A lot of Traveller players who enjoy fantasy RPGs have wondered what a “Fantasy Traveller” would look like: A fantasy RPG using Traveller-like rules where fantasy characters could trade and adventure across the seas of a fantasy world. Expeditious Retreat Press has released such a game, Worlds Apart. Based on the Mongoose Traveller SRD, this game allows adventures to “brave the Forever Sea in a fantasy game of trade and exploration. Take the role of soldier or sailor, entertainer or scholar, dweomercraefter or drifter. A thousand thousand islands populate the world and riches, adventure, and danger lurks upon every shore!”

The rules are entirely open game content and are available in PDF from RPGNow.com in two versions. A free version (without art) free version (without art) here and a version with art for $12 available here.

I have just downloaded the free version of the rules, so I’ve only had a chance to quickly glance through them. From this quick glance they look to be nicely done. The only strange (to me) thing I saw is that the ships (called “Voyagers”) have a “jump drive” that can only be engaged when the ship is out of sight of land. The islands and island groups are apparently so far apart that normal ships cannot sail between them — only the elemental-powered Voyager ships can. Islands are created on Traveller-style subsector charts.

Expeditious Retreat already has details of several islands from the Lyart Subsector (the sample in the rule book) available at the fairly reasonable price of $2 for each 4 page PDF:

* Awmrie – Lyart Subsector – 0709
* Deave – Lyart Subsector – 0602
* Gryce – Lyart Subsector – 1008

Worlds Apart looks like it could be a lot of fun. If my opinion of it holds up after a full reading of the rules, you can expect to see more on this game on this blog.