My Traveller: 2300 (Part II)

The last Interstellar War between the Vilani Ziru Sirka and the Terran Confederation – dubbed by historians the Nth Interstellar War, because, after 200 years of sporadic, on-and-off hostilities, it was no longer clear when one war ended and another began – concluded in 2302, with a Terran victory. Though the Terrans never actually reached the Vilani capital of Vland, which was still several sectors away from the front lines, two centuries of defeats had finally toppled the already-tottering empire. Admiral Hiroshi Estigarribia, commander of the Terran forces, accepted the surrender of the Vilani ishimkarun ("shadow emperor"), thus beginning the occupation of the imperium. 

I had mistakenly assumed that this was the time period during which Traveller: 2300 would be set – the early years of the Terran occupation of the Vilani empire. In Traveller's future history, there's a 15-year period between the defeat of the Vilani and the establishment of a successor state, the Rule of Man (known to later history as the Second Imperium or "Ramshackle Empire"). During this time, more than 100,000 Terran naval officers were dispatched to worlds across Vilani space to take over the reins of government, to direct the local bureaucracies, and to maintain peace and order. In some cases, Terran ensigns were faced with governing entire worlds, while commanders of light cruisers were now administering entire subsectors. 

Terran forces were stretched seriously thin and faced with the nigh-impossible task of propping up what remained of the Vilani government, because, if it had fully collapsed and interstellar trade had ceased, billions across hundreds of worlds might have died. This is the scenario I imagined Traveller: 2300 was setting up as the backdrop for the game. I had visions in my head of player characters being assigned to a single world to govern it in the aftermath of the Vilani defeat, dealing with all that that entailed, including the culture shock of the ossified, stratified Vilani culture that had rigidly governed thousands of worlds for close to two millennia prior to this point. In short, it'd be an interstellar "domain game" in a situation reminiscent of Alexander's defeat of the Persian Empire in the 4th century BC.

But that's not all. In Traveller's history, the end of the Vilani empire precipitates changes in Terran society too. In 2317, the Terran Confederation announced plans to directly annex the entire imperium to itself, administering it and its resources as spoils of war. Doing so would have made many people on Terra very wealthy but at the cost of the Vilani people, whom the Terran Navy had spent more than a decade working with in order to stave off the worst. Many senior naval officers, including Admiral Estigarribia, were incensed by this and refused their orders. Indeed, Estigarribia and his allies launched a coup that overthrew the Confederation and installed him as "Protector of Terra and Regent of the Vilani Imperium." The Rule of Man was born.

What I was hoping was that Traveller: 2300 would have been a political game, in which the characters, whether or not they work with the Terran Navy, would have to navigate the shifting currents of the early Second Imperium, as its leaders struggled to maintain order, establish legitimacy, and manage the vast inheritance of a fallen interstellar hegemon. Such a setting would be rich with opportunities for intrigue, factional politics, and moral quandaries. Would the characters remain loyal to Estigarribia’s “emergency rule,” or seek to restore some semblance of the old Confederation? Would they champion native Vilani rights and customs or impose Terran reforms? What compromises would they make when ruling over entire worlds with little more than a couple of small starships and a handful of junior officers for support?

Imagine a campaign where the party’s ship is not just a vehicle for exploration or combat, but a traveling court or a flying colonial office. Each jump brings the characters to a different world, each with its own challenges: Vilani aristocrats playing at collaboration while secretly plotting revolt; ancient bureaucracies gumming up every effort at reform; smugglers, pirates, or rival Terran factions taking advantage of the power vacuum. Do the player characters use brute force to impose stability? Try to build consensus among local rulers? Or exploit the chaos for personal gain?

It’s the kind of campaign backdrop that combines space opera with elements of historical drama, diplomacy, and empire-building – think Birthright but in space. The chaos of the postwar period isn’t just background color – it’s the whole point. Players must grapple with what kind of future they want to build amid the ruins of the past. Of course, this is not the game that Traveller: 2300 is or was ever intended to be, but this is what I had hoped it would be and that I'd still like to run some day, because I think it's got a lot of potential.

Indeed, I almost ran a campaign along these lines maybe 15 or 20 years ago. The characters were all senior officers on the staff of an ambitious Terran admiral. As Hiroshi Estigarribia lay dying, he saw an opportunity to seize control, becoming his successor. Unfortunately, he is beaten to the punch by Estigarribia's chief of staff, who presents himself as Emperor Hiroshi II, establishing a new regime. The admiral, who is the characters' patron, now plots to find a way to achieve his original goal from behind the scenes, with the characters engaging in all sorts of political and military skullduggery. 

I never got very far into planning the campaign, in part because I soon realized that doing the concept justice would take a lot of work. I'd probably need some "domain" mechanics and larger scale starship combat rules, not to mention some system for handling influence and favors. I'd probably handwave a lot of that now, but, back then, before I'd fully immersed myself in old school play, that wasn't something I seriously considered. I also wasn't confident enough as a referee to pull it off. So, the idea still percolates in the back of my brain, waiting for an opportunity when I might make use of it.

Anyway, this is my vision for a "proper" Traveller: 2300. 

Symbol of the Rule of Man