The Spinward Extents - Vanguard Reaches and The Beyond Sectors

[MongooseMatt]

A new area of Charted Space has opened for exploration and exploitation - the Spinward Extents brings you the Vanguard Reaches and The Beyond!

You can grab your own copy right here: https://www.mongoosepublishing.com/the-spinward-extents.html

North American Travellers can find theirs here: https://www.mongoosepublishing.com/us/the-spinward-extents.html

The Spinward Extents are the border between the familiar and the unknown. Pioneering and adventurous Imperials, Zhodani, Aslan, even Vargr, have reached the Extents; some have dwelt there for centuries or millennia, but they are far from their ancestral homes. Native races have forged their own empires across these stars. In the Extents the daring can make their fortunes, gain fame or infamy, and influence the course of events for entire worlds or distant governments. Alien races, forgotten mysteries, bitter rivalries and great opportunities await under the light of inconstant, giant, and dead stars.

Spinward Extents presents two complete sectors near the edge of Charted Space: The Beyond and the Vanguard Reaches. The Beyond is a borderland between Aslan expansion and human pocket empires, both ancient and new. At the end of Imperial courier routes, it is home to the alien Sred*Ni, isolated worlds, and mysterious entities. The Storm Knights hold the line in an uneasy truce with Aslan clans, but other dangers and many opportunities await.

The Vanguard Reaches is the spinward edge of settled space, a sector of proxy states for the distant Third Imperium and Zhodani Consulate. The sector is home to the warlike-Eslyat and peaceful Murians, dying red giant stars and the Helix Nebula. Warfare, politics, piracy, and sparse starscapes challenge Travellers who live and work in this distant sector.

Includes two huge colour poster maps of The Beyond and Vanguard Reaches sectors.

 

[CordwainerFish]

Typo patrol: page 6, "Liberty Bell" should be "Liberty Hall".

 

[qstor]

who created the Sector data? Just wondering where it was "from" since the old Paranoia Press data isn't canon? But the Wiki page says the 1991 updates are.

 

[MongooseMatt]

who created the Sector data? Just wondering where it was "from" since the old Paranoia Press data isn't canon? But the Wiki page says the 1991 updates are.

We started with the old UWPs but they have been subsequently changed.

 

[qstor]

who created the Sector data? Just wondering where it was "from" since the old Paranoia Press data isn't canon? But the Wiki page says the 1991 updates are.

We started with the old UWPs but they have been subsequently changed.

So the "new" data is canon?

 

[Geir]

who created the Sector data? Just wondering where it was "from" since the old Paranoia Press data isn't canon? But the Wiki page says the 1991 updates are.

I worked off of three different versions, using a little bit of the Paranoia Press, but it had to be, um, de-Nazified. There's a lot from Jeff Zeitlin's version of The Beyond, names at least. It should mostly match the dotmap from DGP's Solomani and Aslan... except where it doesn't. The whole project started when I looked at what was up there on Travellermap a couple of years ago, and said "well, not only is this crap, but it doesn't make any sense... there's hardly any gas giants in The Beyond." For Vanguard, I riffed off of what was out there and written on the wiki. And two years later, this is what we get. I hope you like the result. I had a lot of fun with the project. And I'm very pleased with the artwork.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

who created the Sector data? Just wondering where it was "from" since the old Paranoia Press data isn't canon? But the Wiki page says the 1991 updates are.

We started with the old UWPs but they have been subsequently changed.

So the "new" data is canon?

SInce it is published by Mongoose, that makes it as Canon as it can be. Of course, you can change it any way you want.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

I worked off of three different versions, using a little bit of the Paranoia Press, but it had to be, um, de-Nazified.

Why did you sanitize some of the Solomani? What was wrong with some of them wanting to repeat/relive their history? Did you replace the German names with something just as equal, so the world history/tone/theme isn't neutered?

 

[Geir]

I worked off of three different versions, using a little bit of the Paranoia Press, but it had to be, um, de-Nazified.

Why did you sanitize some of the Solomani? What was wrong with some of them wanting to repeat/relive their history? Did you replace the German names with something just as equal, so the world history/tone/theme isn't neutered?

I was told Die Weltbund had to go, even after I 'fixed it up', so I replaced it with the Katanga Empire from the S&A dotmap and Bruhkarr from one of the alternate Beyond versions. Vanguard was worse: the Pandemonium subsector worlds were named after Waffen SS divisions, and other subsectors had worlds with wonderful names like... Buxomworld. There are plenty of places in and around the Solomani Confederation for Solomani heritage worlds, not to mention the Sword Worlds and the middle of the Reft Sector. Not trying to be overly politically correct, but after 3500+ years, the 20th century, even the entire 'modern history' period (from 1485/1492/1517 to present depending on who you ask) doesn't necessarily need over-representation. So you can agree or disagree with the choices, that's fine. The main 'heritage' for much of The Beyond's early history that I invented derives from dissidents from the later Sindalian period, and even that is more than 2500 years in the past.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Ok. I just think of humans as repeating their history over and over again through the millennia. Because humans. Never advancing beyond some ideal of theirs. Their societies always defaulting back to torture chambers, concentration camps, and slavery (see human trafficking) no matter what planet you find them on. And the drugs. Addictive drugs are everywhere in the Far Future, I'll bet. Anyway, I'm ordering a book. It's just a game, if you ask some people.

 

[tzunder]

Ok. I just think of humans as repeating their history over and over again through the millennia. Because humans. Never advancing beyond some ideal of theirs. Their societies always defaulting back to torture chambers, concentration camps, and slavery (see human trafficking) no matter what planet you find them on.

That's one point of view, and certainly one that has been very strong in US SF. It has it's roots in cyclical views of history as old as the earliest Hindu philosophies and is personalised in Buddhism in many ways, but with a way to break the wheel for gods and men.
Others have a more progressive Hegelian view of history.. but that can be tricky in SF which is so often a projection of the past into the future.. I think Reynolds and Banks have done it best recently.
However, there are many many ways to reflect both in the Third Imperium without naming whole subsectors and planets after Waffen SS divisions.. maybe just a few.. and then you have to decide how that plays out.. I think I'd do it just a leetle so one could have the scenarios like in Star Trek when they meet cultures that are based on Imperial Rome or the Nazis.
On the whole there is so very much room and ease to adjust in KNown Space, our own house games become so varied almost the moment we open the books.

The Sindalian link is making it hard to resist this book, but let me finish Drinax (for the 2nd time) first!

 

[Rhonin84]

Just bought the pre order through the store but it didn’t show the ebook. Am I doing something wrong? I did get the email with the prompt to download the ebook.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Just bought the pre order through the store but it didn’t show the ebook. Am I doing something wrong? I did get the email with the prompt to download the ebook.

Sorry, the server is just a bit slow at the moment - if you try again now you should be good to go.

 

[Condottiere]

It looks like people like gaming events that certainly appear to repeat history, possibly hoping that the outcome will differ in some aspects. Those that are are aware of history in the first place; others don't bother studying it.

Borrowing from history, or basing plots on it, tends to be a go to stable in military science fiction.

 

[Lurking Grue]

I said this already on Reddit, but I'll say it again, because I love that cover so much. What an excellent cover! Stellar work! The cover really seems to tell a story on its own.

"Look there, my pup. Someday you will fly among the stars and maybe even have a ship of your own, like the one there. Look up and remember this day. Ghrr."

 

[agentwigggles]

I worked off of three different versions, using a little bit of the Paranoia Press, but it had to be, um, de-Nazified.

Why did you sanitize some of the Solomani? What was wrong with some of them wanting to repeat/relive their history? Did you replace the German names with something just as equal, so the world history/tone/theme isn't neutered?

Nazi's stuff doesn't need advocates and doesn't need any additional justification to be removed.
Nothing of value was lost.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Nazi's stuff doesn't need advocates and doesn't need any additional justification to be removed.
Nothing of value was lost.

Those who cannot remember the past are prone to repeat it.

 

[Garran]

Those who cannot remember the past are prone to repeat it.

This happened because we do remember it.

 

[agentwigggles]

Nazi's stuff doesn't need advocates and doesn't need any additional justification to be removed.
Nothing of value was lost.

Those who cannot remember the past are prone to repeat it.

This is an asinine response.
If the only tool we have to remember the past is with RPG, we're doomed.
Nazi don't need advocates. We're not in danger of forgetting about nazis. Because thankfully we have other means to remember and discuss them.

 

[alex_greene]

Nazi's stuff doesn't need advocates and doesn't need any additional justification to be removed.
Nothing of value was lost.

Nothing of value was lost.

Mongoose is entitled to de-nazify the entire Traveller universe. Recommend looking up Karl Popper's Paradox of Tolerance. Nobody wants nazis at the gaming table. We're remembering the crimes they committed, and also making sure that they never get a memorial, something for the ignorant to rally round and glorify them. They won't rule the world from the tomb.
I recommend ending this topic of discussion, now. Please stick to the topic at hand.