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  The early editions of Traveller led RPG design with evolutions.  
   
  Classic Traveller was one of the first RPGs to abandon classes or levels. A character’s 
  experience was based on how old he was, and what career he pursued.  
   
  MegaTraveller added the task system: its flexibility and adaptability an inspiration to so many 
  RPGs, with it's flexibility and adaptability. 
   
  But Traveller: The New Era had no evolutions – it was a conversion to a different game 
  system. And when T4 was released, there were too many compromises between the various 
  editions. I have to confess: as with many fans, I stayed with MegaTraveller and its 
  accompanying errata; others went back to Classic Traveller, and still others combined their 
  favorite pieces from the various editions into their games. 
   
   The first discussions Marc and I had about a new Traveller edition were in 1997; he was 
  cleaning up the T4 mechanics at the time, and I wasn't interested. Over the next decade, many 
  rumors came out about what Marc was working on, and every Traveller fan had their opinion of 
  how he had to do it. I did keep an ear out on what might be changing, but nothing I saw changed 
  my mind to keep my favorite edition. 
   
  Late in 2007, Marc passed me a new draft, and I saw something different. This was not a 
  redone T4, not a cleaned up MegaTraveller, not even a revised Classic edition. This was an 
  evolution. It was just notes on some careers, but I saw something there. So he invited me to join 
  a group (the infamous "Sewing Circle") and he e-mailed us updates on an infrequent basis. My 
  infrequent involvement shortly became deeper, and I found myself having more fun buried in 
  Traveller5 drafts than I had ever had before in gaming. From the early sewing circle discussions 
  to the incredibly rewarding forum errata-fests, it's been an amazing experience watching these 
  rules develop. 
   
  I encourage you to read through these rules several times. Let the overall concepts seep in. 
  Then go through it again, and you'll see nuances you missed. T5 is as much an evolution in some 
  places as adding the task system was to MegaTraveller. In other places, it's even more. RPGs 
  have evolved a lot since 1974 and 1977. Now Traveller finally catches up, and then jumps 
  ahead. 
   
  Welcome to T5. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Don McKinney 
   
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Traveller/09 - Traveller5/Traveller5/T5 Underlying PDFs/T5=0101 Foreword.pdf