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The authors note that they have geared this reference toward people who little or no experience with Traveller as well as making it useful for long time fans. My experience with Traveller is extremely limited. I have owned a couple of GURPS Traveller books and played in exactly one game using the little black books that a friend had managed to dig up on ebay. The books I've owned have been GURPS versions of the game, though I am aware of the other incarnations. I have primarily used them as sourcebooks (Far Trader, in particular) as reference guides for other game systems/settings. I am also GURPS Fourth Edition challenged, since I don't have the system in hand----yet.
TIW kicks off with a couple of pages introduction and another two-page orientation of exactly what Traveller's history is as a game, then on to the general backdrop for the game's setting. Traveller game history actually spans three separate empires (and the centuries that separate them) and several editions, so the setting has a long history in which to play---and certainly most fans I've encountered believe that one edition/time period is THE definitive interpretation . TIW focuses on the wars that occurred when the first empire encountered earth (Terra), a time period the authors advise has not been explored deeply/if at all in previous incarnations of the game.
Chapter 1 is a general prologue to Traveller and the two factions around which the game centers: The Terran Confederation (earth-based) and the Vilani Imperium. I admit that talking about this history with my friends who were Traveller buffs used to confuse me to no end. While there are aliens in Traveller (aliens a plenty, in fact), don't let the 'Vilani' name fool you into thinking that the Imperium is some vast non-human government. Reading it makes a lot more sense.
Vilani humans are verifiably human, though their empire had been in existence and spanned thousands of worlds by the time earth came into the picture. There are a number of in-game ideas on how humans originated in at least two vastly separated worlds presented as theories that the GM can use/ignore as he pleases. Suffice it to say that earth was surprised to find their first encounter with aliens to be a race of humans that had been setting up interstellar colonies at the same time earth's civilizations were running around building the ancient pyramids.
Chapter 2 explores an official timeline to use as a backdrop for Traveller games and provides a nice overview of the big picture. Neither power was overly fond of the other during this period (hence the Interstellar Wars), which begins with a first contact near Barnard's Star and eventually leads to several conflicts. The reader is presented with general discussion about how earth finally got its act together and how it managed to survive not one but three separate wars against the Vilani Imperium, an obviously older and more technologically advanced opponent. Pivotal clans and important leaders from both sides are presented with concise, but useful biographies, that give GMs and players insights into what the political and social scene is like.
From Chapter 2's bird's eye view, the authors focus the next 20 pages on Terra in Chapter 3. The United Nations morphed into The Terran Confederation after the first round of fighting with the Imperium, circa 2120s. Americans view the standard of living as lower than they and their parents remembered while other countries tend to view the Terran Confederation as a definite improvement of life, in general. You get a nice idea of what went on from earth's point of view (and her generally amiable colonies) during the period including a nice summary (The Citizen's Life) of education, public service, encouraged population growth for the entire world, and possible careers; we even get to see what type of retirement and free-time activities still exist (most are similar to what we think of today). Retirement, however, is basically non-existent in the modern American concept. People tend to work in less and less physically demanding jobs until they are incapacitated by health/age.
Much of the society of the Terran Confederation reminds me of Heinlein's Starship Troopers. This includes earth folk being 'drafted' after they complete their education, placed in various government service jobs including the possibility of military service for a mandatory minimum of four years. War or emergencies can get you 'reactivated' for a time, as well.
Terra's military includes a Navy, Marine Corps, and Army as well as Merchant Marines. All of these organizations are outlined nicely in the chapter and make for excellent adventure opportunities for military-centered sessions or campaigns. One of the sidebars even talks about 'uplift' projects designed to genetically improve dolphins, dogs and even elephants---elements that are covered in their natural historical development in other incarnations of the T-verse set later in the timeline. All in all, the behind-the-scenes and daily life aspects of being Terran are covered quite nicely.
Chapter 4 gives us a close-up on the older Vilani Imperium. The Vilani strain of humans are longer lived than humans (living past 120 years easily in many cases). We learn that citizens of the Imperium are taught that change is not necessarily good; that everyone engages in a form of communism (I'm reminded of Star Trek: TNG where money is not the end all be all - but everyone has basic needs met, regardless of their ability to contribute and rewards are still possible but not monetary in nature); efficiency is appreciated; and the Imperium as viewed as the pinnacle of any and all civilizations. Vilani have three castes that roughly equate to working class slob, manage class slob, executive class slob. We get a pretty thorough glimpse of the bureaucracy necessary to maintain a galaxy-spanning empire as well as information on what daily life is like for a typical citizen.
As with the Terrans, the Vilani military is discussed including an interesting psychological discussion on rewards; seems Vilani units (not individuals) are rewarded for bravery and accomplishment---an extension of the collective/communist-type attitude that pervades their society. Subject races, sentients the Vilani have incorporated into their Imperium throughout their travels, are also included. Some subject races, like the Answerin, are variants on humanity that have been encountered along the way. Others like the Bwaps (amphibian bipeds nicknamed 'newts' by earth folk) are truly alien; interestingly, the Bwaps are valued in the Imperium because they are so skilled at administrative/bureaucratic dealings. Fans of the other Traveller versions released over the years will be probably be interested by the Nugiiri. Other versions of the Traveller setting are set later in the timeline, so I won't spoil them for groups who are unfamiliar or who like to be surprised. Suffice it to say that the Vilani and Terrans have some interesting aliens with which to interact in their adventures.
The Known Universe is the topic of Chapter 5. If you like detail in world-building, this chapter is for you. Virtually every aspect of a planet you could ever want to know: size, atmosphere, gravity, general type, climate, water resources, even the affinity (how useful it would be to human habitability) are all provided. Worlds are also described by their inhabitant cultures including population, government, tech level, starports available, and what kind of trade is possible. All of these conventions make it very easy to know what general information you need as a GM or as a player about this or that planet. Several subsectors are discussed and provided on hex maps for reference, with the more important/unique worlds discussed in 'briefs' that explain why anyone would think a particular world was important.
In my opinion, you could play several campaigns or even indefinitely using these pre-generated worlds as settings, but the authors thought that wasn't enough. Eleven pages of tables help you roll (3d6) or choose as you wish the characteristics of any worlds you want to make up on your own. From gravity to local planetary government, you are given the tools necessary to further expand the planets available for Vilani and/or Terran expansion. This option is good for the do-it-yourself crowd and allows for exploration campaigns that wind up traipsing off the known worlds map.
Chapter 6 devotes 25 pages to the character possibilities of the Terran Confederation and Vilani Imperium. Advantages, disadvantages and skills appropriate to the T-verse are provided. Aliens discussed earlier in the book are statted out for play and a number of suitably Traveller-esque occupations are provided as template packages for those who just want to play without genning up characters. Academicians, attorneys, belters, bureaucrats, business types, colonists, rich kids, diplomats, physicians, entertainers, journalists, military, police, criminals, scientists and even spies are outlined in neat packages to speed you on towards actually playing.
Technology is the subject of Chapter 7. Interestingly, the origin of Traveller in the 1970s has had an impact on how tech has been portrayed in the setting. Unlike futuristic sci-fi settings that might be produced nowadays, Traveller is not centered on nanomachine genetic manipulation and wild biotech and neuro-jacking into computer grids. That's not to say that you couldn't include those concepts in your game, but they are not considered mainstream for the setting. As the authors have pointed out, earth begins the encounters with the Vilani at an obvious technological disadvantage as the Vilani have been puttering about with jump drives for millennia by the time earth stumbles onto the scene.
Societal realities shaped the history of tech development for the interstellar nations. The Vilani, while advanced, do little to improve their position during the Interstellar Wars as change is viewed with a great deal of wariness. The Terrans, on the other hand, rapidly copy and steal Vilani tech as well as pursue their own research (they had already discovered the ability to travel FTL using jump drives of their own) in order to improve their lot in the tech game. A brief discussion of tech philosophy followed by some examples pretty much caps off the tech chapter. Most armor, communications, computers, medical science (including some interesting pharmaceuticals), scanners, survival gear and weapons come either directly from the Basic Set for GURPS; those that don't come from GURPS Basic get a short and snappy description here. The final page of the chapter is dedicated to vehicles, including air rafts, speeders and gravity carriers and includes a table of about a dozen craft for quick reference/use.
Traveller is obviously about traveling, so Chapters 8 and 9 appropriately enough discuss Starships. Virtually every aspect you could want to know about starship operation and equipment is provided. Jump drives (for going FTL), ship's bridge equipment, travel times, what costs to consider when you're docking (fuel, maintenance, etc.) and more are covered here. I particularly liked the section on trade routes and moving goods, complete with tables for figuring out reasonable results from moving Cargo X to Planet B. Exploration, for all the Trek fans, is covered nicely to include missions like planetary surveys, system mapping and even first contact guidelines. A good deal of the type of information that originally appeared in GURPS Far Trader for Traveller is covered here.
Chapter 9 specifically goes into options for building your own ship. Beginning with a design concept (what do you want the ship to do?), you progress through hull, armor, engines and drives and even weaponry all the way down to crew complement, quarters and facilities (galley, med bay, etc.), shuttles/small craft and final review. I can see some players and GMs doing nothing more than playing with ship design for weeks on end since the options are pretty much infinite.
If you're like me sometimes you don't necessarily want to build the Millennium Falcon from the ground up. From fighters to merchant vessels of varying size to military patrol craft all the way up to battleships, you have several examples provided. Four of these sample ships include interior deck plans to show you everything from where the heads are located to how much space is in the cargo bays. These are all very useful and I was particularly happy to see the emphasis on merchant ship options.
Chapter 10 is a mini-game unto itself: Starship Combat. Designed to be played on a hex map, you get all the rules necessary to conduct board game-like tabletop starship combat. This could easily be played alone or used to flesh out RPG starship encounters. Counters for ships are (according to the book) available as downloads from Steve Jackson's website. Unlike many actual 'war games', this version is designed to be played with a referee (the GM in most instances). One of the cooler aspects of the game is you can have secret movement to represent ships doing the 'silent running' thing---and that's part of the reason you need a referee. Like the RPG portion of the game, I did not play test these rules (this is a capsule review) but they look very workable. I am reminded of the Knight Hawks rules from the Star Frontiers RPG and look forward to giving these a try.
The final chapter of the book is all about campaigns. I won't go into all the campaign and adventure seeds but there are some good ones. The general model of the suggested campaigns is a 'Terran Free Trader' game where the players have a ship wandering about the Vilani Imperium. Fans of Firefly/Serenity should be familiar with the general concept. A number of clever variants are proposed sidebar style including alternate history options (kind of funny to have alternate histories in a fictional universe, I guess). I think these are very solid suggestions for play.
Overall, this is one of the best supplements, GURPS or otherwise, I have seen. The 'meat' of GURPS supplements I've used or reviewed in the past has always been chock-a-block and this book is no exception. I usually balk at sourcebooks that cost more than $30 but this book is worth the $40 asking price in my opinion. It includes a intricate interstellar, tools for making planets, ships and appropriate setting specific characters---with well-developed, logical backgrounds, plus rules for a spaceship combat (that could easily played as a separate game in itself) and lots of ideas for campaign play.
One thing I've always appreciated about GURPS source books is they tend to not be too rules specific; this supplement could easily be used to play Traveller or generic space opera with d20, Alternity, Unisystem or whatever system you want to use. SJ Games' recent focus on hardback, color art, high production value books shines here. I think this product deserves the highest marks. If you're a fan of Traveller and/or GURPS, I highly recommend TIW.
