Freelance Traveller

Travelling In H. Beam Piper’s Terro-Human Future History

by David Johnson

This article originally appeared in the May/June 2026 issue.

“Marc Miller hasn't been shy about listing the books that influenced his Traveller universe. . . . I’m . . . struck by a book that Miller hasn't listed, but which appears to have been absorbed pretty directly into the Traveller universe.”

– Shannon Appelcline, "Review of Space Viking,"
June 24, 2009

Inspiration from H. Beam Piper’s Terro-human Future History in Traveller has been apparent ever since the appearance of the Sword WorldsSupplement 3: The Spinward Marches, Game Designers’ Workshop, 1979 (sans hyphen). And anyone familiar with Piper’s Space Viking would have recognized its plot in J. Andrew Keith’s article about Gamaagin Kaashukiin“Casual Encounter: Gamaagin Kaashukiin”, J. Andrew Keith (writing as “Keith Douglas”), Journal of the Travellers’ Aid Society #20, Game Designers’ Workshop, 1984, the grieving baroness who sells her Adabicci fief to raise money for a raiding starship she uses to avenge herself on her fiancé’s . All of which suggests that we should expect Piper’s Future History setting to be a good match for Traveller adventuring.

Interstellar Travel and Communication

Interstellar travel is a bit more “conventional” in Piper’s Future History yarns, with starships simply taking correspondingly more time to travel longer distances. (There are no “standard” jump distances or times.) On the other hand, the basic concept of interstellar travel, that moving faster-than-light necessitates a “jump” into an extra-physical “hyperspace,” is very much the same as it is in Traveller. Likewise, we never see anyone “outside” a starship while it is in hyperspace and ships in hyperspace never communicate with another ship or with a planet. There is no mention of any effort to “map” hyperspace or to otherwise understand its “topography.”

Generally, Piper tells us that travelling a certain number of light-years takes a certain amount of time, but he’s often inconsistent across (and sometimes within) his yarns — first published in different venues from 1952 to 1963. The travel time between Terra and the planet where a given story is taking place often “just happens” to be six months — what our editor describes as “at the speed of plot.” Piper did make an effort to show that interstellar travel speeds increased over time (his Future History yarns span over a period of thousands of years in setting) but it’s difficult to tease out a consistent rate of travel in any given period (other than that specifically described in a given yarn).

As in Traveller, there is no faster-than-light communication in Piper’s Future History. Interstellar communication is at the speed of interstellar travel. (In one of the later yarns in the setting, the Empire-era “Ministry of Disturbance,” Piper describes the discovery of what seems to be a potential means for faster-than-light communication but we never see a practical application of this discovery.)

We seldom see small starships like a Free Trader or a Scout/Courier in Piper’s Future History. (There is a two-hundred-foot-diameter “hyperyacht” in one of the earliest yarns and a thousand-foot diameter “independent trade prospecting” starship with a crew of fifteen.) Piper’s starships tend to be huge — the largest as much as a mile in diameter! Most commercial travel (and shipping) is conducted by the starships of interstellar shipping lines which typically enjoy Government-recognized monopolies on specific routes.

Astrography

All of Piper’s Future History takes place in a roughly spherical volume of space centred on Terra. The diameter of this space tends to grow over time, though eventually there is a collapse of interstellar civilization. While there seems to be a broad recovery in later yarns, in the last of these there has been little expansion beyond the previously greatest extent of interstellar civilization.

Piper’s lack of broad detail means the astrography of the Future History could be portrayed in the two-dimensional style of Traveller with relative ease. There are no particular aspects of the way interstellar space is portrayed that would be lost in a two-dimensional setting.

Interstellar Society

As mentioned, Piper’s Terro-human Future History unfolds over many thousands of years. It begins — after a series of “Atomic Wars” on Earth (and, apparently, throughout the Solar System) — with a “Terran Federation” which slowly expands to hundreds of colonized worlds across hundreds of light-years. In many ways, the Federation era is reminiscent of the historical era of European colonialism which seems to have been a model Piper consciously utilized. In this period there are “Chartered Companies” inspired by historical examples such as the British East India Company with many of the same problematic elements of those historical inspirations (many maintained by Piper to assist in his subtly critical storytelling). Most of the yarns in this era are set on a colonial world of some sort or another.

The Federation is an ostensibly representative government and so does not fit well with the aristocratic Third Imperium but in most other ways there is great alignment between the society of the Federation and that of the Imperium. Most Classic-era Traveller adventures would work in Piper’s Federation.

In time, the Terran Federation is wracked by rebellion — the “System States War” — but the Federation nevertheless prevails. This turns out to have been a pyrrhic victory and is followed by the slow collapse of the Federation and, ultimately, the “Interstellar Wars.” An extended period of interstellar barbarism follows. This is the era of Space Viking, a yarn about a small, remote polity — the Sword-Worlds (note hyphen) — established by refugees from the System States War who eventually return to raid and plunder the devastated worlds of the “Old Federation.” Obviously both Rebellion-era Traveller adventures and New Era adventures would fit in these periods of Piper’s Future History.

Eventually, a new “Galactic Empire” arises from the ruins of the Old Federation. Just two yarns from Piper portray this period, one which occurs early in the Empire’s history (a period somewhat similar to the Traveller era of the Sylean Empire) and another set at a time when the Empire has stopped expanding, a setting which perhaps most closely resembles that of the Third Imperium.

Non-human Sophonts

There are several non-human peoples in Piper’s Future History but all of them are from pre-mechanistic or early agricultural or pastoral indigenous societies which have evolved on worlds with ecospheres that are hospitable to humans. Only a few are portrayed in any detail, the most prominent being the Fuzzies of Zarathustra who are not understood to be sapient when they are first encountered. (The first of the Fuzzy yarns, Little Fuzzy, is centred on efforts to establish — or refute — Fuzzy sapience.) The most technologically sophisticated sophonts seem to be the “hairy, dog-faced” Thorans who are employed by humans as auxiliary troops and, in Uller Uprising, are surreptitiously attempting to learn how to make nuclear weapons. (The Vargr may have been inspired by the Thorans’ tendency to be “fanatically loyal to anybody whom they accepted as their chieftain.”)

One potential exception appears in William Tuning’s Fuzzy Bones, a posthumous sequel to the first two Fuzzy yarnsThe “lost” Fuzzies and Other People (Ace 1984) was published two decades after Piper’s death. Prior to its publication, two “authorized” sequels to the first two Fuzzy novels were published, William Tuning’s Fuzzy Bones (Ace 1981) and Ardath Mayhar’s Golden Dream (Ace 1982) authorized by the inheritors of some of Piper’s copyrights. Not to spoil the plot but Tuning’s yarn raises the intriguing possibility of yet-to-be-encountered star-faring sophonts. While the subsequent publication of a third, “lost” Fuzzy novel by Piper tends to refute Tuning’s storyline, either approach could easily be adopted in a Traveller setting.

Technology

Given its inspiration for Traveller much of the technology in Piper’s Future History will be familiar to both players and referees. As previously mentioned there are starships which “jump” into hyperspace and subsequently emerge into normal space at their destination. (There are no Dumarest-esque low-berths though.)

There is a steady evolution of robotics technology over the course of Piper’s Future History from semi-autonomous, mechanically propelled industrial and commercial robots in early yarns to autonomous, “contragravity”-propelled, quasi-humanoid valet and other robots in later yarns.

Contragravity vehicles are ubiquitous including large commercial and military airships (and submersibles). One interesting aspect of ship-board artificial gravity — “pseudogravity” — is that it emanates from a generator at the centre of the ship, resulting in all starships being spherical. (There is no indication whether the strength of the pseudogravity field varies with distance from the centre nor an explanation of how someone transfers from this spherical gravity field to the exterior of the ship when it’s on a planet’s surface.)

We see little military technology in Piper’s yarns other than personal firearms but there are a variety of autonomous and semi-autonomous spacecraft missiles in Space Viking. Warships have both hull armour and field-based screens and fire both conventional missiles and directed-energy weapons. Personal firearms are all slug-throwers throughout the Future History until the very last yarn. In “The Keeper,” set nearly 20,000 years beyond the other yarns, directed-energy firearms appear. Soldiers sometimes wear armour and in at least one instance — in the corrosive environment of the planet Niflheim — it’s powered and includes contragravity capabilities.

As with Classic Traveller there are no hand-held computers or anything like a hand-held “smartphone” in Piper’s yarns. (Radio and “television-like” communications are commonplace.) It never seems to occur to planetary residents that a few satellites in orbit might help them to detect incoming spacecraft. Likewise, no one in a ship approaching a planet can see anything but that portion of the surface — or in orbit — in the field of view from the ship. Display technology is very much that of someone imagining a much larger screen for a television — no holograms here.

Perhaps the most problematic element of Piper’s technology is apparent in computers which seem to have never experienced a microtechnology revolution. (The “cosmic computer” in the title of the reissued Junkyard Planet“Graveyard of Dreams” (Galaxy, February 1958) was substantially expanded into the novel Junkyard Planet (Putnam 1963) which was republished as The Cosmic Computer (Ace 1964) is a reference to its size, having nothing whatsoever to do with the “cosmos.” (Indeed, a key element of the yarn’s plot rests on the fabled supercomputer’s tremendous size.) It may be that part of the reason starships are so large is due to the volume requirements of their computers.

Characters

All Traveller character career types might be encountered in Piper’s Future History. There are army, navy and marine characters, “scouts” in the Federation’s Colonial Office and merchants in the commercial shipping lines. There are barbarians — in the Viking era, bureaucrats, diplomats, doctors, flyers, hunters, nobles — in the Viking and Empire eras, pirates, rogues, scientists and sailors. There are law enforcers and journalists, secret agents and academics. On the other hand, a non-human sophont who was not a non-player character “barbarian” would be quite exceptional.

Adventuring

Just about any Traveller adventure scenario might be played in Piper’s Future History though mercenary situations and encounters with external adversaries would only “fit” in the Viking era. (In the Federation and Empire eras there is a single, human-led interstellar polity which does not allow “independent” worlds to exist and which faces no external foes.) Small-ship adventures would be unusual but not impossible. (A “free trader” campaign like that portrayed in The [Classic] Traveller Adventure would be unusual.)

On the other hand, Piper’s yarns tend to feature out-of-the-ordinary “elite” characters who are acting far from central authority. Large scale help is always available but seldom in a timely manner — it’s usually “six months” away (or maybe twelve months for a round trip). Piper’s plots tend to be more focused on politics and social dynamics than upon combat but even a Trillion Credit Squadron campaign might be run during the System States War.

Conclusion

Piper’s Terro-human Future History is well suited for Traveller adventuring. Just about any Traveller adventure can be set at some point in Piper’s Future History and almost all of Piper’s yarns could be played as Traveller scenarios. (The search for the fabled supercomputer in Junkyard Planet might be a challenge — you'd have to come up with some explanation for its tremendous size.) The millennial timespan of Piper’s Future History provides ample opportunity to stage adventures from just about any Traveller milieu. The absence of wide-ranging detail in Piper’s yarns also means there is “space” for plenty of referee expansion.

Piper’s Future History is part of the heritage of Traveller. If you haven’t read any of Piper’s yarns yet you will find them familiar in many large and small ways. If you have read Uller Uprising or Four-Day Planet or Little Fuzzy or Junkyard Planet or Space Viking or any of Piper’s other Future History yarns, I encourage you to take the next step and play some Traveller there.