Travellers Needed - The Future of Traveller

[Jongar]

The rules are scattered about alot of different books. I would love a software tool/database which I could query for a rule and it would tell me if it exists in a book. If I do not rename the .pdfs and put them all in the same folder this software tool could have links to the books.

 

[Anstett]

Copernic Desktop search is what I use for that. It can find just about anything, including looking inside of unencrypted source code files, and gives you a preview to look at before opening the actual file.

Is also useful to see just how many different places you have the same file scattered about your lack of organization

 

[Spenser TR]

After reading these comments today I puttered around with ChatGPT and created "Administrator Narval" to search my books (purchased of course) and the web. The results are mixed but encouraging, and of course it can do way more than quote chapter and verse right out of the box. I'm happy to share about how I did this, particularly if you have an OpenAI "Plus" account where I could show you.

 

[Joe Trader]

After reading these comments today I puttered around with ChatGPT and created "Administrator Narval" to search my books (purchased of course) and the web. The results are mixed but encouraging, and of course it can do way more than quote chapter and verse right out of the box. I'm happy to share about how I did this, particularly if you have an OpenAI "Plus" account where I could show you.

I'd love to see how you went about it.

 

[tytalan]

I like to see a Geir rewrite of the vehicle handbook. Now don’t get me wrong Matthew had some great concepts especially with the chassis and space system. That said vehicle is the only one of the original core books that haven’t gotten a maker over and it needs one. There are so many inconsistency in the book that need addressing like the fact that even tho Fusion is described as a very common power plant in vehicles by TL12 there is absolutely no reason for it to be, it take a minimum of 10 spaces in addition to the space in the chassis for a power system, increases the cost of the vehicle greatly and for what a completely ridiculous duration that also doesn’t make sense when compared to other fusion plants. There are other inconsistencies also systems that are the same as ships system but smaller, sail ships only hand waved at best ( there where ocean traveling sail ship that crossed the Atlantic before iron was in use). Also the Vehicle book needs updating to work hand in hand with both the Robot Handbook and HighGuard I think these is very doable without a major increase in complexity. HighGuard small crafts often could use some of the systems that are or should be in vehicles, small nuclear dampers, none ship weaponry and other equipment especially with the increase of merc’s and FFW. Theres a tendency to overlook vehicles design but in game play I find that vehicle design has more of a impact than it’s given credit for.

From his awesome job with the Robot Handbook and the WBG especially the former, and the way the RB integrates so well with HG and try’s its best to do so with the current VH I think Geir is the right person to do this rewrite. I think he can make a book that will enhance Matthew’s original work and make it work much more effectively with the other two books giving us a design system that will greatly improve game play.

Another thing is I think is vehicle laser weapon army need a be expanded possibly by adding a tech upgrade system like in HG or simply adding different more advance heavy vehicle lasers. This seems to have been done with projectile weapon system and plasma/fusion.

 

[ottarrus]

@alex_greene
@MongooseMatt

Is there any interest in a write-up about Imperial 'authorized psions', their uses /misuses, training, etc.? I feel like I've done about half the work with the discussions about an military academy graduate psion in Naval Intelligence but other agencies definitely come to mind.
I was thinking in terms of a JTAS submission and I honestly don't know how to go about submitting one.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Unless the Third Imperium history is completely rewritten the Imperial armed services do not have secret training courses for psions.

i know people want the Imperium to have all the cool toys the Zhodani get, but the setting went to great pains to outlaw and demonise psionics within the Third Imperium.

There are only two very secret psionic institutes under Imperial control. the rest are all underground criminal organisations.

 

[alex_greene]

Unless the Third Imperium history is completely rewritten the Imperial armed services do not have secret training courses for psions.

i know people want the Imperium to have all the cool toys the Zhodani get, but the setting went to great pains to outlaw and demonise psionics within the Third Imperium.

There are only two very secret psionic institutes under Imperial control. the rest are all underground criminal organisations.

There's the news the public knows. There's the news the Emperor is told. There's the news the armed forces tells itself so their soldiers can sleep at night.
And then there's what's really happening with all that black budget money ...

After all, look at what they did with the Ancients - it's practically rewritten the entire Spinward Marches already.

@ottarrus if you've got enough material for a book, talk to Matt about what Mongoose are looking for. At the very least, if you've got enough material for an article for the next tranche of JTAS mags, something to whet the appetite and get your foot in the door for a bigger book down the road, go for it.

 

[ottarrus]

Unless the Third Imperium history is completely rewritten the Imperial armed services do not have secret training courses for psions.

i know people want the Imperium to have all the cool toys the Zhodani get, but the setting went to great pains to outlaw and demonise psionics within the Third Imperium.

There are only two very secret psionic institutes under Imperial control. the rest are all underground criminal organisations.

Sig, Mongoose has said over and over that 'Mongoose Traveller is not the OTU; it is an alternate TU'. The Official OTU is produced by ONE source: Marc Miller and Far Future. Everybody else, including Mongoose, are alternates.

The idea about the whole thing springs from two points: a] The Fifth Frontier War is coming out in February [note: Mongoose has also repeatedly said that the results of the 5FW are not yet determined for their ATU] and b] the rare roll I made with an Imperial academy cadet.

At NO point am I saying that psions are common or even rare in Imperial service. They're so rare as to be unheard of... and [should they exist] that's just the way they like it! What's more, doesn't it strike you as reasonable that several concerned agencies in the Domain of Deneb might not want to just throw away a skill set like psionic when the opponents they face are highly skilled psionicists?

And it's not just Naval Intelligence. The IISS Intelligence and Security offices could easily make use of these skills. So could IMOJ. And that's not even getting into the corporate psions out there...

As I see it, this is an optional YTU addition just like everything else in JTAS. Use it or discard it as you like.

 

[Sigtrygg]

In which case i support your book

 

[Condottiere]

It's almost a given that the Imperium has secret psycker corps, even if the Zhodani didn't exist.

More interesting would be, do the Hivers have one?

 

[Sigtrygg]

It is a given that the Third Imperium does not have a secret psycker corps - if individual referees want to ignore canonical Third Imperium history it is perfectly fine for their table, but I have no use for it.

Hiver psionics are complicated - TNE introduced some psionic potential that was previously thought not to exist.

 

[Vormaerin]

TNE did a lot of weird things. Like deciding that Super Norris had a psychic sidekick all along and could just way his hand and make everyone love psionics again.

 

[ottarrus]

TNE did a lot of weird things. Like deciding that Super Norris had a psychic sidekick all along and could just way his hand and make everyone love psionics again.

As I understand it, Norris' seneschal being a psion was all part of MM's plan to 'reintegrate' psionics back into Imperial society.

 

[Vormaerin]

Which I'm fine with. But the Regency Sourcebook is one of the few Traveller books that I loathe. And Super Norris is a small, but not insignificant, part of that So poor Dilgaadin gets some drivebye spite.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Sig, Mongoose has said over and over that 'Mongoose Traveller is not the OTU; it is an alternate TU'.

Umm, we have never said that...

 

[Condottiere]

Russians, anyway.

You have a ruling caste, a managing caste, and serfs, with an overriding ideology controlling the population.

Artificial intelligence programmes and total surveillance state taking the place of psionics in order to anticipate thought crime.

 

[Sigtrygg]

As I understand it, Norris' seneschal being a psion was all part of MM's plan to 'reintegrate' psionics back into Imperial society.

MWM had nothing to do with TNE at all, he had left the company.
Which is why he knows nothing about the Empress Wave.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Umm, we have never said that...

No, but every time you release a new Third Imperium based book that changes the OTU canon there are only two possibilities.
Retcon or ATU.
Note a lot of them are on the whole good things but they often have unintended consequences. Much like the GURPS Traveller material that is cut and paste reprinted in your Alien supplements (tip, go back to CT sources rather than use GT ATU sources, the GT crowd got a lot wrong too despite their copious contributions) a small change can have setting altering effects.

Then there are the omissions - where is wafer tech? It is commonplace in MWM's Third Imperium

All of that sounds pretty negative, for which I apologise. Mongoose is doing great things with Traveller, I buy everything you put out in the Traveller line these days because I know it is going to be good. My old grognardy brain has to adapt

 

[MongooseMatt]

My old grognardy brain has to adapt

There is that

Here is the thing though. There are degrees of canon. For example, there is Canon-canon, the real sacred cows. A week in jumpspace, no FTL communications beyond that jump, and so on. The things that, without them, it simply would not be Traveller/Charted Space/OTU.

Then there is another level of canon, the things that really should not change but are not completely, wholly, 100% inviolate. I'll come back to that.

Also, very occasionally, you might see something that makes you think 'yeah, that has to go'. Suspicious naming of worlds, for example, or the Droyne becoming a bit more equal opportunities. It goes against what has been written in the past, but I think most can agree that Traveller needs to be 'current' and that some things are worth slipping past.

Then there is 'experimental' canon. This is one of the uses of JTAS, a format where we can 'float' ideas, see how they are received, and either fully incorporate them or let them lie fallow (incidentally, this approach is not necessarily restricted to JTAS, and larger titles can fulfil that function - in a way, on a long enough timeline, they all do).

The Golden Rule is this for most aspects of canon: Unless it is Canon-canon, everything that has gone before remains canon... unless there is a better idea.

Put another way, Traveller cannot and should not be a fixed point that never moves. It needs to breathe, develop, and be a living universe. The OTU of the 2020's is going to be massively different from the OTU of the 1980's, and the OTU of the 2060's will be massively different again. Aside from Canon-canon, of course.

Put yet another way, Charted Space/the OTU must be allowed to change, be tweaked, be experimented with if it is to remain vibrant. That is not to say we stamp around in army boots, but a constant exploration of the setting is at least as important as a constant exploration of rules mechanics.

This, incidentally, will go double as Traveller moves to other media - while a novel or even a comic might cleave close to the RPG, a video game or film might, by necessity, force some things to give way.

Just an interesting thought experiment, that last part