World’s Largest RPGs has launched a massive BackerKit campaign to bring Traveller, the hugely influential 1977 science-fiction roleplaying game, to the world’s most popular 5e ruleset. Led by veteran game designer Timothy Brown in full coordination with Mongoose Publishing, the project translates decades of hard sci-fi interstellar trading, mercenary contracts, and exploration into a familiar mechanical framework. The campaign is live now and steadily unlocking stretch goals ahead of its May 2026 deadline.
The crowdfunding campaign arrives during a major digital expansion for the wider franchise. Mongoose Publishing recently partnered with Demiplane and Roll20 to launch the official Traveller NEXUS. This new digital companion features full cross-platform syncing, allowing players who own the classic 2022 Core Rulebook or 2024 Companion on Roll20 to access them freely on Demiplane, complete with a brand new character builder and digital compendiums.
Lifepaths and Lethal Creation
Traveller 5E retains the iconic lifepath character generation that defined the original game, including the infamous possibility of your character dying before the campaign even begins.
The original characteristics have been adapted into standard 5e ability scores, with both rolled and package-based creation options available. Every classic skill has been converted into a proficiency or feat. The system offers all 14 original careers as backgrounds and introduces nine new spacefarer subclasses, such as the xenobiologist and hacker. It also features a brand new Psion class built specifically for the 5e engine.
A Four-Book Galaxy
The BackerKit campaign is funding a comprehensive library split across four hardcover books:
- Core Rules: Covers basic play, character creation, and core mechanics.
- Gear and Robots: Includes extensive equipment lists and rules for constructing custom robots, androids, cyborgs, and clones, which can also be used as player characters.
- Starships: Features over 65 starships and 20 small craft with reference deck plans. It details the complete ship-creation rules and adapts space combat to include vector movement options.
- Worlds and Vehicles: Provides tools for planetary surface exploration, featuring over 45 illustrated alien animals and 85 vehicles, alongside robust creation rules for generating exotic new worlds.
Every pledge also includes the CivX Primer PDF, a brand new Traveller 5E setting that explores the fate of ancient, slower-than-light human colonies.
Reward Tiers
The campaign offers a wide array of entry points, ranging from digital access to massive collector’s bundles featuring special edition covers and miniatures. Backers pledging $150 or more also have the option to pay in four monthly instalments via BackerKit.
- Pledge $29 (approx. £22): Core Rules PDF. Digital copies of the Core Rules and the CivX Primer.
- Pledge $79 (approx. £59): Core Rules Hardcover. The regular edition hardcover Core Rules and its PDF, plus the CivX Primer.
- Pledge $99 (approx. £74): Starter Bundle. The Core Rules hardcover and PDF, the CivX Primer, and a metal dice set.
- Pledge $169 (approx. £126): Low Passage Bundle. An all-digital tier featuring PDFs of all four core books, Deck Plans Volume One, the Roll20 VTT files, and all miniature STLs.
- Pledge $349 (approx. £259): Jump Drive Bundle. Physical regular editions of all four books in a metal slipcase, Deck Plans Volume One, a metal dice set, and all corresponding PDFs.
- Pledge $599 (approx. £445): High Passage Bundle. Special Edition hardcovers of all four books in a metal slipcase, Deck Plans Volume One, a metal dice set, a magnetic referee screen, Roll20 VTT files, miniature STLs, and all PDFs.
- Pledge $799 (approx. £594): Starship Beowulf Bundle. Everything in the High Passage Bundle, plus four void dice sets, a galaxy dice bag, dice tray, mammoth singularity die, mystery bag, metal dice box, and a patch pack.
- Pledge $999 (approx. £743): All-In. The ultimate tier featuring everything in the Beowulf Bundle, plus all six miniature bundles (Army, Navy, Marine, Starport Security, and Player Miniatures), incentive items, and all unlocked stretch goals.
The project is all-or-nothing and will only be funded if it reaches its goal by Friday, May 15th, 2026. Delivery is estimated for October 2027.
