Politicians gave the vote to get a voting base i would assume? But anyway...
How would people in this thread rate the different editions of Traveller rpg?
This is how it goes here. We laugh at the troons, we pick character boons. But about Traveller - I don't have a large knowledge on field of playing some of these but I did read some of them so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
Traveller Classic and Mega - they are old breed of games, especially from source of the legendary character creation death meme (which was actually optional rule, if I remember correctly). They have decent mechanic, but mind you that for many, MegaTraveller is
THE TRAVELLER in heart and in mind and for solid reasons of quality and simplicity of some fields that started legends of this system. It has large amount of content and adventures for it can be easily used for MgT 1e and 2e so go hog wild with them. Mega is much more suggested for purpose of playing and GMing if you desire so.
Traveller The New Era - I will be honest here - I know jackshit about this one as I did not get to reading it yet (I'm that breed of man who reads tabletop books for pleasure and exploration - well and for extensive exploitation for my own goals and campaigns), so I will only say what I heard - apparently The Virus thing was exhausting hit and miss campaign but it had se decent ideas and some pleasant fluff, including some books and mechanics.
Marc's Miller Traveller - I have to admit that I literally did not hear it mentioned by anyone ever during my discussions about Traveller and I only comment on what I heard or read myself. Blank slate, but apparently it cut off the mechanics of d6 and used multiple dice. Rumored to be hot mess.
GURPS Traveller + Interstellar Wars expansion 2004 - huh, apparently it is very nice GURPS splat with lots of interesting lore and even touches on the Solomani (aka Us) expansion into Vilani (Second Empire) territory and making Third Empire (yes, in the Traveller universe Earth from being small, barely mattering place performed EARTH FUCK YEAH moment - but it is much more complicated then winning, it is politics, culture decay, nature of philosophy of working and civilization. It is really broad and deep topic in these books, which I quite fun). Also, this is the reason as of why Earth is capital of Empire now.
D20 Traveller - WE DO NOT TALK ABOUT D20 EDITIONS OF ANYTHING, ANYTIME, THANK YOU VERY MUCH AND GO FUCK YOURSELF. (Apparently it has some nice fluff but I hate usage of d20 D&D 3.5 for everything cancer.)
HERO Traveller - uh, Traveller on HERO engine apparently? I have never touched either of these so I have no idea but it covers and allows playing in multiple ears or alternative history of New Era (which is considered not canon in about any of newer edition then it, with Virus and semi-start-post-apo shit it put into Traveller) and apparently has very decent translation of stuff into HERO so who knows.
Traveller⁵ - another Marc's Miller attempt at Traveller, this time placed in FAR, FAR FUTURE of Traveller setting. Rulewise it was hot mess even AFTER countess erratas and apparently it drowns in rules upon rules of optional rules that put average mathematician to shame and depression. No idea about setting itself. Apparently has its fans, but I ain't one of them. I haven't read it yet but I saw cheatsheets for them and uh, that are about size of small splat for other systems.
Mongoose Traveller 1e and 2e - the most straightforward and still updated edition of Traveller and honestly, the one I really played. It still has massive editing problems (partially resolved by updated releases of corebook and High Guard in 2022) but it still is very pleasant system to play, with wealth of material (fan material too) and taking the best from Mega into new consideration. First edition can easily be adapted into second one (I especially suggest use of career events from 1E career splatbooks because they are much better and bigger then poor treatment they got from corebook in second edition)
Traveller is a wonderful system and easy to get where it should be easy and adding some crunch in space combat, trade and advanced exploration. Easy to learn, hard to master.