Rick Swan wrote, "Planets are gasping for life like guppies flung from a fish bowl, and the luckless survivors face a future of staggering adversity.

"[1] The book is divided into two main sections: GDW originally published Traveller, one of the first science fiction role-playing games, in 1977.

A book called Survival Margin (1993) artfully detailed the transition from MegaTraveller through Hard Times into the New Era in prose form.

"[2]: 175 Hard Times was designed by Charles Gannon, with additional contributions by Terrence McInnes, Tom McCarol, Mark Cunningham, and J. Duncan Law-Green.

In the July 1992 edition of Dragon (Issue #183), Rick Swan admired the new direction of the MegaTraveller universe, calling it "a chilling look at the Shattered Imperium in the aftermath of the War of the Rebellion.