This is 2300AD (1988). Gone is the confusing “Traveller” in the game title. Gone are lots of typos and confusing rules contradictions. Gone are the sample adventures and odd alien pamphlets. In their place is the game GDW probably should have released in the first place — tighter, more polished, more fully realized. Too little, too late — the line had one more year or so of robust support and middling sales before fading into history.

The system, derived from Twilight 2000, is still essentially the same, just, like, tidied up. All 2300 products — Traveller and AD — work fine together. It feels like there is a lot more in the box, though. Of particular note is the information on Aliens.

I’ve been driving myself nuts looking, but this 14-page section seems to be entirely new to this box. The only alien material I see in the original box are pamphlets on the Kafer and the Pentapods and, well, not having this section seems like a glaring oversight. It includes all the information on the six major alien species for the GM’s eyes only, all their secrets that can be discovered in play. Sort of an important part of the game, maybe the central point, is learning this extremely valuable information and it just seems mind-boggling that it wasn’t in the first box at all!

I love this AC Farley cover. Gun guy gives me an odd 40k vibe, but the chaotic energy of that mech/power suit running around, flames glinting in its viewport, is what really sells me.