While Mongoose Publishing provides products for the “main” line of the Traveller Roleplaying Game, there are grognards1 like myself who have long played, and still play, the original Traveller RPG and the more modern implementations under Cepheus Engine. One great advantage of Cepheus Engine is that products often are less expensive. Although the cost of Cepheus Engine products are less, thankfully the quality far exceeds the cost. The latest example of a fun yet cost-effective adventure is Hard Vacuum 01: Pirate Bait, written by Adam Kovac from Boondock RPG Adventures (author of my beloved Scoundrels of Brixton adventures) .
Hard Vacuum 01: Pirate Bait is a 16-page adventure written for the “2D6 Science-Fiction Role-Playing Adventure”—Traveller for the less legally inclined (like every good Traveller adventurer should be). Hard Vacuum is published using Cepheus Engine and is designed for a small group of Travellers. As the introduction warns: “While no special skills or equipment are required, it’s helpful if the PCs are balanced and experienced adventurers.”
By far the best description of a Traveller I ever found is in The Winds of Gath by E.C. Tubb:
“‘What’s it like being a traveller? I mean, what do you get out of it?’
His eyes were curious and something else. Dumarest had seen it so often before, the look of the stay-put to the mover-on. They all had it and the envy would grow. Then, as the prison of their ship began to close in, that envy would sour into hate. That’s when a wise traveller waited for another ship.
‘It’s a way of life,’ said Dumarest. ‘Some like it, some don’t. I do.’
‘How do you go about it? What do you do between trips?’
‘Look around, get a job, build another stake for passage to somewhere else.'”
Tubb, E.C. (2012) The Dumarest Saga: The SF Gateway Collection. Gollancz.
A good Traveller adventure need not be a huge production. Hard Vacuum 01: Pirate Bait is a whole 16 pages; take out the covers and front/back matter and you are left with nine (9!) pages of situation, personalities, and challenges. Sure, there are few illustrations (the cover and obligatory deck plans) but, then again, just how many illustrations were in the old Traveller books? In my not-so-humble opinion fewer images are Not a Bad ThingTM but an opening for more creativity. Hard Vacuum delivers more than enough for an imaginative referee to take a group of adventurers through, and at a fraction of the cost of major publishers.
Hard Vacuum 01: Pirate Bait has a little bit of everything that makes a good Traveller adventure. While trying to avoid spoilers, suffice it to say that if you like your adventures a bit more on the hard sci-fi side with ships and vacc suits (do you have the Vacc Suit skill?) and guns and…pirates then hard Vacuum 01: Pirate Bait is for you…
…all for $5.
- (games, slang) Someone who enjoys playing older war games or roleplaying games, or older versions of such games, when newer ones are available. ↩︎
Feature image courtesy Boondock RPG Adventures
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Rocky Mountain Navy Gamer 
Really good review. I just go this today, and it is nice to be able to read and understand a very useable adventure in 30 minutes or less. I’m looking forward to more in this series. Kind of like Michael Brown’s 1-pagers, but with just a bit more info to go on, and a larger font for my aging eyes.
I (of course) agree with your sentiments regarding the adventure. Also I’m glad to see it’s not in the Mongoose section of Drivethru. In the interest of pedantry, and for those readers who aren’t aware (granted the odds of that are slim), I’ll add the following two points. (If you’ve no objections.)
First, the origin of the term grognard. An old soldier, originally in reference to Napoleon’s Imperial Guard.
Secondly, The Winds of Gath was first published in 1967. Wouldn’t want anyone to think it’s a Johnny-come-lately 2012 creation!
Looking forward to more Classic Traveller compatible adventure reviews!
‘ello Shelby!
Yes…the original term “grognard” was a reference to Napoleon’s Old Guard, or grumblers. When wargaming and RPGs took off in the 1970s and 80s the RPG folks took the term up with an emphasis on the “grumbler” part, as in people who did not want to play a newer edition (sound familiar?).
Winds of Gath is one of the “Appendix N” books for the original Traveller RPG. First written in 1967, years later I contend it is still one of the best Traveller stories written. There is so much in it – cryoberths, the low lottery, slow/fast drugs, and more.
I love me some “new school” RPGs, especially those from Free League but at the same time good ole Traveller/Cepheus Engine adventuring is just so pure.