High Guard (book)

{{InfoboxBook|name=Book 5 High Guard|image=|caption=Book 5| publisher=Game Designers Workshop|version=Classic Traveller| author=Marc Miller|format=[[Little Black Book|LBB]|edition=1st|year=1979|pages=52|canon=Yes|footnote=Product n. xxx}}

Book 5 for Classic Traveller.

An interstellar community operates under many unique restrictions, most notably the fact that it consists of many island-planets set in an ocean of vacuum. Such a society must control of that ocean. Its instrument is the Navy.

Traveller assumes a remote centralized government (referred to in this volume as the Imperium) possessed of great industrial and technological might; but due to the sheer distances and travel times involved within its star-spanning realm, the Imperium is unable to be everywhere at once. As a result, the Imperium allows a large degree of autonomy to its subject worlds, calling only for some respect for its overall policies, and for a united front against outside pressures.

To monitor the space lanes, the Imperium maintains a Navy. Because these forces can never be everywhere at once, local provinces (subsectors) also maintain navies, as do individual worlds. This three tiered structure of Imperial, subsector, and planetary navies produces a flexible system for patrolling space, while putting the limited resources of the Imperium to best use.

High Guard deals with the navies of the Imperium, of subsectors, and of worlds.

Editions

There are two editions of this book, the second published in 1980. The character creation rules are the same in both editions. The starship design rules are completely rewritten in the second edition.