Book X and Supplement X - Comments Wanted!

[MongooseMatt]

At the current time, we have lots of bits and pieces for Traveller planned and in the works - but nothing in the core Book and Supplement lines.

What would you like to see for either?

Books, of course, generally concentrate on careers, whereas Supplements can cover pretty much anything so longer as it can be used in multiple Traveller settings.

Or shall we consider either/both lines 'complete?'

 

[rust]

What I would welcome would be a supplement with a little
more material for the Scholar / Scientist career, but I am of
course well aware that this one would hardly sell as well as
the supplements covering the more "adventurous" careers.
Still, it could make a nice PDF about the career options, sci-
entific gear, lab ships, scientific institutions, organizations,
foundations and such.

 

[IanBruntlett]

At the current time, we have lots of bits and pieces for Traveller planned and in the works - but nothing in the core Book and Supplement lines.

What would you like to see for either?

How about "Explorer", a supplement of adventures inspired by the five year exploration journeys of the original Enterprise? Or is it already covered by the soon-to-be-released Campaign Guide?

Books, of course, generally concentrate on careers, whereas Supplements can cover pretty much anything so longer as it can be used in multiple Traveller settings.

Or shall we consider either/both lines 'complete?'

To misquote a computing quote:-

Lines are never complete. Only abandoned.

 

[Dave Chase]

A supplement that helps a GM fill out the worlds they create. More than just the physical attributes and where it is in space.

Culture, cities, farming, mountains, industry, a history of how it was settled or found (if indigents were already there), unique features of the system/world, etc

A supplement on how to colonize (prepare, excute and live through) a world (based on rustverse created by rust him self. )

A supplement on smuggling, how to be a pirate and survive (space pirate), what ships work well, what kind of goods to avoid and favorite bars/ports to visit after a good haul

Dave Chase

 

[hdan]

I second an "Explorer" book. Most of the OTU is tromping around over known space and dealing with the people (or whomever) lives there.

Though it's entirely possible that the upcoming Campaign book will have an Exploring the Unknown option....

 

[AndrewW]

Is the World Builders book still on the agenda somewhere? This could tie in with an exploration one.

 

[OddjobXL]

I'd say combine a new version of Scouts with Scientists. There's just so much potential overlap there. Get scouts away from the whole espionage thing, we've got spies for that, and back into actual exploration, surveying, experimenting and so on.

The "adventuring" scientist is probably more like Indiana Jones, getting out there and her hands dirty, as she conducts experiments or studies new phenomena or digs up ancient secrets. And who is she most likely to be hanging out with? Scouts.

The new core system would have to revolve around system generation (and what lies between systems) with a focus what interesting things, adventure spurring inspirations, there are to find there. Alien cultures, rough-and-ready diplomacy, strange artifacts, etc., etc. Less slide ruler and more action adventure. Yes, have details that sound technical to flesh out whatever form you have for documenting systems. Have hex-maps and systems for generating topography on the fly. Maybe borrow some of the old detailed sensor system (so players have fog of war to add some mystery) rules from MegaTraveller's World Builder's book.

Seems to me divorcing either scientist characters or scouts from a more detailed world and system building supplement doesn't make sense. Both are all about discovering the new and for a GM that means he needs to be handed the tools to make the new! And it had better lean towards the interesting and inspiring when the answers roll in.

I'd also maybe toss in an appendix for alternate lab rat scientist characters or a scientist themed campaign. One could use Ars Magica's focus on the covenant (lab) and research techniques in all their variety and time consuming nature as a template. The question is how do you handle science and invention? Or do you focus mainly on limited prototype improvements of existing technologies?

 

[Gruffty the Hiver]

Is the World Builders book still on the agenda somewhere?

Yup, a decent, well-written, well laid out/proof read world building book is top of my list of fings wot eye want.

 

[Golan2072]

Things I'd love to see:
1) A 'fixed' vehicle book, preferably with an SRD so that third-party publishers could published vehicle designs.
2) An exploration and system-generation book.

 

[Dungalad]

I would like to see:

1) A sort of "Fire fusion and steel book" with all the rules for build vehicles, ships, and also for personal weapons and armors and so, all together.

2) A new setting based on Asimov's Foundation. From the early robotic era to the Empire, the story of the foundation, description of main planets, technology, and all.

 

[Galadrion]

Well, the two "core" careers which don't have books yet are Scholars and Citizens, so those would be the obvious ones. As for supplements, a world/system builder guide would be good, as would a FFS release. I'm also eagerly awaiting the Campaign guidebook. As for possible new stuff... well, I'd like to see something which expands on the possible 'alternate' technologies mentioned in the Core book, possibly a full supplement's worth of variants. But then, I tend to be a gearhead; more crunchy bits are always appreciated.

 

[theprofessor]

I agree that the Citizen and Scholar need some love. I also second (third, fourth???) the world building guide, which should include system and planet generation. I would also like to see a design supplement covering weapons, armour, and, especially, other equipment.

 

[steelbrok]

I'd like to see the priority being to complete the Aliens line, IIRC solomani and Droyne are under way but the sooner Hivers and K'kree are here the happier I'll be

 

[mattman]

"Nomad: From migrants to wandering clans, this book details the life of the overlooked wandering peoples living between the stars."
- seasonal patterns, traffic flows
- clan-owned starships and operations
- space as the dwelling place
- prejudice, culture, language, struggles, origins

"Habitat: The main-world gets the attention, but the places on the periphery of the main-world's star system are just as numerous and just as interesting."

 

[renski]

I would love a colony book for characters from a low pop back water planet, and how a game where players where citizens or the administrators of such a world would run.

Things I'd love to see:
2) An exploration and system-generation book.

Id also love to see 2. The MGT Scout system generation rules are far too thin on details. My 'extended' system generation is a bastardised mix of MGT Core Rule Book, CT Scout Book, Astrosythesis 3.0, Fractal Mapper, and the SciFi20 Planetology guide. It's a lot of work, but it makes some very nice and detailed systems. More ideas for this process would be good.

Id like to see some formula such as calculating temperature like in CT Scouts, and id like some good methods of generating more detailed atmosphere types. Rules for generating world maps would be awesome too.

 

[apoc527]

This might be a strange request, but I'd like to see an "Advanced Rules Supplement" for stuff like Hit Locations in combat, partial armor, advanced options in melee and ranged combat. Sort of a "these rules may slow down play but they add detail" kind of thing. I don't know that anyone else would want them, but I think MGT could benefit from a more tactical ruleset with added realism. I find myself drifting to GURPS recently for sci-fi games partly because I can't answer the following question:

"What does it mean, to me (the player) when my character gets shot for 12 damage from a laser?"

Consider this for a moment: how do you generally react? One of my friends said, "Ouch, I guess." That's about as good as you can go. Contrast this with games like Mongoose Runequest/Legend line with hit locations and getting Impaled in the Head. The MRQ2/Legend system evokes MUCH more interesting feelings and descriptions in combat WITHOUT requiring GM fiat.

I know there will be those who respond to my post by saying "well, you can just describe the injury..." I say that no, I cannot...not while maintaining any semblence of fairness. Rules exist to prevent arbitrary GM decisions. Whether or not my PC gets shot in the leg or the arm, even if he's not dead, is a pretty serious decision in a tense situation.

So there you go: Supplement X: Advanced Rules

 

[Vile]

System generation, definitely.

 

[SSWarlock]

Definitely a supplement on exploration! One of the things I really enjoyed about the original CT version of Zhodani was the inclusion of rules for randomly generating a sector by exploring it. It provided an overview of navigation of unknown space with some ideas on how to go about it. As has been previously posted by others on this thread, this could tie into an expansion of the scout service as well as act as a world builder's book. I'd buy this in a heartbeat.

 

[Dunia]

* a Players guide the the Chartered Space book.
This type of book will help explaining to players and game masters about the Imperium, its history and the cultural flavor of the game, maybe showing a few varied settings from the fringe worlds in the Spinward Marches, to the heart of the empire. Some description of races and the history of the imperium

* World builder's book
as described above

* Trojan Reach book
Just like SM book.

* Fifth Frontier War
From what I understand, the war will erupt soon within SM; and as you have 3+ books about this area, maybe a book about the war would be good. I mean I have a small campaign going and started it in 1104, it would be nice to actually have a book about 5FW coming out.

* Alien Races: Droyne, Vilani, Kkree, Hivers, Minor Races
The last book in this category would describe minor races (and now I mean mostly races that players can actually play - maybe a small chapter about other minor races that eists but is not really made for characters like the virusshi (or what they are called))

 

[Dunia]

I'd say combine a new version of Scouts with Scientists. There's just so much potential overlap there. Get scouts away from the whole espionage thing, we've got spies for that, and back into actual exploration, surveying, experimenting and so on.

Please no updated books, personally I would hate that I have to buy a new scout book just to get the scientist version and if this became a praxis for the company, I would probably just stop buying mongoose books and stop promoting the game on gaming conventions and go back to TNE.