The Spinward Marches is one of the oldest campaign settings in roleplaying. GDW began describing it way back in 1979 within the pages of the Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society and one of the earliest campaign setting books. Now, thirty years later, the setting is still being expanded by Mongoose Publishing.
This review is one in a series which will look at some of the many setting books which have been published over the years and which describe the area. It'll offer advice as to which ones were the best and which will work the best with Mongoose's current, fifth-edition, Traveller gaming system.
This
first review discusses
The Spinward Marches, Mongoose's 2008 book overviewing the setting.
An Overview of the Book
The Spinward Marches is authored by Martin Dougherty, who started writing for Traveller in the T4/GURPS era, and was one of the most notable "keepers of the flame" during the time that Traveller largely faded away as its own system. It's great to see him associated with the newest version of the game, as his knowledge of Traveller's Imperium is deep and obvious.
Dougherty divides The Spinward Marches up into five sections: an Introduction, The Third Imperium, The Spinward Marches, Subsectors of the Spinward Marches, and Adventuring in the Spinward Marches.
The Introduction and "The Third Imperium" provide a very generalized look at how the Imperium works. Some of this is content that I'd expected, such as a listing of Third Imperium species and a look at megacorporations of the Imperium. I was more surprised by some really in-depth looks at how the Imperium, its law, its noble, and its services actually work. It's probably the best description of how all of the weird bits of the Traveller Universe fit together that I've read, ever, and that alone is almost worth the price of admission for the book. It may not be directly gameable, but if you immerse yourself in it, this section will inform every Traveller adventure you ever run.
(I should read it again now that it's had a few weeks to settle.)
"The Spinward Marches" actually gets started with the material I most expected to find in this book: a look at that sector of space. It includes a history and a discussion of many of the major powers in the area. It's a very good big picture overview that help you keep track of the main players when running in the Marches.
"Subsectors of the Spinward Marches" takes up about half of the book, making it the biggest section. It allocates a precise four pages to each of the 16 subsectors of the Marches. In each section, three pages are textual, giving an overview of the subsector then details on two planets--usually the most important planet in the sector and a "typical" one--as well as short notes on several more. Each set of textual pages ends with the stats of all the planets in the subsector. The fourth page shows a map of the subsector with the planets included.
On the one hand, this section is entirely vital to running a campaign in the Marches. It shows you where every planet is, how they're connected, and what their general statistics are. On the other hand, I found the writing very dry and the piecemeal coverage of just two worlds in each subsector of 15-20 of only somewhat useful for an ongoing campaign.
I'll have to acknowledge that writing something like this in a way that really shines is very tough. How do you give adequate coverage of hundreds of worlds? I think Dougherty did an OK job given the scope of the project. However, I would have preferred more color, more specifics, and more adventure hooks leaking out all over. Still, I don't think my players will ever enter a new subsector of the Marches without me referring to this book first and foremost.
The final section, "Adventuring in the Spinward Marches", provides both general ideas on what sorts of adventures to run in Traveller and some specific adventures for the Marches. I expect to plunder it for adventure seeds frequently in the future.
Overall, this entire book is quite good. I feel like the shorter chapters at the start and end of the book run the gamut from very good to brilliant, especially the aforementioned section providing an overview of The Third Imperium, while the middle of the book, containing listings of the Marches' subsectors, is more workmanlike. I let it eke in a "5" out of "5" for Style; I think it could have been slightly better in places, but not a lot given the scope of the project.
Applicability to Mongoose Traveller
This book was certainly written for Mongoose's Traveller, so it features the precise setting that you can expect to see in other Mongoose Traveller books. That makes it 100% applicable.
However, there are no game stats: this book is entirely background. As such you can't expect to see Mongoose Traveller crunchy bits supporting the setting. I find that a little disappointing, as I'd like to have some specific careers for Sword Worlders, some rules for new alien races seen in the Marches like the Jonkereen, and such.
Still, for a Mongoose Traveller GM, The Spinward Marches remains a must-have accessory due to its background applicability and its easy availability.
Style & Design
Mongoose Publishing has opted to take a minimalistic approach to the design of its Traveller books, presumably to emulate the look and feel of the original GDW game. As a result, once you get past the (evocative, but slightly dark) cover, you'll find interior pages that are mostly black text on white pages, without a lot of the graphical nuances you'd find in other modern RPGs (including those published by Mongoose). I find it somewhat plain, but you can decide for yourself whether you like or dislike the classic style of layout.
There is one major area where The Spinward Marches rises up above the layout of the 1980s: its art. It's all done as grayscale washes, which give some nice weight to the pages that would be otherwise missing. In general I find the artwork runs from one or two so-so pieces to a number that are very evocative. Overall I think it really adds to the book.
Two other stylistic things are worth noting in this book.
First, when I said that there were four pages dedicated to each subsector of The Spinward Marches, I was being precise. They're all laid out in very regular four-page double-spreads. I've seen similar organization in Mongoose's other Traveller books, and they really helped me get around the character creation in particular. It was slightly less useful here, but still appreciated.
Second, I actually found it pretty hard to navigate this book when using it for general reference. That's because it's got a minimalistic table of contents, no section titles on the headers, and full sector maps that are sufficiently buried within the book that I never could easily find them. This is a shame because all of the rest of Mongoose's Traveller books have included very good indexing, with (for example) the charts for character creation usually cross-referencing subclasses with exact page numbers. That sort of attention was missed here.
Putting that all together, I think that The Spinward Marches has a pretty average Style, which I thus rate a "3" out of "5".
Conclusion
Mongoose Publishing's The Spinward Marches will probably be the linchpin for any campaign you run in the area. The introduction's superb look at the how the Third Imperium really works should inform any GM's view of the setting, while the main background data includes dry but very necessary setting information.
Review Summary