Mongoose Traveller 2nd Edition Beta Arrives Friday

[Jeff M. Hopper]

Tomorrow afternoon (September 4th, UK time) will see the first appearance of a new Traveller, the product of many years tweaking, adjusting and listening to the thousands of players who have travelled the universe of the Far Future.
So what can you expect?
You will be able to dive into the new Traveller with the Beta Rulebook PDF. It will be a mere $20 on DrivethruRPG and we’ll return that $20 to you in the form of a voucher when the final Core Rulebook is released in early 2016. You will also be getting a veritable host of goodies and a chance to influence other Traveller books including High Guard, the vehicle Handbook and the Central Supply Catalogue throughout the playtest period.
So, what can you expect to see in the new Traveller? These are just a few of the tweaks we have made;
* The last edition rested heavily on the minimalist approach of Classic Traveller – the new edition has all the bells and whistles you expect from a modern RPG. From isometric deck plans to flow charts that walk you through character creation and ship design, from subsector maps to equipment pages that look as though they come straight from a space-based mail order catalogue, we have spent months striving to make the new Traveller not only look the best it can, but also to use these graphics to help it play better on the table top.
* A fully integrated combat system that seamlessly moves between Travellers, vehicles and ships. You can now fly your Corsair through a system, destroy the orbiting defence stations, then descend into the atmosphere to dogfight the aerospace fighters. A critical hit system for ships and vehicles allows you knock out vital systems in your opponent’s craft, while an expanded action system will give everyone on board something to do in battle.
* Power systems for ships - starship captains will now be worrying about the amount of Power available to them. In most situations, it will not be a factor (and this will not intrude on gameplay) but if you overload a trader with high-powered weaponry or take damage to your power plant, you’ll be screaming down the comms to your engineer to give you more power!
* We have made changes to the way animals are handled, making their creation a thing of simplicity for referees; come up with a concept for your creature, assign Hits and Attacks, then add Traits and you are done. The Traits for animals handle special abilities such as heightened senses or psionic capability and we will be adding to them in future supplements – especially useful as they are also used for alien species, forming another common bond within the mechanics of the game.
Strap yourselves in and start the countdown - the new Traveller makes its first appearance tomorrow!

Some cover art for you.

 

[AdamLeisemann]

Does this mean that Mongoose Publishing has renewed their Traveller license so it will still be available after 2018?

 

[MichaelSTee]

Sounds interesting.

So I guess now we need a new acronym for the new version; I posit 'MGT2' as the obvious choice.

 

[aramis]

Does this mean that Mongoose Publishing has renewed their Traveller license so it will still be available after 2018?

I haven't heard anything, but the last renewal wasn't announced until it was done, and that was not too long before the renewal date. And I'm not in that loop.

 

[DickNervous]

Does this mean that Mongoose Publishing has renewed their Traveller license so it will still be available after 2018?

They said on their blog today that the new Core Rulebook is expected to be released in print in March 2016. Then the other core books (High Guard, Central Supply Catalog, and Traveller Companion) being released one a month the next 3 months. Then additional print books every 3-4 months.

They also said something in their blog about "the next 10 years of Traveller."

So my guess is that they either have, or are at least expecting to, extend their license. It wouldn't make much sense to go through all this for a product line they can only sell for just over 2 more years.

 

[tonieee]

Has anybody bought this yet? I'm considering it but would like to know how much it differs from the first edition.

 

[tonieee]

I couldn't wait. Downloading now :-D

 

[DickNervous]

I couldn't wait. Downloading now :-D

I'm looking through it right now too.

 

[Adam Dray]

So far, I mostly like what I see. The writing is much better and clearer.

The chargen flowchart looks like RoboRally, is a bit hard to follow, and isn't entirely helpful when it just refers you to a page in the rules anyway.

I made up a five-term character and it was easier than it used to be.

 

[Ifandbut]

So far, I mostly like what I see. The writing is much better and clearer.

What is the deal with the Boon and Bane dice they mention in the blog post? Is this just more d6's that modify the roll or something like FATE dice or the strange dice from FFG Edge of the Empire?

 

[Adam Dray]

Haven't gotten that far.

 

[CosmicGamer]

Situations not covered in the rules that are beneficial in a task are a boon.
When there is something that is a boon, you roll 3d6 drop lowest.

Situations not covered in the rules that make things harder are a bane.
When there is something that is a bane, you roll 3d6 drop the highest.

They are not cumulative. You don't keep adding dice. They can cancel each other out though.

Of note, a change from the core rules is that Timing, going faster or slower than a task normally takes, results in a boon or bane instead of DMs.

 

[DickNervous]

So far, I mostly like what I see. The writing is much better and clearer.

The chargen flowchart looks like RoboRally, is a bit hard to follow, and isn't entirely helpful when it just refers you to a page in the rules anyway.

I made up a five-term character and it was easier than it used to be.

Yes, character creation is smoother now, thought the Life Events table is still "blah" to me. I've rolled 2 characters already and it went pretty smoothly except for the fact that there are some typos and missing info (such as the Commission rolls and the wrong table on the Army page).

Situations not covered in the rules that are beneficial in a task are a boon.
When there is something that is a boon, you roll 3d6 drop lowest.

Situations not covered in the rules that make things harder are a bane.
When there is something that is a bane, you roll 3d6 drop the highest.

They are not cumulative. You don't keep adding dice. They can cancel each other out though.

Of note, a change from the core rules is that Timing, going faster or slower than a task normally takes, results in a boon or bane instead of DMs.

I actually really like the Boon/Bane concept and am curious to see how it works in play.

I also like the Critical Hit in combat if you roll 6 over the target number, though I am curious as to how the new damage system will work in space combat.

 

[tonieee]

My brief first impressions: I like the sound of the new dogfighting rules, dislike the lack of ship building rules (though I would be kidding myself if I thought I wasn't going to buy High Guard so doesn't really make a big difference to me personally) and unsure about the boon and bane rule (I'd have to see it in action because I can't see a great distinction between where you'd use it and we're you'd increase/decrease difficulty and I don't think the example they give is the best example).

 

[mike wightman]

I don't know if it's been mentioned yet but over on the mongoose games web forums there is a section for giving feedback on this new -beta- edition.

 

[tonieee]

Unfortunately my account there has been banned with no reason given. I hardly ever posted there (as here ) and I don't see how I could have said anything to give them reason to ban me. I've tried to send emails to the admin email but got no response. There's no way I can participate there unless I do something shady like setting up a fake email address.

 

[Ifandbut]

Situations not covered in the rules that are beneficial in a task are a boon.
When there is something that is a boon, you roll 3d6 drop lowest.

Situations not covered in the rules that make things harder are a bane.
When there is something that is a bane, you roll 3d6 drop the highest.

They are not cumulative. You don't keep adding dice. They can cancel each other out though.

Of note, a change from the core rules is that Timing, going faster or slower than a task normally takes, results in a boon or bane instead of DMs.

I really like that. I also really like the changes to Timing. My players had a bad habit of always wanting to take 2-3x longer on a task and I could never think of a way to punish them.

 

[DickNervous]

My brief first impressions: I like the sound of the new dogfighting rules, dislike the lack of ship building rules (though I would be kidding myself if I thought I wasn't going to buy High Guard so doesn't really make a big difference to me personally) and unsure about the boon and bane rule (I'd have to see it in action because I can't see a great distinction between where you'd use it and we're you'd increase/decrease difficulty and I don't think the example they give is the best example).

Here is an example I used with my friend. Let's say you are trying to pick up a very heavy crate and move it to block a doorway to keep the bad guys out. The GM has decided that this is a "Difficult" task so you need to roll a 10+. However, you are on a ship and just as you are moving it an explosion shakes the ship, which would make it more difficult. Instead of arguing over just how much more difficult you add a "Bane" die to the roll.

Simple example, but I think it gets the point across.

I don't know if it's been mentioned yet but over on the mongoose games web forums there is a section for giving feedback on this new -beta- edition.

Yup, and it is starting to get pretty active. The URL is in the Playtest document that you get when you purchase the rules.

Unfortunately my account there has been banned with no reason given. I hardly ever posted there (as here ) and I don't see how I could have said anything to give them reason to ban me. I've tried to send emails to the admin email but got no response. There's no way I can participate there unless I do something shady like setting up a fake email address.

Try sending an email direct to Matt Sprange, he helped me in the past when I had an account issue over there.

 

[tonieee]

Here is an example I used with my friend. Let's say you are trying to pick up a very heavy crate and move it to block a doorway to keep the bad guys out. The GM has decided that this is a "Difficult" task so you need to roll a 10+. However, you are on a ship and just as you are moving it an explosion shakes the ship, which would make it more difficult. Instead of arguing over just how much more difficult you add a "Bane" die to the roll.

Simple example, but I think it gets the point across.

My problem is that it seems to me to be ambiguous whether to use difficulty or boon/bane in each situation. In your example you could have said moving a normal sized crate is average difficulty but because the crate is heavy then you add a bane die. And then if the ship starts shaking you can't add another bane die so you have to use difficulty to represent that.

It's not that I dislike it. It seems quite a neat mechanic but I'm having trouble seeing how to decide when to use it and when to use difficulty.

Try sending an email direct to Matt Sprange, he helped me in the past when I had an account issue over there.

Thanks. I'll give him a try.

 

[Cryton]

[M;]I will not have a repeat of first edition baiting. It is still an infractable offense to call Mongoose Traveller "Rickey Tickey Traveller". Please use MgT2 or Mongoose Second Edition.[/m;]