GURPS Traveller Wars + revived Essentials

In September 2017 we presented two offers — one revived, one all-new — featuring GURPS Traveller, the licensed version of Marc Miller’s classic science-fiction RPG Traveller adapted to the Generic Universal RolePlaying System from Steve Jackson Games. From July 2016, the revived GURPS Traveller Essentials Bundle had the core rulebook and all the major supplements you need for a complete spacefaring campaign in an alternate Third Imperium. The new companion offer was GURPS Traveller Wars, with the military-oriented supplements like Interstellar Wars, Star Mercs, and Ground Forces.

In 1998 designer Marc Miller licensed the Traveller setting to SJG for use with its Generic Universal RolePlaying System. GURPS Traveller (1998-2015) uses (mostly) the Third Edition GURPS system. The game takes place in Year 1120 of an alternate Third Imperium timeline (20 years after GDW’s Classic Traveller) in which no Rebellion occurred (as in MegaTraveller) and the Virus was never released (as in Traveller: The New Era). The late Loren Wiseman, who worked with Game Designers’ Workshop on the design and development of the original game, was the GURPS Traveller line manager and editor of the online magazine Journal of the Travellers Aid Society. SJG produced over 30 supplements for the line, covering all the major alien races, many minor races, interstellar trade, expanded world generation, the military forces of the Third Imperium, and starships. In terms of page count, the GURPS Traveller line wound up bigger than GDW’s original Classic Traveller line.

SJG’s Traveller license lapsed in early 2016, and rights to the line reverted to Marc Miller. He provided the entire line to the Bundle of Holding. (Steve Jackson Games has politely declined to contribute to Bundle of Holding offers, though they did permit us to include the free GURPS Lite rules in these offers.) Our two July 2016 offers were Essentials (revived below) and Imperial Survey (not revived this time). With the third offer, Wars, we presented the entire GURPS Traveller line.

To fully use these Traveller books in a GURPS campaign, you’ll also need the complete GURPS corebook (Third Edition or later) and GURPS Space, which weren’t included in these offers. As sourcebooks, the titles in these offers work fine with any SF campaign.

1. GURPS Traveller Essentials [revived from July 2016]

The revived GURPS Traveller Essentials presented the core GURPS Traveller rulebook and all the major supplements you need for a complete campaign in this alternate Third Imperium. If you’re new to Traveller or GURPS, start with these books. There were five titles in this offer’s Starter Collection (retail value $48) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks:

GURPS Traveller 2E (retail price $12): The complete 179-page Second Edition corebook (2002). Included the free GURPS Lite rules for Third Edition and the free introductory adventure “Flare Star.”
Starships (retail $8): Three dozen complete spacecraft designs plus rules for creating your own.
First In (retail $8): The Imperium Interstellar Scout Service and a complete system for building the worlds its Scouts discover.
Deck Plan 5: Sulieman-Class Scout/Courier (retail $10): Are you a scout in a First In campaign? This is your ship.
GURPS Traveller GM’s Screen (retail $10): All the vital charts and tables plus a sheet of Cardboard Heroes miniatures.

Those who paid more than this offer’s threshold (average) price also got this offer’s entire Bonus Collection with seven more titles worth an additional $54:

Behind the Claw (retail $8): The GURPS guide to the canonical Traveller space sector, the Spinward Marches — one of the most detailed treatments of the Marches in the setting’s history.
Humaniti (retail $10): The societies and cultures of 16 different human races — Darrians, Azhanti, Syleans, Kargol, and many more.
Starports (retail $8): The anchors of the Imperium. Written by novelist John M. Ford.
Modular Cutter (retail $8): A sourcebook for the workhorse “Ship of a Thousand Uses,” a favorite of Traveller groups for decades.
Deck Plan 2: Modular Cutter and Deck Plan 1: Beowulf-Class Free Trader (retail $10 each): All the ship layouts in both offers are printed with both hexes (for GURPS) and squares (Classic Traveller).
Best of JTAS v1 (retail $13): A compilation of choice articles from the online Journal of the Travellers’ Aid Society.

2. GURPS Traveller Wars [all-new]

The companion offer this time, GURPS Traveller Wars, presented the military supplements. There were four titles in this offer’s Starter Collection (retail value $38) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks, including the Star Mercs and Ground Forces campaign sourcebooks, the Rim of Fire location guide to the wartorn Solomani Rim space sector, and complete deck plans for the Assault Cutter, the starship that drops you into battle.

Those who paid more than this offer’s threshold (average) price also got this offer’s entire Bonus Collection with five more titles worth an additional $56:

Interstellar Wars (retail $25): High adventure in the Traveller universe’s earliest history, when the Terran Confederation fought the First Imperium. (This is the only Traveller book for GURPS Fourth Edition, rather than for 3E; we include the free GURPS Lite quick-start rules for 4E.)
Sword Worlds (retail $10): One of the most distinctive civilizations in the Third Imperium — not that they want to stay there.
Deck Plan 6: Dragon System Defense Boat (retail $10): Every star system’s first line of defense.
Psionics Institutes (retail $8): Find and attend an institute, develop psionic talent, and connect with the Psionics Underground.
Heroes 1: Bounty Hunters (retail $3): New character templates for corporate bounty hunters, repo men, skip tracers, and lots more.