What Would You Like to See from JBE?

[dmccoy1693]

I've posted this elsewhere. Now I'm asking here.

JBE is beginning to plan for our next Traveller book. What are your thought? Our current top ideas are a religion sourcebook (careers, ways to make yourown religions, sample religions, what religious governments look like etc), a warp ship book, a TL 9-11 fighter book, and a careers book.

What do you think? Do you like/hate any of these ideas? Do you have ideas you can suggest? What would you lime to see?

 

[shield]

A book of vehicles with really detailed look at them, not just the brief 1/2 page in the mongoose books - stuff the adventurers would use air/rafts, ATVs, a couple of nice grav cars, a grav truck etc.

How about a really detailed look at the corporation - something like the Avenger spinward salvage, or a megacorps operations in a particular subsector - Susag in District 268 springs to mind - with info on bases, ships, organisation , people, major NPCs and adventure hooks

Cheers
Richard

 

[dmccoy1693]

How about a really detailed look at the corporation - something like the Avenger spinward salvage, or a megacorps operations in a particular subsector - Susag in District 268 springs to mind - with info on bases, ships, organisation , people, major NPCs and adventure hooks

The Spinward Marches is off limits to me. I could do Foreven, but short answer is that I am not going to. Reason is because I spent a good portion of last year trying to come up with a Foreven sector book and the test audiences I showed it to hated it, citing it was far to divergent from the OTU. After that much work went to nothing, I'm not going to be doing anything OTU. I could do a general book on a megacorp, but my first reaction is that it would not go over well, since I'd be referring to places that exist in no one's campaign.

I might do a vehicle book. I'll keep that inmind.

 

[ThunderChilde]

A matter of scope and approach.

Hey, first a question, going to Travellercon again?

There is a way to do a complete write up on anything. Write it for a generic subsector, main office at the capital world, operations on most of the main worlds, blah, blah, blah. Don't actually write it to be based anywhere, leave it for the GM to plant it where he might need it. Mostly they would be used as a adventure hook in one way or another anyhow. Who care's what the worlds are named, if you feel the need, put in a blurb to the effect that you can place this anywhere or somesuch thing. A fine example are the Chamax adventures, they are on worlds in Foreven, but have been purloined and placed all over by various GM for thier OTU.

You really don't need a deep write up, a few key NPC's, a few notes on corporate motives, a section on look and feel of their operations, buildings or products, a basic org chart of somekind, a list of plot hooks and ding its done.

Just a bit of feedback, never heard anything about your finished foreven project, beyond some chatter while you were writing it, and honestly as I recall, I wasn't feeling jazzed by it back then.

I never saw Foreven as a place to write a defining book, but a place to pick a world or three, write up an adventure, or whatever, pocket empire, slave ring meh whatever and put it out for others to use where they want to in thier OTU's.

Just my .02 CrImp.
gets down off the soapbox so someone else can have a go

 

[Xerxeskingofking]

I would quite like to see a "low tech" spaceship book. somthing with example traders, warships etc built by a early stellar power (TL 9-10), the sort of thing you'd see in backwaters beyond the Imperium, or made by a early stellar member world for its own merchant and planetry navy.

you know the sort of things, reliant on solar panels to streach limited fuel supplies, slow, low M drive and J drive numbers, missle based armament with lasers seen as a cutting edge tech, ect.

 

[Spinward Scout]

How about a 'Spacer's Guide to Space' or a 'Space Survival Guide'?

Like an expansion of the Spacecraft Operations chapter in the rulebook. But also with things like: VACC Suit operations, zero-G maneuvers, what to do if stranded on a ball of rock someplace in Charted Space, equipment for Space Travellers, etc...

Double check with Mongoose Matt, tho. He told me a couple of years ago that there might be something like this coming down the pipe. If it's been delayed or discarded, it might be an idea for you to pick up.

 

[dmccoy1693]

Hey, first a question, going to Travellercon again?

More than likely, yes, but we're not 100% certain yet.

Just a bit of feedback, never heard anything about your finished foreven project, beyond some chatter while you were writing it, and honestly as I recall, I wasn't feeling jazzed by it back then.

Yea I got that from just about everyone I showed it to. I gave up on it. Its never going to be published.

 

[HiverLord]

How about a 'Spacer's Guide to Space' or a 'Space Survival Guide'?

Like an expansion of the Spacecraft Operations chapter in the rulebook. But also with things like: VACC Suit operations, zero-G maneuvers, what to do if stranded on a ball of rock someplace in Charted Space, equipment for Space Travellers, etc...

I really second this! It'd make it much easier to get 'newbies' into the setting; hand them a set of procedures and have at it...

 

[saundby]

How about a really crunchy book for generating planets, systems, subsectors and sectors then fleshing them out in magnificent detail?

At the low level info like geography, geology, microbes, plant life, better tools for animal definition than in the core book, ecological links between things, local and introduced races, cities, port specifics, on up through multiple inhabited planets in a system, intra-system and inter-system trade routes and economics, and up to tools for handling things like supernovas, political upheavals, and other stuff that affects fairly large areas.

Throw in a bunch of tables for solo play on top of that, perhaps. Seems like a good mix to me.

In the published material I miss things that make it easier to generate low level details that tend to get overlooked (like plant life), and in MGT there's not as much high level campaign stuff as I'd like (e.g. trade route tools, large-scale economics & politics.)

In many cases I end up developing a little program for myself to use for one thing or another that I want help with, but I'd just as soon get this from a book. Check out what I've had to say here about MGT Merchant Prince, B5, and Hammer's Slammers for examples of what I'm looking for, but not finding, on a campaign level.