Today is the day the last of my Traveller books arrive. This was a pretty big order, and it includes a few titles I was holding off on, including the Fifth Frontier War books. My new display shelves are all put together, and I have a home for the books when the box comes. It is a good feeling.
Also some of the newer books are on pre-order, but I have the PDFs, such as the Traders and Gunboats book. Part of what makes this game so great are all the ship designs and maps you get. If you ever wanted to lose yourself in a random ship doing some strange mission somewhere in the universe, you can find a ship with an interior map and go there. No other science fiction game has this level of detail and support.
Also arriving today is The Borderland, a fun-looking sandbox campaign that provides a large area of independent space between empires, with some influence by the major powers, but plenty of local factions, governments, consortium groups, and intrigue to keep players guessing. This is a different style of release, not "macro" in a sense, but very micro and focusing on a small area of space and jump-1 ships.
That "jump-1" campaign style, with later upgrades to jump-2 and -3 means there is a JRPG style of progression and it keeps the players hungry for money to invest in a ship upgrade, while still giving them a wide variety of planets and places to explore with a jump-1 vessel. You don't feel "left out" as you do in some widespread sectors, and the campaign focus can be very tight and gradually expand outwards.
This looks like a fun book, the creative team took a strange area of space, with a lot of small systems between major empires, and did some thinking on "what makes this compelling?" Making this an area recovering after a massive war and long night, and leaving it untouched by major powers, creates a huge area of space that is open and allows smaller players to thrive and keeps the larger powers from wanting to cruise fleets around in this place. As a result, this entire area of space has that "Grand Theft Auto" sandbox style of feeling, where a lot of deals and intrigue is happening between small but important factions, and the little guy can make a huge difference.
Also, the fact the entire sector suffered such a massive war and period of inactivity means lost installations, shipwrecks, lost civilizations, isolated factions, and many other interesting "ruins and dungeons" are out there waiting to be found and explored. So many worlds are detailed, systems laid out, and there are maps and planets on nearly every page, this is such a high-value book for campaigns that need a home "off the beaten path" and it almost has a "space western" feeling and a lot of potential.
There are a few more books coming in this order, and my new shelves have plenty of room to welcome them. Part of me is happy I have standardized on Traveller as my science-fiction RPG and not a retro-game, Starfinder, or other alternative. This is classic role playing, not power gaming with unrealistic levels and hit point totals, with no magic to leave me feeling like there is "too much mojo" happening in the universe, and it keeps the game realistic and grounded.
You are not playing Traveller to "build a level 20 super-character." You play the game to immerse yourself in a realistic universe with grounded and believable characters. To find fame and fortune, a place in the universe, or die trying. The GTA-in-space comparison is strong here.
Also, everything that I loved about the classic Star Frontiers setting can be somewhere in this universe, and that exploration and feeling of planetary adventure are present and strong here. Some of the things can be additions of a home world here or there, and even the original adventures can be ported in and likely play even better under Traveller than the old system.
Plus, if I don't want Star Frontiers content, there is more than enough here that is strong on its own without needing any of that legacy nostalgia. I could be happy without any of it, and still have a ton of things to do and explore. There is enough here to build new memories and nostalgia from.
Why you play Traveller is because it is so massive, infinite, and detailed. There is no game like this in its scope and depth, along with the designers realizing that at times they need to focus in on a small area and make it compelling and fun on its own.
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