Traveller Needs a "What is Charted Space?" Book

[Grognardia]

I've seen many players come to Traveller with no clue about the setting, and honestly, who can blame them? The sheer volume of history, factions, and setting details is intimidating. You can hand someone the core rulebook and they'll understand how to roll dice, but they won't understand Charted Space.

What Traveller really needs is a slim, accessible book aimed at new players and GMs. Call it "What is Charted Space?" or something similar. Not a timeline. Not an encyclopedia. Something that actually makes you excited to play in this universe. A free download PDF on page one of the Mongoose website.

Cover the essentials: what jump travel means, why there's no FTL communication, how long it takes to get anywhere, what trade looks like. Explain the Third Imperium without drowning people in names and dates. Introduce the major sophont species (humans, Vargr, Aslan, Hivers, K'kree) through their culture and motivations, not stat blocks.

Make it engaging. Short stories and vignettes would help, but what matters is conveying the feel of the setting. Show what it means when the X-boat network brings week-old news. Explain why jump routes matter. Talk about the Scout Service mapping unknown systems. Show the Imperial Navy doing something morally questionable on the frontier.

Include the cool stuff: ancient mysteries, dangerous artifacts, the weird objects and phenomena that make Charted Space feel lived-in and strange. Hooks, not homework.

Make it the book you hand someone and say "read this, then we'll play." Traveller deserves an accessible entry point that does justice to its incredible setting.

 

[Anstett]

@MongooseMatt made a comment in a thread back in September that started me thinking along those lines as well. What sort of document do I need to write up for new players to my game that explains what we are trying to do?

...with regards to all of this, it is our thinking that we should let Traveller be Traveller. There are sacred cows of the game and setting that should not change, such as the week in jumpspace, slower-than-light comms... and that the focus of the game is very firmly fixed upon people. One path may be more 'realistic', but if it fundamentally changes Traveller, that is a backwards step....

Post in thread 'Future warfare'

Sep 12, 2025

I will also be editing the LBB:4 stuff in light or real world developments - we are currently TL10 for tac missile and TL11 for drone technology

And here you bring up something that has been concentrating our minds a fair bit - tech advances in the real world over the past 20-odd years have kind of been kicking the TL progression's rear end. If we were to extrapolate from today's world, you would see a lot more use of drones (perhaps total, with manned systems only appearing in the extreme rear lines) and automated decision-making.

And that is not Traveller as we know it (works...

• MongooseMatt

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[DeepSpaceAdventures]

Full ack.
What would also be very usefull is a short "Further readings" section about each sector. Most important: what is the tone, the theme of this sector. Why do you want to play in the Trojan Reach? What makes it special compared to other sectors. And that for each sector. This would be invaluable for new GMs, who wonder where to start their new group/campaign.

 

[Fulcs]

I like this idea a lot.

The adventures released for Charted Space back in the era of the little black books captured my imagination and I frequently left the local Hobby Shop with at least one of them.

They drip-fed the setting into my young mind book by book, and I gradually built up a picture of the setting against which each was set, even though I didn't know at the time that it had a name, Charted Space. For me, Charted Space is as compelling a setting as, say, The Forgotten Realms, and one that I never get bored with learning about.

If a book (or some other medium) could paint a picture of life in Charted Space where readers can imagine themselves having adventures, travelling between star systems and wanting to explore the countless planets and the endless points of interest, I think it would serve as a great starting point for introducing new folks to the amazing game world that we're so lucky to have.