Why Mongoose?

[Shonner]

There's a few things. Adding an attribute increase system to the experience rules for once play has started and adjusting the TL of a few items (e.g. a 350,000 cr, 3.5 kg bioscanner is TL 11, not TL 15) for example.

I don't consider those breaks in the system.

 

[Supplement Four]

The answer is easy, it's in print.......

I've always wondered why a game being "in print" is such an attraction. For me, the opposite is true. If a game is now out of print (provided the game can be had at a reasonable price--sometimes a hugely discounted price), then the complete game is available. You're not waiting months or years for a particular supplement to come out. You know the entire game line. I'd much rather pick from a full shelf than from one that is being occasionally stocked.

 

[infojunky]

I've always wondered why a game being "in print" is such an attraction. For me, the opposite is true.

Why In Print, mostly that there is someone out there thinking about the game enough to put new material out for it. With the advent of the internet and the WWW it is better for old niche games in that some die hard fan will post their stuff and ideas but frequently that community is stable or shrinking.

Believe me I understand the desirability of a "complete game system" in one that is out of production. Just get me started on TFT or Car Wars.

 

[Supplement Four]

Why In Print...

I've just noticed that many, maybe most, people prefer a game to be in print. It just seems backwards thinking to me.

 

[rancke]

I've always wondered why a game being "in print" is such an attraction. For me, the opposite is true. If a game is now out of print (provided the game can be had at a reasonable price--sometimes a hugely discounted price), then the complete game is available. You're not waiting months or years for a particular supplement to come out. You know the entire game line. I'd much rather pick from a full shelf than from one that is being occasionally stocked.

The attraction, especially for a setting encompassing a lot more than what has already been covered, is that it is still being supported. That means other people are still working to increase the scope of my campaign setting. If the support stops, I might as well have designed my own game from the start, since I will have to do all the remaining work myself anyway.

It's true that if I can't use the stuff others produce I'm no better off than if I'd gone my own way in the first place, but I'm no worse off either, and there are usually nuggets to be found in even the drossiest dross.


Hans

 

[Garyius2003]

The attraction, especially for a setting encompassing a lot more than what has already been covered, is that it is still being supported. That means other people are still working to increase the scope of my campaign setting. If the support stops, I might as well have designed my own game from the start, since I will have to do all the remaining work myself anyway.

It's true that if I can't use the stuff others produce I'm no better off than if I'd gone my own way in the first place, but I'm no worse off either, and there are usually nuggets to be found in even the drossiest dross.


Hans

+1

 

[Baron]

Having something in print isn't a factor for me, especially with the age of the internet. Also I don't like to support the "edition cycle." If I like a game, I play it. I won't get caught up in having to buy all new books every few years. Sell me supplements and adventures and stuff, not new editions of rules.

 

[infojunky]

Having something in print isn't a factor for me, especially with the age of the internet. Also I don't like to support the "edition cycle." If I like a game, I play it. I won't get caught up in having to buy all new books every few years. Sell me supplements and adventures and stuff, not new editions of rules.

That was the big plus for me with MgT, as it revitalized all the work I had put into CT. I spent 10+ years running games out of the same index card file, which largely got put aside about the time MT dies and TNE was released. Well it has come full circle and all that stuff is useful again.

 

[Supplement Four]

The attraction, especially for a setting encompassing a lot more than what has already been covered, is that it is still being supported. That means other people are still working to increase the scope of my campaign setting. If the support stops, I might as well have designed my own game from the start, since I will have to do all the remaining work myself anyway.

This still makes no sense to me. Would you rather play Mongoose Traveller right when it starts, when just the core game book is available? Or, after the game has been established, when a third of the material is available (say, 3-5 years into the game's production life). Half-way through, with half the total books?

Or, would you rather play Mongoose Trav once EVERYTHING is out?

If I had a choice, I'd go with the last one*.





*of course, there are several other factors that go into when to play a game. Desire to play is paramount, and, I agree, the "heat" is on when a game is being heavily marketed and seems "new".

I came to Mongoose's Conan RPG late, just a year or two before publishing stopped. And, I'm glad I got into the game then rather than in the beginning? Why? Well, I started with the best set of rules. Mongoose Conan went through three editions, and I started with the latest one. Also, I could see all the supplements that were made, buy what I wanted, and rock-n-roll from there (I ended up buying the entire game, and I got a lot of it at close-out costs as the word spread that it would no longer be published.

Clearly, imo, I'd much rather play a completed, established game than get in on the beginning when it could be 10 years or more (for a popular game) to see all the supplements.

--which is why I wonder why someone would rather play a game that is "in print".



EDIT: The only "effect" that I find different with Mongoose Conan is that not too many people want to talk about it. It would be fun to talk about some aspects of the game, but it's a niche game with, I guess, not too many followers. If it were "in print", there'd still be people at the Mongoose forum talking about it. But on the other hand...how much does that really matter? I've got may campaign, and we're enjoying the heck out of it.

 

[rancke]

This still makes no sense to me. Would you rather play Mongoose Traveller right when it starts, when just the core game book is available? Or, after the game has been established, when a third of the material is available (say, 3-5 years into the game's production life). Half-way through, with half the total books?

Or, would you rather play Mongoose Trav once EVERYTHING is out?

If I had a choice, I'd go with the last one*.

The choices are not equal. Especially not with a game like Traveller, where most of the existing background material was, in a sense, already available when the very first MgT book was published. But be that as it may, you're shifting the goalposts. Originally you were speaking of a choice between a game that was still in print and one that was no longer in print, all the material that would ever be available for it already published. Now you're talking about a game that has just begun being published vs. one that is one third published, in print and still being supported, with two thirds more to come. Two completely different choices.

As for your third choice, the one you prefer, that choice is not available yet and won't be for quite a while, it appears. You might as well ask if I prefer a less capable computer now to a much better one three years from now. The less capable one is available now, so you can bet I'd prefer that one to waiting three years for the better one to come along.

And in case you mistyped and was talking about a previous Traveller incarnation, odds are that I already have it (I missed out on T1248, alas, and haven't a clue about Hero Traveller, but otherwise I'm pretty much up to speed with previous incarnations, except for a few books I never got).


Hans

 

[GypsyComet]

I'd much rather play a completed, established game than get in on the beginning when it could be 10 years or more (for a popular game) to see all the supplements.

--which is why I wonder why someone would rather play a game that is "in print".

"In print" has the advantage of being able to equip newcomers legally.

Marc still sells 80-90% of everything published under the name of Traveller (DGP and some other odd bits excepted), so it is all "in print", whether development of a particular edition continues or not.

Your position is far more applicable to the popular wargaming environment, where playing, for example, 5th edition 40k (as we roll into 7th) means you are immune to GW's whims and resistant to their aggressive marketing model.

By comparison, as Hans points out, Traveller's setting remains even when editions change, and as an RPG it is not subject to the straightjacket of competitive play that requires everyone be playing the same way.

This still makes no sense to me.

In contrast, those who feel constrained to one edition in the continuum that is Traveller are the ones who make no sense to me.

 

[Supplement Four]

In contrast, those who feel constrained to one edition in the continuum that is Traveller are the ones who make no sense to me.

I can see that. I've tried other editions. I played MT for a long time (years), and I gave T4 a real go. Ended my MT campaign with T4. I own much of TNE, but the setting and rules turned me off. I've read enough of T5 to doubt that it will ever grace my gaming table.

Nothing I've seen touches me the way CT does.

Part of my CT tunnel vision is selfish. If someone comes out with a new Traveller item, I'd like it to be 100% compatible with CT. That way, it's a new CT item!

 

[aramis]

I've always wondered why a game being "in print" is such an attraction. For me, the opposite is true. If a game is now out of print (provided the game can be had at a reasonable price--sometimes a hugely discounted price), then the complete game is available. You're not waiting months or years for a particular supplement to come out. You know the entire game line. I'd much rather pick from a full shelf than from one that is being occasionally stocked.

1) if you need to replace the book due to damage or misplacement, you can.
2) if your players want to get their own copy, it is reasonably easy to do.
3) There is new material being made.
4) it indicates that players will be easier to find

 

[Hyphen]

In contrast, those who feel constrained to one edition in the continuum that is Traveller are the ones who make no sense to me.

+1

I'm a great fan of MT (really, the task system) but cannot understand anyone who has a rabid aversion to one or more Trav systems.

To me, it's all good. Well, that is (like an earlier commentator), I can find gems in EVERY version of Traveller...
from extended character creation, Twilight's Peak and the Grand Tour (CT)...
to the Starship Operator's Guide and World Builder's Handbook (MT)...
to Arrival Vengeance* and Path of Tears and how you can really write up an adventure (TNE)...
to Pocket Empires (T4)...
to all the great background-usable GURPS books such as Starports (GT)...
to the cool equipment (space axes!) in T20...
to Fighting Ships where someone did deckplans for a Tigress??!! (RTT)...
even to good ol' fashioned Library Data (all editions).

I guess I'm rather "catholic" in my tastes.

(*) OK, so maybe this was the final throw of the MT dice. Maybe you'd prefer I said Survival Margin?

 

[dmccoy1693]

1) if you need to replace the book due to damage or misplacement, you can.
2) if your players want to get their own copy, it is reasonably easy to do.
3) There is new material being made.
4) it indicates that players will be easier to find

3a) An in print edition can produce a book that fans are clamoring for instead of that book never being made.

5) An in print edition has the ability to look at older editions, use what worked and fix what did not work. (obviously does not apply to those that feel that a previous version is perfect)

6) An in print edition can go back and fix a book that was not quite right the first time (i.e. Supplement 5-6 Vehicles Handbook fixing S5 and S6).

7) An in print edition will (hopefully) use more modern influences instead of being limited to influences of years or decades ago.

 

[aramis]

3a) An in print edition can produce a book that fans are clamoring for instead of that book never being made.

5) An in print edition has the ability to look at older editions, use what worked and fix what did not work. (obviously does not apply to those that feel that a previous version is perfect)

6) An in print edition can go back and fix a book that was not quite right the first time (i.e. Supplement 5-6 Vehicles Handbook fixing S5 and S6).

7) An in print edition will (hopefully) use more modern influences instead of being limited to influences of years or decades ago.

7 is Oh, so true.

6a) errata applied versions can be purchased. (noting that a couple companies continue to update OOP books in PDF. Most notably, Margaret Weiss Publications and Eden Studios. Eden posted a new update to several of the BTVS supplements just this year (2014) on a game that the license ended in 2007 or so... Just a couple errata fixes, but still.

 

[Jame]

I don't consider those breaks in the system.

Which I'd be fine with if you didn't jump on me when I say "I dislike 'x' and will modify it in such wise when playing my home game."

 

[chud]

Hi everyone, first time poster here, I just registered.

I just wanted to chime in and say that I love the Mongoose core rulebook.

I like that it is based on the classic Traveller rules, but updated. I just got my core rulebook, and thumbing through it, it looks like classic Traveller; very nicely done.
I like that it is readily available (I found it by going on Amazon and typing Traveller, and it came up as the first result).
I love that it has the core rules in one book, instead of split into three like the original classic Traveller. To give a little background, I first got the classic Traveller boxed set back in the early 80's when I was in high school and traded a set of escrima sticks to a "friend" who it turned out had stiffed me: one of the 3 books was missing. He said he would get me the book later, and never did (I went on to realize that this was perfectly in character for this guy, he was a d-bag).

So when I was reminiscing about classic old games one day and went to Amazon to search for Traveller and saw the Mongoose core rulebook, I was instantly attracted to it because it looks like classic Traveller, and based on the reviews I read it pretty much is classic Traveller, all in ONE book!

I haven't even played a game yet, but I'm as excited as a kid on Christmas day.

Now I just need to print out some character sheets somewhere and find someone to play a game with!

 

[robject]

I just wanted to chime in and say that I love the Mongoose core rulebook.
[...]
I haven't even played a game yet, but I'm as excited as a kid on Christmas day.

Now I just need to print out some character sheets somewhere and find someone to play a game with!

Welcome aboard, and congratulations! There's a good chance you'll find people who are willing to play Mongoose Traveller.