Mgt art

[mbrinkhues]

Most would be insulted to be compared to a dog, as you would a monkey
So I'm not sure that law would apply

That's why I put that option in the Solomanie Confederation. The Sollies have a clear hierachie

Humans from Terra
Other humans that are partially from Terra
Trashhauler Robots
Other humans
Terranian Animals
Trashdumps
Other species

So for them Vagr (as genetically uplifted Canins) would end up labeled "dog"

 

[PathfinderAP]

So for them Vagr (as genetically uplifted Canins) would end up labeled "dog"

Dude that would be racism, not sure thats a theme I want to run with,
But thanks for your ideas, it could explain why some of them became so extreme in their veiws

 

[MongooseFordy]

Fordy who was the artist who did that Vargr? (oct-dec cat)

You'll have to be a bit more specific.

 

[Jame]

Mongoose has actually done some good art for its Traveller line. Even if it's not necessarily Travelleresque.

I'm more interested in how they write - its travelleresqueness varies, and doesn't necessarily make real-world sense, but for the most part it's a good base for a fun campaign (with some house-rules figured in).

 

[PathfinderAP]

You'll have to be a bit more specific.

Mongoose Oct-Nov catalogue, who did the cover?

 

[MongooseFordy]

Mongoose Oct-Nov catalogue, who did the cover?

That would be Ben Wooten, the man now responsible for all our 3I covers (including Aslan). His WIP for the Zhodani supplement is particularly good (previews soon), and you can see a bit of his cover for the Darrians book on page 13 of this http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/pdf/sp74.pdf

 

[MongooseMatt]

a) Fraulein is no longer used
b) A married female is Frau
c) Knackwurst is from a totally different part of Germany
d) At least german cuisine has seasoning besides Rock salt and Vinegar

Yeah, get it right, Fordy!

 

[Supplement Four]

See...I'm not crazy at all about that cover with the Ninja Vargr.

Is the art good? Yes.

Do I like the cover? If we were talking about a different game, yes.

But, is it Traveller? No.



It's a good pic, but this game is Traveller, not Star Wars.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Are you familiar with the 2300AD Ground Vehicle Guide? I've always placed that close to the pinnacle of rpg books, as far as art is concerned. I wonder how much that cost GDW...???

Ah, but here is the question.

Where is GDW now?

All our plans are based around being here, not in one year's time, but for the next ten years (at least).

ps - thanks for the willingness to talk about art-n-stuff. I really appreciate it. Rarely have I seen someone in the game industry who is so willing to "answer the doorbell" as it were.

Love to chat about it!

 

[Supplement Four]

No, it is _everything_. If you cannot make it work from a business perspective, you cannot do it. That simple. At least, if you still want to be around doing Traveller books in a year's time.

The deck plans we currently do are _insanely_ expensive as they are. If there is another method of doing them that would cost no more, we are all ears! Find us another method that is cheaper, and we'll do ship books until the cows come home!

At the end of the day, what you want is not that simple to achieve.

Go back and look at the art in the DGP stuff. Much of it was simple line art. But, on the whole, it's some of the best art ever to grace Traveller supplements.

And, they did that back in the 80's. It was better than GDW's stuff.

At the least, you should upgrade your deckplans to look like those that DPG did. They'd place table, chairs, equipment, J-Drives and such within their plans. That kind of thing does wonders for the pics.

 

[MongooseMatt]

See...I'm not crazy at all about that cover with the Ninja Vargr.

Is the art good? Yes.

Do I like the cover? If we were talking about a different game, yes.

But, is it Traveller? No.

It's a good pic, but this game is Traveller, not Star Wars.

Ah, we've been here before - the art (and feel/atmosphere of the art) in Traveller has to change. The style of the characters and, to an extent, the ships is very, very dry in the older editions. Purely my opinion, but the only one of the races from the Classic era that even comes close to looking contemporary is the Zhodani.

The Aslan and Vargr were quickly designated as 'needing work'. The Darrians were desperate for it (and we'll be interested to here what people think of our interpretation). Someone here described them as 70's glam rock rejects, which was hardly the atmosphere we wanted to portray.

As for the core Traveller book, and concentrating on the second printing for a moment, I think one thing we might 'clash' on is whether it 'feels' Traveller or not. The thing is, we were going for no feel in the core books other than generic science fiction (and not always hard sci-fi), purely because we wanted Traveller to be a launchpad not just for the 3I, but for other settings too - we did not want to lock it down into any one sub-genre or setting.

As for the layout, as others have pointed out we wanted it to remain very functional and utilitarian, as well as mirroring the Classic range.

YMMV as to how well we did. However, we are finally educating people as to the breadth Traveller can carry in terms of setting, finally divorcing the game itself from 3I - we always knew that would take time. The upshot of this is that Traveller support is starting to accelerate rather than spiral downwards, which would be the natural state of a game at this stage of its lifecycle.

 

[mbrinkhues]

Dude that would be racism, not sure thats a theme I want to run with,
But thanks for your ideas, it could explain why some of them became so extreme in their veiws

Well the Solomanie "anti-alien" behaviour is official, actually one of the reasons for the Solomanie Rim War and founding of the SolConf from what was Imperial until then. Directed against the Vegans (That applied to the Empress for aid) since Vagr are rare in the region (Vagr Extends are once through the 3I)

 

[MongooseMatt]

Go back and look at the art in the DGP stuff. Much of it was simple line art. But, on the whole, it's some of the best art ever to grace Traveller supplements.

Where is DGP now?

At the least, you should upgrade your deckplans to look like those that DPG did. They'd place table, chairs, equipment, J-Drives and such within their plans. That kind of thing does wonders for the pics.

Well, we place drives on our plans, along with equipment that is bought as part of the construction process (fuel purifiers, for example). As for tables and chairs, I would be less keen on those, considering the types of ships we are covering and their wide range of uses.

 

[Supplement Four]

Matt...at a minimum, your MGT deckplans should be on par with these...

http://www.sff.net/people/kitsune/Traveller/images/t20scoutlg.png

See how much better those are than just empty boxes? This is the way DGP used to do theirs (I think this particular deckplan was done for T20).

Upgrade your deckplans to be at least this good, and you'll hear the whole Traveller community smile and pat you on the back.

 

[Supplement Four]

Where is DGP now?

That's an unfair statement to infer that DGP went out of business because of their art buying practices.

Especially when the head of DGP has been on these forums and explained what happened--mainly, he got extremely burned out on Traveller (and already knew he wouldn't get rich selling rpg material).

 

[mbrinkhues]

My problems are less with "feeling Traveller"(1) but with "looking good". Compared to a lot of other stuff the "ship in action" drawings High Guard/Trades&Gunboats etc. don't look good. No one expects full color or Osprey-style quality for the price you charge but the pictures look somewhat cheap and undefined to me. And they lack variety, individual styles. You did better in B5 or in the HS supplement.

As for not playing the game: There are no groups that offer it/use it around here. One would expect that sitting less than 40km from the german partner there would be demo rounds in the "big shops" around (Fanen, Brave New World, Highlander etc.) or a tad more presence on conventions (Even FeenCon presence was very limited) So it's easy not to use MgT. Maybe kicking the guys would help. Or getting them more translators, they are still doing "HighGuard" (Traders/Gunboats is out)


(1) We've been through that and our differences in what is "Traveller". Let's just say we'll never agree on it.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Matt...at a minimum, your MGT deckplans should be on par with these...

I actually. . . don't much like that one. . .

 

[MongooseMatt]

Compared to a lot of other stuff the "ship in action" drawings High Guard/Trades&Gunboats etc. don't look good. No one expects full color or Osprey-style quality for the price you charge but the pictures look somewhat cheap and undefined to me. And they lack variety, individual styles. You did better in B5 or in the HS supplement.

As for not playing the game: There are no groups that offer it/use it around here. One would expect that sitting less than 40km from the german partner there would be demo rounds in the "big shops" around

I was going to say, for someone who doesn't like the game, you seem to have read an awful lot of books.

Have you tried contacting 13Mann and seeing what they are doing/intend to do? They might have their own thing running and are just not advertising it at the moment (Mongoose has been hosting a club for over a year now, and we have not really mentioned it on the web site or in S&P, for various reasons).

It should also be pointed out that Traveller has traditionally been a hard sell in Germany (not talking about your area, but the whole country). Of the Old Guard games, RQ and Cthulhu were always far more powerful. We have actually been quite pleased with the German reception of Traveller this time round!

It is funny how things can regiionalise in this way. We have started seeing very strong sales of Victory at Sea in France at the moment - and we have no idea why!!!

 

[PathfinderAP]

See...I'm not crazy at all about that cover with the Ninja Vargr.

Is the art good? Yes.

Do I like the cover? If we were talking about a different game, yes.

But, is it Traveller? No.



It's a good pic, but this game is Traveller, not Star Wars.

Oh come on, what are you talking about?,
I see Traveller there not Star Wars,

Whats wrong with this?, what makes it Un-Traveller to you?

 

[MongooseMatt]

That's an unfair statement to infer that DGP went out of business because of their art buying practices.

Especially when the head of DGP has been on these forums and explained what happened--mainly, he got extremely burned out on Traveller (and already knew he wouldn't get rich selling rpg material).

The comment was maybe a bit too hasty. However, comparing what we do to other companies that are no longer around (especially when they were operating in a market that was much larger than it is now) is also a tricky proposition.