Mongoose and the Future of Cepheus Engine

[AlegisDownport]

A blog post in support of Cepheus Engine, publishers and players, including an open letter to Mongoose Publishing:

Mongoose and the Future of Cepheus Engine

Thanks for listening,

Cheers
Steve

 

[Dragoner]

True, forced compliance means it is not an open license.

 

[whartung]

Here's an interesting point.

Regarding Mongoose.

Do they have the power to "Open" Traveller?

It's not "theirs", it's FFEs and licensed to Mongoose. I don't know if that license is liberal enough to give Mongoose the capability of opening it up.

 

[osakadave]

I don't post often here, but I will stop in to say hands off Cepheus Engine, Mongoose.

I bought well over $100 worth of Mongoose books in 2022.

If Mongoose doesn't allow the publishers of Cepheus Engine games to continue publishing without caveats or being forced to rewrite their material to be part of MgT2e, I'll have bought my last product from Mongoose....

One WotC in the industry is bad enough.

 

[aramis]

Here's an interesting point.

Regarding Mongoose.

Do they have the power to "Open" Traveller?

It's not "theirs", it's FFEs and licensed to Mongoose. I don't know if that license is liberal enough to give Mongoose the capability of opening it up.

Marc is aware of CE, and agrees that CE is indeed to be supported by COTI.

So he's at least passively supportive of CE and the OGL for MGT 1E.

But note: T20 was the first OGL material for Traveller, also done by a licensee - Hunter Gordon, dba QuickLink Interactive.

I can't say more on the subject, because I don't know more to say.

 

[Independence Games]

Marc is aware of CE, and agrees that CE is indeed to be supported by COTI.

So he's at least passively supportive of CE and the OGL for MGT 1E.

But note: T20 was the first OGL material for Traveller, also done by a licensee - Hunter Gordon, dba QuickLink Interactive.

I can't say more on the subject, because I don't know more to say.

Well, it is my very sincere hope that MgT1e's SRD can be made to be ORC/CC/etc. This would seem to me to be an easy move for Mongoose to make and it's something which would save the Cepheus publishers from a lot of costly rewrites/changes or even complete overhauls.

 

[MichaelSTee]

John Watts, I hope Mongoose does that also. I know you've been in communication with them, but you can't say much about it. Best of luck! I don't want anything to happen to Cepheus.

This is all purely conjecture on my part:
Matt, and Hunter before him, could not have released any text thru the OGL without Marc's permission. Therefore, Marc approved of that. Open Source and the OGL was the big thing at the time. Clement Sector, Outer Veil, and many other settings and expansions were made using Mgt1e and the OGL. While those did not put any money into Mongoose, it's hard to see how they kept Mongoose from making money, as Mongoose put out a lot of products during MgT1e.
When Matt made MgT2e and changed the license, Marc would have had to approve that as well. (Maybe they didn't think something like Cepheus would be created, but anyone following the OSR movement should have known it was possible.)
If Mongoose only allows MgT2e to be used under a new license, and de-authorizes the earlier SRD (and thus Cepheus), Marc would presumably have to approve that also. My opinion is that Marc should know that this will not be good for for the Traveller brand name. Just as WotC's name is tarnished now.

 

[Independence Games]

John Watts, I hope Mongoose does that also. I know you've been in communication with them, but you can't say much about it. Best of luck! I don't want anything to happen to Cepheus.

I can assure you that it is not going well. It's very depressing and I'm not at all hopeful.

 

[madmike]

Just as WotC's name is tarnished now.

Unfortunately that is the way it is all heading. There is a fair degree of obfuscation going on right now and it is not from CE publishers.

I have been involved in Traveller in some form since 1980 and have been a freelance writer/designer for nearly 10 years (MgT 1e SRD and Cepheus Engine). Sadly at this stage it very much looks like my Traveller gaming days are now over.

 

[Independence Games]

I'm hoping that the situation will improve.

I was not hopeful yesterday and I had to walk away from things to clear my head. Things may be improving. So... we'll see.

 

[MichaelSTee]

John, once again, good luck. I just hope Marc knows how many people play and like Cepheus. The forum on CotI is not very active, but it is not where Cepheus fans go to talk about it.

 

[Independence Games]

John, once again, good luck. I just hope Marc knows how many people play and like Cepheus. The forum on CotI is not very active, but it is not where Cepheus fans go to talk about it.

I think so. Certainly I have nothing but respect for Marc.

I'm hoping something can be worked out soon. It's just unfortunate that it has to happen in the first place.

 

[Duke Craig]

I think I'll go over to RPG Drive Thru and buy a ton of Cepheus Engine books and pdfs to add to my Traveller collections, just to show my support.

 

[whartung]

I think I'll go over to RPG Drive Thru and buy a ton of Cepheus Engine books

I wonder if DT-RPG will be required to take down such materials if the licensing goes all pear shaped. Since they're soft downloads, consumers have always been able to go back and download them again. But if things go really badly, I wonder if places like DT won't be allowed to distribute those materials anymore -- even to those who have purchased downloads. (This has happened in the past with other media.)

 

[coliver988]

I wonder if DT-RPG will be required to take down such materials if the licensing goes all pear shaped. Since they're soft downloads, consumers have always been able to go back and download them again. But if things go really badly, I wonder if places like DT won't be allowed to distribute those materials anymore -- even to those who have purchased downloads. (This has happened in the past with other media.)

why I also use the application they have (Windows only) and sporadically download my entire library - I don't trust any cloud service to be up all the time, or to stick around. Also why I buy DVDs - can't take physical media away and no need to an internet to phone home/check license/etc. Also have all that stuff in a separate folder system and backed up. Yeah, belt and suspenders are fine by me.

and - downloading the things I may not have downloaded!

 

[MichaelSTee]

I download anything I buy from DriveThru or anywhere else. Anything on "the cloud" or someone else's server is like leaving your books at some random person's home and hoping you can pick them up anytime you want to read them.

 

[kilemall]

I buy CE, FFE and MgT, with the heretofore backwards compatibility and premium on functional content rather than systemic licensed lock in ‘raises the tide on all boats’ being a major value add to all. I thought the principals here achieved a better not bitter solution, really smart.

A locked down Traveller is likely to cause me to look askance if it’s not actually securing IP for future movie/show game rights or causes others to lose their creations.

 

[aramis]

I download anything I buy from DriveThru or anywhere else. Anything on "the cloud" or someone else's server is like leaving your books at some random person's home and hoping you can pick them up anytime you want to read them.

Just remember the old USN (and possible also RN) saying: 2 is 1, and 1 is none.

 

[BlackBat242]

I download anything I buy from DriveThru or anywhere else. Anything on "the cloud" or someone else's server is like leaving your books at some random person's home and hoping you can pick them up anytime you want to read them.

And hoping that person keeps thieves out so your stuff doesn't get stolen.

No, "the cloud" is NOT hackproof!

 

[Spinward Flow]

Just remember the old USN (and possible also RN) saying: 2 is 1, and 1 is none.

A friend of mine (who is an engineer) has a saying about redundancy.

"You can have either ZERO or TWO."

I imagine it's a variation of exactly the same aphorism that you're alluding to @aramis.

The fun part is how this need for redundancy can even apply to kitchen utensils.
If you've only got 1 of an item, it can get lost and you can't find it in a cluttered kitchen ... but if you've got 2 of them, you'll almost always be able to find 1 of them pretty quickly and easily.