Traveller - Spaceship, Spaceship, Spaceship! [updated]

Mongoose Traveller 2017

Mongoose Traveller 2022

Although many of the updates in Mongoose Traveller 2022 are done well, I do prefer the older 2017 edition cover. It just screams "Spaceship, Spaceship, Spaceship" to me as if it was Benny the Astronaut from the Lego Movie. Of course, if you look at Benny's spacesuit, you'll notice that the Lego Space spaceship logo is clearly a Beowulf-class Free Trader.

You can see the "Spaceship, Spaceship, Spaceship" scene on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/7TYJyCCO8Dc?si=UmkasOjPk6LS4pLb

The Classic Traveller cover
(source: TravellerWiki).

I think that the 2017 cover echoes back to the text on Classic Traveller's box wonderfully, whereas the 2022 edition just feels like vanilla SF. It's a decent cover, but it doesn't excite me in the same way. Nostalgia is definitely a big influence for me in this, as is Star Wars: A New Hope (where the space battles were the things that seven-year old me was most excited by). 

This is Free Trader Beowulf,

calling anyone... 

Mayday, Mayday... we are under

attack... main drive is gone..

turret number one not responding...

Mayday. . . losing cabin pressure

fast... calling anyone... please help..

This is Free Trader Beowulf...

Mayday...

[Update 17:00 same day]

I've had a couple of responses on Mastodon and the Tavern that Mongoose have just released a 2024 version of the 2022 core book with new art which I'd missed. So what do I think of that?

Mongoose Traveller 2022 (with 2024 cover)

I actually like this less than the previous revised cover from 2022. I think it's more striking than the 2022 version but I think removing the human female from the cover is a backwards step(*)  and it's still very cluttered. Also, the planet ring shadows look wrong compared the planet shadow. 

(*) I can't comment on the gender of the other aliens shown, but as this is marketed to humans(**), removing the prominent female character like it misses representation of a significant chunk of your own market (especially if you're trying to grow it). 

(**) Humaniti, if I was being properly Traveller-esque.

5 January 2025