Mongoose Mercenary

[Border Reiver]

I was fully aware that this was a "generic sf" MGT product and was looking forward to some alternate tech. The preview including the outrageously devastating railgun was a little worrying, spinning disks do not make great penetrators but they look good on video games.

The new careers are great, adding the Wet Navy and AirForce to regular forces and adding some specialised Merc careers; Cadre, Guerilla, Striker, Commando, Security, Warmonger each with their own 3 specialisations.

The additional combat rules are a mixed bag. KillShots add a bit of fun, Blind Fire is Meh! I don't believe the author understands Suppressive Fire but it is there defined as shooting at a point next to a target to make them take cover??? Ok they've nearly got it but it kind of misses the point of using weight of fire to deny the use of an area rather than if I empty a mag into that wall the bad guy will duck for cover.:nonono:

The mass combat is flawed but more to come on that as I think this is merely an errata issue, otherwise not bad.

Merc tickets and recruiting. very good. Numerous tables for creating merc tickets, calculating rewards, success, penalties and more. Battletech/Mechwarrior did it better but still very good. The recruiting section is even better than the Book 4 original.

There is a large section on unit headquarters and facilities that makes me think they must have had a REMF as their sole military advisor. Very useful and interesting but so much detail about rear echelon and logistics

Equipment. I'm a gearhead and Ironmongery freak. No apologies. I was looking forward to alternate tech, different vehicles, classic Traveller military ironmongery, lots of guns and blades, armour, mecha and lots more. What we seem to have got is a mess, sure there are some gems but there is a lot of crud. If you want it point by point i'll give you them but a fox has hit my chicken coop and I'm off to sort things out.

 

[Allensh]

You would know more about than I do..you have the book, I don't.

If the sales are dissapointing, hopefully Mongoose will get a clue and fix the book with a second edition down the line. Sad to have to want that for a book we were looking forward to a lot. I'll have to make more of an assessment when I see it.

Allen

 

[Vile]

Even if you like Advanced Chargen, then Basic Chargen is broken (too few skills per term). It is more an issue of the imbalance between Basic and Advanced Chargen in CT that was 'broken'. MegaTraveller managed to balance them out - generating about the same number of skills either way.

Congratulations to Mongoose Traveller for maintaining the balance between the Core and the Add-Ons.

Mr Pollard hits the nail on the head. That is what I was worried about before Mercenary came out, and now I'm not worried in that respect, at least.

 

[mike wightman]

Could people who actually have read the book offer feedback - rather than idle speculation from those who have only seen the front cover on the internet?

I trust Border Reiver's judgement on this, and the ironmongery does sound as if it has been designed by someone more familiar with video games than military r&d websites or past Traveller tech - even alternative tech like FF&S offers.

But please don't slate something sight unseen.

 

[Border Reiver]

Actually I'm going to move my score for this up to a 7.5/10. The new careers and the merc tickets more than make up for the let down that was the equipment section.

 

[Vile]

So, is there anything like the old section on the typical equipment of military forces at a given Tech Level?

 

[Allensh]

Could people who actually have read the book offer feedback - rather than idle speculation from those who have only seen the front cover on the internet?

I trust Border Reiver's judgement on this, and the ironmongery does sound as if it has been designed by someone more familiar with video games than military r&d websites or past Traveller tech - even alternative tech like FF&S offers.

But please don't slate something sight unseen.

I wasn't intending to slate something at all and I apologize if it came off that way. I think Border's being pretty fair in his assessment but I won't know for sure until I see the book.

The new careers and other stuff are pretty much all I'd be using from the book anyway; I don't run merc campaigns.

Allen

 

[robject]

Actually I'm going to move my score for this up to a 7.5/10. The new careers and the merc tickets more than make up for the let down that was the equipment section.

Perhaps the weapons and armor sections need an overhaul. But there are items there which seem fine to me, and the text descriptions are interesting, even if you don't like where they're going with them. And the damage/protection ratings appear consistent with MGT (or, at least, MGT with some edits from the forums). I don't really see much of a problem, although I haven't examined much beyond the tables.

 

[Klaus]

Right, got it now, so I can comment.

OK, only a quick look so far, concentrating on the new kit and the artwork, as these bits are the bits being slated. I was expecting a dog's dinner, given all the criticism, but....

Most of the weapons are absolutely fine.

There's no explicit SMG, but the autocarbine fulfills it's role (along with the Auto-Pistol); the term SMG maybe getting deprecated anyway, as we get things like PDW and cut down carbine sized assault rifles. So no problems here really.

The Frag Cannon really sounds like some kind of automatic mortar, so maybe is a bit redundant - airburst frag rounds for mortars might have been a better choice. The MagRail discs may be a bit silly, but as Border Riever has said somewhere, subsitute heavy slugs or darts and there's no problem (I can possibly see spinning discs be some kind of guided munition, with gyrostabilising and such, similar to the guided bullets being researched today). The AT Gun seems to be a general term for all artillery pieces, so the reference to howitzers is maybe a bit misleading but it is appropriate.

To me, Artillery Battle Dress has always been implicit in the term battle dress from the beginning. Calling such things 'mecha' will just bring to mind spikey hair and big eyes, and don't you think using such a term in a Traveller book would cause even more fuss? And what would the Third Imperium call mecha? Probably, Artillery Battle Dress. Further, as AT Battle Dress is at least TL13, don't you think by then AT Guns and Mass Drivers might be somewhat more compact than what we envisage today?

Equipment section: B

As for the slating the art has got. Eh? It's the most consistently good so far in the new stuff. There's nothing really bad (apart from maybe the one on p62 being a little sketchy) - none of the substandard stuff seen in 760, and the painterly stuff may be dark, but that has more to do with not printing it on coated paper than the artist

Artwork: B-

I will feed back on the rest when I have time for a deeper look, but I will say anyone who was considering buying this should do so, as the niggles are piffling. I'm sorry, but a couple of sentences of ropey text in 2 or 3 weapon descriptions does not make the equipment section a disaster! Mechanically, there is no problem at all.

 

[jericson]

Well, it's a waste of several pages, but I'll continue to use my Striker-BRP weapons conversions, anyway. However, what about that character generation stuff? Are these guys going to be just different, but not better than, TMB characters? That's what I hope for, and what I wished CT had done. I want these books to expand the TMB, not make it obsolete.

Any chance I could of that Striker-BRP conversion?

 

[Klaus]

OK, I'll dip in to do a brief critique of the whole book.

Army & Marines, plus Mariner and flyer careers

• Not bad, more Events and Mishaps, some new military careers, if you want them.

Mercenary Characters.

• Really good. I won't find them all useful all the time, but I think the Guerrilla and Warmonger will be very useful, and some of the other speciality tables might be good to mix in regulat Army and Marine careers.

New Skills

• Useful. Good explanation on how to incorporate any new skills into existing careers. Some new skills like Instruction and Interrogation and so on. The odd error, like adding one specialism to Zero-G, when it doesn't have any already, but nothing that futzes anything up.

Mercenary Tickets

• Looks detailed, so not had a good chance for a really in depth look, but has a lot of options and details. The type, risk, price of any ticket, plus things like complications and exit clauses. Quite useful for none-merc campaigns, too; kind of an adventure generator.

Recruiting Mercs

• Only glanced at this. Probably won't use it much, as I don't tend to run merc campaigns.

New Combat rules

• All for the good. not a huge amount of new options (on balance that's probably a good idea, as it keeps things simple). The odd clumsy bit in the description, but not bad. Will use a lot, probably. Again, sot really had a detailed look at the mass combat, as I probably won't use it much.

Merc HQs and Military Bases

• Quite useful. No game mechanical bits here, but some seemingly knowledgeable descriptions of bases at various tech levels. Useful fluff.

New Equipment.

• On the whole very good. Some folk have expressed negative opinions of about 5-6% of the entries. The rest is useful. Again, some clumsy wording here and there, but nothing that messes the game up. I like the inclusion of flechette weapons (tho I will tweak them a teeny bit for some more differentiation from the other stuff).

Criticisms

A generally fine supplement. All sections have lots of use for many kinds of game, not just merc ones. If I have any criticisms...

• The occasional skill in a table in the chargen bit seems odd, but easy to swap around.

• No armour piercing ammo rules. But I already had a simple house-rule for that and the odd tweak of the existing stuff, so that doesn't bother me. might bother some, though.

• Not enough new armour types and weapons. I'd would have like a few more. I want a Gauss Shotgun (I like Mass Effect) and a Gauss Sniper, and maybe they should have included the SMG as a low tech Auto-Carbine just to keep folk happy. There should probably have been a few more sf energy weapons, like the Plasma Pistol (since the rifle's in TMB), and maybe something about Trek style Disruptors, though the beyond-OTU-tech Disintergrators might be these. Some more vehicles would have been nice too, but there's enough to be going on with (and they're all sci-fi tinged ones, rather than just contemporary stuff specced up).

• The language used isn't quite as taut and knowledgeable about all things military as the CT stuff was, but it's good enough for laymen. Military gearheads might wince occasionally at a slightly misleading entry, but mechanically the stuff works fine. If it matters to folk it's simple to change a little terminology here and there.

Content: A-
Production: B-
New Chargen: A
New Kit: B+

 

[rust]

Thank you for the information.

 

[robject]

• Not enough new armour types and weapons. I'd would have like a few more. I want a Gauss Shotgun (I like Mass Effect) and a Gauss Sniper, and maybe they should have included the SMG as a low tech Auto-Carbine just to keep folk happy. There should probably have been a few more sf energy weapons, like the Plasma Pistol (since the rifle's in TMB), and maybe something about Trek style Disruptors, though the beyond-OTU-tech Disintergrators might be these. Some more vehicles would have been nice too, but there's enough to be going on with (and they're all sci-fi tinged ones, rather than just contemporary stuff specced up).

Intriguing.

 

[Supplement Four]

Intriguing.

Plasma pistol?

More than intriguing, Rob. As Yoda would say, "Answers a lot of questions, it does."

 

[Vile]

Thanks for the once-over, Klaus. Combined with Matt's assertion that the gear book will come later, that clears up my basic misapprehension regarding what Mecenary is all about. It's basically about running and playing mercenary games, not about the equipment. That'll teach me to wait until all the news are in before making snap judgements.

Well, maybe.

 

[mike wightman]

Plasma pistol?

More than intriguing, Rob. As Yoda would say, "Answers a lot of questions, it does."

TNE had them so why not

 

[Stainless]

• The language used isn't quite as taut and knowledgeable about all things military as the CT stuff was, but it's good enough for laymen. Military gearheads might wince occasionally at a slightly misleading entry, but mechanically the stuff works fine. If it matters to folk it's simple to change a little terminology here and there.

Sadly the art of good writing is rare these days. Even with supposedly professional writers.

 

[Zparkz]

TNE had them so why not

It was referenced to them opnly once, and that was in the beginner module which came with the rulebook, "Once and future emperor".

Designing one with the FF&S, even with the upgrade for fusion and plasma weapons, results in a weapon with more recoil than anyone can handle. There is a thread in the TNE forum about this.

 

[Klaus]

Referencing common sci-fi weapons on the Traveller tech scale is probably a good thing.

Plasma Rifle TL16 (TMB)
Fusion Pistol TL17/18/19
Matter Disintergrator TL18/19

Gives a point of comparison for folk wanting to run a Traveller based game around Farscape or Trek or Star Wars.

They are out of the OTU paradigm, but are totally relevant for a generic sf game.

I still want a knife-missile though...

 

[Galadrion]

The new careers and other stuff are pretty much all I'd be using from the book anyway; I don't run merc campaigns.

You're missing a bet then: the "mercenary ticket" section could be a great tool for the GM to use to hand out missions to the players - and an equally great way for the player to try to negotiate better terms on those missions. Definitely take a look at the material before coming to a decision about which parts you'll use; otherwise, you'll leave some wonderful tools sitting in the box.

Personally, I was relatively unimpressed with the equipment section: it seems too sparse to me, considering how much a mercenary lives or dies by his kit. On the other hand(s), the equipment in the basic MongTrav core book is already reasonably good, this stuff can easily be integrated which expands the choice to a degree, and I've been a monkeywrenching gearhead for over two decades so if I see a real need, I feel more than qualified to add to the material for my own campaign.

The section on careers, while I'm not sure how much use it will see in my own campaign (my players seem to prefer merchants to mercenaries), was very solid and well-balanced with the core rules. I can see one, maybe two of my regular crew giving the new pathways a try - though I suspect it'll be as an add-on career. And I'll have no problems with that option: as I said, the new careers are pretty well-balanced against the originals, so I don't see it becoming all that disruptive.

The new rules and uses for various skills are nice. I can see these becoming highly useful - on both sides of the table. (I can already hear most of my players groaning at that thought. One of my pet themes is that the universe is fundamentally fair - anything that the player characters can use is also available to NPCs. *Evil grin* That thought has curbed quite a bit of some players' tendencies to try to come up with game-breaking rules-lawyering maneuvers. I might let them get away with something once or twice, but if they do it too often, someone else will probably try to copy it... and that sort of "someone else" probably has the mentality to try coming after the new "hottest gunfighter".)

Anyway, I'm overall very impressed by this product (and all the others so far, too. The following comments can apply equally well to all the currently released products - though they are, of course, strictly my opinions. Others may disagree.) The printing and binding are of top-notch quality (and I have the opinion of a trained bookbinder to back me up on that!), the editing is of above-average quality (in four books so far, I've only seen a handful of spelling or grammar errors, which is definitely better than much of the game industry these days - and sadly, it's becoming more common in the broader publishing industry as well), the artwork - while strictly black-and-white - recalls the best of the earlier incarnations of Traveller, and the actual content is rock-solid in almost all particulars. I may regard some of it as fluff - though the proportion of fluff to "crunchy bits" is significantly lower than in most other game systems and drastically lower than some specific systems (I'm lookin' at you, Shadowrun and White Wolf!) - but even the fluff has some useful potential, as game/plot hooks, if nothing else. All in all, I'm mightily pleased by what Mongoose has put out so far, and am most eagerly awaiting some of the forthcoming releases. (High Guard and Beltstrike are currently the two highest on my list, though I really want new editions of Merchant Prince and Scouts.)