This is an adventure for Traveller T20/Classic Traveller. It is set in the Spinward Marches, and includes a series of loosely linked scenes, i.e. loose in the sense that the PCs aren't being "railroaded".

The adventure is rather good - nice scenes, interesting storyline, if straight forward. However, I don't buy the part in the story concerning the betrayal of Imperial forces by another branch of the Imperium. IMHO, it is an unnecessary and somewhat tiring twist of the plot. Everyone in the intelligence community isn't modeled on the bad guys from "Enemy of the State"!

As for the proclaimed CT support, it is there - barely. But this isn't necessary a bad thing; most people buying this adventure is probably T20 owners, not old CT grognards. For those few who primarily play CT or MT, this adventure is easily adapted to whatever rules set you use.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Fresh ideas; better than the original CT adventures it tries to emulate to a certain extent.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: That the story line tries to set the PCs at odds with important branches of the Third Imperium. Trust me, any PC worth his dice will managed that by themselves. This could have been handled either as a overreacting corporate stooge or an isolated mad man with power. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

This is the first science-fiction adventure from QLI to be set in Traveller's classic era: when the galactic Imperium was overseen by the benign Emperor Strephon. The greatest strength of Traveller's classic era setting is that it is a far-reaching, yet inherently stable campaign background -- allowing GMs (or Referees, as Traveller calls them) to tell whatever sorts of SF stories they prefer (battle, exploration, trade, politics), whenever they choose, against a background broad enough to accomodate it all.

This is an excellent adventure for those new to QLI and/or Traveller, and should be adaptable to other SF games like d20 future with little trouble. On the downside, for those of us who have bought previous QLI Traveller adventures, a certain thematic "sameness" is beginning to creep in which can make this adventure feel like something you've already seen.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: - The Third Imperiun backdrop is arguably the best of the Traveller settings, for its breadth, stability, and adaptability.

• The writing is top-notch, both in terms of readability and plot design.

• This adventure should be easily adapatable for GMs who run SF games other than Traveller. The story's the thing, and it's all here.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: - Most of the QLI adventures published to date have a certain thematic "sameness" to them: there always seems to be some sort of high-level corruption and/or conspiracy going on; there are always hidden enemies and/or traitors lurking somewhere nearby; the action almost always centers on small, planetary "pocket empires" of some sort. The plots are well-written, to be sure, but these themes seem to crop up in every adventure published by QLI thus far. Taken together, the adventures all seem to read like some sort of X-Files, Honor Harrington, Tom Clancy cross. Not a bad pedigree, I admit, but this repetition in the adventure themes is starting to wear on me. It's becoming formulaic.

• The Far Trader starship deckplans in this adventure are ugly as hell. Someone went big for loud color using what appears to be Campaign Cartographer 1 or 2. The results look, well, ill-advised and are very hard on the eyeballs. The problem with these deckplans is exacerbated by the fact that there is a second set of black-and-white deckplans in the adventure, drawn in the more familiar Traveller style, and these look polished and professional.

On its own, this product probably rates a 4/5 for the quality of the writing and the general production values, with one star off for that ill-considered and hideous deckplan. If you haven't bought any of QLI's previous Traveller adventures, or you are simply planning to adapt this adventure to your SF setting of choice, then you'll probably find a lot to like here. For those of us who've been buying the QLI adventures since the beginning, however, you may not need this one; even with the Third Imperium campaign backdrop, it doesn't seem different enough from what's gone before.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>