There is a print-on-demand book containing only the original Cepheus Engine RPG (CE-RPG) rules, which reprints the original game's SRD at cost. This is a basic, no-art, reference guide for the rules, but there is a simplicity and beauty to that presentation. While the more flashy editions get a lot of attention, I find this version of the game captures the original "little black book" aesthetic, leaving the universe up to me, and staying out of the way for the most part, and letting my imagination have room to explore.
The book this compares to is the original Traveller Book, which is also available as a print-on-demand title, and the two are similar in their tone and coverage of science-fiction adventure. The only downside to Traveller is the upside: the Traveller universe and the Imperium. If I am going this far, then I will just play GURPS: Traveller and have it all in one book. Once you start to pull in Traveller, you need to pick a flavor, and I have always had a soft spot for the original little black books and universe. It is very easy to start pulling in the modern material, but it just does not feel the same to me.
I don't want Traveller seen through a 2020's lens, I want Traveller seen through that 1970's lens. There is a massive difference between the original Traveller, which felt like the movie 2001, and modern Traveller, which feels like "2026 in space." The role and size of computers being one huge factor, in OG Traveller, computers were room-sized mainframes with tons of flashing lights, and you could not carry a supercomputer around in your pocket (like you can today). In CE-RPG, they have TL 10 1-kilogram portable computers that can run programs, like the classic Star Trek tricorder or even a modern tablet. There is a middle ground here; you can flavor it however you like.
But even then, GURPS: Traveller is huge. There are 30 PDFs covering nearly the entire original universe, and you can pull in the classic library data and sector guides. While I love having that much, a part of me just wants a simple core rulebook, and I want to create the rest myself.
Another option is the Cepheus Deluxe rulebook, available from Lulu or Amazon. This is the older edition of the game, but I like the black-and-white presentation much better than the newer version (with the garish full-color pages). Ships in this game go up to 10,000 tons (versus 5,000 in CE-RPG), and the ship design system uses percentages based on tech level versus the older A-Z drive types. In general, CD is a patched and streamlined version of CE-RPG with a few more charts and improvements, plus a few more high-tech weapons options (pulse rifles, blaster pistols). This is another excellent option for driving a GURPS sci-fi game.
There are plenty of other Cepheus games, but I just want a simple, softcover, non-flashy, black-and-white book that runs the random charts and starship game. GURPS will handle the rest. Either of these books does a fine job of running a science-fiction framework behind the scenes for GURPS and providing a working model of a universe to start with.
But the Cepehus RPG lets me use the ships, gear, and universe-creation rules for any universe I want. I can play a TL 10 lo-fi Star Frontiers by just adding a few races and using the GURPS rules as my core game engine. Star Frontiers is less about the gear than it is the four races and the story of meeting on a new homeworld and exploring the universe from there. You don't even need the OG Star Frontiers map, just the first planet where they come together, and you can randomly generate the universe from there.
We did this back before Knight Hawks was released, where Traveller's little black books ran our starship game for the role-playing game. Traveller and Knight Hawks are very close in compatibility, with ships offering 1G to 6G acceleration and similar jump systems. There are no "grav plates" like there are in Traveller, which have always felt too high-tech for the Traveller setting, especially before TL 13.
If you read the Star Frontiers lore, these races came together from "off the map" and ended up here, much like the Mass Effect Andromeda game. The original homeworlds are left undefined and are not even in the game, and they could have all woken up from generational ships and built the first world. You could start your campaign on the first world, and start exploring planets from there, and more generation ships are following, and you need to find worlds for them to settle on. The entire universe could be randomly generated, and your GURPS characters are the first ones out in the starships being built to explore the surrounding stars. Trouble is soon to be discovered, given the original game's lore.
In this case, using Cepheus as the game's starship and tech book works, and gives you the clunkier weapons list, where laser weapons need to be connected to backpack power units. You can also simulate a TL 9 to 12 campaign progression in this system (with TL 13+ items treated as artifacts and treasures), and have the ship designs gradually reflect improvements in design and technology.
The jump drives would start at 1 and increase slowly to 3, so the range to explore the randomly-generated map would slowly increase, and you could say most all planets within jump-1 are settled, with a few outliers on the ends of the frontier available to explore. Since jump-2 opens at TL 11, that is two huge arcs of "adventure paths" you would need to complete in the jump-1 worlds before the exploration rush begins.
My TL 9 adventures would be space pirates, planetary cartels, and exploring the tiny jump-1 universe of nine worlds. The Volturnus adventures could be inserted as a "special event" to be found somewhere on the map when the time is right, perhaps on that planet isolated by exploration difficulties. My TL 10 adventures would be the first Sathar invasions. TL 11 would be the jump-2 exploration rush. After that, the Second Sathar War would kick off and end with TL 13, grav plates, and jump-4. Past that, the stars are the limit.
The core "guts" of the game is watching the universe slowly expand, the technology increase, and the ships build in capability and exploration range. The TL 9 ships will be old junkers leaking radioactive fuel by the end of this game, well-used and beaten up, junkyards parked on moons filled with memories and rust, but that is the charm of watching the "space race" in conquering the galaxy. The TL 9-12 ships are a logical progression of the "stacked decks" design theory without artificial gravity, and the TL 13-15 ships change the game, moving into the modern-style "TV science fiction" artificial gravity era.
One of the most frustrating things about introducing artificial gravity too early is that it does not force a paradigm shift in starship design, and the layout of starships never changes. It is a lazy choice, and I prefer that early-era starships reflect the absence of artificial gravity, and later ships force everyone to upgrade and improve to account for the new technology. This is just like the shift in airplane travel from propeller-driven aircraft at low altitudes to jet-powered aircraft with pressurized cabins flying at high altitudes. Some important TL 12 ships may be retrofitted for artificial gravity at TL 13, but their designs will still reflect that stacked-decks style, and they will be permanently stuck between the eras.
Early artificial gravity is the biggest tonal mistake Traveller makes in design and technology, and it makes all the starship designs blend together with no major design shifts at a waterfall tech moment.
GURPS drives everything else: characters, personal combat, and all the game's ground rules. For ship combat, cargo determination, encounters, and map creation, I will use Cepheus Deluxe (or Engine).
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