The game now known as Classic Traveller was published between 1977 and 1986 by Games Designers Workshop. This original version came out in a series of little black books, a distinctive style that has been continued through most later versions (in colour if not in size.

Traveller was originally conceived by author Marc Miller as a 'generic' science-fiction game, but the core rules soon were joined by a range of materials that presented a setting - the Third Imperium - which swiftly established itself as the default setting, now known as the OTU, the Official (sometimes Original) Traveller Universe. Set in the 'far future' - something in the order of 3,000 years ahead of the present day - faster-than-light travel is facilitated by a Jump Drive which sends starship between 1 and 6 parsecs, taking one week (168 hours) to do so irrespective of distance. That's the fastest anything can travel, messages cannot outrun a Jump-enabled ship. The Third Imperium is a human-dominated civilisation of thousands of worlds governed in a semi-feudal style, but with the limit of communications much is left under local control. Other civilisations occupy neighbouring space, and aliens move freely between them.

Page last updated: 10 June 2015