In 1980, Marc W. Miller wrote the scenario “Twilight’s Peak” for the best-selling science-fiction role-playing game Traveller. It told an epic tale, involving a down-at-heel set of free traders making their way along the Spinward Main, pursuing a century-old treasure worth millions. Many, many players have enjoyed it over the years.
Twilight’s Peak was never made into a film. But if it had been, it would have needed a movie trailer. And that trailer might have resembled this short film. We have mildly adapted Miller’s 1980 story to fit the cinematic genre, hopefully in keeping with the original tone. There are very slight spoilers in this trailer, but none that should prevent any new players from enjoying the original scenario.
Today, the Traveller game in all its forms is owned and copyrighted by Far Future Enterprises (1977-2024). This trailer operates within their generous terms and conditions for fan-generated work, which are reproduced at fuller length in the credits section of the video. The superb soundtrack was written by Jiri Nemec and Karlo Seles, who have released their work for non-commercial use by others on Youtube. The many other creative works used in this film – and their respective attributions and licenses – are listed in the credits section.
We hope you enjoy this tribute to Miller’s original scenario. But remember… unknown to anyone, the secret of Twilight’s Peak is not a fortune, but death, and death in unexpected ways…
Further detail
So, if you don’t mind a few more spoilers, some details about this trailer. The original Twilight’s Peak scenario is a classic of its time: a treasure hunt along the Spinward Main, mysteries, alien civilisations, looming interstellar war… The characters are grifters, with a damaged old starship, making their way from one deal to another, increasingly drawn into this morass. The scenario is rich with detail, rumours, local colour – it’s a brilliant piece of work, and one that we all enjoyed playing at the time.
In reimagining it as a film – and in turn, the trailer for that imaginary film! – there were a few challenges. The first is structural. The original scenario doesn’t have a classic villain: at least, not one the players can easily see. But any Hollywood film needs a bad guy.
For our purposes, we introduced Asubi into the script. Exactly who she is, what she wants, or indeed whom she works for, is left deliberately unclear. Hopefully her presence shows that the protagonists have very real enemies, who won’t stop until they’re dead. And, like all villains, she does rather like the sound of her own voice.
The second issue relates more to the plot of the original scenario. Reviewers over the years have noted that there are some very strange coincidences at the end of the story – objects overlaid on top of objects – which are not really explained. Back in 1980, of course, our players never actually noticed these. They were too busy running in terror. In working through the trailer script, though, it all stood out much more than before. Was it all a coincidence… or something more?
The trailer therefore tries to use Asubi to communicate a sense of a higher purpose to the protagonists’ efforts, that ultimately links the different layers of the endgame. The same theme is picked up by Jen and Liz in front of the octagon. By now, as they note, the crew is being driven onwards not just by the hope of gold and riches, but by a search for truth and meaning, a much deeper and richer picture than the opening scenes presented in the octagon bar.
This version of Twilight’s Peak alludes to a few additional narratives that hopefully fit with Marc Miller’s original concept. One is the relationship of Jen to the rest of her new crew, invoking questions of trust, loyalty, and self-discipline. This is interwoven with the scenes showing the fate of her grandfather and the original, doomed expedition, symbolised in this video by the lost scout-ship finally discovered by the Imperial navy at Treece. Linking one of the characters directly to the expedition hopefully creates a strong bond, drawing the viewer into the earlier events more closely.
The trailer also draws extensively on the Spaghetti Westerns alluded to in the original, especially in the Imperial cemetery scenes. The names on some of the gravestones should give sharp-eyed viewers a sense of the links between these parts of the story and Sergio Leone’s masterwork! Incidentally, deciding on the huge statue to represent Cleon I wasn’t easy, but this one seemed to fit the bill…
Well, that’s it. We hope you enjoy the video, and that it encourages you to re-read – or possibly replay – the original. And thanks again for Marc’s original, brilliant work. Respect.