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Wednesday, April 4, 2018

More Traveller Literary History

John Eric Holmes, author of the Basic Edition of the World's Most Popular Role-playing game, also wrote another book, Fantasy Role Playing Games: Dungeons, Dragons, and Adventures in Fantasy gaming.  


In it he discusses a number of games that were on the market in 1980, including Traveller. He mentions, on page 46, a number of 'modern authors' from whose works Traveller is derived. The list is:

  • Poul Anderson
  • E.C. Tubb
  • Robert Heinlein
  • Larry Niven
  • Marion Zimmer Bradley
  • E.E. "Doc" Smith
"to mention a few."

I would add to that list for my own TU and games:
  • Andre Norton
  • Leigh Brackett
  • H Beam Piper
  • David Weber
  • Harry Harrison
  • Alfred Coppel
  • and Edgar Rice Burroughs

Who inspires you to adventure in the realm of Traveller ?

7 comments:

  1. Frank Herbert's Dune has the biggest sci-fi stamp as far as books go, the movie Alien for film and then anything from 70's-80's Heavy Metal magazine.

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  2. Good lists. All I could add would be Asimov, Pournelle, Drake, Haldeman, and Stross. Widening the genre net, I got mileage out of Hammett and Edgar Wallace too.

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  3. Lately it’s been Ann Leckie with Ancillary Justice.

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  4. Andre Norton's "Solar Queen" series.
    David Brin's "Uplift" books.
    KB Wagers' "Indranan War" trilogy.
    Elizabeth Moon's various SF book series.
    Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series and spinoffs.

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  5. Bertram Chandler's Grimes series is an obvious influence on the game and should be listed among the top handful after Tubb, Norton, and Anderson.

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