Loren Wiseman (formerly of Game Designers' Workshop) wrote the core book for GURPS Traveller and served as line editor.

[1]: 111  Following its publication, Steve Jackson Games supported GURPS Traveller by publishing numerous supplemental background books continuing through 2003, and the Journal of the Travellers Aid Society was brought back as an online magazine similar to Pyramid in 2000.

[1]: 111 The game uses the GURPS (Third Edition) system and takes place in an alternate timeline in which no Rebellion occurred and the Virus was never released.

The core GURPS ruleset was updated to a streamlined version with the August 2004 release of its fourth edition.

The Interstellar Wars was intended as a much more dynamic campaign setting than the essentially static background of the Third Imperium offered in previous GURPS Traveller publications.