Traveller is a role-playing game. MegaTraveller is the name of this Traveller rules system set against the background of star-spanning rebellion in the Imperium.

The Referee's Manual. This book is intended as a rules reference for the Traveller referee. It includes coverage of vehicle and starship design, starship combat, world and star system generation and description, animal encounters, trade and commerce, detailed task resolution, and administration of adventures.

Other Traveller Rules Books. This book is part of a three-book set which provides basic rules and background for playing the game.

The compaion Players' Manual is a basic compilation of Traveller rules and concepts for the individual player. It includes coverage of character generation, combat resolution, psionics, and tasks.

The companion Imperial Encyclopedia is a basic reference for both players and referees. It includes historical essays on the Imperium and other interstellar empires, descriptions of starships and vehicles, lists of equipment and prices, maps of territories, and other information valuable to players and referees.

puts you in control of your science fiction game in ways that no other product ever has!

Science fiction is about diversity, the unusaual, and pressing the cutting edge of science. It's not suited to simple lists of equipment that limit play. Each different world's enviroment: calls for slightly different approaches to transportation, communication, and even weaponry. You need rules to design whatever equipment you need, and as many different variations of it as your players find uses for. More than that, you don't need jargon and double-talk; you need to understand enough of the science behind the equipment that you can see how it works, understand its limitations, and make the game come alive.

• Fire, Fusion, and Steel has all of that and more. Starships, aircraft, and vehicles, in almost infinite variation, are at your command, from fusion power grav tanks to advanced technology lighter-than-air ships, from gigantic armored star cruisers to delicate ornithopters.
• Pick your power plants from a selection that ranges from primitive steam engines to matter-antimatter annihilation, with side excursions to solar power, batteries, explosive power generation, or even cold fusion.
• Tired of just playing with jump drives? tailor your campaign around a wide selection of FTL options, from natural wormholes to stargates, stutterwarp, or hyperspace drives. Or if FTL is too advanced for you, conquer space the hard way with Bussard hydrogen ram jets or Daedalus thermonuclear pulse drives.
• The cybernetics chapter alone has dozens of entries and provides a rich basis for adding cybernetic enhancement to any science fiction game.
• Weaponry isn't slighted either. Rules and supporting data enable you to design small arms, conventional cannons, gauss weapons, plasma and fusion weapons, lasers, particle accelerators, meson guns, missles, and more. Or counter them with reactive armor , electrostatic armor, meson screens, or nuclear dampers.
• Fire, Fusion, and Steel gives you unprecedented control over your campaign enviroment by not only providing a variety of design rules (and exploring the physics behind them in layman's terms), but also by covering a wide variety of technologies not part of the core Traveller game universe. It is a sourcebook on universe building for any science fiction referee, and an indispensable reference work on future technology.

The TTA, formerly the World Trade Authority, was founded in 2099 as a subsidiary of the United Nations, charged with the task of administering all international trade. Four years later the Commercial Technology Division of the World Community Research Council was absorbed into the WTA structure, including the fabrication yards of the Space Research Centre.

Following the Trade Agreement with Alpha Centauri, the name was changed to the Terran Trade Authority and its responsibility was extended to cover interstellar commerce. To meet the growing demand for more extensive spacecraft manufacturing facilities, the TTA undertook the construction of the great Mars Shipyards which were completed in 2146, although ships were coming off the slips as early as 2138.

Primarily an administrative body, the TTA is nevertheless also a major manufacturing concern, producing a wide range of specialized products from medical and scientific research equipment to the energy-absorbent Defense Shields of which it is the sole supplier.

Here at last is the comprehensive, all-color guide to the major spacecraft of the last century, 2100 to 2200 AD, the time of the great advances in space technology that followed the first, hesitant steps of the early 21st century.

Primarily an identification manual, it examines the major types of spacecraft operating during the period, including those inhabited systems of Alpha and Proxima Centauri, giving details of their development and operational history, and charts of their technical specifications. The book is divided into sections covering Military, Civil and Commercial and Special Function, and the craft range from sleek interceptors through specialized research vessels to private yachts.

The individual stories of these craft are set against the historical background which created them. New industrial techniques and resources led to more advanced ships which opened the door to further possibilities in an accelerating spiral of development.

Here then, is the story of humanity and rsquo;s journey to the stars and the means by which it was made.

Please Note: This is not an RPG product but rather, is the inspiration for the upcoming Terran Trade Authority Roleplaying Game. As such, gamers will find within a wealth if background and setting material but no game mechanics or rules.

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The Imperium survived for more than a thousand years. In less than a minute, it has shattered. An assassin has cut down the emperor and his heirs in one bold strike, throwing the largest interstellar empire in history into chaos. There are many candidates for the empty throne, and the worlds of the Imperium are divided in their allegiances. By a curious twist of fate, the assassin himself now controls three rebellious sectors. The emperor's nephew, considered by many to be a murderer himself, has assumed the throne over the objections of the Imperial Assembly. Star fleet battles rage throughout the disputed territories. As sectors are stripped of their fleets to fight in the rebellion, imperial territory is invaded by alien forces sensing weakness and plunder. Secter after sector secedes from the Imperium to manage its own defense. Sector after sector falls to external forces.

And on the start of rebellion and interstellar chaos, Traveller sets an ongoing drama of role-playing adventure... Players travel from star system to star system, taking sides in the rebellion, fighting for their cause while fighting to stay alive. The dangers of the interstellar environment combine with the dangers of a shattered Imperium to challenge players and referees and provide never-ending excitement in the far future.

The Imperial Encyclopedia. This book is a reference for both players and referees. It includes essays on the Imperium and other interstellar empires, descriptions of starships and vehicles in common use throughout known space, lists of equipment available on the open market and its prices, maps and other information valuable to players and referees alike.

The Imperium survived for more than a thousand years. In less than a minute, it has shattered. An assassin has cut down the emperor and his heirs in one bold strike, throwing the largest interstellar empire in history into chaos. There are many candidates for the empty throne, and the owlrds of the Imperium are divided in their allegiances. By a curious twist of fate, the assassin himself now controls three rebellious sectors. The emperor;s nephew, considered by many to be a murderer himself, has assumed the thronw over the onjections of the Imperial Assembly. Star fleet battles rage throughout the disputed territories. As sectores are stripped of their fleets to fight in the rebellion, imperial territory is invaded by alien forces sensing weakness and plunder. Secter after sector secedes from the Imperium to manage its own defense. Sector after sector falls to external forces.

And on the stafe of rebellion and interstellar chaos, Traveller sets an ongoing deama of role-playing adventure... Players travel from star system to star system, taking sides in the rebellion, fighting for their cause while fighting to stay alive. The dangers of the interstellar environment combine with the dangers of a shattered Imperium to challenge players and referees and provide never-ending excitement in the far future.

The Player's Manual: This book is a basic compilation of Traveller rules and concepts for the individual player. It includes character generation, combat reolution, psionics and tasks (the key to using all of Traveller's rules systems).

Expand the rebellious universe of MegeTraveller with more rules, background, information, and materials for the dedicated referee. Materials that simply would not fit into the grand, three-volume MegaTraveller rules set have been brought together into one volume as the MegaTraveller Referee's Companion. this compendium helps provide detail to science-fiction campaigns, adds scope to Megaraveller projects, and sparks interest in any adventure. The MegaTraveller Referee's Companion includes:

The Alien Races, Large Scale Combat, Timekeeping, Communications, In-System Operations, Research, Mapping, Megacorporations, Technology, and Robots.

Science fiction's most illustrious and visionary authors hold forth the ultimate alternate history collection. Here you'll experience mind-bending tales that challenge your views of the past, present, and future, including:

• "The Lucky Strike": When The Lucky Strike is chosen over The Enola Gay to drop the first atomic bomb, fate takes an unexpected turn in Kim Stanley Robinson's gripping tale.
• "Bring the Jubilee": Ward Moore's novella masterpiece offers a rebel victory at Gettysburg which changes the course of the Civil War... and all of American history.
• "Through Road No Wither": After Hitler's victory in World War II, two Nazi officers confront their destiny in Greg Bear's apocalyptic vision of the future.
• "All the Myriad Ways": Murder or suicide, Ambrose Harmon's death leads the police down an infinite number of pathways in Larry Niven's brilliant and defining tale of alternatives and consequences.
• "Mozart in Mirrorshades": Bruce Sterling and Lewis Shiner explore a terrifying era as the future crashes into the past -- with disastrous results.

...as well as works by Poul Anderson * Gregory Benford * Jack L. Chalker * Nicholas A. DiChario * Brad Linaweaver * William Sanders * Susan Shwartz * Allen Steele * and Harry Turtledove himself!

The definitive collection: fourteen seminal alternate history tales drawing readers into a universe of dramatic possibility and endless wonder.]]>