The Expanse Roleplaying Game brought the thrilling universe of James S.A. Corey’s award-winning science fiction novels to the tabletop in 2019. The Transport Union Edition is the game’s new, updated core rulebook, your launch point to adventures among the stars. In addition to the game itself, this crowdfunder also offers three new supplements, dice, and for the first time ever, Expanse character and spaceship miniatures! Delivery for all this is set for Summer 2025!

So, you’ve read the books or watched the shows, but the RPG is new to you. Or maybe you’ve never tried tabletop roleplaying games before. Good news, the Transport Union Edition is the best place to start! This updated core book has all the rules you need to play, from character creation and challenges to technology and spaceship combat. The game is powered by the Adventure Game Engine (AKA the AGE System), which Chris Pramas designed to be easy to learn and fun to play. Many of Green Ronin’s RPGs are built with the AGE System, so if you’ve played Dragon Age, Fantasy AGE, Blue Rose, Modern AGE or Cthulhu Awakens, you already know the basic rules. The heart of the AGE System is an innovative stunt system that lets characters pull off dramatic maneuvers to gain advantages or change situations. The Expanse RPG is the first AGE scifi game, and it’s been customized for both the genre and the universe. With its robust, classless system, you can build characters ranging from Earth scientists and naval personnel to Martian marines and politicians to Belter pirates and hackers to Transport Union agents and captains. 

The Transport Union Edition expands the rules and background and simply has more of everything: character options, ships, equipment, background, adversaries, enhancement implants, and more. The biggest change you’ll notice is that we’ve moved the timeline up, so the game is now set between the events of Book 6 (Babylon’s Ashes) and Book 7 (Persepolis Rising). The untold history and swaths of unexplored territory make the thirty years between novels a fantastic time to set a new RPG campaign, where the Player Characters have room to shine and write their own chapters in the history of The Expanse. That said, the Transport Union Edition supports play at any time in the first six novels and the Free Navy Conflict supplement that’s also part of this campaign is a great example of how to do it. Since the core rules are the same, previous supplements like Ships of the Expanse, Beyond the Ring, and the Sol System remain great and useful resources. 

Since the campaign was launched, many of you have asked about a Special Edition of the core rulebook (something we’ve done in other campaigns). Great news, we’re doing it! This crowdfunder exclusive has the same great content as the Transport Union Edition but with a swanky foil stamped cloth cover, ribbon bookmark, and gilded edges.

You will see two new add-ons on the list. The first adds a Special Edition to what you’re getting already. The second allows you to upgrade the core rulebook from your existing pledge to a Special Edition. Basically, you can choose to get a whole new book for $85 or replace the standard edition with a Special Edition for an extra $25. For example, let’s say you’ve chosen the Fred Johnson pledge, which consists of the new core rulebook in print and PDF, plus a set of dice. If you choose The Expanse Core Rulebook Special Edition add-on, you will then get a Special Edition, a standard edition, a PDF, and a dice set. If you choose The Expanse Special Edition Upgrade add-on, you will get a Special Edition, a PDF, and a set of dice. 

Hal Mangold has created a visually striking cover for the Special Edition, which he will further refine as we get into production. Get fancy and treat yourself! 

The cast of Abraxas Precipice received an early copy of the The Expanse: Transport Union Edition Quick Start, and graciously agreed to record an actual play video.

The cast of Hellbreakers also did an actual play video for the new Quicks Start!

We are crowdfunding four new books for The Expanse RPG in this campaign. Size and format are estimates and could change as Achievements are unlocked.

The Transport Union Edition is The Expanse RPG’s new, updated core rulebook, your launch point to adventures among the stars. It has all the rules you need to play, from character creation and challenges to technology and spaceship combat. The Transport Union Edition expands the setting following the release of sourcebooks like Beyond the Ring and Sol System (both available as add-ons) and adds more rules resources like enhanced augments and new specializations, taking into account five years of player feedback. Whether you are a new or long-time player, the Transport Union Edition is your new gateway to gaming in the universe of The Expanse! - 272-page hardback.

The first player-focused book for The Expanse RPG, loaded with new options for your Player Characters. The Crew Companion is a player’s guide for The Expanse RPG that greatly expands character options with a plethora of new specializations and talents, and introduces new gear, new enhancement implants, and new stunts. Not to mention advanced rules for tech, including black market implants like those of Clarissa Mao in the novels. You’ll also find many new spaceships suitable for Player Characters, plus new ship qualities and flaws. GMs will find useful new options for the Churn and advanced rules for Interludes. Take your Expanse character to the next level with the Crew Companion! - 192-page hardback.

A full-length campaign set in the Transport Union Era. Daemon’s Gambit is a five-part adventure series set in the middle of the Transport Union era and designed for characters of 5th to 10th level (but can be easily modified for lower levels). Much like the game’s previous adventure series, Abzu’s Bounty, these adventures form a coherent campaign, but each can be played independently. Daemon’s Gambit also offers a more in-depth exploration of the history and operation of the Transport Union, from its roots in the aftermath of the Free Navy Conflict to its day-to-day operations. You’ll also find details on all the movers and shakers of the Transport Union and story hooks for writing your own adventures during this exciting era. - 128-page softback. UPGRADED TO HARDCOVER

Background and adventures for this apocalyptic era of play. The Free Navy Conflict offers an in-depth look at the war that devastated Earth and forever altered humanity’s fate amongst the stars. Inside you’ll find a detailed history of the conflict, from Durate’s betrayal to the effects of the asteroid impact on Earth and the food and infrastructure breakdowns that follow. You’ll also find details on several of the pivotal battles, the eventual surrender of Marco Inaros and the Free Navy, which brought about the formation of the Transport Union. The book is also packed with adventure hooks and GM advice for telling Expanse stories during this tumultuous period. Finally, five independent adventures explore the Free Navy Conflict from both sides. - 128-page softback.UPGRADED TO HARDCOVER

We are beyond excited to offer official Expanse miniatures for the first time. We have teamed up with Wargames Atlantic to make character and spaceship minis. Wargames Atlantic made its name with hard plastic miniatures and they have a large range of historical, fantasy, and science fiction sets in their catalog. We have, of course, made the minis with The Expanse RPG in mind but these sets are great for wargamers as well. They can be readily used in many of the miniatures agnostic games on the market today. We are offering two sets at the start of the campaign, with the possibility of more to come.

Wargames Atlantic specializes in plastic multi-part kits. This means instead of getting minis in fixed, static poses, you will get a whole toolkit of bodies, heads, arms, legs, weapons, and equipment so you can build and pose your character as you like, and GMs can make all manner of NPCs. Since the kits are hard plastic, all you need is modelling glue to assemble them. This set focuses on spaceship and station crew, but you can use the parts to build all sorts of things. The Expanse Crew Miniatures Set is a box with three identical sprues that lets you create 18 miniatures.

For spaceships we have concentrated on the ships most likely to be used in an RPG campaign. These are the sorts of medium and large ships a party of PCs might command or oppose. Ships like the Rocinante! The ship models don’t have as many parts as the character minis, typically only one or two plus a flight stand. The ships are in 1/1000 scale, which means a Corvette-class ship like the Roci is about 2” long. A destroyer in this scale would be about 6” long (no destroyers in this set but maybe later…). The Ships of the Expanse Miniatures Set is a box with three identical sprues that let you make 30 spaceships (3 of each type).

We are offering brand new dice sets in this campaign. You can find the new dice in certain pledge levels, and all the dice as add-ons. 

Our longtime Polish partners Q Workshop have designed both Transport Union and Laconian 6-sided dice. Like our previous Belter, Earther, and Martian dice, they come in sets of six: 3 of one color and 3 of another. The Belter, Earther, and Martian dice have been sold out for some time, so we are also reprinting them as part of this campaign. 

We are partnering with Norse Foundry for precision crafted metal dice made from 6063 Aircraft Grade Aluminum (or Spacecraft Grade in The Expanse!). Computer-guided machines precisely cut these high-quality dice and professional CNC machinery ensures that every single die is evenly balanced and always provides 100% random results. Norse Foundry sets consist of three 6-sided dice in your choice of five colors in a custom machined aluminum case. You'll feel like the fanciest player on the space station when you throw down with these dice! 

We are offering full editions of the Transport Union Edition for the Roll20 and Foundry Virtual Table Tops (VTTs). There is already support material up on both sites, but this campaign will allow us to offer The Expanse RPG core rulebook as a full compendium experience on both platforms for the first time. These compendiums will include all the content from the Transport Union Edition rulebook but in the VTT native platform, making it even easier for game masters to assemble their crews around their favorite virtual table. The compendiums will include search features and extensive hyperlinking, as well as supporting drag and drop for antagonists, talents, specializations, gear (including enhanced implants), and ships. Choose the Alex Kamal pledge level if you only want the game in VTT format. If you choose other pledge levels, you can get a VTT compendium as an add-on.

The campaign will also allow us to bring more support to the Roll20 and Foundry Virtual in the form of tokens for various antagonists, map packs (including ship deck plans with dynamic lighting), along with quality of life enhancements to the Roll20 character sheet.

Add some juice to your games of The Expanse Transport Union Edition with these useful accessories! These are all available to you as add-ons. 

This 16-page booklet lets you track your character over the course of an Expanse RPG series, and puts all the info you need in front of you at the table. If you like printed character sheets, you’ll love this. Also available in a bundle of five to outfit your entire group!

This 32-page booklet is a handy accessory for GMs to keep track of their Expanse game series. With the Campaign Journal, you can record the outcomes of adventures and the plot threads that come out of them, keep notes on NPCs and factions, plan out future complications for the PCs, and more.

This handy accessory makes tracking conditions (Fatigued, Restrained, Wounded, etc.) in play easier for Expanse RPG Game Masters and players alike. Condition cards reproduce the rules from the core book in a portable format Game Masters can hand out to players. Conditions can be easily forgotten during play, so the cards also serve as a visual reminder on the table. The Condition Deck contains 52 poker-sized cards, which include 4 cards for each possible condition and 4 blank cards so you can make your own. 

Running a game in such a rich setting is a big job, so The Expanse Game Master’s Kit is here to help. It provides a sturdy, full-color GM screen with essential tables and references for game-play on one side and evocative artwork on the other. It also includes 4 quick reference cards that put the stunts and actions at your fingertips, a combat tracker that you can write on with wet or dry erase markers, a set of pre-generated Player Characters, and a complete adventure (The Ganymede Insurance Job) to launch your crew right into the exciting universe of The Expanse!
Note: The GMs Kit dates to 2019 but it works just fine for the Transport Union Edition. We have no plans for a new one. 

This pack includes encounter maps for five different locations: Builder Ruin, Colony Basecamp, Night Club, Science Lab, and Void City Commons. You get these 20” x 30” maps in two formats. First, optimized for VTT for ready use with our digital tokens. Second, in ready-to-print PDF format, scaled up to work as a miniatures battlemat.

This pack includes deck plans for five ships of the Expanse: Morgaina-class Patrol Destroyer, Munroe-class Light Destroyer, Grendel-class Freighter, Peenie Wallie-class Space Bazaar, and the Trebuchet-class Destroyer. You get these 20” x 30” encounter maps in two formats. First, optimized for VTT for ready use with our digital tokens. Second, in ready-to-print PDF format, scaled up to work as a miniatures battlemat. 

What mysteries wait you as the Transport Union Edition campaign proceeds? Help us find out! You'll find the  first two Achievements listed below. We will reveal more as the campaign proceeds.

Eligible Backers means those who choose a pledge level that's $25 or more.

The Elvi Okoye ($5) pledge level is not eligible for stretch goal rewards.

$375,000: Free PDF of Inner Worlds Adventures #3: Shadow of a Dream. The Martian dream is dying. Explorers, pioneers, and scientists are leaving in droves for the colony worlds beyond the ring gates—worlds that already have breathable atmospheres and which hold yet undiscovered treasures. Still, a brave and persistent (or perhaps just stubborn) few linger behind to continue the work of making the Martian atmosphere breathable. Someone has begun sabotaging the Martian Terraforming Project, making things even more desperate. Is it more of Duarte’s mutineers who remained behind? Remnants of the Free Navy? It's up to your crew to find the saboteurs and put an end to their plans. Free to eligible backers.

$75,000: Eligible backers will receive a free PDF of the 2019 core rulebook shortly after the campaign ends so you can start your first Expanse series right away!

$100,000: Daemon's Gambit has been upgraded to a hardcover!

$125,000:Eligible backers receive a free digital token pack for Daemon’s Gambit. This pack comes with over 25 VTT tokens for all the key NPCs featured in the Daemon’s Gambit campaign supplement along with tokens for other adversaries your crew will encounter along the way.

$150,000: Free Navy Conflict has been upgraded to a hardcover!

$175,000: Eligible backers receive a free digital token pack for Free Navy Conflict. This pack comes with over 25 VTT tokens for all the key NPCs featured in the Free Navy Conflict campaign supplement along with tokens for other adversaries your crew will encounter along the way.

$200.000: We've added a second side to the Transport Union Edition's poster map. This will comprise a spaceship combat guide and playmat, perfect for use with the models from the Ships of the Expanse Miniatures Set.

$225,000: Inner Worlds Adventures explore a different side of The Expanse universe: planetside challenges on Earth, Luna, and Mars. In the first of the series, Rockfall, a quick and easy job on Earth goes sideways when the rocks begin to fall, as depicted so memorably in James S.A. Corey’s Nemesis Games. Baltimore City was deadly before the asteroid strike. Now, it’s a living nightmare. The roving gangs are meaner and hungrier, and the very environment can be lethal. Finishing the job you were hired to do may be your only ticket off-world before things get even worse. A great companion to the Free Navy Conflict sourcebook. Free to eligible backers.

$250,000: Eligible backers will receive free deck plans of the Rocinante in two formats. First, optimized for VTT for ready use with our digital tokens. Second, in ready-to-print PDF format, scaled up to work as a miniatures battlemat. These deck plans work for any Corvette-class Light Frigate, so PCs can use them for their own ship too if they are lucky enough to find/buy/steal one.

$275,000: In the aftermath of the asteroid strikes on Earth, the colonies on Luna are struggling to feed and house the multitude of refugees. As Lovell City’s infrastructure is taxed to its limit, crime runs rampant. One gang in particular is fighting for a stranglehold on much-needed supplies. In this PDF adventure, your crew must ferret out the criminals and put an end to their operation before the situation deteriorates even further. This Inner Worlds Adventures PDF will be free to eligible backers.

$300,000:Eligible backers will receive Worlds Beyond #1, a free PDF that details six new worlds/systems in the style of the Beyond the Ring sourcebook. There are over 1,300 star systems connected to the ring network, so the possibilities for new worlds are endless!

$325,000: Eligible backers will receive a free soundtrack from acclaimed composer Michael Gordon Shapiro. You’ll get four tracks and two fanfares (roughly 30 minutes of music) to set the scene and create the atmosphere of different encounter types in your Expanse adventures.

$350,000: Eligible backers will receive two 20” x 30” space station encounter maps (a loading dock and a hawker center) in two formats. First, optimized for VTT for ready use with our digital tokens. Second, in ready-to-print PDF format, scaled up to work as a miniatures battlemat.

2000 Backers: Eligible backers will receive the Digital Art and Wallpaper Pack, full of The Expanse graphics for your computer and mobile devices.

2250 Backers: Eligible backers will receive the Digital Streaming Asset Pack, a variety of backdrops, frames, and other assets useful for streaming your games of The Expanse!

2000 Social Shares: Eligible backers will receive 3 months of free access to the early creation phase of AGE Insider, a monthly membership program designed for fans of the Adventure Game Engine, and the games that run on it! This will allow you to help shape the program's future through your feedback and participation. Help unlock early access to the new AGE Insider program of the Atomic Think Tank. Just share this link on your social media: https://greenron.in/Theexpanse

Ian is the Line Developer for the Expanse RPG. He has been developing games (both tabletop RPGs and computer games) since 1993. He's worked on games such as Changeling the Dreaming, Wraith the Oblivion, Vampire the Dark Ages, Mind’s Eye Theatre: The Masquerade, Star Trek Adventures, Talisman Fantasy Adventures, and his own American gothic horror RPG, Nevermore. He lives in the outskirts of Atlanta, GA with his wonderful wife (who secretly gives him a lot of his best ideas), a dog named Shakespeare, a rabbit named Marlowe, and several chickens.

Steve is the Lead Designer of the Expanse RPG. He has been a professional RPG author and designer since 1995 and has worked on numerous books and games, including the award-winning Mutants & Masterminds, Freedom City, and Blue Rose for Green Ronin Publishing. He has written nine RPG tie-in novels and runs his own imprint, Ad Infinitum Adventures, which publishes material for Icons Superpowered Roleplaying. He helped found the annual Queer as a Three-Sided Die panel series at Gen Con. Steve lives in Salem, New Hampshire with his partners, Adam and Christopher, and maintains a website and blog at stevekenson.com.

Hal is co-owner and Chief Creative Officer of Green Ronin Publishing. He's been playing tabletop games since the 70s, making them since the 90s, and hopes to keep doing both for many more trips around the Sun. Hal does the art direction and graphic design for the Expanse RPG line (and most of Green Ronin’s other lines as well!).

Chris Pramas is the founder and President of Green Ronin Publishing, and the creator of the AGE System that powers many of the company’s games. He got his start as a freelance writer in 1993 and is best known as the designer of the Dragon Age RPG, Fantasy AGE RPG, and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, 2nd Edition. He has also been a creative director at Wizards of the Coast and Flying Lab Software and wrote a series of books about fantasy warfare for Osprey Publishing. Chris spearheaded the effort to make Expanse RPG miniatures for this campaign, working closely with Hudson Adams of Wargames Atlantic to bring these sets to fruition. 
 

Many freelance writers worked on The Expanse RPG: Trade Union Edition and the new supplements, so give it up for these teams.

Crew Companion and Free Navy Conflict: Keith Garret, Jason Mical, Meric Moir, and Pete Woodworth.

Daemon's Gambit: Christine Beard, Jack Houser, Meric Moir, and Mari Murdock.

The Expanse RPG, 2019 Edition: Seth Johnson, Rich Lescouflair, Rob McCreary, Jason Mical, Neall Raemonn Price, Zack Walters, and Nicole Winchester.

Green Ronin Publishing is a Seattle-based company dedicated to the art of great games. Since the year 2000, Green Ronin has been a force in tabletop roleplaying games, publishing such RPGs as Blue Rose, Dragon Age, and Mutants & Masterminds, and winning over 40 awards for excellence. Green Ronin has also worked as a design house for hobby giants Games Workshop and Wizards of the Coast on such titles as Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition and the Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition supplements Out of the Abyss and the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide. Green Ronin’s latest RPG is Cthulhu Awakens, which brings cosmic horror and the Cthulhu Mythos to the company’s popular AGE System.

You will be charged for shipping—and have an opportunity to adjust your pledge—after the campaign through BackerKit’s pledge manager.

We are currently estimating to begin shipping backer rewards in the Summer of 2025. Please note this is only an estimate. 

You should also note that we are unable to ship physical backer rewards to Argentina, Belarus, Brazil, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Türkiye, Russia, and Ukraine. Additionally, we are unable to cover any potential VAT fees that may be due for international packages. Be sure to check and see what your country’s regulations are so you are not surprised by unexpected fees. 

We will be working with localized shipping partners in the EU/UK and Australia, to lower shipping fees as much as possible in those regions.

The good news is that The Expanse RPG: Transport Union Edition is not a crowdfunding exclusive. The game will be available through normal channels, such as game stores and online retailers, after we ship rewards to backers.