More Mongoose Meddling or Welcome Wonderment?

[beowulf2044]

I should have been more specific on my dislike of the stutter-warp drive. The 'drive' part was fine. It was the strange you-have-to-dump-the-radioactive-particle-thingies-in-a-gravity-well-and-that's-why-brown-dwarf-stars-are-so-important-but-I'm-sure-we-can't-just-spin-or-blow-the-crap-out-and-that's-why-we're-stuck-here-for-a-specific-length-of-time-stuff.

It was a little weird.

 

[Sturn]

I don't recall the specifics without digging in a box for a book. But, there was something about having two stutterwarp drives, using the first, jettison it in space, bring another online for the 2nd part of the trip. I don't recall the details without refreshing my memory, but the procedure allowed you to expensively break the 7.7 LY limit (by 50%?) in order to "back door" the Kafers.

I liked the 2300 AD setting. The only thing I didn't like is the smallness (which was also a like). It didn't have the "do anything" environment of Traveller. A group of players wanted to take over an obscure colony? Wouldn't happen. Set up a pocket empire of your own? Wouldn't make sense in 2300 AD, etc. But I loved the feel of the setting.

 

[tbeard1999]

I think I did. It's still flame-bait.

Given that S4 quoted Matt, this seems a dubious assertion. Unless, of course, you think that Matt is complicit in flame-baiting...

 

[tbeard1999]

FWIW, I object to glomming 2300 AD into the OTU for the following reasons:

1. Very different tech assumptions exist in each universe (in particular, 2300AD lacks gravitics and the stutterwarp drive is a fundamentally different drive than the jump drive).

2. Very different official histories.

3. No worthwhile reason to do so IMHO. It will irritate fans of both universes and add nothing to either universe. It's also a sloppy way to leverage past efforts IMHO.

Now, a 2300 AD version powered by MGT might be worthwhile, for those who like the MGT system.

 

[Jame]

FWIW, I object to glomming 2300 AD into the OTU for the following reasons:

1. Very different tech assumptions exist in each universe (in particular, 2300AD lacks gravitics and the stutterwarp drive is a fundamentally different drive than the jump drive).

2. Very different official histories.

3. No worthwhile reason to do so IMHO. It will irritate fans of both universes and add nothing to either universe. It's also a sloppy way to leverage past efforts IMHO.

Now, a 2300 AD version powered by MGT might be worthwhile, for those who like the MGT system.

I completely agree - give me 2300 AD powered by MGT (a la Star Trek Powered By GURPS :smirk: ), not 2300 AD-as-part-of-the-OTU.

 

[rancke]

Why stop with mashing 2300 AD into the OTU? How about integrating the Babylon 5 universe too? The action takes place around 2250, so it should be easy to fit it together with 2300AD, and they could both be prehistory for the 3rd Imperium. Oh, and Conan too!


Hans

 

[Sturn]

Oh, and Conan too!

Hans

LOL. Wasn't Atlantis a secret Vilani colony?

 

[Colin]

2300AD for Mongoose Traveller won't be an OTU prequel. At least, not if I have anything to do with it. And I very likely will.

Tech differences are just too severe. And then there's the aliens. 2300AD has at least six other species beyond the humans who would have "Major" status in the OTU (Pentapods, Kafers, Ylii, Eber, Medusa, and their Enemy) One could argue that perhaps some of these races stole their FTL tech from another (Kafer from Ylii, etc). But I wouldn't.

At the same time, one could make the argument the 2300AD has too many star-faring species, but that's a discussion for another time.

 

[rancke]

2300AD for Mongoose Traveller won't be an OTU prequel. At least, not if I have anything to do with it. And I very likely will.

Be fair, Colin. MM allowed Mongoose to turn the Aslans into Lion-men. How can we possibly tell where he'll draw the line after that?


Hans


(>>Sigh<< It really saddens me that I believe it much too likely that someone will take me seriously unless I bung in a ''. )

 

[Sturn]

2300AD for Mongoose Traveller won't be an OTU prequel. At least, not if I have anything to do with it. And I very likely will.

I no diddly about all the licensing issues. Do you still have some sort of legal rights over the 2300 AD Universe? I mean in order to publish a 23XX AD Mongoose product, does it take both you and Mongoose to get togather? If Mongoose started working on a 2300 AD release, I would hope you would have some major influence. The content/quality of the old PDF, the old artwork, and Mongoose coming togather would probably equal big $ for 2300 AD at last.

 

[mbrinkhues]

Actually getting 2300AD to run with the MGT HighGuard "system" will be a "no fun" for whoever has to do it. In 2300AD things like "availabel power in Megawatt" and "maximum drive-intake in Megawatt" are essential parts of the background. Take those out and nothing stops the Germans from building a 7.7Lightyears/day Sachsen FFG. And since MGT HG lacks power consumption...

 

[Colin]

Barring an unforeseen happenstance, I will be working on Mongoose 2300AD.

I don't own 2300AD in any way, shape or form. I don't have to be part of any writing for it. I just want to be.

As for the question about starship power in any portion of Mongoose 2300, that question has already been discussed.

 

[Mithras]

S4, you don't play Mongoose Traveller do you? How will it affect you?

For the Record: I was a massive 2300AD fan back in the 90s, to be replaced with Cyberpunk ...

 

[Beech]

Barring an unforeseen happenstance, I will be working on Mongoose 2300AD.

And we are so glad you are. The quality of (the unfinished) 2320AD was excellent and without you and a few vocal fans this setting could quite easily have died years ago.
Thanks for keeping with it (as I know you almost didn't at one point).

 

[RockyMountainNavy]

Timeline Mash-Ups

Diverging timelines are not necessarily bad. Just look at the reboot Trek to see what it does!

H. Beam Piper, one of the forefathers of Traveller, used the concept of "Paratimes" in his books. Our timeline is but one of five levels in his books, with his Terran Federation (the basis for most of his stories) as another. For more info see http://hbpiper.wikispaces.com/Paratime or http://hbpiper.wikispaces.com/chronology.

Oh, and for the previous poster who said why don't we add Conan into our timeline - you obviously haven't discovered the REAL history of our world, as first discovered by Phillip Jose Farmer and the Wold Newton Universe (see http://www.pjfarmer.com/woldnewton/Pulp2.htm and scroll down to the Crossover Chronology).

If you had discovered Wold Newton, you would already know that the Cthulhu Mythos and the Hyborian Age, as well as the writing of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells and others really ARE part of our history. Captain Nemo and James Bond are real people! Its just the "Conspiracy" that keeps the truth from us (which X-Files tried to expose).

The OTU is there, but it is just one option...to use Piper's terms it is another level on the Paratime.

 

[robject]

Barring an unforeseen happenstance, I will be working on Mongoose 2300AD.

That's very good to hear!

 

[Shadowfax]

Nearly impossible to merge 2300 AD and OTU without making major changes to one or both:

3. Technology levels not compatible. 2300 AD has plasma guns. So that's TL 12? But they don't have grav vehicles that are obtained at TL 9? Etc. Easier to make up some new TL charts specifically for a 2300 AD campaign book then attempt to adapt 2300 AD to Traveller TL's.

Just a thought on this. . . . The TL Descriptions list everything that would "Normally" be possible technologically-speaking at a given TL, but that doesn't mean that everyone necessarily HAS adopted all the same stuff. I mean TV was possible before WWI, but we didn't get it until well after WWII. The fax has been around in a very primitive form since 1843. Even excluding all the development issues some new technologies that are developed may not make it mainstream, because of social, cultural, economic or political reasons.

 

[MJD]

Long time ago, (2004 maybe) I recall Matt asking me about the possibility of running 2300 and OTU together into one universe, and I pointed out the various reasons why it wasn't doable.

I suspect that's what Matt is referring to - he thought it was a possibility, but did some investigating and decided it wasn't possible.

Matt's post reads pretty clearly to me - the only change he thought about making was that one, and that one is now hugely unlikely.

 

[mike wightman]

Just a thought on this. . . . The TL Descriptions list everything that would "Normally" be possible technologically-speaking at a given TL, but that doesn't mean that everyone necessarily HAS adopted all the same stuff. I mean TV was possible before WWI, but we didn't get it until well after WWII. The fax has been around in a very primitive form since 1843. Even excluding all the development issues some new technologies that are developed may not make it mainstream, because of social, cultural, economic or political reasons.

A good point - and one are of technology that has always been a priority here on Earth is coming up with more interesting ways to reduce the world population

Hence weapon TL could easily be a couple over the average.

As to why no grav vehicles there is a simple answer - the stutterwarp.
Stutterwarp drives and artificial gravity do not get on well - the drive keeps discharging and reducing effiiciency or something like that.

 

[mike wightman]

I actually like the idea of T2300 being an historical period of the OTU - so much so that IMTU it is. The various aliens still make an appearance in the 57th century too

A couple of tweaks I made was to move the Vilani a lot further away - it was the Bayern who found evidence for them IMTU - and begin the interstellar wars much later.