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Traveller renaissance

Well, I ask because now because I'm just curious. I did ask back between 2012 to 2014 or thereabouts, but never got a response from him on that point. I'll never write professionally for Traveller now, but I was wondering what the criteria was; i.e. did you need a track record? Did you have to know him [Marc Miller] personally? What kind of license fee was needed? Did you need to contact a lawyer to contact his lawyer?

That kind of thing. At this point in my life it's like well, okay, whatever. A no-response is a no-response, and you can't really read into that on any level. But it's like I can't help but feel that a lot of my bafflement and angst regarding of when I wanted to write for this game would have been solved years ago had I and others had just gotten a clear directive on what was needed.

If you can address those points, that that would make a lot of things clear to not only me, but also to other aspiring authors.
 
If you can address those points, that that would make a lot of things clear to not only me, but also to other aspiring authors.
I can address some of it.

First, the single greatest obstacle is just reality. FFE is really just a one man operation with Marc being just one busy person. There are a lot of people who have a lot of ideas to do something and most go nowhere. So time is an enemy. That just is what it is.

That said, a lot depends on what you want to do. I have a friend who wants to write a book (young adult fiction). He sent an e-mail to Marc at the FFE gmail account and got a response with some simple conditions. An acknowledgement to protect the Traveller Trademark and a no rated-R content. That was it to write a book set an an alternate Traveller Universe.

The process would be harder for an official Traveller universe fiction book, because your Traveller facts would need to be checked by somebody. Remember, that means a part time volunteer.

A T5 adventure, would probably be the easiest thing to get approved at this point, because you only have Marc and FFE to deal with. However, the rules are undergoing a revision and the setting (some date in the future of the Imperium) has yet to be presented. So you would have some challenges there.

Now I have communicated a time or two with Matt (of Mongoose) and he seemed open to discussing the possibility of granting a sub-license to create a MgT product if you had something that didn't fit the standard license. I decided that for me, the investment in time to become a publisher was not worth the profits. Others have decided differently.

The 400 pond gorilla, is that Mongoose is the only one that I know of that would buy products and handle the rest of the publishing process. That is what they do with MJD (to the best of my knowledge). They pay a writer to write and add artwork and layout in-house. So whatever you want to create, you will need to sell it yourself, getting into the self-publishing business.

If you just wanted to write and get paid, Mongoose has a magazine that buys articles and Imperial-lines published articles for T5. Mongoose also has the TAS license (read carefully).

If you REALLY want a license to publish for T5, then treat it like a business. Come up with a short pitch for a proposed product and a plan to self publish it. Then contact FFE at gmail with your pitch and PM the Administrators here. They can flag your PM for Marc to read. If Marc gives you a thumbs up to proceed, then create a first draft of the product and a license. However, as a business, rather than a game, do your homework and have some idea what the costs will be. In short, convince Marc that you are the 1 in 100 that will actually produce something, not one of the 99 who just has an idea that will go nowhere.

Frankly, if it isn't Traveller IP material, it can be published under the OGL and does not need a Traveller License from Marc. So it really depends on what you want to do. I made splat books of weapons and ships. If I wanted to do so again, I would use the OGL until the revision to T5 came out or just contact Marc if I really wanted to do T5 stuff and plan on a data revision when the rules come out. Although I think places and mini-adventures are what is really in short supply at the moment. Something like the old Amber Zones from the early Magazines or the mini dungeons from Dragon Magazine (only for Traveller).

That's general data.
 
Well, I ask because now because I'm just curious. I did ask back between 2012 to 2014 or thereabouts, but never got a response from him on that point. I'll never write professionally for Traveller now, but I was wondering what the criteria was; i.e. did you need a track record? Did you have to know him [Marc Miller] personally? What kind of license fee was needed? Did you need to contact a lawyer to contact his lawyer?

That kind of thing. At this point in my life it's like well, okay, whatever. A no-response is a no-response, and you can't really read into that on any level. But it's like I can't help but feel that a lot of my bafflement and angst regarding of when I wanted to write for this game would have been solved years ago had I and others had just gotten a clear directive on what was needed.

If you can address those points, that that would make a lot of things clear to not only me, but also to other aspiring authors.
So what specifically would you want to write (not the idea, just the type of work)?

Fiction Book set in the Traveller Universe?
Setting Book for T5 (a world, a sector, a Race)?
An adventure for T5?
A Fantasy game based on the TNE rules?

Are you interested in publishing, or looking to sell manuscripts to a publisher?
 
First, the single greatest obstacle is just reality. FFE is really just a one man operation with Marc being just one busy person.


This cannot be stressed more strongly.

What also cannot be stressed more strongly is the flood of unsolicited proposals to FFE from unknown people with unproven track records. I don't even want to guess at the amount of "spam" FFE receives daily. A post on the SJGames Traveller forum several years ago is a great example of this.

The OP titled his thread something like What to do when Mr. Miller doesn't respond?. He described the "proposal" he had made and then expressed bewilderment why he hadn't received a response. The proposal and the utter stupidity behind it were breathtaking.
  • - The poster was pitching a video game idea to FFE.
  • - The poster had never been involved in any aspect of video game development.
  • - The poster's FATHER was taking a video game design course at a community college.
  • - The poster and his father both believed that coding a video game after a few credit hours from the Tri-County Tractor-Trailer & Technical Institute would be trivial.
  • - The poster and his father were worried that, because some Traveller ship illustrations looked vaguely like Star Destroyers from Star Wars, they might become embroiled in GDW's "obvious violation" of George Lucas' IP rights.

There was more idiocy, but you should get the picture. When you remember that most of the email FFE receives resembles that video game proposal, it isn't hard to understand why FFE resembles the Sphinx.

So Blue, what's your track record? What previous work can you show FFE and/or Mongoose to prove your bona fides? MJD can point to any number of RPG products, prior projects, works of fiction, and even professional reports so he gets a response to his pitches.

What's in your portfolio?
 
If Marc gives you a thumbs up to proceed, then create a first draft of the product and a license. However, as a business, rather than a game, do your homework and have some idea what the costs will be. In short, convince Marc that you are the 1 in 100 that will actually produce something, not one of the 99 who just has an idea that will go nowhere.

Frankly, if it isn't Traveller IP material, it can be published under the OGL and does not need a Traveller License from Marc. So it really depends on what you want to do. I made splat books of weapons and ships. If I wanted to do so again, I would use the OGL until the revision to T5 came out or just contact Marc if I really wanted to do T5 stuff and plan on a data revision when the rules come out. Although I think places and mini-adventures are what is really in short supply at the moment. Something like the old Amber Zones from the early Magazines or the mini dungeons from Dragon Magazine (only for Traveller).

That's general data.
I did that. I even sent him a copy of the draft of the time travel adventure (I did not know at the time that time-travel was a no-no for Traveller canon). I even published something via Loren when SJGames was still publishing their version of JTAS either the year before or that same year. John Watts published two of my adventures (which he's since pulled for whatever reason).

So, I'm not just some wide eyed fanboy, I've done stuff. And I dumped a couple thousand into two other adventures I thought might be good for either Mongoose or T5.

And you know, I get that being a one-man show is no easy feat. I used to be self employed running my own business, and not being the most organized man in the world, it ate up a lot of time. But I've done stuff for this game. And I felt like I was just hung out to dry or not wanted.

I sold my home in November 2015 because I couldn't afford to live in it anymore, and I had this crazy notion that I'd move up to where I am now, and just keep cranking out adventure material. I've got two fully finished drafts that I would have published had it not been for what I just described. And an additional 35 concepts in various draft forms, including one which I talked about on the Sylea BB thread.

So, between that and reading T5's rough, which, like a lot of people, didn't seem very appealing, it's like I lost a lot of love for the game as a whole. I'm sorry SJGames' license sunsetted because I might have just shoveled what I have their way. I'm sorry Hunter passed on not just for personal and general humanitarian reasons, but also because, like I've stated many times, he actually said that I could write for him, but I held off because I was finishing my degree at the time he and I talked.

So, anger, frustration, bafflement, ... it's all there, and at this point I don't care anymore. I think a good solution for someone like me and others would have been to have posted what you did in your response to me on the FFE website, or just say something like "Sorry, but we're not accepting submissions at this point." That would have gone a long way for me, and I would have found greener pastures long ago.

So, I don't know the guy, and at this point I don't want to know him. But I still think his creation is kind of cool, and so I toss in my two cents worth to see how to get it moving again.

And that's my position on the matter. Make of that what you will.
 
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Aramis, or someone in the know, can someone explain how Judge's Guild, FASA and everyone else "back in the day" were able to purchase a license to publish official material, and why that mechanism wasn't made available in more recent years?

The license that GDW offered was terminated in 1984.
Certain licensees were allowed to continue (DGP, Seeker).

Those ended in 1992 or so.

Sword of Knight was licensed as a commercialized fanzine publisher. That ended with GDW, in 1996.

SJG was licensed direct by Marc. That ended with time.

QLI was licensed direct by Marc. That ended due to a clause Marc missed in the contract with Mongoose.

Mongoose was and is licensed direct by Marc. That has an expiry date, and a renewal clause, neither of which is public record, but guarantees some exclusivity.

IP law is complex, and many of the actors in the gaming industry can be thought of as bad actors.

When/if one publishes as a 3PP for ANYTHING, one has few rights under US law. Derivative works are severely hampered. IP lawyers generally avoid recommending derivative works out of reflex.

Open Licenses are not well tested in court, either, so every open licensed product is a BIG risk.
 
This cannot be stressed more strongly.

What also cannot be stressed more strongly is the flood of unsolicited proposals to FFE from unknown people with unproven track records. I don't even want to guess at the amount of "spam" FFE receives daily. A post on the SJGames Traveller forum several years ago is a great example of this.

The OP titled his thread something like What to do when Mr. Miller doesn't respond?. He described the "proposal" he had made and then expressed bewilderment why he hadn't received a response. The proposal and the utter stupidity behind it were breathtaking.
  • - The poster was pitching a video game idea to FFE.
  • - The poster had never been involved in any aspect of video game development.
  • - The poster's FATHER was taking a video game design course at a community college.
  • - The poster and his father both believed that coding a video game after a few credit hours from the Tri-County Tractor-Trailer & Technical Institute would be trivial.
  • - The poster and his father were worried that, because some Traveller ship illustrations looked vaguely like Star Destroyers from Star Wars, they might become embroiled in GDW's "obvious violation" of George Lucas' IP rights.

There was more idiocy, but you should get the picture. When you remember that most of the email FFE receives resembles that video game proposal, it isn't hard to understand why FFE resembles the Sphinx.

So Blue, what's your track record? What previous work can you show FFE and/or Mongoose to prove your bona fides? MJD can point to any number of RPG products, prior projects, works of fiction, and even professional reports so he gets a response to his pitches.

What's in your portfolio?

Yanno, you'd be infinitely more productive with these reality check posts if you didn't slap people in the face with your cranky guy peevefish.
 
The license that GDW offered was terminated in 1984.
Certain licensees were allowed to continue (DGP, Seeker).

Those ended in 1992 or so.

Sword of Knight was licensed as a commercialized fanzine publisher. That ended with GDW, in 1996.

SJG was licensed direct by Marc. That ended with time.

QLI was licensed direct by Marc. That ended due to a clause Marc missed in the contract with Mongoose.

Mongoose was and is licensed direct by Marc. That has an expiry date, and a renewal clause, neither of which is public record, but guarantees some exclusivity.

IP law is complex, and many of the actors in the gaming industry can be thought of as bad actors.

When/if one publishes as a 3PP for ANYTHING, one has few rights under US law. Derivative works are severely hampered. IP lawyers generally avoid recommending derivative works out of reflex.

Open Licenses are not well tested in court, either, so every open licensed product is a BIG risk.
Well, how did they get them in the first place.
 
Well, I guess I just got an albatross around my neck. Whatever. I think I would have appreciated this a lot earlier than a cold shoulder.

And I've told you several times over the years.

I will say this: someone who complains about not having played in years is not someone I would buy product from, personally, nor license to.
 
And I have played in the last few years, and the two adventures I wrote for John were pretty good sellers. And the guys who tried my JTAS offering stated on this very board that they liked it. They liked it a lot.

Sales don't determine license. If that's how you're doing business, well, there's other less salient businesses to get involved with.
 
Open Licenses are not well tested in court, either, so every open licensed product is a BIG risk.

While technically true, I'm not sure how great the risk is. Going after Pathfinder would be one thing. Going after some kid in his mom's basement would be another.

GW wasted a million dollars suing ChapterHouse. They don't seem to have gotten much for their money. I'm sure the lawyers at Hasbro noticed.
 
While technically true, I'm not sure how great the risk is. Going after Pathfinder would be one thing. Going after some kid in his mom's basement would be another.

GW wasted a million dollars suing ChapterHouse. They don't seem to have gotten much for their money. I'm sure the lawyers at Hasbro noticed.

I just read the decision... GW won only in principle. And that's nothing to do with the open license issue. The judge stopped just shy of invalidating all of GW's claims; the judge ruled that ChapterHouse didn't present a substantial infringement.

And that's a judicial summary judgement trial... THey rolled the dice, and they lost.
 
I just read the decision... GW won only in principle. And that's nothing to do with the open license issue. The judge stopped just shy of invalidating all of GW's claims; the judge ruled that ChapterHouse didn't present a substantial infringement.

And that's a judicial summary judgement trial... THey rolled the dice, and they lost.

The same thing could happen with the OGL question. Still, somebody who owns real estate or a small business probably shouldn't risk it. Somebody who posts waifus on 4chan all day might as well.
 
Back on topic; it sounds like Mongoose is expanding the fan base. And if that's the case, then there's no need for a "renaissance" as such as it'll happen organically. Combine that with the new media property that's coming, and CT can be put to rest because MgT is essentially CT+ with expanded parameters that stick with the setting that's grown out of the formative years that a lot of us witnessed as players and Refs.

Neat.
 
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