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Despite some funky illustrations (save the cover - which one can see is gorgeous), this is an excellent first start to alien creation for any Space Opera type game. Traveller however is an odd game – which is best described as Hard Space Opera. Which means that it takes elements from the Real World but still has all the familiar handwavium of FTL, portable fusion power, etc. from the Space Opera tradition? This guide veers toward the softer side. One such concession is four to six “races” per Sector. Mainstream Traveller would insist 0 to 3 per Sector with alien “animals” filling up countless worlds.

Countless examples drawn from his soon to be published Ari Drakara Campaign Setting round out the supplement.

It takes the basic Traveller Mongoose rules and applies them to the creation of sentients/sophonts. Where I found it lacking was that it really does have a Hard SF grounding to even how it approaches the creation of species; the rules outlined are more what associate with the territory of Star Wars rather than Traveller. Where this was evident was in the fact that aliens could be found on vacuum worlds or zero-g worlds. So, it might be life but not life as we know it – would have been my throwaway line. But, this supplement does not go there; it rather describes them as having a “Vacuum Survival” or “Zero-Gravity Adaptation” alien traits. To redeem it, partially, it does give the suggestion that these not be the homeworld of said alien species. The Referee takes the UWP as their starting point and uses a building block and 2d6 to determine characteristics. Fortunately, it does tend to avoid the Monster Manual approach which would just to generate exterior appearance – that is left either to the Referee (who could use the 1e DMG Demon Generation Table or her/his imagination). From the basic environment, our alien begins to acquire traits grounded in the particular ecological niche that their forbearers occupied. Sounds all very Hard SF, I know. But, unfortunately such traits include Electricity Resistance, Organic Radio Communication, Resistant to Fear, Xeno-Empathy, etc.

Having said that the good thing is most of the traits are convincing and believable even if they veer toward the fantastic (or fantasy). “Flynn” has done a great job in helping us to think through the process of creating believable alien sophonts that does avoid the bumpy head syndrome (a la Star Trek) or taking Terran analogues and giving them a bipedal appearance (Star Wars and much of TV Science Fiction) but it just does not go far enough for me. What I wanted to see was something that grounded more firmly in the Hard SF tradition which would allow me to play in Ian Banks’ Culture novels or even the worlds of Poul Anderson. Therefore, this is not the supplement that I had hoped for. However, if you like your SF soft then this supplement is for you.

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