Astrogation
Essays
To Boldly Go
Credits / Links
Site Map

TRAVELLER , the first set of science fiction roleplaying rules was published in 1977. Loosely based round the astrography of space near Earth, this game remains the most popular of all Science Fiction Roleplaying Games. So where exactly is the Imperium? Imperial space, and the nearby mapped regions - the Zhodani Consulate, Vargr Extents, Solomani Sphere, Aslan Hierate, Hive Federation and the K'Kree's Two Thousand Worlds all fit into a section of space approximately 512 parsecs by 320 parsecs (1741 x 1088 light years). Given the dimensions of the Milky Way Galaxy, the entire Traveller Campaign fits into the coloured blob shown centre left on the image above.

WHAT IS META-TRAVELLER?

In the early 1980's, our group of players started a Traveller campaign across what would ultimately cover five sectors of mapped space - Rimworlds, Rimward Reach, Outworlds, the Fauberg Rift and the Confederation Cluster. Frustrated by the way the Imperium was hedged in by other populated regions, and irritated by companies that mapped all of known space, this group took up the challenge "to go boldly, where no-one has gone before" and fled into the third dimension. Most people agree the GDW source material on the Spinward March is excellent. To grab some gaming room in this over-documented section of space, while retaining access to the Spinward Marches, the group postulated the existance of a "tongue" of protruding occupied space - The Veil. Created by the passage of a starcluster through the plane of the galaxy some 100,000 years ago, the veil stretches up out of the plane of the galaxy, originating in the Spinward March / Trojan Reach section of published maps, and trailing up towards the open starcluster.
Continuing in their path of unorthodoxy, this group ignored Strephon's assasination and the whole New Era millieu. We also produced a home grown set of GURPS rules for Traveller ( GURPS TRAVELLER ) and were amused when several years later Steve Jackson Games followed our lead, both in producing an official GURPS Traveller, and in eschewing the New Era material!
So what then is META-Traveller? It is the Traveller background and history up to the end of the Fifth Frontier War, with any rule system the players care to use. For us, that is GURPS Traveller.

ADVENTURING IN THE VEIL

This site has gathered together in one place most of the source materials for the Meta-Traveller game. This is subdivided into sections on Astrography, Essays, and a section on gaming in the Veil. Feel free to use, modify, share, and play with the material we have presented here. Enjoy!