Campaign Guide and the OTU

[torus]

I think this might have been asked before (search is down so can't check), but is the Campaign Guide going to be focussed solely on the OTU?

Over the years I've drifted away from the OTU towards a more space-opera setting - never really liked the scale and homogeneity of the Imperium. But since Mongoose Traveller aims to support a wide range of sci-fi styles (as indeed did CT before the Imperium became the OTU), it would be great if this book were broader in scope..

More generally I'd love to see a supplement aimed at supporting space opera tropes: shiny robots, mad scientists, disruptors, teleporters, pep pills ...

 

[Egil Skallagrimsson]

Over the years I've drifted away from the OTU towards a more space-opera setting - never really liked the scale and homogeneity of the Imperium. But since Mongoose Traveller aims to support a wide range of sci-fi styles (as indeed did CT before the Imperium became the OTU), it would be great if this book were broader in scope..

More generally I'd love to see a supplement aimed at supporting space opera tropes: shiny robots, mad scientists, disruptors, teleporters, pep pills ...

:lol: :lol: Is the 3I really a hard science setting?

Surely the charm of the 3I is it is space opera? There is certainly space for lots of shiny robots, mad scientists and pep pills, throw in a little "Chariot of the Gods" (whooops, mean "Ancients" ) and there are plenty of disurptors and teleporters!

Egil

 

[Prime_Evil]

Surely the charm of the 3I is it is space opera?

Actually, the OTU is a particular form of space opera derived from the classic SF of the 1950s and 1960s - Poul Anderson's Ensign Flandry series, E.C. Tubb's Dumarest series, H. Beam Piper's Space Viking, Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, et al.

It doesn't reflect the influence of post-Star Wars cinematic space opera much, nor does it incorporate many influences the current wave of literary space opera from authors like Iain M Banks, Alastair Reynolds, Peter F. Hamilton, Neal Asher, Colin Greenland, Ken McLeod, and Justina Robson.

It can be argued that the OTU has assimilated some influences from contemporary American military SF - especially from works such as David Weber's Honor Harrington novels, Elizabeth Moon's Vatta's War and Serrano series, Lois McMaster Bujold's early Vorkorsigan Saga books...not to mention David Drake, William C. Dietz, et al.

I think that the original poster is after a 'retro' space opera setting that reflects stuff like E. E. "Doc" Smith's Lensmen series, the works of Edmond Hamilton...and stuff like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. But maybe I am reading his question wrong...lol

 

[torus]

:lol: :lol: Is the 3I really a hard science setting?

No I agree it's not really hard sci fi, and the original version of the setting from the late seventies was certainly more space opera. But during the 80s it developed towards a more military sci fi setting, probably because that's what most of the GDW staff were interested in, and because a lot of subsequent sci fi writing went that way.

I used to like that stuff - played a lot of 2300. But really my ideal is the setting of seventies science fiction art, like these:
http://eu.muttpop.com/Show-and-Tell-Le-blog-de-Jerry-Frissen/%28tag%29/Peter%20Andrew%20Jones
http://www.chameleon-arts.com/colin-hay/folio3.html
http://www.net-cafe.hu/fantasy.php?ct=158

This isn't retro sci fi (Lensmen and Flash Gordon), it's the universe I imagined when I looked at the covers - but not necessarily the contents - of 70s science fiction books. Usually I found the stories inside never lived up to the promise of the cover. I'm not actually that big a fan of writers like Piper, Poul Anderson et al. I do like Harry Harrison and the Dumarest stories.

Maybe your Imperium is like that, but I just don't get that sense of exotic strangeness from the 3I. For me it is too big and too well ordered, and its organisation too familiar.

 

[torus]

I think that the original poster is after a 'retro' space opera setting that reflects stuff like E. E. "Doc" Smith's Lensmen series, the works of Edmond Hamilton...and stuff like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. But maybe I am reading his question wrong...lol

I didn't describe it well first time; the retro stuff is fun but I meant something a bit further up the hardness scale. I guess it is the world of 60s and 70s sci fi, which Traveller can do before you add the 3I, mercenary, high guard etc.

 

[Prime_Evil]

I didn't describe it well first time; the retro stuff is fun but I meant something a bit further up the hardness scale. I guess it is the world of 60s and 70s sci fi, which Traveller can do before you add the 3I, mercenary, high guard etc.

Fair enough. I think that Traveller is quite capable of modelling these forms of SF, but the game system has become so closely tied to the OTU that it doesn't do so effectively. Keep in mind that in the earliest published Traveller materials the OTU was merely an implied shared setting - it wasn't until later that it came to dominate people's conceptions of what the game is about.

I love some of the 70's stuff myself. Back in the day I was heavily into the Terran Trade Authority art books and to some extent they still influence my ideas of what starships should look like. THere is a hint of 70's prog rock album cover madness in the various 2000AD rpg titles, but I don't think that's quite what you are looking for - go too far down that road and you end up playing Warhammer 40K

 

[torus]

I love some of the 70's stuff myself. Back in the day I was heavily into the Terran Trade Authority art books and to some extent they still influence my ideas of what starships should look like. THere is a hint of 70's prog rock album cover madness in the various 2000AD rpg titles, but I don't think that's quite what you are looking for - go too far down that road and you end up playing Warhammer 40K

Yes the TTA is a big influence. Maybe I should look at the 2000AD stuff, insofar as it takes the Traveller rules in a different direction. I was also a big fan 2000AD in the 80s, and had nearly all the Dredd comics.

I profoundly dislike Warhammer 40k..!

 

[Egil Skallagrimsson]

Surely the charm of the 3I is it is space opera?

Actually, the OTU is a particular form of space opera derived from the classic SF of the 1950s and 1960s - Poul Anderson's Ensign Flandry series, E.C. Tubb's Dumarest series, H. Beam Piper's Space Viking, Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, et al.

It doesn't reflect the influence of post-Star Wars cinematic space opera much, nor does it incorporate many influences the current wave of literary space opera from authors like Iain M Banks, Alastair Reynolds, Peter F. Hamilton, Neal Asher, Colin Greenland, Ken McLeod, and Justina Robson.

It can be argued that the OTU has assimilated some influences from contemporary American military SF - especially from works such as David Weber's Honor Harrington novels, Elizabeth Moon's Vatta's War and Serrano series, Lois McMaster Bujold's early Vorkorsigan Saga books...not to mention David Drake, William C. Dietz, et al.

I think that the original poster is after a 'retro' space opera setting that reflects stuff like E. E. "Doc" Smith's Lensmen series, the works of Edmond Hamilton...and stuff like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. But maybe I am reading his question wrong...lol

Fair point about the different types of space opera, but what I was really querying was the suggestion that 3I was hard science, as opposed to space opera. Of course, your list of recent space operas, from star wars to Hamilton, represents a number of very different types of space opera as well, perhaps as different as any of them are from the Doc Smith etc.

The military SF bit is also very fair, though the assimilation of that genre has been pretty erratic (though the recent "Hammers Slammers" supplement is well worth a look as to how Trav can be easily adapted for a non-3I universe).

Egil

 

[Egil Skallagrimsson]

This isn't retro sci fi (Lensmen and Flash Gordon), it's the universe I imagined when I looked at the covers - but not necessarily the contents - of 70s science fiction books. Usually I found the stories inside never lived up to the promise of the cover. I'm not actually that big a fan of writers like Piper, Poul Anderson et al. I do like Harry Harrison and the Dumarest stories.

Maybe your Imperium is like that, but I just don't get that sense of exotic strangeness from the 3I. For me it is too big and too well ordered, and its organisation too familiar.

Yeah, I agree with you about the superb covers on many SF books of the 70s and early 80s! And some of the contents were a good deal better than others!

I hope that MTU, 3I, is, in many places exotic and strange, and that the Imperium appears well ordered, but is often flawed and subject to far too many competing influences. When you get outside starports, in the words of the old Chinese proverb, "the Emperor is far and the mountains are high".

Egil

 

[Prime_Evil]

The OTU isn't to everyone's taste, but there are a couple of alternatives out there. In addition to the 2000 AD licenses, check out the Twilight SEctor stuff from Terra/Sol Games. It's probably not what you are looking for, but it provides a good model for how to adapt the Traveller game system to a universe that is very different to the OTU. (Cthonian Stars also does this....but introduces elements of Lovecraftian horror to the mix).

Much as I love the OTU, I wish that Mongoose would use the Traveller ruleset for a new campaign setting that showcases the versitility of the system.