Traveller was one of the first major role-playing games. Set in a far, far future world that seems to draw strongly from Asimov, Dune, Star Trek, Star Wars, and countless other science fiction literature, Traveller provides a game universe where player characters can travel from world to world, engage in battle on the ground or in the sky, and involve themselves in interstellar economics.
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Traveller uses a character generation and advancement mechanism, whereby the player goes through a design process to determine the character's history, career experience, and so forth. Unlike Dungeons & Dragons and its derivatives, in Traveller, character skill and ability advancement is downplayed in favor of positional-advancement - gaining of wealth, gadgets, titles, and power.
The original Traveller gamebooks were distinctive half-size black pamphlets (the so-called "Little Black Books" or "LBBs" for short) produced by Game Designers Workshop (GDW), and many of these half-size pamphlets were printed. Later versions of the game system introduced full sized booklets and new political twists, as the emperor was assassinated and many sectors of the galaxy thrown into strife (in MegaTraveller), or the universe is rediscovered and retamed (in Traveller: The New Era), or the Third Imperium is begun (in Marc Miller's Traveller), or an alternate history is followed where the emperor is not assassinated (in GURPS Traveller).
The spelling 'Traveller' is what was used on the books printed and distributed in the U.S., even though it is a spelling more commonly used in Commonwealth English than American English.
See also: MegaTraveller, Traveller: The New Era, Marc Miller's TravellerOverview
Editions
Despite the title, GDW's Traveller: 2300 RPG was not part of the same universe, and was later retitled as 2300 AD.