For some time - for almost two decades, in fact - ever since I first read the Official Traveller Universe background in full in Traveller: New Era: 1248 - I have been wondering about various routes the Official Traveller Universe might have taken. In short, I have a love/hate relationship with the Virus, the Empress Wave, and the New Era. On one hand, many Traveller: New Era books are of superb writing, though the T:NE rules are less to my liking. On the other hand, the uniform almost-gray-goo destruction of Imperial space and neighboring polities was less appealing to me than the more "textured" and nuanced MegaTraveller: Hard Times setting (a book I adore).
Thus, I have set forth to write a setting for future Traveller gaming - be that solo or with a proper group - based on my speculations on how the Traveller setting would have evolved in absence of wholesale Viral cyber-destruction. I have named the setting, focusing on the Solomani Rim Sector - for which I can find ample pre-Rebellion canon inspiration - Broken Cradle, in honor of the interstellar Cradle of Humanity now beset by interstellar war and later civil warfare.
Disclaimer: Broken Cradle is not canon. I repeat: it is not canon in any way. It is set in the Official Traveller Universe (OTU), though in a variant thereof. Specifically, I use Classic Traveller rules and a MegaTraveller (or, more accurately, post-MegaTraveller) setting. However, this should not be seen as a challenge to Traveller canon, but rather it is my humble attempt at taking a road not taken by canon.
So, on to the setting's recent history - this time, the Virus-less Midnight 1130 map. The timeline has advanced 5 years from the latest (1125 Imperial) map in Hard Times, so Wilds have expanded and Frontiers and Safe areas have contracted. This is prior to the Solomani Civil War and the Aslan invasion of Solomani space, both of which will alter the map further.
The question begging itself, of course, is why am I beating a horse which is dead for the past 30 years? After all, Official Traveller has taken its course from the Rebellion to the New Era to the (now semi-canonical) 1248 to the Galaxiad from the early 1990's on. But the joy of alternate fictional history and twisting the lore-laden OTU to my tastes was too tempting, let alone the beauty of the late-1980's Hard Times sourcebook. So, onward on my Quixotic quest to chart a variant OTU!
And now, to the "present" (1140 Imperial):
While the Vilani, Margaret's Imperium, Dulinor's "official" Imperium (Core), and Ilelish/Verge show recovery, the frontier areas in Ley, Gushmege, and Glimmerdrift Reaches collapsed. The Solomani are locked in a civil war between the Reformists, centered on Terra/Sol, now calling themselves the Solar Commonwealth, and the Hardliners, centered on Home/Aldebaran, who now call themselves the True Solomani Confederation. The Aslan have then seized upon this weakness of their Solomani neighbors to invade former Confederation space en-masse.
I had to make the tough choice, in the absence of an all-destroying Virus, between Dulinor dying trying to retake the Iridium Throne, thus allowing for Lucan to become a Cyber-Emperor as was done in canon (both in the original plan and in actual canon), and Dulinor taking the Iridium Throne and reigning over the smoking ruins of the Imperium he so desired to reform. Dulinor's karma won the argument in the end: his destiny was one of a Pyrrhic victory and of a tragic fate as the emperor of ruins.
I am drawing some inspirations from Charles Gannon's excellent proposals for a MegaTraveller sequel, which were at least partially rejected in favor of Traveller: New Era in the early 1990's, but am not adhering to them.
More to come.
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I still play in 1105 when I run games :) It was what I ran/played back in the 80s. But I always enjoy reading other's worlds and universes. And found it interesting you had such a huge disclaimer about canon but then I've never really cared one way or another about canon. Once you start a game, you are already changing things. To me that is the whole point of role-playing vs reading. But I do understand some people do tend to get, err, let us just say distraught, if you change things. I do know if I ever get to 1116 there will be no assassination and I'll be more into the GURPS timeline than GDW. If I ever get out of 1105!
ReplyDeleteThankyou for your kind words. I included a disclaimer as some people have strong opinions about canon which I did not want to look like invalidating (from experience...).
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