Cepheus Universal

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/469431/cepheus-universal

Cepheus Universal is not a Traveller replacement, it is more of a universal 2d6 science fiction game. This does not "do" the Traveller genre that well, since it is specifically designed to simulate over other science fiction IP and setting and emulate anything.

 We have capital ships, high tech weapons, genre support for teleportation devices and other gear, support for almost any tech level you want, vehicles, a full assortment of vehicle weapons, spaceships, augments, cloning, computers, AI, space combat, planet and system generation, mega-structures, alien creation, encounters, planetary travel, time travel, referee advice, sample NPCs, robots, and advice for creating settings.

This is the most complete and comprehensive space opera RPG since the classic Space Opera. This is this generation's version of that classic game, a game that does it  all, can simulate any IP out there, does anything from TL 0 cave-people to TL 15 star federation explorers with teleport pads, the game does it all.

The game is so expansive and complete it makes an excellent expansion for Mongoose Traveller, and can introduce a lot of fun things into those games. If you want a special bit of tech or gear, you will find it here. You need to be careful making sure it fits into the setting, but you have all sorts of everything here.

The only this this game doesn't do well is a Traveller like experience. It goes hard on simplifying and making so many system work in a generic context, that the Traveller style flavor and quirks of the Cepheus SRD are lost. You are better off using the Cepheus Engine RPG for that, or Cepheus Deluxe. Or play in the Imperium using Traveller.

For any generic 2d6 science fiction gaming, or you are trying to simulate an existing IP with a 2d6 set of rules, this is your game. 

Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition)

Mongoose Traveller, 2nd Edition (2022 revision) is the best version of the game we have ever had. Sure, nothing touches the original, but the vast amount of sector, adventure, ship, and supplement support we have gotten so far is mind blowing, and we are still getting new releases.

The game is in great hands, and there is even a partner publishing program with DriveThruRPG. While I miss the Open license of 1E that crated Cepheus Engine, I get why they want to be careful around the system and only allow high-quality community content in.

There are decades of books to enjoy here, and an amazing wealth of material that expands and details the universe in ways the original game could have only dreamed of. this is one of the best "non-movie" science fiction IPs in existence, and it eclipses Star Trek and Star Wars in so many ways, like the detail and history of the universe is amazing and consistent. This is the best "D&D in space" setting ever built. The universe was built to game in, and it feels it.

This is not really a generic game like Cepheus engine is, and why you play Traveller is for the setting. This is the Skyrim of science fiction gaming, a classic setting with so much to offer, iconic places and factions, and aliens better defined and cultured than either Star Trek or Star Wars. If the creators of today's "movie science fiction" had 10% of the devotion to lore and canon of a setting like Traveller had, they would have no problem butting butts in theater seats and getting the fans onboard.

The care the publisher has for the setting's history and lore is the reason so many play and love this game.

Wizards of the Coast, announcing they are trying to "earn the trust of players" would do well to study Mongoose and what they do with Traveller. The trust runs deep here, and it pays off with happy players and sales that are still solid.

Cepheus Engine RPG

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/237247/cepheus-engine-rpg

 The Cepheus Engine Science Fiction RPG is still one of the best versions of the game to get, and you can get a very inexpensive print-on-demand version. This has no art, bookmarks, or hyperlinks, but it is still a great, bare-bones, just-the-rules reference with as few changes as possible.

While other editions and later versions introduced changes and additions to the system, this one keeps everything as clean and to-the-point as possible. The ship sizes are limited to 5,000 tons, with no capital ships, so this is a pure small-ship game, which fits the original little black books of the original Traveller game.

There are times I like a small-ship only universe, where technology limits the size of ships to a certain limit, and the largest ships can only go so far. This puts a premium on adventure and scout ships, and makes the game a bit more fun for those adventure-class vessels.

You do not get a universe! Where Traveller is the best for Imperium based gaming, this book does generic 2d6 universe gaming just about perfectly. There are times when I just want a familiar core system to explore an idea, and I don't need a lot of premade ships, worlds, weapons, gear, or any of the Traveller set-dressing.

All I want is a fast, generic, 2d6 science fiction system to quickly explore an idea or scenario. The Cepheus Engine RPG is the game's SRD, and the simple presentation makes this a very fast and easy resource to reach for. And this SRD-based version is perfect for using as a base to build other 2d6-based games from.

If all you want is a quick rules-reference for Open 2d6 science-fiction gaming, you don't need a ton of expanded content or bells-and-whistles, and you don't want a complete setting and history, this is your game.

Traveller

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/80192/ct-ttb-the-traveller-book

The three little black books are where it all begins. Traveller was a part of my childhood, our first science fiction game, and it even went to the hospital with me during a few extended stays. This was the game that I grew up with.

You can still get the original Traveller Book in POD! It is not that expensive, and it is a great source of memories to hold and flip through.

It was not Star Wars or Star Trek, it was something different. A window into another universe. With 1950s computers, a hard science fiction mentality, math formulas to calculate travel time, and space exploration that took weeks of travel time to get where you were going. This was better than Star Wars or Star Trek, since those stores were mostly wrapping up and over with, in Traveller, the universe kept going on, the stories never ended, and there was always one more star to visit and explore.

The counter games like Snapshot, Asteroid, and Azhanti High Lightning were classics, and gave us another small window into this world. The ships were massive like World War II battleships, the counters of soldiers in power armor and marines in armored space suits with Gauss rifles, fighting the psionic Zhodani with their gravitic floating war-bots armed with plasma guns - that was thrilling stuff. The female naval officers in skirts? Those were some fun counters, reflecting a retro-future that we fell in love with.

The game hasn't changed all that much today. The looks have been updated slightly, but the heart is still there. The game hasn't sold out to the modern audience, and it remains a wonderful, rich, amazingly designed and historical universe full of places to explore, and stories to learn about.

Mongoose has been an excellent shepherd to the system, and the books can fill a library and are amazing. The community games, all based on the first-edition Mongoose OGL license, are also amazing and each one is a treasure.

Even the original game still holds up amazingly well to this day. You can have a lifetime of adventures with just one book.

Hello!

 Welcome!