Traveller New Era (TNE) was the “third” edition of the Traveller roleplaying game (RPG) coming out in the early 1990s after (now) Classic Traveller and MegaTraveller. Designed from the start to use the Game Designers’ Workshop “House” RPG system that had been pioneered with the second editions of 2300AD and Twilight: 2000, TNE introduced not only a new core game mechanism but also an extended setting. Neither was totally welcome…at the time.
By the standard of the popularity of the core game mechanism, TNE was far from a success. When GDW folded so did their in-house RPG system. The Traveller RPG would live on in other incarnations such as Marc Miller’s Traveller or T4 with an nd6 core game mechanism, as well as Mongoose Traveller that returned to a version of the 2d6 core game mechanism. The nd6 core game mechanism would return in Traveller 5 (T5) but the 2d6 game mechanism reigned supreme with the rise of (and eventual split with) Cepheus Engine and then Mongoose Traveller 2nd Edition.
The setting for TNE was even more disruptive than the change of core game mechanism. With the assassination of the Emperor the Second Civil War (or Rebellion) and then the release of the Virus, the Third Imperium effectively ended and peaceful governance across Charted Space collapsed and resulted in incredible turmoil.
When TNE came out I personally snubbed the entire system. Part of the reason was that I was a junior officer in the military and had little time for any gaming. To be honest, the setting changes also did not interest me. As time has passed, however, I find myself coming to better appreciate the core conceits of the setting. While many people see the setting as the end of the Third Imperium, the designers saw it as the beginning of a New Era (hence the title). The Virus itself is an interesting concept; the TravellerRPG wiki describes it as, “a living, thinking being that moves through the medium of electronic information and computing systems.” Not really Artificial Intelligence but…something much more frightening. Given the rise of artificial intelligence/machine learning in our today revisiting the Virus in Traveller leads to some scary thoughts.
The Meshan Sector
The Meshan Sector is a portion of the TNE universe near the Vargr Extents that was claimed by a group of TNE fans in New Zealand who called themselves the History of The Imperium Working Group – New Zealand. Given the location the Vargr—dogs on a humanoid body—are heavily featured in the Meshan Sector.
The titles, now published by FSpace, fall into two broad groupings: Supplements and Worlds. Most products are less than 20 pages with fan art and the like.
Supplements
A real fanzine-like treasure; each is more a collection of notes and ideas than a really formal product. Lots of good ideas ripe for the pickings to build on or drop into your campaign.
- Special Supplement M1 Virus Discussions in The New Era
- Supplement M2 Meshan Sector Library Data
- Supplement M3 Merchants & Corsairs
- Supplement M7 Meshan Developer Maps in The New Era
- Supplement M8 Meshan Sector Tibushi in The New Era
- Supplement M9 Meshan Sector Ironside in The New Era
- Supplement M10 Meshan Sector Serkur in The New Era
- Supplement M11 Meshan Sector Anglir in The New Era
Worlds
These books were originally developed for the Meshan Sector and directly relate to some of the supplements. When the History of The Imperium Working Group re-released these products they updated them. Originally designed with TNE, they are now updated to be Cepheus Engine compatible, though they really are intended to be useful across multiple sci-fi RPG systems.
- Far Frontiers: Serkur – “Serkur is a habitable world with 3 Earth descended colonies with a history of tension fighting over the resources of this world.”
- Far Frontiers: Ironside – “Ironside is a human populated water world with a pacific flavour.”
- Far Frontiers: Tibushi – “Tibushi is a failed colony world with an orbital way station and plenty of adventure options on the surface of this hostile world.”
The Meshan Saga
The Meshan Saga is a collection of 13 issues of a fanzine for TNE published in New Zealand by that same History of The Imperium Working Group. Based on material originally published in the late 1990s, the content all-but-disappeared in the years since due to a rights dispute with one of the authors. A decision to redact the disputing authors content paved the way for the re-release of the materials starting in 2022. Each issue is 20-some pages and has many adventure hooks or other bits of information suitable for adventurers. Though the days of TNE are past, some of plot hooks or other items are great inspirations for players or gamemasters.
Boats and Doggies
BSL35T Modular small craft ship plans sheet. “This Just the Deckplans version of the BSL35T Modular small craft (featuring a heavy fighter and a ship’s boat).”
Spacehound character counters.
This is a pack of 25 unique character counters rendered in both classic and light metallic styles at 3/4 inch scale. On handy A4 printable pages and delivered in 600dpi quality.
If you’re playing spacehounds or canine type races in your roleplaying and tabletop games, then this pack of counters is for you. Whether you’re playing werewolves and similar races in fantasy games, mutant dogs and wolves in Palladium’s TMNT/After The Bomb or Vargr in Traveller, these counters will suit your needs.
Most counters are dressed in modern styled clothing with several in more down to earth priestly wear or nondescript clothing. Several are in uniform and include high tech looks including an astronaught, bridge officer and several riflemen with high tech rifles.
Feature image “Vargr Traveller by JohnnyOz on DeviantArt”
The opinions and views expressed in this blog are those of the author alone and are presented in a personal capacity. They do not necessarily represent the views of U.S. Navy or any other U.S. government Department, Agency, Office, or employer.
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