Border Reiver
SOC-14 1K
The postman delivered my shiny new copy this morning.
It's Here!
- Thread starter Border Reiver
- Start date
Border Reiver
SOC-14 1K
First impressions are generally positive, the book is physically sound (unlike my copy of Deluxe Runequest) and print quality is good, nice and clear.
The B&W ship art is impressive though some of the other art didn't really blow me away, in fact it left me a little empty.
Character Sheet, well using up a quarter of the whole sheet for six characteristics is wasteful IMO, I'm sure with a little work I'll come up with my own (or leave it to http://www.mad-irishman.net/ to come up with one).
I'm a little miffed at the layout, why could they not collate the various tables together? Combat tables and weapon stats are miles apart and world design tables are spread over several pages. Minor annoyances which I'll rectify myself.:nonono:
But despite this I'm still very, very excited.
The B&W ship art is impressive though some of the other art didn't really blow me away, in fact it left me a little empty.
Character Sheet, well using up a quarter of the whole sheet for six characteristics is wasteful IMO, I'm sure with a little work I'll come up with my own (or leave it to http://www.mad-irishman.net/ to come up with one).
I'm a little miffed at the layout, why could they not collate the various tables together? Combat tables and weapon stats are miles apart and world design tables are spread over several pages. Minor annoyances which I'll rectify myself.:nonono:
But despite this I'm still very, very excited.
Jeff M. Hopper
SOC-14 1K
casquilho
SOC-13
First impressions are generally positive, the book is physically sound (unlike my copy of Deluxe Runequest) and print quality is good, nice and clear.
The B&W ship art is impressive though some of the other art didn't really blow me away, in fact it left me a little empty.
Character Sheet, well using up a quarter of the whole sheet for six characteristics is wasteful IMO, I'm sure with a little work I'll come up with my own (or leave it to http://www.mad-irishman.net/ to come up with one).
I'm a little miffed at the layout, why could they not collate the various tables together? Combat tables and weapon stats are miles apart and world design tables are spread over several pages. Minor annoyances which I'll rectify myself.:nonono:
But despite this I'm still very, very excited.
Border Reiver,
Thanks for the quick review. I am sorry to hear about the art work for that is one of things I have always enjoyed seeing while I read the material. It is especially sad to hear it regarding Mongoose Traveller for I had some high hopes after seeing the the front cover for The Spinward Marches
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/common_incs/popup.php?id=travspinmarch.jpg)
Oh well. I will be glad when it arrives in the stores. :rofl:
Border Reiver
SOC-14 1K
Quick game last night.
I drafted 3 players at short notice (and they had to make a seventy mile trip to get here). We got stuck in about Character Generation, good fun. Possibly not as much fun as with Megatraveller or Book 4,5,6 or 7. The events and mishap tables are a nice addition but should be expanded on IMO. They become a bit tired after a very short period.
Onto the game itself, it was an on the fly "dungeon bash", a salvage mission to an abandoned vessel. Skill and attribute checks were fine in play, the timing/effect dice have gone replaced with an "effect" based on degree of success (ie. how much over 8 you roll with mods). Timing is rolled on a separate die if necessary (1D6 x time unit).
Combat was fine, like I've mentioned it really needs a good crib sheet. I'll check with Matt Sprange and see if I can put mine online for free. We've not really dug deep into the combat so there may still be issues that arrive. The adventure saw a bit of a bar room brawl, fists and improvised weapons (and batons when the bizzies turned up). Later on the ship there was combat with some robots and a crazed crewman (the vessel was a Terran Confederation Scout Ship from late in the Interstellar Wars, AI computer and highly independent robots, crewman was in cold sleep). There were no robot rules so I cobbled some together using Book 8, Adventure 2, 101 Robots and the T20 Robot Rules.
Let me say now that we never put either Starship Combat or Trade to the test (or psionics for that matter) but will soon. This was primarily Chargen and Skill/Combat. The overall feeling was this was fairly sound if a little basic game, they have captured the feel of Classic Traveller. It is very accessable, meeting MWM's requirement that the Traveller be playable by a 12 year old with no RPG experience. There is a lot missing but the High Guard, Mercenary and other supplements will no doubt rectify that (and no doubt in a few years we'll see the release of Deluxe Mongoose Traveller collecting them all together ). The layout is frustrating and a lot of the art is now beginning to really annoy me, to be honest they look like rushed sketches.
As a corebook there are no real mentions of the Imperium except in passing so the game is effectively background free (a bit more background and a sample/introductory adventure may have helped). The ship design is pure vanilla book two and the world design is simple book 3 with some very minor tweaks (and IMO unnecessary, do we really need to know that a world has a pirate base or Imperial Consulate? Well maybe.). This is sure to irk a few of us that are used to more "complex" set ups.
Overall though it is a good enough start but they really need to get the other stuff out quick to satify us grognards. We'll probably have another game (by Skype and Battlegrounds) soon and a F2F game in a couple of weeks. I'll probably stick to MT for campaign play for the time being though.
I drafted 3 players at short notice (and they had to make a seventy mile trip to get here). We got stuck in about Character Generation, good fun. Possibly not as much fun as with Megatraveller or Book 4,5,6 or 7. The events and mishap tables are a nice addition but should be expanded on IMO. They become a bit tired after a very short period.
Onto the game itself, it was an on the fly "dungeon bash", a salvage mission to an abandoned vessel. Skill and attribute checks were fine in play, the timing/effect dice have gone replaced with an "effect" based on degree of success (ie. how much over 8 you roll with mods). Timing is rolled on a separate die if necessary (1D6 x time unit).
Combat was fine, like I've mentioned it really needs a good crib sheet. I'll check with Matt Sprange and see if I can put mine online for free. We've not really dug deep into the combat so there may still be issues that arrive. The adventure saw a bit of a bar room brawl, fists and improvised weapons (and batons when the bizzies turned up
). Later on the ship there was combat with some robots and a crazed crewman (the vessel was a Terran Confederation Scout Ship from late in the Interstellar Wars, AI computer and highly independent robots, crewman was in cold sleep). There were no robot rules so I cobbled some together using Book 8, Adventure 2, 101 Robots and the T20 Robot Rules.Let me say now that we never put either Starship Combat or Trade to the test (or psionics for that matter
) but will soon. This was primarily Chargen and Skill/Combat. The overall feeling was this was fairly sound if a little basic game, they have captured the feel of Classic Traveller. It is very accessable, meeting MWM's requirement that the Traveller be playable by a 12 year old with no RPG experience. There is a lot missing but the High Guard, Mercenary and other supplements will no doubt rectify that (and no doubt in a few years we'll see the release of Deluxe Mongoose Traveller collecting them all together ). The layout is frustrating and a lot of the art is now beginning to really annoy me, to be honest they look like rushed sketches.As a corebook there are no real mentions of the Imperium except in passing so the game is effectively background free (a bit more background and a sample/introductory adventure may have helped). The ship design is pure vanilla book two and the world design is simple book 3 with some very minor tweaks (and IMO unnecessary, do we really need to know that a world has a pirate base or Imperial Consulate? Well maybe.). This is sure to irk a few of us that are used to more "complex" set ups.
Overall though it is a good enough start but they really need to get the other stuff out quick to satify us grognards. We'll probably have another game (by Skype and Battlegrounds) soon and a F2F game in a couple of weeks. I'll probably stick to MT for campaign play for the time being though.
Gallowglacht
SOC-12
Another thanks for the review. Please do keep them coming.
dmccoy1693
SOC-13
Technically, you don't have to ask. If you wait for the SRD's release (I'm guessing Tuesday, but maybe later), make sure you stick to ONLY the stuff in the SRD, stick an OGL at the back (with correct Section 15) and there shouldn't be a problem.*
If you don't want to deal with legal stuff, send it off to Flynn and he might be able to put it in Stellar Reaches.
*(no, this is not legal advice)
Great to hear that. The old timing/effect mechanic was broken from several sides; this way things probably fare much better.
Good to hear that combat works well. How fast is it to play? How many die rolls per combat round?
And does it cover vehicle combat as well, or PC vs. ship shots?
This is a great advantage for the game - it means that people (like my girlfriend) who like rule-light games would enjoy this version of traveller. And capturing the feel of CT is a great boon as well.
Lack of details isn't much of a problem as long as the basic rules work well and cover all of the basic areas. The rest of the rules would either be covered by the next few books, or could be easily house-ruled (and, if the core mechanic is good AND similar to CT in spirit, adding house-rules would be pretty easy).
Are the additional post-LBB2 ship systems/weapons that were in the playtest draft still there in the final retail version?
Border,
I was reading Signs and Portents Roleplayer, issue #48 p 11, and came across the following where Mongoose is talking about releasing Traveller.
So you should be able to release that combat chart.
Border Reiver
SOC-14 1K
Unfortunately the OGL is not out yet and the core rulebook specifically states in the intro that it "contains no open game content."
Once the Traveller's Developer Pack has been released, I can work with you on developing an OGL PDF version that can be released via whatever means you need.
And since Stellar Reaches really needs submissions right now, I'd love to see what you come up with.
With Regards,
Flynn
Was just looking at the new preview #5 and berthing costs have gone way..... up. They are now 1d6 x 1000cr at a class A starport, 1d6 x 500cr for a class B starport, 1d6 x 100cr at a class C starport, 1d6 x 10cr for a class D and free at the rest.
So now instead of the starports makeing most of their money from services, fuel and import / export taxes on cargo's. The ships now pay more and do not get a rock bottom landing fee of 100cr.
Why to class A starports chage so much more than the others?
How will this effect insystem cargo movement and shuttle service?
Will the megacorps be building more "private" landing fields and terminals?
I know the basic rules are not heavy on OTU seting stuff, but how needfull is this extra expense / detailand how many people are going to use it in their game seting?
So now instead of the starports makeing most of their money from services, fuel and import / export taxes on cargo's. The ships now pay more and do not get a rock bottom landing fee of 100cr.
Why to class A starports chage so much more than the others?
How will this effect insystem cargo movement and shuttle service?
Will the megacorps be building more "private" landing fields and terminals?
I know the basic rules are not heavy on OTU seting stuff, but how needfull is this extra expense / detailand how many people are going to use it in their game seting?
dmccoy1693
SOC-13
Don't see any reason why not. Makes perfect sense to me.
tbeard1999
SOC-14 1K
So it's truly dead...that's the best MGT news yet.
