Twilight Sector Campaign Setting Sourcebook
Divided, mutated, improved… the human race has taken to the stars, colonized worlds, and blown each other up over the last thousand years according to the Twilight Sector Campaign Setting Sourcebook. Written by Michael J Cross and Matthew Hope, Twilight Sector is an intricately detailed setting for use with Mongoose Publishing’s Traveller game system. Coming in at a beefy 129 pages, the book is absolutely filled with the last thousand years of human history and conflict (well, mainly conflict), very well done illustrations, and new Traveller system rules for mutations and artificial intelligence. Mainly though, the book concentrates on how humanity expanded into the stars and the current state of its many stellar nations.
Twilight Sector is a breath of fresh air for the Traveller setting. Most of the Traveller material that has been published has taken place in roughly the same setting; however, Twilight Sector is a departure from that timeline. It provides an alternate version of humanity’s flight to the stars in which there are no aliens and in which human mutation, cyberspace, uplifted animals, and artificial intelligence play a much larger role. Given the sheer depth of information and thought the designers put into their game, they have created something which offers an enjoyable, entertaining alternative to standard Traveller games.
The best part about the Twilight Sector setting is that it is ripe with potential conflict. While the write ups of the “current state” of humanity and its offshoots say that stellar civilization is in a state of uneasy peace, there are still plenty of ways a shooting war can break out. For instance, with no less than twelve nations, each with their own beliefs, laws, and alliances, players can take on the role of soldiers or agents for the Terran Union, the Union of United Planets, the Oster Republic, the Free People’s Republic, or any other nations and undertake covert operations against the other side. Any one of these ops could cause a full-blown conflict.
On the other hand, Twilight Sector could easily become a game of diplomacy as the Terran Union tries desperately to expand its territory even as it is hemmed in on every side by other stellar nations. The game could also center on an exploration of the Terra/Sol system, buried deep inside the Orion League. This mysterious system, named for the planet Terra/Sol, is an exact copy of Earth in every way to the point it orbits exactly one Astronomical Unit away from its sun. Even better, the players could take on the search for the mysterious Precursor aliens that seeded the galaxy with life and then disappeared.
Beyond just the setting possibilities, though, Twilight Sector also lets players play mutated characters. Mutants fall into one of two categories: natural mutants (which occur to accidents of genetics) or scientifically induced mutants (SIM) who were genetically reshaped to better survive in certain conditions. In the game, natural mutants vary in power and ability, though ultimately they can be more powerful than their scientifically engineered brethren. However, they must roll randomly for their powers.
On the other hand, SIMs have fewer powers, but they also have fewer penalties as well. In addition, they choose which powers they have, meaning their abilities can more easily work together. As an added bonus, in the game, a SIM has little or no stigma attached to him or her while natural mutants are regarded with suspicion or outright hatred.
To say much else about the book would be giving away of lot of the setting details, which would be unfair to the authors. Cross and Hope have obviously put a great deal of thought into the book and have added something to their game into which nearly every science fiction role player can sink their teeth. Besides, the setting is so expansive it would take several pages just to list everything that made it into the book.
However, as is sometimes the case with other games, Twilight Sector’s greatest strength is also its greatest weakness: there’s a lot to the game. The book does recommend picking out one or two parts of the setting you find interesting and really focusing on them during play, but then does not really follow up with concrete advice on where to go from there. In fact, the example seems to make the characters rather small players in a huge universe of possibility.
What I would really like to see from future Twilight Sector supplements is something on the lines of Traveller’s 760 Patrons which provides a number of adventure hooks for players and Referees to get the game started. Without some guidance along those lines, the most interesting storylines may very well involve starting an interstellar shooting match or rediscovering the Precursor race. Basically, I would want the players to be involved in events as grandiose as the setting, and I’m not sure that’s what the authors intended (especially if they have a plot that will be fleshed out down the road). Also, it’s hard to know if that’s what the players would want and it might not make the best session.
Still, in the end, it’s hard to fault a game for having too much detail. This is definitely the type of game that has a very “it’s in there” feel. If you want space exploration, it’s in there. You want intrigue, it’s in there. Fighting? You bet! You want to raise a pack of intelligent mutant dogs as your pets, go for it. The game offers all that to its players. The problem may well be choosing which of these elements to tackle first. All in all, though, it’s a good problem to have, especially when blazing a new trail in Traveller adventuring.
Want to learn more about Twilight Sector? Read on…
- Atomic Array: Twilight Sector (Atomic Array 034)
- Game Cryer: Review by Chris Perrin
- The Zhodani Base: Twilight Sector – A new TU
- Apathy Blogs: Something New For Traveller
- Rogue Puppet: A Role Player’s Dream is Discovered
- Examiner.com: Review by Michael Shorten
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