Traveller is a game set in a universe that looks somewhat Star-Warsy, if you aren't aware of or haven't read the decades of science fiction that came before 1977, on which the game is actually based. There is no one source; the game has many fathers, from Jefferson P. Swycaffer to Gordon Dickson to H. Beam Piper. Heretofore there hasn't been a compendium of sources, or discussion of influences, or reviews of how these books and authors came to be part of the Traveller background. That's where Shannon Appelcline and "The Science Fiction in Traveller" comes in.

The title refers not so much to the technologies and SFnal elements that go into Traveller than the way these technologies shaped the galactic societies in which they are placed, and how those elements appear in Traveller. For instance, Dickson's "The Genetic General" (known better today as "Dorsai!") does not much resemble Traveller in terms of tech. But it does have a Mercenary's Code, a feature that could be useful for Game Masters looking to provide more detail and substance to their own Traveller merc campaign. H. Beam Piper's "Space Viking" doesn't seem very Traveller, with its half-primitive space raiders devastating planets for the tech and raw materials to sustain their own civilization... but the home worlds of the Space Vikings have the same names as the Sword Worlds in Traveller, and the use of hyperdrive jump starships and their effect on commerce and warfare is very close to what you find in Traveller. Here too a GM can find inspiration for a campaign, raiding worlds for supplies or defending against them. In each case you find a little more of the Traveller universe and a good deal more in terms of usable background, story organization, campaign goals and structure to enhance your Traveler campaign.

My own long-time Traveller GM made much use of Keith Laumer's books on Retief, the diplomat to the stars, which greatly informed his campaigns with political and diplomatic subtlety -- even as we poor schlubs were using air/rafts to break into secret prisons for hostages in an enemy capital, hoping to get away clean. It's this sort of backgrounding that makes a campaign feel more real, and greatly enhances the player's enjoyment of the setting as well as the adventure. Bigger Things Are Moving In the Shadows, and if you are lucky, you might get to find out how to profit for them.

If that's the sort of thing you're looking to do for your players, I heartily recommend "The Science Fiction In Traveller" as a way to discover the roots of the game and the stories that can inspire world-spanning adventures for your players. Do look into it; you'll be very glad you did.

A long time ago, in a science fiction universe far away....

No, seriously, there once was a time when popular science fiction was hopeful, futuristic, and talked about the marvels of technology and the colonies we would soon establish throughout the Solar System -- a Solar System where planets were nearly just like Earth, only a little extreme -- Mars was desert, and hot at that, and Venus was cloudy jungle. This was the science fiction Robert Heinlein wrote for a juvenile audience, and it spread, during the 1950s, to popular culture.

One of the more popular derivatives was "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet," by Joseph Lawrence Greene, inspired by Heinlein's "Space Cadet." Where the latter explored serious issues of growing up and the duties of military service, "Tom Corbett" was more about making friends, exploring strange new places (and sometimes getting trapped in them), and having to answer to teachers and adults. It was a juvenile take on a juvenile subject, something in these later sardonic days we roll our eyes at. When "Tom Corbett" came to the public, it was new, breathless, and promising. It was also one of the first TV series with an sf theme. You laugh, but the enlisted Solar Guard of "Tom Corbett" wore red shirts. Consider where its lineage has since gone.

This collection of the first seven books of the eight known to be published (the eighth, ownership disputed, is not present) represents nearly the complete run of the stories presented on TV from 1950-1955. As such it is unsurpassed as the source material for the early popular American fascination with space and space exploration that would culminate in the American space program and the moon landing. It's not challenging reading, intended as it was for a young audience; the stories have plot holes and contrivances of convenience, the characters tend to be two-dimensional, even the leads, and romance is pretty much absent along with female characters, but it is an adventure series specifically intended for boys and as such has a charming hopefulness about it. This has made it kind of campy for later audiences, but there was a reason these kinds of works have survived and been read since Robert Louis Stevenson's day. We want to see the good guys encounter danger and bad guys and overcome them both. This is a literary craving we are born with, to have adventures with happy endings, and we are not likely to outgrow it.

So discover it here, if it's new to you, or pick it up again, as I did. Roll your eyes if you must. Before there was "Star Trek," before there was "Star Wars," there was a science-fiction TV series that electrified the nation, was turned into a movie, a radio serial, an Australian spin-off, several comics, and yes, these books. If you ever wondered where the idea for those clear-globe space helmets came from -- you know, like the ones the Apollo astronauts actually wore? -- they came from here. Welcome back to the source.

Incidentally, the author of these novels, the pseudonymous 'Carey Rockwell,' has never been publicly identified with Greene, the creator. This collection doesn't even have Rockwell's name on them unless you read the front matter. Where you will also find that one of the scriptwriters for the series was Alfred Bester, later author of "The Stars My Destination." There's more fun here to discover, not counting the additional three books of juvenile sf included. I recommend it highly to those not afraid of fun.

Tree Dweller has produced a background track for cyberpunk campaigns that's not as posh as it is subtly menacing, suggestive of crashing a high-toned party with malicious intent in mind. Its beat is primitive, its synthesizer signature carefully, almost casually decadent. Use this when the PCs meet the bad guy or his front, or the femme fatale who holds the key to the adventure. Or, you know, when your players are about to crash a party and burn the place down. It'll work for you.