Mongoose's New IP: Traveller is BACK

[SWBaxter]

Ian M Banks seems to do a good enough job with his culture novels

I can't be the only person who read Consider Phlebas and thought "wow, the crew of the Clear Air Turbulence are straight out of Traveller!" The Culture novels, with their transhuman and utopian themes, are actually an excellent example of just how far you can stretch '60s-style space opera, and so also an excellent illustration of how far you could stretch Traveller.

Do you guys think the rules light nature of Traveller will be a good thing or a bad thing?

Well, it remains to be seen whether the new version will be particularly light. In general, rules-light games are well-received by their fans, but not necessarily successful commercially as there's less scope for crunchy supplements. That's one reason why Traveller has always had a strong gearhead component to the rules - it allows the publisher to rattle off supplements exploiting the heavy part of the rules, while still being lightish overall.

 

[Mytholder]

Charlie Stross' Singularity Sky/Iron Sunrise books are remarkable Travellerish - you've got humanity scattered across the stars by alien forces, ships jumping from one system to another, no (well, limited) FTL communication... (well, the man did invent the Githyanki, I guess he probably did play Trav at some point...)

 

[The Shaman]

T. Foster, thank you for sparing me the trouble of typing out how skills in original Traveller worked.

It was mentioned up-thread, but it bears repeating here: the universal task system originated with DGP's "classic" Traveller supplements, not MegaTraveller.

And the optional rule for mustering out instead of dying on a failed survival role during chargen also goes back the later printings of the Little Black Books - again, this predates MegaTraveller. And of course there are variant options in other supplements as well (i.e., Paranoia Press' Scouts and Assassins).

(Sad that the only times I feel motivated to post are to play gaming historian and correct misinforation.)

About the Mongoose announcement: I am pretty indifferent, sad to say. Reading the snippets posted by Mytholder here and on other websites suggest that we have a different idea of what "compatible with Classic Traveller" means. Backwards compatability with the original Traveller rules would be great, but I have my doubts that a planet generation system based on Burning Empires' "World Burner," as alluded to on another 'site for example, really reflects an "updating" of the "classic" Traveller" system - sounds more like substitution of a whole new system in place of the old.

That doesn't make it bad, of course - it just makes it different. As it stands right now, I'm not really in the market for different. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised, so I'll reserve judgement until the book is in my hand.

Either way, I'm not getting too excited about this announcement with respect to my own gaming, but it is great to see Traveller being discussed with excitement and interest by those who've never played, or perhaps haven't played for many years. I enjoyed many, many fun hours traveling through Charted Space, and I'm happy that others may have a similar opportunity in the near future.

 

[Flynn]

Working in the OTU...

I think one of the biggest potential draws that this could have for the "old guard" is the possibility of doing work on the Official Traveller Universe (OTU). I haven't heard much as to what will be allowed and what won't in regards to the OTU in third-party products. I do know that Spica Publishing has been told that they can continue to release their work on the Spica sector under the OGL and TLL, which implies that some access to the OTU will come from one of these licenses. Then again, there may be other things going on in addition to the two licenses, such as their existing license with MWM to release Traveller products such as the Traveller calendars.

Hopefully, more info will be made available as things develop.

With Regards,
Flynn

 

[RFisher]

That school of thought wouldn't be familiar with the sales figures for Traveller. Until the Mongoose deal, you had 3 active licensees for Traveller, each apparently satisfied enough with the return on their investment to continue to renew their licenses. I don't have the sales figures for the other two, but I know the THB alone sold more than just a few thousands of copies.

You miss my point. It is that if you update Traveller too much--try to make it too much of a 2000s view of the future & cut too much of the 1970s view of the future--it may not sell as well. For the same reasons that fantasy (or fantasy dressed up as sci-fi) novels now claim such a higher percentage of the sci-fi/fantasy shelves.

Ok, it was at the end of a two part reply anyway. As for the school of thought you mentioned, I doubt that whoever it was who wrote the editorial has read any David Weber. Or quite a few other Baen sci-fi authors for that matter. It ain't dead, its just that a lot of publishers think it is. (Or ought to be.) And while I love Doc Smith's stuff, I doubt that I'd care to play in a universe quite as primitive as most of it. (Despite the Super Science!)

I'm equally sure that he was well aware of what is out there. It wasn't an absence but the decrease that inspired his observations.

I'm sure it will never die. And while publishers certainly make mistakes, I don't think the change in the number of fantasy v. sci-fi novels on the bookstore shelves is 100% publisher mistakes. I think at least a little of it has to do with popular preferences & what appeals to people in the context of today.

& Baen rocks.