Whether this product is for you depends largely (as usual) on how you intend to use it.

Although superficially similar to the old GDW sector booklets, Flynn's Guide To Azri Drakara: Rodan Subsector concentrates on one subsector but does so reasonably well by providing quite a bit of additional help to a GM than just a starmap, some UPP codes, and a brief encyclopedia. Samardan Press also provides expanded world codes that are more readable than the intentionally brief UPP codes, a rumors table, and several patron encounters. These additions can be helpful to a referee both in terms of time and in background/atmosphere. There are also entries for sports, the location of a military academy, and several alien species are noted (but not elaborated on) including one very interesting space jumping life form.

I wish the publisher would release a slightly more detailed survey of the Dracosian Republic as that would make a few things more clear. The encyclopedia offers some help in that direction but a 10-20 page primer regarding the Republic, its rivals, a brief historical sketch, etc. Heck, even five pages that organized the pertinent parts of the encyclopedia would be appreciated! A lot of that information is there but the fragmentary arrangement of the encyclopedia makes it work to tease out.

This is NOT the OTU so the setting vagueness is not necessarily a bad thing if one plans on using this book to start a classic Traveller game without all the burdens of the OTU Canon (may it live and be published forever). But the lack of a basic overview would seem to caution a referee from adopting this as a starter with the intention of expanding it as new materials come online for the milieu. I can recommend this book as a sandbox platform but with caveats about tying it with future products as there are no real hints as to the direction the publisher is going. Such tie in may work but it remains to be seen.

One of the things I love about the setting is that it uses no special rules. The core rules are quite sufficient. Jump drives work just as they always have and there is no FTL communications. Consequently, importing other published material should pose little mechanical problem leaving the referee to rework background material for the most part.

I really like the setting. It is for the most part what I have been wanting...something not bound by the OTU but still holding to the classical feel. The referee has considerable freedom to swap out or add planets, cannibalize parts of various settings, and do a host of other things without worry about how it plays with the very detailed OTU Canon. Of course, referees have always been able to do that but "Flynn's Guide To Azri Drakara: Rodan Subsector" greatly simplifies the process. The only people likely to be disappointed are those referees that like to drown themselves with minute details. The rest of us, GMs and players alike, should find the setting quite fulfilling.

Production values are as good as most PDF based gaming material. Outside the cover and the starmap, there are no illustrations but the product is well laid out and lovingly appointed by the author. I know where my next Traveller game will be set. Rodan Subsector here we come!