Ask MongooseMatt ANYTHING!!!

[Terry Mixon]

Okay, not really anything, but when we post questions about the rules or potential typos in the feedback area, we often don't receive a response, so I'm creating this thread in the hopes of getting some response to questions we have, even if it is "we're looking at that" or some such.

I'll kick this off with a question I posted a few days ago. The emergency low berths in High Guard 2022 Update are listed at MC1 a pop. Seems real pricy since Mongoose 1e and all the previous versions of Traveller we checked had it being KCr100. In Mongoose 1e, it was listed as MCr.1 and we suspect a typo. Can we get some clartity on that so we can update the starship build sheet to reflect what we suspect if we're right? Thanks.

Also, allow me to suggest that adding KCr, BCr (or GCr to please @Geir), and TCr to your repertoire would be really helpful and would minimize the complaints about not having comma separation in your big numbers, too.

And sorry for all the wild AMA questions you're about to get @MongooseMatt.

 

[ottarrus]

@MongooseMatt I know you hate giving definitive answers, but please answer these. What is Traveller? Is it a setting or a ruleset? If it is a ruleset then why do the settings other than Charted Space not use the Traveller CRB? If it is a setting, then Traveller is no longer a setting-agnostic game system. Which of these is Mongoose using going forward?

Matt has said that Mongoose expects to get the Twilight 2000 license after Free League's contract is done. And I'm not 100% sure that Traveller is the right system for that setting....

 

[hopsnbaer]

Matt has said that Mongoose expects to get the Twilight 2000 license after Free League's contract is done. And I'm not 100% sure that Traveller is the right system for that setting....

It's currently a neat game system, though understand why Mongoose would want the license.

 

[Condottiere]

Ideally, single game engine.

Cosmetic overlays for different settings.

 

[MasterGwydion]

Matt has said that Mongoose expects to get the Twilight 2000 license after Free League's contract is done. And I'm not 100% sure that Traveller is the right system for that setting....

I have no issue with Mongoose having other systems, but what's the point of Traveller being this great setting-agnostic sci-fi RPG system if the only thing Mongoose puts out for Traveller is Charted Space stuff? It has gotten so bad that stuff that is exclusive to Charted Space is being published in books that are supposed to be setting-agnostic.

 

[CordwainerFish]

Now what would be cool but will probably never happen (I expect it's been lost) is for Mongoose to get the Great Game that the GDW folks played to develop the 2000-2300 timeline for Traveller: 2300 2300CE.

 

[hopsnbaer]

I would not expect them to keep the existing game engine but to port it to Traveller rules like 2300.

 

[MasterGwydion]

I am starting to think that maybe Mongoose has too many projects on the fire and no longer has enough time to do any of them properly. Perhaps they need to scale back production so quality control can catch up. A lot of things have occurred at Mongoose over the last little chunk of time with them gaining ownership of a Library of Congress worth of previous editions and adventures. That might have been more than a bit overwhelming for them, so some patience on my end may be required as well.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Now what would be cool but will probably never happen (I expect it's been lost) is for Mongoose to get the Great Game that the GDW folks played to develop the 2000-2300 timeline for Traveller: 2300 2300CE.

It is outlined on the FFE T2300 cd rom collection, so I imagine Mongoose has access to it.

 

[Sigtrygg]

I am starting to think that maybe Mongoose has too many projects on the fire and no longer has enough time to do any of them properly. Perhaps they need to scale back production so quality control can catch up. A lot of things have occurred at Mongoose over the last little chunk of time with them gaining ownership of a Library of Congress worth of previous editions and adventures. That might have been more than a bit overwhelming for them, so some patience on my end may be required as well.

I think, now they have ownership of all that past material, they should insist every author writing for The Third Imperium and every editor checking their work reads through every cd rom of avaialable information.

I would also suggest that rule systems, design sequences, supplements and adventures be used as the basis for any Mongoose Traveller re-write - a back to basics core rules and comprehensive setting books...

I can but dream.

I just hope I am still around for 2027...

Foundation season 4 should drop then

 

[ottarrus]

Ideally, single game engine.

Cosmetic overlays for different settings.

Except that T2K is specifically aimed at the veteran /gun nut demographic and frankly Traveller from LBB4 all the way to Armies of the 5FW is simply not granular enough.
You ask anyone who's carried one and there are significant differences between an M-16 and an AKM where trying to lump them all into 'Assault Rifle, TL6' is gonna lose you sales. Calling an Abrams and a T 90 'Tank TL 7' is the same thing.
So trying to make T2K a 'Traveller engine game' is gonna take such a significant rewrite that you might as well start from scratch. And, if I need to point this out, this is the exact same thing people on this board have said about 2300AD.

 

[Numbers0to1]

Matt has said that Mongoose expects to get the Twilight 2000 license after Free League's contract is done. And I'm not 100% sure that Traveller is the right system for that setting....

Year Zero is pretty awesome for Twilight 2000. I wonder if Mongoose would continue to invest in the current line as-is, given its success (or what feels like it to me). Maybe "all roads lead to Traveller" isn't the right move for Twilight 2000. I wonder what the cost/benefit of investing in a Traveller rules refit would be vs. keeping it the same.
//
Somewhere in this forum "another Traveller universe" was mentioned at some point, which gives me some hope that Charted Space could see a sibling setting in the future.

I agree that supporting the setting-agnostic approach is vital. I'd love to see Mongoose go beyond the traditional abstraction of agnostic Traveller however and deliver more relatable seeds of future civilizations/culture in setting-agnostic content. People can build anything with Traveller but, more prescriptively, what are some complete and compelling ideas to help get started with those things? I am half-noodling on Iain Banks' Culture series in Traveller for my own use. Maybe non-CS content fits in a future Traveller Companion--maybe an agnostic companion.

With Dune, the Expanse, Star Trek, Alien, Bladerunner, and Star Wars taken, I wonder what's left that's interesting for ATU tied to other sci-fi properties? Culture, Ringworld come to mind -- I wonder if Chaosium still holds the rights to the latter.

 

[CordwainerFish]

Except that T2K is specifically aimed at the veteran /gun nut demographic

"T2000 avoided Chadwickification - the tendency of any RPG Frank Chadwick had a hand in to slowly become a military RPG - by being one right from the get-[g]o." - James Davis Nicoll, blackgate.com

 

[CordwainerFish]

Ringworld come to mind -- I wonder if Chaosium still holds the rights to the latter

Nope - they ceased publishing because Niven got interest from Hollywood and yanked back the license. (Astute observers may note that that interest never resulted in seven seasons and a movie.)

Re-licensing the property would probably involve giving Niven lots of money - and to give you an idea of what he considers to be a lot of money, his great-grandfather was the only person involved in the Teapot Dome scandal who didn't go to the joint, and his entire family is rich. No, richer than that. Richer. Keep going,

 

[ottarrus]

"T2000 avoided Chadwickification - the tendency of any RPG Frank Chadwick had a hand in to slowly become a military RPG - by being one right from the get-[g]o." - James Davis Nicoll, blackgate.com

To which I reply, so what?
Why is being a self-consciously military RPG bother you? The thing about T2K is that the player characters are only part a military organization for the first hour of the first adventure. After that, they're free agents stuck behind enemy lines and trying to survive and get home.

 

[CordwainerFish]

Why is being a self-consciously military RPG bother you?

Did I say it did?

 

[Vormaerin]

With Dune, the Expanse, Star Trek, Alien, Bladerunner, and Star Wars taken, I wonder what's left that's interesting for ATU tied to other sci-fi properties? Culture, Ringworld come to mind -- I wonder if Chaosium still holds the rights to the latter.

I don't know that there is any real value in buying into someone else's work at this point. As far as the The Culture goes, there isn't an official "The Culture" product out there, but if you want that kind of game play, the Traveller edition of Mindjammer already exists and is quite good.

 

[ottarrus]

Did I say it did?

No, you did not. You've mentioned the 'Chadwick effect' in negative terms two or three times and that's where I got that impression. If I misjudged that, my apologies.

 

[CordwainerFish]

No, you did not. You've mentioned the 'Chadwick effect' in negative terms two or three times and that's where I got that impression. If I misjudged that, my apologies.

I may be using it with mild snark but not negatively. I'm not big on MilRPG but back in the day we played a fair amount of Behind Enemy Lines and I never once said "what, again?".

 

[ottarrus]

I may be using it with mild snark but not negatively. I'm not big on MilRPG but back in the day we played a fair amount of Behind Enemy Lines and I never once said "what, again?".

I was on active duty when T2K came out and that was a truly unique experience. If we had a question about what a particular piece of gear would do [say radios or a chemical detection kit] we could just go ask the guy who fixed them for a living and find out.
One night I was on CQ at squadron HQ [charge of quarters at the battalion office] and one of my officers asked me what I was reading, so I gave him the T2K wartime overview to read. He was really impressed. He told me that when he was at Command and General Staff College they'd chalk-talked where the nuke targets would be and had come to the same conclusion as Chadwick... that petroleum was everybody's Achilles heel and that would most likely be everyone's primary target.
I mean, this is the 80s. I'm on 24 hour duty with a major who has a Masters degree and is qualified to command a battalion. The guy is WAY above my pay grade, and cut his teeth in Vietnam while I was still a kid watching Saturday morning cartoons. He sees RPGs in general the way guys like you and me see Pokemon... something children play. And he's gobsmacked that 18-year-old me can understand that nuclear war will have defined targets, not the 'Fallout' style empty-the-inventory, kill-us-all scenario that was touted in the media of the time.
It was a wake-up moment for me that RPGs could be all grown up and deadly serious and that game theory was a valid way of processing the events of the world.

 

[CordwainerFish]

petroleum was everybody's Achilles heel and that would most likely be everyone's primary target.

About the same time I was going to high school a few miles downwind of a big refinery complex that rubbed shoulders with a railroad nexus. Fun times, eh?