This second compilation of Traveller material draws on more than Signs and Portents (the Mongoose Publishing e-zine), wtih material from the Living Traveller campaign as well. It's better organised than the first volume, with nine full adventures followed by a collection of shorter 'scenario hooks' and then an array of more general articles.
The adventures start with an update of a real classic, the adventure Annic Nova that first was seen back in the days of Classic Traveller, where the party explores an alien vessel found drifting in space. This is followed by a wide-ranging selection that can send your party to low tech worlds, to test games software, to foil terrorist attacks, and avoid space collisions amongst others. Whatever sort of adventures you prefer, there's likely to be at least one that appeals - and however much you prefer writing your own there's always that week when there is no time to prepare for the next game session!
The 'scenario hooks' are similarly inventive although as each is only a couple of paragraphs long, you'll need to put in a fair bit of effort to turn them into full-blown adventures. Included in this section are an assortment of well-detailed NPCs who themselves might spawn an adventure and who certainly will make colourful additions to whatever is going on. They are a series of 'old flames' designed to be people the characters knew (and loved) in the past... but for each, now, there are a range of options as to how they feel and what they will do with the individual who once was the object of their affections. These are followed by a selection of patrons who might have something of advantage to offer the party - aid, a job - and who can be added to the rich panoply of people that they interact with in their travels.
The final selection of articles opens with one on keeping your ship's finances straight. Utterly boring to some, but vital to those who enjoy the merchantile aspects possible in Traveller with all the trade rules... not to mention that if you get them wrong the bank may come after the party, irrespective of whether they prefer adventuring or trading! Even if you don't want to indulge in bookkeeping, reading this is still recommended, even if only for ideas about what a purser might do aboard ship. This leads rather neatly into another piece called The Flying Money Pit, in which a party down on its luck somehow ends up with title to a somewhat decrepit starship - it's a kind of campaign outline with plenty of suggestions as to how to weave a plotline around the acquisition and repair of this vessel, not to mention paying off all the debts accrued. There's also a piece on mass battles, a set of glorious ingame reasons why a particular character is missing to use when a player fails to turn up for the game, notes on how to weave banks into your campaign (see comments on finances above), the concept of parallel dimensions, rules for the availability of, well, whatever the characters are trying to get hold of, a detailed rundown of a company called SuSAG (again familiar to long-time players), and some strange lifeforms and even stranger items to encounter. Finally, there's a new career of a Xenologist - someone who studies flora and fauna across the galaxy (and one of my favourite careers when not the starship cook, as it happens!).
Overall, a fine selection of material to enhance any game. Some of the illustrations - especially deckplans - could be crisper than the rather blurry JPEG images used, but that's about the only complaint. Just about everything is useful and can add to your Traveller game.
Return to Compendium 2 page.
Reviewed: 16 June 2015
