Mercenary Chat Space
- Thread starter B_Steele
- Start date
. What's it going to contain, and is it going to change anything in the main book? And is it an OTU-specific book or a general Traveller/scifi one?
B_Steele
Mongoose
A sourcebook for Traveller. Based around and covering the mercenary lifestyle, career and structure. It is essentially the how to book for making money through warfare.
I can give you a pre-edit table of contents, how's that?
1.Intro - Basic Intro to the book
2.Mercenary Characters - How to build a Merc from the ground up, and how the new rules impact the creation process
3.New Skills - New Specialties and a few new Merc-leaning skills (Interrogation anyone?)
4.Mercenary Tickets - A massive system on creating, running and profiting from the Mercenary Ticket (aka missions)
5.Recruiting New Members - How to Build a Mercenary Unit
6.New Combat Rules - Advanced Combat Rules (how to shoot stuff in better and more interesting ways) and Mass Combat System (war - in a somewhat abstract system).
7.Mercenary Headquarters - A bunch of interesting places to set your mercs home.
8.New Equipment - The cool stuff that helps everyone wage war.
While it has a bit of the Third Imperium scattered throughout it, it is a general Traveller/sci-fi book. It does not go into any detail about the setting beyond what is presented to readers in the core rulebook, so it is no more generic or Imperium-specific than the core rules are.
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tbeard1999
Mongoose
1. Will the character generation system produce characters with more skills on average than the basic rules?
2. Will the material be significantly different from the material in GURPS Traveller Star Mercs?
2. Will the material be significantly different from the material in GURPS Traveller Star Mercs?
Gruffty the Hiver
Banded Mongoose
3. How far removed from MGT and/or CT:LBB 4 will this be?
B_Steele
Mongoose
No, they follow the same Creation guidelines that are in the main book - just a different layout of skills that tend toward combat and support skills.
This is its own material, but it is pulled greatly from the original CT Traveller. That way we can be the most honest to the material without putting it through too many filters, so to speak.
Removed? Not really...it is a piece of the system to be sure. It is a sourcebook, so it can't be too removed or it won't feel right, y'know?[/quote]
Rikki Tikki Traveller
Cosmic Mongoose
YEAH for the answer to #1!!!!!!!!!
One thing I HATED about CT was that they changed Character Generation when they did the expansions. At least with Citizens of the Imperium, they went back to "basic" CharGen.
Consistency is key IMHO...
One thing I HATED about CT was that they changed Character Generation when they did the expansions. At least with Citizens of the Imperium, they went back to "basic" CharGen.
Consistency is key IMHO...
-Daniel-
Emperor Mongoose
I agree. If the source book feels too different from the basic game something is wrong.Rikki Tikki Traveller said:
I also would not want to see too many changes in any other area in a source book either. Source books should be add ons and not replacement rules.
Glad to hear you seem to be in that same thought.
Looking forward to the books.
Daniel
Mongoose Steele said:
Hoo-wah. Sounds about right.
Hmm, do SST and Mercenary have comparable weapons? Are there nice weapons that SST has that Traveller will want to pick up?
Traveller has:
- all kinds of grenade launchers
- Pistols
- Lasers
- Shotguns
- Gauss weapons
- Plasma weapons
It needs a mapping to:
- Morita assault rifles (with optional underslung secondary weapon)
- Peacemaker and Derringer pistols
- Various kits (Demolitions, Mechanic, Electronic, S&R)
- M-8 Ape or M-9 Chickenhawk Marauder
- Thud Gun
- Accessories (Lizard Line, Databox, Combat Belt)
- Firestorm missiles
- Landing boats
- Retrieval boats
And I don't know if the "Power Suit" and "Command Suit" really are Battledress or not. Depends on the description I guess.
And, maybe SST can benefit from the wonderful PGMP line, TL permitting.
Golan2072
Cosmic Mongoose
A few questions:
1) Would there be a bundled price (or a discount on shipping and handling) for those intending to buy (or maybe pre-ordering?) the whole series of Mongoose Traveller books (core plus mercenary/high-guard/belt-strike/scouts/merchants)? I'm asking this as I want to decide whether to order the books one by one or wait for them all to be published and then order them all at once.
2) Which book would handle vehicle design and military-grade vehicle combat? Would it be Mercenary or a Striker-equivalent?
3) Would Mercenary include a general discussion of military matters such as ranks, TO&Es and military tech at different TLs (as in CT's Mercenary)?
4) Would Mercenary deal with the economical sides of running a merc unit (i.e. the costs and overheads of operating and supplying the troops, gear and vehicles)?
5) Would sample merc (or governmental military) units be included?
6) Would Mercenary deal with designing planetary/governmental forces as well (even at a basic level - how large a world force would b according to pop/gov/TL and how well-budgeted would it be)?
7) Would artillery be discussed in Mercenary?
1) Would there be a bundled price (or a discount on shipping and handling) for those intending to buy (or maybe pre-ordering?) the whole series of Mongoose Traveller books (core plus mercenary/high-guard/belt-strike/scouts/merchants)? I'm asking this as I want to decide whether to order the books one by one or wait for them all to be published and then order them all at once.
2) Which book would handle vehicle design and military-grade vehicle combat? Would it be Mercenary or a Striker-equivalent?
3) Would Mercenary include a general discussion of military matters such as ranks, TO&Es and military tech at different TLs (as in CT's Mercenary)?
4) Would Mercenary deal with the economical sides of running a merc unit (i.e. the costs and overheads of operating and supplying the troops, gear and vehicles)?
5) Would sample merc (or governmental military) units be included?
6) Would Mercenary deal with designing planetary/governmental forces as well (even at a basic level - how large a world force would b according to pop/gov/TL and how well-budgeted would it be)?
7) Would artillery be discussed in Mercenary?
Gruffty the Hiver
Banded Mongoose
Yay! Big guns n tanks n things that go "swooooooooosh!" 
B_Steele
Mongoose
This is definitely a choice that happens above me on the food chain.
Vehicle design? I dunno...vehicle combat however, that can be handled partially in the core book and partially in this one.
Ranks are discussed in the core rulebook, but the general ability for those people to gain access to military equipment and the like IS included in Mercenary.
Those sorts of costs are included in the Ticket system, but I should/will easily add in a sidebar for non-Ticket costs for such things. Thanks for the good idea.
Not exactly. There are NPC mercs in the book, but nothing that specific because the book is not exactly setting-specific (just a touch of the Third Imperium, not total immersion).
Not exactly, there are a few tables based on HQ-size but not planetary levels - I want to leave that up to the Referees, not a table.
Absolutely...Energy Field Mortars and Frag Cannons anyone?
-Bry
