Traveller
From Black Country Role Playing Society
Traveller is a science fiction role playing game, first published by Games Designers Workshop in 1977. It has a "hard SF" background and features a huge human dominated interstellar empire called the Third Imperium.
The universe of Traveller RPG is set circa 5700 AD in our spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy. The Imperium, a huge human dominated star empire encompasses a region roughly 500 light years across. There have been two other now defunct “Imperiums” in this region of space over the last 10 000 years. The current Imperium is the third such vast interstellar empire and is sometimes referred to as the Third Imperium.
The Third Imperium begins its dating system from its founding. The current date is circa 1120 – that is the eleven hundred and twentieth year of the Third Imperium..
Many worlds exist in this region of space with native human populations. The current theory is that a mysterious race known as the “Ancients” transported humans from Terra and spread them amongst the stars. Why they did this is unknown. It is known, however, that the Ancients also transported Terran canines to other worlds and in fact genetically manipulated them into an upright, intelligent species known as the Vargr.
The mode of interstellar travel is called the jump drive. Starship jump drives are measured by their ability to jump various distances in parsecs (1 parsec = 3.26 light years). Jump-1 (the most common) can travel one parsec, while jump-6 (the greatest jump range available) can travel about six parsecs. A trip though jumpspace takes about one week, regardless of the distance travelled.
Since radio communication is still limited to the speed of light, sending messages via a jump-capable starship is faster than radio. Ironically, this means communication is now limited to the speed of transportation, creating a sort of high-tech Pony Express environment for sending messages.
Aliens are classified according to whether or not they discovered jump drive on their own. Major races (including three different human races – the Solomani, Vilani and the Zhodani, each from a different world – respectively Terra, Vland and Zhodane) discovered jump drive on their own. Minor races were given jump drive by another race. Several empires of other major races border the Imperium.
Psionics (ESP practices) are illegal in the modern Imperium. In the 800s (about 300 years ago), a major movement in the Imperium – known as the Psionic Suppressions – eliminated the open practice of psionics. The average Imperial citizen hates and fears psionics. As a result the Zhodani (a psionic major human race) are enemies of the Imperium.
