Freelance
Traveller
- Free Traders in Traveller (Steve Whitting)
- http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dunes/8426/traveller/
This website was reviewed on 4 Sep 2006. Geocities has ceased operation; we do not have a current address for this site.
First off, this is actually a micro-site, part of a larger "Free Trader's Space Station" that covers Traveller, 2300AD, Star Trek (FASA version), Star Wars, Transhuman Space, Serenity, Forgotten Futures II, and an original setting called "Retro Space".
Focusing on the Traveller section, being a Geocities hosted site there is the obligatory fat margin on the right for Geocities advertising. The front page consists of little more than a 3 element menu, the standard FFE-approved site wide disclaimer, a picture of a Suleiman class ship, and a big visitor counter that seems to get easily confused.
The first link from the front page is titled "Introduction". It describes Traveller in very broad terms in 3 paragraphs, followed by a fourth paragraph that describes what the author finds interesting about Traveller (plus the fact he doesn't have a gaming group anymore).
The second link from the front page is titled "Type J Low Trader". According to the authors TU a Suleiman used for trade is classified as a Type-J Low Trader (for people who can't afford a Free Trader). An addition to some information on this variant (I always thought a Type-J was for belters) there are several pictures of a Suleiman. What makes this different is that these pictures are not scans of existing publications, nor a CG rendered scene, but photos of a real scratch-built model in 1/72 scale. And very nice it is too.
The third link from the front page is titled "Traveller Links". No surprises that here's where you'll find a bunch of links to other Traveller websites. Of the 12 links, 4 are broken, 6 are for commonly known sites (like, FFE, Traveller Downport, Freelance Traveller, SJGames, etc), leaving just 2 interesting links (High Tortuga Campaign, and The Draconis Cluster).
So why visit this site? Apart from the pictures of the Suleiman model you wouldn't. There's almost no content here. And judging from the out-of-date sitewide disclaimer its not been updated in awhile (though it is nice to see someone using the official FFE-approved disclaimer). I do like the model and would love to have one, but I guess I could have picked a better site to review.