ATU OGL Books? What are you looking for?

[InterStellar Arsenal]

Thank you all for your responses to this thread. I am a long time lurker on the Mongoose forums but this is my first post.
I have been working for the past couple of years on a large-scale science fiction universe and game system that would allow players to integrate multiple levels of gaming. It includes everything from the galactic-scale strategic level to tactical starship combat to starfighter skirmishes down to ground combat and roleplaying (basically play as anything from an Emperor in a 4X strategic campaign down to a single character in a standard RPG).
As part of this project, I want to create sourcebooks for a couple of existing game systems including Mongoose Traveller, so I've been looking for any information I can find on how to create an ATU and do it well. I actually have the universe developed and ready to go. It is called the "Mosaic Galaxy" (because of the fragmented nature of the setting with multiple small empires existing side by side that are all simultaneously rebuilding after a long Interregnum) and represents the Milky Way around AD 10,000, before the rise of the great galactic empires as written of by those Prophets of Firstearth Isaac Asimov and Frank Herbert. Building on the years I've spent writing fiction in my universe and drawing on the classic themes and tropes of science fiction (and specifically space opera) I have endeavored to create a sweeping backdrop as a story canvas and have intentionally placed little homages here and there (references to the history of other universes) for the astute reader/gamer to decipher, without stepping on anyone's IP of course. It has been a great deal of fun and is finally nearing completion.
Now I am trying to "translate" everything into Mongoose Traveller. I bought the Core Rulebook a while back as I have some familiarity with the various versions of Traveller but am just now getting up to speed with the new system.
So... again I'm new to this group but thank you for the great ideas as your questions and answers are dealing with the exact issues I'm working on at this time. To that end, any and all advice is much appreciated.
Kevin
InterStellar Arsenal
www.freewebs.com/interstellerarsenal/
PS. Here is the cover of the first sourcebook I am in the process of completing (with a few ship designs below as well so you can see the look I'm going for). As you can see it's an intentional throwback to the classic days of late 70s and 80s sci-fi RPGs ala CT, Star Frontiers, Spelljammer, etc. but with modern trappings:

 

[InterStellar Arsenal]

I should also add that I plan to release a series of books detailing different periods in the ASTRAL EMPIRES timeline as well, with the hope that they would be cross-compatible with other settings and the OTU and thus be useful for GMs and gamers. Here are a couple of sample mock-up covers and a page from the intro adventure for one of the sourcebooks:

 

[Golan2072]

Wow! Looks very good, InterStellar Arsenal!

 

[kristof65]

Ok, here's one for you all.

How dedicated to the use of a d6 should an ATU writer be for GM/behind the scenes stuff?

Say a writer wants to create a mishap or events table for char gen, but wants to use d100 for the table?

Or develops an alternate star system generation that uses different dice?

Or anything along those lines?

 

[EDG]

Ok, here's one for you all.

How dedicated to the use of a d6 should an ATU writer be for GM/behind the scenes stuff?

Say a writer wants to create a mishap or events table for char gen, but wants to use d100 for the table?

Or develops an alternate star system generation that uses different dice?

Or anything along those lines?

I believe the authors should use whatever dice they feel are necessary to get the statistical distribution that they're looking for. Just don't make it unnecessarily complicated.

 

[captainjack23]

Ok, here's one for you all.

How dedicated to the use of a d6 should an ATU writer be for GM/behind the scenes stuff?

Say a writer wants to create a mishap or events table for char gen, but wants to use d100 for the table?

Or develops an alternate star system generation that uses different dice?

Or anything along those lines?

Fine by me. If you're using OGL and SRD, you'll have to do more of your own work, but more of it can remain closed, I suspect -and yours, if that is your goal. In someways it'll limit its easy swipeability for players using other traveller stuff -but that may not be a concern. Possibly you'll get some flak -and not just from old traveller players -the d6/dwhatever divide crosses many gaming systems. But I suspect you'll deal with that fine.

 

[captainjack23]

Wow! Looks very good, InterStellar Arsenal!

Allow me to add a resounding YEAH, and ME2 ! to the above. Nice stuff ! Your art ?

 

[rust]

Ok, here's one for you all ...

For me it is only important that whatever you use works well within the
framework of your setting.

 

[kristof65]

Fine by me. If you're using OGL and SRD, you'll have to do more of your own work, but more of it can remain closed, I suspect -and yours, if that is your goal.

Actually, that's not my goal at all, as this part is going to be OGC. I just need a better statistical distribution than I can obtain with d6.

Thanks for the input. I figured most gamers won't mind, as long as it doesn't change what dice they need to have handy at the game table during a session. In this case, it's for stuff the GM should probably have done before their campaign starts in earnest.

 

[captainjack23]

Fine by me. If you're using OGL and SRD, you'll have to do more of your own work, but more of it can remain closed, I suspect -and yours, if that is your goal.

Actually, that's not my goal at all, as this part is going to be OGC. I just need a better statistical distribution than I can obtain with d6.

Thanks for the input. I figured most gamers won't mind, as long as it doesn't change what dice they need to have handy at the game table during a session. In this case, it's for stuff the GM should probably have done before their campaign starts in earnest.

That seems a pretty good way to approach it, both with regards to the limited stat disribution, and the players experience.

I know that just about any stat distribution can be met by 2d6 - but it usually gets pretty complex or at least tedious. Even as a GM rolling a single die -or a handful is for me easier than :roll. chart reroll. chart. now for the next shot.

Playrs, its less of an issue, unless the game is very diceroll intensive.

 

[kristof65]

Ok, got another one for you all in regards to ATUs.

Earth. Detail it, or keep it as general as possible so that GMs can detail it?

My ATU is set up in such a way that Earth really isn't central to the setting, beyond getting mankind to the stars, anyway. So when I go to detail that sector of space, how much attention to Earth should I pay?

On one hand, there is really no need to give a layout of the solar system, or a map of the planet - I'm sure that most people playing Traveller are familiar with the orbits of the planets, and the layout of the continents.

On the other, people might be interested in what an author's view of future Earth and it's solar system is like - who the major powers are, what cities/countries are new, old and/or still in existance, where the spaceports are, where the various off-world settlements/bases/space ports are, etc.

 

[simonh]

Ok, got another one for you all in regards to ATUs.

Earth. Detail it, or keep it as general as possible so that GMs can detail it?

It's your setting, so you tell us. If you think you have cool ideas on Earth in the future, go for it. If in your setting the location of Earth is a long lost secret, then don't. It's your call.

Simon Hibbs

 

[simonh]

Regarding statistical distributions, the traditional alternative to a D100 in traveller is to roll one D6 for 'tens' and another for 'ones'. That way you actualy only get 36 possible results, but that's often enough for most purposes such as encounter tables.

Simon Hibbs

 

[kristof65]

It's your setting, so you tell us. If you think you have cool ideas on Earth in the future, go for it. If in your setting the location of Earth is a long lost secret, then don't. It's your call.

See, that's the thing. I can go either way. Like the OTU, Earth's only real importance to the setting for the PC adventure is as the source of mankind, and some history. But unlike the OTU, there aren't 10,000+ worlds/systems to visit - a few hundred or so - which means it's more likely that the PCs will come calling to this "future Earth"

Hmm- this is hard to word in such a way to get my thoughts across. What I'm planning on is a top down approach to the universe setting. The overall starmap, interstellar political situation, FTL travel, alien races, etc get the most attention. Frex, I'll have a starmap, and Names, UWPs, and important information like Gas Giant's, affliation, etc for each world. A portion of those worlds will have write-ups of a paragraph or two, still fewer will get longer write ups of a page or so, and a handful will get a few pages, maps, etc. One or two worlds will get a write up of a major location, probably as part of an introductory adventure.

So what I'm wondering is what's the perceived importance of Earth in determining how much detail it gets, compared to other worlds in the setting. I have ideas for Earth, yes, but none are really important beyond how mankind discovered FTL, and even though that's explained in the setting, it really doesn't matter if it was the Canadians, Chinese or Brazilians (pick any nation) who did it.

I'm leaning towards leaving Earth as generic as possible, primarly because I know that in a lot of Sci-fi, be it books, movies or RPGS, it's typically one of the big powers like the US, China, Europe, etc, who discover FTL and propel mankind to the stars. I'd prefer to leave thigns so that a GM can tailor that to his/her own preferences - if they want New Zealand or Portugal to be on the forefront of our drive to the stars, I'd like that to be relatively workable for them without requiring major re-writes of "core" material on their part. On the other hand, by not defining it, some GMs may be upset that they're required to define that themselves.

 

[InterStellar Arsenal]

Golan2072 wrote:
Wow! Looks very good, InterStellar Arsenal!


Allow me to add a resounding YEAH, and ME2 ! to the above. Nice stuff ! Your art ?

Sorry I didn't respond before now, but I didn't see the followup to my previous message. Yes, the artwork is mine for the ships and covers, although I did hire an artist to do the first black and white cover page. I'll share some other stuff if you'd like to see more. Basically, ASTRAL EMPIRES is an attempt to do a massive scale ATU covering several millennia with different fundamental influences from sci-fi media than what Traveller was built upon. There are sub-settings with similar themes to everything from Trek, B5, etc. to classic space opera of the Doc Smith/Edmond Hamilton variety but with a lot of modern and contemporary touches.

Changing subjects...

As far as the Earth discussion, it's interesting to see the different ways people deal with it. If you have humans in your setting (which is usually a given) Earth is hanging out in the background somewhere. For ASTRAL EMPIRES we use the idea that Earth is devastated around AD 3000 (although the specifics are not given) and so there's a final diaspora from the homeworld. By the time of the main A.E. setting (approx. AD 10,000) Earth is merely a legend where humanity may have begun, much like Eden is in the real world today.

Thanks,
Kevin