Does Mongoose Traveller leave you cold?
- Thread starter gcbright
- Start date
I do
The main rulebook is just about to undergo it fourth reprint (and we are not exactly doing small numbers on each run). High Guard all but sold out its first run on the first day of sales to distributors, prompting us to initiate an 'emergency' second printing. Again, we were expecting it to be popular and had an over-sized run. But we did not expect _that_ popular!
Traveller is doing extremely well, and is showing no real signs of slowing.
Supplement Four
SOC-14 5K
I do
The main rulebook is just about to undergo it fourth reprint (and we are not exactly doing small numbers on each run). High Guard all but sold out its first run on the first day of sales to distributors, prompting us to initiate an 'emergency' second printing. Again, we were expecting it to be popular and had an over-sized run. But we did not expect _that_ popular!
Traveller is doing extremely well, and is showing no real signs of slowing.
Good to hear. Congrats, Matt.
Heh... well, I pretty discarded the point build option out of hand other than as anything but a convenience for the ref.
Good point. However, it seemed to me that it was better than MT on this score. The Brownie Points in the advanced generation sequences in MT made it pretty easy to tweak skill rolls to stack them and get multiple skills from a school.
On the other hand, a good part of the skills the system gives you over CT is skill packages... which give you "skill 1", not "skill", which means they don't get stacked.
Anyways, as long as I am expounding on MGT chargen, there are two other things I really like contrasted with CT re: skills:
1) Enlisted folks get credit for enlisted advancement!
2) You get level 0 service skills. It makes a ton of sense, and makes use of the level-0 skill convention that CT/MT never quite did.
dmccoy1693
SOC-13
I do
The main rulebook is just about to undergo it fourth reprint (and we are not exactly doing small numbers on each run). High Guard all but sold out its first run on the first day of sales to distributors, prompting us to initiate an 'emergency' second printing. Again, we were expecting it to be popular and had an over-sized run. But we did not expect _that_ popular!
Traveller is doing extremely well, and is showing no real signs of slowing.
yes, congrats are in order.
I am afraid I have no idea who you are - if you genuninely think you should be included, drop me a line at msprange@mongoosepublishing.com, and tell me why!
GypsyComet
SOC-14 1K
The use of the OGL and SRD require that certain things be defined. Even now, those definitions for MGT are such that I would have trouble composing a commercial product with any certainty that it would be within the OGL. That is not a good environment for encouraging use of that license.
Fortunately (I think), there is another version of Traveller with significant well-defined bits that are available for use under the OGL, and once something is declared Open, the expiration of the Product Identity license for that publisher is not an issue.
So, shall we discuss what can be published under the OGL with the Traveller name on it? Hmmm? Nuts and bolts, now. The level of detail a *writer* needs to know.
Oh, and why do I need to go to the company forums to find a real link to the Developers Pack? The Downloads page for MGT doesn't have it, though it claims up and down that it does.
So, to reiterate. The game does NOT leave me cold. I actually rather like it. Sure, some House Rules are called for, but that has always been a part of Traveller. Day One, Book One.
But the OGL/SRD/FUP continues to be a mess. The day it stops being a mess is the day we'll see OGL Traveller products hitting RPGNow like hail out of a blue sky. Until then, don't expect much.
dmccoy1693
SOC-13
Ok, I'm guessing you're new to the OGL. The OGL has been around for 8 years. Its a known quantity and VERY easy to work with. And yes, I am speaking as someone who wrote stuff under the OGL for the d20 system. The OGL can be summed up in 2 words, "play nice." Think of the SRD as a giant list of stuff you are allowed to use. If it is in the SRD (i.e. Scout, Jump Drive, UWP), you can use it to your heart's content. You can, if you so desire, redefine what is there (but I highly recommend against it since it will make your products less valuable). If something is not in the SRD (i.e. Imperium, Vargr, Spinward Marches), you cannot use it. Its a little more technical stuff that goes along with it, but it really is that easy. If you want to write traveller stuff, I highly recommend that you find a company that you can pitch an idea to and they'll help you with the details you are unsure of.
Yes, ALL writers NEED a working knowledge of the OGL if you plan on writing for Traveller. LIke I said, a company will help you with the parts you don't understand, but they're not responsible for providing a 101 course in pubishing law to you. Educating yourself is the best thing you can do. When you write something that is going to be published, you are producing a LEGAL document. So familiarizing yourself with the law that it is published under is a good thing. A writer does not need a JD to write stuff, but they should have read the OGL and understand what is meant by Product Identity or how to cite works in section 15. If you want to talk about this more, I think we should start a new thread.
Mongoose's downloads are under their individual sections towards the bottom of the page. (For Traveller, click on the traveller pic at the top of the page. For Runequest, click on the RuneQuest pic. etc)
I don't think that is very realistic. Is the Traveller market currently underserves, yes. Will here be a flood of new companies starting up to support Traveller, no. Why not? That hasn't happened anywhere else. Not with True20 or Fate or Fudge or Action or Runequest or any of the other dozen or so system released under the OGL. Pathfinder, IMO, will probably be the second most popular OGL game ever (D&D 3.x/d20 being #1) and I expect to see mostly former d20 companies supporting that game.
Will Traveller have new companies start under Traveller? Yes. Already happened. Will there be as many new companies supporting Traveller as d20 had in its first year, no. Not gonna happen. Can any new companies that start up becuase of Traveller grow to Mongoose size? Possibly, that's up to them.
Disclaimer: IANAL.
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GypsyComet
SOC-14 1K
As a potential writer yes. My exposure goes back to its roll-out by WotC, and I do know a bit about it. Look in the credits of T20...
Okay, not my best simile. Don't think "beyond counting" (which D20 stuff was, really), think "all at once, with little warning". Most of the posters on the Mongoose forum are acting like frustrated writers, and while I know quite well that most of them will never publish a word, the sense of many breaths held is *really* obvious.
R
Rev Round
Guest
"Does Mongoose Traveller leave you cold?" Yes. Artwork and design sucks. Mostly the design of the two sucks actually.
AND Mongo boards/forums ARE full of wannabe writers most of the time. Say anything slightly oblique and you are stomped. Hardly consumer friendly and certainly not the way to promote Traveller. They appear ridiculously scared of any real free critique of anything Mongo. Don't know why. Scared hobbits?
There changed it....
AND Mongo boards/forums ARE full of wannabe writers most of the time. Say anything slightly oblique and you are stomped. Hardly consumer friendly and certainly not the way to promote Traveller. They appear ridiculously scared of any real free critique of anything Mongo. Don't know why. Scared hobbits?
There changed it....
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"Does Mongoose Traveller leave you cold?" Yes. Artwork and design sucks. Mostly the design of the two sucks actually.
AND Mongo boards/forums ARE full of wannabe writers most of the time. Say anything slightly oblique and you are stomped. Hardly consumer friendly and certainly not the way to promote Traveller. They appear ridiculously scared of of any real free critique of anything Mongo. Don't know why. Scared little cold fragile fluffy rabbits?
There has really been enough of this insulting crap going on here. Does it really contribute anything to the discussion to do this?
Is it possible that some people simply disagree with you? And really; what did you expect? People who hang out mainly on the Mongoose boards do so because they like Mongoose. The natural tendency is to defend something you like.
Are there issues with Mongoose's production on some of the Traveller books so far? yes, of course. I choose to overlook those issues that do not interfere with my ability to use and enjoy the system because these books are produced by human beings and the errors in the books so far have been no worse than those committed by GDW and less onerous than those made by Imperium Games. I do not deny they exist.
Objections to CONTENT are in the eye of the beholder. I have no real issues with the contents of the Mongoose books so far, and the ones that I do have are these:
- 760 Patrons needed a different name. It is a great resource that I have gotten a lot of use out of but it is NOT a book of Patron encounters as Traveller has defined them in the past, even in Mongoose's own book.
- In general, I feel that non-OTU material should be clearly identified as such, if for no other reason than to allow those not interested to skip it easier.
- This needs to be said clearly and I sincerely hope Matt is reading this: YOU NEED BETTER EDITING. Meeting a deadline is NOT as important as making sure the books are produced with as few errors as possible. They will still happen, of course, but they can be minimized. I actually think Mongoose has been making improvements in this area, but with Traveller, these things need to be minimized even more.
There. I expressed both positive and critical opinions about MGT and did so without resorting to personal insults of any kind. Please try to do this yourself in the future.
Allen
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Qstor2
SOC-13
I rather like it too. I'm glad characters don't have to die during PC generation and that you can use a point buy or another way to select the skills you want for your PC. And as a DM the system is simple enough to get a hand on to run a game.
As for the OGL/SRD Adamant Entertainment is already soliciting writers on the Mongoose boards. I think it's a good and bad thing for Traveller. The good thing is more products but little quality control. In d20 D&D there are products and .pdfs for everthing under the sun. Me I'd rather see quality products using the OTU by Mongoose rather than a shotty .pdf on the "Resturants of the Foreven sector?" from a no name publisher.
The B5 books by Mongoose are fantastic. I haven't noticed any glaring errors like in High Guard and the color and layouts are great. I'm hoping that more OTU material like a Solomani Rim or Trojan Reaches sector book, comes out with the quality of the Spinward Marches book.
Mike
Supplement Four
SOC-14 5K
The Rev is allowed to have his opinion. And, I suspect many more Traveller fans agree with Rev than not--otherwise, MGT would have the entire community in its grip, and it certainly does not.
Watch out, Rev. Allensh is a known MGT fanatic around these parts, and he does tend to jump on people--even new posters on the forum, such as yourself--if they bad mouth his favorite version of Traveller.
Instead of blowing this up by responding to all the details, let me try to lay this to rest and simply welcome you, Rev, to the forum
Please, feel free to speak your mind (as long as it doesn't breakt the rules).
The CotI is a pretty friendly place. I'm just sorry you didn't see that on your 6th post.
Welcome, though.
Watch out, Rev. Allensh is a known MGT fanatic around these parts, and he does tend to jump on people--even new posters on the forum, such as yourself--if they bad mouth his favorite version of Traveller.
Instead of blowing this up by responding to all the details, let me try to lay this to rest and simply welcome you, Rev, to the forum
Please, feel free to speak your mind (as long as it doesn't breakt the rules).
The CotI is a pretty friendly place. I'm just sorry you didn't see that on your 6th post.
Welcome, though.
I don't care for the MGT game mechanics for tasks or combat. This is due to no particularly glaring failure on their part but rather a simple reflection of personal tastes - I dislike MegaTraveller tasks and combat for the same reason (complexity, too many skills, stat over-emphasis).
That said, I am continually suprised by the things which MGT does well that go unmentioned in the unsupported exchanges of 'it rocks'/'no it sucks'.
There is very little mention of the roleplaying friendly aspects of the Trade rules that quantify many new options that could easily serve as the seeds of adventures.
In all the criticism of MGT Mercenary and modern artillery, there is very little mention of the Support Weapons and the efforts to diferentiate the choices open to a player - there are real tradeoffs in rof vs damage that were largely missing in the original Mercenary.
Where are the personal favorite rules discovered in YOUR reading of the MGT books?
That said, I am continually suprised by the things which MGT does well that go unmentioned in the unsupported exchanges of 'it rocks'/'no it sucks'.
There is very little mention of the roleplaying friendly aspects of the Trade rules that quantify many new options that could easily serve as the seeds of adventures.
In all the criticism of MGT Mercenary and modern artillery, there is very little mention of the Support Weapons and the efforts to diferentiate the choices open to a player - there are real tradeoffs in rof vs damage that were largely missing in the original Mercenary.
Where are the personal favorite rules discovered in YOUR reading of the MGT books?
"Does Mongoose Traveller leave you cold?" Yes. Artwork and design sucks. Mostly the design of the two sucks actually.
AND Mongo boards/forums ARE full of wannabe writers most of the time. Say anything slightly oblique and you are stomped. Hardly consumer friendly and certainly not the way to promote Traveller. They appear ridiculously scared of of any real free critique of anything Mongo. Don't know why. Scared little cold fragile fluffy rabbits?
Feel better now? As my granny used to say, better out than in....
Anyway, the artwork and design criticisms have clearly been taken on board, considering that they've apparently been altered and revised for the next printing. Apparently the pdf. file has already been changed on drivethrurpg.com. I can't comment on how it looks now, as I haven't downloaded it myself. I'm busy waiting for the pocket book first.
As for group attacking other fans, I'll leave it for others to judge who it is that needs to reassess their attitude.
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The Rev is allowed to have his opinion. And, I suspect many more Traveller fans agree with Rev than not--otherwise, MGT would have the entire community in its grip, and it certainly does not.
Watch out, Rev. Allensh is a known MGT fanatic around these parts, and he does tend to jump on people--even new posters on the forum, such as yourself--if they bad mouth his favorite version of Traveller.
Instead of blowing this up by responding to all the details, let me try to lay this to rest and simply welcome you, Rev, to the forum
Please, feel free to speak your mind (as long as it doesn't breakt the rules).
The CotI is a pretty friendly place. I'm just sorry you didn't see that on your 6th post.
Welcome, though.
Excuse me, how does wanting someone to express their opinion without resorting to insults being a "fanatic"?
I am not a fanatic...but you are an arrogant jerk. I have had it. You can call me a fanatic and not get in trouble for it? But I will undoubtably get slapped down for calling you exactly what you are?
Up yours.
Allen
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