History TabletopGame / Traveller

* HordeOfAlienLocusts: The [[spoiler:Deepnight Entity seeks to consume all organic matter in the galaxy, and is incapable of wanting otherwise no matter how intelligent it becomes even when it knows this is self-defeating. The best it can plan to do is establish a cycle of moving from world to world, allowing life to recover in its wake.]]

** Four-and-a-half centuries before the main setting of the game a succession of Emperors fought each other for the throne over the course of eighteen years. It started when Grand Admiral of the Marches Olav-hault Plankwell decided the Empress had mismanaged the last border war with the Zhodani, so he personally assassinated her and took the throne. Other admirals decided this tactic could work for them too. The war averaged one Emperor per year. It ended when Grand Admiral of the Marches Arbellatra [[note]]somewhat ironically hault-Plankwell's direct successor, who had to fight ''another'' border war with the Zhodani who had tried to take advantage of the Imperium's disarray during the Civil War[[/note]] defeated the last pretender in battle and declared herself regent until a descendant of the last legitimate empress could be found rather than taking the throne herself. After seven years of effective leadership with no heir located the Imperial Moot decided to invite Arbellatra herself to accept the crown as Empress, which had probably been her plan all along. Arbellatra founded the dynasty that ruled the Third Imperium until:
** The Second Civil War, known as the Rebellion, took place after the Emperor Strephon and his heir the Grand Princess Iphegenia were assassinated by one of his own archdukes, Dulinor. Lucan, the next in line to the throne, was strongly suspected of having killed his own slightly older twin brother Varian so that he could take the throne himself, and quickly proved to be TheCaligula. With no clear choice for Emperor the Imperium descended into warfare and factionalism. The introduction of the Virus super-weapon proved to be the final nail in the coffin. The death toll was in the ''trillions'', and at least several centuries passed before civilization would recover and a new Imperium could be restored. At least, we assume there was eventually a Fourth Imperium. The official game line has never continued the MetaPlot after the ''New Era'' setting.

* TwoDSpace: All of the maps of the Imperium and its sectors are flat. Some fans suggest that this is because the maps are [[HyperSpace jumpspace]] maps.

* ''Traveller 20'' (2002-2008): The inevitable UsefulNotes/{{d20System}} version, [[note]]Using the 3.5 edition SRD[[/note]] by Quick Link Interactive/RPG Realms Publishing. The setting was in the Domain of Gateway in year 990, approximately 100 years before ''Classic Traveller'' was set. The license was terminated when ''Mongoose Traveller'' was released.

* ''Traveller: The New Era'' (1993-95): A [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic]] take on the original setting, with options for almost-original flavour and an entirely new system.[[note]]New to ''Traveller'', that is - the rules system was a modified version of the set used for the 2nd edition of [=GDW's=] TabletopGame/{{Twilight 2000}}, which GDW used as its "house system" for a few other games.[[/note]] Some {{retcon}}s were present as well, mostly dealing with how tech worked in the Third Imperium. Although it certainly has its fans, the final destruction of the Third Imperium in this version's MetaPlot was what [[BrokenBase broke the base]].

** In ''Agent of the Imperium'' Margaret I is shown to be a mild example, a royal brat who ascended the throne at the age of [[AChildShallLeadThem four]] who took on and dismissed advisers on whims, [[spoiler:and thought that glassing a planet of fifty billion was an acceptable way to close a voting loophole. The titular agent, who had scrubbed dozens of planets over his centuries-long career, thought that was too much and assassinated her.]]

* SpheroidDropship: The ''Broadsword'' class mercenary cruiser. Oddly, though its description says it can't land on planets with atmospheres, one does exactly that in Classic Adventure 7 ''Broadsword''.

* CargoConcealmentCaper: In Game 3 ''Azhanti High Lightning'', adventure IV "The Great Wine Heist". The Imperium regularly ships bottles of the wine Tokaj Eszencia from Earth to the Imperial Capital. Some adventurers smuggle themselves onto the ship Imperial Reaumur in crates of cargo and try to steal the wine the ship is carrying.

** From the ''Literature/DumarestOfTerra'' books came the name "Traveller" (what Dumarest is often called), Low Passage consisting of being frozen as cargo and the chance a passenger can't be revived, the Slow and Fast drugs, and the prevalence of bladed weapons in the setting (Dumarest is a talented knife-fighter).

** Some of the world names and the basic idea of the culture of the Sword Worlds in the Spinward Marches sector were taken from Creator/HBeamPiper's novel ''Space Viking''.

* [[ShoutOut/TabletopGames Shout Out]]: Multiple examples, including the ''Literature/DumarestOfTerra'' books, Creator/IsaacAsimov's works, the Film/JamesBond films, Frank Herbert's ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'', ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'', the ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' series, ''Literature/TheMoteInGodsEye'', ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', ''Literature/TheStainlessSteelRat'' stories, ''Film/TheAdventuresOfBuckarooBanzaiAcrossThe8thDimension'' and the Terrohuman Future History stories of ''Creator/HBeamPiper'' (particularly 'Space Viking').

** The lion-like Aslan have been confirmed by Miller to be named after the character from ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia''.

* CatFolk: The Aslan are race of lionlike creatures. Their name is also a ShoutOut to ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia''.

* CatFolk: The Aslan are race of lionlike creatures.

* CatFolk: The Aslan are race of lionlike creatures. Their name is also a ShoutOut to ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia''.

** One suggestion never nixed by Marc is that Jump drives need a conscious mind to make them work.

** Many of the sentient naturally-evolved computer "Chips" of Cymbeline (featured in the Classic adventure ''Signal GK'') were scooped up and converted in Imperial research labs into the sentient weapon of mass destruction that became Virus. The remainder on the planet were nuked from orbit to prevent anyone else from re-creating Virus.

''Traveller'' was one of the earliest published [[RolePlayingGame role-playing-game]] systems, originally designed by Marc Miller and first published by Creator/GameDesignersWorkshop ([=GDW=]) in 1977. Forty years later, it still has a rabid pack of followers, despite the fact that [=GDW=] closed down in 1996. The publishing license has passed through a number of hands since then.