The Great Rift by Martin J. Dougherty is a role playing game supplement published by Mongoose Publishing for use with Traveller.
The supplement is available as a PDF collection from DriveThruRPG for $39.99 but was purchased at a reduced price during a sale. The supplement is also available in printed form from sites such as Amazon. There are ten PDFs in the DriveThruRPG version, which is the one reviewed.
Book 1: The Great Rift is a 129-page PDF with one page being the front cover and one the Credits and Contents.
The Introduction covers Charted Space’s location in the Milky Way, known as the Orion Spur, and explains that it is cut almost in half by an area of very low stellar density, known as the Great Rift. There are other, smaller, rifts in the area and beyond Charted Space are more rifts, both large and small, and that they present a near-impenetrable barrier to navigation, except in certain places. There is a map of the area of the great rift showing various interstellar polities.
Chapter One: Exploring the Rifts is on what Travellers are interested in, maps and how trans-rift crossings are made. There is a sidebar on bases that can be found in the Great Rift.
Chapter Two: Great Rift Crossings states that there are two well-known routes across the Great Rift. The Islands Crossing is where the majority of Imperial traffic crosses the rift and is mapped in detail. The Aslan Jump-5 Route is briefly mentioned. Other rift crossing are mentioned, but these crossings are secret, even though their existence is known, and there are rumours of installations and facilities.
Chapter Three: Peoples of the Great Rift starts with the Kursae, a civilisation which has crumbled and, though the species is not believed to be extinct, no known members of it have been found. They have wreckage on multiple worlds spanning a large area of space, despite not being believed to have possessed faster than light travel. The Ascondi are covered in more detail, as Travellers can come from this race and they do still exist, with their society detailed and the Ascondi illustrated. Finally, the Alo’hei are large creatures that have been described as living starships.
Chapter Four: Features of the Great Rift describes a number of points of interest in the area, with sidebars covering generalities for certain specific types of feature.
Chapter Five: Corridor covers the Corridor sector between the main Imperium and those territories behind the Claw, that stretches between the Great Rift and the Vargr Extents. There is a brief overview of the sector then the various subsectors are covered in more detail. Each subsector has a list of planets together with a map, with a variable but low number of places described in more detail. Some of the subsectors are in the Great Rift and quite empty. There are also a number of new ship types with details and plans listed, as well as some creatures.
Chapter Six: Riftspan Reaches is set out in a similar manner to Chapter Five, but covering a different sector, one that is largely territory of the Aslan Hierate. Again, each subsector has a map, a list of planets and some planets described in more detail, with some subsectors being in the Great Rift and pretty empty. Also again, there are some new ships detailed.
Book 2: Reft is a 113-page PDF with one page being the front cover and one the Credits and Contents.
The Introduction explains that Reft is an astronomical oddity, as it contains two groups of stars separated by wide rift. The groups, known as the Old Islands and New Islands subsectors, were settled by sublight craft from Earth which slowly colonised the region, until an Imperial scout misjumped in and the groups gained access to jump technology. The colonisation, contact and current situation are gone into in detail; jump technology is making war increasingly likely.
Chapter One: Worlds of Reft covers the Reft sector, starting with a very brief overview. The various subsectors are covered in detail, each having a map, a list of planets and several planets described in more detail. Some of the subsectors are quite empty of systems. Also described are some races and some new vehicles.
Chapter Two: Mysteries of Reft describes a number of points of interest in the sector, essentially unusual astronomical features.
Chapter Three: Powers of Reft Sector covers the ten major, by local standards, powers in Reft, with at least eight being major worlds, along with two stateless powers. The eight worlds are those of the Islands subsectors, and each is given an overview, details on social, political, industrial, economic and military abilities, together with some notes. There are a lot of new ships in this section. The two stateless powers, one a local corporation and the other a political-philosophical movement, are covered in a similar way. Finally, the Third Imperium’s presence in the area is covered, including the Navy, Scout Service and megacorporations.
Book 3: Touchstone & Afawahisa is a 105-page PDF with one page being the front cover and one the Credits and Contents.
Chapter One: Touchstone covers the sector starting with a brief overview. Again, the subsectors are covered in detail, having a map, a list of planets and some planets described in more detail. Some of the subsectors have very few planets and one lacks any. There are also some species described in detail.
Chapter Two: Phobetor describes a binary system in Touchstone in more detail. The history of the system is given, the planets are covered in detail, including polities on them, three habitable planets are mapped, an armoured train is described and there is a section on adventures in Phobetor. This seems like it’s intended to be a major campaign location and focus.
Chapter Three: Afawahisa covers another sector in the standard format. There’s a brief overview of this primarily Hierate sector, then the subsectors follow, each having a map, planet list and more details on some of the systems. There are details on a creature and a steamship.
Book 4: Deep Space Exploration Handbook is a 49-page PDF with one page being the front cover and one the Credits and Contents.
The short Introduction gives a brief overview of why deep space would be explored.
Chapter One: Exploring Space has some rules for identifying places to explore and how to find out information about them.
Chapter Two: Stars and Interstellar Phenomena covers these and, in most cases, starship operations related to them.
Chapter Three: Anomalies, Rogues and Other Objects briefly covers detecting rogue objects and their appearance.
Chapter Four: Expanded Star System Creation have more thorough rules on this.
Chapter Five: High Guard: Deep Space Exploration (which is mistakenly titled Chapter Four again) has new options for the Spacecraft Options chapter in High Guard, with new ship items and software.
The Traveller’s Aid Society Presents Jayne’s Guide to Starships of Exploration has details and plans for new ships suited for exploration.
The remaining PDFs are maps. There are 1-page PDF sector maps of Afawahisa, Corridor, Reft, Riftspan Reaches and Touchstone, the sectors covered in the supplement. The final PDF is also a single page and covers the Phobetor System in Touchstone.
The Great Rift in Review
The PDFs are bookmarked but not that well and the bookmarks are mangled. This could be a result of the PDFs being watermarked, as this has been known to happen. The Contents are to a similar level of detail and are hyperlinked. Navigation is poor given the amount of material. The text maintains a two-column full colour format and a number of errors were noticed. There are many colour subsector maps, ship illustrations and colour images up to full page in size. Presentation is very good.
This is primarily a resource covering five new sectors of space in varying detail. Some of the subsectors are, as is appropriate for the area, pretty empty of star systems. Others, those outside the Rift proper but still within the sectors, are far more occupied. The majority of worlds are not covered in any more detail than their subsector entry. The exceptions are the Islands subsectors of Reft and, for whatever odd reason, Phobetor. The final book provides new exploration and spaceship options.
With five new sectors, even ones with a lot of quite literally empty space, this is a huge expansion to the Traveller universe. Three of the sectors are primarily Imperial in nature whilst two are Aslan; there are still independents and other polities within them. If there’s a niggle, it’s that the supplement has perhaps tried to cover too much territory. Dozens of systems are covered in various levels of detail with perhaps hundreds more only given a single line entry in a subsector list. However, the supplement does provide a wealth of new material that could keep Travellers busy for a long time, and in an area where things can be a lot more hazardous. Minor problems can be a lot more serious when there isn’t a system for parsecs. The Great Rift is a good supplement and it can be found by clicking here.
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