MGT Only: Traveller Book Writer Call

[MongooseMatt]

Mongoose Publishing is currently looking for established writers to work on books for our Traveller RPG. Traveller remains one of the most popular science-fiction roleplaying games on the market and its huge scope guarantees projects of interest to the right person.

We are currently looking for writers for these specific projects, though we are always happy to hear other ideas.

2300AD Adventures
Wild West setting book and supplements
Steampunk setting book and supplements
Pirates (how they act, how they gather - part career book, part supplement)
Third Imperium Sectors/Alien Modules (not that canon has to be adhered to, and your text will be picked apart!)
Adventures/Mini-Campaigns (in the style of Beltstrike, Prison Planet and Trillion Credit Squadron)
Judge Dredd Adventures and Sourcebooks

If you are an established writer with past gaming credits to your name, send a one page outline of a project you wish to work on, highlighting proposed chapters and why you think the book will be so cool, to msprange@mongoosepublishing.com

Mongoose Publishing compensates writers of Traveller books by immediate sharing of revenue (35%) on sales of all electronic books. Given the popularity of Traveller, this can be quite lucrative for the right author and book.

If you are not an established writer, we are currently looking for several Traveller articles, which can be found here;

http://forum.mongoosepublishing.com/viewtopic.php?f=89&t=49362

Some of the writers of past articles are now working on full titles for Traveller, so it is a good place to start!

 

[Vladika]

Third Imperium Sectors/Alien Modules (not that canon has to be adhered to, and your text will be picked apart!)

And here you go again...

This is guaranteed to piss off a lot of people. Is diverging from canon an established Mongoose policy?

 

[dmccoy1693]

Third Imperium Sectors/Alien Modules (not that canon has to be adhered to, and your text will be picked apart!)

And here you go again...

This is guaranteed to piss off a lot of people. Is diverging from canon an established Mongoose policy?

I would assume that the word not is simply missing an e.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Note... note....

 

[whulorigan]

Third Imperium Sectors/Alien Modules (not that canon has to be adhered to, and your text will be picked apart!)

I would assume that the word not is simply missing an e.

Note... note....

Now there's a typo that :CoW:

 

[CosmicGamer]

Note... note....

Another mongoose release without proper editing? :devil:

I figure Matt has thick skin by now and can take the joke, after all it was a big error.

 

[Timerover51]

Mongoose Publishing is currently looking for established writers to work on books for our Traveller RPG. Traveller remains one of the most popular science-fiction roleplaying games on the market and its huge scope guarantees projects of interest to the right person.

Wild West setting book and supplements

Are the settings for Traveller or for an existing Wild West setting game? Is it to be historical Wild West or fictional, and if fictional. what is the basis?

Steampunk setting book and supplements

I assume that something directly referencing Space: 1889 would not fly, or do you have a license for that? Again, established game or more of a source book? There is also the following book available on Project Gutenberg, Edison's Conquest of Mars, by Garrett Putman Serviss, published in 1899, as a sequel to H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds.

Pirates (how they act, how they gather - part career book, part supplement)

Wet navy pirates, space pirates, or generic pirates of all kinds? Also, are you thinking of the classic Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean in the late 1600s, the Barbary Corsairs, the Vikings, piracy in the Caribbean in the 1820s, current pirate activities off of the coasts of Somalia and Nigeria, or past and present piracy operations in the Indonesia area? Then there is also the piratical operations of the Knights of St. John of Malta, and the very odd quasi-war/piracy carried out in the early to mid 1500s in the Mediterranean.

If you are an established writer with past gaming credits to your name, send a one page outline of a project you wish to work on, highlighting proposed chapters and why you think the book will be so cool, to msprange@mongoosepublishing.com

Mongoose Publishing compensates writers of Traveller books by immediate sharing of revenue (35%) on sales of all electronic books. Given the popularity of Traveller, this can be quite lucrative for the right author and book.

If you are not an established writer, we are currently looking for several Traveller articles, which can be found here;

http://forum.mongoosepublishing.com/viewtopic.php?f=89&t=49362

Some of the writers of past articles are now working on full titles for Traveller, so it is a good place to start!

Must the Traveller material conform to Mongoose Traveller canon, if not, then what canon is to be followed? I have worked as a consultant, mainly in the technical areas for several game companies. I presume that does not make me an established writer.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Are the settings for Traveller or for an existing Wild West setting game? Is it to be historical Wild West or fictional, and if fictional. what is the basis?

We would consider proposals on either (there are good arguments on both sides of being historical or fantastic).

I assume that something directly referencing Space: 1889 would not fly, or do you have a license for that? Again, established game or more of a source book? There is also the following book available on Project Gutenberg, Edison's Conquest of Mars, by Garrett Putman Serviss, published in 1899, as a sequel to H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds.

I am afraid these direct sources would be out (though we did once briefly discuss Space 1889 as a Traveller game).

Wet navy pirates, space pirates, or generic pirates of all kinds? Also, are you thinking of the classic Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean in the late 1600s, the Barbary Corsairs, the Vikings, piracy in the Caribbean in the 1820s, current pirate activities of of the coasts of Somalia and Nigeria, or past and present piracy operations in the Indonesia area? Then there is also the piratical operations of the Knights of St. John of Malta, and the very odd quasi-war/piracy carried out in the early to mid 1500s in the Mediterranean.

In that list, we were thinking more of Book 11: Pirate, part career, part sourcebook for having pirates in the game.

However, there is also an ongoing project to take Traveller and plonk it in the Carribean (the system is an almost perfect fit), and I would very much like to see that completed.

Must the Traveller material conform to Mongoose Traveller canon, if not, then what canon is to be followed?

If the material is 3I, it goes under the very close scrutiny of Marc's Wizards. It will take time and it will require revision.

I have worked as a consultant, mainly in the technical areas for several game companies. I presume that does not make me an established writer.

It doesn't, but if you feel you have gained the necessary skills, give us a shout. You never know.

 

[Shonner]

The messenger's text is picked apart.

Anyway, I prefer that Mongoose alien books have less to do with canon. More about the alien race part. Preferably rebooted rather than just re-hashing the '80s.

 

[rancke]

The messenger's text is picked apart.

Anyway, I prefer that Mongoose alien books have less to do with canon. More about the alien race part. Preferably rebooted rather than just re-hashing the '80s.

I would have preferred going back to the original canon. MT messed up Aslans and Vargr something firece, which was never fixed.

(Not that the original Alien modules were flawless. I would have liked some intermediate organizatorial levels between Aslan prides of several hundred and clans of tens of billions, for example.)


Hans

 

[Kilgs]

It'd be nice if someone could deviate from canon on the Ithklur as well...

 

[GypsyComet]

I would have preferred going back to the original canon. MT messed up Aslans and Vargr something firece, which was never fixed.

(Not that the original Alien modules were flawless. I would have liked some intermediate organizatorial levels between Aslan prides of several hundred and clans of tens of billions, for example.)

The original CT modules were painted with a broad brush, certainly.

Overall I think time and revision have affected the Aslan more than the Vargr.

The Vargr need to be turned down a notch, on average, or the historical circumstances that allowed them to develop jump drive need to be called out as more extraordinary than is currently recognized. What the books, all of them, have described has to be one end of the Vargr psychological spectrum. If they were all that dominance driven all the time, nothing would get done. They can have far more blatant psychopomps than Humanity does and still function, as long as there are still enough stay-at-homes to maintain civilization.

Still, that's an easy fix compared to the Aslan. If I had to change only one thing in the MGT treatment of the Aslan it would be the faces, ears included, but the list is longer and more subtle than that. And more difficult to write, apparently.

To help with this tendency to wander off, I'd actually like to see Mongoose expand the Aliens chapter in the main book. Give both the building blocks and the deliberately variant depictions of the Traveller races a whole book to be Non-Canon. Go wild. Maybe even toolbox the races themselves, presenting several different ways to use the basic descriptions. As a point of protocol, give each a new name, but also tie them back to the main book descriptions ("The Stezhi use the same Alien keywords as the Zhodani on page xx of the Main Rule Book."). Then, if someone wants to use the K'kree like Frankish Knights ("L'kree"?), or the Aslan like Mongols, the brainstorm is already underway.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Maybe even toolbox the races themselves,

This is being worked on...

 

[GypsyComet]

This is being worked on...

I look forward to it.

 

[Highorbit_drifter]

It'd be nice if someone could deviate from canon on the Ithklur as well...

Oh, please in the name of Yaskoydray, yes!!

 

[mike wightman]

Read Dave Nilsen's explanation behind them and you will realise there is no reason to change them at all - they are one of the most interesting alien races introduced into Traveller. A lot of people didn't/don't like some of the tongue in cheek humour used by the author in the Alien's of the Rim supplement, but when you read about the adventures that would have followed...

now there's a thought for MgT, advance the TNE timeline :CoW:

Another MgT supplement I would like to see is a Starship Owner's Manual which explains all the ship technology and standard operation procedures for typical adventure class ships.

A Hive federation sourcebook for the CT era could be good too.

 

[robject]

now there's a thought for MgT, advance the TNE timeline :CoW:

There's no :CoW: there. We've already got a timeline to 1248, so it's a given that the timeline marches on.

 

[whulorigan]

Read Dave Nilsen's explanation behind them and you will realise there is no reason to change them at all - they are one of the most interesting alien races introduced into Traveller. A lot of people didn't/don't like some of the tongue in cheek humour used by the author in the Alien's of the Rim supplement, but when you read about the adventures that would have followed...

Agreed. I was one of those who was really annoyed when I first read the TNE Ithklur material. I though it was an introduction of some slapstick humor into published Traveller products (which I always hated in game supplements for other systems, as I tend to be a serious role-player).

My opinion did a 180-degree about-face when I read Dave Nilsen's explanation of where they had been intending to go with the Ithklur. They were really thought-out in an interesting manner in terms of their status as subjects of the Hivers. The point Nilsen made was that GDW folded before they could do any of the fleshing out of the ideas in a published format, and so none of the Traveller audience really new what was going on with the Ithklur, or the explanation for the "bizarre" elements.

 

[Timerover51]

Greetings, Matt. I have sent you an email regarding the Wild West and Pirates in the Caribbean subjects.

 

[aramis]

Agreed. I was one of those who was really annoyed when I first read the TNE Ithklur material. I though it was an introduction of some slapstick humor into published Traveller products (which I always hated in game supplements for other systems, as I tend to be a serious role-player).

My opinion did a 180-degree about-face when I read Dave Nilsen's explanation of where they had been intending to go with the Ithklur. They were really thought-out in an interesting manner in terms of their status as subjects of the Hivers. The point Nilsen made was that GDW folded before they could do any of the fleshing out of the ideas in a published format, and so none of the Traveller audience really new what was going on with the Ithklur, or the explanation for the "bizarre" elements.

Couple that to the Nastygram in the introduction, and you get a lot of "What a ___ (unkind adjective)" feelings about H&I.