Another rule of thumb is to reality check against what people actually do. Nobody really knows what the weight of a backpack is without a scale, unless they are freakishly good at that one thing, or happen to know the weight of all the items in it. "Putting that apple in my pack will put me over a weight limit" is only heard at airport checkins, from people that have already maxed out and weighed their pack.
How to make Traveller more popular with TTRPG players
- Thread starter MarcusIII
- Start date
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Since that's a deep concern of mine, it's half a kilogramme, for a decently strengthened lightish backpack.
Degree of cloth rigidity tends to add weight.
For Traveller, weight concerns for carryon will be mostly in terms of safety concerns, not fuel use, if they're placed in overhead bins.
Degree of cloth rigidity tends to add weight.
For Traveller, weight concerns for carryon will be mostly in terms of safety concerns, not fuel use, if they're placed in overhead bins.
IanBruntlett
Emperor Mongoose
Your wish is my command
The most recent versions of the file use the Liberation Serif font. I've overcome my fear of Git and put the action-sheet files here. Let me know if you get the files OK.I love it. It looks clean, sharp and readable.Your wish is my command
actionman
Emperor Mongoose
So I was looking for scifi battle scenes for a post I decided not to post.
Example:
Then I thought, Traveller doesn't have a media franchise, so why not make its own? WH40K didn't until GW made their own.
Why shouldn't Mongoose make their own series of short battle videos featuring Traveller ships, Traveller imagery, and so on, like 3 minute battle videos made in the Unreal 5 engine and so on. Hire a couple of writers and digital artists, modelers, and people who know how to do this kind of thing, and have them make a batch of videos. Let Mongoose show the internets its visual conception of the Charted Space setting. No marketing, just a fun exciting battle videos, or little vignettes from classic adventures, like when the player-characters infiltrate Sharmun to steal the Imperial payroll and end up starting a nuclear war more often than not. Create visual references for viewers to have in their imaginations when they hear about or think about Traveller. Define what Traveller looks like, sounds like, etc. Create the aesthetic and a dramatic feel. People who don't even play ttrpgs will see the videos, and, if they're done well, think wow that's cool, what's Traveller? There can be two or three sentence description in the video description (space adventure ttrpg), with links to Mongoose's Traveller site.
People see media like Star Wars, Aliens, Dune, etc., and they want to create their own adventures in those exciting worlds. Why shouldn't Traveller create its own media, short glimpses of Charted Space's exciting world? Short battles, like pair of Imperial Gazelle escorts against Vargr corsair cruiser? A squad of Imperial Marines against Vargr pirates during a boarding action?
Example:
Then I thought, Traveller doesn't have a media franchise, so why not make its own? WH40K didn't until GW made their own.
Why shouldn't Mongoose make their own series of short battle videos featuring Traveller ships, Traveller imagery, and so on, like 3 minute battle videos made in the Unreal 5 engine and so on. Hire a couple of writers and digital artists, modelers, and people who know how to do this kind of thing, and have them make a batch of videos. Let Mongoose show the internets its visual conception of the Charted Space setting. No marketing, just a fun exciting battle videos, or little vignettes from classic adventures, like when the player-characters infiltrate Sharmun to steal the Imperial payroll and end up starting a nuclear war more often than not. Create visual references for viewers to have in their imaginations when they hear about or think about Traveller. Define what Traveller looks like, sounds like, etc. Create the aesthetic and a dramatic feel. People who don't even play ttrpgs will see the videos, and, if they're done well, think wow that's cool, what's Traveller? There can be two or three sentence description in the video description (space adventure ttrpg), with links to Mongoose's Traveller site.
People see media like Star Wars, Aliens, Dune, etc., and they want to create their own adventures in those exciting worlds. Why shouldn't Traveller create its own media, short glimpses of Charted Space's exciting world? Short battles, like pair of Imperial Gazelle escorts against Vargr corsair cruiser? A squad of Imperial Marines against Vargr pirates during a boarding action?
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Making cool videos of space combat certainly does improve the throughput of a product's newbie hose. But the reality has to be close to the portrayal. A classic example of this was with the "This Is Eve" marketing video, which drove tens of thousands of new players to the game, almost none of whom lasted 6 weeks. Most of them never completed the tutorial. It still looks amazing, over a decade later:
The trouble was that the reality people encountered was nothing like that: fleet combat was very difficult to experience as a newbie (at the time, Goons and Test did put a lot of work into the newbie experience, that they were exceptions in nullsec space where the big fights happened); if you did get into one, you would die in seconds; and it usually involved two or more hours of sitting on a gate or a jump bridge waiting, often to just stand down. Famously, the video was hugely unrealistic when a fight even happened. This is genuinely far more representative, and I flew with several of these people as pilot or spy. You'll have to view it on youtube but it really demonstrates the disparity encountered by new players when the cameras were off:
With Eve, at least what was shown on the screen in that video was the actual game. With Traveller they might see the amazing video-game-style video but they're actually going to be using their imagination (and be reliant on that of the referee), and they'll be rolling dice and writing numbers on paper. If they are lucky, the GM will have found or generated some cool, stationary pictures of spaceships. But they will not encounter what the marketing material shows them.
This is why TTRPGs are so niche compared to computer games, TV and film: they rely on the players having vivid imaginations and being willing to use them instead of being essentially-passive consumers of "content". Most of hoi polloi are never going to engage with that when insta has a red dot and the number "37" on its iccon on their phone home page.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Presumably, artificial intelligence would produce truly incredible renderings of Traveller designed starwarships in battle.
Great idea, AM.
I think as long as it's kept typical it should be fine. The tension of sandcasters vs lasers, lasers vs missiles, pilots and sensops doing their stuff. M-Drives blazing, explosions on hulls, engineers dealing with engines and damage control.
Pew pew pew boom
"We're not going to make it to jump point!"
"Push the button!"
"Captain, that's practically suicide..."
"PUSH THE DAMN BUTTON! Better to die than get boarded by those animals!"
"Aye aye, Cap'n..."
FX: SHIP JUMPS, sparks fly inside the bridge. Fade to black.
For all its virtues, EVE is just ships in space. A Traveller short can and should focus on the people. People flying starships, sure. But also in firefights, socialising, making trade deals, meeting (or being) aliens.
I think as long as it's kept typical it should be fine. The tension of sandcasters vs lasers, lasers vs missiles, pilots and sensops doing their stuff. M-Drives blazing, explosions on hulls, engineers dealing with engines and damage control.
Pew pew pew boom
"We're not going to make it to jump point!"
"Push the button!"
"Captain, that's practically suicide..."
"PUSH THE DAMN BUTTON! Better to die than get boarded by those animals!"
"Aye aye, Cap'n..."
FX: SHIP JUMPS, sparks fly inside the bridge. Fade to black.
For all its virtues, EVE is just ships in space. A Traveller short can and should focus on the people. People flying starships, sure. But also in firefights, socialising, making trade deals, meeting (or being) aliens.
Sigtrygg
Emperor Mongoose
The closest thing to Traveller ship combat seen in media are the long range battles in the Expanse, where you have to skip from ship bridge to ship bridge, ship exterior to ship exterior, and wait the two minutes for the incoming missiles to reach point defence range.
This isn't Star Trek where ships are within 1,000m of each other or the WWII fighters in space of Star Wars.
Yes AI could make some pretty impressive clips, but Mongoose has a ban on such things.
This isn't Star Trek where ships are within 1,000m of each other or the WWII fighters in space of Star Wars.
Yes AI could make some pretty impressive clips, but Mongoose has a ban on such things.
collins355
Emperor Mongoose
19 years on, and Andrew Boulton still did the coolest videos for Traveller.
actionman
Emperor Mongoose
This is exactly what I mean. Imagine the sequence:
It opens with the ships in flight on their attack run.
The Traveller logo appears across the bottom of the frame, with Mongoose Publishing beneath it or something, so people know how to differentiate it from all the other Traveller results.
A brief context message, like "Anti-piracy operations, Ganulph star system, Spinward Marches sector."
The video is done by professional 3d artists and animators in a modern engine.
To support this, Mongoose would have to make sure that its Traveller pages are first or very near the top in search engine results.
