New Era Sourcebooks

[clementk]

Originally posted by Ron Vutpakdi:
I do have to say that, for quite a while, looked at the symbol and wondered what a lobster was doing against the Imperial Sunburst...

Ron

Oooo! Get the lemons and butter! Watch out! *He's vengeful*!

(as long as it's not the lobster in that epi of Cowboy Bebop )

Seriously though if it were a larger image it would likely look better. Right now it's kinda SD. (Asu: KAWAII!)

Casey

 

[daryen]

Just to address some points on the potential Spinward States sourcebook.

First, it will not be just a rehash of the Regency Sourcebook. The Regency Sourcebook was about only one thing: the Regency. The Spinward States sourcebook will be about all of the Spinward States. It will also cover all four sectors of the former Domain of Deneb, including the very dynamic piece on the other side of the Rift.

As has been stated before, the Spinward States include the Imperial Regency, the League of Deneb, and the League of Spinward States. Plus the Aslan, Zhodani, Floriani, Regina, and other small states. It is truly a dynamic region.

Yes, there will be some overlap with the Regency Sourcebook, as far as the world data is concerned, because there has to be. But the differences will be far more noticable than the similarities. Granted only 46 years have passed, but a lot changed in those nearly five decades!

 

[Flynn]

Daryen,

Will Spinward States be your baby, or are you just expanding on the brief note about content?

Best of luck,
Flynn

 

[MJD]

Daryen has done a lot of the close-up development weork within my framework on the Sponward States.

I hope that he'll work with me on the Spinward States book, or even author it himself.

(Heh. What a way to break THAT news, huh?)

 

[daryen]

Originally posted by thrash:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by daryen:
It will also cover all four sectors of the former Domain of Deneb, including the very dynamic piece on the other side of the Rift.

Quibble: the piece of Reft sector on the other side of the Rift wasn't part of the Domain of Deneb.</font>[/QUOTE]Absolutely, completely true. The other side of the Reft sector was run by a different Domain of the Imperium.

But there is no Imperium anymore. (Actually there is an Imperium. But it is a new one, and doesn't have any "domains".) Things can change in odd ways ...

 

[daryen]

Originally posted by MJD:
Daryen has done a lot of the close-up development weork within my framework on the Sponward States.

I hope that he'll work with me on the Spinward States book, or even author it himself.

At the risk of exposing my inner "fanboy", I have to say I am honored to have contributed as much as I have, and look forward to continuing the effort.

Why the Spinward States? Because regardless of how "old" it is, regardless of how maddenly nonsensical things can be in it, regardless of how much it has been done to death, I still love the Spinward Marches.

(Heh. What a way to break THAT news, huh?)

I didn't know if you wanted it known, so I was trying to dance around it. But I just had to let people know that a Spinward States sourcebook will not be just Regency Sourcebook redux. While it is the "same ole place" it is also quite new.

 

[Flynn]

Congrats, Daryen!

Best of luck on this endeavour!

I've caught your website occasionally, and know that this section of space is a passion of yours, particularly the Darrians.

Enjoy,
Flynn

 

[DED]

Originally posted by daryen:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by MJD:
Daryen has done a lot of the close-up development weork within my framework on the Sponward States.

I hope that he'll work with me on the Spinward States book, or even author it himself.

At the risk of exposing my inner "fanboy", I have to say I am honored to have contributed as much as I have, and look forward to continuing the effort.</font>[/QUOTE]Congratulations Daryen!

Cheers! \_/

 

[Malenfant]

Originally posted by MJD:
1. The Spinward States Sourcebook: Successors to the Regency and their neighbours.

2. The Rimward States: The Solomani Imperium and the Terran Commonwealth, plus information on what's out on the rim beyond them.

3. The Trailing Edge: The United Worlds and the Freedom League (Reformation Coalition)

4. The Star Vikings: (this will be a difficult one) - playing a Star Viking campaign beyond Charted Space.

5. Pocket Empires: Empire-building etc in the Wilds.

I would also like to see adventures set in the New Era. These will be part of the 'TRaveller Epics' line: 20-25,000 words each, self-contained but can be in a linked series.

Question is, what do YOU want from the product line?

My preference is that you do the books in this order:

1) Trailing Edge
2) Rimward States
3) Star Vikings
4) Spinward States
5) Pocket Empires

Largely because I think the Spinward Marches area has really been done to death in Traveller, and it'd be nice to have somewhere new to base things instead.

Though maybe one could argue that was tried in TNE with the Star Vikings and didn't work out too well (even though that was a fine setting).

I guess you could swap the Rimward book for the Spinward book in my order of preference. But I'd like to see a Trailing Edge book first, no matter what.

 

[Stei'awtliyrl]

I'd like to see updated treatments of the Aliens books. Out of all my old CT material, those books got the most wear by far. I'd be careful not to put anything so critical in any of the books as to make them a further requirement to play the game. I'd like to see more of an in-depth guide to running campaigns in the various Alien states.

Tidbits like how Aslan Assassins actually operate within the Hierate, how the Clan structure changed and developed during the last 100+ years. More information on how Zhodani Society differs from Imperial, Vilani, or Solomani. Hiver and K'kree ambitions for the future. That sort of thing.

 

[clementk]

Originally posted by Stei'awtliyrl:
I'd like to see updated treatments of the Aliens books. Out of all my old CT material, those books got the most wear by far. I'd be careful not to put anything so critical in any of the books as to make them a further requirement to play the game. I'd like to see more of an in-depth guide to running campaigns in the various Alien states.

Well if you aren't concerned about game stats and such, the GT Aliens book do a good job of updating the CT Aliens books IMO.

Casey

 

[Stei'awtliyrl]

Do the GT books update the various Alien states to 1248 though? I was under the impression that this proposed line would deal with 1248 as "now" and advance from there.

 

[Malenfant]

I think there's a risk that we'd just be rehashing the same things over and over again in Traveller with new books.

re: Aliens, CT had the Aliens modules (now available as CT Reprint volumes), MT had the stuff in the Referees Companion and the DGP V&V and S&A alien books, TNE had the Hiver/Ithklur book, and GT has 4 alien races books that cover all the major races except the Vilani plus a lot of the Minor races (and those are also still available). One has to wonder how many times one needs to release books on the same subject here!

A lot of alien history between CT and 1248 seems to have been added in the TNE:1248 draft currently being playtested. I'm not sure that there'd be too much to expand into full books here, without repeating a lot of stuff that's already been printed before about history and culture.

 

[Flynn]

There's an Alien book that has been on the back burner for a while, that should address the game mechanics of 30+ aliens in T20 terms, plus a decent overview of the race's cultures, etc. While it won't cover the history of these races up to 1248, the basic data will be covered. Some of it will be a repeat, yes, but that can't be helped. For T20 players that have never played Traveller in other forms, the background data's a must.

Otherwise, QLI would follow in WOTC's footsteps with their Star Wars Alien Anthology and provide a simple 1-2 page synopsis of Alien stats per race, and pack 30+ races into a single Travellers' Aide supplement.

But this is getting off-topic,
Flynn

 

[clementk]

Originally posted by Stei'awtliyrl:
Do the GT books update the various Alien states to 1248 though? I was under the impression that this proposed line would deal with 1248 as "now" and advance from there.

Clarification, I meant the GT Aliens do a good job (from what I have seen) on "expanding" the CT Alien books. So you get a great deal of "fluff" on the alien culture that has nothing to do with rules.

And frankly any updates to 1248 from the CT era should be handled by the 1248 core book IMO.

Casey

 

[Elliot]

In my view the old friends of the Spinwards states and the Rimward States need to be done to put 1248 in line with previous editions of Traveller. Continuity is always a good thing. Daryen's a good choice for the first but who for the second?

 

[kafka47]

What I think that the Spinward sourcebook could do very well would be to focus on how a TL G civilization actually looks like.

The megalith that is CT has many glimmers of high tech life but never really goes into depth. Presumably, the high tech worlds form the composite of the Spinward worlds that would have survived the onslaught of the virus over the reach and the breaching of the frontier. Therefore, it would be great to see how this civilization actually works.

 

[daryen]

Originally posted by kafka47:
What I think that the Spinward sourcebook could do very well would be to focus on how a TL G civilization actually looks like.

I don't know how much we could do with that. The only full TL G societies are the worlds of Daryen and Vincennes. Daryen finally recovered TL G, and Vincennes has had it for a century now.

(Mora was given TL G, but I haven't decided whether it should keep it or not, as it is the epicenter for all of the turmoil in the Regency.)

But the vast majority of former Regency worlds were intentionally kept from TL G. And even the Darrian Confederation operates at less than TL G for the most part.

The ironic part of the TL G issue is how the Regency Sourcebook went overboard to explain how TL G is just an incremental improvement over TL F.

 

[Flynn]

Elliot,

I don't think anyone's put together an outline to submit to the Line Editor in regards to Rimward States yet. There's not really a lot of information out there yet to pull from. If no one has done so by the time I'm finished with my current projects for QLI, I will definitely consider the possibility myself.

I imagine that the Rimward States would probably address a "domain" sized region of space, probably focused on the Solomani Rim. That means the text would focus on one of the following four variations:
</font>

• Solomani Rim, Alpha Crucis, Neworld and Aldeberan sectors;</font>
• Solomani Rim, Alpha Crucis, Diaspora and Old Expanses sectors;</font>
• Solomani Rim, Magyar, Daibei and Diaspora sectors; or</font>
• Solomani Rim, Magyar, Aldeberan and Canopus sectors.</font>

I could be wrong about the intentions of this book, however. Before I propose an outline, I'll probably discuss the desired content more thoroughly with MJD first.

Then again, if another person becomes inspired enough to submit something before then, and it is approved, then we're more likely to see this book come out even sooner, assuming that the TNE 1248 product line sells as well as I hope it does.

Happy Holidays,
Flynn

 

[Malenfant]

Originally posted by Flynn:
I imagine that the Rimward States would probably address a "domain" sized region of space, probably focused on the Solomani Rim. That means the text would focus on one of the following four variations:
</font>

• Solomani Rim, Alpha Crucis, Neworld and Aldeberan sectors;</font>
• Solomani Rim, Magyar, Aldeberan and Canopus sectors.</font>

Note that Jon Zeigler is hoping to get Grand Frontiers - the Aldebaran Sector book - done at some point next year for GURPS Traveller (assuming he's not swamped by Interstellar Wars). I don't know if that would affect anything that QLI does, but it'd be nice if the books could actually agree with eachother.