Traveller has always been characterized by sober, competent analysis of science and military trends. Its weaponry in particular, has always been plausible. From JTAS#3:
Why Guns, And Not Disintegrators?
We are, of course, ignoring the weapons from Mercenary, and are talking about the basic weaponry set forth in Book 1. Projectile throwing weapons dominate the table because we feel that, until the distant future, they will be the most efficient means of one man damaging another.
Traveller has tried to have a sound scientific basis for its rules. Stunners, blasters, and Uranium Q - 37 atomic space modulators are very spectacular, and for this reason comic books and movies make extensive use of them. When examined more closely, however, most of the weaponry people think of when you say science fiction is very unsound scientifically, and those which aren't are incredibly inefficient on such
a small scale.
Yeah. Like Shuriken Catapults.
...On the personal, hand-carried level, projectile weapons are going to be with us for a long time to come. Conventional firearms cartridges are very efficient storage cells of energy, and improvements in them are sure to continue for many years. Individual soldiers (and
civilians too) will continue to carry firearms until some more efficient, relatively inexpensive means of energy storage can be developed;and this is not likely to occur in the near future.
The point of this whole discussion is that we did not just throw together the combat system used in Traveller. It came about as a result of a great deal of thought, discussion, testing and argument. It represents, within the limits of a role-playing game, what we think combat in the future is going to be like.
You really should make your designers read this editorial.
This is a very, very,
VERY good point.
This gets to the root of the problem. It really ain't about the bad editing (although that is annoying, especially when you plop down good money for a book you hope will give you correct information).
It's about the content. It's about the way Mongoose is going about treating the Traveller universe.
Matt, if you're reading this, I intend this as a constructive post. I'm not trying to insult you. This is one potential customer speaking his mind about a product to a publisher.
The Traveller stuff that Mongoose is putting out so far seems like it's being written by people who just don't know what the Traveller universe is. It's as if they think Traveller is just another lite Sci-Fi setting, like Star Wars or (insert several space opera games).
I picked up a planets book for the D6 Star Wars game years ago, and not only did if focus on several worlds in the Star Wars universe, it also had this little world creation system.
It's a very simple system, and it worked fine for Star Wars. I had no problem with it.
But, that type of thing
WOULD NOT FLY in the Traveller universe. If one looks at DGP's Grand Survey, he will see that real science is use to guide the design system. The world's surface gravity isn't just "made up" or rolled on a chart. It's based on the mass of the planet and the type of core the planet has.
Mongoose seems to be taking the Star Wars approach.
You can't do that with
Traveller.
Does that makes sense?
Up thread you mention that the Aslan in the core MGT book weren't intentded to be OTU Aslan--that they were intended to be examples of a generic alien race.
C'mon, man. It's clear what happened there. You had a writer who really didn't know that much about Traveller, and the just slapped that in there. "Hell, the doggies were uplifted. Why not the cats too?"
If you want to make Mongoose Traveller successful and a long lasting line, you've got to get on the ball with regards to details like this.
I think...
That Mongoose doing several lines using the Traveller rules is a fine idea. But, you've got to have the books marked "Traveller" actually be "Traveller". You can't hide their mistakes by saying, "Oh, that's a Core Book, not an OTU Traveller book."
You need to take the "Traveller" name off the books that have the crazy stuff in them. Publish the Traveller line. Publish the Babylon 5 line. Publish Hammer's Slammers. Publish Starship Troopers and whatever else all using the same basic rules used in MGT Traveller--but stop mixing up the universes.
Don't put silly stuff in books that are titled "Traveller". All stuff in a book marked "Traveller" should be considered OTU.
Put the other stuff in the books that are marked appropirately.
And, the people who do write for Traveller...well, make sure they know what they're writing about!
You may have a few people bad mouthing your Conan rpg, but I can tell you that many, many, many more say good things about it than not. I've been hearing good things about that game since you first published the first edition rule book. Even now, the negative criticism I hear isn't leveled at Mongoose at all. It's mostly aimed at the complicted d20 system (and Mongoose's "Conan-izing" of the d20 system is almost universally hailed as one of the best d20 conversions ever to see print), not Mongoose.
I think that the reason the Conan game hits the nail on the head, perfectly, for so many gamers is that you've got writers who LOVE the Conan universe writing for you. These people, like Vincent DeLarge, really know their stuff when it comes to Howard's character and universe. These writers know that what flys in a Lord of the Rings game prolly won't fly in a Conan game.
Your problem with Traveller, so far, is that you don't have like-experienced writers writing the Traveller material. It
feels to me as if you've just got freelancers who'll write whatever you ask them to, but aren't experts in any particular universe. You've got people who look at Traveller as just another space opera game writing the books, and these people are forgetting energy requirements for weapons...changing concret canon by saying, almost off the cuff, that Aslan are uplifted like the Vargr...deckplans that take up half the volumn that they should...and whacky weapons that should be more at home in a Flash Gordon game rather than a Traveller game.
This is the key, Matt. You've got to find some creative people who know Traveller to write Traveller.
One of the things that made DGP products such a favorite among Traveller gamers is that the company's products were written by people who LOVED Traveller. Same thing goes for the Gamelords and FASA stuff. The Keith's LOVED Traveller.
You need to get a writer in there who will say, when someone brings up MagLev guns, "No...not in Traveller. You can put that in the core book, but make sure it doesn't hit any book with the Traveller name on it."
