So if Tarsus is a demonstration of how to build a Traveller planet, Beltstrike is the same lesson applied to a star system and, interestingly, one that lacks a planets. Instead, the primary feature of the system is the Bowman Belt, an ore-rich asteroid belt. The first booklet in the box gives you all you need to know about asteroid prospecting, including specialized equipment and new character generation options for miners. It’s all well thought out and interesting. The second booklet gives you all you need to know about the system itself. There are all sorts of weird things on the rocks — star ports, research installations, a pleasure dome — that one gets a full color map which I like a lot. There is a ton of material here to fashion into a big pile of interesting adventures.

But if you’re looking for adventures in the box that is clearly marked “adventure module,” you’re gonna be disappointed. There are four things labeled adventures inside, printed in pamphlets like Tarsus, but they…aren’t. Not really. The first is like the first in Tarsus, a sort of welcome to the Belt. The second is a bar brawl in the entertainment asteroid. The third is a sketch about claim jumping and the fourth a framework for some exo-archaeology. The last two feel more like what I’d call adventures, but only the last one is actually interesting.

I like Beltstrike a lot. There’s cooler Traveller stuff out there, sure (but you wouldn’t click on it, cuz the covers are all zzzz), but this is still high grade Traveller in its prime. The new large format definitely threw GDW for a curve though. As much as I love boxes, Tarsus and Beltstrike feel so sparsely filled it seems like they should have been included in the Starter box.