Another Possible Setting?

[FreeTrav]

Inasmuch as Mongoose has already established a relationship with Mr Drake for Travellerizing his Hammer's Slammers series, might I suggest that they also explore the possibility of doing the same with the Republic of Cinnabar Navy/Daniel Leary series as well? When I first started reading this series, I was struck by how much it seemed that the main characters - Leary, Mundy, Woetjans, Mon, Vesey, and so on - were player-characters whose actions were not unlike what might be expected from a stereotypical party in Traveller.

 

[zozotroll]

Have you read the series they are based on? Every bit as good as Drakes stuff. Of course if they were not he would not have used them.

 

[Deniable]

Aren't they based on Aubrey / Maturin / Master and Commander?

The Traveller tie-in is attitude. Forget the tech and the astrography. Look at the way Leary and his crew treat everybody else. You're a sissy or you're nothing.

And for anyone who hasn't seen the announcement, head to Planet Mongoose now.

 

[FreeTrav]

Actually, the main tech issue is starships - and it's not all that far off what would be acceptable in Traveller - the real-space drive is a good match for TNE's HEPlaR drive, and this article at Freelance Traveller is just one idea for adapting aspects of the RCN interstellar drive to Traveller.

 

[AKAramis]

I'm lukewarm about Drakes writing, myself. Slammers wasn't great, IMO, don't see why all the fuss. Hammer himself is interesting, but I found him not compelling... as with all of Drake's characters, IME. I find his work tolerable to short story length, and dragging by novella, so not terribly enthuse by the news of the HS license. (I'd honestly be more enthused by a HS Boardgame!)

 

[richtrickey]

I have never read the stories (and that's how I voted), but I'm always open to new material. Even if I don't use the setting as a whole, it's sure to have bits I can borrow for MTU.

 

[Myrm]

Rememebr Traveller was originally designed to be a fairly generic scifi game. It is fairly adapable - the usual sticking point has been mentioned - the different views on FTL travel. The options in MongTrav seem to allow you to use most favoured styles actually.

So yes, you should be able to generate such an ATU

 

[Bygoneyrs]

Well as my view I think Mongoose should create their books to allow for ATU in mind, so as to give all GM's the max support to allow them if they want to pursue that campaign design direction.

Penn

 

[-Daniel-]

Well as my view I think Mongoose should create their books to allow for ATU in mind, so as to give all GM's the max support to allow them if they want to pursue that campaign design direction.

Penn

Sort of like the original Traveller was? :wink:
I rememebr when I bought the black box and we played for a while with just LBB1-3. We made up almost 100% of our ATU at that point. This is one of the things that attracted me to the core rule book the most. They kept it mostly clean and it could be used in almost any setting I want to use it in.

Daniel

 

[Jame Rowe]

I would enjoy seeing this done.

 

[FreeTrav]

I'm seeing that a lot of the poll respondents haven't read the stories yet. Some of those respondents may want to find them and try reading them; the titles (so you can get paper editions from B&N or Amazon) are

With the Lightnings
Lt. Leary Commanding
The Far Side of the Stars
The Way to Glory
Some Golden Harbor
When the Tide Rises

If you don't mind e-books, you can purchase them from Baen Books Webscriptions (the first three are actually in the Baen Free Library) or, with the publisher's permission, they can be obtained on-line, free, from the RCN CD, an industry promotional CD that was not bound into any Baen release, but which nevertheless may be freely shared. This CD has the entire series on it, along with a selection of other Baen e-book releases.

 

[serene_muse]

I prefer the RCN series to the Honor Harrington. The main character is more self-serving & the setting & characters feel more "real" and a tad less heroic to me. I also like the prominent use of bodies of water as spaceship ports. In all it also feels more Traveller to me.

Oddly I prefer Hornblower to Aubrey / Maturin, which I found to be overly technical and slow going. I have been meaning to start later in the Aubrey chronological order though.

Either would be good to see done for Mongoose Traveller, even if only as a series of conversion notes in S&P or some fan site / pdf.

I do look forward to Hammer's Slammers. Classic sci-fi merc books, and rather close in feel to how I view Traveller's small wars.

 

[serene_muse]

the RCN CD

Very cool, didn't release there is a (free) audio book of the Far Side of the Stars. :shock:

Direct link to the first book of the series, With the Lightnings
read online

The cd also has bits from the excellent Hammer Slammer's Handbook sourcebook & game book, as well as two HS books.