Mongoose - traveller returns

[Maladominus]

hehehe. In our Terra Incognita CT campaign, I as the GM allow the characters to 'own' starship pets. And one of the more notorious and attention-seeking pets is a Terran bio-engineered 56th century Indian mongoose (herpestes indicus), named "Indy".

Indy the mongoose has an ego of his own. And the news of "Mongoose takes over Traveller" will undoubtedly inflate his ego even more! Yikes!


P.S. --- Mongoose Traveller sounds OK to me, so long as they really do make it fairly backwards compatible with much of the original Classic Traveller system. If it ends up superior to original CT material, then great, I'm buying. And if it sucks, then I have the option of ignoring it and pretending it never existed (just like some of the other Traveller versions right now!)

 

[aramis]

I don't catch the reference to 'T&C' though. Of course it's late here and I'm half dead and longing for bed

Trade and Commerce

 

[hunter]

Trade and Commerce

Wow I was more tired than I thought...

Yes the Trade and Commerce rules are closed under T20.

 

[AzSteven]

Interesting news. I am pretty happy with T20 personally - we converted our House System (TNE with mods) over to T20 a couple of years ago. But there is still room in my heart for Classic Taveller.

I enjoyed Classic Traveller, with the Books 4-8 additions, quite a lot. I would love to see some cleanup and expansion/fixing of some of the vehicle rules and combat rules to move away from range bands and towards actual ranges and areas of effect, and I would like a set of design rules at the Book 5 level for non-space vehicles.

Some clarification on the effects of different levels of weapons on targets outside of that level would be great too (how do starship-level weapons effect a person or an air-fraft? How do vehicle-level weapons affect a starship? Can a gauss rifle do anything to a scout ship?). But honestly I can make a lot of that up on the fly - it would just be nice to have some rules or guidelines for consistency.

 

[daryen]

As an aside, I don't understand why everyone assumes that Mongoose Traveller will be based on CT. All they have promised is to be "faithful to CT". Well, I am willing to bet that the authors of both T20 and GT will vehemently insist they were "faithful to CT", yet neither system is based on CT.

There are lot of wild assumptions being made about what this system will look like without any basis on fact or even authoritative rumor. Before praising it (or cursing it), let's see what they plan on doing, first.

(As an aside to my aside, the above is not meant as a slam to either T20 or GT. It is simply an illustration to show that you can be "faithful to" CT without being "based on" CT.)

 

[Gallowglacht]

As an aside, I don't understand why everyone assumes that Mongoose Traveller will be based on CT. All they have promised is to be "faithful to CT". Well, I am willing to bet that the authors of both T20 and GT will vehemently insist they were "faithful to CT", yet neither system is based on CT.

There are lot of wild assumptions being made about what this system will look like without any basis on fact or even authoritative rumor. Before praising it (or cursing it), let's see what they plan on doing, first.

(As an aside to my aside, the above is not meant as a slam to either T20 or GT. It is simply an illustration to show that you can be "faithful to" CT without being "based on" CT.)

The mongoose release says that its based on T5 and has cross compatability so will probably be a lot closer than T20 or Gurps. That where people are getting the idea from. T5 is described as a superset of the same rules.

 

[hunter]

As an aside, I don't understand why everyone assumes that Mongoose Traveller will be based on CT. All they have promised is to be "faithful to CT". Well, I am willing to bet that the authors of both T20 and GT will vehemently insist they were "faithful to CT", yet neither system is based on CT.

T20 isn't based on CT? News to me...

 

[Gallowglacht]

But you said it only has 3 rules. Ct had more right?

 

[hunter]

But you said it only has 3 rules. Ct had more right?

LOL! Touche!

 

[daryen]

T20 isn't based on CT? News to me...

No, T20 (as it's name implies) is based on D20. Sure, it uses CT to fill in much of the gaps, but it is a D20 system.

Character generation, combat, creatures, the whole infrastructure of T20 is D20. CT was just used to fill in the gaps.

Honestly, T20 is "based on" CT as much as GURPS Traveller is. And, despite what some will say, this is NOT a bad thing. My statement is not meant as an insult to either T20 or GT.

All I am saying is that anyone who is expecting Mongoose Traveller to be an "updated CT" (whatever that actually means) is likely to be massively disappointed.

 

[hunter]

No, T20 (as it's name implies) is based on D20. Sure, it uses CT to fill in much of the gaps, but it is a D20 system.

No, T20 is based on CT. It used d20 to fill in the gaps.

Honestly, T20 is "based on" CT as much as GURPS Traveller is. And, despite what some will say, this is NOT a bad thing. My statement is not meant as an insult to either T20 or GT.

It's also quite incorrect. Please do not attempt to tell me what the game I designed was based on.

T20 was designed to make d20 work with CT not make CT work with d20. A subtle but significant difference. T20 would be quite a different beast otherwise. And if T20 is not based on CT, please explain the Prior History system, the Starship design rules, the Vehicle design rules, the Animal design rules, the world building rules, etc., which give you pretty much the same results as you would if you were using CT.

As a matter of fact, T20 is more compatible with CT setting and technology-wise than any other version of the game. Why? Because I specifically designed it to be that way. So that you could take any of the CT vehicles, ships, worlds, etc. and use them without change with T20.

 

[daryen]

It's also quite incorrect. Please do not attempt to tell me what the game I designed was based on.

As a matter of fact, T20 is more compatible with CT setting and technology-wise than any other version of the game. Why? Because I specifically designed it to be that way. So that you could take any of the CT vehicles, ships, worlds, etc. and use them without change with T20.

OK. I guess I was reading something else when I thought I was looking at the T20 rulebook.

My bad.

Regardless, it doesn't change my original point. Mongoose has only promised to be "faithful to" CT. That is a fairly loose promise that still needs more definition before we know the practical effects.

 

[Echo]

Actually, the exact words in the press release from Mongoose was:

"It is our aim to halt the fragmentation of the Traveller game, and reintroduce one solid system (based on Classic Traveller), with one source for the official Traveller universe".

Note: BASED on Classic Traveller, not just 'faithful' to it.

 

[hunter]

OK. I guess I was reading something else when I thought I was looking at the T20 rulebook.

My bad.

:nonono:

Regardless, it doesn't change my original point. Mongoose has only promised to be "faithful to" CT. That is a fairly loose promise that still needs more definition before we know the practical effects.

They are shooting for something pretty close to CT. Will it be the same. No. I sincerely hope that they scrap the world generation system and redo it from scratch. Cause it sucks. Badly.

 

[robject]

They are shooting for something pretty close to CT. Will it be the same. No. I sincerely hope that they scrap the world generation system and redo it from scratch. Cause it sucks. Badly.

Reminds me of an "old" song... "everybody wants a rock to wind a piece of string around"... or something like that... nurse, can I have my pills now, too, please?...

 

[Gadrin]

Has anyone seen a "you choose the parameters" type of system generator ?

I'd like the ability to say: I need a red dwarf or a binary system and have it do the modelling for me, then I can customize it as needed.

 

[daryen]

For what it's worth, I agree with you on that. Quite frankly, saying that Mongoose Traveller will be "faithful to" CT without necessarily being directly based on CT wasn't actually intended as an insult.

While I don't want whole new things added to Traveller (e.g. true AI, "grey goo" nanotech, transhumanism, force fields, etc.), I would sorely like to see silly and ridiculously unrealistic things updated to modern standards. Besides the world generation you mention, other examples of things that deserve to be changed is "per jump" pricing, stupid fuel usage, and no experience system.

 

[whartung]

Sorry, as is typical I'm coming late to the game...so to speak.

I don't understand why MWM is doing T5 at all. If MTV is going to be the "core" Traveller rule set, then why are we going have two coming out at the same time? Why not hand the whole kit over to Mongoose so they can consolidate it.

And if MTV <> T5, then, well, what's the point?

If T5 is "advanced" MTV, then why not have Mongoose publish it?

What the heck is "advanced" Traveller anyway? Book 4 vs Book 1? Why would we even have such a thing today? There was no "advanced" MT, no "advanced" TNE, GT, or T20 as far as I can tell. There were the core set, handling the majority of the tasks and rules of the game, and then there the added depth supplements.

FF&S wasn't "advanced" ship design in TNE, it was the ONLY ship design. TNE itself didn't have any kind of system whatsoever. And the TNE rule book had all of the combat rules, even for equipment that wasn't included (such as the large PA and Meson guns in FF&S).

If I get MWMs 1000pg T5 CDROM, is that MTV? Is it the same system? What about MTV's first release and MWMs smaller 380pg book? Isn't that completely and totally redundant? And if not identical, kind of confuses and bifurcates the (itsy bitsy teeny weeny) market Yet Again, eh?

If MWM said "MTV == T5, Mongoose is publishing it" then, great. Super. Swell. More people, COPY EDITORS, more eyes on the content. Cool beans.

But with what little I've heard so far, I've very confused, and quite depressed. CT, MT, TNE, T4, T20, GT, T5, MTV. Mongoose should just name it "Traveller Again -- The 'Thank you sir, may I have another!' edition".

Oh, by the way, I see "T5 -- 1000 pages" and I get The Fear. Wall to wall typos, bad cross-references, inconsistencies all padded with cut-n-pasted unread material that's 30 years old. Another 20 pages all about the Scout-Courier. Oh hazah!

Just have to wait and see I reckon.

 

[hunter]

For what it's worth, I agree with you on that. Quite frankly, saying that Mongoose Traveller will be "faithful to" CT without necessarily being directly based on CT wasn't actually intended as an insult.

I never took it to be. Just posting what little I know.

While I don't want whole new things added to Traveller (e.g. true AI, "grey goo" nanotech, transhumanism, force fields, etc.), I would sorely like to see silly and ridiculously unrealistic things updated to modern standards. Besides the world generation you mention, other examples of things that deserve to be changed is "per jump" pricing, stupid fuel usage, and no experience system.

We'll have to wait and see unfortunately.


Note: Daryen, I accidentally edited your post when I mean to quote it and didn't realize until I came to look at another response. I tried to fix your post back up to its original format. Sorry about that!

 

[Jeff M. Hopper]

LOL, after seeing this I have an overwhelming desire to nickname Mongoose Traveller, "Riki-Tiki-Traveller".

Must be the humidity...