Traveller AR Preview

Traveller AR brings the classic space-based RPG to the iPhone

The Traveller pen-and-paper RPG has never been quite as well known as Dungeons & Dragons, and as a result the franchise hasn’t been adapted to the video game market, outside of a couple of titles in the early 1990s. However the game is getting a new video game incarnation, this time as Traveller AR, an upcoming mobile MMO on the iPhone.

The “AR” stands for “Augmented Reality”; the game encourages its players to explore the outside world. By using the iPhone’s camera, gamers will get to see the world “painted” with trimmings of the Traveller AR universe. A user’s home city will represent their planet, whereupon they engage in activities like warfare, trade, and politics. Traveling to other cities will serve as a substitute for interstellar travel.

Developer IngZ has a lot of material to draw from, and it has over 40,000 star systems and 350,000 fixed objects in the MMO’s database. Accordingly, the title is being touted as one of the largest video games ever developed for any kind of system. The MMO will feature PvP and PvE gameplay; when battles start, the game will allow players to enter into a zoomed-out “HexMode” in order to engage in strategic combat.

Traveller AR is due out for the iPhone sometime this summer.

Mike Thompson

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Mike Thompson has worked each side of the video game industry, both reporting on and creating narrative content for games. In his free time, he gorges on pizza, referees for roller derby, and uploads ridiculous cat photos to the internet.