It is the 1105th year of the Third Imperium, and PCs will begin the campaign on Rampart in Reft sector 3030. It is a high technology (TL 15) world with a class A starport with a population of under 1,000.

It is a small garden world inhabited by a handful of super-rich families, who own huge private estates. The other 90% of the population work for them, but also live reasonably well. The starport mostly serves their needs, but is a good destination for expensive luxury goods. Several of the inhabitants have shares in luxury shipyards here, which also have a need for specialist imports.

There is a naval base nearby, which has an agreement with the planet to allow shore leave to a small number of islands.

However, Rampart won't be important - it's just where you start and you'll be leaving it pretty quickly to head into the Great Rift.

The campaign will be using the Mongoose Traveller 2nd edition rules. I don't have any major rule changes planned at the moment.

Preferred race is human (Vilani or Solomani, not Zhodani), and it would be good to have at least one human in the party. If people want to play aliens, then the options are:

• Aslan (in which case, use character generation from The Trojan Reach, from Pirates of Drinax)
  • You can choose gender.
• Vargr (in which case, use character generation from Alien Module 2: Vargr)
  • You can choose sub-species, but not a Psionic one.

• Roll 2d6 nine times, and arrange six of them as desired.

This should provide an above-average character. You should roll after selecting sub-species and gender for Vargr and Aslan.

Use of Psionics will not be an option.

You will not be starting the campaign with a ship. If you roll a ship as part of character generation, or start with shares in a ship, then you do not yet have access to this ship. Either you haven't claimed your shares yet, or you need to go and pick up (or purchase) your ship.

The first adventure is to go and pick up a ship, so having to juggle two ships would just add unnecessary complexity.

The following characters would be useful to have:

• An Imperial citizen with a background with either the Imperium military or intelligence services. Failing that, someone with a good contact with either would be helpful.
• You're doing a mission for the Imperium intelligence service, so being hostile to the Imperium would be difficult to explain (a criminal background is fine, since such people can have useful skills, as long as it isn't for treason or terrorism etc).
• It would be useful for someone to have Pilot, Astrogation and Admin.

Note the skill packages on p48 of the core book allow the group to pick up extra skills, so if any are missing from careers, you can guarantee to fill in some holes.

You will also have the opportunity to hire on some help if you want.