D & D 4e is actually a good Fantasy Game. Mongoose Traveller is also a very good SF game.
GURPS is like D & D - but generic. Can be used to play anything - and that includes Traveller.
Gurps 4e is easier to play and learn than 3e - but there is some really good Traveller material for Gurps 3e that's cheap and very usable.
I'd say - get the GURPS 4e core rules and the GURPS Traveller 3e modules and you'll have a fun game and a great time.
Besides - GURPS Lite for 4e is free along with the 4e conversion guide and you can actually play with just those and the GURPS 3e books.
Here is how I play GURPS Traveller 4e:
I use an ATU which is based on the GTIW alternate campaign: Imperials win the Interstellar wars.
Due to Terrian Scientists technology breakthroughs, all GURPS Bio-tech, Ultra-tech, Space, etc, books are cannon material, along with any published Traveller material for any prevous editions (MegaTraveller, Traveller: The New Era, Traveller:2300, etc).
This Imperium behaves exactly like traditional Third Imperium except Jump anywhere, FTL communications and all tech in GURPS available. Terra is known for its part in bringing the Imperium's Tech stagnation to a halt.
Emperior Stephon is at the helm – his family arrived on a captured intact Terra first and got the plans for the jump-3 drive and the meson cannon from the Terrian scientists. Stephon's direct ancestor created a fleet that took over the Imperium and put their family on the Iridium throne.
The Imperium (also: Ziru Sirka and Grand Empire of Stars).
The first major interstellar civilization since the collapse of the Ancients 300,000 years earlier, the Imperium was politically and culturally dominated by humans originating on Vland. The jump drive was discovered on Vland in -9235 (4715 BC); immediately the Vilani discovered a number of interfertile and technologically primitive human races on worlds within 60 parsecs. These were gradually brought to a high-technology state with Vilani help and assimilated into a loose interstellar community bound by trade and common culture.
Eventually, the client races themselves explored beyond the local sphere, contacting and trading with still more races. These new races gained their technology without being assimilated into Vilani culture; the resulting increased friction eventually resulted in a series of wars beginning in about -5400 (880 BC).
In response to the threat, Vland began tightening its control of its trade sphere, and finally organizing it into a centralized state in -5272 (752 BC). This marked the beginnings of the First Imperium, although there was as yet no emperor. During the thousand year period of the Consolidation Wars, Vland conquered and absorbed its enemies until there were no longer any civilized states on its borders (except for a small portion of the Vargr Extents, isolated from the Imperium by the Windhorn Rift).
The last war ended in -4045 (AD 476), and the Vilani declared the establishment of an interstellar empire to govern all Vilani territory. Known as the Grand Empire of Stars or Ziru Sirka, Vilani dating begins at this point. The Ziru Sirka has now lasted for nearly 5000 years and contains over 38 sectors and over 32,000 worlds.
As long as there was no exterior threat, the Grand Empire was safe; but gradually, despite all efforts, technology leaked across the borders. In -2422 (AD 2099), the Imperium was contacted along its rimward border by the Terrans, who had recently emerged into space. Terran expansionism led to a series of interstellar wars, which ultimately resulted in the Imperial conquest of Terra in the Fourth Interstellar War.
Terra is in a time of rapid technology increases, eventually resulting the invention of the jump-3 drive and the meson cannon. Terra is the tech level leader of the Imperium with its high-tech goods eventually becoming galactic wide. Imperial stagnation comes to a halt and the Imperium begins a rapid incresase in TL eventually ending in TL 12 across the empire. Only some backwater worlds on the edge of the Imperium in the Vargrr Extents are at a lower TL – as low as 9-10. FTL communication and Jump drives that can take you anywhere in the galaxy are in common use. Merchants now use jump-10 hydrogen drives due to the very low cost of operating them.
An Imperial Admiral who is an ancestor to the current Emperor Strephon gets the meson cannon and jump-3 drive plans from the Terrans and outfits an Imperial fleet with the technology. This fleet goes to Vland and stages a coup that puts his family on the Iriduim Throne and begins the Charismatic Emperor line. This line of Emperors has now been ruling the Imperium for over 2,000 years. The Emperor is seen and loved by all in the Imperium and the royal family visits other worlds in the Imperium often.
Wars of conquest have expanded the Imperium to over 32,000 worlds, the Vagrr extents and Solomani Sphere are completely within Imperial space now. Imperial Galactic Rangers keep the peace in the Vagrr Extents because this is where the most low tech worlds are found.
Terra is currently a garden world, TL-12. Terra was allowed home rule 100 years after conquest and became the sector capital 200 years after that. The Current Sector Archduke has a palace on Terra and calls Terra home. Luna is the home port of the major Imperial fleet of the area.
I've ran my own private games of this and ran it at the local conventions - it plays like a dream and the players love the stack of hardbound GURPS 4e books I use to run it. I've noticed that the shelf space taken up by GURPS at the retail level is kinda small lately. Much smaller than in the hey day of third edition GURPS.
Buying at retail does give you the chance to inspect the book prior to purchase. I'd like to see all the core 4th edition hardbounds like Infinite Worlds and Magic stay in print on on retail shelves myself.
