The Core Expeditions, a millennia-long journey by the Zhodani Consulate
Traveller - The Core Expeditions details the Zhodani "Core Expeditions," a series of massive exploration fleets sparked by the discovery of an Ancients device. These expeditions have cost trillions of credits and spanned thousands of years, pushing the Zhodani farther toward the Galactic Core than any other known civilization. While the Zhodani Consulate presents these missions as scientific and exploratory, the book reveals deeper secrets and a looming interstellar catastrophe threatening all of Charted Space: the Empress Wave, a cataclysmic psionic ripple emanating from the core, known to the Zhodani for centuries.
Eight expeditions, Zhodani culture, and new game tools
Traveller - The Core Expeditions traces the history and current status of all eight major expeditions, from early scouting missions to the massive, self-sustaining colonial fleets that now stretch like a stalk from Zhodani space toward the core. The book offers a deep dive into the Zhodani explorer ethos, including how the Zhodani Thought Police operate within the fleets to maintain social stability during decades-long voyages.
The supplement also introduces specialized long-range ships and vehicles, new robots and deep-space survival equipment, xenobiology on life forms encountered along the way, and rules for the strange astronomical phenomena found near the galactic core. Referee guidance helps build a campaign where players take on the roles of Zhodani scouts, independent contractors, or Imperial spies trying to uncover what the Consulate is hiding.
