With the news of the the recently spotted planet around Fomalhaut, I thought it was a good idea to write something about Fomalhaut in the Traveller Universe.

In the Traveller Universe Fomalhaut is only J-8 away form Terra. The planet orbiting Fomalhaut is a non industrial world occupied by the Imperium. It has a high tech-level and a horrible atmosphere. (B8C8469-F) This looks like a place to avoid. Other information is the spectral type, which is A3V, and the spectral type of it’s companion K4V.

If You compare this to what You can read about the star, it seems to be correct, except for the planet which is made up (for obvious reasons). The distance to Terra is correct. The spectral type is correct, and the spectral type of it’s companion, TW Piscis Austrini is correct. I am surprised that GDW got so many things right this time 🙂 The planet they made up is not totally impossible. It could be a very young planet, or a captured planet.

The planet that now has been spotted (that is called Fomalhaut b) must be one of the two gas giants in the system.

Image from NASA. Public Domain

With the news of Fomalhaut b it would be interesting to run a short adventure here. Maybe something about a Solomani uprising against the Imperials, or dust mining in the outer systems. The fine dust might have perfect properties for sand-casters, and might contain diamonds. There might be illegal dust-mining operations that the PCs can be hired to perform, or be hired to stop.

Image from NASA. Public Domain

But there is actually already a short adventure written about Fomalhaut. In Alien Module 6. I will not write any spoilers here, but this is a good adventure and it can be combined with my ideas above. If You just tweak this adventure a little bit, it might fit very well with both science and the traveller universe and probably give You an interesting gaming experience. 🙂

Good luck!