still burns in the Spinward Marches) under the weight of the Rebellion and the VIRUS. Many use the new rules, but a CT setting. This disappeared when GDW went out of business.
Traveller, Mod IV
With GDW ceasing to do business, Traveller rights rights have reverted back to the orginal author, Marc Miller. T4 (as in the 4th rev of Traveller) is out.  It's based on the CT rules.  It's also know as Marc Miller's Traveller.  The big change is the setting.  The time is Year 0 of the Third Imperium.
This was published by Imperium Games.
Imperium Games dropped it's support of the Traveller line due to bad investments overseas.
Marc Miller pulled their license to publish Traveller material, in part due to books that made MegaTraveller look errata free.

D20 Traveller: T20
Traveller based on the D20 rule set. So yes, you can be a 5th level Imperial Marine/2nd level Noble.  A concept which deeply troubled many old time Traveller players.  Didn't bother me too much.  Ran a T20 PBEM for years.

Mongoose Traveller: RTT
Mongoose Publishing's take CT, with a slick character generation upgrade and a simplified task system. 

Traveller Fifth Edition: T5
Marc Miller, after years of tweaking; finally released his Traveller Opus as a Kickstarter project.


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