Off the Shelf: Traveller

I planned to put this in boxes and sell it until I learned I could solo-play it with AI.

That one thing changed everything for me. I could explore a universe, save my exploration to files so I could return to it, land anywhere on any planet, and have it read the UWP to generate an infinite world. The game is simple enough that any AI can make out a UPP and skills. The rest is up to me.

At least I am not using AI for art, I guess, but as my referee? Sure, let's go. Any planet, any subsector, and any place - infinite NPCs, adventures, and locations? I get it- no "AI DMs in D&D," but for something I pay for, for personal use? Sure, why not. Otherwise, these books are out the door. It is too big a game and a universe for me to explore, or even create content in my head for.

Yes, it does feel like giving up.

But I have never seen this universe this way, nor used my books in this way. Every one of them can be used. I did not waste the money collecting. Honestly, this is the first time this has happened to me with a 'collectors' game, seeing AI transform it into something playable. I limit the books, use it only to referee, and feed in information on characters and locations. It does the rest: it tracks the campaign, generates the missions and NPCs, creates locations, and I play.

As the models get better, VTTs may die off in favor of AI. I can only imagine an AI running a massively multiplayer universe using a pen-and-paper game and mutlliple DMs running in parallel, 24-7. The AI can handle maps and positioning. The AI will let you know if other players are nearby and what is going on with them. You will get notifications to connect your PCs and groups. The AI will create the character and storyboard art, or even live 3D models.

The VTT will be dead in the next few years.

The MMO will follow shortly after.

The concept of what a roleplaying game is will change in the next few years.

Yes, AI sucks.

But seeing this makes it feel inevitable.

Mail Room: Traveller: The New Era

One of the most polarizing games ever released from GDW, doubling down on Megatraveller, and destroying the universe to make Traveller more accessible to new players.

And this failed, spectacularly.

So hard that it took down GDW.

But, wow, what a great science fiction game this is.

It uses the same d20 system of Twilight: 2000 v2, and I sort of like that as a unique twist to this game. As a game that needs gritty combat and survival mechanics, this works. Some say they halve the hits across the board to make combat more deadly, and that is probably a good idea. Still, I like a science fiction game based on the Twilight rules, with elements of hardcore survival and combat realism as factors.

A 2d6 game is too broad and abstract to capture the need for that can of beans to live another day on a sub-zero Arctic world as the cyborgs are trying to hunt you down. The micro-battles become the macro.

I like that this game can go from trading 100 tons of pharmaceuticals and bulk plastics as a free trader to a gritty survival scenario with random encounters in a war-torn region. The characters scrounge for supplies, steal a sailboat, and are forced to contend with river pirates. Very few science fiction games get you thinking this way, but due to the Twilight: 2000 DNA, you think that way in this game, and it has the rules to support it.

And you can pull in anything from Twilight: 2000 v2.2, and it can be used as-is.

A massive, self-aware, artificially intelligent computer virus destroys the Traveler universe, controls planets and fleets with self-aware life forms, and slowly seeks to take over a universe destroyed by this new, communications-based, technological enemy. The entire universe is in ruins, with the entire map outside charted space left up to you, and the constant threat of AI-powered fleets with humans and other biological entities under its control slowly working to wipe out any resistance to the machine.

Some control is absolute, with combat warbots cracking the whip to make populations slaves to the machine empire. Other control is passive, with a planet relying on computers and systems it doesn't know are infected, and thinking "everything is normal" while supporting the AI War. Other planets have surrendered to the machine in exchange for limited freedoms, gladly embracing the AI to help it achieve its aims, all while under the constant eye of the hidden oppressor.

Natural resources and beautiful planets are stripped bare to support the AI War effort. As the AI (vampires in name only) increases its control over the galaxy, it starts melding with life, creating cyborgs and crafting androids and synthetics to replace life with robotics and artificial beings. The next evolution of life begins to take hold of the Traveller universe.

Old gear, unhardened from the threat, could be shut down in your hands, unless it is really primitive. Safeguards, such as inserting humans into communications systems and fire control, reduce the risk of AI infecting critical systems but increase the manpower needed to keep the universe running. Technology moves backward in some areas, like entertainment and communications, just to keep the threat of systemwide infection out. There is a mix of high technology and analog hardwiring in this universe that is unlike any other.

The rest of the universe fights losing battles to survive the onslaught or seeks to rebuild after the firewalls are built to keep the enemy out. You can run any type of campaign from rebuilding after the threat passes to a full-on AI War One.

In this universe, AI goes full "German World War II" on the universe.

This is seriously one of the best ideas to come out in science fiction in the last 50 years.

I get why Traveller players hate this. Megatraveller was already a bad mistake (one that I liked), and basing an alternate future on it, where everything is destroyed, tries to fix a bad decision with a worse one. I like the concept here, though. As an alternate Traveller universe, this works. I need to ask myself, what was the appeal of the OG Traveller Imperium? Was it just a "space road map" with well-defined factions and places to go? People run into the library of material you need to understand and own just to even make sense of the history, and there is a new barrier to entry for new players.

The destruction of the OG Imperium, multiple times, kicked off the nostalgia movement for Traveller. We sort of seem stuck in that moment, unable to move forward, since every time it has been tried has been disastrous.

Right idea, wrong universe, but then again, at this point in the Traveller universe, things had to change. Nobody was buying. These were pre-nostalgia days, before GURPS Traveller. AD&D was dying. Magic: The Gathering was taking over the world, along with 40K. Nobody wanted to play role-playing games. And here this game comes out, trashing the Imperium, and asking, what if?

What if AI tries to take over the universe?

...

Um, guys?

...

Guys?

...

Okay, now I am convinced that an AI model from 2026 went back in time 30 years and made this game fail. Our world is quite likely a handful of months away from the same fate. AI superintelligence is right around the corner. And the Traveller fandom still hates this game? I get it, they destroyed my favorite universe, but what they created is a universe outside of anything we have ever seen in science fiction, and only Battlestar Galactica comes close.

And we are facing this same threat today, if not right around the corner of tomorrow.

Like all great science fiction, this one predicted the future with chilling accuracy.

...

Wake up before it is too late.

TNE-301 Survival Margin, page 66

Traveller 5E

I am in on this one.

Despite having enough versions of Traveller for several lifetimes, I decided to jump in as a late backer. I was negative about this since 5E and science fiction rarely work well enough to last for me, but I want to see what they did. I do worry about long-term support and expansions, but I have enough of those, too, to last several lifetimes.

I have Ultramodern 5, Espeer Genesis, and the Level Up A5E science fiction game, and those work well.

I have too many 2d6 games to count.

One issue 5E science fiction has is that it becomes incompatible with other 5E elements due to the unique hacks and tweaks it requires.

I am interested enough to jump in, so there is a curious factor at play here.

Traveller 5E Update

I am happy to see the Traveller 5E campaign doing well and nearing the half-million mark. The books are still expensive; four at $80 each is not cheap, but that is the current going rate for 5E hardcovers. Many are being priced out of the market. Also, the October 2027 target is 18 months away, which is a long time to wait.

Also, shipping prices are going through the roof. I just paid $50 for shipping for one campaign, and I am seriously scaling back my pledges this year. Castle Whiterock for DCC will be my next one (4 days), and any other campaigns this year will have to be knockouts.

Granted, the PDFs will likely be out sooner, and I have not heard much on VTT or character designer support, which is a must-have for many to even consider supporting a campaign. Some versions of 5E I can't play because the tools aren't there, and even then, it is always an extra "digital purchase" in a VTT store to "own the rules there," and I feel I am being fleeced by the 5E industry again.

I can play Traveller with the 2d6 system today, or even cheaper (and free options) with the Cepheus system. There is a massive price gap between the free Cepheus Engine PDF and the $1,000 all-in pledge here. It sort of highlights where the entire 5E market is going, premium crowdfunding "experiences" with $1,000 buy-ins for the "ultimate fan package."

And for $1,000, I can get a much more complete and rewarding experience with GURPS or even Battletech. I could get a box of mechs that would fill a table for that much, and have months of painting to do.

I like the Traveler 5E concept; it sounds exciting. This would have been an instant buy for me last year.

This year, it isn't. Times are tough. I have Battletech and GURPS, and those are amazing games. I have a complete 2d6 Traveller collection. I have more 5E than I can play, and DCC will happily take all the attention for fantasy for me.

I don't have the time or money for this, and it is sad to see this going at such a high price point. This is the world we live in, but I do wish them well and all the success they can earn.

We are in the age of the premium 5E "fan experience," and it sort of sucks.

Backerkit: Traveller 5E

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/world-s-largest-rpgs/traveller-5e

If you like science fiction and 5E, this is the game to get.

But the prices are a bit of a sticker shock. $350 for the core book bundle and $1,000 for all-in. Wow, I have not seen a basic book bundle of a crowdfunding campaign this high before. I wish them all the best in selling the books at this high a price point. Licensing fees also play into this.

I would get this, but not at this price point.

Just as video gaming is becoming a hobby for the rich, tabletop gaming is moving in that direction, too. 5E is also an expensive system to support, and you can easily sink thousands (if not tens) into the hobby every year.

I like both systems, but I have Cepheus and GURPS to cover all my Traveller science fiction gaming needs. I like GURPS far better than 5E, especially for science fiction. While the MMO-ness of 5E is appealing, I would rather just play GURPS and have it all without the complicated character sheets of 5E.

That is another problem, the absolute need for character creation tools for 5E. I see Roll20 support, but how complete is that? Creating 5E characters by hand is a complete non-starter for any version of 5E. I am refusing to do that anymore after seeing character sheets print out to 16+ pages. My GURPS character sheets are only four pages for a 1,000-point character, and two pages for most other characters that I play.

And for $1,000, I could buy nearly every GURPS book ever printed and have a complete, three-shelf library of a game that can do anything. I checked this on Amazon too, and it is just under $1,000 for most of the 3rd- and 4th-edition books in PoD. Don't ask me how I know, but I have six shelves like this.

Also worth noting is EN World's 5E science fiction game based on the Level Up system. The Void Runners Codex is a complete boxed set that includes the physical books for about $200. I enjoy Level Up and have this, and it is a solid, more affordable alternative if you don't care for the Traveler universe and just want a generic, 5E science fiction system.

It is a strange world to live in, seeing GURPS as the easier game to support and play than 5E, but here we are in 2026. It comes down to preference and willingness to learn the rules, ultimately, and is a personal choice. While the core systems of 5E are easier than GURPS, in the end, character sheet complexity in 5E is an order of magnitude more complicated than GURPS, with expensive software requirements (and subscription models).

Traveller 5E is a really nice game, expensive and it shows, but it is not for me. As I get older, I have less time for these games, and I tend to stick to the ones I know and love that cover many genres. For me, that is GURPS.

Traveller 5E

Y&T was a great 80s metal band. Then, their label forced them to make cheesy pop-rock music. Then, the band died. Longtime fans felt they sold out. The new fans never showed up after the original MTV video went into high rotation, and then everyone dumped them. They could never return to their deeper cuts, and they were stuck in limbo until grunge killed the genre.

So what do they have to do with Traveller 5E?

https://forum.mongoosepublishing.com/threads/traveller-5e.126195/

I see people saying, "If Traveller wants to survive, it needs to attract a younger audience." Yes, the Traveller players are getting older, but this new audience is not interested in the current Traveller. The universe is not engaging with them, and a new set of rules won't make it any more appealing. If it were, they would be playing it.

So next year we are getting Traveller 5E, which is a terrible name since we already have Traveller 5.

But repackaging the current Traveller universe is not as compelling to the players they are trying to attract. They will want dragonborn, tieflings, animorph races, fae creatures, talking plants, robot people, dark elves, puppets, space elves, and all sorts of cute and cool things running around in space. 

Frankly, Starfinder 2E is the better game for them, and it is not even close. What the younger players want from science fiction is not what Traveller will give them. Starfinder is the better game, with better player options, and it plays perfectly to its audience and knows what it is.

Starfinder also feels more relevant to today's mood and feeling, and it feels more like a game for young players than Traveller in a 5E wrapper will ever be. Starfinder is an exciting, engaging universe that feels fresh and is begging to be explored and used for adventures. Traveller has the best-established universe in science fiction, but if it hasn't already attracted these players, a change in rules won't do much good.

The above is an excellent video on the Y&T band and a recounting of the events around this label-forced mistake that ended a great run and wonderful music. Please like and subscribe, and watch it all the way through. Great music commentary is very cool to see, and I support thoughtful, engaging commentary.

But it is an example of trying to be what you are not.

And trying to appeal to new fans who won't be there for you in the long run.

5E is not a universal solution to every problem with marketing and aging audiences. Companies that feel 5E is the answer to every issue will alienate their core fans, and the new fans they thought would be there will go right back to their Baldur's Gate 3 adventures and cartoony player options they are comfortable with. But if younger players like these things and it lets them express themselves fully, that is cool, too. Having fun is what gaming is about.

We are clearly in late-stage 5E, where every company is rushing to get its game on the platform. I fear the announcements of Runequest 5E, Rolemaster 5E, Tunnels & Trolls 5E, Call of Cthulhu 5E, Twilight: 2000 5E, Savage Worlds 5E, Paranoia 5E, Lamentations of the Flame Princess 5E, OSE 5E, and who knows what else. The modern audience will save us all, right?

Tell that to the band.

I get it, Traveller's audience is getting older. Tell that to every '80s band when grunge came out, and the kids walked away. There are times when there is not much you can do but try to please your core audience. The answer is not in rebranding; the answer is always in creating something new that speaks to the next generation.

You don't need to wrap Traveller with 5E.

You need to do what Starfinder did, and build a new universe that appeals to younger players. The best they can do is fork the Traveller universe and fill it full of neon-colored fantasy races. I know, it sounds like heresy, but you need to play to what your audience wants.

Starfinder 2E wins this fight before it even begins.

Off the Shelf: Traveller

This one was a surprise. I had this game sitting in my garage for a while. After getting my Brother label machine and organizing my storage boxes, I realized how much I missed this one. I still love the Cepheus community and all the fantastic work done there, and those are still some of my best games. But the Mongoose 2022-today version of Traveller is another thing entirely.

Mongoose Traveller is gaming's best implementation of a "space MMO" ever written. There is so much history here, so much written, tens of thousands of planets developed, dozens of adventures, hardcover after hardcover, and such a complete and functional universe to explore that you are missing out if you haven't got in a starship and explored it.

This universe is a lifetime of exploration and fun.

The rules are not that hard to learn, and the game is very straightforward and easy. This is far easier than D&D 5E, even with ship combat tossed in there. All you need are a few six-sided dice, and a decade of content is there for you to roam around in and explore.

Where Cepheus Engine falls short is in its generic and setting-free nature. If you want to build your own setting and universe, go with Cepheus Engine all the way. There are so many fun variants and mini-games built on the 2d6 engine, and a lot of these could also be considered Traveller expansions in their own right, especially the fantasy-themed ones.

I still love Sword of Cepheus, Westlands, and the later games in this series. The 2d6 community is a strong and vibrant place, with room for many ideas and games.

If you play Traveller, you are playing in the Imperium setting. There is simply too much "great stuff" here to explore, use, fly around in, visit, meet the aliens of, adventure on the worlds of, battle with, and interact with. There is even an entire sector reserved for your settings and expansion, so they left room for your creativity directly in the center of the universe map. Want to drop Star Frontiers directly into the center of the Imperium map? You have the space to do that. Grow the universe up and say they later discovered the Imperium, but keep apart from it in their own enclave. It's fine. It works. You have the room to do it.

The game scales well, too. You can play this as a macro wargame with battling fleets and surface armies, just as well as you can play a small, 4-person expedition to a hostile alien world. You can play a shipwrecked scenario like the classic Star Frontiers module series, which is sort of like a "fish out of water" game, like a John Carter of Mars style experience, and port in the great monsters and magic from the Westlands game. Severely limit ammunition, and force the players to craft bows and use melee weapons to fight the savage aliens of this new world.

Part of my love for this genre was rekindled by reading classic Wally Wood comics from the 1950s. I originally got these for Star Crawl Classics, a DCC-compatible science fiction game that is relatively simple but fun. After I started reading them, my love for Traveller came back. I wanted a game of two-fisted, laser-flinging, gritty survival, starship battling, classic, bubble-helmeted, hard science fiction again. I wanted strange space aliens and monsters wandering every habitable world. I wanted the buzz of galactic commerce and the patrols of star fleets. I envisioned struggling corporations forming exploration ventures on shoestring budgets, utilizing refurbished shipwrecks and other salvaged materials, and navigating challenges. I wanted players interested in exploration and science, problem-solving, and theorizing alien life.

Instead of inwardly-focused characters, I wanted a universe that gives characters a reason to care about what is outside themselves.

D&D's fatal flaw is its inward, get-me-mine, my-build, my-power, self-centered focus.

It sucks as a story, and it sucks as motivation.

Seriously, these classic science-fiction comic collections are wonderful. If you find yourself lost in the fantasy-gaming haze, too beaten down by the constant noise and fighting over the hobby, over what should be in and what should be out, there is an escape for you. All you need to do is grab that first rung of the ladder leading up into the rocket ship, close the airlock door behind you, strap yourself in the pilot's seat, and blast off into adventure.

While yes, modern Traveller does not do the bubble-helmeted look or style, that is just a minor flavor change and reskin to the spacesuits. The starships are not sleek rockets, but that is another reskin, or you could just hand-wave it off and say the ships look good enough.

You can also get over the "land the ship on the dungeon" problem that science fiction has by enforcing strict limits on what size and type of ships can land on planets, where they can land, and forcing difficult skill rolls for landing on unprepared surfaces, and inflicting severe ship damage if the roll fails. Avoid making landing too easy, where characters have a "personal RV and hotel" they can park on a space dungeon. Make the ship begin to sink into the soil after sitting there for five minutes, slide on an uneven surface, or have weather prevent it from taking off.

Introduce threats that make a parked starship a sitting duck for attack. Make targeting engines and other systems very easy, and roll some critical hits on a ship by passing pirate aircraft or starfighters shooting up a parked ship like it was Pearl Harbor.

Ensure the ship must use atmospheric craft to visit the surface, and make any landings "touch and go" to prevent losing either the vessel or the interface craft. Establish this as a standard operating procedure that all pilots must follow, and there are always space critters who can crawl in parked ships, chew on exposed wires, contaminate the vessel, or otherwise easily ambush those exiting the craft.

Put hostile bandits, thieves, hijackers, or other locals who would love to steal, loot, strip parts from, or take over a parked ship worth tens of millions of credits. Give them a few armored vehicles, and have the local forces of the corrupt governor impound the ship or declare it is theirs.

If you are lost, go back to the original sources of inspiration.

This world makes it so easy to forget, which is why we must look backward to move forward. the feelings these comic artists had about an infinite universe of limitless potential will light a fire in you. Let their enthusiasm cross the decades and find you.

What is essential is that the stories and tales of adventure are the same. We are fighting two-headed hydra monsters on barren worlds, meeting strange aliens and overcoming the language barrier, or engaging in space battles with star pirates. We are surviving against all odds after being shipwrecked on an alien world, where we are learning its secrets. We are taking a boat ride down a river as we deliver supplies to a remote outpost. We are mapping star systems to discover what lies beyond.

It is too easy to get lost in the introverted worlds of fantasy, where every waking moment is about "me and my identity" or "how will I be the leading character in this story?" Today's fantasy is pandering crud and consumerist garbage. It is a toxic, self-important, high-school clique of ins and outs.

I want to be lost in something bigger than myself.

There is a whole universe out there waiting.

The RPG as Social Glue

Shadowdark captures the original D&D aesthetic just like how the original Traveller Book captured the 2d6 science fiction spark of imagination. Do these self-contained tomes have every option, provide the most detailed combat systems, or give your billions of combinations of options?

No.

Doing any of those things would ruin what these games are, and the possibilities they offer.

Forget today's encyclopedic games which are shelf fodder for the collector's market, and not games which can be easily played with others. The best game is one small rulebook and infinite possibilities. Very few games capture this. Even the new Traveller has dipped into the collector's market a bit too deeply, and that game is a hard sell for me to anyone interested in science fiction.

With D&D, you are talking nearly $200 in books to get started, a subscription service, reading hundreds of pages of rules and options, learning a VTT, and becoming familiar with action types, turns, and all sorts of special conditions, spells, powers, and abilities. The D&D Starter Set is probably the best edition of the game, and you should ignore the rest. Very few people play past the levels given in the Starter Set, and the game at high levels is horribly broken.

Just selling someone on "hey, play this with me!" is an impossible task unless they are already deeply invested in the D&D market. Most average people, when I go up to them and offer to play a RPG with them?

Forget it. D&D is too big to even suggest. Too big of a cost, time investment, purchase, reading requirement, and commitment for any average person to make. I bring D&D up to people outside the gaming market, and I get blank stares and a feeling I should "go play with people who already know the game." D&D as "social glue" only works on those already sold on the game.

Shadowdark is different. I can start up a Shadowdark game with those outside the D&D sphere, they say "what is this" and they see how easy it is, and they are instantly interested and know "I can have fun playing this!" Me, as someone who runs the game, has a "social value" to others as a "person who plays a fun game."

And I can get anyone playing the "full version" of Shadowdark with just the Starter Set, and me owning a book. The character sheets are so simple, and what you need to read and learn can be easily passed on in one minute of showing someone how things work. The game plays like the classic Hero Quest or Dungeon boardgames, where it is just "move your piece and do something" every turn.

Shadowdark is this generation's "Basic D&D." This is the game Wizards should be selling for the hobby, and D&D has turned into a grognard-like mess of rules, options, special actions, bloated options, and an almost "Advanced Squad Leader" feeling to the entire heavy and book-heavy framework.

I can't sell people on D&D anymore.

The 2014 books were an easier sell, honestly.

These days? It is a non-starter with thousands of backward-compatible options confusing the market, and the game depending on online character creation tools. I have to sell people on a game, time commitment, huge purchase, website, subscription service, microtransactions, and a huge buy-in to get started. There is even a social commitment (orcs, drow, half-races) you need to make to align yourself with the designer's vision of the game that feels like it overreaches into your imagination.

Shadowdark is my "social glue" for fantasy these days. I can play it with someone in a heartbeat, introduce it in a minute, show them a zero-cost point of entry, and get them in game with me without them needing to buy a book or sign up for a subscription service. Sorry, Wizards, I am not selling D&D Beyond to other people to play games with me. I am not doing your sales pitches anymore.

Shadowdark works because everything is kept dirt simple.

And once people play, they are hooked, and can join in the fun for free.

I tried putting Shadowdark in storage many times and walking away from the game. To me, it was too simple and did not fill my grognard need of rules, realism, and options. I loved the respect it paid to the classic hobby, and the art and how the game is designed pays a lot of respect to the old ways. I loved the presentation, but felt the game was too simple to hold my interest.

To be honest, I feel Dragonbane fits in this equation somewhere, as the power-fantasy game many play alongside Shadowdark. Where in Shadowdark you need to play carefully, Dragonbane feels like the "charge in, slashing swords and casting spells" style of fantasy many prefer (minus the D&D commitment and bulk).

But every time I gave Shadowdark a chance with others, outside the hobby, I made new friends who were interested. I know, after a while, someone will try to sell them on D&D, but they will likely end up disappointed and leaving the hobby because for them, D&D is too big to play. D&D is the wrong game for them. They will get in, make the purchases, and feel ripped off because they don't have the time in their lives to get involved with a hobby that demands a majority of your time and attention.

Shadowdark?

I can pick this game up and put it down like a boxed set of Monopoly. For others, that is the same level of understanding and commitment they need to invest. Want to play Shadowdark? Yes! Cool! And there we are, zero time and prep needed, hand out a few simple character sheets, and we are playing a game together.

The "social glue" of Shadowdark works, and it works well.

Mongoose Traveller 1E vs. 2E

When I first delved into Mongoose Traveller 1E, I was struck by the sense of community it fostered. The game felt much more 'out there' with the 1E Psionics book, which mentions time travel. There were even fantasy crossover elements in the tables. It was as if the game was searching for what Traveller meant to us, the community, and a larger market of sci-fi enthusiasts. It was a shared journey, a collective exploration of the unknown.

Despite that, the game didn't know what it wanted to be.

The second edition of Mongoose Traveller focuses more on the Imperium setting, and the 2022 revision further emphasizes this point. It turns the game into a semi-generic sci-fi setting that can absorb many sci-fi concepts. Your Imperium is yours, and you can take it however you want. Stick to canon or have your custom races and civilizations appear. This adaptability means your ideas are welcomed and can become integral to the game.

It feels much more accessible than Star Wars and Star Trek, and those games are dying a "heat death" of too much lore as it is and no freedom for your own ideas. You can never introduce your race in Star Wars without people looking at you funny and saying, "Well, then, why didn't you just use X?"

Traveller has room. And every universe is a blank slate set to a default starting point. You can even create your own sector maps and ignore canon. I feel freer in Traveller than in the licensed settings of Star Trek or Star Wars. Part of me feels I can't tell "my stories" in those universes, and they eventually devolve into guest-star appearances of licensed characters.

1E felt more like a generic sci-fi game wearing a Traveller skin. That edition had the rules, but it felt strangely divorced from the setting, and 1001 ideas were in there that were searching for a campaign setting. It is still very inspirational for a sci-fi game, trying to cover many genres and do everything.

I have the 1E pocket rulebook, and the art is something out of a cyberpunk or Aeon Flux game.

Now, Cepheus Engine drives all the 2d6 experimental concepts with community-made games, and Mongoose 2E returns to the game's roots. If you want generic sci-fi, any community-developed Cepheus Engine games are great. What I like about them is "no Imperium included." I don't need the battle-dress armor and scout couriers if I try to do a "Buck Rogers" setting. That "clean room" aspect is what I want.

If I am playing in the Imperium setting, it is Traveller all the way. I like the 2E setting; the Imperium feels like a "Greyhawk" setting, gigantic, with room for everything, and most of its ideas will be your creations. You can fall back on "what is there" if you have no ideas, but this is space, and space is infinite.

The setting has tentpole adventures and campaigns, just like AD&D, but you are free to ignore those.

Want to take a slice of the world and make it yours? That's fine. Import Star Frontiers and use a 2d6 ruleset (Cepheus Deluxe EE works best for this). If you want, put it in the Foreven sector. 2E is remarkably malleable, but it avoids over-the-top and crazy.

The 1E universe had demons and angels running around in it. Time travel. All sorts of crazy.

The 2E universe doesn't - but leaves it up to you.

Cepheus Deluxe (EE) vs. Traveller, part 2

Cepheus Deluxe (Expanded Edition) is a modernized pulp sci-fi version of the Traveller game. With their stamina and lifeblood system, the combat rules allow characters to shrug off minor wounds, adding a sense of resilience and tension to the game. On the other hand, the talent system brings characters to life with its cinematic feeling, offering a deeper level of customization and engagement.

Cepheus Deluxe (Expanded Edition) is a versatile powerhouse, designed to seamlessly fit into any generic sci-fi setting. This adaptability empowers you to create your own unique universe, play established IPs, or even convert other sci-fi settings. It's a game engine that can fuel a 2d6-based Star Frontiers conversion or a hybrid mix of Star Frontiers, Space Opera, and Traveller, giving you the creative freedom to craft the sci-fi experience you desire.

Cepheus also does Star Wars, Star Trek, and other IPs just fine as a rules system. The pulp additions to characters and combat ensure you get that tension and danger in combat while brushing off light wounds and not needing medical attention for minor wounds and punches to the face. In Traveller, all wounds require medical attention. In Cepheus, there are some you can just shake off and get on with the action. The talent system helps give characters a "larger than life" feeling and allows for deeper specializations.

To me, Traveller has moved out of the "generic sci-fi game" space (which Mongoose Traveller 1E was in) and has become a very strong setting-based game for the mind-blowing Imperium setting. This version embraces the setting and merges the rules with it, just like Runequest 7th does, and gives you a great starting point for any sci-fi campaign. The key word here is starting point since the universe is designed in that Harnquest-style "one starting point" that you can take in any direction and then reset for your next campaign.

Want to do sort of a "space alien" game? Do that in one campaign, then wipe the slate clean the next. Time travel? It is not canon, but it is sci-fi, but those stories can be told here. When the campaign is done, the universe resets to "year zero," and you have a fresh slate for the next story. Time travel and space monsters may not exist in future games, but every playthrough is unique, and you make the universe "yours" every time you play it. Dimensional travel and magic? Fine, it is in your current game.

I love these "single starting point" games far more than the "constant canon" games where new metaplots, lore, and characters are added to the world with every book - like the old Forgotten Realms was in the 1990s. You would make one unused part of the world your own, and a novel would come in and overwrite everything. Players will go there and expect to see "the novel stuff" like tourists; your contributions mean little and are marginalized.

Runequest is done the same way, just like Call of Cthulhu - you get the campaign world set as the single starting point, and any direction you take from it is excellent. This is the only way to do deep game worlds these days since updating the universe for new events invalidates old books, steps on player contributions, and creates a mess of lore and dependencies, where X had to happen for Y, and all of a sudden you need to play at the "tail end" of history to have any fun.

Cepheus does generic sci-fi the best. It is free from the iconic Traveller ships and lets you create your own without scout couriers flying around reminding you that you are in "not Traveller" again. The pulp- elements create a high-action sci-fi experience, and it does a 2d6 experience for these genres just about the best. Traveller is a more realistic game.

What I love about Traveller is being able to pick any map and any star and drill down into it to read about "what is there" and dream of all the adventures that can occur there. I can't do that in D&D. I get a greater sense of wonder about a sci-fi universe where characters are relatively ordinary and discover the extraordinary than I do the "high magic Avengers" of most fantasy gaming these days. I can put an unexplained phenomenon in Traveller, and players will ask, "What is that?"

In D&D, players know the page number of what just happened.

Magic is no longer magic if it is pedestrianized.

D&D magic is just "power"—not magic. There is a massive difference between being amazed by what a stage magician does, watching the same thing, and "knowing the trick." Magic assumes wonder, not knowing how it happened, and feeling that sense of shock and amazement at something happening before your eyes that you can't explain.

The same is true for Traveller. I can set up an anomaly in which a ship "teleports" between stars using some unknown drive, and the players race around trying to find where it goes next and what it shall do. That drive isn't in the rules or the books, it is in my imagination. The players will likely only partially understand it, only the parts they need to give them an edge. I will never need to write a "technical manual" explaining how it works. Players will never be able to "replicate it" by gaining access to "high-level engineering powers."

The ship will likely never appear in another campaign. This is it. If it gets destroyed, that is the end. It is not in the "Mega Tech Guide" book. The players will never know anything else about it, its origin, or its purpose. There is no page in a book you can flip to for an answer.

It is what it is, the unexplained.

And we need space for that in our games and our imaginations.

Cepheus Engine vs. Traveller

Okay, yes, Traveller is expensive. The books are very high-quality, color, excellent paper, and hardbacks. You will pay for that these days, and it is costly. But the universe is impressive and in the top ten of science fiction, even when you include movies and films.

Yes, the Traveller Universe is just as old as Star Wars and, in many cases, more compelling.

I read that Marc Miller, creator of Traveller, recently sold the rights to Mongoose to keep his legacy alive. Marc also had nice words for the Cepheus Engine side of the 2d6-i-verse, and having an open, community-supported implementation is critical for the legacy to survive. Mongoose is working on extending an open license to Cepheus publishers, and there was work on this and updates this year.

It takes a while since this has to go back and forth between publishers, legal, and owners and get community feedback. A license nobody will use wastes time, so I applaud all sides trying to get this right. Nobody wants another OGL.

https://forum.mongoosepublishing.com/threads/traveller-open-content-new-programme-on-the-way.123770/page-5

This is an excellent step in supporting and continuing the legacy and ensuring "everyone can play." The Traveller, part of the legacy, belongs to a good steward in Mongoose, and the 2d6 system belongs to the world. This is important since a lot of creative development and R&D is happening in the community games, which benefits us all.

Also, the Cepheus games are often printed at a lower cost than the Traveller game, being in print-on-demand. This makes them more fun! I love both Hostile and Cepheus Engine games, and there are a bunch of exciting mods and developments in these systems that make them more suited for generic sci-fi or modding to play in universes like Star Trek, Buck Rogers, Battlestar Galactica, Mass Effect, or Star Wars, which Cepheus handles easily. It is nice to have a game with no Imperium or backstory and no iconic ship designs so players can morph the system into any universe they can imagine.

The CD game has a "traits" system (like talents) that enhance character customization. This game also expands psi-powers to be on parity with 2022 Traveller.

And, no, "officially licensed games" do not do a better job of playing Star Wars or Star Trek. I can't tell you how many of these I have before the license runs out and the game is forced to switch publishers and systems repeatedly. Also, some games move to a second edition far too quickly.

Also, if you know where to look, you can get "Trek" and "Wars"-like experiences inside Traveller, and at times, they are even better. There are modules and sourcebooks for naval and mercenary campaigns. You can get cruiser deck plans for giant ships and run a "Trek-like" exploration campaign, with complete rules for simulating the ship's crew, encounters, missions, and full support for an entire game. While the licensed Star Trek game does this, very few Star Wars games do this, and the level of support is never as good.

You would be hard-pressed to find mercenary games in an officially licensed Star Trek game, and while it is possible in Star Wars, the support is feeble. Traveller has a boxed set and adventures for these types of games. Exploration? Strong in Trek, non-existent in Wars. In Traveller, you generate systems and make star maps; the game has done this since day one. Space piracy? Non-existent in Trek, weak in Wars. Traveller has a boxed-set slipcase deluxe adventure regarded as one of the best space pirate campaigns ever.

If you can get over not playing in "officially licensed IP," the universe is yours. Traveller has become the "D&D of sci-fi," absorbing all the best concepts and campaign types of every sci-fi universe and making a universe that does it all.

The only weak area of Traveller is the "star knights"-style campaign, which has "force-like" power. The first edition of Mongoose Traveller has a psionics book, and one is needed for the Second Edition. Part of me feels a mythic "Star Knight" faction would fit well in Traveller, who go around, protect psionic adepts, and prevent exploitation and brutalization of psi-sensitive peoples.

This would be a "better Jedi than the Jedi" and give them an "X-Men" style cause to travel the universe for (which the Jedi do not have). This faction could be supported privately by wealthy psi-supportive people and work behind the scenes. If you look at what the Jedi in Star Wars has become, it has fallen far from the ideal.

For me, an X-Men-style campaign of Star Knights protecting psi-sensitive people would be far more compelling and exciting than the muddled mess of the Jedi, which has turned into a strange mish-mash of an intelligence agency, political faction, self-important trainers of Jedi (who have no real reason to be doing anything other than 'they just are'), planetary explorers (?), and Coruscant police force.

You could also have an evil faction led by a megalomaniac "Magento" figure who preaches psi-supremacy over ordinary people, with its own "Dark Knights" who hunt and corrupt psi-sensitives for its side. This would fit well in Traveller, and you could ignore it if this isn't your thing - which, to be honest, applies to Mercs and Naval campaigns, too.

Cepheus Universal has the "force sword" if you want it, and you can rule this weapon as a legacy of ancient psi-knights from long ago. It isn't "on-sale" at weapon shops or mass-produced anywhere. CU is another excellent adaptation of 2d6 sci-fi gaming, with gritty art and more gear.

Cepheus is a lower-cost and community-supported version of the game. You can find fantasy gaming and many other genres in the open system, which expands the appeal of the 2d6 system. And lower cost means just as much fun! Traveller and the official books are more suited to support the Imperium setting, and a lot of work is done for you - which is why you pay for the full-color books and all the information you don't have to come up with.

Traveller, along with the great work in the Cepheus area, is quickly becoming the "D&D of space" and absorbing all the best ideas in sci-fi gaming.

Traveller is Great Sci-Fi Roleplaying

I have not been this invested in a game since my GURPS Fantasy campaign. Where GURPS Fantasy captures that gritty, down-to-earth, realistic fantasy that I crave, what Traveller does is "sci-fi with batteries included."

Many sci-fi games, even those in the OSR, promise a big game and fail at one point or another. Most of them can't do ship combat without heavy math and physics (GURPS Space), others get too goofy (stop copying Guardians of the Galaxy like some games copy Aliens), some have no trading game or economy (Starfinder), others have no way of creating star systems, some have no ship design (Frontier Space), and many others have no exciting universe to explore.

Traveller, the game that set the benchmark in 1977, continues to reign supreme. Its comprehensive approach to sci-fi gaming, which includes ship combat, trading, and universe exploration, has not only stood the test of time but also made a significant mark in the history of gaming. This game locked TSR and Wizards out of the sci-fi market and continues to be a beacon of excellence in the gaming world.

Traveller does it all in a relatively rules-light format. The 2d6 system scales exceptionally well, providing a sense of reassurance about its adaptability, and does an excellent job of 'keeping the numbers down' to a realistic level. It also effortlessly flows from turn-by-turn action to a macro-level of 'handle a few days in one skill roll.'

The only areas where the game falls short are planet types and adventure hooks, where Stars Without Number will always be the king of the generated content. The systems here work well enough with Traveller as a plug-in adventure hook system, so using SWN's planet and system creation systems is the best of both worlds and provides instant adventure hooks for any sci-fi game.

Why not just play the Cepheus system? This is an OpenQuest versus RuneQuest question. If you want to play with the Traveller world, the ships, the organization, and the history, play Traveller. The classic universe, ships, factions, and history are all here. If generic sci-fi is more your thing, or you want to use the 2d6 rules to play another IP, go Cepheus and DIY the universe without the official setting distractions.

Cepheus is also a vast and confusing collection of titles. This will continue until the OGL is purged forever from gaming as a stain. Lots of titles remain under OGL, and the community is working its way out from under that mess. The license is still viable, but with an uncertain asterisk. Still, some of the best 2d6 community content is still being made under this rules framework. An alternate way out is Mongoose putting the core 2d6 rules under ORC, and there were rumblings of that as well.

Cepheus is 100% compatible with Traveller, making using adventures between the systems easy. Cepheus also has a few exciting rules additions (talents). Also, it has many other very compelling settings (Sword of Cepheus, Wild West, noir, and cyberpunk settings) - which can all supply content for your Traveller games. Sword of Cepheus has 22 pages of monsters in 2d6 format, and Westlands has 28 pages). The Under Western Skies game has wild-west and horse-generation rules (you could do a Westworld game with this). New World is a cyberpunk game with excellent urban encounters and gang creation tables. The entire Cepheus 2d6 open-game community is a fantastic resource to draw upon.

The Sword of Cepheus 2nd Edition is also coming out very soon.

The entire 2d6 gaming universe outside Traveller is still excellent, and Cepheus Light also powers my Car Wars RPG. You can power an entire game universe with 2d6 mechanics, from fantasy to sci-fi. The 2d6 gaming hobby is as good as 5E but with fewer dice.

Back to Traveller. The pre-2022 game is more classic Traveller, while the 2022 version (and the books supporting it) aims for more generic sci-fi gaming. Traveller is to sci-fi what D&D is to fantasy. You can have a hundred 5E sci-fi games and still never match Traveller. The setting is evolving from a defined, classic setting with much "scaffolding and framework" lore to obey; the new presentation makes the setting your own to play with.

The old setting felt stuck in the 1950s. The new one still could be, but it feels more accessible to make it your own.

But this feels strange, and the game has captured my imagination, which has yet to happen in a long time. When you feel yourself "living in the universe," magic happens. With GURPS Fantasy, these characters feel real; I get that low-level gritty and bloody grid and fight for survival.

With Traveller, the characters are not as "gritty and real" as GURPS. What does feel real are all the possibilities—that sandbox, the hundreds of ships to encounter, the millions of planets to visit, the alien races to meet, and the ones I can create for my games. The types of campaigns are near-infinite: science, mercenary, trader, troubleshooter, navy, pirate, settler, miner, explorer, system developer, spy, bounty hunter, noble, rebel, law enforcement, survey team, and it goes on and on.

While other games have these professions as "classes," you can actually "do the thing" in this game; other games have the "just a name" problem: explorer as a class name, but just end up in combats on a battle-mat. You aren't "really" a spy, hacker, or explorer; you just fight like one (and have a skill for out-of-combat things). This is sort of the problem Starfinder has for me; you aren't a true star captain or merchant; what should be "the thing you do" is just flavor for combat abilities.

And if you can spend hundreds of millions of credits, stand losing hundreds on millions of credits, and find ways of making it all back again - this is your game. The first time we played Traveller as kids, our characters sold a ship for a few hundred million credits, and our game died. We had yet to learn what to do with 300 million credits except retire. We were too into the AD&D "win the game at a million gold pieces" sort of maturity level.

Oh, I know now.

Here? Buy an excellent trading ship, start a mining operation, claim a great planet as your own, start a mercenary company, build a pirate fleet, start a colony, buy a trading fleet, invest in land, develop a company, or earn more money to influence the royals and politicians to buy your way into high society. Hundreds of millions of credits are not the game's end; it is just the beginning.

The support for "doing the thing" is in the game, and it doesn't take that much to figure out how all the parts work. Starship combat can be done through the theater of the mind. Starship design is just a few numbers to add up. Setting up and managing a cargo haul is easy. Flying to another planet is a simple calculation, requiring a few skill and encounter rolls.

This sci-fi is easy, whereas other games make it hard.

The infinite possibilities and ease become the game's most engaging draw.

Traveller: Worldbuilding

Creating planets for a Traveller game can be a complex task. You start with a set of basic stats for the world, and from there, you need to interpret and transform these numbers into a fully-fledged world.

Terra 1827 A867A69-F (N,W)

The above? That number? That is Earth. The UDP is planet name, hex number, followed by:

1. Star-port Quality
2. Size
3. Atmosphere Type
4. Hydrographic Percentage
5. Population
6. Government Type
7. Law Level
8. -
9. Tech Level
10. (Bases)

Numbers 2, 3, 4, and 5 are size, atmosphere, hydrographic, and population, in this case, 867A. Now, think about Earth. We are supposed to imagine Earth from those four numbers. For some people, this is an impossible task. How are you supposed to come up with the deserts of North Africa, the jungles of the Amazon, the frozen ice sheets of the Antarctic, the mountains of the Himalayas, the nearly-infinite oceans, the splendor of Hawaii, the glory of some of the great river valleys in China, the pastoral fields of France,  the great forests and lakes of northern Canada, the endless urban New York area, and all the other places in this world from just four numbers?

867A.

And then, add most of the worlds you will create, which could be fantastic alien landscapes?

While I am moving away from AI art (because of the ethics and theft from artists involved), I can't deny the potential of an AI generator (legal, artist-sourced, and with contributors paid) to inspire ideas you could never imagine. The idea generation aspect of AI is truly remarkable, and while using it commercially is something I do not support, it can be a powerful tool in the right hands.

If you have one of the sector guides, you will find information on a few planets in the subsector, but not all. But remember, 99% of the universe, including random planets, colonies, and stations in systems, is yours to create. You can let your imagination run wild, and anything goes.

In addition, fantastical weather, geology, nature, vegetation, tidal flows, swamps, marches, salt flats, geysers, mineral formations, insects, volcanoes, mineral deposits, islands, beaches, natural arches, canyons, badlands, sea life, winds, atmospheric layers, rings, moons, oddly colored and shaped terrain features, animals, creatures, and space anomalies are all involved. Not every desert looks like California, and not every forest looks like Oregon.

And there isn't just "one location" in every hex map location. Each is a solar system, with a main planet and many other worlds and places within. Again, think of our solar system, Earth, and all the planets. Put a sci-fi civilization in there with ships zooming all over, colonies, space stations, satellites, and places on every planet to explore and do business. A typical Traveller subsector map can be very deceptive since you tend to think "one planet per hex," but it is not that way.

There are probably millions of "points of interest" in every hex. The trick is understanding they are all there, not getting overwhelmed by them all, and deciding the very few that interact with your players and game.

Imagine being sent to find a suitcase in our solar system—just one suitcase. It could be anywhere from Mercury to the deserts of Morocco or even in a cargo container in Jupiter's orbit, in a random ship's cargo hold, sitting in an airport bathroom, or in the back trunk of a car in any parking lot in the world—any world in the system.

Naturally, because your players are so awesome, they will be able to find it with a few vague clues and a matchbook from a random restaurant.

But the players could detour to an infamous "spacer casino" in a side mission. That place was never on a map or in a subsector guide, nor did it exist in anyone's ideas or campaign. But it is in yours. This is why when you play Traveller, people always say, "It is your Traveller." There is no way for anyone to play in the same universe twice. Ever. Not in a billion years. The map and system names could be the same, but none of what is in those planets or subsectors will ever be the same.

This is more challenging work than most fantasy games, and it requires a much more free mind to dream, create, and imagine the speculative and extraordinary. If the players want to help fill in, do some of the imagining, and make suggestions, go for it.

The universe is big enough to hold everyone's imagination.

Make it your own.

Traveller Aesthetics and Inspirations

One of the five defining art styles in Traveller is the plas-tech look. It's a world of clean, sterile surfaces, everything neatly covered up, and a modern aesthetic that's hard to miss. This is progress and civilization, or at least what the most significant players in the universe wish to project. It is cleanliness, power, advancement, profit, and an alignment to the greater purpose.

This is the projection of order and power, law and righteousness, method and tradition, and civilization's progression. If you add places like this in your game, you are sending a message about those inside.

This is contrasted and opposed by a post-tech industrial look, not the overly cluttered Alien "bolt a CRT without the case on the wall" sort of look. Still, the forms are uncluttered like plas-tech but dirty, hanging open, in disrepair, with instructions and warning signs spray-painted. This style can also encompass eight giant 10-meter-wide water pipes for a dirty dam with paint peeling off.

This isn't an "Alien" level of clutter; it is just massive, metal, and imposing, making you feel tiny and unclean in the universe. These places can be narrow, twisted, confusing, and metal, not purposefully cluttered unless necessary. They keep the universe running, dirty, loud, worked in, chipped and scratched, noisy, hot, cold, irradiated, and hard-working.

Post-tech is the machine behind the scenes that crushes imagination and independence. This is war, industrialization, resource mining, exploitation, and subjugation to the machine. If power is the clean, smiling face, this is the dirty boot that comes down after the deal.

Then there's cyber-fi, a style all about neon lights and the hustle and bustle of a commercial zone. It's loud, colorful, and superficial, a perfect cover-up for the decay and the machines that keep the universe running. It pushes buy-now, propaganda from the planet's leaders and factions, 24-7 news and entertainment, and lures you like a shiny, colorful bauble of dizzying colors and patterns.

This is more fake than it looks. Wires hang about, and the images can't be confused for reality. Wires hang down in places. The streets are still wet and dirty. The world isn't perfect, though it puts on a good show. Some genres blur the line between reality and the fake world; this can't cross the gap. Everybody knows how phony it is; the fake is visible, but they enjoy it for the moments of distraction it provides.

This represents the "bread and circuses" of the setting, the lies told to the population to keep them happy, and the constant stream of entertainment to opiate the masses. This is loud, screams in your face, colorful, sexy, appealing, and often happy fakery. Every side of a hot-button issue will have a channel that speaks to it and makes you hate the other side, controlled by the same company. You will be lied to, treated like children, talked down to, and you will be satisfied. Isn't that all you want?

Do you have enough problems in your life?

Let us take you away.

This is the newest part of Traveller in this group of influences. It is heavily influenced by the cyberpunk genre but mixed with today's post-truth information wasteland. There is no true or false; it is all the litmus test for your side. Where the cyberpunk genre is fascinated with flash over substance, this is a more insidious interpretation of the concept. This is the gunpowder on the fuse, hiding the growing unrest of people who feel smaller and smaller in a sea of crushing darkness between the stars.

Contrasting that is a dirty street-grunge look, almost like the red zone of any metro area. This is the most cluttered and layered style in the universe, evoking a chaotic, noisy, foul-smelling urban street area full of people and activity. This also encompasses the run-down and abandoned parts of the future, like ghost towns on forgotten worlds, where the money ran out for the mining colony, and there is no one left, no history, and no reason why people were ever there.

These are also the packed apartments of star-port and mine workers, the endless, shoddy, prefabricated, and dirty flats that 90% of the working class live in. The confusing streets, built on top of each other, with no real rhyme or reason to their layout, the cargo trains that bisect towns, the passenger rails, the roads filled with off-world cars of every make and model (with little hope of standard parts for any of them), and the factories, schools, cafeterias, hospitals, hopping plazas, sports arenas, drainage canals, parking lots, and office buildings that jumble the planets of the universe.

This is reality: the day after day of work, the appointments, permits, and licenses, the bills in the mail, the grit of the street, accidents, and arguments. Loud music shakes the wall. Police drive by with wary eyes. Lines wait to get into places of work and play. Gangs hang out on the corner, knowing the universe makes them insignificant, yet they try to pretend otherwise. Dust storms, rain, snow, heat, and cold. Scavengers. Miners. The rumble of starship engines overhead. The homeless and elderly look up at the stars and dream. Or denying they are there.

And this represents the places everybody forgot.

Broken roads, abandoned towns, crash sites, and closed facilities like the old days' auto plants and steel mills—or new ones going up in a flurry of activity and welder sparks—or being demolished for something new—or just being left to rot.

Just because a planet is TL 3 does not mean castles and knights are down there. It could mean the world is so poor and impoverished, and no one cares about them, that they have reverted to plowing the fields with animals and living in ramshackle houses. Bits and bobs of high tech can exist, just like the days of poor Appalachia, but mostly, there is little in terms of hope or a future coming anytime soon, or ever.

Remember the decay, abandonment, and poverty in this setting. They are just as much a part of Traveller as that sexy, clean, white plastic TL 12 laser pistol. And they will drive the story a lot better than playing sterile corporate troubleshooters.

This forgotten-grunge style is both the present and a past forgotten in a universe so big no one could ever remember it all.

The final type of art is this Moebius-ensue, strangely alien, ancient style—reserved for anomalies, alien civilizations, lost sites of forgotten races, fallen civilizations, and mysteries in the universe likely no one will ever solve. This is saved for only the required moments and serves as a counterpoint to all the art of "civilization" mentioned before.

Humanity in the stars will always be small.

There was always something before that was here, which we will never understand, and all our achievements and progress shall never hold a candle to.

Our minds will never be able to understand what this is.

Or why we are here.