When I began thinking about putting together a space adventure I was interested in using the GURPS Traveller setting. Traveller is set more than 3,000 years in the future with thousands of worlds to explore and several alien races. For over 25 years, RPG players have developed this game backdrop and it would be a shame not to draw upon some of these great resources. However, the Traveller universe is huge and tends to be overwhelming. So, I decided to scale down this enormous backdrop by campaigning in the early years of space exploration, before most of these worlds and aliens are discovered. If you’re itching for a feel of what life in deep space is like then refer to the Traveller universe. But keep in mind we will only be adventuring in a fraction of this space just before the creation of the 1st Impirium. Unlike Traveller, our universe has not yet come under the control of a vast empire. Also, unlike Traveller, all humans originally come from earth. Those who traveled to space generations ago, and consequently their decedents, have developed into separate races of human (ie; Vilani and Zhodani). From my perspective, spending hundreds of years on a planet other than earth with different gravity, radiation, food, pathogens, and atmosphere is enough to bring about new adaptations. Available races: (see Traveller Wiki) Solomani,Aslan,Vilani,Answerin, Darrian, Loeskalth, Sylean, and Suerrat. Our story begins 1000 years from now and 3,200 light years from earth near the Deneb star system. Over the last millennium, humans have developed faster-than-light (FTL) travel and have set out to colonize space. Most of the stars closest to Earth’s sun, sol, have been reached. One alien race was discovered so far, the Aslan, in the Regulus star system. Planets or moons that have “Earth-like” features have been terra-formed and inhabited. Numerous space stations occupy the space in between planets. Although colony ships are still traveling beyond Deneb, it is the furthest star earthlings have reached and successfully colonized. The original colonists to Deneb have developed into a new race called the Vilani. The primary galactic society in our story is called the Interplanetaey Polity largely controled by the Vilani. It acts as a governing agency made up of militant groups, mega corporations, and a few civil service organizations.
TRAVELLER WIKI
TRAVELLER LITE PDF LINK
INTERACTIVE ATLAS
The Encyclopedia Galactica