Gurps Traveller Alien Races Pdf 29
Chrystal Dueno
I have been meaning to write this review for some time now, but was hoping to actually playtest it some before I did the review. No such luck. Nonetheless, I wanted to review it from a slightly different angle than the numerous other reviews of the productthere are nine reviews on RPG.net. Two of them (by Ken Walton and Kevin Mowery) make some comments similar to mine.
All I knew about Traveller before I got my hands on a copy of GURPS Traveller (courtesy of RPG.net) was from flipping through Traveller books when I came across them in bookstores and hobby shops as a teenager. They looked cool, but my budget was already strained by purchasing AD&D modules and rulebooksnot to mention the occasional boxed RPG (e.g. Boot Hill, Twilight 2000, Star Frontiers)and it just seemed like there were too many books I would have to buy to get the game going. More recently, my interest in GURPS Traveller was rekindled when I decided I wanted to find a ready-made universe in which to set a sci-fi campaign. I already had two of the GURPS supplements for Traveller (GURPS Traveller: Star Mercs and GURPS Traveller: Ground Forces) and had found them useful, so I thought this would let me flesh out a full campaign. I had not decided yet whether to use GURPS rules or Alternity.
My biggest problem with GURPS has always been that when you buy a source book you quickly find that you need several other books to properly play the game. But this has become true with d20 games as well. In addition to the usual requirements of GURPS Basic and Compendium I, it is also claimed that you will need GURPS Space and that you will find GURPS Ultra-Tech and Ultra Tech II useful. Frankly, if you are going to use the GURPS rules, you will also need GURPS Vehicles, because there are a total of four vehicles (other than spacecraft) presented in the book. By the time I finished reading GURPS Traveller, I discovered that, in order to fully realize the setting, I would also need GURPS Traveller: Alien Races (without which you have limited rules and background dealing with the major Vargr race and limited rules dealing with the major human race, the Zhodani, and no rules for psionic powers), while Alien Races 2 and Alien Races 3 each deal with two of the other four major races in full depth. Frankly, unless you plan on basing your entire campaign solely in the Imperium and your players will only be playing the two main human races, then you will need access to all of these additional source books. While not strictly necessary, given the fact that much is made of the wide variety of human forms, it would be useful to also have the upcoming GURPS Traveller: Humaniti source book. Ironically, the two GURPS Traveller supplements I already owned, while extremely useful in any combat-oriented sci-fi setting, are not at all necessary for playing GURPS Traveller.
Unfortunately, my initial reaction to the setting was based on my perusals of yesteryear, in which I came to the conclusion that Traveller was primarily a game of exploration, colonization and adventure on the frontiers of space. I was somewhat put off by the statement on page 12 that "There is little room left for exploring... in the year 1120 of the Imperium. Things are pretty much explored... Campaigns can be set in previous years, however, when exploration and settlement of new worlds was a common endeavor." In other words, if you want a campaign with a frontier setting, then this book will not help you much because it is set at a time when the frontier is mostly settled. Since this was what I was looking for in a setting, I was disappointed at the start. Nevertheless, it became clear later on that there was still plenty of "frontier atmosphere" in various parts of the Imperium, so all was not lost.
The setting information is organized, for the most part, as a set of encyclopedia entries. According to the authors, these entries can also be used in the campaign as information players would be able to look up on any computer. It is unfortunate that this makes it a bit tough on the GM to read have to read from A to Z to get an understanding of the setting. On the other hand, this convention has obvious utility as a play aid.
The galaxy is dominated by six major races, divided into seven major political units (humans have three of them and the Droyne have no empire of their own). The major part of the galaxy is controlled by the Imperium, by far the largest of the human empires. Within the Imperium there are a wide variety of minor human and alien races. The tech level and cultures of the various planets can vary a great deal. While the Imperium is a powerful bureaucratic force, it is not all-seeing. There is background information about each of the major races, though it is somewhat bare bones and the authors recommend the purchase of the various GURPS Traveller: Alien Races books to fill in the gaps. What is presented, however, seems consistent and interesting. Only the Vargr seem somewhat of a clich, while the Aslan, K'kree and Hivers are quite unique. More importantly, their cultures are quite alien to human cultures which is better than many settings which prefer to simply transplant some aspect of human culture onto an alien race (Klingons are a good example).
As you read through the entries one thing becomes clear. The Traveller universe is a thorough, consistent, and well-developed setting. The history of the setting is not only complete and consistent, but reflects the years of gaming that have gone into it. In brief, it is a fully-realized setting. This comes through not only in the major details, but also in the minor. For example, the Imperium is so large, given technology, that it takes weeks to cross via starship. The authors were not content with leaving this as is and have considered the consequences of such a situation. Given the difficulty of ruling such a vast expanse of systems from the capital system, the Imperium is structured as a feudal system, with Dukes ruling in the name of the Emperor over the various sectors. Likewise, individual worlds have a large degree of autonomy.
On the one hand, this allows for a wide variety of cultures and gives GMs free reign to use their imagination when players set down on a world they have never visited before. More importantly, it opens up all sorts of opportunities for intrigues, planetary exploration and even wars. In terms of a military campaign, the authors have already included some important ideas. Wars can range from wars between the Imperium and other empires, wars between worlds within the Imperium, civil wars on specific planets, and even inter-state war on specific planets. Most of these can take place with or without Imperial involvement. It is pointed out, however, that wars within the Imperium which threaten long-term economic well-being, or those in which one side or both attempt to use weapons of mass destruction will eventually bring Imperial involvement.
One of the most interesting and original aspects of the setting is that at the time humans from Earth/Sol achieved space travel, they were surprised to discover massive human populationsand even an empireoutside of the solar system. It turns out that sometime in Earth's distant past a group of aliens called The Ancients took "samples" from earth and reseeded the galaxy with the progeny (at the same time they genetically modified dogs and created the Vargr alien race which controls a large segment of the galaxy). As a result, humanity (called Humaniti in Traveller lingo) is extremely varied. Not surprisingly, the history of humanity is also one of conflict, primarily between the Solomani (those who originated on earth) and the Vilani (those who dominated the rest of the human races). Likewise, the Zhodani, who are given short shrift in this book, are a human race that is psionically advanced, live in a very Sparta-like society and have fought several wars against the Imperium.
Aside from these three major "races", however, there are also innumerable minor human groups which never achieved the imperial status of the Solomani, Vilani and Zhodani. So both players and GM s can realize almost any type of human character they can imagine. It reminded me that in the original Warhammer 40K, the dwarves which exist are not really dwarves but humans whose ancestors settled high-gravity worlds. Thus a player who really wanted to play a "space dwarf"could easily justify it in this setting. Have a player who wants to play a "barbarian in space"? No problem. The tech levels of the thousands of planets in the Imperium vary widely. A player could come from a planet with essentially 20th century technologythough there would likely be many examples of higher tech items on the planet, they would not be commonly availableor even a planet where many of the humans still live in "uncivilized" societies.
Alien races have not been forgotten, however. While only a couple of those races which have settled worlds within the Imperium are detailed (there are Imperial Vargr worlds, and the Vegans exist entirely within the Imperium), it is made clear that alien races are many and varied. In terms of using Traveller as a generic setting, this gives a GM great flexibility in inserting alien races of his/her own design or favorite races from other settings. It would be easy to incorporate the Fraal or Weren from the Alternity Star Drive setting, for example. How about Vulcans? Because of their obvious psionic abilities, they would undoubtedly be recruited by the Imperium to help fight the "Zhodani menace."
All of this wonderful flexibility comes at the expense of details (admittedly, the numerous Traveller and GURPS Traveller supplements would fill in these gaps). Some GMs may find the details somewhat sparse for their purposes, but those with the time and interest in fleshing out the details will find all the macro-details they need to create a lively, exciting campaign. More importantly, the setting is extremely versatile and could be used to create a campaign based on any number of styles: espionage, diplomacy, exploration (despite the caveat that most of it has been done, a GM could always insert a new sector somewhere), commerce (and its concomitant, piracy), military, mercenary... if you can imagine it, there is room for it in this setting. Isn't that true of most settings? Probably, but here they authors have purposely intended for there to be room for any type of campaign and have still managed to keep the setting consistent (i.e., without resorting to tricks like "in Alpha sector, there is a thriving trading sector, while the wars in Bravo sector provide ample opportunity for mercenaries"). The greatest deficiency, as already noted, is that this book alone does not provide much detail for alien PCs and NPCs and is even a little skimpy with details for interacting with alien races. This makes GURPS Traveller more useful for a campaign based within the Imperium itself where humans dominate and alien races are not uncommon but in the minority.
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