2300 and Traveller ship miniatures.

[Captain Jonah]

A Question for Matt generally or anyone else who can help.

I don't remember this being talked about recently but with the headlong charge into ACTA-SF miniatures have there been any discussions about 2300 ships or Traveller ships.

I know the Traveller Iconic ships are wrapped up in licenses but Mongoose has released scores of ships beyond the classic few and there are a vast number of 2300 ships.

Will we be getting a 2300 Star cruiser supplement (there is enough detail to run ship battles now).

Being a collector of ships for games its been a long time since we had proper Traveller ships available and I cannot see anyone who does 2300 style ships with gravity wheels and such like.

As mongoose has the services of the nice lass with the tripleDee stuff (computers you lot, I mean computers) I wonder if there is enough interest/market/license availability to do Traveller/2300 ships properly.

 

[AndrewW]

As mongoose has the services of the nice lass with the tripleDee stuff (computers you lot, I mean computers) I wonder if there is enough interest/market/license availability to do Traveller/2300 ships properly.

Hmmm, middenface?

 

[middenface]

What !



Must learn Rhino...

 

[Captain Jonah]

Another question for Matt. Licenses. What is the situation with the the ship images for 2300 and purely mongoose stuff.

Having had a look at Shapeways and found the likes of:

http://www.shapeways.com/model/176129/tiberian-gladiarii-class-cruiser.html


http://www.shapeways.com/model/176130/tiberian-lanceus-class-battleship.html


http://www.shapeways.com/model/226951/federated-cruiser-churchill.html


http://www.shapeways.com/model/226953/federated-destroyer-birmingham-class.html



Which look sort of familiar from star trek, star wars or the old Buck Rogers along with a vast range of items by the same designer that would fit into a 2300 game. Take the time to go through all the stuff available from just this one designer and see how much of it would fit into Traveller 3rdI/Traveller Prime Directive/2300/ACTA-SF.

Also look at Irrational designs (star trek), Starcorp shipyards (B5) and loads more from every sci fi genre I can think of.

Anyway my question. What is the legal/license position of having someone take some of the ships from Traveller Mongoose or 2300 and finding a 3d person to turn them into something that Shapeways or similar company can make 3D models of them.

I’m mostly thinking of 2300 or Cthonian stars type ships with spin habitats which seem to be unrepresented anywhere rather than the ST/SW/SG/B5 ships of which there are plenty.

 

[Colin]

While it has been discussed, at this point in time there are plans to produce starship minis for 2300AD. Which is too bad, as I want me an Aconit and a Sufren, to start,

 

[Colin]

The trouble is, 2300AD is already a licensed property, and I suspect the license prohibits sub-licensing.

 

[Sturn]

While it has been discussed, at this point in time there are plans to produce starship minis for 2300AD. Which is too bad, as I want me an Aconit and a Sufren, to start,

Did you leave out a NO? You say there ARE plans then say you wish you could have had a starship model.

If you meant to say no, you still left an italic starship in there. Are there plans for 2300AD vehicles and characters?

 

[Captain Jonah]

Presuming that Colin left out a NO in his post.

So The licensing would apply to iconic 2300 ships, much as those ships that have remained unchanged over 30 years of Traveller are covered.

Presumably this would not cover any new designs added by Mongoose or players as these would not have come from GDW / original 2300 / 2300AD sources and therefore could not be covered under a license.

Who would be the font of wisdom for this?

As far as I can see all of the ships in Traveller 2300 are from old 2300 sources but aside from the ships of the French arm a lot of what is out in the wild is player designed stuff.

Mr Matt, I think this may be something for you to answer.

 

[2330ADUSA1]

You know what you could do is look at some of the Forums that deal with Resin Minis and try to get some of them to make some for you or at least try.

I have bought abd built many sudo BSG type ships to be used in Traveller or in Table Top minature war games that I play in. I build and paint my own Resin minis, but do not design them myself. Oh I might tailor or combine a few kits to make my own version of some ship, but really I just buy others creations and put them together and paint them to add to my collection.

I like the New BSG style ships, and the Old Show Cylons ships and fighters.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Having had a look at Shapeways and found the likes of:

Shapeways breaks all sorts of copyrights, and we have already lodged complaints with them. We are looking to take further action.

Anyway my question. What is the legal/license position of having someone take some of the ships from Traveller Mongoose or 2300 and finding a 3d person to turn them into something that Shapeways or similar company can make 3D models of them.

I am afraid we would have to take action there too.

It is not us being nasty - these people are making money from other people's hard work, who receive nothing in return. It is just plain unfair.

However, you might be interested to see this post on a past Planet Mongoose;

http://blog.mongoosepublishing.co.uk/?p=234

 

[Captain Jonah]

Sorry Matt, I wasn't very clear in wording what I was trying to ask.

If Mongoose gets together the artists, deck plan drawers and a nice lady who does 3D and designs a 5000dton British battleship, a mix of 2000Dton and 1000Dton cruisers and some 200Dton to 900Dton escorts, patrol ships etc that all fit with the design ethos of 2300 as expressed and the game style in the 2300 rules IE big bulky missile racks, single laser mounts, obvious fuel tanks for the power plant or thrusters and spin habitats then does the same for a bunch of civilian ships and releases the whole lot under the title “2300 Ships of known space volume 1” does Mongoose retain the rights to those ships which have never been published under any previous version or do they somehow become property of the license because they were released under the 2300 banner.

Can Mongoose produce miniatures of ships that it has designed and released for 2300 that have never been part of 2300 prior to now?

By the same token if a few of the talented people here abouts do artwork, floor plans and a 3D image of a bunch of 2300 style ships. Small engineering sections and big fuel tanks or big bulky looking fusion/nuke plants, wheel or arm spin habitats etc then stat and write them up for 2300 are those ships somehow restricted or can the designers freely make them on any 3D modelling site?

I don’t want anyone stealing mongoose work or breaking licenses and this may never happen but it would be better to know where the line is to avoid stepping over it.

 

[Colin]

Sorry, I misplaced that "no" somewhere.

I don't think that there is any impediment to Mongoose producing 2300AD starship minis, just that no one else can. Nor can Mongoose license that out, as the IP belongs to Marc Miller.

 

[2330ADUSA1]

Guys it comes down to this, design Resin minis and simply call them "Sapce Ships" and NO ONE can say or do ANYTHING!!!

For me I perfer to use my own creations and designs for spaceships. I have hand drawn many and use those pics/drawings...BUT I need to get into the 21st century and work on 3D graphical drawings to get with the rest of the market. Then maybe I can have some of my Resin mini friends build me some "2330" Space Ships...for the 3rd Wave campaign idea. Now mine would never be for sale, oh I migt ask folks to donate funds for supplies and S&H but it would be for cost only.