This is Free Trader Beowulf, calling anyone.... Mayday, Mayday... these words are familiar to many sci-fi tabletop role-players. They are the classic calling sign of one of the world's earliest roleplaying games, and one of the first ever sci-fi RPGs. The game features space exploration, trade, and battles set in a feudalistic stellar empire and was the first example of 'life-path' character generation, and was famous for the possibility of dying during character creation. It emphasizes equipment and a hard sci-fi flavor.
Mongoose Publishing has published Traveller TTRPG material for years under license from the game's creator and owner, Marc Miller. The venerable science fiction roleplaying game dates back to 1977 and has had many editions from publishers such a Game Designer's Workshop, Imperium Games, Steve Jackson Games, Mongoose Publishing, and more. Mongoose has been publishing the game since 2008. There have been as many as 13 editions of the game, depending on how you count them.
Mongoose has just announced that Miller has passed ownership over to Mongoose Publishing. Mongoose's Matt Sprange indicated that this had been in discussion for several years, and the agreement was finally signed in January of this year. While the announcement wasn't planned for until Traveller's 50th anniversary in 2027, the news came out as various licensees were informed, and Mongoose and Miller have decided to make the change public.
News has begun breaking of Marc Miller passing Traveller, in its entirety, onto Mongoose. With so much invested in the game and universe, it is only natural that you may have an awful lot of questions. In this thread we will try to answer as many of your queries and concerns as we can - nothing is off the table, be it game-related, edition-related, what was happening behind the scenes, or anything else. So, by all means, ask away!
I will try to pre-empt some of your questions here (and will update this first post with answers to your questions, as well as answer directly to you further on).
When did this happen, and why was no announcement made?
We had been discussing what would happen to Traveller and its succession, as Marc called it, for a few years. We started 'formally' talking about how this would work in terms of a purchase a little more than two years(ish) ago. Took about a year to draw everything together (given Traveller's long, long history, things can get a bit complicated!), and the final agreement was signed in January this year.
Marc requested that we made no announcement about this until his passing, which we were happy to do - the only reason to shout out about it was ego, and we were not really interested in that. However, I did point out that the chances of keeping this a secret for that long (for decades, we hope!) were... not great. So, Marc suggested that the announcement was made on Traveller's 50th anniversary in 2027 and, again, we agreed.
This, incidentally, is why the Mongoose editions of Traveller were not put on the Fair Use Policy in January. If you look at the wording, it would have become very apparent what had happened, and Marc wanted to avoid that.
Some people had to be told, obviously, starting with the companies who had been licensing Traveller in various forms and members of Marc's Inner Circle. When it became clear that this news was going to break, we informed the frontline Traveller writers and some other notables (such as Josh of Travellermap fame), as we felt they deserved to know before everything became very public.
Anyway, the best laid plans, as they say. I am frankly amazed that we managed to go seven-odd months, but it was perhaps inevitable.
What will happen to T5?
T5 will continue. Before we started getting into the nitty gritty of the transfer, we let Marc know that we wanted him to continue his work on T5 and Traveller fiction. He will be able to do this for as long as he is able, and will benefit fully from these projects. Beyond that, all the T5 and fiction material gets folded back into Mongoose so it will not simply disappear - this, incidentally, is why the original Not-Traveller-But-Traveller-Adjacent boardgames were also passed onto us. Marc was very clear that he did not want them to disappear either, which could well have happened otherwise.
After that... well, we have time, hopefully a lot of it. With any luck, we will find a continuing home for T5 development, in one way or another.
Will Mongoose support previous editions?
We will keep previous Traveller editions available in electronic form, but active support is... a lot, and probably not financially viable, if we are being honest.
That said, over time, we hope to return to some of these PDFs and update them, which will then be made available to anyone who picked them up from our website or Drivethru (we will also make them available to Marc, as he is still selling his Traveller CDs from his website). For example, there is a T4 book that was fully laid out but never given a cover - we have already commissioned a new cover for it, and will be putting it up on our website (and sending out a free update via Drivethru for existing owners) in the next month or two.
Beyond that... our passion is for the Traveller universe and the stories that can be told within it rather than a particular set of mechanics, so older editions are going nowhere.
We would like to expand both their mechanics and timelines to the TAS programme (for example) but efforts are going to have to be made to avoid that turning into an unholy mess. We are going to be adding Classic Traveller to the TAS programme (so you will be able to publish and sell your own Classic Traveller titles) first, for no other reason than we think it will be the easiest. Expect to see that happen relatively soon (before the end of the year certainly), and we will see how it goes.
What about DGP's titles and other 3rd party Traveller books?
In Traveller's early years, there were a massive amount of publishers producing work for Traveller and, over time, Marc made frankly heroic efforts in drawing everything back into the Traveller fold. We intend to continue these efforts in order to make Traveller a cohesive whole. For example, we knew of a Traveller writer whose payments from a 3rd party publisher whose titles had now passed to us were... shall we say a tad nebulous. One of the first things we did was contact that writer and actually pay them. It strengthened the foundations of Traveller a little and, frankly, was the right thing to do.
As for other titles currently in the 'Traveller wilderness'... don't expect things to happen quickly, but conversations are being had...
Will Mongoose's editions now join the Fair Use Policy?
Yes. Give us a few days to update the document (there are a few things on our desks right now!), but if you have any specific projects in mind you can proceed as if those editions are already part of the Fair Use Policy. We won't be coming after you
Will you be licensing Traveller out to everyone now?
We have already started talking to some existing licensees about tying their work closer to 'modern' Traveller. For example, very soon you will see 2nd Dynasty launch a new project based upon the Fifth Frontier War and using modern artwork as a basis for their miniatures.
However, Mongoose is not in a position where we have to desperately recover our investment into Traveller. While there are licensing projects we would like to pursue, we will not be handing out Traveller logos like sweeties. So, don't expect to see Traveller-branded pencil sharpeners any time soon.
What about the 'grey' Traveller projects?
When we took over Traveller, there were quite a few Traveller-based projects in development by fans, a lot of them fiction-based. It is our feeling that Traveller fiction (beyond that of Emperor Miller, of course) needs careful nurturing in terms of both quality and actual lore content. We thus felt we had to put a pause on such projects until we could give them the proper attention they deserved. If you are one of these developers/writers or if you know of these projects and are waiting for them to appear, do not despair - they are all sitting in my 'pay attention to this' folder and as soon as there is a decent clear space on my desk I will be diving into them and giving them the attention they deserve. However, some of them are quite big projects, so please bear with us!
Our fond hope is that we can make some or all of these official Traveller releases.
Were any Traveller-based websites included in this transfer?
Yes. There was a strong feeling that the content of some websites was extremely valuable and had to be preserved. For example, the COTI forums were transferred to us as was the Traveller Wiki. These won't be going away. We have some ideas of things that could be done to improve the Wiki and potentially integrate it into other digital systems but that is a pipe dream for now and awaits a general review of digital tools for Traveller. Which is, like, a really big job.
Do you still discuss things with Marc?
All the time!
There is, and always has been, a continuing line of communication between us, and this will not simply end. For example, we are currently working on a 'Traveller-adjacent' project that is very close to something Marc was looking at doing back in the day. Marc provided his notes to us and we are incorporating a lot of those into the new project.
Marc's influence will be felt for decades to come, if we have anything to do with it.
I will try to pre-empt some of your questions here (and will update this first post with answers to your questions, as well as answer directly to you further on).
When did this happen, and why was no announcement made?
We had been discussing what would happen to Traveller and its succession, as Marc called it, for a few years. We started 'formally' talking about how this would work in terms of a purchase a little more than two years(ish) ago. Took about a year to draw everything together (given Traveller's long, long history, things can get a bit complicated!), and the final agreement was signed in January this year.
Marc requested that we made no announcement about this until his passing, which we were happy to do - the only reason to shout out about it was ego, and we were not really interested in that. However, I did point out that the chances of keeping this a secret for that long (for decades, we hope!) were... not great. So, Marc suggested that the announcement was made on Traveller's 50th anniversary in 2027 and, again, we agreed.
This, incidentally, is why the Mongoose editions of Traveller were not put on the Fair Use Policy in January. If you look at the wording, it would have become very apparent what had happened, and Marc wanted to avoid that.
Some people had to be told, obviously, starting with the companies who had been licensing Traveller in various forms and members of Marc's Inner Circle. When it became clear that this news was going to break, we informed the frontline Traveller writers and some other notables (such as Josh of Travellermap fame), as we felt they deserved to know before everything became very public.
Anyway, the best laid plans, as they say. I am frankly amazed that we managed to go seven-odd months, but it was perhaps inevitable.
What will happen to T5?
T5 will continue. Before we started getting into the nitty gritty of the transfer, we let Marc know that we wanted him to continue his work on T5 and Traveller fiction. He will be able to do this for as long as he is able, and will benefit fully from these projects. Beyond that, all the T5 and fiction material gets folded back into Mongoose so it will not simply disappear - this, incidentally, is why the original Not-Traveller-But-Traveller-Adjacent boardgames were also passed onto us. Marc was very clear that he did not want them to disappear either, which could well have happened otherwise.
After that... well, we have time, hopefully a lot of it. With any luck, we will find a continuing home for T5 development, in one way or another.
Will Mongoose support previous editions?
We will keep previous Traveller editions available in electronic form, but active support is... a lot, and probably not financially viable, if we are being honest.
That said, over time, we hope to return to some of these PDFs and update them, which will then be made available to anyone who picked them up from our website or Drivethru (we will also make them available to Marc, as he is still selling his Traveller CDs from his website). For example, there is a T4 book that was fully laid out but never given a cover - we have already commissioned a new cover for it, and will be putting it up on our website (and sending out a free update via Drivethru for existing owners) in the next month or two.
Beyond that... our passion is for the Traveller universe and the stories that can be told within it rather than a particular set of mechanics, so older editions are going nowhere.
We would like to expand both their mechanics and timelines to the TAS programme (for example) but efforts are going to have to be made to avoid that turning into an unholy mess. We are going to be adding Classic Traveller to the TAS programme (so you will be able to publish and sell your own Classic Traveller titles) first, for no other reason than we think it will be the easiest. Expect to see that happen relatively soon (before the end of the year certainly), and we will see how it goes.
What about DGP's titles and other 3rd party Traveller books?
In Traveller's early years, there were a massive amount of publishers producing work for Traveller and, over time, Marc made frankly heroic efforts in drawing everything back into the Traveller fold. We intend to continue these efforts in order to make Traveller a cohesive whole. For example, we knew of a Traveller writer whose payments from a 3rd party publisher whose titles had now passed to us were... shall we say a tad nebulous. One of the first things we did was contact that writer and actually pay them. It strengthened the foundations of Traveller a little and, frankly, was the right thing to do.
As for other titles currently in the 'Traveller wilderness'... don't expect things to happen quickly, but conversations are being had...
Will Mongoose's editions now join the Fair Use Policy?
Yes. Give us a few days to update the document (there are a few things on our desks right now!), but if you have any specific projects in mind you can proceed as if those editions are already part of the Fair Use Policy. We won't be coming after you
Will you be licensing Traveller out to everyone now?
We have already started talking to some existing licensees about tying their work closer to 'modern' Traveller. For example, very soon you will see 2nd Dynasty launch a new project based upon the Fifth Frontier War and using modern artwork as a basis for their miniatures.
However, Mongoose is not in a position where we have to desperately recover our investment into Traveller. While there are licensing projects we would like to pursue, we will not be handing out Traveller logos like sweeties. So, don't expect to see Traveller-branded pencil sharpeners any time soon.
What about the 'grey' Traveller projects?
When we took over Traveller, there were quite a few Traveller-based projects in development by fans, a lot of them fiction-based. It is our feeling that Traveller fiction (beyond that of Emperor Miller, of course) needs careful nurturing in terms of both quality and actual lore content. We thus felt we had to put a pause on such projects until we could give them the proper attention they deserved. If you are one of these developers/writers or if you know of these projects and are waiting for them to appear, do not despair - they are all sitting in my 'pay attention to this' folder and as soon as there is a decent clear space on my desk I will be diving into them and giving them the attention they deserve. However, some of them are quite big projects, so please bear with us!
Our fond hope is that we can make some or all of these official Traveller releases.
Were any Traveller-based websites included in this transfer?
Yes. There was a strong feeling that the content of some websites was extremely valuable and had to be preserved. For example, the COTI forums were transferred to us as was the Traveller Wiki. These won't be going away. We have some ideas of things that could be done to improve the Wiki and potentially integrate it into other digital systems but that is a pipe dream for now and awaits a general review of digital tools for Traveller. Which is, like, a really big job.
Do you still discuss things with Marc?
All the time!
There is, and always has been, a continuing line of communication between us, and this will not simply end. For example, we are currently working on a 'Traveller-adjacent' project that is very close to something Marc was looking at doing back in the day. Marc provided his notes to us and we are incorporating a lot of those into the new project.
Marc's influence will be felt for decades to come, if we have anything to do with it.
