SPOILERS ABOUND, so skip this if you don't want to know this stuff.
Path of Tears shows a RCES very different than what some people on here
have been assuming the "Star Vikings" to be. They do NOT just indiscriminately
steal technology from worlds. They recover LOST technology, or relics which are
either not being used or which are being MISUSED to oppress people. They do
more than "smash and grab" missions; some planets (even some with TED's) are
"trade and diplomacy" only missions. They DO take sides in struggles on the
planets which are balkanized, siding with the least technophobic or xenophobic
faction (or sometimes with the faction most friendly to the RC). They are
trying to establish a reasonably democratic interstellar government. This does
not sound like "fascists" to me. Yes, this type of campaign is more combat-
oriented than the old Imperium campaign; my players don't seem to mind this!
As for being T:2000 in space; if the campaign background were set during the
Collapse, I might agree, but TNE is at heart an OPTIMISTIC setting; mankind is
going back to the stars. The holocaust is ending; there is light at the end of
the tunnel for the billions of humans who live in the Wilds. If not the RC,
then the Regency, the Free Trader Network, or even the Guild, will rebuild some
sort of society. All the RC is trying to do is hasten this process and have it
come out better than the Imperium was. T: 2000 is not an optimistic setting.
TNE actually seems like a reaction AGAINST the "dark" RPG's of recent memory.
I'm excited about the possibilities of my TNE campaign. My players'
characters will need to learn to be diplomats and explorers as well as soldiers
and they will learn it "on the job". There's a certain thrill to knowing that
whatever you do will be shaping history. As a person who liked the original
Traveller and it's Imperium since 1979, I really do feel that the New Era
background is excellent.