There is one more box set in the 2300 line, Star Cruiser (1987 — interesting that it predates the 2300 AD box and branding, but already has dropped the “Traveller”). This is another one of those GDW what’s-it products — is it a wargame, is it an RPG supplement, is it both? (It’s both. It’s always both.)

This is the same move that most science fiction games in the ‘80s pulled — Star Wars, Star Trek and Star Frontiers all published ship combat systems as wargame box sets separate from the core rules. I find this baseline obnoxious, as I never want to resolve anything with a wargame. But this was a more innocent age, I guess. You can use this box to resolve space combat in the RPG, or you can use it to play out pre-staged scenarios with specific objectives and in-universe history. That’s kind of cool, I guess.

The real draw here is the painfully brief booklet on ship construction. It’s the main event, the most interesting thing in the box, but it runs only 16 pages. It’s good! But it could have totally been smooshed into the core box.