A
Anonymous
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One thing I couldn't find anywhere in character creation, was whether pensions are paid after your PC has left its fifth career term onwards. Anybody care to enlighten us?
2300AD is Back!
- Thread starter MongooseMatt
- Start date
Lemnoc said:
Like the space race in the 1960's was unified? I think it makes sense given the technological assumptions of the setting and the background. It's not like you need a city-sized generation ship to get to the stars in 2300AD. While the starships are pricey enough that fully independent ships are rare, they don't seem relatively much more expensive than modern ocean-going ships.
As far as the decline of nationalism, it's addressed in the new book (and was addressed in 2320). Even in the original setting the big foundations & corporations had just as much (if not more influence) on some of the colony worlds. In all versions I always got the distinct impression that the only thing that keeps the frontier worlds unified with the Core is their lack of heavy industry, particularly in starship construction. In fact, you could develop a meta-plot involving various corporate, intelligence agency, & regulatory maneuvers by the the Core to prevent the Frontier worlds from building an industrial base & cutting off markets for finished goods (and a place to dump troublesome social misfits).
Mikko Leho
Mongoose
Strithe said:
Took Superpowers bankrupting themselves in an arms race to achieve, so—yes—a powerful oligarchical investment. At the same time, these factors are arguably the underpinnings of GDW's Twilight apocalypse in the '80s—an era that seemed unstable by arms race coupled with the incoherent collapse of the Soviet state. It all seemed very apocalyptic at the time....
Well, again, ocean-going ships are an investment only the cream of nations can afford.
But, points taken; and really, I'm not arguing from a point. To each his/her own, and YTUMMV.
Captain Jonah
Mongoose
Lemnoc said:
Not at all. A quick check of small to medium sized cargo ships for sale reveals a number of second or third user ocean going ships cheaply. 80m cargo haulers in the 200,000 Euro range
A Russian built 100m cargo hauler, 5,000 cubic metres of cargo split between two holds (357Dtons), a bargain at 1 million US.
A Ukraine built bulk/grain hauler. 2833 cubic metres (202Dtons) cargo. Yours for 350,000 US. That’s cheaper than many houses these days. Yes its 30 odd years old but what the heck, its a functioning deep water cargo ship.
These are ocean going ships but hardly so expensive that only the cream of nations can afford.
Something to look at with ships, there will be far more "Old" ships around than modern ones. The latest generation technology will supplant the last generation stuff but all those still working but not quite as good ships are still there.
Look around and you will find ships from the very first designs onwards still around somewhere. That is where you will be finding the small companies and the independents. They don't have the money to buy new but third hand should be affordable.
Yeah, but those inexpensive ships are always in need of major overhauls, and I don't have the faintest idea how much that costs. Presumably more than the ship is worth, or the owner wouldn't be selling it.
Still, if you have the right connections, buying a used freighter doesn't seem at all like an insurmountable problem for a small business. With a little backing capital and a competent crew, it seems like it wouldn't even be that hard to get started. Of course actually making money might not be so easy.
Still, if you have the right connections, buying a used freighter doesn't seem at all like an insurmountable problem for a small business. With a little backing capital and a competent crew, it seems like it wouldn't even be that hard to get started. Of course actually making money might not be so easy.
Captain Jonah said:
All true, although NEW ships are not at all cheap. A couple things you have to keep in mind, several of the ships in the core book aren't that old: The SSV-21 and Anjou have only been in service for 9 years. Also, Fusion-reactor ships in both the original NAM and the new book require a complete overhaul when their fuel runs out after 25 years. I'd argue that MHD turbines & fuel cells are probably worn out by then as well.
For simplicity's sake I'd say that you might be able to grab up an ancient Thorez for 1/10 it's normal price, but the maintenance costs should be higher: maybe 2d6 x 10% more due to the fact that many core systems are worn out. If you did a full overhaul of the ship (replacing bridge electronics, power plant, radiators, stutterwarp drive and reaction drive) for about 8.8 mlv you'd avoid the extra maintenance headaches.
Pentapod earplug
Mongoose
Read though the book now. It is nice to see so much of the classic stuff put back in. It is a big book with lots of info. Which is good. And no index. Which is bad.
The thing that I think gets me the worst is the Travellerization of the whole thing. I could just not abide the haphazard Traveller character generation weirdness. But I expected that. Though I think I saw something about it earlier, the "world code" however, is to me an unwarranted adaptation to setting, not a set of rules, that many will not use anyway. Same goes for constant Traveller setting references regarding equipment tech levels etc. Tedious. I am a lazy bum and lack the stamina to juxtapose the 2300AD setting, which I like, with Traveller, which I do not like.
Earth is every bit as silly as the original version. But i like that, for purely nostalgic reasons. But why add more sillyness? Is Texas not enough? A maoist terror group? In Tibet? Of all places... Also did not like the Stepford like version of earth. Gated communities and psychos?
Layout? Well, it is Mongoose, so I was not expecting much. Others have mentioned the arial and table thing. What little illustration there is is good. However, it is not much. You really get no feel fo the world, apart from vehicles and starship interiors. No guns, no equipment.
I agree that there is a lot of info crammed in and some ideas are quite nice. I like the DNAbit for instance. But I cannot help wondering if it would not have been better to skip some stuff and focus on fewer. Qualitywise it seems that this is what to be expected from Mongoose, so I suppose if you wanted edited stuff, you should buy from/ work with some one else.
While I do no regret buying the book, I feels more like a quaint exotic sourcebook for hardcore Traveller gamers than the stand alone game i imagined it would be.
And finally, I do not care about the spelling of Käfer. Honestly, some people.
The thing that I think gets me the worst is the Travellerization of the whole thing. I could just not abide the haphazard Traveller character generation weirdness. But I expected that. Though I think I saw something about it earlier, the "world code" however, is to me an unwarranted adaptation to setting, not a set of rules, that many will not use anyway. Same goes for constant Traveller setting references regarding equipment tech levels etc. Tedious. I am a lazy bum and lack the stamina to juxtapose the 2300AD setting, which I like, with Traveller, which I do not like.
Earth is every bit as silly as the original version. But i like that, for purely nostalgic reasons. But why add more sillyness? Is Texas not enough? A maoist terror group? In Tibet? Of all places... Also did not like the Stepford like version of earth. Gated communities and psychos?
Layout? Well, it is Mongoose, so I was not expecting much. Others have mentioned the arial and table thing. What little illustration there is is good. However, it is not much. You really get no feel fo the world, apart from vehicles and starship interiors. No guns, no equipment.
I agree that there is a lot of info crammed in and some ideas are quite nice. I like the DNAbit for instance. But I cannot help wondering if it would not have been better to skip some stuff and focus on fewer. Qualitywise it seems that this is what to be expected from Mongoose, so I suppose if you wanted edited stuff, you should buy from/ work with some one else.
While I do no regret buying the book, I feels more like a quaint exotic sourcebook for hardcore Traveller gamers than the stand alone game i imagined it would be.
And finally, I do not care about the spelling of Käfer. Honestly, some people.
ShadowDave
Mongoose
I want a copy of this game, but as of today Esdevium still are not telling traders that it is available. I wish Matt would use a distributor that can be trusted...
Iron Warrior.
Mongoose
I may get the 2300 sourcebook, but if I do it will be to convert it over to another system. I simply like the system I use and really don't want to flip over to a whole new system.
So would it be very hard to use the 2300 sourcebook as a guide to creatingthe setting with a 3d6 system like gurps?
So would it be very hard to use the 2300 sourcebook as a guide to creatingthe setting with a 3d6 system like gurps?
kafka
Mongoose
Iron Warrior. said:
Although, I found that MgT and Colin rendition was brilliant...http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/15/15549.phtml
I can understand the pull of the Jacksonian heresy...http://web.me.com/pentapod2300/gold/2300gt.htm
kafka said:
Holy. That was some marketing speech
Mongoose ought to give him tiny slice of sales for that effort I'll try to get that when I have more money. Too bad I already pretty much spent my amusement budget of this month in buying more reading material to practice my japanese...
ShawnDriscoll
Cosmic Mongoose
Iron Warrior. said:
The beauty of GURPS is that any sourcebook from any other RPG can be used. Do you have Transhuman for GURPS?
There’s been comment about weakness in layout and organization.
I wish the tables were a bit prettier (as in the Traveller core book) and better organized.
In particular, the Settlements list is alpha-sorted on what seems (IMO, anyway) its LEAST important column, the nationality of settlements, and a key column is missing, which is the Arm in which the settlement is located for ease of reference. I went through and created my own reference spreadsheet, sorted on the system. This gives a nice, easy-to-scan list of which colonies share what worlds. I then added X Y Z columns for spatial coordinates, which helps place these worlds in space and distance from one another.
It’s a much more functional table, and I would recommend it for a future edition/revision. Just a suggestion.
I wish the tables were a bit prettier (as in the Traveller core book) and better organized.
In particular, the Settlements list is alpha-sorted on what seems (IMO, anyway) its LEAST important column, the nationality of settlements, and a key column is missing, which is the Arm in which the settlement is located for ease of reference. I went through and created my own reference spreadsheet, sorted on the system. This gives a nice, easy-to-scan list of which colonies share what worlds. I then added X Y Z columns for spatial coordinates, which helps place these worlds in space and distance from one another.
It’s a much more functional table, and I would recommend it for a future edition/revision. Just a suggestion.
So far I've read the first part of the book, up to the character creation rulers, and I like it very much! So many colonies to explore complete with maps, histories and local oddities! The only downside I've encountered so far is the lack of a table of contents (though I might have missed it) and an index, both of which would have been very welcome.
I'll post a detailed review once I'll finish reading this very entertaining and inspiring tome!
And, I've already found a 2300AD nation I love - Elysia! Vive le Revolution!
I'll post a detailed review once I'll finish reading this very entertaining and inspiring tome!
And, I've already found a 2300AD nation I love - Elysia! Vive le Revolution!
ShadowDave
Mongoose
Still not available from Esdevium...
